Though I agree
@kayleegrrl is only giving advice about the present situation in this case, it's pretty obvious from other posts that she has been defending it, even praising it in other places.
Now don't get me wrong here, there is no reason she shouldn't. If the new system works out for her she's welcome to that opinion. I will not ever agree, but so what?
There's no need to make it different than it is. She's in favor of it, I'm not. She's been defending it, I've been attacking it. Both side will have their own sets of arguments.
@fellonmyownspear does have a point in that it will take forever to get through the game with the new system. I've set up a new world a while after the new system was introduced, because several friends I had invited started and quit within a few weeks. And I'm talking about experienced gamers. I wanted to see what their problem was.
Normally, when you do a game a second time, you can do it better and faster because of what you've learned from the first time around. That sure doesn't work here, only thing that happpens here is you start hitting the roadblocks faster. And that is hugely frustrating for a lot of players.
Edit: it also means there will be many more towns on the map that have reached the 'safezone' where they never will be deleted. People stop because of this, even if they did start playing. Doesn't do any good at all for anyone.
As
@Mykan mentioned above: you have to start more slowly. You also have to progress more slowly. No matter how you look at it, that is a strange set-up, because it means that players who do like the game, especially the citybuilding part, and are willing to spend more time on it are getting stymied.
This is actually the only game I've ever come across where it is NOT encouraged to be an active and involved player and where active players (in my eyes quite correctly) feel they are being punished forbeing so active in the game, by makng it impossible to advance in the normal way (by partly fighting) and are condemned to negotiating.
I'd compare it to martial arts training: if you go in just for sport and train 1x a week, you'll eventually gain your brown or black belt, but it may take 10 years. Someone who goes in 3-4x /week and joins competitions regularly will get there faster and be able to do it in 5. It doesn't make sense to tell him he can't graduate until he's waited 10 years because he is 'practicing too often'.