Zack and Hannah were having a great time playing together.
They had even forgotten that their initial goal was simply to get ahead of Ben.
Even though they hadn't fully figured out many things in the game yet, and as a frequent gamer, Zack felt that Dota had many details and content that made it not simple to play well.
But right now, the overall feeling of the game for both Zack and Hannah was very good.
Especially with the controls, they were very convenient. Hannah, who had only experienced limited fun with RTS games before, felt that Dota was more interesting.
The main reason was the sense of presence. When she used to play Warcraft, even against the computer, she didn't feel like she had much presence.
But Dota was different. Whether it was casting spells to support teammates in lane, or buying corresponding items and leveling up to learn skills.
Hannah could feel her own presence in the game. Not to mention that she played a Faceless Void on her first game, and even a Faceless Void that built a Hand of Midas.
"Stop looking at the stats. You, a core player, have fewer kills than me, the support!" Hannah yelled at Zack, who was still looking at the scoreboard.
That's because you kept kill-stealing!
Zack thought to himself, but he didn't say it out loud.
"Let's play another game! I'll play Crystal Maiden this time. I just bought a Arcana! It has other forms too, but they require completing some data to unlock. Luckily, co-op bot matches can help with that." Hannah said happily, looking at the hero display interface of the Crystal Maiden Arcana she had just bought.
Although playing Faceless Void was really fun, and she even got an Arcana,
Crystal Maiden was just too beautiful.
Lucas had also made some changes in this regard compared to his previous life.
For example, unlocking cosmetics and subsequent Battle Pass quests.
These could be completed in normal games, but players could also complete them in co-op bot matches.
This was mainly to prevent players from intentionally messing around in matchmaking or even ranked games just to grind for these items.
Adding co-op bot mode was a way of telling players that if they wanted to grind, they should do it in bot mode, which was more convenient and faster.
In such a situation, if players were still messing around in ranked or normal matches claiming they were grinding for rewards, it would clearly be inexcusable.
As for whether it would affect paid content, as mentioned before, Dota's cosmetic payment pool was sufficiently deep.
"I'll switch heroes and play a bit too," Zack nodded.
He had just played Dragon Knight. Although he wasn't very strong in the early game, after getting his items, Zack felt that this hero was still very fierce. And when he reached level 18 and got his level 3 ultimate to transform into the Great Ice Dragon, it was incredibly cool.
But there were too many heroes in this game, so he wanted to check out other heroes as well.
Of course, he did the same thing as Hannah and took a look at the in-game shop.
He noticed that many cosmetics couldn't be bought directly but had to be obtained by opening treasure chests.
However, some were directly sold in the shop, such as Arcana sets.
The Faceless Void Hannah played earlier, the Crystal Maiden she was about to play now, and the Terrorblade he had seen before all had corresponding Arcanas.
"This one looks pretty cool!" Zack was immediately drawn to the Arcana for a hero with a fiery red body named Nevermore.
The hero itself was really cool, and combined with the fiery red flame Arcana, the prestige was off the charts.
He looked at the hero description again. He didn't quite understand the other parts, but the word "core" was something he saw very clearly and unmistakably.
"Oh, there are hero skill videos here too!" Zack also noticed something special. When he clicked on the hero interface, besides the attributes and cosmetics, there was a simple video that introduced the characteristics of each hero's skills to the players.
When they excitedly started their first bot match, neither Zack nor Hannah had noticed this.
"The first skill has three levels, hitting close, mid, and long range. The second skill is for last hitting and soul absorption. The third skill reduces armor. The ultimate damage is calculated based on the number of souls."
With the simple skill descriptions, Zack instantly understood the hero's characteristics. This was also because Shadow Fiend was a hero with a very simple skill mechanism, which tested the player's basic skills.
However, for playing against bots, Shadow Fiend was a hero that could easily dominate.
Based on their previous bot experience, Zack and Hannah still went to the same lane this time. Although the system's guide indicated that Shadow Fiend was a high-burst hero that needed levels and was more suitable for the mid lane,
when playing against bots, neither Zack nor the other matched players paid attention.
The second bot match had a bit of a hiccup compared to the previous one. The main reason was that Zack and his team had increased the difficulty from easy to normal, and the random players matched this time were a bit different from the previous group. They kept running into the enemy tower.
Zack, out of good intentions, gave the two players who almost fed creeps to the enemy a quick review of what they learned in the tutorial. Then, the player in the middle lane apologized on voice chat, saying he had to pick up his son from kindergarten and immediately disconnected, leaving them at a disadvantage with four players against five.
Fortunately, it was just a normal bot match. They would only group up and push the mid lane after reaching certain levels and times.
And once they had a certain amount of gold and items, the bots at this difficulty level wouldn't continue to buy items even if they had more money.
So, after Zack's Shadow Fiend gained a certain item advantage, he still managed to win the game by simply auto-attacking.
However, Zack, not understanding the intricacies of the game, thought he had almost lost to the bots. Fortunately, as the core player, he had turned the tide and avoided a shameful loss to the computer.
"In this game, bad teammates are the biggest threat!" Zack said with some emotion.
"Indeed, all five players seem indispensable, unlike FPS games where you can sometimes win 1v2 with individual skill," Hannah agreed.
Clearly, in these relatively short two games, they hadn't grasped the deeper aspects of the game, but they had thoroughly understood the undeniable truth that the biggest enemy was bad teammates.
There were many players like Zack and Hannah. After Dota's open beta test, most players entered the pre-loaded game immediately.
Some players, like Zack and Hannah, found it fun after two games. Others felt a bit dizzy after a couple of games or simply weren't interested.
At Nebula Games, Lucas, who was closely monitoring the game's data, was not surprised by this.
After all, no matter what game it was, there would always be players who liked it and players who didn't.
Dota's charm was undeniable, but it wasn't expected to conquer all gamers.
Moreover, the game had only just launched. Most players were still in the tutorial or bot match stage, and the game's true charm had not yet been fully revealed.
(End of Chapter)
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