One of the guys who got into DOTA 2 beta has decided to share with the rest of the world by leaking the client to the public. Most notable are some strings found in the game’s files that point to a microtransaction driven, free-to-play model similar to what Valve’s own Team Fortress 2 currently employs. This text seems to imply that you’ll be able to spend real-world money to buy bundles, gear, tools, and effects, though any mention of paying to unlock individual heroes is suprisingly absent.
Valve has previously stated that they’re looking to finish the game before they commit to any particular pricing model, but this newly revealed info seems to indicate that they’re at least prototyping a microtransaction-driven system internally.
Other snippets of code have revealed a list of game modes and mentoring features. Included among the game modes are Single Draft, All Random, Random Draft, Captains Draft, Captains Mode, Death Mode, and Easy Mode. The mentoring system, which Valve has touted heavily as one of the most important community features, will allow players to gain karma and levels for writing hero guides or taking players under their wing.
The game’s spell icons have also surfaced, courtesy of Cyborg Matt. A lot of these are probably still placeholders. As if that weren’t enough, someone’s been uploading all of the game’s sound files to YouTube, organized by hero. To finish off this massive leak, forum users at PlayDota.com have gotten their hands on an exhaustive list of hero backstories.
Dota 2 is currently slated for release on the Windows and Mac PCs sometime in 2012, with a public beta expected to start within a matter of weeks.
The guy who leaked the beta is TsunamiNori and he’s probably fucked at the moment. Although he’s probably not from the US so he might not get sued. Here’s his Steam profile.
Source: gameranx and reddit
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