You basically need much more workforce to build a new map compared to a balance patch or bug fix. At least if you continue that everything looks different and most things work different on each map.
They are definitely doing things to keep players engaged and as you mention they have been coming out with re-tinted skins and older locked mounts like the Nexus Charger in the shop (things to waste gold on).
Are they buying time and keeping players engaged for something bigger coming out? One could argue that using time/resources to develop new 2.0 maps could be a waste of time, if something bigger was on the horizon. Feeding us scraps like small balance updates also keeps us engaged without any major changes.
One note worth bringing to the forefront is that the Starcraft 2 engine that Hots was developed on is over 20 years old (development started in 2003). It is an absolute dinosaur in terms of what could be developed now, so could they be developing a new engine for SC3 or even a stand alone for HOTs 3.0? Maybe not, but if I were tasked with developing 3.0, I would certainly take developing a new engine into strong consideration.
There have been rumors in the SC2 community for some time now and they are also getting small balance/patch updates like Hotsā¦ The last patch coming out 2 months ago in late November. Lots of parallels between Hots and SC2 at the moment.
This isnāt really abnormal for Blizzard though. WarCraft III got patches sparsely all the way until it patched into Reforged and broke for me. (Good thing I saved a backup before the update.)
Not really. The last balance change Warcraft III got before Reforged was announced happened in 2011. It also didnāt receive a single patch, neither balance nor bug fixes, from early 2011 until 2016.
I donāt care about the distinction between what kind of patches it got. The point is that for 8 years after its release, it got more than one patch a year. And thatās for a game that didnāt need company servers to be running, and all money was made from non-subscription full-game purchases.
If we ignore that lull, there was an average of 3 patches per year for 16 years.
Weāre barely at 10 official years with Heroes of the Storm.
So yeah. Itās not unheard of for Blizzard to patch a game for dual digit years, even if profits are questionable.
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Weāre also coming up on the ten year anniversary in June. With the updates, skins, and return of brawls there maybe something in the works which could potentially be anything, or nothing at all.
Perhaps the game is gearing up for some form of revival, or perhaps they are just finishing all the projects that had been abandoned when the plug was pulled. Or they are just dialing it up a bit to put it something on par with Diablo III content.
Just gotta wait and see.
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I donāt know, wouldnāt they have waited for the actual anniversary date and released all of that at once? The Brawls at least would have been the biggest āgiftā they could have given the community, but weāre getting it before.
It may be changes to prepare to bring the game to Steam.
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There was a leak that it is going on the PC GamePass next month.
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arthas rework??? please daddy blizzard I will sell my spleen to see it finally happen
My copium is now telling me I will unwrap the most sublime gift (a new hero?) for the tenth anniversary!
So, not really, but for whatever the reason might be, Iām grateful someone has time to throw the Hots community a tasty bone on occasion.
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I am kinda hoping they finish up the facial animations for the heroes. Let Yrel blinking for once and give Anduin, Deathwing, and Hogger facial animations. As well as skins such as Maievās High Priestess skin and Blazeās Firestorm skin whose animations do not line up with the voicelines.
Or even a bunch of legendary skins. I would definitely pay for a Legion Doommaiden skin for Yrel that has all the bells and whistles like what Prime Evil Diablo and Maraudinā Muradin have.
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The game is rumored to be coming on game pass in February , maybe they will add new things but im not so hopeful about this , we will see.
The community would simply explode if they made another map. 99% of the people would hate it before it was even launched. It would be too much of a gamble; spend a lot more resources than in the past yearsā¦and risk making matters worse?
How do you see that going, when a good chunk of people hate BHB, Hanamura, Braxis, and maybe a few other maps?
I think even before the HGC stopped getting fundedā¦ almost 10 years ago, the game only had one direction: simplify everything. Make it foolproof. Adding a map would be too much learning for everyone. Maybe if they delete a map (or more), and a hero (or more).
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There are a few reasons why adding a map can be detrimental.
- Maps in HotS all play differently from one another, unlike in most MoBAs where itās the same map with different colors. Players have to learn them by themselves since there are no tutorials. And you canāt really practice since you donāt pick which map you play on. Players still struggle with a lot of maps right now, even though theyāve been there for years. Players would complain even more that their team mates donāt know what heyāre doing.
- While adding maps may seem like youāre adding diversity. With maps being random in all modes but custom, you could spend 3 days hoping to land on a specific map and never get it.
- The more maps are in the game, the less often players will land on their favorite maps. So in trying to make them happier, it would frustrate them instead.
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I can think of more than 10 that I would never miss. It would probably be years before I realized they were removed from the gameāunless someone pointed it out to me.
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Might be fun if some heroes were temporarily removed from HOTS, lol. One day of HOTS without a nazeebo on either team (or both) in 8/10 games might be fun. And if Alarak and Kerrigan were both off at same time, the qm abusing premades will seethe, giving me immense fun even if I donāt have time to play the game that day =)).
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Humm, Iām not sure if a day without Nazeebo would signal a bright path ahead for humanity, or be a sign that the end times are here.
My two cents, Iād rather not see Nova, Valeera or the Butcher in my games.
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Wasnāt really a thing against Nazeebo. As far as my QMs go, thereās more Nazeebo games than Nova, Valeera and Butcher combined. Itās more a comment about meta-centrism, balance decisions and overall staleness of the experience (the lack of new heroes feels worse when half of them are played almost exclusively, and for a good (sad) reason)
I would be perfectly content not to ever team up with a Sgt. Hammer player ever again the A.I ballpit.
The recent game I had with one I was impressed they did not justā¦park in the middle of the middle lane to start shelling the enemy gate. They actually had some level of self-awareness and self-preservation which is incredibly rare amongst Sgt. Hammer players in my neck of the woods.
Nine times out of then though, watching paint dry is preferable to playing alongside a Sgt. Hammer.
For me definitely.
Would pay for Nazeeboless teams 
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