Are the Dota Plus Seasonal Treasure Sets Recycled 2014 Content?

The Dota Plus Fall update is supposed to reward dedicated subscribers of Dota 2’s premium services. However, the included Seasonal Treasure has garnered widespread criticism. Released on August 2nd, the patch added new Nemestice features, quests, Guild rewards as well as the new hero sets.

But shortly after the treasure was revealed, criticism of the included sets arose. With comments about the low quality and seeming simplicity of the designs swirling around Reddit and Twitter, one keen-eyed Redditor looked deeper into the collection.

On August 2nd, just a few hours after the update’s release, Reddit user “reignbeox” submitted a post entitled “New Dota Seasonal sets are actually ~2014 sets that never got approved.” In the post, he includes a screenshot of the workshop detail of each set in the new Seasonal Treasure.

Airing their grievances, reignbeox detailed their issues with the sets: “Low polycounts and textures on which I could count the pixels. So it got me thinking. Are there some interns at Valve that churn these out? Because, for the record, I am okay with the designs. I was just baffled by the technical quality of the items. It looks old and dated - BECAUSE IT IS.”

Reignbeox’s claims are easy to verify. Navigating through Valve’s workshop system and finding the most recently accepted sets, you can view the history of each item. Every set dates from between late 2013 to 2015. Some sets have received updates, but none have had significant changes since July 2016.

The most damning element of these dates is that almost all sets predate Dota 2’s 2015 graphical update. “Dota 2 Reborn,” as the update was titled, moved the game to the Source 2 engine. It also drastically increased the polygon count of every model in the game. As a result, any models produced pre-2015 are highly likely to have lower polygon counts, smaller textures and overall lower quality.

In the post, reignbeox clearly states that they do like the designs, a sentiment echoed by others in the thread. Recently, the general consensus on the Dota 2 subreddit has been that over-the-top sets are bad for the game. One of the most upvoted posts currently is “After 12k hours of Dota 2, i was not able to identify what hero was till i open the description screen, sets like this shouldn’t be allowed.” In the post, user Brooklyn1986 complains that a wildly elaborate Keeper of the Light set made it virtually impossible to identify their opponent.

Still, with only the included courier, a “very rare” bonus reward, as recent content, it’s easy to see why Dota Plus subscribers could be feeling a bit short-changed. The service is Dota 2’s premium option, that enhances the game to the next level. But inclusions like these dated treasures don't reach that mark. Overall, the unfortunate quality of Season Treasure sets has marred what was otherwise a heartfelt and positive update to Dota 2.

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