ValveTime

This week’s Dota 2 update continues the recent trend of extremely light patches which focus more on gameplay fixes and cosmetic items as opposed to introducing new features or heroes. This particular patch features some minor fixes for Elder Titan, a series of improvements to the UI and a major reduction to the game’s memory usage, which should help to improve the game’s performance for users with less powerful computers. A series of cosmetic item sets have been introduced for Beastmaster, Chaos Knight, Clinkz, Leshrac, Lycanthrope, Phantom Assassin, Razor, Rubick and Weaver. Three brand new cosmetic couriers have also been added to the game including Maximilian the Beetlebear, Yonex’s Rage, and Shagbark, which has been a community favourite courier for some time after being designed and developed by CyborgMatt, Anuxi and several other famous personalities. Yonex’s Rage, an Invictus Gaming themed courier, and CyborgMatt’s own Shagbark are both available from the Dota 2 drop system while Maximilian is rewarded as a purchase incentive to owners of the "Raidcall Dota 2 League Season 3 Pass".


A series of unearthed UI files hint at the upcoming release of a "Guild" system, which appears to function similarly to the team organisation feature, only in a less serious manner. A massive selection of new models for upcoming second tutorial map were also discovered in the game files, which appeared alongside the addition of an updated world map showing a total of three separate tutorials, two of which are brand new but cannot currently be accessed. A series of "Low Violence" alternative censored assets were also introduced for use in the recently released Chinese client. Strict censorship laws in China prevent violent content such as blood and gore from being shown, forcing Valve to make a series of cosmetic modifications to a number of heroes including Ancient Apparition, Bane, Clinkz, Doom, Huskar, Lich, Lifestealer, Night Stalker, Pudge, Pugna, Shadow Demon, Shadow Fiend, Skeleton King, Undying and Visage. A number of item and ability icons were also modified to remove violent content in order for the game to conform to the previously mentioned censorship laws, including changes for Queen of Pain, Warlock and the Morbid Mask. Fear not, however, as this 'Low Violence' feature will only affect the Chinese version of Dota 2. CyborgMatt has uploaded images of every affected hero and icon in his update analysis should you want to take a curious look at restrained Lifestealer, Robo-King, Shadow Crow or masked Doom. The officially released changelog can be found over on the Dota 2 Blog as always. glhf!

Valve have begun a trial run of a new community initiative for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive named Overwatch. The idea is to recruit a group of "investigators" from the community in order to combat persistent cheating and other disruptive, in-game behaviour. Players are selected to become investigators based on a variety of criteria, including their win ratio in competitive games, the age of their steam account, the number of hours they have played, and their own record of behaviour.

Once chosen, community investigators will receive cases via a new "Overwatch" option on their menu screen. Each new case will consist of around 10 minutes of recorded footage featuring the suspected player in action, after which they will be asked to make a decision as to their accountability. If enough investigators agree that the accused player is guilty of an offence, then a suitable banning will be issued. Over time, each individual investigator will receive a score based on the number of cases they have judged, as well as the frequency that other Overwatch Investigators agree.

For now, the system is undergoing a limited beta test in order to ensure the fairness of the system and reveal any major problems with its conception. A full FAQ for the Overwatch initiative can be found here.

The last week was a particularly busy one for Valve, as they released a series of new updates for a variety of products. Steam received Trading Cards, Dota 2 received more compendium stretch goals and Team Fortress 2 recieved...more hats. Robotic hats. There was also a lot more news that you should check out in this week's ValveTime Weekly News Round-Up. Thanks for watching.

After nearly half a year without a major Team Fortress 2 update, Valve have announced "Robotic Boogaloo" - the most recent sizable patch for everyone's favourite war themed hat simulator. The update, which was announced on the Team Fortress blog alongside the release of a brand new short teaser trailer and comic, is being described as "the first entirely community-created update" and includes 57 brand new community developed cosmetic items, many of which are robot themed replicas of existing hats and miscellaneous items. Every element of the update was created by the community before being evaluated and accepted by Valve including the website pages, the teaser trailer, the comic, all artwork and all in-game models. The new items are all available from the RoboCrate, a robot themed crate the community have been collecting en masse since it was added by Valve in late April 2013.


The update website uses original community created artwork uploaded to the Steam Artwork section to highlight a series of individual items included with the patch. The update is now available, so head on over to Team Fortress 2 if you feel like checking it out. While you download the update, don't forget to watch the impressive update teaser trailer included on the main announcement page, which was created by community member "MrPopulus89".

Following a week of speculation and rumour, Valve have officially announced the beta of Steam Trading Cards, a new feature that will allow players to earn and trade rewards using their games and Community Profile. Also included is a major cosmetic update for the Steam Community, offering players better ways to personalise the look and layout of their profile pages.

Players will be able to obtain the new Trading Cards in two ways. Firstly, by playing any of the participating games on Steam and secondly, by trading with other players in the Steam Community. Currently, the beta allows users to obtain cards using any of the games listed below, with more titles to follow in the coming months:

• Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
• Don't Starve
• Team Fortress 2
• Portal 2
• Dota 2
• Half-Life 2

Once you have amassed a completed collection of cards, they can be combined to craft a badge specific to that game. These badges will be displayed on your profile page, including one "featured" badge displayed at the top of the page. Badges now also posses an XP value that contributes towards your profile level. Each new level offers certain perks, including increased friends list capacity and Profile Showcases, a new feature that allows you to highlight your favourite games, workshop items, or achievements on your profile page.
Crafting badges will also unlock their own randomised rewards, including coupons for the steam store which offer discounts on Games and DLC; new emoticons for use in your steam chats; and background art for your newly customisable profile page. All of these crafting rewards are tradable. However, they can only be used while you own them.

Profile pages in general have also seen a major update, with a greater emphasis on your personal playing habits and style. Along with customisable background art, information such as achievements, statistics, and community contributions have been organised into blocks which can be highlighted via the new Profile Showcase feature mentioned above.

Invites to the new beta are being released periodically, so be sure to sign up here if you wish to get early access to all the new features.