Update 1.3.1 just went live.
As hinted at previously, this version addresses some issues that were introduced in 1.3 - especially in the areas of performance and memory usage.
The result is a faster, smoother, more responsive game that is rock solid.
Enjoy!
v1.3 certainly seems to have polarised our users. Most have been very positive about the new graphics system, with it's colourised territories, and the additional of audio. However, some people have not liked these features. Oh well, you can't please everyone. Or can you?
Before we discuss that further, a more serious issue seems to have crept in. The new graphics and sound obviously have an extra memory overhead. Unfortunately a small number of users have reported crashes while playing the game - especially while using the iPod app at the same time. This is something we take very seriously! Although we do test for these things, evidently this has not been enough - so we have made some improvements there. With some more aggressive memory tests we have been reproducing the conditions that lead to a crash and I'm pleased to say that, as far as we can tell, we have eliminated them!
If you have experienced a crash while playing vConqr, we can only apologise and promise that this update should hit the app store as soon as possible. If you can't wait, or you just want to help out, consider joining our beta programme and get the updates early.
So, back to pleasing everybody. Obviously the way to do this is to make certain features optional or customisable - and this is something we have planned for a long time. The next major version, currently in development, has extensive options and settings for such things - including how territories are colourised. But, as we appreciate that the addition of audio may be more of an issue for some people, we have including settings to disable it in 1.3.1.
Finally, a couple of people reported that 1.3 introduced a bit of a lag when panning around (especially while also zoomed). While the majority of users have either not noticed this, or not been bothered by it, it is also something we take very seriously and a lot of work has gone into 1.3.1 to address this. Again, we'd appreciate additional beta testers to make sure it is perfect this time.
As we've mentioned in previous blog posts, we're always keen to include more people on our beta programme. The more feedback we get the better we can make the experience for everyone - and that's our number one priority!
As we get into the development of version 2 of vConqr, it becomes all the more important for us to get our releases tested by as wide an audience as possible.
If you'd like to join our programme all you need to do is send us your UDID (device ID). This can be obtained a couple of ways.
iTunes. When your device is connected to iTunes, go to the summary page. Where it says "Serial Number" if you click it once it will change to "Identifier (UDID):" and show you your UDID. It might look like you can't copy this string - but if you just hit Apple-C (or ctrl-C on Windows), it will copy the string anyway. You can then paste that into a mail and send it to us.
Using Erica Sadun's "Ad Hoc Helper" app. This is available as a free download from the app store. Just search for "Ad Hoc" and it should be the number one result. Once downloaded, opening the app presents you with an email composer screen. Simply enter our email address and hit send. Simplicity!
For a one time thing, the first option might be faster, but if you think you might join any other betas, or just want a one click solution, get the helper app.
So all that remains is for us to give you the email address to send to. For anti-spam reasons I'll spell it out:
betas [at] vconqr.com
Just replace the [at] with the usual symbol (and remove the spaces) and you're good to go!
