Summary of the "new balance" changes and what they mean to you.

[ShuttlePilot]

Thank you Pinkleet for such a well spelled out summary.

[Aiyrk]

"It is not that hard to predict Endless Iron mine sitting in design drawer of BB already waiting for the right time to be proposed, just as Epic weapons yards."

This, I believe, is the single and only reason for this shakeup. Put the player into a massive pain-point that only gems can really solve. Typically, it's gone about in the worst way possible. Rather than grow the game with carrots and advantages for altered play-patterns, it's the big-stick approach of so-what-if-that-was-fun. This approach pushes people out, alienates large segments of the playerbase, leads to poor decision making and implementation processes, but on the plus side shows off the effects of cognitive dissonance as people defend the logically indefensible.

Frankly, I don't care if they want to make iron-and-greater machines more advantageous, adventures more difficult or costly, or try to shift the game's pain-points to get a bump in no-doubt-lagging sales. I'm fine with that: a business is a business is a business. But the game needs to grow into those changes. And that's not happening here.

This is m-m-massive chaos just to walk at a slower pace.

This is my perception of the upcoming change as well. Although, this was more eloquently phrased than I would have stated. I sure am glad that I spent 40,000 gems on ECMs.