StarCraft Patch 1.1 Preview

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Lavarinth
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StarCraft Patch 1.1 Preview

Post by Lavarinth »

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For those of you haven't heard, Blizzard recently announced a preview to the upcoming Patch (1.1) for StarCraft II. We'll be seeing it mid-September as mentioned, and hopefully we get more than we're expecting in terms of us mappers and modders. Cross your fingers and squeeze those last wishes out before the release date, and make to make yourself heard in terms of what it is you're looking for in the editor. The entire update released by Blizzard in relations to the upcoming patch is below:

Greetings, citizens of the Koprulu sector! StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is celebrating its one-month anniversary and we’re extremely excited to witness the amazing community that’s come together around the game. To that end, we want you to know we are hard at work on the first feature and balance patch, and expect to have it completed and available by the middle of September. Patch 1.1 will contain a number of improvements including additional mod features, Editor improvements and bug fixes, some custom game improvements, support for NVIDIA’s 3D Vision, and more. We'd also like to share some specific plans for this patch with you.

To begin, we've heard a lot of feedback from our global community about standardized hotkey options. We're happy to announce that in patch 1.1 we are going to make the Standard (US) and Standard for Lefties (US) hotkey options available in all regions.

Balance Changes
We have several balance changes in store. One general change we're making is that friendly units will no longer provide vision after being killed. Enemy units previously revealed will no longer be targetable. Now let's break down the additional balance changes we're implementing.

  • Maps
    We're going to be adding destructible rocks to the Desert Oasis map to make natural expansions easier to protect. In addition, the center map watchtower area is being narrowed.

    Protoss
    We have two key changes in mind for the zealot: the build time is being increased from 33 to 38 seconds, and the warpgate cooldown is being increased from 23 to 28 seconds. Zealot rushes are currently too powerful at various skill levels, particularly those that rely on rapidly assaulting an enemy base from nearby "proxy" gateways. We feel the window players have to scout for and fend off this rush is too small. We also want to address the problem of protoss being able to dump minerals a bit too quickly with the combination of warpgates and Chrono Boost.

    Terran
    There are several changes in the works for terrans. Reapers against zerg are stronger than expected. Due to the zealot build time increase, reapers would be a bit problematic in combination with proxy barracks, bunkers, and/or marauders against protoss. Therefore, we have decided to increase the build time of reapers as well from 40 to 45 seconds. Fast reaper + bunker, or fast marine + bunker rushes are problematic against zerg. Although this rush would never outright destroy the zerg player, we feel zerg suffers too much of a disadvantage from either having to cancel the fast expansion, or getting trapped inside the main base for too long, so we are also increasing the bunker build time from 30 to 35 seconds.

    Siege tanks in large numbers are performing too well in all matchups. In the mid- to late-game, siege tanks are too dominant against all ground units. We want a small set of light and unarmored ground units to perform better against siege tanks. With this in mind, we're changing the Siege Mode damage of the siege tank from 50 to 35, +15 vs. armored; to correspond with this, damage upgrades will be changed from +5 to +3, +2 vs. armored. This change reduces the base damage of the siege tank against light and unarmored units, as well as the splash damage.

    Battlecruisers currently lack good counters from the ground and still perform very well against a wide array of unit types. We're aware that it is not easy to get battlecruisers out for the cost, but at the same time, it is possible in both 1v1s and team games to create stalemate situations to bring them out. Overall, we feel that battlecruisers are too strong for their cost, and the terran-forced stalemate situations are causing less interesting gameplay. We will be lowering their damage against ground units from 10 to 8.

    Zerg
    Ultralisk damage is being decreased from 15, +25 vs. armored to 15, +20 vs. armored. This reduction is comparable to the changes being made to the battlecruiser and siege tank. Like the battlecruiser, ultralisks are simply too powerful for the cost, even though they are difficult to muster. Also, in combination with other units, ultralisks are difficult to counter from the ground. The ultralisk building attack (Ram) is being removed because the damage rate is too similar to its normal attack, which will be used against buildings instead. When ultralisks target tightly packed smaller buildings such as supply depots, the Ram attack is actually outputting considerably less overall damage than its normal attack, as Ram only hits a single target.


And Beyond...
We are reading your posts on the forums and creating lists of features and bugs to address in future patches. We have mid- to long-term plans to further evolve the Custom Game experience, and soon, enhance our social features with the addition of chat channels. We will be sharing more specific information in the coming weeks. As with all of our previous games, we will support StarCraft II for many years to come. Your feedback and participation is critical in making this not only the best game it can be, but also the most engaged gaming community in the world. We look forward to the implementation of patch 1.1, as well as sharing our plans for our future gameplay and Battle.net features.

We'll see you online!


Discussion has already been actively occurring in our StarCraft II forum, make sure to share your thoughts with us as well! Thanks to Hunter_Killers for relaying this information.
Source: Battle.net
- - Lavarinth
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Re: StarCraft Patch 1.1 Preview

Post by DrumsofWar »

I saw this on RockPaperShotgun and my only reaction was why they were nerfing stuff that was ALREADY weak in the game, like Ultralisks which you won't really mass anyway, or OK stuff based on conditional reasons, like Bunkers specifically to avoid Bunker rushes. Zealots and Battlecruisers were prime examples of stuff that didn't need rebalancing even in the original Starcraft.

Siege Tank damage being nerfed is another example of this, with the only possible upside being to force players to rely more on Hellions. It makes them fairly weak even against armored units, their intended target.

What bugs me more is that Blizzard KNOWS that these changes aren't necessary (as they admit with the Ultralisk change) but are still pushing it through instead of implementing what balance changes are supposed to be - providing players with more choices in melee. Zerg simply needs more late-game options and Protoss needs more versatile spells/ground-based units.
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Re: StarCraft Patch 1.1 Preview

Post by Krazy »

You know, I was just thinking about how the posted balance changes in this post hide the fact that this patch won't actually be adding any content... like, say multiplayer saves.
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Re: StarCraft Patch 1.1 Preview

Post by IskatuMesk »

Now now Krazy, don't get ahead of yourself. We still need the features the game was supposed to have in the first place. You know, an online service, an editor, a plot...
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Re: StarCraft Patch 1.1 Preview

Post by DrumsofWar »

I'll settle for one of the three. Hopefully, Blizzard can smooth things out in the next year before HotS comes out which is a pretty good timeline for fixing the game given how large of a staff (and budget).

There are much smaller studios with smaller budgets and staff that have fixed their games in a matter of weeks with a level of community response that is at least mediocre compared to this. We'll see what they do after this patch.
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Re: StarCraft Patch 1.1 Preview

Post by johnnythewolf »

IskatuMesk wrote:Now now Krazy, don't get ahead of yourself. We still need the features the game was supposed to have in the first place. You know, an online service, an editor, a plot...
If you hate this game so freaking much, why do you even bother with it?
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Re: StarCraft Patch 1.1 Preview

Post by IskatuMesk »

That sounds like a beautiful and intellectual inquiry, Johnnythewolf. Just for you, I'll go into the puppy-grinding details of my beloved, infallible logic.

Without really caring for the vagueness of "bothering with it", I'll just cover the three ways I interact with it.

Casting - Konadora recently makes a blog on TL that I agree with 100%. It basically summarizes why it's so hard to get into SC2 as a spectator. The game is fucking boring to watch. There's nothing interesting happening. An individual or two will try to defend the game by saying, "Wait until high-level players start playing", which would be in reference to actual S-class players. But this won't change the fact it's boring to watch.

SC2 is boring to watch by account of the following factors;

* Uninteresting graphics.
* Cheaply done, uncharacteristic sounds.
* "Blob" movement makes it dififcult to discern army strength on the fly, and battles end very quickly.
* Poor map design means largely 1-base gameplay on most Blizzard maps.
* Uninteresting unit design.

Out of these factors, only two can be improved with expansions. The blob movement is a result not of just the pathing engine but of the transition of collision types. SC1 used a grid-type collision, sc2 uses spherical collision like wc3, in addition to formation movement like wc3. Also, the values are much smaller than in wc3. The pathing isn't just "smarter", it's more refined size-wise.

Thus I don't cast predictable, uninteresting high-level games. I cast gimmicky, unusual low and mid-level games unless requested otherwise. But even then it's hard to get the motivation to cast.

SC2 is boring to play by the following factors;

* Everything related to casting
* Horrible imbalance in late-game

Seriously, Terran always wins in an FFA unless he's a bad player or an unforseeable circumstance comes along. Ravens and Vikings are that good.

SC2 is boring to make custom content for on the following factors;

* Everything.


So mister Johnnythewolf, I will now satisfying the burning curiosity in your young heart.

By manner of elimination, why do I bother with this horrible alpha-stage game?

To answer this question, first ask yourself: "What are the alternatives?"

What other RTS games are there that I could mod, cast, and play?

Dawn of war? HAH!
Company of Heroes? DOUBLE HAH!
Command & Conquer? Don't make me laugh!

... Oh wait, that's it.

Now you understand.
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Re: StarCraft Patch 1.1 Preview

Post by johnnythewolf »

SC1 hasn't aged that well either, you know.

I can understand your frustration, as I felt the same way with Bioshock, being a long-time fan of System Shock and all. But I soon realized that bitching about it wouldn't change anything with the released product, so I moved on and started playing different games during my free time.

After all, boycott exists for a reason.
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Re: StarCraft Patch 1.1 Preview

Post by IskatuMesk »

SC1 has aged pretty well, but everyone's moving on now than sc2 has come. If there was no sc2, SC1 would probably live another decade. I've done all I can with sc1 modding and wc3 mapping, so those grounds aren't fertile anymore.

Once Guild Wars 2 and other such games come out I probably will leave sc2 behind, although to say I do a lot with it right now in the first place would be lying. I'm working on something, much to RCX's chagrin, but it won't be public and nor am I investing all of my energy into it.
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Re: StarCraft Patch 1.1 Preview

Post by DrumsofWar »

Uh, Civ 5?
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Re: StarCraft Patch 1.1 Preview

Post by Falchion »

You been forgetting something, Mesk: Age of Wonders, which you modded and played and casted and did somewhat a good job...
How I became a troll in a single post (And you can too!!! :D ): link

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Re: StarCraft Patch 1.1 Preview

Post by UntamedLoli »

AoW 2 is a TBS not RTS.
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Re: StarCraft Patch 1.1 Preview

Post by IskatuMesk »

I can't cast AoW2 when the damn thing won't record.
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Re: StarCraft Patch 1.1 Preview

Post by DrumsofWar »

IskatuMesk wrote:I can't cast AoW2 when the damn thing won't record.
Didn't it work with Guncam for a while?
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Re: StarCraft Patch 1.1 Preview

Post by IskatuMesk »

yes but guncam doesn't work on windows 7
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