First off, before I put out what I personally think about this, a little reminder that this is NOT for you to rant or have an argument with another player. Doc has said this multiple times, and I'll reiterate it again. To be frank, I would be pretty pissed whether I am a dev seeing this or a player finding his/her suggestion being responded with "you're an idiot, so shut the f*ck up" (yes, this is the vibes I'm getting). Don't insult another player/dev just because their position is different from yours. This is getting childish, people. Calm down.
Now, on to some personal opinions. Firstly, I would like to state the positives. I like how I don't have to click on the troops for their health, so I can have a good overview of the strength of my army. I like how I could see the general composition of armies when zoomed out without being cluttered by overlapping unit art (although as someone mentioned, the icon can be changed). I like how it shows how many troops of each branch are in each army when zoomed in. These are what I think the update generally did well.
Now, the criticism. This is nitpicking, but when zoomed out, rockets and planes have the same icon of a plane, making me slightly confused whether it is a bomber wing attacking or a rocket attack. This can be solved with perhaps a unique rocket icon for rockets and flying bombs. Next is the dots. The first two dots are well done, being specific to 1-4 units and 5-9 units. However, it feels off to have all 10+ units being 3 dots. I understand that this means the army isn't at max SBDE, but it feels confusing to have a 10-unit army looking the same as a 30-unit army. A solution would be make more dots for units in the 10-19, 20-29, and 30-39 unit ranges, since these army sizes are the most common. Anything above is very rare, so to put them all in, say, five or six dots can be fine. Finally, this is just a matter of art, but a diamond shape feels strange and not military-like. I have no idea how militaries view their armies with icons, but personally, I think a better shape would be a circle/ellipsis or an isoceles triangle with the unique tip pointing at whichever direction the army's heading.
Overall, this update for me doesn't affect the game much. It's just a visual update, guys, it's not particularly game-changing. There are areas that can be improved, but I think it's decent. It's just a matter of everyone not really getting used to it just yet. I have strongly opposed some potential updates in the past (such as the paratrooper update and initial 1.5 stuff), and thinking back, it's not as ruining as we might've imagined. CoW 1.5 is a huge change to the game, but the game is still CoW. Give it some time, and perhaps, looking back, this minor update might not've been such a problem/revolution to the overall game mechanics.
TL;DR for anyone who won't bother reading the wordy stuff above - There are goods, there are bads. At the end of the day, this is just a minor update, so don't freak out so much. Criticisms are welcome. In fact, it's needed, but please keep it respectful and civil.
Edit: an extra thought - back up your opinions with some reasoning, especially for criticisms. The devs have given their reasoning for this update, it is expected that we all do so as well. Don't just say "This update sucks because it's ruining the game." That's just saying "This update sucks because it sucks." (one can probably guess my position from this thought alone)
"As long as there are sovereign nations possessing great power, war is inevitable." Albert Einstein
"Giving up is not an option in war, for it proves one's incapability and incompetence as a leader." - Me (Little Racoon)
