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Find below my favorites from yesterdays Dev Chat. Some exciting stuff in there!

General

Q. Will we be able to play with our friends on other continents like we could in StarCraft's Battle.net?

A. Currently we do not have plans to integrate friends between regions for launch. In the long run that's definitely something we'll be looking at.

Q. Do you plan to open the Beta to everyone? If yes, when?

A. We have no plans to make an open Beta at this time.

Q. Mac beta please! Any information?

A. We are currently working on a Mac version of the beta and hope to release it sometime in April. Hang in there!!

Q. Are you still confident about releasing the game in mid-summer?

A. Yes. We are still on target to release the game in the middle part of this year.

Q. Before implementing patch ideas, how do you test them? Do you just crunch numbers or does a player like David Kim do the testing?

A. We crunch numbers as well as play internally. In many cases in the beta we are shipping patches with only a few days of testing. That is not something we will be able to do once we launch the game, but in beta we can still be a little more aggressive with our patches.

Q. How come you didn't attempt to add a fourth race?

A. Several reasons; a) we felt like we had a lot more left to do with the three we had; b) each race and each unit in StarCraft needs to feel as different as possible from every other race and unit, and we felt that with four races we would likely start repeating roles and game mechanics, and we would lose some of the diversity that makes the game so great.

Q. Just want to say thanks to you guys for all the hard work. I'm not yet in the beta but am enjoying watching streams. =)

A. Thanks for the thanks!

We definitely will be adding a lot more people to the beta over the next several weeks so stay tuned. If you haven't opted-in to participate in future betas, now is the time to do so!!

Q. Are there any plans to try to fine-tune or reduce the innate built-in latency for StarCraft II over Battle.net 2.0?

A. We will definitely be experimenting with this over the weeks ahead. We want to make sure the playing field is balanced for all participants as far as "best connection latency." At the same time, internet connectivity and latency has definitely improved over the years and our current 250ms expected latency may be too high.


Galaxy Editor

Q. Are you guys still working on the Map Editor; and if so, what features are you planning to incorporate into the final piece?

A. Yes. We're still working on the Map Editor and currently working on the publishing system. We intend to release an early version of the editor during the beta so the map-making community can get a head start creating their own maps. This is going to be a stretch for us to pull off, but our hope is to get it out before the end of April.

Q. Will units that have been cut from the game still be in the Galaxy Editor, or higher tier units from original StarCraft?

A. Units that have been cut from the game completely will NOT be in the editor. However, there are many units that make an appearance in the single-player campaign that WILL be available to use in the editor, such as the Medic, Firebat, and Goliath.

Q. Can we expect to have new maps or the map editor in the beta soon?

A. Yes. We will be adding a few new maps as we continue to release patches including a few 3v3 and 4v4 maps. Additionally, we are hoping to release the map editor to the community sometime in April.


Balance

Q. Playing StarCraft II before beta and playing StarCraft II today do you think balance between races is better?

A. The race balance has improved greatly since before BlizzCon of last year and has continued to improve during the beta. Though really we don't even know yet how good the balance really is since the community has been playing for such a short time. =)

We are currently looking at the protoss vs. protoss matchup as well as terrans. Terrans are losing a little too frequently in almost every match up and the protoss vs protoss game is currently a little stale with a few strategies dominating both the early and the end game.

Q. What is your overall opinion about the beta right now? Have you already achieved what you were looking for?

A. The beta has been a great success so far. We're extremely happy with the information we've been getting back from the community and are reacting each week to all the information we're seeing. We definitely have NOT achieved our final goals and are continuing to work on balance, stability, our patching process, and more. We intend to release a patch next week that helps with readability of the zerg on creep, protoss team color with regards to Warp In, and other issues raised by the community.

Beyond that we have plans to release a major content patch in approximately mid-April that will add in a few example achievements, improved Voice Chat, and a whole lot more. We're definitely reading and listening to the feedback from our community and will continue to do so until the beta ends.

Q. Are there any specific units that you are unsatisfied with that you plan on changing but have not yet changed? Which?

A. We are still working on the Infestor (see today's patch) and we will continue to evaluate every unit until we ship. We have a "watch list" for units which means we are concerned about their balance and we are looking for data that will prove the unit has issues or prove that it is okay. The Roach and the Reaper are currently on our watch list.

Q. Great job with terran. Mech seems weaker and less reliable than a bio build at the moment. Any plans to buff mech?

A. We are looking at the terran mech build now. Actually right now. The balance guys are currently testing some fixes we tried this morning. We will get something to you guys as soon as we can.

Q. Do you agree that the zerg currently suffers from a lack of diverse army composition, and if so what are your plans to fix it?

A. Yes, we are looking at the zerg diversity issue. We are working to make the Infestor a more core part of more match-ups. We will continue to monitor the use of Banelings, Roaches, Hydras, Zerglings, Mutalisks and Corruptors to make sure the zerg army remains diverse in each match-up.

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Sweet info.

Yeah totally, makes you want to play the game even more. Kinda disappointing about them not having an open beta though! At least they plan on sending out more waves of invites!

Yeah hopefully out of all the people invited for sure some of them will get bored or w/e and stop playing hence giving the chance for someone else.