This update brings a lot of significant performance improvements across all the features of the site and an entire infrastructure revamp.
However, it does come with some notable caveats and feature removals which will confuse veteran users.
These notes will explain the nuances for the new profile & profile system and the migration paths for deprecated or major features, if any.
Changelog
Here's a non-exhaustive list of changes, categorized by whether they're completely brand-new or related to old pages of the previous version of the website:
New Features
- A custom blog (articles) feature where private guest writers & editors can post content like guides, news articles, and more.
- Various UI/UX, layout, and interaction improvements for intuitive website navigation & usage (like how errors are shown & the new file uploader).
- Better authentication system with support for other providers (GitHub for testing purposes).
- Email linking to allow users to directly download all their data from our global database once they import while logged in with their website account.
- New settings and profile management architecture to bind future features and allow exporting of ALL site data in one button (except pulls).
- New wiki layout with standardized approach to displaying data.
- Query-based routing so that you can share tabs in pages easily (especially for import methods).
- ADMINS & EDITORS: All the game data on this site is now stored in a dynamic database, allowing super quick (essentially real-time) updates to content as soon as things are edited & saved.
Optimizations
- Webpages are now cached to be served almost instantly. In the past, everything had to call the server to work.
- Loading indicators are improved to not block the website loading experience when navigating across pages.
- Stop calculating player pull statistics on every page. It now only calculates when you visit the tracker page. This issue was very obtrusive for players with thousands of pulls.
- Remove reliance on Google Drive due to expensive network requests and super buggy syncing functionality. Read migration guide later in this article for more information.
- Properly space out UI so that advertising materials don't obstruct UI functionality.
- Home page now loads better and doesn't lag with all the animations.
- Less animations in general. Keeping it simple & intuitive is the philosophy now.
Differences Between New & Old Pages and Their Migration Guides
Here are some of the key differences across different pages of the website with any data migration or setup you need to do on your end to use the new features with your old data (if any).
General Layout & Miscellaneous
- REMOVED: Light mode toggle. Supporting it often felt like maintaining a second app, with a lot of quirks and gotchas. Since most you already use Dark Mode, development will be focused there.
- REMOVED: Sidebar layout on desktop due to unstable element resizing issues in other pages.
- REMOVED: The blinking dot beside your profile picture because you don't need to watch the sync status anymore with the new pull backup feature.
- REMOVED: Legacy Import page in favor of the global database and email linking.
- REMOVED: Support & FAQ page in favor of a dedicated article in the future.
- REMOVED: The local backup reminder since it shifts the layout.
- ADDED: Top navigation bar on desktop, hamburger sheet on mobile with more explicit labeling for better navigation.
- ADDED: Website version & "Download Logs" button in the footer for better debug reporting.
- ADDED: Better authentication system with secure cookies and support for multiple OAuth providers in the future.
Home Page
- REMOVED: Small timeline cards in favor of the big timeline.
- REMOVED: Global statistics preview since my implementation right now makes them expensive to calculate and have slow load times.
- REMOVED: Getting started buttons, prefer the hero section button instead for faster onboarding.
- REMOVED: Changelogs, About, Credits tabs in favor of dedicated pages later.
- ADDED: 6 newest articles will be displayed on the home page.
- ADDED: The big timeline view without timezone controls.
Import Tutorial
- REMOVED: Troubleshooting Section in favor of a dedicated page or guide later.
- ADDED: Better tab navigation with query parameters for URL sharing the specific import platform & method.
- ADDED: Linux tab for later.
- ADDED: Better form validation to show errors in the input.
- ADDED: Email link checkbox to allow the user to link their Wuthering Waves player ID to their logged-in website account to upload & download their pulls from our database whenever they import.
Global Statistics
- REMOVED: Frequent data aggregation for older banners, only the newest ones are calculated so far to improve website server performance.
Event Timeline
- No significant changes.
Wiki (Characters, Weapons)
- REMOVED: Integration with pull data because people with lots of pulls experience degraded performance to just see their duplicates. I'm considering moving that elsewhere (like in the tracker page) if there is a high demand.
- REMOVED: A lot of fields in favor of the dynamic database for manually inputting & formatting the data.
- REMOVED: Different grid views to increase performance. I'm highly considering to add the different views if there is a high demand or necessity for it.
- ADDED: Better load times and more consistent layouts across all pages.
Pull Tracker
- No significant changes.
- TO MIGRATE: It should reuse your old data (if you have a profile selected) without issue, otherwise you can link your account in the Profile Settings & download it from our database.
Achievements Tracker
- No significant changes.
- TO MIGRATE: Download your
wuwatracker-profiles.jsonfile and import it in your Profile Settings.
Ascension Planner
- No significant changes.
- TO MIGRATE: Download your
wuwatracker-profiles.jsonfile and import it in your Profile Settings.
Inventory
- REMOVED: The items wiki page no longer allows you to manage the inventory there as it significantly degrades performance. Instead, manage your inventory via the Ascension Planner feature.
- TO MIGRATE: download your
wuwatracker-profiles.jsonfile and import it in your Profile Settings.
Settings
- REMOVED: Pull history data management controls & other settings related to it since we are no longer using Google Drive in favor of direct-database Email Linking.
- ADDED: Explicit profile management buttons based on the active profile.
- ADDED: Implicit legacy import data handling so that you can import old site data versions to new ones.
- ADDED: More tabs to group & describe the settings.
- ADDED: Beta features flag switch for future opt-in experimental features & testing.
- ADDED: Session logs download button that acts the same as the footer download button so that you can export your logs for better issue reports.
- ADDED: Connections (Email Linking) controls.
- ADDED: "Import Pulls" button to import all your pulls from our database based on the linked player ID.
- ADDED: Default "Guest" account for people who never import on the site and just use the site for the other features.
Future Plans
This update marks a turning point, not just for WuWa Tracker, but for the bigger vision I’ve been building towards for the past few months.
WuWa Tracker V4 is the first step in a much larger ecosystem of tools that gacha players can use. The work I’ve done here, rewriting core systems, standardizing layouts, and making features modular, wasn’t just for WuWa Tracker. Look out for announcements regarding that!
In the shorter term, here are my plans for WuWa Tracker:
- Fix critical bugs and patch stability issues quickly.
- Finish porting translations.
- Overhaul the issue reporting & support pipeline.
- Close & halt new feature development until the new website version is relatively stable.
On a more personal note, I want to be transparent: I’m currently in one of the busiest phases of my life. That means I won’t be as active as before, but I’ll still be here, listening, patching, and making steady progress where I can. I deeply appreciate your patience and support as I balance everything. 🙏
Letter From the Developer
WuWa Tracker has come a long way; from a simple pull tracking tool to one of the most-used Wuthering Waves websites in the world.
I couldn’t have done it without all of you, the community, who’ve tested features, given feedback, and supported the site over the past year.
Fun fact: the first public working version of WuWa Tracker went live on June 1, 2024. Since then, it’s seen its share of trials; a nation-wide ISP block, three major rewrites (including this one), and countless iterations and updates. So, belated happy birthday to WuWa Tracker! 🥳
Over the past year, I’ve grown alongside the project. I initially started as a naive React.js developer trying to create a “toy project” with Next.js (the framework that powers WuWa Tracker today). Since then, I’ve worn many hats: Software Engineer, Product Manager, DevOps Engineer, Graphic Designer, Writer, Customer Support, and more. Every role has been a trial by fire, and I’m still learning new things every day to make the website a better experience for all of you: the users.
Juggling academics, an internship, my thesis, other real-life obligations, and actually playing gacha games (despite being a filthy casual 🫠), I’ve realized that the features of WuWa Tracker shouldn’t be exclusive to Wuthering Waves players.
In a world full of extensive gacha mechanics, complex game systems, and short-lived in-game stats, every gacha gamer deserves a "WuWa Tracker" for their own game.
That’s where the fourth iteration of the website comes in. About 70% of the code has been rewritten from the ground up, with a focus on reusability, performance, and sustainability. In layman’s terms, this means the same UI and core functionality can now be used to quickly build modern tools for other gacha games across our network, making high-quality tools more accessible to other gacha gamers around the world - in the fraction of the time it took me to build WuWa Tracker.
Anyways, I hope you enjoy the fresh look of the website. This won't be the last place you'll be able to experience it. Keep an eye out for news regarding that. 😉
May your Convenes continue to be golden evermore, Rover!