General

- Matchmaking has been updated to better match players queuing with pre-made teams in 2v2, 3v3, and 4v4 brackets.

Bug Fixes

General

- Fixed an issue where the title of a conversation window was scaling rather than truncating.
- Fixed an issue where the Match History score screen was displaying “Null” for the map info for all games played before Patch 1.2.
- Fixed an issue that would sometimes cause players to be improperly disconnected from a game.
- (Mac) Fixed an issue that would cause the Control key to become stuck when holding Control and minimizing the game window, then going back to the game window and attempting to use Control+1 to create a control group.

Maps

- Fixed an issue with foliage that would die and become visible through the fog of war when a player spawned as zerg.

StarCraft II Editor

- Fixed an issue where copied-and-pasted units were not set to the correct height in-game.
- Fixed an issue where the table view scroll-bar position was reset when switching objects.
- Fixed an issue where secondary sort priorities were not working properly. Model name is now the secondary sort so that models are listed in alphabetical order after being sorted by the mod they are contained in.

Here are some common mistakes people make in 1-on-1 games in the SC2 bronze and silver leagues. Players in higher leagues probably don’t make these mistakes as frequently:

General:

• Relying too heavily on one strategy/rush. Many players play the same way every game with a race. Not only will this get incredibly boring over time, it is not a good way to improve your game. There are tons of players who focus solely on doing a MMM attack, even if their opponent is well-prepared for it.

• Heavily building marines/hydralisks/stalkers. While these are good overall troops and are especially good against air attacks, they’ll get hammered against an opponent who focuses on a land-on-land attack. If your opponent is mass producing marines and you are producing marauders, it’s going to be an easy win for you.

• Forgetting to upgrade. In mid-to-late game, the winner of the battle may just be who upgraded more.

• Expanding too slowly. While you do not want to expand too quickly and leave yourself vulnerable, some players (especially bronze players) want to turtle, tech up, and build a ton of defenses for their sole base and expand later. By that time, a good player will have 3 bases and can simply win due to overwhelming firepower and resources.

Terran:

• Neglecting detection. Some Terran players rely too much on the scan from an orbital station to detect their opponents. This can be deadly, especially against a dark templar rush. If you are Terran, scout your opponent properly to see if they are going about a cloaked attack.

• Only using a MMM attack. While marines, marauders, and medivacs are a potent attack, advanced players are ready for this.

Zerg:

• Not utilizing banelings effectively. Proper use of banelings is incredibly tough. Banelings are fairly expensive, especially if your opponent kills them before they detonate. However, banelings are instrumental at piercing an opponent’s defenses as well as combating a MMM attack. In general, advanced zerg players are much better at using banelings than beginner ones.

• Not expanding fast enough. For zerg to win, they will often need to out-resource the opponent. You can’t do this if you turtle.

Protoss:

• Building too many photon cannons. Yes, they are good defenses, but at the end of the day, if you are investing all of your funds into defenses, you will not have a good army and will expand too slowly.Also, like all defenses, your opponent will be able to outrange them at some point.

• Becoming too dependent on the void ray rush. While void rays are good units and a rush can be successful, it is also fairly easily detected and defeated. If you notice your opponent preparing for void rays, change strategy.

The newest content patch has been released for Wings of Liberty. 1.2.0 brings a large number of additions and fixes. I’m very happy with my map editor improvements. I’m sure others are very happy about the Customized Hotkeys (especially SCBW players).

General

- Battle.net Chat Channels have been added! Players can now join others in both public and private channels.
- Added in-game chat bar command to whisper to other players. Using the “/w” command will open up a list of available friends, party members, chat channels, and other players within your current game.
- Added Battle.net option to auto-join previous private channels.
- Added Battle.net option to prevent chat channel text from appearing in in-game chat display.
- A new Master League has been added! This league now represents the highest tier of players.
- Customizable Hotkey Support has been added.
- Stalemate Detection has been added. This will end the game in a tie for all remaining players if no players have income, production, or destroyed structures for three consecutive minutes. A countdown timer will now appear when the game detects this scenario.
- An Extreme graphics option is now available. Players can now configure screen space ambient occlusion.

Additional Improvements and Changes

Several help dialogue and tech tree improvements have been made:
- In-game help is now available in Battle.net.
- The help dialog’s tech tree has been improved.
- Unit information in the help dialog now displays abilities and upgrades.
- Several Save/Replay File dialogue improvements have been made:
- Added ability to sort replays and saved games by name and date.
- Added ability to right-click and rename a replay or saved game from within the game interface.
- Added a new tab for auto-saved games and unsaved replays.
- Added an option to permanently save all replays. Checking this option will mark all unsaved replays as being saved.
- Added visibility for where replays and saved games are being saved to.
- Added a “Show in Folder” button which will open the location where a replay or saved game is stored on your computer.
- Camera following behavior for observers and replays has been improved.
- The System Alert panel has been moved to the top of the screen and the duration of most system alerts has been reduced.
- Mouse buttons can now be bound to the Push-To-Talk hotkey.
- A hotkey indicator option has been added to show the primary hotkey on top of command buttons.
- When selecting a Vespene geyser, the number of current harvesters will be displayed in the info panel.
- Added an option to disable any error sounds. The Response Sounds checkbox now controls whether unit-specific audio is used for error sounds instead of a generic buzz.
- Added Game UI layout per-map overrides. Map makers can now use custom UI layout files to create new UI or override existing game UI.
- Added a toggle button to the in-game replay panel to Show or Hide the timeline/duration information.
- Added hotkey to Pause/Resume game for both single player and multiplayer (Pause/Break key).

Balance

GENERAL

- Players can no longer block off ramps with two 2×2 buildings.

PROTOSS

- Hallucination research time decreased from 110 to 80.

Observer

- Cost decreased from 50/100 to 25/75.

Phoenix

- Build time decreased from 45 to 35.

Void Ray

- Now deals 20% more damage to massive targets.
- Flux Vanes speed upgrade removed.

TERRAN

SCV

- Repairing SCVs now assume the same threat priority as the unit they’re repairing.
- SCV construction movement has been made more consistent.

StarCraft II Editor Improvements

- Map locale management has been added.
- Further editor tips and hints have been added.

New trigger functions, actions, and events have been added:

New trigger functions:
- Verify Bank – used to verify that a bank’s signature is intact.
New trigger actions:
- Bank Option – used to change options for banks including adding a signature.
- Remove Inventory Item – used to instantly remove a requested item from an inventory.
- Set Visibility Type Of Text Tag – used to control whether fog or black mask hides the tag.
New trigger events:
- Mouse Moved – sent in response to the mouse being moved in the game world.
New unit properties have been added:
- Carried Minerals, Carried Vespene, Carried Terrazine, and Carried Custom Resource.
- Bounty (XP) – used to grant experience when a unit is killed.
- New Effect Used event property has been added: Life, Shields, and Energy changed.
- Copy/paste support has been added to the upgrade editor.
- Behaviors can now be replaced by either the shortest duration (the original method) or by farthest distance.
- Behavior abilities can now properly charge the player using the ability instead of always charging the owner.
- Right clicking an item in an inventory will now have the icon appear immediately next to the cursor.
- Font Style Files can now be added to Mods and Maps using the FontStyleFileArray field in GameUIData. Existing styles can have their individual attributes overridden or entirely new styles can be added.
- UI Layout files can now be added to Mods and Maps using the CustomLayoutFileArray filed in GameUIData. Most existing frames can be modified or overridden and entirely new templates can be added which can be created from the Dialog system within the Editor.
Attributes and values can now be hidden in the game lobby and can be configured through Game Variants.
- The mouse wheel now scrolls the control under the cursor.
- Copied doodads now retain their height offset.
- Attribute and Veterancy behaviors now normalize vitals when new levels are applied.
- Mouse clicks & highlights are now allowed while in relative camera mode.
- Edit boxes are now available for trigger dialogs.
- The game will now properly find custom imported files within mods.
- Maps can now depend on even more mods.
- Dialog Items can now be hooked up from already existing frames within a created Panel.
- Change Focus commands are now available in the Trigger module View menu for switching input focus directly to different areas.
- The water editor layout has been improved.
- Effect offsets can now optionally contain a Z component.
- Added a new type of Dialog Item called Panel. Panels are containers for other dialog items to help with grouping and hierarchy.
- Added new UI to insert text tags for data references, unit info, and hotkeys.
- Added an effect range to the effect ability to restrict how far away the effect can be placed. This will allow effects to behave like the Stalker Blink effect.
- Added a behavior flag to suppress fidgeting.
- Added a new stalemate melee option to determine whether the stalemate detection checking is enforced.
- Added a new “Creator” player to effects. It will be set to the player issuing an order if available.
- Added a new type of item that can use an effect ability.
- Added a validator that checks to see if a unit can path to a point.
- Added a validator that checks if there is a cliff between two points.
- Added MinimapRenderPriority to CActorUnit and MinimapRenderPriorityList to CActorGlobalConfig. This allows custom map makers to define the render priorities of units on the minimap.
- Added a Locale sub-menu in the Mod menu for changing the active text locale for the current document.
- Added a Mod Info dialog in the Mod menu for more easily changing mod name and description text.
- Added a Modify Locales dialog (also in Locale sub-menu) for adding or removing text locales.
- Added an Editor Tips dialog in the Help menu (and optionally on start up) with tips for using the editor effectively.

Bug Fixes

Gameplay

General

- All diagonal ramps are now the same with regards to unbuildable locations at the bottom of the ramps.
- Critter health bars are now hidden unless highlighted or selected (if status bars are set to show when units are selected).
- Orders can no longer be canceled by clicking on the info panel in challenges before the challenge begins.
- Text tags are now paused when the game is paused.
- Autocast state for abilities will now reset to the default state when unit ownership is permanently changed.
- Autocast repair will now charge the player requesting autocast functionality.
- Repair will now clear its autocast state if the owning player leaves the game.
- Harvest orders no longer end if an order is queued while waiting to return cargo.
- Harvesting units no longer avoid enemy units.
- Hold position units no longer automatically move out of the way when placing a building.
- Enemy units no longer show passive buttons in the command card.
- Missiles are no longer affected by Vortex.
- Actors with a large number of create events no longer crash the map.
- Fixed an issue where cliff jumping units were able to traverse unpathable terrain.
- Fixed an issue with units trying to get out of the way so buildings can be constructed.
- Fixed an issue with harvesting units bypassing force fields.
- Fixed an issue where melee units were unable to attack a colossus when it was on a cliff.
- Fixed an issue where larva would not wander around.
- Fixed an issues where loading a saved Challenge could improperly overwrite the best score.
- Fixed an issue with animation stutters when flying units are separating.
- Fixed an issue where units could push opposing units when they shouldn’t have been able to.
- Added “Detector” text to the info panel for units which can detect cloaked or burrowed units.
- Added combat reveal tinting to help show that combat reveal units cannot be hit.

Protoss

- Protoss structures can no longer be powered without a power source if constructed while powered by a Warp Prism under the effects of Neural Parasite.
- Mass Recall can no longer target larva or eggs.
- Fixed an issue where units that were picked up by a Graviton Beam would still block pathing on the ground.
- Fixed an issue where a Zealot could burn its Charge cooldown without actually moving.

Terran

- Changed the position of the Select Builder button on Terran buildings, and changed the hotkey to Q.
- SCVs can no longer continue construction on a building from inside an adjacent bunker.
- Fixed nuke dot not being visible all the time.
- Fixed an issue where you could see an enemy MULE drop pod in some cases where you didn’t have vision of the target location.
- Fixed an issue where a Medivac would be able to continue healing a unit that was stuck in a Graviton Beam if the Medivac had started healing the unit before it was picked up by the Graviton Beam.
- Fixed an issue where a Thor would continue to channel 250mm Strike Cannons on an uplifted Terran building if it lifted off at just the right time.
- Fixed an issue where a Thor could get stuck channeling if a player queued up multiple targets for 250mm Strike Cannons.
- Fixed an issue where SCVs could continue repairing at a short range even though the structure they were repairing was blocked by Force Fields.

Zerg

- Creep will now spread evenly in all directions.
- The Burrow and Cancel Neural Parasite buttons have been moved on the command card.
- Fixed an issue with Ultralisk unable to attack a row of sensor towers.

StarCraft II Editor

- The “For Each Real” and “For Each Integer” actions will now correctly execute once when the starting and ending bounds are equal while the increment is also zero.
- Items dropped from an inventory will now use their default height when dropped.
- The View Script command will now view library scripts if the library list has focus.
- Carried and equipped item behaviors and weapons are now restored properly when a unit is revived.
- Publish dialog now updates storage information after removing a published file in the Managed Published window.
- Dropdowns now correctly select items as you type using partial matching.
- Standard dependencies can no longer be modified in the Dependencies dialog (only added or removed).
- Camera following can no longer be disabled via hotkeys if it was requested via triggers.
- Fixed an issue with editing stylized text values when using system locales other than English.
- Fixed an issue with Veterancy experience share filters.
- Fixed an issue when editing mover data where values were not being saved correctly.
- Fixed an issue that prevented certain changes to angle values.
- Fixed an issue where selection circles would drop when a flying unit was over a cliff.
- Fixed an issue where the scroll bar for tree views could disappear.
- Fixed an issue where triggers setting the mouse relative could result in the mouse being stuck in relative move mode.
- Fixed an issue where setting the color of a dialog item of type label wasn’t working.
- Fixed a crash that could occur while editing upgrade values.
- Fixed text truncation with Set Text actor message.
- Fixed display of ability command links in the Overview Manager.
- Fixed many areas where English text was displayed instead of localized text.
- Fixed a crash when destroying a persistent effect.

Happy New Year’s everybody!

We’re looking forward to 2011 as Wings of Liberty’s content grows (maps and an upcoming content patch) and Heart of The Swarm looms at the last part of the year.

Speaking of content from Wings of Liberty, our last poll asked what you guys thought about the maps that are on Battle.net right now.

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People do seem impressed with the quality at least. And that speaks a lot to how much the community has been able to do with the full editor over the last 5 months.

And we hope you have fun with StarCraft again this year as well!

This Protoss cheese can be effective against beginners. However, it will generally fail against most players (anyone with a high bronze rank or better will probably defeat it). If the cheese fails, it will generally leave the Protoss player crippled.

How To Do It:

A Photon Cannon rush is very simple. Send a probe to your enemies base. Try to sneak in a corner and remain undetected. Create a pylon and then start building cannons. Gradually get closer to the opponents base until you destroy your opponent.

Note: you can either build your initial pylon/forge at your base, or you can do the whole thing at your opponents base. Building the forge at your opponents base is a little riskier, as if the rush fails, you’ll lose your forge and those 150 minerals too. However, by building the initial pylon at your opponents base, you can save yourself having to build one pylon (just one at your opponents base, instead of one at your base and one at your opponent’s).

How To Defend Against It:

In general, pylon rushes are pretty easy to beat once you have seen it a few times. There are two ways to defeat it:

1. Kill the worker before he completes the first cannon. Ideally, you kill the worker before he finishes his first cannon but after the pylon, so he wastes at least 100 minerals on the pylon (and many players do not cancel the build on the cannon, so they waste another 150 there too).

2. Prevent the cannons/pylons from getting too close to your base. You may be stuck with this strategy if you failed to scout well enough and your opponent has already built a pylon/cannon and is moving towards you. Do not fear though, you can still beat the cannon rush.

I think the first strategy is pretty simple in of itself, so let’s focus on the second strategy race by race:

1. Zerg: A zerg player can beat this rush in a few ways. First, get a spine crawler up near where the photon cannons are being built (but out of their photon cannon’s range). The spine crawler will automatically attack any photon cannons being built. This will prevent your opponent from getting close to your base and it will destroy your opponents pylons. Note: the range of a spine crawler and photon cannon is the same.

Alternatively, you can send zerglings to quickly destroy the cannons as they are being warped in (do not wait for the cannons to finish being warped in though…do it as fast as possible).

2. Terran: Ideally, you can then use a tank to destroy the cannons (the range of the siege tank is further the photon cannons). If you cannot tech up to a siege tank in time, just pack your SCVs into your base and move your base and buildings to a different expansion.

3. Protoss:

The photon cannon rush probably works best against a fellow Protoss opponent. Because of this, simply destroying the probe is the easiest. Do this before he sets up his first cannon. If the other player is mid-way through his build, simply setup a perimeter with some cannons of your own to prevent expansion by your opponent.