Warcraft 3 sudenly can't join or create any games, have to re-install each time

War3 was working fine for a long time. Then suddenly, when I start the game I get the video intro, which never happens. Then, it tells me some message about “3 months game clients get deleted” and to “register” or something. I hit “OK” and then go online…

Then I can see all the games. But when I join, there is nobody in them, not even me, and then it kicks me out at random. All the maps do this.
And when I try to create a game, there is NO MAPS showing up, and NO create game button.

I tried deleting the maps folder. I tried deleting the entire war3 documents folder.
I also tried the “scan and fix” option on the launcher.

The only way I found to fix this issue is to uninstall and re-install War3. Every single time I want to play a game.

F#$*&$ that

You can try dual booting Linux and playing there.

x_https://lutris.net/games/warcraft-iii-reforged/

If this is true, you probably got a virus or downloaded a hacked version of warcraft 3 reforged. I don’t know, never heard about anything like this happening with anyone.

That suggestion for this fellow to use Linux is absolutely comedic.

Its a brand new computer, used only for Blizzard and Steam games. I downloaded the blizzard war3 directly from their website. I’m also a computer technician and programmer… Its not a virus or anything like that. I am willing to perform a complete system restore to prove it.

I fixed it once by deleting the maps folder. That worked ONE time. The issue seems to ‘fix’ itself at random, and I can tell because when it does, it will create a new maps folder in the process.

This is likely an oversight in code & relationship with classic War3 and this particular operating system. It may be as simple as a permissions or something with the registry. Or deeper, visual C , hard files type of thing. I just don’t have time to de-funk a computer game thats so old it should not be having any sudden issues… after 10 or 15 years or whatever. What a shame but I can’t blame Blizzard for releasing new versions of windows. Its a constant catch up game trying to make your newest applications call relevent up to date file database functions and then keeping track of each version and their security vulnerabilities. What a crazy mess and I figured if you are going to study something so intently it might as well be the human body, so now I study cancer. I grow KYSE30 at my school in an extracellular matrix made from decellularized porcine esophagus, and just yesterday I am starting to see the fruits of my labor, finally some of the cancer has seemed to recognize the ecm and is able to migrate through possibly. Hematoxylin which is normally a nuclei materials stained what appeared to be a modified ecm, with a densely packed apical region of KYSE30 cells. It may be the beginnings of a tumor OR a great example of Epithelial to mesenchymal transition and invasion/metastasis on which immunohistochemistry can be used to visual qualitatively the locations of specific markers, as proteins/cytokines have 3D chemical shapes which can be comparatively structurally useful data. For example Metaloproteases are known to assist invasion by using metal to cleave matrix substrates. It is an enzyme and a protein and also contains information about the molecular environment, trafficking, ubiquitinalization, and has recognizable external features, all of which interplay with metastasis. Just by having more of a structural protein, for example collagen, a very common protein but one which simply having more of can alter the behavior of cancer cells, which can recognize and break down or secrete collagen fibers of their own. And whos perhaps many assembling factories of collagen fibers are not producing the same exact collagen, not only are there going to be frequent point mutations to the amino acid sequence due to the cancer being completely trashed in terms of it’s genome, as it has an abbarated set of chromosomes only able to continue separating due to the dismantling and disabling of any DNA repair or warning system which is partly what makes them a cancer in the first place. In other words damage to the DNA doesn’t kill the cell, it just increases the mess it makes as it moves forward in time. It is an irrevocably chaotic process but I digress- the point being there will be MANY forms of MANY proteins and most have markers of their own and special characteristics which can trigger OTHER completely unexpected cascade reactions the way a transistor can self trigger when the base is left floating during a lightning storm.

My point being that I own a brand new computer and pretty busy and excited with trying to learn and study cancer, and this is a huge waste of time now. Not being able to play a game of DOTA or other custom maps on a 30min break without re-installing is a huge downer and the amount of time I kill waiting for 36GB of a game that should REALLY only consume like 4GB max is… well . I mean, cmon guys, your blatant use of infinite disc space is honestly embarrassing for this classic. I think you’ve lost touch of what 512KB really is worth. You can’t fit warcraft 3 in less than 5GB? Please at least Make the download tolerable for us veterans. I am a blizzard vet, I’ve been here since near the beginning, absolutely warcraft2 was one of my first games. But what I remember the most of all was Diablo. I can tell you exactly what grade and what school I was in when Diablo came out. It was middle school. And I would rush home everyday to my friends house because his computer had windows 95 and mine couldn’t support that version, it was a 486DX2 with 8MB memory, windows 3.1 and a 1x CD-ROM drive. It was me, my friend and his older brother, taking turns. The first time I saw the game his older brother had just found a kings saber of blood and I would spend the rest of my life searching for that blade and never find one.
I bought the Diablo strategy book and read about the random combinations being possible and thought it was the best idea, and best game I had and would ever see, and at the time it really was. I even owned a copy of Diablo1 and let me tell you I tried, countless times, putting that CD rom disc into my 1x windows 3.1 computer and double clicked on the icon. Just to make damn sure it was true, what I heard. Because I wanted to play it so bad I thought it might work. That is the kind of person I always am, unconvinced and I have to see for myself. Diablo was the reason I started to learn about computer hardware and software. My desire to build a computer capable of supporting Diablo1 became a reality. Diablo paved the way for complementary metal oxide semi conductor and read only memory that is good for hiding things you don’t want deleted. Diablo is why I had a job at Comp USA at 16 years old as A+ comptia certified computer technician. If that makes you one

I would like a scale down version for the people that just play custom maps online, a small classic customs version client. No fancy authentication or vindaloops. It reminds me of engine tuners, new to the scene of tuning cars they jump in and think its all about wide open throttle wideband numbers and dynamic compression ratio, getting stumped and asking for help when the narrowband pegs at 1030mV. When in reality they have never tuned a Holley carb, have no idea how the centrifugal advance on a points distributor works and thus an ephemeral grasp at timing profile for EFI, and can’t imagine a world outside their fuel trims. News flash guys: tuning a high performance engine at part throttle isn’t done with fuel trim feedback from narrowbands the way the OEM ecu will have you to believe. Tuning HPtuners is not like tuning a stand-alone. That OEM ecu feedback is just so people can drive the car without knowing how it works and buy an inexpensive narrowband sensor for their economy car. For an engine tuner in high performance world, tuning a car with 500-1000 horsepower in daily driver applications is what I am referring to, the wideband at minimum is used in closed loop (thank you holley terminator and similar ecu which do this properly) full time and some restrictions are placed on the percentage of self-adjustment is possible, which guarantee that even when lead or chance fully coats the wideband and renders it damaged, the engine will still run fine because those restrictions keep it from wandering too far from the base map, giving the owner a chance to notice the wrong air fuel ratio and trace it to the wideband, replacing it as maintenance.

My point again being, I need to be researching cancer and not reinstalling 30+ gigs of an ancient game that ran on a computer far slower and simpler … Regarding what I said about new versions of windows - while it is TRUE that the archetype of modern 64-bit and 32-bit windows operating systems and security features demands the direction of the application you have designed (It makes ‘sense’ from the advanced point of view) it is just as equally valid and true that these modern systems can be completely avoided using a method similar to how Virtual PC runs an older operating system or a virtual stand-alone OS methodology. This would not only produce a sandbox which can render modern code, including viruses, completely unable to decipher or penetrate the system without being specifically designed to attack it (a topic for another discussion and easily defensible using a set of boundaries which are pre-determined) it would also designate/delegate an unchanging file system which uses previously established good versions of the necessary collateral, one where windows version updates and microsoft visual C redistribution packages or whatever they are calling runtime these days will have no affect or interaction with the performance of such a virtual state since it is always created using the “same old” emulation. To be clear and put it another way, imagine trying to re-design a game from windows 95 to run in the latest version of windows as a typical application you just double click, right off the CD-ROM if computers still had them. It could become a nightmare very quickly trying to re- build the entire application to fit the latest version of windows and run properly… especially with all the variability in modern computers. Instead of doing that- just run it in dosbox or virtual PC. Wham- you get to use all of the original game files and versions- just update a few external references to keep the virtual state happily interacting with the “real world” latest version OS and it will sail as smooth as butter because programming a virtual state to run an older game is alot easier and simpler than re-programming an old game to actually run on the latest operating system amirite?

thanks for Diablo, it was enough , even if there is never another game- Diablo gave me all kinds of enjoyment, dreams, thoughts. I found subliminal messages “Natalie portman rocks” and “buy warcraft 2” in the loading screen of Diablo by accident when I screen shotted the burning letters and inverted their colors out of curiosity. I was always trying to learn to make that pretty lettering with pen and paint. I would spend time in middle school drawing the large burning letters “DIABLO” on every paper, painting it red orange yellow and black… trying to capture the effects of fire on stationary paper was like an obsession. And imagining all the items and spells I would find was… one of the best game related experiences I’ve ever had and probably ever will

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You should start a writing career man. You have the gift.

Nope. I play many games including StarCraft StarCraft 2 Heroes of The Storm and such on Linux. I will need to make some updates to play right now, but I have played for years and it works, perhaps in some ways better than Windows. However this bug seems to me to be a problem with the newer WC3 code, a bug among the many issues introduced with this careless reforge. I would have refunded it if I could but it was impossible for me (PayPal only works to pay in my country), so I guess I’m stuck with this.

In 2016 as a personal practice for modding hobbies, I compressed Warcraft 3 to about 500 MB of data with a build that could still run. From there, further analysis showed that if I removed the audio and reduced texture quality, I was able to get a running build whose main MPQ archive was 97 MB or so. It was compatible with Battle.net in 2016 and I played some custom maps with live users who were none the wiser.

Now we have both successfully claimed that we know more than the people who made Reforged. Unfortunately, there is not funding for compressing Reforged. People like you and I are putting our money and our time on things we care more about than Reforged, like curing cancer, after all, eh?

Why would you blame anyone else for your own decisions like that?

Every time Blizzard releases a new version of windows, a succubus gets her wings!

seems like this issue has spread into other blizzard games. Now starcraft 2 is doing the same thing, I get a video as if its the first time it ever started, and none of the custom map data is being used in custom maps. Its almost certainly a permissions issue. So far its randomly fixed itself a couple times and then gone right back to doing it again. Over and over. And I Can’t find any link between me deleting files and running the launcher as admin or anything like that with when it decide to work for a while again. Frustrating.

Yeah if I had the time to fool around I Might be interesting in dual booting and other OS. But really I’ve grown to avoid computers completely if possible and spend more time outside, at least I am trying. So when it doesn’t work I Just shrug and uninstall and then maybe a couple days later re-install and see if it works sort of thing. Yawn