I’ll start by saying I‘ve been playing since before GBG. It didn’t do anything to speak up before - I tried. But now the new changes will further penalize all leagues except for diamond. Think about it - the lower leagues have always paid the same cost for buildings but the rewards were greatly diminished. So more cost = fewer rewards. At diamond, you get 10 fps, 25 diamonds, 50 goods, etc. at platinum, you get 7 fps, 20 diamond, 40 goods, etc. The rewards significantly reduce each level you go down. But you still have to pay 3000 goods for a siege camp. And your siege camp doesn’t go as far - less advances means you have to build siege camps more often. Now we will have new building costs that most smaller guilds can’t afford. The answer from beta players is the little guilds need to build themselves up. How? The game is structured to keep them down in the lower levels. If copper league was getting 10 fps, etc. wouldn’t they be able to advance faster (assuming they want to get into the constant clicking of a high powered GBG)? Why isn’t there a relationship between how much it costs and how much you get?
You do have some legitimate criticism here, but let me try to offer some consolation:
1) The rewards from GBG are going to be much less important over the next year. Not because of the GBG changes either (you'll still be able to farm there plenty if you care). But because the new event buildings have been off the hook crazy, and the more of them you get, the less it matters how much you farm in GBG. People who play events actively are going to have cities putting out 5k FP and 10k goods a day before too long just from collection. Without playing the stupid swapping clicker minigame bullshit that the player base has turned GBG into. This effectively frees you up to do as much or as little in GBG as you care to without worrying about falling hopelessly behind.
2) So circling back to GBG, lets say you still want to compete there on some level because you need it as a reason to continue developing your city (kinda my view on things). Let's also say your guild has no interest in becoming a big guild (I certainly have no interest in being in one). How has the situation changed for you? My impressions, based on where you are:
- Not so competitive - Low Platinum and down: No change from before. You don't need to build buildings yet at all! You need to build up your attrition ceiling and activity level. Despite needing less advances, sectors don't flip too fast because the average guild isn't that active - and requiring less advancements, you should be able to just take a sector a day for every 1-2 participating members you have *with no attrition reduction*. Somewhere around 1-2 sectors a day should keep you in low platinum, ready for the next step.
- Competitive in High Platinum: Here you start to need your treasury if your guild is small (if your guild is big, you still don't). But you don't need the new expensive HQ buildings yet really as the winner of a platinum round usually simply controls most of the map - noone else is close in the standings to need the VP boost, and you won't be back in HQ to need the attrition reduction next to it beyond the very first sector which you can just use attrition to power through instead. So you can stick to the "normal" buildings that are as cost-efficient as siege camps were. Apart from a rare round where there's two guilds seriously vying for first (and i do hope that's more frequent with the changes to diamond), it's pretty natural to build up your capabilities here still if you want to with both a stronger treasury and stronger individual attrition capabilities playing significant roles. Attrition capability will play a larger role now that you cannot make sectors "free" - and that's a good thing - it's better to send the guild with 10 fighters with moderate attrition capabilities to diamond than to send the guild with 1-3 active fighters using a strong treasury to take over the map with free fights.
- Outclassed in Diamond: In rounds where you're sewed into your HQ, you merely have to build the HQ building *once* and can fight to get out at reduced cost for the whole season. 75k goods is a lot for the best version, but it's not unreasonable for a guild of ~10 players to afford that with well developed treasury buildings. You might not be able to afford it every season *now*, but it's something you can work towards. Unlike before being outclassed in diamond is not really a reason to avoid diamond so you should try to get into this situation if you can - and just build your HQ building and do what you can. You are at least not fighting uphill against the stronger guilds who have full attrition reduction while you have none - but they are after all still stronger - so how much progress you can make is an open question, but at least you're being given the foundation to try. Which gives you a more natural transition to:
- Semi-competitive in Diamond: The difference between the previous group and this one in times past was pretty much entirely diplomatic. You're still not strong enough to really compete in the diamond groups, but stick around in diamond most rounds by sucking up to the guilds that control the map. The new difference is that since being HQed isn't as large a punishment, you may be able to more credibly fight for your right to stick around now once you get a little stronger rather than begging for it. Also the somewhat weaker guilds helping keep you sewed in may run out of attrition to do so and slow down over the day to give you a chance.
- Competitive in Diamond: The problems in lower groups often stem from the toxic behavior at the top. So while you may not be here yet, the changes to what goes on here are still likely to impact you. The biggest problem being "The Cooperative" which arose because most of the desired reward was just from getting fights, and anywhere in the top 4 was "fine" making room for large pat-a-cake cliques that lock out anyone who won't be part of them. One guild can put you back in your HQ, but they can't keep you there. A clique of guilds can keep you there. The guilds that wind up "beached" then start trying to avoid going back to diamond corrupting platinum where guilds stop trying to win and even weaker guilds who don't throw the round get sent up in their place. So what's changed : a) If you want the newest bestest GBG reward, you're going to have to take *1st* almost every round. Not just top 4. So if you're a guild that gets designated in the not-1st camp but feel you deserve it you have reason to fight the cooperative. And that's the guild that has the most ability to do so - not the hanger-on that just got promoted from platinum, but the would-be-2nd-place guild. b) Farming isn't endless. Most guilds are not going to be able to handle every 4 hour flips with increased fights per sector and 20% attrition minimum. So you don't need to coop to maximize fights - attrition should mostly limit fights. c) Every sector can have max attrition reduction - from the things next to HQ to the entire back row. So you don't need to coop from the perspective of keeping other guilds fighting capabilities maximized. They can hit at 80% reduction as long as they can afford the buildings.
If the diamond leagues are more fun to be in, then the platinum leagues should stop sandbagging and be more competitive trying to win which might trickle down as far as gold still having credible guilds to compete with (ok that might be a stretch, but we'll see!).