ANOTHER LONG (and un-cheery) POST
Much gratitude,
@Hekata, for posting Inno's latest carefully worded Marketing-speak non-solution. As my Gran used to say, though: "Fine words butter no parsnips," and I don't buy this latest attempt to pass the situation off as in some way necessary OR manageable as-is. Not buying ANY of it.
The consequences of adding 15 KP value to Runes were by no.means unforeseen, IMO. Inno plans way ahead, in depth, as do all large companies. They run projections of the effects of proposed changes. That's just basic.
And while I doubt that the
precise changes we're seeing now were
specifically planned to followthe Runes-AWKP bonanza, as such, I'd imagine something similar WAS envisaged, back when Runes were suddenly so highly valued ~ out of the blue, as an allegedly motiveless 'goodwill gesture'.
On the contrary, I think it was always a poisoned chalice. I'm too fed up to elaborate here ~ I did write a long exposition on the revaluation at the time, which I'm too weary to dig up now, but mine wasn't a popular view because most people were honestly delighted, seeing it as an example of no-strings Inno generosity
with no future downsides (not at all typical of Inno), and who can blame them? Not I.
I would imagine that the remarkably high valuation of formerly worthless Runes was, in fact,
intended to open up a number of potential future strategies on Inno's part, not least because many players naturally took the chance to [relatively] fast-level centrally important AWs, as hadn't previously been possible via normal play. And NOW we're told that by doing that ~ i.e. exactly what one would expect players to do with a sudden large influx of free AWKPs ~ we have 'unexpectedly' acquired many AWs which are considered by Inno to be artificially high in level/trivial in challenge... hence 'unbalanced'... hence
now needing to be 'fixed' via the Draconian slowdowns & cost increases which we're now stuck with. Riiight, sure, none of the spreadsheeters extraordinaires at Inno could have seen THAT one coming... *
Slow hand clap*.
As for trashing our most valuable stored Culture/Event/Premium buildings, which many of us worked hard to win (in Events, FAs, etc.), to Craft (via considerable Spire diligence), or to outright buy, and which I, for one, have been strategically upgrading using RRs precisely BECAUSE they're rare and excellent pieces which I saw as a lasting investment of my time & effort (and in some cases a core part of my City build)... hey, just Frag 'em unused, or sell 'em for a tiny one-off sum of RRs which (a) were introduced in order to
preserve those very buildings, by means of upgrading, and which (b) won't even compensate, over time, for the sold items' loss.
But. It's certainly a great way to get rid of our stocks of superior older buildings, hm, so then we'll HAVE to resort to grinding (or spending on...) Events etc. to gain newly introduced inferior current & future equivalents... while neatly avoiding the thorny problem of directly nerfing the old classics. The cynicism is real.
Again, though, and while anyone can tell that I'm seriously fed up, even in Ch.15 and with useful stocks to trash (
IF I do so...), what of newer Cities? They very much NEED those Event & Crafted buildings they can even get hold of, these days... each one is still very useful to a newer City.
They don't have several e.g. Lava Eggs, or Goddess of Wishes, or Genies, or probably ANY Magic Res/Workshops, etc. And if they win a couple in the increasingly demanding Events/Seasons, or manage to Craft a few, are they just meant to rapidly trash them to pay for levelling their AWs? Where's the fun, let alone the justice, in that?
And speaking of Seasons. Three days running I've had the always tiresome, but now extremely troublesome, "Produce Vision Vapour" Daily Quest, and once the Weekly version, too. HOW to do that?!
I used to Craft daily, so my Spell Fragments balance was usually about 8-10K (that's with weekly Silver Spire & approx..monthly Gold + 2 x Moonstone Sets). Now I can rarely Craft at all... and that's not only a good chunk of my City strategy gone, but of my FUN, too. No more Crafted Time-boosters, Lava Codex, Artifacts, 50/25% Troop Regeneration Instants (name evades me ATM)... even Pet Food & 5-day Troop-Boosters will be difficult.
Inno placed Crafting very centrally in the wider strategic game. Now what? It's not only AWs which are at stake here.
At the start of the current Spire I had only 900 Fragments left, thanks to those infuriating Seasons demands, and at present, 2/3 through the Spire, I have about 5,000 Frags. But some of the present Event's Quests will demand VV, of course (+ more Seasons Quests, I'm sure), and anyway, the few AWs I want to own are already mostly at or near L.30, so... yeah. Very funny.
But never mind me; I can survive, albeit by adopting a glacial and tedious playstyle, without even the satisfaction of being able
usefully to help up-and-coming players to advance. What chance do those new Cities have or even many mid-gamers, if I ~ after hoarding Resources for
4+ years ~ am effectively stymied?!
On another note, I'm also wondering how on Earth we're going to make Arcane Residues in FAs, and soon enough how we'll even do Wonder Society Badges, too, once most of every FS has a mass of full AWs. Start spamming KP onto unsuspecting Neighbours? Oh, that'll go down well... :/
Seriously, the knock-ons of this disaster are going to keep chaining like dominoes. Inno's obvious reliance on too-broadly averaged cross-playerbase stats, coupled with how few, if any, of the management don't play the real, not
merely simulated, game, has always led to decisions being made which look great on paper but which are terrible in actual played Cities, but this one takes the cake.
I'm off to calm down. I can't
believe they're just sticking to this dreadful plan... unchanged, unmitigated.
Any brainwaves about how to keep doing anything much in-game
except just grinding Spire/Tourney/Events (in a
City building game...) are very welcome! I'm fresh out of ideas.
Wow, I am fed up. Apologies for the unmitigated gloom.
[Please excuse any typos... too tired to proofread]
