Blizzard Entertainment recently released a new patch for WarCraft III which mainly focuses on eliminating a function in maps that allowed them to store and release malicious content such as a Trojan Virus on a user's computer. There were several functions added for modders as well, amongst a few other things they included in patch version 1.24 like increasing the maximum map filesize on Battle.Net from 4MB to 8MB. It sounded like a great patch. However, the patch is flawed.
Because of the new patch, Wc3:WoW's GUI triggers were corrupt, bringing up an error message saying one or two triggers were not recognized/did not exist whenever I opened up the World Editor. Then a critical error window pops up and closes the editor.
To explain why this is an issue, the problem was the GUI triggers we used in Wc3:WoW. Apparently Blizzard removed the functions we used from the World Editor and it caused the editor to crash. If the triggers that were corrupt used JASS, no problem. It'd be an easy fix. However, it's GUI that is the problem. The World Editor processes GUI triggering while JASS is processed only as text, not as a sort of function, except when in-game of course. Anyway, the GUI triggers have potentially destroyed all triggering/coding in Wc3:WoW and now we need to recode EVERYTHING.
Luckily there's a good side and bad side to this calamity.
GOOD: Thankfully we were able to save the sounds, models, textures, object data, and the majority of the maps (we lost two pretty insignificant maps, no biggie) so really, all we lost were triggers and some scripted spells. The good side of that is that we planned to recode all the GUI triggers anyway. Too bad we didn't do it earlier though. Wc3:WoW will be coded from now and there will be no GUI triggers whatsoever. Not only because of the problems which are presented to us because of the patch, but also for security reasons and for making the mod perform better. In other words, leakless triggers from this point forth, although BETA Testers will be the only ones to experience memory leaks since the early coding part is usually messy.
BAD: We lost all the triggers and coding, meaning not even the developers can really alpha test Wc3:WoW and the BETA Testers of Wc3:WoW will have to wait even longer... sorry fellas. But it cannot be avoided. The only way around this is if we decided to work on the 1.23 version of Wc3:WoW which works only if you have version 1.23. Why don't we do that? Well, the new features in version 1.24 are really useful and future patches are expected to be even better, so we'd miss out on all of that. Plus, it's really doubtful that people will uninstall WarCraft III, reinstall it, then download patch 1.23 just so they can play Wc3:WoW.
Overall it's bad for everyone because this REALLY delays the release date - not like we even have one yet, but regardless it's being pushed back - even more and no one wants to wait any longer. How much longer? Who knows... depends on our development rate, but it could be another year before we release anything...
So there you have it. The WarCraft III patch version 1.24 nearly killed Wc3:WoW, but we're pushing forward to get it all done. This coding overhaul may take forever, but it's for the greater good and for the sake of this project's staying alive.
Because of the new patch, Wc3:WoW's GUI triggers were corrupt, bringing up an error message saying one or two triggers were not recognized/did not exist whenever I opened up the World Editor. Then a critical error window pops up and closes the editor.
To explain why this is an issue, the problem was the GUI triggers we used in Wc3:WoW. Apparently Blizzard removed the functions we used from the World Editor and it caused the editor to crash. If the triggers that were corrupt used JASS, no problem. It'd be an easy fix. However, it's GUI that is the problem. The World Editor processes GUI triggering while JASS is processed only as text, not as a sort of function, except when in-game of course. Anyway, the GUI triggers have potentially destroyed all triggering/coding in Wc3:WoW and now we need to recode EVERYTHING.
Luckily there's a good side and bad side to this calamity.
GOOD: Thankfully we were able to save the sounds, models, textures, object data, and the majority of the maps (we lost two pretty insignificant maps, no biggie) so really, all we lost were triggers and some scripted spells. The good side of that is that we planned to recode all the GUI triggers anyway. Too bad we didn't do it earlier though. Wc3:WoW will be coded from now and there will be no GUI triggers whatsoever. Not only because of the problems which are presented to us because of the patch, but also for security reasons and for making the mod perform better. In other words, leakless triggers from this point forth, although BETA Testers will be the only ones to experience memory leaks since the early coding part is usually messy.
BAD: We lost all the triggers and coding, meaning not even the developers can really alpha test Wc3:WoW and the BETA Testers of Wc3:WoW will have to wait even longer... sorry fellas. But it cannot be avoided. The only way around this is if we decided to work on the 1.23 version of Wc3:WoW which works only if you have version 1.23. Why don't we do that? Well, the new features in version 1.24 are really useful and future patches are expected to be even better, so we'd miss out on all of that. Plus, it's really doubtful that people will uninstall WarCraft III, reinstall it, then download patch 1.23 just so they can play Wc3:WoW.
Overall it's bad for everyone because this REALLY delays the release date - not like we even have one yet, but regardless it's being pushed back - even more and no one wants to wait any longer. How much longer? Who knows... depends on our development rate, but it could be another year before we release anything...
So there you have it. The WarCraft III patch version 1.24 nearly killed Wc3:WoW, but we're pushing forward to get it all done. This coding overhaul may take forever, but it's for the greater good and for the sake of this project's staying alive.