Dota 2 summer client update brings a new Collector’s Cache and numerous quality of life improvements, including a revamped armory and much-needed changes to the report system and matchmaking.
Valve has often been criticized for its lack of involvement in combating the ever increasing toxicity in Dota 2. The overwatch system implemented over two years ago has lost players’ interest quite fast and was never intended to address more than cheating and griefing behaviour.
Report system and toxicity
With today’s summer update, the in-game and post-game report system gets significant changes meant to address toxicity in both chat and voice communication.
"We've built a new player behaviour and reporting system from the ground up to enable much better judging, and much better games" - Valve
Player behaviour score is now split into two categories, Communication and Behavior, both getting a ramped up number from 10,000 to 12,000 score.
More so, the communication abuse system is now processing the in-game chat in real time.
"If the text is determined to be toxic, the offending player will have their voice and chat muted for all players immediately, and for the remainder of the game.
They will still be able to use pings, alt-clicks and pre-set chat wheels, but with a throttle — the offending player will be text and voice muted, and all other communication will be on a thirty-second cooldown."
The new system no longer has a cap on the number of reports submitted and allows players to make reports for toxic chat, toxic voice, smurfing, griefing, cheating and role abuse.
In addition, in the post-game interface players can commend or dislike their teammates which will have a direct impact on future games. By disliking a player, it is less likely that you will meet them again in your next matches. At the same time, giving a commendation to one of your teammates will increase the chance that you will have them joining your next matches either on your side or on the enemy team.
Quality of life
Among the changes made with the summer update, the armory has also gotten a long awaited overhaul. Browsing the armory got simplified, which makes browsing and deciding how to combine the cosmetics much easier.
The in-game experience has also been improved with an updated map rendering and optimized network traffic that will make the game use “less bandwidth all the time and a lot less bandwidth sometimes.”
New Collector’s Cache
For those looking to update their wardrobe, the 2023 Collector’s Cache has 16 astonishing item sets and a few surprises. The Cache can be purchased at $2.49.
