So today came the best Blizzard video update to date. Grant Davis (Lead Engineer) talked about this stuff in no particular order:
* Working on League System, Seasons, Ranking players
* Working on new ramps system (for wider ramps, different directions "COMMING VERY SOON")
* Working on Broodwar AI BWAPI? implementation, so we can program out own Offline computers to practice, and probably use some that are already done over the internet
* Better channel functionality, particularly channels based on "League" level etc (Suggested by TT1 a few weeks ago)
*Support on international characters for chats
*Collapsing servers game lists and channels
* The will create a better way to make people play without ports (Very Exciting), probably talking about STUN:
Network Latency Improvements , "Without getting too technical, there are 3 different types of NAT networks, and we've already rolled out a STUN server solution for the first type in patch 1.21 - we're hearing that you've noticed the difference in latency since its release. The second type is more complicated and we're working on it right now. The third type still requires the connection to route via a proxy server." Mark Chandler at StarCraft Forums
Grant did NOT talked about Team Match Making, but they are working on it, it was probably neglected from the video for no particular reason, they are definitely working on 2v2 (in the long term).
Some of this we have heard before and we where "expecting" to be addressed again officially, or we knew where on the working stage.
But now we get some extra stuff, exciting stuff to say the least!!! with some questions like always:
* BWAPI, grant spelled this letter by letter, is he talking about compatibility with the BWAPI that is already out there? which BTW works perfectly?, or are they developing something new. Probably the answer is YES, Remastered will allow BWAPI script to be loaded natively !!!
* Cross server Game Lists, channels and also friend lists?, how this would work? you will have to login when clicking a game from another server?, i hope not, VERY VERY exciting having everyone in the same place. Would be very nice to have a translator for Korean, or East Europe game names if this comes to be.
* Working on a new way for players without "ports opened" to play with more stable connection. Is this STUN?, what is STUN?, any network engineer out there that could help to understand this? (see link above in spoilers).
* Leagues and Seasons... we knew it was coming, is it going to be like ICCUP or FISH? A;B;C;D;E ?, probably the answer is yes based on previous communications, this is very exciting. Also now channels will open based on your league like it was in Legacy 1.1.6 Btnet.
Well that's it... i am very excited!!! this is the most amazing Classic Team Communication and compromise they have done since release, This improvements if done correctly will definitely make the game better, and the product more valuable, with this additions only small things like guilds, tournament modes, official SC Blizzard sponsored tournaments, improvements to Replay & observer mode are missing from the complete product and experience. 2018 looks like a great year.
I am felling incredibly happy, now lets go grind some games.
Thanks to Blizzard for continuing to invest in BW. I love it and all of the improvements discussed here will be really welcome. The fact that the game and online experience are being actively developed again helps a lot when I'm trying to encourage friends to pick up BW again (if they haven't played since the 00s) or purchase Remastered.
I'm especially pleased to hear they're working on improving things for players who have not set up port forwarding. Needing to muck with networking manually to get the best experience is definitely something that makes people feel like they're dealing with previous-generation technology.
It's been a great year to be a BW player and fan. Looking forward to 2018!
On December 23 2017 12:39 tarpman wrote: Thanks to Blizzard for continuing to invest in BW. I love it and all of the improvements discussed here will be really welcome. The fact that the game and online experience are being actively developed again helps a lot when I'm trying to encourage friends to pick up BW again (if they haven't played since the 00s) or purchase Remastered.
I'm especially pleased to hear they're working on improving things for players who have not set up port forwarding. Needing to muck with networking manually to get the best experience is definitely something that makes people feel like they're dealing with previous-generation technology.
It's been a great year to be a BW player and fan. Looking forward to 2018!
In the meanwhile they are denying the afreeca team battle and charging organisers tens of thousands of dollars for a single tournament. Blizzard is investing so much into BW, yeah right. More like milking the franchise until it's fully drained if you ask me.
Whatever they did to change latency has been massive for me. Not only do I stay on 14 or 16 turn rate often, but the fact it can go back up after going down is huge... i'd often have very temporary (1-2s) spikes of lag every so often and it'd also take it down like 4 turn rate each time. So many of my matches were 6 turn rate.
I'm really excited for team matchmaking, the new chat channels and the server merge. It would be nice if we could also change the background image on bnet, the old one is getting kinda dull. We could also make people pay for it and put the funds toward running BW events or something (i know micro-transactions are frowned upon but if it's going towards supporting the community.. why not?!).. but yea that's more of a luxury add.
I know they're also focusing on clan systems as well but that's further down the line.
P.S: Title needs to be changed, i didn't even know this was related to the new dev vid.
Everything discussed in the video is gold! Good development.
To say one point of critisim: im worried they Will implement a goofy and soft ranking system semiliar to the Sc2 bronze League bw always had hard solid ranks ie: ladder ratings like from 1000 to 2500 points or simple A B C D E F ranks
I dont want the goofy bronze Chrome Leagu nonsene so that nobody has to have their sensitive feelings touched when they are in low ranks , low ranks are Fine its good for practice
agree with your comments TT1 especially server merge sounds like something that could be rly good if done well (wish that D2 and War3 can also remain on the same chat space, it has fun potential sometimes ppl hang out on same channel using different games), however i hope not to see microtransaction on starcraft bnet. There is no need to let blizzard handle the money people would be willing to give to support events.. they are taking a lot where it doesn't help the game already aren''t they. Microtransactions seem to be mostly a plague to any game, I don't see any benefit to the game and the players from it. Please no t_t
also I pretty much agree with onlystar about points making more sense than ranks well so long as the point system behind the ranks is good, I would like to know exactly how it works too but it seems good, if there is no issue like point inflation or... i mean what would be the different system? the current system of points to me seems... better than Iccup because it doesn't follow "morphing" rules as you go through ranks so its pretty straight up, I guess you have about equal earning and losses in points potentially for a match, does your opponent lose as many points as you gained if you win? I like the points, it's how bw was originally yeah at 1000 points was the base, it was just ELO system I think, simple good no nonsense point system, gives good results.
also will throw this in again : replay interface now the bottom ~4 lines of maps are covered by it, the screen is cluttered on a 4:3 screen in particular by the resource pane, if you watch a replay of a team game a lot of the screen is covered by it, that's not good, I'd like option to just switch back to original replay interface because the graphics also are nice and it's actually just more comfortable to use. I mean the extra options in the replay interfaces, not bad, but not too comfortable, overall it does feel like I want original back, can you just include it as option? and definitely fix the bottom ~4 lines of map being covered by interface? (which isn't a problem with original interface, since it's not transparent and the game area is displayed properly on top of it only like 1 unconstructible line covered on the sides by interface so you can always see everything) also this again: can you make options screen display instantly? that would be nice because starcraft original interface is completely fast and efficient, and this one is kinda the opposite especially because it just takes like 5 seconds to start up, which is a ton of time of course during gameplay of all moments @@ you know, within 1 or 2 seconds you would be able to hit options and change your mouse speed, the sound or music volume, or your network latency settings, but now it takes over 5 seconds to do that. It does make a difference that is ergonomic right, it's kinda weird why a 2D interface on a 2017 game can't load instantly like just about any game can do, why make it slow, options, you wanna navigate that fast as you go in and out of it to do anything. There are still a few interfaces like blizzard login (wish didnt have to use that) or profile that will take seconds to load, if you can do smtg about it that's nice cause again starcraft originally has this really always slick and efficient interface and you know SC:R should have it too. Make the R in SC:R count for everything, it's as good or better! aaah another thing the SD graphics, still want a better display!! damn, maybe I'm wrong, but it feels like if you'll just include an graphics option for a different resolution, then the SD graphics on that resolution will display better and not require the same type of filters. I want the SD graphics to look just as good as original OK??? nostalgia reason or not, this is SC:R, there are the SD graphics in it, they gotta look right!!! refer to 1.18 where you did find a good compromise for an increased resolution with light filtering and it looked good, but then in SC:R it looks terrible!! it matters! I wonder, if somebody downloads the free version now, does it look like this?? lol
also could use some improvement on readability of fonts on bnet on the default resolution
Would it be too much to ask for support for 144x144 maps? This would go a long way in making some cool 3v3 and 4v4 maps for ladder play without them being too big. I already have a number of maps and ideas in the works, but trying to fit 6-8 decent sized bases with reasonable rush distances and without siege tanks wrecking mineral lines and adjacent mains on a 128x128 map isn't really possible.
EPT
