= = = EDITION 22: January 22nd, 2020 = = =
Table of Contents
Section 1: Player Of The Year 2019: Communities Choice Award
Section 2: Year in Review: 2019
Section 3: Recent Updates
Section 4: Origins: A Map by Roma Invicta
Section 5: World Map Update: Great Lakes Ports
Section 6: A Special Thank You
Section 7: Want to get Involved?
"Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated." ~ Confucius
Player Of The Year 2019: Communities Choice
2019's POTY Community choice was a 3 way back and forth fight. There were five candidates (Pavle, Nedris, AIois, Garde and Croat) who all had their own accomplishments and merit. Garde, who was winning for a majority of the voting period was sprinted past by AIois and Nedris in the last 2 weeks of voting. In the end, Nedris narrowly won by 4 votes thanks to support from the scenario community. Nedris who is now a Moderator created the Rise Of Italia map which several scenarios were created from. He created a list of bugs for our now functioning HTML editor. He also did work for the supporter team such as help chat support and giving opinions from the scenario community side of the game. Good job and congratulations Nedris!
Player Of The Year 2019: Moderator's Choice
For the POTY Moderator choice, there was only one option. It wasn't even a vote, just a single suggestion. We unanimously agreed that Alois deserved it. As the leader of the Supporter team, AIois was the go-to with anything supporter related. I could put all the things he did in 2019 here but the list would be longer than the rest of the article, seriously. Congratulations AIois, you are the G.O.A.T. of supporters and a true leader!
Player Of The Year 2019: Admin's Choice
This year Dave is introducing an Admin's Choice award. For 2019 the winner is... hdrakon. hdrakon has been an exemplary member of the Supporter's team, answering many help chat questions, hosting SP/PC drop games, tournaments, reporting probably the most bugs of anyone last year, and helping check over 400 maps so far in our map repair project. Thank you hdrakon for your dedication to the game, and congratulations!
Year in Review: 2019
2019 was a productive year for atWar; it was the first year with Dave as our new owner, Supporters actually became a thing, development updates rolled out, we added on new Admins and Moderators, drama outbreaks, and more. All in all; 2019 was a good year, despite its drawbacks. The following is a month-by-month list of what happened throughout 2019, well, the important stuff:
January 2019
- Supporters added on 23 team members.
In January 2019, due to the add on of all these players to the team, a lot began to change to the supporter's team; more meetings started to be held with not only the entire team but mods and admins (including Dave himself) present at all meetings. The team started to change for the best; doing what it was actually put there to do.
- Strategy Update 2019 #1
Temporary changes (nerfs) to the Desert Storm and Lucky Bastard occurred, with the following nerfs:
Cytuj:Change #1: Lucky Bastard (LB) nerf
- +10 Cost for ALL units, including Infantry & Militia
Change #2: Desert Storm (DS) nerf
- Removed +1 capacity for Helicopters
February 2019
- Official atWar Quiz #1
Croat hosted the AW quiz which brought out a lot of activity in the game with competition between players to not only answer the questions right but to also gain the most points for an epic reward.
- New Strategy
With the help from the AW Implementors Team, Dave was able to release a new strategy: Insurrection (Pioneered by Apocalypse)
- Official Discord Anouncement
Dave, with MAJOR help from Madame Asylan both the official AW Discord and Supporters Discord was able to be properly set up and released; increasing player activity and connections.
- atWar Guess-The-Word Challenge
Hosted by Trenitalia, AtWar's first Guess-The-Word challenge persued. Just like with the AW Quiz, players compete against each other to guess words to gain points, the bigger the word the more points you gained. Once more, there was an awesome reward for the players who won the challenge.
- atWar's Youtube Springing back to Life
AtWar's youtube was announced to be back; with a special video made by G.R.O.M
Check out the post here.
- AW Press #19
- New Strategy
Again with help from AW Implementors, Counter-Insurgency was released for a 1-month test period.
March 2019
- Supporter-Community Event
Hosted by AW Administration as a whole, a community meeting ensued on March 2nd, 2019. With Dave and a portion of Mods & Supporters, a lot of questions were answered as well as updates and announcements were made. Learn all about it in the full-length video here (short version available here): https://youtu.be/vVXPHA8g8i0
- AW Moderation Survey Results (started in Febuary)
- Brianwl promoted to Admin
Brianwl is made Community Admin, having authority over all community issues, overseeing the moderator team, and any other tasks that require admin-level access.
- AW News & Upates 3/27/2019
April 2019
- Buildings Released
A long-awaited and long overdue game-changing unit(s) was finally implemented to all of AW's official maps: Buildings.
Cytuj:In general, all buildings:
Have 20 HP
Cost 700
Have 0 ATK
Have 1 DEF
Have 0 MP
Can only be built once per city
Read more on buildings in the news post; Which can be found here.
- AW Press #20
- New Stratgy
Industrial Powerhouse (Pioneered by Sultan Of Swing) was added as a new strategy for a 1-month test period.
June 2019
- Nero added as a new Moderator
August 2019
- Discord Update
AIois completely re-did and updated AtWar's Discord:
Cytuj:
✔ "Nuked" the entire server as well as create a backup. From here the server was rebuilt on a template that would fit AtWar better.
✔ Added 24/7 Customer Support for AtWar via Discord. This is subject to change in the future.
✔ Added an application bot for future use.
✔ Implemented a new verification system.
✔ Added an AtWar Bot.
✔ Added a statistics bot so the public/administration can have access to how well the server is doing.
✔ Added custom commands such as ?helpful-links, ?simrules, and ?awpress.
✔ Reset the economy module.
✔ Disabled !work, !crime, !rob, !give-money, etc commands. users are no longer to earn money on the server for now.
✔ Implemented community-made logos into the server
✔ Created an information section of the server
✔ reworked server roles to fit better-reworked staff commands, accesses, etc.
- atWar Under Attack!
Cytuj:Starting August 11 - our host got ddosed. There was nothing we can do about it since it was the host being attacked directly. After 1.5 days with no updates from them and the ddos still going on, I decided to switch to a new host. I've been working on this project for the last day or two, and it's still in progress...
As of today I've still not received any update from our OLD host, but the connection has improved enough that I was able to get the game up again on the OLD server. That's where the game is running for the moment.
Quoted from Dave
- New Server Up and Running!
- ATNs Revival
ATN was announced to be revived, bringing popular community members into its team.
Check out the full post here.
September 2019
- AtWar: This Month On The Supporters...
- AW Press #21
October 2019
- This Month On The Suppoers #2
December 2019
- New Ranks!
Though a rather debated update between the community, Dave released entirely new rank images as well with new ranks.
- 2019 Community Meeting
The Public was invited to AW Administrations last big meeting of the year, where a lot was discussed in-game. Here is some of what was discussed:
- New Ranking System
- New CW Guidelines
- Proposal of the revamp of the CW/Elo system
- Opinions about Admin, Mod, Supporter teams
- Game mechanics
- Questions on the game
- Map Editor
- Strategies
- Trophies
- SP Multiplier
- And more!
So, what does 2020 have in-store for us?
Currently, AW Administration is trying it's best to plan out 2020 and get as much done as possible, and as best as possible. By the looks of it, 2020 will be another great year for AW just because this is happening right now:
- What happened in 2019, and more.
- atWar's Social Media is actively posting.
- Developmental Updates have already been released.
- Events such as PC/SP drops are hosted daily.
- Tournaments are on-going.
- Maps are actually being released.
- The Map Editor is being worked on.
- Dave is active.
- Development is on-going
- Both the Supporter and Moderator teams are ever-changing, working 24/7 to keep AW running. Both of these teams are very under-appreciated in AW and keep working even if it looks bad for atWar.
Recent Updates
So far in 2020, atWar has had these updates/changes:
- Content Update 2020 #1: Blitzkrieg Buff + More!
Cytuj:For quite a long time now Blitzkrieg has remained a beloved and popular Strategy used by many, whether it be in competitive team games, duels, World 50ks, Scenarios, RP- You name it. Much like Imperialist in this regard, Blitzkrieg gives players a blanket buff for all units in the form of mightier range capabilities. However in recent years, Blitzkrieg has become outpaced by many other strategies and lacks the kind of defence capabilities to survive later on in most games. Much thought, discussion, and time was put into remedying this issue and planning ahead to ensure Blitzkrieg remains a staple to most, but catches up with the competition. To do so, we've increased the Range buff from +3 Range to +4 Range.
Quoted from Garde
Read the full post here.
- Content Update 2020 #2: New Presets + More!
Cytuj:I'm pleased to announce on behalf of the AtWar Implementer team the introduction of three new Presets to the Default Map: Central Asia, Indian, and Atlantic!
I'm also pleased to announce that the White colour is now available to all as well!
Quoted from Garde
To read more on the new Presets, read the full post here.
- New Moderators and Supporters
So far in 2020, atWar has added on SEVEN new team members, these being:
● Kaska (Moderator)
● E.J.R (Moderator)
● Nedris (Moderator)
● Echoo (Supporter)
● Estus (Supporter)
● Froyer (Supporter)
● Same (Supporter)
Origins: A Map by Roma Invicta
Visuals, functionality, gameplay. Those three elements stand out in Origins, a competitive map made by Roma Invicta.
Terrain and countries
https://tinyurl.com/va5zdje
Based at the beginning of the Great War around 1914, the map features borders and countries known to this day, and some others that ceased to exist in the last century, such as many African colonies and Asian kingdoms.
The map, even though it's fully playable, is intended to include the entire world. Right now you have Europe, Africa, Middle East, 1/2 Asia and 1/2 Oceania.
Expansions
Since it is pretty similar to the standard World Map in terms of geography, movement and expansions can be widely explored with tactics well known in the regular competitive presets. However, given the existence of exclusive countries in the timeline proposed by the map, new countries and capitals change the scope of possible expansion operations.
Units
Land
https://tinyurl.com/sfp99uq
Air
https://tinyurl.com/rw52rhx
Naval
https://tinyurl.com/respu3f
Aesthetics
The background is absolutely gorgeous, done by Roma Invicta itself using Photoshop to work on the default AtWar's World Map mixed with NASA's world image. By doing that, he not only preserved the proportions and ranges of what we are used to playing, but gave a whole new look: colorful and beautiful.
Presets
The existence of presets is a smart choice, considering that not everyone likes playing games that last for hours. Also, having the mere ability to choose is a plus point on any kind of map. The presets are Europe, Europe Plus, Mediterranean, Africa.
Positives
✔ Aesthetics
✔ Historical accuracy
✔ Variety of presets
✔ Balance
Negatives
✖ Few naval units
✖ No buildings
World Map Update: Great Lakes Ports
A long discussion that started back in 2014 finally got to an end; the cities of Chicago and Toronto, both located in North America, are now ports and can produce naval units. Back then, the Great Lakes region was underused, since the lakes were nothing but a natural barrier that couldn't be explored geographically.
Since those bodies of water are all closed lakes (without access to oceans), naval units can't leave North America. For a long time, this was the excuse for the lack of ports in those two cities, however, in the classic World Map, cities around the Caspian Sea are all ports, and naval units built there don't have access to oceans, but have always been available for recruitment. Therefore, there was no reason to maintain this limitation, which was nonetheless inconsistent.
Right now you can build any ships in Chicago or Toronto and use the Great Lakes to conduct naval operations. New tactics can be experienced now that your movimentation through Canada and the United States can be boosted by naval transports, giving a little more range to attack/defend nearby cities.
A Special Thank You
We would like to thank the following people:
Garde
For his game-changing work:
- Developing new strategies
- Developing New presets
- Balancing
- Updating the official map(s)
- Working with Clovis on Map Editor bugs, and more
- Work on the Supporters
- Work on ATN
- Much, much more, especially developmental-wise.
Without Garde, the game would not be where it is today. In fact, without Garde, many of the updates that did come out, would not have come out when they did. Without Garde, the Supporters would also not be where they are either; he was crucial with opinions, helping lead certain jobs, and was a team player when it came to meetings.
Helly
For his work on the Map Editor, the Official atWar Discord, and attending meetings where his opinion was also very crucial. Without Helly, Clovis probably wouldn't have been able to get as much done as he did this year.
Sid
For his help on the Supporters team, either it is helping with Moderator only tasks that couldn't be completed, video recording, attending meetings, and more; Sid was essential to atWar and still is.
Sascha
For his help as one of the leaders of the Supporter Team. Without Sascha, I (AIois), would not have been able to get the amount of work I did this year done. He is a team player, a good one at that.
Madame Asylan
For her work in changing the Supporter team and creating the Official atWar Discord. Without Madame Asylan, many of the things atWar has set-up externally, including Social Media, wouldn't be where they are today. Before she left the team, she was one of the team leaders. Without her help, we would not have been able to get the start the Supporters did at the beginning of 2019, it was because of her work at the start that ultimately allowed the team to flourish.
and YOU for playing the game. Without your activity, all of this would mean nothing. Thank YOU.
Want to get Involved?
If you would like to get involved in helping atWar in any of the following:
- AW Radio
- Atwar Times Network
- Translations
- Events
- News & Updates
Please contact AIois and he can get you set-up.
