I see that people are, for the most part, failing to heed my advice to take a step back and consider that there's more to the game than a single AW bonus. If that single bonus is indeed comprising a significant part of your gameplay, then it's too important in the interest of game balance considering there are now 20 AWs with a combined 43 bonuses available. If one of them is deemed more valuable/important than all of the rest combined that it's worth such a tremendous outcry when it gets changed, that speaks to me of being too powerful and in need of that adjustment.
People are speaking of 'losing tens of thousands of goods per day', but perhaps that's a good thing for the overall game. If you can completely trivialize the 'fixed' uses for goods such as building upgrades and research through one AW to the point where an entire chapter's research doesn't even account for a fraction of your goods stock, is that not a game balance problem? I personally don't remember the last time I had a shortage of 'normal' goods for upgrades and research, and that's even without taking full advantage of the bonus. Now, add in all those extra goods in a situation where they're already not really needed for normal gameplay...does that even further illuminate the problem here? The only 'endless' dump of goods is in provinces and tournaments, but it's already been made clear that there's only a certain point one is supposed to advance through provinces without incurring large penalties, and tournaments are essentially all optional anyway that you're kind of just intended to 'spend what you're able' on, with no intrinsic game progress tied to them. At least, this is true for those players with maxed out relic boosts, which is the large bulk of players who were obtaining 'tens of thousands of goods per day'.
Another thing I'd like to clarify is that I never once denied that this change had a negative impact on players who (used to) visit hundreds of cities per day. However, I've said all along that this is a change that affects everyone who owns the AW, and a lot of them are going to benefit even from the current version we now have because a lot of people with this AW are NOT visiting hundreds of players per day. Before you try to debunk my claim, keep in mind that even before this change, there are people with this AW built who only visit their FS members, and/or those with 'golden hands'. Is it unreasonable to think there are a lot of players out there who only return visits to those who visit them (if at all)? I don't think it is, but that might be a crazy concept that those of you who used to 'farm' every available city for the goods bonus are now starting to realize. People who routinely visit 30 or fewer cities per day benefit from this change, provided they have the AW built at all of course.
All that being said, the only way to move forward from here is to support those people offering suggestions on how to improve the current version, if you feel it needs improving. Realistically speaking, protesting isn't going to do anything. A lot of these people boycotting diamond spending, as has been pointed out, either don't spend much of anything in the first place or have already filled their cities with magical buildings and are done with the research tree - in other words, they have nothing to spend diamonds on anyway. Besides that, while people generally refer to them dismissively it's a fact that Inno obtains a large amount of revenue from players who are probably only going to play for a matter of weeks, and never even look at nor learn about the forums. How many people do you think spend 10 dollars or less on the game versus those who spend thousands or even hundreds? Discussion is the way to go here, because protesting isn't going to accomplish what you want, mainly because it lacks the impact required for it to do so. The low-value silent masses are worth more in financial terms than the high-value whales, especially when those whales aren't spending anyway. Protest during the release of a new chapter, boycotting spending diamonds on research and all the new premium buildings and perhaps a protest may have a more meaningful impact.
*sighs*
What you and some others apparently seem to be constantly forgetting is
A - most other wonders do not require one to take any action once placed. As soon as its placed its effect works. The most you have to do is click on it to harvest every once in a while.
This one requires the owner to spend time to realise its potential AND ITS THE ONLY ONE THAT DOES SO.
B - There may be 20 wonders there, but they can't all be build. For most of the players, there's significant fewer than 20 unlocked.
And even if you unlock then all, you still need runes. Getting those is pretty random, so the further ahead one is, the lesser the chance on one for the newer wonders, or in fact for any specific wonder one might want to build. Personal experience shows me that I need 20 runes on average to complete the ring for either building or upgrading that AW,.
And even if you could build them all, there's no way to build them all and still have a working city.
C - Goods are not only used for unlocking tech.
Goods are needed for building, upgrading, buying kps, negotiating on the map, events and in huge amounts for the tournaments.
The main problem with this change is not that its going to provide fewer goods, but that it affects the whole game in an adverse manner in several ways.
1 - the people hurt most by this are the most active players. Its never a good idea to hurt your most active base.
2 - there now is even less incentive to make visits than before. Which means that the newer players, the smaller players, even if they dont have this AW up are being hurt because they wont be visited as often, if at all, by those players around them who do, depriving them of at the very least coins, and if teh visit was done by someone they could visit in return, a second batch of coins and of supplies.
3 - fewer goods around mean fewer goods to trade. Basic economics. So I expect not only the number of trades to decline further, but in some places to have the rates go up as well as some goods will become scarcer than they are now.
4 - lesser participation in tournaments. As before, the most active players are the ones hurt most. Gee....surprise, surpsise...those also tend to be the players who participate in the tournaments most. but if suddenly one loses a lot of income needed for negotiating the tourneys evaporates, the participation rate will drop.
As for the boycot, you might be surprised. The players who bought diamonds regularly do not spend them only on buildings and expansions. So stating that because they got to the end of the techtree they now wouldn't buy them anyway is...well....for lack of another word...a bunch of crap.
And I, just as many other players, would just love to discuss things with Innogames. The problem there is that Inno refuses any kind of discussion, constantly ignores all feedback and suggestions, so there is a decided lack of ways to get them to listen, except refusing to spend money on the game, or quitting.
And the last is not much use. Over the last half year I see more and more pretty highranking players quit, not because the get to the end of the game, but because the constant barrage of changes takes the fun out of the game.
As for this one being overpowered. I might agree to that, though Inno has decidedly failed in providing proof of that, but let that stand. Theres several that are at least as powerful, and they don't require the player to take even a fraction of the trouble to get the bonus.
The Abyss, at only 9 squares, outperforms 2-3 magical residences. The Towers of Prosperity outperforms even the magical workshops, and at a bit higher level even 2 of them. The Maze of Dark Matter not only provides mana, but also greatly reduces the decline, making it possible to store more. The Mountain halls provide a nice pop boost, but also is the only one to make it possible to break the 700% barrier to name a few.
But apart from the Abyss, none of them are available as early as the CL and as I said, there is no other wonder that requires players to take action.
And right there is my other great objection: the lazy player now gets as much as the active one. You think that will encourage people to get active? No, quite the opposite. This AW was the one wonder that actually gave people an incentive to become more active. The way it is changed now will only make sure active players get less active.