State of the Union (Warcraft III)

[StoPCampinGn00b]

State of the Union (Warcraft III)
12 May 2017

So, where exactly are we? Things broke, then most of that got fixed, but some of problems still aren't squashed. Okay, let's look at it from another angle: Warcraft III has been getting a flurry of patches for the first time in quite a few years. What's even more outstanding is that Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos is nearing its 15th birthday. Consider that and the fact that this game is not only alive and kicking, but getting attention from big Blizzard himself.

Now the attention given so far hasn't been all and only pretty. It's just blind consumer culture loyalty to deny that. However, with Blizzard's big recent statement, we can rejoice - or at least be content with doubt. It addresses the recent problems 1.28 caused. There's promise for a public test realm (PTR) for players test the patches before release. They reaffirm their priority to make sure things don't break, along with adding improvements and fixes for both the modding / custom games and ladder community. Yes, World Editor features, melee map pool, Battle.net delay, balance, etc are going to be addressed in due time. It's also been said that Battle.net 2.0 integration is on its way. This means Warcraft 3 will be fully included with the BNet launcher, bots won't be needed to easily host and find games, better connection, cross platform communication with players from SC2, OW, etc, and more.

The reality was that in the previous patches, modding tools did break and other bugs arose. This is not to say that Blizzard knew that they would break, but the scale of the 1.28's changes in the background just couldn't mix well with advanced modding tools, with the MPQs and other files being shifted, along with the entire patching system being changed and upgraded. And while the implementation of this new patching system has its quirks right now, it was one of the most absolute essential steps towards updating the game quickly and more efficiently.

The best thing we can all do right now is provide constructive feedback. The Hive Feedback Team and Blizzard are actively reading forum posts on Hive, along with gathering feedback from other sources. I personally want to thank those who've been spending time and dedication to help improve the game. The community has ran the show for a while, and a joint effort between the different WC3 communities and Blizzard is essential to work towards a bigger goal.

What is this bigger goal? We can speculate. Take a look at the hint of Warcraft III Remastered from Pete Stilwell, the Senior Producer of Classic Games. As many of you know, Starcraft: Remastered releases this summer. The original Starcraft and its expansion, Brood War, are also now available for free. It only makes sense to have the same business model of Starcraft. If we follow the trajectory of which Blizzard is shooting for with Starcraft: Warcraft III is going free, and a new total remaster for the game that you can buy releases some time after. While this hasn't been officially confirmed yet, there's enough proof - and hope - to say that this is the future of Warcraft.

Related links:
The Future of Warcraft
Summary In Video Form! Back2Warcraft feat. Hive Workshop
Patch Notes
On Host bots

EDIT: If you want to post this to your blog, another site, or if you're some god from PCgamer or something, please give credit and include a link here. Thanks!

 

[StoPCampinGn00b]

So this was a mini-article summarizing the state of Warcraft 3 as of today, detailing the effects and important information about the recent patches and what's to come. Ah, and the "State of the Union" is a parody of this: State of the Union - Wikipedia
You can add up the pieces and figure out that this was a Warcraft version of SotU.

Personally, this could warrant a spot as news, but ultimately I felt that it''d be a redundant to have too much patch threads on the front page. Some people have been messaging me to promote it to the front page, so I put it under the JASS class news. Cheers.

Comments are appreciated

 

[countcardboard]

nice read. sadly a lot of players do not appreciate what's happening and just flame blizzard for not implementing balance patches... which is so short-sighted. keep up the good work and coverage!!!

 

[Kyrbi0]

Wonderful idea, putting all the stuff together like this, and well presented.

You forgot to mention how Blizzard is totally gonna skip all that boring balance & map-pool stuff to add more Neutral Tavern Heroes, though. Yep, totally.

#NewTavernHero2020

 

[Mr.Goblin]

We need proper light and shadows physics! I know, I've said it before ;D but it's true!

 

[hypsandar]

"Warcraft III is going free, and a new total remaster for the game that you can buy releases some time after. While this hasn't been officially confirmed yet, there's enough proof - and hope - to say that this is the outcome for the future of Warcraft."

But if it goes free... Those who bought it will have the remastered/vip version?
I mean, I had to pay 3 times because of some issues in the past..............
We should at least get something in return for buying the game in the first place, no? ;-;

 

[Shar Dundred]

We should at least get something in return for buying the game in the first place, no? ;-;

Nope, that is bad luck, is all.

Same as for SC1, the Star Wars MMORPG, all other games that go free at some point...

 

[Lord_Earthfire]

Well, to be honest, you were able to enjoy the game 15 years before anyone else who would get it for free. And considering the amount of game-hours many got out of that, thats a fair step to be made.

 

[Shar Dundred]

True, true, it's not that I am complaining about it.
Just saying that it doesn't automatically mean that there will be something for people who paid for it.

 

[Misha]

urr.. was it just me or that talk video with blizzard really had that stupid sound slowdown?

 

[Eat_Bacon_Daily]

I really hope we are moving towards a WarCraft III Remaster/HD and not a WarCraft IV. Especially since Dustin Browder and David Kim have moved to "unannounced projects". StarCraft II was a real let down in the social, casual and custom game aspects, which is really what I care about the most. Having those guys work on WarCraft would likely result in another let down. It would be even cooler if, instead of a remaster they made a stand alone expansion, with campaigns new units and heroes. The WOW lore-eaters would be buy it and nostalgia players would certainly return.

 

[Kyrbi0]

I'm actually kind of ok with it not being Remastered, honestly. The best thing about that would be free LAN parties. But I don't think it needs fancy graphics (in fact I'd kinda rather it stay low-poly) and all that.

If I could choose, I'd be way more excited about new units, heroes, races (no way), campaigns/stories (nooo way); an expansion would be insane (nooooooooo way).

 

[Spellbound]

I'm actually kind of ok with it not being Remastered, honestly. The best thing about that would be free LAN parties. But I don't think it needs fancy graphics (in fact I'd kinda rather it stay low-poly) and all that.

HERESY!

I would like SOME degree of improvement to the visuals. I don't mean the whole nine yards like sc2, but at the very least HD textures and dynamic shadows. What I would really, really like, however, would be for lightning effects to not draw on top of everything. It would make them more like beams in sc2. Also to be able to display mana bars along with the health bar (and even give the user the option to add new ones, like a shield/armour bar).

If I could choose, I'd be way more excited about new units, heroes, races (no way), campaigns/stories (nooo way); an expansion would be insane (nooooooooo way).

I mean, sure, but imagine what an improved engine could mean! New natives???? And I don't just mean stuff like moving special effects around (I imagine you should be able to do that in the current engine), but stuff like UI customisation. I would really, really love the ability to customise the UI.

 

[Kyrbi0]

HERESY!

I would like SOME degree of improvement to the visuals. I don't mean the whole nine yards like sc2, but at the very least HD textures and dynamic shadows.

Nope. Don't really care. In fact, HD textures would start to mess with the whole aesthetics in my opinion (unless they HD-ized EVERYTHING, stuff's gonna look out of place. And if they do HDify it all, then that essentially invalidates +80% of our current resource sections). Blizzard did something extraordinary with their extremely limited models; the textures are a strange mix of big, blocky, high-contrast junk, with a surprising amount of detail woven in there. Most of the times they didn't add complexity via the mesh, but often enough through the texture.

What I would really, really like, however, would be for lightning effects to not draw on top of everything. It would make them more like beams in sc2. Also to be able to display mana bars along with the health bar (and even give the user the option to add new ones, like a shield/armour bar).

I mean, sure, but imagine what an improved engine could mean! New natives???? And I don't just mean stuff like moving special effects around (I imagine you should be able to do that in the current engine), but stuff like UI customisation. I would really, really love the ability to customise the UI.

Now this stuff I'm all for; back-end stuff (that might have graphical consequences), or fixes to graphical problems. And all that other stuff (new natives, new utility, UI-modifying), totally.

But I'm creating a distinction (perhaps an unnecessary/unrealistic one) between "changes/fixes to the game" and "additions/reworks to the game". I would love nothing more than for them to (once this patching system thing is done) fix all the problems with both gameplay & modding... Then start adding all sorts of fun new functionalities (primarily for us modders)... But then after all that, if they're thinking "let's add something... Like a Remastered version with HD graphics & all-new blahblah!!...", I would, personally, say "bleh". Would rather have the aforementioned.

Just my $0.02 : )

 

[Spellbound]

Nope. Don't really care. In fact, HD textures would start to mess with the whole aesthetics in my opinion (unless they HD-ized EVERYTHING, stuff's gonna look out of place. And if they do HDify it all, then that essentially invalidates +80% of our current resource sections). Blizzard did something extraordinary with their extremely limited models; the textures are a strange mix of big, blocky, high-contrast junk, with a surprising amount of detail woven in there. Most of the times they didn't add complexity via the mesh, but often enough through the texture.

Haven't they already HD-fied everything (or a lot) with the wc3 assets they supplied the Sc2 modding community? A lot of the low-polly stuff already look significantly better just by existing on a modern engine, so that's one way they could make things look better. That being said, I don't think HD textures would be the doom of the existing resource. One reason I heard that the sc2 community is struggling with custom models is because sc2 stuff have a rather advanced level of skill requirement to make them work. They have things like specular maps and what have you. I not arguing for all that stuff, just better textures. Making high-resolution textures is significantly easier than having to make high-poly models, or animation. (would probably need a 3d modeller to weigh in here).

 

[Kyrbi0]

Haven't they already HD-fied everything (or a lot) with the wc3 assets they supplied the Sc2 modding community? A lot of the low-polly stuff already look significantly better just by existing on a modern engine, so that's one way they could make things look better. That being said, I don't think HD textures would be the doom of the existing resource.

So all that "Sc2-ized Wc3 stuff" is very cool, very detailed, I like it. I'd even be interested to see it play-ready. But none of those models, I believe, fit into Warcraft 3 as it stands now. All the current/existing Wc3 art assets (& a huge percentage of the custom ones here) would not fit in with them, and so would be displaced, In My Opinion.

But again, I'm no modeler/texturer. And it's not really my say; Remastered may be the way to go simply because it's easier (?) than all my other wishlist/suggestions.

 

[Rui]

What is this bigger goal? We can speculate. Take a look at the hint of Warcraft III Remastered from Pete Stilwell, the Senior Producer of Classic Games. As many of you know, Starcraft: Remastered releases this summer. The original Starcraft and its expansion, Brood War, are also now available for free. It only makes sense to have the same business model of Starcraft. If we follow the trajectory of which Blizzard is shooting for with Starcraft: Warcraft III is going free, and a new total remaster for the game that you can buy releases some time after. While this hasn't been officially confirmed yet, there's enough proof - and hope - to say that this is the future of Warcraft.

I wouldn't expect to see a Warcraft Remastered so soon. Remember StarCraft is just 3 races. Warcraft III is 4 races plus the enormous plethora of creep and campaign models, not to mention all the environments and tilesets. Turning all of that HD is gonna take quite some work.

#NewTavernHero2020

Alchemist should have been the final one. If you notice, heroes took the 2 bottom rows of the Tavern command card. Which became full after Alchemist.

Since the maximum is 3 heroes, they could theoretically occupy the rightmost button of the first row, but I don't think so.

 

[Systemfre1]

I really doubt they'll remaster wc3, specifically because of the patches they're releasing. It's more likely to be wc2 that gets remastered, and wc3 to just be updated a butt ton

 

[A]mun]

Nice post, i somehow missed that video.

Also good points @Kyrbi0, Wc3 is still alive because of custom- games and art.
The graphics are good enough to be enjoyable (especially true with well made terrains, like Rise of the Vampyr or KalimdorTA and the likes).

 

[Wardota2 Gamer]

Hey StoPCampinGn00b can I tell this news into my new website blog? I will credit you

 

[StoPCampinGn00b]

Hey StoPCampinGn00b can I tell this news into my new website blog? I will credit you

You are free to copy and paste it as long as you give proper credit and have an easy to view link to the thread

 

[Wardota2 Gamer]

You are free to copy and paste it as long as you give proper credit and have an easy to view link to the thread

Thank you very much StoPCampinGn00b don't worry I will give you all the credits in my website

 

[moyackx]

EDIT: If you want to post this to your blog, another site, or if you're some god from PCgamer or something, please give credit and include a link here. Thanks!

Why this guy have wrote this?? sound a little bit pedantic...

 

[StoPCampinGn00b]

Why this guy have wrote this?? sound a little bit pedantic...

Because Wardota2 Gamer asked about posting it to their blog prior to the edit. It's common courtesy to write a note for others that may ask the same thing.

 

[Kyrbi0]

Why this guy have wrote this?? sound a little bit pedantic...

What's weird about giving credit/sources?

Alchemist should have been the final one. If you notice, heroes took the 2 bottom rows of the Tavern command card. Which became full after Alchemist.

Since the maximum is 3 heroes, they could theoretically occupy the rightmost button of the first row, but I don't think so.

"Should have"? He was, AFAIK...

But yeah, I hear ya; the bottom rows are full by now. That's why we use the top 3... And/or, utilize a specialty "expanded Tavern". ; )

 

[moyackx]

What's weird about giving credit/sources?

Nothing, just that it's something that should be logic or obvious to do without the need of mention it.

 

[_lycan]

I'm so excited honestly i started playing melee again with friends, not sure about returning to modding yet though, they'd have to increase the already powerful editor somehow for me to decide to return

 

[Paillan]

I'm so excited honestly i started playing melee again with friends, not sure about returning to modding yet though, they'd have to increase the already powerful editor somehow for me to decide to return

How about the increase in map size from 8 mb to128 mb though?

 

[StoPCampinGn00b]

(I feel like I've made too many patch threads, so I figured I'd just tack this one onto this thread.)

Hive's Host Bot Stance

"Host bots have helped keep the remaining custom game community alive, but hinders any possible growth. It has its upsides, but ultimately secludes people that don't know how to use them. Most people don't know that you have to use 3rd party tools or websites to navigate the custom games scene more effectively, thus hosting should be user hosted. Bots in general are also the main reason for the spamming of chat channels, along with making the custom game list cluttered with mostly the same games from auto-hosting groups. It was easier to join active lobbies before the days of bots. Should a massive influx of players return to the game, its in the best interest of the playerbase to allow easier navigation of games and the allowance for easy hosting without the need to use 3rd party tools or websites."

"Bots should not be removed unless there is an official replacement to allow easier hosting, ease of finding games, and better ping."

Bot Pros:
1. Better ping, ability to adjust latency
2. Manual regulation of hackers, trolls, and leavers
3. Allowance of stat tracking, useful for custom game leagues and tournaments
4. Useful commands for both the host and other players
5. Bots can act as a function to manage a community in chat or clan channels
6. Allow for cross-realm players to play a game together

Bot Cons:
1. Contributes to spam of both chat channels and the custom game list (there are many empty lobbies auto-hosted by bots that stay empty or take 45+ minutes to fill)
2. Prioritizes the need to use 3rd party tools are websites to find games and host games
3. Causes people that don't know about bots to have a difficult time finding and hosting games successfully
4. Alienates anyone coming back to the game, or new players coming in, hindering any growth on activity
5. It makes it hard on map makers to test their maps on battle.net quickly, as there is often a tedious process to add maps to bot communities
6. Bot hosted games do not allow for a game to be saved and loaded afterwards

With Battle.net 2.0 integration on its way, bots are likely to not work on the new platform. Battle.net 2.0 will take care of the lag and hackers. It also eliminates any of the cons. The downside is obvious, bot hosting communities for custom games will take a hit. While this is a significant chunk of the community, it's not the priority to keep 3rd party bots running. Nearly all of the ladder community would like to see bots gone due to spam, and the custom game community is definitely split on it.

Personally, from my observations, I'd say that custom gamers have the stance of 55% not in favor bots vs 45% in favor of bots. The guesstimate was given after looking at many wc3 forums and discords for their opinions. However, with the fixes probably on the way, the super majority should be okay with the removal of bots if Battle.net 2.0 fixes problems that bots temporarily fix as 3rd party tools.

It is unclear if 2.0 will exactly be like SC2's, which of course had its own cons during its early days which have since been fixed. But note that the goal with battle.net 2.0 is not to remove host bots, but it's simply to upgrade the online platform all across the board.

Related links:
State of the Union (Warcraft III) Warcraft 3 patch news, future remaster and free version, public test realm
The Future of Warcraft See attached file for bot info
https://us.battle.net/forums/en/bnet/topic/20754875646#post-4

 

[Apheraz Lucent]

You forgot a few very important cons and pros.

+Bots allow for cross-realm players to play a game together.
-Bot hosted games do not allow for a game to be saved and loaded afterwards.

I disagree on your cons #3, #4 and #5, respectively.
#3 - I've yet to see someone who isn't introduced with bots so far. They've became a standard on their own (fortunately or not).
#4 - Care to elaborate? Sounds very non-concise and not easy to understand the point.
#5 - MMH takes from a day to a week to implement a map in their database, ENT takes up to a day from my experience. Both sites take very little to no work done to suggest a map to be added.

My personal opinion on bot is in their favor. They gave more than they could ever possibly take, even at the cost of some of joy. On the other hand, the "Bot Race", which is when certain communities (ENT in particular) refuse to delete or remove their bots who host games that are never played just so they can have more bots than other hosting communities and therefore establish a self-proclaimed monopoly where nobody actually wins, but everyone is at a loss (players the most), is just awful.

I'd like a SC2 hosting system which excludes bots, but allows players who can't normally host to be able to bypass it.

 

[StoPCampinGn00b]

@Apheraz Lucent
#3 - I often get returning players joining the clan, or people on other forums, without a clue of how to use bots. Public chat channels also have people without a clue as well.
#4 - I explained it in the top paragraph. Basically, a new player comes in and sees all these empty lobbies or DotA and legion TD spam. This is very discouraging for new players to find all these empty lobbies and little variety.
#5 - Well that ain't a disagreement, that's just more detail :]

My personal opinion on bot is in their favor. They gave more than they could ever possibly take, even at the cost of some of joy. On the other hand, the "Bot Race", which is when certain communities (ENT in particular) refuse to delete or remove their bots who host games that are never played just so they can have more bots than other hosting communities and therefore establish a self-proclaimed monopoly where nobody actually wins, but everyone is at a loss (players the most), is just awful.

This is my personal opinion as well before the BNet 2.0 news.

 

[moyackx]

Then, according of the reality seen in actual WC3 melee tournaments like the ones hosted by W3arena, this will bring a parallel world and conveniences that could separate more and more Blizzard from its final users. Then Blizzard will have a real clash with this well formed melee players.

I hope to get wrong. But that's the consequence of left alone a community for many years.

 

[Apheraz Lucent]

That's yet to be seen. Us from melee community will pretty much have to react accordingly to things happening, but what I'm certain of is that inevitably we'll manage - having our own realm or not.

 

[A]mun]

Props to MakeMeHost, which basically offers hosting on demand. I also can do a quick browser check to see if any desirable games are currently hosted < such a nice bonus!
I really dislike the spaming of empty lobbies 24/7 (like SCN mentioned, DotA and LegionTD are abusing this WAY too much). This, for me, results in avoiding the ingame lobby browser altogether.

What the game really needs, are more maps that offer longterm entertainment.

 

[Apheraz Lucent]

It's a bit sad that current map searching is dreadful even for a 15+ years old game. It refreshes once per 5 seconds to load 20 or so random maps from entire pool.

This is something I'm looking forward for BNET2 to compete with, if nothing else.

 

[Tal'Rarity]

If Blizzard doesn't add multi-server hosting, in-game control of the lag window and delay/latency, server access for storage and loading of information when they "accidently" destroy bots then Battle.net WC3 will be dead for custom games because they'll lose their community since enough people will leave to start their own battle.net and eventually everyone else will join meaning Blizzard will finally be out of the picture for good which could be a good thing however it looks like Blizzard finally cares so hopefully they are paying attention because their player base aka community isn't stupid. Luckily WC3 isn't a server-based game. =)

Ah about hackers, if it can be read then it can be hacked. They'll never stop hackers, nobody will for at least another 100 years if not longer. That's the most important three that must be added before upgrading their b.net which is latency control, multi-server hosting, server access for storage/loading, without it they effectively deal the finishing blow on Blizzard WC3 multiplayer.

 

[Dr Super Good]

If Blizzard doesn't add multi-server hosting, in-game control of the lag window and delay/latency, server access for storage and loading of information when they "accidently" destroy bots then Battle.net WC3 will be dead for custom games because they'll lose their community since enough people will leave to start their own battle.net and eventually everyone else will join meaning Blizzard will finally be out of the picture for good which could be a good thing however it looks like Blizzard finally cares so hopefully they are paying attention because their player base aka community isn't stupid. Luckily WC3 isn't a server-based game. =)

They will probably remove servers. It makes no sense to keep 4 different servers, 2 of which are just for the USA, in a game with only a few thousand players.

Host robots only really took off due to IPv4 being such a mess. If people did not have to use NATs then everyone could host.

Ah about hackers, if it can be read then it can be hacked. They'll never stop hackers, nobody will for at least another 100 years if not longer. That's the most important three that must be added before upgrading their b.net which is latency control, multi-server hosting, server access for storage/loading, without it they effectively deal the finishing blow on Blizzard WC3 multiplayer.

They cannot stop people hacking immediately, but they can detect people hacking and bad them, stopping them from making hacking gains in the long run.

Blizzard monitors background applications among many of their methods to detect hacks.

 

[Kaijyuu]

Notably I was able to test my maps on bnet using ENT. Map seemed to be approved instantly; I don't think they have any vetting process.



Wc3's custom game listing has always been garbage and the bots have alleviated much of the problem. I'll be fine with getting rid of them if and only if Blizz implements proper game searching and includes important information like the host's name and the state of the lobby. Oh, and host powers (kicking/muting) would be awfully nice too though that's more icing than cake.

Seriously, why did they never think to add a way to search for maps by name, or filter out maps by name, or at least view every available map being hosted?

 

[Bribe]

I would love to see new natives added to eliminate the need for many of these systems required, such as Bonus stats/GetUnitArmor/SetUnitType/GetUnitDamage.

EVENT_PLAYER_UNIT_DAMAGED would be great.

OnMissileLaunch also great.

Moving special effects, trackables, playing Special Effect animations, lots of room to improve. It just depends on how much time they spend on it and if adding natives is even on their list.

If they add new natives, I'll take up modding again.

 

[WhiteFang]

Warcraft III is going free, and a new total remaster for the game that you can buy releases some time after

uhm,am I the only that thinks this isn't a good idea?.
IMO,this will only split the fanbase,the thing that has kept the game alive all along.There will be those who stick with the original,and those who buy the remaster will move on to it and leave the original.I know for a fact I won't get the remaster
Don't get me wrong,I like cool graphical effects,but I don't think Warcraft needs a entire remaster.I like the art style it has now.It adds charm and gives that Warcraft feel.We need to improve further upon this version along with help from patches.

 

[deepstrasz]

uhm,am I the only that thinks this isn't a good idea?.
IMO,this will only split the fanbase,the thing that has kept the game alive all along.There will be those who stick with the original,and those who buy the remaster will move on to it and leave the original.I know for a fact I won't get the remaster

I think that as with Brood War, it will only be a visual difference not a total new game version which means the servers and gameplay would be the same for both those with the (visually) enhanced and the original versions.

 

[WhiteFang]

Ok,that I could get behind.As long as the entire fanbase benefits from the changes made by Blizzard,I'm happy.

 

[Kaijyuu]

Yeah it'd be crazy to have two versions of the game floating around like that.

I'm fine with a remaster if everyone's still playing the same game, though of course I won't buy it either. Low poly graphics have charm.

 

[Rui]

How about the increase in map size from 8 mb to128 mb though?

Maybe now someone can actually make sci-fi maps with those space models/skins people have been producing for years. Regardless, I never found any use in map size increase. Besides a few RPGs like TKoK, the majority of the best maps out there never needed it.

3. Causes people that don't know about bots to have a difficult time finding and hosting games successfully

That's what MakeMeHost is there for. One has to wait a day or two for maps to be committed? The wait won't kill. (Though I'm surprised it takes that long. Why does it?)

 

[StoPCampinGn00b]

That's what MakeMeHost is there for. One has to wait a day or two for maps to be committed? The wait won't kill. (Though I'm surprised it takes that long. Why does it?)

Yes I know, lol. I'm a big fan of MMH for being the bot provider doesn't contribute to the negative aspects. That's why I partnered up with 'em, also ENT too despite the downsides. But it's also essentailly saying this:
"I need makemehost because other bots & empty lobbies makes it hard to find other games"

Regarding of the differing wait times, it's really tedious. MakeMeHost seems to take a couple days to a week. ENT is instant, though you gotta register an account. But you're only allowed 10 or a few more maps iirc, so busy map makers are pretty limited in what maps and versions they can use. To skip these limits, you often have to buy or rent a bot for your own use.

 

[Bribe]

uhm,am I the only that thinks this isn't a good idea?.
IMO,this will only split the fanbase,the thing that has kept the game alive all along.There will be those who stick with the original,and those who buy the remaster will move on to it and leave the original.I know for a fact I won't get the remaster
Don't get me wrong,I like cool graphical effects,but I don't think Warcraft needs a entire remaster.I like the art style it has now.It adds charm and gives that Warcraft feel.We need to improve further upon this version along with help from patches.

If it's anything like StarCraft HD, the remaster will be glorious.

 

[Kaijyuu]

It won't appeal to everyone though. Not everyone's lured by the siren song of polygon count and texture resolution, and new artists might not capture the same visual style. Maybe they will, but I personally haven't been a fan of Blizz's art direction since ~2007 or so.

 

[Bribe]

It won't appeal to everyone though. Not everyone's lured by the siren song of polygon count and texture resolution, and new artists might not capture the same visual style. Maybe they will, but I personally haven't been a fan of Blizz's art direction since ~2007 or so.

As i mentioned with the SC remaster, if they follow that style of strictly improving the artwork rather than "fixing it" like the War3 models in SC2, it'll be great.

 

[Kaijyuu]

I never had any interest in Starcraft so I don't know how they did with the remaster there. If they did a good job that would be praised by a professional sprite artist (sprite specifically! since the original was 2d), then great. If not, oh well; the old one still exists.

With Warcraft in particular I'd be worried they'd go for a more post-Burning Crusade art style. It was Wrath where they stopped trying to keep the cartoony look and instead opted for a more "realistic" style with far far far too much detail. I'd hate it if they added a bunch of scratches and chinks to the Footman armor, or went with the WoW orc design over the exaggerated proportions seen in warcraft 2 and 3 (compare the wc3 grunt's mouth and lips to the remastered WoW models).

 

[Excalibrs]

It looks great