5.0.11.89391 ptr

[Ahli]

Summary

official patch notes

Undocumented changes/bugs

• Zerg

  • Lurker's Unburrow random starting delay was changed from [0, 0.5] to [0, 0] => on average 180ms faster
  • Lurker's Burrow random starting delay was changed from [0, 0.25] to [0, 0.125] => on average 45ms faster
  • Morphing to a Lurker's random delay reduced from [0,0.5] to [0,0]
    • Was this necessary for the smart command cancellation?
  • Morphing to a Ravager's random starting delay was reduced from [0, 0.5] to [0, 0]
    • Was this necessary for the smart command cancellation?
  • Swarm Hosts can now spawn Locusts with a target point without loosing existing orders. The ability is now flagged as transient (video by Leisvan)
  • Lurker's attack was altered
    • Removed CasterIsAttacking validator from Lurker attack's spine splash damage hits
    • Added channeled and effectFailure flag to Lurker's attack's persistent effect
      • Why were these two aspects changed?
      • This has two most likely undesired side effects:
        • Changing the attack target while the persistent effect is active causes it to end. So, changing the attack target will cancel the current attack! You can make your Lurker not damage anything by constantly switching between two targets 😆
        • When targeting a friendly target, you can now order Stop to cancel the attack mid-travel
  • Hatchery and Hive's subgroup priority swapped (Hatchery to 28, Hive to 32). This alters which units receive selection priority when multiple units are selected
    • This causes command card buttons for the morph to Lair to disappear when multiple are selected as the Hatchery is not selected first anymore!
      picture by TheG on Blizzard's SC forums
      
  • Queen Transfusion on-creep text was broken due to a pointless behavior and requirement swap (both do exactly the same, just the Queen's one had a text for this error case)
  • The list of Zerg units in the help menu has some holes now. These were created by two new unit types added: Zergling2 and Baneling2. Both are unused and have no unit actor (thanks to Spectre from sc2mapster discord for the connection to missing actors causing missing buttons)
    
  • Swarm Hosts can now immediately receive orders after the Unburrow command was given. For example, to move to a certain point

• Terran

  • Banshee's attack's rockets spawn ~100ms earlier (0.15 seconds earlier on normal game speed). The first rocket now spawns without delay
  • Raven's Anti-Armor-Missile tints the affected units in another color that is more yellow than orange. The color changed from 255,100,0 to 255,187,85
    from to
  • Raven's Interference Matrix adds the Interference Matrix's duration to the cooldown of Immortal's Barrier, if it is on cooldown after the matrix's effect expired
    • The cooldown addition feels arbitrary. What does this fix? Does this work as intended in all scenarios, e.g. when the cooldown expires while the matrix is active? I find it odd that it adds cooldown duration after the matrix ended, but only when the Barrier is still on cooldown

• Protoss

  • Shield Battery's recharge's impact model is now hidden in the fog of war
  • Interceptor attack impact sounds are slightly louder (Volume min,max increased from -11,-10 to -9,-8)
  • Interceptor attack firing sounds are slightly louder (Volume min,max increased from -10,-6 to -8,-5)
  • fixed Battery Overcharge's range indicator showing range 9 when the ability had range 10. This is only a visual change for the circle that appears around the Nexus

Bugs in documented changes

• Observer and Ultralisk's model size changes do not work with skins since the default skin's model entry was edited and all skins have their own model entries. The base model entry, or the actor should have been edited, or alternatively all skin model settings individually
  • Creager on teamliquid verified this bug:
    
    Leisvan replicated the issue as well (although only in the editor, but I see no magical way how this is not wrong in the game as well):
    
• Female Ghost skins have no cancel button for snipe. Their unit "GhostAlternate" lacks the snipe ability (it still works due to morph-inheritance of abilities, but usually every ability is defined in every unit), and the command card does not use the SnipeCancel for the button. Instead an non-existing ability is referenced. This causes the button to not appear and the shortcut to not work!
  ingoschlegelmilch verified that this is not working for the female Ghost skin:
  
  • Therefore, the special, rare-spawning Nova skin (GhostAlternateNova) does not display the Snipe's cancel button as well. Instead of the correct ability SnipeCancel, an non-existing ability is referenced
• all Ghost units (Ghost, GhostAlternate, GhostAlternateNova) still display the Enhanced Shockwaves upgrade on their command cards
  
• Battery Overcharge still recharges at a rate of 200%. The behavior "BatteryOvercharge" still has a "HealDealtMultiplier" of 2

Patch notes are wrong/inaccurate

• Roach -> Ravager morph time increased from 8.6 to 12.1 seconds (from 12 to 17 on normal speed). Patch notes are wrong. They falsely stated from 8.6 to 12.9 seconds. It is ~0.75s faster than that
• Steady Targeting (Snipe) will break at exactly 13.5 range while the patch notes indicate that it needs to be more than 13.5 range
• Interceptor flying radius around target increased by 1. The patch notes did not state by how much
• The Liberator received improvements for queuing orders not only when unsieging, but also when sieging
• Cyclone's Lock On no longer targets Zerg Eggs without a manual order. The correct term would be "Zerg Cocoon" instead of "Zerg Egg". This only refers to the "eggs" from Larvae. Other "eggs" are still automatically targeted

Potential bugs (need verification)

• Unburrow might make units visible to the enemy faster as the morph's stats duration changed to 0 for Drone. Hydralisk, Infestor, Queen, Roach. The Lurker, Baneling, Zergling and Ultralisk already had this set to 0. Maybe this does not affect anything, though

Side effects

• Broodling duration change affects Broodlings from structures as well. Could be made separate since these Broodlings are usually very impactless and would now accomplish even less
• Enhanced Shockwaves upgrade can still be researched by AI and hackers as these do not require the command card button. Consider removing ability entries that should not be executable. Do you not remember warping in Immortals in WoL or computer players throwing Infested Terrans after the patch "removed" them from the Infestor?
• The Interceptor flying area radius was raised. Could this have implications to their DPS? Maybe they will fire less because they have to fly further and maybe outside their weapon range. I do not understand what the two values (LoiterRadius, InnerLoiterRadius) actually mean, so I cannot say what will happen here
• Ultralisk's radius reduction will cause the area of its area damage to shrink by a tiny amount. The area damage is offset by the Ultra's radius, so the area in the half circle of area damage is smaller.
  However, the smaller radius should help the Ultra much more than the smaller area nerfs it. I mention this for clarity. Maybe someone can test this with immobile Zerglings
• Units hit by a stasis trap can be pushed around because movement is not suppressed anymore. Maybe that can be fixed with setting max move speed to 0 or 0.001 during stasis. If someone has a better fix suggestion, let me know and I add it here. Reported by throwaway-link on reddit
• The Hatchery creep spawn rate is causing Larva to spawn on creep nearby a Hatchery that finishes morphing. Usually, Larva spawn on the creep generated close to the Hatchery. Now it looks like the Hatch attempts to spawn the Larva before the own creep is generated. Here, a Hatchery finishes close to existing creep and the Larva is spawned on the previously existing creep:
  
  
  I could fix the issue by using a different period. The closest good values are 0.352 and 0.346. Please use one of these instead!
• The new Baneling morph ability should enable "IgnoreCollision" and "ignorePlacement". The Ravager morph does that as well. Else, there could be issues with the morph not finishing due to some collisions

Changes that could be done for more units

• Factory's maximum spawn radius increased from 2 to 3. Other unit production structures have a spawn range of 2 (besides Larva with 4, but eggs pile up in one place). Why is this Factory specific and not raised to 3 for all producing structures (Barracks, Starport, CC, Hatchery, Nexus, Gateway, Robotics Facility, Stargate)?

Further bug fixes that this patch could include as well

• Shield Battery's range indicator is not visible when you target the overcharge yourself via its command card button. It is only visible when you want to build one
  
  
  Here is how it is added for the ability's targeting mode and mouse hover over the button:

    <CActorRange id="ShieldBatteryRange">
        <On Terms="Abil.ShieldBatteryRechargeEx5.TargetOn" Send="Create"/>
        <On Terms="Abil.ShieldBatteryRechargeEx5.TargetOff" Send="Destroy"/>
        <On Terms="Abil.ShieldBatteryRechargeEx5.ButtonHoverOn" Send="Create"/>
        <On Terms="Abil.ShieldBatteryRechargeEx5.ButtonHoverOff" Send="Destroy"/>
     </CActorRange>

• Thor's default mode does not collide with Locusts. The 2nd mode does. The collision flag needs to be ticked:

    <CUnit id="ThorAP">
        <Collide index="Locust" value="1"/>
    </CUnit>

• Disruptor and Archon's minimap radius is smaller than its unit radius (collision with units). These values should match
• Thor in high impact payload mode with Tyrador skin is missing the correct attack animation. This leads to the Thor sliding as well. The correct animations can be added easily in the editor: FIX with Video and Test Map
• Liberator does not create ripples in water. Required water height varies greatly per unit. FIX with Test Map
• Protoss Ihan-Rii skin's warp in death model is terrible for players as it can easily be confused with finished structures. video of the models workaround reverting the model
• Protoss Ihan-Rii skin's Nexus' Warp In model has no attachment points. That causes no shield impact model to be played on attacks and the game displays an error in tests:
  CActorShield[ProtossShieldFull] Could not find e_attachShield or a dynamic shield attach on unit [ 44 1] CActorUnit[Nexus] with model Nexus_Ihanrii_WarpIn.m3.. Since the model has 0 attachment points, you cannot work around this defining a dynamic shield attack in the model's settings. video
• Tyrador Fusion Core model looks always like completed during construction due to animation issues. In addition, when starting a research, the model does not look "busy" for the first 1.1 second. documentation with exact animation names, video and screenshots

I will abstain from listing wrong upgrade scores and outdated unit descriptions :)

Bugs potentially not added in this patch

• Bigger units stack and block each other in chokes created by buildings (video). Here, this happens with the new Ultralisks, Swarm Hosts and Ravagers as well, so this is likely nothing new
• changing game settings might be only accepted once (set health bars to always, change it back and the setting did not stick anymore). Is this PTR specific?

TODO

• verify potentially broken scenarios
• Ultralisk's death model changed. What is the impact? ragdolls fly further or less? less sliding on ground? more sliding on ground?
• research more known bugs (on LIVE and on PTR)
  • big units stacking in 1 tile chokes between buildings (e.g. Archon, Ultralisk, Ravager, Swarm Host... most likely it has always been like this)
  • make water ripples not spawn on cliff edges

Btw, you can assist me with this!
Tell me about the bugs the multiplayer gameplay runs into and we can try to come up with a fix or a detailed issue explanation to assist Blizzard

[Ahli]

Raven AutoTurret energy cost raised from 50 to 75

[Ahli]

undocumented: Drone's Unburrow stats transition duration is now changed from 0.4443 to 0

Does this cause unburrowing units to become "visible" immediately instead of after ~300ms? Does this change anything?

[Ahli]

undocumented: Hydralisk's Unburrow stats transition duration is now changed from 0.2221 to 0

Does this cause unburrowing units to become "visible" immediately instead of after ~150ms? Does this change anything?

[Ahli]

undocumented: Infestor's Unburrow stats transition duration is now changed from 0.5 to 0

Does this cause unburrowing units to become "visible" immediately instead of after ~350ms? Does this change anything?

[Ahli]

undocumented: Lurker's Burrow random starting delay was changed from [0, 0.25] to [0, 0.125]

They burrow on average 1 game update = 0.625 game seconds = ~44ms faster than before allowing them to attack that time earlier as well or escape fire from flying units

[Ahli]

undocumented: Lurker's Unburrow random starting delay was changed from [0, 0.5] to [0, 0]

This means Lurkers will be able to unburrow and move away up to a half second faster (a quarter second on average)

[Ahli]

undocumented: Queen's Unburrow stats transition duration is now changed from 0.4443 to 0

Does this cause unburrowing units to become "visible" immediately instead of after ~300ms? Does this change anything?

[Ahli]

undocumented: Ravager's Unburrow stats transition duration is now changed from 0.4443 to 0

Does this cause unburrowing units to become "visible" immediately instead of after ~300ms? Does this change anything?

[Ahli]

undocumented: Roach's Unburrow stats transition duration is now changed from 0.4443 to 0

Does this cause unburrowing units to become "visible" immediately instead of after ~300ms? Does this change anything?

[Ahli]

not a change: editor moved this block around

[Ahli]

Fixed an issue where Zerglings could not receive queued Morph to Baneling commands

Morphs need to change the abilities without delay to make the command card change instantly. This allows queueing of other commands.
Other unit morph abilities change this immediately as well

[Ahli]

not a change: editor moved this block around

[Ahli]

Factory's maximum spawn radius increased from 2 to 3

Other unit production structures have a spawn range of 2 (besides Larva with 4, but eggs pile up in one place).

Why is this Factory specific and not raised to 3 for all producing structures (Barracks, Starport, CC, Hatchery, Nexus, Gateway, Robotics Facility, Stargate)?

[Ahli]

Forge Level 1 upgrades research time reduced by 7 seconds (10s on normal speed)
Forge Level 2 upgrades research time reduced by 9 seconds (15s on normal speed)
Forge Level 3 upgrades research time reduced by 11 seconds (20s on normal speed)

[Ahli]

Sentry build time reduced from 26.4 to 22.9 seconds (from 37 to 32 on normal speed)

[Ahli]

Fixed an issue where Morph to Lurker would be canceled with a Smart command issued immediately after the Morph command

The Hydralisk is not required to deaccelerate to speed 0 anymore before the morph starts. During deacceleration, other commands could cancel this morph as it was still in its preparation phase.

[Ahli]

Fixed an issue where Morph to Ravager would be canceled with a Smart command issued immediately after the Morph command.

The Roach is not required to deaccelerate to speed 0 anymore before the morph starts. During deacceleration, other commands could cancel this morph as it was still in its preparation phase.

[Ahli]

undocumented: Roach -> Ravager Morph's random starting delay was changed from [0, 0.5] to [0, 0]

This could have been required for the morph's cancel. Hydra -> Lurker has no random delay now as well (like Warp Prism and Liberator).

Should this be done for other units as well? E.g. Vikings, Thors, Widow Mine, Siege Tank, Hellion?

[Ahli]

Broodling's duration reduced from 5.71 to 3.57 (from 8 to 5 on normal speed)

This affects Broodlings spawned from Brood Lords as well as dying structures!

[Ahli]

Dark Templar's Blink next attack delay reduced from 0.75 to 0.71 seconds (from 1.05 to 1 on normal game speed)

Or in other words: Dark Templars can attack one game update ~44ms earlier after Blink, if the weapon is not on cooldown.

The effective delay's value should have been 1.0625 since 1.05 is not the end of a game update. So, it should be "from 1.0625 to 1 on normal game speed" for people that want to calculate percentages :)

Dark Templars have a weapon period of 1.694 and a damage point of 0.361, so damage point + Blink's attack delay duration are still well below the weapon's cooldown. So, attack, blink, attack resulting in DT's maximum DPS was possible before and still is

[Ahli]

Nydus Worm: Fixed a visual bug introduced in the previous patch (nydus creep behavior)

The buff is not shown in the UI anymore. Nydus Worms still generate creep

[Ahli]

Bogus change. This behavior is unused

[Ahli]

Bogus change. This behavior is unused

[Ahli]

Raven Anti-Armor Missile armor reduction reduced from 3 to 2

[Ahli]

Sensor Tower's Radar range reduced from 30 to 27

[Ahli]

Units affected by Stasis can be issued any non-build commands instead of only move commands, to be acted upon stasis expiring

Why are moving and turning not suppressed anymore? Was that required? Can this have side effects?
Can you /dance these units during stasis?
Are channeled attacks properly stopped during stasis, e.g. Sentry's beam weapon?
What happens when Adepts have a shade?

[Ahli]

Raven Interference Matrix duration reduced from 11 to 8 seconds (from 15 to 11 on normal speed)

The rounding of the real seconds is inconsistent in the patch notes, but whatever...

[Ahli]

Creep Tumor: Cooldown increased from 11 to 13 seconds (from 15 to 18 on normal speed)

The build time is still 11 seconds (15 on normal speed)

[Ahli]

Adepts can now be ordered to load into a Warp Prism while shading, automatically cancelling the Shade

This line allows being loaded into transports

[Ahli]

Queens are no longer unable to receive certain orders for 0.6 seconds after spawning (0.8 seconds on normal speed)

The Queen received a behavior at birth from the training ability which disables move and attack abilities for 0.8 seconds on normal speed. This did not prevent other abilities. This was likely intended to have an uninterruptible spawning animation where the Queen plays her unburrow animation

Since players could perform some actions already, this was more of a hindrance than helpful. In most scenarios, the Queen will still play her animation at birth.
There could be some animation issues when she is birthed and immediately starts attacking an enemy, though

[Solstice245]

A few more bugs that could be fixed.

Immortal: ScoreKill and ScoreLost: 350 > 375 (To correctly reflect the increased mineral cost in patch 4.8.2)
WarpPrism and WarpPrismPhasing: ScoreKill and ScoreLost: 200 > 250 (To correctly reflect the increased mineral cost in 4.10.1 balance update)

[hjpalpha]

from heromarines stream/community discord:

[Ahli]

Fixed an issue where Liberators could not be given certain orders immediately after being ordered to unsiege

• Unsieging Liberators had the ability transformation delay reduced from 0.5 to 0.0

For orders, the abilities need to be swapped immediately. This should allow queuing of commands like attacking an air, sieging at another position and maybe even moving.
I did not test what exactly was not possible before.

[Ahli]

cleaning up: Liberators unsieging had the mover transition duration reduced from 0.5 to 0.0. Both modes use the same mover, so this never did anything and having a duration of 0 is cleaner

[Ahli]

Fixed an issue where Liberators could not be given certain orders immediately after being ordered to unsiege

• Unsieging Liberators had the stats transformation delay reduced from 1.5417 to 0.0

I assume that this is necessary for certain orders like attacking air units since the anti-ground version has no anti-air weapon.
This should also cause the info panel and wireframe to change immediately.
There is a chance that this could break the animation or death model. This should be tested to verify that all looks fine

[Ahli]

undocumented: Fixed an issue where Liberators could not be given certain orders immediately after being ordered to siege

• Sieging Liberators had the ability transformation delay reduced from 0.5 to 0.0

This should allow immediately queueing of an unsiege command and might be necessary for queuing attack commands on ground units

[Ahli]

undocumented: Fixed an issue where Liberators could not be given certain orders immediately after being ordered to siege

• Sieging Liberators had the stats transformation duration reduced from 3.5417 to 0.0

I assume that this is necessary for certain orders like attacking ground units since the anti-air version has no anti-ground weapon.
This should also cause the info panel and wireframe to change immediately.
There is a chance that this could break the animation or death model. This should be tested to verify that all looks fine

[Ahli]

Fixed an issue where lock-on could enter cooldown while the Cyclone is loaded into a medivac

This validator prevents the auto-cast from activating when the Cyclone is inside a transport

[Ahli]

Lock On no longer targets Zerg Eggs without a manual order

This validator prevents the auto-cast from targeting Cocoons from Larva. Other "eggs" might still be targeted

[Ahli]

Muscular Augments move speed bonus increased from 0.79 to 1.05 (from 0.5625 to 0.75 on normal speed)

Hydralisk base move speed is 2.25. The upgrade used to set it to 2.8125 which means it added 0.5625.
Now it adds 0.75 for an upgraded speed of 3.0. Adding is the default operation here.
This converted to normal game speed results in the values the patch notes state

[Ahli]

Mag-Field Accelerator damage bonus changed from +20 vs armored to +10 vs all

[Ahli]

Mag-Field Accelerator damage bonus changed from +20 vs armored to +10 vs all

The tooltips were changing the text to mention bonus vs armored. Thus, they were removed

[Ahli]

Fixed an issue where Zerglings could not receive queued Morph to Baneling commands

Zerglings had for some reason a training ability (like Barracks) to create the Baneling.
This patch replaces it with a morph ability, so it behaves like every other unit that does a morph.
Thus, the command card was edited.

Here, Rally switched from index 1 to 0 by accident which is totally fine. Just this document is a line longer :D

[Ahli]

Ultralisk: Reduced size by 12.5%

• unit radius (unit collision) was reduced from 1.0 to 0.875 (-12.5%)
• minimap radius was reduced from 1.0 to 0.875 (- 12.5%)
• inner radius (building collision) was reduced from 0.75 to 0.6875 (-8.3%)

The inner radius was only reduced by 8.3% instead of 12.5%. The value is 0.6875.
The editor requires values that are multiple of 0.0625 here, so this was chosen as the closest desired value

[Ahli]

Ultralisk: Reduced size by 12.5%

These are the values for the Ultralisk's burrowed version. They are identical to the unburrowed Ultralisk as they should be

[Ahli]

from heromarines stream/community discord:

I've replicated the issue

[Ahli]

Disruptor's Purifier Orb radius reduced from 1.5 to 1.35 (-10%)

• model's radius reduced from 2.5 to 2.2917 (-8.3%)
• model's visual radius (RadiusLoose) reduced from 2.5 to 2.2917 (-8.3%)
• model's scale reduced from 0.7 to 0.64 (-8.6%)

It is unexpected that the model has not been shrunk by 10% as well. But these values still looks great in this video:
comparison video

HOWEVER, the impact model looks off in the video!

• explosion has no expanding nova
• marines seem to light up when receiving damage on the left

[Ahli]

Disruptor's Purifier Orb radius reduced from 1.5 to 1.35 (-10%)

• model's radius reduced from 2.5 to 2.2917 (-8.3%)
• model's visual radius (RadiusLoose) reduced from 2.5 to 2.2917 (-8.3%)
• model's scale reduced from 0.75 to 0.6875 (-8.3%)

It is unexpected that the range indicator has not been shrunk by 10% as well. However, it looks accurate in this video:
comparison video

[Ahli]

bug: Ultralisk is the wrong model entry to edit.
=> FIX: UltraliskBase should be edited, so all skins are edited as well! Then check if all inherit it or if any overrides anything.

Ultralisk model's scale was reduced from 0.85 to 0.75 (-11.76%).
Patch notes state: reduced size by 12.5%.

It looks fine in the game. Naturally you want to make the model as big as possible, so the attack animations still cover the area it damages.
The size looked fine (but I did not test it vs a big pile of small units, yet)

[Ahli]

This changes Ultralisk's death model physics.

I do not know its impact, though. More ragdoll sliding? Less ragdoll sliding?

[Ahli]

Ultralisk: Reduced size by 12.5%

• reduced hp bar width from 160 to 130 (-18.75%)
• reduced hp bar's offset from 30 to 16 (-46.67%)

The hp bar's offset change looks unexpectedly large, but it is alright when tested.

[Ahli]

undocumented: Battery Overcharge's range indicator's range was raised from 9 to 10.

Most likely a visual bug fix.

Btw, why is there no range indicator when you manually target the recharge? It is only visible when you want to build one

[Ahli]

Animation for the altered implementation of the Baneling Morph

[Ahli]

pointless change, this belongs to an ability ShieldBatteryRechargeChanneled which is unused.
The correct ability is ShieldBatteryRechargeEx5

FIX:
The correct way to change the overcharge rate is to edit the behavior "BatteryOvercharge". Its "HealDealtMultiplier" needs to be changed from 2 to 1.5 and you end up with the 150% recharge

[Ahli]

This effect was unused (the effect tree roots in an unused ability).

Removing unused things is good for clarity :)

[Ahli]

undocumented:

• Swarm Host's Unburrow stats transformation delay was reduced from 0.5 to 0
• Swarm Host's Unburrow actor transformation delay was reduced from 0.5 to 0
• Swarm Host's Unburrow abilities transformation delay was reduced from 0.5 to 0
• Swarm Host's Unburrow mover transformation delay was reduced from 0.5 to 0
• Swarm Host's Unburrow mover transformation duration was reduced from 1 to 0

This allows orders being queued after giving the unburrow order.

The final duration is random delay + highest duration.

[Ahli]

This new Baneling morph ability should enable "IgnoreCollision" and "ignorePlacement". The Ravager morph does that as well. Else, there could be issues with the morph not finishing

[Ahli]

I could fix the Larva issue by using a different period. The ones that do not run into this issue are 0.352 and 0.346.
Blizzard, please use one of these values instead of 0.35!