How do new patches effect my pre-patch costom map?

[KptnHolz]

I just noticed that my old costom map from years ago didn't include the newer balancing changes.
Are only the object stats unaffacted?
I guess the question is what is saved in the map? Only the stats and their values?
How about the fix "Hex will no longer provide a speed boost to a Hero if cast at the end of
Metamorphosis or Chemical Rage effects." ?

Cheers

 

[PurgeandFire]

It depends. A map will only save the changes you made, as far as stats/object editor stuff go.

So let's say siege tank's armor is set to "2" in a new patch. If your map has a siege tank, then his armor will also be "2" in that patch, unless you specifically modified the siege tank's armor to a custom value. This also accounts for units based off of other units. For example, if you made a unit based off the siege tank, that unit will also have his armor set to "2" in that new patch unless you modified that field yourself.

Things like hex mechanics are usually hardcoded into the game. So if people play your map on the latest patch, then that fix should definitely apply.

To summarize, when wc3 tries to look up the stats of a unit, it first asks: "has this user specified that himself for this map?" If not, then it checks the default value in wc3's data files (their mpq's).

EDIT: See post below for the correction!

 

[KptnHolz]

Well I did try to figure it out. So my conclusion so far is that only maps which are considered "melee" take over the stat changes.
Question remains what makes a map a melee map? Did just downloaded some maps made by the community which are very old, all of those that I tested got "updated".
Unfortunately I don't have various different custom maps. My best guess is that "heavily" edited maps won't get updated.
I mean if you do anything other than placing doodabs and objects or edit the terrain.
Anyway I'm fairly certain that when you created your map and edited an object field it will certainly become pink - but all the others will remain black and won't load the patched stats regardless.
So it seems that these maps do save the default value from the day they were created.
If you browse through your folders within warcraft, some maps are indicated as custom maps but still load the patched data - even the very old ones - so the "custom" indicator doesn't help in this case..

 

[PurgeandFire]

Well I did try to figure it out. So my conclusion so far is that only maps which are considered "melee" take over the stat changes.
Question remains what makes a map a melee map? Did just downloaded some maps made by the community which are very old, all of those that I tested got "updated".
Unfortunately I don't have various different custom maps. My best guess is that "heavily" edited maps won't get updated.
I mean if you do anything other than placing doodabs and objects or edit the terrain.
Anyway I'm fairly certain that when you created your map and edited an object field it will certainly become pink - but all the others will remain black and won't load the patched stats regardless.
So it seems that these maps do save the default value from the day they were created.
If you browse through your folders within warcraft, some maps are indicated as custom maps but still load the patched data - even the very old ones - so the "custom" indicator doesn't help in this case..

Oops, you're right! I'll try to look into it a bit more.

As for what constitutes a melee map, you're right. Adding any custom thing (e.g. triggers, or editing objects) will make the map no longer considered melee (you'll even get an editor warning that informs you about that).

The maps don't store the default value from the day they were created, though. They would have to store a lot of data just to support that. And there is no way of knowing what stats might be patched in the future, so they would have to save everything.

Perhaps they have some sort of versioning? I haven't looked into it, but you might want to look at the SLK files in the MPQ's using an MPQ editor to see if there is a system like that.