Blizzard

BlizzCon Tickets on Sale August 11
For anyone considering a trip to this year’s BlizzCon (October 10-11 in Anaheim, California), tickets will go on sale worldwide on Monday, August 11 for $100 each through our website. BlizzCon is a celebration of the communities surrounding all of our games, and features discussion panels, hands-on play, contests, tournaments, and more; we look forward to meeting some of you there!

Even if you can’t make it out in person, though, you can still experience some highlights of the weekend. We've partnered with DIRECTV, a satellite television company whose service is available throughout the US, and they will be offering their subscribers an exclusive package of HD convention coverage as a pay-per-view event.

For more information, check out the official announcement, and stay tuned to this site for news and updates as the convention approaches.

---StarCraft II Q&A Batch 42---

1. What was the main reasoning to shifting the Hydralisk backwards one technology level? How does this affect the Zerg early-game, especially since the Zerg will have absolutely no anti-air units before the Hydralisks? (gamereplays.org)

Actually, the Hydralisk has been brought back down to Tier 1.5, giving Zerg early anti-air capabilities without upgrading their Hatchery to a Lair. The test originally was to put Hydralisks at a later tech and have Corruptors be buildable earlier without a prerequisite building other than upgrading to the Lair. To make this happen, the Corruptors had to be nerfed appropriately to fit that tech, which made it very weak and much less fun. Additionally, without a prerequisite building, opposing players could not scout the Zerg player to see when they were going air, which did not fit the gameplay style we were shooting for.

2. What kinds of cheats will be included in Starcraft 2, and how will they be accessed/unlocked? (starcraft.org)

There will be cheats, but you wont know what they are from us :) sorry.

3. Concerning resources there is one big issue for mapmakers: There are only two of them. For many UMS-maps you need more different resource-types than gas and minerals, thus mapmakers were forced to use even civilians as a sort of resource. So will mapmakers be able to place their one, gather-able resources on the map such as lumber or gold? (starcraft2.4players.de)

Yes, we have recently added support for one additional custom resource type. Additional custom resources types may be implemented in the future, but there are no plans at the moment.

* Population: 80,000+ terrans, unknown zerg
* Allegiance: Kel-Morian
* Diameter/Gravity: 9265 km, 1.09 standard
* Axial Tilt/Climate: 13.5 degrees, +/- 34 Centigrade, very low humidity
* Geography/Major Settlements: 18 small dust seas, 28 upland regions (17 volcanic), 12 major settlements (destroyed), 86 mining outposts, 12 refineries
* Moon(s): 2 -- Pyramus, Thisby (gray, medium size, >2000 km dia)
* Dominant Terrain Classification: Wasteland/mountain/desert
* Dominant Life Forms: Human -- Kel-Morian Combine/Terran Dominion
* Indigenous Life Forms: None/zerg infestation (minor)
* Imports: Mining equipment, personnel, food, water
* Exports: Refined minerals, unrefined ore, vespene gas, terrazine gas, scrap salvage

Reference

Decay for tier A players.
At 2am everyday, another check will be performed that checks each tier A player to see if they played at least 1 match in the past 24 hours. Any player that is found to not have done so will lose 15 points.