Bêta : Legacy of the Void
David Kim, Senior Game Designer chez Blizzard et responsable entre autres de l'équilibrage sur Starcraft II et sur la future extension de Legacy of the Void, s'est exprimé sur les dernières évolutions prévues dans le jeu, sur les retours qu'elles avaient suscités dans la communauté et l'évolution vers laquelle elles tendent.
Cette semaine plusieurs points sont abordés :
- les mécaniques de macro encore et toujours. Si l'abandon des mécaniques est exclu, elles sont toujrs en chantier, notamment pour les Zergs et les Protoss. Pour les Terrans, le retour à la forme vue sous HotS semble être la solution. En ce qui concerne les Protoss, les changements apportés modifient la façon de jouer, mais n'est pas satisfaisante autant qu'espérée pour l'instant et un retour à la version de HotS est envisageable. Enfin pour les Zergs, l'injection automatique n'était pas plébiscitée en raison de son aspect nivellant vers le bas le skill de sjoueurs. Cet aspect a donc été modifié, pour aller dans le sens d'une différence de niveau entre joueurs vraiment révélatrice.
- Avec l'addition du mode Archon et des missions en coopération, la communcation entre membres de la même équipe devient importante, et des solutions doivent être trouvées pour leur permettre d'être en symbiose. Ainsi, un système de ping proche de celui de Heroes of the Storm est envisagé pour le futur, avec différentes actions envisagées.
- la Bêta arrivant à son terme, les modifications de mécaniques de macro seront l'une des dernières modifications importantes apportées au jeu, et les modifications ultérieures le seront moins. Toutefois, les joueurs professionnels jouant toujours à HotS, leur arrivée sur l'extension permettra d'observer si des changements sont nécessaires dans le jeu, qui seront apportées le plus rapidement possible.
David Kim sur Mise à jour sur les retours de la Communauté (Source)
So despite Senior Game Designer David Kim being oceans away, he's still managed to produce the following thoughts about our most recent balance update.
Macro Mechanics
As you know, we've been focusing our discussions on trying to decide what the best move is for the macro mechanics. After many hours of playtesting and discussions, we decided to try out the changes mentioned last week.
First of all, we would like to point out that we saw the poll and posts relating to macro mechanics this week, and we'd like to thank you for the discussions. We don't agree with the idea that macro mechanics should be completely removed. When we tried this, and many of you pointed this out, each of the three races lost a bit of their identity and uniqueness.
Secondly, we'd like to also clear up a misconception in this area. The goal of testing these changes wasn’t necessarily about making StarCraft II easy to play or easy to master. The goal was to see if we can free up clicks on less interesting parts of the game so that we can see those clicks being utilized in more exciting to see parts of the game. We clearly believe StarCraft II is one of the most challenging games to master in the world and this pursuit of mastery is a critical component of the game. Instead, we're adding new modes such as Co-op Missions and Archon mode to make the game more approachable. Now let's talk more about the details of what we've found this week:
Terran
The Terran MULE isn't difficult to execute, even when we compare the automated one versus the Heart of the Swarm one side-by-side. Therefore, we believe this week’s balance update is the way to go for Terran.
Protoss
For Chrono Boost, we're realizing that the new version isn't always better than the old version. We are currently worried that this change is a bit of a side-grade than an upgrade overall due to it being better in some situations and worse in others. However, we would still like to pursue trying out this new version so that we can learn more about it. The main concern on this side is, yes it's true that the new one is cool and different, but is it actually what's best for the game? If it is, we will make the switch, and if not we can always revert it back to what we have in HotS.
Zerg
We're now leaning towards the fact that auto inject might not be the direction we want to go in the long-term. The primary reason is we've seen, and will continue to see, perception issues that diminish great Zerg players with arguments such as, "Zerg has no macro to do," or "every Zerg, no matter the skill level, can macro well because it's just all automatic." What it boils down to is we think the gain of having auto inject does not outweigh this negative perception that the change creates.
For example, offensive warp-ins was not something that was unbeatable, and it wasn’t a strategy that allows low skilled players to beat pro players on a consistent basis. In Protoss matchups, we saw better players winning games. However, it has been seen by players and our community as a strategy that just makes Protoss play gimmicky and less skillful. So, just like auto inject, this was something that we decided to change because the cool factor of having easy access to offensive warp-ins without having teched to something didn’t outweigh the negative perception that it was creating.
Therefore, we'll be trying out the queuing up version in the next balance update, so please focus on playtesting this change and let us know your thoughts and feedback.
Advanced Ping Options
With the addition of Archon mode and Co-op missions, we have been looking at ways to improve communication in team games. We heard from several people at the community summit that they would like to see something similar to the advanced ping options available in Heroes of the Storm. We liked this idea, and so we’ve been working on a version that makes sense for StarCraft II.
Right now what we’re thinking is when you hold down the ping command, you see a panel of options for more specific commands: Attack, Defend, On My Way and Retreat. This sends a message to all of your allies and creates a beacon in the world that they can see. Also, when issuing regular pings (not through this panel) on units, structures or resources, a specific message and beacon are created to help provide more context for your teammates as to what you’re calling out.
While playtesting an early version of this internally, we received feedback that the ping hotkey is cumbersome. We’re considering changing the Quick Ping hotkey to Alt+Left Mouse Button. To make room for this, we would move the default hotkey for Toggle Healthbars to the apostrophe key (‘). We’re looking at this because we feel that using pings is a more frequent action for the average user. Of course, these hotkeys can be customized for those who prefer different setups.
Balance in the Beta
This week, we also wanted to discuss the last phase of the beta. The decision on what to do with the macro mechanics will be one of the last design changes to the game, so we'll be focusing on balance tuning. One thing to remember though, is the highest level players are still playing HotS, and this level is where balance problems are the most apparent. We've seen this exact thing back in the HotS beta. Because the top-end players focus on current tournaments, it's difficult to gather data at that skill level, and even if they do play for a week or two, it's just not enough time for them to figure out what's optimal in the new game. For example, Hellbat drops, a simple and easy to execute strategy, wasn’t seen as being overpowered during the beta but we had to react with a patch after the game went live.
Therefore, while we will do our best to balance the game as best as we can before the launch, we expect there might be some issues that will need to be solved right after release, especially when tournaments begin next year. We will definitely be putting extra emphasis on the game balance right after the game launches in order to react quickly to any problems that arise.
The goal in the beta is to balance the game as best as we can for all skill levels right below the pro-level, and then focus on the pro-level balance heavily in the first weeks and months after the game releases. The timing of the game's release lines up well with this plan because there will be a few months break in WCS and other major tournaments out there right after the game releases.
As always, we look forward to seeing your feedback. Thank you!
- Dayvie
And that's it for this week. Please remember to keep your discussions civil and constructive.
