DeletedUser30312
And I think therein lies the fundamental problem that's got people so up-in-arms about this whole thing: if you want a snowball's chance in hell of being successful in this game, the only way to do it is to dump hundreds of dollars into it. You want watchfires/ritual flames? You want a complete blueprint set for GBs in a reasonable time frame? You have to spend your actual money to the point of possibly putting yourself in a tight spot financially. Algona, as correct as you are in what you've said, you're an exception.
Wrong.
I haven't spent a dime on this game, and I'm quite successful. I seldom get threatened by other players, I'm usually in the neighborhood top 5, and I gladly farm the other neighbors when I get a chance. I've even farmed people who were clearly big spenders in the early ages, those who loaded their cities down with toms of premium buildings, including roads. As I level, these players get less common, and the big spenders aren't the ones who buy premium buildings that will eventually be obsolete, but rather powerful buildings that can be earned during events. F2P requires some amount of patience, but that means not rushing through the early stages of the game and learning how the game works and how to optimize one's play. I've read advice both here and on the wiki, I've watched videos on YouTube and so on and learned the various strategies to improve my gameplay. There isn't necessarily a "best" way of doing things, but there are a number of optimal and suboptimal approaches to the game, and being successful means learning what those are.
It also means finding an active guild that actually bothers to help its players by creating FP swap threads for GBs, actively trading, and maybe making an actual effort at guild activities like GvG or especially GE. If you're in a guild that doesn't actively trade, where there's no common threads for basic FP swapping, where the leaders are inactive and don't unlock the higher levels of GE and don't clean out the other inactive members that slowly build up in the guild, then no, you're not going to advance. A decent guild makes all the difference. Oh and BTW, Ritual Flames don't require any spending to acquire since you can only get them in the GE, and guess what you need here? A good guild, not a fat credit card.
Getting that first GB can be a bit tricky (not counting the Oracle), but once you start building them, it gets easier, especially if you have people helping you level the GBs. By swapping FPs with each other, not only does your own GB level, but you have the chance to profit from the other players' GBs when they level. That's an important source of BPs. It's generally best in a new city to guild hop a few days and gather BPs by aiding until you have enough to build to build at least the Zeus or LoA, but even if a new player doesn't do that, they can still use the Oracle in a decent guild to swap FPs until they've build better GBs. By aiding other players regularly, and it helps to have a good guild here and a well-developed list of friends, you can slowly gather the BPs. A pretty good guild can also help you acquire the goods you need, especially with the higher level GBs with powerful effects.
So no, don't start whining that I'm a whale and that it's so unfair to you because to put it bluntly, you're playing sloppy. Slow down, learn how the game works, improve your strategy and make strategic alliances.
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