Patch 2.1 for StarCraft has been released. It is being rolled out progressively, and may not be available in all regions at the time of writing.
Patch Notes:
StarCraft II Patch 2.1 is now live! This patch brings a host of new additions and improvements to the game. Please read the full patch notes below. You can also head here if you’d like a more detailed breakdown of the major additions found in Patch 2.1.
GENERAL
Free Arcade and More
The entirety of the Arcade, along with all of the maps, mods, and games found within, has been made accessible to all StarCraft II: Starter Edition players for free.
All Custom Games are now available to Starter Edition players.
All three races have been unlocked for Starter Edition players.
More information can be found in our Free Arcade blog. You can also check out our
Free Arcade and Art Tools videos.
New Extension Mods Feature
Mod developers can now create Extension Mods, which consist of parameter sets that can be published to Battle.net for use with any StarCraft II melee map.
Players can apply any Extension Mod to any melee map from the Custom Games list.
To create a game using an Extension Mod, enter the Custom Games list, hit the “Browse Maps” button, select any map, and then click “Create with Mod” to choose an Extension Mod from the list.
The “Top Played Games” section of the Custom Games list now displays the most popular melee map and Extension Mod combinations.
For more information, please see our Patch 2.1 Preview: Extension Mods blog post.
Extension Mod Samples
Three pre-made Extension Mods have already been published to Battle.net so that players and developers alike can quickly get familiar with this new feature.
All Units Explode – Every unit explodes upon death, damaging all surrounding units.
Big Game Hunters – All Mineral Patch and Vespene Geyser resource counts are dramatically increased.
Wandering Minerals – Mineral Patches randomly wander the map, much like neutral critters.
More Levels and New Rewards
The level cap for each race has been increased from 30 to 35.
Added three new race-specific “StarCrafts”-themed decals that can be unlocked at level 32.
Added three new race-specific “StarCrafts”-themed portraits that can be unlocked at level 35.
Have a look at the new rewards and get all the leveling details in our Patch 2.1 Preview: More Levels and New Rewards blog post.
First Win of the Day XP Bonus Increased
The bonus received for the “First Win of the Day” with each race has been increased from 25,000 to 100,000 experience points.
Classic StarCraft Soundtrack
The original StarCraft and StarCraft: Brood War soundtracks have been re-mastered and made available for play in StarCraft II.
Open the Options menu (F10), navigate to the Sound tab, and then locate the “Soundtrack” option to select which soundtrack from the dropdown list will play in-game.
More details can be found in our Patch 2.1 Preview: Classic StarCraft Soundtrack in StarCraft II blog post.
New Loading Screen Tips
Two new tips have been added that will display on both Wings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm loading screens.
Three new tips have been added that will display exclusively on Heart of the Swarm loading screens.
It's worth noting that league percentage fixes were also included, but not in the patch notes:
We’re planning to implement StarCraft II Patch 2.1 next week. This patch includes more levels and new rewards, new changes to Clans and Groups, a 100% free Arcade, remastered Classic StarCraft and StarCraft: Brood War music, adjustments to the league distribution percentages on the ladder, Extension Mods, and many other features.
Are there any details on this? I mean people are complaining about it but is something really technical wrong with it or is it just to make people more happy by putting them into higher leagues or something like that.
Are there any details on this? I mean people are complaining about it but is something really technical wrong with it or is it just to make people more happy by putting them into higher leagues or something like that.
There was blizzard confirmation that the offsets were placing people disproportionately into lower leagues. I'll dig it up when I get to my laptop (on my phone)
We’re planning to implement StarCraft II Patch 2.1 next week. This patch includes more levels and new rewards, new changes to Clans and Groups, a 100% free Arcade, remastered Classic StarCraft and StarCraft: Brood War music, adjustments to the league distribution percentages on the ladder, Extension Mods, and many other features.
Are there any details on this? I mean people are complaining about it but is something really technical wrong with it or is it just to make people more happy by putting them into higher leagues or something like that.
There seems to be a lot of anectodal evidence that things are broken rather than just changed in an unfavourable way.
For example, Blizzard has said (in the december leagues/ladders blog) that MMR decay should at most have the same impact as losing 6 or 7 games.
But, I logged on and played a game on my SEA account after 3 or so months of inactivity. Previous league? Diamond. New placement after one match? Silver. So, its obvious the effect is more than a couple of games, and its unfair on a silver player to have to face diamond level mechanics.
Worse still, it takes a lot longer to climb out of low leagues since you constantly play diamond/masters players throughout silver and gold, which is absurd
Are there any details on this? I mean people are complaining about it but is something really technical wrong with it or is it just to make people more happy by putting them into higher leagues or something like that.
There seems to be a lot of anectodal evidence that things are broken rather than just changed in an unfavourable way.
For example, Blizzard has said (in the december leagues/ladders blog) that MMR decay should at most have the same impact as losing 6 or 7 games.
But, I logged on and played a game on my SEA account after 3 or so months of inactivity. Previous league? Diamond. New placement after one match? Silver. So, its obvious the effect is more than a couple of games, and its unfair on a silver player to have to face diamond level mechanics.
Worse still, it takes a lot longer to climb out of low leagues since you constantly play diamond/masters players throughout silver and gold, which is absurd
Have they made the Arcade not retarded yet? For example does the game still auto-start when the game is full? Is there still a completely pointless 10 second countdown during which you can't leave the game? Can you create games and give them a name? Stuff like that.
On January 22 2014 07:53 labbe wrote: Have they made the Arcade not retarded yet? For example does the game still auto-start when the game is full? Is there still a completely pointless 10 second countdown during which you can't leave the game? Can you create games and give them a name? Stuff like that.
Ok, working on a basic extension mod now; the one I had wanted to do back in beta; ugh, starting point rotation still doesn't work, after all this time, why didn't they fix that.
grr, I told blizzard about that bug back in WoL beta and it's still not fixed.
On January 22 2014 07:53 labbe wrote: Have they made the Arcade not retarded yet? For example does the game still auto-start when the game is full? Is there still a completely pointless 10 second countdown during which you can't leave the game? Can you create games and give them a name? Stuff like that.
You can logout and leave.
Well, that's great and all, but why even have a countdown if you can't do anything during the countdown? And why is it 10 seconds? Why not 3 seconds like in bw? Makes no sense whatsoever.
On January 22 2014 07:49 sob3k wrote: Can you download the remastered BW music anywhere? I'd love to have the mp3's...
I'm sure blizzard will gladly allow you to purchase it via their shop soon(tm). Meaning that you will find it around your favorite internet sites soon + 5 minutes.
It's a bit weird. They are selling this, marketing wise, like it's a way for people to create their own games, but everything in the arcade is still under the Starcraft 2 EULA, which clearly said everything is still a property of Blizzard. Because you know, they don't want another DotA to slip out of their hands.
Are there any details on this? I mean people are complaining about it but is something really technical wrong with it or is it just to make people more happy by putting them into higher leagues or something like that.
There seems to be a lot of anectodal evidence that things are broken rather than just changed in an unfavourable way.
For example, Blizzard has said (in the december leagues/ladders blog) that MMR decay should at most have the same impact as losing 6 or 7 games.
But, I logged on and played a game on my SEA account after 3 or so months of inactivity. Previous league? Diamond. New placement after one match? Silver. So, its obvious the effect is more than a couple of games, and its unfair on a silver player to have to face diamond level mechanics.
Worse still, it takes a lot longer to climb out of low leagues since you constantly play diamond/masters players throughout silver and gold, which is absurd
Yup. Pretty good summary of the problem.
Not really. Due to the player base drainage, more GM and master are now occupying diamonds and platinum because the ladder rank distribution no longer allow enough slots for upper levels. It is only natural for other leagues to get bumped down.
The free arcade thing can be such a boon. Designers make it and can play with their family and friends the next day and interest others in teaming up with them. It's launching into an already competitive gaming scene, but who knows.
It's a chance for Blizzard to sell many more copies of SC2 (and then another chance to get the expo too). Friends play arcades, try other arcades, hear about the ladder competition etc, and want their own copy. It's already installed, so 5 clicks away from laddering etc.
On January 22 2014 08:24 Noocta wrote: It's a bit weird. They are selling this, marketing wise, like it's a way for people to create their own games, but everything in the arcade is still under the Starcraft 2 EULA, which clearly said everything is still a property of Blizzard. Because you know, they don't want another DotA to slip out of their hands.
Nothing in the Terms of Service stops "another DotA" situation from happening, Blizzard owns mods distributed on their service, made with their tools and using their assets played with SC2, if you want to make a carbon copy of a game you've made in SC2 you can unless you're going to call it "Starcraft Tower Defense" or some other trademarked term.
Are there any details on this? I mean people are complaining about it but is something really technical wrong with it or is it just to make people more happy by putting them into higher leagues or something like that.
There seems to be a lot of anectodal evidence that things are broken rather than just changed in an unfavourable way.
For example, Blizzard has said (in the december leagues/ladders blog) that MMR decay should at most have the same impact as losing 6 or 7 games.
But, I logged on and played a game on my SEA account after 3 or so months of inactivity. Previous league? Diamond. New placement after one match? Silver. So, its obvious the effect is more than a couple of games, and its unfair on a silver player to have to face diamond level mechanics.
Worse still, it takes a lot longer to climb out of low leagues since you constantly play diamond/masters players throughout silver and gold, which is absurd
well, since I can't make the extension mod I wanted to make, since rotating starting point still don't seem to work; any other extension mods that could use making and aren't already being worked on by someone more august?
Are there any details on this? I mean people are complaining about it but is something really technical wrong with it or is it just to make people more happy by putting them into higher leagues or something like that.
There seems to be a lot of anectodal evidence that things are broken rather than just changed in an unfavourable way.
For example, Blizzard has said (in the december leagues/ladders blog) that MMR decay should at most have the same impact as losing 6 or 7 games.
But, I logged on and played a game on my SEA account after 3 or so months of inactivity. Previous league? Diamond. New placement after one match? Silver. So, its obvious the effect is more than a couple of games, and its unfair on a silver player to have to face diamond level mechanics.
Worse still, it takes a lot longer to climb out of low leagues since you constantly play diamond/masters players throughout silver and gold, which is absurd
So the ladder is still retarded right?
Yep, but Blizzard acknowledged it and is supposedly working on it. Quote from a community manager from the battle.net forum: "We're looking into what's happening.
We'll have more information for you in a little while."
EDIT: If you mean "even with redistribution working", then I say we're better to wait and see. My gues is it will still be broken, but I'm trying to be optimistic anyway.
Are there any details on this? I mean people are complaining about it but is something really technical wrong with it or is it just to make people more happy by putting them into higher leagues or something like that.
There seems to be a lot of anectodal evidence that things are broken rather than just changed in an unfavourable way.
For example, Blizzard has said (in the december leagues/ladders blog) that MMR decay should at most have the same impact as losing 6 or 7 games.
But, I logged on and played a game on my SEA account after 3 or so months of inactivity. Previous league? Diamond. New placement after one match? Silver. So, its obvious the effect is more than a couple of games, and its unfair on a silver player to have to face diamond level mechanics.
Worse still, it takes a lot longer to climb out of low leagues since you constantly play diamond/masters players throughout silver and gold, which is absurd
So the ladder is still retarded right?
Yep, but Blizzard acknowledged it and is supposedly working on it. Quote from a community manager from the battle.net forum: "We're looking into what's happening.
We'll have more information for you in a little while."
EDIT: If you mean "even with redistribution working", then I say we're better to wait and see. My gues is it will still be broken, but I'm trying to be optimistic anyway.
Hey everyone! Yesterday I tweeted about GameHeart Keyboards, a new feature coming to GameHeart alongside the GameHeart extension mod. And today I wanted to showoff GameHeart 'Nostalgia Mode'.
I was planning to wait an let it be a surprise but I have some bad news and I thought showing this off now might soften the blow. The bad news is that I have decided to wait and release the GameHeart extension mod in a few days once the patch is out in all regions just to make my life a little easier, and to give me a bit more time to polish this feature as well as keyboards and some of the other modules.
About 'Nostalgia Mode': It was an idea sent to me by /u/ESPORTS_HotBid and it basically replaces many of the sounds from SC2 with the iconic audio from Brood War. It only does this for observers, players still hear SC2 audio and it is of course optional and off by default. I thought this feature might go nicely with the newly added remasted Brood War music that Blizzard is adding in the patch!
Sorry again about the delay on the extension mod, but it is packed with new features and it makes GameHeart easier to use than ever!
would like to know if u are starter pack player can u join chat channel? or not? i read somewhere that u can read only but cant chat, and i read somewhere its fully disabled
On January 22 2014 10:09 Killmouse wrote: would like to know if u are starter pack player can u join chat channel? or not? i read somewhere that u can read only but cant chat, and i read somewhere its fully disabled
You can read chat, but can't send messages to it. Also you can connect to players who are in the lobby (i.e. those players have green button aka "Connect to the player's game")
On January 22 2014 10:09 Killmouse wrote: would like to know if u are starter pack player can u join chat channel? or not? i read somewhere that u can read only but cant chat, and i read somewhere its fully disabled
You can read chat, but can't send messages to it. Also you can connect to players who are in the lobby (i.e. those players have green button aka "Connect to the player's game")
I wish BGH had faster mining or something. It feels indistinguishable from regular melee, since the only difference is that you can stay on an individual base for longer.
I am happy about the option for BW music, and any patch that can improve the state of SC2 is nice. However most of the other features do absolutely nothing for me personally. I don't play custom games, I don't have friends that would play custom games if they were free, and I don't have a group/clan to utilize icons, and if I did I still wouldn't really care much about them, though I think it could be kind of neat for team logos if used maturely. Hopefully 2.2 has something I can be happier about.
Hey everyone! Yesterday I tweeted about GameHeart Keyboards, a new feature coming to GameHeart alongside the GameHeart extension mod. And today I wanted to showoff GameHeart 'Nostalgia Mode'.
I was planning to wait an let it be a surprise but I have some bad news and I thought showing this off now might soften the blow. The bad news is that I have decided to wait and release the GameHeart extension mod in a few days once the patch is out in all regions just to make my life a little easier, and to give me a bit more time to polish this feature as well as keyboards and some of the other modules.
About 'Nostalgia Mode': It was an idea sent to me by /u/ESPORTS_HotBid and it basically replaces many of the sounds from SC2 with the iconic audio from Brood War. It only does this for observers, players still hear SC2 audio and it is of course optional and off by default. I thought this feature might go nicely with the newly added remasted Brood War music that Blizzard is adding in the patch!
Sorry again about the delay on the extension mod, but it is packed with new features and it makes GameHeart easier to use than ever!
This is what Blizzard needs to do - but for players. I've been playing more Broodwar than SC2 lately and the sounds are SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much better in the original game.
With Patch 2.1, all players now have access to any maps that depend on Heart of the Swarm or Wings of Liberty. This includes both the Arcade and Custom Games.
This means that everyone, including Starter Edition players who have not purchased StarCraft II, can now play any user created map or mod.
Below I will cover some topics that have already come up.
Custom Games Not only are all maps in the Arcade freely accessible, but all games under the Custom Games section are now free as well.
Note that Custom Games are still filtered by your Expansion Level, so if a map directly depends on Liberty or Swarm Multi it will only appear in the list if you are set to that same expansion level in your gameplay options.
Publishing In order to publish a map or mod that depends on Wings of Liberty or Heart of the Swarm, you must still have the appropriate license(s) for those dependencies. This has not changed in 2.1.
I hope this clarifies how dependencies and licenses work in Patch 2.1. If you have any related questions, feel free to ask and I will try to update this post with more details.
Wonder what the new loading tips are. "Void rays are overpowered by design (Dustins son plays toss). Build them whenever you get the chance." "As zerg, try mind controlling a probe to build a nexus, then tech to void rays and build as many as you can."
I like the music a lot haha... I listen to the Terran theme songs from BW in regular non-video game settings like driving etc. Anyway, I'm looking forward to the Game Heart and extension mode development stuff the most. I think this patch is 'exciting' in the long run -- that is, there is nothing immediately that awesome, but in the future, THIS PATCH will be a land mark moment in the ESports History books of eSports hiStory
Are there any details on this? I mean people are complaining about it but is something really technical wrong with it or is it just to make people more happy by putting them into higher leagues or something like that.
There seems to be a lot of anectodal evidence that things are broken rather than just changed in an unfavourable way.
For example, Blizzard has said (in the december leagues/ladders blog) that MMR decay should at most have the same impact as losing 6 or 7 games.
But, I logged on and played a game on my SEA account after 3 or so months of inactivity. Previous league? Diamond. New placement after one match? Silver. So, its obvious the effect is more than a couple of games, and its unfair on a silver player to have to face diamond level mechanics.
Worse still, it takes a lot longer to climb out of low leagues since you constantly play diamond/masters players throughout silver and gold, which is absurd
Yup. Pretty good summary of the problem.
Not really. Due to the player base drainage, more GM and master are now occupying diamonds and platinum because the ladder rank distribution no longer allow enough slots for upper levels. It is only natural for other leagues to get bumped down.
Bumped down a little sure.
But to the point where 86% of the playerbase is in the bottom 3 leagues? That's not indicative of natural trickle down, that's indicative of shit being broken.
So instead of actually fixing the balance of the game they plan on just arbitrarily promoting enough players from the under-performing "races" (i.e. Terran) to make it seem like there is an equal spread in every league? How does that help things at all? It's just a cosmetic change to an actual problem, designed only to boost the egos of a few players who can say they were "good enough" to get promoted..I guess I shouldn't have expected much from Blizzard :/
On January 22 2014 11:33 RiZu wrote: Hmm if I had WoL already, do I need to download the starter edition to access 2.1 Patch?
I don't think so, I think you'll be good just with WoL by itself. Worth checking though.
No, its a regular patch that will be downloaded as usual.
@Topic: What a great patch. I'm looking forward to it! Cant wait to play BGH on a normal map
Edit: What has happened here? Originally I quoted a post that asked whether you need to download the starter edition to have the patch. No this post is gone.
So is it being release on the KR server soon or in about a day's time?
Here, Blizzard wrote: Wednesday, Jan 22 – Korea and Taiwan, China
Is that Jan 22 KST or either Pacific or Eastern US time? It should be happening soon if it is KST as it is now after noon there, but it could be many hours away if it is PST or EST, because it's only around Jan 21, 7-10PM in the USA at present.
Am I retarded, can't get onto either the EU or NA servers atm and am in a Skype call with a friend who is currently on NA? Apart from that brief whine though I'm really excited to try this stuff out!
tried using the link, after it started downloading it caused my google chrome to crash, and crash immediately upon launch until I nuked the download, anyone else got this problem or is it just me?
On January 22 2014 11:35 Survivor61316 wrote: So instead of actually fixing the balance of the game they plan on just arbitrarily promoting enough players from the under-performing "races" (i.e. Terran) to make it seem like there is an equal spread in every league? How does that help things at all? It's just a cosmetic change to an actual problem, designed only to boost the egos of a few players who can say they were "good enough" to get promoted..I guess I shouldn't have expected much from Blizzard :/
They're not doing that at all. You're completely misunderstanding how they're readjusting the ladder.
And balance changes have come separate from feature additions for a while now.
On January 22 2014 11:35 Survivor61316 wrote: So instead of actually fixing the balance of the game they plan on just arbitrarily promoting enough players from the under-performing "races" (i.e. Terran) to make it seem like there is an equal spread in every league? How does that help things at all? It's just a cosmetic change to an actual problem, designed only to boost the egos of a few players who can say they were "good enough" to get promoted..I guess I shouldn't have expected much from Blizzard :/
I could link you to many different threads proving the game is statistically balanced, but you could find them yourself just as easy. There is one on the front page of SC2 General right now translated from Korean and originally created by a Korean netizen pegging all matchups at 54-46 win rates or lower (lower being closer to 50/50 I mean). It even shows how the last patch improved balance slightly.
"My race isn't represented enough in X league" is an interesting form of balance whining, but it isn't particularly justified because you cannot filter out enough variables - maybe more skilled players play X race. Maybe more people in general play Y race. Maybe more people in KR are better at Z race. Maybe, maybe, maybe using league representation as an indicator of balance is a horrible idea.
SC2 is statistically more balanced at professional level right now than Chess (in games that aren't a draw, White wins 55-45 against Black on average).
TL;DR: If you're havin' balance problems, I feel bad you son. SC2 got 99 problems, but balance ain't one.
Well it kind of does given how fucking hard Terran is to actually play at present in TvP. It's not borne out by statistics as its hard to quantify, but the effort required proportionally, especially at lower leagues is frankly ridiculous
Nope, and I was sitting over 500+ points in gold with a big gap over the #2 guy in my division. I was hoping for a promotion. Even after some games still didn't get anything.
I'm at the very low gold level, but from what I understand, if the system worked properly, all gold and top silver should be insta-platinum to fit the desired percentages, and I sure didn't see a promotion. Although a single played.
On January 22 2014 15:02 JeanBob wrote: I'm at the very low gold level, but from what I understand, if the system worked properly, all gold and top silver should be insta-platinum to fit the desired percentages, and I sure didn't see a promotion. Although a single played.
On January 22 2014 15:02 JeanBob wrote: I'm at the very low gold level, but from what I understand, if the system worked properly, all gold and top silver should be insta-platinum to fit the desired percentages, and I sure didn't see a promotion. Although a single played.
tried using the link, after it started downloading it caused my google chrome to crash, and crash immediately upon launch until I nuked the download, anyone else got this problem or is it just me?
Well, AFAIK, they said they would be adjusting the ladder parameters "sometime around" patch 2.1... So maybe they havn't done it quite yet?
Feels weird to complain after getting such an awesome patch with so much cool stuff, but the ladder fix was what I was looking forward to the most, haha.
Various quotes from Kaivax, community manager from Blizzard, on the official battle.net forum:
We’re planning to implement StarCraft II Patch 2.1 next week. This patch includes more levels and new rewards, new changes to Clans and Groups, a 100% free Arcade, remastered Classic StarCraft and StarCraft: Brood War music, adjustments to the league distribution percentages on the ladder, Extension Mods, and many other features.
I just wanted to stop back in here and let you know that we’ve been watching the data roll in this afternoon, and so far, so good. We’ve seen a big uptick in promotions, and every player that we’ve spot-checked (including at least one who posted in this thread) has been statistically affected as expected.
The process of making league distribution better align with the desired percentages wasn’t expected to be instantaneous, and we will continue to monitor results very closely. We’re on it.
I (or another CM) will check back in on the issue for you, and update you again tomorrow.
On January 22 2014 15:02 JeanBob wrote: I'm at the very low gold level, but from what I understand, if the system worked properly, all gold and top silver should be insta-platinum to fit the desired percentages, and I sure didn't see a promotion. Although a single played.
This is absolutely incorrect. You are overestimating the errors in the league distribution, probably because you are using sc2ranks which doesn't work for the purpose. This is an old post, but still relevant: http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/10660146024#9 "The SC2Ranks/Nios.kr have never at any time reflected the target ladder distribution because they don't apply Blizzard's hidden internal activity metric. So, while the leagues may actually be out of whack, you wouldn't be able to tell from those sites anyway."
On January 22 2014 15:44 DooMDash wrote: Blizzard commented on it a couple of hours ago as if it was working, but people like myself who are sitting high at number one keeping waiting. http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/11354455348?page=5#84
just to bump this post, very useful to those who are still wondering why they aren't getting instantly promoted.
On January 22 2014 15:44 DooMDash wrote: Blizzard commented on it a couple of hours ago as if it was working, but people like myself who are sitting high at number one keeping waiting. http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/11354455348?page=5#84
just to bump this post, very useful to those who are still wondering why they aren't getting instantly promoted.
I can't see why you shouldn't be instantly promoted if you are affected by the change in league thresholds. Obviously the distribution can't fix itself instantly because people have to play to get promoted.
On January 22 2014 07:28 IncubusSC wrote: Why doesn't this thread mention the most important thing: Ladder distribution fix.
Ladder distribution fix is completely superficial IMO (come on dude, just accept leagues have been redistributed, and as a matter of fact, they don't matter that much, though I can understand people who confer them some importance, just not that much).
What's REALLY important in this patch is the free arcade and races unlocking.
We now have SC2 being free to play, kind of. You can play tournaments and "competitive" games without buying SC2 (though not ladder).
With the current rise of Starbow, this may be quite the most important thing that happened to SC2, I'd like to think (but I might go a bit far).
League distribution fix doesnt mean anything if mmr decay ,as it was,is still active. This means that less active players will still be demoted 2-3-4 leagues down,only they will get up the leagues faster.Given that not all start to play at the beginning of the season we will still have diamond and master players in low leagues during whole season,only in lower numbers.
On January 22 2014 14:06 Wombat_NI wrote: Well it kind of does given how fucking hard Terran is to actually play at present in TvP. It's not borne out by statistics as its hard to quantify, but the effort required proportionally, especially at lower leagues is frankly ridiculous
On January 22 2014 20:04 Liman wrote: League distribution fix doesnt mean anything if mmr decay ,as it was,is still active. This means that less active players will still be demoted 2-3-4 leagues down,only they will get up the leagues faster.Given that not all start to play at the beginning of the season we will still have diamond and master players in low leagues during whole season,only in lower numbers.
EDIT:
Nevermind, turns out I was the one who didn't have all the info. Sorry. My bad. :/
Are there any details on this? I mean people are complaining about it but is something really technical wrong with it or is it just to make people more happy by putting them into higher leagues or something like that.
There was blizzard confirmation that the offsets were placing people disproportionately into lower leagues. I'll dig it up when I get to my laptop (on my phone)
This post gathers some of the main links and discussions together
On January 22 2014 22:54 RaZorwire wrote: Blizzard commented on MMR decay a while back. Being demoted 3 or 4 leagues only due to MMR decay is not possible:
On January 22 2014 22:54 RaZorwire wrote: The ladder distribution is skewed right now compared to where Blizzard wanted it to be (http://www.sc2ranks.com/stats/league)
I'm sorry, but.. I didn't have to play any match and I'm still in diamond league. Is my hidden MMR changed or do I actually need to play, what's going on? Anyone know?
Now if they only added an option for BW sound effects along with the music, SC2 would be one step closer to greatness. At least in the sound department.
On January 22 2014 22:54 RaZorwire wrote: Blizzard commented on MMR decay a while back. Being demoted 3 or 4 leagues only due to MMR decay is not possible:
On January 22 2014 22:54 RaZorwire wrote: The ladder distribution is skewed right now compared to where Blizzard wanted it to be (http://www.sc2ranks.com/stats/league)
On January 23 2014 01:35 sigm wrote: Now if they only added an option for BW sound effects along with the music, SC2 would be one step closer to greatness. At least in the sound department.
I really really really hope they try implementing this!
On January 23 2014 01:35 sigm wrote: Now if they only added an option for BW sound effects along with the music, SC2 would be one step closer to greatness. At least in the sound department.
I really really really hope they try implementing this!
Frankly, it mystifies me why Brood War's sounds are so much more better. They're just more visceral, but also more distinguishable. You can kind of tell what's happening in a BW battle just from the audio, more clearly than in SC2 anyway.
On January 23 2014 01:35 sigm wrote: Now if they only added an option for BW sound effects along with the music, SC2 would be one step closer to greatness. At least in the sound department.
And the unit sounds too! Before they removed MPQ editing I used to play with BW unit sounds and it was sooooo much better. I still miss it every day T.T
On January 23 2014 03:19 HomeWorld wrote: "Double clicking or Ctrl + Clicking a Hellion or Hellbat now properly selects all Hellions and Hellbats on screen."
What were they thinking ?! /o\
yes. i hate this option, its like double clicking or ctrl + clicking a high templar now properly selects all high templar and archons on screen.
the option has no apparent benefit except to incite the players and strike a back handed nerf to terran users
On January 22 2014 20:04 Liman wrote: League distribution fix doesnt mean anything if mmr decay ,as it was,is still active.
That's basically correct. Somehow a lot of players thought that "ladder redistribution" meant "reversing MMR decay" and "making the leagues appear on SC2Ranks to be 8/20/32/20/18/2". That's just not going to happen. The leagues never have and never will look like that on those sites because they don't have the data that Blizzard has.
Good impressions on 2.1 so far, love the music ofc and the new decal option is a quite cool feature, let's see what the extension mods will add to the game. Does anyone know if they adressed the ladder distribution problem already? Couldn't find anything related skimming through the patch notes.
On January 23 2014 07:38 [PkF] Wire wrote: Allowing customization without any limitation was dumb and I think they'll soon take this feature back.
There is some limitation
so can you put He-Man or Pokemon decals?
some pros already use He-Man and Pokemon decals in WCS America...
On January 22 2014 14:28 Smurfett3 wrote: how allowed exactly are custom decals in tourney play? and wcs play?
I was watching the wcs stream and i caught the tail end of mr bitter and rotti talking about the admin bitching at the players to not use decals. Do they get penalty points for using decals or anything like that?
my question was never answered in the decals thread :/
those "limitations" don't keep anyone from having their dog or Jacques Chirac dancing in front of their townhall. Not very Starcraft II-esque, at least to my mind.
Edit : changed Pikachu which must be copyrighted for "their dog" which most certainly isn't.
On January 23 2014 08:41 [PkF] Wire wrote: those "limitations" don't keep anyone from having Pikachu or Jacques Chirac dancing in front of their townhall. Not very Starcraft II-esque, at least to my mind.
but Pokemon is copyrighted, dont the rules say you cant use image decals of copyright or trademarks?
Classic StarCraft Soundtrack The original StarCraft and StarCraft: Brood War soundtracks have been re-mastered and made available for play in StarCraft II. Open the Options menu (F10), navigate to the Sound tab, and then locate the “Soundtrack” option to select which soundtrack from the dropdown list will play in-game. More details can be found in our Patch 2.1 Preview: Classic StarCraft Soundtrack in StarCraft II blog post.
On January 23 2014 08:41 [PkF] Wire wrote: those "limitations" don't keep anyone from having Pikachu or Jacques Chirac dancing in front of their townhall. Not very Starcraft II-esque, at least to my mind.
but Pokemon is copyrighted, dont the rules say you cant use image decals of copyright or trademarks?
I'm not sure its a big deal, since you are not trying to profit from the upload. I can use Jacques Chirac as my facebook photo and no one cares.
Which means we can have some truly amazing decals in the near future. Truly amazing.
Classic StarCraft Soundtrack The original StarCraft and StarCraft: Brood War soundtracks have been re-mastered and made available for play in StarCraft II. Open the Options menu (F10), navigate to the Sound tab, and then locate the “Soundtrack” option to select which soundtrack from the dropdown list will play in-game. More details can be found in our Patch 2.1 Preview: Classic StarCraft Soundtrack in StarCraft II blog post.
Best patch in history.
The music makes this patch the best patch in existence. Now I can feel like a terran. The next logical step would be to have an option to replace the zerg dialogue prompts with the original Overlord voice, and then, omg.
I mean, I do enjoy the BW music but it's really not that big a deal? I had it in a music player running in the background. BW unit sounds on the other hand...
Classic StarCraft Soundtrack The original StarCraft and StarCraft: Brood War soundtracks have been re-mastered and made available for play in StarCraft II. Open the Options menu (F10), navigate to the Sound tab, and then locate the “Soundtrack” option to select which soundtrack from the dropdown list will play in-game. More details can be found in our Patch 2.1 Preview: Classic StarCraft Soundtrack in StarCraft II blog post.
Best patch in history.
The music makes this patch the best patch in existence. Now I can feel like a terran. The next logical step would be to have an option to replace the zerg dialogue prompts with the original Overlord voice, and then, omg.
Overmind voice is very robotic, and a bit outdated. I prefer Abathur or Stukov or Kerrigan itself.
Classic StarCraft Soundtrack The original StarCraft and StarCraft: Brood War soundtracks have been re-mastered and made available for play in StarCraft II. Open the Options menu (F10), navigate to the Sound tab, and then locate the “Soundtrack” option to select which soundtrack from the dropdown list will play in-game. More details can be found in our Patch 2.1 Preview: Classic StarCraft Soundtrack in StarCraft II blog post.
Best patch in history.
The music makes this patch the best patch in existence. Now I can feel like a terran. The next logical step would be to have an option to replace the zerg dialogue prompts with the original Overlord voice, and then, omg.
On January 23 2014 08:41 [PkF] Wire wrote: those "limitations" don't keep anyone from having their dog or Jacques Chirac dancing in front of their townhall. Not very Starcraft II-esque, at least to my mind.
Edit : changed Pikachu which must be copyrighted for "their dog" which most certainly isn't.
That's the beaty of the word 'offensive'. It doesn't mean anything.
If you feel that a picture of Jacques Chirac offends you then the picture is offensive to you and so in violation of Blizzard's terms.
I don't understand why this is such big news. I don't see why modders have any more incentive to create free awesomeness for Blizzard. This includes mapmakers. They clearly suck at it, but don't want other private entities to make any profit fixing their crappiness. I guess you can just color me bitter.
On January 23 2014 13:20 User15937 wrote: Is it just me or are the ladders not updated in the slightest? It wasn't mentioned in the patch notes, and no one I know has gotten promoted.
I got promoted on my first game in patch 2.1, haven't seen to many others though :/
I still don't understand why does everyone call ladder "broken" if the main problem is that people are placed in wrong leagues. We are playing this for like 3 years and still noone understood that the icon is completely irrelevant? The only thing that matters is if you are getting oponents of comprable skill to yours (not of comparable league!) and that seems to still work - several people in this thread are complaining that they got to low league and had to fight up through people who are also "diamond level", but also placed in a low league: how the hell is such a game different from when you both have your shiny diamond icon? I just don't get it, it's the same people you play, they are just labeled differently!
I haven't been playing much 1v1 lately, but at least the team matchmaking is for at least the last couple of months consistently amazing, it's light years better than 2-3 years ago - even though the wait times seem lower, we are almost always getting good games with just the right oponents, while back then every other game was a one-sided beating of us or the other guys.
As for the rest of the patch, to me those are getting less and less relevant. The game has essentially everything I would ever ask for since HoTS launch (since automining at the start was introduced ). The only thing that affects me are the decals, which are absolutely idiotic (or maybe I am an idiot and there is an option to switch them off, but I couldn't find it).
On January 23 2014 20:37 opisska wrote: I still don't understand why does everyone call ladder "broken" if the main problem is that people are placed in wrong leagues. We are playing this for like 3 years and still noone understood that the icon is completely irrelevant? The only thing that matters is if you are getting oponents of comprable skill to yours (not of comparable league!) and that seems to still work - several people in this thread are complaining that they got to low league and had to fight up through people who are also "diamond level", but also placed in a low league: how the hell is such a game different from when you both have your shiny diamond icon? I just don't get it, it's the same people you play, they are just labeled differently!
I haven't been playing much 1v1 lately, but at least the team matchmaking is for at least the last couple of months consistently amazing, it's light years better than 2-3 years ago - even though the wait times seem lower, we are almost always getting good games with just the right oponents, while back then every other game was a one-sided beating of us or the other guys.
Then let me tell u why ppl call ladder "broken". By saying that u havent played much 1v1 lately I am not surprised by ur post tbh. A lot of ppl complain about having to play in lower leagues than before becuz of a certain inactivity period. In Gold-League for instance, many players often face opponents that simply do not have the same skill level. And thats the issue. Ofc this can happen from time to time. But if it happens regularly and too often it becomes a problem. Its not only about the label. Play some 1v1s. Maybe u'll experience the same and understand the issue straight from the horse's mouth.
the hellbat/hellion thing is such an hidden nerf. Blizz can go fuck themselves once again why T keeps being nerf hiddenly after the reaper/marau switch.
On January 23 2014 08:41 [PkF] Wire wrote: those "limitations" don't keep anyone from having their dog or Jacques Chirac dancing in front of their townhall. Not very Starcraft II-esque, at least to my mind.
Edit : changed Pikachu which must be copyrighted for "their dog" which most certainly isn't.
That's the beaty of the word 'offensive'. It doesn't mean anything.
If you feel that a picture of Jacques Chirac offends you then the picture is offensive to you and so in violation of Blizzard's terms.
Then honestly I'd feel all those flying ipads are stupidly offensive and don't belong to SCII world. Please remove
To be fair it's a nice attempt at allowing more customization, but people who'd like something more standard and more like a real sport shouldn't have to witness that.
On January 23 2014 20:37 opisska wrote: I still don't understand why does everyone call ladder "broken" if the main problem is that people are placed in wrong leagues. We are playing this for like 3 years and still noone understood that the icon is completely irrelevant? The only thing that matters is if you are getting oponents of comprable skill to yours (not of comparable league!) and that seems to still work - several people in this thread are complaining that they got to low league and had to fight up through people who are also "diamond level", but also placed in a low league: how the hell is such a game different from when you both have your shiny diamond icon? I just don't get it, it's the same people you play, they are just labeled differently!
a. Blizzard wants a specific percentage of people in each league, and as of now the leagues are heavily skewed towards the lower leagues.
b. Many of the "diamonds" that have dropped to silver or gold are actually diamond level (as in current diamond, not old diamond), and dropped because of MMR decay. However, they often get matched against other dropped diamonds as well as actual silver/golds, making it nearly impossible to get promoted out of silver or gold unless one is capable of defeating the dropped diamonds as well as the silvers/golds. (Thus, silver and gold has effectively become an extension of diamond league.) From my own ladder experience, the difference in skill between my opponents, even from one game to the next, is potentially very large.
Does anyone know; if you're playing on the 'free' version with a friend, are you able to play ladder? A friend of mine is gonna try it, but I just want to know if Im gonna be able to ladder with him.
On January 24 2014 07:26 philip697 wrote: Does anyone know; if you're playing on the 'free' version with a friend, are you able to play ladder? A friend of mine is gonna try it, but I just want to know if Im gonna be able to ladder with him.
Cheers!
I think you can play team (2v2/3v3/4v4) ladder, but not singles ladder.
On January 24 2014 05:45 xxjcdentonxx wrote: This patch was supposed to add an option to kick AFK hosts from arcade lobbies. Where is it?
i think it does it automatically after a set period of time
Yeah, it does. Actually I got kicked from an arcade lobby while I was making that post!
And that's stupid! I was in a 1V1 OBS Peepmode lobby, one of the most popular lobbies on the arcade, but sometimes it can take a long time to get players. If BNet automatically kicks people after only a couple minutes, it's going to be impossible for less popular arcade games to ever get people!!!!
On January 24 2014 05:45 xxjcdentonxx wrote: This patch was supposed to add an option to kick AFK hosts from arcade lobbies. Where is it?
i think it does it automatically after a set period of time
Yeah, it does. Actually I got kicked from an arcade lobby while I was making that post!
And that's stupid! I was in a 1V1 OBS Peepmode lobby, one of the most popular lobbies on the arcade, but sometimes it can take a long time to get players. If BNet automatically kicks people after only a couple minutes, it's going to be impossible for less popular arcade games to ever get people!!!!
As i understand it this only happends when you are registered as afk with the game. So just writing or tabbing up too the game should prevent this (hopefully this is the case).
On January 24 2014 16:33 Xapti wrote: Why does it kick AFK hosts instead of just demoting them?
Does it kick AFK non-hosts too?
Yes, it kicks non-hosts too. You can't leave your computer alone for more than a couple minutes! I was using my laptop to post here on TL when it kicked me. I think unpopular arcade games will always be empty now and it will take even longer to fill even the popular ones.
On January 23 2014 20:37 opisska wrote: I still don't understand why does everyone call ladder "broken" if the main problem is that people are placed in wrong leagues.
The only thing that matters is if you are getting oponents of comprable skill to yours
I don't understand what you don't understand. The ladder is wholly and utterly broken, for exactly that reason... people are not facing people of comparable skill, not even remotely, fathomably close. One game I will play someone who smashes me and I had no chance to beat, the next someone who is completely unable to keep up with me.
I don't know what gave you the idea we all have hardons for shinier icons. I just want the game to be fun.
@TheBloodyDwarf : unfortunately not, when will they understand not everyone is happy with pics of Arnold Schwarzenegger or Barack Obama in the SCII realm ?
On January 25 2014 01:58 [PkF] Wire wrote: @TheBloodyDwarf : unfortunately not, when will they understand not everyone is happy with pics of Arnold Schwarzenegger or Barack Obama in the SCII realm ?
@TheBloodyDwarf : same for me. I'm not against them, just against the fact everyone has to see them. I don't mind people having anything they want as decal, skin or whatever if I can see them standard on my screen.
On January 23 2014 20:37 opisska wrote: I still don't understand why does everyone call ladder "broken" if the main problem is that people are placed in wrong leagues. We are playing this for like 3 years and still noone understood that the icon is completely irrelevant? The only thing that matters is if you are getting oponents of comprable skill to yours (not of comparable league!) and that seems to still work - several people in this thread are complaining that they got to low league and had to fight up through people who are also "diamond level", but also placed in a low league: how the hell is such a game different from when you both have your shiny diamond icon? I just don't get it, it's the same people you play, they are just labeled differently!
I haven't been playing much 1v1 lately, but at least the team matchmaking is for at least the last couple of months consistently amazing, it's light years better than 2-3 years ago - even though the wait times seem lower, we are almost always getting good games with just the right oponents, while back then every other game was a one-sided beating of us or the other guys.
As for the rest of the patch, to me those are getting less and less relevant. The game has essentially everything I would ever ask for since HoTS launch (since automining at the start was introduced ). The only thing that affects me are the decals, which are absolutely idiotic (or maybe I am an idiot and there is an option to switch them off, but I couldn't find it).
It should not matter but seems to have some effect. Or in part this has MMR decay also.
I know lots are frustrated when they get stomped by 10 people in the row that were have been in 2 leagues higher for most of their career.
So, the ladder redistribution seems to have taken effect. There was a post on reddit about how the bronze league is decreasing (relatively) sharply in size (http://www.reddit.com/r/starcraft/comments/1w2s3a/leagues_redistribution_taking_effect/), so I logged on, was matched against a level 5 unranked player, won, and got promoted.
So yeah, get out there and ladder and see what happens.
On January 25 2014 10:46 RaZorwire wrote: So, the ladder redistribution seems to have taken effect. There was a post on reddit about how the bronze league is decreasing (relatively) sharply in size (http://www.reddit.com/r/starcraft/comments/1w2s3a/leagues_redistribution_taking_effect/), so I logged on, was matched against a level 5 unranked player, won, and got promoted.
So yeah, get out there and ladder and see what happens.
Yup, played one game and am at the top of Platinum. Was sitting in mid-Gold playing other people in a similar situation.
I knew something was up, I got platinum on KR and for a bit that was higher than my NA rank.
Not sure, my MMr is beyond terrible as the last time I played was 6 months ago and as random, I would autoleave games of it was a matchup I didn't like. Since my return I've noticed a massive skill disparity in opponents, but it's the only time I've really dwelled low down so is that just normal or what?
Does anyone know just how much did they adjust the league percentages? Is there an official statement on it? Because I was stuck in gold since the start of the season even though I knew I was better than gold. Now I am top platinum, playing against diamonds. Also, for me it didn't took 1-2 games to get adjusted, I needed to spend my whole bonus pool before I got the promotion.
So it looks like a huge adjustment to me, which I find very strange. It would suck if they did it as at the start of Hots where ML was much easier to get than in WoL.
On January 25 2014 10:46 RaZorwire wrote: So, the ladder redistribution seems to have taken effect. There was a post on reddit about how the bronze league is decreasing (relatively) sharply in size (http://www.reddit.com/r/starcraft/comments/1w2s3a/leagues_redistribution_taking_effect/), so I logged on, was matched against a level 5 unranked player, won, and got promoted.
So yeah, get out there and ladder and see what happens.
On January 25 2014 10:46 RaZorwire wrote: So, the ladder redistribution seems to have taken effect. There was a post on reddit about how the bronze league is decreasing (relatively) sharply in size (http://www.reddit.com/r/starcraft/comments/1w2s3a/leagues_redistribution_taking_effect/), so I logged on, was matched against a level 5 unranked player, won, and got promoted.
So yeah, get out there and ladder and see what happens.
That is an old post. They already did changes after that (some 30 hours ago, earlier changes were pretty much nonexistent or were changes to something else). These new changes have concrete effects: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewpost.php?post_id=20673318
On January 23 2014 20:37 opisska wrote: I still don't understand why does everyone call ladder "broken" if the main problem is that people are placed in wrong leagues.
The only thing that matters is if you are getting oponents of comprable skill to yours
I don't understand what you don't understand. The ladder is wholly and utterly broken, for exactly that reason... people are not facing people of comparable skill, not even remotely, fathomably close. One game I will play someone who smashes me and I had no chance to beat, the next someone who is completely unable to keep up with me.
I don't know what gave you the idea we all have hardons for shinier icons. I just want the game to be fun.
And the guy that you smash is diamond, and the guy you lost to is gold.
On January 24 2014 02:19 sAsImre wrote: the hellbat/hellion thing is such an hidden nerf. Blizz can go fuck themselves once again why T keeps being nerf hiddenly after the reaper/marau switch.
What changed?
Anyone else notice the +100k exp thing doesn't work for each race, just the first one you do it with each day?
I was afraid that the clan decals, like the unit skins, would be uncontrollable from my own perspective. There needs to be a "clean" mode that you can toggle, which disables all the extraneous stuff that your opponent may have enabled.
On January 24 2014 02:19 sAsImre wrote: the hellbat/hellion thing is such an hidden nerf. Blizz can go fuck themselves once again why T keeps being nerf hiddenly after the reaper/marau switch.
What changed?
Anyone else notice the +100k exp thing doesn't work for each race, just the first one you do it with each day?
if you try to ctrl click either hellions or hellbats, and both are in the vicinity, it will click both of thhem.
On January 24 2014 02:19 sAsImre wrote: the hellbat/hellion thing is such an hidden nerf. Blizz can go fuck themselves once again why T keeps being nerf hiddenly after the reaper/marau switch.
What changed?
Anyone else notice the +100k exp thing doesn't work for each race, just the first one you do it with each day?
if you try to ctrl click either hellions or hellbats, and both are in the vicinity, it will click both of thhem.
yes, they're now apparently considered the same unit.
A bigger nerf for casters is that the 'follow' and 'center unit' functions no longer work while observing (they work while playing). This also applies to clicking on a unit picture (default ui).
On January 25 2014 10:46 RaZorwire wrote: So, the ladder redistribution seems to have taken effect. There was a post on reddit about how the bronze league is decreasing (relatively) sharply in size (http://www.reddit.com/r/starcraft/comments/1w2s3a/leagues_redistribution_taking_effect/), so I logged on, was matched against a level 5 unranked player, won, and got promoted.
So yeah, get out there and ladder and see what happens.
The new patch, and restructured league boundaries, are only a temporary fix.
As long as MMR Decay exists, it will inevitably pull the entire ladder down over time as we have already experienced.
When a 1v1 ladder game takes place, MMR points are transferred between the winning player and losing player, but when an inactive player begins to decay, those MMR points are lost from the system, presumably forever.
It's identical to the concept of a rake in casino hold 'em poker. A player loses 100% of chips in a losing hand, but only earns 97% on a win, with a cumulative effect of bankrupting one player every x number of hands (depending on the size of the blinds, buy-in, etc.)
The only solution is to remove MMR Decay entirely, or to somehow reintroduce the MMR points that were previously lost (for example, provide bonus MMR to the decayed player when they win until all of the lost points are reintroduced into the system).
EPT
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