it’s simple. Do it like with D2:R. Release the original game as a SEPARATE entity, like D2:LoD is separate from D2:R. Apply to the the classic version all the recent balance patches, so that they are in sync in terms of balance. It’s ESPECIALLY important to make replays cross-compatible. This will KILL most of the HATE for WC3:R, because people will have a CHOICE of the classic version IF they prefer it. You can name this “Warcraft 3: Classic”, just like you did with WoW.
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I mean, yeah, that’s how they could have done it, but that’s not how they actually did it. Now it would be too expensive to undo everything that’s already been done.
Notice that WoW Classic was released AFTER newer WoW criticism. The same can be done with WC3. It’s not too late. The main problem is that WC3:R is a total failure and money sink. Let’s just bring back the old classic with the new balance patches. Doing this will cost 10x less than fixing this turd.
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Your comment has nothing whatsoever to do with the situation. Blizzard was already planning to make WoW classic, it didn’t just happen out of criticism.
As for the “old classic,” it still exists. It’s called classic mode. Same graphics same engine, with those balance updates you were talking about. The only real difference when you’re in classic mode is battle.net and the out-of-game elements.
It absoutely would not be cheaper to suddenly start updating the old game, and it still doesn’t really give us what we originally wanted: A remaster. It wouldn’t be cheaper because they don’t have any of the original engineers that were working on it before, sol you have the same problem that they have now: New people working on it who have to learn how to work on it.
The game engine in Reforged is still the same game engine: This is why the Reforged graphics eat more performance than they really should, because while the game can use those assets, it wasn’t really designed for them.
We have what we have, and it makes more sense to fix it than to undo it, because while it’s easy to say they should just cut their losses and give us the old game back, that basically throws away the entire effort originally spent on the remaster (which was made in good faith and sabotaged by the publisher).
And to be frank, we’re most of the way there. It’s just bugs and glitches at this point. All the missing functionality except multiplayer game saves has been restored. Sure, they’re really STUPID bugs and glitches, but they can fix them if they really want to.
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WoW Classic was made, BECAUSE people didn’t like the direction the game took after WotLK.
Reforged certainly doesn’t use the same renderer as in WC3:TFT and poor performance is the result of a sloppy job using the new renderer.
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because SOME people didn’t like the direction. Lots of people did, as evidenced by the fact that plenty of people still play the current live version of WoW. And that’s the thing. Some people like the Reforged graphics, are used to the new UI, and would really just like the bugs fixed. Giving up on it screws over those people.
They didn’t shut down the newest version of WoW to make way for WoW classic, either. It was created to capitalize on nostalgia. It absoutely was not made simply because some people were unhappy.
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There is also a market for nostalgia for the old WC3. If you want to check how “loved” is the new art direction in Reforged, then watch some games on YT. You will notice that virtually everybody uses the old graphics.
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The thing is, they don’t need to do that. Classic mode is classic mode. The original graphics and everything, all of the differences are out-of-game differences. You know, they didn’t just make War3R and D2R etc. to sell people an overhauled game. They also did it because they wanted to move their classic games to the New Battle.net system. We can’t go back because they shut down that stuff. The only reason LoD original is still running is because of what happened with war3R. They probably wouldn’t have done that if things didn’t play out the way they did, because in reality, they wanted to completely shut down the old, outdated battle.net systems.
Not wanting to cut off the community’s access to classic games, they formed the Classic Games Team, which would eventually be fired during the production of war3 Reforged, in order to move their old games to the modern battle.net. That is the whole reason we have these reforged/ressurrected/remastered games.
So I know you think it would be simple to just bring the old stuff back, unfortunately it’s not that simple as they got rid of the old infrastructure, with the exception of the server(s) for classic LoD, which were preserved due to the war3 debacle as I said as well as to avoid upsetting LoD purists.
No, I disagree; I express my opinion that you are incorrect and again I say, “No.” No, no, and no again.
It is not simple. We are dealing with Activision. They already created a version of Frozen Throne but with the Reforged enhancements and balance updates. The patch notes even stated, “This is the last patch before Reforged.” They already created what you are describing. It had the menus of the Frozen Throne, but ran on their new render engine with 16:9 resolution and newer DirectX 11 or DirectX 12 or whatever (as opposed to the old classic game that was built on DirectX 8 or 9 back in 2002-2003). And it had the new balance changes of Reforged.
After this company created what you are asking for, and they had that technology running live in production, they destroyed it. Now it is gone.
So you have to remember you are dealing with Activision. They already had the game that you wish for, but they destroyed it. This is their hubris. So, you see, it is not possible to “Apply to the the classic version all the recent balance patches,” because there is not a concept at that company of what it would mean to have a “classic Warcraft III.” Many of the players think that the Frozen Throne Patch 1.31 which runs on Reforged engine and renderer is the original classic game because they believe their eyes. And because it does not say Reforged anywhere on its menu, and is not defaced with the new menu and game glitches to the same degree as Reforged itself.
So you see, Reforged is what this company would produce if they attempted to upgrade the old game to support the new balance and modern systems. This is who they are. If you asked them to modernize and maintain the old classic game, they would Reforged it again and you would be likely to find yourself hating it again as much.
Because that is their nature. They are modern Activision, and that sense of what you love being choked out of you by a big mafia boss who is never going to play the game but wants your money is how they will always make you feel no matter how many times they try. So, they cannot update the classic game to have the new balance.
It is not possible. It cannot be. It is not their nature. You could send any number of poor souls to go to work at this company to try to fix the game, and they would all of them be corrupted by it and lose their way, rather than the light of their souls fixing the game to be what you desire, because this is the nature of the corporation we are dealing with.
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You are VERY negative. IMO, Blizzard is still capable of making a great game. When I mentioned “Wacraft 3: Classic” I meant something like a “reputation salvaging” project, because WC3:R DAMAGED their reputation. Reputation is very important in business and if Blizzard wants to survive and thrive for the decades to come, then they should treat this seriously. I’m a game programmer and I know that technically what I said can be done rather efficiently.
Aye. If it was the people who created Warcraft 3 in the first place, you might have a point. However, those people are not working at Blizzard anymore. Nor is such a budget currently in place to allow hiring enough knowledgeable people to do this. As much as I want to see this happen, I can’t see it happening for a long time.
Although who knows, maybe Microsoft will kick things into motion that might end up improving the game to the point that this Classic version won’t need to exist.
Oh who am I kidding lol, that will be the day.
If you already know their code and how it works, sure. I’m a programmer too, and you can’t just look at a large scale project produced by an entire team of people and just magically fix it in mere moments. You generally have to study it first.
The only way this could be done as efficiently as you suggest is if the original programmers, designers and engineers were still working for Blizzard.
Instead of putting effort into releasing balance patches, Developpers could focus on fix Reforged campaign crashes.
So than at least they could say that game is OK. (not great as it was 23 years before but at least OK-ish)
Than in next phase (if budget) they could start developping War4 - eg. one campaign with not more than 8 missions - but first on Console than on PC (and not make mistakes again to develop on mobile world…)
If will be a success than continue with next campaigns + balances - like Starcraft2 development was in 3 phases + even adding later Nova = 4 phase dev => good way to minimize risks.
It is all about priorities!