SC2Mapster

That's right- the Heart of the Swarm beta has started!

Quote from Blizzard:

The Heart of the Swarm beta test has begun! This multiplayer-only test will initially be limited to a select group of pro-gamers, members of the press, Arcade contest winners, and shoutcasters. Beta test participants are not under NDA, so you’re likely going to see live streams of matches, screenshots, and casts of impromptu Heart of the Swarm throwdowns starting . . . mmm, NOW!

We will soon be inviting other players to participate in the beta, so be sure you’ve opted in by clicking on the "Beta Profile Settings" under the Account Management section of your Battle.net account (or just click here). Signing up from a Battle.net account that’s actively playing StarCraft II will help your chances of being selected. Note that opting in doesn't guarantee beta access.

http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/7157306/Heart_of_the_Swarm_Beta_Now_Live_-9_4_2012#c-6490189242Source

As always, keep an eye out for suspicious emails. If you think you've been invited to the beta, go to your battlenet account and check there (don't click email links).

And of course, you can except coverage of the beta from sc2mapster! Join the discussion here!

Update: Day[9] and Rob Simpson will be live streaming the 3rd Heart of the Swarm battle report! Make sure to tune in today at 7pm!

Have you seen Blizzard's Official Cutscene Editor Guide yet? If not, definitely check it out, :).

ODS Test by Ookami & DrakenStark

This map is a ground for coding practice. They are working on getting an action RPG set up within SC2. They already have a great shooter set up in SC2 with working headshots, sprint, custom radar (halo esque), classic shooter gametypes like deathmatch with FFA or Teams (aside from the RPG part of the map), and a large map modelled after a site on Mars.

Eventually, they hope to add a custom inventory system with both equipable and usable items. Work is still in progress on getting a medic and two melee classes working. A ranged class is already in place based on the marine.

Game modes can be selected via the in game lobby before being made open to public. CTF is currently broken due to actor based glitches. Deathmatch modes are working perfectly to our knowledge. The RPG mode is, at the time of this posting, a sandbox where you can explore a lush landscape while hunting zerg in the woods.

Important Security Update

Blizzard has recently stated that their servers were compromised earlier in the week. Email addresses were stolen from most regions, and answers to security questions and passwords were accessed for North American servers. The passwords that were stolen from blizzard were all cryptographically scrambled, meaning that they are very difficult to read and will take time to be cracked, if at all. If you live in North America, you should change your Battle net password and the password for any websites that share the same password. The full article can be read here, and you can see the full FAQ here. Please remember that Blizzard will never send you an email asking for your password. If you receive an email that looks like it's from blizzard, do not click the links inside.

With Patch 1.5 out, feel free to join us on IRC for some discussion and helpful Q&A!

M.U.L.E Landing by PrettyAwesomeStudio

This is just pure awesomeness! We've all witnessed history with the "Curiosity" landing from the MarS ara Science Facility. In all seriousness though, also worth mentioning is Lunar Harvest, created by BoldyGo, for the NASA Research Center.

Update: Patch 1.5 is now live on most regions. You can check out the official patch notes here or read Blizzard's "Guide to the Arcade" here!

I believe this is worth mentioning, our friends over at MMO-Champion have found the WoW HotS CE pet.

Arena of Battle Trolls by TrollSC2

This game is a quake-like free for all frag fest. You simply choose your troll and eliminate your opponents using various weapons and ammunition picked up during epic battles. The first who reaches the frag limit wins.

Patch 1.5 Coming "Soon"

Update: According to the starcraft client's news feed, patch 1.5 is currently scheduled to release Tuesday, July 31st! Join the discussion here!

Blizzard posted an update regarding patch 1.5 recently, reminding us that the 1.5 beta is nearing it's completion. Another article was posted here, explaining how you can get ready for patching to version 1.5 of starcraft 2. All of this means that patch 1.5 is almost here.

Most importantly, Blizzard issued a reminder to anyone who has not gotten their maps ready for patch 1.5:

Quote from Blizzard:

If you are a game maker and have published custom games to Battle.net, it’s a very good idea to gather information and screenshots to be prepared to tune up your map so that it can take advantage of all the new features of Arcade, and get the audience it deserves. Also, if haven’t already participated in the Arcade Beta and published your map there, there’s no time like the present to jump in and familiarize yourself with the coming changes.

Source

If you still have not downloaded the patch 1.5 beta and wish to do so, you can visit your BattleNet account management page and download the beta from there.

Update: The Patch 1.5 Beta is nearing it's completion. If you have not updated your map to work with patch 1.5, you should do so soon. If you haven't downloaded it yet, you can get the beta through your account management page on battle net.

Ice Troll Tribes by cinicraft

This project is based off of the same hit (in my opinion) map, from Warcraft III. The goal of Troll Tribes is simply to survive! Gather resources and materials to build buildings to further research your character, build a tent to sleep for energy, build a fire to keep warm, hunt animals for food, etc! The game was awesome during the War3 days, here's to hoping it is brought back for SC2. For more information, check out his project thread or project website.

Pit of Infestation by Slarti

Pit of Infestation is a coop-ARPG map for up to 4 players. Every player chooses a hero with specialized abilities in order to stop the Zerg from infesting the planet. It's currently scheduled to be released before patch 1.5 goes live. You can check out the project thread here.

Also, for those who are interested, blizzard posted a Terran Vs Zerg HotS Battle Report a few days ago. You can see the video here if you haven't seen it yet.

Heart of the Swarm Update

Blizzard recently posted an article here with an update for Heart of the Swarm. Many of the abilities shown in the video have been seen before, but the balance video and changes are below for those who are curious.

• Protoss Status
  • The protoss have access to the "mothership core" unit, which is a stationary caster capable of defending the base and using powerful abilities.
  • The oracle is back, this time packing a powerful cloaking field.
  • The tempest returns with a long-range offensive attack.
• Terran Status
  • Battle Hellions are still in the game, and are great at close-combat situations
  • Warhounds are also still in the game, and excel at taking down mechanical units.
  • Widow mines attach to nearby foes and then detonate after a few seconds
• Zerg Status
  • Swarm hosts now spawn 2 locusts, but the locusts are ranged and can target air units
  • The Viper still has it's abduct ability (which uses a tentacle to pull units around) as well as it's blinding cloud
  • The Ultralisk still has the burrow charge ability, which allows it to move into range quickly

Day[9] was recently invited to blizzard headquarters to commentate on a HotS melee match. You can check it out below, or join the discussion here.

Update: Interested in winning a future HotS beta key? Blizzard is giving keys away to people who review maps in the 1.5 beta. You can read more information here if you're interested.

The Last Hour by ZealNaga

The last hour is a survival map somewhat similar to blizzard's "Left 2 Die". You can play the map solo or with friends and fight to complete randomly selected objectives. The map quickly rose to page 2 for both the Most Popular and Tower Defense categories, so go check it out if you're on the EU servers and leave your feedback in the discussion thread here.

Hide'n'seek by Doubotis

Doubotis has created an interesting map concept for a Hide'n'seek game, based off the Assassin's Creed hunter game. Players are given 5 abilities to use, and must remain stealthy within the city. Blending in with civilians is important, so running around or drawing attention to yourself is a bad idea. He's testing out the concept, so please give him your feedback in the thread here.

Update: Blizzard has just stated that the patch 1.5 Alpha will be going offline Thursday, May 24th, and that the 1.5 beta will be starting in the "very near future".

Undead by CrazyTwigman and Blooha

Undead is a team-based survival map for up to 8 players, heavily based off the brood war version of the map. This means that, staying true to original, there's no custom UI or complicated systems used. The survivors are a team of players who must hold out against the undead player. The undead player is given a small maze to get out of, which allows time for the survivors to run and hide, and build up their defenses. The Undead player then has to hunt down the Survivors, and bloody battles are sure to ensue as players build up their armies and defenses in an attempt to survive. Games are short and easy to get the hang of for new players. You can visit thier website here or visit the thread here.

Small Note: A Forum RPG is being started here on mapster, with TheAlmaity as one of the GMs, in case anyone is interested in participating.

Arcade 1.5 Alpha / Beta

As I'm sure most of you are already aware, the Arcade 1.5 Alpha began a few weeks ago, and the Beta has just begun, Relatively soon, we'll be hearing the official news from Blizzard, and as far as I'm aware, this will become "open beta" and just act as a glorified Public Test Region. Below you can find the custom maps/arcade-related patch notes as well as the native Galaxy API Changes.

We also have a nice quick video created by OneTwo of the new Battle.net interface.

Update List

Below is the current list of changes and improvements made in the 1.5 arcade preview. The article is organized into a few different categories, so you can get to the information you care about quickly. Keep in mind that all of this is still being worked on, and nothing is final. Additionally, this is not a complete list, as features are still being discovered.

Super Quick Summary

• Sc2 has been split into "melee" and "arcade", and maps must be in either the melee maps or custom maps list, NOT both
• Major improvements made to custom games system- games now have reviews, patch logs, tutorial support, ratings, and much more (read the full list below for details)
• Major improvements made to the editor, including a re-worked UI for the data editor, a cinematic editor, an AI editor, a 3DS max plugin, a far improved trigger debugger, a new physics engine, and more.

Global Changes

• Sc2 Battlenet menus improved
• Instead of "single player and multiplayer" we have "starcraft 2 and arcade"
• Custom maps must be either "starcraft" or "arcade". They cannot be both. This means that melee-oriented games (like 1v1 Obs, or straight-up melee maps) will be separate from non-melee custom games

The Arcade

• Players can search for games based on genre, overall popularity, star rating, newness, and recent spikes in popularity.
• Players create an icon for their games, which will be what players see in the arcade list (sort of like the apple app store)
• Clicking on a game icon brings players into the Game Info page, a section devoted entirely to showing off what a game is all about, providing play instructions, and revealing other important information about the game.
• All the content in Game Info is under control of the game creator, except for reviews of course.
• Joining public matches and creating private games is done from the Game Info page. This will be the portal players return to again and again to play the game.
• The game info page will contain the following sections, all of which you will set up
  • Overview: This will contain the game description, as well as screenshots that show off the action.
  • How to Play: This is where players will find the Basic Instructions, How to Win, and Advanced Instructions sections. You can also include images.
  • Patch Notes: You’re able to update patch notes as often as you like, so players can see how the game is growing and improving.
  • Reviews: After playing, players can give your game a star rating and enter a text review. Once enough ratings are provided, your game gets an average score to let players get a general idea of quality.
  • Star Rating. Players can also mark each other’s reviews as “Helpful” which will ensure that the best reviews rise to the top.
• Tutorials are supported! Players can attach a separate map file that will be a tutorial for players. This will allow you to set up a tutorial mission specifically for new players.
• Games have their own chat-channels automatically, allowing your players to jump into a chat easily

The Sc2 Platform

• Sc2 is now a streaming game
• This means it will only be necessary to download a fraction of game data to get into the action

The Editor

• Added UI XML Editor for adding and modifying SC2Layout files
• Editor updated to use Visual Styles in Editor
• Added high resolution minimap support
• Font Style editing added to Text Editor
• Added Data Editor horizontal auto-layout to better utilize available screen space
• User-defined data system, accessed through the new User type in the Data module as well as the corresponding functions in the trigger library.
• Cinematic Editor
  • New editor module with powerful tools for creating in-game cinematic sequences (not many changes from what we saw of it during blizzcon)
• AI Editor
  • New editor module for user friendly management of AI wave timing and composition
  • Much easier to set up AI, instead of just using clunky trigger commands
• Error Debugger
  • Trigger Debug Window support for breakpoints, stepping through functions, and variable inspection
  • Galaxy script code memory limit increased; 4x -10x more memory can be utilized depending on how scripts are being used
  • Added support for passing structure, array, and function references as function parameters
  • Improved Galaxy error message output
• Actors
  • Camera Actor added for controlling camera through actor events
  • Scene Actor added for controlling global actor settings (Halo settings, Power visual hiding)
  • Light Actor added for creating lights in the world
  • Terrain Actor added for physics impact FX support
  • Creep Actor added for higher performance creep effects including creep engulfment
  • Ragdoll deaths and support for combat driven physics impulses
  • Added support for water ripples and physics collision based water splashes
  • Terrain squib support for tileset specific dust or snow clouds FX
  • Line and Arc targeting cursor support
  • Added ActorInfoDisplay cheat for live actor debugging

Game Engine Improvements

• Game Engine
  • Max unit selection size increased from 255 to 500
  • New trigger event for Behavior apply/remove
  • New Stunned flag for Behaviors that allows queuing commands
• Graphics Engine
  • Added support to define lighting regions in the game world
  • Lighting can now be set per player
  • Added unit specific Halo support for pre-targeting
  • Anti-aliasing support
• UI Improvements
  • Custom unit status bar support added
  • Added new in-game pathing display that shows the path a unit will take on the minimap
  • Added self-cast hotkey support
  • Added Font Glow support
  • Added powerful control over frames, portraits, status bars, text, trigger dialogs and more. Full details, tips, and tutorials are being created to help creators take full advantage of these tools.
• StarTools
  • Blizzard is releasing their company art tools to the community
  • StarTools is a set of plugins for Discreet®'s 3ds max®, these tools allow advanced users to create, modify, and quickly preview models and animations, including particle and ribbon effects, that can be used in StarCraft II custom maps.
  • This means you can quickly and easily get models created and added to sc2

Updating your map for 1.5

• You do not need to do this for your maps yet, since this is only a closed beta
• All game types
  • Set up your Type and Genre
    • Games published prior to Patch 1.5 will still be available on the service when the patch goes live. All user created games will default to appearing in Arcade, under the “Other” genre.
    • Creators will need to re-save their game in the 1.5.0 client version and select the Type and Genre where they want to their game to appear.
  • Arcade game types
    • Add a Game Icon Image
    • The icon image is the first thing players see. It’s a great opportunity to make a first impression on potential players - check out existing app-stores for inspiration.
    • Game Icon Images are added through the StarCraft II Editor.
  • Add Game Info
    • Game Info is where players learn about your game and see what cool experiences it has to offer. At a minimum, you’ll want to provide a complete Description, easy to understand How to Play Instructions, and some screenshots that make your game look awesome.
    • Going a step further and creating customized images (e.g. a diagram of game controls, or a simple guide map of the play area) for Game Info will really help you stand out. The old saying about “show not tell” should be your motto here!
    • Game Info is added through the StarCraft II Editor
  • Set up a default mode
  • From the Game Info page, there’s a big “PLAY” button that most players will use to get into your game. This creates or joins a public lobby, of the default mode you define for your game.
  • Alternatively, some games have players set up gameplay parameters after they load into the match. This is fine, but it’s recommended to make the setup process as streamlined and user friendly as possible so new players aren’t scared off right when they start the game.
  • This means you likely want to set the default to what you consider your “core” game experience.
  • Build a Tutorial
    • Tutorials can also be built and used as a practice mode for players to experiment in a sandbox type environment.
    • To use the Tutorial feature, first publish the tutorial map to Battle.net. Then you can configure your main game to point to the tutorial.

Melee Balance Changes by Blizzard

For those of you who are interested in starcraft 2 melee play, Blizzard has announced a few small balance changes. You can read the full article here if you're interested. For those who don't feel like reading, here's the summary:

• Overall, all race matchups are well balanced. Therefore, future balance changes will be small tweaks.
• At the pro level, zerg struggle with early scouting
  • Overlord movement speed increased to 0.586, up from 0.4687.
  • Upgraded overlord movement speed unchanged.
  • Blizzard feels that this is the right way to encourage zerg players to scout early, without giving them something that allows them to see everything most of the time.
  • Blizzard will keep a close eye on this change just in case
• At the pro level, zerg are too susceptible to all-in rushes
  • Queen starting energy increased to 50, up from 25
  • Update: Blizzard has restored Queen starting energy to 25, but increased their anti-air range weapon range to 5 (up from 3)
  • Now, each queen will have either one more chain of creep tumors, or slightly faster transfusions.
  • Blizzard will see whether zerg end up with too many creep tumors early on, or the general upgrade in defensive capabilities makes it too difficult for other races to attempt any early pressure.
• Protoss at the pro-level are doing well, but not at the very top of the pro-level.
  • Observer build time decreased to 30, down from 40
  • This allows protoss players to get out an immortal faster (if they need an observer first)
  • This keeps the Robotics Facility from being tied up in the later game
• Blizzard is closely watching TvP to see if the offensive capabilities of terran in the early/mid game becomes too much, or if late game strength of protoss becomes too much.
  • Blizzard is not making a change to affect this now, but it’s very near the top of their list of things to keep an eye on.

All of these changes have been implement into a custom map called "Antiga Shipyard (1.4.3 Balance v2.0)". If you're interested in the changes, make sure to check it out!

Update: Newbie Wednesday will start later today. If you have any questions for the show, ask them here!

Zerg Rush by Google

Google has a surprise for you. You might be innocently googling around, maybe searching for minerals, when you make the mistake of typing zerg rush into your search bar.

For a moment all is still, but then suddenly they appear. Ravenous google-lings zerging the screen from all directions, relentlessly nibbling at your search results. If you’ve got a quick clicking finger you might hold off the assault for a time but, ultimately, the zerg are relentless and implacable. Your screen is barren, the text all but devoured by the swarm, and the GG appears on your screen.

For those too lazy to check it out themselves, Husky Starcraft created a video about it.

Update: For those interested, Diablo 3 just entered an Open Beta weekend. Make sure you download it and play while you have the chance!

Sc2ModSpot

Many of you may be interested in this youtube channel, called Sc2ModSpot. It's a channel that demos and comments on different starcraft 2 custom maps, in order to spread the word about them. The video below is the spotlight for a map called Virus Infection (created by Velex). Make sure you check out both the map and the channel!