WC3:R’s updates have been fantastic.
The one thing that the updates are missing is the reasoning and design philosophy behind doing the balance changes in the patch notes.
Instead of just listing the changes without any descriptions, add some. Even just a single sentence or something explaining the design goal behind it.
Look at how Tempest Rising does it’s patch notes. They explain out why they are making the changes they are.
RTS games really require explaining the changes so no one is in the dark going “Why would they changes this?” or “Why would they change this like that?.”
WC3:R has a very talented Warcraft RTS team behind it. It would be great to understand the creative vision and goals they have for WC3:R.
They have done that in some specific cases. Just not as a matter of policy.
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I agree. Even a short explanation for each balance change would go a long way.
Right now we are lucky if we even get a proper changelog. Sometimes Battle.net just updates the game without any communication, and players are left to figure out what are the changes.
Blizzard can and should do better job.
Clear patch notes and a bit of developer insight are part of a quality service.
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The problem is the changelogs are false. Either something is missing or the changes written have not been implemented.
The guys at liquipedia are not checking if the changelogs are correct or not. Says on their website cripple ability of creeps, used by for instance doomguard, costs 125 mana, but this is false as it was never implemented, it still costs 175 mana if you check in World editor in Object editor.
Same issue with sundering blades as lumber mill requirement was not removed, but because it says so in changelog then they think it was removed.
I think many players are looking up “facts” on that website which are false and misleading. Many errors on their website, for instance Skeletal Mastery upgrade is missing Necropolis in requirements. Wrong levels and gold cost for items such as ring of archmagi 3 and talisman of the wild. It’s a useful website but I think someone needs to open up the Object editor and double check everything on the website to make sure the information is correct for each unit, item and ability. Many of the tooltips are also wrong for instance for sorceress polymorph, it’s not the same on the website as in-game.
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it also gives a reason for someone to complain about their reasons, so in most cases, no reasons will be given. That’s business, not personal, so from that perspective, it’s their game, they don;t need to justify why they make the changes they make.
With that being said, changes can either be good for the player base or bad for the player base, it just depends on how the players handle the changes.
Certain changes can backfire and result in a failure, which is why PTR is vital to progressive changes. Warcraft III has a history of “updates” that.. in all honesty were very bad.
Listening to the player base can take a game into continued succession or into retirement.
I am hopeful for Warcraft III, although it’s not looking to great these days with Players not able to find games, wins not counting while losses still count, custom games still crashing for players, and balance is in a constant flux it seems.
I’m glad and grateful for communities like W3Champions to help keep the competitive still alive for Warcraft III players, and Hive Workshop to keep the custom maps community active.
Agreed.
There is much to learn from both.
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yes . In those cases a Bug report should be filed.
But if the opposite, they implement without documenting - that’s a big issue.
In both cases we sould have Changelog - and should be accurate.
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I am always still learning, even when I don’t want to lol
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