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http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/8397165/Wings_of_Liberty_Situation_Report_-_January_11_2013-1_11_2013
Maps
Going forward, we’re going to make a few changes in our approach to the 1v1 ladder map pool.
First, we’ve decided to alter the start location rules for Antiga Shipyard and Entombed Valley to match those of popular tournaments. From now on, starting locations on Antiga Shipyard will be locked to cross-positions only, while Entombed Valley will allow players to spawn only in vertical and cross-positions.
We’ve held off on these changes until now primarily because we thought having different sets of hidden start location rules for each map might be confusing to lower level players. At this point, however, we feel that most StarCraft II players have a solid understanding of starting locations on each map. You will find these changes published during an upcoming server maintenance that will be happening next week.
We’re also discussing our direction for the Heart of the Swarm map pool. Though we will go into further detail at a later date, we are currently planning to make heavier use of popular tournament maps, refresh the map pool more frequently than we did in Wings of Liberty, and work closely with tournament organizations around the world in order to collaborate on map development.
Balance
We felt the nerfs we made to the Infestor with our most recent balance update did not have as much of an impact as we had hoped. In the Heart of the Swarm beta, we’ve been testing Infested Terrans that do not benefit from weapon or armor upgrades, and feel that bringing this change to Wings will help discourage mass-Infestor play in the late game.
We’ve just published a new version of the Antiga Shipyard balance test map to the custom games list under the name (4)AntigaShipyard (1.5.3 Balance v2.0). Please help us test the following change so that we can make another small update to Wings of Liberty balance:
Zerg
Infested Terrans no longer gain weapon and armor upgrades.
We’re looking for feedback on this change that is based on playtesting. After you’ve had a chance to thoroughly test it, please join us in this discussion thread.
Looks like they're going through with the Infestor nerfs much earlier than I expected at least.
As for the Maps update? All I can say is....
HELL YES BLIZZARD! IT'S ABOUT FREAKING TIME!
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Very nice!! still hoping for a fungal growth nerf though
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Great to see cross spawns enforced now.
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juicyjames
United States3815 Posts
Though we will go into further detail at a later date, we are currently planning to make heavier use of popular tournament maps, refresh the map pool more frequently than we did in Wings of Liberty, and work closely with tournament organizations around the world in order to collaborate on map development.
Yes! This was probably one of my biggest concerns that went seemingly unaddressed going into HotS!
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Poland332 Posts
omg it took them a year to realise those spawn positions are needed but better late than never
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On January 12 2013 10:12 juicyjames wrote:Show nested quote +Though we will go into further detail at a later date, we are currently planning to make heavier use of popular tournament maps, refresh the map pool more frequently than we did in Wings of Liberty, and work closely with tournament organizations around the world in order to collaborate on map development. Yes! This was probably one of my biggest concerns that went seemingly unaddressed going into HotS!
On the other hand... Do you really want to play Arkanoid or Bifrost on ladder? ^^
(I wouldnt actually mind, I think, I would enjoy it... but i can see the whining that would happen, mostly becaues of Arkanoid :D)
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Doesn't it seem like there's basically no reason to get range upgrades now for zerg, apart from maybe holding some all-ins with +1? Though even that is questionable.
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"We've held off on these changes until now primarily because we thought having different sets of hidden start location rules for each map might be confusing to lower level players."
"At this point we feel that most StarCraft II players have a solid understanding of starting locations on each map."
Wait, what?
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At least Blizzard is promising big changes for the future. The ladder map change is nice, and at least Infestors are being changed.
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On January 12 2013 10:17 Zrana wrote:
Doesn't it seem like there's basically no reason to get range upgrades now for zerg, apart from maybe holding some all-ins with +1? Though even that is questionable.
yup cause roaches and hydras dont benefit at all from ranged upgrades. Ofc if you don't use ranged units, there is no reason to get ranged upgrades. Just like is you are terran goin bio, there is no reason to get mech upgrades.....
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They're slowly getting it.
Cross-only and vertical/cross-only on Antiga and Entombed would have been great several months ago. We're at the point where they shouldn't be in the pool at all.
At least they're finally yielding to the tournaments as the driving force of the maps as we transition into HotS.
Infestor changes are fair imo.
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Tournaments have done a pretty bad job with maps, too. They need to be talking directly to the map makers as well. If they just use the same sort of maps GSL has added to their pool in 2012, it won't help much.
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Woah thats 3 good updates in the last few days (infestor nerf, name change, cross spawns)
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On January 12 2013 10:31 Gfire wrote:
Tournaments have done a pretty bad job with maps, too. They need to be talking directly to the map makers as well. If they just use the same sort of maps GSL has added to their pool in 2012, it won't help much.
Agreed. If Blizzard is going to officially look to the tournaments to drive the map pool then its now a responsibility of the tournaments to add variety and seek new maps as often as reasonably possible to keep from us having a stagnation of the map pool again like we've been having.
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Maybe that some time has passed from when SC2 WoL came out, they will start doing stuff that TL wants sooner? I think they were just worried that it would be offputting to a lot of new players that had never heard of SC2 before. Now that they have a bigger pool of people that are more familiar with the game, they might (MIIIGHT) be quicker on somethings?
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Though we will go into further detail at a later date, we are currently planning to make heavier use of popular tournament maps, refresh the map pool more frequently than we did in Wings of Liberty, and work closely with tournament organizations around the world in order to collaborate on map development.
But not the people who actually make new maps. -_-
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YES, I have been looking forward to this for so. fucking. long. TY blizzard for finally realizing that spawns on those maps affect the gameplay...only took over a year. It's K though, they've finally done it.
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Blizz are you kidding me...fungal is what makes the infestor a "bad" unit.
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The maps thing (HotS, not start positions WoL) is the one change I've been most hoping for. It was not really talked about all that much compared to a lot of other wishlist changes, but I honestly think it's the most important thing Blizzard can do to improve the title long-term. It's been kind of quiet because most most players would be arguing against their self-interest if they campaigned too hard for a new system / more maps (someone who is good now can remain so for a long time when their best maps never seem to leave the scene). More frequent and expirimental map changes will cause more of a stir to that kind of status quo system and instead reward the players who can adapt the quickest.
As of now the only frequent complaints with regards to lack of new maps are usually leveled at tournaments. But I can't really blame them, as they are stuck with a lose/lose situation. Outside of the very insular Kespa (and to a lesser extent, GSL/ESF) systems, there would be very little support among players for new maps in every other tourney as they will have a very hard time practicing for them since they won't be on the ladder. So players would either avoid or rebel against tournaments that use brand new maps frequently, or at best the level of play will just not be what people want (because of lack of practice). On the other hand, if they stick with tried & true maps, players may be happy, but fans will end up watching the same games they've seen over and over again throughout the year.
So in the end, it all comes down to Blizzard to provide a better system with their ladder map pool, so that tournaments have at least more options and a more frequent changing of maps to keep things different between tournaments. Unfortunately, up until now Blizzard handled that duty extremely poorly, to the point where people are still complaining about lack of proper starting positions in year+ old maps. That, and their stubborn reliance on their own internal map making team instead of using more community maps, has in turn caused the tourney map scene to stagnate as well. I'm REALLY looking forward to seeing if that wasn't just a throwaway promise and that they are truly making some serious changes when it comes to this issue.
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Yay. This is a well needed change. Will definitely be playing a lot on the balance map.
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EPT
