EPT![[image loading]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CM809rKWoAAiV0C.jpg)
Balance Update Today
The Balance Update is going out today and we’ve been discussing many potential issues and topics internally and externally, but now is the time to refocus and analyze the effects of today’s patch changes and realign our immediate goals.
Beginning today, we’re focusing on the specific issues and changes that will come from the balance update. We’re getting a lot of mixed feedback based on initial impressions. One example is TvP at the pro level in KR, where we’re getting feedback ranging from “Protoss has completely no chance vs. Terran and will lose every single game,” to “these changes were way too minor that there’s no impact whatsoever in the matchup,” with lots more between those two extremes.
What this shows is that it takes time for even the very best players in the world to know for certain the impact of any changes to the game. So let’s keep an open mind, play a lot of games, explore exactly what changed, and discuss what the best moves will be going forward.
Wait Time Issue at the Top of the Ladder
There was an issue where the highest skill level players were getting a higher frequency of uneven matches, and we are hoping to put out a solution very soon to increase match quality by giving these players more time to find ideal opponents in the queue. This will be addressed with the season roll on February 1.
League Boundary Distribution Update
We made some minor adjustments to Bronze and Silver leagues to maintain our previous percentages. These adjustments are also planned to be addressed with the season roll on February 1.
Leave League Bug
This turned out to not to be a universal issue, but we have confirmed that under certain circumstances leaving league can produce unintended matchmaking behavior. We have already mitigated various edge cases that led to this in recent hotfixes, and we expect further improvements moving forward.
No New Maps for Season 1
As we discussed at the end of last year, we aren’t planning to add new maps for Season 1. We wanted to review our reasoning behind this again, because we are seeing some discussion regarding this topic.
- The time between the launch of Legacy of the Void and the start of Season 1 has been quite short, so it’ll be better for players not to have to swap out to completely new maps already.
- Balance tuning wise, we have been looking into specific issues brought up such as Reapers in TvZ on Orbital, but haven’t seen a need yet to do a specific tuning change on a specific map. This is where we should definitely focus our efforts, and if there are specific parts of a map that need to be addressed, we want to work on that. We can make balance updates to maps any time if they are needed, so please keep this in mind when we discuss specific map issues.
- Diversity wise, the current maps definitely provide a variety of unique map elements, and it’s safe to say that the current maps haven’t been fully figured out.
We believe these are solid reasons to keep the current map pool for Season 1. However, because these maps will be on rotation a bit longer than normal, we should definitely discuss the potential of rotating a higher number of maps out for Season 2. Let’s get discussions going regarding this question this week.
Online Features
We wanted to provide an update on ongoing work in various parts of the game:
Ladder Improvements
The ladder changes we presented at BlizzCon continue to evolve. We are hoping to be able to upgrade the ladder early in the second half of the year.
Co-op Mode
We are excited that so many players are enjoying co-op mode, and we are actively exploring ways to make the experience more varied and more open-ended. We look forward to providing an update on our progress in the months ahead.
As discussed at BlizzCon, we also plan to continue releasing new maps and new commanders over the course of the year.
Skins and Voice Packs
As we shared in the "Future of StarCraft II" panel at BlizzCon, we plan to release skins and voice packs after the Nova mission packs. A new achievement-based skin will be rolling out sooner, but we’re working on a broad selection of skin and voice pack content for later in the year, along with changes in the engine and UI to accommodate this new content.
Tournaments
Archon and team tournaments are still in our plans, but we won’t begin work on these until after the ladder improvements are complete.
We are also actively considering various suggestions from the community, such as no time limit for the tournament finals, having different trophies per season, or having even more types of tournament modes. We don’t have specific plans or timelines around these yet, but we will continue discussing and exploring these ideas.
Back-End
We’re working on a variety of improvements under the covers, including further protections against hacking, various performance optimizations, improvements to how our patch deployments work, and more.
That’s just a sample of the things that we’re actively working on, and there’s a lot of other work in motion and in our backlog. Please keep in mind that after we begin implementing a change, we still need time for iteration, polish, localization, and quality assurance before new features and content are ready to be deployed. We’re grateful for your support and your patience as we continue to evolve StarCraft II!
Source
Poll: Opinion on the update on the S1 map pooL?
Exchange Central and Lerilak for the GSL maps and remove the gold bases on Prion Terraces. (186)
59%
We need at least 4 new maps! (94)
30%
I'm happy. Do not change the map pool for S1. (19)
6%
Neutral! (17)
5%
316 total votes
We need at least 4 new maps! (94)
I'm happy. Do not change the map pool for S1. (19)
Neutral! (17)
316 total votes
Your vote: Opinion on the update on the S1 map pooL?
(Vote): I'm happy. Do not change the map pool for S1.
(Vote): Neutral!
(Vote): We need at least 4 new maps!
(Vote): Exchange Central and Lerilak for the GSL maps and remove the gold bases on Prion Terraces.
Poll: Opinion on the online features?
Disappointed. Expected the features a lot earlier. (166)
64%
Happy with the update, good things take time. (64)
25%
Neutral. (28)
11%
258 total votes
Happy with the update, good things take time. (64)
Neutral. (28)
258 total votes
Your vote: Opinion on the online features?
(Vote): Happy with the update, good things take time.
(Vote): Neutral.
(Vote): Disappointed. Expected the features a lot earlier.
