Characteristics of “Casual” Games:
- Bite sized chunks
- Relatively fast progression
- Relatively low difficulty
- Relatively mild penalties for mistakes

Hardcore games are those games that simply follow the opposite design decisions for the above characteristics. Notice, I repeatedly use the word “relatively”. Casual and hardcore characteristics are just that. They are relative. Game A may be more hardcore than game B, but less than C. The entire concept of casual vs. hardcore is a spectrum.

Gamers prefer their games at different points within the spectrum. To sit here and say one game design is better than another is silly. However, it is a legitimate argument to say that a game that encompasses as many people’s preferences as possible within that spectrum is a good thing.

Why Do People Like Casual Games or Hardcore Games?
This is a difficult question to answer. For the most part, casual games do not require a ton of time to progress, while hardcore games tend to either be very difficult or very time consuming (you need 1 million gold and each mob drops 1 gold). In addition, most casual games can be started quickly and interrupted at any time. Because hardcore games will often only allow you to save after a level, 50 attempts may not get your character any further and the time often feels wasted. People that are busy with work or school often do not have the time and flexibility to play a hardcore game. Casual gamers also don’t crave the feeling of accomplishment to the same degree hardcore gamers do. Hardcore gamers like to feel elitist in the sense that they were able to complete something that few players are able to. Hardcore games, due to their difficulty, will often last longer and have a higher replay value as a result. However, this does not mean that casual gamers do not like rewards. In fact, casual gamers often need that constant feeling of reward to keep them playing. The faster progression of casual games fits perfectly for these players.

Casual Players Are Sometimes Hardcore and Vice-Versa
The less time consuming nature of casual games is often much more appealing to those that are either extremely busy with life or stressed.  When a player has loads of free time, preferences tend to shift towards the hardcore end of the spectrum, to varying degrees.  Because players’ preferences shift based on circumstances, it is important for games to encompass and account for as much of the spectrum as possible.

Expanding a Game’s Appeal

Game Difficulty
A game that is hard targets hardcore gamers, while a game that is easy targets more casual players. By simply adding a difficulty selection within your game, one is able to make their game reach a much wider audience. This may seem like such a simple concept, but I see so many games today where the game is made incredibly difficult or easy and their forums are populated with “This is game is for babies” or “This game is impossible”. I see no reason to NOT offer a difficulty slider for a game, unless you are trying to establish a reputation or cult following for a niche of players.

Progression
Because casual gamers like the feeling of constant progression, I have always been of the opinion that players should be rewarded for their time, whether they succeed or fail. This doesn’t mean that we can’t provide difficult content that takes many tries or expert skill/strategy to get through. I don’t believe hardcore gamers are commonly directly opposed to constant progression. They are, however, opposed to easy content and no sense of an elite accomplishment. Achievements are a great way to allow hardcore players to show off the fact that they actually beat the difficult game content (rather than the easy variation).

While it is important to reward players for their time, regardless of whether they succeed or fail, that doesn’t mean we reward a failure equally. It also says nothing as to the speed of the progression. If I get 1 gold for a loss and 2 gold for a win, but I need 1 million gold to progress to the next goal, the progression speed is probably too slow. Striking this balance is difficult, especially when hardcore players often prefer slower progressions than casual players do. A common tactic to resolve this issue is to utilize diminishing returns within 1 play period. The first win may grant my character 1000 gold, and each additional win grants half that of the previous win. This allows a casual player, who plays for a short period of time to progress reasonably. However, it maintains longevity for hardcore players who play for an extended period of time.

Let’s start with a couple definitions:

skill/skil/

strat·e·gy/ˈstratəjē/

Noun:

A plan of action or policy designed to achieve a major or overall aim. The art of planning and directing overall military operations and movements in a war or battle.

These two things are VERY different.  Let’s take three specific mechanic examples and determine the difference between skill and strategy:

 

Example 1:

- Executing complex moves in a console fighting game

This is a mechanic that requires a particular ability to memorize large combinations of buttons and repeat them with perfect timing.  Because it requires this particular ability, this is classified as a heavily skill based mechanic.  Now, lets compare this mechanic to strategy.  Memorizing a large number of buttons and being able to press them in perfect timing is NOT a plan of action.  However, deciding WHICH MOVE to use is a plan of action.  Therefore, executing the moves is a zero-strategy mechanic, but choosing what move to use is a high-strategy mechanic.

 

In this type of game, *I* would classify the game as a skill-heavy game, with that skill being dexterity.

Example 2:

- Starcraft 2 micromanagement

Ordering your units to properly distribute damage so that enemy units are killed as quickly as possible, but no shots are wasted because they hit after the unit dies is a very skill-intensive mechanic.  In general, there is not a lot of strategy here, but there is a lot of difficulty in pulling off the action properly.

 

On the other hand, deciding which specific units to target, deciding which units to build and in what order, and deciding to attack at a specific location at a specific time are all a plans of action and are therefore very strategy-intensive mechanics.

 

 

Example 3:

- Memorizing solutions to a test

This concept of skill vs. strategy can be compared to many real-life situations.  In this example, we are comparing memorization vs. logic.  Memorization is a specific skill, however, it does not require logic.  Being able to solve a problem involves a plan of action, though, which is very logic based.

 

Now that we understand the difference between skill and strategy, let’s look at what each provides:

 

Skill Intensive Mechanics

Skill intensive mechanics can be a ton of fun.  Mario is a nearly 100% skill-intensive rather than a strategy-intensive game (although, technically strategy is a skill).  Sports are great example of games that require loads of ability to execute difficult tasks, like hitting a fast ball.  Therefore, some of these mechanics can be very good for a competitive game.  It is fun to watch and “OOOOOHHHH AAHHHHHHH” at the players that are able to execute these difficult tasks.  So how do you decide how much of a game should be based on skill and how much should be based on strategy? Determine the type of game you are trying to make. More on this later.

 

I can make any game require more skill. Is that a good thing?

Take any game you know. Now, lets say during that game a flash of light comes on and you must be able to say “BAM!” within 0.2 seconds of the flash of light. This game now has a higher skill ceiling as less people will be able to do this. After all, a reaction to a flash of light is a SKILL. It is, however, a meaningless one.  For another example, lets take chess. Now, lets require that each chess piece be balanced on a pin-head. If the piece falls, it is lost. We have increased the skill ;eve;, but as a result, we have decreased the emphasis on strategy.

 

The Right Amount of Execution/Memorization-Based Skill vs. Strategy

Many game mechanics are difficult for the sake of being difficult, like the above flash of light example.  However, you have to ask yourself, what is this game about?  If the game is about out-witting your opponent, then the more execution-based skill you remove from the game, the more important strategy becomes in the game.  In this type of game, a player with superior wit and strategic knowledge should always beat a player with inferior wit and strategic knowledge.  If the execution-based or memorization-based skill affects the gameplay so heavily that a new player with superior wit cannot defeat his opponent, then the amount of execution-based skill has gone too far!

 

On the other hand, if we are referring to the game “Simon Says” which is zero-strategy game, attempting to add any mechanics that add additional strategic depth will significantly undermine the simplicity and low skill barrier.  The game’s signature IS MEMORIZATION AND EXECUTION based skills.

 

In general, a good competitive game design is: “Low skill barrier, high skill cap”.  I would argue that if a competitive game adds a new mechanic that increases the skill cap without affecting the learning curve, it is a FANTASTIC mechanic.  Likewise, I would also argue that if a mechanic decreases the skill barrier, without lowering the skill cap, it is also a fantastic mechanic.  However, it is rare that a mechanic exclusively affects the skill barrier or skill cap.

 

However, some party style games use the idea of “Low skill barrier, low skill cap”.  Mario Kart is a great example.  This game provides items that unfairly benefit players who are losing and penalize players who are winning.  As a result, you have a high-tension game, where the game is always close, regardless of player skill.

 

In general, there are three main things to consider when adding a new mechanic:
1.) What is my game’s signature? Balancing chess pieces on a pin-head does not fit a strategy-based game.
2.) How will it affect the skill cap and skill barrier?
3.) Is the mechanic fun? This is for the players to decide and another topic entirely.

Additional Thoughts:

Unexpected Things Require Skill

The skill of memorizing all the heroes in a 100 hero game is a very high barrier for new players with superior wit to overcome. I have significant reservations about how games like Heroes of Newerth, League of Legends, and DotA 2 have so many heroes.  On the other hand, games like Super Smash Brothers have quite a few heroes, but it isn’t necessary for a new player to know their opponent’s skills to play. Games that strive for a diverse character pool should also strive to make sure it isn’t necessary to have memorized the skills of your opponent, though the players that do learn their opponents’ skills will be the masters.

 

The Perfect Strategy Game

Chess.  This game has a very low barrier to entry.  You don’t need to memorize many mechanics (just what each piece does), and you don’t need any special skill to execute your strategy, unlike fighting video games.  In addition, there is a ton of strategy on the back end.  In fact, there is so much that there can always be a better player (contrast with Tic-Tac-Toe, in which all the best players are of equal skill).

Arcanist:
- Problem 1: When low on energy, the hero stands around doing nothing, feeling helpless.  While this may penalize players for poor play, the new change will add loads of depth to the Arcanist.

Solution planned: The Arcanist will regenerate energy at 4 per second with 0 energy and 2 per second at max energy.  Everything in between is scaled.  Old method: Static 3 per second.

- Problem 2: Psi-storm and Magic Missile are not exclusive enough.  Players generally pick their favorite and spam one or the other.

Solution: Psi-storm will be buffed heavily, but made unspammable (6 second cooldown or so).  During this cooldown, players will naturally be encouraged to fill the time with Magic Missile.

- Problem 3: Blink is a bland ability and doesn’t involve much depth besides “Blink away when in trouble”.

Solution: After blinking, the player has 4 seconds to press blink again.  Doing so will teleport the caster back to their original location.  The secondary cast will remove snares.

Roopil:
- Problem 1: When Roopil is out of energy and an enemy is on her tail, the only option is to recharge and let the enemy hit you.  However, Roopil is also hard to make vulnerable because she can vanish from every attack.

Solution: Cloak will now have a longer cool down, but will no longer have an activation cost.  This means she can still utilize the speed boost of cloak with no energy.  However, in general, she will be unable to cloak as often.

- Problem 2: Proximity mines feel awkward.  Players do not like having to constantly maintain their individual mines.  They also cannot be deployed very quickly, due to a relatively long cool down.

Solution: The proximity mine ability will now have 4 charges.  Mines will only have roughly a 2.5 second cool down.  In addition, mines will no longer have a duration.  Detonate is now a target ability to detonate a specific mine, however, double tapping detonate will continue the old behavior of detonating all mines.   Mines will now deal 36 instant damage at 64 damage over 4 seconds.  The dot does not stack.

Taklyn:
- Problem 1: Taklyn has a severe issue with catching avoiding players.  Because he only gains rage from hitting enemies, he generally has to wait 15 seconds for charge to find any way using his abilities.  If the enemy avoids the attack, he is useless again for 15 seconds.

Solution: Last Stand is being replaced by Inner Rage.  Inner Rage is a 1 second shield that reduces damage by 50%.  Any damage remaining will give Taklyn 1.5 points or Rage per point of damage taken.  In addition, if he is hit, he will enrage, increasing his movement and attack speed by 35% for 15 seconds.  If he hits 100 rage from the hit, the rage effect is doubled.  Cooldown 45 seconds if successful, 30 seconds if not.

- Problem 2: While the match-up is relatively balanced at the moment, Taklyn has a severe issue will catching Roopil.

Solution: Static pulse (formerly Static Cling) will pull nearby enemies towards Taklyn.  This also serves the additional benefit of making Rage Vortex more useful.

- Problem 3: Last Stand is horrible in 1v1.  It is also a very boring ability and makes the player feel like they are hurting themselves.  It simply is NOT fun.

Solution: As stated above, Last Stand has been replaced by Inner Rage.

Zusar:
- Problem 1: Instability is SO FRUSTRATING!

Solution:  Shadow Destruction has been renamed “Shadow of Instability”.  It now has a longer cool down but REDUCES instability by 10%.   This makes Instability easier to manage, but also adds a TON of depth to when you use your abilities, because of its 10 second cooldown.

- Problem 2: Power Surge is lack luster.

Solution: Power Surge will have a larger AoE and larger delay.  Players will now see additional special effects to make the ability LOOK more powerful.  Appearance is important in making the player feel more powerful.

- Problem 3: Shadow Destruction is lack luster.

Solution: The ability now reduces instability, like stated above.  In addition, the missile is now much more exciting and will now explode and do AoE damage if ANY enemy gets near the missile.  In addition, the shadow may now be killed by enemy players, but Zusar may heal and shield the shadow. If the shield breaks, the shadow gains a speed boost just like a player would.

- Problem 4: Chronodome doesn’t fit.  It’s lack luster and just odd on this hero.

Solution: Chronodome removed and replaced with Nether swap.

Nether Swap: Target a player or shadow of instability to swap locations.  Using Nether Swap on a shadow of instability will teleport you to the shadow, rather than swap locations with it.  The Dark Mender will have all movement impairing effect removed upon swap and gain a temporary movement speed bonus.  This ability adds loads of depth, allowing the character to strategically swap enemies into vulnerable locations or save vulnerable allies.  It also allows the healer to swap enemies into his shadows.

- Problem 5: While the Dark Mender can survive melee attacks, he has trouble getting far enough away to actually use his abilities.

Solution: When power shield breaks, it will also removes all snares and dramatically boost movement for 4 seconds.  This also provides the added benefit of allowing the ability to be more interesting by providing a reason for the healer to use the ability in combination with his shadows.

General Changes:

- Problem 1: Certain match ups result in hide in seek and the match simply never ends.

Solution 1: Missiles, shadows, and mines now have a large sight radius to allow players to scout enemies more easily.  However, their innate sight range is maintained to keep the strategic use of line of sight.

Solution 2: Rounds now have timers and end upon the timer reaching 0.

- Problem 2: Ghosts are boring.  Players are still bored while their character is dead.

Solution: In addition to rounds having timers, the “Last-man standing” system has been replaced with a “Deathmatch” style system.  This means when players die, they will quickly revive and continue playing.  However, after 5 minutes, the teams with the most kills wins.  The game has been reverted to a best 2 of 3 system, meaning the game will last a bite sized 10 to 15 minutes.

Note: This has the added benefit of creating a push-pull gameplay where the winning team will switch back and forth.  Before, when a player died, the other players were at a disadvantage and were also quickly eliminated.

- Stasis Wards will now purge instead of stun.  They also now have a 100 cast range, down from 500.
- Changed damage of singularity to 25/40/50 per second and duration to 4/5/6
- Changed cast range on icy waves from 750/750/750 to 600/700/800
- Fixes for reported bugs
- Lowered cooldown on crusher ultimate back to 15, but casting it again remove the previous wall.
- Slightly lower bash stun and increase tower attack speed.
- Fixed spirit upgrade.
- Added an ability to replace sleep: Soul Burn.
- Increased turtle jump teleport delay to 2.5 from 1.75. In addition, the speed buff has been lowered to 12.5 from 15.
- Changed start spawn position system.  Multiple players should not spawn at the same location.
- Changed temporal phase, the hero no longer tries to go around walls.
- Changed juke for easier use by new players. Juke is now a second Divine shield.
- Made the scroll wheel not override the camera
- Murloc now properly has unreduced vision at night
- Murloc daylight dash is now usable only at night and is replacing the previous fade ability. In addition, disruption slow has been reduced to 60% from 75% and night move speed bonus reduced to 33% from 40%.
- Dive now allows a submerged sea dragon to move slowly underwater for 20 seconds. The sea dragon now has 65 mana, but diving and using undermine costs 45 mana.
- Overpowering waves damage has been more normalized. Base damage is now 32/64/96 and echo damage is now 2/4/6. This allows the 3rd rank of the ability to now kill level 1 buildings, but also requires more buildings to be present to kill higher level buildings.
- Improved hotkey layout
- Illusions are now always the same player color as the player they are mimicing.
- Naga may now have 6 sentry wards.
- Fish now have a “Rescue Fish” ability with a 6 second cooldown and 200 range. Fish can no longer attack allied wisps.
- Naga are no longer alerted to a respawning fishs’ location.
- Toss Trident now has a larger AoE, but the missile moves more slowly.
- Tons of tooltip improvements.

4.11 Hotfix:

- Deathmatch properly no longer updates enemies upon respawn
- Gold loss on death changed for fish (66% of everything over 500g)
- Wards of sight reverted to a limit of 4.  Wards of sight now alert the Naga if they see an enemy fish.
- Other bug and exploit fixes

4.12 Changes:
- Banks reworked. Limit of 4 banks total.
- Experience reworked. Killing a fish gives 50 experience. Killing a building gives (Max health / 20).
- Mana burn tower now deals 2x the mana burned in additional damage, and burns 4/6/8 mana.
- Stun tower is now less annoying and disables the target rather than stuns them. The target is silenced and receives 50% reduced physical damage.
- The jail teleporter is now used in all modes
- Players have a slightly faster innate gold per second gain.

General

• A new Career page displaying placement in past seasons has been added to the League & Ladders section of the Profile.
• The upload timeout period for publishing custom maps has been increased significantly.
• SLI performance has been improved.
• D3D memory management has been improved.
• When file corruption is detected in un-repairable files (replays, saved games, or downloaded maps), a prompt to run the Repair Tool will no longer occur.

• Game Options
  • Added three privacy settings to the Options menu under the Battle.net section.
    • Only allow friends to send me invites.
    • Only allow friends to send me chat messages.
    • Set status to Busy when playing a game.
  • Added the FPS Toggle hotkey to the hotkey dialog.
  • Added Display Game Tooltips setting to the Options under Gameplay that can be turned off to prevent tooltips from appearing when playing a game.

• UI and Display
  • A Launch PTR button will now appear on the login screen when the PTR is available. Clicking this button will close the retail client and launch the PTR client.
  • Improved error messages when a unit is required but none is targeted to provide required target information.
  • UI Frame used in .SC2Layout files has more anchoring flexibility.
  • Loading an old saved game will now give an option to restart the mission in the new version of StarCraft II instead of loading it in the old version without access to achievements.
  • Player names in the Name Panel in observer or replay mode will now be based off the player’s locations on the minimap. For example the player closer to the left side of the minimap will appear on the left side of the name panel.
  • When a building is canceled or salvaged the minerals returned will be displayed at the building location for the owner, for enemy players a floating text will be displayed.
  • Toggle Team Colors in 1v1 and Free-for-All when observing and during a replay will not change player colors.

• Sound
  • An error notification sound is now played if a placement location cannot be found when unit training completes.
  • Most existing alert sounds are now reduced in volume when a new alert sound plays.
  • Transmissions without a valid sound file will now display a subtitle during cinematics even if the player has turned off subtitles.
  • Added a new Alert Fade option to control how much existing alert sounds fade when new alert sounds are played.

Balance

• General
  • Unit vision up ramps has been reduced by 1.

• PROTOSS
  • Immortal
    • Attack range increased from 5 to 6.
  • Mothership
    • Acceleration increased from 0.3 to 1.375.
    • The Mothership’s Cloaking Field no longer cloaks all units instantaneously, but rather adds units to the cloak field over time (maximum of 25 per second). This should alleviate “Mothership Lag” issue when a Mothership comes online.
  • Stalker
    • Blink research time increased from 110 to 140.
  • Warp Prism
    • Shields increased from 40 to 100.

• TERRAN
  • Barracks
    • Build time increased from 60 to 65.
  • Hellion
    • Infernal Pre-Igniter damage upgrade decreased from 10 to 5.
  • Raven
    • Seeker missile movement speed increased from 2.5 to 2.953.

• ZERG
  • Infestor
    • Fungal Growth damage changed from 36 (+30% armored) to 30 (40 vs Armored).
  • Overseer
    • Morph cost decreased from 50/100 to 50/50.
    • Contaminate energy cost increased from 75 to 125.
  • Ultralisk
    • Build time decreased from 70 to 55.

StarCraft II Editor Improvements

• Editor General
  • Map Status and Publish dialogs indicate if the lighting map is out of date or not.
  • Creating Cycles in UI frame anchoring will no longer crash the game, instead it will output an error message.
  • Added alignment option when using the IMG tag in text. Values are top, bottom, middle, absolute middle.
  • Syntax highlighting for galaxy script and XML data can now be disabled.
  • Actor cheats are now available to map creators when testing their map from the editor.
  • Actor dump messages are now available to map creators. Includes AliasDump, AnimDumpDB, AttachDump, HostedPropDump, HostedPropDumpAll, RefDump, RefTableDump, TextureDumpDB, TextureDump.
  • Portrait Frames now have their own desc to use in .SC2Layout files. Currently supported fields are: BackgroundImage, BorderImage, MovieFrame, ModelLink, UseTransition.
  • Added Disable Observers map option, which prevents players from becoming observers in the game lobby.
  • Added two fields to MovieFrame Descs : Loop, LockAspectRatio.

• Data Editor
  • Data Editor UI has been reorganized for a better workflow.
  • Complex fields in the Data Editor can now be expanded by double clicking on the plus sign.
  • Increased maximum number of unit command card buttons per card from 32 to 64.
  • If a teleport effect’s range is greater than 500, it will now ignore placement.
  • Revive orders can now automatically choose the hero to revive based on the command selected and the order they were created.
  • Map creators can now set time scale on bracket anims.
  • An attack can now be specified to cause no shield flash at all via the ‘None’ Shield Flash Type value on CActorAction.
  • Actor now makes a distinction between actors that are created via the ActorCopy message and through all the other creation mechanisms.
  • Actors that are copied now get an ActorCopy message upon construction rather than an ActorCreation message, so that client data can distinguish between the two scenarios.
  • Added raw XML editing mode to Data Editor.
  • Added default parents for new objects in the Data Editor.
  • Added a “Transient” flag to the Arm Magazine, Learn, Research, Revive, Specialize, and Train abilities to indicate that the orders should not be added to either the unit’s main order queue or to a queue ability. These orders will complete immediately.
  • Added a ‘Use Unit Order Queue’ flag to the Arm Magazine, Learn, Research, Revive, Specialize, and Train abilities to indicate that the unit’s main order queue rather than a queue ability should be used for those orders.
  • Added support for Unit Weapon Validators to check any weapon on the unit if no weapon is specified.
  • Added a flag to units called ‘Built On Optional’ to indicate units can now be built on the terrain if they are not placed on another unit.
  • Added a “Turn Button Highlight On/Off” trigger to highlight buttons by button link. This will support highlighting buttons regardless of how the button is used (i.e. Select Larva, Select Worker, and Submenus).
  • Added support for items with abilities to display AoE cursors, show progress, and use the minimap for targeting.
  • Added support for the Revive ability to issue targeted commands.
  • Added support for persistent effects to attach revealers to units.
  • Added AnimSetTimeScaleAbsolute message for forcing animation time scale to a particular value, regardless of prior scales.
  • Added boosted cliff level support for units and doodads. Placed objects can specify the boosted cliff level amount. Units and doodads will then boost the cliff level of any cells in their footprints that are marked to ‘Boost Cliff’.

• Terrain Editor
  • Added view setting for displaying terrain object names.

• Trigger Editor
  • Timer Expires events can now match Any Timer.
  • Trigger Dialogs can now be attached to a unit.
  • Attempting to create or hookup a trigger dialog of the wrong type will now result in an error message.
  • Dialog Items of type Image can now have their image property set as an entry into the Assets.txt file in addition to a raw file name.
  • Added De-saturated and Desaturation Color properties to Dialog Items.
  • Added Mouse Enter and Mouse Exit Event Types for the Dialog Item is Used event.
  • Added Handle of Player trigger to query a player’s Battle.net handle.
  • Added “Unit Learn Progress” and “Unit Revive Progress” triggers to get the progress of Learn and Revive abilities.
  • Added a “Lock Unit Status Bar Display” and ‘Unlock Unit Status Bar Display’ triggers. These are intended to replace the “Set Unit Status Bar State” trigger.
  • Added a “Show/Hide Alert Type” trigger to turn on/off specific alerts for a player group.
  • Added a “Enable/Disable Command Type” trigger to allow/disallow submenus, select larva, and select worker commands.
  • Added a “Pause Sound” trigger to pause/unpause a sound.
  • Added an “XP Gain Disabled” option usable with the “Player Melee Option” and “Enable/Disable Melee Option For Player” triggers. This option defaults to on.

Bug Fixes

• Gameplay
  • Hitting Escape when using the Options menu while playing a game will now properly revert any changes made.
  • Loading a saved game with a game speed different than the minimum game speed now works correctly.
  • Failing to load a saved game from a previous build will now show the proper error message.
  • Reduced Violence no longer prevents custom death models from working.
  • Repeated control group and selection commands will no longer count as unique actions for APM calculation purposes.
  • In the Load Game Panel it is no longer possible to delete a saved game while playing it.
  • In the Load Game Panel, choosing to keep\save an unsaved file in the Recent Tab now properly saves the file.
  • Switching between a control group hotkey and selecting a unit no longer registers as a double-click.
  • The Base Camera and Jump to Location hotkeys can no longer be used while the game is paused.
  • Escape and F12 can no longer be used for custom grid hotkey profiles.
  • Default key display will not show up when Custom Observer hotkey has been set.
  • The range for structures hitting other structures is now consistent with non-structure units.
  • Units with movement suppressed can now issue an order to board a transport instead of just follow it.
  • Transports can no longer unload units into a dense area if the original order was issued on a fogged location.
  • A full refund will now be issued for any training requests that cannot complete because unit placement fails.
  • Commands that have no charges left will display a 0 instead of just hiding the number.
  • Resources spent repairing are now reported as resources lost when the repaired unit dies.
  • Fixed an issue with the Camera Follow mode not turning off when scrolling away from a unit being followed.
  • Fixed an issue with cycling chat recipients while in a party and watching a replay.
  • Fixed an issue in the Load Game Panel that sometimes caused the wrong map preview image to display.
  • Fixed an issue where the Hotkey dialog sometimes displayed inaccurate unit commands.
  • Fixed an issue where units would seem to pop when travelling along cliffs.
  • Fixed an issue where flyers may not decelerate in some cases.
  • Fixed an issue where flying unit separation wasn’t consistent.
  • Fixed issues displaying some hotkeys for non-US keyboard layouts.
  • Fixed issues with cursors when using NVidia 3DVision.
  • Fixed issues where an ally unit’s command card was visible without shared control enabled.
  • Fixed some issues with DVORAK keyboards not working correctly with Grid hotkey profiles.
  • Fixed several issues with the Units Lost tab not tracking resources correctly.
  • Fixed erroneous hotkey conflict detections with some observer commands.

• Protoss
  • Issuing new orders to charging zealots will cause them to lose the charge buff.
  • Sentry Guardian Shield now correctly reduces damage from Hellion, Void ray, and Colossus attacks as well as the Siege Tank’s sieged attack.
  • Fixed an issue where Colossus thermal lance beams would track a unit much further than the range of the weapon.
  • Fixed an issue where workers would not path around Force Field while harvesting.
  • Fixed an animation bug that would occur when Graviton Beam was used on unburrowing Zerg units.

• Terran
  • The Command Center Load SCV command will now only ask to load as many SCVs as it can contain.
  • SCVs will now always face the building when resuming construction.
  • SCVs can no longer repair themselves while inside a Bunker or Medivac.
  • Fixed an issue where the Reaper could get stuck in some cases.

• Zerg
  • Overseer & Brood Lord cocoons can now display waypoint lines when issuing queued patrol orders.
  • Baneling’s Attack Structure ability is now a toggle to Enable/Disable Attack Structure. The toggle will determine whether structures are valid targets for auto-attack. This change fixes an issue which caused Banelings to prioritize buildings over hostile units.
  • Burrowed units are no longer cloaked by the Mothership, as this is redundant.
  • Attack upgrades are now retained by units controlled by Neural Parasite.
  • If a unit provides power, that power is temporarily transferred to a player using Neural Parasite.
  • Canceling more than one of the same structure at the same time as Zerg will add all Drones to the selection.
  • Improved Larva placement when the bottom edge of a hatchery is on a cliff edge to prevent Larva from getting killed.
  • Spore Crawlers and Spine Crawlers now disable their Stop button when rooting.
  • Fixed an issue where Drone attacks could be more easily dodged than SCV or Probes.

• Custom Map
  • Alliance tests for the status bars and the info panel now use the passive and defeat alliance states to determine allies rather than vision and control.
  • Force effects now preserve existing unit velocity.
  • Units with an interact ability now clear the interacting state when killed.
  • Items that cannot be dropped can now be moved in the inventory.
  • Banks are now marked as verified when saved.
  • The Unit Attachment Point trigger now reports the correct height.
  • If more than one unit is selected with the Select Unit Group trigger after units have been deselected by means besides the Clear Unit Selection trigger, the newly selected units will now show up in the info panel.
  • Range indicators are now updated when an upgrade is applied.
  • Alerts will now use the Text field for a name if no Name is defined.
  • Newly created units that gain a weapon via an upgrade will now have that weapon enabled when created.
  • A unit’s height will now be changed immediately via triggers if the duration requested is 0.
  • Quitting out of a map will now cause the player leave trigger event to be dispatched before the player actually exits which will give triggers a chance to change the victory/defeat state.
  • The Enable/Disable Command Type trigger now disables minimap clicks properly.
  • Actors shown or hidden via triggers should now show immediately instead of being delayed by a game loop.
  • The Unit Selection trigger no longer resets the selected submenu if the selection isn’t actually changed.
  • Alerts with the “Self” flag cleared will no longer show the alert to the issuing player.
  • If a unit has a custom revive type configured, it will now use that when reviving via triggers.
  • The maximum value for the real version of the effect amount trigger now reports values correctly.
  • Persistent effects with a period of 0 can now execute at most once per game loop.
  • Revive abilities that only have a per-level cost will now work correctly.
  • The Gain Level trigger event will now dispatch multiple times if the amount of XP gained results in multiple levels being awarded.
  • Filters now work properly for range actors.
  • Issue order effects can now accept a point as a valid target.
  • The requirement validator now also checks shown requirements.
  • The Unit Has Behavior Flag trigger function now allows checking all flags properly.
  • Yaw can now be get/set properly via Camera trigger functions.
  • The Player Effect Used Unit Owner trigger function can now use all expected parameters properly.
  • Abstract data types cannot be used for non-default data.
  • The used number of charges is now clamped properly when modified via triggers.
  • Charges with a fractional used amount are now handled properly.
  • Changing the Kill XP unit property now results in a unit granting a custom amount of XP when killed.
  • Missiles now impact properly when the target filters of the ability or weapon that launched them are upgraded.
  • Behaviors granted by an ability are now replaced when that ability is leveled up.
  • Items with carry or equip behaviors now manage behavior stack counts properly.
  • Item abilities configured as transient will no longer interrupt existing orders.
  • Learn abilities can no longer learn themselves.
  • Behaviors which disable turning no longer disable movement.
  • Units with negative life armor no longer take damage if shields or behaviors absorb damage.
  • Objectives will no longer play sounds for players who cannot see them.
  • If a unit is killed while morphing, it will revert the morph before reviving.
  • Units may be created as “Under Construction” as long as an ability is configured to create it. Previously a unit needed to be able to produce it.
  • Creating and destroying objectives should no longer cause a crash.
  • Added a flag to Warp Train abilities to disable warp-in on ramps.
  • Added checks to prevent circular effect, loot, tactical, and validator data.
  • Fixed an issue where a targeted ability configured to use a teleport effect would fail to enter targeting mode.
  • Fixed an issue using the Set Unit Progress action on Zerg units.
  • Fixed an issue with clicking on an inventory slot while in targeting mode while using an item.
  • Fixed an issue where a force effect location would use a parent effect location instead of its own.
  • Fixed an issue with reviving a unit multiple times.
  • Fixed some issues with life change trigger events being dispatched from behaviors that modify life.
  • Fixed damage display on the hero info panel when the Collapse Buffed option is set.
  • Fixed some lockups during loading due to complicated custom data relationships.

StarCraft II Editor Bug Fixes

• Data Editor
  • Duplicating a unit with a missile attack now properly duplicates the related actor data.
  • Terrain Editor
    • Terrain paste operations will now fail with a warning if pasted textures do not exist in the map texture set.
    • Assimilators, Extractors and Refineries now properly handle resource amounts defined in the properties dialog.
    • Editor minimap now correctly updates after placing water.
    • Invalid preplaced objects no longer prevent object groups from being initialized and using their patrol data.
    • Terrain objects are now properly snapped to cliff cells during placement and movement.
    • Fixed an issue with copying cameras that have custom colors applied.
    • Fixed an issue with previewing world relative sounds in the editor while the Terrain Editor is open.
  • Trigger Editor
    • The source column will correctly display Local for local elements within libraries.
    • Triggering Player/Unit Property Change event responses now returns the total amount of change if multiple changes occurred.
    • Fixed a potential crash issue that could occur when repeatedly clicking the Array checkbox for variables.
    • Fixed script editor slowdowns related to syntax highlighting.
  • Publishing
    • Fixed an issue that could cause team settings to be reset in the Game Variants in some cases.
    • Fixed a crash when attempting to publish a map with no neutral players defined.
    • Fixed a crash when attempting to publish a map with over 500 custom units or upgrades.

Welcome to the NEW Clan MoRD!  This new site will be the home to Footmen Frenzy XV, Galactic Arena, and Tropical Tag!  However, I am also planning to open this site up to the general public as a method of exposing their custom maps for either Starcraft 2 or Warcraft 3!  By signing up to make your game a hosted project, you gain the professionalism and exposure of Clan MoRD, as well as many features such as your own forums and the ability to post news about your maps or tournaments to the Clan MoRD blog!   In addition, this site will also be filled with game news related to any Blizzard games.

If you are interested in becoming hosted at Clan MoRD, fill out the form here: http://clanmord.net/wordpress/?page_id=73

Thanks for visiting and I hope to see everyone as active members of the Clan MoRD community!

In Diablo 2, the max level was 99, however, the highest monster level was 85.  Players simply found the easiest areas that dropped the best gear.  In Diablo 3, Blizzard plans to fix this!  The max level in Diablo 3 is 60. Inferno Mode is unlocked only after completing the game on Normal, Nightmare, and Hell difficulty, and the minimum monster level is 61.  This means players can never out-level the content.  In addition, everything in Inferno mode is designed to be roughly the same difficulty, so there it is not likely that players will simply pick a single boss, like Baal and only run that one instance for loot.  The entire game feel like a boss in Inferno mode!

Quote by Bashiok:

The general philosophy is that we want to make finding better loot at the end game more enjoyable, and attempt to address ‘path of least resistance’ style gameplay.

There’s a couple ways we’re doing that, some of which we’re not talking about just yet.

Primarily it’s focused around Inferno and creating a consistent difficulty across the entire act. By having a flat difficulty across the entire game in Inferno it evens things out so that no matter where you want to go you’re being challenged, and you have a good chance at getting good drops. That’s intended to open the game up so there’s simply more freedom for the player to go anywhere in the game and have an equal chance at good drops.

There will probably still be a slight difficulty curve in Inferno, as enemies simply become more complex and have greater abilities later in the game, but we’re making an effort to make it as even across the board as possible. It’s something we’ll very likely have to keep tweaking after release.

In addition we’re attempting to de-emphasize path of least resistance by creating a more equal value across monster types. We’re not going to get into specifics about who can drop what or how much, but our intent is that being out in the world exploring should be as lucrative (potentially more) as simply aiming for the quickest-to-reach boss and running that over and over.

Getting people out into the world of the game and away from repetitive boss runs is essentially our goal. It’s going to be tough because people will find a path of least resistance, and they will make that the game. We’re going to have to keep on top of it, and truthfully it’s something we’re still working on. We’ll likely want to have some additional features to support these ideals, but just getting Inferno tuned right is our current end-game goal for ship.