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David Kim Pre-Blizzcon Interview by PlayXP

Forum Index > Community News and Headlines
205 CommentsPost a Reply
1 2 3 4 5 9 10 11 Next All
Selith
Profile Joined September 2010
United States238 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-10-22 05:29:08
October 22 2010 05:01 GMT
#1
PlayXP's admin, Nios, had some time to talk with David Kim over some interesting stuff before the BlizzCon.

Source: http://www.playxp.com/sc2/news/view.php?article_id=2218155

------------------------------------------------------

Q. It's unfortunate that everyone hates you due to the balance issues in this game. Tell us what other people are there in the balancing team.

A. There's Matt Cooper and Dustin Browder in addition to myself, and there are additional people who give us feedback. I don't think negatively about the hate people have due to the balancing. I think of it as that, since players are interested about the game that much, they are giving us the feedback. We do take note of a lot of different information, play at the high ranked ladder games, and through those, we try our best to get feedback from the users as much as possible.

Q. Matt Cooper? That is the guy that showed up in the old battle reports back in the closed beta?

A. Yes, that is him. I shouldn't have to mention Dustin Browder, he's pretty famous as it is.

Q. Been thinking that Dustin Browder says things about balance in-depth.

A. He is our boss (team leader).

Q. Is 'dayvie', the ID at near top of NA ladder rank, you?

A. Yes. Around ELL rank 200th skill level, as a random, I'm the best.

Q. What kind of things do you take in consideration for balancing?

A. We take teamplay seriously as well as 1v1. Recent 1.1.2 patch changed Reapers. While Reapers had no problem in 1:1, if you look at the top of the 2:2 team ranks, almost half of them are Terran+Zerg, and they all use Reaperling. This problem is same in NA as well as in Korea. This means that you can't succeed all that well in teamplay unless you play a Terran+Zerg combination, so we try to fix it if the problem is as big as that. If not, then we try to balance around 1:1.

Also, forward proxy gate Zealot rush was popular for a bit after release. This didn't get much use among the top players, but it was near impossible to stop at silver-level play. So we pondered how to fix this balance issue without affecting top players, and in the end, we decided to increase the time required to build Zealots to get it balanced.

Q. How do you decide the 'good point' to start balancing from?

A. First, I play at pro-level, and mostly receive feedback from top players. Matt Cooper plays at below ELL 200th rank, and Dustin Browder plays at lower ranks of Diamond. Balancing is done through combining different feedback across different ranks. There are times when progamers personally contact us, and we do receive a lot of replay files. We also watch e-sports tournament replays and note the ladder percentile data. Of course, we do look at the feedback from our forums.

Q. Recent patch changed how Void Rays work?

A. A Korean progamer, who played a Protoss although his main race isn't Protoss, sent us a replay showing a weakness of opponents in a certain specific period of time when a Protoss is using a Void Ray. Through the replay, we gave Void Ray the change that it received.

Q. Do you play often with other progamers?

A. I do not get to much nowadays. I do not have Korean citizenship number, so I cannot connect to the Korean server (David Kim is an American citizen). I plan to talk to the Korean branch to get me an account so that I can play there.

Q. Does GSL's race matchup statistics cause any changes in balancing?

A. The matchup statistics do not have much impact in balancing. We are more interested in the games themselves. The match result itself is impacted by not only the game's balance, but the player's skill level. Therefore, we focus more on the games themselves rather than the match results.

Q. Were you surprised that Fruitdealer won as a Zerg?

A. The balancing team thought it was possible, but other teams were very surprised. Sammy even drew a fan art for him. That's how much he was excited. We (balancing team) think that Zerg race might be a bit hard to play with, but it's not impossible to win. With skills, we expected it to be possible.

Q. There are opinions that Zerg is difficult to play.

A. That is right to a certain extent. A lot of new players find it difficult to manage larva and timing of producing offensive units. But, this doesn't really impact much at the top level of play. Pros already deal with this through high level of skill. So, balancing is more or less done around the pros.

Q. Do you separately produce statistics reports for GSL?

A. We don't produce each league's statistics, but we do produce a lot of ladder statistics. For example, we produced statistics around Diamond top ranked players. It will be revealed tomorrow in BlizzCon, that there will be a new "Grand Master League", a step above the Diamond League. It's going to be the league for the pros, where only top 2% of Diamond League, or top 100 overall, or something like that will be playing at.

Q. So the "Pro League" that were talked about before is becoming a reality.

A. It's the same thing. Just the naming has changed.

Q. But, is it okay to tell about things that is to be revealed tomorrow?

A. Ah... Oh. Haha. I'm not supposed to?

Q. What do you think of SlayerS_BoxeR making it to RO32 of GSL Open Season 2, personally?

A. As it is with other people, we are excited. We can't wait for tomorrow's special event match either.

Q. What changes do you think, would come to StarCraft 2 with SlayerS_BoxeR winning GSL?

A. We think it'll impact e-sports fan culture moreso than StarCraft 2.

Q. We had a Zerg winner in GSL Season 1. Will that have an impact in balancing?

A. We can't do balancing patch around just 1 game or 10 games. While Zerg won the Season 1, recent patch buffed Zerg and nerfed Terrans. As you can see, what race won is not important, but the match content themselves are more important. We check tournament replays, and watch replay files sent in by progamers. In other words, finals don't really mean much in terms of balancing.

Q. Anything about patching Marauders?

A. Marauder is one of the units that we are looking at through various data, and we think that we nerfed them indirectly in the recent patch through nerfing Medivacs. We don't think Marauders are, either unit stat wise or statistics-wise, strong, but we are continuing to check the feedback. So, if we find any special overpoweredness, we are willing to provide a solution. For now, we are watching.

Edit: Wording in regards to Void Ray Q.
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blade55555
Profile Blog Joined March 2009
United States17423 Posts
October 22 2010 05:05 GMT
#2
Interesting about the "Grand Master League". I hope its invite only or something to that sort. Should be very interesting ^^
When I think of something else, something will go here
Al Bundy
Profile Joined April 2010
7257 Posts
October 22 2010 05:06 GMT
#3
nice, thanks for the translation.
I'm not a top player nor a statistics pro so I'm going to let the balance experts talk about this interview.
o choro é livre
GrooveOverdose
Profile Joined October 2010
United States19 Posts
October 22 2010 05:07 GMT
#4
Grandmaster league???? OMG another league i cant get into ><
remio
Profile Joined October 2006
69 Posts
October 22 2010 05:07 GMT
#5
interesting article, thanks for the translation.
Antoine
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United States7481 Posts
October 22 2010 05:08 GMT
#6
finally confirmation that dayvie is in fact him
ModeratorFlash Sea Action Snow Midas | TheStC Ret Tyler MC | RIP 우정호
Ichabod
Profile Joined May 2010
United States1659 Posts
October 22 2010 05:08 GMT
#7
Wtf, that's one hell of a question to open an interview with. Nice interview overall though, concrete confirmation on dayvie's identity, etc.

It seems weird that he tiptoes around using the word "strong" to describe marauders...is it bad for a unit to be strong? (too strong yes, but just strong, no)
0neder
Profile Joined July 2009
United States3733 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-10-22 05:09:44
October 22 2010 05:09 GMT
#8
You don't think Marauders are 'strong,' really?

Blizzard, PLEASE don't call it something stupid and chess-ey like 'Grand-Master.' Pro League, PLEASE!
ryanAnger
Profile Blog Joined April 2008
United States838 Posts
October 22 2010 05:09 GMT
#9
I think David Kim should be in charge of Balance PR from now on, because reading this, he actually made me happy.

Also, its awesome to know that such a high level player is responsible for a lot of balance changes. I'm sure there are many occasions where DB is like "OMG we should give Roaches like 8 range, and let them shoot while underground" (the example is just exaggerated, obviously) and then Dayvie goes, "Now, calm down, Dusty, that's a bit too much."
On my way...
Go0g3n
Profile Blog Joined December 2009
Russian Federation410 Posts
October 22 2010 05:10 GMT
#10
What's the point in having GM League with only top 2% from your server Diamonds, would make more sense making it a global pool.
frogmelter
Profile Blog Joined April 2009
United States971 Posts
October 22 2010 05:10 GMT
#11
On October 22 2010 14:01 Selith wrote:
A. We take teamplay seriously as well as 1v1. Recent 1.1.2 patch changed Reapers. While Reapers had no problem in 1:1, if you look at the top of the 2:2 team ranks, almost half of them are Terran+Zerg, and they all use Reaperling. This problem is same in NA as well as in Korea. This means that you can't succeed all that well in teamplay unless you play a Terran+Zerg combination, so we try to fix it if the problem is as big as that. If not, then we try to balance around 1:1.

Also, forward proxy gate Zealot rush was popular for a bit after release. This didn't get much use among the top players, but it was near impossible to stop at silver-level play. So we pondered how to fix this balance issue without affecting top players, and in the end, we decided to increase the time required to build Zealots to get it balanced.


Ughhhh

DO NOT WANT

Balanced for silver leagues and team play
TL+ Member
dahornnn
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United Kingdom395 Posts
October 22 2010 05:11 GMT
#12
very nice read, thx!
GTR
Profile Blog Joined September 2004
51397 Posts
October 22 2010 05:11 GMT
#13
i guess they couldn't use 'pro league' due to conflict of interest with 'proleague'
Commentator
storm44
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
1293 Posts
October 22 2010 05:11 GMT
#14
I don't understand how increasing the zealot building time doesn't affect top levels as well as lower silver leaguers can someone explain?
Vortok
Profile Joined December 2009
United States830 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-10-22 05:14:53
October 22 2010 05:12 GMT
#15
Marauders are a hard issue. On one hand they rape the hell out of buildings, but it's very easy to send Terran into the depths of being an UP race with just a couple nerfs in the wrong places.

Also: Instead of nerfing Zealot build time, just produce better maps.
bjwithbraces
Profile Joined April 2010
United States549 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-10-22 05:15:35
October 22 2010 05:12 GMT
#16
Thanks for the interview, stoked for grand master league(Though I'll never be in it) but it's what's needed for the top top tier players.

[e] Also grand master league should have the sc2 equivalent of HLTV, where ppl can just join and spectate a game(perhaps specified if they want to watch T/Z/P or map specific or specific match ups etc just ideas). It shouldn't matter because if the pro player playing wanted to practice stuff he'd be doing in a custom game, so spectating random ladder matches through a sc2 type server would be cool.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/unipolarity/inventory/
0neder
Profile Joined July 2009
United States3733 Posts
October 22 2010 05:13 GMT
#17
Use a hyphen or something, just not Grand Master!!!
Saechiis
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Netherlands4989 Posts
October 22 2010 05:14 GMT
#18
Grand Master League, I predict "I'm GML" smugness :D
I think esports is pretty nice.
0neder
Profile Joined July 2009
United States3733 Posts
October 22 2010 05:14 GMT
#19
On October 22 2010 14:12 Vortok wrote:
Marauders are a hard issue. On one hand they rape the hell out of buildings, but it's very easy to send Terran into the depths of being an UP race with just a couple nerfs in the wrong places.

It's easy, nerf marauder hp or slow effect, and buff the hell out of seige tank attack damage and make seige tanks overkill. Done.
skindzer
Profile Blog Joined May 2005
Chile5114 Posts
October 22 2010 05:14 GMT
#20
There should be 2 leagues above diamond.
Its not only the rain that brings the thunder
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