Blizzard has now given an additional Beta key to those players who have already recieved one. They can use this to give to a friend so they can download and play the Beta too.

Blizzard also says they will continue the Beta Key waves since a new wave was started yesterday.

Oh and on a slightly unrelated note, Blizzard is also saying that players will only be allowed to have 1 account per copy of StarCraft II they have. This is to prevent people from starting tons of new accounts and picking on new players, wasting space, etc.

So Blizzard has confirmed that they are planning on getting the Galaxy Editor for SCII out during the Beta, and are hoping to get it out before the end of April.

“Yes. We’re still working on the Map Editor and currently working on the publishing system. We intend to release an early version of the editor during the beta so the map-making community can get a head start creating their own maps. This is going to be a stretch for us to pull off, but our hope is to get it out before the end of April.” – Blizz Tech Chat forum post

That link above will lead to a Q&A on the SCII Beta. You can learn lots of interesting facts about Blizzard’s plans for SCII.

Balance Changes

PROTOSS

Cybernetics Core

- Warp Gate research time increased from 60 seconds to 140 seconds.

ZERG

Hatchery/Lair/Hive

- Burrow research time increased from 50 seconds to 100 seconds.
- Burrow research cost increased from 50 Minerals and 50 Vespene Gas to 100 Minerals and 100 Vespene Gas.

Nydus Network

- Nydus Worm build time increased from 10 seconds to 20 seconds.

Hydralisk

- The delay between attacks has been increased from 0.75 seconds to 0.83 seconds.

Infestor

- Neural Parasite has been redesigned:
- The limited duration of 10 seconds has been removed.
- Can no longer target air units.
- Cast range decreased from 9 to 7.
- Burrowed Infestor move speed decreased from 1.5 to 1.
- Infestor life decreased from 120 to 90.
- Infestors that are burrowed now have the same threat level as above-ground units for the purposes of automatically acquiring targets.

Bug Fixes

- Fixed an issue with High graphics settings that could cause particles not to render.

Hey there everyone.  I just noticed that Blizzard has released 2 new patches for the SC2 beta, so here are the changes:

Patch 3:

Balance Changes

• TERRAN
  • Engineering Bay
    • Infantry Armor: The time required for each upgrade has been reduced by 30 seconds, decreasing each upgrade time from 190/220/250 seconds to 160/190/220 seconds.
    • Infantry Weapons: The time required for each upgrade has been reduced by 30 seconds, decreasing each upgrade time from 190/220/250 seconds to 160/190/220 seconds.
    • Armory
    • Vehicle Plating: The time required for each upgrade has been reduced by 30 seconds, decreasing each upgrade time from 190/220/250 seconds to 160/190/220 seconds.
    • Vehicle Weapons: The time required for each upgrade has been reduced by 30 seconds, decreasing each upgrade time from 190/220/250 seconds to 160/190/220 seconds.
    • Ship Plating: The time required for each upgrade has been reduced by 30 seconds, decreasing each upgrade time from 190/220/250 seconds to 160/190/220 seconds.
    • Ship Weapons: The time required for each upgrade has been reduced by 30 seconds, decreasing each upgrade time from 190/220/250 seconds to 160/190/220 seconds.

• PROTOSS
  • Zealot
    • The maximum shield capacity of this unit has been decreased from 60 to 50.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where the Infestor’s Neural Parasite ability could cause Reapers to lose the ability to move.
• Fixed an issue that could use an incorrect HDR format on some ATI cards.
• Fixed a crash that could happen on some ATI cards.

Patch 4:

General

• Korea
  • Added support to display the game rating information on the F10 in-game menu within the beta.

All of this information came directly off of blizzard’s site and can be viewed here:

http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=23094049316&sid=5000

Blizzard sent out another batch of Beta Keys to players today. So keep on checking your emails. You may be getting one today or possibly this weekend if you’re lucky. They seem to be sending them frequently so that is good news on the progress of the game.

And we are still working on the SCII Terran and Zerg unit pages. They should be up by the end of this coming week. I’ll be updating the screen shot/poll of the month soon too.

Two days later Blizzard released the second SCII Beta patch today. Here are the changes.

Balance Changes

• TERRAN

  • Banshee

    • - Cloak: This ability no longer requires Fusion Core to research.

  • Barracks

    • - The build time for this building has decreased from 65 to 60.

  • Factory

    • - The build time for this building has decreased from 65 to 60.

  • Reactor

    • - The build time for this building has decreased from 40 to 25.

  • Reaper

    • - The build time for this unit has increased from 30 to 40.
    • - Nitro Boost: The build time for this upgrade has increased from 90 to 100.

  • Starport

    • - The build time for this building has decreased from 55 to 50.

  • Tech Lab

    • - The build time for this building has decreased from 30 to 25.

• PROTOSS

  • Mothership

    • - The build time for this unit has increased from 120 to 160.
    • - The food cost of this unit has increased from 6 to 8.
    • - The number of shots fired by this unit has decreased from 8 to 6.
    • - The shield of this unit has decreased from 400 to 350.
    • - The health of this unit has decreased from 400 to 350.
    • - The acceleration of this unit has decreased from 1.3125 to 0.3125.
    • - The deceleration of this unit has increased from 0 to 1.

  • Nexus

    • - Chrono Boost: The duration of this ability has decreased from 30 to 20.

• ZERG

  • Corruptor

    • - The damage done by this unit has increased from 12 (+8 massive) to 12 (+10 massive).