Join the new world

INTRO:
I'm back hopefully with an interesting article. This is what was discussed at a summit in December. The first part has been about the eRep module map! I'll come back and the rest of news discussed in the future articles! First I want to let you aware of updates ready in the game, then what is required by the representatives of players from different countries. Maps are standard presentation photos!

This is a copy of the article: http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/noua-hart-erepublik-new-erepublik-map-2173246/1/20

I wrote this article for information on eCanada ease!

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2013 will be more interesting in eRepublik because the new eRepublik map will actually become a tool, no just a Flash "thing" that doesn't work on iAnything nor Android, which gave up as well on the Adobe plugin.

Because I spared some time to go to the eRepublik HQ and the summit, I got access to the new map, still in development. Obviously, not all the planned features are implemented, and the ones presented below still need polishing. This article is meant to be informative to players and feedback to the developers. Here's the development status at the moment of my article:

- the map is based on OpenLayers, a solid project to build on, that will also evolve beautifully quite soon, project based on JavaScript/jQuery thus taking a toll on the CPU during its usage - http://openlayers.org/

- on a PC it works well, and it loads and works (although sluggish at the moment) in Android 4.0.3 as well, on an ASUS Transformer TF101 (a slightly obsolete tablet) in the following browsers:
> the default/included one
> Google Chrome
> Firefox (very slow, pinch-zoom also working unexpectedly)
> Opera Mobile

- it includes a search engine, so you can quickly reach the wanted region:


- it displays your current location:


In order to move to your current location you can press the "house" button bottom-right.

- the full-screen option is planned - as you can see the button in the bottom-right corner

- two side buttons allow you to (dis/e)nable visual layers and fast movement on far locations on the map:



- by clicking a city you can see a few details:



The scroll bars don't quite belong there, and the pop-up information might be moved to a more accessible place, but right now everything works where it is and you can do the following:
> click the region (where it says Region: Transilvania) to zoom
> click on "Region of: Romania" or on "Liberated on..." for details about that country

- the country details look like this:



The two info pop-ups overlap and right now they can't be moved, but that's certainly one detail that will be gracefully solved, because the designers and the front-end developers proved plenty of times they're up for a good job.

- the details of a partially occupied country look like this:



- finally, the occupied regions now show both the owner country and the occupying country, along with the occupation date (which could indicate if a resistance war could be successful or not):



- strangely, the USA managed to conquer itself (bug, I suppose):



The obvious question that comes to mind is... while being occupied, can the Americans open a resistance war out there?

- nice, now that we have a search engine we can also find fully conquered (erased) countries:



Unfortunately they're not highlighted in any way, so you'll have to jog around with your mouse.


And now some ideas, wishes, suggestions:
- a Countries layer would be good to easily identify the countries as pointed out in private, the countries can be easily spotted by clicking the "Borders" checkbox:



- it would be nice if we could see the map with the original regions and borders
- when searching and clicking a country it would be nice if it would get somehow highlighted, either by visibly different borders, or a background with good contrast compared to the surrounded areas. This would especially help to identify erased countries bot others as well.
- the idea of moving directly from the map is already on the developers' table and it would be indeed a useful tool
- highlighting the zones (A1, A2, B2 etc) by an optional layer would be an interesting informative feature, in general, but also useful for those who want to see the zones but are unable to find them in the wiki
- the country details pop-up could also show the taxes and link to the pages of their allies, laws and others
- in the future, when (hopefully) we'll have alliances in-game, it will be nice to have a nice overview of the alliances, displayed in different colors



Final conclusions
- The new map is sure, it's coming soon and it will be quite helpful.
- The PVP mode is still under heavy development and there's no clear direction nor a final design for it, so this could be the perfect time to write your articles about this game mode, how it should be and how it shouldn't be. Its main purpose is to add more fun to the game.
- The game developers are quite open to feedback and anything that fixes the economy, politics, military or other aspects of the game that are properly laid out and backed by a large part of the community will have a good chance to be supported by the developers in 2013.