15 Years Later, Warcraft 3 Gets First Public Test Server Alongside Big Updates

A decade and a half after its first release, Blizzard Entertainment has launched the very first public test realm for Warcraft 3, alongside exciting new updates to the classic real-time strategy game.

The first official public test server went live and brings with it lots of improvements to the game, including: creep camp difficulty balancing from early to late game, start location balancing (for equal access to resources and choke points), tweaked sizing of trees and doodads, new maps, and more.

You can get the full list of changes below:

General Improvements & Gameplay Objectives

Balanced creep camp difficulty progression from early to late game
Balanced creep drop tables for better item progression from early game to late game
Item diversity: Varied Level 1 though 6 charged items and Level 1 through 6 permanent items
Balanced all start locations: total amount and starting distance from lumber, equal amount of spacing, equal size choke points, et cetera
Balanced expansion distance from start locations
Decluttered points of interest to reduce visual competition during gameplay
Retextured map surfaces for better visual clarity – both on screen and mini-map
Minimized the size of trees and doodads that obstructed player view of points of interest
Added cliff lines or deep water to edges of the map – removing hard edges (aesthetic choice for immersion)
Properly placed trees and doodads on the pathing grid: full-cell Medium Grid to half-cell Medium Grid alternate
Removed the rolling shoreline waves from rolling hills to remove the noise the waves created – remains for cliff shores