- Fixed a bug that caused some users to be unable to play games or have slow network routes when one of the relay servers responded too slowly
- Fix a rare issue that made some users unable to download map files and silently fail to launch the game
- Allow mouse scroll to zoom when above replay/observer UI elements
- Fix hive and lair icons being swapped in replay/observer UI
- Show supply numbers as red when over the max supply in replay/observer UI
- Fixed an issue where some auto-saved replays contained a blank map name
- Added a basic match history to user profiles (better filtering capabilities coming soon!)
- Greatly improved Chinese translations. If you would like to help contribute translations for a non-English language, please reach out to us in our Discord!
- Chat channels are more customizable, with the option to upload banners, badges, and set a channel description and topic
- Improved StarCraft installation finder to use the Battle.net Launcher's settings. This will be the default for new users, but existing users can re-run the detection in Settings -> StarCraft.
- Reversed the sort order of replays (auto-saved replays should be sorted newest first now). An improved UI with better sorting, searching, and filtering capabilities is coming soon.
- Added in-client bug reporting. You can report bugs via the user menu in the bottom-left, which will automatically upload log files to our servers to help us diagnose the issue.
- Improved lobby error screens
- Fixed language detection to choose better default languages
- Various bug fixes
- Replay/Observer UI improvements. We've added hotkeys for showing/hiding various parts of the
UI, so you can tailor your observing experience to just what you'd like to see. The hotkeys are:
- A: Toggle all panels
- F: Toggle production panel
- E: Toggle player list
- W: Toggle bottom UI
- New account settings page. Account settings has now moved into the normal Settings area, instead of being under the user menu. The new page also presents a few settings that are not yet available, but will be soon! Stay tuned.
- Advanced lobby settings. Lobbies now have two new advanced settings that can be configured: turn rate and unit limits. In general we recommend users leave these at the defaults, but if you have specific needs for particular maps and game modes, they're there now! Current settings for these will also be displayed while in a lobby.
- Bug fixes and small enhancements:
- Show morphing Zerg buildings correctly in replay/observer production view
- Show minimap dialog buttons for changing player vision in replay/observer UI
- Changed observer UI font and adjusted colors for better readability
- Fixed a number of issues with submitted game results that caused incorrect or unresolvable games.
- Made game results submit earlier in the game ending process so that game results can be resolved faster.
- Improved ping estimation. Ping estimation used for game server selection and ingame latency selection should now be more accurate. This means you're more likely to get a good server for you and every opponent, and will see less lag ingame.
- Added support for more vetoes in map pools. We now support veto counts other than 3, which means we can have larger (or smaller!) map pools. Stay tuned for map pools making use of this feature.
- Bug fixes.
- Opening a replay in Explorer with ShieldBattery now works correctly if the app was not already running.
- It is now possible to open a replay with ShieldBattery while logged out.
- The app will now be brought into focus when a replay is opened.
- The app controls should properly reflect the maximized state on launch now.
- Fixed ban reasons not showing to users properly.
- Fixed an issue causing race selection to immediately queue for matchmaking.
- Open replay files. ShieldBattery can now be registered to open replay (.rep) files for faster replay viewing. Replay files can also be dragged into the client for easy access.
- Updated translations. Thank you to our contributors! If you'd like to help, please check out our translation guide.
- Various bug fixes:
- Fixed race displayed on game results when a player chose random
- Fixed an issue with the language selector not displaying an initial selection
- The player search on the ladder page now works again
- Fixed an issue with chat channels sometimes ending up in the wrong order
- The "start minimized" option when launching the app on startup will now work properly
- Fixed Korean language selection not working if it was manually chosen.
- Multi-language support. We've added an initial version of supporting multiple languages within the app/website. Currently we have translations for: Chinese, Korean, Russian, and Spanish. Most of these translations are machine-generated and there are likely mistakes and problems! If you'd like to help contribute better translations, we've set up an easy process, just check out the translation guide on our GitHub! Please also let us know if you encounter any issues with non-English languages.
- Multiple chat channels. We've turned on the ability for users to create and join new chat channels. If you wanted a channel for your tournament or clan, you're in luck! Just click the header in the navigation panel to find and create new channels.
- New observer/replay UI. The built-in SC:R observer UI has been replaced with a custom new implementation. The SC:R version had a number of problems when loading through ShieldBattery, most notably just failing to load at all a lot of the time. The new UI should be snappier, always load, and allow us to build more cool features going forward. There are definitely some things missing at the moment, so please let us know if there's anything that's really important to you in this UI so we can focus on what matters.
- Revamped settings. We've rebuilt our settings dialog into a full-screen experience to allow for better organization and give us space to add new settings for upcoming features. Alongside this, applicable settings will also be editable on the web version.
- Unified lobbies. The Create and Join Lobby actions in the sidebar have been combined into a single view. Click the shiny new Lobbies button to find the lobby list and access lobby creation, or continue to use the old hotkeys (Alt+C and Alt+J) for quicker access.
- Leagues. We've been hard at work building a brand new way to compete, which we're calling Leagues. Leagues are limited-time events that require players to sign up to participate. Once signed up, any ladder games you play in the league's matchmaking type will also count towards the league's standings. Leagues are a great option for events that want to run ladder-based qualifiers. Stay tuned for some more announcements here! And if you're interested in running your own league, please reach out to us on our Discord.
- Public profiles and more. We've made a number of pages that previously required login open to the public: user profiles, ladder standings, game results, and leagues.
- Copy link buttons. As part of making some of these pages public, we've also made it easier to get links to them from within the app. Look for the link button near the top of the league or game results pages, and click it! These links work outside of the app, and are also convenient for sending to chat or whispers in the app.
- Support for WINE. Although not officially supported, the app is now able to run under WINE on Linux and launch games. If you'd like more details about how to get it working, check out the #development channel in our Discord.
- New season with tweaks to the rating system. Alongside this update comes a new season and new
map pools for 1v1 and 2v2. We've taken a look at how the rating system performed for Season 1, and
made some adjustments:
- Bonus pool reduced to 200 points per week (from 400). We thought the bonus pool gain was too significant of a factor, especially late in the season, so this change should help to rein that in.
- Point target increased to MMR x 4 (from MMR x 2). This should help players spread out more within a division, and keep active players on the leaderboard more in order by division (so Champion players at the top, followed by Diamond, followed by Platinum, etc.).
- Added an initial period of rapid point gain for wins for each player at the start of the season. This should bring players up to a point total appropriate for their division quickly, while still providing the benefits that come from using the point system (better anti-smurfing, more accurate matches at the beginning of seasons, etc.).
- Friends and enemies. We've built out a new friends list and added a way to block other user's chat messages. Friendships are mutual, so you'll have to get someone else to accept you before you'll be able to track them in your list. Blocking will only work in the application currently, we'll add further tools to manage ingame chat in the future.
- New game servers. There's now better global server coverage for games with new servers in Montreal, Seattle, Chicago, Dallas, Miami, and Santiago. These are in addition to the many servers we already had, and should help improve latency and performance for anyone in those areas.
- More info for local replays. The replay browser can now show info about game type, players, and more for local replays, so you can easily find the replay you're looking for. For replays of games played on ShieldBattery, it will also retrieve information about the map the game was played on.
- Rank change dialog. After each ranked game completes, we now show a snazzy dialog to visualize your rank change, as well as let you queue up for another match or watch the replay.
- Adjusted rank progression. The top rank (Champion) now has requirements similar to the ranks below it, and has had its max player cap removed. All players over 2400 rating will now be in the Champion division.
- Smurf detection. Players queueing for matchmaking will now be checked against existing accounts, and anyone determined to be smurfing will have their rating adjusted accordingly. This should result in more accurate matches for and against players that swap to new accounts.
- And some small stuff:
- Fixed a bug that caused the starting screen position to occasionally be off-center when spawning on the right side of the map.
- Message contents are now saved as you navigate throughout the app, so viewing someone's profile will no longer clear out that huge essay you were in the process of writing to your party members about their deficiencies in defending zergling pressure.
- Players in observer slots are now once again bannable in lobbies.
- Fixed selection circles not being visible when using the Carbot skin.
- Removed the custom title from the StarCraft window. This may require updating settings in your streaming programs if you are using window or game capture.
- Disabled SC:R's global PrintScreen hotkeys, which were interfering with all PrintScreen presses as long as the game was running.
- Fixed an issue with the Accept Match dialog sometimes staying up permanently if a match had failed to start.
- Ranked divisions. We've added divisions to all ranked modes based on MMR, along with brand new icons for each. All divisions below the top one are split into 3 tiers. The top division, Champion, is reserved for the top 10 players by rank, provided they are above the minimum rating. You'll see these new divisions in all the places we show ranks: leaderboards, profiles, and user overlays.
- Placement matches. Ranked modes will now assign users a rating after 5 placement matches, rather than immediately. This helps reduce confusion early on as you can bounce around different divisions very rapidly in your early games. Since we preserve MMR across seasons, placement matches will only need to be completed once per matchmaking type for the lifetime of an account.
- Updated colors for Protoss and Zerg. We found the previous colors got a bit confusing with our positive/negative colors. Since we didn't want anyone to think we're playing favorites, Protoss is now yellow and Zerg is now purple.
- Tweaked ranked points target. We've moved the ranked points target lower (from 4 times MMR to 2 times MMR). This should help players arrive at the level that they begin losing points in fewer games, which should reduce confusion about the system.
- Refreshed Find Match screen. The Find Match screen now shows information about your current ranked division and bonus pool size.
- Bug fixes. We've fixed an issue that prevented the client from running on Windows 7, as well as issues with non-working shortcut keys and janky scrolling.
- Better rankings for ties. Users that are tied for points will now be ranked by their MMR, rather than randomly sorted.
- Labeled searching. The matchmaking search status in the navigation area will now display which matchmaking type you are queued for.
- Seasons. Rankings will now be reset periodically (exact schedule still TBD), with the first reset occurring shortly after this update. Thank you to everyone that participated in our beta season, and we'll see you in Season 1!
- New ranked system. We've deployed a new ranked system based on Glicko 2, with tons of improvements from things we learned during our beta season. Our main goals are to encourage player activity throughout the season, to provide accurate and close matches even during the beginning of a season, and to make rankings feel earned. Players now have a rating (MMR), used for finding balanced matches, and points (RP), which are won or lost based on your performance and skill level. Points are reset to 0 each season and used for determining ladder rankings, while rating is carried across seasons. There is also a bonus pool that all players collect at a rate of 400 points per week: this pool will be used to offset point losses, or double point gains (so it's in your best interest to play throughout the whole season so you receive all the bonus points!). We look forward to your continued feedback on this system!
- Main race in ladder rankings. The ladder rankings now display a player's main race, detected based on all the games they have played during the season.
- Rankings search. Tired of scrolling to the bottom of the rankings to find all of your not-so-talented friends? Fear not, you can now simply type their name into our snazzy new search box and filter the rankings down to just the matching accounts!
- Improved shortcut keys. We've added a shortcut for opening the client settings (Alt + S), as well as starting a new whisper (Alt + W). There are also hotkeys for moving between tabs in any interface that has them (Ctrl + 1-9).
- Improved netcode. We've made a first pass at improving the netcode ingame. With this update, dynamic turn-rate will no longer be used for games (both matchmaking and custom lobbies). Instead, we're now using a system we call "auto-static turn-rate". When a match is starting, our servers will collect latency estimates from all players and pick a turn-rate that should work without lag. There are also a number of improvements under the hood to reduce latency and the negative effects of packet loss. Ingame, we've replaced the turn-rate indicator with an effective latency number: this number is the average time between sending an order (e.g. "move") and it being executed (e.g. "the units move towards that location").
- Fixed observer desyncs. We've identified and fixed the main cause of desyncs in observer clients that have plagued SC:R events for years (for one example). If you find other cases of desyncs happening while observing games on ShieldBattery, please let us know!
- Shift-click to mention. Added the ability to shift-click usernames on the chat screens to mention them in the message field. No more trying to figure out all the right characters in xXMLG_C0oLgUyXx's name.
- Auto-updater improvements. Made the auto-update more resilient to application errors so that persistent errors won't require a complete reinstall. The update dialog will also display its download progress so you have an idea of how long things are going to take.
- Various UI improvements. We've shortened the giant blue bar at the top of the screen to make more room for actual content (sorry if you liked it!). We also made usernames on the profile screen selectable, added improved tooltips to a few parts of the app, and improved the performance and visual clarity of file lists, such as the replay and map browser.
- Game result submission fixes. We've fixed a rare bug that prevented some people from submitting results at the end of the game.
- Better settings. We've completely reworked how settings are transmitted to the game client, preventing some possible problems but also, more importantly, allowing settings you change ingame to be transmitted back to ShieldBattery. In addition, we've added built-in support for a few more settings: announcer DLC packs and turn-rate and FPS displays.
- When are these rankings even from? The ladder pages will now show the last time the rankings were refreshed, so you never have to wonder just how old they might be.
- Less error-prone email verification. Our verification emails now provide links that specify the account they're for, and will tell you if you need to swap accounts to complete verification.
- Fixes for exploits. We've fixed a number of exploits. Notably, disconnecting from the internet at the end of a game will no longer prevent you from receiving a loss, and all games affected by this bug will now be resolved properly and have points awarded/removed.
- Improved login error messages. The login screen will now display better error messages when things go wrong, instead of throwing a bunch of technical jargon at you.
- HD graphics fail to work even when purchased/turned on. Blizzard requires the game to be launched from their launcher once every 30 days to keep premium features enabled. We'll at the very least add a warning for this case in the future (or better yet, automate re-authing), but for now, try to launch the game from the Blizzard launcher at least once a month.
- Off-center screen starting position. For some users, generally in positions on the right side of the screen, the starting screen position may be slightly off-center from where it usually is
- Observer chat is broken. Observers are unable to send messages ingame currently. This will be fixed in a future update.
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Fixed ally chat. Ally chat should now be working in ranked 2v2 games. And if you never realized it was broken, well, it was! Your ally wasn't ignoring you! Probably.
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UI tweaks. We've tweaked a bunch of interfaces to smooth over some things people were confused about: party queues, race selection, readying up for a found match, and more! Special thanks to everyone who has streamed themselves using ShieldBattery, it's been very helpful to see what you're finding hard to use!
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Bug fixes. We've fixed a bunch of small and rare bugs, but for some people these are probably very important:
- Fixed a rare crash when launching the standalone application
- Fixed a crash on initializing the game if your Windows username contained non-latin characters
- HD graphics fail to work even when purchased/turned on. Blizzard requires the game to be launched from their launcher once every 30 days to keep premium features enabled. We'll at the very least add a warning for this case in the future (or better yet, automate re-authing), but for now, try to launch the game from the Blizzard launcher at least once a month.
- Off-center screen starting position. For some users, generally in positions on the right side of the screen, the starting screen position may be slightly off-center from where it usually is
- Observer chat is broken. Observers are unable to send messages ingame currently. This will be fixed in a future update.
- 2v2 matchmaking. Team matchmaking is finally here! Our matchmaker can now handle matching up teams of 2, either with parties or creating teams from solo players. Ratings are calculated similar to 1v1, with each player in the team getting their own rating value. Our ladder page has also been updated to let you see the latest rankings for the 2v2 mode.
- It's a party! You can now invite up to 7 other people to join your party by right-clicking their name in chat. Parties get their own private chat area, and are able to queue up together for team matchmaking. In the future, parties will allow you to watch replays together and easily create private custom lobbies.
- Profile improvements. The popup displayed when you click someone's name in chat has been improved to show a bunch more info at a glance: account creation date, win/loss record, ranks and more! We also split the useful user actions into a separate menu which you can find by right-clicking someone's name.
- Game results page. Game results pages now subscribe to live updates, so you'll always see the latest version with up-to-date results, even if you left the game early. The page also properly divides players into teams when necessary, and shows MMR changes for each player in ranked modes. If you're arriving at the page by completinga ranked game, there's also a snazzy new button to search for another match right from the page.
- Better message notifications. Whisper, lobby, and party messages will all qualify as "urgent" now, displaying the red icon and flashing the window's taskbar entry. We've also added a sound for these cases (as well as when someone mentions you) to make things more noticeable. Settings for controlling when these sounds should play are coming in the near future, although you can control the volume of these sounds in the App settings today.
- Auto-updater improvements. The auto-updater should now download updates faster for users not near our main server.
- Bug fixes and polish. We put tons of bug fixes and polish into this release, including but not limited to: a fix for game crashes caused by checking or unchecking the Vsync setting checkbox, corrections to game result calculation in games with alliances, improved latency when performing a ton of actions in the standalone client (sending chat messages, for instance), and added sounds for performing certain actions (like entering the matchmaking queue).
- HD graphics fail to work even when purchased/turned on. Blizzard requires the game to be launched from their launcher once every 30 days to keep premium features enabled. We'll at the very least add a warning for this case in the future (or better yet, automate re-authing), but for now, try to launch the game from the Blizzard launcher at least once a month.
- Off-center screen starting position. For some users, generally in positions on the right side of the screen, the starting screen position may be slightly off-center from where it usually is
- Observer chat is broken. Observers are unable to send messages ingame currently. This will be fixed in a future update.