Welcome to new players!

[TheBasque]

If you bought the game during the Steam Summer Sale, welcome! Below is a patch that I highly recommend, contains the last official patch that was unreleased by the developers of the original game. It contains a lot of bug fixes for certain spells, makes all hero combinations vialbe, and balances the races so that any race can hold its on.

http://etheria.wikia.com/wiki/Patch_Downloads

Click to download in .RAR format or .ZIP. Download, unpack in WarlordsBattlecryiii.exe, and enjoy! If there are any problems go to the .exe ->Properties ->Compatibility mode-> Window XP pack 3

[Lonewolf]

Umm sorry but the Monk class, Swiftness , timers , Time Magic , and unofficial patch were developed by the original modding team , I know this for a fact. The last official patch was 1.03 .

[Macenn]

Originally posted by Lonewolf:

Umm sorry but the Monk class, Swiftness , timers , Time Magic , and unofficial patch were developed by the original modding team , I know this for a fact. The last official patch was 1.03 .

Thank you. :)

[TheBasque]

Originally posted by Macenn:

Originally posted by Lonewolf:

Umm sorry but the Monk class, Swiftness , timers , Time Magic , and unofficial patch were developed by the original modding team , I know this for a fact. The last official patch was 1.03 .

Thank you. :)

Yes, 1.03 was the last official patch, but the recent one was released with code given to them by the developers. So you are in fact 100% wrong. The original modding team did make the timers, though the dev team was quoted saying that they wanted to implement timers if they had more time from their publishers when the game was made..

However, Monk and Time magic were developed by the dev team, I don't know where you are getting your facts but you are 100% wrong on that one.

[Macenn]

Originally posted by TheSpaniard:

Originally posted by Macenn:

Thank you. :)

Yes, 1.03 was the last official patch, but the recent one was released with code given to them by the developers. The modding team did make the timers.

I don't know where you are getting your facts but you are 100% on that one.

Thanks Don España for explaining everything.

[TheBasque]

Originally posted by Macenn:

Originally posted by TheSpaniard:

Yes, 1.03 was the last official patch, but the recent one was released with code given to them by the developers. The modding team did make the timers.

I don't know where you are getting your facts but you are 100% on that one.

Thanks Don España for explaining everything.

We get it, you're an unpleasant racist.

[Macenn]

Originally posted by TheSpaniard:

Originally posted by Macenn:

Thanks Don España for explaining everything.

We get it, you're an unpleasant racist.

How did you get it? I haven't said out loud that i love dwarves and hate Ssrathi, Swarm and Daemons. What's your secret oh you clever mindreader?

[Lonewolf]

Well Spaniard I have the 10323 code sitting on my old XP PC so I guess I can't read the quotes in it.

[TheBasque]

Originally posted by Lonewolf:

Well Spaniard I have the 10323 code sitting on my old XP PC so I guess I can't read the quotes in it.

It's true, why would people from the community lie about this? I've been playing warlords games for about twenty years now, and I know for a fact that they were planning Time Magic and a Monk Class for their last patch. It never got there because of their publisher and other factors. The time magic and Monk we have before us is from the developers themselves indirectly given to us, because of legal complications.

[Lonewolf]

I'm not interested in arguing with you maybe I'm wrong since I was not part of the original team I have my own mod and Time Magic is part of it . I done my last build of 103B a couple months back to remove the Ironman bug. But the original 103 codebase has no Time Magic. I have been playing Warlords for 20 years myself I'm actually really tired of the long standing debate that has plagued the WBCIII forums. All the best

[Alec Baldwin]

Okay lads. Whats the pro and con of the Steam version of this compared to Spaniard's fanpatch?

[Lonewolf]

I can't comment on the Steam Version or said fan patch update because I haven't tried tried them out yet but I have played 1.0323 back in the day so my 2 cents
1 - 1.032 line patches - Pro's new spheres Time Magic, New class Monk , Some improvements with pathfinding (Mino King) Some race changes to balance for multiplayer
-No disk detection
-Con's long time players don't like summon timers , balance changes don't always favor your personal preferance (nerf your fav race etc)
2: - 1.03 original patch - Pro's original patch so developers made it so it's how most people remember the game
-Cons some minor glitches and poor pathfinding by large units, AI would attack walls which used to be annoying in MP / disk detection (the original game you had to have the disk in the drive to play the game).
So arguing endlessly over which is "better" is meaningless you can play the game anyway you want. Take your fights to the battlefield and enjoy one of the best RTS games ever.

[Ruzdreg]

I was around and had close contact with the old mod team, but weren't actually apart of it. As such I can't be 100% sure what was donated officially and what was fan made aside from the High Elven buildings. I could say that the Time sphere was totally unofficial but I can't prove that without digging into it. Same goes for the summon timers which is why I've stayed out of this discussion till now. (Although it's interesting to note that the change log from the old mod team only gave credit to I2 for the High Elven buildings and nothing else - not even the Time sphere graphics.)

However, I can say for certain that the old mod project stopped at 1.03.23. Anything after that has absolutly no official connection to the original developers in any way.

P.S: I have all the change logs ranging from 1.00 to 1.03.23, so if anyone's interested in the exact changes between versions, I can post them.

*edit*
I did some digging:

"TimeMagic.cpp, built over DivinationMagic.cpp "©" Jod"

The code for Time magic was written by Jodwin, using Divination magic as a template. However, that's not to say that I2 never intended there to be Time magic - it just means that what we ended up with is fan made and doesn't reflect I2's orignal vision (that is if they actually intended there to be Time magic).

But as Lonewolf said - all this is irrelivent. Just play the version you are happy with. WBC3 doesn't have an active multiple scene (and never will) so splitting up the community into different patches won't do any harm (although it does make things trickier for those of us who aim to keep the wiki updated :p )

[TheBasque]

Originally posted by Ruzdreg:

I was around and had close contact with the old mod team, but weren't actually apart of it. As such I can't be 100% sure what was donated officially and what was fan made aside from the High Elven buildings. I could say that the Time sphere was totally unofficial but I can't prove that without digging into it. Same goes for the summon timers which is why I've stayed out of this discussion till now. (Although it's interesting to note that the change log from the old mod team only gave credit to I2 for the High Elven buildings and nothing else - not even the Time sphere graphics.)

However, I can say for certain that the old mod project stopped at 1.03.23. Anything after that has absolutly no official connection to the original developers in any way.

P.S: I have all the change logs ranging from 1.00 to 1.03.23, so if anyone's interested in the exact changes between versions, I can post them.

*edit*
I did some digging:

"TimeMagic.cpp, built over DivinationMagic.cpp "©" Jod"

The code for Time magic was written by Jodwin, using Divination magic as a template. However, that's not to say that I2 never intended there to be Time magic - it just means that what we ended up with is fan made and doesn't reflect I2's orignal vision (that is if they actually intended there to be Time magic).

But as Lonewolf said - all this is irrelivent. Just play the version you are happy with. WBC3 doesn't have an active multiple scene (and never will) so splitting up the community into different patches won't do any harm (although it does make things trickier for those of us who aim to keep the wiki updated :p )

So why do people at the Wikia, people that work with Jodwin and others, say that the developers gave the dev team code? Again, it's unofficial for a reason, they can't put their names on the code but from what I've read it's supposed to be from them and the community released. They interacted, and I don't understand why people like Joe The Bartender would make that up. Not a big deal in the end but still a great patch that I think balances the game and adds so much to it.

[Lonewolf]

Well our old forums are dead at the Battlefield archived and most of us are not actively modding. I still look at my code and plan to someday update my stuff. I'm sure the art for Time Magic spells was done by Storm. Jodwin made a very cool Delta Mod I played it a long time ago the code I seen for 1032 had his name by the changes so I'm pretty sure he done those. I also tried to host a tournament at the time to test out the 10321 made some maps (which are on my old Freewebs page) for it so we tried to build a community back then to battletest the ideas but just couldn't get enough folks to buy in and give it a go. They even made some cool code for folks not to cheat building their heros for the tournament. .

Seeing the game on Steam gives old diehards the hope that more folks will look at the mods/game and build some sort of community to get some games (MP going). The wikea is getting better and better there's tonnes of good info there.

[Joe the Bartender]

Originally posted by Ruzdreg:

But as Lonewolf said - all this is irrelivent. Just play the version you are happy with. WBC3 doesn't have an active multiple scene (and never will) so splitting up the community into different patches won't do any harm (although it does make things trickier for those of us who aim to keep the wiki updated :p )

I'd like to reiterate this too.

I don't think the 'unofficial patch' was ever made to replace 1.03, I just see it as an alternate way of playing. Every version has its upsides and downsides.

About the other versions; 1.03.24 I believe was GOG's updated version of 1.03.23 after being given the source for it? That update was purely to allow 1.03.23 to play correctly on modern systems. Thankfully GOG did eventually manage to get 1.03 patched up and now they use that instead whilst offering 1.03.24 essentially as DLC. I just wish Valve would do the same with Steam's version of WBC3.

1.03.25 had a different team to the old unofficial patches and like Ruzdreg said, is not connected to the official developers at all, much like 1.03.24. 1.03.25 was developed by Faestus/ESPee and myself about 5 years ago and was intended to replace 1.03.24 as the latest unofficial version. About a year after development, complications occurred (one of the more significant of which was Faestus dropping from the team, likely due to life), which resulted in 1.03.25 becoming what was essentially a cleaned-up unfinished release. That isn't to say that it was particularly buggy or anything - it usually isn't any moreso than other versions, but it didn't inlude many of the changes which were originally planned for it, namely modern system compatibility and a fix for the slowdown caused by excessive particles on-screen (which meant some, particularly laptop users, had to use the 1.03.24 exe instead). A 1.03.26 patch was also planned, but lack of programmer support meant that the engine was essentially dead and so there wasn't much point in following through with it.

Originally posted by TheSpaniard:

So why do people at the Wikia, people that work with Jodwin and others, say that the developers gave the dev team code?

I don't remember if anyone said that at the Wiki, but it may have been implied from time to time. I think it's moreso said on the Infinite Interactive forums.

Originally posted by TheSpaniard:

Again, it's unofficial for a reason, they can't put their names on the code but from what I've read it's supposed to be from them and the community released. They interacted, and I don't understand why people like Joe The Bartender would make that up.

I don't remember saying anything about the Monk / Time Magic being dev-code but if I did I apologise. iirc an official 1.04 patch was planned which would've included the Monk and Time Magic, but it would seem that only the idea of those were passed on to the unofficial patch team. Some of I2 likely did interact with unofficial patch members but that's all lost on old websites and forums which have long since disappeared (such as the Battlefield forums). They did not cooperate together on the unofficial patches however, those were almost completely fan made.