"Changed Speed from "Fast" to Fastest" for Ladder Games."
A change of course welcomed, but unfortunately about three years too late. Unless the abuse of the public gateway ladder is fixed, it probably still won't increase in popularity.
"You now can preview your map in the Multiplayer chat screen"
When joining a game, it is now possible to see what the map looks like before the game starts. There is now a line of text above the "game speed" and "map size" info on the right side that reads "Map Preview". Putting your mouse over this text reveals a very sized down image of the map you are playing on. While this image certainly is not large, it is still crisp enough to let you clearly see all of the terrain and expansion info on a given map, thus reducing the confusion of playing on a map for the first time.
"Added a Friends List Feature and button that allows you to keep track of your friends"
The most glaring difference is the addition of a new button on the battle.net chat window - bringing the total to six. This new "Friends" button makes it much more convenient to see who from your friends' list is online. When you click the button, your list of friends appears on the right side as if they were all in a channel together. If they are online, the box where ladder ratings/stars go will appear empty by their name. If the friend is offline, nothing will be by their name. You can also double click on any of your friends' names and view their profiles, regardless of their online status.
For those who enjoy chatting on battle.net, this feature will certainly be of use.
"Added minimap ping"
Instead of telling your ally/allies to go at '8 o clock or to gather just outside his base, you will now be able to set a minimap ping that they will be able to see. By pressing ALT+rightclick and by choosing where on the minimap to place it, your allies will hear a sound and see the attention icon on their own minimap.
This an extremely good tool when playing team games, just press a short key combination and you won't have to explain exactly where to gather your forces. This is also useful when observing a game and you want the other observers' attention for a fierce battle, a surspicious mistake or something.
"When a building is selected and if a ground rally point is set the rally point will briefly animate"
As the screenshot shows, I merely selected my Nexus, and it showed me where my rally point was previously set. Note that the green circle created looks exactly the same as the one that appears when a rally point is first set.
"Added Friend mail feature that enables you to email your friends"
Another nifty feature for the confused ones. Creating a new account in WarCraft III, and in Diablo II for that matter, you are asked to enter your e-mail adress this because if you should forget your password. By entering a valid e-mail address, you will be able to press Password Recovery where you fill in your account name and the e-mail address.
Blizzard will not do anything with your entered e-mail address. As said on the Battle.Net Technical Support Site: "The email address is only registered for password recovery and the Battle.net Mail Features." It will not be sent out to any callers, firms or anything else that may cause your e-mail to be handed unwanted mail. Have a look at » Battle.net/mail for more information on Battle.net mail and password recovery features.
"Lost Temple has been updated"
Dire Straits and Rivalry has been tweaked as well. But why? Yes, we all had that same question. Since Blizzard seems to be hoping for increased popularity in their Battle.net ladder (game speed change), the maps must also be updated since they have some obvious position imbalance. The maps have now been updated making the mineral increase flow stay in pace regardless of your starting position, and more. This update was made so that you do not longer have to look at all your 100 Lost Temple versions and try to think which one was the best - simply choose the one with the Blizzard icon in your ladder maps folder.
No ingame bug fixes!
As a suprise to many, including myself, there were no ingame changes in StarCraft for patch 1.12. There are several bugs currently known, including dragoon stack bug, building crush bug and many, many more. Why these have not been fixed we are not yet aware. The suprising is that the original reason we belived patch 1.12 was coming was because it indeed would correct the ingame bugs so that the Blizzard StarCraft events would run smoothly. Now, however, they will have to continue listing the not-allowed bugs in their event rules.
Having problems updating?
One important thing to note is while updating to this patch it updates certain maps in your folders. If for some reason you have removed the folders "ladder", "oldladder", or "scenario" the patch will not install correctly, and an error message will come up. If you have deleted these folders, the easiest way to get them back is merely to reinstall StarCraft. Notice GosuGamers will not supply you with any CD-Keys, illegal installationfiles or cracks, so do not bother asking. However, if you have any other questions regarding the patch update please feel free to ask. You can also grab the patch from » Blizzard's support site.
Third party tools not working
Normally when a patch is released, all third party programs will be out of function. This includes everything from BWChart, BWScanner and other friendly, good tools, to maphacks and cracks. This means that you do not have to worry about your opponent hacking for a while, until a new hack is released for 1.12. Whether BWScanner or the maphackers will update their programs first is something we do not know. Nevertheless, GosuGamers will update you in our news section when the best legal third party tools out there are updated.