I will play devils advocate here as probably the most knowledgeable on the subject.
Let me tell you about my current world. I've been keeping track on how many crowns and what i've used them on.
Total crowns used: 11k (6k bought, 5k from previous world)
I'd say roughly 5-6k went on getting my tribe level 11, a very cost efficient purchase which also benefits others, and the rest spent on 2nd Gwen, spinning for res packs 1-3 times a day depending on luck (each of those being a pack of 3)
Those are the only things I can justify spending crowns on anymore. Nothing comes close in terms of cost-efficiency.
Now. I've spent WAY less than some others on the server. I co-op two guys who both bought 10-15 level 30 warehouses when gwen hit. That's a lot of money. Money I didn't have to spend because I was so ahead due to farming.
Where crowns didn't help: crowns didn't send 76000 attacks for farming, that was me. It didn't get me thief of the day every day. They didn't make me the most active player on the server either. There are some truly terrible crowners that show up. I will tell you that they spend as much as me and the results are vastly different.
My point here is that you guys don't have a clue how much people actually spend. If you've never spent money on this game, or no lifed it, then you don't even have a gauge of what realistic progress looks like. So you complain "crowns crowns crowns" as the default reason for defeat.
The gap between those who pay and those who don't has never been bigger. But the gap between those who have no time and those that do has also narrowed as a result.
It means that nerds like me, who once benefitted from high activity and consistency in farming, can no longer bridge the gap between f2p and p2p through farming alone. Those days are over.
And I know this as a fact.
On 106, all of the lead from farming I had was undone in the first Gwen. A tribemate I co-oped who crowns a lot, but doesn't farm, was able to hit the 25% res packs and catch up to the amount of coins I'd minted. That was a lot of farming. And I don't mean by your metric of lots being "I logged in and sent 10 attacks ok bye for 6 hours and send 10 more", I mean, 50 attacks running from all villages at all available hours of the day. Every day. For multiple weeks.
Now with the packs I don't need to farm anymore. I can't justify the effort. Farming is tedious and the one benefit of the res packs is that they make it so that those without the time to farm can easily match the most active farmers. That genuinely is a benefit. Not one that benefits me either! I want my commitment to the game to be rewarded.......... but it isn't anymore. You've got to pay to compete.
... 2 weeks pass between first Gwen and 2nd Gwen.
In that time my lead has established again (high consistency farming - remember), only to be undone by them buying 15 level 30 warehouse and hitting res packs. Only this time, my lead from farming made it so I had lots of villages already set up with high warehouses. So essentially, I farmed a fock load which was instantly undone during Gwens, but that gap was mitigated due to how much I farmed.
That's the difference in the state of the game now. There is simply no way for you to compete with someone who crowns res packs. The gap is astronomical.
For example, right now, on 106 I can activate one single res pack and get 36m res. I am telling you this as a fact: 99% of players won't have even farmed that this server. Do you know how many commands that is. You're talking weeks of no-lifing to hit that kind of farm.
That's the difference these days. I used to pride myself on my ability to outfarm crowners. Those days are over.
But, it also means that the barrier to compete has never been lower. You don't need to invest time into the game anymore, only money. That's kinda "healthy" for the game in a way, because it means that more people can obtain greater map impact, rather than just be irrelevant players who take 2 months to come online and be useful. As someone who is always ahead of the curve, it's tedious waiting for tribemates to get up to speed.
Like, if you're already full nuked up and running trains and your tribemate is like "I just need 3 more months to prepare
", there should be less of that.
Farm a lot, hit the res packs cost efficiently, and you're a strong AF player who really didn't pay "that" much (that being the noobs estimate of what it really takes to compete at the highest level)
You are arguing for a subscription-based model. It's funny. The game has never been closer to subscription-based. Simply pay Gwen on her 2nd appearance. It'll cost you a lot more than a subscription to an MMO.......... but I would argue it is a small cost to have the world at your fingertips. In my case anyways
Anyways that is my case study. !!!!!!!
From THE expert
