This update is horrible! How can you arbitrarily and without any warning decide ancient wonders are mandatory????
- Every Ancient Wonder tech, so far, and been introduced as optional and has then become mandatory a couple of weeks later.
- It's been mandatory on Beta for a couple of weeks
- It was in the release notes that were posted the day before the update
They don't want us to be able to get the specific Rune Shards we need - they want the Rune Shard process to be guide us toward sales.
Now that AW research is mandatory, and now that we have the Advanced Scouting chests and the soft cap on negotiation, the process will be more orderly. By the end of each subsequent chapter folks will have the Rune Shards that they'll need if they want to build an Ancient Wonder.
- You can get Rune Shards by acquiring sector
- You can get Rune Shards from Tournaments
- The Solstice Contest, that's currently on Beta, has Rune Shards (9 at a time) as one of the prizes
If you don't every want any "wrong" shards, then the clean approach would be to make Rune Shards universal. One size fits all. That would eliminate a MAJOR incentive for exploration and doing contests. And, as you point out, if you ARE in a hurry for a particular AW, a FULL Rune Wheel only cost's $13.06, or even less if you've already filled a few of the slots.
Ancient Wonders are the best long-term investment in the game, as they provide PERMANENT buffs without additional Coins/Supplies/Goods every day. They are fancy Cultural Buildings.