Me and my friends used to play WC3 long years ago, and some switched to Dota, WoW, etc, nothing.
Since then we all were still interested in WC3, regularly watched match reviews on youtube, were very excited about reforge, etc.
But no one actually even tried to play it, because it’s always considered hard.
I’ve found some time to download it month ago.
And I see that it’s not just hard in sense of strategy, counter strategy, micro control, etc., but it also requires just lots of experience in very simple things, that are not less important for victory. So its not just about your smartness and skills.
Me have experience in programming and product management, and I guess I can evaluate what’s can be done relatively easy, so there is no need to read wikis, create custom maps and play lots with AI just to test things.
So, I’ve made a list of that things, that could be done to make WC3 more casual and not so hardcore.
Btw most of them could be also solved just with an addons system.
The List:
Hotkey to show/hide building grid. No time for measures during game. (I had to note arrangements of all key buildings relying to trees on all competitive maps.)
Common Tips. Weapon and armor types (like in Castle Fight); magic or physical type of damage on skills (like in Dota); DPS (like in WoW); exact movement and attack speed, not just slow/average/hight; unit vision and collision size; size of buildings and whether they have additional free space cell around — it’s not obvious in case of selling and air-producing buildings. Weapon and armor types probably is the biggest mess, but apparently this has changed over time due to balance, and now it’s nearly impossible to be changed. (For me, things got a little simpler if you think of light armor as an aircraft armor, since there are no lightly armored ground units. Probably it could just be renamed.)
One can plan building using “shift” even having no resources while building command, but one can’t plan building we have no resources on while harvesting wood/gold. But the case is — me sure that it’l be enough after last harvesting action.
It should be possible to order worker and tier upgrade in a raw. Probably also even if there is currently no resources for that.
Hotkey to select all other units of selected kind. It’s not easy to do it while they are running, even with ctrl.
Select more than 12 units. Mb even all can be selected, but grouped.
Neutral buildings (Laboratory, Mercenaries Camp) must be bindable.
Predefined Macro (like in WoW). Something like “till nothing is bound, the “8” is an Ancient of Life”.
Something like W3Booster would be nice in game.
Tips on neutral creeps on not yet explored spots. On a new map they need to be scouted first. Probably also all magic-immune creeps need some common animation — it’s not just Golems, sometimes it’s very unexpected.
Fog of war could be a little lighter. (Mb its just me, but sometimes you have to strain your eyesight. Mb its also just me, but Open map mode always feels way “fluffy”, mb it’s also due to fog being to dark.)
There are also things, that can be mastered, and it gives big advantages over casuals, no mater strategy u picked:
Lure out big creeps, so they do not cast. Probably it’s just a bug.
Drop hp/mp boosting items, restore hp/mp, pick items back. That’s obviously a “hacky action”.
Creeping with Ancient of War (me playing Elf, and consider that breaking). Me sure it’s also not a game design, it’s a pro-gamers finding. Probably when uprooted, it must get way more damage from neutrals.
I hope all of it make sense for u, I hope Blizzard understands it and one day I’ll play with my friends on equal.
This isn’t a casual game, outside of custom games really.
While there may be some legitimate QOL improvements here, this is a complex game with a lot of depth, it will never be a “casual” game.
The only thing I wish they’d fix is the community, by actually moderating it and banning chronic leavers/toxic players. That would make other ppl think twice about quitting in the first 10 seconds because they don’t like someone’s MMR or they dont like the map or spurt obscenities or whatever. Of course they’d need to add a surrender vote so there is a way to get out of a game once the team agrees it’s unwinnable.
Ye, it would never be casual, originally it was “a little more casual”, but title length restrictions…)
And ye, I’d also would like feature like “never random me with that particular player again please, reason — XXX”
What is a “casual” game? You can play almost any game causally and even things as basic and silly as rock paper scissors are played competitively. Part of what makes this game so much better than mechanically intensive games like SC2 is that fact strategy is so important as opposed to pure click speed and efficiency. Some of the QoL things would be nice like selecting over 12 units. Micro will always be important control will always be important but the fact there is strategic depth and knowledge and strategy are effective are why its a good game. Players like HAPPY will always find ways to make their skill shine and rise to the top but designing your game so that the average player can have a good experience is a great idea. Many of these suggestions like more than 12 units are great now are the viable and implementable and easy I bet not but if they were would I want them absolutely. Now his mechnics on luring creeps etc i see as Boon and not a thing that should be changed thats part of the depth but simple things like selecting 24 units instead fo 12 for hotkey 1 if that was easy yea lets do it. With how old the game is I’m going to say that’s not a quick fix and hard coded somewhere not so easy to hot swap but if it was yea sure why not.
I agree with this. This would require updating the interface and having a tutorial section akin to how Valve does it with Dota 2. Warcraft 3 is deep enough where reading and learning about mechanics is fascinating and engrossing. I would love if there was a glossary or quick reference sheets that are accessible in-game some how.
Disagree on this one. This builds bad habits and leans too much on automation. Encourages a Starcraftian “mechanics check” that takes away from Warcraft’s focus on a pseudo-RPG’ish flavor.
Absolutely not. This isn’t Starcraft 2 where we can wad up our whole army and a-click it. 12 units per control group is just right and being able to wad up our armies will just make the game too chaotic. I could see this for Starcraft 1/2 where it’s all about macro play, but we have seen what happens when you don’t have a limit to a control group in Starcraft 2; degenerative play and a low skill floor.
I agree with most of your points. But Warcraft III is already the most accessible, wide as a puddle deep as an ocean RTS. It just needs more exposure, modernization, and continued support. Blizzard is already on the right path, we just need more out of them.
Blizzard. The kings of casualizing formally hardcore genres for a wider audience. Warcraft III made RTS more accessible. Come on now.
I really dont agree with this statement. it is, as you said, deep as an oecan, and new players are regularly reviled for not knowing how to play and often end up quitting because of how toxic the community is.People leave games for no clear reason (when its because of somebody on their team often enough) and yeah, this really isn’t an easy game to get into for someone who isn’t already into the genre.