A handful of blue posts have surfaced over the past few weeks, most of them relating to StarCraft II patch 1.5.0 and one that answers a question about 1.5.1. The first one is about mod issues in 1.5.0, and how colorblind-mode mods might stop working.
I wanted to hop on to speak to this issue a bit, as it’s certainly something our team cares a good deal about. As some of you may know, we’ve been preparing a big update to StarCraft II (patch 1.5) that will introduce a number of welcomed features to the client -- one of which is the ability for us to stream content updates to the game. This will allow for quicker access to a play session (removing the need to wait for patches to fully complete) and remove the need to repair your client files, as they’ll be constantly kept up to date automatically.
One of the unfortunate side effects of streaming is that mods that alter the StarCraft II archive files will no longer function, including color-clarity mods, custom Battle.net background mods, and more. Although these types of archive modifications go against our EULA and can also be used to spread malicious viruses or Trojans, we do understand the merit of many of these features. With the color-clarity issue specifically we actually have a few people on the team who are affected by color-blindness.
The development team is looking into options now to support color clarity and customized backgrounds as well as some of the other mod features. We believe that in the long run, it's best for us to provide an option like stronger team colors within the game, as opposed to an externally modded solution that we can't explicitly support.
We’ll keep the community updated on our progress and appreciate your continued feedback.
The next two posts talk about hotfixes to 1.5.0 and changes to the bonus pool system.
Hello everyone,
We wanted to give you a quick update on our progress with patch 1.5.0 and a few of the fixes that you can expect within the next 24 hours.
You will see fixes applied to the following:
- Zerg larvae will no longer block the construction of new buildings.
- Splash damage will once again apply to units on varying cliff levels.
- The mode selector in Leagues and Ladders will no longer show duplicate entries for 3v3 and 4v4.
Also, in the very near future we are planning a reactive patch for many of the top issues that have surfaced including (but not limited to)
- The client crashing when loading the Friends tab in Leagues and Ladders.
- Some profiles not displaying a players’ ladder data in certain situations.
The team is working as fast as it can to correct these issues and many more. Thank you for your patience!
We’ve read several posts of players experiencing drops in their “bonus pool,” sometimes as large as 100 points or more. This was a side effect of some bonus pool changes we made in 1.5.0 and, although the final result was intended, we originally planned for this to happen in a less visible way across several games rather than the jarring delivery some of you have faced. We apologize profusely for the scare.
Prior to 1.5.0, it was possible for a team’s earned bonus points to be higher than technically possible for the league they were in. This happened when a team earned bonus points in the Master or Grandmaster League where more bonus points are given, and then moved out of those leagues. We were aware of this, but chose to allow it because we felt that instantly removing those points would be jarring. Instead, the system would not give that team any more bonus pool until they had “paid off” that excess amount. It resulted in slightly inaccurate rankings in the divisions these teams moved into, but we felt that was worth the smoother experience. Demotions are already jarring enough without also getting what looks like a large point loss.
With 1.5.0, we cleaned up the bonus pool system, and inadvertently allowed it to instantly remove those excess bonus points after a team’s next match. The change actually results in a more accurate ranking following the league move. It also does not have any effect on the skill component of a team’s ranking. However, we did not intend this change and apologize for the concern it may have caused.
Either approach leads to a correct score and rank, the new system just does it more abruptly. Going forward, this will only affect teams that haven’t played since the patch. It won’t be an issue after this season’s lock, and in future seasons.
I hope this helps to clarify things for those of you that have had serious concerns. Good luck out there!
And the last one clears the concerns that a poster had about heavy balance changes secretly being planned.
For now we don't plan on making bigger game-changing balance adjustments like the ones mentioned in the OP. We are still considering some smaller, surgically placed changes, where we feel they might be necessary, but we feel that WoL is in a good place.
On top of that we don't want to mess with WoL too much and our desire is to keep the gameplay stable, considering that the upcoming HotS beta will remodel a lot, balance included. Of course we intend to support WoL alongside HotS—like it's the case for all our games—but unless something totally unexpected happens, a balance patch that is this impactful will most likely not be coming for WoL in the near future.
Sources:
Battle.net - Mod Issues for Color-Blind Support
Battle.net - Patch 1.5.0 Update
Battle.net - Bonus Pool Change in 1.5.0
Battle.net - 1.5.1 Patch Log?
