Fix Day End

Another point Clanpred missed is espionage reports. By the time you wake up, they're already 6 or 7 hours old and thus useless.

Yes, being online at day change is CRITICAL for about four different reasons. Having DC about one or two hours after you need to sleep to be worth something in the mornimg REALLY SUCKS.

All Americans trying to tell us this is not really a problem, just try staying offline for six or seven hours after day change for a few weeks and you'll know what I mean.

Alright, sorry for the misunderstanding. I'll edit that out.

I'm USA Eastern Daylight Time. During the week, I'm not home from work at day change. Another thing that happens at day change, the morale of captured provinces increases so that you can redeploy armies you left behind to prevent or reduce rebellions.

Another advantage of being on when day changes is when new research becomes available. If you can start a research 10-12 hours before your enemy, you may be able to start producing those units sooner. You may also be able to upgrade your units sooner since your research finishes sooneer. These would be temporary advantages. On the other hand, would you even know if you had these temporary advantages.

I'm an American, and due to the nature of my job, am asleep quite often at "day change", therefore, I don't receive any of the perceived benefits others seem to think exist. Have I ever thought to be at a disadvantage due to this? No. In war, you take the cards your dealt and still try to kick your opponents a$$.

Winning in spite of any supposed handicap only makes victory sweeter.

Correct, on both counts. I don't see that it's something worth changing though. No matter how you set up a 24 hour format, someone may be at a disadvantage(though in my opinion(we know what those are worth), I don't see that any of the afore-mentioned concerns are truly impacting to game play)for a few hours.

Even with a rolling DC(for the sake of this argument)someone will still be at disadvantage. All "days" need a stop and start time. Much of war is chance. So is this game. You do the best you can with what you have. There are plenty of other games on the web that have a 24 hour format and work just fine. One game in fact, has server maintenance at a set time every day. It's usually just a few minutes, but, if you are signed back on right after maintenance is over, you can get in a quick shot at an opponent and there's nothing they can do about it. Rightly, or wrongly, that's how the game play goes. Smart players take such possibilities into their plan and prepare as best they can. I know I've been "hit" right after maintenance is over, but, it's not a big deal to us players as we realize it's part of the game set up.

As for "paying", that's a choice any of us make. I do drop a little bit of money on COW from time to time as well. In the games where I don't have gold to spend, I usually do fairly well. In rounds where I spend gold, is that putting other players that don't spend gold at a disadvantage? Should gold spending have a cap in rounds? Should gold only be allowed up to a certain number of days in a round? Should gold spending not be allowed until after a certain day, so everyone starts out with the same chance? Not trying to be facetious, but am showing the road such an argument over a day change dis-advantage could go down.

Lets not go the gold argument in this discussion, it's a very sensitive issue and will only cloud the issue at hand.

Sure you play the cards you're dealt, and I still didn't quit playing CoW because of DC timing. Still this is basically the same issue as, say, half the players can build light tanks at half the cost, and the other half can't. Would anyone accept that as "normal" and "you shouldn't fuss about that"?

Shifting DC (non-24h days) would solve this problem as all the players would have equal problems and advantages in some stage of the game as all the others in every single game.

Building units at a discount would be something that would affect everyone and be a significant disadvantage/advantage to all involved.

Day Change though, to me, I'm unable to see any significant game impact, that would allow me to have such a clear "leg up" on my opponents that it's worth all this debate in the forums.

As for the research argument - If I jump into an already running game that's 5 days old, then my research probably isn't going to be where I would want it to be. If I jump into a game 5 hours after the map starts, then I'm at a disadvantage with research already anyway. Day Change doesn't limit or help me with research. What helps with research is knowing when your current research is complete, and being online to start new projects ASAP.

Maybe you haven't followed this thread very closely? Because there are several that have been listed above. Just for your convenience, I will list them for you again:

- Not being able to respond to rebellions / not able to move units that have been used to supress rebellions;
- Not being able to move units into enemy territory which required healing;
- Peace period and the ability to "be first" to attractive targets;
- Starting cutting-edge research as it becomes available;
- Value of espionage reports (reveals) is severely reduced;
- Responding late to sabotaged buildings (losing a night of production when required buildings are damaged);

Joining a game late is a personal choice, and it works only once (you have the trail, but if you manage your country correctly you will compensate for it permanently). Day change keeps being a disadvantage the entire game, in all games that you play.

I rarely (basically never) give likes, but you adress something that has frustrated me since I started playing Supremacy 1914 5-6 years back.

I think some excellent solutions are being offered, like a 22h day. Alternatively, I think that a lot can be solved by shifting the daychange 2 or perhaps 3 hours earlier. I think that wont be detrimental to the Asians, as well?

If they cant/wont change this, perhaps ensure that the system recognises you starting to walk past a border (with peace period) after the daychange. Still leaves the research issue though and I cant imagine it would be so hard to set the daychange time 2 hours back.

Unless it has something to do with Utility costs (higher server load)?

@Clanpred The alternativ you post that the game ends always 24 hours after game start is already on this big list of wishes from the community since years.:(

But it's good to get this game feature back in discuss. This game is mostly played from people that have in real live a family and a job to do. But if you want to play in higher level with a chance to win you need to stay online within day change is gone. For me, as German player is't impossible to handel it with real life each day.
That was for me one of the major reasons to leave the administration of the international PL.

So what we need is to add a "like" to this thread and hope that this option is getting higher on the "Big List".

Bump.

Come on Bytro, this is not too complicated, and certainly a better time investment than the looks of the "current games" list or the "gold shop" that nobody asked for...

[Edit: not commenting *to* miech, just using what he wrote to add to the conversation (thanks, miech, for the train of thought).]

Bytro (I keep wanting to spell it "Bytrol", lol) doesn't reveal any business info. (which I can understand) but when discussions like this come up it's difficult to argue anything in particular because of lack of a foundational understanding of how they (Bytro) sees the issue.

For example, they have the geographic data of the ISPs that spend the most money on CoW. If I were them, I'd cater to the needs of those time zones. I'm guessing (based on pop. and income...and a couple other factors) that would be UTC +1, +3, -5, and +2 in that order. It doesn't matter where most players are only where the most revenue comes in...not necessarily the same thing. I'd look at those countries with the most billionaires under the assumption there are 100x that number in millionaires and their children (with wonderful CoW allowances).

...Assuming Americans are actually the big spenders. I believe Patton is trying to explain a certain business acumen in this discussion aimed at Bytro.

That decision is based on data. And what that data tells? For all we know there are 10 people in Bangladesh doing 90% of the spending.

Clanpred, reread what I wrote. I don't think you'll see the word "American" (but if you do, tell us about it). And I certainly didn't say anything that would justify your reply (but I hear a lot of strange arguments so, who knows?).

miech, I really have no clue how anyone could read what I wrote and come away with the idea I'm suggesting Americans spend more on CoW than anyone else. Personally, I wouldn't count on just 10 Bangladeshi. Maybe 1,000.