Thanks for all the feedback from everyone, I appreciate it. I've gotten lots of constructive comments about what you liked and disliked. I'm actively working on 6.61 right now. Some of the balance changes on the table will happen in 6.61 and some others (that need more time to settle in before changing) will happen in a version or two afterward so we don't act too hastily. Not much else to say in this post, just wanted to keep you guys updated.

I've started working on this on last Saturday. It will be a fast patch aimed at balance improvements. Let me know what things you feel need changes.

Alright, everything is going smooth so far and nothing major discovered. I'll start uploading it to all the mirrors very soon. I'm doing a final proofread on the changelog right now as well, and then I'll post it on getdota.com

Thanks to everyone that helped test this version and to all the players that have sent me 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 quickly following this one, so let me know any mistakes you find or any suggestions for stuff to change.

A few weeks ago I asked for help on for a new website. Thanks to all the effort of the community and volunteers, it has made very good progress. I've decided to reveal a public beta of the website to you guys today as well. It still needs more work and it will have bugs, but it seems like it would be appropriate to do it today and get a bigger group of people testing it and helping us with it.

Mission statement http://www.playdota.com/about

Feedback & Help: http://www.playdota.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=34

Update: The website will probably be a bit slow for the next few days as it gets properly configured and the bugs worked out.

Update 2: The map and logs have been released, but something unusual from the regular release traffic is sending mass permanent connections and locking up getdota.com from regular users. Trying to find solutions to stop the spam attack now.

Update 3: It should all be fast again now.

Hey guys. I plan on uploading 6.60 tonight or early tomorrow unless a critical issue occurs, but right now it looks very likely.

I'll edit this post here with another update in a few hours

First, I want to thank everyone for their emails in the past week or so. Things have been kind of hectic lately. Even though I usually don't like to give a schedule, you guys have been very patient. My plan is to release 6.60 in early June and I am doing my best to make sure that there are no further delays. If a feature or change still needs more work, I'll try to save it for the next version instead so I can get this in your hands asap.

Here is a list of a few of the things to expect in 6.60. There will be many new items (at least 5) and improvements or remakes to current items. You can also expect lots of ability changes on old heroes, a couple hero remakes and a new hero or two. A new regeneration system for structures will be active only when they are attacked without creeps/corpses nearby (more detailed infomation on the mechanics for this in the changelog). Naturally there will be the usual balance, bug and visual fixes that come with every update. That is just a brief summary; there are a lot more interesting miscellaneous changes and features, but I'll save the rest for the changelog.

As always, feel free to let me know what things you do and don't like, feedback and suggestions are very important to me. Thanks again for the patience and I hope you guys enjoy the map.

As a result of some differences, I am no longer affiliated with the dota-allstars.com website. I want to take this opportunity to wish everyone over there the best of luck in the future.

I still plan on continuing DotA development for a long time, a couple years at the very least. The next update, 6.60, is nearing the end of its design and testing phase. The translation phase will also be starting shortly. There is still a little bit more work to do on fixing some specific content, but it's finally approaching completion. I will post another update here in the near future.

As of today, I am starting a new community site for DotA. I think it is more valuable to the players though if I focus most of my time on developing and improving the game, so I'm here to reach out and ask for help on this. I believe that with some organization, the community has some very talented people that can help build a site to serve their interests and needs. Help can come in many different forms: programming, design, technical support, content contributions, etc. My goal is to have a format where everyone that wants to help can contribute in a productive way. If you are interested in being involved, please send me an email at IceFrog@gmail.com

Just want to share a link to a live game that a friend of mine (TeG-Coco) is playing in. I usually like to watch competitive games like these in a window while I'm working on the map or fixing bugs. Wish him luck !

http://www.game-tv.com/stream (this is an old link, it no longer points to the game)

In the near future there will be important updates to the Warcraft 3 engine. I know there are various communities around the world that still use the 1.20 patch. However, it is important to the development of DotA for players to have the latest Blizzard patches (http://www.blizzard.com/us/patches/). There will always be new security features as well as map development functionality in future patches to provide a better experience for everyone and the game needs to be able to utilize them. This is mainly directed towards the net cafes that have automatic software that prevents changes from being done. Only the net cafes' owners (through the requests of users) can update the locked systems they have in place that prevents new software from being installed. So please make an effort to tell your local net cafes about this so they can be ready.

On a different note; here is a preview of the new recipe shop layout based on the emails I got. The goals are both to make room for the recently added items and more importantly to organize them in a manner that makes correctly guessing where an item is an easy task for both existing and new players alike.

I know none of us like to relearn item layouts, but this is a good thing to do for the long run. Take some time to review it and give me your feedback. Thanks for everyone that has already emailed me their ideas on this.

Hey guys. I apologize for the delay since my last post. I've been focused on the next update. It has a huge change log with many things that need playtesting.

One issue I've been trying to tackle in this patch is the organization of recipes. Most would agree that they are pretty disorganized right now, especially the 5th shop. With the addition of some items in 6.60 and the overdue need to organize the shops, I've been working on sorting them. I'm looking for input on organization approaches, as well as thoughts on the matter in general, so feel free to drop me a line. I might post a few screenshots of the shop layouts here.

Another extra tidbit of information, regarding Linken's Sphere: many abilities have now been rewritten to provide better compatibility. This has been one of the most requested items to fix, so I have given it some much needed attention. While there are still some spells that do not interact well with it, there are many more that do now.

This update has been taking much longer than I had originally hoped for, but rest assured I won't take a minute longer than absolutely necessary.

Hey guys. I'm here to give a quick update on development status. I'm still working very hard each day to try and get 6.60 to you guys as soon as possible, I know you are all waiting. While there are indeed new heroes and items in the next version, there are also lots of hero and item remakes which can be very time consuming to get right sometimes.

For Heroes, the main challenge is getting just the right mix of changes and new abilities that will both keep the existing fans of that hero happy and satisfied while also making the hero more enjoyable to other players. There are many heroes getting at least one changed ability this time around, but not every change ends up making it to the final version if they don't pass those requirements after some play testing. For Items, whenever one is added or changed, all other items need to get checked. Sometimes older items require more changes to be consistent with other game balance adjustments that are done. This is a process that items go through many times during the beta phase and it makes the exact timing of updates a bit hard to predict because the goal isn't to just change something, but to make sure it offers something enjoyable to the players in the end.

Of course there will also be lots of balance improvements as well, and not just new/remade heroes and items. However, to try and make up for the long wait, I'll share with you guys some more specific information about the next version.

Aghanim's Scepter has been remade and in addition to its new functionality, it will also provide ultimate upgrades to many other heroes that didn't get it before (and not just Intelligence heroes).

Another new feature is a dynamic terrain morphing command available on a per user basis (including trees). For example, you will be able to change to snow terrain and snow trees at any point in the game while the other players are still using the standard forest theme. The way the new system has been developed allows easy addition of more terrains without much work, so if there is a specific terrain style you like, let me know.

Thanks again for the patience, I'll do my best to give you guys an update as soon as it feels ready and when it is only a day or two away from release. My hope is that it doesn't take too much longer. I've also been receiving some pretty nice ideas through the email, so keep them coming.