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StarCraft II Beta – Patch 5 (version 0.7.0.14356)

The latest patch notes can always be found on the StarCraft II Beta General Discussion forum.

Balance Changes

• PROTOSS
  • Cybernetics Core
    • Warp Gate research time increased from 60 seconds to 140 seconds.

• ZERG
  • Hatchery/Lair/Hive
    • Burrow research time increased from 50 seconds to 100 seconds.
    • Burrow research cost increased from 50 Minerals and 50 Vespene Gas to 100 Minerals and 100 Vespene Gas.
  • Nydus Network
    • Nydus Worm build time increased from 10 seconds to 20 seconds.
  • Hydralisk
    • The delay between attacks has been increased from 0.75 seconds to 0.83 seconds.
  • Infestor
    • Neural Parasite has been redesigned:
      • The limited duration of 10 seconds has been removed.
      • Can no longer target air units.
      • Cast range decreased from 9 to 7.
    • Burrowed Infestor move speed decreased from 1.5 to 1.
    • Infestor life decreased from 120 to 90.
    • Infestors that are burrowed now have the same threat level as above-ground units for the purposes of automatically acquiring targets.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue with High graphics settings that could cause particles not to render.

StarCraft II Beta - Patch 3 (version 0.5.0.14219B)

Balance Changes

• TERRAN
  • Engineering Bay
    • Infantry Armor: The time required for each upgrade has been reduced by 30 seconds, decreasing each upgrade time from 190/220/250 seconds to 160/190/220 seconds.
    • Infantry Weapons: The time required for each upgrade has been reduced by 30 seconds, decreasing each upgrade time from 190/220/250 seconds to 160/190/220 seconds.
  • Armory
    • Vehicle Plating: The time required for each upgrade has been reduced by 30 seconds, decreasing each upgrade time from 190/220/250 seconds to 160/190/220 seconds.
    • Vehicle Weapons: The time required for each upgrade has been reduced by 30 seconds, decreasing each upgrade time from 190/220/250 seconds to 160/190/220 seconds.
    • Ship Plating: The time required for each upgrade has been reduced by 30 seconds, decreasing each upgrade time from 190/220/250 seconds to 160/190/220 seconds.
    • Ship Weapons: The time required for each upgrade has been reduced by 30 seconds, decreasing each upgrade time from 190/220/250 seconds to 160/190/220 seconds.

• PROTOSS
  • Zealot
    • The maximum shield capacity of this unit has been decreased from 60 to 50.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where the Infestor's Neural Parasite ability could cause Reapers to lose the ability to move.
• Fixed an issue that could use an incorrect HDR format on some ATI cards.
• Fixed a crash that could happen on some ATI cards.

This is a pretty urgent thing to report because it could damage or potentially completely ruin your video card if it's ignored. The latest NVIDIA drivers, 196.75-WHQL released on March 2nd, 2010 are causing issues with the video card fan control while playing Blizzard (and other) games. This is caused by the Automatic Fan Speed feature being broken in the latest drivers.

The games included are: World of Warcraft, StarCraft II Beta and Warcraft III. If you play any of these games (which I'm pretty sure you do if you're reading this website), you'll want to roll your drivers back to earlier versions until this is fixed, unless you want to replace a video card within the next few days.

To find out what version drivers you're using:

• Right-click on your desktop
• Click NVIDIA Control Panel
• When the Control Panel opens, in the bottom left corner there should be a "System Information" link; click this
• Your Driver version should be in the Details portion

Quote from Datth:

We're getting reports where users are getting intermittent low FPS after installing these drivers. It seems that it is related to the fan control included in these drivers not working correctly and is causing the video card to overheat on 3D applications. This will affect Warcraft 3, World of Warcraft and StarCraft 2 Beta. Please uninstall the drivers and revert back to the older ones.

Windows XP: http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_196.21_whql.html
Windows XP 64-bit: http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp64_196.21_whql.html
Windows Vista/7 32-bit: http://www.nvidia.com/object/win7_winvista_32bit_196.21_whql.html
Windows Vista/7 64-bit: http://www.nvidia.com/object/win7_winvista_64bit_196.21_whql.html

More information can be found on threads such as these:
http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=161525
http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=161503

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