Hello, Punisher.

dmitri hey mate , 

what has this game to...seriously , i used to play the game for fun and now it just makes me angry and upset because this game has gone downhill and has not been fixed , its just gone downhill , since the past 1 year 

these guys are making it harder every day for normal players to access this game or play , its gotten worse , and i know i cannot do anything about it , and nothing will be done , it will take years to fix these bugs the new engine has been showing since it has been introduced to me today , 

Dimitri, 

I am here to play a functional game. Today i get transferred to a beta test model. My experience so far has been reload, wait, reload, wait, reload.

I'm not a technophobe so i won't be playing around with settings. If the game doesn't work "out of the box" then it won't get played.

Don't count lack of posts as a sign of a happy playing community, that would be foolish. As you expand your testing you reach far more coiners.

Goodnight from me.

DIMITRI,

If you did not meet many complainants about this performance problem, it is certainly because once transferred to the new server, players can no longer connect and therefore can no longer complain.

Saying that the problems encountered result from the use of the new system on 32-bit architectures is purely misinformation. As Beta Tester I use a X 64 system and performance is just as disastrous.

Problems are not only performance problems, but also problems that are simple problems of calculation. For example, and just as a uique sample the enumeration of the number of units is not the same between the old system and the new system. Same for the power and so on ....

It is clear that the new system is qualified as BETA while it is not even at the ALPHA level. Forcibly migrating players to this new server without offering them the opportunity to return to a normally usable system is a way of simply scandalous and shows profound disrespect to the players community in Plarium.

So YOU must stop this policy of moderation, which attempts to hide dust under the carpet in order to make it believe that everything is fine and that the problems are only isolated cases. That is wrong. The problem is general.

The only thing to do is to ask developers to do their job properly and once the Beta Testers validate the system, then it will be possible to migrate the players to the new. one, NOT BEFORE.

In addition to the frustration felt to be locked in an inadequate system, it penalizes all coalitions that slowly see the number of their active members decreasing.

Your strategy only leads to the death of this game…

oh dimitri i have definetly seen many many members complaints even though am not a moderator :)

and the whole of sparta doesnt even know about the forum , only the long term players do , nobody else does , and nobody thinks its even worth it to complain here because complaints have been lingering around for decades without it being fixed at all , and the gameplay just got even more worse mate , and yes maybe you should send everyone a private message about the forum , perhaps you will see floodings of posts ?

like few weeks ago the whole of sparta got vulgar messages from some random account and your system was hacked , makes me believe how unproffessional the workers of the game are , the site isnt safe , and its just gets worser without it being fixed , i literally see the forum crowded with complaints apart from many posts being deleted because of verbal abuse in anger , and yet its said that less than 1% are affected , and on what basis do you say less than 1% are affected? because of lack of posts from players , ridiculous , dont take this personal , am just speaking to someone working for plarium , not to you as a person.

send out personal messages to every player and then take the feedback and make the analytics mate , not based on who are posting , funny , 

i was moved to the new server as well - graphic are different (not better just different) 

I am running into a lot of trouble with game play. display boxes not displaying properly until i reboot a few times

Loading into the game takes forever.

only a few others in my coalition seem to not know what i am complaining about - i assume most  are not moved over yet

everyone that has moved is having a terrible time - the ones that do not detect or see a change are happy with game loading times

i would like to move back - 

if there is an issue with us not complaining we can fix this for you

i will get everyone i know with issues to come spam forums if this will help the devs admit that there is a problem

I have not been moved to the new server as of yet ... however i am concerned with what i have been seeing.

I have members in my coalition that are very upset by the troubles they are running into with the new server.

It is bad enough 2 of my poles have decided to take a break from the game until things get sorted out - and here i see denials that there are problems.

This does not inspire me to believe things will be fixed.

I am fairly certain that only people who are experiencing problems with new engine are those with weaker CPU. 

RAM is not a problem here, most people have 4GB. 

But those who don't have at least 3,5 GHz processor and good cooling, those may have a problem.

 Also those who are complaining about graphics looking bad, problem is your older graphic card. 

You may also need to adjust your screen resolution to 1920x1080 and system settings of screen fonts can't be higher than 125%.

Ididicus said:

If we can not move back to the old server - is there  a way to prevent our accounts from being moved there in the first place?

 It's not plarium's fault, all browsers soon stop using Flash, that is why Plarium is forced to use WebGL.

Instead of playing game in your browser you can use Plarium's game app, there is a still old engine there based on  Adobe Flash.

Archons, I would like to respond to several points raised here.

Firstly, I would like to remind everyone that while frustration in the face of issues is understandable it does not excuse breaking Forum Rules, using profanity of insulting Plarium staff, or anyone else for that matter. Posts containing such will be removed and repeated offenses will entail penalties.

Secondly, we do not base assumption on how many players are having issues based on forum posts alone - that particular point is something I referenced in response to the claim that there are thousands of disgruntled players on the forums - but rather a huge variety of data we received from the game itself and feedback we get through other means. 

Thirdly, Misotisa is correct and it seems like the issue affects mostly people with computers or laptops that are below or too close to the minimal system requirements. That is not always the case but it is certainly a pattern that I myself have noticed. It is also a lot more common on x32 operating systems than it is when it comes to x64, especially the situation when the game cannot be loaded at all. Devs are currently working on a fix that they hope will help combat some of these problems. 

It is also true that Flash will be obsolete and if Sparta is to continue at all the new engine has to be implemented. Thus there will be turning back from this point. We will do our best to help players affected, but the old engine will soon be removed from the server completely. Please try following the advice in my first post here, updating all relevant software (including drivers) and testing the Plarium app if all else fails - I know that some players who were not able to access the game or had loading issues in the browser version had more luck with the app.

I am fairly certain that only people who are experiencing problems with new engine are those with weaker CPU. 

RAM is not a problem here, most people have 4GB. 

But those who don't have at least 3,5 GHz processor and good cooling, those may have a problem.

 Also those who are complaining about graphics looking bad, problem is your older graphic card. 

You may also need to adjust your screen resolution to 1920x1080 and system settings of screen fonts can't be higher than 125%.

Ididicus said:

If we can not move back to the old server - is there  a way to prevent our accounts from being moved there in the first place?

 It's not plarium's fault, all browsers soon stop using Flash, that is why Plarium is forced to use WebGL.

Instead of playing game in your browser you can use Plarium's game app, there is a still old engine there based on  Adobe Flash.

seems like every person i play with that have moved to the new server are having serious issues - i cant believe that each and every one of them are using old systems that can not keep up.

We understand that change must happen - but surly the devs can debug the system a bit more before force migrating people into a server that is not working

Many feel competitive about sparta - it is not fair to move some onto a server that prevents play and not all - there is a big advantage during the serious wars going on when some can not log when others have no issues.

when i have people that take a "break from the game" to wait for a fix to a problem - i know some do not return

this is not good for my group - this is not good for the sparta community - this is not good for palariums bottom line

misotisa ur one of the moderator right?? how much u get paid frm plarium? :p ive seen u before contradicting complaints always :p

i agree with iddicus as he said ''blaming people for having computers that are not fast or strong enough for these issues is not a fix''

we are here to meet ur requirement or ur here to meet ours? i feel betrayed and cheated....i was foolish to spend money on this game because of how it was...and suddnly i get forced into some bugged system which i dont wanna play anymore...i req for my refund immediately because i feel cheated and i would never spend on a game like how it is now am switching to anothe game so i req my refund right now

i like the comment "change must happen"  but is suckz when some are forced into the new system and some (like me) are left in the functional platform

i have allies and friends - both real world and not - that have been moved into the new system

they play other games with me (world of tanks , crossout) and i can assure you that they have good systems for these games - yet still they wish to quit because of inability to log in during bad combat action - nothing to make you want to invest time and money into a game like loosing your attack force because you could not log in and put them in the acropolis.

it is truly unfair to loose all your work and units because you were unlucky enough to get moved while your enemy do not

I am fairly certain that only people who are experiencing problems with new engine are those with weaker CPU. 

RAM is not a problem here, most people have 4GB. 

But those who don't have at least 3,5 GHz processor and good cooling, those may have a problem.

 Also those who are complaining about graphics looking bad, problem is your older graphic card. 

You may also need to adjust your screen resolution to 1920x1080 and system settings of screen fonts can't be higher than 125%.

Ididicus said:

If we can not move back to the old server - is there  a way to prevent our accounts from being moved there in the first place?

 It's not plarium's fault, all browsers soon stop using Flash, that is why Plarium is forced to use WebGL.

Instead of playing game in your browser you can use Plarium's game app, there is a still old engine there based on  Adobe Flash.

I was moved to the new server. It is horrible

My system is a dedicated game computer. There is no game this is not able to run with ease

Having told you this, I have such lag issues and game hickups that i can not erase old messages.

1 in 4 raids i am unable to use the galley trick and some times i just can not log in at all

I can not count the number of times the game hangs on me mid raid and you need to reboot and relog to play.  This takes time and makes you miss opportunities like galley trick.

It is not proper to force some of us to play under these conditions and others not to " need to change the server or not" it should not make for an unfair or unbalanced game experience.

We were given a pitance of a "free gift" to make up for not being able to log in ... so palarium is acknowladging there is log in issues

Hippolytos said:

misotisa ur one of the moderator right?? how much u get paid frm plarium? :p ive seen u before contradicting complaints always :p

I'll take that as an insult :D

 I have only 83 posts on forum, take a quick look and you'll see lots of my own complaints. I only say what I see based on my own experience and try to be fair. I recently got new laptop with a better CPU and better graphic card than in my old one . On my old laptop I did had issues with WebGL to the point that I only played game in Plarium's app and completly disregarded beta testing.

I do not say that people having outdated hardware is an issue here. But that's the reality of internet today, even silly browser games are more demanding, back in the days when I was starting with internet big hit game Doom had installer file size 2.39 MB

In 1993 game required:

 66 MHz processor (3,5GHz today that is 3500 MHz - that is 80x better CPU than 25 years ago)

Imagine if people in 1993 expected game developers to only make games adapted to those specs.

Hello everyone,

I am here to add my complaint as well for being moved to this horrendous new engine. 

First of all, my computer is recently upgraded and I as well can run many games that are very demanding easily. But yes somehow a browser game makes my PC incredibly slow and I can't even use the galley trick most of the times.

Secondly, another important problem is that if I play the game for over 30min - 1hour then my frickin eyes hurt from these blurry images and colors that are being at display. First time I am experiencing this with a game to be honest and I have played several both browser and other games (consoles and PC).

Thirdly, game is way too laggy, initial loading screen takes forever to load, and most of the times when I press to do something on my city or map then the response time is after 10-15 seconds at best.

Fourthly, I experience different bugs and glitches every other hour on logos, names, cities, coordinates, pantheons, and other animations. Also, I can't see at all the coords on players cities when I view their cities from the map and sometimes I see a white blank square on top of a player's city. Having said that again when i try to return to my city to do stuff it takes around 20 seconds to go back. Furthemore, troop graphics are way way uglier than it used to be. 

Additionally, I can't read or type anymore with Greek alphabet characters in the messages of the game. It's very ironic since this is a game with ancient Sparta as the main theme lol.

Lastly, there are no words to describe exactly how heavily I dislike this new engine. Since this is a one way ticket I am also being led to the decision to quit the game for good. First time I am seeing a company to "advertise" that is close to the players and want to accommodate their needs but instead does the exact opposite, by creating an unplayable new engine that most of the players dislike and also make the game even more greedy. Incredible work.

P.S ( My chrome is updated, my flash is disabled for plarium.com and as I have said earlier my PC has no problems with other more demanding games except Sparta).

Dear Plarium, there are some basics to software development and testing that you seem to have ignored. Whatever method you are using: waterfall or agile, devops or anything else, your developers have a duty to unit/component test their software. You as a company have a duty  to system test and integration test your products and Beta testing is a final stage where your product is almost ready to be shipped. Beta testing is not something you force on your customers to test for you so you can avoid investing in internal testing!

If I can use the analogy of building a car, when you take delivery of your new car you expect the wheels to go round, the axle to be connected to the steering wheel, the gear stick to be connected to the gears. When you go for a road test you expect it all to be working except for some minor faults like the radio not working properly.

These minor defects can be fixed before you take delivery. Your approach to software testing is to ask your customers to test it all for you and worse you do not seem to fix the issues they find anyway.

Customer satisfaction is the key to any company's success and your disregard of this fundamental will, in the long run, be detrimental to Plarium.

If I was your competitor, I would be looking at the volume of complaints of the new version and  I would be offering your customers like for like migration. Customers can set up in new games with the same amount of troops and resources as they have in Sparta so they do not have to start from scratch.

Once any company loses a customer it is almost impossible to get them back and when a customer walks away from your product they take their credit card with them and they also tell their friends of the poor experience they have had with your product. This then spreads,

In the age of instant messages, instant feedback, Plarium is not in a position to force a product on its customers where it is obvious to anyone that uses it that the internal testing that has been conducted is sub standard and that as a Beta version this falls far short of what anyone would consider fit-for-purpose.

As a professional test consultant I am willing to provide 1 hour free consultation on how to test software after which Plarium can hire my services at  my normal hourly rate.

Don't upset your customers, without them you don't have a business!