Did you know that Blizzard is playing around with totally removing macro mechanics from StarCraft II? And that future multiplayer matches might no longer feature Chrono Boost, MULEs, or Larva Spawn?
Since StarCraft II first came out way back in 2010, all three races have had specific macro abilities that players have to juggle in order to maximise their chances of winning. Terran can summon the speedy mineral-gathering MULEs; Zerg can use queens to pump more larva out of their hatcheries; and Protoss can speed up time on their buildings to research abilities or summon warriors more quickly.
Over the past five years, serious StarCraft players have grown very familiar with these mechanics — so it comes as a serious shock to see Blizzard consider removing them. The developers of StarCraft have been fooling around with all sorts of drastic changes to their formula since the Legacy of the Void beta launched earlier this year, and on July 31, Blizzard’s David Kim announced that they were looking at overhauling macro mechanics, too.
Wrote Kim on the Battle.net forums:
Macro mechanics are something we’ve absolutely seen the community discuss in the past. With Legacy of the Void becoming more difficult to play due to our main goals – more action, micro on both sides during engagements, less downtime, etc. – we have been exploring areas that we can make easier. For these, we’re trying to locate areas that are difficult to manage but aren’t really easily noticeable.
For example, as a player doing larva inject, it’s somewhat difficult for me to tell how well I’m doing in a given game. Further, my opponent really has no idea how well I’m doing it either. In esports matches, this is also something that viewers can’t tell either. Because macro mechanics are an area that’s difficult to do, and not many people can really tell how well someone is doing it, we’ve been exploring potentially cutting them or making them less important.
Currently, we’re looking at two options here.
Option 1:
- Spawn larva is autocast by default, but spawn only 3 larva.
- Mule efficiency is nerfed by 20% or so.
- Chrono boost cost increased to 50, and efficiency not quite doubled.
The thought here is that because efficiency is nerfed overall, it’s not as big of a deal to not do these mechanics spot on all the time.Option 2:
- Cut chrono
- Cut mule
- Spawn larva is autocast by default, but spawn only 2 larva
The thought here is just do away with these added clicks, we do lose a little bit of strategy and decision making but we wonder if that’s OK, and have a clean version where players don’t need to do the extra clicks.
With that said, keep in mind neither of these versions are final, they’re just one of two potential directions we can go in this area.
Today on their Gamescom stream, Kim said they’d be doing this macro overhaul when they launch the next beta patch, and it will be fascinating to see how this alters StarCraft II‘s flow — economies will be slower, but less-skilled players won’t have to worry too much that they’re forgetting to keep up their macro.
This could very well turn out to be a horrible idea, but hey, I’ve gotta give kudos to Blizzard for being so willing to make huge changes in hopes of improving one of their best games.
Comments
6 responses to “Blizzard Is Quietly Making Huge Changes To StarCraft II”
Hey guys, these are MICRO mechanics, not MACRO mechanics; as in micro-managing. Anything where you have to manage individual units or structures in Starcraft is called micro.
Macro is often used to refer to any economic tools in the game, specifically production and mining. These are economic tools that are used for production and mining, so they’re considered macro.
By your definition, literally everything in Starcraft aside from box selecting and a clicking are micro.
these are macro mechanics because it has to do with production and the economy. It has to do with buildings. putting down buildings is not considered micro and the post from blizzard clearly specifies it as a macro mechanic. Micro refers specifically to controlling units on the field.
SC2 became so macro dependent that it left me unable to compete even in bronze league (i’m bad and I am aware of this).
Have Blizzard and Riot paid you guys not to mention the $6.6million dollar first prize dota 2 TI5 grand final best of 5 happening right now as i type this message???
Just watched EG rape face. Saw the pyro go off then the stream crashed.
its all over EG win 3-1