If the Goal is player retention, there are many other tweaks that are easier to code and make enjoyment far better... I agree that unlim troop buildup is a bad thing so it needs to be balanced there, but all online games suffer the same fate ..... the Ultra-maniac player will always mess up the the curve so to speak, when trying to keep casual players here and interested.
Since most ppl are far beyond me, in the middle of CH3, let me say.... I avoided a SS increase for 2 weeks, and when I took it... I lost effectively 6 racks of all troops, and my capacity to train was cut by 20%... I'm on way too much, so training 14-16+ hrs a day, and still ... before this increase I trained 1 rack more than I lost last week in Tournament ... and I did 6x6 for 1620 pts..... now I'm training slightly less 1 rack of each if I lose the same amount this week....
Training speed will never keep up with SS increases, so without troop instants, AWs, or Troop bldgs ( which become inneffective it seems after 2 SS increases in a CH, that the Bldg is frozen to ) if a player is chuggn along, and all of a sudden 2-3 SS increases hit them, they really don't wanna wait 1-2 weeks to try and catch up with research for training speed increases.....
IF level'd AWs or AWs themselves also increase the problem, then why have any @ all. You effectively nerf 1 whole aspect of Elvenar.
As far as "exploiting" the rules .... thats just smart gameplay, the problem becomes 1 person figures it out..... then it spreads to 1 FS.... then just like Covid-19, members come/go and soon enuff its server wide.... thus then and only then causing the developers to do something....
Unfortunately, the best source of new revenue to the game is new players, like it or not....because diamonds are NOT a tradeable resource, Elvenar will never benefit from Pay2play players who pay others to do menial tasks and let them concentrate on bigger stuff.... the trade system itself is slanted to older players and really should be revamped....
You don't have to change difficulty to accomidate casual players either..... if a player could spend 4 hrs, 5 days a week and play both Spire and Tournaments.... so for me that equates to 8 hrs to do spire over 2 days 4 hrs each, and 3 days, 4 hrs each to do 2 rounds in tourn .... for my 6 rounds of 6 ...... the casual player that cannot log every 14 hrs for tourn, or 6-8 hr breaks so often in spire so basically just as they get started having fun, it says wait 6-8 hrs....... I guess thats why they give away so many 5 hr time boosters ( thats what I do ).....
Last week with +50% health, I still had to cater the last 2-3 in Tournament, and after I took the SS increase, I don't have the + this week so we'll see how harder it got, but almost any harder and to your average Joe, it would be too hard..... as Im doing better understanding combat. So far that SS increase, did increase Spire cater costs, but not enuff to stop me from @least finishing lvl-2 easily. I did the calc, and I produce 8k/day in resources and the Spire to finish will take on average 30k to cater all the way thru ( if Im on for (6) 3hr productions/day )..... I'd say thats pretty expensive as is..... heh heh.... and I'm making pretty good choices.....
Yes the game needs to be.... non-stagnent to retain older players, not be too hard for new players, increase in difficulty as players get stronger, even adapt itself to player adaptations ...... but if the goal is to get pregressively harder for the sole reason to increase revenue thru troop purchases, then that to me seems counter-productive...
BrinD