mgiletly said:
I'm no fan of Plarium, their endless nonsense, excuses and no-customer service and so don't waste my time on this so-called forum. But how does one make purchases of such items as sketches more fair? As any deal, discount or means of procuring via en event reward only makes it that much easier for those "coiners' and those with more developed cities, agreements and larger armies to also obtain and thus remain even that much further ahead of those who do not and those who only do so when such special deals, discounts and rewards are offered.
For if any of Plarium's hyperbole regarding their supposed concern for fairness and keeping things fun and interesting is to be believed, then the majority of the inane changes and additions to the game to do so were made at the suggestions and requests of those complaining about the unfair advantage that the "coiners" have and have done nothing but give them an even bigger advantage. So be careful what you ask for as Plarium will be more than happy to let you pay for the privilege of upgrading this or that, and then pay again and more dearly when the "coiner" who spent 10-100 times what you did on the same deal to upgrade theirs as well comes knocking at your city's gates.
Even if a coiner does come knocking on your city's gates what's the worst thing he or she can do?
He can destroy the units you have outside acropolis and the ones you have built for the last hours and even take some resources if you haven't spent them but in my opinion that's just it. And also your hermes will be downgraded (if you have one) but nothing more.
Personally I leave a few defensive troops outside my Acropolis just for assassins' attacks. And I spend down as much as I can so if someone comes when I'm not online they get practically nothing!
And if they raid me or siege me I will just start upgrading my Hermes to level 6 again.