We know that Source 2 from Valve is a pretty capable game engine, and we've seen what they've been able to do with it over the years (and Half-Life: Alyx turned it up a notch) but what's next? Ray Tracing perhaps.
Read the full article here: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2021/01/valves-source-2-shows-early-teasers-of-ray-tracing-weirdly-in-artifact-updates
Artifact is a card game too big to live on a single board. Valve spreads the playfield of its digital CCG between three separate lanes and gives you control of five heroes - some pulled directly from Dota, others invented for this spin-off. Buffs and modifiers stack without a cap, mana generates continuously, and your heroes respawn in a non-stop cycle of death and rebirth. Artifact takes full advantage of digital conveniences to help you digest an overwhelming amount of information, and all those details add up to an immensely satisfying game of strategy.
You don't have direct control over everything you see on the board. You can choose your deck's five heroes - powerful unit cards with unique abilities - and the colours of those heroes determine which cards you'll be able to play in which lanes. During deckbuilding, you can also choose three of those five heroes to be deployed first, but they're distributed between the lanes at random. You can equip your heroes with gear that boosts their capabilities but can only purchase items from a random selection that appears between rounds. Units pick their own targets, but you can spend mana on spells to redirect those attacks.
It's this push and pull between random elements and your limited resources to influence them that forms the heart of Artifact. Once you and your opponent commit your actions, the units in that lane smash against each other in a single wave of offensive energy. You can always see exactly what will happen when the clash goes down. Doomed heroes will display an ominous red X, and you can hover over their health values to find out exactly where that damage is coming from.
RELATED LINKS:
Artifact 2.0 really is a totally new game
Artifact 2.0 beta sign-ups are live
Artifact has had more players this weekend than it has in a year
It's been a long time since I played the first incarnation of Valve's MOBA-inspired CCG, but having sunk 40 hours into Artifact back when it launched, I never expected to feel this lost during my first match of the 2.0 beta. There are plenty of obvious differences, like a new campaign, ability changes, new cards, and a simplified board - changes you spot before playing your first card - but there are countless, seemingly minor adjustments that altogether transform the pacing and feel of this card battler.
The three boards and lane system remain, but now all lanes are visible at all times, so you don't feel like you're playing three games at once. Before, each board had its own mana reserve, but now they all drink from a common pool. Likewise, all items and hero abilities now cost mana to play, so while you can't stack all your mana buffs into key lanes anymore, you still need to think very carefully about how you spend mana and buff your shared pool over the course of a match. Almost all health, damage, and armour stats have been significantly reduced as well, so any buffs or synergies are less likely to snowball and create unbeatable monster decks.
Deployment and turn order are simpler in 2.0, with creeps now appearing in predictable spots every round and none of the random aggro arrows that would previously scupper carefully planned strategies. Best of all, you now deploy your heroes manually, choosing the exact slot in each lane, which means no more random first-round flops where you lose the majority of your heroes, or getting blocked by a melee creep. The initial deployment of your first three heroes is a crucial part of the match, and the previous system of both sides playing their heroes blindly led to a lot of unfortunate mismatches that simply didn't feel fair. Now, players take it in turns deploying their heroes in each lane, starting in mid, then going to offlane, and ending with the safe lane - 'safe' because by this point you can react to the opponent's offlane placement.
RELATED LINKS:
Artifact 2.0 beta sign-ups are live
Artifact has had more players this weekend than it has in a year
The Artifact 2.0 beta is coming – “we aren’t selling cards”
