#RestoreCANVAS

Why I use canvas mode:

- Veterans are attached to it

- It is simple but also nicely made

- It is transparent and you can see everything on it

- I know that it may sound funny, but contrary to appearances, it is easier to select land units on mobile version

- "Roughness" is also important for me, I mean the color uniformity in countries (i.e. not something like the tool will fill with the color from the paint)

Why I don't like WebGL mode

- Not transparent for me, old player

- I have trouble with loading icons on game (units on map, graphic of queues of buildings and productions, sometimes flag of countries)

- Patrol of airplanes sometimes make click on my division imposible

- This haven't mode "turn off fog of war" and "disable unit preview"

- High performance mode is... just ugly and this is not only my opinion.

I kinda used google translate for write this text so really sorry for all wrongs in my opinion.

Thanks for the feedback so far guys, we already taskified some of the mentioned issues for fixing (it may take some weeks due to how our release cycles work).

In general I want to remind everyone who has not noticed it yet that WebGL has different map view options (check out the settings menu in the bottom right) that may help you getting the map look a bit more like Canvas:

- you can turn off relation view mode so that all countries have their own color

- you can turn on morale map view

- you can turn on displaying province names of rural provinces

- you can turn on low graphics mode which removes a bunch of extra effects

I also want to make a comment on 3 statements I read in here a bunch of times:

1) Some said that we did not improve WebGL since 2 years and that it is still the same as back then. That is simply not true as we had many updates on the WebGL version and many were based on player feedback. You can just read through all the release notes where we had adjustments and bugfixes to graphics many times. We may just not have improved that areas that some of you wanted, but we certainly made improvements in other areas. The most recent additions where the addition of country names on the map and army labels, as well as improvements to these labels based on feedback. Even the colors in the first WebGL release 2 years ago looked quite different (and even further off from Canvas) than nowadays.

2) The Canvas bug on beta was real, if you were a frontline pioneer (beta) player playing in Canvas you can probably attest to that. The map was completely glitching out on Canvas on beta and we had to postpone our release. As we wanted to remove Canvas anyway at a later point, we just did it earlier as releasing this major canvas bug would have rendered the mode unplayable anyway. But yes the bug is not the reason why we wanted to remove Canvas (we would have done it anyway soon due to reasons I described in my first post in here), but it was the reason why we did it now already.

3) Another sentiment was that this change will completely kill the game as too many players will leave. As I said in the past we monitored usage stats and the vast majority was already using WebGL. If it interests you: I can also tell you that so far we dont see any noticeable effect on our game KPIs from the removal of Canvas.

In general some of the feedback in here also comes down to taste. While we try to fix most issues we also cannot please everyone, I hope you keep that in mind. And we also have to keep in mind that the vast majority already played happily using WebGL and had (nearly) no issues with it, so we also can't just change the current version blindly into Canvas again, compromises have to be found. In the end many players have differing opinions and we do as well, but we try to make compromises when it does not go against our vision or business interests, and did so already in the past. Luckily there are some issues that certainly most people would agree on, as well as bugs, and we will probably focus on those first.

Lastly I want to thank you again for your engagement and investment in this topic as it shows that you care about the game and its community. While I sadly can't bring you the news that Canvas is coming back (it definitely wont, sorry), I can again assure you that we will keep continuing to improve the game and that your feedback will help us in that.

Freezy,

No doubt there are all the 'pieces and parts' in Web GL to do what Canvas does. But that is part of the problem it appears GL tries to appease all at one level or another and thus becomes choppy and what Canvas can do in one view GL needs 2-3 different views to do the same. I don't want to have to scroll up or down and switch to low res to get/see all the info that I can from one view of Canvas and I suspect you and the designers don't either.

Does any gamer want city names blocking their view of the territory? Do you? I doubt it. Does any gamer want to scroll down to where they only see 2-3 provinces and a city in order to get the names to disappear? Wouldn't they prefer to see the area in question from a little higher view? Would people like softer colors that are more pleasing to the eye when playing for a longer period of time?

So from my one input:

1) Make the battlefield clean from non-important stuff so that I don't get my view blocked and have to work around it.

2) Make the colors of countries easier to distinguish instead of the shades to mean something different. Smoke seemed to work fine rather than add more colors (maybe more of a personal thing but simplier is usually better)

3) The 'jumping' of the scroll is real and happens to me about once every 15 min that I am on. While annoying it isn't a major bug.

Does anyone really think that having the banner under each city that tells us it is worth 10 points is needed? The graphics interface isn't supposed to hold your hand but rather give you the tools and vision to play the game and enjoy.

I think Canvas was about as close to a home run as one can get for a game like this, so anything less is a step back. More information sometimes isn't better.

freezy wrote:

Thanks for the feedback so far guys, we already taskified some of the mentioned issues for fixing (it may take some weeks due to how our release cycles work).

In general I want to remind everyone who has not noticed it yet that WebGL has different map view options (check out the settings menu in the bottom right) that may help you getting the map look a bit more like Canvas:

- you can turn off relation view mode so that all countries have their own color

- you can turn on morale map view

- you can turn on displaying province names of rural provinces

- you can turn on low graphics mode which removes a bunch of extra effects

I also want to make a comment on 3 statements I read in here a bunch of times:

1) Some said that we did not improve WebGL since 2 years and that it is still the same as back then. That is simply not true as we had many updates on the WebGL version and many were based on player feedback. You can just read through all the release notes where we had adjustments and bugfixes to graphics many times. We may just not have improved that areas that some of you wanted, but we certainly made improvements in other areas. The most recent additions where the addition of country names on the map and army labels, as well as improvements to these labels based on feedback. Even the colors in the first WebGL release 2 years ago looked quite different (and even further off from Canvas) than nowadays.

2) The Canvas bug on beta was real, if you were a frontline pioneer (beta) player playing in Canvas you can probably attest to that. The map was completely glitching out on Canvas on beta and we had to postpone our release. As we wanted to remove Canvas anyway at a later point, we just did it earlier as releasing this major canvas bug would have rendered the mode unplayable anyway. But yes the bug is not the reason why we wanted to remove Canvas (we would have done it anyway soon due to reasons I described in my first post in here), but it was the reason why we did it now already.

3) Another sentiment was that this change will completely kill the game as too many players will leave. As I said in the past we monitored usage stats and the vast majority was already using WebGL. If it interests you: I can also tell you that so far we dont see any noticeable effect on our game KPIs from the removal of Canvas.

In general some of the feedback in here also comes down to taste. While we try to fix most issues we also cannot please everyone, I hope you keep that in mind. And we also have to keep in mind that the vast majority already played happily using WebGL and had (nearly) no issues with it, so we also can't just change the current version blindly into Canvas again, compromises have to be found. In the end many players have differing opinions and we do as well, but we try to make compromises when it does not go against our vision or business interests, and did so already in the past. Luckily there are some issues that certainly most people would agree on, as well as bugs, and we will probably focus on those first.

Lastly I want to thank you again for your engagement and investment in this topic as it shows that you care about the game and its community. While I sadly can't bring you the news that Canvas is coming back (it definitely wont, sorry), I can again assure you that we will keep continuing to improve the game and that your feedback will help us in that.

I respect this level of response to your users. I really do. I guess I am just in the minority and everybody else can access the game ok, and play the game just fine. I'm not able to load callofwar anymore. Everything I use is on Chrome, it's easy for me that way, if Chrome no longer works for callofwar, than callofwar no longer works for me.

If it is due to some different issue, then I don't know what that issue is. Low graphics mode and mobile mode do not change anything for me. Cache files isn't the issue either, heck, I clear cache files every couple days. It all still doesn't load.

I'm out of options at this point. I'm not a computer programmer, and I don't have the time to scour the internet looking for potential fixes to the loading issue. Those fixes should come from you, the developer, not me, the user.

Everything else I do works fine, and I do a lot because I work from home. Other games work fine as well, even games that require high-level graphics. It's just callofwar.

Like I said, I have no choice but to just assume that I am part of a number of users that is so little, that the company has just chosen to move on without us. It is what it is.

This game has been fun to play for a long time now, over 4 years, so I do hope that other users can continue to enjoy this game as I have in the past.

As I search for a new war game to play, I bid farewell to all the combatants that I have destroyed, and also to those whom I have lost to.

Respectfully,

W_2017.

21K VIEWS HOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW. broo gg on getting so many likes and views and the cause your rasing even know i dont even like canvas GG.

Hello

CoW the game for me in the last 5 years in which I not only made my financial contribution but also often expressed my opinion for the benefit of the community and the game.

There are always changes and there will have to be some in the future too. You never do justice to all of them and a lot is just adjustment and takes getting used to. I have already praised the CoW manager several times, as there is rarely anything with which I would not be satisfied or I could not adapt.

After consulting with my alliances, we have come to an agreement and I turn to you:

We are 52 CoW players from 3 alliances in the German (Inkognito + Inkognitos) and Japanese (Inkognito Japan)

language areas, including some top players. So we ALL know this game very well and have been with it for years.

With the abolition of the reduced graphics, however, a massive (unnecessary?) Cut into the CoW gaming pleasure has occurred.

The reason "... because with each additional feature and update it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain it."

is this related to a reduction in personnel? Because there was a major bug?Surely it can't be so big that something is done away with with which to chase away satisfied (..paying) players?The old "canvas" graphic was the symbol of the cow and with the introduction of the WebGL mode there was some criticism.Basically it was a good idea and intended for progress or adapted to success. Just keep in mind that certain graphic details make up the respective game.

It's more and more in the direction of "Conflict of Nations" graphics. Exaggeratedly modern .. I tried the 3rd part of Bytro ... but the graphic details are overturning, my / our opinion and that's why I stayed with CoW.

Dear designer

Improvements are always welcome and longed for, only that the "standard" graphics are turned off, many (except for one of the German alliances) do not understand.

You will lose CoW players, maybe just a few ... maybe noticeably more than you wanted. but definitely pointless.

Please think about it again, it can't be that much extra work (there don't have to be any new details for the canvas mod.).

We are at least 10 alone in our alliance! Players who will play less with the new graphics and with "Tonson64" already one less CoW player who does not want to play more with improved "graphics.

If you need reasons why this is the case, I'll write another post =)

Mfg, Markus Prinz, Leader of Inkognito & Inkognitos & Inkognito Japan

I decided to make an elaborate post on what i found out while playing with new graphics for few hours.

TL;DR: bugs with WebGL, constructive critique.

I already encountered multiple bugs with new graphics implemented, including some critical ones, like game not working on phones (nor app or browser version, even tho phone supports WebGL (checked and confirmed on get.webgl.org) ) The interface works fine, i can change options, lower graphics to the lowest and turn everything off, but the map is just dark. (ads-for-gold works fine, as its the part of interface i think) . For some people the same bug was encountered on PC.

On PC version the map is to wobbly(both versions, but in low graphics less of a problem) , lowering the sensitivity by a notch should help with that.

Colors of neutral/enemy countries are to bright. Darkening the countries, and Fog of war/out of unit vision/in unit vision colors should fix that problem.

Besides that i already encountered bug with terrain not displaying properly and displaying only empty squares. (low res version on pc)

Units not being displaced properly was also a thing I encountered. When multiple solo units are put in close range to each other, some of them appeared to be missing. No idea how to solve that besides displacing the unit icon some pixels from each other, with the lines linking them to their current map positions.

Also without the units borders that were implemented in canvas it's harder to distinguish your units from allied/enemy/neutral units. I propose to make the unit icons borders colorful (for example green for mine, blue for allies, brown/white for neutral. red for enemy units)

Oh I forgot one more thing. Scrolling in and out is clunky, does not work propperly sometimes, lags when I want to zoom in and there are units displaced in region that i want to zoom on.

Those are some things i encountered by just checking the game and fooling around for 2 hours on a normal speed map. Unfortunately I can't attach every screen here since the game is an official tournament game, and i don't want to reveal info to the public, since i know my opponents are watching I will be testing some more things soon, and i will inform if anything more comes to my mind. I also am pretty sure i missed some things. I will be updating accordingly.

another little bug is the flags. Here are examples. Lithuania has a red in half flag. The crosses of Sweden and Finland also point firmly to the corner.

This afternoon I completed killing all troops at Midway.

Attached are 4 pics that I took. I circled the area and the GL tells me there are 4 land troops from BO there but none of my 9 ships and 3 land troops. Please note BO IS NOT in the area and is an ally of mine and in Asia moving west.

The 2nd is a closeup and you can see how the ships block your view of what is going on and what is there. As I use the wheel to pull back it now tells me I have 1 troop and 1 ship there. Here is the 4th image and this time it gives correct info for my troops...Last view is high level where you can see that my troops are the only ones there but again after circling the 2 islands the troops count comes back 1 ship and 1 troop. Even though it is clear that I have 2 stacks one of ships and one of land troops.

I sent a plane to go patrol over the islands that obviously couldn't make it and would have to land on another ACC first. Pic one says it will be there in 10 min...pic two shows the plane after it lands and is refueling and the correct time before it gets there.

In combat and when you are moving several planes at targets, you can see the '10 min est time' and not realize that your plane had to land and take off from another airport first and made itself vulnerable for 30 min and also it is really 40 min to the target...I used the ACC to ACC to dumb it down and show you what I meant because in combat and with multiple planes flying around it can get real messy.

I had an AC landing on the island that I thought was dead. You can see the time that I have left and the time(s) of my earlier post of ships that it was there the whole time...

Even though I circled the troops, Gl never found this one. I couldn't see it due to the ships and signs blocking...

(See message 54 min ago in this line of messages)

Here I was moving a plane from one airport to another. You can clearly see the section of the pie that you see when a plane is patroling. If you look at the details it says it is patroling but if you look below it you can see the time says 31 min. That would be 1 min out and 30 min to refuel...Next pic the plane has landed.

So everytime you move a plane you get the section of the pie - even though you aren't patroling. Confusing when you have multiple planes in the air with some patroling and some attacking.

In the 3rd pic please notice the hill 'bleedover'. This is actually a flat province and requires me to readjust my arty due to the bleedover. One must pay particular attention all the time not to make a mistake on where to put their troops to get maximum effect.

Here is another plane that I have moving. from the bar at the bottom you can see it has 3+ hours to go to get to its destination. But in that same bar it says the plane is patrolling and you can see a pie section that you should only see when they are patrolling.

Below are 3 pics of ships at sea. All 3 pics are taken from the exact height. Look at the red center dot(s). I drew an arrow to point to the 2 red center dots in the first pic. This would be needed to put ships together or if you want to patrol enemy troops you need to be able to see the center red dot.

Now look at the next pic. Only one ship and you can't see the red center dot (same height)

3rd pic has combo of ships and you can see the red dot in the bottom pic but none of the others. Let's say that the plane was an enemy plane and wanted to patrol over each ship individually. There is no way of telling where to patrol to accomplish this...

Can we all chill and chat about it ...privately.

Here is a stack of 8 ships where I took the pic at the lowest level and then zoomed back in an attempt to find the red center dot. As you can see I never could find the center. In combat - with planes especially - it is critical to be able to see that dot so you can set patrols accordingly. Let's say a person has his arty behind a stack. I may choose to only patrol the arty and not the front stack due to AA or size of the stack. Without that red dot I can't see the battlefield clearly.

DoctorDR1 wrote:

Don't know where you got that notion, but it absolutely is not true. The devs care about every single player. After all, the players are the ones who get to play the game they put a lot of work into.

Here is a battlefield pic and where the red dots come into play. (And you can see them all) I have a stack of 10 arty and another stack of 5, plus 1 arty way over to the west. I am moving the 1 over to join up with the 5 and I can see exactly where I need to move it to. The stack of 10 is in the province behind the city. That province has hills thus giving my arty extra firepower. My planes are patrolling to protect and since I can see their red dots I know exactly where to patrol.

IronKnight wrote:

Can we all chill and chat about it ...privately.

Not necessarily, I agree that the morale needs to be fixed. There are way's you can deal with popularity. Just have right of the way with every inactive or AI country.