StratSketch Blog

StratSketch is getting sharper maps, smoother drawing, and a fresh look.

• Ultra HD maps: World of Tanks and Blitz maps have much more detail when you zoom in. The Blitz maps had not been updated in years due to difficulty finding minimaps. I've finally created a new process to extract and upscale them!
• Smoother drawing: Drawing feels much smoother and more natural. Your teammates' cursors move more smoothly too.
• New tactical icons: Add tanks, aircraft, artillery, supplies, and more.
• Improved Performance: Performance has been greatly improved! The canvas shouldn't be laggy anymore when large amounts of lines or icons are placed.
• A cleaner interface: Refreshed menus, forms, and tool panels.
• More Onslaught maps: Day and Night variants are available for Sand River, Steppes, Glacier, and Outpost, with updated objectives.
• More control: In case your briefing falls into the wrong hands, owners can use Share → Change Code to replace a briefing's link and disconnect other participants.

We've also fixed a variety of long-standing issues.

Ensk, before and after, demonstrating smoother lines and a better minimap.

I just realized we passed an important milestone this April: StratSketch has been helping gamers plan their strategies for 10 whole years!

What started as a small project for my clan back in 2015 has evolved into what it is today. Hard to believe back then I really had no programming experience – and here we are a decade later, still going strong!

What's New Today:

Speaking of evolution, I've made a small update today.

All the onslaught maps have been updated and I've added something that everyone has been requesting...

... yes, points of interest are finally on the map!

Thank you to everyone who has used StratSketch over the years. Happy gaming!

Hello everyone,

As of today, the new and improved version of StratSketch has been launched!

This new version is the result of over a year and a half of work to completely rewrite StratSketch from the ground up. It now has better performance, more features, and a new look.

What’s new:

• HD Maps (4x quality of in-game maps)

• New games

• Upload your own images

• Slides can have different maps

• Folder organization for briefings

• See recent and shared briefings

• Online count in briefing list

• Briefing organizer and slides show a real image of them

• More icons

• Can select items

• Can change color or style of items after placing them

• EVERYTHING is realtime (lines, shapes, etc are shown as you are building them)

• Cursors show who is editing

• Undo/redo supported for everything

• Bases are shown when selecting a map (and the icons are better)

• Improved text tool (alignment, inline editing added)

• Can see who has editor access to briefing (even if they are not currently online)

• Adjustment points show how items can be edited (e.g. moving points of a line)

In short, almost everything that has been suggested over the years has been added.

While I have tested the new version thoroughly, I haven’t been able to test it with thousands of users online yet, so there may be some hiccups in the coming days to resolve. If you find any issues, please send me an email right away and I’ll get to work fixing it. Please include as much detail as possible about the issue (pictures and videos help a lot).

Translations

The previous version of had support for 18 languages. With all of the new text in this version, I need help translating the application into additional languages. If you speak another language fluently and can help with this, please get in contact! It only takes a few hours to translate the files to make StratSketch accessible to gamers around the world.

Donations

I started StratSketch back in 2014 as a tool for my team to use for sharing strategies in World of Tanks. It’s evolved over the years from a desktop application to a modern web app. This new version was even more complex than ever and requires a lot of resources to keep it running as a free service for what will soon be a decade. If you are able to contribute, any donations are greatly appreciated to help pay for the server and bandwidth costs.

Enjoy the new version!

Hi everyone,

The next version of StratSketch is now about 85% done! This has taken a bit longer than I was hoping, but it is a side project (for now) and I'm only able to work on it during my spare time.

So far almost every feature from the existing version of StratSketch has been rebuilt from the ground up with more modern technology and performance in mind. In addition to that, I have added many new features that the community has been asking for over the years. Only one major feature remains, which I hope to have wrapped up in the coming weeks.

After that, it will be time for thorough testing and also working on the new server system that will be able to support increased traffic. I will also need to convert all of the existing briefings over to the new version. I am thinking all of the remaining tasks will take 2-3 more months, but the end is finally in sight.

Lastly, Thank you to everyone who has made a donation, it will go greatly towards supporting the server costs.

StratSketch 2.11 for World of Tanks 9.9 has been released. In this update, many small features have been implemented, and many bugs have been fixed. All of the maps are now in much higher quality.

New Features:

• Briefing creators or editors can now transfer all users to a new or existing briefing.
• Briefings can be protected for added security. Protected briefings cannot be copied or favorited.
• Map screenshots are now in much higher quality.
• The 0-9 keys can now be used to select tools.

Bug Fixes:

• All users will no longer see themselves as a different rank when one user's rank changes.
• Map spawn points and versions have been corrected.
• The briefing description is no longer hidden behind the map if it is more than two lines.
• Fixed how StratSketch displays on high DPI screens. (Includes fix for "broken" shape and text items.)

As always, if you have any suggestions or comments, check out the StratSketch thread on the World of Tanks forums.