Allow users to choose and display which version of Warcraft 3 they use

[Uncle]

For example, during account creation you could choose from a list of game versions:
1.26, 1.27, 1.28, 1.32, etc...

This would then display somewhere in your profile.

I always forget to ask people which map version they're on before making an example map
for them. Then I'm hit with, "I can't open it... I'm on a patch from 10 years ago".

So I'm suggesting this as a remedy to my own incompetence, lol.

I don't expect this to happen but I figured it wouldn't hurt to try.

 

[Kyrbi0]

I kinda like this.

 

[Chaosy]

Haven't thought of this before, but I am a big fan.

 

[deepstrasz]

Well, actually, they should just be educated to write about it when they open up a post requesting help.

 

[Civil]

Well, actually, they should just be educated to write about it when they open up a post requesting help.

Educated or not, it's more convenient to just check their profile and see what version of Wc3 they primarily mod than to have them post that in every single help post. It's a convenient, good feature. It would also be interesting to see the split of who prefers to mod which version.

 

[Retera]

Also as a thought in case we do get this feature implemented, what will we do about more eccentric users who are creating/building their own versions of Warcraft III from source? For example, I am currently sitting on git commit 7bcf7cad7e8b2ff6a4a1c3ffd08bd4c660107de7 (HEAD -> main) plus some uncommitted changes, and so on my setup if a map enters the Cinematic Mode and then plays Transmission From Unit from a trigger action (for example) then it crashes the game.

Will I be able to put a git commit hash like this as my current WC3 version, or does that need to wait until I have some CI builds with tagged version numbers for my open source reference implementation, or something like that?

 

[Uncle]

Also as a thought in case we do get this feature implemented, what will we do about more eccentric users who are creating/building their own versions of Warcraft III from source? For example, I am currently sitting on git commit 7bcf7cad7e8b2ff6a4a1c3ffd08bd4c660107de7 (HEAD -> main) plus some uncommitted changes, and so on my setup if a map enters the Cinematic Mode and then plays Transmission From Unit from a trigger action (for example) then it crashes the game.

Will I be able to put a git commit hash like this as my current WC3 version, or does that need to wait until I have some CI builds with tagged version numbers for my open source reference implementation, or something like that?

They will have to make an exclusive category just for you:

• 1.26
• 1.27
• 1.28
• RETERA (other)

But yeah, it would be completely optional.

A lot of people posting in the World Editor Help Zone are not thinking about the difference in game versions, I wish they did. I also wish they would search for existing threads before asking a question that's been asked 50 times over the past 15 years, but again, they don't. Although, 1.31+ brought so many changes that asking the question again can be useful just to get more up to date answers.

 

[Retera]

When we think about building a web system -- similar to how people used to joke that Google was the world's first immortal being -- it seems possible that Hive might outlive me. So rather than to call it the "RETERA (other)" setting, I might suggest having an "All" setting as well as maybe a "None" setting. That way, a user like me can be tagged as using "All" versions of WC3, meanwhile users who do not yet have a copy of Warcraft III and are just looking to buy it or something can use the "None" setting. It could provide us with a bit of an "other" setting but in a way that's slightly more formalized.

Just a thought, obviously this is up to the person who actually implements it to make the final call.

 

[Daffa]

I think it's more on the general line that needs this. The main cover should include the major patches that people seems to use:
1.21b (the only pre-1.24 I can recall being very significant)
1.24
1.26
1.27
1.28
1.29
1.30
1.31
1.32

These would be the major ones needed to get covered in my opinion. Alternatively, just let the user fill the patch, but I don't trust the user enough personally

Also, multiple options needs to be considered, since I have 1.29, 1.31, and 1.32 but I don't own the other patches I listed.

Regardless, you have my support.

 

[Ralle]

@BogdanW3 encourages the same over in Discord. It's a good idea.

Another way is to put it as a required thread prefix in help zone and scripts?

 

[BogdanW3]

In my opinion, it's almost required to expedite the process of providing help. People too often neglect to mention if they're not on the latest version, and having to arbitrarily limit oneself to old features, or even worse to a particular set of non-features you'd have to use depending on the patch in question, should at least be helped by knowing which patch to target unless otherwise specified.

Or to shorten that down: if people won't be sure to specify the patch every time they ask, we can at least try to help (a collective) ourselves by giving them a showable field on their profile (or really any other place that's easy to look up) to specify.

To be more specific, on Discord it could be a role or just a nickname template to utilise if they aren't on the latest version (which is a very reasonable default despite the communities' divides), and, much more importantly and relevantly, on the site, it could be one of the fields that show when you hover over a person's username (similar to the user's age if public) or even one of those that show directly on their posts (like level).


I think a required prefix would not be as elegant though, putting repeated work on the askers rather than a field to apply to their whole presence on Hive unless they, of their own volition, want to specify otherwise in the question. An optional prefix couldn't hurt though

 

[deepstrasz]

Educated or not, it's more convenient to just check their profile and see what version of Wc3 they primarily mod than to have them post that in every single help post. It's a convenient, good feature. It would also be interesting to see the split of who prefers to mod which version.

I use 1.32, 1.31.1, 1.30.4, 1.29, 1.27. Does that help anyone answer properly if I open up a thread?

Another way is to put it as a required thread prefix in help zone and scripts?

Yes.

 

[BogdanW3]

I would not recommend that the profile field becomes just a place to write all versions one'd use, but the version they will be using unless they write down otherwise, a default so to say. Per-question patches still fall upon the asker to write, as they always have, but at least we get a default to use if they forgot to note this crucial datapoint down

 

[Vendro the Wind Mage Bann]

Hi guys. Despite being an old wc3 fan, I only recently signed up here so take everything I say with a grain of salt.

But I was wondering, was it intentional that so many versions were created to be used in parallel? I have the latest version for if I wanted to play online, but two days ago for example I wanted to play a campaign that I downloaded from Hive. And I never found the button to do that on the latest version, so to make things easy for me I launched a copy of the version I had in a backup folder from right before Reforged released. I played the campaign using that old backup, and that seemed to work fine.

Should there be a way to specify what version we are using per individual tasks? I might want to tell everyone that I am using the latest version in general but not have them assume for example if I played a campaign that I was on latest... since I don't know how to play a campaign on there.

Edit: And I was actually reading recently that maybe some people do make and play campaigns on the latest, but I didn't understand how they did that because I couldn't find the button for it in the menu, so I haven't tried to do that personally myself.

 

[Civil]

I use 1.32, 1.31.1, 1.30.4, 1.29, 1.27. Does that help anyone answer properly if I open up a thread?

Yes it does, because it tells people they probably don't need to worry too much about the game version if you are familiar with all of them. Also I would wager the vast majority of people who are asking for help probably use just one or two versions.

And as Bogdan said, you could designate a main version. And then if you are looking for an answer about another version, you can specify in your thread as you already do currently. I don't see a downside to convenience in some circumstances and status quo in others.

 

[Ralle]

Am I right that it's mostly WEHZ though?

 

[BogdanW3]

WEHZ, Advanced Scripting, and Requests would probably benefit the most (if you're eying where to add the optional tags), but I could see the profile field being useful for people asking about tools and projects as well.

From all the top-level forums, I'd probably say the profile field is useful in all of these:
WEHZ, Advanced Scripting, Warcraft Editing Tools, Requests, Modelling and Animation (for which editors they can use), Texturing and Surfacing (basically just 32 or pre-32 because of DDS), and Sound/Music Art (all patches after 1.30 behave a bit differently when it comes to sound, and all of that behaviour is different than pre-30).