Patch 4.3.0 includes the addition of two new, premium Arcade maps: ARK Star and Direct Strike. Source.
With the launch of StarCraft II patch 4.3.0, we’ll be introducing two new Arcade maps made by prominent community creators with whom we’ve been working over the last year. These two high-quality premium Arcade maps each offer different kinds of experiences—and when you purchase them, a share of the sales will go directly to the developers who made them.
Check out the two maps* that will be available for purchase.
*Note that these two maps are available in English only.
ARK Star
If you’ve spent any time in the Arcade community, you might be familiar with map-maker Daniel “Pirate” Altman, winner of 2015’s Rock the Cabinet contest. Now, Pirate has created a ARK Star, a new tactical, turn-based RPG featuring the protoss.
This interstellar adventure follows the Sol Seekers, an elite team of templar on a mission to find and destroy a mysterious weapon known as the ARK Star. Discover and craft new equipment to strengthen your squad, level up and unlock new talents and abilities to customize your play style, and bring the wrath of the templar onto your foes!
The full ARK Star experience will be available soon for $4.99, and a share of the sales will go to its creator, Pirate.
If you have any feedback to share or bugs to report, please contact Daniel at arkstarcs@gmail.com. You can also reach him on Twitter @Piratearcade or join his Discord channel here.
Direct Strike
From longtime community creator “Tya” comes Direct Strike, the next evolution of Desert Strike HotS, one of StarCraft II’s most popular Arcade maps ever. Direct Strike will remain free, but players can also upgrade to an optional premium version that enhances the experience with cosmetics and new modes that anyone can enjoy—whether they’re free or premium players.
For those unfamiliar with the original, Direct Strike pits players against each other in a tactical “tug of war.” Build units to spawn into your staging area, and send them out in waves to assault the enemy base.
Direct Strike will replace Desert Strike HotS in the Arcade, but everything you know and love will still be available in the free version—on top of additional commander modes. Upgrade to the premium version to play four all-new game modes, including Sabotage, which conceals players’ staging areas and allows for unit bans, and Switch mode, where players can change their race mid-game. You’ll also get access to cosmetics to customize your staging area and add some flair to your workers. And if you host a lobby with your favorite premium game mode, anyone playing the free standard edition of Direct Strike can join in on the fun.
The premium upgrade to Direct Strike will be available soon for $4.99, and a share of the sales will go to its creator, Tya.
If you have any feedback to share or bugs to report, please contact Tya at DirectStrikeCS@gmail.com.
To access this premium content through the StarCraft II client once it’s available, go to Custom > New Premium Maps, or you use the drop-down filter menu and select Premium Content. Once you select your map of choice, click Map Info and select the Premium tab.
We’re excited to introduce these two community-crafted experiences—we’ve been working with the creators to bring their projects to the community, and we think they’re epic examples of what Arcade developers are capable of.
I'm still a little torn on how I feel about these being released on their own, outside of the War Chest (for now?), and wanted to know how both the map-making folks and the rest of the community feels about it.
"Premium quality custom maps" aren't new, especially in RTS/MOBA, but perhaps we'll have to see if their price matches the quality of the maps and their replayability and whatnot.
ARK Star looks like the "Super Mario RPG with StarCraft characters" map that all of my friends have tried (and failed, to varying degrees) to make in the Editor. It just looks fun, and has a pretty clean aesthetic and design, but it also looks like something people might rather have on a tablet these days.
Desert Strike has been around for a while, and I wonder what the Desert Direct Strike HotS "remaster/upgrade" has that offers more than just "new skins in Desert Strike" and two "new modes". The article and the video are unclear to me exactly what's going on with it, and I wonder why they felt like replacing the game and adding a paid upgrade to use skins instead of turning it into a supported, Free-to-Play-like-the-rest-of-SC2 Arcade Map that you can now use your unlocked/already purchased skins and Co-op Commanders in for the new modes, like how ladder and custom games and Co-op already work...
It's really cool, but also kinda weird and the Desert Strike stuff is confusing to me.
On April 24 2018 16:52 Yozora wrote: Honest wondering, do people actually buy arcade games in SC2?
The entire Arcade is Free-to-Play, it has been since they launched it. For a while I've been expecting map-makers to start Patreons or something similar so they can make and update custom games to put on the Arcade and turn that into their own business, but afaik that hasn't been happening.
For Brood War, Warcraft 3, StarCraft 2, and DOTA2, Custom Games have always been free. Blizzard-made Arcade Maps (Aiur Chef, for example) have always been free on the Arcade, so the business model feels odd.
*In shooters, the business model has always been "custom games are free" except for the map packs, but afaik everything made by the community is available for free just like with War3, SC2, etc. If there's an exception with fps/third-person shooters that I've missed then I'd love to know about which game it was in and how it went.
I just remembered DOTA2 has had "Custom Game Passes" for some seasonal, special custom games ("premium custom games"), and their recent Siltbreaker as part of the DOTA Compendium dealio, but... Idk. I'm been mixed on the implementation with those in the past, and now with these. If they were War Chest only I'd still be "eh" about it.
so basically this is just paid mods but in a different name. Remember how well that turned out when Bethesda tried to push this twice? (first with skyrim paid mods on steam, then their creation club)
On April 24 2018 16:57 blunderfulguy wrote:I wonder why they felt like replacing the game and adding a paid upgrade to use skins instead of turning it into a supported, Free-to-Play-like-the-rest-of-SC2 Arcade Map that you can now use your unlocked/already purchased skins.
Heya, just to clarify, your melee skins have always worked in Desert Strike, and will continue to work in Direct Strike (it's literally just a name change). It's something I've always supported, because I know a lot of ladder players enjoy my map.
The skins here are for your worker unit and staging area. Things like a tal'darim staging area to place your units in, or giving your worker a holographic effect. They overlay ontop of your chosen worker model. Here's a few examples; https://i.imgur.com/UHS8G42.jpg
Also, becoming a supported part of the base game would be a dream come true.
On April 24 2018 17:36 ilikeredheads wrote: so basically this is just paid mods but in a different name. Remember how well that turned out when Bethesda tried to push this twice? (first with skyrim paid mods on steam, then their creation club)
Remember how paying for high quality custom maps and Blizzard reaching out to community creators and allowing them to make money off their work is a feature they advertised and promised even before Wings of Liberty came out? In the year twenty ten, if not earlier?
Sadly their handling of the custom game scene during WoL was extremely poor and left many people with sour tastes in their mouths, but having seen what you can make in that engine I'm more than happy that they've finally remembered and decided to implement this.
I'm 100% for letting the creators benefit from their hardwork. If the premium arcade is a curated place instead of whatever mess Bethesda made with their paid mod plan, I'm all for it.
On April 25 2018 01:19 digmouse wrote: I'm 100% for letting the creators benefit from their hardwork. If the premium arcade is a curated place instead of whatever mess Bethesda made with their paid mod plan, I'm all for it.
Couldn't agree more!
And re: the Bethesda comparison, unlike games like Skyrim and Fallout 4, I don't think they are letting anyone sell bugfixes or mere community-made skins lol, rather maps/mods that offer new or interesting gameplay. If this is properly curated I think it should be a success for everyone involved (including of course players/customers).
looks cool I guess, arcade is fun enough when I get sick of losing to protoss over and over again. Probably won't buy either of these but nice to see creators get some money for their hard work
On April 25 2018 04:52 LongShot27 wrote: 5 dollars is too much for something like this
When's the last time you looked at the video game industry? Do you see the absolute reprehensible garbage that people buy for $60 these days? Oh wait, more like $80 with season pass and who knows how much more in microtransactions.
I'd take something fun and interesting with at least one shred of artistic integrity over those any day, especially at 1/10th the price.
On April 25 2018 04:52 LongShot27 wrote: 5 dollars is too much for something like this
When's the last time you looked at the video game industry? Do you see the absolute reprehensible garbage that people buy for $60 these days? Oh wait, more like $80 with season pass and who knows how much more in microtransactions.
I'd take something fun and interesting with at least one shred of artistic integrity over those any day, especially at 1/10th the price.
Well I bought WoL,Hots and LotV lets say 130-150€.So I would not expect to pay for mods which are introduced by Blizz itself.The game itself looks pretty fun and I would play it.
I'm sorry but - unless Tya rebalances Direct Strike so that taking an early gas or teching up doesn't instantly throw the match - that mod won't be getting my money.
Desert Strike HotS easily has one of the most one-dimensional metagames I have ever seen and I'm dumbstruck that it's the most popular map on the StarCraft II arcade, despite how crap it actually is.
The only viable strategy on DSHotS is to mass tier 1 units and destroy your enemy's bunker, then snowball your opponent from the 10% income boost your team gets from controlling mid and the 250 Minerals your team gets from destroying the cannon.
Taking a gas on the other hand is a losing strategy that is considered so bad that it'll make your teammates wish cancer upon you or tell you to kill yourself in real life, then ragequit the match. This is because it costs 150 minerals to build an Extractor, Refinery or Assimilator, stalls your income for 20 to 80 seconds depending on how many income buildings you already have, and takes an increasing amount of time for you to recuperate the income you've lost.
Meanwhile, you've basically ceded control of the map centre and for what? A 10% increase to your own individual mineral income which is entirely negated by your opponents controlling mid? Oh and if they destroy your bunker, they'll also be 250 Minerals further ahead than you too.
The amount of income you sacrifice by taking a gas is so significant that even in the DSHotS meta, it is considered unviable to take more than 2 gases in the mid or late game after the bunker rush phase has ended. Losing 60 or 80 seconds of mineral income just for another 10% boost to your income simply isn't worth it.
Unlike other tug-of-war maps which have defensive nukes, there are also no comeback mechanics at all in DSHotS either. This means that it is very rare to see a losing team swing a game back - and usually this will only be in the case of one composition hard-countering another.
Also, having a Sabotage Draft mode where you can ban specific units is stupid for a map genre that relies specifically on unit counters. Imagine how broken the SC2 or Brood War meta would be if players entered an arbitrary draft phase before starting each map and banned two units each.
On April 25 2018 04:52 LongShot27 wrote: 5 dollars is too much for something like this
When's the last time you looked at the video game industry? Do you see the absolute reprehensible garbage that people buy for $60 these days? Oh wait, more like $80 with season pass and who knows how much more in microtransactions.
I'd take something fun and interesting with at least one shred of artistic integrity over those any day, especially at 1/10th the price.
to add to your point... Atari 2600 Space Invaders sold for $70 USD. Taking inflation into account that is $240 in today's dollars.
a video game is not a necessity like oxygen or water. it is worth what the free market says its worth. in 1980 that was the equivalent of $240. Space Invaders quickly got superseded by stuff like Demon Attack and Galaga.
On April 24 2018 16:57 blunderfulguy wrote:I wonder why they felt like replacing the game and adding a paid upgrade to use skins instead of turning it into a supported, Free-to-Play-like-the-rest-of-SC2 Arcade Map that you can now use your unlocked/already purchased skins.
Heya, just to clarify, your melee skins have always worked in Desert Strike, and will continue to work in Direct Strike (it's literally just a name change). It's something I've always supported, because I know a lot of ladder players enjoy my map.
The skins here are for your worker unit and staging area. Things like a tal'darim staging area to place your units in, or giving your worker a holographic effect. They overlay ontop of your chosen worker model. Here's a few examples; https://i.imgur.com/UHS8G42.jpg
Also, becoming a supported part of the base game would be a dream come true.
So funny how no one wants to address this move from blizz hard
funny how this arcade is a "behind the scenes" happenstance and not a communal event...
Obviously the term "funny" is meant as an abstract of course, because as a concrete "happening" then it is far from funny, lets call it a fail why don't we?
Seeing the map pool strategy fail being done in the arcade is sad for us mapmakers !? It is for me
On April 25 2018 07:47 Clbull wrote: I'm sorry but - unless Tya rebalances Direct Strike so that taking an early gas or teching up doesn't instantly throw the match - that mod won't be getting my money.
Desert Strike HotS easily has one of the most one-dimensional metagames I have ever seen and I'm dumbstruck that it's the most popular map on the StarCraft II arcade, despite how crap it actually is.
The only viable strategy on DSHotS is to mass tier 1 units and destroy your enemy's bunker, then snowball your opponent from the 10% income boost your team gets from controlling mid and the 250 Minerals your team gets from destroying the cannon.
Taking a gas on the other hand is a losing strategy that is considered so bad that it'll make your teammates wish cancer upon you or tell you to kill yourself in real life, then ragequit the match. This is because it costs 150 minerals to build an Extractor, Refinery or Assimilator, stalls your income for 20 to 80 seconds depending on how many income buildings you already have, and takes an increasing amount of time for you to recuperate the income you've lost.
Meanwhile, you've basically ceded control of the map centre and for what? A 10% increase to your own individual mineral income which is entirely negated by your opponents controlling mid? Oh and if they destroy your bunker, they'll also be 250 Minerals further ahead than you too.
The amount of income you sacrifice by taking a gas is so significant that even in the DSHotS meta, it is considered unviable to take more than 2 gases in the mid or late game after the bunker rush phase has ended. Losing 60 or 80 seconds of mineral income just for another 10% boost to your income simply isn't worth it.
Unlike other tug-of-war maps which have defensive nukes, there are also no comeback mechanics at all in DSHotS either. This means that it is very rare to see a losing team swing a game back - and usually this will only be in the case of one composition hard-countering another.
Also, having a Sabotage Draft mode where you can ban specific units is stupid for a map genre that relies specifically on unit counters. Imagine how broken the SC2 or Brood War meta would be if players entered an arbitrary draft phase before starting each map and banned two units each.
Yeah I gotta agree with this. The game should be changed so that it's not possible to rush assimilator or tech immediately. Those are newb traps and public 3v3's are being decided based on how many players on each team fall for those newb traps. They either need to be time-gated so that players have no choice but to build tier 1 units for a while (or some other mechanic to remove the traps) or the options need to be balanced. I wouldn't be surprised at all if the game is more fun with all advanced players in private lobbies but the public 3v3, which is what most people are gonna be playing, is a total mess.
On April 24 2018 17:36 ilikeredheads wrote: so basically this is just paid mods but in a different name. Remember how well that turned out when Bethesda tried to push this twice? (first with skyrim paid mods on steam, then their creation club)
Remember how paying for high quality custom maps and Blizzard reaching out to community creators and allowing them to make money off their work is a feature they advertised and promised even before Wings of Liberty came out? In the year twenty ten, if not earlier?
Sadly their handling of the custom game scene during WoL was extremely poor and left many people with sour tastes in their mouths, but having seen what you can make in that engine I'm more than happy that they've finally remembered and decided to implement this.
Back then we still paid a lot of money for the game plus two expansions, so charging extra for arcade content probably hasn't been justified up until now that the f2p switch has happened.
For me, personally, this comes way too late - ARK Star sure looks nice, but I just don't see myself spending any more money on the game.
On April 27 2018 05:11 NonY wrote:Yeah I gotta agree with this. The game should be changed so that it's not possible to rush assimilator or tech immediately. Those are newb traps and public 3v3's are being decided based on how many players on each team fall for those newb traps.
Just wanted to drop in and say that this is something that is often requested, and it's probably time I take a good, long look at it. I usually do gameplay/balance updates every 3 months (last one was in Feb), and for the next update, I'll spend some time on what I can do to resolve this.
On April 27 2018 05:11 NonY wrote:Yeah I gotta agree with this. The game should be changed so that it's not possible to rush assimilator or tech immediately. Those are newb traps and public 3v3's are being decided based on how many players on each team fall for those newb traps.
Just wanted to drop in and say that this is something that is often requested, and it's probably time I take a good, long look at it. I usually do gameplay/balance updates every 3 months (last one was in Feb), and for the next update, I'll spend some time on what I can do to resolve this.
Huge props to you for that Tya! Good luck with Direct Strike!
For me personally I played this game mode 500 times and 5€ are okay, for that type of work. 5€ dont hurt anybody. Yes normally arcade is free, but I think its good for the Author IF it comes back to him with 50% ?
EPT![[image loading]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DbfKAPlVMAAFnWR.jpg)
