[JacziE]

Ladder Map Updates [link to Battle.net post]

We’ve recently made several updates to the 1v1 and 2v2 ladder map pools. A list of those changes is included below, as well as a bit of insight into why they were made.

1v1

• (4) Backwater Gulch ramps have been re-positioned so that expanding to your natural is now slightly easier. We believe this will promote more mid/late gameplay on this map.
• (4) The Shattered Temple has had an issue corrected that was previously allowing stalkers to blink from one main base to another using the center high ground.
• (4) Shakuras Plateau has been added back into the 1v1 ladder map pool, but several changes have been made to its design to address previous balance concerns (detailed further below).

+ [Shakuras is Back] +

Player feedback is incredibly important to us, so we decided to bring back Shakuras Plateau due in large part to popular demand by the community. There were two issues with this map, however, that we wanted to address before adding it back into the ladder pool (issues that we felt were severe enough to merit the removal of the map in the first place). The first issue was that the horizontal starting locations were extremely unfair in TvZ matchups (in favor of terran), and the second issue was that players only had one path to navigate around the map’s center.

To help correct these balance issues, we’ve made the following changes to its layout:

• The backdoor ramp and rocks leading into main base have been removed to address the horizontal start location issue.
• Two rocked-off ramps have been added leading from the 6 o’clock and 12 o’clock expansions towards the middle to create an alternate path in the mid/late game to navigate around the center of the map.
• The rocks by the center Xel’Naga Towers have been removed. We were noticing that if these rocks were there, it became very difficult to utilize the new rocked off-paths in the middle of the map (due to how difficult it was to clear out the Xel’Naga Tower area).

We feel the changes we’ve made will allow this player favorite to return as a strong ladder map and are looking forward to seeing new strategies develop.


2v2

• (4) Omega Sector has been removed from the 2v2 ladder map pool.
• (4) Discord IV has been added back into the 2v2 ladder map pool to replace Omega Sector.
• (4) Khaydarin Depths starting bases have been slightly redesigned. The ramps leading out from the bases have been repositioned to face the nearby natural high-yield expansion, and the nearby shrubs have been removed.


We keep a close eye on the strategies our players use in each of the ladders pools and, lately, we’ve seen fast speedling + hellion strategies becoming extremely popular in 2v2. While we feel this strategy is legitimate, we’re concerned that it’s being used too frequently and starting to dominate the bracket. The changes we’ve made should help tone down the use of this particular strategy on certain maps, and players not playing a terran/zerg composition will now also be able to veto the remaining three maps where this sort of strategy can still be really effective.

In the meantime, we’re going to continue watching 2v2 matches closely to see how these changes play out. While we’re confident that the updates will help improve 2v2 ladder games overall, we’re not opposed to making additional balance changes in the future to keep ladder play fair and challenging.

Custom Game Improvements [link to Battle.net post]

You’ll find a Most Popular section which includes all game types. The most played games will be placed at the top for you.The Featured section will be a collection of new games we think are fun. Our latest picks will be shown here.

+ [List of Improvements] +

If you want to browse through Custom Games based on a specific category you find the most entertaining, select the By Category criteria.

If you fancy searching for potentially fun game types that haven't yet attained Most Popular status, check out the Up & Coming section. The results you’ll find here consist of games your peers are starting to recommend frequently.

You can also have a go at recommending Custom Games to others by trying Fun or Not. Players who choose this option will automatically be matched together for a specific Custom Game which meets some minimum requirements. Once finished, you’ll be asked whether or not you want to recommend the game you just played. Your recommendations using the Fun or Not system will directly influence the Up & Coming section. This is a great way to play and help promote fun custom maps that may have otherwise flown under the radar.

At any time while using these various categories for finding Custom Games, you can bookmark your favorite games to easily find and play them again later. Just select the Bookmark page to find all of the games you’ve stored.

Finally, if you know the title of the specific Custom Game you’re looking for, a search option has been added to the Join Custom Game interface.

Season 1 Milestones [link to Battle.net post]

Milestones are seasonal rewards that will be provided to ladder players in all of our StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty leagues. Each league will have four notable milestones. Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond and Master leagues will have milestones for the top 100, top 50, top 25, and top 8 players in each league division. For Grandmaster, milestones will be awarded to the top 200, top 100, top 50, and top 16 players. These milestones will each have their own unique icon (shown below) representing the league in which the milestone was earned and the actual milestone achievement.

Full Patch Notes - 1.3
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty - Patch 1.3.0

+ [Patch 1.3.0] +

General

• Leagues & Ladders
  • A new Grandmaster League has been added for 1v1 ladders. This league represents the Top 200 players in each region.
    • Players are automatically drafted into the Grandmaster League shortly after a new season starts, and will remain in the Grandmaster League until the end of the season. If a Grandmaster player’s available bonus points get too high due to inactivity, they will be automatically removed from the league and a replacement player will be drafted in.
    • The Grandmaster League can be viewed by all players through the new Leagues & Ladders > Grandmaster page.
  • The bonus pool has been reduced for arranged teams.
  • Leagues will now be locked during the final weeks of the season. As a result players will not accumulate additional bonus points and will not be promoted or demoted out of their current division during this period.
    • This will allow players to focus on moving up in their current league without being promoted during the final weeks of a season, and having to fight their way up from the bottom ranks of their new higher league.
    • Players can still utilize any bonus points they previously accumulated.
  • Ladder data from the prior season can be viewed through the new Leagues & Ladders > Last Season page.
  • New league icons have been introduced to indicate division rank. These will indicate the Top 8, 25 and 50 players in each division.
  • Loss counts are no longer displayed in Profile and Ladder pages for players below Master League.
• Join Custom Game
  • Several improvements have been made to the Join Custom Game section:
    • The Details panel has been removed from this page. Map details are now shown inside a tooltip for each game.
    • Players can now bookmark their favorite custom games! The number of times a game has been bookmarked will be shown in that game's tooltip.
    • Games are now organized into several pages to make finding your desired game type easier:
      • Featured: Our team is always on the lookout for new games that are lots of fun. Our latest favorites are shown on this page.
      • Most Popular: Shows all game types, with the most played games sorted to the top.
      • By Category: This page allows you to browse through Custom Games based on Category.
      • Up & Coming: This page highlights games that other players are recommending, but haven't yet become popular.
      • Fun or Not: From this page you can automatically join a random new Custom Game. After the game, players using Fun or Not are asked to recommend the map (or not). Recommending maps helps get them onto the Up & Coming page.
      • Recently Played: The last several games you’ve played are shown here. Use this to quickly get back into games you play often, or to easily bookmark a game you enjoyed playing.
      • Bookmarks: Use this page to view your Bookmarked maps.
    • A search option has been added to the Join Custom Game interface.
• Observer and Replay UI
  • New panels are now available when observing or viewing a replay of 1v1 games. These panels can be toggled via hotkeys which are shown under the Leader Panel drop-down.
    • Player Name Panel: Displays the players' name, team color, race, and supply count.
    • Stat Comparison Panels: Shows a head-to-head comparison of players' resources, army supply, units killed, or APM.
  • In 1v1 observed games, both players’ resource rows are shown in the upper right at the same time.
  • The main game UI can now be hidden/shown via hotkey.
  • You can now toggle between player unit colors and team unit colors when watching a replay or observing.
• Game Options
  • A new Control page is available from the Options menu. You'll find Mouse, Keyboard and Scrolling options within this new page.
  • A new menu option is available in the Gameplay page to change the behavior of Control Group Buttons. These can now be set to ignore mouse clicks or be hidden completely.
  • The existing menu option under the Gameplay page for Menu Bar Buttons now also supports hiding the Menu Bar.

Balance

• GENERAL
  • Players can no longer hide units by setting them in a close proximity patrol (ex: Viking flower).
• PROTOSS
  • Mothership
    • Units leaving the Mothership's Vortex are now un-targetable and immune to damage for 1.5 seconds.
  • High Templar
    • Khaydarin Amulet upgrade (+25 starting energy) has been removed.
  • Zealot
    • Charging Zealots will now hit fleeing targets at least once.
• TERRAN
  • Battlecruiser
    • Movement speed increased from 1.406 to 1.875.
  • Bunker
    • Build time increased from 35 to 40 seconds.
  • Ghost
    • EMP now drains up to 100 energy instead of all available energy. The effect on Protoss shields remains unchanged.
  • Tech Lab
    • Stimpack upgrade research time increased from 140 to 170 seconds.
• ZERG
  • Infestor
    • Fungal Growth
      • Stun duration decreased from 8 to 4 seconds.
      • Damage increased by +30% vs. armored units.

StarCraft II Editor Improvements

• Reworked Game Variants dialog to be more user-friendly:
  • General tab has been removed. This text did not appear anywhere in game.
  • Attributes tab has been split into Game Attributes and Player Attributes.
  • Attribute UI now more closely reflects the game lobby.
  • Default values are now enforced as necessary based on Player Properties.
  • In some cases, variants defined in previous versions will no longer be compatible and may cause problems during publishing or within the game lobby. If you are planning to republish a map that uses custom game variants, it is highly recommended that you use the new Game Variants dialog to delete and recreate them.
• Improved loading times for some custom maps with complex tech restrictions.
• The compiled script memory has been split into a separate block from the global/local stack block. Additional improvements will be made to provide more memory space in the future.
• Command card editor and actor event editor will now be less vulnerable to data errors from changes made in future patches.
• The game cursor now remains visible while loading maps.
• Debug outputs are now displayed in the editor and in-game when using Test Document.
• New trigger actions have been added:
  • Set Camera Data: Changes the active camera data settings, as defined in the Data module.
  • Show/Hide Resource: Shows or hides the specified resource in the UI.
  • Lock/Unlock Status Bar: Forces or resets all status bars for a player to a specified state.
  • Set Random Seed: Sets the random game seed to the requested value.
  • Enable/Disable Selection Type: A new UI Editor action to disable the various ways that players can change their selected unit.
• New trigger functions have been added:
  • Convert Game Hotkey: Looks up hotkey as text.
  • Convert Game Asset: Looks up asset path as text.
  • Add On Child: Returns the child unit attached to the specified parent.
  • Add On Parent: Returns the parent unit attached to the specified child.
  • Catalog Entry Is Default: Returns if the specified entry is a default.
  • Catalog Field Value Get As Integer: Converts the requested field data into an integer, if possible.
• Test Document preferences can now configure an explicit random seed value.
• Automatic backup feature (Preferences > Documents) now includes a User Folder location option, which corresponds to a folder named EditorBackup within your StarCraft II documents folder.
• Units can now specify a revive cost that will override an ability specific cost. Revive cooldowns & charges located on the unit will now be attached to the unit being revived.
• Instant larva-style training will now charge resources properly.
• Upgrades modifying units produced by Arm Magazine, Build, Merge, Morph, Train, and Warp Train abilities are now fully supported.
• The Chance field in effects is now upgradeable.
• Support for browsing Battle.net "Featured" and "Up And Coming" maps in the Open Document window has been added.
• The Player Property and Modify Player Property triggers can now disable the cost for each resource type.
• Added a text preview pane to the text editing controls.
• Added additional states to behaviors, Set Unit State, and Unit Classification Check triggers to determine if a unit is detectable or shown by a radar.
• Added armor to the Unit Property and Unit Type Property triggers.
• Added Weapon Damage and Weapon Speed Multiplier triggers.
• Added support to refresh all buffs of the same type when adding a new instance by using the new "Refresh Stack" flag.
• Added a "Wait to Spend" flag, which is enabled by default, to effect abilities so configure whether orders wait until a cooldown or charge becomes available before they create their effect.
• Added an "Offset Area by Angle" flag to search effects to adjust the angle of the search based on the locations involved.
• Added an Idle Command to unit data to configure what order the unit performs when idle.
• Added an actor message to allow models to change their hit-testable status.
• Additional options can now be configured using the command card editor.
• Additional data is now saved out by the data editor to overrides made in arrays of structures to try to prevent unintended changes made to the original data from breaking it.
• Additional cheats are now available in-game when using Test Document.
  • Ally - Changes all alliance states between the selected players. By default, if you just type Ally, then all players share all alliance states with you.
  • AllianceDefeat - Changes the Defeat alliance state between the selected players. By default, if you just type AllianceDefeat, all players will share defeat with you.
  • AllianceControl - Changes the Control alliance state between the selected players. By default, if you just type AllianceControl, then all players share control with you.
  • AllianceGiveHelp - Changes the GiveHelp alliance state between the selected players. By default, if you just type AllianceGiveHelp, all players will respond to calls for help from your units.
  • AlliancePassive - Changes the Passive alliance state between the selected players. Players that you are not passive with will be considered hostile for attacking purposes.
  • AlliancePushable - Changes the Pushable alliance state between the selected players. This controls whether a player’s units will move through another player’s units, pushing them out of the way.
  • AllianceSeekHelp - Changes the SeekHelp alliance state between the selected players. Controls whether a player’s units call for help to the specified target player. The target player can choose to respond or not, depending on its GiveHelp alliance setting.
  • AllianceSpend - Changes the Spend alliance state between the selected players. Players that you are sharing resources with are allowed to spend your money to purchase things.
  • AllianceTrade - Changes the Trade alliance state between the selected players. Players that you are trading with can be sent resources.
  • AllianceVision - Changes the Vision alliance state between the selected players.
  • BehaviorAdd - Adds the requested behavior to the selected units.
  • BehaviorDuration - Sets the duration of the requested behavior.
  • BehaviorRemove - Removes the requested behavior from the selected units.
  • Charges - Toggles spell charge validation.
  • Cooldown - Toggles spell cooldown validation.
  • Creep - Adds creep at the cursor position given the requested radius.
  • DamageDealt - Multiplies the amount of damage dealt by a player's units by the specified value. By default, this will multiply the damage dealt by 10 for the cheating player.
  • DamageTaken - Multiplies the amount of damage taken by a player's units by the specified value. By default, this will reduce all damage taken to 0 for the cheating player.
  • DeathAll – Kills all units on the map.
  • DeathExcept - Kills all units on the map except the selected units.
  • DeathSide - Kills all units owned by the selected player.
  • DeathUnit - Kills the selected units. The type of death can be specified as a parameter.
  • Defeat - Ends the game in defeat for the selected player.
  • DestroyPersistent - Destroys all persistent effects within the specified radius of the cursor.
  • Effect - Executes the requested effect from the selected units.
  • FastBuild - Toggles fast building, research, and training times.
  • FastHeal - Toggles fast healing times.
  • Fidget - Forces selected units to perform the specified fidget type.
  • Food - Toggles food usage validation.
  • Free - Toggles resource cost validation and expenditure.
  • God - Turns on god mode for the selected player. Units owned by players that are in god mode will deal amplified damage, and take no damage.
  • Loot - Drops a type of loot for the specified player.
  • MakeUnit - Creates N units for the specified player. Units will be created around the cursor position, or in the center of the map if the cursor position is invalid.
  • Minerals - Adds the specified amount of minerals to the selected player.
  • Move - Moves the selected units to the cursor position.
  • NoDefeat - Disables defeat conditions.
  • NoVictory - Disables victory conditions.
  • Order - Orders the selected units to use an ability.
  • Owner - Changes ownership for the selected units to the selected player.
  • ResourceCustom - Adds the specified amount of a custom resource to the selected player.
  • SetAll - Sets the life, shields, and energy of the selected units to the specified value. By default, this will set these values to the maximum amount.
  • SetLife – Sets the life of the selected units to the specified value.
  • SetEnergy - Sets the energy of the selected units to the specified value.
  • SetLife - Sets the life of the selected units to the specified value.
  • SetShields - Sets the shields of the selected units to the specified value.
  • SetResource - Sets the harvestable resources contained by the selected units to the specified value.
  • ShowMap - Toggles fog of war display and validation.
  • TechTree - Toggles tech tree dependency validation.
  • Terrazine - Adds the specified amount of terrazine to the specified player.
  • Tie - Marks all undecided players with the tie result.
  • TimeOfDay - Sets the time of day to the specified time.
  • TimeOfDayRate – Sets the rate that the time of day changes to the specified value.
  • TrigDebug - Opens the trigger debug window.
  • TrigRun - Runs the specified trigger.
  • Uncreep - Removes creep at the cursor position given the requested radius.
  • Undecided - Marks the selected player's result as undecided.
  • Upgrade - Applies the selected upgrade to the selected player.
  • Vespene - Adds the specified amount of vespene gas to the specified player.
  • Victory - Ends the game in defeat for all players that don't share the defeat alliance state with the selected player.
  • XP - Adds a relative amount of XP to the selected units. This can be used to change veterancy levels.

Bug Fixes

• Achievements
  • Fixed a bug where players were not receiving "Wings Of Liberty: Hard" and "Wings Of Liberty: Brutal" achievements after completing the appropriate number of missions.
• Battle.net
  • Fixed a bug where some Bronze players weren't gaining enough points for wins and were losing too many points for losses.
• Gameplay
  • StarCraft II will continue running if corrupt textures/models/sounds are encountered.
  • Conversation skipping and trigger skipping now share the same hotkey.
  • The notification that a player left the game during a paused game is no longer delayed until the game is unpaused.
  • Cheat codes now only accept official names.
  • Unit response sounds are now updated immediately when the selection changes.
  • Unit death will no longer show units on the other side of line of sight blockers that weren’t already visible.
  • Units ordered to load into a transport now follow the transport if the transport fills up and they have no other orders.
  • Units inside a Bunker no longer disappear if the bunker is destroyed and surrounded by Force Fields.
  • Units can now be revived multiple times.
  • Hero buttons are now displayed while a hero is dead if they are revivable. Clicking on the button while a hero is dead will either select the building reviving it or cycle between buildings that can.
  • Revivable abilities now show revivable units all the time. If they cannot currently be revived, the buttons are shown disabled.
  • The revive ability now works with multiple dead units.
  • Revived units now properly dispatch a trigger event when killed again.
  • Added additional information to unit tooltips in the tech trees.
  • An alert has been added when MULEs expire.
  • An alert has been added when the Chrono Boost buff expires.
  • An alert has been added when the Spawn Larvae buff expires.
  • Fixed an issue with not being able to land where you just lifted off if there was a nearby unit.
  • Fixed an issue where you could push Hold Position units by Move/Hold Position spamming.
  • Fixed an issue to prevent Force Fields from pushing units during construction.
  • Fixed an issue with creep destroying more foliage than it should, and made foliage destruction by creep faster.
  • Fixed an issue with custom global hotkeys in grid profiles overlapping with unit command buttons.
  • Fixed an issue placing Terran add-on buildings when multiple buildings were selected.
  • The stalemate timer will now reset when any player gathers resources, researches an upgrade, produces a unit, constructs a building, or destroys an enemy building.
  • Additional stalemate warnings are no longer displayed when the game ends in a stalemate.
  • Flying cloaked units are no longer revealed as detected when shown through the fog of war.
  • Vespene Geysers that are taken by your opponent and are under the fog of war no longer randomly flash on and off on the mini-map.
  • Enemy buildings completed while being revealed due to friendly unit death will now properly create snapshots in the fog of war.
  • Casting Neural Parasite on a Zerg Cocoon will not cancel the spell until after the cocoon completes its transformation.
  • Changes made to autocast abilities while a unit is under the effects of Neural Parasite are now reset to their default state when Neural Parasite ends.
  • Queuing multiple targets with 250mm Strike Cannons will no longer result in the Thor being stuck until the cooldown ends.
  • Workers gathering minerals can no longer continue to harvest minerals if they are pushed away by a Force Field.
  • Orders issued to unload units from a Medivac onto itself can now be canceled if the Medivac is scanning for units to heal.
  • The Harvester count in the income leader panel now updates correctly.
  • Bi-directional transformations (i.e. those used by Vikings, Siege Tanks, and burrowing units) are no longer shown in the production leader panel.
  • The resources from salvaged Bunkers are no longer counted towards the resources lost in the units lost leader panel.
  • The Mute OS Microphone button has been removed from the Options' Voice page.
  • Tech trees now show icons for units that are produced by a building and display the names for units that are unlocked by a building.
  • Using Edit Box Trigger Dialogs should no longer generate trigger errors.
  • Media keys can no longer be bound to a custom hotkey.
  • Hotkeys configured in a mod are now loaded properly without having to open the Hotkeys page.
  • Mouse-based hotkeys are now handled properly when the cursor is over the mini-map.
  • Mouse-based hotkeys bound with modifiers are now displayed correctly in the Hotkeys page.
  • The hotkey for the Cancel button is now displayed when targeting with an ability if the Command Hotkey Text option is enabled.
• StarCraft II Editor
  • Fixed an issue where editor control files could not be loaded in all languages.
  • Fixed an issue with pasting text values in the editor.
  • Fixed an issue where certain data fields would not list all possible values.
  • Fixed an issue where the editor would crash after pasting a placed unit.
  • Fixed a crash using the Unit Weapon Firing validator.
  • Player Properties will no longer allow all 16 players to be User/Computer, which is not supported.
  • Animations in the previewer will now display using localized text.
  • Game and player versions of the cooldown & charge triggers now interpret time values correctly.
  • Sounds played simultaneously for multiple players via the Play Sound trigger can now be heard properly.
  • Increasing the maximum number of charges with an upgrade no longer increases the current number of charges.
  • Setting a unit’s training progress to 100% will no longer cancel the training.

[Dox]

Originally Posted by JacziE

• The main game UI can now be hidden/shown via hotkey.
• A new menu option is available in the Gameplay page to change the behavior of Control Group Buttons. These can now be set to ignore mouse clicks or be hidden completely.

These two changes alone make me SO excited. Hiding the entire game UI will make for much more interesting VOD/video production quality, and I always end up right clicking those stupid buttons and overwriting an important binding in the middle of a battle. So happy.

[Eddie]

I don't like not showing the loss totals any more...

Thanks for the extra info on maps/reasoning

[ProAnnn]

I thought del posted this and wondered why ^dox quoted jaczie... WHY THE PIC?

[Crankenstein]

I don't care about the losses as much as I care about the total number of games I have played. I like knowing how much of my life I have wasted on SC2.

Wasted? Not likely... WELL SPENT!

[NvPinder]

omg spamming probe-nexus-probe-nexus-probe-nexus-probe-nexus-probe-nexus-probe at the start of games now feels SO much more like bw than it used to because of "Unit response sounds are now updated immediately when the selection changes.".

I dont care about every other change, this change alone makes me want to play again, LOL

[inFeZa]

Originally Posted by JPMoney

omg spamming probe-nexus-probe-nexus-probe-nexus-probe-nexus-probe-nexus-probe at the start of games now feels SO much more like bw than it used to because of "Unit response sounds are now updated immediately when the selection changes.".

I dont care about every other change, this change alone makes me want to play again, LOL

Yes! thank god im not the only one who noticed it

[Roz]

Originally Posted by JacziE

Ladder Map Updates [link to Battle.net post]

• (4) The Shattered Temple has had an issue corrected that was previously allowing stalkers to blink from one main base to another using the center high ground.

So aaron told me about it and today i went into a game, rushing blink stalkers ready to blink.......i even shot down my own pylon thinking it was blocking the position for me to blink, tried for 10 seconds and noticed maybe it was fixed......... fml

[Dox]

Originally Posted by Eddie

I don't like not showing the loss totals any more...

Really struggling to understand why this upsets people so much? There's like a 20 page complaint thread on TL about it. People are saying ridiculous shit like, "Blizzard is taking all the fun out of the game."

How did viewing the number of losses someone has enhance the game or make it any more fun!?

*confused*

[Usul]

Originally Posted by Dox

How did viewing the number of losses someone has enhance the game or make it any more fun!?

I think the problem is in not being able to see your own number of losses.

[DuckSauce]

Time to 1 base all in every terran i vs now ^^

Btw.. Menu -> Options -> Sound -> Untick "Response Sounds".

[Dox]

Originally Posted by Usul

I think the problem is in not being able to see your own number of losses.

I don't know what part of my post implied I didn't know that, but could you please tell me WHY it's a problem?

[inFeZa]

Originally Posted by Dox

I don't know what part of my post implied I didn't know that, but could you please tell me WHY it's a problem?

I like to see my ratio, and make sure im x amount of wins ahead of my losses at any given time.

[Canx]

Is it viable for a person to be able to select whether or not to display his/her number of losses (like what achievements you choose to showcase and also what leagues that you choose to spotlight)? This way it could let people know what their win ratio is, but also let people who are scared to ladder because of the fear of amassing losses have the option of ignoring the number of losses they rack up.

[SkyBreaker]

To all those who don't like the fact that you can no-longer see your losses; it's simple... as of next Tuesday, you'll have 0 games played... so write down each game you complete in your SCII notepad (or excel document) and that is exactly the same as it was prior to patch 1.3. But objectively speaking, it's a good way for people to not be deterred from playing as a result of their losses.

I do really, really like the new observer panels! Much welcomed

[DuckSauce]

The new UI changes are a little overrated... Sure the fullscreen and name overlays are nice, but the rest gets old quick. The actual balance changes were terrible. Ghosts are still broken, stim is still broken, Mothership still exists in the game (bring back the arbiter!). PvP Phoenix still have no valid counters but making your own. 4Gating is still ridiculous, cannon rushes are still near impossible to stop with some of the map architecture (metal / scrap are both good examples).

[inFeZa]

The ones that show things like APM with that tug of war style animation, really sucks. Its smack in the middle of the screen and you cant see the actual game.
Removing the bottom panel also removes the minimap so its hard to skip across the map while observing, unless there is another way i dont know?!

[Dox]

I personally see the "hide the losses" thing as a great incentive to encourage people to try new things and get out of their comfort zones. People are often scared to try new strats on the ladder because they don't want to ruin their oh-so-precious win/loss ratio. Now they don't have to worry about it - they can actually break that 4gate routine and start experimenting without that additional pressure. I dunno, that's just me.

I've personally never really looked at my ratio until today just to try and figure out what all the sub-master league players appreciate about it so much and I think anyone who invests so heavily into it cares far too much about their stats and not enough about their actual rank/league.

Reminds me of the people in BW/W3 who would create a new account everytime they lost a game because their perfect record was tainted lol.

Anywho, for those who really do find some shallow value in it, there's always SC2Ranks. I don't see why it would stop tracking your stats as it's easy enough to derive.

[DuckSauce]

^ Wrong, sc2ranks pulls all data directly from the Blizzard website. If they disallow users to view their losses, sc2ranks will be rendered useless if you're looking for your W/L record.

If anything, there really should be an option for users to have their W/L shown at their own discretion.

[Dox]

Originally Posted by Dox

it's easy enough to derive.

How is that wrong? I'm honestly surprised they're not bothering to do it. Match history gives you everything you need to calculate a derived win/loss ratio. Do you disagree?

[FvRScrewby]

I got shiny gold star in Bronze! Im pimpin baby

[noobinater]

I really don't get the point of the new league symbols. It's all irrelevant if you're not masters :S

[Dox]

Originally Posted by noobinater

I really don't get the point of the new league symbols. It's all irrelevant if you're not masters :S

It's just a small prestige to show how highly ranked you were in previous seasons. Top Diamond? Low Masters? Mid Platinum? Rather than just a flat icon. It also encourages people to continue participating in the ladder during a season transition, rather than getting bored and not playing for a whole week.

[DuckSauce]

The B.Net site doesn't show a complete match history, only X amount of games. Unless SC2Ranks had a way of checking every few seconds (incase a user was portrait farming for example with mass leaving), then it will never be accurate.

[ZoomDog]

Originally Posted by PoisoN

I like to see my ratio, and make sure im x amount of wins ahead of my losses at any given time.

It doesn't really mean anything though. Having a 51% W/L ratio against silvers isn't as good as having a 49% ratio against golds. You can't look at your ratio and think "Man, I'm going really well!" unless you're at the top of Masters.
If you REALLY want to know your loss count, just look at the wins you have. For most people it'll be the same, give or take 5%.

[Makra]

Originally Posted by DuckSauce

The B.Net site doesn't show a complete match history, only X amount of games. Unless SC2Ranks had a way of checking every few seconds (incase a user was portrait farming for example with mass leaving), then it will never be accurate.

How do you portrait farm by mass leaving? You have to actually win games to get portraits..

[Starcraftmazter]

Instead of adding LAN they take away loss record. Wtf ><

[mR.bONG789]

Originally Posted by Makra

How do you portrait farm by mass leaving? You have to actually win games to get portraits..

it was done in team games, if your team mate/mates win it still counts as a win for you. if you do it enough you are bound to get some wins

[Crankenstein]

The stim nerf reaaaaly hurts in TvP when they get an early void ray.

Other than that and the lack of losses on profiles the new patch is pretty sweet.

Oh... one more thing

why why WHY did blizzard put destructable rocks in the third on Tal Darim Altar.

Not allowed to take a 3rd in this game... ever.

[cruxis]

So that's why there's generally always 1 person leaving at the start of the game.

And I thought GSL made Tal'Darim Altar?

[Dox]

Originally Posted by Crankenstein

The stim nerf reaaaaly hurts in TvP when they get an early void ray.

Other than that and the lack of losses on profiles the new patch is pretty sweet.

Oh... one more thing

why why WHY did blizzard put destructable rocks in the third on Tal Darim Altar.

Not allowed to take a 3rd in this game... ever.

Come on now, it takes like 3 shots from a Marauder to break them.

Originally Posted by DuckSauce

The B.Net site doesn't show a complete match history, only X amount of games. Unless SC2Ranks had a way of checking every few seconds (incase a user was portrait farming for example with mass leaving), then it will never be accurate.

Why do you assume the data needs to be derived from the Battle.net site? SC2Ranks could release a very simple application which the users can have running in the background, parsing all of their win/loss history. This is how a very large number of games handled web stats (ie. Unreal Tournament, Counter-Strike are two very popular examples) a decade ago.

There are SO many simple and obvious solutions out there. SC2Gears could collaborate with SC2Ranks to produce a more sophisticated web analysis including a breakdown of W/L Ratio per Race and Map on a time scale.

Acting like this information being removed from the in-game interface is the end of the world is very short-sighted.

And once more, if you're not in Master's League, your win/loss ratio should not be a point of focus.

[DuckSauce]

That's obviously a solution, however I'm not too sure how Blizzard would like the "3rd party application".

I don't agree with the "Not be a point of focus part". I know a lot of lower league players who would like to see their record.

[locke04]

i'm just happy to get the top 8 milestone but on bronze though =(

[Dox]

Originally Posted by DuckSauce

That's obviously a solution, however I'm not too sure how Blizzard would like the "3rd party application".

Considering SC2Gears already operates independently of Battle.net, I'm pretty sure they're okay with it.

[DuckSauce]

Go nuts then.. Still seems like Blizzard should give the users options to view the records they have achieved.

[Dox]

You can still see your wins, I wouldn't call losing 450 games an "achievement."

Strive to get to the top and you can be rewarded by seeing how many games you were destroyed in! AWESOME.

[Makra]

Seeing the win-loss ratio is just another way for people to evaluate how they are playing. If they have a 2-1 ratio, then a few weeks later a 1-1 ratio, they'll know that they're playing worse or not improving as they get put against better players. That in turn makes them more motivated to practice harder to improve their game. The points system doesn't seem to be a reliable method of evaluating how a person is playing, so being able to see your win percentage makes up for this. Taking away the option to see that will leave people more in the dark about how their skills are progressing etc.

[NvPinder]

Dox needs a "Voice of reason" achievement, rewarded to those who despite threads falling to utter crap and the people clearly not caring about anyones opinion but their own responds with sensible replies that lack the child-level logic of regular joe forum goer.

[DuckSauce]

Dox, you seem to be the only one who doesn't want this feature. Everyone else seems to want it. Perhaps it should be here then, with an option to view or hide it if you're afraid of your own record? Seems like a win-win situation.

[Dox]

Originally Posted by DuckSauce

Dox, you seem to be the only one who doesn't want this feature.

I never said I don't want the feature, I've just been trying to get a reasonable explanation as to why people are so angry about it (see my original post). I couldn't care less about the change, and even if I wasn't in Master League already, it still wouldn't bother me.

Everyone else seems to want it. Perhaps it should be here then, with an option to view or hide it if you're afraid of your own record? Seems like a win-win situation.

Everyone? You're basing this on what? People are often only vocal when they have something to complain about. You very rarely see people posting about something they're happy about. If they're happy and satisfied, they're logged into battle.net playing the game. If they're not happy, they're on the forums complaining.

[Disadvantage]

Creep tumors are a bit annoying now.

[DuckSauce]

Originally Posted by Dox

I never said I don't want the feature, I've just been trying to get a reasonable explanation as to why people are so angry about it (see my original post). I couldn't care less about the change, and even if I wasn't in Master League already, it still wouldn't bother me.


Everyone? You're basing this on what? People are often only vocal when they have something to complain about. You very rarely see people posting about something they're happy about. If they're happy and satisfied, they're logged into battle.net playing the game. If they're not happy, they're on the forums complaining.

I'm basing it off the incredible amount of posts on the Battle.Net forums.
And it's kind of obvious that you wont see people post that they're happy (if it's not broken, don't fix it). If something isn't right well obviously you'll get an uproar.

[kemikal]

Originally Posted by Disadvantage

Creep tumors are a bit annoying now.

Why do you think this?

[WagonWheel]

Originally Posted by DuckSauce

I'm basing it off the incredible amount of posts on the Battle.Net forums.
And it's kind of obvious that you wont see people post that they're happy (if it's not broken, don't fix it). If something isn't right well obviously you'll get an uproar.

This is very true, but at the same time, you have to remember that gamers LOVE to complain. I'm not necessarily talking about all gamers, although everyone loves a good whinge every now and then.
However the ones complaining on the forums are *generally* whiny 12yo kids whinging because they got beaten by strategy X and cbf to put in strategy Y to beat it, etc etc.

Another thing gamers hate is change. You could take out the smallest aesthetically pleasing yet utterly useless thing in SC2 and I can absolutely guarantee that there will be some kind of uproar about it.

Bboth of these things have to do with the fact that forum browsers/posters/trollers are a lot more inclined to complain about change/imbalance/life than your normal SC2 player. Probably something to do with the amount of time they have to both play AND post on forums for most of their day. Not saying it's a bad thing at all (we need vocal people out there), just saying it's a thing that happens.

Basically my point is that while there is an uproar on the forums about the fact that blizzard took away the losses from the profile, the reality is that this view MOST LIKELY represents the top 10% most active and forum-rers; generally the ones that are prone to complaining. They do not NECESSARILY reflect the opinions of the majority of the player base (though they very well could).

TL;DR - Nerds like to complain. Outrage on forums =/= majority of player's opinions.

Just wanted to clear that up. Happy posting

[DuckSauce]

Does your IQ drop as your post count increases?
Regardless of WHO complains, or WHO makes petitions, or even WHO signs them, people are unhappy with Blizzards decision. As paying customers, they're entitled to have their own say.
Grouping "forum-goers" together.

As for changing something minute, some users may use X feature, so of course they're more inclined to make a complaint, what are you trying to get at? We should accept changes we dislike on a game we payed for, and take it up the tailpipe?

P.S - I've actually asked a whole bunch of people who are below master league, and the majority (so far) have said they prefer to see the Losses count aswell. My team games that I have played are not in master league, so I cannot view my ratio (which I think was 60%+ in a 2v2 team), so from now on any games in there I wont be able to keep an accurate result, much like others.

[ZoomDog]

Originally Posted by DuckSauce

I'm basing it off the incredible amount of posts on the Battle.Net forums.

Just because it's loud doesn't mean it's the majority.
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/view...opic_id=196566

51% of respondents are against the change. Going off the fact that most of the people voting there would be serious gamers, and the ones who actually benefit from this change wouldn't be the type voting on TL, we can probably assume that less than half of the player base are actually unhappy with the change.

Personally I don't care, it's meaningless data. If it gets more people into playing the game I'm all for it.

[WagonWheel]

Originally Posted by DuckSauce

Does your IQ drop as your post count increases?
Regardless of WHO complains, or WHO makes petitions, or even WHO signs them, people are unhappy with Blizzards decision. As paying customers, they're entitled to have their own say.
Grouping "forum-goers" together.

As for changing something minute, some users may use X feature, so of course they're more inclined to make a complaint, what are you trying to get at? We should accept changes we dislike on a game we payed for, and take it up the tailpipe?

P.S - I've actually asked a whole bunch of people who are below master league, and the majority (so far) have said they prefer to see the Losses count aswell. My team games that I have played are not in master league, so I cannot view my ratio (which I think was 60%+ in a 2v2 team), so from now on any games in there I wont be able to keep an accurate result, much like others.

No no, you misunderstand me. I'm saying that while it is clear that some people do NOT like the change, them being loud and posting all over the forums does not necessarily mean they reflect the opinions of the majority of the player base. It very well could (and for this situation it is very likely that it does), but lots of posts complaining doesn't always mean the majority of the player base is with them.

[DuckSauce]

In a way, it does represent the community as they're the only people that Blizzard can see who "disagree / agree" with the change.

[WagonWheel]

Originally Posted by DuckSauce

In a way, it does represent the community as they're the only people that Blizzard can see who "disagree / agree" with the change.

Like I said, it represents a PART of the community, but not necessarily the WHOLE community.

Basically if blizzard listened to every person posting on the forums who complained about something that they've changed, they wouldn't change anything and we'd be back to patch 1.0, with no progress on balance.

[DuckSauce]

It represents the people that care enough to let Blizzard know of their ideas on the game and how it is balanced. Even if as you say people complaining puts the game behind, when that patch came out, there would be more complaints, and more, and more. They're going to get it right eventually (when they fix Terran's incredible cost efficiency, etc), until then we can only voice our opinions on their forums.