Valve Takes Dota 2 Players Behind The Scenes In New 'Between The Lanes' Blog

Valve has launched a new blog feature called 'Between the Lanes,' where they share behind-the-scenes insights into the development of the globally popular MOBA game, Dota 2. The inaugural post, published on July 28, 2023, covers an amusing yet disruptive bug associated with the Techies' Sticky Bomb ability.

Dota 2's updates, while enriching the game with new heroes, items, and abilities, often also result in new bugs due to the sheer scale and intricacy of the game. One such bug that lay dormant for months was the nefarious Techies' Sticky Bomb glitch.

This bug arose from a 7.31 update where the Techies' abilities were reworked, inadvertently creating an issue where Sticky Bombs didn't expire. Moreover, under certain circumstances, they became controllable by the casting player. However, due to the specific game parameters at the time, the bug couldn't manifest in a match and thus remained unnoticed.

With the Spring 2023 release of The New Frontiers 7.33 Update, a new feature called the Twin Gates was introduced, finally enabling the manifestation of the Sticky Bomb bug. Consequently, Techies players discovered they could guide Sticky Bombs around the map, which became a significant game advantage and spurred conversations on Valve's GitHub.

The issue originated from the 'toss,' 'chase,' and 'countdown to explode' sequence that managed the Sticky Bombs. This sequence was disturbed if a player selected both Techies and the Bomb and clicked on a Twin Gate using unified unit orders. Followingly, this action put the Sticky Bomb into a channeling state, disrupting the planned sequence of modifiers.

Valve eventually rectified the issue by removing the ability for players to control the Sticky Bomb in Dota 2. This solution ensures that the sequence of modifiers will always execute as intended, culminating in the Bomb's detonation.

While Valve has resolved the Sticky Bomb bug, they humorously acknowledged that the fix might potentially have introduced another bug. The company welcomed the Dota 2 community to help uncover such issues, maintaining its open approach to continuous game development and improvement.

In the future, the 'Between the Lanes' blog promises to keep Dota 2's global fanbase engaged and informed about the triumphs and challenges faced by the developers. As the name suggests, the blog intends to provide a unique perspective on the work that happens in the background to keep Dota 2 running smoothly.