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9/14/04 - Player Support Center
There is now a WoC Player Support Center to help resolve any problems that players experience with the game. These include all the types of issues that have traditionally been handled by e-mail, such as missing passwords, problems with your nations or usernames, name change requests, requests to review bans, etc.
With the Player Support Center there will be more than one person addressing player issues, so they'll usually be addressed faster than by e-mail. Also, by entering a problem there as a 'ticket', all the information will stay there until it's resolved, so it's less likely to fall through the cracks.
1/14/04 - New Complaint System
For the past year War of Conquest has relied on the volunteer efforts of many dedicated chat moderators to help keep the chat family friendly. We should all be grateful for the time and energy that the mods have given of themselves for the good of this game. The moderator system did have its flaws however; some players saw mods as an 'elite' class of players with special privileges, and made a game out of harrassing them. Mods couldn't always be online, or watching every chat channel. And while most mods did an exemplary job, there have been a few cases of inappropriate bannings and other kinds of 'power trips'.
Today's update introduces a brand new system for enforcing rules of conduct in chat. Rather than immediate chat bans being doled out by a few online mods, it's now up to all players to moderate chat, by filing chat complaints against chat messages that violate the rules of conduct. This is done very easily - just click on the bullet point to the left of a line of chat, click "File Chat Complaint" in the Nation Info panel that appears, choose the issue type in the Chat Complaint panel, and click "Submit". The complaint will later be reviewed, and if it is found to be legitimate, then the violator will receive a warning or a ban. Note that abuses of the chat complaint system, such as entering false or redundant complaints, can result in the complainer receiving a ban.
Because bans will now be issued some time after the violation has taken place,
the penalties have to be harsher in order to be taken seriously. Bans will no longer apply only to chat; instead, a banned player will be unable to log in, with any of their accounts, until the ban has expired. Also, the rules of conduct now apply to all chat that takes place in War of Conquest, be it public or private. For a complete list of the updated Rules of Conduct, click here.
It is hoped that this new system will remove the feeling of 'class warfare' that often cropped up with the moderator system, put the power to moderate chat into the hands of each player, and be effective enough to deter troublemakers and encourage a more welcoming and respectful atmosphere in chat.
11/26/03 - New Client Download
Today's new client download features many long awaited improvements! Click here to download the latest client. See the Version History page for details about what has changed.
8/21/03 - New Client Adds Long Awaited Features
Today's
new client download includes plenty of features that players have
been asking for, include improvements to the chat system, new member
ranks, limitations on unite, and more. See the Version
History page for more information.
5/15/03 - WoC Merchandise Arrives!
You
die-hard WoC players out there can now buy War of Conquest t-shirts,
clocks, mouse pads, and much more, at the War
of Conquest Online Store.
5/8/03 - The New Client Arrives!
With
today's update, the old Flash client is replaced with the new Java
based client, which is much faster, eliminates the 'script errors'
and lock-ups that would occur on slower machines, and introduces a
few long anticipated new features.
5/6/03
- Major Client Update Coming May 8th
During the night of May 7th to 8th there will
be a major client and server update. After this update a new client
download will be required to play War of Conquest. This will be
the release version of the much improved Java based client that
has been in development and testing for several months. The new
client will be much smoother and faster than the old Flash based
client, will eliminate those frustrating 'script errors' that often
cropped up on slower machines, and will introduce a few long requested
features.
4/4/03
- New Java Client Available for Testing
An initial test version of the new Java based
game client has been released. This client looks and feels very
similar to the standard Flash based client, but features much improved
performance and no more 'script errors'. For information on how
to download and run the test version of the Java client, see the
War of Conquest forum on the bulletin
board page.
1/3/03 - Introducing Premium Features
The
first major addition to the game in this new year are the new Premium
Features. These are features that are not necessary to succeed at
the game, but can be awfully handy and have long been requested
by players. They include Map Flags (the ability to flag map locations
to be quickly returned to) and Messages (The ability to post messages
to your nation or to another nation, to be read later by players
who are currently offline).
Premium Features are available to every nation
for a free 3 day trial period, and then may be activated permanently
at a one-time cost of 300 credits.
11/20/02
- Affiliate Program Begins
You
can now earn money for introducing new players to War of Conquest!
Members of the new War of Conquest Affiliate Program earn 12% of
all money spent on game credits by players that they introduce to
the game. An affiliate member is given a special link to the War
of Conquest web page, which they can send to friends, post on their
web page, etc. Anyone who visits the site for the first time using
that link is considered to have been introduced to the game by that
affiliate, and that affiliate earns a portion of all money that
the new player spends in the game. To sign up to be an affiliate,
see the Resources page.
11/7/02
- Lag Fixed, Nations can Unite
Several
problems that were causing the game to sometimes lag have now been
fixed, and War of Conquest is smoother and more accessible than
ever.
Also, the latest update introduces an important
new feature: two nations can now unite into a single nation, combining
all of their assets and so preserving all of the effort that players
put into building the original two nations. See the documentation
on uniting nations for
more information!
11/4/02
- Server Lag
As
the number of players has grown tremendously since the start of
Beta 3, problems with the server program have shown themselves,
in the form of increasing server lag and frequent inability to connect
to the game. We're hard at work fixing these problems, and we hope
that you hang in there during these beta test 'growing pains'. The
game should be faster and more accessible than ever within a few
days.
10/23/02
- Beta 3 goes live!
War
of Conquest's final stage of beta testing starts today. Beta 3 introduces
a number of improvements, the most significant of which is that
cash prizes are now real! The prizes will start out small and gradually
increase over the course of Beta 3 as more players join the game.
These prizes are funded by purchases of game credits, which were
free during Beta 2 but now cost $1 per 100 credits. Credits are
used to buy special technologies and abilities that can give your
nation decisive advantages.
We hope that Beta 3 will deliver a lot of fun
(and even a chunk of profit if you're good enough!). But remember
that the game is still being tested - there will be bugs, and the
servers may not always be up. If you discover a bug or have a suggestion
for how we can improve the game, please post your thoughts on the
bulletin board.
Thanks for playing, and the best of luck in all
your conquests!
10/18/02
- Beta 3 begins October 23rd
Beta
2 is set to wrap up on the night of October 22nd, followed the next
morning by the start of Beta 3! See the 10/13 news for more information
on Beta 3.
10/13/02
- Beta 2 to wrap up shortly
Beta
2 has been very successful so far thanks to all of the players -
a lot has been learned and many problems have been solved. Nearly
one thousand nations have joined the game, with well over a thousand
user accounts! Beta 2 has seen the rise and fall of many great empires,
and soon the game world will be reset, to make way for Beta 3. How
soon? We're aiming for the night of October 22nd, but there's still
a lot to be accomplished before that time.
In the past week one of our hosting companies
has undergone a major server upgrade, which caused a few problems
for War of Conquest... the game was sometimes inaccessible, and
the zoom out function did not work. The lists of top winners were
also inaccessible. These problems have now been fixed, thanks for
your patience.
You also may have noticed that the game world
is less populated lately than it was in previous weeks. This is
because we've stopped promoting the game for the time being, to
conserve resources for a big push once Beta 3 is running smoothly.
Beta 3 will feature real cash prizes! These will
be paid for by purchases of game credits, which will cost $1 for
100 credits. Prices (in credits) of purchasable technologies will
fluctuate, but in general will be less expensive than they are now.
Thanks again to all of you for playing, and especially
for the feedback you've given us on the bulletin boards. Enjoy the
end of Beta 2, and we hope to see you back for Beta 3!
9/23/02
- A step closer to real cash prizes!
This
morning's update introduces a few carefully placed ads into the
War of Conquest client. This is to make possible our first cash
prizes that we'll be giving away before long, when Beta 3 begins.
We've tried hard to keep the ads from becoming annoying, by having
them appear only during attacks and other short waits. We encourage
you to support our sponsors, and by doing so help make War of Conquest
a great game!
9/17/02
- The World Expands
After
a night of earthquakes and torrential rains, vast new lands have
been uncovered! Yes, the game world has been greatly expanded to
meet the needs of the numbers of players that we anticipate in the
coming weeks and months.
Beta 2 has been humming along smoothly... we're
grateful for all your feedback that's helping us make this a fun
game. Tonight's update also includes changes to some of the technologies,
the ability to automatically evacuate a large number of land areas,
and several other fixes and improvements. A new version of the client
is required. For details on the changes made with this update, see
the version history page.
9/4/02
- New client
Beta
2 has started off very well - we've had over 200 players over the
last few days, the map is crawling with nations and some massive
battles have taken place. We've received a lot of positive feedback,
and many suggestions and bug reports that we're hard at work on.
With
today's update, a new version of the client is required. For details
on the improvements made with this update, see the version
history page.
8/28/02
- Beta 2 goes live!
Beta
1 has been very successful, thanks to all of you who have participated!
We've fixed a lot of bugs and implemented many new features, due
in large part to your feedback. We're now ready to open the floodgates
and let in hundreds more players, to test server load and game balance.
Today the game world was reset, and Beta 2 begins. Welcome to all
of our new players!
As in Beta 1, the game server will be available
from 5pm to 9am on weeknights, and throughout the weekend.
The Beta 2 version of WOC differs from what
the final version will be in two ways. First, this is a testing
stage - while we hope you have a blast, there will be bugs and the
server won't always be up. And second, during Beta 2 the game will
use NO real money - you will not receive cash prizes won during
beta, and game credits are free (you can collect up to 500 per day).
If
you discover a bug or have a suggestion for an improvement, please
write it up in the bulletin board section, and we'll respond to
it as soon as possible.
Thanks for playing, and the best of luck
in all your conquests!
8/24/02
- New client, Database to be Reset
A
new version of the client is required. This is another major update
with a number of new features and bug fixes. See the version
history page for more details.
The beta test has been very successful so far,
and we are preparing to open it to many more players within a week.
The game world database will be reset when we do this, most likely
on Wednesday 8/28. We hope to have all of our veteran players back
for this exciting new stage of the beta test!
8/16/02
- New client
A
new version of the client is required. This update includes several
bug fixes, including a major speed up for high level players. See
the version history page for more details.
8/8/02
- New client
A
new version of the client is required. This update includes many
big fixes and new features. See the version
history page for more details.
8/3/02
- Server database reset
Due
to a data backup problem with the server, the database had to be
reset on 8/3 at 1:30 am.
8/1/02
- New client
A
new version of the client is required, due to the addition of a
chat feature making it easy to respond to a player who's sent you
a chat message.
7/31/02
- Server database reset
During
the first few days we've learned a lot, and solved a number of problems
that would sometimes bring down the server.
Unfortunately, in order to fix a bug the
server database had to be reset on 7/31 at 10:30 pm.
7/29/02
- Beta 1 goes live!
War
of Conquest is now up for beta testing! We'll start with just a
few people and slowly open the floodgates as the kinks are ironed
out.
The game server will be available from 5pm
to 9am on weekdays, and throughout the weekend.
The beta version of WOC differs from what
the final version will be in two ways. First, this is a testing
stage - while we hope you have a blast, there will be bugs and the
server won't always be up. And second, during early beta the game
will use NO real money - you will not receive cash prizes won during
beta, and game credits are free (you can collect up to 500 per day).
If
you discover a bug or have a suggestion for an improvement, please
write it up in the bulletin board section, and we'll respond to
it as soon as possible.
Thanks for playing, and the best of luck
in all your conquests!
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