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Real Time Strategy (Games) Classic Games (Games)

Blizzard Releases StarCraft Patch 113

Posted by Zonk from the that-other-craft dept.
NRP128 writes "Blizzard has released an update for the aging StarCraft real time strategy game. From the official site: 'We have released a mini patch for StarCraft (1.12b) to address a crash that occurred for certain players using the new Korean chat functionality in patch 1.12. Please see the patch notes for further details.' Several new features seem to have been added in addition to the Korean chat functions. The patch notes can be found on the Starcraft site.
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Blizzard Releases StarCraft Patch More

Blizzard Releases StarCraft Patch

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  • Blizzard and WoW (Score:2, Informative)

    by suineg ( 647189 ) *
    I know there will be a ton of people whining why there isn't an update for World of Warcraft but please remember they are entirely different dev teams.
    • I know there will be a ton of people whining why there isn't an update for World of Warcraft but please remember they are entirely different dev teams.

      There was a fairly large update to World of Warcraft last Tuesday that fixed many problems such as the Paladin Seal of the Crusader being broken.
      • And an emergeny patch today which is supposed to fix much of the lag experience when many players congregate in an area. Cool!
        • Ah, so that's why it was down. Do you have a link to any more info?
        • And an emergeny patch today which is supposed to fix much of the lag experience when many players congregate in an area. Cool!

          Thank god, now the auction houses would be bearable if they would only make the torches in the Auction house do 6000 points of damage rather than make annoying noises when someone ran into them/danced on them.
          • That is the greatest idea ever. Maybe give them some margin of error. I lag out and end up in those damned things all the time. But after 4 or so hits. BAM! And make it a durability death.

            -prator
          • Yea, what is the point of the torches in AH? For people to cook in there?

            Also, I'd like to see anyone who cooks off a spell in AH, the Bank or in IF between AH and Bank be set Horde and PVP and let the Guards attack them, then camp the body.
    • "but please remember they are entirely different dev teams."

      This is not WarCraft in space!

      I know it's not 3D!

  • Impressive (Score:4, Insightful)

    by XenoRyet ( 824514 ) on Tuesday February 22, 2005 @03:44PM (#11747699)
    I'm actualy suprized/impressed that they are still activly maintaining Starcraft. I knew Blizzard was cool.

    • Re:Impressive (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Drac8 ( 823930 )
      Indeed, Starcraft was and still is one of the best RTS games and its soo cool to see blizzard still fixing it. I read in a CGW mag. that there is a starcraft mod in development for War 3. Lets hope Blizzard is as cool as they usually are and lets them continue (they were waiting a response from Blizzard about it).
    • Starcraft is wildly popular in south korea, there are frequent Televised matches with large prizes. Blizzard is still milking this cash cow, expect continued updates as long as its selling. BTW that fact that there was an update really isn't news starting last year Blizzard started updating starcraft (they had stopped a few years prior) and has been doing so regularly sense.
    • I'd hardly call it acive. Last time I played was in high school, and it was 1.09 then. Three patches in three years. Still, can't knock them for fixing problems with such an old game. It didn't have that many problems left anymore, and I wouldn't have faulted them if they'd stopped releasing updates way back after 1.07.

  • It's nice... (Score:4, Informative)

    by InfallibleLies ( 654694 ) on Tuesday February 22, 2005 @03:58PM (#11747863)
    ..to see that some companies actually support their product this long after its release. Everyone else is only concentrating on their current products, the ones that are making them money.
    • yes, i'm sure Blizzard is doing this purely out of love. if only more companies ran on pure love.
    • This is the same company that fired the entire original diablo development team. Was it because diablo II was no longer the most profitable. Hmm...

      • Feh. Better than EA, who drops all support the instant the game hits the discount bin. Want to play Dungeon Keeper 2 on Windows XP? Too bad, it'll crash in minutes unless you turn off sound. Completely. This on a game where sound was one of its best features. These bastards even continue to sell this defective game to fill out a a multi-game-pack that claims to run on XP.

        Looking for Alpha Centauri patches because you reinstalled it from your really old CD? Don't bother, Firaxis was published by EA a
        • Feh. Better than EA, who drops all support the instant the game hits the discount bin. Want to play Dungeon Keeper 2 on Windows XP? Too bad, it'll crash in minutes unless you turn off sound. Completely. This on a game where sound was one of its best features. These bastards even continue to sell this defective game to fill out a a multi-game-pack that claims to run on XP.

          I must being doing something really bizarre, then, because aside from a random crash every so often (hours, not minutes), it runs perfe

          • Re:It's nice... (Score:3, Interesting)

            by snorklewacker ( 836663 )
            You're one of the lucky ones -- my crash is every few minutes, and this is the experience of a number of players. This was after replacing the qmixer.dll with one from a more recent game, since the game was unplayable with the old qmixer.

            I would be inclined to blame qsound, but other games work fine with it, and before the very last patch to the game, there was no problem. The last one broke it, and Bullfrog essentially refused to fix it after acknowledging the problem. Unfortunately, I cannot find a 1.
    • When your game is a national pastime, you make money no matter how old it is.

      Notice that the bulk of the changes in this patch are implementing a Korean-character interface.

  • Update: ladder for newbs now (Score:5, Interesting)

    by CrazyJim1 ( 809850 ) on Tuesday February 22, 2005 @03:59PM (#11747872) Journal
    I used to be a top ranked Starcraft player, I'd say changing the ladder speed from fast to fastest removes a great deal of micro tactics. So many tactics, I could make a good argument that there would be less skill involved. But I don't care anyway, I stopped playing because people started map hacking. If map hacking was stopped in its tracks early on, Starcraft may still be popular today.
    • Any rts game slowing will back more strategy in the game, but then it wouldn't be fun.

      I guess the is a fine-line between the two.

      Also, which race is the most powerful?
      • The race power question is answered this way: Which map are you playing, and is it broodwar. Broodwar islands has the most imbalanced race: Protoss. You can use a strategy I invented: DarkTemplar+ Shuttle + TONS of corsair. You can destroy any expansion with DT+ shuttle, and they can't run detection on you because the corsair defeat it. I went 72-0 on ladder with it, only to be defeated in semi-finals worlds (25,000$ tourney) because people scouted on me and the guy had good luck. If things get bad for

        • Re:Update: ladder for newbs now (Score:1, Insightful)

          by Anonymous Coward
          I remember when you and several others were "top" players. One map wonders who often (I don't remember if that was you) would only play if your opponent was a specific race. This gave inflated ratings and ladder spots to bottom feeders.

          Ladder matches should have always been random map, random race. That they allowed manipulating the ladder system with cheeze 1 move strats was the games greatest competitive weakness.

          Simply the fact that you played 72 matches with this exact strategy speaks volumes about i
          • I played several maps, but none to the efficiency of dire straights. Most people played temple, and I played it ok, but nothing like dire. I would play against any race. Not playing against other races is cheese. And yes I'd want to play against high rated people, but I would steadily play against people up to 200 points below me, while many players were afraid of playing anyone but people above their rank. I think its because I started games: 1100+ only. And people thought smart players would only pl
          • well this is oldschool :p 7 years ago i used to be |)()TF_Hank and +FalloutBoy+ and ...
        • You invented dt + corsair?

          What is your Starcraft name?
        • Like chess, Starcraft is all about who could get the upper hand fastest. Once you have the upper hand, you can use strategies to sure up your lead and theres little the enemy can do about it. I've played games that escalated the whole way up to Carriers and BattleCruisers before someone started to get an advantage, but those are 1/1000 games. Warcraft3 is a newb game, where you can lose half your army and come back to win if you click faster than your opponent. There was some solace in the rest you can do b
        • Warcraft3 is a newb game, where you can lose half your army and come back to win if you click faster than your opponent.

          Meh. Apparently, this label is appropriate - for you.

          Just because the interfaces are nearly identical does not mean that strategies are the same. SC was much more about who could crank out resources and units fastest. WC3 deals much less with resources (you can do many maps without even expanding) and more with playing off the synergies between units and heroes.

          In WC, the size of

        • You are extremely incorrect, and obviously haven't followed sc/bw for a while.

          Read the wikipedia article on starcraft and broodwar and you'll see how new trends and strategies are still forming.

    • Re:Update: ladder for newbs now (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I'd say changing the ladder speed from fast to fastest removes a great deal of micro tactics. So many tactics, I could make a good argument that there would be less skill involved.

      Have you ever played a ladder game? Playing any starcraft game on the speed of fast is so slow it makes me want to stab myself repeatedly with a blunt object. I would argue that playing on fastest involves more skill since you have to make quicker decisions and control your units more effectively, etc; fastest is not warp speed
      • "I would argue that playing on fastest involves more skill since you have to make quicker decisions and control your units more effectively, etc; fastest is not warp speed or anything."

        Thats the core of the argument. Maybe people who don't manage their base mid-battle have an issue with the speed, but I was always issuing commands to my units/bases on fast. Fastest means less commands over time. You have less time to keep your units in formation, which favors skill less players who simply rush in and a
        • I have to say, you summed up the major difference between fast and fastest quite well. I played ladder for awhile and got pretty good at it, but in the end I found the same old tatics being abused. Players would use one of three strategies for each map and in the end it came out to who build the quickest, even on fast settings.

          This then adapted to the micro managing battles. Tatics of the 2 marine vs 1 zergling is a good example you gave. Another is the supply depot wall, which created opposing units to
          • I was quite skilled in all evolutions of SC. From the beginning, to the ladder movement, to the unladder "fastest" setting, to the money maps. The different stages that the game took is what kept me in it for so long. In the end, the map hacks made me quit too...that and the cheap rush tatics some people used (see the SCV, marine rush posted).

            IMHO you devolved. You went from skilled, to somewhat less skilled to no skill what so ever. The money maps don't deal with desparity and finite resources. Thats a l
    • Although it isn't as popular in the USA or Europe as it was a few years ago, in Korea (only place where RTS progaming matters IMO) it is still one of the top games (if not the top) and dwarfs even Warcraft 3 in number of tourneys, prize money, and TV time. And hey, even after all these years World Cyber Games is still running with Broodwars stateside so it's definatly not dead. Maybe it's time for you to unretire Jim? hehe

  • OMG ZERG RUSH! (Score:4, Funny)

    by darkmayo ( 251580 ) on Tuesday February 22, 2005 @04:22PM (#11748224)
    KEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKE.

    oh and nerf Pallies.

  • Unit colors on map (Score:4, Insightful)

    by subbawt ( 861808 ) on Tuesday February 22, 2005 @05:28PM (#11749086) Homepage
    The colors of units on the map should be customizable. It sometimes gets confusing for us color blind folks, especially when being sneak attacked.
    • Amen brother!! Doubly so as I'm a zerg player ... man are ling rushes hard to deal with when you don't know which ones are yours!! Same goes for Diablo ... why do amethysts look EXACTLY like saphires?

      Kleedrac
      • Ling rush is easy to deal with, 1 basic unit (expecially is it's a marine) + workers = dead lings. I've gone in 3v3 where all 4 opposing protoss rushed me with 4 zeals each (12). I took them all out with workers and 1 sunken, and decimated them on the counter. Supurior macro will annihalate supurior numbers until range comes in both war 3 and starcraft.

        When range comes into play, it's more even but micro still makes a huge difference.

  • Patiently Waiting (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Donoho ( 788900 ) on Tuesday February 22, 2005 @05:37PM (#11749192) Homepage
    ...For the next Starcraft. And no I don't mean Ghost.
  • For a second there I thought this was the patch for World of Starcraft... wait a minute, this is 2005 isn't it?.. nevermind.

    Sometimes I lose track of time!

  • Not a surprise at all (Score:4, Informative)

    by *s.panzer* ( 827737 ) on Tuesday February 22, 2005 @06:48PM (#11749886)
    that blizzard is updating starcraft. Its the number one game in Korea and there are two 24/7 starcraft stations there. I mean seriously!
  • Well if you haven't played the game recently, I would approximate that 70% of the remaining StarCraft players on Battlenet are Korean. I don't know why its so popular still over there because I don't see why anyone would still be playing a game so old.

    • Re:Koreans (Score:2, Interesting)

      by bongo69 ( 829040 )
      There are guys at my work that still play Solitaire and minesweeper through their lunch breaks, and I bet these games get played well after games like Halo and Grand Theft Autos of the current gaming age are distant memories. Starcraft is one of the best multiplayer games I have ever played, and while I enjoy modern strategy games like warcraft 3 and battle for middle earth, they do not give me that crack pipe addiction that Starcraft introduced me to.
      • Solitaire and Minesweeper are different. They are free with windows and they start instantly. Basically they are time killers. People who play starcraft on b.net are playing for competition.
    • One word:
      Tetris
    • Why? Because a game is old, it becomes less good or something?
      • No, but better games come out. By now, you would think people would have moved to warcraft 3
        • ... to a lot of people, better games haven't come out.

          I've spent a lot of time playing Warcraft 3. I like Warcraft 3. It certainly has better graphics than Starcraft, but I don't think it's as good of a game. Certainly, it's tactically a very different game, even if both are Blizzard RTSes.

          Starcraft in general places a higher value on micromanagement (some would say skill, but that's not completely accurate) than War3 or really most RTS games. Inspired use of a caster unit or a small handful of
    • Heh; it's still a good game. An old roomie bought me the CD for christmas. Bastard - I spent all day on Monday in front of my laptop!

      --LWM

  • Why do ppl still play it? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by TJ_Phazerhacki ( 520002 ) on Tuesday February 22, 2005 @07:32PM (#11750369) Journal
    Because It's good. Period.
  • The average starcraft player doesn't play ladder for the reason that ladder games are locked in the "fast" speed. If you ever choose the ladder filter for the games list, you'll be lucky if you see one game listed. The major korean starcraft tournaments are played in the fastest mode, and i guess blizzard finally caught on.
    • I used to play StarCraft ladder and was quite highly ranked for a while, and my opinion all along was that people that played on Fastest were crack monkeys that didn't know how to play with good units like defilers or sci vessels and so played on fastest to minimize the effect of high-micro-required units. This certainly doesn't change my opinion. Fastest is great if all you know how to do is send waves of marines or hydra surging across the map....
      • Many players can effectively micro-manage units, while playing fastest. I don't see how slowing the map down so you can micro-manage easier makes you more skilled.

        • Many players can effectively micro-manage units, while playing fastest.

          No - many Battle.Net players. This is a big difference.

          As soon as you increase the speed, it simply becomes a war of who can build and deploy units faster. The game was never designed to handle constant fastest play - as demonstrated by the simple tactic of retreating a single unit to wipe out an enemy attacking force trying to reach that unit. As of yet, I have not seen any game that breaks a single-unit target paridigm. (Kohan c

  • hm (Score:1)

    by Chobo ( 861949 )
    Cool.

  • And of course... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Tuxedo Jack ( 648130 ) on Wednesday February 23, 2005 @02:56AM (#11753174) Homepage
    The patch was released to fix the chat function because, as we all know, that in Korea, only old people play Starcraft.
  • Im glad that blizzard still patches starcraft (THX2UKOREA!), it shows that they still care about the game. Now what they need to do is impliment a ladder match making system like that in WCIII. That would get rid of the one(fastest) map mania plaguing bn today :(
    • "Now what they need to do is impliment a ladder match making system like that in WCIII. That would get rid of the one(fastest) map mania plaguing bn today :("

      The bad:
      1)Warcraft3 ladder has one big problem: It rewards you for playing alot. In Starcraft, your ladder rating is good in 20 games. In Warcraft3, you need 200 games(which many people never have the patience to do). So Starcraft ladder matured, and Warcraft didn't much.

      2) You're forced to play games against people with lame handles(in Starcr
  • I don't know if you StarCraft fans have played it yet, but until Blizzard releases StarCraft 2, the true successor to StarCraft is Dawn of War.

    It's the WarHammer 40K RTS, and it fills the exact same niche that StarCraft did. (Which is not the Age of Empires/C&C niche).

    Even though they went with Gamespy to host their game-matching, the multiplayer is well worth buying the game for.

    The single-player is nothing however.

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