ECTS 2001: Warcraft III update

After looking at the just-announced World of Warcraft online game, we had the chance to see the latest build of Warcraft III behind closed doors at ECTS. Blizzard is deep into the process of polishing the game, which in July was officially delayed until 2002 in order to perfect the complex balance between the four playable races and the 12 unique heroes. The demonstration we saw gives a clear indication of the role heroes will play in the game and how their powers are balanced.

A major difference between Warcraft III and previous Blizzard games is that a smaller number of strong units compose armies led by heroes. Each race has three hero unit types, and there's a distinct strategic role for each hero. For example, the human heroes--the arch-mage, the paladin, and the mountain king--are roughly divided between ranged spell attacks, regeneration, and powerful combat powers. The heroes gain levels with experience up to a maximum of level 15 (recently increased from level 10), and from level five it's possible to learn the hero's ultimate spell. These are incredibly powerful powers that are only available once per game day. Of the humans, the paladin can resurrect every fallen unit within an area of effect, the arch-mage can teleport a group of units across the map for something like an instantaneous Reaver drop, and the mountain king can make a small gold mine emerge from the ground. When a hero uses one of these abilities, a text warning message is sent to the other players in the game.

There's plenty of incentive for players to send heroes out adventuring across the maps. Groups of neutral monsters carry random items that can be equipped only by heroes. The most powerful monster currently in the game is a level 10 red dragon that can challenge a good-sized army, and in the demo the dragon was grouped with other units that could combine to heal the dragon during the battle. There are also buildings scattered around the maps that only heroes can trigger. Some of these buildings contain units to hire for a decent sum of gold. Each building can have several units to choose from and they're immediately available without any build time. To balance the buildings with a player's build structures, there are only a limited number of hirelings available per day/night cycle. This gives the buildings recurring strategic importance in multiplayer games, as players try to get to buildings early in each cycle to keep the units from being picked up by opposing heroes. The day/night cycle is currently set to last 10 minutes--six minutes of daytime and four of nighttime--but the exact duration is still being tweaked.

Warcraft III is more rich and impressive looking than ever. Playtesting and balancing the four races and twelve heroes is Blizzard's main preoccupation at this point in the development process, and many details seem to be open to final tweaks. The team is also still fleshing out the single-player campaign and, overall, is working to balance the RPG and RTS elements. The game is scheduled for release early next year.