While its impact to players may seem subtle, the out-of-game experience in StarCraft II can be just as important as the in-game experience. Our Battle.net statistics show that players spend about a third of their time in StarCraft II using the menus outside of a game. They might be browsing the latest Arcade games, checking out someone’s profile, reviewing the score screen of past games in their match history, or just chatting with some friends. It’s important to us to make this experience as streamlined and usable as possible.
The 1.5 patch we released a couple months ago was a major update that included several changes to the menus and the addition of the new Arcade experience. What you might not know is that many of the changes in 1.5 were actually slated to be a part of the Heart of the Swarm expansion. We felt that several features, including Arcade, would be of immediate benefit to players, and decided to release them earlier in the 1.5 patch. Since we weren’t done with the rest of Heart of the Swarm yet, we had to compromise in some areas of the menus to support these features. We weren’t really happy with how this added additional complexity to the menus.
Since then, we’ve continued to work on Heart of the Swarm, and we’ve made some big changes to improve the overall user experience. With the release of the next major Heart of the Swarm beta patch, we'd like to give you an advance look at those changes. These updates will become available to both Wings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm players once the expansion is live.
Pretty great timing, though it's obvious this has been in the works for a while. Must say, it's infinitely better than what we have now. I love the reductionist look.
Note - these are coming to Wings of Liberty too, so I think it belongs here. Didn't see there was already a thread in the HotS beta forum.
Oh god yes. Way better UI, full stats, way better party system, clans, overhaul to custom melee(!!)... all they need now is to overhaul the general chat system to be more prominent like in battle.net 1.0 and we have a winner methinks. Oh, automated tournaments too, but one step at a time.
a welcome change, but it would be nice to see how or if this actually changes the clutter of the current arcade/ not being able to host customs like in the old bnet, etc. And then there are the map pool issues in general, but that's an issue for another day.
In the end I ask why cant they just make a wc3:TFT ui for sc2? Just add some things to that and BAM best ui ever! Then after that they can sort the game out. IMHO just delay Hots and really listen to feedback would be the best thing blizz could do.
On October 19 2012 10:47 ChuCky.Ca wrote: baby steps boys today we won a battle but the war is not over!!
The fact that so many people are thinking of this as a war and not a mutual cooperation between Blizzard and the community illustrates everything that is currently wrong with the sc2 community.
Finally we get a UI that is at least better than the last version. Everything is clean, easy to find, and there is more information where we want. My only complaint is that the first menu screen is completely filled up by basically a picture of a girl with some skin tight suit rather than being actually functional.
On October 19 2012 10:47 ChuCky.Ca wrote: baby steps boys today we won a battle but the war is not over!!
The fact that so many people are thinking of this as a war and not a mutual cooperation between Blizzard and the community illustrates everything that is currently wrong with the sc2 community.
but the lack of cooperation from blizzard is what makes it feel like a war I fucking love them but comon some of the shit they ignored for 3 years....
On October 19 2012 11:05 MateShade wrote: How have we 'won a battle' it's not like overnight they were like wow destined article really moved me BAM GOOD UI next day. Come on people...
just having some fun calm down obviously they have been working on this for a while just saying step by step hopefully we can get the game to where it should be
Do you guys think if the community did something like a mass tweet what I think Catz said or got some big pillars of the community to talk with blizzard that we could get something done? Because if yes we could make the game generally just better.
This is not enough, their patching thru this game so slowly. Like they should of thought about this so much earlier. Like the rest of the stuff that is missing in this game.
Yay! We are finally getting stuff that was supposed to come with WoL. Are you guys excited? At this rate we'll be getting name changes in LotV! I hope they dont rush the expansion just to implement it because it is unbelievably difficult just like LAN
On October 19 2012 10:57 iamcaustic wrote: Oh god yes. Way better UI, full stats, way better party system, clans, overhaul to custom melee(!!)... all they need now is to overhaul the general chat system to be more prominent like in battle.net 1.0 and we have a winner methinks. Oh, automated tournaments too, but one step at a time.
Where did you see anything about clans?
Either way, I'm happy we are moving forward... But i can't help the feeling that i still feel alone when i log in.
Duddddddeeeee Kerrigan isn't hot enough! Make her look more like Helfer.
Well, we already have plenty of hot fan-drawn material to work off of, and there will be plenty more to come after this expansion.
Personally, I would love it if she would get rid of her ponytail and let her alien locks flow. I do prefer the Ghost suit to her Zerg carapace, though.
On October 19 2012 10:47 ChuCky.Ca wrote: baby steps boys today we won a battle but the war is not over!!
The fact that so many people are thinking of this as a war and not a mutual cooperation between Blizzard and the community illustrates everything that is currently wrong with the sc2 community.
but the lack of cooperation from blizzard is what makes it feel like a war I fucking love them but comon some of the shit they ignored for 3 years....
And a lot of other stuff they ignored. People are never going to be satisfied. Blizzard could add every single fucking thing people ask for in this game except for one, and people will still say OMG THEY STILL DID NOT ADD LAN SUPPORT THEY DON'T LISTEN TO ANYTHING WE SAY!
On October 19 2012 11:10 EMIYA wrote: its sad how they insist on using this 'arcade' terminology instead of just letting it die and pretending it never happened.
and really? they still won't just integrate only OPEN CUSTOM GAMES, no options, with host ping?
And blizzard haters strikes agine , even if they do good things.
Many people like new "arcade" thing , you not ? , then stfu So many good changes in interface , but haters cry abouth "custom/ums maps" name lol
"And finally, now that we have added unranked play as an option, we’ve returned full stats (including losses) for all leagues back into the profile summary and ladder pages. " Oh my god this is about time
On October 19 2012 11:10 EMIYA wrote: its sad how they insist on using this 'arcade' terminology instead of just letting it die and pretending it never happened.
and really? they still won't just integrate only OPEN CUSTOM GAMES, no options, with host ping?
And blizzard haters strikes agine , even if they do good things.
Many people like new "arcade" thing , you not ? , then stfu So many good changes in interface , but haters cry abouth "custom/ums maps" name lol
It's not really hating when the player base gradually sinks monthly. Addressing these concerns can be construed as making the community in-game more friendly and accessible.
They need to add a refresh button to Starcraft custom games!
In sc2 when you host a game, it is placed at the top of the open games list. When other people host a game, their game is placed at the top of the list. This is kind of the same as it worked in Warcraft 3 and brood war, but in sc2 if you don't get a full game within something like 3 minutes, your game is pushed off the front list and you will never get the last players needed to start the game.
This didn't happen in warcraft 3 because if you closed all of the slots in your game, and reopened at least one, your game is pushed back to the top of the list, this was called refreshing. This meant that hosts of games could actively do something to keep their game advertised, and because everyone was doing it, every game had a consistent random chance to be seen.
This is the main reason I stopped playing custom games after trying again after 1.5. They need to add a refreshing button that lets hosts who are at their game get more exposure, and not have to rehost after 5 minutes because their game has been pushed off the list. Warcraft 3 had an almost perfect custom game system with new maps being popular daily and they fail to see why the arcade stagnates so fast with new maps still having almost no chance to break out.
Personally I think they should change the open list to the default menu when opening the arcade. Maybe its fine to show the most popular maps, but it should really be something like the most played maps that week, and a map that has been spotlighted, cannot be spotlighted again, otherwise people keep playing the initial spotlighted maps, keeping them popular and making the scene stagnate.
A small step forward. Hoping they'll keep it up. More statistics are good for sure. The optimist in me hopes that Blizzard will actually start listening to the community more from now on. The skeptic in me, though... <.<
The unranked mode is a very good thing to have, a lot of people who don't play because of ladder anxiety can just play unranked--the playerbase for unranked will also be noticeably less skilled, so it will be easier to play 1v1 casually. This can really only be good for SC2 as an esport.
That or it will be full of people doing troll builds, though that might not be so bad, easy wins for those casual players
On October 19 2012 11:05 Antimatterz wrote: My only complaint is that the first menu screen is completely filled up by basically a picture of a girl with some skin tight suit rather than being actually functional.
Most people probably won't complain though.
This is my complaint also, so much space goes unused. I want to see it filled with the chat window a la B.net 1.0.
I think this is obviously a step in the right direction, and a sign that blizzard's paying attention to their customers.
What needs to happen next is a bit more activism and transparency. Blizzard needs to let us know what's in the pipelines, what's actually being worked on, and why the things we want to see fixed aren't happening. If there's a good reason we can't have some of th e things we're asking for in the game, the community wants to know that kinda thing. We have every reason to request things, and if those requests aren't possible within blizzard's plan, just tell us what and why and the community will accept that. the absence of a real communication between blizzard and the competitive community is the big problem.
On October 19 2012 13:31 ETisME wrote: We really need seperate ladder for seperate race. I don't want to play my plat level terran on my diamond zerg account
There's unraked match making, so you don't really need that.
Very, very happy to see these changes! I think that Blizz has definitely realized some of their missteps. Granted, it took them a while, but still. Now with the positive reaction to this and the push of #savehots, things might speed along! :D
YEY Race stats and stuff, but this is still very far away from a really strong and good BNET like we have in Wc3. Come on blizzard, make it way better!
Nice! They finally traveled back in time and discovered the secret technology to make WC3 bnet! Seriously Blizzard, people shouldnt even be excited for these changes because they should have been there in the first place. Blizzard probably thinks that anyone diamond and below are just whining babies who will quit if they see their w/l ratios or something. Blizzard hasnt dont anything extraordinary good yet, they are just adding in functions that are supposed to be there (or at least show that they are trying) because the community has been up their butt. Still, one of these days blizzard will make great changes again BEFORE the community and competitors gives them the finger.
Some of you guys have to be kidding :/ Are you satisfied with this preview ? There's almost nothing new. Stats existed in WC3 (even website profiles in WC3 was awesome, you could check Match stats in your browser!) It's still feels empty, no social features.
Don't get fooled, if we want this game to be one of the best, we need to be even more demanding. This preview shows not very much work from Blizzard, I'm not trying to be rude, I'm just being honest, and I believe it's true, right ? ...
edit :
Nice! They finally traveled back in time and discovered the secret technology to make WC3 bnet! Seriously Blizzard, people shouldnt even be excited for these changes because they should have been there in the first place.
I missed the HotS part when I read the title and thought they were actually making these changes for WoL as well.. I actually read that article pretty excited , looking for the features that were asked for years .. AND .. AAAND ..ok, we've got race and map stats.. Doesn't it sound unreasonable that we have to buy an expansion for that ? If they keep this rate of improving their expansion, they should release it at the end of next year to be anywere what the community expects, in term of the UI.
On October 19 2012 15:05 Shade_CsT wrote: Some of you guys have to be kidding :/ Are you satisfied with this preview ? There's almost nothing new. Stats existed in WC3 (even website profiles in WC3 was awesome, you could check Match stats in your browser!) It's still feels empty, no social features.
Don't get fooled, if we want this game to be one of the best, we need to be even more demanding. This preview shows not very much work from Blizzard, I'm not trying to be rude, I'm just being honest, and I believe it's true, right ? ...
Nice! They finally traveled back in time and discovered the secret technology to make WC3 bnet! Seriously Blizzard, people shouldnt even be excited for these changes because they should have been there in the first place.
Thanks, that's how I felt when I saw this.
I think that's what most people are thinking right now, they are just happy that blizzard is finally making bnet 2.0 into the thing it fucking should have been on launch. It's a good sign that they are willing to improve upon mistakes made in the past. It also shows that they are listening. Positive things. Reason to be happy. Not reason to be complacent, though.
On October 19 2012 15:05 Shade_CsT wrote: Some of you guys have to be kidding :/ Are you satisfied with this preview ? There's almost nothing new. Stats existed in WC3 (even website profiles in WC3 was awesome, you could check Match stats in your browser!) It's still feels empty, no social features.
Don't get fooled, if we want this game to be one of the best, we need to be even more demanding. This preview shows not very much work from Blizzard, I'm not trying to be rude, I'm just being honest, and I believe it's true, right ? ...
edit :
Nice! They finally traveled back in time and discovered the secret technology to make WC3 bnet! Seriously Blizzard, people shouldnt even be excited for these changes because they should have been there in the first place.
Thanks, that's how I felt when I saw this.
I think that's what most people are thinking right now, they are just happy that blizzard is finally making bnet 2.0 into the thing it fucking should have been on launch. It's a good sign that they are willing to improve upon mistakes made in the past. It also shows that they are listening. Positive things. Reason to be happy. Not reason to be complacent, though.
I think the thread should be "blizzard finally add wc3 features into hots"
As someone who makes melee maps, I'm just glad that they're adding the same exposure and functionality to the custom melee section as the arcade section. There are tons of great melee maps which currently aren't getting the attention they deserve, and they finally might actually have some games played on them.
I wonder if the newly available map data will put more pressure on blizzard to actually put playable maps in the 1v1 pool and not fuck us all with garbage maps
On October 19 2012 16:52 baldgye wrote: I wonder if the newly available map data will put more pressure on blizzard to actually put playable maps in the 1v1 pool and not fuck us all with garbage maps
Or when they look at the new and improved custom map section and notice just how many user-created maps are going to get rated higher than their own maps.
this is good news indeed. it might be nitpicking but will we be able to see our winrates against other races on a specific map? anyway, i really don't know how we can pull some casual gamers to watch and play more sc2 instead of other popular games right now, and thats what we need.
I hope this is first from many big, small changes still long way to lan and global sc2 without lags ,clan ui suport , Big tournaments stream in front like in lol etc.. small report window just dont work even if it open explorer instead of chrome or other . Keep working blizzz Sc2 strikes back soon!!!
On October 19 2012 15:05 Shade_CsT wrote: Some of you guys have to be kidding :/ Are you satisfied with this preview ? There's almost nothing new. Stats existed in WC3 (even website profiles in WC3 was awesome, you could check Match stats in your browser!) It's still feels empty, no social features.
Don't get fooled, if we want this game to be one of the best, we need to be even more demanding. This preview shows not very much work from Blizzard, I'm not trying to be rude, I'm just being honest, and I believe it's true, right ? ...
Nice! They finally traveled back in time and discovered the secret technology to make WC3 bnet! Seriously Blizzard, people shouldnt even be excited for these changes because they should have been there in the first place.
Thanks, that's how I felt when I saw this.
Yeah, I don't want to be too much of a dick, but this guy is right.
On October 19 2012 15:05 Shade_CsT wrote: Some of you guys have to be kidding :/ Are you satisfied with this preview ? There's almost nothing new. Stats existed in WC3 (even website profiles in WC3 was awesome, you could check Match stats in your browser!) It's still feels empty, no social features.
Don't get fooled, if we want this game to be one of the best, we need to be even more demanding. This preview shows not very much work from Blizzard, I'm not trying to be rude, I'm just being honest, and I believe it's true, right ? ...
edit :
Nice! They finally traveled back in time and discovered the secret technology to make WC3 bnet! Seriously Blizzard, people shouldnt even be excited for these changes because they should have been there in the first place.
Thanks, that's how I felt when I saw this.
Yeah, I don't want to be too much of a dick, but this guy is right.
No. The updates blizzard gave us had nothing to do with the incessant bitching and whining from the community. They confirmed that they had already planned to release this, and it just happened to be when all this #saveHotS nonsense was going on. They also said that there is lots more to come and more information will be released based on their schedule. This information is from a blizzard post on Reddit though, surprised that they don't post the same here. Does blizzard even have TL accounts?
On October 19 2012 15:05 Shade_CsT wrote: Some of you guys have to be kidding :/ Are you satisfied with this preview ? There's almost nothing new. Stats existed in WC3 (even website profiles in WC3 was awesome, you could check Match stats in your browser!) It's still feels empty, no social features.
Don't get fooled, if we want this game to be one of the best, we need to be even more demanding. This preview shows not very much work from Blizzard, I'm not trying to be rude, I'm just being honest, and I believe it's true, right ? ...
edit :
Nice! They finally traveled back in time and discovered the secret technology to make WC3 bnet! Seriously Blizzard, people shouldnt even be excited for these changes because they should have been there in the first place.
Thanks, that's how I felt when I saw this.
Yeah, I don't want to be too much of a dick, but this guy is right.
No. The updates blizzard gave us had nothing to do with the incessant bitching and whining from the community. They confirmed that they had already planned to release this, and it just happened to be when all this #saveHotS nonsense was going on. They also said that there is lots more to come and more information will be released based on their schedule. This information is from a blizzard post on Reddit though, surprised that they don't post the same here. Does blizzard even have TL accounts?
They said this during the beta of Wings of liberty as well; they came out with some cosmetic changes, shuffled the graphics in the UI a little, just like this one and said more changes was on the way, and what happened after that? NOTHING.
They havn't really "fixed" a dammn thing, not a single enchancement has been made, no proper chat support, no view replays with others. no clan tag support. It's still shit compared to other games out there and its still worse compared to their original version of Bnet.
And finally, now that we have added unranked play as an option, we’ve returned full stats (including losses) for all leagues back into the profile summary and ladder pages. Players who play competitively on the ladder can now better track their progress regardless of which league they’re in. And those players that would like to enjoy the benefits of matchmaking, but are not interested in the pressure of being ranked can now use the unranked play mode.
An admission that the real reason they hid stats, was not because they were meaningless, but because of hurt feelings? Yes. And that's exactly what I've been saying for years. For example here and here.
And in the latter link, I said due to unranked matchmaking being in HotS, Blizzard should stop hiding all stats:
The removal of win/loss ratios necessarily implies that useful statistics can never be revealed. Reverse this. Blizzard's resolve to appease players with ladder anxiety, to not hurt their feelings, is turning SC2 into a non-competitive game. This is the opposite of what an RTS game should be.
The unranked matchmaking that's in HotS will fix ladder anxiety. It's time to stop killing the competitive nature of this game and removing all the systems needed to support competition because of ladder anxiety and hurt feelings.
While I'm very glad that they did, it's pathetic that it took years for Blizzard to finally admit why they really hid stats in the first place. At least, now they've stopped lying and are going to fix the issue.
And finally, now that we have added unranked play as an option, we’ve returned full stats (including losses) for all leagues back into the profile summary and ladder pages. Players who play competitively on the ladder can now better track their progress regardless of which league they’re in. And those players that would like to enjoy the benefits of matchmaking, but are not interested in the pressure of being ranked can now use the unranked play mode.
An admission that the real reason they hid stats, was not because they were meaningless, but because of hurt feelings? Yes. And that's exactly what I've been saying for years. For example here and here.
And in the latter link, I said due to unranked matchmaking being in HotS, Blizzard should stop hiding all stats:
The removal of win/loss ratios necessarily implies that useful statistics can never be revealed. Reverse this. Blizzard's resolve to appease players with ladder anxiety, to not hurt their feelings, is turning SC2 into a non-competitive game. This is the opposite of what an RTS game should be.
The unranked matchmaking that's in HotS will fix ladder anxiety. It's time to stop killing the competitive nature of this game and removing all the systems needed to support competition because of ladder anxiety and hurt feelings.
While I'm very glad that they did, it's pathetic that it took years for Blizzard to finally admit why they really hid stats in the first place. At least, now they've stopped lying and are going to fix the issue.
These changes look awesome. Amazing.
Blizzard had stated back when they removed losses on the ladder that it was discouraging for players in lower leauges, They haven"t lied there,
EPT
I fucking love them but comon some of the shit they ignored for 3 years....
we are doing it right !
