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Patch 3.19 Preview: Arcade ImprovementsSource![[image loading]](https://i.imgur.com/bf1bBeo.jpg)
In patch 3.19, we are implementing some changes to the UI, with a particular focus on the Arcade and Custom Games experience. These changes will hopefully strengthen these already extremely active communities and provide both mod developers and players with better tools to make the most out of these features. In this blog, we’ll detail the upcoming changes, go over our main goals, and explore the benefits we think they could bring.
What are the goals?
There were many goals for the changes we are making! For the sake of this blog, we are going to focus on four specific ones.
- Goal 1: One home
We want to consolidate the process for finding user-generated content to make it easier for you to find all the stuff you are interested in. We also give you better tools to manage that content.
- Goal 2: Get out of the way
Our hope is that this update will provide a more flexible system for joining and creating lobbies inside StarCraft II by relying less on automated systems and giving more control to the players.
- Goal 3: Surface buried content
There’s a ton of great custom games content buried in our current UI, behind layers of navigation and filters. We want bring that content front and center so everyone knows about it.
- Goal 4: Reduce abuse
There are currently a lot of ways to abuse the current Arcade and Custom Games systems in our client in ways that ruin the experience that other players are having. We want to minimize those opportunities as much as possible.
What are the changes and how do they work towards these goals?
Combine Arcade and Custom Games
The first major change you will notice when logging in is that the “Arcade” tab on the top navigation has turned into “Custom.” We wanted to consolidate Arcade games and custom Melee games into one place, and putting melee games under the arcade didn’t feel right, so we put both under “Custom” instead.
Inside this new top-level section, you’ll find three subsections called “Lobbies,” “Melee” and “Arcade,” with the “Lobbies” section being the landing screen for the “Custom” top tab. The “Lobbies” section displays all of the current open public lobbies available across both Melee and Arcade games. The “Melee” section allows you to create new lobbies for custom Melee games. Finally, the “Arcade” section allows you to create new lobbies for Arcade games.
We hope this change will help surface custom content such as open Melee game lobbies, and extension mods which are a buried a bit too deep right now in the multiplayer section.
Show lobbies, and let people name them
Players have been requesting “named lobbies” for years. Before we could make this happen, however, we needed to be able to display lobbies in the first place. In the old system you could not see open lobbies, only a list of maps or games that have open lobbies currently available.. This meant that if there were three lobbies open for one game, there would only be one entry in the list. When you joined that game from the “Open Games” list, it would simply put you in the oldest lobby available for that game.
In this patch, you’ll now be able to see actual lobbies instead of just a list of games. Multiple lobbies can appear in the list for a single game. You’ll also be able to set a name for your lobby when you open it to the public, and even rename your lobby later if you so choose. You’ll also be able to see the lobby’s owner as well as how many slots are open right in the open lobby list.
We hope this change will give players more control over which lobbies they are joining, and also help them find the lobbies that are right for them and their party. We also hope this will help prevent trolls from holding entire games hostage via their traditional methods: barring players from starting a public lobby because the oldest version is occupied by someone who just wants to keep others from playing. If you do encounter players like this, you will now be able to see they are the ones hosting a specific lobby and avoid them. And if you create your own lobby, other players will be able to see it even if a troll has already created one for that game.
Map Pinning
We have also added the ability to “Pin” a map to your sub-navigation in the Custom section. You can do this by opening the map info screen for any map and using the “Pin” button in the top right. You can pin up to three maps so you can quickly access them from the Custom section.
Open lobbies in map info
To make pinning more worthwhile, we have also added a small “open lobbies” list in the map info screen. In this list, you’ll only see lobbies for that specific map. If you are a huge “Zealot Hockey” fan and only want to play that, you can pin it to your sub-navigation, immediately bring it up when you come to the Custom section, and see the lobbies available just for that game.
Lobby previews
We have also added a new panel to the “Lobbies” subsection which will allow you to preview a lobby before you join it. It will show you how many teams there are in the lobby, how many A.I. and players are on each team, who those players are, as well as how many open slots are open on each team.
With this information, we hope players will have an easier time finding a lobby that is right for them and their party.
Quick access bookmarks
In the “Melee” and “Arcade” subsections, you’ll find a different panel in place of the lobby preview that will allow you to quickly access your bookmarks. Clicking on one of these bookmarks will immediately bring up the map info screen for that bookmark.
Improved user experience in 16x9 resolutions
Much like game lobbies themselves, the Custom section now features a slightly different UI in 16x9, which makes better use of the space for those users.
Removed lobby autostart
Lobbies will no longer autostart once they are full. There were cases before where this was beneficial, but there were many other cases where it wasn’t. Because we’re now displaying actual lobbies in the Open Lobbies list, you can always go create your own lobby if the host turns out to be AFK or neglects to start the game for whatever reason.
Removed “Play” and “Play Again” buttons
We have removed the “Play” and “Play Again” buttons from the Arcade and Custom Games. These buttons would automatically put you into a lobby for that game, or if a lobby didn’t already exist, they would create a new public lobby with you as the host. We really don’t want to have a button that does different things based on information the user doesn’t know. For new users, this often meant confusion—they unwittingly became the host of a lobby. We want everyone to know exactly what’s happening when they click “Join Lobby” or “Create Lobby.” That said, we also realize that this change could be controversial, as there are many of you who probably use this button to find lobbies for your favorite Arcade maps, especially for maps that see a huge amount of players and activity. Please give the new system a try and give us feedback on how it works for you.
On the score screen in place of the “Play Again” button, we put a “Map Info” button which will take you directly to the “Map Info” page for the map you just played where you’ll be able to view all of the currently available lobbies for that map, or create a new one.
Moving forward
We’re not done with the Arcade and Custom Games experience. Besides being an important part of our game that sees a huge amount of engagement, it’s also especially important to many of the developers on our team who come from the StarCraft II modding community. We have more plans for the future, and while we aren’t ready to talk about those today, we hope you’ll have patience as we continue to try to build on the foundation we’re laying with patch 3.19.
We’re eager to hear your feedback on these changes, so once the patch goes live, please give them a try and come back and let us know how they’re working for you. Is there more you want to see with the custom games UI specifically? Have we removed something you feel was important for the way you use the feature? Find any problems or bugs with the current implementation? These are all things we’d really like to hear!
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I can't believe named lobbies have arrived  . Seven years of devolution and evolution of Battlenet 2.0 and it finally returns to a system that worked fine in Warcraft III already and that everybody wanted from Wings of Liberty launch day. What a time to be alive!
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This is great news!!! .. What took so long though 
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Starcraft 2 has been getting some pretty nice and well thought out updates this year
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Wow, the technology is finally here! This is a great change.
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Only a couple years late... 😂
edit: pls add the old chat interface as well. still so stupid to be a gm (maybe even worse as a low rank player without friends) player, log in, and be in no channels, by yourself, unable to find custom games/friends. add something like iccup where you first log into a chat channel with people of the same skill to encourage interaction. pls, god.
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I was wondering when Blizzard would take cues from Blizzard and have named lobbies like we did in WC3.
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The technologies are finally here.
Jokes aside this is good news. Personally I don't think there is not much improvements they can do that would replicate the success of War3 custom games, simply because the niche has been filled indie/mobile games. But still something that may put some more life into the game and community in the long run.
Excited to hear more about sc2 during blizzcon.
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Overall, this is a great update.
But I still don't see the point of named lobbies. The reason used to justify named lobbies is that it prevents abuse that can happen when the host doesn't start games. But the same can be achieved by separately listing all the lobbies and host name. Let's look at titles in the screenshot presented.
"Need 5 more!": Info conveyed by player count.
"Playing on HARD difficulty": Info conveyed by mode, which seems to have disappeared and should be retained.
"Let's DO THIS": Spam.
"Need help beating last wave": Spam, meaningless as everyone would like to beat the last wave.
"ONE MORE!!! GOGOGOGO!": Info conveyed by player count.
"Long game be prepared...": Info better displayed in Game Info section.
"Will start at 6 players": Semi-useful statement but same could be achieved with closed slots.
"Looking for 1 more": Info conveyed by player count.
"3v3 PROS ONLY": Info conveyed by mode. "Pros only" is a semi-useful statement but will probably be ignored.
"Just for funsies": Spam.
"2v2v2v2 WOO GOGOGOGO": Info conveyed by mode, spam.
"BEST GAME EVER 4v4": Spam, Info conveyed by mode.
In conclusion, almost no information is conveyed by the name. It's almost all information that already exists in other columns or spam.
I suggest that mode shouldn't be removed as a column, and that instead of lobby names, there should be an option for a lobby note for stuff like "pros only", displayed as the last column.
Also, will they ever fix the Replay page UI? The list UI is ugly AF and inconsistent with the rest of the game. And the old drop-down menus are now inconsistent with the new drop-down menus.
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3 more years and we could even have LAN.
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On October 10 2017 17:21 Ej_ wrote:
3 more years and we could even have LAN.
Will the technology be ready though ?
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7 years later Blizzard is toning down the arrogance and accepting suggestions, maybe in 2024 multiplayer will be in a good state.
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I'm glad they are doing it, but you have to admit it's a little bit silly that they are doing this NOW instead of 7 years ago.
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+ Show Spoiler +On October 10 2017 17:16 paralleluniverse wrote:
"Need 5 more!": Info conveyed by player count.
Not if they don't necessarily want to go with a full game On October 10 2017 17:16 paralleluniverse wrote:
"Playing on HARD difficulty": Info conveyed by mode, which seems to have disappeared and should be retained.
Which many people discard and join even if they don't know the map anyway. A reminder that it's actually not easy can be welcome. On October 10 2017 17:16 paralleluniverse wrote:
"Let's DO THIS": Spam.
A bit a cheer is not too much. On October 10 2017 17:16 paralleluniverse wrote:
"Need help beating last wave": Spam, meaningless as everyone would like to beat the last wave.
Also means the other waves are fine, like 'Don't worry, you don't have to carry me hard all game long' On October 10 2017 17:16 paralleluniverse wrote:
"ONE MORE!!! GOGOGOGO!": Info conveyed by player count.
Same as number 1. On October 10 2017 17:16 paralleluniverse wrote:
"Long game be prepared...": Info better displayed in Game Info section.
Most of the time the maps don't display an average length in their description, and even if they do, it can be much longer or much shorter, depending on the aim of the people in the lobby. On October 10 2017 17:16 paralleluniverse wrote:
"Will start at 6 players": Semi-useful statement but same could be achieved with closed slots.
6 player is the number they'll start at. But if they are 5 in, and a duo wantS to join, shame on the closed slots. On October 10 2017 17:16 paralleluniverse wrote:
"Looking for 1 more": Info conveyed by player count.
Same On October 10 2017 17:16 paralleluniverse wrote:
"3v3 PROS ONLY": Info conveyed by mode. "Pros only" is a semi-useful statement but will probably be ignored.
If I want to learn a map, I won't join this game, or I may wishper the host for some info. On October 10 2017 17:16 paralleluniverse wrote:
"Just for funsies": Spam.
Don't go in this game expecting them to try-hard On October 10 2017 17:16 paralleluniverse wrote:
"2v2v2v2 WOO GOGOGOGO": Info conveyed by mode, spam.
Can be a game in which the mose is selected at the game start. On October 10 2017 17:16 paralleluniverse wrote:
"BEST GAME EVER 4v4": Spam, Info conveyed by mode.
Can't they be enthusiastic about their game?
It's mostly a matter of how people use and read them anyway.
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Surprised how many negative responses/reactions there still are.
Simply the fact that they are changing this after all this time is amazing to me, especially considering how OLD this game is.
Props to the guys working on sc2 and trying to make it better even 7 years after its release :D
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On October 10 2017 18:32 Morbidius wrote:
7 years later Blizzard is toning down the arrogance and accepting suggestions, maybe in 2024 multiplayer will be in a good state.
I think the game is in a good state.
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Hey only 7 years too late. Good job blizzard! They really need to downsize for their own good. It feels like blizzard has become such a corporate giant that any change takes years.
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On October 10 2017 20:32 AbouSV wrote:+ Show Spoiler +On October 10 2017 17:16 paralleluniverse wrote:
"Need 5 more!": Info conveyed by player count.
Not if they don't necessarily want to go with a full game On October 10 2017 17:16 paralleluniverse wrote:
"Playing on HARD difficulty": Info conveyed by mode, which seems to have disappeared and should be retained.
Which many people discard and join even if they don't know the map anyway. A reminder that it's actually not easy can be welcome. On October 10 2017 17:16 paralleluniverse wrote:
"Let's DO THIS": Spam.
A bit a cheer is not too much. On October 10 2017 17:16 paralleluniverse wrote:
"Need help beating last wave": Spam, meaningless as everyone would like to beat the last wave.
Also means the other waves are fine, like 'Don't worry, you don't have to carry me hard all game long' On October 10 2017 17:16 paralleluniverse wrote:
"ONE MORE!!! GOGOGOGO!": Info conveyed by player count.
Same as number 1. On October 10 2017 17:16 paralleluniverse wrote:
"Long game be prepared...": Info better displayed in Game Info section.
Most of the time the maps don't display an average length in their description, and even if they do, it can be much longer or much shorter, depending on the aim of the people in the lobby. On October 10 2017 17:16 paralleluniverse wrote:
"Will start at 6 players": Semi-useful statement but same could be achieved with closed slots.
6 player is the number they'll start at. But if they are 5 in, and a duo wantS to join, shame on the closed slots. On October 10 2017 17:16 paralleluniverse wrote:
"Looking for 1 more": Info conveyed by player count.
Same On October 10 2017 17:16 paralleluniverse wrote:
"3v3 PROS ONLY": Info conveyed by mode. "Pros only" is a semi-useful statement but will probably be ignored.
If I want to learn a map, I won't join this game, or I may wishper the host for some info. On October 10 2017 17:16 paralleluniverse wrote:
"Just for funsies": Spam.
Don't go in this game expecting them to try-hard On October 10 2017 17:16 paralleluniverse wrote:
"2v2v2v2 WOO GOGOGOGO": Info conveyed by mode, spam.
Can be a game in which the mose is selected at the game start. On October 10 2017 17:16 paralleluniverse wrote:
"BEST GAME EVER 4v4": Spam, Info conveyed by mode.
Can't they be enthusiastic about their game? It's mostly a matter of how people use and read them anyway.
To address your comments, it is inelegant design to have 2 different fields, the players/slots, and optionally the lobby name, to determine how filled a lobby is. The existence of a players/slots field means this information should be there specifically. In fact, since the host has to set how many players in each team, most games should be filled completely and it is very rare that the lobby name is needed to specify this. The one observer game shown is an exception. Thus, it's a good idea to add closed slots, and the players/slots field alone should fulfill it's purpose of correctly telling you how filled a lobby is.
I concede that "pros only" counts as somewhat useful information. The rest is unimportant or spam.
None of these lobby names in the screenshot are even proper names, they're notes, not names. And almost all of them are useless.
But for the small number of cases where it may be marginally useful (e.g. "pros only", "start at 6" while not wanting to close slots), I agree that a lobby notes feature is fine. But the mode field should be added back (it's actually useful information), lobby names should be renamed to lobby notes (because that's what it is), and it should be less prominent (because it's useless information most of the time).
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Maybe Blizzard should have released SC2 in 2017
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"Welcome to named lobbies. After seven years in development, I hope it will have been worth the weight."
On October 11 2017 00:11 Lorch wrote:
Hey only 7 years too late. Good job blizzard! They really need to downsize for their own good. It feels like blizzard has become such a corporate giant that any change takes years.
Agreed. It's so frustrating how slow they are to fix things that we have been complaining about for years. It took a very long time before they even started admitting their mistakes. I feel like the news about Coop Mode being more popular than ladder play being the wakeup call that got them back on track, but too late to stop the Korean scene from dying late last year.
I just want them to go back to what made RTS games great. I want them to remember that Starcraft 1 was actually one of the most streamlined RTS games among its contemporaries, and that almost none of us played it because it was harder than other games on the market.
Better late than never, I suppose.
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EPT
