Matt Gotcher Talks About Starcraft 2 DOTA

At Blizzcon 2010, Matt Gotcher was summoned to show the world about Blizzard's pet project, Blizzard DOTA. He described Blizzard DOTA as like Super Smash Bros. in the Blizzard world.

Matt Gotcher (Starcraft II Level Designer) speaks.



Bonus:
Blizzard will be competing against established games in the Dota genre like Heroes of Newerth and the upcoming Valve Dota Project called DOTA 2.

Blizzard Entertainment Joins the Dota genre wars

For those who do not know, DOTA is now a legitimate name for a video game genre.

The Dota genre mania

At Blizzcon 2010, Activision Blizzard announced that:

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty launched simultaneously on five continents and in 11 languages on July 27, and within two days, Blizzard gamers made it the biggest PC game launch of 2010 so far and the fastest selling strategy game launch of all time. A month after the game’s release, the StarCraft II community was already 3 million players strong -- and to date, gamers have taken each other on in more than 91 million StarCraft II ranked matches on Battle.net.

Today we're happy to announce that four new custom games currently being developed in the StarCraft II Editor by the game's development team are available for play for the first time on the convention floor. The four games, StarJeweled, Aiur Chef, Left 2 Die, and Blizzard DOTA, will be released for free to all StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty players in the months ahead. Also featured on the convention floor are three winning custom maps submitted by players in the community map-making contest.

In addition to that announcement, Blizzard described Blizzard DOTA:

Wage war with the most powerful heroes from Blizzard Entertainment’s game universes in this explosive new multiplayer game.

Looks like Heroes of Newerth and Valve's Dota 2 are in for a tough time.

Credits: Blizzard Entertainment and the Dota genre

Starcraft 2 WoL Release Patch 1.1.2

Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty Release Patch 1.1.2

The announcement of Valve's DotA 2 eclipsed news from all other games.

Trivia before the Starcraft 2 1.1.2 Changelog:
DotA, a Warcraft 3 mod was based on a Starcraft mod called Aeon of Strife.

StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty – Patch 1.1.2

Starcraft 2 General Changes

* Players will no longer receive achievement toasts while their status is set to "Busy."

* The messaging when attempting to load a saved game or replay from a previous version has been clarified.

* Adjusted the amount of points earned and lost by random team participants to properly reflect the strength of a player's teammates.

Starcraft 2 Balance

PROTOSS

Buildings

Nexus life and shields increased from 750/750 to 1000/1000.

Void Ray

Damage level 1 increased from 5 to 6 (+4 armored).

Damage level 2 decreased from 10 (+15 armored) to 8 (+8 armored).

Flux Vanes speed upgrade bonus decreased from 1.125 to 0.703.

TERRAN

Buildings

Barracks requirement changed from Command Center to Supply Depot.

Supply Depot life increased from 350 to 400.

Medivac

Acceleration reduced from 2.315 to 2.25.

Speed reduced from 2.75 to 2.5.

Reaper

Nitro Packs speed upgrade now has a Factory Requirement.

Thor

Energy bar removed.

250mm Strike Cannons is now cooldown-based on a 50-second cooldown. Ability starts with cooldown available (useable immediately after upgrade is researched).

ZERG

Buildings

Hatchery life increased from 1250 to 1500.

Lair life increased from 1800 to 2000.

Spawning Pool life increased from 750 to 1000.

Spire life increased from 600 to 850.

Ultralisk Cavern life increased from 600 to 850.

Corruptor

Energy bar removed.

Corruption is now cooldown-based on a 45-second cooldown. Ability starts with cooldown expired (must wait for full 45-second cycle before usable).

Infestor

Fungal Growth now prevents Blink.

Roach

Range increased from 3 to 4.

Starcraft 2 Bug Fixes

1) Fixed an issue where players could not cast the Feedback spell on Point Defense Drones.

2) Fixed an issue where the Phoenix would continue to channel Graviton Beam after the target died.

3) Fixed an issue that would cause Larvae to spawn and be hidden behind Zerg eggs.

4) Fixed an issue where players were unable to navigate to the Single Player page or watch replays after canceling map downloads from the queue.

5) Fixed a desync that could occur on user-created maps with custom mod dependencies.

Those were the latest changes to Starcraft 2.
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Blizzard bans 5000 Starcraft 2 Cheaters

It is time for Activision Blizzard to milk more money from those Starcraft 2 players who have found to be cheating. A lot of these game cheaters who have been banned would probably buy another copy if they have been permanently banned.


Activision Blizzard recently suspended and banned over 5,000 StarCraft II players who were in found to be violating the Battle.net 2.0 Terms of Use. The reason? For cheating and/or using hack programs while playing.

Cheating and hacking on BattleNet undermines the spirit of fair competition and can lead to stability and performance issues with the servers of Starcraft 2. Since maintaining a stable, safe, and secure online-gaming experience for legitimate players is a top priority for Blizzard Entertainment, expect more bans in the future for those players who won't stop exploiting Starcraft 2 bugs and loopholes.

SC2Portal will now take your questions:

I have been permanently banned from Starcraft 2, what should I do?
Looks like it's time for you to purchase a new copy of Starcraft 2.

What should Blizzard do?
Release constant patches to exploits like indie company, S2 Games does for Heroes of Newerth.

I am getting Authentication Module errors, what can I do?
You can apply the Unable to download authentication module fix to resume playing.

Will I get banned if I use single player cheats?
No. You can still use singleplayer Starcraft 2 cheats.
Blizzard is only banning those gamers who cheat on multiplayer matches.

If you think you have been mistakenly banned, contact Blizzard support right away.

Unable to download authentication module, please try again later.

Scenario: Your Starcraft 2 game is showing this error:
"Unable to download authentication module, please try again later."

We would like to thank Daviash for this awesome Zeratul wallpaper.

Here is what you do (Avast users):
a) Open the user interface (UI)

b) Go to Real-Time Shields (Tab on left side)

c) Go to Expert Settings

d) Go to Exclusions

e) At the bottom of the list, there will be an empty box to type in.

Type C:\ProgramData\Blizzard Entertainment\Battle.net\Cache\36\b2\*.auth and then hit Enter.

f) Make sure all 3 checkboxes are marked.

g) Click OK and then Exit.

We would like to thank Curandera for this work-around.

For all other anti-virus programs, just analyze the Avast steps and apply the same exceptions/exclusions to your AV. This allows BattleNet to connect to Activision Blizzard's servers and to download the authentication module.

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