"Starts when full" notification

Logging in and checking.

That's about it.

Would be nice for an option to start the game earlier if you are the game host and x amount of days have passed

That would be a nice option....to have notices automatically given when a starts when full match gets down to needing only 5 people, then only 1 person, then when full. These messages could be in the form of emails.

On the other hand, a popup message that opens on any Call of War webpage that the player has open would be a better notice, indicating that a starts when full match that they've joined has just been filled.

Nice idea guys, I agree, you should not have to log into the game in order to see if it has started already, but as you guys know the list of wishes is long!

You know, if Bytro were to release the code base (or at least part) for modding (open source), lots of programmers in the community would come up with solutions for many of the items on that list. While business folks might be worried it'd cut into Bytro's profits, the fan base would improve the game in so many ways that I think even more people would want to play and the revenue would go up, not down.

The Civilization franchise has been a great success, but when the series started to get stagnant, they opened up the code base for modding and it caught fire. They breathed new life into Civilization and the company was able to grow their franchise with several new releases over the years, each building on the success of the previous one with the modding community contributing mods to each successive package. This is a great example of how the fan base can come together to make something beloved become a richer and more fulfilling experience.

And, even though the market has changed over the years, there is still a core base of Civilization fans that continue to improve upon the game. Call of War, and many of Bytro's other games (particularly, Supremacy 1914) would benefit from getting revitalized by a world full of creative programmers and designers who would love to contribute their experience and expertise to this great game.

As an example, imagine if some of the fans' favorite maps were given access to community-designed alternate mod files that could be played. Without Bytro having to redesign and create more maps, the community would generate variants on existing ones that could revolutionize their playability and more in the fan base would be attracted to the premium features.

Another idea would be to let the fans create premium content for the mods and maybe some for the base games. By letting fans create value-added features in exchange for benefits, many very talented and creative individuals could come up with wonderful new ideas that actually generate more revenue for Bytro. And, depending on the value of the addition, Bytro could offer rewards like a free annual or even lifetime premium account and an automatic monthly Gold stipend whose value would be automatically set each month based on how many users purchase and utilize those premium additions.

Really, the possibilities are endless and only limited by the collective imaginations of all the fans. There is so much talent and creativity out here in the Bytro community. Why not open up the code and let us contribute and enhance this game...our game. We are your fans. Your company's games are our games. We want to help it grow. Let us be contributors to this rich environment.

I know that Bytro's management wants to guard their code and protect their propriety. That's fine. They could actually separate the code base into three parts. The first part would be a fixed core that only Bytro's programmers can view and touch. They would have to generate a base set of files that contains the communications interface protocols that the code in the second part can communicate with.

The second part of the code would be the portion that has value-added premium content and low-level modding files. This portion of the code would needfully be server-side code and only those in the community who agree to abide by certain rules would be allowed and able to access and manipulate those files. Obviously, this is where the Bytro programming team would have to have one or a few hybrid community coordinator/interface programmers....talented individuals who can both work with the code and liaise with the community of contributors.

Those hybrid programmers/coordinators would be employees of Bytro and they'd be responsible for the integrity and versioning of the open source portion of the code. They would be the coordinators of the community and the cheerleaders for our creative content. It would fall on them to regulate and wrangle the various contributions to the second portion of the code base to ensure compatibility with Bytro's proprietary core base (the first code portion).

Then there's the third part of the code. This part would be a sample set of files that anyone can view and make copies for client side content. This code set would include some basic modding tools to help less-experienced users create some simple mod content (like local-only sprites to replace various parts of the graphics on their own computer). While these contributions might not make it to the lower level modding base (the open source code), a user can make their own version of the game to look like whatever he or she desires (within the capability of the modding files).

This user-generated content can be uploaded to a section of the forum dedicated to un-warrantied user-generated mods that anyone can try out. Popular ones could be negotiated by Bytro to move up the chain to the second code part (the main modding code base) and those designers could join the volunteer programming group (the ones who have to abide by the rules to access the rest of the open source part of the code).

Of course, the shared content in the forum would have to be tested by the community volunteer staff to ensure that each contribution doesn't violate morality rules of the community (i.e., no offensive content) so any uploaded content couldn't be accessed by others until it's been viewed by the volunteer staff and then OK'd by them. This might mean having to add a few more Moderators and Game Operators but that shouldn't be a problem.

So, to sum up, there'd be three parts of the code. A core base that only Bytro has access to, an open source core content that interfaces with that base to become modified games under control by hybrid programmers who work for Bytro and contributed by the talented fans, and a special content set of files and tools that give everybody an opportunity to experiment with the game without causing other players' experience to be negatively affected. And that special content and it's tools can be generated by the community volunteer programmers who would act in accordance with the established rules of the open source code base.

Wow.

I like your enthusiasm for it and I agree that user generated content is a great thing. In this particular case it will probably not work out though. Modding becomes much more complicated if the game is server side, and making everything work correctly and setting up this whole access system is a huge undertaking. Huge undertakings like that may have big risks and hgh costs of opportunity. And there it probably won't make the cut, as the time needed to do it rather gets allocated to other features.

Btw if you are so eager to work on the game, why don't you apply at Bytro?

I wish I could. I think my passion for this game combined with my solution-finding skills as a software engineer would make me a good fit.....but I can't imagine living anywhere but my beautiful home town. And, unless I'm mistaken, Bytro doesn't deal with e-commuting.

Leaving would be almost unbearable but if the right offer were to come along, I would have to consider it. Yet it'd be very difficult to start a new life in a new land....especially for an introvert like myself.

Diabolical wrote:

That would be a nice option....to have notices automatically given when a starts when full match gets down to needing only 5 people, then only 1 person, then when full. These messages could be in the form of emails.

On the other hand, a popup message that opens on any Call of War webpage that the player has open would be a better notice, indicating that a starts when full match that they've joined has just been filled.

The idea behind "starts when full" is to have a full roster of 22, 50 or 100 active human players in a game, rather than 30, 50 or 70% AI computer players. Games that have a full human roster, or nearly so, are very different in character, and require different strategies, than those that are not. Bytro should do everything it can to foster and promote the success of "starts when full" games, and the automatic "the game has started" notices are a very small thing.