GAME OF WAR UPDATE #2
Game of War has followed up their previous HUGE UPDATE with a second one in less than a week. It appears that they are not taking the recent tension lightly. They are giving us what we asked for, which is frequent game updates pertaining to the changes requested by the community. Let’s see what they have to say.
As a follow-up to our prior Game of War Update, we wanted to catch everyone up on some of the items in progress.
Lag – we have been making several daily updates in an effort to increase Game of War’s responsiveness. Two distinct efforts are underway – UI responsiveness and Combat Performance.
This week I was talking to a game designer friend of mine who mentioned it would be extremely difficult for Game of War to simultaneously improve stabilization of the game while adding so many new features. He said that if Game of War were to solely focus on reducing lag they might be able to do it, but the fact that they are keeping the game as stable as it is is while releasing this many new features is impressive.
My vote would be for less features and more lag improvements right now because I think it’s more crucial that core game functionality works best, and all new features in addition to them are just special bonuses that aren’t necessary. I rarely, if ever, hear players asking for new content.
[poll id=”21″]
Lag continued – The first change pertains to the former. Our engineering team has been painstakingly implementing several UI optimizations over the last few months. We have released some of these new improvements already, and you’ll have noticed some of the content-heavier screens load more quickly.
This is certainly what we want. Have you noticed improvements?
[poll id=”19″]
Lag continued – As for combat performance enhancement, last week, we released a large optimization for scouting. Additionally, we are committing to having our developers, who empires will bear a special MZ logo, perform various tests in the Super Wonder. Any slowness we detect will be triaged and addressed quickly. Our tests will NOT affect Super Wonder performance.
It will be very interesting to hear how Stayalive responds to the improvements that are made during the Super Wonder. Positive feedback from him on what MZ engineers are able to optimize will go a long way with the community. Considering the Super Wonder is the game’s most high tiered feature, it’s important to keep it stable. From interviewing Stayalive and Kuran in the past, I remember them having to guesstimate timing to account for lag when fighting in the Super Wonder. Not only that, but scout bombing people to crash their game was a legitimate strategy for awhile.
Dig Timers & Drops – [they will be reduced due to popular demand]
Not sure by how much, but let’s hope it’s a lot!
Infernos & KvKs – You may have already noticed we have been introducing more varied infernos on top of your favorite infernos and doing it more frequently. Over the next few weeks, we will continue to add even more new Infernos with prizes appealing to all players.
[poll id=”20″]
Four-character alliance tags – today, we will be extending support for Alliance tags to contain up to 4 characters!
To put this in perspective, 3 character alliance tags means there was approximately 94 x 94 x 93 = 822,000 options. So if people were complaining that they couldn’t create an alliance tag because there weren’t enough options left, than amount of alliances was probably approaching 821,000…. LOL
Now that MZ added 4 tags, the amount of options is 94 x 94 x 94 x 93 = 77,244,000. That’s insane.
Disclaimer: I could have done that math totally wrong, someone smart please correct me!
Rally Speed-ups – we have decided to limit Rally Speed-up usage to 1 per Rally March, which will impact ONLY Rally Marches against Wonders or the Super Wonder. This adjustment will be released prior to the opening of the Super Wonder.
I feel like this was something Stayalive and other SW players might have asked for because rally marches in the wonder come down to milliseconds, and with the use of unlimited rally march speed-ups, fighting would get very costly and difficult to predict.
Well, that’s all for now.
Leave your thoughts in the comments.
Enjoy!
Navi
Attention Hero
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Like JGB said NO ONE CAN SAY THEY SEE IMPROVEMENTS. Chad the simple fact that my first post on your website which pertained 100% to this bogus shit you are claiming they are “focusing” on got rejected from being shown well it makes it very clear what side of the fence you are on. Same as stayalive. Keep rolling over buddy the community know’s the truth even if you are actively trying to hide it.
MZ hasn’t fixed shit and the WONDER DUNGEON is just another way to pull the blinders over your eyes. Keep thinking they are fixing the problems go for it. I’ll keep playing the game but you should really stop billshitting the community. I still prefer this site to IGOW but I’m beginning to see exactly why IGOW is where everyone tells new players to go. You censor the truth and hide things that are actually important. MZ has not fixed anything and you know it just like JGB had said in all of his posts
Spike,
I present both viewpoints. I’ve never once denied what the players (myself included) think the problems are with Game of War. You know what separates us from IGOW, the fact we don’t just rage about every situation that doesn’t go in the communities favor. Do you want every site, facebook, instagram, etc to simply hate of GOW all the time?? Cause that sounds sucky to me.
So I don’t apologize for trying to keep a more light hearted feel that isn’t 16 pages talking about how gow monetizes in ways that we already know.
I play the game just like you do, I have the same issues and the same problems that drive me insane. I’ve got one account stolen, my shield has dropped and I’ve never got refunded for losing millions of troops, but consistently sharing the negatives doesn’t support a great community. You’ve been reading for awhile and you know I never ignore an issue.
In regards to your article, it didn’t get REJECTED, it got a cease and desist brother.
I hope you continue reading here and understand more where I’m coming from now. Please share more of your thoughts with me here or message me in Line: ID – Navig8tor
Navi
I noticed different infernos for 1 day. We are back to the same exact, boring, tired shit as before. Build, research, train and spend $500 to complete a KvK.
I’ve curbed my playing time on gow. I’ve been spending more time with Clash of Clans. Yeah, it’s not on the same level as gow, but it’s nice not have iap messages shoved in your face either on startup or by accidently pushing conviently placed buttons that cause this ads to pop up.
Many members of the Alliance I’m in refuse to spend any money on this game. Maybe eventually, mz will get the message. Maybe.
I blame Mariah.
Bring back Kate!
Kingdom map screen lag is at an all-time high. it has never been as bad as it is now. Numerous times in the past week I’ve been on screen and knowing something has occurred (like a monster attack or landing on a tile) and NOTHING changes on the screen. This was especially disconcerting during kill event as you rely on portions of that screen to remove your troops from a tile or to know if your march landed. Thank god i count off the timer in my head too.
It’s 77.244m and 822k for alliance tags. Also you typo’d, “94 x94 94 x 93” instead of “94 x 94 x 94 x 93”
You’re welcome.
haha updated thank you.
Just finished kvk kill event last night. It was too unstable to unshield, so I hunted some monsters and commiserated with others about the constant lag and crashes. NOT a fun time….
Why are we bombarded with constant notifications of changes at the Kingdom of Fire? I don’t give a rat’s behind about the KOF, I have never been there and most likely, never will. All it does is slow down my game.
Why are the infernos suddenly almost doubled in point requirements? And why are some of them only worth 4 instead of 5 points?
I’m a moderate spender, growing slowly but steadily. I will be happy to spend more on this game, once it is fairly stable. Until then, I will sit tight, for a while, but not forever. mz must realize they are at a critical juncture. Once people start leaving the game en masse, there will be no stopping the stampede for the exits.
Lag – (thumbs down) I haven’t seen any improvement in lag. Actually got notification of being rallied. Logged into app…watched the swordsman picture and monster….watched the ‘buy pack screen’ then the view of my base (while chat comes up)…. you can guess, my base was hit with the rally. I did shield before the second rally.
(first of all, I am not mad about being hit – the shield dropped, I missed it. my problem. My issue is I was notified and made the attempt to shield… but the game can’t seem to start up fast enough.)
Rally speed up – Good idea – thumbs up. I think this is the attempt to compensate for the slow start up of the game. I dont’ know if the rally leader sped up or not, but multiple speed ups definitely would beat the notification and game start up.
Content vs. Game performance – I do admit, I don’t think MZ should release new VIP levels, or Core sets, etc until they figure this lag item out. However, there is one content upgrade I do want to see – trading (cores, pieces materials, gems) I do think the solution can be easy – add a building in the alliance city for the alliance to trade within themselves. over engineering a kingdom wide trade etc sounds too much for MZ at this point. At least allow me and my alliance friends to trade. This is something the community has been asking for awhile now.
4 character alliance names – eh – ok. I do like the feature, just didn’t know the community was clamoring that much for it. Anyway – this shouldn’t have taken too much development.
Sorry forgot
Inferno’s – Thumbs up. I have seen the inferno switch form a troop training inferno for 5, 6 or 7M pts (research 1 pt) to 35 – 70M pts for research infernos (research 5 pts). I hit a 35M research and 6 M troop training inferno over the last 4-5 days. The 70M is a stretch for my midsize pwr, but the bigs may like it. So I give MZ a thumbs up on the infernos.
How do you improve the infernos and not add to the game’s issue with inflation?
CJ,
I don’t think the inferno impacts game inflation much. It allows mid level players to be bigger targets. I believe the payout on the inferno’s for research depends on where you are at on the trees. The Power / Day for each research increases the higher you go in the research trees.
ie: Defense tree lv 6 446k pwr ~ 10days (ratio of 45 pwr / day)
Lv 7 700 pwr ~ 20 days (ratio of 35 pr / day)
So the higher levels give less pwr / day. So mid’s won’t get all Lv 10’s unless they pay a little.
It is sad to say that none of the purported fixes do anything.
I have a lot invested in this game, and have been trying to no avail to justify buying another gold pack for the past two month.
This game has become ridiculously expensive, tedious, and time consuming to say the least.
I have now realised that the main impetus for carrying on in this game is to safeguard one’s investment in it.
I have spent upwards of £50,000 on this useless game already! I think that the wisest path to take at this juncture is to write it off, join the many friends I have made while playing in leaving this game behind and move on…
My 2c
Its worse than ever. The infernos are no better and my game has crashed constantly all week on both iPad and Android. They havent made any improvements so far that Ive seen.
It seems that the only real effective changes already in place are the ones that drove Stayalive into action, his post in Instagram appeared to be sparked by the kingdom boosts being unfair because it placed him at a disadvantage, result – Changed. Rally March Speed Up limited as it effects his play in SW – Changed. As for the changes that would impact on the other 99% of GOW players, nothing seems to have significantly altered. I haven’t given up hope of change but I am skeptical.
Let’s be honest, I don’t think anyone can say they’ve seen improvements in any meaningful or measurable way. Anyone single person that posts a “I have seen less crashes and lag” comment anywhere I instantly suspect as bogus because if there is one, there will be thousands communicating the same thing; and that’s just not happening. The game reviews on Google and Apple continue to be flooded with similar messages and the paid marketing hacks are easy to spot. I noticed one thing today – instead of having a million gift “toasts” (MZ lo go for popup) start being displayed at logon, they’ve replaced it with a different message which I think is limited in 20. So instead of getting a singular toast for each your going to get one that tells you how many gifts are waiting, and if it’s more than 20 then you’ll get multiple of those until it’s given you your total – example, if you have 100 gifts since last logon (not uncommon in a kvk ke) you’ll get 5 pop ups saying you have 20’gifts. How about this MZ – lets get rid of all non-combat related toasts (i.e. Rally, defend) or at minimum let that be a user controlled notification. The gift icon on alliance button isn’t enough? And if you want to add something meaningful – how about adding a notification on screen if you are the target of a rally??? During a kvk ke there are many called during, and if you’re the target the only way of knowing before you have an incoming March is opening up the hall of war window and sometimes there could be multiple so you have sort through them to see if your the target. But the toasts need to be reduced significantly – seems every button push of opening something is a toast, the monster or alliance gifts, troops or hero coming or going, you name it there is a toast alert and with most, there is a noticeable pause in game when being pulled down and displayed. Hey – reducing those alone right there might give someone a noticeable and measurable improvement in the stability and repsonsivenes of the game.
MZ has broken the trust of its customer base – that isn’t going to be repaired overnight and they’re not going to get recognized for very small incremental changes that serve no purpose – like the change they just made with toasts (for gifts only)!! Someone want to explain to me the benefit of all these toast alerts??? To me or the game maker?
I’m listening and watching.
I disagree to a point. When they 1st did the update the game would just crash and I’d have to re-login what seemed like every 5 minutes during peak times. Since the purported update, this happens maybe every other day. HOWEVER, now I have other issues that I think are the result of that fix (phone running extremely hot, battery depleting faster, harder to log off, longer initial login, but shorter subsequent log in if that makes sense. )
I say all this because yes I have seen improvement in the game, less crash, less lag in some areas, forge for example, better infernos (yesterday’s infernos FOR me were fabulous and filled with materials I can actually use instead of glass and pink fireballs and other bs I have bajillion of, today’s are just ok) the game has less lag for me, but more importantly for tonight’s ke, less crashing. (Others in my alliance and kingdom have noted the same; there are some who have experienced much worse lag too since the latest update so I realize everyone’s game is not roses) Id llike the game to get much much much more stable, but to say no one in the game has seen improvement is hyperbolic and ignores some strides in stabilizing the game.
Off topic, but the stability on my ipad is 10 times better than the iphone, sane internet, both apple no idea why ipad is so much better with the game
I am still having to log in again every 5 minutes. Sometimes less!! I have contacted MZ on many occasions asking for some help but so far haven’t had a reply. This sucks! I’ve been playing the game for 2 years but the last month has been horrendous.
@tazzy – I rely to you because what you describe is exact opposite for me. PRIOR TO the update both my iPhone and iPad only crashed occasionally. There was always a bit of lag here and there, but the app didn’t just bomb out and drop me to home screen. Since update this will happen constantly and I can be guaranteed it will happen within 5 minutes of me entering map view. Coincidently If I don’t go into map view and just stay within city view and go into things from there, I can stay in app and function for long periods of time… But if I open map view, even if I don’t do anything but sit there, it will crash.. Panning map, switching into other window from map view will just accelerate when a crash will happen. It’s been like that since the update of the client app on 4th September and nothing has changed. I read similar experiences everywhere this is being discussed – on sites like this, game reviews, and other. And further, this isn’t isolated to iOS and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the Android users started reporting very similar instability when their client app was updated on the 15th of September – like iOS there app seemed to be functioning acceptably until the update – now it’s crap for many. Personally, I think there was a massive failure on the deployment of the update and a massive amount of server side user profiles have experienced some sort of corruption. This would be extremely hard for MZ to rectify and therefore the head has been in the sand and denial is the theme of the day. This app no doubt pulls user info/config files down from server – the app installed without a launch is only about 80mb after first launch and logon to account I have nearly 700mb of app and data files on my devices. So it’s getting that data from somewhere and that would be the servers… And like I said, there may now be some corrupt files associated with the users experiencing the chronic (and it is chronic and widespread) issues.
Count yourself lucky you aren’t one of them.
I did count myself lucky until last night. Although on my android i still am not getting the crashes, when I open the map screen it’s taking almost a minute for the buildings and tiles to show up, once it’s loaded it seems ok but getting it to load is a feat. I going to recreate this on video and send to mz so they can see. I find when I do that, or screen shot, I get more substantive responses. Though like u said it’s probably to the point that they need to roll back the Sept update and start from there, these patches are like bandaid on a gunshot wound.
I think atayalive should gave kept the boycott going. The infernos are actually worse and the game still crashes and lags. Everyone is quiting left and right which is alao a bad sign!