Release Notes - 2021-03-29

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    • CorporalCole wrote:

      I think the changes are fine but when will we get the Operation Supremacy event that was promised to us over a month ago and was stated to appear "very soon" or is Bytro just hoping we will forget about that?
      Don't hijack this thread over some stupid event. We are in an existentialist crisis here!
      When the fake daddies are curtailed, we have failed. When their roller coaster tolerance is obliterated, their education funds are taken by Kazakhstani phishers, and their candy bars distributed between the Botswana youth gangs, we have succeeded.
      - BIG DADDY.

    • DoctorDR1 wrote:

      Hi guys!

      I know a lot of you miss the old canvas mode. When WebGL first came out, I had a hard time getting used to it as well. But after a while, I found that I actually liked WebGL. If you give it a chance, maybe you’ll like it too. As for those of you who can’t run it properly because of your hardware, you can try the low graphics mode, made especially to counter that problem.
      I gave it a chance, and I offered some advice to fix the many issues. And I think the answer was not we are not doing that. The map has to many words that get in the way of the play, and you cant even turn them off. I dont need to be told the name of a city when I already know my geography.

    • In regards to the shutdown of the old Canvas view mode, I will quote my own post made in a related thread:

      freezy wrote:

      Hey guys, to be completely honest with you: There is basically a 0% chance that the old Canvas mode will return, sorry.

      But there is a good chance that we will keep improving the new WebGL mode further. Your feedback will help in that regard.
      By the way, the WebGL version was available for nearly 2 years now and we had already many feedback cycles with many players, and also you had the chance already to chime in before Canvas was turned off. But of course it is never too late for good feedback, so we will still listen now and will consider it when we do our next changes.

      Just do me one favor: Please play with the new mode for a day or two and try to get accustomed to it. This will help to focus the feedback on real issues that are really important because it will be impossible to accomodate for all opinions that are basically just "I dont like it because it is different".
      I also noticed that some players gave feedback before realizing that it was already accounted for and that they just did not find out how to do it in the new version yet. For example one feedback is that players dont like the new map colors and want it like the old version -> we already have a political view mode which colors the map like in the old version, you can activate it in the settings (bottom right menu, turn off relation mode). Another feedback was that city names are always inthe way of armies -> if you zoom in closer the city names actually vanish so there is always a way to see the armies clearly. These are just examples and thats why fuly exploring and playing with the new mode is important before jumping the gun.

      In that sense, if you want to give feedback after you played it for a while, please try to be specific and show exact situations (with a screenshot) and a description what should be improved about it and why. We will collect such examples for further improvement rounds in the future.


      To give you some more reasoning:
      We always planned to do this at some point after introducing the WebGL mode ~2 years ago, and we kept supporting Canvas for these 2 years even though we wanted to shut it down eventually. From a code standpoint supporting Canvas is just slowing us down too much, it makes feature implementation slower, QA testing slower and increases the number of potential bugs. The old mode is also not how we ourselves envision the game in today's day and age. We rather want to focus on improving the new technology and keep Call of War state of the art.
      We also run QA tests on the new version all the time and it is even playable on weaker devices. Most problems stem from either really old ones or not-up-to-date software&drivers. But if you experience problems in this regard, our support team can help you with troubleshooting.

      From a usage standpoint Canvas users were a small minority nowadays, the vast majority already plays in WebGL (we tracked this and we wouldnt have done this step if this wasnt the case). I know it might feel different because long time players tend to favor canvas as they are used to it, and those players also tend to be more active in forums/chats and be vocal about their opinion.
      It always hurts to take something away from some players, we rather want to focus on the vast version that the majority uses.



      TL;DR: Canvas won't come back, we want to improve the new version instead with your help.

    • Been a full day without being able to log into maps. Locks up on log in screen and map wont load. Music plays...winds blows but no map. Tried switching to lower rez graphics mode but no help...I can only assume that my troops are dead and I am hated by all my allies. Please give us some idea when we will be able to play.
      KATHEDLOK
      555 BLACK CATS

    • Dear Doctor,

      No one is playing Call of War for the graphics. My SEGA had better graphics than WebGL. It works decent on mobile, but on desktop it's a disaster. You need to keep both options open for us. I get that WebGL can attract mobile players, and raise some much needed capital. But, I've tried since it 1st came out. I hate it. For instance, the city font names are so large a unit can hide behind it. Zooming in and out is very difficult. The color scheme is, to put it midly, very annoying.

      WebGLIt works on mobile. But for desktop players, it's just a bad idea. This is a strategy game. None of us are here for graphics. Bytro really needs to listen to it's core players, those of us that get a year of high command and keep the servers on. Please, do not ruin something that was a perfect test of strategy by trying to get more players on mobile. I can evolve to 1.5, but dropping canvas/classic graphics could be the end for me.\

      CL-55
      Leader
      Untouchable Alliance

    • Doctor,
      Bug issue. I can't left click and drag the map on WebGL. I'd be screwed without a touch screen. Also, it's just annoying to have to play a new way. Your core players have spent years getting used to an approach that works for them, be it webGL or classic canvas. Most of us are fine with Commodore 64 graphics when you add the Bytro idea coupled with the tech to make a MMORPG stragegy game work. As a historian, I'm always impressed with how accurate Call of War is. All of the attack lines are accurate.

      Bytro has made an excellent strategy game, in my opinion the best out there.
      That said, Bytro needs to listen to it's core players. We're the community that buys High Command, runs challenges, and most importantly checks our maps just after work emails, if not before. Without us, Bytro will just make games that 20 year olds play to watch adds and rack up some credit to get rise of kingdoms gems.

      By all means get that cash when and where you can. But, if you don't listen to your core players, we'll all just go back to playing chess and Go.

    • freezy wrote:

      In regards to the shutdown of the old Canvas view mode, I will quote my own post made in a related thread:

      freezy wrote:

      Just do me one favor: Please play with the new mode for a day or two and try to get accustomed to it. This will help to focus the feedback.


      It always hurts to take something away from some players, we rather want to focus on the vast version that the majority uses.


      Be warned the vast version that the majority uses, all quit the game within a few days. Maybe if your statisticians looks at the data more accurately you will see a majority drop in game retention. The players that remain are the players ( the more active players as you call us) actually play the game properly. Not sure about the longetivity of your marketing plan, but you might infer bytro is saving on engineering at the expense of game players usability.

      However...

      I will play with the new version when you get it up and running.... Right now most players cannot log into their PC workstation version of COW.

      As for the mobile version.... That is unplayable in my opinion. You may need to get rid of the 'TEXT' and the colours of the provinces are too dark, it is hard to distinguish allies form enemies and neutral from enemy. Players ( of which you call the vast majority) quit the game after a few days and almost never make it to the middle /end game.

      With this new graphic, and using my mobile phone, i suddenly realised why so many ( the vast majority) quit a game after a short time. As you win and expand the game mechanics get very complicated, and the further into the game you go the more complicated it gets, and with the new poor graphics on the mobile version it is impossible for the vast majority of players to continue the game. So it is not that these new players are bad, it is just they never got to play the old canvas and enjoy the game as it should have been enjoyed so they quit early, and likely they lose serious interest in the game overall.


      I will investigate and make an effort to play the new canvas/grahics on the PC version and give you feedback. You greatest challenge is to make the game worth playing mid game. When your country expands and gets large and it gets very complicated. By complicated, I do not mean the actual game, but the usage of the graphics effectively over a large area become too much of a chore. I usually win every 100 player game I play. So i always see a game to the end, but using the mobile version as it is right now... I can see that this would be seriously boring and tedious and difficult to manage a the big empire you need to win the game (i.e 3200 points) is asking for too much on this weak graphic version.

      I suggest you might have to get rid of the AI and in fact might have to re imagine the entire game. Wa it really so hard to manage the old canvas. I have not yet played it on the PC so i really need to experience it before i comment further. I was not all that impressed with my initial exposure to the new graphics, but since have adjusted the settings from high to low and I am now actually completely changed on my opinion,k i think at that setting they are better than the previous older mobile version.

      The post was edited 1 time, last by Mr Selfridge ().

    • Update: I have changed the grahics from high to low on the mobile version and in fact it works 100% better, I am already leaning toward postive feedback, You can zoom in and out and actually see more clearly what is happening.

      I have the samsung 7 edge. It is a powerful enough android phone, so i am not sure why HIGH setting does not work suitably for me. I would have thought samsung 7 would be a good base for most mobile phones capabilities.

      What does HIGH setting really achieve?

    • @freezy if it was just different, I suspect not many players would complaint. However - I am not being funny mate - it is just rubbish. To give you a scale of the problem - it took me less time to make these 9 screenshots below than to write this post - so it is a very frequent problem, which has been generated by removing Canvass.

      Maps in the new graphics are unreadable at all - you cannot judge your own / ally / enemy troops at glance - you need to spend good few minutes zooming in and out on each area or individually clicking dozens of stacks to estimate forces in the region. As a player with more than 5 years experience in CoW and a leader TOP1 alliance I find it as a huge pain in the back, which makes my playing experience just sh*t...

      So without further ado - screens below:

      1. How many enemies are under my planes?



      2. My ally is going to have a battle in Hotien - can you tell odds?



      3. How many units I am having in this city?




      4. Can you tell where these troops are going?



      5. What fleet I am having here?



      6. And here?



      7. I am going to attack this player - can you tell how many troops there are in this region? Which stack is the biggest? Choose the correct answer (3 are made up - 1 correct)... What can you see on that screen?

      a) my planes patrolling - 20 units
      b) artillery further left - 13 units
      c) motorized infantry near Ankara - 14 units
      d) my ACs in Mersin - 21 units



      8a) What stands in Mosul and Tebriz?




      8b) Let me zoom it for you - any better now ?



      I hope you will understand my frustration based on the above. That is simply really bad mate.

      Regards,
      L.
      .......................................................................................................................................................................

    • I have looked at the mobile game on my IPAD and I get it now. They are pushing another clone of all those crap ass games you get on the Apple/Android stores that are always trying to get your money with shiny gems or in our case gold. It offered me free gold if I watched some commercials of other stupid games that are only designed to take your money and feed you pretty comments like Great Job you did it!!! And to think I just waisted money on 3 more months of HC.

      @Lord they don't care about mid and end game they just want them to play enough to spend some money no need for brand loyalty.

      This was one of the greatest online games of all time and it is going the way of the dodo. I think I have put 8 years into Supremacy 1914 and 6 years into this one not to mention a couple of years as a Mod. All good things must come to an end.

      A quick shout out to all the peeps that have been around for a long time. Best of luck.

    • Lord wrote:

      @freezy if it was just different, I suspect not many players would complaint. However - I am not being funny mate - it is just rubbish. To give you a scale of the problem - it took me less time to make these 9 screenshots below than to write this post - so it is a very frequent problem, which has been generated by removing Canvass.

      Maps in the new graphics are unreadable at all - you cannot judge your own / ally / enemy troops at glance - you need to spend good few minutes zooming in and out on each area or individually clicking dozens of stacks to estimate forces in the region. As a player with more than 5 years experience in CoW and a leader TOP1 alliance I find it as a huge pain in the back, which makes my playing experience just sh*t...

      So without further ado - screens below:

      1. How many enemies are under my planes?



      2. My ally is going to have a battle in Hotien - can you tell odds?



      3. How many units I am having in this city?




      4. Can you tell where these troops are going?



      5. What fleet I am having here?



      6. And here?



      7. I am going to attack this player - can you tell how many troops there are in this region? Which stack is the biggest? Choose the correct answer (3 are made up - 1 correct)... What can you see on that screen?

      a) my planes patrolling - 20 units
      b) artillery further left - 13 units
      c) motorized infantry near Ankara - 14 units
      d) my ACs in Mersin - 21 units



      8a) What stands in Mosul and Tebriz?




      8b) Let me zoom it for you - any better now ?



      I hope you will understand my frustration based on the above. That is simply really bad mate.

      Regards,
      L.
      Bro I used the new graphics before they disabled the old one. It wasn't as bad as many of you think it is. I actually like it more then the old graphics. I hated it initally, but I eventually got used to it.