Project Blackstone, the StarCraft alternate reality game, just received a full page in the lore section of the StarCraft II site.
It is my profound pleasure to welcome each and every one of you to Project Blackstone. Hold your heads high, people. You are now members of a select team, a group that has been handpicked by top officials in Dominion intelligence and approved by Emperor Mengsk himself. You will be the front line in scientific research dedicated to the protection and expansion of our empire of man throughout the Koprulu sector.
The Project Blackstone page has all the project logs and info on the project staff, so you should definitely check it out.
Blizzard has announced and released a desktop app for Battle.net, which basically allows users to keep all of their Battle.net games updated and accessible through one location. Below is Blizzard's description of its functions:
What’s this launcher update do? The new single sign-on functionality allows players to log in once to access World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, Diablo III, and the upcoming PC and Mac versions of Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, and stay logged in for up to 30 days.
Players can also install games directly through the app and, if you choose to leave the app running on your desktop, keep them up-to-date automatically even while you’re away from your computer. Please note that it’s entirely up to you whether you wish to leave the app running—you can exit it at any time, and it will automatically re-launch whenever your standard launchers would.
You can download the app here. You can also read the FAQ for this desktop app here.
The Video Game MusicStation on Pandora is now playing StarCraft, Diablo, and Warcraft music in its rotation, allowing fans to hear the best of Blizzard through the accessibility of Pandora.
You can check out the Video Game Music Station here.
A new Color Blind Mode has been added and can be enabled in the Gameplay options menu. When enabled, the following changes take effect:
Alternate colors are used to show the build grid when “Display Build Grid” is enabled.
Alternate colors are used to designate player colors when playing in teams.
Placement grid textures indicating unbuildable locations have been updated to display an “X” rather than changing from green to red.
Minimap terrain is darkened to provide more visual contrast between units and terrain.
A notification message is now broadcast to every player in the game when a player, spectator, or referee changes the game speed.
Destructible rocks now appear on the minimap.
Icon art for all three Protoss Ground Weapon upgrade levels have been updated to make them more visually distinct.
Friendly fire information is now stored in the PlayerStats events for replay tracker events.
BATTLE.NET
A “Ladder Maps” option has been added to the Browse dropdown menu in Custom Games. Selecting this option will filter the map list to display only the melee maps that are being used in the current season of the ladder. The map pool from each matchmaking queue can be displayed by selecting 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, or 4v4 from the “Category” dropdown menu.
A Technology column has been added to the Score Summary tab on the Score Screen.
USER INTERFACE
Two new custom observer UIs called “Split 1v1” and “Streamlined” have been added to StarCraft II and can be accessed by default from the Observer Interface dropdown in the Gameplay options menu:
Split 1v1: A slightly more graphic-intensive interface that reorganizes player names, supply counts, and resources across the top portion of the screen.
Streamlined: A lightweight interface that only displays resource counts in the top-right corner of the UI. This UI (or community variations of it) is commonly used for WCS broadcasts.
A “Units Lost” overlay has been added to both UIs. This can be toggled by pressing Shift + L and is currently only available in the Split 1v1 and Streamlined UIs, but modders can add this overlay to their own custom UIs.
Both UIs are .SC2Interface files that reside in the StarCraft II\Mods folder.
The game now reads .SC2Interface files from both the StarCraft II\Mods folder as well as the original My Documents\StarCraft II\Interfaces folder. It is recommended that modders continue to use the “My Documents” location.
Improved Replay Scrubbing
When watching a replay, it is now possible to drag the slider to any point in the replay timeline. When dragging the slider to a point beyond what has been watched, the screen will black out, pop out the minimap, and quickly fast forward to the specified time.
Clicking the Play button cancels fast forwarding and resumes replay playback.
Dragging the replay slider backward now begins playback at the exact time specified.
Two new zoom levels have been added to the observer camera which let observers zoom out much further than what was allowed prior to Patch 2.0.10:
Zoom Level 1 Hotkey: Z
Zoom Level 2 Hotkey: Shift + Z
While zoomed out at either of these levels, the mouse wheel will not change the zoom level. Only pressing the hotkey again will zoom the camera back in.
EDITOR
General
Multi-Region Publishing
The publish dialog now includes checkboxes for all available regions.
The publish configuration is still based on the current login region, but is now used identically for all selected regions.
A window has been added to display progress when publishing to multiple regions, and may be canceled at any point if desired.
Added an “Always Use Latest Version” option for Battle.net dependencies published by the active user. This is only available when using the “My Documents” source.
Added File > Export Balance Data functionality. These commands will download the latest balance data from Battle.net and export them to web-friendly XML and image files.
Added command line support for exporting balance data associated with a specific replay.
Use syntax: “-exportreplay -exportreplaydir ”
Terrain Module
Support for Map Symmetry has been added:
Define symmetry for a map using Map > Map Symmetry. This includes rectangular, diagonal, or rotational configurations.
Toggle the symmetry line overlay display with View > Show Terrain > Show Symmetry.
Toggle symmetry mode with Tools > Use Symmetry. When enabled, most brush and selection operations will be automatically duplicated in corresponding symmetrical locations.
Use Edit > Select All Symmetrical to select all symmetrical objects corresponding to the current selection.
Symmetry applies to everything except for regions, cameras, and roads.
Note: Due to grid alignment requirements, not every operation will be exactly symmetrical for every configuration (especially odd-numbered rotational segments.)
Doodads now support Pitch and Roll properties for three-dimensional rotation.
The HDR Multiplier property can now be modified independently from Custom Color.
Data Module
The “Effects” array in Effects Sets is now upgradable.
The “Duration” field in Apply Behavior Effect is now upgradable.
There is now a “Filter Players” field in Actor to limit visibility per specific player, which is similar to limiting visibility based on alliances. There is also a new set of actor messages to manipulate both fields at run time:
Clear Filter: Sets all filter flags to unchecked.
Clear Filter Players: Sets all “filter players” flags to unchecked.
Set Filter: Set, clear, or toggle specific filter flags.
Set Filter Players: Set, clear, or toggle specific “filter players” flags.
Text Module
IDs for manually added text entries can now be changed using Data > Change Text ID.
Trigger Module
Compile errors can now be double-clicked to view the corresponding element within the editor UI.
BUG FIXES
General
Fixed a number of sound and music issues relating to ambiance, screen transitions, and overlapping music tracks.
Miscellaneous tweaks and fixes were made for melee AI.
Fixed many text, hotkey, and localization issues for StarCraft II across all languages.
Fixed an issue in which XP reward values did not match certain unit and upgrade costs.
The camera now properly centers on units after using Recover Game.
Lighting in the game world and UI no longer appears brighter than normal after using Recover Game.
The Reduced Violence option now functions correctly after a client restart.
Fixed an issue that could cause red blood to appear in rare situations with Reduced Violence enabled.
Clicking Overseer and Broodlord cocoons in the Observer Mode Units tab now properly jumps the camera to those units.
Fixed an issue that could cause players to be unable to trade resources with the AI in certain situations during melee games.
Various performance improvements have been made when certain structures like the Cybernetics Core and Spawning Pool have completed construction.
The TerribleTerribleDamage cheat no longer occasionally becomes disabled after watching campaign cutscenes.
Clarified the criteria for the Auto-Kill achievement.
Fixed a rare issue that could cause players to unlock achievements they did not earn while playing Challenge missions.
Units can no longer become stuck in Challenge mission repulsion fields before rounds start.
Using Take Command from a Challenge mission replay no longer breaks UI elements.
Reapers can now be properly trained in HotS Training Stage 2.
Heart of the Swarm Campaign
General
Fixed an issue where Kerrigan’s ability hotkeys could not be rebound to a custom profile in certain situations.
Fixed a number of streaming errors that could occur while playing the HotS Swarm Campaign.
Fixed many issues which caused 3D portraits to display improperly throughout the HotS campaign.
Fixed an issue in which completing the campaign and starting a new one could cause certain conversations to no longer play.
Units grouped with Kerrigan can now be issued hotkey commands while she is burrowed.
Hotkeys can now be properly assigned to evolution split strains.
Players are no longer prompted to mutate an Infestation Pit in order to morph Aberrations rather than the required Evolution Chamber.
Pressing Escape to skip certain campaign cutscenes no longer results in a black screen.
Fixed a rare issue which could cause hotspot conversations to stop working in certain situations.
Fixed a display issue that could occur when rapidly clicking on hotspot conversations.
Izsha no longer explains Kerrigan’s third ability column before it is unlocked.
Torrasque Strain Ultralisk eggs can no longer be Abducted.
Roachlings spawned by Corpser Roaches now properly receive melee attack upgrades.
Burrowed Aberrations now properly benefit from armor upgrades.
Vikings under the effect of Parasitic Domination no longer use Drone error sounds.
The StarTours achievement no longer lists incorrect criteria.
Clarified criteria for the Endangered Species achievement.
The Missing Link achievement can now be properly earned.
Fixed an issue in which bonus objective completion could count more than once toward Kerrigan Power achievement progress.
The Kerrigan Power achievement progress now tracks properly from levels gained through the Master Archives.
Shortcut keys now work properly on the Swarm Upgrades page in the Master Archives.
Evolution missions launched through the Master Archives now properly count toward achievement progress.
Missions
Completing the “Lab Rat” mission no longer occasionally blocks progression to the next mission.
Fixed a number of terrain and graphical issues that could appear throughout the “Back in the Saddle” mission.
The victory screen for the “Domination” mission now properly counts the number of rescued Baneling Nests.
Fixed an issue on the “Old Soldiers” mission in which an allied Swarm Queen could fail to place a Creep Tumor.
Fixed an issue on “Waking the Ancient” where mission progression could become blocked in certain situations.
Fixed a number of transparency issues with trees on the “Supreme” mission.
Fixed a hole in the terrain on the “Hydralisk Evolution” mission.
Fixed a number of pathing issues on the “Hand of Darkness” mission that could occur when attempting to kite Hybrids away from their spawn points.
Fixed an issue that could cause terrain to appear transparent during the “Conviction” mission.
Ravens under the effects of Parasitic Domination can no longer be used to bypass large sections of the “Conviction” mission.
Dominion Vikings on the “Death from Above” mission no longer grant vision to the player.
Using Parasitic Domination on Alpha Squadron units during “The Reckoning” mission no longer causes minimap pings to persist.
Battle.net
General
Fixed an issue that could cause matchmaking buttons to become disabled and display an “Unavailable” tooltip.
Fixed an issue in which 4v4 matchmaking games could occasionally result in a loss for both teams.
Fixed a rare issue that could cause a player’s MMR to decrease after winning a matchmaking game.
Custom Game lobbies now remember a player’s previously played race rather than defaulting to Terran.
Blocking or unblocking a player now displays a toast notification.
Fixed an issue that could prevent some Arcade maps from being played.
Fixed an Offline Mode issue which could cause the Heart of the Swarm Campaign button to go missing in certain situations.
Fixed an issue in which the Friends list would not update properly when adding or removing friends in certain situations.
Fixed an issue that could cause old achievements to be pushed off the Recent Achievements window prematurely.
Right-click context menus now open properly when right-clicking player portraits in game lobbies.
Non-member players connected to a Group’s chat channel can now be banned while they are in a game.
Maps in the Custom Games menu that are dependent on either the Liberty or Swarm mods are now properly displayed and sorted based on a player’s currently selected expansion level.
The Achievement page now properly displays the Tier 3 Arcade achievement icon for accounts that have earned the required number of points.
Many typos and tooltip fixes have been made across the entirety of Battle.net.
Gameplay and Races
General
Collapsible Debris now displays properly for players that did not witness the tower collapse.
Fixed an issue that occasionally caused the game camera to pop after using drag scroll to disengage the follow unit feature.
Fixed an issue that could cause waypoint indicators to remain visible on burrowed or cloaked enemy units in certain situations.
Units can no longer walk up the edges of certain cliff intersections on the StarShip tileset.
Terran
Burrowing a Widow Mine can no longer cancel Graviton Beam.
The “[Player] no longer has any forces!” message is no longer displayed if the player still has Widow Mines.
Widow Mines no longer convert excess shield damage to hull damage against shielded targets affected by Corruption.
Flying a Command Center or Orbital Command over Mineral Fields no longer causes the worker counter in the observer leader board to change.
The SCV and MULE now share the same Repair command and will both repair when either unit is the subgroup priority.
Fixed a rare issue that could cause a Thor’s transit model to become stuck to a Medivac.
SCVs can no longer hold position in the center of a Vespene Geyser after being lifted by Graviton Beam.
Floating text now displays only the amount of minerals refunded after Salvaging a Bunker.
Protoss
Colossi that attack a revealed opponent’s structures no longer become visible for that opponent through the fog of war.
The Oracle’s Activate and Deactivate Pulsar Beam abilities can now be properly set to share the same hotkey using the Allow Toggle Conflicts option in the Hotkey menu.
Zerg
The Mutalisk’s Glave Wurm attack can no longer bounce to disguised enemy Changelings.
Locusts now properly follow waypoints set while they are eggs.
Thor morph animations are now paused rather than cancelled while under the effects of Abduct. The morph will resume once Abduct completes.
Fighter Mode Vikings that come under the effects of Abduct while transforming to Assault Mode are now properly classified as ground units once transformation completes.
Siege Tanks on Creep and in Siege Mode that are Abducted to a lower cliff level that is covered with Creep no longer become completely covered by Creep textures.
An attack alert is now properly triggered when Abduct is used on targets that are off screen.
Air units that are Abducted across flight pathing blockers over different terrain levels can no longer pop to incorrect height levels.
Fixed an issue in which workers under the effects of Neural Parasite could cause issues with the worker count when used to harvest Vespene Gas.
It is now possible to modify the Overlord’s Stop Generate Creep ability hotkey.
Graphics
General
Fixed a number display issues with Hellbat impact effects on Low graphic settings.
Raised Supply Depots in HotS Campaign now properly play a sound when destroyed while models are set to Low.
Destructible Debris barriers now properly play an explosion sound when models are set to Low.
Widow Mine impact effects can no longer play twice on shielded targets.
Impact effects on Destructible Rocks now appear on the appropriate side of the rocks based on the direction of attack.
Zerglings with the Metabolic Boost upgrade can no longer appear floating over cliff edges or zero level terrain.
Editor
General
Dependency reference checking now looks for missing references within newly added dependencies.
Computer players are now properly locked in the Battle.net lobby when using default game variants.
Interface mods may now be saved as component list folders.
AI Module
Deleting a wave link no longer deletes all other links.
Terrain Module
Fixed object group commands in the palette context menu for points and cameras.
The editor no longer prevents creep from displaying on unpathable terrain.
Trigger Module
Blank comments no longer revert to “Comment” after reloading.
Pasting multiple items into an empty list no longer reverses the original order.
Pasting a category containing multiple items no longer uses the same name for all items.
The Set Dialog Item Color action now supports the Automatic preset.
Data Module
User Types: Fields used as an editor column with multiple values now shows all values in the instance list.
Pasting XML data now supports larger amounts of text (16 MB, up from 65 KB).
On a new post on Battle.net, the new replay features have been revealed to be coming with Patch 2.0.10, and the restrictions of viewing old replays explained.
Simply put, after patch 2.0.10, you won't be able to watch old replays with your friends, and you won't be able to recover multiplayer games from replays created in 2.0.9 and earlier. This was also the case when Heart of the Swarm was released -- watching replays with others and recovering games only worked with replays created in 2.0.4 and later.
In patch 2.0.10, we’re continuing to make improvements to the replay system based on community feedback. You can now jump ahead to any time in the replay. Prior to 2.0.10, you could seek backward in a replay, but you could only jump forward to the latest timestamp you'd already reached when watching the replay.
Patch 2.0.10 is said to be "coming soon". Check out the full post for the upcoming replay features here.
Celebrating the third year since StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty released, Blizzard has started a few events that will give some bonuses to players.
XP Bonus For a limited time, we’ve increased the XP gains you get when you play StarCraft II by 25%. It’s the perfect time to log in and play some Multiplayer, or Versus A.I., or Training Mode games. Perhaps you’d like to level up the race you play the least often. Now’s the time!
All Three for Free Once again, we’ve unlocked all three races in the StarCraft II Starter Edition. That means that any player who hasn’t yet upgraded to the full edition of StarCraft II can check out what it’s like to play from the Protoss and Zerg perspective. Combine that with Spawning, and you’ve got a holiday on your hands!
Also, there's a new wallpaper specifically for this celebration, drawn by Mr. Jack, which you can see below and download in multiple resolutions on this page.
San Diego Comic-Con 2013 is well underway, and attendees are able to visit the various Blizzard booths that are showing off some cool new items. Of the new licensed products revealed today, the Kerrigan statuette by Sideshow shown above is one of the two highly-detailed recreations of StarCraft II characters. The other StarCraft II recreation is the Raynor 1/6th scale figure, also by Sideshow, images of which you can see below.
The Raynor figure features LED lights and moving parts that make his suit look and feel authentic. The Raynor figure will be available for pre-order "really soon", and the Kerrigan statuette will be available for pre-order later this year. To keep track of the Kerrigan statuette's updates and previews, head over to the Sideshow site to add it to your alerts.
A new free name change has been given to all current StarCraft II accounts, allowing players to don a new character name.
All StarCraft II accounts have been granted one free name change. If you'd like to change your character name, log in to Account Management and select your StarCraft II game license from your list of game accounts.
You can use the dropdown list in the "Character Name Change" section at the bottom of your game license screen to select a region in which you'd like to use an available name change. Once you've selected a region, click the "Use Name Change" button to initiate the request. After confirming that you'd like to change your character name, simply log in to StarCraft II and you'll be prompted to select a new one.
It's another Call to Action, this time on a version of Derelict Watcher: "Derelict Watcher TE (2.0.8 Balance v1.1)". The changes for this map are as follows:
Protoss
Warp Prism
Movement speed increased from 2.5 to 2.953 (previously 2.5 to 3.375.)
Acceleration increased from 2.125 to 2.625 (previously 2.125 to 3.25.)
The Gravitic Drive upgrade has returned to the Robotics Bay and will increase movement speed to 3.375 and acceleration to 3.25 when researched.
Terran
Hellbat
Attack damage decreased from 18 +12 vs. light to 18.
The Infernal Pre-Igniter upgrade increases attack damage from 18 to 18 +12 vs. light.
Banshee
Cloaking Field research cost decreased from 200/200 to 100/100
Cloaking Field research time decreased from 110 seconds to 90.
A new situation report is out, and this time, David Kim is explaining current and future approach to balance.
More Action throughout the Game We strongly believe that this is the main direction the game should go. More action means more diversity, which makes the game more challenging to play and more fun to watch.
Change the Game to Promote Skill The Warp Prism change we tested last week is a good example of a tweak that benefits players who are amazing at multitasking, while having little effect on the game below the pro level. For an eSport game like SC2, we want more things in the game that separate out the very best from the average, not less.
Blizzard is asking for testers for their new desktop app that is currently in development. This app is "designed to improve the launcher experience for all Blizzard games and streamline the ability for players to get into their games."
To help with the testing, all you have to do is opt in to any of the game universe betas from your account management. An e-mail will be sent to you when you are selected for the testing.
BlizzCon, the annual Blizzard convention, is currently taking submissions for its original art contest and movie contest. Winners will have their submission(s) shown on the BlizzCon stage, and will also receive a ticket to BlizzCon and hundreds of dollars in cash.
For the original art contest, submissions have to be original works of art that features the StarCraft, Diablo, and/or Warcraft universe and is in a high-resolution JPEG format. The movie contest is similarly taking submissions based on Blizzard's game universes. The submissions may use any mix of live-action, animation, or game footage that is no longer than three minutes in length.
Submissions must be entered before August 23, and you can check out the full contest details for both contests on this page.
A new feature for StarCraft II has been revealed by Blizzard today, called Spawning, which allows people with the Starter Edition or Wings of Liberty to play Heart of the Swarm with their friends. People may join their friends' Heart of the Swarm parties to experience Heart of the Swarm multiplayer in all its glory, even without owning Heart of the Swarm.
Nowadays, anyone who hasn’t yet purchased StarCraft II can still play, thanks to the Starter Edition. While Starter Edition players have access to much of the game, there are many features that they previously couldn’t try before upgrading to the full game. Spawning closes that gap. Any player at a lower expansion level who joins a party that includes a player at a higher expansion level is Spawned up, and gets to play using the features and options of the highest expansion level for as long as they’re in a party together.
For example, when a Starter Edition player joins a party with a Wings of Liberty-level player, both are instantly playing Wings of Liberty. When those two players then join a party with a Heart of the Swarm-level player, they all immediately gain access to Heart of the Swarm content, and they keep that access until their party no longer includes any higher-expansion level players.
There's even a new Spawning page, which you can check out here. Blizzard's video explaining Spawning can be seen below.
Carbot also made an animation to celebrate the Spawning feature, which you can also watch below.
Blizzard also gave an interview to Penny Arcade explaining their reasoning for making Heart of the Swarm multiplayer "free".
“It came about in brainstorming on our side, and thinking back to some of the things we used to do back in the old days,” saidSigaty. “Remembering how that was received…even going back to Warcraft 2 when I wasn't with Blizzard, I remember thinking 'this is so cool that they did that.' So we wanted to give back that feeling to it.”
But there are other advantages that Sigaty says he's hoping the new initiative will bring to the StarCraft world.
“StarCraft tends to skew 1v1 in perception, because obviously eSports focuses that way. But we hear about players talking nostalgically about Big Game Hunters and building up massive armies with friends and wiping out AI armies. Or even just playing teams against each other. And for me personally, I'd love to see us break down some of the perception that the game is all about this ranked 1v1 play. And I think this is a great opportunity to share that.”
You can read the full Penny Arcade interview here.
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is currently 50% off on the Blizzard Store. Anyone wishing to purchase the first installment of StarCraft II should act fast, because this sale ends on June 11, 2013.
You can purchase Wings of Liberty from the Blizzard Store on this page.
The new short story for StarCraft II is out, featuring the Terran SCV.
When “Pearly” Bousquette signed on with Raynor’s Raiders, he knew his life was about to become much harder and infinitely more dangerous. But when he and his crew of SCV pilots are sent on a simple strip-and-rip mission, things quickly turn sour… and it’ll take all of Pearly’s ingenuity to get his crew back home alive.
Blizzard has posted a lengthy FAQ on the StarCraft II main page, answering some common questions about the Heart of the Swarm ladder, its leagues, and seasons.
Question: I’ve been losing quite a bit on the ladder lately. Why am I not being demoted? Answer: To keep play at each skill level on the ladder competitive, we no longer demote players in the middle of a season. (Exception: Demotions down from Grand Master league are applied in cases of high bonus pool (inactivity).) Unless you're an inactive Grand Master, you can only be placed into a lower league when you play your initial placement match(es) in a new season, or by leaving the league.
Question: When I choose to play “unranked”, do I only face other unranked players? Answer:No. At this time, players who are playing with and without ladder points on the line are in the same pool. In order to expand the interests of players who choose to play unranked, the game maintains a separate hidden skill rating for ranked and unranked play. At the highest levels of skill, ranked players are only matched up against other ranked players, and unranked players are only matched up against other unranked players.
Another call to action is here, asking users to test some Warp Prism balance changes.
We’ve just published a custom version of Derelict Watcher, called "Derelict Watcher TE (2.0.8 Balance v1.0)", in which we’re testing small balance changes to StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm. Our plan is to first consider the changes below, and potentially test additional changes after reviewing your feedback. Here’s the situation:
Protoss
Warp Prism
The Gravitic Drive upgrade has been removed from the Robotics Bay.
The “Damaged Units Only” status bar option now applies only to life, shields, and energy. All other status bars behave as if “Always” is selected.
Custom observer interface files are now read from the “My Documents/StarCraft II/Interfaces” location rather than account specific locations.
The Idle Worker button now plays a subtle glow animation while active.
The Regions button on the Login Screen is now visible at the password entry step. Upon selecting a region, players will be logged out to account entry with the proper region selected.
A confirmation dialog now displays for players attempting to login to regions running a newer version of StarCraft II than their current version, rather than automatically closing the game client and patching up to the newest version.
Replay files now contain additional game information and statistics for data analysis. (Stay tuned for further instructions on how to utilize this data in an upcoming blog post on the StarCraft II Community Site.)
BATTLE.NET
Recover Game UI no longer shows any events after the “Game Ended” event. For 1v1 matches, it is no longer possible to accidentally recover the game after one of the players has already been defeated.
“Internet Cafe” has been added to the list of Group categories.
Lobby countdown timers have been reduced from 10 seconds to 3 seconds for “Recover Game” and “Watch with Others” game lobbies.
The order for “Most Recent” and “Highest Rank” in the “Sort by” dropdown menu on the Profile > Ladder > Career Summary page has been switched.
The “Career” heading on the Profile Summary page has been renamed to “Statistics”, and “Total Career Games” has been renamed to “Games Played This Season” to more accurately reflect the data being displayed.
EDITOR
A new “Show Game Start Countdown” option has been added to the Game Options window in the Map>Map Options menu. Enabling this option will display the 3-2-1 countdown timer that was added in Patch 2.0.4 for the Take Command and Recover Game features. This option is disabled by default.
BUG FIXES
General
Fixed many text and sound localization issues throughout the game for all languages.
Fixed many keyboard layout and hotkey issues across all languages.
Fixed multiple crashes that could occur when utilizing the Take Command feature.
Fixed an issue in which multiplayer replays could not be re-paused if a player left the game while it was paused.
The Watch Replay Solo button is now properly disabled upon completing a game of StarCraft Master.
Replays no longer always play Terran music. Music for observers will now always match the race of the last player in the lobby. (In a future patch, this will be further addressed to play a random selection of music from all races for observers.)
Fixed an issue that affected the accuracy of APM calculation. Additional changes to APM calculations will be coming in a future patch.
Cloud saves are now properly created when exiting completely out of the client from Wings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm campaigns.
Fixed a rare crash that could occur when launching a Challenge mission after playing an Arcade game with an unusual dependency configuration.
Fixed a rare crash that could occur when closing StarCraft II.
Fixed an issue in which the “Waiting for Players” dialog could occasionally appear on the loading screen and drop players from the game.
The “Pauses Remaining” counter is now consistent with how many Pauses are available.
Fixed a number of streaming failures that could occur when streaming and repairing certain game archives.
Video subtitles use the locale found in the Text Language field rather than the Speech and Movie Language field in the Options > Language menu.
Training Mode maps are now properly categorized in the Match History page as Versus AI games rather than 1v1.
Stage 1 Training Mode Help Menu now properly states that Reapers can be trained from the Barracks.
Fixed multiple issues which caused Reduced Violence mode to display red blood.
Fixed an issue which caused text glow to display improperly.
Fixed a number of outdated loading screen tips.
Lighting now behaves consistently for the Razer Marauder keyboard, Spectre mouse, and Banshee headset.
Fixed a rare crash that could occur with particles made using the StarCraft II Art Tools Beta.
Heart of the Swarm Campaign
The following achievements no longer restart their tracking progress when playing across multiple missions: Smoking Corpses, Leaping Death, Get a Grip, Unchained, Shifted Priorities, Where the Wild Things Are, So Many Banelings!, Worker Rush, and Surprise!, FFA Gladiator, and Free-for-All Crusher.
The Monster Smash achievement progress bar is no longer set to zero when loading a save or checkpoint.
Fixed a graphical issue that could occur during the control room cutscene for the “Back in the Saddle” mission.
Fixed a graphical issue that could occur when alt-tabbing out of StarCraft II from the Travel screen.
Fixed a number of animation issues for Kerrigan and Raynor “Lab Rat” mission debriefing scene.
Fixed a number of streaming failures that could occur when traveling to Skygeirr Station before the “Infested” mission.
Fixed a number of icon image display issues on the Kerrigan upgrades screen.
The correct campaign progress is now displayed on the Heart of the Swarm campaign select screen after beating the campaign and logging in from a different machine.
Battle.net
Fixed and clarified multiple unfriendly strings, error messages, and text input bugs that could occur when performing various operations on Battle.net.
Fixed many display and navigation issues that could occur when performing various operations on Battle.net.
The “Watch with Others” and “Recover Game” features are now properly disabled for Offline Mode.
Fixed an issue which occasionally caused players to enter a locked state if they were dropped from a match and selected “Watch Replay as Party”.
Fixed an issue in which the Save Replay button appeared active but was non-functional after navigating back to the Score Screen from the Map Info page.
Fixed a number of sound issues that could occur when repeatedly interacting with a replay timeline.
Clan entries are now properly removed from the Groups list when a player is removed from a clan while in-game.
The Create, Edit, and Delete buttons now display properly when navigating directly to a clan’s News tab.
It is now possible to invite non-friends from the "Players Near You” list to a Group or Clan.
Spam clicking the Leave Clan button no longer opens multiple confirmation windows.
Fixed a display issue that could occur when banning and unbanning a player from a Group.
A scrollbar is now created in the Edit Info window for a Group or Clan populated with enough text that scrolling is required.
Maximized Group windows are now properly unmaximized upon double-clicking on the window header.
The Groups list is now sorted alphabetically rather than by online member count.
Fixed a rare crash that could occur when the maximum number of player slots were filled for certain Arcade games.
Fixed an issue in which review text for Arcade games could become distorted.
The review screen for Arcade games now properly displays character portraits rather than the default SC2 logo.
Closing the Game Info screen for Arcade games can no longer cause closed chat windows to reopen.
Fixed an issue in which the dropdown menu on the Profile > Ladder > Friends page always defaulted to 4v4 Arranged.
Bonus pools no longer display negative values if the system clock is set to a time in the past.
Chat window sizes are now preserved when closed and reopened.
Fixed a display issue that could occur for players who are ranked in 15 or more teams.
Fixed an issue in which creating an offline custom game occasionally caused players to enter a locked state.
Fixed an issue that could cause dropdown menus to become disabled on the Custom Games, Browse, and Open Games tabs.
Fixed an issue in which 3vAI placement matches could occasionally become stuck at 2 matches remaining.
Active Live Event banners no longer cause the Kerrigan or Planets backgrounds to pop in and out when transitioning to and from the Home Page.
Fixed an issue in which the Rewards screen could occasionally show incorrect information for the selected tab.
The Social bar can no longer overlap UI buttons during the Credits.
Players can no longer become stuck in an infinite loop when launching and quitting out of the Tutorial.
Rank frames now display around non-friend character portraits.
Frame rate performance has been improved when mousing over or scrolling through a populated Match History.
Gameplay and Races
General
Fixed a display issue in which Worker Status UI could cover town hall status bars in very high resolutions.
Fixed a rare crash that could occur when attacking an AI base.
Terran
It is no longer possible for SCVs to be left inside of a vespene geyser after canceling an under-construction Refinery.
The Collector’s Edition Thor wireframe is now displays properly.
Protoss
The Void Ray’s Prismatic Alignment ability now plays a sound effect when activated.
The Mothership’s Time Warp ability now plays a dissipation sound effect.
Zerg
Fixed an issue that caused uprooted Spine Crawlers to occasionally appear rooted.
Creep Tumors being created from an existing Creep Tumor can no longer be attacked before they are visible.
Zerg eggs no longer play extraneous sound effects when units hatch.
Graphics
Impact effects can no longer change location when units are turned quickly.
The Oracle’s Pulsar Beam can no longer extend behind the Oracle when attacking large targets.
Fixed a graphics crash that could occur in a variety of map loading scenarios.
Fixed a rare graphics crash that could occur when playing certain Arcade games.
Editor
General
Fixed many localization issues across all languages.
Publishing a 1-player map with the “Hide Battle.net Lobby” option enabled no longer prevents users from playing that map in the Arcade.
Terrain Module
Fixed a rare crash that could occur when using the Undo/Redo operations while modifying water cells.
Data Module
Simultaneously modifying the cost of multiple units no longer causes a crash.
Switching between Categories (such as Units or Combat) in a Behaviors (Buff type) Modification table now occurs more quickly.
Mac
General
Macs using Nvidia GTX 680MX graphics cards now default to max resolution and Ultra graphic settings rather than low resolution and Medium graphic settings.
Anti-aliasing now works correctly.
Editor
Changing Language and Text settings in the Mac editor no longer causes a crash.
Blizzard has updated the Battle.net site with "The Story of StarCraft," which outlines the story starting from the original StarCraft all the way up to the end of Wings of Liberty.
If you’re looking for a refresher on the history of the Koprulu sector before jumping into a new campaign, or if you’re planning to pick up somewhere in the middle, give the story a read. Beware: nostalgia AND spoilers abound.
Another short story has been uploaded, describing a marine's fight against infestation.
The sight stretched to the horizon and farther still. Shane could sense entire planets teeming with the creatures. More sailed through the cosmos, seeking new homes. The scale boggled the mind, soared past what he could imagine, but his consciousness perceived yet even more billions of the creatures, all working in terrible harmony.
This was the zerg. All of the zerg. The Swarm itself. They were letting him see it. They were making him see it.
The next short story is out, and this time, it's about the Siege Tank.
Marius is a grizzled, old-school siege tank driver, every bit as tough as the neosteel shell of his vehicle. But when this hardened veteran comes face-to-face with a deadly target, his skills and his resolve are put to the ultimate test.
A new short story is out. Behold: the Dark Templar!
All Jake wants is a fresh start as far away as possible from civilization. When he discovers an Eden-like planet tucked away in a remote, unchartered star system, Jake gets ready to carve out his own private little slice of heaven . . . never suspecting that his supposedly “perfect” planet holds a dark and terrifying secret.
Another short story is out on the Battle.net site, showing off Void Rays and their destructive power.
As one of the newest and most deadly additions to the protoss fleet, there is little that can stand in the way of the void ray’s devastating prismatic beams. But when the protoss vessel Purity of Form engages a zerg hive, the ship’s crew is put to the ultimate test.
Fixed an issue that could cause players to become stuck in a patch loop while connecting to a region other than their home region. (Please note: This may still occur while patching to 2.0.7, but will no longer happen for subsequent patches.)
The Story Mode achievement Kerrigan Power: 70 is now awarded upon re-entering story mode or the Master Archives for players who previously reached Kerrigan level 70. (An additional component to this fix will be applied in a future patch, which will properly grant credit immediately upon fulfilling achievement requirements.)
Fixed an issue in which preferences for a variety of gameplay settings were not properly saved to Battle.net profiles.
Fixed a streaming crash that could occur when a game was cancelled at the loading screen.
Fixed a performance issue that could occur when the in-game menu was accessed with a large number of files saved to the Replays folder.
Fixed an issue that occasionally caused a blank screen to display when loading into a campaign mission.
Fixed a UI issue caused by loading and canceling Swarm and Liberty campaign saves.
Fixed an issue that could cause the Product.SC2Archive file to go missing or become damaged after uninstalling and reinstalling StarCraft II.
Gameplay
The Mothership Core is now properly included in the group of units selected by the Select All Army Units hotkey (F2).
An attack command is now required in order to attack Destructible Rocks, which are no longer automatically attacked by units when right-clicked.
Corrected Rock placement for melee maps Neo Planet S LE and Whirlwind LE.
Editor
Maps can now update Battle.net dependencies even if objects from those dependencies are currently in use.
Blizzard has just posted the new short story, featuring Terran Vikings in all their adaptability.
Erik Snabb did his time in the corps, but he got smart and traded in his wings while he still could. Going from being a fighter ace to being a loving husband and father took some getting used to, but Erik is handling it well… until the zerg threaten his home and his family once again.
Now that Global Play is in StarCraft II, there have been some questions about how patches will work with different regions. Blizzard has cleared up the confusion with an extensive explanation of how everything works.
We’ve built the game so that it should install the new patch for you when you launch the game, based on the region you last connected to. When you try to connect to a region that is running a newer version of the game than what you are in, you will be asked whether you want to patch so that you can play on that region.
If you agree, the game will restart and install the new version. However, you will now be unable to play on any region that has not yet updated to the latest patch. If you try to do this, you’ll receive an error.
The short story for the Roach is out, describing an invasion by these dangerous creatures.
When a sleepy Dominion listening post’s tranquility is disturbed by a zerg surprise attack, the base’s forces find themselves fighting against a terrifying enemy, bringing with it a deadly sense of déjà vu for the base’s commanding officer and her husband.
The month of April has begun, and with it comes the usual slew of April Fools jokes from Blizzard. This time, they have reintroduced Warhounds into StarCraft II, allowing every race to produce Warhounds as their worker unit.
After watching the MLG Winter Championship, we noticed that Life was able to beat Flash a little too easily in the finals. Had Flash been able to build Warhounds, our favorite race (Terran) may have won the tournament. As usual, we made a spur-of-the-moment decision based on this match and immediately set about rebalancing the game.
As evident in the quote above, the majority of the writing is satirical, which makes this event much more humorous.
So after considering every angle, here’s what’s changing:
The Warhound has been added for Terran because robots are cool and the art is amazing
The Warhound has been added for Zerg to remain competitive with Terran.
The Warhound has been added for Protoss to keep Protoss players from whining about them on the forums.
The full article can be viewed here. A Q&A was also posted, featuring the same tongue-in-cheek humor:
Q: This sounds great! Have you considered making every unit the Warhound? A:Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. While I think we all agree that the Warhound needed a comeback, replacing every unit with the Warhound could cause some minor confusion on the StarCraft II Ladder. We’re currently looking into alternative methods to give you the same punch, like perhaps adding a fourth race composed entirely of Warhounds, or perhaps neutral Xel’Naga Warhounds which can be claimed by nearby ground units.
Q:Why aren’t there any female Warhound pilots? A:There are! They just happen to look and sound exactly like the male ones. You can blame the strict, some might even say draconian, Dominion physical appearance guidelines for this one.
Q:What’s the lore reasoning for all three races having terran pilots in their Warhounds? A:Good eye! You’ve caught a bug our QA department alerted us to early this morning. We decided to ship the patch anyways, because we simply couldn’t wait any longer! Tomorrow we’ll be patching in lore-appropriate drivers for the Warhounds, including a Baneling, a Dark Templar, and an SCV.
The new short story, "Carrier", features the Carrier.
This slaughter should never have happened. Fleet command had assigned the Koramund to lend its firepower to protoss forces engaged in a nasty fight with the zerg. But on the journey to the front, the Koramund had picked up a distress call from what had long been believed to be an abandoned colony on the remote planet of Vanass.
The distress call had been a ruse; the Koramund warped right in the middle of a zerg swarm. Retreat was not an option.
Another Call to Action has been issued by Blizzard to test out some balance changes. The map's name this time is "Akilon Wastes (2.0.7 Balance v1.0)," and the changes are as such:
Spore Crawler damage increased from 15 +15 vs. biological to 15 +30 vs. biological
Burrow research cost decreased from 100/100 to 50/50
Oracle movement speed increased from 3.375 to 4
Oracle acceleration increased from 2 to 3
There are also a few issues that Blizzard addresses in the full post, which you should definitely check out.
The next short story is out, titled "Great One" and featuring the Ultralisk.
Marine platoon Torch Seven drops onto the faraway planet Vygoire to find out what happened to a science outpost there. The planet is supposed to be zerg-free, and it is . . . mostly. But as it turns out, Torch Seven has enemies other than zerg.
Blizzard has posted some information about replays in patch 2.0.8, and some explanations about the new data recorded in replays:
Starting with Patch 2.0.8, replay files will contain much more information, and we'd like to share some of those details with you today. In order to do this, we collaborated with the fine folks behind GGTracker to put together a preview for just a few of the awesome game stats and performance metrics that can now be pulled from our new-and-improved replay files.
Army Strength & Battles
Currently, GGTracker's Army Strength chart allows you to see which units were in your army at any point during a game. After patch 2.0.8, these graphs will also show when combat took place during each match. Battles are indicated as shaded regions on the Army Strength chart below.
Economy Management
One of the keys to improving as a player, especially for those who are new to the game, is to focus on building a strong economy and spending your resources as efficiently as possible. With the improvements we've made to replays, along with a few of GGTracker's new charts, you'll be able to do just that.
Spending Skill
Among the many stats that GGTracker accounts for, the Spending Skill measurement is one of its most intriguing and one that many players have found useful for leveling up their play. This measurement is an adaptation of the intricate Spending Quotient metric introduced here, and allows you to see how your economy management skills stack up against other players on a range from Bronze to Grand Master, as well as track your improvement over time in this aspect of StarCraft II gameplay.
StarCraft: Subjection is a fully voice-acted 8 mission singleplayer campaign for StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty that features four difficulty levels. Search for the keyword "Subjection" on the North American server on Battle.net.
Blizzard Music has been recently updated with the soundtrack of Heart of the Swarm. Visit this page to read about the album and listen to some of the music contained within.
Blizzard has just announced the total viewer count of the Heart of the Swarmlaunch broadcast: over 1.1 million people total tuned in to the broadcast at some point, and there was a peak concurrent viewership of more than 125,000 viewers. Also, at the end of the first two days of sales, Heart of the Swarm sold over 1.1 million copies worldwide, including both digital and retail sales. For the MLG Winter Championship, again, over 1.1 million viewers in total watched the broadcast, with a peak concurrent viewership of 157,000 viewers. Heart of the Swarm is off to a great start, and we can't wait to see what the future holds.
