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Domination: Earth

1.12 Map Update


Mr. D

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Hi all,

A large update has just been released to the Play Store (App Store release will follow separately), featuring the following changes:

  • As some of you are aware, many of our in-game crashes are caused by Google Maps and some of its code that is outside of our control to fix.
    Which is why we've attempted to move away from Google Maps and introduced Mapbox (OpenStreetMap).
    Its performance is slightly inferior to Google Maps's, but stability should be a lot higher, especially on older devices and Android versions 6 or below.
    If no new issues arise with this map provider it's likely to stay as a permanent replacement to Google Maps.
     
  • New land tooltips!
    When you click on a flag or a building seen on Earth View you will now see a new, better looking tooltip with buttons at the bottom of it.
    You no longer need to use context menu to trade or attack lands, all that can now be done from the tooltip window directly.
     
  • Targeted land upgrades:
    It is now possible to select which land you want to upgrade by pressing the flag button on its tooltip window.
    The old flag button still works in the same way as before, but if you're standing in the middle of a nested land with lots of smaller lands inside you can pick any of those lands to be upgraded as long as it is within 500m from yourself.
    Accordingly, pressing the flag button on a base's tooltip will increase that base's defences instead.
     
  • "Follow mode" for Earth View camera: tapping the new yellow button in the upper right corner of Earth View centers camera around your current position.
    However, long press in the middle of that button (for approx. 1 second) enables the "follow mode", which means that the camera will automatically re-position around the blue dot whenever it moves.
     
  • Resource and building icon position adjusted: actual spot where a resource/building is located is now positioned in the middle of an image (i.e. its center), not at its bottom.
    Additionally, tooltip window appearing when you tap a resource or a building will pinpoint its exact location on the map (look for the "pointed tip" of the window).
     
  • Captured lands are now hexagonal!
    We really loved our circles, but unfortunately they had to go as hexagons perform much better within Mapbox and many more of these can be shown without slowing the game down. :)
    However, collection radius and all relevant mechanics are still based on circles, this is just a visual change.
     
  • GPS accuracy has been improved slightly, but please post if you encounter the opposite!
     
  • Many sources of crashes and permanent screen freezes have been eliminated, but as we only have a limited set of devices for testing any feedback about that aspect is greatly appreciated! ;)
    Please post if the game started crashing less for you, if it's gotten worse or if you can't see any difference.

And as always, do not hesitate to post if you have any questions!

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When land is merged  buildings lvl should be higher. Like tower 3. Merge with another 3tower and in 200lvl land we have 4lvl tower.   Merging shoud raise limit of building lvl.

 

 

 

Ok now about update.  

Game work slower?

Sometimes when i click flag nothing hapen. I must click on my land and again on map. And click again

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Performance seems a bit worse and I miss the functionality to tilt the map using 2 fingers to top down view. Also the presentation of multiple land 

s inside a big one is bugged for me. In the following the screenshot the lvl 23 land is positioned in the middle of the surrounding lvl 100 land although it should be away from it. Using the capture button on it also doesn't upgrade it but increases the defense score of the base. 

Screenshot_20180124-091509.jpg

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34 minutes ago, SebRut said:

Performance seems a bit worse and I miss the functionality to tilt the map using 2 fingers to top down view.

Map tilting was cool indeed, but I'm afraid that's just one of the things we've had to trade for the ability to have buttons within tooltips and, well, no crashes caused by the map. :)
I will keep thinking about ways to improve performance though; it's an ongoing development. ;)

34 minutes ago, SebRut said:

In the following the screenshot the lvl 23 land is positioned in the middle of the surrounding lvl 100 land although it should be away from it. Using the capture button on it also doesn't upgrade it but increases the defense score of the base. 

That level 23 land actually belongs to your base. :)
Every base starts with just the "HQ" icon (the blue skyscraper), but when you construct towers or walls they appear nearby, but are still considered part of the base.
The only difference between this version and the previous one is that all walls and towers used to be displayed right on top of the HQ icon before, while now I've positioned them slightly further away from the base for a nicer look. :)
However, if you were able to upgrade that land using flag button before - that was a bug (it's most definitely a base land; I've checked the database)!

1 hour ago, Masterman said:

When land is merged  buildings lvl should be higher. Like tower 3. Merge with another 3tower and in 200lvl land we have 4lvl tower.   Merging shoud raise limit of building lvl.

I'm afraid that's going to cause massive issues for game balance. :)
We have some players with level 1000+ lands, so level 3 guard towers are already covering a pretty big area. If we allow building levels to go above that soon these players will be able to attack entire states using a single guard tower.
Any other ideas are welcome though, I'll keep thinking too. ;)

1 hour ago, Masterman said:

Sometimes when i click flag nothing hapen. I must click on my land and again on map. And click again

Sorry, which flag are you referring to in this context? :) "Flag" - the land marker on the world map, "Flag" - the big round button next to the "Hand" button or "Flag" - the small flag within a land's tooltip window?

2 hours ago, Grizzlyfilms said:

Would IT mean that er would kollect money that is not in the viseble.

Sorry, I'm not sure I understand the question!
But if you are referring to a scenario when a resource is located just outside a hexagon's corner (that would have been otherwise covered by a circle) - yes, that resource will be picked up.

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20 minutes ago, Mr. D said:

That level 23 land actually belongs to your base. :)

Every base starts with just the "HQ" icon (the blue skyscraper), but when you construct towers or walls they appear nearby, but are still considered part of the base.
The only difference between this version and the previous one is that all walls and towers used to be displayed right on top of the HQ icon before, while now I've positioned them slightly further away from the base for a nicer look. :)
However, if you were able to upgrade that land using flag button before - that was a bug (it's most definitely a base land; I've checked the database)!

What do you mean with "base land" and what does that level 23 come mean, as my base is only level 16.

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33 minutes ago, SebRut said:

What do you mean with "base land" and what does that level 23 come mean, as my base is only level 16.

Ah! It's something that seems obvious to me, but probably requires an additional explanation in the game, sorry! :)

Each base is located on a piece of land: your initial base of level 1 starts on land level 10, and land level 10 grows by +1 whenever your base advances to the next level (i.e. base level 2 = land level 11 etc.).
Any additional bases start on land level 5: as you know, to establish a new base you have to capture a level 5 land outside of the first base's radius.
When you do that you get a level 1 base on a level 5 land (and that base's level 2 would be based on a level 6 land).

Base land determines the radius where you're considered "on a base": i.e. whenever you are within your level 23 land you can withdraw and deposit items from/to the warehouse and using land capture increases base defence instead of the land level (since the base's land advances with base's levels only).

Unfortunately, until recently we've had a bug where the base's land *would* advance in levels via land capture despite the rules described above, and sometimes the land wouldn't grow when it was supposed to.

Both scenarios should now be fixed, but because of these some base levels are now de-synchronised from their bases, which is what I assumed happened with your level 23 land.
I could run a bulk update to change everyone's base land levels to match the base levels, but I feel that it's going to cause even more confusion, which is why I'm inclined to let you have a couple of extra land levels unless you'd like me to lower the land level yourself. :)

Please let me know if that doesn't make sense!

P.S. I will adjust the base land tooltips in one of the future versions to explain this situation and help avoid confusion. ;)

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1 minute ago, Masterman said:

 SoRRy.  When i click small flag

No problem! :)

Is it possible that you're hitting a bit of an empty space around it?
I used to miss that button a lot when testing myself, which is why I've added a "Please wait..." message appearing when you actually *do* hit that button. :)

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Here are my first comments:

-Buttons within tooltips are much better than the previous system.

-Yes, I see a little slowness on the map, but there are not big lags, so I can play quite fluently anyway.

-When the game is open I see a permanent notification saying "Tracking Nearest Land". I cannot swipe it out and if I touch it nothing happens. It looks useless.

 

Edited by marcofi
Spelling mistake
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33 minutes ago, marcofi said:

-When the game is open I see a permanent notification saying "Tracking Nearest Land". I cannot swipe it out and if I touch it nothing happens. It looks useless.

I agree, but unfortunately it's somewhat mandatory: our previous version of the map relied on network geolocation provided by Google Maps (i.e. your position was triangulated using the surrounding cell towers). It was great and fast, but not really accurate and quite power-consuming.
Since we're no longer using Google Maps I've decided to go one step further and introduce a proper implementation of the hardware-based background location tracking: it's using the GPS chip and a bunch of other sensors to determine when you're moving, so the location should be determined a bit more accurately and will also function when you're not connected to the internet (you still can't fully play with no connection, but at least you'll see the map and your current position updated by the GPS chip while offline :)).
Additionally, when the phone is not moving the GPS will not attempt to update your position, which helps to preserve battery power (I haven't had a chance to test all devices yet, but battery usage on our Android 6 and 7 phones has dropped significantly in version 1.12).

However, hardware-based tracking requires a notification in the status bar to let you know that it's active, hence you're seeing that message.
But on the bright side you can now see exactly when the tracking is enabled and the game is active. :)

P.S. Really glad to hear that you like the new tooltips though!

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I really like the new possibility to buy or attack lands via the panel and the follow mode as well. Of course the new option to choose which land to update brings much more comfortably. Thank you, nice work done here ;)

But to be honest there are are four thing I dislike about the update:

  1.  The new adjustment of the buildings images is very strange especially when you turn the map it looks like the building would move within the land. Having the bottom of the image in the middle of the land was much more precise and logical imo.
  2. On my device the new map loads by far slower especially when you turn the map and zoom in our out in an area with many land it takes a long time for all the lands to load.
  3. With the change away from google maps we lost the ability see the exact coordinates of resources, stations or lands.
  4. I really hope we can return to the circles asap although I understand that it's not that easy at the moment.

Maybe this is just my opinion, maybe some other players feel the same.

Edited by Ruvox
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2 minutes ago, Ruvox said:

I really like the new possibility to buy or attack lands via the panel and the follow mode as well. Of course the new option to choose which land to update brings much more comfortably. Thank you, nice work done here ;)

Thank you! :)

2 minutes ago, Ruvox said:
  1. On my device the new map loads by far slower especially when you turn the map and zoom in our out in an area with many land it takes a long time for all the lands to load.

Yup, as I mentioned above I will keep optimizing this version of the map, so there will most likely be updates in that area. ;)

4 minutes ago, Ruvox said:
  1. With the change away from google maps we lost the ability see the exact coordinates of resources, stations or lands.

Hold on, what do you mean?
What about the dot pinpointed by the tooltip window, does that not help at all?
Or are you referring to actual numeric values (latitude and longitude) displayed in "directions" mode?

5 minutes ago, Ruvox said:

I really hope we can return to the circles asap although I understand that it's not that easy at the moment.

I must admit that it's a bit funny how everyone reacts to different shapes. :)
I clearly remember a group of players who hated circles and I've already heard a bunch of praises in regard to hexagons (one of my friends playing Domination actually said "Thank god, I love hexagons!"). :)
It seems that we now have 2 different camps here!

Because of that reason I don't think we'll be trying to stick to one shape in particular, we'll just use whatever causes fewer issues for the game's performance and stability, as otherwise we'll spend days arguing about which shape is better. :)

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5 minutes ago, Mr. D said:

Or are you referring to actual numeric values (latitude and longitude) displayed in "directions" mode?

That's what I meant, it was easy to click on something and then get the exact numerical values via google maps to look how far you have to go to collect resources with a super magnet or where it is possible to capture a new piece of land maybe to plan a little bit.

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Just now, Ruvox said:

That's what I meant, it was easy to click on something and then get the exact numerical values via google maps to look how far you have to go to collect resources with a super magnet or where it is possible to capture a new piece of land maybe to plan a little bit.

Ah, ok. I'll have a think about other alternatives I can offer using Mapbox!

Would you say the coordinates were most important in that aspect or the actual "pathfinding" (directions laid out in the Google Maps app)?
Or would a "distance from yourself (meters/km)" be an equally useful replacement? :)

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The city I play in is divided by a river so I often used it for thing like: There is a big heap of supplies on the other shoreside. When i activated 10 Super magnets would it be enough to collect it from this shoreside and if so where had I to go on this shoreside.
So it is really more about planing on google maps with the coordinates the game gave me.

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15 minutes ago, Ruvox said:

The city I play in is divided by a river so I often used it for thing like: There is a big heap of supplies on the other shoreside. When i activated 10 Super magnets would it be enough to collect it from this shoreside and if so where had I to go on this shoreside.
So it is really more about planing on google maps with the coordinates the game gave me.

Right!
If it is more about planning where and when to activate your items then I may have some other ideas that would help achieve this goal. :)
Will do my best to implement them in one of the upcoming releases!

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Unfortunately the map does't load at all for me with this version. There is just "Retrieving GPS coordinates" and rotating circles. I can switch between tabs and open menu though. Tried cleaning cache, I've even reinstalled the game and reloaded the phone. Nothing helps. GPS is on, other GPS programs work as usual, GPSTest shows 10 satellites in view.

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3 hours ago, AntKeeper said:

Unfortunately the map does't load at all for me with this version. There is just "Retrieving GPS coordinates" and rotating circles. I can switch between tabs and open menu though. Tried cleaning cache, I've even reinstalled the game and reloaded the phone. Nothing helps. GPS is on, other GPS programs work as usual, GPSTest shows 10 satellites in view.

Argh, that is weird!
Can you please check if there are any updates in Play Store?
I've added 1.12.3 about an hour ago to help with certain GPS-related issues, hopefully that helps a bit (but if not - please post!).

P.S. Oh, almost forgot! When you open "My Lands" tab, does it work? I.e. can you see a list of your bases and the nearest land (most importantly - the nearest land)?
If the nearest land does appear in the list then it may not be a GPS issue as such, which means that I've been chasing wild geese all day... :)

P.P.S. And one final question, if I may! :)
If you go to "Settings > Apps > Android System WebView" on your phone, what version does that WebView have?

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31 minutes ago, AntKeeper said:

Yes, there was a new update, I've installed it but nothing changes. When I switch to "My Lands" tab I can see the nearest land and my base and can do all operations there. Only Earth View tab which doesn't work.

Android System WebView 63.0.3239.111

That's great, thank you for the details and for confirming my suspicion - looks like the GPS isn't the culprit here!

I will release another update shortly that should address the WebView issue!
Sorry for all the Play Store updates today, but I really want to make sure that everyone can play again ASAP. :)

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@AntKeeper could you please check Play Store for another update?
If there isn't one, please try uninstalling and re-installing the game again!
I've added a separate version aimed specifically at Android 5.x, which *should* help with map rendering. You will notice that it's larger in size than usual (approx. 60 Megabytes), as it includes a lot of custom functionality to make this work.

Please let me know if that still doesn't help; if that is the case then I may have to roll you guys back to Google Maps for all Android 5 devices...

In any case, I really appreciate your help and patience! ;)

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Unfortunately it just displays the same. Supporting 2 different versions could be hard. Maybe you could try to reverse engineer Resources Game. It uses different map sources, very responsive and user-friendly. Many GPS apps like OsmAnd also are able to display a lot of elements and work pretty stable with my phone.

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7 hours ago, AntKeeper said:

Unfortunately it just displays the same. Supporting 2 different versions could be hard.

That's bad news! This can only mean that your device's GPU is in Chromium's blacklist for WebGL, so there's no way for me to enable it from my end.
You are absolutely correct, developing 2 versions (well... 3! We also have iOS! :)) is quite a pain, so I will have to look for another map alternative and an Android 5 phone to test it on. :D
Annoyingly, Android 5 emulators all run the latest version without any issues. * sigh *

7 hours ago, AntKeeper said:

Maybe you could try to reverse engineer Resources Game.

Reverse engineering someone's game would be slightly unethical and mostly illegal, but I have checked what they're using as the map provider.
Unfortunately, we can't use the same if we want to keep the pretty tooltips on the Earth View (from version 1.12 that you haven't seen yet :) But I'm positive you'd like them!) and their map won't work on iOS without *a lot* of additional development from scratch (I bet that's the reason Resources Game doesn't have an iOS version!).

However, I have some ideas for what we could use; leave it with me! ;)

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