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Domination: Earth

3.0.8 - Offline Captures, Account Deletion and more


Mr. D

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Hey everyone,

It's been a long time since the last update, which was caused by a number of reasons (related and unrelated to software).
As some of you are aware, we've been forced to rewrite the foundation of "Domination: Earth" by various new requirements from Google and Apple that could not be satisfied in the old system, which was pretty out-of-date in many technical aspects and was getting harder and harder to maintain.
The new app is finally ready for public beta testing and although it's still running the same engine as before (and looks almost identical to the old game; no major visual changes yet, sorry) it is now significantly easier for us to work with, which means any fixes and improvements will take less time in the future.

However, some things did change and a few new features were introduced in version 3x:

  • It is now possible to permanently delete your account from within the game using the "Account Deletion" section in your profile.
    Please don't try it out just for fun though, this process is irreversible and I can't help you if you accidentally lose all of the accumulated progress (that is a new privacy-related requirement from Apple).
  • "Scrap Items" facility has been removed due to unpopularity and technical difficulties associated with its maintenance. It will no longer be possible to scan barcodes in "Domination: Earth", but this feature is planned to be replaced with alternative mini-games in the future.
  • The game now requires Android 7.0+ to run (iOS remains unaffected). Older devices are no longer supported.
  • Automated collection: resources, items, quests and characters are now picked up automatically when you are close enough to them, no need to press the "Pick Up" button (as long as the app is running). However, this action does not consider or use any active items, since some of them have limited charges and you probably wouldn't want to expend all of them willy-nilly.
    Instead, you can use the "Pick Up" button to trigger any active item bonuses and perform collection with the increased radius.
    Please note that automated collection only works when a resource/item/character/quest is visible on Earth View; hiding them via map filters will disable automated collection for the hidden item type.
  • Offline Capture: if your device has no or extremely slow internet connection, but already acquired the current position (either from a GPS chip or location services) it will now be possible to capture lands "offline" from the initial loading screen.
    In other words, if the app doesn't open because it can't connect to our servers, you can still capture lands at your current position to be processed later when the connection is reestablished.
  • The process is illustrated below:
  • image.png.a86ca06ad665e5ef07716b27716b5758.png
  • image.png.a616eb5496151f2348c2a141af16676c.png
  • image.png.cd83ca401d3acd89907787aa90d0fbd6.png
  • There is no limit to the amount of times you can capture lands offline. There is no cooldown and the number of captures is limited exclusively by the amount of free space available on your device, but an offline capture is very small, so you're very unlikely to ever run out of space because of it.
    Once you are back online, open the "Offline Captures" window in the side menu and use the "Flag" button in that list to capture any of the recorded places visited in the past. This is where the 15 minute cooldown applies along with all the usual rules.
    Please do not try to use fake GPS while offline, anti-cheat will notice that and any falsified offline locations will lead to automated blacklisting.
  • Billing system has been rebuilt and updated in accordance with Google's and Apple's latest requirements.
    "Domination: Earth" no longer features subscriptions (active ones will be cancelled), but everything else should remain the same visually.
    Special thanks to all our current subscribers and supporters of the game, it wouldn't exist without you! 😉

Version 3.0.8 will appear on Android devices very shortly, where it will be thoroughly tested before the iOS counterpart becomes available.

Please bear with us while we find any fix and outstanding bugs as this is quite a significant rewrite and some accidental breakdowns are possible (in which case reports on the forum will be greatly appreciated and investigated ASAP 😉).

And as always, please post if you have any questions!

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7 minutes ago, Irrelevents said:

A quick clarification though, this means that we can flag an area every 15 mins but to claim them we still have to wait 15 mins (online) each as well?

The usual 15-minute capture can be performed independently from offline captures, while offline captures can happen pretty much whenever.
But yes, to actually "claim" lands captured offline (i.e. send them to the server to be registered and visible to other players) a 15 minute timer applies, which will be shared with the main land capture.
I.e. every 15 minutes you can either capture new land in your current position or a land from the "offline captures" list.

Please note that it is not possible to perform "offline upgrades", this feature is just for capturing new/previously unclaimed locations.

7 minutes ago, Irrelevents said:

And will base relocation work in offline mode eventually?

Hmm, this wasn't planned originally... I haven't thought about it until now, but certainly will. 🙂
There will definitely be more offline-related functionality.

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Interesting new changes. I especially appreciate the offline capture feature since it also helps with very frustrating situations on ferries or airplanes that use satellite internet and block some things necessary for domination. I guess we can just turn off our internet connection in those cases?

I'm a little bit sad to loose the possibility to scrap for drones. But I'm excited for those upcoming mini-games.

There is one non-essential but irritating cosmetic problem with the new update, possible limited to my device and similar ones. The devices tool and status bar (at the top and bottom) are both showing in light mode. It was in dark mode before. At least when settings were correct. For example a before screenshot and an after screenshot.

 

Screenshot_20230315-092733.jpg

Screenshot_20221230-220413.jpg

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I just noticed that the new automated collection feature only works for resources (I guess it's the same for items, quests and characters), if their according map filter setting is activated. 

I don't know if this is intended, but you might want to clarify that those map filter settings are not purely cosmetically (which might be beneficial for older or slower devices) but also affect this new feature. In contrast, the manual collection was not dependent on having the associated map filter setting activated.

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On 3/15/2023 at 8:10 PM, Ruvox said:

I just noticed that the new automated collection feature only works for resources (I guess it's the same for items, quests and characters), if their according map filter setting is activated. 

I don't know if this is intended, but you might want to clarify that those map filter settings are not purely cosmetically (which might be beneficial for older or slower devices) but also affect this new feature. In contrast, the manual collection was not dependent on having the associated map filter setting activated.

Correct, map filters do affect auto-collection, I should add a clarification indeed!
It would not work any other way, unfortunately, as when any item/resource/character is filtered out, it simply isn't loaded from the server and the app doesn't know about their existence (so cannot trigger collection due to proximity). The server does not actively monitor your position either (that would be an overkill and a potential privacy concern), so cannot trigger automated collections as well.
And pre-loading all data in the client regardless of filters (but just not showing it) would consume more traffic and memory, which as you've correctly pointed out is one of the reasons older devices use filters in the first place.

On 3/15/2023 at 6:41 PM, Ruvox said:

Interesting new changes. I especially appreciate the offline capture feature since it also helps with very frustrating situations on ferries or airplanes that use satellite internet and block some things necessary for domination. I guess we can just turn off our internet connection in those cases?

Yep, if the GPS is available you should be able to turn off internet connection and use offline captures.
Every situation and device are different, but that's the general idea. 🙂
I tested this functionality on a ship not too long myself and it worked (with varying accuracy, of course, but still completely without using any mobile data).

Regarding the status bar: thank you for noticing and letting me know, I did not see that!
Will add it to the list of things to address.

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 4/18/2023 at 1:52 AM, S Keillan said:

Are there any plans to repurpose the Scrap Master perk, considering that it is no longer applicable?

Yes indeed, as soon as version 3 is released for iOS that perk will be removed and I'll try to think of an appropriate replacement. 🙂

Unfortunately, Apple has thrown another wave of challenges at us, so version 3 for iPhones has been delayed and at the moment I cannot comment on how soon it will become available.
In the meantime, the plan is to support both versions to avoid breaking things for the Apple users.

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  • 7 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...
On 12/5/2023 at 11:36 PM, Kastor_ said:

If you log out of the game, all your offline captured positions (which are not lands yet) are deleted

Thanks for the reminder, yet I think I never log out the game manually. Does the game automatically log me out when the app is closed and log me in when open again? And then that's how it deleted those data?

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