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Development of atWar is constantly ongoing. The following list is my effort at documenting any significant changes happening with the atWar game, website, etc. since I took over.
This will include any important code updates, as well as non-code projects, events, milestones, etc. This does not at all represent the total work that goes into atWar, by myself or by others, who collectively do many things we don't always talk about but are nonetheless essential to keeping things going.
By the way, the dates shown are only the days when these updates were released. In many cases, especially more complex updates, there may have been several days, weeks, or even months or work leading up to it.
Ready? Here we go...
2022-01-25 -- updated supporter /help request and moderator /report systems
- Completely overhauled the system to fix various deficiencies. This should ensure a better experience for everybody. I hope to make a PSA post about the details soon.
2022-01-14 -- minor updates
- Various improvements to Señor Croat's Research Library.
- Fix a minor bug in our background processing system.
2021-12-17 -- Christmas changes, etc.
2021-12-09 -- minor updates
2021-12-05 -- minor updates
- Various backend updates (mostly for the Analytics system).
2021-12-01 -- minor updates
- Deployed various changes to new user registration system, including a new sign up page. (Part of User Retention project).
2021-11-12 -- minor updates
- Moderator tools updates.
- Don't allow users to restore deleted accounts. (It's silly that you could delete and restore yourself every 5 minutes... no other game allows that. If you deleted yourself by mistake, please contact our support team as soon as possible. If not too much time has gone by, it may be possible for them to restore your account).
- Minor fix to PMs system.
2021-11-03 -- minor updates
- Don't allow locked forum posts to be edited or deleted, except by mods/admins (to prevent abuse).
2021-11-02 -- minor updates
- Minor refactor of code related to user profile edit page, fixing various issues.
2021-10-27 -- deploy new analytics system
- I've had trouble getting the level of detail I need out of Google Analytics and Piwik, so I've been developing my own analytics system specifically for atWar. The purpose is to 1) better understand player behavior (for example, how do new players learn, how do they rank up, where do they get stuck, etc.), and 2) measure the results of changes I make in a more concrete way (for example, by doing A/B tests, etc). It's an ongoing project, I expect you'll be hearing more about all this in the future.
2021-10-25 -- code repo, live server, and test server all synced!
- For the first time ever, the live server, test server, and code repository all synced with each other. I finally finished resolving all differences between the three. I was so happy about it, I wrote a post here: A minor victory behind the scenes
- Updated some code due to Google requirements. (Every few months, it seems, Google suspends our ads campaign (i.e. the ones we pay for), for one reason or other, and then we are forced to make whatever changes they demand
 ).
- Fix some text around the site. (Part of SEO project).
- Deployed our Halloween changes: Happy Halloween! Zombies are here, Double SP weekend, and the great atWar Witch Hunt!.
2021-10-23 -- minor updates
- Minor update to CW season betting system.
- Added "Collateral" column on Units page.
2021-10-11 -- bug fixes
- Fixed referring tracking system. (Part of SEO project).
- Fixed broken 404 pages. (Part of SEO project).
2021-10-10 -- minor updates
- Some minor UI fixes.
- Removed some unused/obsolete code.
2021-10-09 -- bug fix
- Fix some minor issues with the way accounts are deleted.
2021-10-05 -- forum updates
- Updated forum polls to allow more options. Previously the maximum was 9. Now there is no maximum -- the options are unlimited.
- Fixed a forum bug -- I found you couldn't post a reply with simply the number '0'... discovered this while participating in one of the "Count until admin posts" threads
 .
2021-09-27 -- add new settings for receiving PMs
- Thanks to a suggestion from Chess, I implemented some new settings to control how you receive PMs. You'll find them under the "Settings" section of your user profile. Under "Notifications Settings", you can receive PMs from everybody (default), just your friends list (keeping others in pending until you approve them), or exclusively your friends list and noone else.
- This should help give you tools to combat unwanted abusers who "hit and run" offensive messages from random accounts.
- As part of this I ended up completely re-writing the code related to sending PMs... that's a good thing for the future, as now it is much easier to work with and to expand upon.
2021-09-18 -- streamline in-game bug reporting system
- You may have noticed the bug icon has disappeared from the top menu in-game. Any bug reports people submitted there actually went off to a dark, dusty corner of the database, without ever notifying anybody, never to be seen! I had no idea about this at first... probably 2 years passed before I finally stumbled across them, purely by chance. They had not been seen by any humans since
 . I decided it was better to remove it entirely, so there is only one place people should submit bug reports: https://atwar-game.com/forum/board.php?board_id=1.
(Side note: when I took over atWar, there were no less than 3 (!) different "bugs" forums, not even counting the in-game one. No wonder it was impossible to keep track of anything! Now there is one, and only one, place to keep them all centralized.)
- Instead of the in-game reporting system, I added an automated logging system for errors. When there are errors (you know, the scary red ones), they are automattically logged so I can inspect things later. Sadly there are too many to go through them individually, but as I see certain patterns develop I will go after them in order of priority.
2021-09-15 -- Content Update #8
2021-09-13 -- finished building out the architecture of our "Events" system
- Reached an important milestone in the code that powers all our events like Betting Tournaments, atWar Lottery, Seasonal Bets, and now the Seasonal brackets. This has been a work in progress for several months. With each event we've done I've made improvements to the code, but what most people didn't realize was that I was still having to do a lot of manual code copy & pasting on the backend. Now that I've finally finished building out the backend architecture, there will be no more copy & pasting
 . Everything can be controlled from the DB, or from the admin/mod-facing UIs. There are still more features I want to add, like the ability for individual players to create their own betting matches, so stay tuned!
2021-09-12 -- minor updates
2021-09-11 -- bug fix
2021-09-10 -- minor updates
- Fixed issue with ads erroneously showing up for premium users.
- Updated Team page.
2021-09-07 -- minor updates
- Fixed a browser console exploit related to in-game chat.
- Moderator tools update.
2021-09-06 -- bug fix
- Fixed issues preventing scenarios from being played in CW's.
- Reconciling some more files between live, test, and repo (an ongoing project).
2021-09-05 -- minor updates
- Update: if game host disconnects before game starts, ownership will be transferred so the game can still be started by someone else.
- Updated Premium page.
- Updated Team page.
- Some internal code refactoring.
2021-09-01 -- minor update
- Added code to automatically give "most active" trophy to the most active CW clan of the season. (Hopefully it will work correctly, we won't know until the start of the next season!)
2021-08-06 -- partial bug fix
2021-08-05 -- bug fix
2021-07-05 -- minor updates
- Minor UI updates (changes due to the recent Google issue).
2021-06-25 -- minor updates
- Change Extra Cities default setting to yes. (Won't take effect until next server restart, which is not scheduled yet.)
- Minor update to betting system.
2021-06-22 -- bug fixes
- Fix issue with Maps search function.
- Admin tools update.
2021-06-21 -- promoted PleaseMe to head Game Meta Team, minor updates
2021-06-16 -- Strategy Updates
- Launched new strategy, Logistic Wizard (Thanks to the Game Meta team)
- Made Covert Operation available permanently as an upgrade.
- Misc. balance changes.
- Minor update to Strategy Editor. (still available only on the test server for now)
2021-06-15 -- Clovis' New Battle Simulator
- Deployed Clovis' new Battle Simulator. He did this almost a year ago, and it has been on the test site for a while, but I've only just now gotten around to putting it on the live site. (Sorry Clovis ... and thank you for doing this!)
- Fix exploit in ProtoCoins transfers system. (Thanks to Zoella for reporting it)
- Setup for new strategy coming soon.
- Moderator tools updates.
- Deploy some various backend enhancements -- a new keystore system; a system for processing long running queries asyncronously in the background; more fixing/replacing of legacy code. (These changes only impact a few small things right now, but will be used a lot more in future development...)
2021-06-13 -- minor updates
- Removed "disable buildings" option (request from Game Meta team).
- Increased minimum rank required to post in forum to r1 (due to persistent trolling via alts).
- Moderator tools update.
2021-05-28 -- minor updates
- Changes to front page ads system (the one you pay ProtoCoins for) to stop abuse.
- Fixed a minor database issue.
2021-05-27 -- Pavle promoted as Head Supporter
2021-04-27 -- minor updates
2021-04-21 -- minor updates
2021-04-19 -- minor updates
- Minor updates to betting system.
2021-04-13 -- CW Season Bets
2021-04-12 -- bug fixes
- Temporary fix for non-English chat rooms. (Apparently they have not working since -- who knows how long -- so I just disabled them for now. Everybody can talk in any language in the regular chat room until further notice.)
- Misc. minor fixes.
2021-04-11 -- bug fixes
- Fix bug when removing someone from your banlist was not triggering a data refresh.
- Fix display bug at end of Duel games, incorrectly showing the loser gaining ELO. (Thanks to FalcoN. for reporting).
- Fix top bar avatar not linking to profile correctly when user has no avatar.
- Fix CW games win/loss numbers incorrect on user profiles. (Thanks to... a bunch of people who have reported this, and for being patient until I finally got around to fixing it!)
2021-04-10 -- ProtoCoins transfers/donations system
- Implemented the new ProtoCoin Transfers system.
- Revamped and cleaned up the code for the "Premium" section on user profiles.
- Minor UI updates.
2021-04-08 -- minor updates
- Setup 4th Cyprus vs Malta betting. Required further development of the betting system. I know it sounds silly I keep saying this, but I have significantly improved the betting system with each new event we've done.
- Minor UI updates.
2021-04-01 -- minor updates
- Setup atWar Fight Night #2. Required further development of the betting system, which also brings us one step closer to making betting for all games possible.
- Minor UI updates.
2021-03-26 -- news feed added to lobby
- Added the "atWar News" feed to the lobby. Unfortunately only a small percentage of our users actually read News or the forums, and getting the word out about updates/events has been difficult. By putting the news feed directly into the game lobby, I hope it will make it much easier to communicate updates to the community.
- Fixed a bug where new news posts sometimes did not trigger notifications. (All news posts are *supposed* to trigger a notification, but due to a complex combination of circumstances, they weren't.)
- Fixed a bug with user popovers displaying twice. (thanks to Rainscall for reporting).
- Finally reconciled our main requirejs loader script between live, test, and the repo. It's a silly thing but an important milestone in solving all the differences between the live site, test site, and code repository. Someday I hope to achieve getting all 3 in sync so we can finally start following a proper development/deployment cycle.
- Fix bug in moderator tools. (Thanks to Luketan for reporting).
2021-03-24 -- minor updates
- Fix a JS security vulnerability.
- Fix some minor issues with the facebook "like for helicopters" button, plus cleaned up some code.
- Re-created and re-formatted our main CSS stylesheet. It's dumb but for complicated technical reasons* we've been making all CSS code changes directly in the minified output file, which is a pain in the ass... now for the first time ever since I took over atWar, we can actually make CSS updates in the normal* way.
* basically the previous devs used LESS, which is not wrong, but personally I hate it... I would rather use Sass or just vanilla CSS, which is why we ended up the way we did. But now I can (finally) edit CSS the way that makes me happy.
2021-03-09 -- first betting duel
- Launched the Mauzer vs Lion Sin Escanor event. It's probably not obvious but this required some more work behind the scenes to further prepare our betting platform... someday in the not-too-distant future I hope to make betting on games available to all.
2021-03-08 -- minor updates
- Fix bug with "show more" button not working on Coalitions index / Top coalitions / Last season tab.
- Fix bug with 1-day and 1-week premium passes incorrectly giving 3 "bonus" days (sorry guys, you can't buy only 1 day and get 3 extras for free). Adjusted the wording on the subscriptions page to be more clear about this.
2021-03-07 -- minor updates
- Fix bug with "last season" tab under Coalitions not updating after end of season.
- Fix bug with discounts not working on ProtoCoins purchases.
- Admin tools updates.
2021-02-24 -- chat icons update
- Added new Flag icons set.
- Changed the "buy the entire set" button... now you can still buy a complete set even if you already bought 1 or 2 individual icons.
2021-02-08 -- bug fix
2020-12-22 -- strategy editor
- As I have talked about several times previously, I want to make it possible for people to create custom strategies with their maps/scenarios. I've now completed the first step in this direction... a rudimentary "strategy editor" is now deployed on the Test site only. For now it is being used by the Game Meta team to make their work easier, which also gives us a chance to work out any bugs that we may discover. At some point in the future, I plan to make the strategy editor available to everybody. Stay tuned
2020-12-21 -- bug fixes
- Fix bug when purchasing premium with discounts.
- Minor chat icons update.
- Fix minor display bug on atWar Lottery page.
2020-12-11 -- minor updates
- Fix bug with profile colors not being sanitized + added colorpickers. (https://atwar-game.com/forum/topic.php?topic_id=46330).
- Home page changes: removed "old version" button (you can still access the Silverlight map editor here); cleaned up Battlefield Report code and added "players active in last 30 days" info.
- Fix chat bug (unable to send commands while in private channel with somebody).
- Adjusted chat rank requirements -- now minimum rank 5 for guests to chat (sorry, too much abuse from people on guest accounts).
- Added "atWar Rare" chat icons.
2020-12-09 -- minor updates
- Launched Christmas sale.
- Added BTC/LTC payment info on subscription page.
- Double SP week.
- Fix some minor bugs with purchasing chat icons.
2020-12-08 -- chat icons, and other updates
- Implemented new Chat Icons feature. Buy them in the Protoshop.
- Removed chat flood control for supporters.
- Made chat flood control duration adjustable via DB settings (for example, if we want to temporarily change it during a special event, now we can do it easily).
2020-12-06 -- minor updates
- Cleaned up some old code (Protoshop page).
- Admin tools update.
2020-12-04 -- minor update
- Updated atWar Lottery to allow choosing multiple winners per draw.
2020-12-03 -- bug fix
2020-11-30 -- minor updates
- Fix display bug with atWar Lottery -- not showing correct rank shields for winners.
- Update atWar Lottery status messages -- now shows automatically the correct screen for 1) before ticket sales close, 2) after ticket sales close, and 3) after the winner is chosen.
2020-11-28 -- minor update
- Made lobby chat box resizeable. (Just like you can resize it in-game, you can now do the same while in the lobby.)
2020-11-25 -- various updates
2020-11-13 -- atWar Lottery
2020-11-10 -- minor update
- Admin tools update.
- Moderator tools update.
2020-10-31 -- Halloween events
2020-10-30 -- minor updates
- Misc. backend updates.
- Minor UI update.
2020-10-25 -- minor update
2020-10-14 -- minor update
2020-10-12 -- map editor update
- Fixed various issues with map cloning
2020-10-10 -- minor update
2020-10-07 -- minor updates
- Implemented in-game ads for non-premiums.
2020-10-06 -- minor updates
- Misc. backend updates.
- Minor UI update.
2020-10-05 -- minor updates
- Add neutral player to scenario editor. (Thanks to Clovis).
- Minor UI update.
2020-09-08 -- minor update
2020-06-20 -- bug fix
2020-06-19 -- strategy update
2020-06-15 -- minor update
- Added additional anti-DDOS protections, other security measures.
2020-06-14 -- bug fix
- Fix a bug related to language switching.
2020-06-03 -- Earn ProtoCoins for playing
2020-05-29 -- map editor update
- Show editor path when using multi tool. (Thanks to Clovis).
2020-05-28 -- Daily login bonuses, other minor updates
2020-05-18 -- minor updates
- Added new upgrade, "General: Ground Stealth Attack".
- Misc. changes related to mail server development.
2020-05-03 -- various updates
- Fix "opposing coalition" dropdown to allow clans with less than 3 members; show only clans active in last 30 days. (Fixes bug since 2020-04-11 lowering CW minimum players from 3 to 1).
- Fix issue with purchased upgrades not appearing in user's account immediately.
- Fix issues with the way abandoned players are handled.
- Fix display issues in games logs.
- Allow banned users a special path to post in new Moderator Action Appeals board.
- Supporter tools update.
2020-04-26 -- minor update
2020-04-22 -- appointed new admins, other updates
2020-04-21 -- minor update
- Coalition Wars -- make leaves in T2 count. (Thanks to Clovis).
2020-04-18 -- minor update
- Small performance improvement (optimized a slow database query).
2020-04-15 -- appointed new moderators
2020-04-11 -- minor update
- Lower minimum player per side requirement to start a Coalition War from 3 to 1. Makes 1v1 and 2v2 CWs possible. (Thanks to Clovis).
2020-04-10 -- bug fix
2020-04-07 -- bug fix
- Fix a bug with discounts at checkout.
2020-04-04 -- bug fix
- Fix another security issue.
2020-04-03 -- bug fixes
- Fix a bug allowing users to access disabled strategies.
- Fix an unrelated security issue.
2020-04-01 -- minor updates
- Add new player colors (thanks hdrakon!).
- Patch a server vulnerability.
2020-03-31 -- minor update
- Add betting system for The Punisher and possibly future tournaments.
2020-03-29 -- minor update
2020-03-27 -- various updates
- Increase maximum players per game to 40.
- Update games log on user profile. New way of tracking Abandonded games. Reset Abandoned Games % to 0 for everyone (see post here).
- Fix issue with scenarios not showing as locked when they should be.
- Fix issue with non-prems unable to start scenario > 10 players even though they paid to unlock it.
- Fixed issue with Twitter social login.
- Removed Yahoo social login (see post here).
- Moderator tools updates.
- Changes to allow for faster server restarts in the future.
2020-03-22 -- minor update
- Add "subscribe to newsletter" option in user profiles. (Part of new mail server project).
2020-03-21 -- Tutorial update
- Released "phase 1" update of tutorial... mostly updating the text to be more clear can concise. More updates to the tutorials are forthcoming.
2020-03-20 -- minor updates
- Increase delay before trooptip box disappears... make competitive players happy.
- Fix cookie bug when switching languages.
- Moderator tools updates.
2020-03-19 -- minor update
2020-03-17 -- minor updates
- Admin tools updates.
- Fix issue causing CW games to fuck up adding people to random sides instead of the clan they belong to.
2020-03-15 -- minor updates
- Admin tools updates.
- Fix error when attempting to start tutorial from pregame page.
2020-03-09 -- minor updates
- Retouched the rank icon images.
- Fix weird CORS issue (was causing problems with Firefox on our non-English language sites).
2020-03-07 -- minor update
- Tweak the "New Game" UI to be friendlier for smaller screens.
2020-03-04 -- minor update
2020-03-03 -- minor update
2020-03-02 -- Updated "New Game" UI, new features for non-prems
- Updated the "New Game" UI to give it better look and to highlight more maps than just the World Map.
- Implemented unlock map/scenario feature for non-prems, and ability to host Promo maps.
- See announcement here.
2020-02-24 -- minor update
2020-02-14 -- bug fix
2020-02-09 -- bug fix
- Fix a few minor bugs/issues.
2020-02-06 -- Kings and Generals Promo
2020-01-30 -- minor update
2020-01-25 -- Double SP Weekend
- Thanks to the Supporter Team for helping schedule and promote our first Double SP Weekend in several years! See announcement here.
2020-01-18 -- bug fix
2020-01-17 -- new map presets, and some minor updates
- Released 3 new presets for the World Map: Atlantic, Indian, and Central Asia. See announcement here (thanks to Garde!).
- Fix a bug in the backend service.
- Added white color.
2020-01-16 -- minor updates
- Fixed various issues with playerlist.
- Purged 231,658 spam user accounts.
2020-01-10 -- minor updates
- Moderator tools updates.
- Supporter tools updates.
2020-01-03 -- minor update
2020-01-02 -- strategy update
- buffed Blitzkrieg... move range increased from +3 to +4. (Thanks to Garde and the Implementors Team for leading this effort!)
2020-01-01 -- minor updates
- fixed World Map (restored the city Santiago de Cuba to Cuba, after it mysteriously disappeared....)
- also on World Map: made Chicago and Toronto port cities, by popular request.
2019-12-31 -- bug fix
- Fixed error with home page "Shameless self-promotion" ads.
2019-12-28 -- minor update
2019-12-24 -- bug fix
- Fix an issue with Stripe (credit card) payments.
2019-12-17-- minor update
2019-12-12-- minor updates
- Slight update to new rank shields.
- Moderator tools updates.
2019-12-09-- new ranks 17-26, new rank shields, other updates
- Added ranks 17-26.
- Introduced new, bigger rank shields.
- Introduced a 3x SP Boost.
- Move Troops tooltips over to the right a bit, so they aren't always getting in the way of what you're trying to click on.
2019-09-24 -- bug fix
- Fix an issue with lifetime subscriptions not activating correctly in certain situations.
2019-09-23 -- minor updates
- Integrate new mail server / fix old mail functions.
- Moderator tools updates.
2019-08-21 -- minor updates
2019-08-18-- minor updates
- Minor changes for SEO purposes.
2019-08-05 -- minor updates
- Fixed a website bug (playerlist).
- Supporter tools updates.
2019-08-04 -- minor updates
- Added a new endpoint to our API v2 (for use with our Discord bot).
- Fixed issues with custom General images not appearing.
- Added a function for updating CloudFlare cache whenever users update their profile image and/or general image.
- Fixed a website bug.
2019-08-03 -- minor update
2019-08-01 -- minor update
- Fix various issues with our social login buttons.
2019-07-31 -- bug fixes
- Fixed Facebook login functionality.
2019-07-29 -- launched new API
- I created a new REST API which I'm calling "v2", even though we didn't have an API of any kind before. This API is used by several things including our various marketing efforts and our discord bot. In the future it will probably be used for a lot more, as we continue to rewrite old legacy code.
2019-07-19 -- minor update
- Moderator tools updates.
- Supporter tools updates.
2019-07-14 -- bug fixes
2019-06-13 -- bug fixes
2019-04-22 -- New Strategy "Industrial Powerhouse", bug fixes
2019-04-14 -- minor update
2019-04-11 -- Bug fixes
- Fix issue where buildings were allowed to be autoproduced from country menu (ref #41110)
- Fix "error loading paths" in map previews
2019-04-05 -- Buildings released, bug fixes
- Implemented the long-awaited Buildings update! See announcement here: https://atwar-game.com/news/news.php?news_id=248
- Fixed a few bugs in the codebase relevant to buildings (coastal batteries in non-coastal cities, autoproduce bug, etc.).
- Fix map/fabric.js bug (ref #39771)
- Fix map editor bug (rgba color values being truncated)
2019-04-04 -- new chat buttons, bug fixes
- Added buttons for the /help and /report chat commands.
- One of the things I heard often from our Moderation Survey was that people found it difficult contacting mods. Many folks were not aware we have the /report command for this purpose... making it into it's own button should make things a lot easier.
- Fixed a few website and forum bugs
2019-04-02 -- bug fixes
- Fixed a few minor website bugs (stats/elo stopped calculating, svgs not working in forums, etc.)
2019-03-31 -- new game settings, bug fixes
- Added new game settings: disable specific strategies (or all), disable buildings
- Fix unlimited starting funds exploit
2019-03-23 -- bug fixes
- Fixed a forum bug (ref #40800)
- Fixed a few other website bugs.
2019-03-20 -- bug fix
- Fixed issue where non-premium players got gold shields after purchasing protocoins only, even though they didn't really have a premium subscription.
2019-03-19 -- forums update
- Changed the way message deletion works for moderators... now when a moderator deletes a message they can enter a reason for the deletion, and it will be displayed to everyone. For example: "Message deleted by Dave. Reason: spam".
2019-03-18 -- minor update
2019-03-15 -- bug fixes
- Fixed issue where protocoins purchased as a gift for someone else were being deposited to your own account, instead of the person you were trying to gift them to.
- Fixed issue preventing you from purchasing more than 200 protocoins when using Stripe as the payment method (only happened in certain situations).
2019-03-11 -- Supporter tools, bug fixes
- Supporter tools update.
- Fixed a few website bugs.
2019-03-08 -- bug fix
- Fixed a bug -- unable to start custom map cw. (ref #40715)
2019-02-25 -- Help chat update and strategy tweak
- Implemented Supporter Help chat. See explanation here: https://atwar-game.com/news/news.php?news_id=240
- This should help solve multiple issues, including the issue of global help chat spam, and making it easier for new players to get help they need.
- Applied small buff to Counter-Insurgency strategy.
2019-02-18 -- bug fix
2019-02-14 -- fix website bug
- Fixed issue with Stripe error handling.
2019-02-12 -- new unit icons & sound
2019-02-11 -- strategy tweak
- Applied small nerf to Insurrection strategy.
2019-02-08 -- launched new payment processor
2019-02-07 -- server update
- Wrote a new script to (hopefully) reduce the impact of our nightly server tasks.
2019-02-03 -- various things
2019-02-03 -- New Strategy "Insurrection" & Strategy Update 2019 #2
2019-01-28 -- various little updates
2019-01-19 -- bug fix
- Fixed map horizontal loop bug. (Thanks Clovis!) (ref #40041)
2019-01-18 -- minor update
2019-01-16 -- minor update
- Made black color an option again.
2019-01-10 -- bug fix
- Fixed a website bug. (ref #37721)
2019-01-09 -- bug fix
- Fixed a forums bug. (ref #38926)
2019-01-06 -- Strategy update 2019 #1
2019-01-01 -- Phase 1 Server work done
- Since basically day-1 I've been spending a lot of time on the server, dealing with security issues, updating things, and working out a long-term backup solution. Anyway, that project is complete now, at least for the time being. (There are still other security issues to address soon, but slightly less urgent ones. -- I don't want to talk any further about the security stuff for obvious reasons... enough people are trying to hack the site already as it is!)
- Want to hear something scary? When I first arrived, there were no backups being done! During the transfer of ownership, Amok warned me they were paying for host-provided backup solution, but that it wasn't being utilized properly. So I looked into it and discovered that no backup had been done since October 2017! Over a year's worth of game data, forum posts, maps, everything... were not backed up and could have been permanently lost had anything happened to the server!
Let me just say that, we now have a backup solution that works automatically every day. If (God forbid) the worst should ever happen, we'll never lose more than 1 day's worth of data.
2019-01-01 -- New year, new pricing
2018-12-31 -- Year end sale over
- As announced in the forums, the 50% year end sale was ended today.
2018-12-31 -- Unplanned Service Outage
- Situation was resolved.
- No announcement was made because the outage only lasted about 1 hour. Also at the time it happened I was at a New Years Eve party at a friend's house, so I didn't really have time to post. Initially I was trying to deal with it from my phone, but that was proving very difficult. Thankfully the friend in question is also a programmer, so she was kind enough to let me borrow her computer so I could remote in to deal with it. Such is the life of an admin, never get to relax.
2018-12-30 -- appointed new Supporters
- Appointed about a dozen new Supporters, as part of our effort to restart the Supporters program.
- This was the culmination of about a week or so of talking with new and current supporters, moderators, etc.
2018-12-30 -- testing out green shields for Supporters
- Created new green shields for Supporters. Currently testing them out in the forums/website areas.
- Will roll out to the game & chat areas soon.
2018-12-30 -- chat update
- Increased minimum rank required to post in chat to r2 (due to persistent trolling via alts).
- May increase some more as needed.
2018-12-27 -- Xsolla temporarily removed as payment option
- Xsolla temporarily removed as payment option for purchasing protocoins.
- I'm in the process of re-doing our Xsolla integration with their new API version, which was required as part of the transfer.
2018-12-27 -- chat update
- Don't show admins in "mods" tab of the chat window.
- Because I check the site constantly, often from my phone as I'm out and about, the chat box would show me as "online" at the top of the mods list. I guess because of this people were constantly asking me to do moderator tasks, instead of asking one of the actual moderators!
2018-12-23 -- bug fix
- Fixed an issue in moderator tools.
2018-12-23 -- Special Santa Claus Unit for the Holidays
- See announcement here: Special Santa Claus Unit for the Holidays
- This was partly a learning experience for me, since I had to learn how to create new units in the game.
- The Protocoin giveaway for finding Santa was a great event because it got people excited, and it got more people playing the game. The analytics showed a noticeable uptick during the promotion time. Will do more events like this in the future.
2018-12-19 -- various bug fixes
- Limit chat posting to r1 and above (due to trolls avoiding bans by creating guest accounts)
- Added filter to block people from posting game links in help chat.
- Fixed an issue with IP ban functionality (wildcards not working with ipv6 addresses).
- Fixed an issue with PayPal Withdrawal Request emails going to Ivan, not David
- Fixed a bug in the forums -- search box not appearing on "who visited" page (see https://atwar-game.com/forum/topic.php?topic_id=39714)
2018-12-16 -- appointed new moderators
- See announcement here: Welcome new Moderators!
- This is part of the announced goal of reducing toxicity in the community.
- This was the culmination of 2 weeks of listening to suggestions from the community, discussing with the existing moderator team, and talking with the candidates themselves.
2018-12-13 -- Unplanned Service Outage
2018-12-04 -- rolled out new forum ads and analytics
- See discussion here: Forum Ads
- Started this early on because it takes time to get meaningful analytical data from any advertising.
2018-12-02 -- Dave's plans for atWar
- See discussion here: atWar 2019 and beyond
- Laid out my initial plans for the future and started talking with the regular players, getting to know people, getting ideas/feedback, etc.
2018-12-01 -- atWar acquired by some guy who likes to wear lots of hats, or so he says
- Transferring was literally an all-day process. Kudos to Amok & Ivan for sticking with me on Skype all day while we got it done.
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 | All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer,
but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved.
--Sun Tzu
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