Well, I've unlocked the Ancient Wonders on the Tech Tree.
What.
A.
Joke.
I am being forced into playing in a way I do not want to.
To build the AW, I need at least 9 shards. To get a shard, I need to complete an entire province. So that's 9 provinces. At least.
If the shards I get shatter, or keep shattering, it could mean I have to do anywhere from 9 to 30 provinces just to build the AW.
So, my only real option is to rebuild armouries, rebuild the army, and fight.
Those of you who don't know, I deleted my armouries and put my barracks on hiatus due to the highly faulted and unfair fighting system... I do not wish to use the fighting system.
I am now being forced into reactivating my barracks and rebuilding the armouries.
Apparently Quests pay shards as well. But none of the declinable quests I have pay shards.
Currently have a quest in place as well asking to upgrade dust and an armoury. So yet again, I also now have to do this quest which I didn't want to do, just to hope that a quest appears that will pay shards... so I can have the AW.
I thought the Wiki said I can build my city and play the way I want to.
This new feature is making the game feel like a channelled path... "you will play like this, then do this, then do this... or you will hit a deadend and progress will halt."
Along with the crappy looking border on the map, this addition makes me know now that the developers have not actually played the game at all. If they had, they certainly wouldn't be implementing game-play styles that are against the player's wishes... in a game that says you can build however you want to.
There needs to be a serious overhaul on this addition on how shards are gained, on how the AW costs you your Boosts on your tier 3 goods... and a serious overhaul on the quests system too while we're at it.