[Trans] Interview, Chris Sigaty/David Kim

A. (David Kim) We receive a lot of information about the balance from the ladders. In Korean Top Ladder, Terran tends to be stronger against Protoss. In Europe, Zerg tends to be stronger against Protoss. Overall Protoss seems weak while Terran and Zerg seems to be about the same. In GSL, Terran seems to be stronger overall, but such is not the case in other foreign tournaments. Therfore we are being very careful with the updates. For the next patch, we plan to fix Terran and Protoss.

A. (David Kim) All we can get are numbers. The match-making may be 50:50 overall, but PvT Matchup tends to be 65% Terran winning. There are other ways for us in calculating these numbers.

A. (David Kim) When we get rid of the units, we look at how often the units are used in a game. In Terran, all the units are often used, therefore there’s really nothing to get rid of. Instead of weakening Terran, we have added new units for the other races to make them strategically stronger.

A. (Chris Sigaty) Also it’s important to note that we listen to a lot of the feedbacks from the people. Therefore we plan to continue listening to the feedbacks and perfect the new units.

A. (David Kim) In the Wings of Liberty, we understand the weakness and strength of each race. Therefore we tried really hard to fix those weaknesses and balance the game. We get inspirations with the new units from books and comic books. Also we sometimes get ideas from a team of artists or pro-gamers.

A. (David Kim) Nydus Canal is not very used often by a lot of the players as part of their build. In fact we tried to improve the Nydus Canal about a month ago. We tried to make Nydus Canal only possible on the upper cliff and cheaper and be used more for the defensive purposes. But such change will be very surprising and awkward for the players who use Nydus offensively. Therefore we have not changed them yet. Nydus Canal is definitely one of the most important factor we are looking at.

A. (David Kim) We tried to add more specialized units for the Protoss. We also tried to figure out a way for Zerg to break through the defense when Terran or Protoss plays very defensively (since Zerg tends to overwhelm the opponent with the number of units or by droning hard). Terran can be both offensive and defensive with varieties of strategies; therefore we are adding units so that players can easily choose between the bionic and mechanic plays.

A. (Chris Sigaty) I cant say the specifics about the beta, but it’s coming soon. If one purchases the Zerg: Heart of the Swarm, one will still have the option to play the Terrans: Wings of Liberty. Unfortunately a player with only the Wings of Liberty can only play the Wings of Liberty.

A. (Chris Sigaty) The two missions are still the same. The story line will be mainly about the evolution of the Zerg. But there have been a lot of editing to how Kerrigan uses her powers.

A. (Chris Sigaty) When we add new contents, we try to keep them simple. There will be new units in Protoss: Legacy of the Void. We’ll have to think about that after the Zerg: Heart of the Swarm.

A. (David Kim) Even within Blizzard, we sometimes fear that we have changed the game too much with the Heart of the Swarm. After the release, we will have to wait for the feedbacks and make final decisions.

A. (Chris Sigaty) We are capable of bringing more heroes from Blizzard games and we plan to add 12 more. We do not have any plans to bring heroes from other gaming companies yet. We plan to change Dota games to the “Blizzard style” and make it a little more challenging. Also we are trying to pace the game so that each game last about 20~30 minutes.

A. We have not decided that yet. We are considering the idea of making the Blizzard Dota free.

A. (David Kim) For example, in the Heart of the Swarm, there is a unit called “Shredder ” that cannot be used near his own units. Therefore the Heart of the Swarm will require the player to divide the army more.

A. (David Kim) I play as random.

A. (David Kim) We are looking at whether “Terran being very powerful in Korea” is the same for the rest of the world. We really value the importance of the game being balanced and we are continuing to tweak the balance a little to make it even. We plan to continue with the new patches whenever there are problems.

A. (David Kim) In the patch 1.4, Bionic units were very powerful. We are trying to make it so that Terran players play bio half the time and mechanic the other half the time. Marines are the basic foundation of the Terran units and tweaking such a unit will create a lot of problems. Therefore we are trying to avoid it.

A. (Chris Sigaty) We are planning on Cross-Regional battles. We are planning to make this happen before the Heart of the Swarm. But I believe that the balancing issue will remain. Balancing a game is a very difficult job.

A. (David Kim) In Korean ladder, the Terran tends to be a little stronger. But in GSL, Terrans are dominating. We are not sure why and we are continuing to analyze and resolve that problem.

아낡수나문: It's true. Terran is a bit overpowered in GSL.

(다크): Haha look at the height difference between the two.
SEA.Splash: Oh yeah~

권덱이: I knew that Terran in GSL are very very powerful. I guess these means that Korean Terran gamer tend to understand Terran better in general since the problem persists only in Korea.

BestToss: The Terran problem is probably because the foreign players do no know how to use the Terran very "cheap." (Referring to all-in and etc) If Terran always goes all-in, they're such a fraud race.

MindSet: Next patch.. nerf terran please....

SunShine_No.1: I wish they would answer more clearly.. so vague.

시스카: I knew it! Protoss is weak!!