Release Notes - 2021-03-29

GrandEmpire wrote:

#RestoreCanvas - Suggestions

the above is a link press

Everyone unite

charly160 wrote:

Yes please we cannot play that is injustice we have been telling you the problems and you don´t listen to us.

You have a good concept but make you sure that the public like it.

#Restorecanvas

michu-65 wrote:

Welcome,

I am speaking to all game makers. How did canvas mode bother you? What's wrong with it? Why do you say it's difficult and you brazenly remove it? User @Zoldrax 'rightly said that the game is for gamers, not for the convenience of developers. I understand everything, but you should speaking for it earlier about disabling the mode. Many people use Canvas, especially players who have had an account for many years. I set up my first account many years ago and I'm used to Canvas mode. When you introduced a new mode, I turned it off right away. A lot of people did. Constant changes that I take less and less. The first blow was the introduction of new army textures some time ago. With difficulty, but somehow I managed to take it. Then a new graphic mode, a complete change of the gameplay [THIS SHOULD HAVE BECOME THE OPTIONAL, NOT THE DEFAULT] (a separate production building for each unit, e.g. Tank Factory, and not the industrial complex for everything as it used to be), then a change of the selection menu, courses, upgrading units to higher levels (it used to be done automatically) and now complete disabling of Canvas mode. I understand adjusting to graphical advance and settling for new players, but that's overkill. This is a error for which you will apologize very much in the future.

On behalf of all the injured Call of War "veterans", both gamers and non-gamers, gamers and anyone else who fels like Canvas, I am officially asking and even demanding that the old mode be restored. For all the above-mentioned players who are used to the old mode, the new one is unreadable and messy. If you continue to insist not to restore it, justify your decision in points so that everyone has to read the reasons for the decision to spoil the game.

Yours sincerely,

Michu-65

#RestoreCANVAS

HOWEVER, WITH ALL OUR VOICES UNITED, WE CAN CONVINCE BYTRO TO FIX THE "LOW RES" VERSION OF WEBGL TO AT-LEAST PLAY LIKE — AND LOOK LIKE — OUR BELOVED CANVAS MODE.

CAREFULLY READ MY POST AND EDITED IN-QUOTE RESPONSES TO THE DEVELOPER (AND OTHERS). I AM A DEDICATED PLAYER GOING BACK FOR YEARS LIKE MANY OF YOU. MY SUGGESTIONS ON HOW TO FIX THE ISSUE ARE LAID OUT SUCH AS TO MAKE THE GAME THE WAY WE (THE CORE GAMERS) WANT IT.

IT IS A COMPROMISE, ONE THAT WE CAN SWALLOW, AND THAT THE DEVELOPERS CAN EASILY IMPLEMENT WITHOUT LOSING THEIR CORE GAMERS NOR ALIENATING THEIR NEWER MOBILE AUDIENCE.

CLICK HERE TO READ MY SUGGESTIONS AND THEN PLEASE ADD TO THEM IN *CONSTRUCTIVE* WAYS THAT ARE PRACTICAL TO IMPLEMENT (FROM A PROGRAMMER'S PERSPECTIVE), ECONOMICAL TO IMPLEMENT (NOT TOO LABOR INTENSIVE), AND RESPECTFUL OF BYTRO'S TEAM (THEY ARE PEOPLE, TOO).

Agent47 wrote:

And please spare me your inflated egos with all this "the game is going to die if you don't return canvas, because I am going to leave the game"- nonsense. The 10 people moaning in this thread don't just not matter, they are literally insignificant in comparison to the vast amount of people that play this game. If you want to leave, please do. But do it quickly and quietly.

This is ignorant. Each voice that speaks out represents potentially thousands of users, though there's no specific number that can be represented accurately. Yet, by your argument, it could be said that the lack of representation in favor of "no canvas" means that people who agree with you are far-outnumbered by people who agree with me. Think about it.

If we are driven out by unsavory practices of the company, so be it. It isn't that we desire to leave, it's that we desire to enjoy the game but need it to be familiar with what we have spent literally years getting comfortable with. You don't just throw out the old easy chair because it clashes with the new couch. You move it to another room where you can retreat to and be comfortable in that familiar old chair.

From Bytro's perspective, what you said should probably be banned as you are essentially telling paying customers to quit using Bytro's products. Do you think that's wise?

Akulla3D wrote:

To your Canvas is gone get over it comment. There was no warning that they were going to remove Canvas, maybe if we knew we would have cared about the crappy replacement map they came up with. I dont know how many times I made the suggestion that the words were messed up and the answer was we are not changing it, if they are only going to develop for one platform then do it right. They really dont care about game play any more they only care about the bottom line.

Speaking of the bottom line. Where do I get a refund on my High Command account as I contracted to play the game like it was and I am so tired of getting into contracts with companies and they just change the rules when ever they want.

michu-65 wrote:

I am a sentimental man, I had many cool memories with the old mode and they cheekily removed it to me. Just because you don't like Canvas is your problem. Canvas was a lot brighter, and you're just an intolerant person who doesn't know the history of the game. If you had an account for many years, you would also complain, so you reconcile that we want to restore the soul of this game.

Mr Selfridge wrote:

freezy wrote:

Hey guys, I understand your frustration and I cherish that you are so invested in the game and want to shape it's future. On this particular topic though there is no other outcome possible and no turning back. So I repeat once more: There is no chance that Canvas is coming back, I'm sorry. My previous post in this thread contains more details. Please use your energy in providing us with feedback and examples on how we can improve the WebGL version, because this has a much higher chance of success. We are actively looking into improving the newest version and we will continue to strive for technical and quality improvements.

freezy wrote:

some strategic topics are off limits (like changing our business model or returning Canvas) we are very much open to implement changes on a more detailed level based on your feedback,

WT auf.Pz IV wrote:

I love how nobody points out the bug that you can do anything with your units sometimes, which is an major bug and honestly myself, I can understand the ruckus over Canvas being removed, but I've thought that Canvas rendering was kinda dull and inconsistent. It's just not as smooth as the new graphic and to see army numbers or whatever? I'd suggest clicking on the unit or zoom in, its really simple so, at least in my opinion, the canvas removal is not the problem, the new major bug of unable to use units is. Also want non "plain" colo(u)rs? just turn off "display relations" and then you get a variety of colo(u)rs to look at. Just my take on addressing and getting used to the new update.

freezy wrote:

By the way: Did anybody realize that we implemented a setting in the bottom right menu to activate a gold confirmation popup on desktop (it already existed on mobile), that prevents you from accidentally spending gold?

K.Rokossovski wrote:

freezy wrote:

By the way: Did anybody realize that we implemented a setting in the bottom right menu to activate a gold confirmation popup on desktop (it already existed on mobile), that prevents you from accidentally spending gold?

This feature was requested for as long as I've been playing, which is about five years. If you're going to spend another five years to process #WebingGL feedback, I don't think you are on the right track; especially since a confirmation is a very simple thing to do, while fixing a completely broken graphic interface seems very hard. So maybe five years is a low estimation?

The cynic in me always assumed that the total lack of a confirmation was due to greed. But the partial implementation of it a few years ago was a welcome change, though the tendency to accidentally press a couple gold buttons which did not have a confirmation was still highly annoying, and doubly so for gold that was purchased with hard-earned money.

However, the fact that they finally chose to fully implement it at the same time that they took away the canvas mode does appear to be a kind of appeasement to the long-term faithful. And that cynic in me worries that it will summarily be removed at a later date, and such removal deemed an "improvement". Hopefully, that will never be the case. The hopeful and idyllic gamer in me assumes that the lack of a confirmation for all this time has not been an act of greed, but an act of low priority and complex development, and that the feature will forever remain.

Here's hoping.

@Stumpy Pete

Thanks for the feedback. I don't think that the chances are high for us changing the low graphics mode to work exactly like Canvas did, as we also left behind some of the Canvas features for a reason. But we can certainly make improvements and fix problems and try to make Canvas players feel more at home in it (but it will never be the exactly like the old home, basically). We will focus on changes though which are less controversial than stuff like taking away stepless zooming (not being able to zoom smoothly was one of the bigger reasons why we abandoned Canvas, it is just very outdated).

Mr Selfridge wrote:

The update, I appreciate we are slowly getting some feedback on the new Webgl and can begin the tedious and slow process of fixing it and improving it so it is player compatible. However most of the players have left COW. A larger majority are not playing as often...................

The Horribleness:

1.80% of players cannot access the game.

2.There was no Beta version: That is why the terrain and roads are hard to see, why units do not work properly and why suddenly players are left with a game thaty doesnt work as normal etc.

3.There was no warning or announcement that they would do this, so any competitions such as AWC and or the Alliance 100 Map and other events that players have organised thermselves were hit hard. This happened in the middle of 2 very big alliance events.

4.That is selfish of a game company that is very far out of touch with its main player base.

5.There had been no follow up or feedback from bytro or News on what actions they are going to take to correct the fact so many players simply cannot get past the load screen of the game

6.The absolute majority of people are not impressed with the new graphics as basically this is stil in BETA stage and they just flung it at us, and the result is half the players cannot access the game thru pc and the other half do not understand why this could not have been introduced in conjunction with the ' old game version' ( canvas)?. If they had intriduced webgl along with the canvas and had games with gold prizes to get players to experience their webgl and get feedback from players. Then over time they could fix all the terrible bugs and problems with the new webgl ( like if the terrain stood out a bit more) and have it fit and ready for the big day when they make it the new compuslory.

7.It is that it was just flung at everyone and the old canvas ripped up and thrown away, and the new WEbGL is no where near as good as the old canvas, and while it might in the future become good, by good i mean comparablye to how good the old canvas was.

8. What we have lost, however it seems is our accounts and player rank, as we cannot access the Browser version on old accounts, the cow community of players that organise events have lost confidence in bytro and the player base has been hurt. It could result in cow community events been suspended as many of the top players from the biggest

alliances are all considering leaving Bytro.

9.The worst and most horrible is that Bytro are just ignoring them.

1. Only a tiny fraction of players cannot access their games. We track problems like this and also bug reports. There is of course an issue with this and we are working on it, but the vast majority has no problem playing the game at the moment.

2. The beta version of WebGL was more than 2 years ago, WebGL has been the default live version for 2 years already. So the timeframe for giving feedback was very big.

3. We mentioned it here an there in the past that this day will come but we indeed failed to give an exact date due to the reasons I already described earlier in this thread. We are sorry for that.

5. I made multiple posts in this and other similar topics in the forum and already gave feedback that we will work on improvements.

6. The absolute majority of people was already playing the WebGL version (we tracked this) and do so without any problems, so it is save to assume that most players are content with it. There was no need to incentivize players to try out the WebGL version as the vast majority was already playing on it. We also had several feedback iterations already in the past, the current version of WebGL is not the same as 2 years ago.

9. Since I already said we will improve WebGL (some stuff is already being worked on) I can't say that we are ignoring this. But at the same time I can also say that it won't be possible to change everything that players suggest, just saying this to keep expectations in check.

freezy wrote:

6. The absolute majority of people was already playing the WebGL version (we tracked this) and do so without any problems, so it is save to assume that most players are content with it. There was no need to incentivize players to try out the WebGL version as the vast majority was already playing on it. We also had several feedback iterations already in the past, the current version of WebGL is not the same as 2 years ago.

One thing that I seriously don't understand is the inability to log into games. Is it a hardware issue or a software/internet issue? As far as I'm concerned I'm playing CoW on a 7y/o+ potato pc yet when running high graphics I only experience minor stuttering on world maps. Can someone who played classic often confirm my suspicions and hypotheise on the performance issue?

TomtheBuilder wrote:

One thing that I seriously don't understand is the inability to log into games. Is it a hardware issue or a software/internet issue? As far as I'm concerned I'm playing CoW on a 7y/o+ potato pc yet when running high graphics I only experience minor stuttering on world maps. Can someone who played classic often confirm my suspicions and hypotheise on the performance issue?

Larry is god lol lol wrote:

TomtheBuilder wrote:

One thing that I seriously don't understand is the inability to log into games. Is it a hardware issue or a software/internet issue? As far as I'm concerned I'm playing CoW on a 7y/o+ potato pc yet when running high graphics I only experience minor stuttering on world maps. Can someone who played classic often confirm my suspicions and hypotheise on the performance issue?

dude when I use desktop version on any device it absolutely lags so much and the mobile version lags to. That’s why I use low graphics so it doesn’t lag as much for me it does help.

I hate having to use Steam to play the game. But I guess that is my only option. There may be other options but I wouldn't know. Management have not communicated with me about my issues and I get all of my info from the forum. Most of that is defending the canvas and not addressing why so many of us lost more than a week of playing time, lost multiple games, hurt our stats and had to find our own solutions.

KATHEDLOK wrote:

I hate having to use Steam to play the game. But I guess that is my only option. There may be other options but I wouldn't know. Management have not communicated with me about my issues and I get all of my info from the forum. Most of that is defending the canvas and not addressing why so many of us lost more than a week of playing time, lost multiple games, hurt our stats and had to find our own solutions.

OK, so I said all that to say this: I've had no trouble logging in, since the update. But I think I "might" have been playing in WebGL version during the update rollout. Have you considered deleting all cookies on your browser? That would set the game to it's default mode on desktop (i.e., high-res WebGL). Thus, if there's an issue with the game trying to load a non-existent canvas mode, that cold lead to a perpetual loading screen. So, by removing the cookies, any settings changes would be erased from the game and the default would be loaded....and likely "successfully".

Hopefully, that will fix your (and others') issue with logging in to a match.

Bytro, when defending the abandonment of the old graphics, points to "compatibility with our technological advancements in the engine", or talk about "beta users".

Bytro, u know what?

We DONT CARE!

Do I have to know all that Beta-shmeta?? No. All we care about is that the new look is just unplayable. UN-PLAY-ABLE. Fulstop.

Got it?

So, u better fix it for youre losing a plethora of once dedicated players. A lot of my CoW mates are refusing to join new maps just b/c u cant tell whats going on in your country. Quick identification of landforms - gone, too. Even unique colours for countries are gone, not to mention totally unclear trip paths.

For details of stupidity of the new graphics please see other posts, there are plenty of them (wonder why…), but Im just telling u: this is all cr4p. Only one thing is good which is smooth zooming. Only that. Now, do u call it a positive change when one single thing is better than b4?

Signed,

Angry ex-CoW player.

Tajojta X wrote:

Bytro, when defending the abandonment of the old graphics, points to "compatibility with our technological advancements in the engine", or talk about "beta users".

Bytro, u know what?

We DONT CARE!

Do I have to know all that Beta-shmeta?? No. All we care about is that the new look is just unplayable. UN-PLAY-ABLE. Fulstop.

Got it?

So, u better fix it for youre losing a plethora of once dedicated players. A lot of my CoW mates are refusing to join new maps just b/c u cant tell whats going on in your country. Quick identification of landforms - gone, too. Even unique colours for countries are gone, not to mention totally unclear trip paths.

For details of stupidity of the new graphics please see other posts, there are plenty of them (wonder why…), but Im just telling u: this is all cr4p. Only one thing is good which is smooth zooming. Only that. Now, do u call it a positive change when one single thing is better than b4?

Signed,

Angry ex-CoW player.

The allied green units is too strong, and the opponent red units is exorbitantly strong, as is the same for province morale view. Sure, it's nice to have the distinction between high and low morale, and between friend and foe. But like with the national map colors, they just need toned down…significantly. Make the color palette milder, at least for the low res WebGL "Canvas Mode" emulation (with the extra buttons on desktop mode to activate/deactivate things like stepped zooming, softer color palette, brighter control points, paler friend/foe coloring, etc.)

Tajojta X wrote:

Bytro, when defending the abandonment of the old graphics, points to "compatibility with our technological advancements in the engine", or talk about "beta users".

Bytro, u know what?

We DONT CARE!

Do I have to know all that Beta-shmeta?? No. All we care about is that the new look is just unplayable. UN-PLAY-ABLE. Fulstop.

Got it?

So, u better fix it for youre losing a plethora of once dedicated players. A lot of my CoW mates are refusing to join new maps just b/c u cant tell whats going on in your country. Quick identification of landforms - gone, too. Even unique colours for countries are gone, not to mention totally unclear trip paths.

For details of stupidity of the new graphics please see other posts, there are plenty of them (wonder why…), but Im just telling u: this is all cr4p. Only one thing is good which is smooth zooming. Only that. Now, do u call it a positive change when one single thing is better than b4?

Signed,

Angry ex-CoW player.

Arcorian wrote:

When you join an event in Call of War you do not have to wait until all available player slots are filled. Event maps now start immediately when they are created by the system.

Tre wrote:

Arcorian wrote:

When you join an event in Call of War you do not have to wait until all available player slots are filled. Event maps now start immediately when they are created by the system.

Grrr. I liked having time to move units.

DoctorDR1 wrote:

Tre wrote:

Arcorian wrote:

When you join an event in Call of War you do not have to wait until all available player slots are filled. Event maps now start immediately when they are created by the system.

Grrr. I liked having time to move units.

What do you mean? When games were start when full, you couldn't move units until every slot was filled. Now you can move units whenever you join.

meserschmitt me 262 wrote:

Arcorian wrote:

• The old “Canvas” graphic mode was disabled.

same thing will happen with some accounts if you guys don`t bring back "canvas"

Stumpy Pete wrote:

Perhaps "starts when full" maps should have been "start attacking when full"....this would hybridize the starting peace period, instead of a fixed amount of time, but rather that you just can't cross into non-allied territory until all slots are filled. STILL, with the fact that some start-when-full matches seemingly NEVER got full, it would make sense to set a MAXIMUM length of time in which the starting peace period MUST expire (i.e., 5 days). That way, people wouldn't be bogged down just building up their cores while waiting forever to get some gaming action.

DoctorDR1 wrote:

I've read your canvas compromise, and it seems pretty good (of course, the devs have the final opinion on this). However, a compromise here won't bring it back. Canvas was removed because it was outdated, and bugged. Unit trades were removed because of abuse. Again, it's the few who thought it would be a good idea to have multiple accounts and trade their armies away who ended up ruining it for the rest of us.

Stumpy Pete wrote:

DoctorDR1 wrote:

I've read your canvas compromise, and it seems pretty good (of course, the devs have the final opinion on this). However, a compromise here won't bring it back. Canvas was removed because it was outdated, and bugged. Unit trades were removed because of abuse. Again, it's the few who thought it would be a good idea to have multiple accounts and trade their armies away who ended up ruining it for the rest of us.

The compromise isn't about bringing back the canvas mode. It's a separate piece of code that isn't coming back. I get that. But my compromise is about emulating it…that is, to make the WebGL "low res" version appear and act "like" canvas mode for those of us who need to be able to play Call of War in canvas mode.

It's about emulating Canvas with the WebGL "low-res" in relatively minor ways. It's no big deal to add the option of "stepped" (as opposed to dynamic) scrolling in WebGL. The code for it aleady exists for the Canvas mode, just translate it, and stick it in, making it accessible only in the "Classic Mode" version of WebGL's low-res version....and only on desktop (VERY easy to do, trust me).

Making a color palette translator that simply translates game colors to emulate canvas mode set isn't hard either. It would take a little time to create the color map of numbers but it'd probably be simple enough to come up with a transformation formula that does the job automatically. Then, like with the stepped scroll, just add in the code for low-res "Classic Mode" and let it only be accessed as a settings option via a button....along with the "Stepped Mode" button....and only on Desktop mode.

There may be some other simple changes like these ^ which can make the look and feel of Canvas for desktop users without actually being Canvas, so that the code doesn't need to be maintained (as apart from WebGL) more than just minor checks once in awhile.

....thus, proving that it's both easy to implement AND easy to maintain.