Chat issues (countless of them)

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    • Chat issues (countless of them)

      Hi,

      before I start listing the defects, let me be clear about something; It ain't browser (or their versions), or system specific. Tried under firefox, safari and chrome - on windows, linux and macOs. And versions... Don't get me even started listing versions...


      Grouping the chats if won't fit the viewport

      See attached screenshot. This basically happens ANYTIME you try to close (and remove) any chat when you got one or more chats open. This cool "Group chats in a menu when chats doesn't fit the viewport" - I'm working fullHD (sometimes 2560x1440) and this opens even when just two chats are active.
      This also happens when you move your mouse up to see the top bar menu of the macOs (sometimes). It resizes the viewport and thus it fires the dropdown menu.
      After opening the chat toggled in the dropdown menu, the conversation is not shown fully (just some starting part), with no way to scroll down, and when you send a new message there, it won't appear (it's sent tho)

      Closing the chats
      Close any chat, empty menu appears. No way how to get rid of it except the page refresh. Try to close 6 chat windows - it requires 6 page reloads. Annoying? Well, it's not the worst one yet.


      Sending a message with a cursor in the middle of the text
      Given you are sending your friend a message that says "Hey, how are ya?". If you (before sending it) set the cursor in the middle of the word "ya", so if you click right after the "y" and then press enter, the text will be split with a newline right where the pointer was. This happens in the floating (position: fixed) chats - not in the one at page=chat. See attached screenshots. From what I've noticed, this happens before sending to the server - so on frontend (I was too lazy to check the network tab)


      Toggling a chat at page=chat in a specific chat
      I think this is self-explanatory. See what happens:



      Closing a recently opened chat
      See how shrinked it is? So basically open a chat, then try to close it right after. Not that it won't get closed - it somehow shrinks and it stays after the page is reloaded.



      There was another issue I can't reproduce now - On a specific page, sending message leaded to an error that the message couldn't be sent. I will send an update right after I figure it out. Just please - in any case - RESTORE the message if it fails to be sent, so the people can at least copy & paste its content, reload the page, and send it again.

      I can't help myself, so I will have to ask you one question - Really? Did anyone ever tested that feature before it went to production?

      Thanks and cheers.

    • Matty wrote:

      I can't help myself, so I will have to ask you one question - Really? Did anyone ever tested that feature before it went to production?
      Sure they were tested before the release. I reported all those bugs in 2016 before/when v6 came out. There are a few more chat bugs which I can't remember right now. But as you can clearly see that they won't be fixed and as far as I know there also won't be any new additions to the chat.

      Thanks for writing the nice report and I know how disappointing that answer is, sorry for that.

      Origin Admin
      OGame-Tech Chief

    • I feel that it is not the right threat to discuss that; but do you know how much is GF willing to modify/invest in Ogame ? Does they plan only to stabilize the game and get revenue from DM <OR> does they really want to improve it ? Because for 10 years, nothing has really improved as much as it could have

      In the first case, if they don't want to invest expensive dev time, I think it will be very positive to call on volunteer/young Web developer (especially those who developed add-on like UniverseView) & maybe make part of the game open-source to receive 'free' outside inputs :whistling:

    • Guritchi wrote:

      In the first case, if they don't want to invest expensive dev time, I think it will be very positive to call on volunteer/young Web developer (especially those who developed add-on like UniverseView) & maybe make part of the game open-source to receive 'free' outside inputs

      I can assure you, that GameForge categorically refuses to allow anyone who is not an employee to access the game code.
      And as far as I know, no for-profit company makes open source games.

      And of course idea is that game need many more invest in time and/or money to update

    • Guritchi wrote:

      I think it will be very positive to call on volunteer/young Web developer
      It doesn't work like that.

      TGWo wrote:

      I can assure you, that GameForge categorically refuses to allow anyone who is not an employee to access the game code.
      Not that they would find anyone anyways.

      But you can't really expect full support for a game that isn't that popular. And you can't expect the game to be popular if it's not playable without third party addons/tools/... that aren't directly linked to the game and most of the people will never find out. But I guess this is slightly OT.

      NoMoreAngel wrote:

      sorry for that.
      Thanks for the update, at least I know I should expect nothing.

      Parsec wrote:

      The best fix for these issues is to deactivate the chat bar and use discord to communicate instead
      Huh, I didn't notice that checkbox before. You just saved me from a mental breakdown. Thanks!

      NoMoreAngel wrote:

      Well if the mobile version wouldn't lose it's cookie every time you log out, that would already be the case.
      If the bug makes the feature unusable, and the bug makes the disabling option unusable, then it *should* be reversed. Both from UX perspective and logically.

      Guritchi wrote:

      do you know how much is GF willing to modify/invest in Ogame
      Never overestimate a corporate in terms of budgeting. It'll always be less than you would ever think of.

    • Matty wrote:

      [...] you can't really expect full support for a game that isn't that popular. And you can't expect the game to be popular if it's not playable without third party addons/tools/... that aren't directly linked to the game and most of the people will never find out. But I guess this is slightly OT.
      Exactly ! But If UI bugs were corrected, this game could be really popular, especially if there was a mobile version (where micro transactions are a lot more profitable), and even more with a few gameplay tweaks.
      When you see the success of games like Clash of clans, Boom beach, Forge an empire & even Ikariam to some point, the only reason why Ogame didn't take off is that it has neither evolve toward mobile/tablet, nor manage to stand on its own as a web application (as you said). To really enjoy the game, you need third party add-on, homemade scripts, your own online chat & a custom forum for your alliance...

      It looks not so much like a budget issue; but rather like a lack of involvement from GF in the project. They already have massive multiplayer games like Ikariam deployed on both mobile and Web; so they have the expertise & the developers.

      With the numbers of players Ogame had over the years,       I do not see how they could not turn profit by fixing the game, especially if there is a porting to mobile

    • Parsec wrote:

      The best fix for these issues is to deactivate the chat bar and use discord to communicate instead
      On second thoughts, this will also hide the bar that shows friends activity, which is not desired.
      I guess this is just a lose-lose situation.


      Guritchi wrote:

      But If UI bugs were corrected, this game could be really popular
      I think you overrate UI bugs. Those glitches aren't the part where people decide to leave. It comes naturally when they don't get it and they get upset by being a someone else's farm, or just getting bored of the stereotypy (because if you don't know it, the only thing you do is just build).
      We have a great guide in Czech uni on our board written by ex-player. But to get there you have to:
      1) Know there is a board
      2) Go directly to the guides part of the board, because if you try to look at a thread with a battle, you will get 403 error (that would make me leave the board immediately)
      3) Be lucky to open that guide, because there is plenty of other threads


      Guritchi wrote:

      With the numbers of players Ogame had over the years
      The "had" there is the most important word there. You see, noone gets a big fat bonus by increasing the profit by 50 dollars a day for next 50 years, but they gets a profit by getting a one-time check in a value of 10.000 dollars. Although it's less profitable (even within the same year, not fiscal though), the *now* is the key.

    • Matty wrote:

      Guritchi wrote:

      With the numbers of players Ogame had over the years
      The "had" there is the most important word there. You see, noone gets a big fat bonus by increasing the profit by 50 dollars a day for next 50 years, but they gets a profit by getting a one-time check in a value of 10.000 dollars. Although it's less profitable (even within the same year, not fiscal though), the *now* is the key.
      What I meant is that all this 'dormant community' and the fact that Ogame has been quite overlooked this past years may both represent an opportunity.

      If the game were to be refreshed and decently ported to mobile (or presented with a flawless web mobile version), a little online advertising could bring back a lot of curious past players. The flow of new members will attract younger players that will discover the game as if it was new. Like it already does, but only on a small scale because of bugs, lacks of certain in-game functionalities (without add-on) and no real visualization / animations of facilities and fleets (frozen pics in 2019? come on, I am not even talking about 3D effects)

      I know how utopian it sounds, but it's that or keep surviving over the years until profits dropped down and servers get shut down

      The post was edited 1 time, last by Guritchi ().

    • always to talk about app, mobile version, etc .......... but do you think that is number of players that give fun, or is the game that have to be fun ?

      I read often asking mobile version or an app ........... but someone think about that in ogame to be able to crash/farm need that other players are offline n 95% of cases (5% is crash fleet in back)? And nobody think that one of causes (maybe not the more important, sure less important that few developer by GF) of decrease of players from the start is arrive of mobile device ?

      This is not Candy Crash, or FarmVille, or other kind of games where is better if other players are online ............ in Ogame the best thing is when you are online, your friends are online and all other players are offline

    • I do not want absolutely an app. I am personally fine with computer + web application (which works good enough if you got a decent smartphone); but I also like this game and I would love to see it evolve.

      Not a lot has really changed since 10 years ago; while a lot more could have been done to make the game more fun without deriving from the original intended gameplay style (regarding functionalities & interface/in-game animations)

      That said, app or not, I cannot accept the argument 'if the game works better and is more accessible, it would be harder to surprise attack people because they will be more online'. The main concept of Ogame is planning; other players will be more online, but so will you & your friends. So yeah it will (maybe) be harder to profit from players that have busy jobs, but it will also open the door to way more complex & planned strategies

      The post was edited 2 times, last by Guritchi ().