#179 - StarCast: “Title”
• Garrett • Kyle
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Intro: Welcome to StarCast! Your community StarCraft podcast!
News
Patch 2.1 “You are a Special Snowflake”
Links
Did the Leagues Change?
Yes, but its going to take time.
Kaivax:
“The process of making league distribution better align with the desired percentages wasn’t expected to be instantaneous, and we will continue to monitor results very closely. We’re on it.”
Links
Balance Test Map Update
Photon Overcharge duration decreased from 60 to 50
We’d like to try a smaller change with Photon Overcharge duration than we previously proposed because we agree that going too low on this side could negatively affect PvP. On the balance test map, we must make sure to not only test how the change works out against the other races, but also in one-base PvP play.
Time Warp energy cost increased from 75 to 100
This is another option we can go with. We hope this will decrease the effectiveness of early game Protoss strength, as well as somewhat decrease the power of Blink-based strategies, which have become a lot more effective recently.
Ghosts build with the energy upgrade built in
We believe this change will not only help Terran against Protoss, which is our top concern right now, but it’ll also help with TvP mech. Right now, we’re seeing a lot more mech usage in both TvT and TvZ, and as far as mech buffs go, we’d like to only touch TvP right now.
Hydralisk cost decreased from 100/50 to 100/25
We’re most concerned about PvZ with this change since Hydralisks are really only a core unit in that matchup. We’d love to see how the testing goes for this change on the next balance test map.
We don’t think this will be problematic for either side in TvZ right now. It’s very Zergling/Baneling/Mutalisk focused for Zerg, whereas Terran players are exploring mech play and have the already solid option to go bio. We were thinking this buff will potentially help open up some more options for Zerg in this matchup.
In ZvZ, we’re seeing a lot more Roach focused strategies than before and believe this change will allow for easier Roach/Hydra transitions.
Overall, we want to check what a general Hydralisk buff would do for all three matchups in the next balance test map.
Late game PvZ
Additionally on the Zerg front, we’re seeing a bit more in the way of super long and dragged out PvZ games in Europe. We’ve been discussing this internally and believe the main issue comes from using Swarm Hosts in a completely defensive way while taking additional expansions, massing Spore and Spine Crawlers, then continuing to play passively while using Vipers to pull key Protoss units into the forward, massed Zerg defenses. For this strategy, there are two main units involved, as well as the massing of base defenses, and we’d like a change that only hits this specific part of the PvZ game. We believe that when Swarm Hosts are not used in this manner, they aren’t an issue at the moment, especially when we see them being used in a lot of games coming from Korea. Similarly, when Vipers aren’t comboed with a mass of base defenses, we also don’t see the Viper being too powerful in other scenarios.
So the change that we’re thinking about is:
A Passive Tempest ability that allows them to deal 2-3 times more damage vs. Structures (We’re not 100% set on the actual value yet.)
Protoss players who are facing this very passive Zerg style can get Tempests without too much trouble, and they come into play late enough that we’d like to test this change. If Tempests can not only kill the Crawlers much faster, but also allow Protoss to make cost effective trades more easily in this mid-map standoff scenario, we believe there will be much less incentive for Zerg to play this way.
Again, none of this is final. We haven’t published a balance test map on it, yet. Your feedback is welcome, and if this process goes smoothly, we will look to publish a balance test map within the next couple of weeks at the latest.
http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/11395649563?page=1#1
The Results
Jim vs. Bomber
You study and you counter. This is not a display of poor balance.
http://www.twitch.tv/wcs_america
Code A Supernova Vs. Stats
Mech vs. Carriers.
Code S Line Up
13 Protoss
2 Terran
9 Zerg
Overall TvP match score for this season is 1-15
Links
Storm Watch
Heroes of the Storm
New content consistently.
StarCraft in 2016
More outside the box heroes for MOBA.
Got rid of stat choices and right answers.
Yes map editor.
http://www.twitch.tv/blizzheroes/b/497316407?t
Drama of the Week
Bot Viewers Being Sold on Twitch Chat
Links
Feedback
Carlos
Hello Garrett and Kyle I know this is kind of late, but during my random daily runaway thought about Starcraft today, I began to think about the WCS finals and the disappointing end. I know it has been stated on Starcast and by others that Jadedong had a disadvantage going into the final series, because he jump right from the semifinals to the finals without much of a break. I would agree, having played a couple of amateur local tournaments of SC2 and COD, that a multitude of consecutive games does take a toll on the body and the brain of any caliber player. Then I started to think on ways that this could be avoided in the future. First, I don't recall there being a conciliation match for 3rd place or maybe it played simultaneously as the finals, becoming over shadowed. If this had been played by itself and first, it would provide some resting period for the final contestants (just square off a TvT and make them go mech ;p). Another way could be, opening a poll to have two casters go head to head or even a caster FFA, to be played between the semifinals and finals series would be incredibly fun and an interesting build up to the finals. Idk if these would even be possible, due to time limitations or maybe Blizzard just wants to keep the finals streamlined to not create any confusion by deviating from the tournament. Just a random idea and wondered what you thought or if you had thought of any different solutions to the important issue of player resting time during tournaments of any game.
*I was listening to the last episode of Starcast and began to try to decipher why so many people have this negative idea of SC2 for a while now, and then I realized it's "fun," that is missing from the multiplayer aspect SC2 is built upon. Like Kyle said, ladder anxiety is intimidating and probably the highlight of this issue. Like I tell all my friends that ask me what SC2 is like, you gotta be kind of a masochist to enjoy laddering in SC2 :p. Even when I'm in a winning streak I stop playing for a bit after three back to back wins, because I get scared I'm going to be over confident and just watch myself loss all this points I just gained, and when I'm on a losing streak it's the same, I have to take a break before I flip my table over and burn my computer down. Its a stressful vicious cycle and well, lets be honest, the younger generation was raised up in a world where everyone is a winner and defeat is almost a curse word, and SC2 slams it at your screen when you lose and then takes points from your "precious" bank. Its silly, but feels oh so important and if you aren't mature enough or even willing to say ill work on getting better and try againtomorrow, then this game is simply not for you. I believe for this reason people are turning to Starbow at the moment. Like Garrett said, it doesn't matter right now, sure there may be some small $500 tournaments going on, but other than that it has no ladder points or rank system, its nostalgic and just for fun. As soon as this game grows and becomes serious people will change their mind and rip on it also. I believe MOBAs are so much more popular because they are more laid back and fun, even if your team loses, its a mutual loss, not everything rests on one persons shoulders. And epic moments will arise in those lost games; that one champion that has been killing you all game will make a mistake and you will epically target him down and have a good cheer and laugh with all your friends on Skype for a moment. On SC2 any mistakes are costly and "moments" don't occur until your opponent throws in the towel and you get the win. These are just my two cents on the subject, I love this game and will support it no matter what, and like you guys said lets celebrate the creation of Starbow, and any other mods that may arise from SC2. They are a fun break from the stress of the ladder and will keep people logged in and interested on the game.
You guys are awesome and all three podcasts "Starcast, Amove radio and Biggest fan" continue to fill my weekly chores/ mundane work duties with ample amounts of fun.
Kuma
I really want to get into watching Starcraft tournaments live, but am having a difficult time finding streams. I end up watching a lot of matches on YouTube, which is fine, but I would prefer to watch it live. Any recommendations for good streams or methods of finding tournaments on a weekly basis?
-Kuma
Reddit.com/r/spoilerfreesc is great for VODs.
The TeamLiquid.net calendar is the best for live streams.
Casey
Hey, looking to start my own esports podcast and you guys have a fair bit of experience doing the whole "Podcast thing" so I thought it might be good to ask you a few questions on starting out. Here's what I have already: The ability to stream to twitch, and a concept for a show which I think could be good and isn't really being done yet. My problem is I don't really know how to take my first steps in the direction of making my concept into a product.
The basic premise of the show is that of ESPN's "Around the Horn" but doing an E-sports version of it, Around the Horn - 1st Show for reference if you would like to get a better idea of what I'm trying to do. I don't really know what I need before I start to make it something people would want to watch/listen to. (E.g Do I need fancy overlays, music etc.)
Outro
iTunes Thanks
Coming Up!
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