At the
recent G-Star event in Korea, we had an opportunity to talk to some of
the GSL’s top competitors and get their feedback on the current state of
StarCraft II. This was also a good opportunity to show our players
around the world how pro player feedback influences the act of balancing
StarCraft II.
While we’ve made a number of balance tweaks over time, at this point
the overall game balance is quite solid. There are always variations
from region to region, so we rarely make a balance decision based on the
numbers from a single region, or even a single tournament or tournament
series. While we’re likely to see more changes in the future, we’re
going to remain cautious when making even small changes, since they can
have sweeping (and sometimes surprising) effects on overall balance. The
purpose of this feature is to highlight some of the feedback we
received from pro players, and to discuss our perspectives based on that
feedback.
MULE — Too effective when used on high yield mineral patches.
Concerns about the MULE are something that we hear most frequently
from the player community at large, but it’s also feedback that we’ve
seen from some pro players specifically with regard to high yield
mineral patches. In fact, the GSL recently removed high yield patches
from its maps in response to this concern. This change seems to have
worked out well for the GSL so far, but all the other major tournaments
that didn’t remove high yield resources from their maps are still
showing very good race representation, so the change doesn’t appear
necessary.
There are a lot of potential reasons this could be, but we’ll examine
a couple of the most likely. First is that the change really did reduce
terran effectiveness in the GSL specifically, but because the terran
race does unusually well in Korea, it all balanced out. Another possible
reason could be that there is an advantage to terran players from using
MULEs on high yields, but it’s not significant enough for the removal
of high yield resources to result in a noticeable effect on overall
performance.
Regardless, we don’t jump to conclusions and we’re still
investigating. If further research suggests conclusively that MULEs do
offer too much of an advantage to terran players when used on high yield
minerals, we’ll consider an appropriate course of action then.
Spawn Larvae — This requires too much management; even pro players are unable to manage Spawn Larvae perfectly.
Our stance on this kind of issue is simple: We intentionally make
different aspects of the game difficult for the different races. We want
each of them to have asymmetric advantages and disadvantages that
contribute to very different play styles, but still result in a
satisfying, balanced game at the end of the day. Spawn Larvae is more
difficult to manage than Chrono Boost or MULEs, but zerg has other
advantages — for example, unit production is relatively easy to manage
for zerg compared with the other races. Making side-by-side comparisons
of isolated elements won’t show you the whole picture because StarCraft
II is asymmetrically balanced, meaning that if a race is strong in one
way, then it’s probably also weak where another race is strong.
We also like to see this kind of feedback, because making games easy
to learn but difficult to master is one of Blizzard’s core game design
philosophies. So, we don’t see it as a problem that, even at the pro
level, perfect mastery hasn’t been achieved yet.
Reapers — Give Reapers back the early-game speed upgrade.
We tend to agree that Reapers can stand to see some improvement. We
like the unit, but the problem previously was that Reapers with Nitro
Packs were too effective versus zerg in the early game. Unfortunately,
after losing their role in early-game harassment, Reapers haven’t proven
to be a very powerful or useful unit at most stages of the game.
As we discussed at BlizzCon, we’re taking a hard look at the Reaper,
and we’re experimenting with different options to see where Reapers can
fit into the terran arsenal with Heart of the Swarm.
Terran — Stop nerfing us!
There will always be changes as we develop StarCraft II, and we try
to minimize nerfs as much as possible. We don’t like making changes
unless they’re necessary. Still, we will continue to make small
adjustments that we feel need to be made to achieve the best balance
possible, and we don’t keep score regarding who is getting the most or
the fewest changes. Ultimately, we’re invested in the success of all
three races, and we want to make all three perform well.
EMP — Radius decrease is too significant.
We feel that the dynamic between protoss and terran especially was in
need of a change, and this was an efficient method of achieving that.
We’re still paying close attention to how the change to EMP affects this
matchup globally, as well as on the tournament stage.
Choke Points — More variance in choke point placement on maps.
We love variety, but maps play a significant role in how balance is
achieved, and with that in mind, we need to maintain a certain amount of
consistency in map features. For example, all of our 1v1 maps feature
relatively close natural expansions, while our 2v2 maps lean toward
starting teammates relatively close together.
Ramps into starting positions are another feature which we try to
keep pretty consistent. Certain ramp structures, such as particularly
wide ramps, would favor fairly specific builds, which is why the ramps
leading from starting positions are all alike. We still want diversity
in the map pool though, so the ramps leading into natural expansions
display more variety, since we see a greater diversity of strategies
even when those ramps differ from the norm. This way, an essential
terrain feature becomes more interesting.
We also look for other ways to make maps interesting and unique,
though it’s difficult to do that without potentially hurting a map’s
tournament potential. Typically, tournament map creation is subject to a
lot of restrictions, which is also why so many tournament maps share
features with one another.
Khaydarin Amulet — Bring it back!
We wanted to change the dynamic between the protoss and other races,
and we like to make small changes to do that. Unfortunately, when the
Khaydarin Amulet was still available, we would see players do things
like spread pylons everywhere simply to gain the ability to warp in High
Templars and storm passing armies. Also, because High Templars were
often warped in to cast an immediate storm, there wasn’t a lot of
decision making about which ability would be used — in the vast majority
of cases, it would be one cast of Psi Storm, which would deplete all
available energy. Also, positioning wasn’t a consideration in too many
cases, since the unit would appear, cast storm, and then effectively be
forgotten for that battle.
We like the way the High Templar work now, because, while they remain
very powerful, some thought and consideration must go into how they’re
positioned and which spells are used.
For Heart of the Swarm, we’re exploring better ways to handle energy
upgrades, since we’re not quite satisfied with how they work currently.
Void Ray — Damage output is difficult to read in-game.
We like the visuals in StarCraft II to have clear meaning, and this
is good feedback. We'll take a closer look at how the graphic
communicates damage output to players at various skill levels. If it
does turn out to be unclear, we’ll find ways to improve it.
Protoss Play Style — More variety please!
This was another issue that came up at BlizzCon. We’re definitely
looking at ways to give protoss players more tactical options and more
strategic paths. We’ll probably achieve this via new units which will be
added in Heart of the Swarm.
We do have good reasons for delaying a large change like this for the
expansion. Not to be taken lightly is the fact that balance is actually
quite good right now, and major play style changes can have a
disruptive effect on balance. Also, patches are intended to fix issues
in a small, incremental way, not to introduce entirely new playing
experiences and sweeping changes to gameplay. That kind of change is
much better left for an expansion, where new units and dramatic shifts
in strategy are expected and welcomed.
In short, we do want to give protoss players a better variety of
strategic options. We’ve learned a lot from Wings of Liberty, and we’re
hoping to achieve an even better and more varied competitive environment
overall. In Heart of the Swarm, we expect to see the strategic options
available to all three races grow.
