Wow – I knew Blizzard were doing some major overhauls of SC2 prior to Heart of the Swarm, but this patch brings some pretty huge changes indeed, particularly in regard to user interface.
Read on for all the details, but if you own the game definitely log in, download the patch and see how much things have changed.
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty Patch 2.0.4
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty patch 2.0.4 is now live! This major patch brings a number of exciting new systems and improvements to Wings of Liberty while paving the way for the release of our Heart of the Swarm expansion on March 12. Please read the full patch notes below.
GENERAL
All-New Menu Screens
The User Interface layout, art, and graphic style have been completely revamped.
Players are now one click away from any major screen in the User Interface.
Many redundant screens and game modes have been eliminated.
Clans and Groups
Anyone can now create or join a Clan and participate in private clan chat, post news on Clan affairs, and more. Clan tags are pre-pended to character names of all players who join a Clan.
Groups are for players who want to associate casually and in larger numbers. Joining a Group is a way for players to interact with others who share common interests. Players are allowed to join many different groups.
Players who have used their free character name change will receive an additional one.
Exciting New Replay Features
Watch with Others: Players can now watch replays with others in the same game.
Take Command: Players watching a replay together can also opt to “Take Command” of the replay and assume control of selected player armies.
Recover Game: Players can now choose trecover from a game that may have ended prematurely due to disconnection, input loss, or other abnormal causes.
Improved Score Screen and Statistics
Performance tab now tracks gameplay stats such as Average Unspent Resources, Time Supply Capped, Workers Created, and APM.
New buttons allow players to “Play Again” or “Watch Replay Solo” directly from the post-game Score Screen.
Additional Race and Map Report statistics pages in the Ladders section of the Player Profile:
Race Report: Tracks number of games played and win/loss ratios for every race matchup.
Map Report: Tracks number of games played and win/loss ratios on every ladder map.
Player Profile now shows all wins and losses for all leagues.
Global Play and Language Selection
Players will soon have the freedom to select any game region to connect to and play.
Global Play will be enabled in the coming weeks. Please see our Global Play FAQ.
Players can now select among different languages in StarCraft II.
Speech and Movie Language options added to the Options > Language menu.
Text Language added to the Options > Language menu.
New Matchmaking Options
Three options have been added to the Matchmaking Screen to help newer players make a more gradual transition from single-player to multiplayer.
Training Mode allows players to work their way up from basic StarCraft gameplay skills to great challenges.
Versus AI Mode is a reworking of the previous Coop Versus AI Mode in Wings of Liberty.
Players can now utilize the matchmaking system to challenge an AI opponent that scales in difficulty.
The new matchmaking AI can accommodate a wide variety of skill levels and play styles.
Unranked Play allows players to engage in matchmaking and find games vs. other players without the pressures of the ranking system.
For more details on these new features, please see our Ways to Play video overview.
All-New AI Enhancements
The overall AI play experienced has been greatly enhanced.
In a custom game, players can now elect for an AI player to follow a specific build order, such as Full Rush, Timing Attack, Straight to Air, and more.
AI players will now report key information back to their player allies, such as when they are scouting, attacking, expanding, and retreating.
Additional AI improvements, including the ability to issue specific commands to AI partners, will be coming in Heart of the Swarm.
Players Near You
Players Near You identifies and displays other players on your local network, making it easier to locate, chat with, friend, and play together.
This feature can be disabled in the Options > Social menu.
Game Privacy options
No Build Order: Selecting this option in the Custom Game lobby hides the build order from being displayed in the Score Screen.
No Match History: Selecting this option hides the game from the player’s Match History.
New Enable Group Sounds option in the Options > Sound menu produces additional sounds for groups of units performing the same activity, such as Marine marches, mech ground-shaking, and more.
The Help Section has been revised and updated.
USER INTERFACE
In-Game UI Improvements
New waypoint and targeting confirmation icons have been added.
The Menu and Help buttons are now located above the command card alongside the Social button.
The Achievements and Message Log menus are now accessible via the Main Menu.
New Select Army Units button is located next to the Idle Worker and Select all Warp Gates buttons. These buttons are now all consolidated together in the UI above the minimap.
Decal art has been refreshed and now appears brighter and more visible in-game.
New Victory Fanfare sequences now play when a players is victorious at the end of a game.
New Unit Life Bar settings have been added to the Gameplay section of the Options menu:
Targeting: Shows friendly units when targeting a beneficial ability and enemy units when targeting a harmful ability.
Damaged: Only show for units with less than their maximum life, energy, or shields.
New UI options have been added to aid newer players in various gameplay functions. These can be toggled in the Options > Controls menu:
Display Team Colored Life Bar: Displays unit life bars using team color.
Always Show Worker Status: Displays the current and ideal number of workers above harvestable vespene geysers and town halls.
Enable Simple Command Card: Displays a more simplified view of the command card.
Show Current Order Indicator: Displays an indicator on the terrain when units are issued a movement or attack command.
Select All Larvae: Selecting a single larva will select all larvas attached to the same Hatchery.
Enable Enemy Unit Selection: Allows the player to select units that can’t be controlled such as neutral and enemy units.
The maximum numbers of players that can be in a party has been raised to 16.
All maps that appear in the Custom Games section can now utilize the same Game Info pages (Overview, How to Play, Patch Notes, Reviews) that Arcade games received with Patch 1.5.0.
New Copy Link buttons have been added, which automatically copy certain links tthe clipboard, allowing players to share them with others via clickable links in chat or on the web. When clicked, these links will navigate to the in-game page.
Observer Mode Improvements
Leaderboard
Added two new tabs:
Structures Tab (hotkey T): This panel shows the structures owned by each player.
Upgrades Tab (hotkey G): This panel shows the upgrades researched by each player.
Clicking on an icon in the Units/Structures/Production tabs will now center the camera on that unit. Continued clicks will cycle through all units of that type.
Minimap
Attacked units now flash white for observers.
Nuclear Launch and Nydus Canals now create pings on the minimap for Observers viewing Everyone.
Versus Mode Side Toggle (Hotkey CTRL-X)
Added a hotkey to flip sides that player names appear in the Observer UI when watching a Versus Mode 1v1 game.
Customizable Observer UI
Brand new SC2Interface mod support has been added, which enables casters and observers to watch games of StarCraft II using a completely custom user interface. This gives production crews a new set of powerful tools to create even more epic broadcast experiences.
For more information on how to use this feature, please see this thread in our User Interface forums.
Players who have blocked communication with others are now also prohibited from initiating chat with those they have blocked.
EDITOR
General
A new preload Info dialog has been added for defining game data, asset files, and banks to be preloaded in-game. This is accessible from the Map/Mod menus in all modules.
Added color preferences for text preview display.
The Arcade Info dialog has been renamed tBattle.net Info. This info is now available for non-arcade maps as well.
New SC2Interface files:
Mods can now optionally be saved as SC2Interface files as long as they don’t have any data which affects gameplay.
Mod gameplay/interface status can be checked using the Mod > Mod Status window.
New Export Locales and Import Locales commands have been added. These are available under the Map/Mod > Locales sub-menu. These can be used to export and import localized text to and from text files.
The Dependency dialog now includes a display of the full dependency chain resulting from the requested dependencies. Dependency reference checking and validation now accounts for the full chain properly in all cases.
The Dependency dialog now issues a warning when Multi mods are used in conjunction with Story mods. These are designed to be mutually exclusive and could cause a variety of problems in game when combined.
Added toolbar button size preference.
AI Module
A new Attack Wave Graphs window is now available from the Data menu, for visualizing attack wave cost/supplies vs. time.
Cutscene Module
Added Cutscene Frames. Cutscene frames are dialog items you can play a cutscene in.
New Properties have been added:
Animation Element:
Right-Aligned: Animations can now specify that they always end at the end of the block.
Weight: The blend value for this animation block.
Director Node:
Reverb: The reverb to set while playing back the cutscene.
Auto Destroy on End: When disabled, the cutscene will not be destroyed when it ends, but instead it will pause on the final frame.
Sound Node:
Non-Seeking: If enabled, causes the sound to not change its current time when the current time jumps.
Speaker Mix: You can now set and animate the speaker mix values.
Fade Node
Priority: Allows you to specify the priority level of a fade when multiple scenes attempt to control fade.
Terrain is now automatically imported when starting the Cutscene Module.
Active Light Nodes will now search for a light suffixed with “_Low” if graphics options are set to Medium or Low.
New icons added for all node types!
Added a new “Time Follows Edits” mode under the edit menu that causes the timeline cursor to always follow the edited block.
Sound Improvements:
Added Sound Group Nodes: These folder-like nodes allow you to add sound nodes to them then set properties for all sounds inside the group at once.
Volume and pitch properties are now treated as multipliers instead of absolute values.
Setting sound index t-1 now causes it to pick a new variation each time it plays.
Sounds now properly fade out after their blocks end.
Sounds can now specify Active Shots.
Value changes that represent less than 0.1% of a difference no longer create new keys in auto key mode.
You can now add multiple cutscene filters when playing back a cutscene.
Cutscenes are now played back in Replays.
Data Module
Added the Data Navigator Window. This new window visualizes how objects are linked to one another.
Each tab in the Data Module now remembers its own view mode.
Model Preview Panes now animate with the model’s default animation, making effects easier to identify.
New data types have been added: Herd, Herd Node
User Type fields defining user links can optionally specify a required user type
Added a new Select in Palette command.
Added F2 support for renaming objects.
“Show Advanced Values” is now “Show Basic Field Labels”. Instead of hiding advanced fields, it adds “(Basic)” to the name of basic fields and sorts them to the top.
Fixed size arrays are now edited as one control for each array entry rather than using a list-based UI.
“Show Default Values” is now “Sort Fields By Source”. Instead of hiding default values, it will sort values in the order: Active Document, User Mod, Blizzard Mod, Core Mod.
Added field hint tooltips to dropdowns for enum type fields.
Structure sub-fields now properly display composite field hint tooltips.
Many new field hints added for Abilities, Actors, Effects, and Units.
Overview Manager
Added a new Jump To Instances command in the context menu for jumping from function definition to corresponding calls.
Added a new Show Global Links Only option in the View menu for seeing global trigger elements directly in the Used By links.
Terrain Module
A new Diamond region shape has been added.
A new Diagonal Selection option has been added in the Tools menu for selecting objects and terrain along the diagonal grid.
A new View option has been added for displaying normal/upgraded creep, under View > Show Terrain > Show Creep Upgraded.
Units marked as Initially Hidden will use an alpha fade effect in the editor display.
Palette existing objects lists now include a Group filter and column, and context menus for Add To Group and Remove From Group.
The Water palette now includes a Height slider for adjusting the height of the current water template.
No Fly Zones now have three color states: Normal (no overlap), Overlap (hard radii overlap), and Warning (only soft radii overlap). For best pathing performance, avoid the Warning state.
Foliage density maximum reduced to 2.0 per cell. Anything larger than this significantly impacts game performance.
Added “Force Occlusion Hide” to placed doodads, which forces doodads to be transparent if units are behind it.
Trigger Module
Added a Preview button for previewing sounds directly from parameter dialog.
A View History Navigation option, including Back and Forward commands, is now available from View > History sub-menu.
A new Explorer view has been added for seeing global elements referenced by the currently selected element, available under View > Show Explorer.
A new Smart group display has been added, which opens a second group only when an element is explicitly viewed via double-click or View Selection command. This is toggled under View > Show Groups.
Libraries defined in the active document are now shown in the Triggers list rather than the Libraries list. The Libraries list will only contain read-only dependency libraries.
Elements can now be dragged and dropped from one library to another. This will include updating all usage of those elements in the active document.
A new view option has been added for setting default input focus on search fields vs. lists, available under View > View Options > Default focus On Search Fields.
BUG FIXES
General
Fixed a crash that would occur when StarCraft II is run with low disk space.
Fixed an error that occasionally occurred when queuing for a match if a disconnection occurred in the previous game.
It is no longer possible to build Creep Tumors on top of lowered Supply Depots.
Fixed an issue preventing Zerglings, Roaches, and Ultralisks from autocasting Unburrow when an enemy Colossus was near.
Fixed an issue where Hallucinated units would not play Hallucination death animations when playing in Reduced Violence mode.
Battle.net
It is no longer possible for duplicate versions of the same Arcade game to display in the Top Rated dropdown filter.
Fixed a display issue with the scroll bar on the Replays page.
Fixed a display issue that could occur when viewing Patch Notes for an Arcade game.
Arcade games played through Fun or Not now appear properly in the Match History and Recently Played lists.
Clicking Create Game in the Single-player Vs. AI menu while a map is downloading no longer causes the game t enter a state where it is unable to launch any maps.
Fixed an issue causing a player’s online status tbe set to Available when it was changed from Away to Busy.
Fixed issues with some displays that could occur when viewing Arcade Game Info pages while queuing up for matchmaking games.
Fixed an issue causing the race selection buttons on 3vAI queues to occasionally change to names of colors.
Editor
General
Automatic backups for documents saved as component lists will now properly save multiple backup files.
Tutorial game variant will not be changed when other variants are added or removed.
Fixed various issues with downloading dependency data from Battle.net when opening a document.
Fixed issues with team settings in variants for maps with a large number of players.
Fixed an issue where the editor could crash if the user’s build was not completely downloaded.
Cutscene Module
Fixed several issues related to Undo/Redo.
Fixed several issues related to element linking.
You can now place or move objects at height zero if there is no terrain visible.
Actors with conversation nodes will now animate when not in view, allowing dialog to play at the correct time.
Active Light elements no longer change the light one frame late.
You can now chain together bookmark jumps.
You can no longer use non-Ascii characters in Cutscene Names or Bookmark Names.
You can no longer rename the (Previewer) scene.
Scenes with very large linking webs should now load much faster.
Fixed a bug where models would sometimes continue to draw when switching cutscenes.
Editing curve values should now preserve custom curve tangents.
Previewing from other modules will now set the Cutscene Module back to the (Previewer) scene.
Terrain Module
Painted pathing visibility is now properly tied to visibility of the Pathing layer.
Distance measurement now accounts for ramps properly.
Trigger Module
Eliminated excessive delays when modifying functions which are heavily used in the document.
Comments can now be moved/pasted into switch cases.
Ability Commands using Any or All sub-types will now show all possible parameter values.
Unit trigger events now properly handle using a unit array element for the unit parameter.
Last Created functions now return an empty value if the last creation failed, rather than the result of the previous creation.
Invalid effect ids will no longer be treated as “any effect” in events.
Data conversations with choices will now run properly in game, as long as cinematic mode is enabled.
Fixed an out of memory crash that could occur when adding a region to itself using triggers.
It is now possible to copy triggers across libraries inside the same mod.
Data Module
Ability and Weapon Arc data values now accept 360 as values.
Mac
General
Targeting arrow reticules now display properly when shaders are set to low.
Fixed an issue with “Disable OS Keyboard Shortcuts” and the mouse cursor.
Fixed an issue with resolution options being limited on Thunderbolt displays.
Editor
Points in the Curve Editor can now properly be deleted.
Placing keys in the Curve Editor are now being created correctly.
Text labels are no longer clipped in the Curve Editor.
Fixed an issue involving Vertices and Primitives on the status bar.
Fixed a crash that could occasionally occur when attempting to publish a map.
Fixed an issue involving setting up multi-dimensional arrays in the Trigger Module.
The mouse cursor is now visible in the viewpoint windows.
Fixed an issue with the status bar overlapping text when using the Regions or Cameras layer in the Terrain Module.
Improved Retina hardware compatibility.
CMD + Tilde will now switch between multiple editor windows.
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