Update to Version 2.177 Discussion Thread

Richard

Strategos
Hey guys, this thread is for discussing the upcoming update to version 2.177. Please leave any feedback or questions below!

Dear Community,

On Wednesday November 28th, Grepolis will be updated to version 2.177. As always there will be a short downtime while the update is applied.

Summary

  • This version brings a new feature, giving you the ability to be able to see when your alliance members are online. We also added some small changes to the world selection screen to make it clear which type of world you are joining, and lastly adjusted the Domination Ranking window meaning you can directly access an alliance profile.
New Features and Changes

  • In this version, we introduce a more advanced online status for use by your alliance. The status can be configured to only be accessible by leaders, or it can be publicized to your whole alliance. We hope this will add an element of strategy to your game, with players able to see at a glance who is around to help. With this feature, you can see the status of your alliance members:
    • online.png
      Bright green indicates the player has been active within the last ten minutes, or is currently active
    • green.png
      Green means active within the last two days, but not within the last ten minutes
    • yellow.png
      Yellow means inactive for between 2 days and 1 week
    • red.png
      Red indicates the player has been inactive for 1 week or more
    • vacation.png
      Blue means the player is currently on Vacation

    StatusAlliance.gif


  • We have added icons in the World Selection screen to help you see at a glance the kind of world it is. As you can see you below, there is an icon which indicates the endgame (Domination or World Wonder) type of a world, as well as if the world is a Casual world or not.

    World%20Select.png


  • We also made a change to the Domination Ranking screen. Now you can click directly on an alliance's name to access their Alliance profile.



Bugfixes

  • There was an issue where resources in the top left weren't correctly synchronized with the values in the warehouse. This should no longer be an issue!
 

DeletedUser55714

Guest
1) Can someone explain the different of color in the world names (There's now a blue background instead of all red like before)??

2) What is the icon beside world "Helike"???

3) How is it determined how "difficult" a world is when choosing a world to enter? Or did I miss that part??

4) Does this mean that new players/new accounts will be able to CHOOSE what world they join when first playing or are they still forced into the newest world?

Thanks!
 

DeletedUser54192

Guest
And where is the opt out for players from this invasion of their privacy?
The same place as Inno's care for the GPC, it would seem. This idea was in Inno's Community Backlog list (a list of ideas/changes/etc that Inno has deemed Community Requests, whether or not they really are). The idea was criticised by the GPC, primarily for the abuse potential. Yet it's obviously been brought out anyways. (For the record, we did not know they were suddenly going ahead with it, as it's a sizeable list, and we were given no particular warning.)

As Rachel said, there is currently a debate about both the privacy issue itself, and the abuse potential, going on on the public beta forum.
 

DeletedUser55714

Guest
The same place as Inno's care for the GPC, it would seem. This idea was in Inno's Community Backlog list (a list of ideas/changes/etc that Inno has deemed Community Requests, whether or not they really are). The idea was criticised by the GPC, primarily for the abuse potential. Yet it's obviously been brought out anyways. (For the record, we did not know they were suddenly going ahead with it, as it's a sizeable list, and we were given no particular warning.)

As Rachel said, there is currently a debate about both the privacy issue itself, and the abuse potential, going on on the public beta forum.

At the same time, for those with an issue with it, not like you can't file lawsuit as there are internet rights to privacy that go for every country throughout the world. That'll change this "issue" immediately. That said, I understand why they're doing it
 

DeletedUser54192

Guest
I have a question, @Richard / @Baudin Toolan. Why is this feature being released onto the live markets after it received almost entirely negative feature on the Beta markets? This is the second time recently that Inno has released something on Beta, received negative feedback on it in some way, and released it as it is to the live market anyways. It would seem as if the developers don't care for customer feedback, but I'm sure that can't be true...

It also seems highly probable that this update actually breaches their Privacy Policy (based upon the GDPR). I'd love an explanation for that as well.

(Note: I have a screenshot of the relevant section of the Privacy Policy already, because of what happened the last time I challenged Inno on a borderline-legal issue.)
 

DeletedUser36530

Guest
I have a question, @Richard / @Baudin Toolan. Why is this feature being released onto the live markets after it received almost entirely negative feature on the Beta markets? This is the second time recently that Inno has released something on Beta, received negative feedback on it in some way, and released it as it is to the live market anyways. It would seem as if the developers don't care for customer feedback, but I'm sure that can't be true...

It also seems highly probable that this update actually breaches their Privacy Policy (based upon the GDPR). I'd love an explanation for that as well.

(Note: I have a screenshot of the relevant section of the Privacy Policy already, because of what happened the last time I challenged Inno on a borderline-legal issue.)
you're our hero. Personnaly I could care less about this "privacy issue", if you join an alliance, it should be with people you trust. are you going to get attacked for not being on within the last ten minutes? no lol and the leaders have always been able to see this, it's really not a big deal. But, rights are rights and I respect those who don't feel comfortable with this, as well as I'm sick and tired of Inno not giving a crap about customer review...
 

Richard

Strategos
And where is the opt out for players from this invasion of their privacy?
posted a thread about the whole discussion of this topic from the beta forum
seems inno does not care about the breach to their contract
At the same time, for those with an issue with it, not like you can't file lawsuit as there are internet rights to privacy that go for every country throughout the world. That'll change this "issue" immediately. That said, I understand why they're doing it
Thanks for your feedback. In short, it simply isn't a breach of anyone's privacy any more than the current system is. The current system tells leaders when a player was last active to within 2 days. The new feature is merely an extension of a pre-existing feature, which is designed to improve alliance collaboration. The only real change to the existing system is it's accuracy, and the ability for this information to be shared with the whole alliance. The Online Status setting can be enabled or disabled by Leaders and Founders, if they consider it to be an issue for their alliance. The Online Status function only tells the viewer if a player has been online within the last 10 minutes, not if they are currently online. It simply isn't a breach of our our Privacy Policy to use data in this way. If the argument is that it is in it's new form, then it was in it's previous.

In terms of the strategy element of things, if leaders and founders don't trust their players not to abuse the information, they can switch it off. If a player doesn't feel comfortable being in an alliance which has the function enabled, they can lobby their Founders to disable it, or they can move to another alliance.

In terms of why it was implemented, this kind of feature exists in many games, not all of which even have the option for team leaders choose not to share the information. It isn't a feature we plucked out of the air, but one we're emulating to help improve alliance collaboration.

In terms of why it was implemented despite some negative feedback on Beta, Beta is in some regards a platform to gauge community feel, yes, but frankly it's purpose isn't to be the be all and end all to decide if we do or don't implement a feature. Beta's purpose is more geared towards testing content before it hits live servers than it is a staging platform to try things out, and if some of the community doesn't like them, scrap the whole thing. In the grand scheme of things, we feel this feature will be good for communities.

To the suggestion this is in some way a breach of GDPR, GDPR as a subject is almost entirely focused on data know as PII, or personally identifiable information. This is data such as your name, or perhaps your address or date of birth. The information that as a player of Grepolis you were online within the last 10 minutes simply isn't covered by GDPR in any interpretation, I'm afraid.

Thanks

Richard
 

curadh

Phrourach
If I use Skype, Discord and even Face Book I can not show my online status (as is my right) so why does Innos decide (without any prior consultation) that they have the right to deprive me of this? It is up to me who sees my online status not Innos or even my alliance (as I have no control over who leaders give rights to or even who they invite). Nearly every action by Innos recently seems designed to alienate their customer base, from the ignoring of the Players Council, Casual world releases and even this 'Black Friday' spam on our screens for 2 days before. Maybe developers could implement changes actually requested instead of what THEY deem we should have (unless of course they are to lazy to do this, preferring to copy from TW)?
 

DeletedUser55714

Guest
Can my questions get answered please MODs??? I feel like it was entirely skipped or ignored...
 

DeletedUser51423

Guest
Can my questions get answered please MODs??? I feel like it was entirely skipped or ignored...

I currently only know the answer to one of your questions, I'll try to find out the rest for you.

1) Can someone explain the different of color in the world names (There's now a blue background instead of all red like before)??

Blue means a casual world, red means a normal conquest or revolt world.

3) How is it determined how "difficult" a world is when choosing a world to enter? Or did I miss that part??
I'm not sure what you mean here, there isn't anything about the difficulty of a world listed here, unless i misread something.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Ranga1

Strategos
If I use Skype, Discord and even Face Book I can not show my online status (as is my right) so why does Innos decide (without any prior consultation) that they have the right to deprive me of this? It is up to me who sees my online status not Innos or even my alliance (as I have no control over who leaders give rights to or even who they invite). Nearly every action by Innos recently seems designed to alienate their customer base, from the ignoring of the Players Council, Casual world releases and even this 'Black Friday' spam on our screens for 2 days before. Maybe developers could implement changes actually requested instead of what THEY deem we should have (unless of course they are to lazy to do this, preferring to copy from TW)?

Can't be that much of an issue if your still playing.
 

DeletedUser36530

Guest
If I use Skype, Discord and even Face Book I can not show my online status (as is my right) so why does Innos decide (without any prior consultation) that they have the right to deprive me of this? It is up to me who sees my online status not Innos or even my alliance (as I have no control over who leaders give rights to or even who they invite). Nearly every action by Innos recently seems designed to alienate their customer base, from the ignoring of the Players Council, Casual world releases and even this 'Black Friday' spam on our screens for 2 days before. Maybe developers could implement changes actually requested instead of what THEY deem we should have (unless of course they are to lazy to do this, preferring to copy from TW)?
dude chill because literally all 3 of those apps show people your online status lmao.
Also, why are you so worried about your ALLIES seeing if your on so they can message you for help real quick? these are your ALLIES. This gives no personal info, in fact less personal info than facebook as you used for ex., so why are you so worried? if you don't trust them, you shouldn't be allied with them.
 

DeletedUser55069

Guest
dude chill because literally all 3 of those apps show people your online status lmao.
Also, why are you so worried about your ALLIES seeing if your on so they can message you for help real quick? these are your ALLIES. This gives no personal info, in fact less personal info than facebook as you used for ex., so why are you so worried? if you don't trust them, you shouldn't be allied with them.
It is optional on apps to show online status.

It will be worth to use spies again like good old times. Some teams will have a mole in most other teams and take advantage of the free intel. It is enough if 1 player decides to play dirty without breaking any game rules (similar to spam). Ingame statistics that some third party scripts or sites provide are much less accurate, this new game feature updates every 10min - so the intel will become more valuable again. It's not only a privacy issue, it will ruin the game, especially early game...

Online status should never go public without players consent.

I feel lucky that my world is close to its end and I can trust my mates, but won't start a new until this is not fixed.
 

curadh

Phrourach
dude chill because literally all 3 of those apps show people your online status lmao.
Also, why are you so worried about your ALLIES seeing if your on so they can message you for help real quick? these are your ALLIES. This gives no personal info, in fact less personal info than facebook as you used for ex., so why are you so worried? if you don't trust them, you shouldn't be allied with them.

I choose my contacts in FB and other apps and who sees what .. a BIG difference. And its not a matter of trust, its a matter of my rights to divulge what info I want and not have Innos playing GOD.
 

DeletedUser55894

Guest
Thanks for your feedback. In short, it simply isn't a breach of anyone's privacy any more than the current system is. The current system tells leaders when a player was last active to within 2 days. The new feature is merely an extension of a pre-existing feature, which is designed to improve alliance collaboration. The only real change to the existing system is it's accuracy, and the ability for this information to be shared with the whole alliance. The Online Status setting can be enabled or disabled by Leaders and Founders, if they consider it to be an issue for their alliance. The Online Status function only tells the viewer if a player has been online within the last 10 minutes, not if they are currently online. It simply isn't a breach of our our Privacy Policy to use data in this way. If the argument is that it is in it's new form, then it was in it's previous.

In terms of the strategy element of things, if leaders and founders don't trust their players not to abuse the information, they can switch it off. If a player doesn't feel comfortable being in an alliance which has the function enabled, they can lobby their Founders to disable it, or they can move to another alliance.


sorry richard but there a some really wrong arguments

1. you can´t give that right to single player just to ALL or NO ONE, its really normal sometimes to take former enemys in your ally so trusting is always a important thing, that means that feature is a bad thing as it is like now
2. on Beta the CM said its like in skype or whatsapp where other people can see your online status too. YES but there is always the possibility for each person to disable that (showing as offline or busy)
3. this is not an improve of ally working. Because you are staying online if you have minimized the tab and you are not showing online if you are online with the app

so in the first case you see "ah player a is online i need help" so i pm him, but he has minimized the tab and don´t see that he gets a PM. If he doesn´t react the pm writer will get angry ("why in the hell doesn´t he help me, he is online????"). Is this the way you think that this helps an ally????
in the second case its the same. you see oh player b is not online and you ask him not for help. But player b is online and thinks why he didn´t asked me for help?

so in both cases you have to ping the players, so thats not an improvement and this means there is no advantage in that feature.

But there are many disadvantages.

Player will get angry if people you are shown online not react
Abusing potential via creating a "online profile" of players by Traitors
not the possibiltiy to grant this wright to single players just all or no one

and if you say creating online profiles is possible right now because of stats sites. NO thats not 100% correct because that tools track point changes and you never know if that player has build a level one wall or finsihed a 8 hour building of a level in the temple. Innos new "cool" feature show near to exaclty when player went offline
 

DeletedUser48256

Guest
The only way to prevent this being exploited massively by spies is to set it to leaders only, which almost defeats the whole point of it. Although, I guess an alliance member could go to a leader and ask to see if X is online or whatever.

A spy could build up a very good picture of somebody's online times from this data. Track em for a week and you'll know their online routine to the nearest 10 minutes.

I think, once again, Inno has ignored feedback from the player council and the community. Seems the player council is only there so it looks like Inno care when in fact they don't (no offense to any council members, I think you're doing a marvelous job and I can't begin to imagine how frustrating it is putting in all that effort and then receiving nothing from Inno).
 

DeletedUser53503

Guest
  • In this version, we introduce a more advanced online status for use by your alliance. The status can be configured to only be accessible by leaders, or it can be publicized to your whole alliance. We hope this will add an element of strategy to your game, with players able to see at a glance who is around to help. With this feature, you can see the status of your alliance members:
    • online.png
      Bright green indicates the player has been active within the last ten minutes, or is currently active
    • green.png
      Green means active within the last two days, but not within the last ten minutes
    • yellow.png
      Yellow means inactive for between 2 days and 1 week
    • red.png
      Red indicates the player has been inactive for 1 week or more
    • vacation.png
      Blue means the player is currently on Vacation

    StatusAlliance.gif

Not very nice since people will abuse this to learn to 10 minutes what your exact online times are. Sure, many use the app 24/7 but it's still annoying when you have to wake up 20-30 times a night. Allies change every world, let's say I play with someone on one world and the next one he is my enemy - i will know his entire "online" time.

I feel like you have to at least give the player the option to allow this or not. Besides, for immediate help you can send out mass mails and pings (many alliances have ping-lists for urgent matters).
 
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