Warcraft 3 Is Getting Yet Another New Patch

Remasters of the first two Warcraft games is out of the question, according to Blizzard, but Warcraft 3 is much more realistic proposition, especially with the StarCraft remaster just around the corner. And with Blizzard planning yet another update for the game, it’s hard not to entertain the possibility.

For a long time, the last official patch for Warcraft 3 was v1.26, which came out in 2011. Then, in mid-2016, Blizzard released v1.27 and since then has pushed out several small updates for the ancient strategy title.

The steady, if infrequent pace of patches continues, with a post from Blizzard developer Pete Stilwill last week providing a changelog for v1.28.6, along with PTR installers so players can test it out. The main focus appears multiplayer map pools, but the update does come with fixes and balance tweaks:

General Improvements & Gameplay Objectives

• Balanced creep camp difficulty progression from early to late game
• Balanced creep drop tables for better item progression from early game to late game
• Item diversity: Varied Level 1 though 6 charged items and Level 1 through 6 permanent items
• Balanced all start locations: total amount and starting distance from lumber, equal amount of spacing, equal size choke points, et cetera
• Balanced expansion distance from start locations
• Decluttered points of interest to reduce visual competition during gameplay
• Retextured map surfaces for better visual clarity – both on screen and mini-map
• Minimized the size of trees and doodads that obstructed player view of points of interest
• Added cliff lines or deep water to edges of the map – removing hard edges (aesthetic choice for immersion)
• Properly placed trees and doodads on the pathing grid: full-cell Medium Grid to half-cell Medium Grid alternate
• Removed the rolling shoreline waves from rolling hills to remove the noise the waves created – remains for cliff shores

Even if these patches aren’t a precursor to an eventual remaster, it’s hard to say no to free updates to an ageing, much-loved title like Warcraft 3, so it can hopefully keep trucking for another five or even ten years.

1.28.6 PTR [Blizzard, via RPS]