World Domination Bug: Can't Attack

There are several different bugs that players encounter when trying to fight in World Domination.  With one bug, you can't select an opponent to attack as in the following images:

[Above 2 images were donated by a reader who requested this article.  They DO NOT correspond to the images from Charles below.]


This bug is easy to fix using Charles Proxy.  I assume you know how to use Charles Proxy.


Step 1 - Set Up

Have your Empires & Allies game loaded as well as Charles Proxy.  Make sure breakpoints are set on the "flashservices" subfolder of "http://fb-client-zc.empire.zynga.com".


Step 2 - Find "victims" list

Turn breakpoints on in Charles (red octagon).  In E&A, press the button to enter the main screen of World Domination where you see lists of opponents.  Look for an AMF response (not request) that looks like the image below:

It may help to look for the corresponding AMF request that comes before this.  This request will contain the function "getDominationModeOpponentList".

Turn breakpoints off (red octagon).


Step 3 - Find bugged opponent

Open up the "victims" subtree.  This contains a list of your most recent opponents.  You want to look for the opponent that you are supposed to be able to attack but cannot.  This can be difficult if you have hundreds of opponents.  Usually, the bugged opponent will be your most recent opponent, and usually that player will be the last one in the "victims" list.

In the following image, I've scroll all the way down to find the last opponent.  Verify that this is the correct person by looking at the "name" field.
 

Step 4 - Change status of bugged opponent

The key is to change the "status" field.  In the image above, the status of the bugged opponent is "1".  Change it to either "0" or "2".  Execute the response as well as any other requests or responses that Charles has intercepted.


Step 5 - Finish battle

If you go back to your E&A game, you should find that you can now select the bugged opponent to attack.  Attack the person and finish the battle in order to clear away the bug.  You are now free to continue playing or to refresh the game if you want to feel safe.

If this did not work, then you did something wrong or you have a more serious bug.  In one variation, you can start the battle but cannot actually fight.  In this case, try surrendering.  There are also other bugs that can be fixed using Charles Proxy that I will not discuss in this article but might discuss in future articles.