What are the differences between Defense of the Ancients (DotA) and DOTA 2?

Seeing that The International tournament has finished (and therefore DOTA 2 previewed) are any DOTA users able to list the differences/similarities? -- I'm sure Valve wanted to stay true, but have they? (Ignoring the beautiful new graphics, non warcraft 3 mod and network connectivity improvements)

Solution 1:

There are virtually no differences. It's almost an exact copy of the original Warcraft 3 map, minus the improved graphics, down to the very level of the basic controls itself (animation cancelling, etc.).

The biggest difference that you'll feel while playing it is the matchmaking system which Dota2 will take from games like Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead and a ranking system about which we don't know much yet.

I'd love to give sources on this, but I'm afraid I don't have ones on hand right now. There aren't exactly a ton of interviews on the game, and most of this stuff is gathered from simply watching the game (it looks like it's an exact copy) and posts by icefrog (one of the original Dota caretakers who now works on the game) on various forums.

Solution 2:

The graphics are far from what you call beautiful nowdays,game has better poly-count(more rounded and sharper 3D objects)but the textures are low on details what gives the game the carton look(team fortress 2 is also good example...LoL and borderlands added outline which adds comic like feel).

What i'm trying to say is that valve made it on purpose to look more like warcraft 3 graphics which uses low detail textures since it is older game.If they wanted to use all their graphic advantages over Warcraft 3 the game would look more like heroes of newerth.

Also icefrog stated that he wanted to make game with simple effects so that all that multicolored flashing spells don't confuse the players in team fights.

The non w3 mod and network are the whole point of making a new game,bunch of players that moved from warcraft 3 to LoL or HoN is because they offer better online experience with all the statistic tracking and mostly that they eliminate leavers from games.

The models,items,buildings... had to be tweaked due to copyright on warcraft 3.

Edit:For now before new updates take place(to balance gameplay,new heroes...)The gameplay (heroes,items and spells) remain the same.There are slight glitches tho,when you make new game it makes it hard to mimic the units(time,dmg,range) from other games so the gameplay might be bit faster or slower,and certain heroes and spells have different video effect and the "casting times" can't be the same...But in general it does not matter much to a player since that values are very small(parts of a secod).

...Basicly they couldn't have stayed more true to original dota without making exactly the same game.

Link to bigger image

Solution 3:

Same game, different user experience. As far as I see:

1. Only one shop in base. Because we no longer play DOTA in Warcraft 3, whose mod has some limitations, one shop can sell as many items as Valve wants, so why not only keep on shop?

2. Another improvement in shopping is that now player can see how to combine items to upgrade to new item, and can directly buy the upgraded item if has enough gold.

3. HP bar are separated into segments. every 1K HP is a long segment, while 250 HP is a short segment. It's easier for player to know how many HP your enemy have, thus can choose whether or when to use skills.

4. Now you can draw in mini map, which I don't know whether we can do in DOTA 1.

5. Another big difference is in OB system. OB system in DOTA 2 is one of the best in the world. Almost every statistics data you are interested in can be found during OB a game. And you can see player's first person perspective.

6. There are some interesting features in Hall. Reading blogs, news, update info, etc; Study on heroes and items; watch games of course, and so on.

There are more improvements in DotA 2 but I can only quickly remember the above 6, which I guess are most impressive ones for me.

Solution 4:

There is already a difference on the game, Luna for example can now wield Desolator or Skadi in DotA2.