New Warcraft III Patch Makes Its Editor Even More Powerful news

Blizzard made a surprise announcement earlier today with the news that a new patch for Warcraft III is available. Currently existing on the reactivated Warcraft III public test realm, the 1.29 patch brings a few modernisations to the base game such as widescreen support, multiplayer matchmaking improvements, and more.

But the real interesting part of the patch for modders is what’s coming to Warcraft III’s Editor. Blizzard already has a history of releasing powerful editing tools with its strategy games – with Warcraft III’s Editor playing an important role in the genesis of DOTA – and it’s great to see that the developer is continuing to add new features to its tools. Read the full developer post, below.

Greetings Creators,

Here's your much deserved deeper dive into the Editor improvements. Please try to keep discussion and requests in this thread so we can track more easily. Cheers.

General Limit Increases

• Object limit increased to 30,000
• Map size limit increased to 480 x 480
• Tile set limit increased to 16
• Max execution number increased to 1666666
• Max food limit increased to 999
• Max resource limit increased to 9999999
• Array size increased from 8192 to 32768
• Display mana bar

New Natives

• DecPlayerTechResearched; takes player whichPlayer, integer techid, integer levels returns nothing // Opposite to IncPlayerTechResearched
• DeleteHeroAbility; takes unit whichUnit, integer abilCode returns nothing // Remove Hero Ability
• DeleteHeroAbility; takes unit whichUnit, integer abilCode returns nothing // Remove Hero Ability
• GetAbilityCooldowntakes; integer abilId, integer level returns real
• GetAbilityIcon; takes integer abilCode, integer level returns string
• GetAbilityManaCosttakes; integer abilId, integer level returns integer
• GetAbilityPosX; takes integer abilCode returns integer // Icon Position
• GetAbilityPosY; takes integer abilCode returns integer
• GetAbilityResearchTooltip; takes integer abilCode, integer level returns string
• GetAbilityResearchExtendedTooltip; takes integer abilCode, integer level returns string
• GetAbilityTooltip; takes integer abilCode, integer level returns string
• GetAbilityExtendedTooltip; takes integer abilCode, integer level returns string
• GetAbilityOnIcon; takes integer abilCode returns string // "OnIcon is the icon for these auto-castable ablities when they're turned on"
• GetAbilityOnPosX; takes integer abilCode returns integer
• GetAbilityOnPosY; takes integer abilCode returns integer
• GetAbilityOnTooltip; takes integer abilCode, integer level returns string
• GetAbilityOnUberTooltip; takes integer abilCode, integer level returns string
• GetItemIconPath; takes item whichItem returns string
• GetItemTooltip; takes item whichItem returns string
• GetItemExtendedTooltip; takes item whichItem returns string
• GetLocalSpecialEffectX; takes effect whichEffect returns real
• GetLocalSpecialEffectY; takes effect whichEffect returns real
• GetLocalSpecialEffectZ; takes effect whichEffect returns real
• GetLocalUnitZ; takes unit whichUnit returns real
• GetTriggerPlayerMouseButton; takes nothing returns mousebuttontype
• GetTriggerPlayerMousePosition; takes nothing returns location
• GetTriggerPlayerMouseX; takes nothing returns real
• GetTriggerPlayerMouseY; takes nothing returns real
• GetUnitAbilityCooldown; takes unit whichUnit, integer abilId, integer level returns real
• GetUnitAbilityCooldownRemaining; takes unit whichUnit, integer abilId returns real
• GetUnitAbilityManaCost; takes unit whichUnit, integer abilId, integer level returns integer
• GetUnitArmor; takes unit returns real
• GetUnitAttackCooldown; takes unit whichUnit, integer weaponIndex returns real
• GetUnitBaseDamage; takes unit whichUnit, integer weaponIndex returns integer
• GetUnitCollisionSize; takes unit whichUnit returns real
• GetUnitDiceNumber; takes unit whichUnit, integer weaponIndex returns integer
• GetUnitDiceSides; takes unit whichUnit, integer weaponIndex returns integer
• IsUnitInvulnerable; takes unit whichUnit returns boolean
• IsUnitSelectable; takes unit whichUnit returns boolean
• PlaySpecialEffect; takes effect whichEffect, integer anim returns nothing
• SetEventDamage; takes real damage returns nothing // Modify EVENT_UNIT_DAMAGED event damage
• SetHeroProperName; takes unit whichUnit, string name returns nothing
• SetSpecialEffectAlpha; takes effect whichEffect, integer alpha returns nothing
• SetSpecialEffectColor; takes effect whichEffect, integer r, integer g, integer b returns nothing
• SetSpecialEffectColorByPlayer; takes effect whichEffect, player whichPlayer returns nothing
• SetSpecialEffectPosition; takes effect whichEffect, real x, real y, real z returns nothing
• SetSpecialEffectPositionLoc; takes effect whichEffect, location loc returns nothing
• SetSpecialEffectOrientation; takes effect whichEffect, real yaw, real pitch, real roll returns nothing
• SetSpecialEffectPitch; takes effect whichEffect, real pitch returns nothing
• SetSpecialEffectRoll; takes effect whichEffect, real roll returns nothing
• SetSpecialEffectTime; takes effect whichEffect, real time returns nothing // Think this won't solve the leak problem
• SetSpecialEffectTimeScale; takes effect whichEffect, real timeScale returns nothing
• SetSpecialEffectX; takes effect whichEffect, real x returns nothing
• SetSpecialEffectY; takes effect whichEffect, real y returns nothing
• SetSpecialEffectYaw; takes effect whichEffect, real yaw returns nothing
• SetSpecialEffectZ; takes effect whichEffect, real z returns nothing
• SetUnitAbilityCooldown; takes unit whichUnit, integer abilId, integer level, real cooldown returns nothing // Set ability cooldown for this specific unit
• SetUnitArmor; takes unit whichUnit, real armorAmount returns nothing
• SetUnitAttackCooldown; takes unit whichUnit, real cooldown, integer weaponIndex returns nothing // Set all future attack cooldown for this specific unit
• SetUnitBaseDamage; takes unit whichUnit, integer baseDamage, integer weaponIndex returns nothing
• SetUnitDiceNumber; takes unit whichUnit, integer diceNumber, integer weaponIndex returns nothing
• SetUnitDiceSides; takes unit whichUnit, integer diceSides, integer weaponIndex returns nothing
• SetUnitName; takes unit whichUnit, string name returns nothing
• UnitCancelTimedLife; takes unit whichUnit returns nothing
• UnitDisableAbility; takes unit whichUnit, integer abilId, boolean flag, boolean hideUI returns nothing
• EndUnitAbilityCooldown; takes unit whichUnit, integer abilCode returns nothing // Finish cooldown for this ability for this unit
• UnitHideAbility; takes unit whichUnit, integer abilId, boolean flag returns nothing
• UnitInterruptAttack; takes unit whichUnit returns nothing

With the main features of this patch focusing on taking advantage of the power of modern systems, less limited by engine constraints that were defined at the time the game was released, do you think you’ll be going back to Warcraft III’s Editor to check out what’s new? We’ll be keeping an eye on Warcraft III’s mod scene and will be sure to update you with interesting new developments that come out of it.