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[Phandy]

I'm just PRAYING that if they go f2p, they have a good business model for it.

I really hope they have a full Hero pool available, and there is no sort of paid access/advantage.

I'm so glad I have a full HoN account, having to constantly spend money to play with a full hero pool would make me not play. Hero picking is INSANELY important for a team to function well, its all about synergy and countering other heroes.

What they did to TF2 makes me worry for this. TF2 was good at first, but now its crazy with buying/earning items and stuff that actually makes a difference to the gameplay.

What makes HoN great for me, is that EVERYONE (legacy players) is on a completely level playing field.

*fingers crosses* Dont fuck this up Valve.
PS. Screenshots are super sexy.

 

[RaGMasTeR90]

I havent seen it the other thread so i thought i just post it here ^^ Official DOTA2 artwork from Kunkka (the guy who made all of the current DotA loading screens)

Here you go

 

[Meeru]

My only nitpick is how many heroes will have two empty skill slots other than sf and few others. Other than that the game looks gorgeous

 

[erpg]

Like the in-game look. The UI however looks pretty LoL-ish (bland, bad), which I've always hated.

 

[Iadien]

Why does it have to be the exact same map. =(

 

[finalboss2]

Not everyone playing will be new to the game, it's also terrible for competitive play.

tell that to the massive pro scene that have in asia.

 

[Ikuu]

What they did to TF2 makes me worry for this. TF2 was good at first, but now its crazy with buying/earning items and stuff that actually makes a difference to the gameplay.

:lol, TF2 is fine.

tell that to the massive pro scene that have in asia.

Not sure what you're replying to here.

 

[Deleted member 59090]

And I need to see this in motion soon...

Well there's a tournament in what? 3-4 days?

 

[ksan]

Well there's a tournament in what? 3-4 days?

Not soon enough!

 

[Phandy]

:lol, TF2 is fine.

Not sure what you're replying to here.

Whoops, forgot to say that it doesnt actually matter in TF2 that much. It still holds up well even though I personally don't like it much.
I think something similar could be pretty bad in a DOTA game though. They've made so much out of alternative weapons (and subsequent play styles) for each of the classes, that it worries they might do something similar. Earning/buying new heroes or even alternative skills/items or something.

 

[RaGMasTeR90]

Well there's a tournament in what? 3-4 days?

The tournament starts on Wednesday but i dont know when they will start playing I guess they begin at noon or something. At least the esl tournaments started at this time last year.

And btw. the first thing i will do at GamesCom when it openes on wednesday is running to the DOTA2 booth begging for beta keys

 

[Spookie]

The first thing i will do at GamesCom when it openes on wednesday is running to the DOTA2 booth begging for beta keys

*cough* dibs on a spare. D;

 

[Heavy's Sandvich]

Shotgun a code.

 

[Rookje]

I like it, here's why:

 

[Teknopathetic]

Colors = hot mess? Okay.

 

[StuBurns]

I do think Dota 2 looks considerably nicer than the other three in the comparison picture, and unlike most people, I think the UI is much nicer too, it's clean, 'industrial' for lack of a better word.

 

[Luigiv]

I like it, here's why:

http://i.imgur.com/jsxd4.jpg[IMG][/QUOTE]
Yep. Pretty much the first thing I noticed too when people brought up all those comparison shots. Not surprising really. Valve are very well verse in their colour theory.

 

[erpg]

I hope they have in-game community guides like HoN does! Would take that over whatever coaching is (how does it work in TF2?).

(BTW, fix them, S2)

This looks great, but people dredging up the worst League of Legends screenshots they can find for comparison is pretty embarrassing.

If people actually wanted the worst LoL screenshots, they'd just dig up the end of match results from the LoL community thread.


I went there!

 

[dimb]

This looks great, but people dredging up the worst League of Legends screenshots they can find for comparison is pretty embarrassing.

 

[TyrantGuardian]

This looks great, but people dredging up the worst League of Legends screenshots they can find for comparison is pretty embarrassing.

This. LoL looks pretty clean with low settings, not too unlike DotA 2 actually, though not as polished at all.

 

[TGMIII]

I hope they have in-game community guides like HoN does! Would take that over whatever coaching is (how does it work in TF2?).

(BTW, fix them, S2)

So you don't know how it works but you'll instantly dismiss it, good job.

Coaching in TF2 allows someone to spectate you and then put pointers down to show you where to attack/defend, allows you to mark out certain enemies etc etc. When it work's I think it's good but it's prone to harassment.

 

[Herbspiceguy]

Champions and minions stand out perfectly well in LoL. I think it's one of LoL's biggest pros. If you want make such a comparision you should do it with a game that actually has a bad use of colors like HoN.

On topic: I think the screenshots look cool, digging the art style. HUD looks fine to me: clean and functional, that's all that matters to me.

 

[StuBurns]

I don't like the look of LoL, those black outlines on heroes are lame. Maybe you can disable it though, I only gave it an hour or two.

 

[Keasar]

I like it, here's why:

http://i.imgur.com/jsxd4.jpg[IMG][/QUOTE]

You should see Heroes of Newearth, then we are talking about a real clusterfuck of colors, effects and characters.

 

[erpg]

So you don't know how it works but you'll instantly dismiss it, good job.

Coaching in TF2 allows someone to spectate you and then put pointers down to show you where to attack/defend, allows you to mark out certain enemies etc etc. When it work's I think it's good but it's prone to harassment.

More asking for confirmation on how it works because as it turns out, it's exactly how I thought it did.

I'd take a skill/item guide in-shop and replays any day.

I don't like the look of LoL, those black outlines on heroes are lame. Maybe you can disable it though, I only gave it an hour or two.

Far as I know you can only disable them if you reduce textures and effects. The options in-game are pretty slim, and man are they hard to navigate.

 

[Teknopathetic]

"This. LoL looks pretty clean with low settings, not too unlike DotA 2 actually, though not as polished at all."

It looks clean with high settings, too. While it's obviously not the greatest looking game or art style, League of Legends is at least a very clean game and it's very easy to discern what's going on.

 

[erpg]

I know it's been badly resized, but I really don't like the UI.

 

[markot]

Whens gamescon >.<?

 

[ksan]

weird vs t_t but cool screen, oh and more heroes in the top of the screen!

Whens gamescon >.<?

starts on wednesday

 

[StuBurns]

Far as I know you can only disable them if you reduce textures and effects. The options in-game are pretty slim, and man are they hard to navigate.

Although I think Torchlight is much nicer to look at than Diablo 3, this is kind of the reverse for whatever reason, the more chunky 'WoWish' look of LoL is bad I think, where as Dota 2 is more of the Diablo 3 thing of less saturation, more subdued.

That reads as nonsensical or hypocritical I know.

 

[Barack Lesnar]

HoN looks as good as this graphically. Might even look a little better. I'm only mentioning this because some thought Dota 2 would stomp its competitors visually.

 

[djkimothy]

I'm not digging the segmented hp

 

[Teknopathetic]

"HoN looks as good as this graphically."


I don't think they're really going for a Crysis-style graphical tour-de-force. The difference between this and HoN is that it immediately looks a lot cleaner.

 

[Stahsky]

HoN looks as good as this graphically.

I really don't like the look of HoN at all, to be honest.

 

[Luigiv]

"This. LoL looks pretty clean with low settings, not too unlike DotA 2 actually, though not as polished at all."

It looks clean with high settings, too. While it's obviously not the greatest looking game or art style, League of Legends is at least a very clean game and it's very easy to discern what's going on.

Whilst I'm sure things are easier to keep track of in motion, it's hard to argue that LoL doesn't take a few missteps in it's use of colour.

To illustrate my point.

 

[StuBurns]

I've never played HoN, and I can't judge from screenshots, that's pretty unfair. Does it take long to download? It took me like three hours of patching to get into LoL when I tried it, which is obscene.

 

[Teknopathetic]

The problem with using that picture to illustrate your point is that it's probably the second worst LoL screencap and isn't really reflective of what it'd actually look like on your monitor. It's a flawed illustration from the jump. I'm not really saying the art style is perfect, but using that screenshot to illustrate your point doesn't help.

 

[Ikuu]

I've never played HoN, and I can't judge from screenshots, that's pretty unfair. Does it take long to download? It took me like three hours of patching to get into LoL when I tried it, which is obscene.

It's like 600MB.

 

[dimb]

HoN looks as good as this graphically.

It really doesn't. The textures in these screenshots are on another level, and their blending is just godly. Effects will probably be better in Dota 2, just going by the look of the flaming sword, and the character models look nicely detailed here.

This is a few steps ahead of HoN, but that's to be expected given the pedigree of the developer, the later release of Dota 2, and the large pool of resources Valve has to draw on.

 

[EviLore]

HoN looks as good as this graphically. Might even look a little better. I'm only mentioning this because some thought Dota 2 would stomp its competitors visually.

HoN does not look as good as this in the areas where everyone was confident that Valve would have S2 beat: art direction and contrast between foreground and background elements.

 

[Card Boy]

I've never played HoN, and I can't judge from screenshots, that's pretty unfair. Does it take long to download? It took me like three hours of patching to get into LoL when I tried it, which is obscene.

Hon is a fast download its 350 to 500meg. Its a direct download and not some Bittorrent Pando Media booster malware download like LoL. HoN is also Win/Mac and even Linux compatible.

 

[maniac-kun]

New version:

 

[Valygar]

LoL might a bit of a colour mess, but it does not look like that. It's a bit exagerated, an image with a lot of contrast.

Edit: Now that I notice, most images seems to have too much contrast, so it's probably my fault.

 

[walking fiend]

I've never played HoN, and I can't judge from screenshots, that's pretty unfair. Does it take long to download? It took me like three hours of patching to get into LoL when I tried it, which is obscene.

Client is like 500-600MB as long as I can remember, updates are usually less that some 10s of MB. LoL had some strange update method as long as I can remember.

---
happy people agreeing with my conclusion that the DOTA 2 most important feature is its being clear, wise words are always good to hear.

HoN does not look as good as this in the areas where everyone was confident that Valve would have S2 beat: art direction and contrast between foreground and background elements.

I don't really care about new art direction. Area looks infinitely better, but HoN heroes look incredibly better on the other hand and have a very consistent look to them, which at least artworks of the DOTA doesn't show that to be true.

LoL might a bit of a colour mess, but it does not look like that. It's a bit exagerated, an image with a lot of contrast.

indeed, unlike HoN, it looked pretty clean, not as clean as DOTA 2, but pretty good.

 

[mr. puppy]

I know it's been badly resized, but I really don't like the UI.

http://www.dota2.cn/data/attachment/forum/201108/14/1956529uo5pk0on0od0q3i.jpg[/IG][/QUOTE]


alright, are those numbers beneath the heroes their ultimate cooldown, or their level?

the level cap in dota is 25, thats why it looks strange...

 

[Archie]

alright, are those numbers beneath the heroes their ultimate cooldown, or their level?

the level cap in dota is 25, thats why it looks strange...

Level, current XP/XP needed for next level.

 

[Dinosaur Tamer]

HoN looks as good as this graphically. Might even look a little better. I'm only mentioning this because some thought Dota 2 would stomp its competitors visually.

Really? I am not much of a HoN player, but after booting it up for a quick comparison, I must say DOTA 2 looks better. The art style is superior (this is somewhat subjective, sure), it looks very clean and I would say the textures and water are ahead of HoN as well. Can't really say much about models and animation without seeing the game in motion, though.

So far we've only seen a few screenshots and maybe, it's just me, but I'd say it's graphically way ahead of the competition.

 

[StuBurns]

In the new picture it's pretty clear Dota 2 is considerably more refined visually.

For the sake of it, Blizzard DOTA, although this pic is old:

As for HoN's size, it was more the patching I was asking about, although I did it poorly, almost finished the download now though, 40 secs to go.

 

[EviLore]

In the new picture it's pretty clear Dota 2 is considerably more refined visually.

For the sake of it, Blizzard DOTA, although this pic is old:

Look at that contrast between foreground and background!

:lol

 

[Ikuu]

Blizzard DotA is going to be terrible, try playing a SotIS game, every single time I've tried to play someone disconnects right away and everyone leaves. I'm sure I'll play it a few times just for the Heroes, but it's not going to become SC2s DotA.