Firstly: Who the put this patch live without getting the updated maps from the map makers? This is, perhaps, the most egregious issue at hand; so many of the maps that are in the pool aren’t even the updated versions of the maps that fix issues that are present, like clipping through certain areas of the map, or changes that were made to terrain.
Who forgot to implement the team maps after the Team Map TLMC? Who gave us less maps than we’ve ever had before??? We used to have 7 maps minimum, and now we have 6; literally half the maps won’t get played, and we don’t have enough for a Bo7 in a tournament now.
There are still bugs present from the PTR (cyclone). Some of the changes that weren’t mentioned are nitpicky (Lunge being changed to Frenzy), but that there are any changes that weren’t mentioned is concerning.
I know you’re all eager to get to the patch but I’d genuinely rather see the patch worked on further before releasing it. And please, please get the updated maps from the map makers.
The cyclone is supposed to have 14 range when it’s locked onto a target. I have seen it break at 9 range even with sight. Though I’m not sure how consistent it is.
on the other hand: Bl also have a bug… which they do not remove.
instead:
" Zerg versus Protoss" … and the overall late-game Protoss army being stronger after the Tempest change, we are concerned about the potential state of the Zerg versus Protoss late game across different levels of play.
aka we don’t care about Zerg players as long as there is Serral, just watch and don’t play.
Since when did Blizzard put through patches on a Monday? The poor intern must’ve had a too-soon deadline. I wonder what patch homestory cup will be played on.
I don’t know who made the data for those changes, but once again…
The distracted modder put 2x times the energy charge ability on nexus for nothing.
He failed to text tag the ability’s persistent in the equation of the total energy recharged, hence 3 periodics +25 energy. If you read me, it’s that simple:
Now for the Cyclone: It was reverted. Ok. So the Mag field accelerator upgrade says it has Lock-On ability deal 600 damage. I upgrade it. OHHHH it deals 750. That’s great maths.
On Hydralisk’s new ability, he forgot to clear out the secondary Index of the cost, causing the button to display [Level 1]. Outstanding.
Trust me, if they weren’t worried about Kespa 2.0 they’d have buffed protoss to 90% of GM league this patch. The fact esports people even mentioned gm is a massive improvement because these are the people who deferred to the pro scene at literally every opportunity and turned sc2 into the meme that it is today. Every design decision since 2015 has been heavily rooted in the goal of making a fast paced esport. They were simply honing in on what variables maximized their viewership numbers. The idea that they are willing to even consider GM might be relevant to the equation means they have come to the realization that long term a video game designed for esports is doomed to fail because the viewers won’t want to play a game that wasn’t designed for them. Balance is so exclusive to the top 10 of planet earth that not even grandmaster is in the club. Imagine how joe schmoe zerg feels in gold league after getting f2’d amoved by the tenth protoss that day. Everyone smugly proclaims that HE is the issue because SERRAL proves the game is balanced. Bad formula. Gaslighting the individual gamer that their own experience is wrong is not a good marketing strategy.
It started out w/ blizz designers asking for pro scene for feedback. Now it’s the pro scene just doing it themselves. So yeah. It’s not the exact same thing but there is a lot of overlap between the old design team and the new one. The ideas originate from the pro players and their social circles in both circumstances.
The worst part of relying on the pro scene is that modern pro players have comically bad game understanding. In the process of designing a fast-paced esport, the only people who can make it in the pro scene are people with short circuit brains that don’t do long term strategizing. The only way to play fast enough is to literally shut off the parts of the brain that do the thinking. There just isn’t time for those processes to play out. As a result the pro scene is populated with people who don’t understand how the game works, meaning they give absolutely useless feedback. This creates a feedback loop that sends the game design off the rails and kills SC2 as an esport.
The moment I knew sc2 esports was toast was when everyone was at home with COVID and the game’s popularity kept going down. People were indoors more than ever and they still didn’t play sc2. That’s how repulsive sc2’s design had become to your typical average joe gamer. You are locked up at home, scared to go outside because a virus might get you, and you still won’t resort to playing that terrible game called starcraft. Literally any other option is better than that game.
Another way the pro feedback killed sc2 esports was that because the game emphasizes speed over all else, the pro scene selected for players who are fast and not creative. That creates a lot of repetitive and stagnant game play. People are watching each ESL cup and thinking “deja vu, haven’t I seen this tournament before?”. Wings of liberty was so massively popular because there was a lot of diversity to the game play. Honing in on speed minimized the diversity in game play and that makes it boring. You got these esports people chasing “quick action” like a dog chasing a car bumper and everyone else is like hey man if you keep chasing cars one of them is going to run you over. That’s an obvious consequence of being a dog that chases car bumpers. For the sake of the game and all of esports and the love of strategy games in general, these people had to be stopped before they killed not just SC2 but the entire strategy game category. They were creating a branding issue that would’ve tainted the industry for decades if not permanently.
Games have to be designed for the people who play them.
Be glad that terran didnt get the hammer. Its fascinating that no pro would say would say disruptor are too strong or that shield battery overcharge did really anything astonishing at pro level but they got wrecked (granted both are incredibly lame and should be changed for something better. Partially this has been done but we need an actual unit instead of the disruptor).
Meanwhile even clem himself said ghosts are too strong vs p and z and what did they do? +1 supply cost while writing:
" We have heard major concerns from multiple professional Terran players about the Ghost nerf, and there wasn’t full alignment among Balance Council members regarding this change"
" so we would like to move forward with the Ghost supply nerf for 5.0.14 while continuing to carefully monitor its effects in both the Terran versus Zerg and Terran versus Protoss matchups."
cant shake my head often enough. meanwhile the disruptor doesnt even 1 shot marauders anymore leaving us with 2 t3 protoss aoe units that have a hard time dealing with t1 terran. GJ. And not a single comment how obviously no protoss pro appreciates the change and that even terran pros acknowledge that it sucks.
