I'm with
@Pauly7 on this. I've been the 'Badge-counter' for our FS (currently in ~13th place; we're non-hardcore, but also far from casual). It's been the case, throughout the FA so far, that although the slower Badges are still semi-important - such as Blacksmiths' and, especially now that 10 productions are needed, Farmers' as a secondary concern - the whole pace and progress of the FA has been more or less reliant upon (for us) primarily Arcane Residue Badges and secondly Bracelets, with both of these being painfully slow to come in, despite several of us needing to spend a
lot of Resources (CCs, Fragments, Time Boosters) on often-unwanted Crafts in the MA, and also using many (I feel
too many) MM Spells on our T1 Manufactories.
We're a balanced and competent Top 50 FS, and if we're finding this new type of FA to be a very slow grind (as we are),
solely due to the extreme importance of only two Badges which none of us can easily produce even with (in some cases) unsustainable Resource spending, I can't imagine how smaller and/or less practised FSs are getting on. I certainly don't feel that the chance that
a few players may resort to Diamond spending (if that really is the aim?) will, in the long run, do much for the overall long-term popularity of the new-format FAs - particularly amongst lower-Chapter/non-full FSs, which I would imagine are having a very bad time with the Arcane Residue Badges, although I believe Bracelets are generally easier in lower Chapters.
In fact, I wonder whether - in spite of mainly negative feedback on Beta and Live Servers about the Arcane Residue and Bracelets - whether the current in-game sale offers (below), which are different from previously offered FA Badge packs, may indicate that the developers don't realise which Badges are proving to be the most problematic? Our FS certainly has no need to purchase any of the Badges currently being offered, and although I'm not endorsing the cash sale of the two 'bottleneck' Badges as an appropriate workaround, I'm very surprised that they don't feature at all. I would imagine that the Enchanted Tiara might be quite difficult for early-Chapter Cities with no or low-level Magic Academies and few Relics or Tourney Provinces, but not as difficult for any City, early or otherwise, as the Arcane Residue. The other Badges offered are, of course, the
formerly more difficult Badges - again, perhaps useful to very early Cities, but for the average player, no longer an obstacle compared with Residue/Bracelets. It seems an odd selection.
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