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I’ve read too many tutorials on how to setup Warcraft 3 on linux. However, the tutorial usually just ends there. Sure, you have a working version of Warcraft but when it comes to playing online it’s a different matter. Current versions of Wine do not have a working implementation of AcceptEx, this causes in game chat to be broken in battle.net. So when you’re playing team games that could be a problem. In addition, until recently there has been no linux compatible delay reducer. What is delay reducer? Warcraft 3 sets a predefined delay of 250ms for battle.net and 100ms for Lan. Generally 250ms for battle.net results in games with delay and/or lag. If you need more information check out this blog post.

In this tutorial, it’ll be divided into two parts. I’ll be showing you how to setup your system so that you can play and/or host Warcraft 3 games online painlessly and I’ll be showing you how to host Warcraft 3 games under wine.

Whilst there is no stable implementation of AcceptEx at the moment, there is AN implementation available. Thankfully, somebody decided to patch Wine with this implementation and setup a PPA repository. If you want to compile your own version of wine with the patch you can also do so by downloading the patch from the reference link below.

  1. In terminal type 
    gksu gedit /etc/apt/sources.list
  2. Add the following line changing intrepid to name of your version of Ubuntu. 
    deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/starfall87/ubuntu intrepid main
  3. Update apt with latest change from sources list: 
    sudo apt-get update
  4. Remove current version of wine and install the version from the PPA repository: 
    sudo apt-get remove wine && sudo apt-get install wine

Now that you have the correct version of Wine installed, I’ll show you how to host a game.

  1. We need to download Delay Reducer that’s compatible with Wine. Download
  2. Extract the file somewhere
  3. Run it by typing inside a terminal after you have had Warcraft 3 running: 
    wine W3DR_CLI.exe 80
  4. If you require additional hosting abilities like banlist, autorefresher, custom kicking then read on, otherwise you can stop here…
    We can install a program called Snoopy which is developed for Linux for hosting games in Warcraft 3. To install it type inside a terminal:

    sudo apt-get install snoopy-wc
  5. Snoopy should now appear under your Application list inside Games.
    Snoopy comes with many functionalities and options. Please read this guide on how to use snoopy.

You should be all set now!

If you’re just interested in playing Warcraft 3 online, you only need to run Warcraft and get on battle.net. Otherwise turn on delay reducer and run snoopy to begin hosting a game!

If this has helped you in any way, please take the time to drop a comment!

Edit 19/02/28:
Here is an alternative PPA repository for a patched version of Wine for those who want the latest version. Be warned, this has not been thoroughly tested.

https://launchpad.net/~pxc/+archive

References:
WineHQ Bugzilla – Bug 9787 – Warcraft3 Battle.net Doesn’t work (Needs AcceptEx)
Delay Reducer For Wine
Official Site For Snoopy