Battle.net Preview, 3.3.2 Item Changes, LK Video

[Boubouille]

Hard modes are now unlocked on US servers and will be available shortly in Europe, it probably won't take long before we see the top guilds competiting for the first kills of the Lich King in Heroic Mode.

Battle.net Preview
An extensive preview of the new Battle.net is now available on Starcraft2.com. Even if it's not completely WoW related, it will probably give you a small idea of what to expect on World of Warcraft in the future.

Fully integrated, user-friendly, and fast, the all-new Battle.net makes it easy to find and play games, opening the world of online gaming to generations of players. In the 14 years since the original Battle.net’s launch, the service has seen tremendous growth both in terms of features and active players. Currently, there are more than 12 million active accounts on Battle.net worldwide.

This raises an interesting question. If the original Battle.net was so successful, why change it? Updating a service like Battle.net is a hugely complex undertaking. Are there really that many new features that Blizzard Entertainment could offer that would deliver a world-class online gaming experience to its community?

In one word: Yes.

The list of past innovations integrated into the legacy Battle.net service is long and varied -- the introduction of competitive ladders, server-hosted games, online-stored characters, automated matchmaking, and more. But with the release of StarCraft II, Battle.net will evolve into an even more powerful and advanced online game service that will power all Blizzard Entertainment titles moving forward.

The final metamorphosis has only just begun....

The Always-Connected Experience
In the past, Battle.net was presented as a multiplayer option off to the side, off of the main menu of Blizzard Entertainment titles. That is all changing. With the new Battle.net experience, the service and the game are now interwoven into one experience. Whether you are in single-player or multiplayer StarCraft II, you are always connected, and enjoy a bevy of new and enhanced functionality.

Battle.net and StarCraft II are designed to be seamlessly connected. That means even if you're playing solo you will still view the latest news, receive game and content updates, and be able to see your friends' status and chat with them. But this new interconnectivity between the game and the service goes even deeper than that. Now, each player will create a StarCraft II Battle.net character. This character serves as your single persistent identity across the service. Everything you do in the game -- win/loss record, achievements, unlockable rewards, friends list, and more -- will be saved to your character profile for you and your friends to see. Even your save game progress in the campaign can be synched to Battle.net. Say you upgrade your computer and re-install the game; once you connect to Battle.net, you can continue the campaign right where you left off. This is especially useful if you play on more than one computer, because all your data will be carried over for you via Battle.net.

Competitive Arena For Everyone
One of the biggest improvements that the new Battle.net service brings to StarCraft II is smarter and more accurate matchmaking. While the legacy Battle.net service had good matchmaking, the standard experience for new players was usually a series of crushing defeats against seasoned Battle.net veterans until they either left or developed the skills necessary to thrive in Battle.net's competitive environment.

The new Battle.net matchmaking service will measure player skill more accurately than ever before, making online competitive play more accessible for a wider audience. What’s more, we are introducing an all-new Battle.net Leagues and Ladders System to the service. After using the auto-matchmaking system a few times, Battle.net will automatically slot you into a league and division that best suits your skill level. Our goal here is to encourage local competition by finding you a neighborhood of 100 players of equal skill against whom you will be ranked. This will make ranked online play much more enjoyable and give everyone a realistic chance to win their division.

Beyond ranked matches, Battle.net will also make it much easier to compete by offering a number of other game modes. Custom games will of course make their return, but there will also be a slew of new, casual-friendly game modes such as the Practice League, Co-op Versus AI (players versus the computer), Challenges, and more.

Connecting The Blizzard Community
Battle.net's social networking and communication capabilities will be some of the service's biggest new features. This new social backbone for the entire service will seamlessly integrate friends lists, matchmaking, messaging, and more. Text and voice chat are now seamlessly interwoven into and out of the game, enabling communication whether you are in Battle.net or in-game playing StarCraft II. And as is the case with previous Blizzard Entertainment titles, you can form friendships with other characters on Battle.net while preserving your anonymity.

With the new Battle.net, we’re also introducing an entirely new concept called Real ID. With the Real ID feature, you are able to send invites and form friendships on Battle.net with your real-life friends and family. Real ID friends are mutual, which means that both sides need to agree to the friend request. Forming Real ID friends comes with its benefits. You will see your Real ID friends by their real name, along with any character they are logged in as. You will also be able to get rich presence information about what they are doing, send broadcast messages, and communicate cross-game between StarCraft II, Battle.net, and World of Warcraft.

And of course, Real ID is totally optional. By enabling this, you can set up your Blizzard Entertainment social network, communicate and play games, and best of all, carry your network forward to future Blizzard Entertainment titles.

Mods and Community-Created Content
With a community as dedicated and as creative as that of our players, the abundance of exceptional community-created mods is no surprise. When the legacy Battle.net service introduced support for user-created mods such as DotA, Tower Defense, and many others, these user-created game types became immensely popular. But while Battle.net supported mods at a basic level, integration with tools and the mod community wasn’t where it needed to be for a game releasing in 2010.

The new Battle.net service will see some major improvements in this area. StarCraft II will include a full-featured content-creation toolkit -- the same tools used by the StarCraft II design team to create the single-player campaign. To fully harness the community's mapmaking prowess, Battle.net will introduce a feature called Map Publishing. Map Publishing will let users upload their maps to the service and share them with the rest of the community immediately on the service. This also ties in with the goal of making Battle.net an always-connected experience -- you can publish, browse, and download maps directly via the Battle.net client. Finding games based on specific mods will also be much easier with our all-new custom game system, placing the full breadth of the modding community's efforts at your fingertips.

Sometime after the release of StarCraft II, modders will have access to an even more advanced means of sharing their work via Battle.net with the StarCraft II Marketplace. With the StarCraft II Marketplace, players will be able to browse, download, rate, comment on, and even buy mods if their creators choose to put a price tag on their work. We strongly believe that providing content creators with the option of being compensated for their work will lead to some truly amazing projects; having a budget will give modders much more freedom to explore and fully realize all their ideas. This in turn will lead to a bigger selection of mods and a greater variety of content on Battle.net.

Interview with Greg Canessa

<embed height="385" width="640" flashvars="somevideo=Battlenet-720&dir=/starcraft2/movies/misc&ht=385&wd=640&cues=00:05|00:12|00:17|00:28|00:37|00:43|00:47|00:58|01:12|01:24|01:34|01:44|01:53|01:58|02:04|02:09|02:23|02:37|02:43|02:53|03:06|03:14|03:32|03:40|04:02|04:09|04:27|04:40|" base="http://us.media.blizzard.com/starcraft2/flash/global/" wmode="transparent" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" quality="high" bgcolor="#000000" name="fl_movie" id="fl_movie" style="" src="http://us.media.blizzard.com/starcraft2/flash/global/video_loader.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"/>

Screenshots

WoW Integration (from Blizzcon)

Patch 3.3.2 Item Changes
During the past weeks I got a handful of mails from nice users who wanted to warn me of item changes in the latest minor patch. I didn't think it was worth a news but apparently, you guys really like item changes. (The T10 Tanking Sets changes are also included in this list). All these changes have been live since last week, I'm just listing them a little late.

<ul>
[*][url="http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/48713/"]Lothar's Edge[/url]: -4 Critical Strike Rating, -4 Strength, -8 Hit Rating
[*][url="http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/50358/"]Purified Lunar Dust[/url]: +26 Spell Power
[*][url="http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/50972/"]Shadow Seeker's Tunic[/url]: -16 Critical Strike Rating
[*][url="http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/50978/"]Gauntlets of the Kraken[/url]: +350 Armor, -15 Parry Rating
[*][url="http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/50987/"]Malevolent Girdle[/url]: +23 Critical Strike Rating, +27 Hit Rating
[*][url="http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/50356/"]Corroded Skeleton Key[/url]: Now Absorbs 6400 damage. Lasts 10 sec. (Old - Absorbs 3200 damage. Lasts 20 sec.)
[/list]

[img]http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/icons/ideathknights.gif[/img] [b]<font color="#C41E3A">Death Knight</font>[/b]

<ul>
[*][url="http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/50856/"]Scourgelord Handguards[/url]: +882 Armor, -63 Dodge Rating
[*][url="http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/50857/"]Scourgelord Chestguard[/url]: +1064 Armor, -60 Defense Rating, -16 Dodge Rating
[*][url="http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/51132/"]Sanctified Scourgelord Handguards[/url]: +1008 Armor, -72 Dodge Rating
[*][url="http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/51134/"]Sanctified Scourgelord Chestguard[/url]: +1190 Armor, -69 Defense Rating, -16 Dodge Rating
[*][url="http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/51305/"]Sanctified Scourgelord Chestguard[/url]: +1344 Armor, -80 Defense Rating, -16 Dodge Rating
[*][url="http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/51307/"]Sanctified Scourgelord Handguards[/url]: +1148 Armor, -82 Dodge Rating
[/list]

[img]http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/icons/ipaladins.gif[/img] [b]<font color="#F58CBA">Paladin</font>[/b]

<ul>
[*][url="http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/50863/"]Lightsworn Handguards[/url]: +882 Armor, -63 Dodge Rating
[*][url="http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/50864/"]Lightsworn Chestguard[/url]: +1064 Armor, -76 Defense Rating
[*][url="http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/51172/"]Sanctified Lightsworn Handguards[/url]: +1008 Armor, -72 Dodge Rating
[*][url="http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/51174/"]Sanctified Lightsworn Chestguard[/url]: +1190 Armor, -85 Defense Rating
[*][url="http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/51265/"]Sanctified Lightsworn Chestguard[/url]: +1344 Armor, -96 Defense Rating
[*][url="http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/51267/"]Sanctified Lightsworn Handguards[/url]: +1148 Armor, -82 Dodge Rating
[/list]

[img]http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/icons/iwarriors.gif[/img] [b]<font color="#C79C6E">Warrior</font>[/b]

<ul>
[*][url="http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/50849/"]Ymirjar Lord's Handguards[/url]: +882 Armor, -63 Dodge Rating
[*][url="http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/50850/"]Ymirjar Lord's Breastplate[/url]: +1064 Armor, -76 Defense Rating, -8 Dodge Rating, +8 Parry Rating
[*][url="http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/51217/"]Sanctified Ymirjar Lord's Handguards[/url]: +1008 Armor, -72 Dodge Rating
[*][url="http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/51219/"]Sanctified Ymirjar Lord's Breastplate[/url]: +1190 Armor, -85 Defense Rating
[*][url="http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/51220/"]Sanctified Ymirjar Lord's Breastplate[/url]: +1344 Armor, -96 Defense Rating
[*][url="http://db.mmo-champion.com/i/51222/"]Sanctified Ymirjar Lord's Handguards[/url]: +1148 Armor, -82 Dodge Rating
[/list]

Lich King (25) Video by Vodka
That's the 3rd and last video of the Lich King in Normal mode I will post. This one is from Vodka and shows the US first kills of the Lich King.

<object width="640" height="405"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Hp1KYchXD9w&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Hp1KYchXD9w&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="405"></embed></object>

<object width="640" height="405"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/-m_2gOvRaDk&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/-m_2gOvRaDk&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="405"></embed></object>

[Deleted]

cant wait for the new battle net! sounds awesome!

[Super Santiago]

Damn im excited for this! cant wait to play SC2 and talk to friends in WoW

[kindlin]

Ohh, interesting.

[Isadora985]

Hmm, I like that change to the friends list

[BaddyMcBad]

Grats to vodka :]

[Freedom]

AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH REVENGE OF WORLDBUILDER! NOOOOOOOO!

(WorldBuilder was the name of a buggy-ass visually unappealing map creator for Command and Conquer Generals and C&C Generals Zero Hour, which I spent many hours in making maps... and yelling at it.)

Let's hope Blizzard's version isn't as god awful as EA's was. God I hated that thing. It was especially tempermental with user-made mods( place a buggy item on the map accidentally? Crash!)

[Marique]

does this mean that I can be horde and talk to my alliance friends?

Also, I love that I can be talking to my friends while playing SC.

Looking forward, now we have to just wait for them to release the game =/

[tassadarws]

This will be a GREAT year

1. Starcraft 2 shipping (...right? :X )
2. Cataclysm shipping
3. Battle.Net shipping

Sweet sugary-goodness!

[Sargezor]

Did anyone else notice on the 5th sc2 SS that the guys name was Jake Sully

[Lastkaii]

Did anyone else notice on the 5th sc2 SS that the guys name was Jake Sully

Avatar reference

Also, really looking forward to this new battle.net. Sounds awesome.

[Snorri]

The player on Starcraft screenshot 2 and 3 has 9001 points

[talrob]

AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH REVENGE OF WORLDBUILDER! NOOOOOOOO!

(WorldBuilder was the name of a buggy-ass visually unappealing map creator for Command and Conquer Generals and C&C Generals Zero Hour, which I spent many hours in making maps... and yelling at it.)

Let's hope Blizzard's version isn't as god awful as EA's was. God I hated that thing. It was especially tempermental with user-made mods( place a buggy item on the map accidentally? Crash!)

I assume you are too young to have played starcraft use map settings or warcraft 3 custom maps? Blizzard always make insanely useful map editors.

Also I assume from the screenshots, dota is built in to SC2?

[Cyrus Pendragon]

does this mean that I can be horde and talk to my alliance friends?

^ This. My friends play on the same server, but a few have gone horde recently. I made a toon too, but I still spend most of my time on Alliance side. It'd be cool to chat with friends cross-faction with this change.

Though that would cause world pvp issues I suppose...

[Offhand]

Man, they're really playing up the old battle.net. Guess no one has logged on recently to realize it's been nothing other then a glorified sex chat room since the start of the 21st century.

[lemuever17]

I really doubt that we can see SC2 this year, I will expect SC2 next year.

[ElAmigo]

lol did anyone else notice how that priest in vodka was trying to flex his epeen by showing clicking on his different mounts like the crusader warhorse and mimirons head.

[Braculese]

Please. 12 million users on battle.net because 11 million were forced to join to continue to play wow. That's really successful. ???

[DruidFTW]

People seem to be ignoring the most important (and worst) feature.

You are now connected to battle.net for single and multiplayer games. This is similar to steam. This is to prevent piracy. This is going to keep you from lending your copy of warcraft2 to a buddy so he can try it out. This is going to keep you from being able to play your single player campaign in starcraft 2 if your internet goes out.

Before you can access a single player game, you have to connect to the internet, if you have no internet connection, battlenet cannot verify you, and you cannont play. This is the single worst feature of steam and why I hate it, despite all its good features. I live in a remote area with a shoddy internet connection, and when my internet goes out, I like to at least be able to play single player games. This prevents that.

[Malthurius]

My bro is a hardcore SC player, and I play WoW most of the time, and being able to chat with him (he lives 8 hours away from me) while I'm playing wow and him playing SC2 shall be awesome. When I need a tank I can message his anus, muahahaha. I kid 8)