This is the third article that will look at bugs in StarCraft II Co-op. Most of the bugs in the first post were fixed, but the second post still contains many present in the game. I included some bugs because they are interesting, some are important for upcoming mutations, and others have been just nagging me. Today's list:
- Heroes from the Storm – Dehaka's Drag
- Heroes from the Storm – Extra waves
- Heroes from the Storm – Spawn exploit
- Tychus vs Polarity
- We Move Unseen & Mind Control
- Building/rooting units in fog-of-war
- Nikara healing objectives
- Chokers & Stun
- Crooked Sam & Fear
- Part and Parcel – Parts trick
I would like to thank everyone who helped me to identify bugs—in particular Korean and Chinese friends.
Update: Some bugs were fixed in patch 4.8.4
HftS – Dehaka's Drag
(Heroes from the Storm = Every attack wave will be led by Heroes of increasing power)
Update: This issue has been fixed in patch 4.9.0
If enemy Dehaka pulls your Zeratul hero with his Drag ability, an enemy
copy of your Zeratul will be created.
When enemy Dehaka drags your Zeratul, the ability will create a placeholder Zeratul near Dehaka. This placeholder unit is usually killed with "Suicide Remove" effect by dealing damage equals to unit's maximum life and maximum shields.
However, Zeratul hero unit is special because its starting health (300) is higher than its max health (150) for some reason. So when the placeholder unit is dealt damage through "Suicide Remove" effect, it will survive with 150 health and no shields.
~ ~ ~
Speaking of Dehaka dragging and devouring, there is an Easter egg in Heroes from the Storm mutator. Your own Dehaka can't devour enemy heroes with a single exception—enemy Dehaka. If your Dehaka does so, a special voice line will play.HftS – extra waves
(Heroes from the Storm = Every attack wave will be led by Heroes of increasing power)
Update: This issue has been fixed in patch 4.9.0
Enemy heroes spawn not just with each attack wave, they also spawn with each escort wave and even with small waves attacking mission objectives (e.g. on Void Launch or Malwarfare).
I don't believe it's intended. The mutator description says "attack wave", and most players will think of attack waves as those marked on the minimap. However, whether it is or isn't a bug, players should be aware of it. Next week we are going to have a mutation on Void Launch with Heroes from the Storm and Moment of Silence.
HftS – Spawn exploit
(Heroes from the Storm = Every attack wave will be led by Heroes of increasing power)
Update: This issue has been fixed in patch 4.9.0
If you destroy an attack wave before it's sent, no enemy heroes will spawn.
This comes down to how the mutation is set up. Heroes are spawned only when an attack wave is sent by an AI player. This can be almost immediately after spawning, but for example on Temple of the Past it can be after 20 seconds.
On Void Launch, preventing heroes from spawning can be the most easily done with a Protoss enemy because their units are vulnerable during warp-in. ProtossBuildTechy composition is ideal since it's composed mostly of low HP units. However, it's possible with other races as well assuming they are killed fast enough—for example with ZergBuildGround.
Against Protoss, disabling attack wave first (e.g. with Phoenix) and killing them later works as well. Protoss attack waves are not finished spawning until its units can move. You will need to kill Observers as well. Hybrids will often don't count for attack waves. They are added later to the attack wave, and can't be added if there is no attack wave.
Chinese videos of soloing upcoming mutation with this exploit – Alarak, Nova, Karax and Artanis.
Comments on working
with attack waves
I have run into issues with properly identifying attack waves with my Dark Mirror mutator (it replaces attack wave units with commander's unit types). I made it work, but it's hacked together and not very elegant. It would be a lot easier if the function creating attack waves reported when and where the attack wave is created and its units, or let other functions modify or add units to attack waves.
It should also differentiate between standard waves and other waves. This could be done partly on the mod-level. You can tell apart escort waves on Void Launch, harass waves on Cradle of Death or infested waves by AI Commander for given player. And Chain of Ascension uses different players for escort waves. However, some maps—like Malwarfare—would require map-specific changes to differentiate between attack wave types.
Overall, this is something that could help to tie mutators and attack waves together more seamlessly and without exploits and issues.
Tychus vs Polarity
(Polarity = Each enemy unit is immune to either your units or your ally's units)
Update: This issue has been fixed in patch 4.8.4
Tychus can deal damage to immune units once Kel-Morian Ripper Rounds are researched. Enemy units have to be manually targeted, and Tychus deals only 5 damage minus enemy armor.
We Move Unseen & Mind Control
(We Move Unseen = All enemy units are permanently cloaked)
Update: This issue has been fixed in patch 4.8.4
Mind-control abilities (except Dark Archon’s) won’t remove invisibility granted by We Move Unseen mutator.
MutatorPermanentlyCloaked behavior is hardcoded to be removed if the unit is mind-controlled by Dark Archons and only them. CT_OwnerChanges trigger doesn’t remove this cloaking buff as it's common with the rest of mutators.
building/rooting units in fog-of-war
This one was nagging me for some time. Certain buildings cannot be built in explored fog-of-war, and others cannot be rooted in it.
Buildings that cannot be built in explored fog-of-war:
- Primal Wurm
- Spore Crawler
- Spine Crawler
- Infested Missile Turret
Buildings that cannot be rooted in explored fog-of-war:
- Spore Crawler
- Spine Crawler
- Infested Missile Turret
- Infested Barracks
- Infested Colonist Compound
- Infested Factory
- Infested Starport
In the first case, "Pathing Footprint (Placement)" is important, and the second case both "Pathing Footprint" & "Pathing Footprint (Placement)" are important for proper function. These decide where you can build/root buildings. Overall, for these buildings I would recommend the same set-up that works well for Infested Bunker:
in Pathing Footprint (Placement):
- uncheck "fogged" in PlacementCheck/SetOne/Invalid
in Pathing Footprint:
- uncheck "fogged" in PlacementCheck/SetOne/Invalid
- uncheck "creep" in PlacementCheck/SetOne/Required
If you leave creep required in Pathing Footprint (Placement), it will require creep to build/root.
Nikara healing objectives
Update: This issue has been fixed in patch 4.9.0
Nikara can heal mission objectives with her double heal (Procyon Twin Heal Beam Gauntlet).
She won't heal mission objectives with her primary beam, but if one of your outlaws is hurt, Nikara will heal the objective with her secondary beam. This works well on Mist Opportunities, Miner Evacuation, Part and Parcel, Malwarfare and Void Launch. The easiest way is to attack Tychus with another outlaw.
On Scythe of Amon you don't need to use the trick as shuttles can be healed normally.
Excluding units with "map boss" attribute in TychusMedivacHealSearch search effect would prevent Nikara from doing this.
Chokers & stun
Update: This issue has been fixed in
patch 4.9.1
Chokers on Dead of Night keep choking units even if the Choker is stunned (e.g. by Crooked Sam's Demolition Charge, Time Stop or Stasis Field).
It could be prevented if "Caster Not Stunned" validator is added to ChokerValidators used in TentacleAttackTentaclePersistent effect.
Crooked Sam & Fear
Update: This issue has been fixed in patch 4.9.0
Demolition Charge cannot be used on units feared by Sirius.
This one has been annoying me since Tychus was released. Fear could synergize well with delayed explosion of Demolition Charge if it wasn't for this.
The issue is that "Uncommandable" units are excluded in target filters for Demolition Charge ability.
PnP – parts trick
Update: This issue has been fixed in
patch 4.9.1
On Part and Parcel, if collect 70 additional parts before killing your current hybrid, the timer will stop until you kill the hybrid.
Ignoring the first hybrid and continuing collecting parts is the easiest way to handle this mission. It could be particularly useful on harder mutations. This way you will have all the time you want before engaging the hybrid—you can even clear the whole map if you want.
When the hybrid is killed, the timer will start counting down unless you have enough parts to pause it again. One note, there are total of nine attack waves on Part and Parcel—the last one spawning at 30 minutes.Final Note
This concludes the third edition of bug hunt. As always, if you encounter any bugs yourself, report them on the official bug report forum.
