Chat ImprovementsWe’re just finishing up our most recent pass of chat improvements, and are currently planning on releasing them with the next patch. Below are the changes we have planned:
• Re-addition of Member Lists
• List of Active Chat Channels (with filtering)
• Option for Increased Chat Window Height
• Increased Contrast for Text vs Channel/Player Name
• Pin Chat-window to Stay Active (Not Yet Implemented)
We’re continuing to work on the layout of the UI to ensure that chat doesn’t interfere with client functionality so that we can eliminate the requirement for window management. We’re also working on a details post on these topics, so please look forward to that coming soon.
Ghost AbilityThank you for your feedback in this area. We realized that we completely agree with the fact that the new armor-debuff drone ability isn’t suitable for the fantasy of what the Ghost should be doing, and it’s more of a Raven type of ability. Additionally, we’d like to give a shout-out to the really well explained “Line Damage Snipe” suggestion from our community. It was very easy to understand and the screenshots attached were very straight forward as well.
We made an ability like this previously in our internal testing and learned much about skillshots in StarCraft II. We realized that we don’t want splash damage units on the barracks as we’ve found it to be much more interesting when bio units are supported by such damage-dealers from the Factory or the Starport.
However, after testing out various “snipe” related Ghost abilities such as yours, we’re currently at the following version of Snipe:
• Much higher single-target damage. Requires a 5 second channel before the shot fires, channel can be interrupted by damaging the Ghost.
The idea behind this version is that it fits the theme of the Ghost better: proper utilization of Cloak and excellent positioning where the Ghost is protected by other units will be critical to using the ability well. With that said, we’re not finalized on this ability yet, we just wanted to share the current state of our exploration into this unit to hear your thoughts.
Skillshots in StarCraft IIA topic we wanted to bring up is skillshots in StarCraft II. We’ve found that there are issues with clearly determining what’s going to happen when a skillshot is commanded while multiple casters are selected. There are two ways this plays out:
1. Closest caster to the target point casts the ability. Because direction matters with skillshots, the closest available unit isn’t always what you want, and the only way to choose a different unit is to individually select it, which feels clunky. Also, if the closest available unit isn’t on screen, it can be confusing (you see a ghost on your screen, you pressed the ability, but no targeting indicator appears).
2. All available units cast at the same time. This gives an accurate prediction of what will happen and lacks the confusion of which unit will perform the action (since all of them will). The gameplay, however, didn’t feel very strategic. With such a large spread of simultaneous attack angles, it felt more like a wide area AoE, and for the defending player the counter micro was to just retreat.
To provide some more information, we had tried skillshot abilities on the Mothership Core and Oracle since air pathing is simpler and you don’t usually make many of these units. The skillshots didn’t feel confusing, but the specific abilities we tried out did not fit into the game well. Seeing as our end goal is to make the gameplay fun and exciting, rather than to force abilitiy-types into the game, we opted to remove these skillshots. We’re open to trying this out where it might fit, but so far these abilities have not been a good fit for StarCraft II.
Overlord Individual Transport UpgradeWe definitely hear your thoughts in this area. The timing of it may be a bit too early right now, especially when the opposing player is teching up. It’ll be easier to find a higher tech place for it, such as making the upgrade have a Lair requirement. However, because it is something new, we’d like to test this a bit longer before committing to a nerf like that.
Thanks for the testing and feedback in this area. We’re seeing a lot of tier 1 Overlord drop strategies in the beta as well and will continue to monitor this upgrade.
Minimap Icons added for Destructible Rocks and TowersBecause we’re rotating through ladder maps very quickly now, we really want to polish the minimap to display all of the critical info. Currently, we have icons for important pieces except the destructible rocks and towers. We’d like to try out a change for this in the next beta patch.
Map DiversityWe wanted to provide our thoughts in this area once more due to various discussions happening regarding this topic both for and against it. We strongly believe that map diversity is important for the longevity of StarCraft II. We believe there are three main perspectives to view the concept of map diversity from:
- Regular players playing on Battle.Net
- We believe each season feeling fresh, with new strategies and options to explore, keeps the game feeling dynamic and more interesting.
- eSports and stream viewers
- We have observed a trend from the past few years of StarCraft II: when new maps play too similarly to a previous season’s maps, it is not an ideal viewing experience.
- One of the highlighting components of watching professional StarCraft II matches is being exposed to new strategies. We’d love to push map diversity for this reason.
- Pro Players
- We know that increased map diversity is not as easy for pro players. The very concept requires them to explore, discover, and practice new strategies that appear due to the diversity of map structures.
- When it comes to choosing what is fun for viewers versus fun for pro-players, we believe pro-players having it a bit more rough is more beneficial than having a less entertaining experience watching competitive StarCraft II.
Admittedly, there is a downside to trying to push for new, interesting, and different types as there is a higher potential for slight match-up imbalances. We’d really like to encourage players not to overreact to a strategy that initially looks overpowered on a certain map. Rather, we would encourage players to explore ways to overcome these strategies throughout the game. We believe that even the very best players in the world can’t immediately account for every viable strategy on a given map, and that keeping an open mindset will be very important when pushing for more map diversity.
However, it should go without saying that if a map does turn out to have irreconcilable problems, we will take measures to address those concerns – even if this means removing a map from the pool mid-season – as we have done in the past.
Terran MechWe hear your feedback in this area, and definitely agree that mech usage has greatly declined since the Cyclone nerfs and mech upgrades being split off. We are exploring ways to scale back these nerfs to get a better ratio of bio play versus mech play in the beta. Current options that we’re considering are:
• Combining mech armor upgrades, but leaving the weapon upgrades split.
• Higher damage on Cyclones accompanied by rolling the range upgrade into the unit.
• A change to lock-on functionality that causes the ability to break if the Cyclone loses vision.
Ravager Balance SuggestionWe saw a great tweak suggestion from many of you this week regarding the Ravager’s weapon range being increased to 6. We agree that Ravagers can be bumped up a bit more, and also agree that it makes sense that Ravagers generally should stay behind Roaches. We’ll be testing this out internally this week to see if it’s a good change to try in the beta. Thank you for your great discussions in this area.
LiberatorWe agree with you that the Liberator in low numbers against equal cost of enemy air units isn’t very strong, and that their anti-ground positioning play is very interesting. We also agree that this unit could use some help. Our current stance on the Liberator is to leave the AA in its current form (strong versus a player who is massing air units) while strengthening it’s anti-ground role.
