While it is natural and probably a good idea that the game evolves as time goes by, I still miss a few of the features that were axed in the process. Perhaps the Bytro staff could give it a cool consideration during their holiday break? 
* Joining ongoing games. It used to be possible to join advanced games - regardless of its age. This i.a. allowed skipping the rather boring early game where options are few. It also allowed to play some amazing come back games (at one occasion, I took a one province south east asian nation to 3rd place on the world map). Some regarded it as unfair that players could jump into abandoned nations and thereby 'rob them' of their expected spoils from conquering an idle nation. I do not agree. Just because you have a nation whacked down, you don't own it until you have conquered every bit. PLUS the option to allow players to join old games actually meant more active players in the end game. Today that is very, very rare.
* Endless games. It is very seltern that I am part of a game that goes past 3 weeks. In fact most are decided within 2 weeks. Never the less I think it is a shame that you cannot play the very long games if the situation should arise that you have 2 roughly equal sides. As I remember it, the option was removed in order to not have a lot of old, idle games fill up on the server. That would be OK, but why kill games where players are still active? As just mentioned, it will be very rare anyway.
* Destroyer bombardment range. I think it is a pitty that it was removed. This was an extra option for the early game and made destroyers more versatile. All they are now is a nanny for your fleets. There was an exploit building in the meta game where players would build large destroyer stacks to kill off land units in coastal nations. This concern could have been countered by reducing the bombardment strength of destroyers instead of removing it entirely.
* Anonymous posting and messaging. Allegedly some players felt spooked by anonymous posts and news articles. So it was removed. With the consequence that the news paper died completely. It went from an entertaining side action to the game where the war could be fought on words when the war on the board was going through a dull phase to nothing but 'Hi' posts. But some soft kids ran crying to their moms and told about swear words sent to them by an unknown player. And then mom told Bytro shame on you. Then Bytro killed the option to banter. How about just to apply a filter of foul words? And how about adding a disclaimer that if you are too young or soft to play this game without involving your mom, go to Disney.com instead!?!?
* 5 resources. Recently removed, this has pointed the game in a direction where things go less complicated. It seems that balancing as much as 5 things in your head at the same time is too much for the majority of players? This direction of development leads to a cookie-clicker game with just one resource and 1 kind of unit. We are not there yet ofc, but if you extend the line of development, that is the direction the game is taking. It is quite possible that Bytro has analyzed user and shopping behavior and found, that there is most to be earned on casual players who spend a short, but paying stay in the game. It is fair enough because Bytro is a business. But as a strategy grognard my interest goes in the other direction.I want more complexity, not less and if things continue in this direction, there will be a point where I give up on CoW. Despite my history goes back almost to the beginning. I am not slamming the door, am not expecting special treatment and Bytro probably couldn't care less. I'm just saying.
I feel that there are more features I miss because I have several times gone 'uhhh' to parts the various patches. Maybe I'll add more later
* Joining ongoing games. It used to be possible to join advanced games - regardless of its age. This i.a. allowed skipping the rather boring early game where options are few. It also allowed to play some amazing come back games (at one occasion, I took a one province south east asian nation to 3rd place on the world map). Some regarded it as unfair that players could jump into abandoned nations and thereby 'rob them' of their expected spoils from conquering an idle nation. I do not agree. Just because you have a nation whacked down, you don't own it until you have conquered every bit. PLUS the option to allow players to join old games actually meant more active players in the end game. Today that is very, very rare.
* Endless games. It is very seltern that I am part of a game that goes past 3 weeks. In fact most are decided within 2 weeks. Never the less I think it is a shame that you cannot play the very long games if the situation should arise that you have 2 roughly equal sides. As I remember it, the option was removed in order to not have a lot of old, idle games fill up on the server. That would be OK, but why kill games where players are still active? As just mentioned, it will be very rare anyway.
* Destroyer bombardment range. I think it is a pitty that it was removed. This was an extra option for the early game and made destroyers more versatile. All they are now is a nanny for your fleets. There was an exploit building in the meta game where players would build large destroyer stacks to kill off land units in coastal nations. This concern could have been countered by reducing the bombardment strength of destroyers instead of removing it entirely.
* Anonymous posting and messaging. Allegedly some players felt spooked by anonymous posts and news articles. So it was removed. With the consequence that the news paper died completely. It went from an entertaining side action to the game where the war could be fought on words when the war on the board was going through a dull phase to nothing but 'Hi' posts. But some soft kids ran crying to their moms and told about swear words sent to them by an unknown player. And then mom told Bytro shame on you. Then Bytro killed the option to banter. How about just to apply a filter of foul words? And how about adding a disclaimer that if you are too young or soft to play this game without involving your mom, go to Disney.com instead!?!?
* 5 resources. Recently removed, this has pointed the game in a direction where things go less complicated. It seems that balancing as much as 5 things in your head at the same time is too much for the majority of players? This direction of development leads to a cookie-clicker game with just one resource and 1 kind of unit. We are not there yet ofc, but if you extend the line of development, that is the direction the game is taking. It is quite possible that Bytro has analyzed user and shopping behavior and found, that there is most to be earned on casual players who spend a short, but paying stay in the game. It is fair enough because Bytro is a business. But as a strategy grognard my interest goes in the other direction.I want more complexity, not less and if things continue in this direction, there will be a point where I give up on CoW. Despite my history goes back almost to the beginning. I am not slamming the door, am not expecting special treatment and Bytro probably couldn't care less. I'm just saying.
I feel that there are more features I miss because I have several times gone 'uhhh' to parts the various patches. Maybe I'll add more later
