Slitherine

triari wrote: Does the same go for Commander The Great War?

IainMcNeil wrote:HI guys,

the game would run on iPad for ever unless apple prevents. if you have any concerns about that then please direct them to Apple as there is absolutely nothing we can do about it unfortunately. There is no technical reason a 32 bit app wont run on a 64 bit device, unless the OS prevents it. The problem is Apple look like they will prevent it. We dont have any way to refund purchases. Only Apple can. There simply is nothing we can do about this. Sorry!

Thanks

zakblood_slith wrote:please read the latest and most up to date information on IOS

http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtop ... 10&t=76866

Emoni wrote:

zakblood_slith wrote:please read the latest and most up to date information on IOS

http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtop ... 10&t=76866

I believe I read this already, unfortunately. Pretty unacceptable considering there was notice of the 32bit to 64bit switch for years now. Deeply disappointed and feeling betrayed as a longtime customer of Slitherine and will NOT be forgetting this. I am not excusing the poor choice by Apple, but on the Dev side, this could have been handled.

pipfromslitherine wrote:Notice is not the issue. Being expected to put everything else on hold, rewrite large chunks of a codebase, remaster+retest+deploy more than a dozen SKUs. Many man-months (if not -years) of work, all because Apple decided to pull support.

Cheers

Pip

CarlVS wrote:

JagdTiger700 wrote: The future is portable systems which are not tethered and don’t need a specific monitor/television to use like desktops/video game systems and can be used while not plugged in using up electricity unless recharging...they just need controller attachments and the iPad has one but can’t be used while a case is on, they could possibly design one.

As soon as you can do something of the complexity level of War in the East / West / Pacific on an iPad, then we can talk about how it is the "future" of computer war-gaming...

proline wrote:

pipfromslitherine wrote:Notice is not the issue. Being expected to put everything else on hold, rewrite large chunks of a codebase, remaster+retest+deploy more than a dozen SKUs. Many man-months (if not -years) of work, all because Apple decided to pull support.

Cheers

Pip

There's really two types of developers out there.

1) Those who take great pride in their software and always update it for the latest tech. They follow best practices coding in native environments so its always easy for them to add in support for new APIs or recompile for a new processor architecture. Starcraft has been kept fresh since 1998 (large company) and Nanosaur as well (small company), so being great isn't always about size or money but attitude. All I had to do to make my app 64 bit was download the latest Xcode and hit build.
2) Those who release something, get the bulk of the money, then walk away (e.g. Panzer Corps for Mac which got updated exactly once and is still full of bugs). Since they don't keep things updated their apps seem more and more out of place as time goes on. They get buggy. These guys don't program natively but instead use cross platform tools that lower everything to the lowest common denominator. You won't see these guys use Apple's great new tech like Swift, Metal, or SpriteKit until 10 years later when everyone has an equivalent.

Apple does things like cut 32 bit support which makes the devs in category 2 suffer. Some of them will walk away from their product, as Slitherine has, but others will give in and start acting more like category 1. They'll start using native languages and APIs not because they want to, but because they've learned that if they take the easy road Apple will burn them at some point. I've seen so many things updated recently for the first time in 5 years and as a user it's wonderful! As a user I want Apple to pressure developers to be the best they can be. If that pressure makes 5 mediocre developers step up their game but makes 1 walk away, I consider that a huge win. With a million iOS apps out there, I don't need quantity, I need quality, and Apple is forcing developers to create quality even if what they really want is to make a quick buck on a lousy port of their Windows game.

So that's why people aren't mad at Apple, they're mad at the people who couldn't find time between 2013 and today to update their app because that would be a lot of work because the app was made with lowest common denominator tools that themselves aren't updated and so on, so forth.

DonCzirr wrote:After soaking all this in over time, I'm not too surprised about Slitherine's stance.

IOS = Many platform headaches - difficulties in making good profits in a freemium dominated market.

Consoles = less platform headaches - greater opportunity for profit on each game.

On the other hand, we see IOS success stories not only from high profile products such as XCOM and Rome Total War but also from small, indie type developers like the Trese Brothers who have only 2 or 3 people in the company.

As it stands, I only visit and pay attention to Slitherine occasionally these days.

Not because I'm mad or I'm being spiteful but because my personal circumstances makes mobile gaming much more convenient and suitable for my recreation time - and Slitherine does not seem to be making any moves to make their products Windows Surface device friendly etc ...

It is more than possible portables will be the future of computing because the tablets are mobile and can be taken to a cabin near the beach or woods and some can play their games

So - what happens in such cases? They go their way - I look for other vendors, wish them well and stop in every once in a while to see if they dip back into the Mobile market with something interesting ....

http://www.zdnet.com/article/batterygate-apple-betrayed-its-customers-and-now-it-faces-a-world-of-hurt/

http://bgr.com/2017/09/25/iphone-8-plus-case-needed-drop-test-oof/

https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/900500/Apple-bug-Meltdown-Spectre-security-flaw-Mac-iPhone-iPad-intel-chip-macOS

On the multiple occasions over the years where Apple has done something to attract negative attention from the press, their fanbase is always ready to defend.

https://9to5mac.com/2017/12/01/64-bit-mac-apps/

https://www.fastcompany.com/40453643/what-the-end-of-32-bit-support-in-ios-11-really-means

But based on data from app analytics firm Appfigures, anywhere from 2% to 19% of the App Store catalog could still be incompatible with Apple’s next software update.

The stragglers include roughly 45,000 apps that haven’t been updated since May 2012, when Apple started supporting 64-bit iOS software. An additional 425,000 apps haven’t been updated since June 2015, when Apple started requiring all new apps and app updates to include 64-bit support. That adds up to 470,000 apps at risk; as for the quantity that won’t ever go 64-bit, “I’d make an educated guess and place the number at around 200,000 to 250,000 apps, based on upgrade patterns,” says Ariel Michaeli, Appfigures’ founder and CEO.

From the data alone, it’s hard to find notable examples of apps that are going away. Michaeli says that around 30% of the 470,000 apps he looked at are games, the most popular of which have either been replaced by newer versions or are mere copycats that piggybacked their way to brief App Store success. And in a list of 75 outdated apps with at least at least 100,000 user ratings, only one–Epic Games’ original Infinity Blade–caught my eye as a profound loss. (Epic did not respond to a request for comment.)