StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty has a talented and robust mapmaking community, and every day the number of published maps hitting Battle.net continues to grow. To better highlight some of these great creative works, we'll be featuring new player-made maps each week and placing them at the top of the custom games list in the game client for you to download and play.

Check out this week's featured custom maps to see what's available!


Map Title: Level Up Bound
Author: Chrinux
Category: Bound
Mode: Co-Op

Description: Dodge a pattern of explosions and reach the end to finish each level.


Map Title: Desert Strike
Author: Squarely
Category: Tug
Mode: 3v3

Description: In this classic base building tug of war map, defeat your opponent's Desert Fortress before they can push to yours!


Have a favorite custom map you would like to share? Then let us know! To submit a custom map for review, just leave a comment with the name of the map and its author below.

Welcome to the fifth edition of Comm-Link Online. You can find our last report here. This week we look at the latest player rankings from around the world, our plans for the future of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, more BlizzCon 2010 developments, and more.

StarCraft II Top-Ranked Players

This week's rankings are in! Below you'll find the top-ranked players from each region and the race they play.

Europe
Korea
Latin America
North America
Southeast Asia
Taiwan

General Information

Situation Report: Patch 1.1 and Beyond - Find out all about our plans for the first feature and balance patch, as well as what we have in store for the future.

Guided By Peers #3 - Zerg strategies for tacticians of all experience levels are the focus of this week's player guides. Links to protoss, terran, and zerg tutorial videos by the Force team are included as well, so be sure to check them out.

The Story So Far - Let us know what aspects of the lore you find most intriguing.

The Price of Victory: Managing Resources - How do you manage your resources in multiplayer matches?

Poll: Choose Your Difficulty - Let us know the hardest difficulty you've completed the campaign on and tell us about some of the more challenging moments you experienced in the process. The results are quite interesting.

BlizzCon 2010

BlizzCon Discussion Forum - Find the latest information about BlizzCon 2010 and network with fellow Blizzard enthusiasts.

StarCraft II Tournament: It's Coming! - Learn about the 16-player invitational tournament to be held at this year's BlizzCon.

StarCraft II Custom Map Contest - Find out what it takes to participate in the official Custom Map contest and win a trip to BlizzCon!

BlizzCon 2010 Online Contests Begin - Submit your entries to the Fan Art, Original Song, and Movie contests before September 27 for your chance to win.

BlizzCon 2010 Virtual Ticket Now On Sale - BlizzCon may have sold out in seconds, but it's not too late to get your Virtual Ticket for the multi-channel Internet stream, or to order it through DIRECTV.

NBC's "The Event" Wants You to go to BlizzCon 2010 - Find out how you can score a pair of tickets to this sold-out event.

BlizzCon 2010 World of Warcraft & StarCraft II In-Game Items - Want to know about the goodies you'll get for attending BlizzCon or purchasing the Virtual Ticket? We have all the details.

Greetings, citizens of the Koprulu sector! StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is celebrating its one-month anniversary and we’re extremely excited to witness the amazing community that’s come together around the game. To that end, we want you to know we are hard at work on the first feature and balance patch, and expect to have it completed and available by the middle of September. Patch 1.1 will contain a number of improvements including additional mod features, Editor improvements and bug fixes, some custom game improvements, support for NVIDIA’s 3D Vision, and more. We'd also like to share some specific plans for this patch with you.

To begin, we've heard a lot of feedback from our global community about standardized hotkey options. We're happy to announce that in patch 1.1 we are going to make the Standard (US) and Standard for Lefties (US) hotkey options available in all regions.

Balance Changes

We have several balance changes in store. One general change we're making is that friendly units will no longer provide vision after being killed. Enemy units previously revealed will no longer be targetable. Now let's break down the additional balance changes we're implementing.

Maps

We're going to be adding destructible rocks to the Desert Oasis map to make natural expansions easier to protect. In addition, the center map watchtower area is being narrowed.

Protoss

We have two key changes in mind for the zealot: the build time is being increased from 33 to 38 seconds, and the warpgate cooldown is being increased from 23 to 28 seconds. Zealot rushes are currently too powerful at various skill levels, particularly those that rely on rapidly assaulting an enemy base from nearby "proxy" gateways. We feel the window players have to scout for and fend off this rush is too small. We also want to address the problem of protoss being able to dump minerals a bit too quickly with the combination of warpgates and Chrono Boost.

Terran

There are several changes in the works for terrans. Reapers against zerg are stronger than expected. Due to the zealot build time increase, reapers would be a bit problematic in combination with proxy barracks, bunkers, and/or marauders against protoss. Therefore, we have decided to increase the build time of reapers as well from 40 to 45 seconds. Fast reaper + bunker, or fast marine + bunker rushes are problematic against zerg. Although this rush would never outright destroy the zerg player, we feel zerg suffers too much of a disadvantage from either having to cancel the fast expansion, or getting trapped inside the main base for too long, so we are also increasing the bunker build time from 30 to 35 seconds.

Siege tanks in large numbers are performing too well in all matchups. In the mid- to late-game, siege tanks are too dominant against all ground units. We want a small set of light and unarmored ground units to perform better against siege tanks. With this in mind, we're changing the Siege Mode damage of the siege tank from 50 to 35, +15 vs. armored; to correspond with this, damage upgrades will be changed from +5 to +3, +2 vs. armored. This change reduces the base damage of the siege tank against light and unarmored units, as well as the splash damage.

Battlecruisers currently lack good counters from the ground and still perform very well against a wide array of unit types. We're aware that it is not easy to get battlecruisers out for the cost, but at the same time, it is possible in both 1v1s and team games to create stalemate situations to bring them out. Overall, we feel that battlecruisers are too strong for their cost, and the terran-forced stalemate situations are causing less interesting gameplay. We will be lowering their damage against ground units from 10 to 8.

Zerg

Ultralisk damage is being decreased from 15, +25 vs. armored to 15, +20 vs. armored. This reduction is comparable to the changes being made to the battlecruiser and siege tank. Like the battlecruiser, ultralisks are simply too powerful for the cost, even though they are difficult to muster. Also, in combination with other units, ultralisks are difficult to counter from the ground. The ultralisk building attack (Ram) is being removed because the damage rate is too similar to its normal attack, which will be used against buildings instead. When ultralisks target tightly packed smaller buildings such as supply depots, the Ram attack is actually outputting considerably less overall damage than its normal attack, as Ram only hits a single target.

And Beyond...

We are reading your posts on the forums and creating lists of features and bugs to address in future patches. We have mid- to long-term plans to further evolve the Custom Game experience, and soon, enhance our social features with the addition of chat channels. We will be sharing more specific information in the coming weeks. As with all of our previous games, we will support StarCraft II for many years to come. Your feedback and participation is critical in making this not only the best game it can be, but also the most engaged gaming community in the world. We look forward to the implementation of patch 1.1, as well as sharing our plans for our future gameplay and Battle.net features.

We'll see you online!

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty offers more than just head-to-head competitive play and the ability to play online with friends; it presents the continuing evolution of the StarCraft storyline through its epic single-player campaign. Understanding how it all began can mean the difference between simply running through the various missions and experiencing the story on a much deeper level.

To aid you on your journey (or perhaps prepare you for your next) we’re highlighting the StarCraft Lore section of the community site, where you can learn all about the Story So Far and read some of the great short stories that we've collected.

While we have your attention, let us know: what aspect of the lore do you find most intriguing?

Welcome to the fourth edition of Comm-Link Online, your one-stop resource for the latest and greatest from the StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty community. Check out last week's report if you missed it. This week we look at the latest player rankings from around the world, bring you more vital information across a broad range of topics, and delve deep into a slew of multiplayer discussions. We'll even finish things off with a couple fun polls that'll have you tapping your feet. Let's skip the formalities and dig in for another round.

StarCraft II Top-Ranked Players

This week's rankings are in! Below you'll find the top-ranked players from each region and the race they play.

Europe
Korea
Latin America
North America
Southeast Asia
Taiwan

General Topics

Free Character Name Change - A change of identity will be coming soon to a sector near you.
Guided By Peers #2 - Useful tricks of the trade from your community peers.
Campaigning on the Go - Are you curious about how your campaign progress is stored?
Patch 1.0.3 Now Live - Learn more about the latest changes.
Diary Of A Zergling - It speaks for itself.

Multiplayer Discussions

Custom Map Spotlight - Featuring new player-made maps for the week.
Being Fearless - Exploring the art of multiplayer combat.
A Tale of Two Turtles - Arguing the pros and cons of mass building.
Swarm and Fuzzy - Tell us your favorite zerg build orders.
AT vs. RT: The Numbers - Potential disparities are under investigation.
Explain Please - Where did all of the snazzy single-player units go?
Learning A New Race - How to approach things when you're just getting started.

For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)

Community Jukebox - What records are you spinning?
Poll: Name That Tune - Your Hyperion jukebox hits.

Patch 1.0.3 is now live. This small patch addresses a minor technical issue that was preventing certain players from accessing offline play. For additional information, check out the official patch notes below.

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty — Patch 1.0.3

To get the latest news and interact with the community, visit our StarCraft II website. Be sure to check out our Game Guide for an in-depth look at StarCraft II gameplay. We wish you all the best on your journeys through the embattled Koprulu Sector!

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue preventing some players from accessing offline play from the login screen.


Please note that certain regions also received an update that now ensures the Friends Tab on the Leagues & Ladders page will function properly. To learn more, you can view all regional patch notes here.

Patch 1.0.2 is now live. This small patch addresses a few issues that were affecting single player gameplay. For further information about what fixes have been applied, check out the official patch notes below.

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty — Patch 1.0.2

To get the latest news and interact with the community, visit our StarCraft II website. Be sure to check out our Game Guide for an in-depth look at StarCraft II gameplay. We wish you all the best on your journeys through the embattled Koprulu Sector!

Bug Fixes

Fixed an issue where campaign mission victories would not always trigger properly.
Fixed an issue where some players were unable to access single player features.

Last week, in part 1 of In the Vernacular, we highlighted popular terminology for several units and structures within the StarCraft universe. Today, we dive in a bit deeper and focus on common tactics, greetings, and slang new players may encounter as they battle opponents online and get more involved with the community.

Welcome back to the Reconnaissance Report.

In our last report, we covered Lost Temple, an updated favorite from the original StarCraft with an incredibly versatile layout. This time, in honor of the official launch of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, we'll be going over Scrap Station, a brand-new map that will be sure to create some interesting matchups.

Our first patch for StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is now live. This small patch addresses a few technical issues and makes some server-side optimizations; however, there are a couple of changes worth mentioning which are detailed in the official patch notes below.

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty -- Patch 1.0.1

To get the latest news and interact with the community, visit our StarCraft II website. Be sure to check out our Game Guide for an in-depth look at StarCraft II gameplay. We wish you all the best on your journeys through the embattled Koprulu Sector!

Bug Fixes

Campaign saves have been optimized.
Fixed an issue with sound not playing on some 7.1 systems.

In our 14th BlizzCast episode, we are joined by Production Director Chris Sigaty and Game Director Dustin Browder to discuss the StarCraft II beta experience and to recap some of the custom maps and creative strategies adopted by beta testers. The developers also delve into several other exciting topics including the upcoming achievement system and what players can expect to find in both the StarCraft II single-player campaign and challenge modes once the game is released.

Check out BlizzCast 14 now!