StartCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm Info

[chaos5061]

We've been planning a few more balance tweaks before the holidays. And a few things we're trying to focus on are:

1. Lowering Widow Mine single target damage

We feel Widow Mines create a lot of positional play and also provides a more mobile splash option in the late game. Widow Mines 1 shotting key units such as Banshees in the early mid game we feel can be addressed without hurting the main strengths of the unit.

2. Improving fungal.

We feel the initial nerfs to Fungal Growth were too much especially in ZvZ. We've been taking a closer look at the range and missile speed of Fungal.

3. New Medivac strength

Adding two new abilities around the same tech level for the Medivac wasn't a good idea. We want to try to push the heal ability to later stages of the game when more splash damage units come into play.

We're also hearing your feedback on units like Widow Mines, Swarm Hosts, and Oracles. We're getting a lot of completely opposite feedback on the new units, and think this is because of the learning curve required to use and fight against these new options.

Please try to playtest more with that in mind and we are also trying our best to continue playing with them as much as possible to get a better understanding of the new meta game in HotS. As always, thank you for your help.

[chaos5061]

Hey everyone,

We will be bringing the beta down at 2:00 p.m. PST this afternoon to make the balance changes listed below. Thanks again for all the great feedback you've provided while testing Heart of the Swarm. We hope to see you testing these changes and sharing your input soon!

Terran

Medivac

• The Caduceus Reactor upgrade now requires a Fusion Core before research can begin.

Widow Mine

• Sentinel Missiles
  • Primary target damage reduced from 160 to 125.

Protoss

Stalker

• Blink
  • Research time increased from 140 to 170 seconds.

Zerg

Infestor

• Fungal Growth
  • Range increased from 8 to 10.
  • Missile speed increased from 10 to 15.

[chaos5061]

To prepare for the impending launch of StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm, we’re now expanding the ongoing beta testto include additional players. Any players who pre-purchased the expansion digitally on Battle.net on or before December 18 are now flagged for beta access. Additionally, players who digitally pre-order after December 18 will be added to the beta in waves on an approximately weekly basis. The beta client can be downloaded here. Please keep in mind that although anyone can download this client, only players who have obtained beta access will be able to log in.
Select retailers such as Amazon are also offering promotional beta key codes for players who pre-order Heart of the Swarm at retail. Be sure to check terms and availability with the retailer. More details on the Heart of the Swarmlaunch activities will be announced in the coming weeks and months. Until then, we hope to see you in the beta test and hear your feedback!

[chaos5061]

We have updated the Global Play FAQ with some of the top questions posed by the community over the last two months. Definitely take a look at it if you have lingering concerns over how this new feature will affect your experience of StarCraft II.
Global Play will give you access to StarCraft II game servers in regions outside your own, expanding the possibilities for eSports, exposing you to maps and games that aren’t yet published everywhere, and making it easy to play with your friends in other parts of the world. Each region will have separate profile data, meaning that characters, profiles, ladder rankings, progress, and friends lists will not carry over from region to region. With Global Play, you’ll have other regions to choose from as you create new characters, take on different ladder opponents, and perhaps try maps that you’ve never seen before.
More about Global Play:

• Players will be able to freely switch between regions via the StarCraft II login screen.
• When your region’s game servers are undergoing maintenance, you may be able to play in a different region that is not down for maintenance.
• Your game language and user interface will not change when you change regions.
• Players using Global Play will be subject to the in-game policies of their selected play region.

For more info, please take a look at the Global Play FAQ located on our support site.

[chaos5061]

This isn't exactly a new suggestion, but I feel it would be very helpful to those with latency issues / weaker computers.

Current Process: Queue --> Match Found! --> 3 second countdown --> load screen --> GO GO GO

Proposed Process: Queue --> Match Found! --> 3 second countdown --> load screen --> A 'ready' button --> 3 second timer once both players click ready (or countdown autostarts after 1 minute) --> GO GO GO

Blizzard has already shown us that they can modify how the ladder games end (via Victory screen), a simple 'Ready!' button, similar to how challenges are, would simplify a lot of issues.

The auto mining workers option is a somewhat useful workaround, as no one misses out on those minerals, but when that next worker is built can mean a difference. Basically, the person most benefitted by auto mining is a 6 pooler (and no one ever does that, right? RIGHT?). I feel this would be a stronger workaround than auto-mining, as the game starts exactly when both players are ready, and they can establish themselves, for worker splits, rushes, etc.

Just to compare the two using a real life scenario:

Proposed Process: Imagine two track and field sprinters waiting at the starting line. The runners are given a warning for when the race will start, they get time to set themselves, than a countdown starts and they go at the sound of the gun.

Current Process: Imagine two track and field sprinters waiting at the starting line. The runners are given a warning for when the race will start, they get time to set themselves, and the gun randomly goes off while they get themselves ready. One sprinter starts running, but the second one is still setting up.

Thanks.

Nice idea. Thanks. I don't think we would go too long if we did this, but a short count down could be cool. Maybe 3 seconds?

[chaos5061]

Full update in the next 45-60 minutes but for now

Siege tanks no longer require a upgrade to enter Siege Mode.

[chaos5061]

Here's a breakdown of our reasoning behind recent changes to gameplay in the Heart of the Swarm beta.

Hellbat/Medivac

The Medivac heal beam upgrade didn't go as intended. We want players to use Hellbats as meat shields, but instead, players were just using Marines and Marauders.

The Hellbat changes in this patch should allow players to more easily combo Hellbats, no matter what army composition they’re creating in their games.

Siege Tank

This change should mainly affect TvP, so that teching to mech is easier.

Seeker Missile

We felt that the splash damage version of Seeker Missiles were much more useful than the single target variety. At the same time, the new method for firing the missile made more sense, as shooting the missiles at a point blank range doesn’t hit with a 100% chance.

On top of that, we’d like to test out a cheaper, more difficult-to-hit-with version of the Seeker Missile so that we can hopefully see some "dodging vs. hitting" gameplay with this ability.

Reaper

We feel the biggest issue with Reapers is that burst damage happens way too fast. Especially in TvT, if players aren’t spot-on defensively, the game can easily end right there, due to how fast Reapers are killing light units.

The changes in this patch are aimed at keeping Reapers as very dangerous units, but by getting rid of the burst damage and adding an extremely fast movement speed (along with no tech requirement), we’re hoping Reapers will be primarily effective when health regeneration is utilized. Additionally, we feel that scouting is much more important in Heart of the Swarm and want the Reaper to be easily be mixed into armies at any point of the game, in order to scout better.

We anticipate that this could be the most impactful change in this patch, so please give it extra attention, and test thoroughly before giving us your feedback.

Time Warp/Envision

Envision has been simply giving Protoss mobile detection for free from the beginning of the game, and using many Time Warps in one battle turned out to be too much vs. Terran bio-based play. Therefore, we decided to switch out these two spells. Envision is now more of a choice, and Time Warp is limited per battle.

We removed Vortex and added Time Warp to the Mothership because we feel that Time Warp is a lesser version of Vortex - which we thought went too far in Wings of Liberty - and the new Vortex was just not interesting enough.

Fungal Growth

We've been seeing Fungal Growth become less effective in Heart of the Swarm. However, we've wanted to push this ability out a bit further for reasons stated in previous situation reports.

We feel that the most necessary, core use of this ability is: fighting against Mutalisks. So we're trying a general downgrade against all Armored units to see how that goes.

[chaos5061]

Hi everyone,

We will be bringing the beta down at 3:00 p.m. PST this afternoon to make the balance changes listed below. Thanks again for all the great feedback you've provided while testing Heart of the Swarm. We hope to see you testing these changes and sharing your input soon!

Terran

Barracks

• Train Reaper no longer requires a Tech Lab Addon.

Hellbat

• Attack speed changed from 1.9 to 2.
• The Infernal Pre-Igniter upgrade no longer increases Hellbat weapon damage.
• Napalm Spray weapon damage increased from 10 +9 vs. light to 18 +12 vs. light.
• Splash damage radius decreased from 110 to 45.

Medivac

• Caduceus Reactor
  • No longer improves the healing rate of Medivacs.
  • Upgrade cost decreased from 150/150 and 110 seconds to 100/100 and 80 seconds.
• Emergency Thrusters ability renamed Ignite Afterburners.

Raven

• Seeker missile
  • Energy cost decreased from 125 to 75.
  • Primary target damage reverted from 300 to 100.
  • Seeker Missile once again deals splash damage.
  • The delay time prior to firing has been increased from 3 to 5 seconds.

Reaper

• The Battlefield Awareness passive ability has been removed from the game.
• Movement speed increased from 3.38 to 3.75.
• The Nitro Packs upgrade has been removed from the game.
• P-45 Gauss Pistol weapon damage decreased from 4 +5 vs. Light to 4.

Siege Tank

• Siege Tanks no longer require an upgrade in order to enter Siege Mode.

Protoss

Mothership

• The Vortex ability has been removed from the game.

Mothership Core

• The Envision ability has been moved to Oracle.

Oracle

• The Time Warp ability has been moved to the Mothership Core and the Mothership.

Zerg

Infestor

• Fungal Growth damage decreased from 30 +10 vs. Armored to 30.

Mutalisk

• Mutalisk Regeneration passive ability renamed Tissue Regeneration and its tooltip has been updated to improve clarity.

[chaos5061]

The Queen of Blades is gone. On the hellish planet Char, Jim Raynor harnessed the power of an ancient Xel’Naga artifact in a desperate bid to stop the Zerg Swarm from overrunning the Koprulu sector, and the artifact restored Sarah Kerrigan to her human form. Without their queen to guide and unify them, the Swarm has fractured into several broods scattered throughout the Koprulu sector. One of the greatest threats to the galaxy has been neutralized... or so it seems.
On March 12, 2013, the release of StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm will answer many questions for players around the world, but many more questions remain.
Sarah Kerrigan is on the loose. Even without the terrible powers of the Queen of Blades or the might of the Swarm at her command, the former Ghost remains a foe not to be taken lightly. But if the artifact really did set her free, then why is Kerrigan seeking out Zerg broods scattered throughout the Koprulu sector? Is she still pursuing her quest for vengeance, or has her transformation given Kerrigan a new purpose?
We are pleased to present the opening cinematic for StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm in full HD glory. Whether you ultimately choose to play as Protoss, Terran, or Zerg, you simply must ask yourself one question:
Who is Sarah Kerrigan?

[chaos5061]

[chaos5061]

Hello everyone -

Due to some complications that have arisen with the background implementation of Global Play, we will need to enter an extended maintenance to support the deployment of Beta Patch 2.0.3. We will be bringing the beta down this evening and will bring it back up after finalizing the deployment of this patch late in the day tomorrow (1/24/2013).

Some good news: With Beta Patch 2.0.3 will come the addition of some exciting new features including the ability to watch replays with others, take command of those games at any point in the replay, and also allow the ability to recover games dropped to technical or network issues. We will provide a bit more information on this tomorrow as well via the StarCraft II blog and a full run down of 2.0.3 patch notes.

We will also be pushing the fix for the bug currently plaguing the Mac version of Swarm Beta (Thanks for your patience fellow Mac users!), plus a few other fun features we'll save for our info blast tomorrow.

Our apologies for having to disrupt any time you had planned to spend on the beta over the course of the next 24 hours. We'll have it back up as soon as we can.

[chaos5061]

New Replay and Resume Features Coming in Heart of the Swarm

Whether you play from home or on a stage in front of thousands of people, StarCraft II replays are a powerful tool for improving your game. They’re so useful that we continue to expand and improve them as much as possible. InHeart of the Swarm, we’re introducing three new replay features.

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In StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, replays served the purpose of reviewing a game by your lonesome. In Heart of the Swarm, you’ll be able to watch replays with others.

To do so, you’ll select a replay and then click the new “Watch with Others” button. This will produce a Battle.net lobby that you can invite other players to join. If you’re already in a party when you press the button, your party will join the replay lobby with you, as it would join a Custom Game lobby.

Starting the replay puts all of the players in the lobby in-sync, as though you’re watching a live game. You can chat with the other viewers, and you can individually control the Observer UI. Each viewer can adjust his or her own UI, such as the leader panel, the tug-of-war panels, or the player vision controls.
Whoever hosted the replay lobby also gets the ability to control the timeline. The host can click back to any point in the replay, and all viewers will jump back to that spot and continue watching together. The host can also control the replay playback speed.

We’re also making it easier to get right into the replay of the game you just completed. A new “Watch Replay” button on the score screen will take you right into the replay for the game you just completed, and if you’re in a party, it will create a replay lobby so that you and your party can review the replay together.

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Now that you can watch a replay with friends, we’re taking it a step further and making replays even more powerful. We’ve added the ability to jump right into any spot in a replay and take over the gameplay from that point. You and your friends can pick a timestamp, choose which of the original players you’re each going to take over for, and play the game as you like.
There are many possibilities for the Take Command function. You might be playing against a friend and challenge one another to go back to a turning point in the game and play it again. You might be playing with a teacher who can now take you back to play through the same section of a game repeatedly, improving on your results with practice.
This feature offers you the ability to play out scenarios that you previously could only wish for. Remember that game between Flash and Jaedong? If you and I have the replay, we could find out what might have happened if Flash’s Siege Tanks were able to avoid being abducted by Jaedong’s Vipers!*

*This scenario intended for example purposes only. Neither you nor I play anything like Jaedong does, and let’s face it—Flash’s APM is, like, 10x mine. Possibly 15x. Still, we should totally give it a shot.

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We love eSports tournaments, and we know just how quickly difficulties can arise at any time when you’re trying to do something as complicated as broadcast a live match to viewers on-site and watching streams around the world. To quote our good friend Nick ‘Tasteless’ Plott, “Technology is the vehicle of eSports.” Sometimes things go wrong—hardware fails, or network connections drop, or facilities have issues—and that’s not fun for players or viewers.
With Heart of the Swarm, we’ve added the ability to recover from such events and resume a game from any point using the replay.
To recover the game from a spot before the issue, you’ll need the original players and a replay from the original game. In the Replay screen, right-click on the replay and select “Recover Game” in the context menu to take you to a Battle.net lobby. From this lobby you can invite the original players of the game.

Once all original players are in the lobby, click the “Recover” button to be presented with a dialog window that allows the host to select the time in the replay from which to continue the game. To assist in finding an appropriate timestamp to resume from, the game now monitors for events that might represent an issue, such as one player ceasing to provide input, or one or both players being dropped from the game. From there, it’s simple: choose the point to restart from, and click the “Start” button.

The game will show a loading screen, seek to the selected time, and then display the game in a paused state. This will give the players a moment to reacquaint themselves with what was going on in the game at the time it was recovered. At that point a referee or the players themselves can unpause the game and continue playing where they left off.

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We’re incredibly pleased to bring these powerful new replay features to StarCraft II in Heart of the Swarm, and Beta testers will be able to start using them in the next major Beta patch, which is coming very soon. In the meantime, we’ll be looking for your feedback and answering your questions in this discussion thread.

[chaos5061]

Asked these elsewhere, but here goes again:

Does this work for replays from older versions of the game?

This is a new feature coming with the update that will ship with Heart of the Swarm. Unfortunately, previous replays from older versions of Wings of Liberty are not compatible with this feature. Only new replays created after we release the update will be usable with these features. At that time, both Wings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm players will be able to use these features on new replays.

01/24/2013 12:12
Does this work with custom maps?

These features were designed with StarCraft II melee maps in mind. Due to the variety of trigger functions usable in Arcade maps, we are currently not officially supporting these features in Arcade maps. There may be issues when using these replay features in Arcade maps. Having said that, there are plenty of Arcade maps that will work with these features, so we are not disabling the functionality at this time. We hope to spend time in a future update improving the Arcade support of these replay features so that it will work correctly in all Arcade maps.

01/24/2013 12:12 PM
If you load from the game, does it create a new replay file of the old part of the game + the new part of the game -- and can you then load from THAT replay?

Yes! If you take command of a replay at some point while watching it and then finish the game out, a new replay is created that has the original first part and the rest of the game as you played it out. You can technically keep doing this with these new replays to create all kinds of interesting situations! The point at which the players used the Take Command feature in the replay will be marked in the new replay with an in-game text message that indicates that new players have taken control of the game.

[chaos5061]

KNOWN ISSUES SWARM BETA [UPDATE: 1/25/13]

RESUME FROM REPLAY

• Games and replays that are ended with a disconnection from Battle.Net cannot be recovered by the disconnected player.
  We have identified the cause of this issue and are working on a solution.
• Canceling and re-attempting the Recover Game replay function can put the player in an infinite loop state.
  We are currently investigating the cause of this issue.

TRAINING MAP

• Flying a Command Center or Orbital Command to a new base can cause the “Train more SCVs” objective to display erratically.
  We have identified the cause of this issue and are working on a solution.
• A Drone in the process of morphing into a building will subtract progress from the Create an Army objective.
  We have identified the cause of this issue and are working on a solution.
• All Training Stage replays are displaying loading screen tips in French.
  We have identified the cause of this issue and are working on a solution.
• Opening the Menu during Training Stage 2 will cause the Factory's Hellbat hotkey to unbind.
  We have identified the cause of this issue and are working on a solution.
• The MULE and Chrono Boost objectives will not complete while the Orbital Command has greater than 99 energy or the Nexus has greater than 49 energy.
  We have identified the cause of this issue and are working on a solution.
• A trigger error occurs when the Xel'Naga objective is completed in training stage 3.
  We have identified the cause of this issue and are working on a solution.
• The word "units" is spelled incorrectly in the "Use Hotkeys" help menu.
  We have identified the cause of this issue and are working on a solution.
• Drones loaded into a Nydus Network or Nydus Canal are counted towards army value.
  We have identified the cause of this issue and are working on a solution.
• A trigger error occurs when the expansion objective is completed in any training mode.
  We have identified the cause of this issue and are working on a solution.
• After building an Infestation Pit in the Tier 2 training map for Zerg, players cannot build Infestors or Swarm Hosts.
  We have identified the cause of this issue and are working on a solution.
• Lifting off an Orbital Command will complete the Use Calldown: MULE and the Build more Barracks, Factories, or Reactors objectives.
  We have identified the cause of this issue and are working on a solution.
• Researching 'Upgrade Vehicle and Ship Plating' from the Armory does not complete the bonus objective "Research Army Upgrades".
  We have identified the cause of this issue and are working on a solution.

GENERAL

• The "Exit" button on the Swarm Beta Patch 3 login screen will no longer function after cancelling out of the "Unavailable Language" menu.
  We are currently investigating this issue.

GAMEPLAY

• Performance spikes are occurring when structures like the Cybernetics Core and Spawning pool are completed.
  We are currently investigating this issue.
• Time Warp lingers for longer than intended as it dissipates.
  This graphical issue is currently being investigated.

BATTLE.NET

• Saving a Replay from the Score Screen causes you to enter a locked state.
  We have identified the cause of this issue and are working towards a solution. In the mean time you will need to restart your game in order to regain full functionality if you reach this locked state.
• The Most Played Race section on the Profile page does not display information for games played with Random selected.
  We have identified the cause of this issue and are working on a solution.
• Once the Members tab listing has been formed, additional members to will not be displayed for Clan or Groups .
  We have identified the cause of this issue and are working on a solution.
• The group categories list is incomplete.
  We have identified the cause of this issue and are working on a providing a more accurate category list.
• The “Create Offline Game” option is available in beta and creating a custom game with Play Offline mode checked can cause an error.
  We have identified some of the causes of this issue and are working towards a solution.
• Locking your computer while in queue can result in infinite loading results after the game.
  We are still investigating the issue that is causing infinite loading results, as it may not be limited to just locking your computer, and are working towards a solution.

EDITOR

• The has multiple regions displayed in the Editor.
  We have identified the cause of this issue and are working towards a solution.

HOTKEYS

• There are a variety of issues that occur when binding grid layout hotkeys to non-standard keyboards.
  We are currently investigating the cause of this issue and are working towards a solution.

[chaos5061]

StarCraft II: Flashpoint Now Available


StarCraft II: Flashpoint by Christie Golden explores the aftermath of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty and the events leading into the upcoming Heart of the Swarm expansion.
Now available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, the Blizzard Online Store, and local and online book retailers, Flashpointgives readers new insight into the early years of Raynor and Kerrigan’s tumultuous relationship.
Here’s a taste:

CHAPTER ONE
2504

“We all got our choices to make.”
Those were the last words Tychus Findlay—criminal, former marine, and traitor—would ever hear from his old friend James Raynor.
Tychus had made his choice first—to betray Jim’s trust and friendship by attempting to murder Sarah Kerrigan, the former Queen of Blades, who now sprawled shivering and vulnerable in a red-black cavern inside the planet Char.
Jim had chosen not to let him.
“I made a deal with the Devil, Jimmy.”
And for that deal, Sarah lay limp and trembling and alive, and Tychus Findlay lay stiffening in the armor that had turned out to be first a prison and then a metal coffin.
Jim lowered his pistol. Smoke still drifted upward from its muzzle, mingling with the steam that curled and coiled at his feet. The bullet meant for Arcturus Mengsk, the man he hated above all others, had instead ended the life of the man Jim had once called his best friend.
What have I just done?
Jim fought back the tidal wave of emotions that threatened to overwhelm him. This was no time for rejoicing that the artifact to restore Kerrigan had worked, for berating his own lack of judgment regarding Tychus, for mourning the giant of a man whose rumbling voice would never again utter either jokes or threats.
They needed to get out of this murky, hellish cavern, off this world, and fast.
With Sarah Kerrigan.
His men moved forward as their commander holstered his weapon, clearly intending to bring Tychus’s body with them. Jim barked sharply, “Leave him!”
“Sir?” Cam Fraser asked, confused. “We don’t leave no one behind.”
“We’re leaving him. I ain’t gonna risk any of your lives for the sake of carrying the corpse of a traitor,” Jim snarled. It was a valid argument. But even as he spoke the words, Jim knew it wasn’t the only reason for his decision.
He wanted to leave Tychus behind. Findlay had cut a deal with Arcturus Mengsk. He would have traded Kerrigan’s life for his freedom. Now Sarah Kerrigan lived, and Tychus would rot inside his suit. There was a brutal justice about it that Jim suspected would rack his soul if he thought about it too much. But, perhaps mercifully, there was no time for thinking.
They had come here, to the Zerg base world of Char, to do what no doubt seemed like madness: to make the Queen of Blades human again. They had found her deep inside the volcanic, ashy planet. She seemed completely stripped of her zerg-given abilities and appearance. Gone were the bony wings, the scaly skin that had once covered her toned body. But her hair was still—
It looked like it had worked. And “looked like” was close enough for Raynor, for now.