The Heart of the Swarm 3.0.3 Patch is now live! This patch brings a host of new additions and improvements to the game in preparing for Legacy of the Void's impending release. Please read the full patch notes below.

Heart of the Swarm: Patch 3.0.3 Notes

General

• Regional Game Servers
  • With the introduction of Patch 3.0.3, new game servers have been added to StarCraft II for the Americas login region and for the Asia login region.
  • The matchmaker will now automatically try to find the best game server for you to play on based on your round-trip latency (a.k.a. “ping”) to all of the servers connected to the region you log into.
  • Your ping information is used in combination with your individual skill rating to find and match you with other players of similar skill who also connect to your server.
  • Along with this change, a Preferred Game Server selector is now available in Options > Language and Region. This setting will default to Best Match, but players may wish to change this if they notice connection issues when playing on a specific server. If you are not experiencing issues, it is highly recommended that you leave this set to Best Match.
• Matchmaking Improvements
  • Players should now experience shorter queue times when searching for a match.
  • It should now be less likely for players with large skill differences to be matched against each other in 1v1 matchmaking (eg. Grandmaster vs. Bronze).
  • The matchmaker should now favor parties of similar size when searching for team games.
• Silence Penalty
  • Players who are frequently reported for Abusive Chat in StarCraft II will now be given a Silence Penalty.
  • When silenced, players may not send chat messages in the following areas:
    • In-Game All and Ally Chat
    • Direct whispers to non-Friends List players
    • Chat Channels: Public, Custom, or Group
    • Tournament Lobbies (upon the release of Legacy of the Void)
    • Public Custom Game Lobbies and Arcade Lobbies
    • Writing map reviews
  • A player’s first Silence Penalty will last for 24 hours.
    • Each Silence Penalty received after the first will double in duration, and there is no maximum amount of time that a player can be silenced.
    • Silenced players will be notified of the penalty’s remaining duration each time they log into StarCraft II.
    • A red speech bubble icon will appear on silenced players’ portraits in the game’s menus to indicate their silenced status to others.
  • For more information, see the overview we posted on this feature for Heroes of the Storm which follows similar functionality.
• StarCraft II now better evaluates whether a player has completed certain meta-achievements for the Heart of the Swarm or the forthcoming Legacy of the Void campaigns, and may reward credit for those achievements retroactively if it finds errors.
• Players who are temporarily disconnected from Battle.net during a game should no longer lose their achievement progress if they are automatically reconnected during the same game session. This should reduce the frequency of players who don’t receive credit for an achievement despite having fulfilled the achievement’s criteria.
• In Options > Graphics, a warning message now displays if players who are running 2 GB of memory or lower attempt to set Texture Quality to Medium or higher.
• Various optimizations have been made to the StarCraft II network code which should result in a reduction of packet loss during games.

User Interface

• In the Arcade, right-clicking an Open Game entry will now bring up a context menu with the option to either Join Game or View Game Info.
• New expository videos, titled “The Story So Far”, have been added to the Campaign sub-selection screens. These videos recap the events leading up to the start of each of the three StarCraft II campaigns.
• Private Lobbies can now be linked in chat using the [Lobby] linking feature.
• The Chat Panel has been slightly widened for users in 16×9 resolutions.
• The 1v1 multiplayer loading screen has been refreshed to display race-specific art to match the race selection of each player.

Gameplay

• Advanced Ping has been added.
  • To use, hold down ALT and drag-click on either the ground or the minimap to choose from multiple visual indicators that will be sent to players on your team.
  • The indicators that can be used are: Attack, Defend, On My Way, or Retreat.
• A new error cursor now displays to more clearly indicate whether or not abilities can be used through the fog of war.

StarCraft II Editor

• The default server storage space for Arcade map creators has been doubled from 150 MB to 300 MB.
• In the Data Module, the Hint Viewer now supports enum hints.

Bug Fixes

• General
  • Fixed an issue where Allied Chat would not be the default chat method in team games if a player had previously sent a chat message to all players.
• User Interface
  • General
    • The Artanis Home Screen background now displays as a 2D still image when setting Graphics Quality to Low or Medium.
    • Fixed an issue where the sound from the Artanis home screen scene would persist even after logging off of Battle.net.
    • Fixed an issue where planets on the background screens would occasionally shift or pop.
    • Fixed an issue where party members would see all other matchmaking queues disappear when readying up for a queue as a party.
    • Fixed an issue where certain non-ascii characters were not displaying properly when running the Simplified Chinese version of StarCraft II.
    • Fixed an issue where the Protoss energy counter would not fit properly in the overlay text box when using the Streamlined or Split 1v1 observer interfaces.
    • [Lobby] links will now properly display the map name if used as broadcasts.
    • Fixed an issue where the Options > Restore Defaults button would need to be clicked twice in order for settings to be properly reset.
  • Loading Screens
    • Reduced the likelihood that player names would become truncated in the multiplayer loading screen.
    • Fixed an issue where the name plate in the multiplayer loading screen would get cut-off in certain resolutions.
  • Chat Panel
    • Fixed an issue where the chat scroll bar could be clicked on even when the Chat Panel was out of focus.
    • Fixed an issue where occasionally the missed chat messages notification in the Chat Panel would not properly clear when switching chat filters.
    • Fixed an issue where players would occasionally receive an error message stating that they are unable to join Arcade chat despite already being in chat.
    • Fixed an issue where the Chat Panel was in focus when auto-joining in chat for the first time, blocking the background cutscene.
    • Fixed an issue where the Chat Panel would not properly fade when out of focus on Low graphics settings.
    • Fixed formatting issues when using the zhTW locale.
  • Friends List
    • Fixed an issue where players in other Blizzard games would display a StarCraft II presence icon in the Friends List.
    • Sending a Friend Request from the Friends List now properly sends feedback to the requesting player.
    • Fixed a UI formatting issue with the in-game Friends List.
  • Groups & Clans
    • Fixed an issue where players could sometimes get stuck in a state where they were a member of the wrong group or clan. Players who are in this state should now be able to leave the group or clan properly.
    • Custom clan icons will now display properly in the Groups list.
    • Fixed a crash that could occur when typing too many characters into the Groups & Clans member filter field.
  • Custom Games
    • The selected state between entries in Custom Games and Replays is now more visually consistent.
    • Fixed an issue where the Custom Games map search wouldn’t use the default variant index specified in the editor.
    • Fixed a rare issue where players could become permanently unable to create Custom Game lobbies.
    • Fixed an issue where the team color of an Archon follower wasn’t using the player’s proper color selection.
  • Profile and Parties
    • Portraits no longer look pixelated in the UI.
    • Fixed a sound inconsistency that could occur when clicking on your portrait.
    • Portraits now properly display an offline avatar when playing in Offline Mode.
    • Fixed an issue where the spawning icon would persist even after disbanding a spawned party.
    • The Achievement Showcase selection list now fits six achievements in the display pane instead of five.
  • Arcade
    • Fixed an issue where Arcade game titles could extend beyond the boundaries of the game info panel.
• Gameplay
  • Fixed an issue where members of an Archon could prevent each other from sending pings.
• Editor
  • General
    • Publishing will no longer ignore locales for which the published name matches the enUS name.
    • Publishing now ignores any MapInfo files within mods, which could otherwise lead to validation errors.
    • Start locations are now properly drawn in map images generated during publishing.
    • Sound actor previewing is now audible even if the Terrain Module is open.
  • Data Module
    • The Object Properties dialog no longer allows resetting field values when modifying multiple objects.
  • Trigger Module
    • Catalog Field Path parameters now allow choosing arrays without an index.
    • Fixed an issue where a possible infinite loading loop could occur when updating libraries due to dependency changes.
• Mac
  • Fixed an issue where the Mac Editor would crash on startup in non-English languages.