1. Starting Off
2. In Game Interface             (Originally Written By Sinfulera(OD))
3. Game Concepts

Once you load up the game, you'll be greeted by the main menu. You can select six of the following options:

Single Player Mode - In this mode you can play Campaign Mode. In the Campaign, you start off with the Orc prologue and the Humam Campaign. Finishing them will grant access to the next Campaign, eventaully leading the the conclusion of WarCraft 3. Also, you can set up games versus the computer.

Battle.Net - Selecting this feature will allow you to connect to the Blizzard Battle.Net service, a massive and free online gaming cservice that allows you to chat with otehr players as well as create and join multiplayer games. You need to create and account as well as have a valid CD Key to use this service. Clicking the magnifying glass will allow you change gateways. You should choose the one closest to you for the best performance. However, you can only see and interact with players on that server.

Local area Network (LAN) - Using this feature will allow you to connect with local computers via a LAN network. To use this, the computers must be physically connect with the appropriate cables.

Options Menu - Clicking the options menu will allow you to configure your video, sound and general game setting to the way you like it.

Credits - This is simply a list of of credits on the people who have worked so very hard to make WarCraft III.

Quit - This button should never ever ever be used. It will exit WarCraft III! You do not want this to happen! Beware! It just returns you to your operation systems, while exiting WarCraft.

The first time you start off, you will be asked to enter a name for your profile. You may notice that this feature was also in Starcraft. Type in your name, and click "OK". To change this, click on the magnifying glass next to your name to change it, or create a new profile. Each profile will be used to recall your progress in Campaign mode as well as storing replays under that name.

Starting a Campaign

The single player Campaign is one of the single greatest things in WarCraft. Starting off, you'll be able to play the Orc Prologue, and Human tutorial. The Orc Prologue is completely optional, but holds some form of storyline. I suggest you do this at least once. Completing each Campaign will grant you access to the next one. Therefore, you must play them in order.

The 4 Campaigns (after the Orc Prologue) are:

1. The Scourge of Lordaeron (Human)
2. Path of the Damned (Undead)
3. The Invasion of Kalimdor (Orc)
4. Eternity's End (Night Elf)

Loading a Saved Game

This will allow you to load your saved game during you campaigns. As such, you can continue your quests later on, or allowing you to replay a mission without having to start from the beginning.

This feature will allow you to view your completed missions. Completely similar to StarCraft (patched versions), you can see the progress of the game as well as that of your opponent. This is an extremely usefull feature for reviewing your strategy, as well as your opponents. Great for future planning.

When viewing the Replays, you have four options available: Pause, Play, Fast Forward, and Rewind. In other words, it's really basically a VCR or a DVD Player playing a movie. Furthermore, you can also selecl the speed of your replay, so you can skip to a certain section of the game without having to wait the full time to see it.

You can transfer your replay files, so you can trade them with other players (i.e. E-mail them to me). This is also used to show off, which is much apreciated for the site. You can also catch cheaters with this.

Custom Games

Using this feature allows you to play single player games versus the computer(s) on a custom map of your choice. Great for practice.

Selecting a map: To select a map to play on, navigate the main window. Maps will be assorted into different folders.

Choosing team Configurations: This allows you choose what race, team color and which allies the play has at the start.

After you've selected what race you want to play as, you can select how many computer opponents (as many as the map allows and what race they are. You can also select which team they're on.

Advanced Options: Enables you to set the advanced parameters of the game, such as random players, map visibility, etc.

Battle.Net is one of the most famous online game service there is. Spanning and serving virtually every Blizzard game out, it is also an excellent method to ensure people support the real software as opposed to piracy. For example, you need a valid CD-Key to go on Battle.Net. No two people can be online with the same CD-Key, or it will not let the second person online. Also, the CD-Key actually has to be a CD-Key, and not just a random assortment of letters and numbers. Each case holding the WarCraft CD has a CD-Key on it. Every one is unique.

Gateway Selection

In every Blizzard game that supports Battle.Net, you can choose which gateway to enter. Clicking on the magnifying glass next to the "Battle.Net" button in the main menu will allow you to change the Gateway Selection. While it is recommended that you select a server closest to where you live, for the fastest connectio nas well as cultural preferences (i.e. language), there are some downsides.

The four main Battle.Net servers are:

1. U.S West (Lordaeron)
2. U.S East (Azeroth)
3. Asia (Kalimdor)
4. Europe (Northrend)

Waiting Room

Logging onto Battle.Net will bring you to a screen, where there are six options to choose from:

This utilises a LAN connection. To use this, the computers must have a TCP/IP compatible network. Similar to Battle.Net, you can create or join games using "Custom game".

This is used most often in LAN cafes, where the computers are physically next to each other and thus able to use this function.

This section is used to customized and configure Warcraft 3. Pressing F-10 in the middle of the game will also let you access this.

Gameplay Options

This will configure how the game plays as well as interfacial aspects.

Game Speed - This controls how fast the game runs. This includes building and research times, as well as how fast units move and animate. However, this only affect the game in Single Player Mode. In multiplayer games, the speed is set when configuring the game.

Mouse Scroll - Controls how fast the mouse will scroll the game when near the edge of the screen.

Disable Mouse Scroll - Will disable your mouse scrolling. Instead, only the keyboard arrow keys can scroll.

Enhanced Tooltips - Will allow a box to pop up providng additional information when you hold the mouse cursor over an icon or unit.

Video Options

Gamma - This sets the gamma settings. The further to the right, the higher the gamma and brighter the screen becomes. This does not neccesarily make the screen easier to see.

Resolution - Will change the resolution and color depth of the game. The higher the resolution, the clearer and sharper the graphics become, at the expense of rendering power (meaning it will slow down the game if you don't have a wicked computer). To increase the game speed, try changing to a lower resolution. This can only be changed from the main menu, and cannot be accessed in the middle of a game.

Model Detail - Changes the number of polygons used per unit, making it look smoother. It's pretty much the same as resolution, because the higher it goes, the more rendering resources it uses, and slower the game becomes. Once again, it can only be accessed from the Main Menu.

Animation Quality - Dictates how smooth the animation will be in game. As with the Resolution and Model Detail, the more you crank it up, the slower your game becomes. Can only be accessed from the main menu. Systems with 128.0 MB of Ram or less, are recommended to use the 'Low" setting.

Texture Quality - Changes the quality of textures in game. The lower the quality, the less detail, the faster your game. Can only be accessed via the main menu.

Particles - Modifies the "extra" graphics, such as spells, footprints, etc. Technically, it adjusts the particles drawn per emitter. The 'Low' setting will display approximately 1/3 of all particles, where as 'High' displays them all. Try changing this setting if you experience slowdown when there are a lot of units or during a large battle.

Lights - Controls the number of rendered lights per object. Low uses one light. Medium uses four lights. High uses eight lights. Essentially, if you have an older graphics card, don't even think about going higher than 'Low'.

Sound Options

Sound Effects Volume - This changed the volume of sound effects in the game. The sound effect can be off completely by toggling the box next to the scroll bar or pressing Ctrl+5. Sound effects to add some slowdown, but it is minimal, and it makes the game a lot more fun and enjoyable.

Music Volume - Controls the volume of music in game, run off the CD. You can turn this completely off by either using the menu or pressing Ctrl+M.

Ambient Sounds - Enables ambient sound for the game. This has small bearing the game performance.

Movement Sounds - Allows you to enable or disable the sounds that units make from moving. Generally footsteps and so forth.

Subtitles - Allows you to enable or disable subtitles during dialogue or Full motion videos.

Unit Sounds - Allows you to enable or disable the sounds that units make when they are selected.

Sound Provider - This will allow you to select which sound system to use from your system.

Environmental Effects - Allows you to enable or disable the effects such as reverberation or echoes. It can have a bearing on game performance.

Positional Audia - Enables the usage of 3D Sounds, which will have an effect on game performance.

This section covers the logistics of game control as well as navigation the game itself. Most of the game will be controlled via the mouse, but advanced players will also learn to use the keyboard for MAXIMUM efficiency.

Using the Mouse

Being the main tool in the game, the mouse is manditory. Without it, it's impossible to play the game. Obviously.

Left Click - The left click is mainly used for selecting objects. Units, buiildings, spells, and so forth; they're all selected by left clicking. You can also select multiple units by dragging the mouse and forming the rectangle over the desired units. Shift+Left Click will allow you to add units into the group. Multiple towers can also be selected, allowing you to concentrate your towers on one enemy unit.

Right Click - This is the Jack-of-all-Trades command. WarCraft & StarCraft plays should know how this works off by heart. It's basically an "auto-command", where it will follow the most relevant command. For example, right clicking on an enemy will cause the unit to attack the enemy. Right clicking on a damaged building (with a builder), will cause the unit to repair the building. Right clicking on resources will cause the relevant units to start gathering materials. Units will also load transports by right clicking the transport when you have the units you want selected. The transport will move on right click, but no unload. Highlighting a building and right-clicking also works. Buildings that produce units will send all newly created units to the new right clicked Rally Point. Shift+Right Click also works, where if you hold down shift and right click on different targets, the unit(s) will follow them in order, one after the other.

Selecting Multiple Units - Hold down the left mouse button, and drag the rectangle around the units you wish to select. You can add units by holding the Control or Shift button and clicking on units you want (or dragging a new rectangle around them). Double clicking on a particular unit will select all unit of the same type on screen, similar to StarCraft. To remove a unit from the group, click on him either on the bottom of the screen, or by clicking on his body.

Hot Keys - When you have a group selected, you can assign them a number, by pressing Ctrl+(0-9). This is called a hot-key. Now, every time you press that number (0-9), your group will be highlighted, excluding units that have already been slain.

Grouping Units - When you group units together, each unit type will be ground together. Pressing TAB will cycle through the different sub-types of units. Shift+tab will select the previous group. As such, you can group some magic casters with melee units, and select them without having to change the units group. Furthermore, if you have more than one spellcaster, only one will cast the spell. If you wish, each one will take turns casting the spell by targeting multiple times. Holding down control will only cause the selected sub-group to attack.

Formations - Groups of units will move in a formation, whre the faster units will slow down to compensate for the slower units. However, you can by-pass this by holding ALT and clicking on the desired destination. In this case, it's every man for themself.

Camera Control - You can zoom in and out by pressing the Page up and Page down keys. If you have a Mouse wheel, you can use that to do the same thing. Instead of actually zooming, the camera shifts up and down from a bird's eye view to a ground level view.

Camera Rotation - the Insert and Delete keys rotate the camera around.

Using the Keyboard

A keyboard can also be used, where they are used as a shortcut function. A lot of time can be saved by using a combination of the keyboard and mouse. After all, god gave you two hands. Ues them both! This technique is the basis for advanced players and strategy. Without mastery of using both as a combination, it is hard to become proficient at this game.

Each building and unit has a keyboard command. These, however, are more general commands that relate to the game itself.

Menu Commands:

F1-F3 - Cycles through Heroes available.
F8 - Cycles through idle workers.
F10 - Shows Game Menu
ALT + 0 - Activates the Options menu.
ALT + S - Activates the Save menu.
ALT + L - Activates the Load menu.
ALT + H - Shows the Help menu.
ALT + M - Toggles music on/off.
ALT + S - Toggles Sound effect on/off.
Ctrl+ (0-9) - Sets a Hot-Key to a specific unit or group.
Escape - Returns to previous game menu.

Game Commands:

ALT + Command - Bypasses Formation.
Ctrl + Command - Sends command to selected subgroup only.
Enter - Opens Message prompt.
Shift + Enter - Sends message to all players.
Ctrl + Enter - Sends message to only Allies.
Backspace - Cycles through town centers.
Spacebar - Focus on last game notifications.
Ctrl + C - Centers screen on unit with active portrait.
ALT + C - Centers screen on unit with active portrait.

Like all RTS Games, WarCraft 3 needs the collection of resources to build its units as well as fuel the game economy. Unlike the previous incarnations, there are only two collectible resources and one buildable.

Gold

Gold is the primary resource that you'll be fighting for. Gold can be extracted from mine. Each race has its own method of extraction for the gold. Each mine has a different amount of gold in them, which can be determined by clicking on them. Mines are invulnerable and cannot be destroyed. The only exception on this is when Undead haunts a Gold Mine. You can destroy the Haunted Goldmine, and you'll be left with a normal Goldmine. You'll need gold to buy units, buildings, spells, and much more. Without gold, your army is virtually stuck. When a Goldmine is depleted, it will collape, similar to the earlier WarCrafts. In this case, you'll need to find a new Goldmine.

Lumber

Lumber is the secondary resource. Unlike gold, it physically perishes and can be destroyed. What this means is that they exist as an object in game, as a terrain. When they're chopped down or attacked, the tree will be gone, leaving a small stump in its place. If you use up lumber, it means that the forest itself has gone. There is an exception to this rule for the Night Elves, but they too can make tree perish by eating them or destroying them with the siege weapons. This resource is not used as often, but it is used in mechanical and most elven units.

Food

The last basic, essential resource. This is just as important as gold, because you need proper food to support your army. Without it, all gold is useful for, is buildings and upgrading stuff. Food is built in different forms for each race, but the basic concept is that you will need to build a structure that will provide support for your army. The maximum food count is 90, and some units may take up more than 1 food unit. Usually, they're the stronger units, so you limit your army accordingly.