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Warcraft II Battle.net EditionWhy did it have to be the Battle.net edition?(51 posts)(51 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted March 29, 2019
high rated
The Battle.net edition sucks. The original game with the expansion CD is better because it has the full soundtrack. The Battle.net edition fades the tracks out early to make room on the CD because Blizzard was cheap and wanted to ship the original game plus the expansion on just one CD.

Also, the Battle.net edition has that ugly Battle.net wording on top of the Warcraft II logos.

Also, the original Warcraft II release's intro Blizzard logo is more fitting for the game than the Battle.net version's Blizzard logo, which looks like it belongs in something futuristic themed, like Starcraft.

You did bad, GoG and Blizzard, you did real bad.
Post edited March 29, 2019 by delicieuxz
Posted March 29, 2019
high rated
Fix the music. Holy crap.

Watching YouTube videos I can see that it doesn't have the full soundtrack because it's the shitty Battle.net version.

Get the full soundtrack from the CD for Beyond the Dark Portal. The BtDP expansion added 2 new excellent in-game music tracks (attached the files for the first track), and still had the full versions of all the original Warcraft II tracks. The BtDP expansion also added a secret track to the CD that isn't accessible in the game but which can be heard if playing the expansion CD in a CD player.

The Battle.net version of Warcraft II, which is the shittier version of the game, removed all the new music from the BtDP expansion, and also cut out the ends of the original tracks and just faded those tracks out prematurely.

Here's the full soundtrack. The timestamps are off, though, coz Humans track 3 is missing from the list and Humans 4 is labelled as Humans 3, and Humans 5 is labelled as Humans 4.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1Va2KxDOkE

The new BtDP tracks for Humans and Orcs are added to Humans 1 and Orcs 1, and just play before the original Human 1 and Orcs 1 music in the same track.

And here's a download of the full soundtrack. Compare it to the in-game version of the soundtrack in the Battle.net edition.

https://mega.nz/#!141CiaDS!Qz9mjhMdqUS8pRob5_z4-nLCmXbOIC4uWRqU-vI3P5c

One of the best soundtracks in gaming history, and you throw the amputated and butchered version into this release.

This is a disgrace, GoG and Blizzard. Please fix it.
Post edited March 29, 2019 by delicieuxz
Posted March 29, 2019
That link to the complete soundtrack looks a bit fishy. If so, you might want to remove it. Copyright, stuff like that. Just saying
Posted March 29, 2019
avatar
thom_gog: That link to the complete soundtrack looks a bit fishy. If so, you might want to remove it. Copyright, stuff like that. Just saying
I uploaded it from my own copy of the soundtrack. The full thing has been on YouTube from a dozen different places since forever and it's never been a copyright issue. Also, the soundtrack isn't sold anywhere, and GoG and Blizzard seemingly couldn't even be bothered to restore it in this release of Warcraft II. So, I don't think it's an issue.
Post edited March 29, 2019 by delicieuxz
Posted March 29, 2019
It already has dozens of 5 star reviews so it hardly "sucks". In the space of 1 day it is the most highly reviewed game on GOG of all time.
Posted March 29, 2019
avatar
delicieuxz: Fix the music. Holy crap.

Watching YouTube videos I can see that it doesn't have the full soundtrack because it's the shitty Battle.net version.

Get the full soundtrack from the CD for Beyond the Dark Portal. The BtDP expansion added 2 new excellent in-game music tracks (attached the files for the first track), and still had the full versions of all the original Warcraft II tracks. The BtDP expansion also added a secret track to the CD that isn't accessible in the game but which can be heard if playing the expansion CD in a CD player.

The Battle.net version of Warcraft II, which is the shittier version of the game, removed all the new music from the BtDP expansion, and also cut out the ends of the original tracks and just faded those tracks out prematurely.

Here's the full soundtrack. The timestamps are off, though, coz Humans track 3 is missing from the list and Humans 4 is labelled as Humans 3, and Humans 5 is labelled as Humans 4.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1Va2KxDOkE

The new PtDP tracks for Humans and Orcs are added to Humans 1 and Orcs 1, and just play before the original Human 1 and Orcs 1 music in the same track.

And here's a download of the full soundtrack. Compare it to the in-game version of the soundtrack in the Battle.net edition.

https://mega.nz/#!141CiaDS!Qz9mjhMdqUS8pRob5_z4-nLCmXbOIC4uWRqU-vI3P5c

One of the best soundtracks in gaming history, and you throw the amputated and butchered version into this release.

This is a disgrace, GoG and Blizzard. Please fix it.
I checked it out I don't think anything is missing, the extra tracks only plays during 'Beyond the Dark Portal' missions, not during Tides of Darkness (which is how it should be). I have not tested this in multiplayer.
Posted March 29, 2019
low rated
avatar
delicieuxz: The Battle.net edition sucks. The original game with the expansion CD is better because it has the full soundtrack. The Battle.net edition fades the tracks out early to make room on the CD because Blizzard was cheap and wanted to ship the original game plus the expansion on just one CD.

Also, the Battle.net edition has that ugly Battle.net wording on top of the Warcraft II logos.

Also, the original Warcraft II release's intro Blizzard logo is more fitting for the game than the Battle.net version's Blizzard logo, which looks like it belongs in something futuristic themed, like Starcraft.

You did bad, GoG and Blizzard, you did real bad.
try going to war2.ru its a free online mutliplayer for warcraft2 you wont be dissapointed.
avatar
delicieuxz: Fix the music. Holy crap.

Watching YouTube videos I can see that it doesn't have the full soundtrack because it's the shitty Battle.net version.

Get the full soundtrack from the CD for Beyond the Dark Portal. The BtDP expansion added 2 new excellent in-game music tracks (attached the files for the first track), and still had the full versions of all the original Warcraft II tracks. The BtDP expansion also added a secret track to the CD that isn't accessible in the game but which can be heard if playing the expansion CD in a CD player.

The Battle.net version of Warcraft II, which is the shittier version of the game, removed all the new music from the BtDP expansion, and also cut out the ends of the original tracks and just faded those tracks out prematurely.

Here's the full soundtrack. The timestamps are off, though, coz Humans track 3 is missing from the list and Humans 4 is labelled as Humans 3, and Humans 5 is labelled as Humans 4.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1Va2KxDOkE

The new PtDP tracks for Humans and Orcs are added to Humans 1 and Orcs 1, and just play before the original Human 1 and Orcs 1 music in the same track.

And here's a download of the full soundtrack. Compare it to the in-game version of the soundtrack in the Battle.net edition.

https://mega.nz/#!141CiaDS!Qz9mjhMdqUS8pRob5_z4-nLCmXbOIC4uWRqU-vI3P5c

One of the best soundtracks in gaming history, and you throw the amputated and butchered version into this release.

This is a disgrace, GoG and Blizzard. Please fix it.
avatar
Joshrulz: I checked it out I don't think anything is missing, the extra tracks only plays during 'Beyond the Dark Portal' missions, not during Tides of Darkness (which is how it should be). I have not tested this in multiplayer.
yes this is a discrace completly try going to war2.ru its a free version of war2 mutliplayer
avatar
thom_gog: That link to the complete soundtrack looks a bit fishy. If so, you might want to remove it. Copyright, stuff like that. Just saying
War2.ru is the website check it out its a free version that has been up since bnet for war2 shutdown
Post edited March 29, 2019 by Actlikeuknowme
Posted March 29, 2019
avatar
bradelli: It already has dozens of 5 star reviews so it hardly "sucks". In the space of 1 day it is the most highly reviewed game on GOG of all time.
Warcraft II is still Warcraft II. But, the Battle.net version of Warcraft II sucks compared to the non Battle.net version of Warcraft II and Beyond the Dark Portal.
avatar
Joshrulz: I checked it out I don't think anything is missing, the extra tracks only plays during 'Beyond the Dark Portal' missions, not during Tides of Darkness (which is how it should be). I have not tested this in multiplayer.
No, it's missing. The extra tracks are not independent files, they're a part of Humans 1 and Orcs 1, and they play at the start of those tracks and then there's silence and the original tracks play while it's still Humans 1 and Orcs 1. The only reason you wouldn't hear them in the original campaign is because you had to have the original Warcraft II CD in the drive to play the original campaign, and the extra tracks aren't on the original CD. But, when you had the expansion CD in the drive, then the extra tracks would play first.

The Battle.net edition of Warcraft II doesn't have 2 separate CDs, one for the original campaigns and one for the BtDP campaigns, it just has one CD with the amount of total music content greatly reduced.

Also, the Battle.net version's fade-out of the tracks is present in the YouTube videos of the new GoG release of Warcraft II.

So, it's clear that the GoG release uses the gutted Battle.net version of the soundtrack that's missing a lot of the full soundtrack.
Post edited March 29, 2019 by delicieuxz
Posted March 29, 2019
Here's the fade-out on Humans 1 in the GoG release of Warcraft II:

https://youtu.be/aAz-XLGP544?t=1816

In the full version of that track from the Beyond the Dark Portal CD, that part of the song is at 5:15. The full song goes until 6:28. So, the Battle.net version is missing 1:23 at the end of the track.

The Battle.net version is also missing 2:50 of music from the beginning of the first track.

So, that's a total of 4:13 of music that is missing from just the first Humans track in the Battle.net version compared to the non Battle.net version of the game.

With the BtDP CD, the first track should be 6:28 long. With the original ToD CD, the first track should be 4:36. The Battle.net version is reduced to 2:27 long.



That's if the tracks are the same speed. Listening to that video, it's difficult for me to tell since the people are talking over the music and the music is quiet, but it sounds to me like the music might be sped up a very tiny bit. Maybe Blizzard also did that to make the song files shorter to spare more space on the Battle.net CD so they could fit both the original game and the expansion on the same CD.

Important content was cut in the Battle.net version of Warcraft II to save Blizzard the cost of a 2nd CD. But, this isn't how a re-release should be, and that cut content should be restored.
Post edited March 29, 2019 by delicieuxz
Posted March 29, 2019
Here are a couple more examples.

The track Humans 2 should be 3:34, but in the Battle.net version of Warcraft II it's only 2:06.

It also starts with a glitch in the Battle.net version of the game, as can be heard at these timestamps:

https://youtu.be/aAz-XLGP544?t=2098

https://youtu.be/aAz-XLGP544?t=2280

And it fades out prematurely here: https://youtu.be/aAz-XLGP544?t=2400

And then Humans 3 starts.

In the Battle.net version of Warcraft II, Humans 3 suddenly cuts out here: https://youtu.be/aAz-XLGP544?t=2525

The Humans 3 track should be 3:35. But, in the Battle.net version of Warcraft II, it's only 2:01.

The Battle.net version of Warcraft II has huge amounts of the soundtrack cut out, and it's not even edited smoothly, as Humans 2 shows, but is sloppily edited. This is an unacceptable presentation, and one that doesn't present Warcraft II in its full and best form.
Post edited March 29, 2019 by delicieuxz
Posted March 29, 2019
I noticed this too, it's pretty annoying. I'm glad I wasn't the only one.

Also, this release isn't that great in terms of the wrapper and presentation. They have settings for anti-aliasing and ANISOTROPIC FILTERING in a 2D game. Where is the quality control?

Lastly, if you run the game in 4:3 mode with black letterboxing on either side, the mouse isn't locked to the 4:3 game window, it literally scrolls off into the black letterboxing when you try to scroll at the edge of a map in-game. It's like they didn't really test it at all, I discovered these issues in literally under a minute of playtime.

Edit
The free cnc-ddraw wrapper is literally better than the one we get in this release too. It has far more features and also fixes the mouse issue. I recommend everyone downloads it.

https://www.gog.com/forum/warcraft_ii_battlenet_edition/alternative_renderer_cncddraw_supports_scaling_via_shaders_xbr_hqx_linuxmacos

https://github.com/CnCNet/cnc-ddraw/releases

At the end of the day, a proper copy of the original + plus the expansion CD is far better than this gog version. 'Tis a shame.
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Post edited March 29, 2019 by Swallagoon
Posted March 29, 2019
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thom_gog: That link to the complete soundtrack looks a bit fishy. If so, you might want to remove it. Copyright, stuff like that. Just saying
Not HIS fault... GOG "forgot" to include in "extras"/"goodies" the soundtrack of Warcraft 2. Warcraft 1 had one...
Posted April 01, 2019
I would love to hear an update from GoG about what they have planned for Warcraft II. Something to the effect that they acknowledge that half of the soundtrack is mixing and are working to restore it to the game would be super appreciated.

Whether I buy the game or not comes down entirely to whether GoG restore the full and non-glitchy soundtrack. I expect it is very simple to do, just by extracting the file with the music tracks in it, replacing the cut-down and glitchy track files with the full track files, and then recompiling the file with all the music tracks in it.

If GoG need a source for the original full-length music tracks, I still have my original Warcraft II and Beyond the Dark Portal CDs, and will happily supply the original, full-length music tracks in any format.


I also hope that the DOS version of Warcraft II with BtDP will be added to the GoG release.
Post edited April 01, 2019 by delicieuxz
Posted April 01, 2019
While I dont think the Release that GoG put out was anything worth money, I dont think it sinks to the level of sucks completely. What they released was an exact copy of the original. I dont think changing it was part of their goal as much as capturing $15/head was when they got the injection of new players from Blizzard's promised advertising on the Battle.net launcher (which is where all these new players are coming from). If you want a modified version that actually works and has all the stuff you're referring to, then what you want is the FREE version of War2 (War2Combat) which has been around since about 2005/6 or so and is FAR superior to the GoG version and it's still 100% compatible with the GoG servers if you have a valid CD key (which you get from buying via the GoG store).
Posted April 01, 2019
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Lancelight: While I dont think the Release that GoG put out was anything worth money, I dont think it sinks to the level of sucks completely.
Oh, I don't mean to say that the whole GoG release sucks. I don't have it. But, I know what the Battle.net version is missing from the original release, and I have verified that the soundtrack is the cut version by watching YouTube videos of the GoG version being played.

I think that the Battle.net release of Warcraft II sucks compared to the original release because it is compromised and reduced in quality and content.

What they released was an exact copy of the original.
Warcraft II originally released in 1996. The 1999 Battle.net version of Warcraft II is a re-packaging of Warcraft II and its expansion BtDP. Warcraft II and BtDP originally released on two separate CDs. When Blizzard released the Battle.net re-packaging of the game, they made it fit on just a single CD by sloppily cutting out around half of the soundtrack.

The original release of Warcraft II and Beyond the Dark Portal weren't labelled as the Battle.net edition, and had a different Blizzard into logo, none of the Battle.net branding in the menu, and the full soundtrack.

I dont think changing it was part of their goal as much as capturing $15/head was when they got the injection of new players from Blizzard's promised advertising on the Battle.net launcher (which is where all these new players are coming from). If you want a modified version that actually works and has all the stuff you're referring to, then what you want is the FREE version of War2 (War2Combat) which has been around since about 2005/6 or so and is FAR superior to the GoG version and it's still 100% compatible with the GoG servers if you have a valid CD key (which you get from buying via the GoG store).
Maybe you were saying that to Swallagoon, but forgot to quote them?
Post edited April 01, 2019 by delicieuxz
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Community
Warcraft II Battle.net EditionWhy did it have to be the Battle.net edition?(51 posts)(51 posts)
(51 posts)