Heart of the Swarm Brings Battle.net Upgrades to StarCraft II

[John Funk]

Heart of the Swarm Brings Battle.net Upgrades to StarCraft II

Clans, match resuming, and full global play, but no LAN.

Last week we learned that Blizzard was adding genuinely global play [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/117026-Diablo-III-Brings-Global-Play-to-Battle-net] to Battle.net for Diablo III - something sorely missing in StarCraft II - and wondered if the PC giant could be adding it in for the first expansion, Heart of the Swarm. As it turns out, yes it is, along with a heap of other improvements to the multiplayer-service-slash-social-network.

In a blog post [http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/5366967/Developer_Update_with_Production_Director_Chris_Sigaty-5_7_2012#blog] on Battle.net, SC2 production director Chris Sigaty outlined the improvements that the Irvine-based developer would be shipping "at or around the launch" of Heart of the Swarm, including:

[blockquote]*Multiplayer resume from replay
*Global Play
*Multilanguage support
*Clan/group system
*Unranked matchmaking
*Multiplayer replay viewing[/blockquote]

Full global play has been something sorely missing on the new Battle.net since the StarCraft II release, but many of these updates are addressing some of the more glaring deficiencies in the system. Clan play and unranked matchmaking - for players to find opponents of approximately equal skill and test out new build orders or just mess around without worrying about it affecting their ladder ranking - should have been there from the beginning, honestly. Better late than never, I suppose.

The big addition, though, is that Blizzard will be working on allowing players to reconnect to a match in progress if they disconnect or lag out. Prior to this, a disconnect, even a momentary one, would result in a victory for the opponent. This might have served to prevent sore losers from pulling the plug so that they didn't lose ladder ranking, but it was a pain for other players who suffered legitimate disconnects.

Allowing players to resume a match they may have crashed or disconnected from would also alleviate an issue in the thriving StarCraft II eSports community, where disconnects require that a match be replayed no matter who was in the lead.

This issue reared its head in April, where MarineKing, a player in the Global StarCraft Team League finals, suddenly disconnected from a match that had been fairly decisively going in his opponent's favor. Once the issue had been fixed, the match was restarted from scratch, and this time the tables were turned - a match which secured MarineKing's team the victory. During the kerfuffle, fans reportedly chanted [http://www.destructoid.com/fans-chant-we-want-lan-at-recent-starcraft-ii-tourney-226024.phtml] "We want LAN" over and over - though the computer in question had in fact lost connect to both local and external networks, meaning LAN play wouldn't have solved anything. It was the principle of the matter, really.

Speaking of LAN play, though, there was no word from Blizzard on that front and it seems unlikely that it would abandon its all-Battle.net-all-the-time policy, for better or for worse.

I'm looking forward to many of these changes, though I'm not looking forward to players from Seoul hopping onto our American servers to mercilessly stomp us puny westerners into Zerg-flavored dust. That's going to just be embarrassing.

Source: Battle.net blog [http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/5366967/Developer_Update_with_Production_Director_Chris_Sigaty-5_7_2012#blog]

Permalink

 

[Tanakh]

unranked matchmaking - for players to find opponents of approximately equal skill and test out new build orders or just mess around without worrying about it affecting their ladder ranking

Well, i guess it works to play while drunk/high (RTS and DotA games seem big on the pot public, dunno why); but for test new build orders? Useless, if the other player is of aprox equal skill and you are trying a totally different build order that trows you out of balance you will be better served using an easy bot than losing at 5 to 9 minutes. Your learn builds with bots, you polish the build with bots and once you are firm on it you play humans, there is no point before that to play against a guy.

This issue reared its head in April, where MarineKing, a player in the Global StarCraft Team League finals, suddenly disconnected from a match that had been fairly decisively going in his opponent's favor.

I honestly couldn't care less about the features they are releasing, most of them seem more or less useless for SC II as an e-sport, though maybe will help SC II as a social game. What we need in SC II IMO is:

- Less minerals per base
- LAN for tournaments

TBH i don't give a crap about LAN for me, even if i am playing against a friend in the same room i will have a good internet connection and if anyone DCs, its not a big deal. But that Parting VS MKP team stuff was BS! I am a MKP fan, and was happy to see him steamrolling, but it will be a permanent stain that is Blizz fault.

I'm looking forward to many of these changes, though I'm not looking forward to players from Seoul hopping onto our American servers to mercilessly stomp us puny westerners into Zerg-flavored dust. That's going to just be embarrassing.

And Europeans, they seem to be on a way higher level than NA. On the other hand NA is a bit better than LA, so there is always lower.

Honestly i am excited about HotS because have heard very good things from the pros that have seen it up close, mainly about rebalance and micro play. If they just added LESS MINERALS PER BASE (maybe on a "hardcore mode" gameplay) and did LAN support for mayor tournaments i would think as SC II as the perfect videogame.

 

[Royas]

I was severely unimpressed by the first part of Starcraft 2, I can see myself getting the rest. Change Battlenet all they want, Blizzard first has to build a game I want to play.

 

[rekabdarb]

Blizzard is slowly sinking as an original game studio.

All their franchises are dying. Plus if you promise episodic gameplay you should REALLY not take a full year to release each part.

I dunno where i'm going with this.

Other than game companies who have gotten hit after hit after hit need to have their ego's sploded so that they don't topple under pressure

 

[rapidoud]

unranked matchmaking - for players to find opponents of approximately equal skill and test out new build orders or just mess around without worrying about it affecting their ladder ranking

Well, i guess it works to play while drunk/high (RTS and DotA games seem big on the pot public, dunno why); but for test new build orders? Useless, if the other player is of aprox equal skill and you are trying a totally different build order that trows you out of balance you will be better served using an easy bot than losing at 5 to 9 minutes. Your learn builds with bots, you polish the build with bots and once you are firm on it you play humans, there is no point before that to play against a guy.

This issue reared its head in April, where MarineKing, a player in the Global StarCraft Team League finals, suddenly disconnected from a match that had been fairly decisively going in his opponent's favor.

I honestly couldn't care less about the features they are releasing, most of them seem more or less useless for SC II as an e-sport, though maybe will help SC II as a social game. What we need in SC II IMO is:

- Less minerals per base
- LAN for tournaments

TBH i don't give a crap about LAN for me, even if i am playing against a friend in the same room i will have a good internet connection and if anyone DCs, its not a big deal. But that Parting VS MKP team stuff was BS! I am a MKP fan, and was happy to see him steamrolling, but it will be a permanent stain that is Blizz fault.

I'm looking forward to many of these changes, though I'm not looking forward to players from Seoul hopping onto our American servers to mercilessly stomp us puny westerners into Zerg-flavored dust. That's going to just be embarrassing.

And Europeans, they seem to be on a way higher level than NA. On the other hand NA is a bit better than LA, so there is always lower.

Honestly i am excited about HotS because have heard very good things from the pros that have seen it up close, mainly about rebalance and micro play. If they just added LESS MINERALS PER BASE (maybe on a "hardcore mode" gameplay) and did LAN support for mayor tournaments i would think as SC II as the perfect videogame.

It's funny because the 'no-LAN' has flapped up more than a few games at tournaments through shitty blizzard servers, not to forget the massive delays when you live in anywhere except eagleland.

BTW, SC2 was 2010, so this is 2 years to get an expansion out the door (a blizzard expansion mind you, a full campaign of 8-10 hours and barely any other content). They didn't even bother fixing B.Net the atrocity and they hate anyone who buys used games. For $60-80 depending how much the yanks feel like screwing you over?

I'll give this and D3 a miss, I don't support clowns.

 

[Vankraken]

Honestly its taken way too long for these "features" to be made. Unranked match making and resume from replay are two things i didn't expect but everything else should of been with WoL launch. Still waiting on special lan servers for events like GSL and MLG if they want to keep the general public using Battle.net.

 

[Frostbite3789]

Not endearing, just a fact of life. Blizzard works slow but they usually deliver.

So it is supposed to be endearing. You wouldn't be saying that otherwise.

At this point, Blizzard only works slowly because out of the thousands of employees, their game development personnel is something like 50 people, spread out over 4 games. That aside, these are things that they mostly have done before on release, the fact that you go to "Blizzard time" as an excuse is bloody astounding.

Yes please go back and point out the part where I said it was an excuse, NOT a fact of life.
It's
The
Way
Blizzard
Makes
Games.

But...but then he wouldn't be able to get offended!

 

[DeSpiner]

The reconnecting thing I can really not see being useful. It's a good thing to have, to be sure, but once you're disconnected from a ranked game, you're fucked. Does it work on custom games, too?

The feature is not intended for ladder games. The blog post clearly states that it's a resume-from-replay feature, meaning that both parties must agree to resume the game for it to work.

The point of it all is to prevent tournament games having to be replayed from scratch in case of technical problems.
On the ladder, sure you're going to feel bad for losing a game due to a disconnect, but you only stand to lose ladder points, which you can win back in the next games. I don't see the need for this feature on the ladder, it's the tournaments where this really matters.

I'm looking forward to many of these changes, though I'm not looking forward to players from Seoul hopping onto our American servers to mercilessly stomp us puny westerners into Zerg-flavored dust. That's going to just be embarrassing.

You should look on the bright side. If better players (from anywhere) come to play on your server, in time that will just increase the level of play. "Competition breeds excellence" and all that.
In any case, I really doubt that many Koreans will regularly play on the American or European servers. I expect it will be the other way around, where many 'foreign' players will try out the famed high-skill Korean server. All in all the experience will depend on the amount of lag for each server.

I honestly couldn't care less about the features they are releasing, most of them seem more or less useless for SC II as an e-sport, though maybe will help SC II as a social game.

Most if not all of these features were requested by the community so that's why they are more on the social side.

 

[Eric the Orange]

Not endearing, just a fact of life. Blizzard works slow but they usually deliver.

So it is supposed to be endearing. You wouldn't be saying that otherwise.

Why is that the only possible reason?