Changelog for v6.60 (Part 3: Others)

Changelog for v6.60 (Part 1: Heroes)
Changelog for v6.60 (Part 2: Items)

Misc Highlight

• Reorganized heroes into taverns based on hero class. There are now 3 taverns per class, the "good" tavern has the heroes that are easier to recognize as "good", the evil tavern has the heroes that are easier to recognize as "evil" and the mix as the ones that are in between. In each tavern the heroes are organized inside of it by alphabet. The Taverns are colored according to the class. For example, the good Intelligence tavern is Blue with the color darkening as it goes to the evil side.
  
• Side shops are now organized independent from their item slot in their original stores. This also fixes hotkey conflict issues.
  
• Reworked the side shop item layouts. There are now two shops there, a Goblin Laboratory and a Goblin Merchant. New items have been added to these shops. The complete listing of the items in there:
  
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  >Goblin Laboratory: Scroll of Town Portal, Magic Stick, Sobi Mask, Stout Shield, Ring of Regeneration, Ring of Health, Cloak, Helm of Iron Will, Mask of Death
  Goblin Merchant: Slippers of Agility, Boots of Elvenskin, Belt of Giant Strength, Robe of the Mage, Quelling Blade, Gloves of Haste, Blades of Attack, Quarterstaff, Talisman of Evasion, Kelen's Dagger, Ultimate Orb.
  
  
• Reorganized all the recipe shops. The goals are both to make room for the recently added items and more importantly to organize them in a manner that makes guessing correctly where an item is an easy task for both existing and new players. I know none of us like to relearn item layouts, but this is a good thing to do for the long run. There are 6 recipe shops now in the following order:
  
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  >Gateway Relics: Misc items that are primarily early game upgrades
  Supportive Vestments: Various support style items that you get for your team
  Arcane Sanctum: Castable or spell heavy themed items
  Protectorate: Has mainly defensive/survival style items
  Enchanted Artificats: Mostly orb effect items (with the exception of Yasha)
  Ancient Weaponry: All other weapon items.
  Note: I'm aware that Aegis is no longer needed in the shops, but I'm keeping it there until we need the space to help new users be aware of its existance through Roshan.
  
  

Modes & Commands

• Added a new game mode -cd (-CaptainsDraft) [details below]
  
• Added a new game mode -rs (-randomside) to randomize which side your team starts in. This does not shuffle the players. It just places a team randomly as either Sentinel or Scourge.
  
• Added -random Intelligence/Strength/Agility. It gives you 100 less bonus gold than the 250 bonus gold the regular -random gives you.
  
• Added a new -tips system.If you enter the command, the game will give you 5 pointers (at various stages in the game) that are unique to each hero to help you get the basics down. These are not intended to imply guideliens on how to play a hero, but rather as simple tips if you are new with that hero. These are a work in progress.
  
• Added -water random
  
• -water now supports any color combinations using -water r g b format
  
• You can now change the terrain using -terrain snow on a per user basis. It is no longer a game mode. The "-terrain" or "-terrain default" command reverts the terrain to its normal state. Some of the other terrain modes you guys have emailed me about are still being worked on. I disabled them from this version because of some glitches they cause that haven't been fixed yet. I will work on them more in the future if you guys want them.
  
• Added -disablehelp to Force Staff
  
• Added a command to display bonus gold received from Goblins Greed (-gg)
  
• Added -aa (Arrow Accuracy) for Elune's Arrow hit percentages
  
• -disablehelp now prevents items from being picked up by non-owners from the fountain area
  
• -oi is turned on by default in observer games. Using -oi will disable it instead.
  
• Added a sub command to -om that disables neutral spawns
  
• Added a player only command "rollhero" or "-rh" to randomly display a heroname. This has no actual functional effect in the game, just a small easy command that some players wanted for their play groups.
  
• AFK detection no longer considers a player to be AFK during the drafting phases of some game modes
  
• Switch is disabled by default. Added a new temporary game mode -switchon (-so). Haven't developed a new replacement system for switch yet. There are a few ideas I experimented with but nothing final yet. Based on the feedback I've gotten, I think the best thing to do is to disable it by default and allow a mode for it until a more suitable usage of it can be implemented.
  
• Improved the text presentation of -switch a little bit so the text is less intrusive

Gameplay & Performance

• Added a few new terrain paths. Here are the rough areas that a change has been done in:
  
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  >- To the right of the Sentinel Secret Shop above the ramp
  - Above the Sentinel Goblin Shop
  - Between the forest and the top Scourge lane
  - Right side of sent jungle
  - To the right of the second top Sentinel tower
  - Added a new tree to the Scourge jungle
  - In the area between the pair of Scourge neutrals near the powerup
  
  
• Range rax no longer has extra regeneration
  
• Added a new regeneration armor mechanism for towers and rax.
  
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  >- The "regen armor" is stripped away whenever there are nearby creeps (or corpses). It gets restored once 15 seconds elapse without a nearby unit.
  - If a tower or rax takes damage without the regen armor, that life lost can never be naturally regenerated. If it does have the regen armor, then it will regenerate at a rate of 40hp/seconds and take only 25% damage from illusions.
  - Flagged areas are 1) All places considered in or near base 2) second Top Tower 3) second Mid Tower 4) second Bot Tower.
  
  
• Increased the non-splitting portion of the xp/gold from 8/level xp & 40 gold to 12*level xp & 30+5*level
  
• The non-splitting xp/gold bonuses are now doubled for EM like the rest of the xp/bounty system is
  
• Changed the damage type of the first tower to be Siege like the rest of the towers. Adjusted the damage table to keep the damage creeps take in the laning phase unchanged.
  
• Tower does not regenerate from allied damage (when trying to deny)
  

Cosmetic & Misc

• Added two new hero kill sounds for 4x and 5x kills
  
• Added hero and creep stats to the scoreboard title by default
  
• Deny visual effect is shown by default now. -cson/off toggles it on and off. -di functionalities (and some extras) are now enabled by default.
  
• The upgrade mechanism of courier has been changed. You no longer lose the hotkey bindings you have when it is upgraded to crow.
  
• Many passive icons have been replaced with proper passive borders (will do the remaining in the near future)
  
• Improved color/text presentation for runes
  
• Adaptive Strike now displays the stun duration as overhead
  
• Added a joke name to Dragon Knight
  
• Added a new ability on couriers "Return Home" that sends your courier back to base
  
• Added a new ability on couriers "Transfer Items" that transfers your items to your hero directly
  
• Added a new visual effect for Death Pulse
  
• Added a new visual effect for Last Word
  
• Added a new visual effect for Mana Void
  
• Added a warning message when an old unsafe version of Warcraft is detected
  
• Added a player only sound effect and a text message when your hero respawns
  
• Added allied-only text message when an ally bottles or picks up a rune
  
• Added Armor Aura to Neutral Creep Enraged Wildkin
  
• Added joke name to Axe
  
• Added text for observers to show what abilities heroes are leveling
  
• Added the "Allied hero has fallen" sounds
  
• Added the music that plays in single player when typing "TenthLevelTaurenChieftain" to "-music special"
  
• Adjusted neutral creep active abilities to all be on the bottom left most spot
  
• Blackhole now uses an AOE targetting interface
  
• Bottled Runes now show color coded icons
  
• Changed Bottle and Captured Rune Icons
  
• Changed Magic Stick Icon
  
• Reduced maximum AFK time from 10 to 5 minutes
  
• Changed Omnislash hotkey from N to E
  
• Changed the cosmetics on Razor's attack
  
• Improved the Cooldown animation so it is much easier to tell when a long cooldown spell is available
  
• Lothars windwalk icon is now the same as the item
  
• Lycan's attack while in Wolf Form now properly plays an attack sound
  
• Normal mode can now pick from their team's heroes plus neutral heroes
  
• Removed Furion teleportation restriction into enemy base (no need because of the new regen system)
  
• Rot no longer triggers Last Word
  
• Rune of Regeneration now expires once it you reach max hp and mp
  
• Silencer Intelligence stealing is now displayed as green for the +1 and red for the -1
  
• Splitshot no longer automatically turns off when you get disabled
  
• Stout Shield has a new icon now. Poor Man's Shield uses stout's old icon.
  
• Terrain snow now morphs regular trees into special snow trees.
  
• Updated Illusion Rune tooltip
  
• Updated Morph's tooltip to reflect the recent attributes bonus added to it
  
• You no longer lose vision if an ally or yourself that is targeted with Astral Prison
  
• Improved icon for Soul Steal (172705)
  
• Added a new icon for Sunder (172705)
  
• Added a new icon for Tombstone (263561)
  
• Added a new icon for Lycan's Feral Heart (180452)
  
• Changed the icon for Ring of Protection
  
• Decreased model size of Spirit Bear and True Form slightly
  
• Added a new visual effect to God's Strength
  
• Enigma returns to the Scourge alliance
  
• Linken Sphere now plays a sound when the cooldown is ready and its active on you
  

Bugs

• Diffusal Blade automatically fixes itself to burn properly on images when it reaches 0 charges (you used to have to drop and pick it up)
  
• Fixed a bug with manavoid damage (it dealt less damage than it should at higher levels)
  
• Fixed a rare bug with Open Wounds allied lifesteal
  
• Fixed a bug with Open Wounds and Infest
  
• Fixed a Moonlight Shadow not working on allied magic immune units
  
• Fixed a rare suicide bug with Terrorblade
  
• Fixed a recently introduced bug with Ursa's Enrage not properly triggering fury swipes
  
• Fixed -hhn to not get reset when a new hero enters the map
  
• Fixed some bugs with Last Word when Silencer was dead
  
• Fixed Illusions created from Bottle not showing bottle in inventory
  
• Fixed Meat Hook not interrupting channeling if the target is fogged
  
• Fixed Open Wounds heal not working properly with some custom spells
  
• Fixed Replicate not removing the image when it errors due to backdooring
  
• Fixed some minor potential bugs with Ion Shell
  
• Fixed some -switch issues when combined with -ah
  
• Fixed some very minor inconsistencies between Sentinel and Scourge buildings
  
• Fixed spells like Laser and Brainsap to work with Decrepify
  
• Fixed spells like Zeus's Wrath of God from reseting the AFK counter
  
• Fixed the attachment effects on Invoker, Lina, Lich and Chaos Knight from disappearing and reapearing 1 second later after attack actions.
  
• Fixed the creep upgrade timer to be in sync with the recent game start time for modes
  
• Fixed Tiny's Illusions appearing small
  

Languages

• The game is now available in 9 languages (5 new ones). English, Russian, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Korean, French, Czech, German, and Brazilian Portuguese.
  

Mode Remake

• Captains Draft:
  
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  ===============
  24 Heroes are randomly allocated in a circle (like RD). The 24 consist of 8 random Intelligence/Agility/Strength heroes, sorted in that order along the circle.
  Each team has a total time bank of 2.5 minutes. Blue/Pink draft the heroes for their entire team.
  Blue and Pink start off by alternating 1/1/1/1 ban picks.
  It then goes into a 1/2/2/2/2/1 hero draft.
  Once a hero picks/bans a hero, it immediately switches to the other player to act.
  Your timer is shown in read when it is your turn to act.
  I am considering implementing a new order for the bans for this mode in the future. The bans would not all happen before the pick process, it would be in between picks. I decided to keep it the traditional way for now and get some feedback on alternatives.

Notes

• Thanks to everyone that helped test this version and to all the players that have sent their feedback and requests in. There are many changes in this patch, some depend on the other one, so you'll need to play it a bit to get a good idea for how things play out in practice. That being said, don't hesitate to give me your first impressions and your overall feelings towards the update. There will probably be a 6.60b or a 6.61 to follow this one, so let me know any mistakes you find or any suggestions for stuff to change.