Sillyup20: Regarding future balance changes, will you guys continue to patch SC2 after release to ensure balance of all 3 races?
ChrisSi: Yes, it's definitely important to us to ensure that the game remains balanced after launch. We will make patches as needed to address balance issues after launch


Guest-16: For the Campaign experience, will there be variation for future play throughs?
ChrisSi: Yes, one of the things we're really excited about with the campaign of Wings of Liberty is that players can make choices as to which missions to do next, what technologies they want to upgrade their army with, and so on. We think there's a lot of replayability in this huge campaign (29 missions) and players will get a ton of play time just with the campaign and some replayability


Guest-46: What is the devs' relationship with the Battle.net 2.0 team?
ChrisSi: We work very closely and we're in constant contact with the Battle.net team. The launch of StarCraft II and Battle.net is very much a team effort at Blizzard.


Guest-81: Will Kerrigan have a large role in Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty?
ChrisSi: yes she definitely plays a large role in the story. but how exactly that plays out, you'll have to play to see


Lamonte: How many 1v1 multiplayer maps will be available for launch? And how will user created maps get put into the 1v1 map pool?
DustinB: I think it's about 10 maps in the 1v1 queue. As we see great community maps we will take them internally, fix them up to match our map making standards (if necessary) and add them to the pool.


Guest-19: Will you be doing an overhaul of some of the SC2 sounds, in particular, the siege tank and the hydra death and the marine death sound? Many of the fans are concerned that the audio side of Starcraft 2 will not be up-to-date and on-par with the graphics, animations and multiplayer experience
DustinB: The sounds you hear in the beta are largely final. We will continue to update sounds in patches and of course in our two expansion products, Heart of the Swarm and Wings of Liberty.


Guest-73: Will you please stop nerfing Protoss? Much love from Aiur.
DustinB: The Protoss are now only slightly ahead of the other two races according to our numbers. But I think the nerfs for the Protoss are done for now. However the community continues to learn and we will buff and nerf as needed.=)

pureWasted: Do you have any plans to make units such as Reapers and Zerglings more viable in the late game?
DustinB: We continue to watch the balance in the game. Zerglings and Reapers do have some uses in the late game in some match ups, and we are waiting to see if they have more use once the community learns more about the game or if they fall off user build orders all together. We will not be doing any more patches in beta and we will be waiting at least several weeks after launch before we do any additional balance patch work (unless we see something really broken). In many ways the balance is in the hands of the community now for a while. We will see what kinds of strategies people come up with, what they learn to do with what they have and we will make decisions only after we learn a lot more about how the game plays with ALL of our fans playing.=)


Guest-64: Could you go into more detail on the Zerg campaign for Heart of the Swarm? What new features can we expect?

Guest-82: Hello, do you plan any new changes with the mothership? Alot of people feel that it's price is not worth it. Also, how about the ultralisk? I think the ultralisk should be able to at least walk over the zerglings. Thoughts?
DustinB: We are not going to any changes on the Mothership in the near future. Internal debate rages about this unit, I have been told by several people both inside and outside of blizzard that the unit is far too powerful. The Ultralisk needs a lot more testing before we know how good he is or is not in his current state. I have heard complaints both ways on this unit, that he is way too powerful (mostly against Protoss) and way too weak (mostly against Terrans). But we shall have to wait and see.


Guest-93: Will there be any significant changes between phase 2 beta and the launched version?
DustinB: We are not going to make major changes to game balance bewteen beta and launch. We will be fixing bugs and improving game perfomance and stability.


Guest-29: With certain maps being biased to certain races, are you planning on remaking the maps or just releasing other maps to play ladder matches that are balanced?
DustinB: There are always going to be maps that favor one race over another. We try to strike a good balance between these maps. If there is a map that is VERY unbalanced we will pull it from the match making pool (like Incineration Zone in Beta 1). If a map needs small fixes to make it better we will make those, though in most cases I think we would just put new maps into the mix.


Guest-89: QXC wants to know if you have plans to tweak Reapers and Battlecruisers so that we see them more in competitive play
DustinB: We do not have plans on Reapers or Battlecruisers at the moment. That may change after the game goes live and as the community gets more time with the game. I think Battlecruisers are fundamentally vulnerable in PvT and TvT (Void Rays and Vikings) though they could be tweaked to have use in TvZ.


Frame: Dustin, is this really you?! http://beta-us.battle.net/sc2/en/med...iath_mercenary ^^
ChrisSi: that is a mysterious resemblance, Frame!


Guest-80: With respect to Battle.Net, will there be automated tournaments a la Warcraft 3 and if so will they have rewards such as portraits or decals?
DustinB: We do have plans for automated tournaments, but they are a little ways off. Look for these in the future. We are pretty geeked up about getting to put them in (and play them ourselves). =)


Guest-85: What classic/new units will we play with in the campaign that didnt make the cut in the Multiplayer game? Eg; firebat, medic, what others?
DustinB: I don't know that I remember the full list. Here is what comes to mind.=) Medic, Firebat, Vulture, Wraith, Science Vessel, Goliath.


Guest-70: regarding balance changes, how are you basing your balance changes? do you look at the diamond league statistics in a certain region, base them off tournament play, or what? do you guys at blizzard follow the competative tournament scene and base some balance changes of tham?
DustinB: We look at stats on all regions and all leagues. We emphasize the importance of balance in the Diamond League as well as pulling stats from our top 1% of players. These are the numbers that need to be as close to 50/50 as we can get them. We do try to make sure that Bronze players don't get much worse than 55/45 in any matchup. In addition we look at tournament play and study those games to see what we can learn about how people are playing the game now as well as how they may play it in the future. David Kim and Matt Cooper (our balance designers) spend pretty much their entire day playing games and watching others play games.=)


Guest-122: Cross realm play.. Why did you not include it? There has virtually been no lag.
DustinB: That's something we want to get to in the future. There are some technical and business challenges for us. We do offer our players different ways to buy and play StarCraft 2 in different areas of the world and we need to work out cross realm play so it is fair to all of our fans around the world.


sillyup20: Will future expansions of SC2 lead to new units in the Mutliplayer?
DustinB: Yes.=) We will add more units. How we will deal with the games growing complexity is the really interesting challenge that we don't yet have the great answer for. We don't want to have 15+ units per race in the game, so we need to think of something clever that will allow us to add new strategies to the game without making the game too complicated.


Denthar: are the stats on the units in the campaign going to have the same stats as those in muliplayer?
DustinB: Mostly yes, but there are some exceptions. We do have some of the units that start weaker in the campaign and get stronger as you buy upgrades for them or gain additional abilities through researching alien organisms and artefacts. In general though there are so many new and crazy units in the campaign that you will find it a very different experience from multiplayer combat.

Guest-151: Are there any features where you won't need a persistent internet connection such as editors or campaign?
ChrisSi: There is an offline mode where you can play the campaign, skirmish against AI or challenge mode w/o needing to be connected to Battle.net (Guest 151)


Guest-41: Do you feel there is room for new units to come (or come back) in the future ?
DustinB: Yes, we will be dealing with the issue of new units in the expansions. I doubt we will add new units or bring back old units in patches, but anything is possible.


Guest-166: Can we expect significant changes for each "episode" gameplay wise? (I.E. radical new unit functions, gametypes or innovative maps?)
DustinB: We are going to do more in the expansions to add new strategies for the fans. I don't know what those will be yet.=)


Lamonte: You said your map making standards, what are blizzards map making standards?
DustinB: It is a long and complicated list. In many cases it comes down to simple bugs. In user made maps there are often many small mistakes like areas of the map where units can get easily stuck or trapped, or mistakes in mineral and gas placement, that sort of thing. Generally when we put a map into the matchmaking pool we clean up a few of these bugs before publishing it to Battle.Net


Guest-124: Can we expect new Blizzard maps as well as user-submitted (turned official) maps? If you could ballpark it, how long should we expect new features & additions from Blizzard for SC2?
DustinB: yes, we will add user made maps. I expect we will be adding features and custom maps in many of our patches between expansions and obviously we will be adding lots of stuff in the expansions themselves.


Guest-70: as you may know, there are no 1 supply units in the zerg race at the moment and the zerg is lacking their "swarm" aspect. what are you guys looking into to bring the "swarm" back to the zerg?
DustinB: Well the Zerglings are .5 supply.=) I know many of our Zerg players were annoyed that we made Roaches 2 supply. We just couldn't justify a 1 supply Roach when we took a look at his stats and we watched and played a ton of Beta games. It was not balanced. We really think the "swarm" aspect of the Zerg comes not from the supply cost of some of their units but from the vast amount of resources they often have at their disposal because they find it so easy to expand. In addition with Spawn Larva the Zerg can easily save up a large amount of production, allowing Zerg forces to attack with a large army, lose that army and then rebuild it very quickly and attack again with a similar force. It feels very "swarmy."


Guest-172: Can you give us any info about Blizzards plan for E-Sports in the west?
ChrisSi: esports is very important to us at Blizzard and especially for SC2.We do plan on releasing a patch in the months after launch to address the needs of pro tournaments and eSports, so as we get closer to that we'll have more news to share about our plans for eSports overall

Guest-190: Will there be a snow tileset in the campaign?
DustinB: No. We will be doing snow in the future. Sorry. =(


Scytone: What is your take on EMP? Do you feel it is to strong? are there any plans to change it?(Guest 172)
DustinB: EMP is necessary for Terrans right to defend against Protoss. I also think it might have more use that we are currently seeing against Zerg (but I could be wrong about that). We have nerfed its radius in the past and we can do so again if necessary. We don't believe (currently) that it is a problem.


Guest-48: Concerning the ladder promotions system, what further clarity can you provide to us on exactly how this works? I've heard that it works based on some sort of interval system, if so, what sort of intervals? I think many people feel left in the dark on how this works and might like a 'progress bar' for promotions or something similar.
DustinB: The Battle.Net team has been hard at work on this system throughout Beta-1 and Beta-2. It does currently check every so often to see that you are in the right league. I don't know what the current times are that it checks. I know they are talking about doing some updates to those checks so that they happen more often.


Guest-215: WIth the new expansions, will current units change in any way?
DustinB: Current units will change if we think of ways to make them more fun and they will change if we need to alter the balance to deal with anything new we add to those expansions.

Guest-81: Are you happy with the Ultralisk? Do you see it as a end game unit that the zerg can use effectively? Compared to the other races end-game units, does the big bug need another buff? Or do they neeed a super bug that's bigger?
DustinB: I have only had a few great Ultralisk experiences myself. I have seen some truly amazing Ultralisk games and I have seen some total disasters. We are going to "wait and see" on him and see how he does in the coming weeks before we do anything else to him. Remember that in many cases the players find lots of clever ways to use units that don't seem at all obvious to us inside the studio.

Guest-149: Do you anticipate further tweaking terran mech or the build time of barracks and gateways?
DustinB: If necessary. We don't have any plans today.


Guest-177: Do you plan to rotate the map pool for the ladder, if so will user made maps have a chance to be put in the ladder map pool?
DustinB: Yes.=) This is a popular question. We will add user maps as we become aware of them.


Guest-200: There are rumors that there is a LAN enabled professional edition available for professional tournaments to reduce latency... Is this true and will it be available for pro-teams to practice?
ChrisSi: any rumors you've heard about a "pro edition" are just rumors. We've made no official announcements about that. We will address the needs of pro tournaments and eSports in a patch in the months after the release of SC2. (Guest 200)

Guest-197: Will there be anymore Zerg soundscape changes before retail? - Wankey
DustinB: I don't believe there are any changes planned before we go live. Sorry. =(


Guest-102: Are there still plans to implement an invite only "pro" leauge above the diamond league after launch?
DustinB: Yes. I don't have all the details, but we do plan on having a "Pro League" that works a little differently from our regular leagues.

For our latest preview, we've climbed aboard the Hyperion to give you a sneak peak at some of the features that will be available within the single-player campaign for StarCraft II: The Wings of Liberty. Come aboard and learn more about Mercenaries, the Armory, and the Laboratory here.

Hello everyone,

I'd like to take some time to speak with all of you regarding our desire to make the Blizzard forums a better place for players to discuss our games. We've been constantly monitoring the feedback you've given us, as well as internally discussing your concerns about the use of real names on our forums. As a result of those discussions, we've decided at this time that real names will not be required for posting on official Blizzard forums.

It's important to note that we still remain committed to improving our forums. Our efforts are driven 100% by the desire to find ways to make our community areas more welcoming for players and encourage more constructive conversations about our games. We will still move forward with new forum features such as conversation threading, the ability to rate posts up or down, improved search functionality, and more. However, when we launch the new StarCraft II forums that include these new features, you will be posting by your StarCraft II Battle.net character name + character code, not your real name. The upgraded World of Warcraft forums with these new features will launch close to the release of Cataclysm, and also will not require your real name.

I want to make sure it's clear that our plans for the forums are completely separate from our plans for the optional in-game Real ID system now live with World of Warcraft and launching soon with StarCraft II. We believe that the powerful communications functionality enabled by Real ID, such as cross-game and cross-realm chat, make Battle.net a great place for players to stay connected to real-life friends and family while playing Blizzard games. And of course, you'll still be able to keep your relationships at the anonymous, character level if you so choose when you communicate with other players in game. Over time, we will continue to evolve Real ID on Battle.net to add new and exciting functionality within our games for players who decide to use the feature.

In closing, I want to point out that our connection with our community has always been and will always be extremely important to us. We strongly believe that Every Voice Matters, ( http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/about/mission.html ) and we feel fortunate to have a community that cares so passionately about our games. We will always appreciate the feedback and support of our players, which has been a key to Blizzard's success from the beginning.

Mike Morhaime
CEO & Cofounder
Blizzard Entertainment