StarCraft II officially announced

[Mr.Chile]

MLG hosting a big tournament, here is the link to watch it

http://events.mlgpro.com/takeovers/procircuit/titles/starcraft?site_id=mlgpro

[Herr Matzat]

Situation Report: Patch 1.1 and Beyond

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

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

Balance Changes

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

Maps

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

Protoss

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

Terran

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

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

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

Zerg

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

And Beyond...

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

We'll see you online!

http://eu.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/554901?page=17#page-comments

[KevinStorm]

This game seriusly lets you feel how a ton of other games just slaped an online mode on their offline gameplay. It´s amazing how much fun it is, even if you loose... and the league system rarely paires you up with players that are just to fast for you to stand a chanse and wen you loose the replay tells you were your misstake was. It´s friggin perfect. More games need an online mode like this one.

Well, they have had 12 years to get it right...

[rocksta]

Matzat: All online game all these people cheating pussies! They all use cheap pussy tactic to break game. I can not win so everyone is cheating pussy. All use ~~~~ and its so cheap all the do is ~~~~~.

Also,

Matzat: Starcraft really strike great balance everything soo perfect yes wish every game had such good balance to cheap pussy!

Meanwhile Matzat brags about being terran and using his MMM ball, commonly regarded as an easy way to victory with the race that's easiest to use >_>

[Herr Matzat]

Play me.

[Herr Matzat]

The first big Patch is out.

http://eu.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/713493

[SeanDMan]

day9 put out a challenge for people to send him replays where they played Protoss, but didn't expand until they had constructed a Carrier.

HuK, the #1 ranked ladder player at the time, went for it. Hillarity ensued.

http://day9tv.blip.tv/file/4174906/

[SeanDMan]

Okay, I take it back. Watching #1 in the world HuK do it was funny, but game 3 amongst the normals was even more hillarious.

http://day9tv.blip.tv/file/4174827/

[Herr Matzat]

The Guy creeps me out. :-O

[SeanDMan]

Welcome to the wild world of American pro gamers after four energy drinks, Matzat.

Also:

[SeanDMan]

Also!

[Herr Matzat]

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty – Patch 1.1.2

General

Players will no longer receive achievement toasts while their status is set to "Busy."

The messaging when attempting to load a saved game or replay from a previous version has been clarified

Adjusted the amount of points earned and lost by random team participants to properly reflect the strength of a player's teammates.

Balance

PROTOSS

Buildings

Nexus life and shields increased from 750/750 to 1000/1000.

Void Ray

Damage level 1 increased from 5 to 6 (+4 armored).

Damage level 2 decreased from 10 (+15 armored) to 8 (+8 armored).

Flux Vanes speed upgrade bonus decreased from 1.125 to 0.703.

TERRAN

Buildings

Barracks requirement changed from Command Center to Supply Depot.

Supply Depot life increased from 350 to 400.

Medivac

Acceleration reduced from 2.315 to 2.25.

Speed reduced from 2.75 to 2.5.

Reaper

Nitro Packs speed upgrade now has a Factory Requirement.

Thor

Energy bar removed.

250mm Strike Cannons is now cooldown-based on a 50-second cooldown. Ability starts with cooldown available (useable immediately after upgrade is researched).

ZERG

Buildings

Hatchery life increased from 1250 to 1500.

Lair life increased from 1800 to 2000.

Spawning Pool life increased from 750 to 1000.

Spire life increased from 600 to 850.

Ultralisk Cavern life increased from 600 to 850.

Corruptor

Energy bar removed.

Corruption is now cooldown-based on a 45-second cooldown. Ability starts with cooldown expired (must wait for full 45-second cycle before usable).

Infestor

Fungal Growth now prevents Blink.

Roach

Range increased from 3 to 4.

Bug Fixes

Fixed an issue where players could not cast the Feedback spell on Point Defense Drones.

Fixed an issue where the Phoenix would continue to channel Graviton Beam after the target died.

Fixed an issue that would cause Larvae to spawn and be hidden behind Zerg eggs.

Fixed an issue where players were unable to navigate to the Single Player page or watch replays after canceling map downloads from the queue.

Fixed a desync that could occur on user-created maps with custom mod dependencies.

[SeanDMan]

Removing energy from Thors and Corruptors kind of nerfs feedback.

[Herr Matzat]

Having this "Barracks requirement changed from Command Center to Supply Depot." can be a game changer if you screw up.

[SeanDMan]

Just watch.

[Herr Matzat]

The guy on the left still gives me the creeps.

I get the idea of proxy rushes and that they are part of the game n so on. But i just find them very boring. (at least on bronze/silver were i am playing) You either win or loose five minutes in most...

I have only been playing random lately and have to say that it´s a bitch to air defend with Protos, any tips?

[SeanDMan]

Blink stalkers are very effective. Void rays are as well.

[SeanDMan]

Unless I'm doing something funky, like rushing for void rays, or turtling in order to try something late game, I almost always open with two Zealots, two Stalkers. The two Stalkers can usually deter a banshee or void ray. Once you see one, build two or three more stalkers to deter them when they bring in a second. Build a few cannons around your mineral line before moving your forces out and you should be okay.

[Herr Matzat]

Yeah, i think the turteling is my problem. I kow they are going for mass void rais or carriers once i see that they placed a ton of cannons in their enterance (prolly a lake of souting on my part) but with protos i am doing very bad at getting behind their lines. Maybe i should use warp prisims more often.

Are you up for a game anytime? I have not been playing to much in the past cupple of weeks so i´ll be easy to beat but just for the hell of it.

Edited November 28, 2010 by Michael Matzat on a Plane

[SeanDMan]

Can you play across the ocean yet? Cause I still live in North America.