I have returned: StarCraft II

[Jojothemidget]

Bnet pissed me off already when I went to go do my placement match today. As it gets to the loading screen the game crashes and I get an instant loss. I don't mind still being in bronze but jeez at least give me a chance to try to get to silver. I'm just wondering if this has happened to anyone else.

[stewie]

Woo, masters finally!

[Jojothemidget]

Been reading up on the tech support forums apparently alot of the ones exping the crashes are terran players. I know alot of other races have been asking blizzard to nerf terran but but i don't think this is how they meant it. Anyway i guess i'll stay out of league games for a bit until it's fixed.

[Julian]

Lost to a 4gate on my placement match, got placed into diamond, lol.

[Jojothemidget]

Just got off the Blizzard tech support forums and to anyone playing Terran this is what they believe is the cause of the crashes. The 3D portrait's that have lip syncing <pretty much most terran unit> is causing this bug the current work-around they have come up with is changing the portraits to 2d mode until they fix the bug.

Update:They did a patch today i set 3d portraits back on and i didn't crash so i think the problem has been fixed.

[Rehn]

Does anyone play player-made maps? Anyone know which maps are well made/awesome fun? Not talking about the uber popular ones like marine arena or storm of the long name or whatever. Kinda leaning more towards co-op vs. impossible odds or well made but lesser known maps.

[SubzeroDiabolos]

Was silver before, is silver now.
http://www.thedailyblink.com/wp-cont...e_template.jpg

[stewie]

Does anyone play player-made maps? Anyone know which maps are well made/awesome fun? Not talking about the uber popular ones like marine arena or storm of the long name or whatever. Kinda leaning more towards co-op vs. impossible odds or well made but lesser known maps.

Marine Split Challenge is fun.

[greatandfoolish]

a recent map that fits the co-op bill is death haven, however you have to play it over, and over, and over to actually beat it. the setting is a zombie/zerg rush against a small base.

for well made maps but lesser known i'd suggest WGX nagrand or team micro arena, both deal with having a small group of units that you micro against your opponents chosen units to micro, as the game proceeds you earn the right to choose more units.

night of the dead is also a co-op game for up to 8 people and also plays like death haven, the exception being that a group of people can beat the game on their first playthrough, but its unlikely

[Misuicide]

Some guy asked me after i beat him how i had so much on 3 base o_o; he was pissed. i'll post the rep, i just kept him contained, and was able to properly use larvae for drones and army

http://www.sc2replayed.com/replays/1...darim-altar-le its pretty bland, i coulda played much better, but I did just fine. I kinda punished his forge FE, I think it threw him off the entire game

[Misuicide]

Ultimate Grandmaster League

A new league has been added! Ultimate Grandmaster represents the top one player in each region. Do you have what it takes?

General

* Players who do not type "GG" before quitting a game will receive an automatic loss for bad manners.

* Players who are winning a match and type “GG” on behalf of their opponent will automatically surrender.

* Players with Battle.net accounts registered with the first and last name David Kim will now receive an automatic 20% reduction to all stats.

* The Dance Studio has been added to the game! Teach your units new dances by purchasing them with your bonus pool. Show off to opponents, impress your friends!



* Leagues & Ladders

o In addition to losses, wins are now also no longer shown. Instead, players will see Jim Raynor giving them a thumbs-up after every match regardless if they win or lose.

o To balance the issue of Zerg under-representation and Terran over-representation in the upper ladder brackets, the names of these two races have been switched. This should result in higher "Zerg" representation and lower “Terran” representation.

o To keep queue times low, you can now face off against AI players when playing ladder games!

+ Bronze: Very Easy

+ Silver: Easy

+ Gold: Normal

+ Platinum: Hard

+ Diamond: Very Hard

+ Master/Grandmaster: Insane

+ Ultimate Grandmaster: You



* Maps

o Two new maps have been introduced to support macro-play! Both maps include 30 expansions, and it will take approximately 5 minutes for a scouting unit to reach an opponent's starting base.

o Due to its extreme popularity, two additional versions of Delta Quadrant have been added to the 1v1 map pool to increase a player’s likelihood to queue for this map.

o To better support community maps, destructible rocks, line of sight blockers, and high yield minerals will now automatically be added into maps that do not have them.

o Destructible rocks have been added to all base and expansion locations in all maps, including starting base locations.

o To help lesser known maps get more exposure, there is now a 1-hour cooldown before you can play the same custom map again.



Battle.net

* To make Battle.net friendlier, all players will automatically be placed in the same Voice-Chat channel upon logging in to Battle.net. Voice-Chat is defaulted back to "On" and volume to maximum every time the game is started.



Balance

* PROTOSS

o Hallucinated units now deal damage equivalent to the unit they replicate.

o Due to the effectiveness of Force Field, it is now a High Templar ability which must be researched from the Templar Archives.

o Sentries now begin play with Psi Storm.

o Colossi now have 5 legs. They just looked kinda weird with 4.

o Whenever a Phoenix performs the barrel roll animation, it cannot be damaged by any attacks.

o Carrier (new unit) is now available from the Stargate.

o To better match their namesakes, Phoenixes will now always revive 5 seconds after being “destroyed”.

o Protoss players that are matched against another Protoss player will automatically start the game with 4 Gateways and Warp Gate tech researched.

o Due to lack of appreciation by players, the Mothership has been surgically altered to be sleeker and more visually appealing, and has been renamed to the Cougarship. The Cougarship will automatically gravitate toward enemy units that have been in play for 18-21 minutes and attempt to bring them back to the nearest friendly base.



* TERRAN

o The Thor has been reverted to its original pre-beta size. Ramp widths on all maps have been increased by 5x to accommodate this change.

o Due to a recent popular all-in strategy, SCV health has been decreased from 45 to 15.

o Marines and Marauders now attack while moving. We felt this functionality was a lot of fun on the Phoenix and wanted to add it to some of the less popular Terran units.

o Battlecruiser movement speed increased from 1.875 to Ludicrous Speed.

o The Ghost can no longer be produced. Once a Ghost's progress bar is partially complete it will be postponed indefinitely.

o To better balance Terran defensive structure options we are adding the Drakken Laser Drill from the single player mission “The Dig” to the Terran tech tree. Its stats will remain the same and will cost 400 minerals and 200 Vespene gas with a 45 second build time.

o Flying buildings now crush any non-massive units and Protoss Force Fields when landing. This effect can destroy friendly units.

o Bunker

+ No change.

o To encourage further tournament use, MULEs will now instantly destroy all units in their path when being called down.



* ZERG

o Zerg players have begun to spread creep regularly during gameplay. To counter this, the speed of Zerg units has been decreased by 50%.

o Zerg eggs now reflect the size of the unit that is being produced.

o Zergling

+ Now hatch in batches of 4 to help create more of a swarmy feeling.

+ Cost reduced to 25 minerals for each batch.

o Infestor Neural Parasite ability is no longer channeled and has an unlimited duration.

o To bring the Queen’s Spawn Larvae ability in line with MULEs and Chrono Boost, Spawn Larvae can now be set to auto-cast.

o The Hatchery/Lair/Hive no longer auto-spawn Larvae. Each Larva must be individually queued and produced from this structure. Each Larva now also has a cost of 2 Supply.

o Because the Protoss and Terran have mechanics to circumvent cliffs, we felt it was unfair for the zerg. As such, Banelings are now able to roll up and down cliffs. This upgrade is combined with Centrifugal Hooks, and build time on the upgrade has been increased by 10 seconds.

o Banelings splash now inflicts damage on friendly units.

o Banelings now automatically detonate when they touch any other unit or building, including friendly banelings.

o Ultralisk Cavern tech requirement changed from Hive to Hatchery. For obvious balance reasons Ultralisks no longer crush forcefields.

o Due to lack of use, the Lurker has been removed from the game.



Bug Fixes

* Gameplay

o Fixed a bug where Terran players were able to lose a game.

o Fixed a bug preventing Planetary Fortresses from lifting off.

i love blizzard

[Terrestrialrage]

Due to lack of appreciation by players, the Mothership has been surgically altered to be sleeker and more visually appealing, and has been renamed to the Cougarship. The Cougarship will automatically gravitate toward enemy units that have been in play for 18-21 minutes and attempt to bring them back to the nearest friendly base.

Fucking rofl.

To bring the Queen’s Spawn Larvae ability in line with MULEs and Chrono Boost, Spawn Larvae can now be set to auto-cast.

I can see it... /racechange

[Uzor]

Imagine my surprise when I went to read the newspaper online and one of the Swedish newspapers were streaming a Starcraft II league taking place in Sweden live in HD, fully accompanied by minute-by-minute updates and a commentator talking about it throughout the battles.

[Misuicide]

Spoiler: show

got a good lol out of this

[Salodin]

thats awesome lol...

[Gredival]

Plat Gold Gold Silver v. Master Diamond Diamond Plat

"Slightly favored" and the -points were based off slightly favored as well.

Rofl.

[Gryffes]

If you didn't watch GSL this morning you need to kill yourself

[Ketna]

Man, I love the excited nerd squeal. Its just got to be embarrassing to be broadcasting and then recorded for all eternity; you are the <littlegirlvoice> "the nukes going to land on his army!!!" </littlegirlvoice> guy lol.

[Salodin]

I'm looking to gauge interest in a 2v2 tournament for the forum. I know our past tournies haven't met with good success, but each try was a little better then the last. This time I'm thinking of having the tournament last only a couple of days, something like a friday/saturday.

If the tournament does happen, it'd be 2v2, double elimination. I haven't decided if it would be bo3, or just single match (due to the shorter time frame). Depending on the number of participants, I was also thinking of throwing the tournament on z33k to gain a few more participants, as well as other sc2 players who might come to the forum.

So...any one like this idea?

[Anakron]

I like the idea, and I consider 2v2s to be a lot more friendly / fun than 1v1s, the only problem is that it'd be twice as hard to get people together for it. :/

EDIT: Alternatively, we could just informally have certain nights designated as something like "Friday Night Starcraft," and then we could do whatever with whoever shows up. Maybe some 1v1s with spectators, 2v2s, 3v3s, etc.