To the Devs....Nice job on the Fatesands!

I wanted to start a thread to congratulate the devs on a job well done on the new Fatesands lands.

In every aspect of the new lands, from land and building costs, stats, plunder increases and accessibility, the devs have hit the mark. I think some recognition is due for what is clearly the best major update to the game I've seen since I started playing. Credit where credit is due.

WELL DONE DEVS!

I'll detail my reasons below, but first:

Those who know me know that I've been playing a long time, coming up on my 9 year badge and having started when T3 were the biggest buildings around and thre were only lowlands. I've seen every set of new lands come out, pws come and go, the introduction of Ebs, mith, charms, the EE system and everything in between. I've been selectively critical in forums over the years in forums, not being one to curse and yell at the devs or threaten to rage quit, or even feel it worthwhile to post at all. But over the years my feelings toward changes have ranged from quite negative to lukewarm, with the greatest disappointment coming at the introduction of charm system. I've never been a dev fanboy.

It's actually a huge shame that charms remain a terrible addition to the game, that charms needed to be capped after so many spent lots of real money building them up only to have them rendered relatively worthless, and they necessitated the early introduction of new lands to deal with the huge inbalance in strength created by charms compared to build stats.

But the new lands are awesome!

Here's why:

Cost

The early lands are more accessible at relatively smaller prices than ever before. Lands can be bought by relatively small players deep into the land set. The use of crestplates is well-structured so that it doesn't take that many crestplates to build up buildings through the early stages of Ugs where most of the cs for the buildings resides.

This means that for a large majority of players in the mid stages of their builds from previous lands, fatesands are very much accessible and can be initially developed at relatively low cost and effort. The last lands and levels will remain a challenge with their cost being so prohibitive that it will require long term activity and/or spending to reach them, if they're ever worth building. This will serve to separate the biggest players from the smaller ones.

Also, the lower cost of the lands, along with the availability of crestplates means that gold can be usefully spent on allies rather than making ally trading something that only makes sense once one has reached bc. It's good for the overall health of the game to encourage much wider participation in the ally market as a way to diversify the gaming experience.

Stats

Overall, the stat increases from old bc to new bc are on a par with previous lands more or less. What is new is that there is no longer a cs “penalty” for building towers. Finally, towers offer the same total cs as troop and spy buildings. This encourages better war builds since fewer total building will need to be devoted to towers to achieve the same defensive effect compared to previous lands.

Plunder

The plunder increases on Ebs are lower than on previous land sets. The biggest builds have less of an advantage in terms of total plunder, both on pvp plunder and plunder on Ebs. This keeps wars more competitive, and prevents big builds from running away from the pack as quickly by dropping tons of seals. This is good for the long term health of the game, both for growing towards the final lands and levels (which can't be uged with crestplates) and keeping the ally market relatively stable.

Case study: Wars

The top tier Indy wars of all sorts have made the above benefits apparent. In past land releases, wars have been ruined as a few players got to BC and ally LB early and completely dominated the war circuit, while smaller builds got left behind and were forced to dive bomb the one or few big builds that dominated. This style of war was fun for exactly no one.

Now, the top builds in cr are all reasonably even, without just one player completely dominating. But the real diffrence can be seen in the mid range of the roster and the smaller players in the top bracket. They have actually closed the gap on the bigger players given the accessibility of fatesands lands and Ugs. Most of the serious players in wars have built up their towers quickly to the point where they aren't all food for the biggest members of a roster or forced to dive. Further, the plunder of mid and smaller warriors can make a difference to the final tally rather than just using their bars as bomb fodder.

SERIOUSLY DEVS GOOD WORK!!!!