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- Aug 18, 2009
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Funmap Evening
(images taken from maps section)
Announcement NoteDate of appointment: 27 March 2021; 2000 CET (UTC+1)
Meeting Channel: #gaming on Hive Discord
Realm: Northrend Battle.net (EU)
Requirements: Latest version of the game must be installed.
The Warcraft III player base has experienced a number of changes over the years. While it has shrunk in general, hosting bots and Battle.Net alternatives were introduced and dedicated websites emerged, the gaming situation has altered. Public games have always been different from playing with acquaintances, too.
The Funmap Evening offers a possibility to meet up in a small scale and spend some fun time together playing custom maps in Warcraft III - The Frozen Throne. Therefore, every few weeks or so, commonly on the weekend, a couple of hours are reserved for this event. It has originated from mapmaking communities and you are encouraged to bring your own maps but other than that, we simply host what we can agree on or seems appropriate regarding the number of players, variety or what we feel like. Suggestions can be made at any time.
Rendezvous point & participation
The exact dates are communicated via announcements I put in the thread here. Henceforth, I will make a new post as well as relay it to this initial entry everytime. The announcements also state the details if anything changes. Since we live in different time zones, an adjusted countdown timer will be included with each announcement note.
Anyone who is able to may participate (as long as you keep a decent attitude). The event is not restricted to mapmakers or members of the Hive.
#gaming on HIVE Discord
Hosting services
In this day and age, there is a range of game hosting options and player platforms for Warcraft III that are partially or not compatible with each other. Since the current policy of the Funmap Evening tries to target at the common ground, broad and official means are preferred. Therefore we use Blizzard's Battle.Net as a venue. However, conventional, manual game hosting has become very disadvantageous. Remote and local bots have been introduced. And for information and reference I want to fix the following overview of available or deprecated services:
Platforms
- Battle.Net (preferred):
Blizzard's official servers divided into the gateways US West (Lordaeron), US East (Azeroth), Europe (Northrend) and Asia (Kalimdor). Anyone who owns a legit copy of the game and is not banned should be able to join Battle.Net. So in contrast to the other platforms, you do not require an extra application.- Eurobattle.net (partially used):
This is basically an unofficial server that works analogue to Battle.Net. The interface is the same, there is hardly a difference for my GHost bot. But not all publicly shared remote hosting bots use Eurobattle, probably because of the need to reactivate the accounts once in a while and/or lack of relevance.- wc3arena (not used):
Another PvPGN similar to Eurobattle.net but mostly used for traditional melee wc3. Hosting bots are not condoned here.- GameRanger (not used):
GameRanger is quite popular. Everyone can create private or public games and it connects the players via LAN. The drawback is that it does so via an own interface and I have not seen a way yet to combine this with Battle.Net to host on both simultaneously. GameRanger is only viable for the Funmap Evening when everyone who is present possesses it.- Garena (obsolete):
Garena was a gaming platform for a couple of popular titles with an own messenger and public channels. It emulates a LAN between all users in a channel, which provided fair manual hosting capabilities (and my bot could connect to it, too). We had no real private rooms there. Garena discontinued its gaming services for most countries a couple of years ago.- Hamachi (not used):
Hamachi establishes a LAN like Garena but here all the channels are private and have a low player capacity (unless you pay for more).- Tunngle (not used):
Tunngle is another LAN emulator with public channels. Unfortunately, the player base is rather small here and I admit I have not really stuck my nose up this one because nobody asked for it either.
Hosting bots
Hosting bots
- my local bot (GHost++):
Hosts on Battle.Net (US West, US East, Europe) and Eurobattle. It runs on my machine and I can operate it. Adding maps is pretty easy, you just have to pass it to me, so I can put it in my local maps folder.- oxBot:
Frotty's bot that usually lurks in the IRC channel. Hosts on Battle.Net and Eurobattle. Messages are displayed in the IRC channels it is connected to. Only specific individuals have rights to upload maps and command the bot.- MakeMeHost:
MakeMeHost provides a range of publicly shared bots that can either host on Battle.Net Europe, US East or both. The maps are selected from a predefined list, you cannot just upload maps yourself unless you are a privileged mapmaker (of the same map).- ENT Gaming:
ENT bots host on a range of platforms (all BNet servers, Eurobattle, entconnect, ...) yet that may differ according to settings. If you freely register there, you can upload maps and organize your own collection, from which you can then issue a launch order. The interface takes a little getting used to but the versatility is nice and that renders it the pick if I should not be present/if no private bots are available.
Rules
Since there have been multiple occasions now where people entered the thread solely to promote their map: You may bring your map to the funmap evening forth and ask if we are interested in playing it together but do not simply use this place for advertisement of your work. It is not suited for map reviews nor is it some testing facility where you would submit your products and we would deal with it.
Appendix
current list of maps on the bot
Replays & Maps archive
Replays & Maps archive (expiring)[/color][/size]
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