This is a lengthy reply. I'm not putting any of it behind spoilers. Just fair notice before you start reading.
Who said it was the game's fault? Did I misread something? Edit: See
https://us.forum.elvenar.com/index.php?threads/why-cant-we-trade-relics.28375/post-229094
Agenda? What exactly do you think I meant? Going by the conversation to that point, BrinDarby appeared to be feeling picked on. You then made a remark about people in the forum being snippy, agreeing with Brin that it needed to be less so, seeming to think that they are being treated unfairly by the apparent disapproval of their style of gameplay. But you then seemed to blame people for asking why something is or isn't - not a "I don't get the quest" kind of question, but more of a "general discussion because I don't know and don't want to make a post in the I&S forum until I do know" question.
Your comments seem to be an attack on a style of gameplay:
but I've misread comments from you before, so it is very likely that this is me not understanding something again. Sometimes the nuance of a language can escape us when we try but don't always succeed in understanding.
I think maybe part of this is that there is no tone to be truly taken away from either of our comments. My statement
was a direct response to the idea that the choices people make in their gameplay, whether they lead to challenges or not, are in fact mistakes. I realize I might not have been clear on that while thinking I was. It wasn't/isn't the first miscommunication I had/have had yesterday/today, and I expect there will be more. I go into each day knowing I will say something "wrong" and have to fix it.
But back to the point. I don't think that those who played the game in its infancy felt that their choices were 'mistakes'. I don't think they felt there was a 'wrong' decision to make at that point. And even now, those who are just discovering the game and just starting out, I don't think that all of them (us) feel that the challenges they (we) encounter are a result of a 'wrong' decision.
This isn't a match 3 game where there are defined movements that can actually cause you to lose within the time limit. There are time limited functions within the game - Tourney, Spire, events - but none of them are required and you can't "lose" by choosing to do/not do them. Yes, if you don't do the tournaments, your game play will take longer than someone who
does do them. But perhaps the player who chooses not to do tournaments doesn't want to commit themselves to one every week. The same argument can be made for the Spire, and even for the events as you can get an enormous amount of KP and a lot of very useful instants and spells from the chests in addition to the Daily Prize potential. And that doesn't even touch on the goods you can win with a dice roll, which I admit a lot of people look down on, but if you find yourself needing that 6200 crystal because you're at the top of the Spire and it's about to end before you can close a trade - no one in your FS is online & your neighbors who have crystal boosts aren't active - you might rejoice when you get those goods. It all depends on your personal needs.
And if I have an agenda, that is what it is: to express that everyone has their own method of playing this game, their own style, and calling someone's method/choice a mistake reads as derogatory to me. In that vein, I'd like to answer this:
Not trying to ignore your addendum about AWs, but I'd like to focus on the 'right foot' and 'struggles' aspect of your reply.
I don't feel that any of the challenges I've faced - and continue to face - while playing are "struggles". I think the terms can be used interchangeably, if I understand their varied definitions correctly, but I'm not reading them that way here. My impression of what you mean by "struggle" is when someone complains about why something is or isn't. But when I write "challenge", I mean something that encouraged me to think about the task the game set for me to do and how best to go about accomplishing that task while still maintaining the style of play I want to have.
Yes, I use the guides, now that I know that they're there. Yes, I make use of the tools that I'm given, but the data that is on ElvenGems and ElvenArchitect that I rely on is mostly that involving building stats and functionality. I
could get the data about the AWs from inside the game itself. I could do the math rather than use the tables and charts I'm provided on Gems - and the Wiki even. If the guides weren't there, I would have done the math on my own in deciding which AW to start with. I still would have decided Golden Abyss, and not just because 3x3 is less than 4x4.
I think when you write things like "right foot", you reinforce the idea that there is a "wrong" way to play this game. There really isn't, except to not play or try to break the game. This isn't "Lands of Lore III: Guardians of Destiny" where if you choose to take advantage of the option to kill the villagers instead of help them, the game slowly moves towards your demise. Even though it gives you the option, it's a trap.
But in Elvenar, when it gives you a choice to build an AW or not, it's not going to slowly choke your city if you don't. They're tools to help progress certain styles of gameplay. Why would I not want to build a Golden Abyss? If I'm a player who only comes online twice a day and I'm in the earlier chapters where the population isn't going to be a benefit to me unless I pour all of my KP into that AW instead of the tech tree, I might feel it's more beneficial to my city to put in a Tome of Secrets so I only have to worry about 24-hour collection. I might feel that it's not beneficial to dedicate space to a building whose benefits I can't take advantage of; in one case that's "yet", and in the other (the gold) I would be missing out on the 3-hour collections, so it wouldn't be as beneficial to me. In the above scenario, please understand, because I love my GA in each of my cities, and I'm on fairly frequently.
I felt that the thread was opened to ask a question of, "Hey, is there a method behind this madness?" with respect to why trade can be done in most things in the game, but not in certain specific things. I did not get the impression that OP felt their method of playing the game was right or wrong or any better than anyone else's. Just, perhaps, that they had an idea that they wanted to get more information on the mechanics of the game before putting it forward. And, we provided that information and some tips on how to answer the challenge they're facing.
But their choices to craft whatever pops into the MA, if that's what they're doing, aren't wrong. No matter how much
you think it's junk, there's a reason, in their mind, to continue crafting. Whether that be to get the Mystical Object as frequently as possible like Iyapo1, or to stockpile their time boosts, or to get broken relics so they can forge a rune and keep the runes they win from provinces / tournament / event chests intact (for you never know when you might need them and there will be nary a one to be had) -- whatever their reasoning, they want to craft in the MA. It's not a 'mistake' to do so.
It's merely a challenge to find a balance. You did that with the help of research and the benefit of the wisdom of players who came before you. Others choose to do that through the trial and error of gameplay. Neither decision is wrong.