Resource changes

Well, you knew this was going to explode, so here it goes...

First, I understand that the resource amounts were higher than planned, it allows us to advance faster in order to playtest thoroughly. But currently gold was a major limiting factor, and by reducing it by around 2/3s does not make sense. Here is my logic:

1. All research and most buildings (I think) require a larger amount of gold than other materials (with the exceptions of resource buildings it appears). For example Lich;s Library requires 76k of gold while other resources are much lower. This is a built in sink for gold, if you are more limiting on production than the other resources this make it even more difficult to achieve.

2. The economy of the game will crash. Gold now will be far more precious than the other resources, and since the only currency of the game is gold, why would you waste it on something you can make twice as fast?

3. Casual players will drop out. If combat is not something you have time for, and you will have to do a LOT more of it to compensate for the gold loss on production, then the game will be frustrating for them. Imagine having to log in every 5 hours or so for over 11 days to get enough gold to research Lich's Library... And that is necessary for you to expand your gold smelter from 17 to 18 (while only seeing a change of 10 gold per hour???)

4. Last, gold from combat is not that great. I ran several combats on normal and one of them did not recieve enough to heal the unit. 2 units usually netted around 100 gold on a win, and now it was more like 60 with some other resources thrown in. One combat on hard gave me 150 gold profit, another lost me 2 units, since even with a flank bonus, hvy infantry will wipe out 2 lt inf with no problem, and in so doing, it becomes a HUGE loss of gold, resources, and time (both were elite) Why would we fight hard or nightmare with experienced troops then? It would be much more sensible to hire new units and use them instead of better units that you can lose. That combat gave me 336 gold, and it didn't cover replacing the 2 units and healing the other 3. So again, combat is not worth the risk since the reward is so low. Now I KNOW crafting is coming, but you have to see what I mean here..

Even though it looks like I have a huge amount of time to play, I don't. I have the ability to log on at work to cash in the resources, maybe run a combat or two. At home I have a family, and am on call for patients, so again, not time to spend playing all day. When Zep and I took the dark capital it was a day off that I had to myself, so its the exception to the rule. I am not going to be able to do 40+ combats a day to suppliment my gold to make it comparable to the production of the other resources.

Please expand on this players, we need everyones perspective here, even if it does not align with my own. We as the audience need to feel the game is balanced and playable to each of our styles and abilities. Weign in on the gold issue and lets see who else thinks the devs went all Scrooge on us, right before xmas...

Burn the devs to the ground!!!

As I said I was free until 17th to Fight and do what not. Work Schedules creep up at unexpected times. Now currently also in the process of moving houses. So I don't have as much time to be on. I try to logon from where I am at, but again that is a limiting factor (Not possible everywhere I go.)

I calculated the gold required to go from level 16 -> level 17 Smelter and it would take 97.xxx Hours for me to accumulate that much gold if I am not fighting. Even when I am fighting I am not gaining as much as I would like. I cannot keep fighting like the time when I was free and had nothing to do all week long.

I for sure cannot keep on logging every 4 hours to collect resources in those 97.xx Hours. So this is going to be a bad thing in my opinion. If you want to offer an incentive to Battle it could be the Items, but taking away the Resource Production doesn't make sense to me.

Contrary to what I have done in this game, I am strong proponent of not fighting until I have built up all my resources, then done all my researches, and then have army trained, and then I am ready to fight. But the way things stand currently my Strategy is completely gone awry. I have to either keep fighting daily for at least 10-20 Battles and make some gold to keep Gold Up, or not make enough gold. I employ same strategy whether am playing Warcraft III/FT or AoE/AoM, have initial defenses up but only defenses, not to strike back. Build first and build fast and then make an army once everything is researched. Right now just to unlock the Heavy Infantry I need about a week or more. That is just for Armorsmith Level 10 & the Chain Mail Research. Not counting Barracks level 7-8-9-10. Why would I need Heavy Infantry? Well in Normal I don't make as much gold, and when I enter the Battlefield with multiple units in Hard, I am paired against Heavy, so it makes sense to have Heavy on hand before going in for Hard Battles.


Besides all this, the lower level players (my friends who are lower leveled) initially told me it wasn't worth fighting for them at the beginning as the costs of healing were higher than what they were making. So they were waiting to build up and reach comfortable levels for all buildings. Now with production rate dropped so low. My friend told me he quit the game... as it will take him days / perhaps weeks to get to where I am currently, as he is still unable to fight and bear the costs of healing after the fights.

I don't want to burn any of the voices! I don't want to call them any names. I would like to request, that either healing costs be lower for lower leveled players, or rewards be based upon level or just get the Production Rates back to where they were. This is going to turn a lot of people inactive.... If you want to offer an incentive to battle you already have Items. That is incentive enough.

Thank you!