Drusilla said:

It would be nice if everyone was actually truthful about this topic. Fact is "non coiners" cannot build level 5 defense, get champion units (at least very many of them) or any special bonuses from the store. I've noticed when I first started playing it was easy to get new members to join new coalitions. Now, because new members are at such a disadvantage they are only joining these dumb "sister coalitions" or "trainee" coalitions of the more powerful coalitions. Basically without an investment in the game you are forced to kiss everyone's rear end so you don't get attacked or hopefully join one of those so you have  some sort of "gang" watching your back so you can stay in the game. There was a time when new coalitions did pretty well but now they are just popping up all over and dying. Many lower level coalitions that I have seen the Hegemons are usually always under siege. So, for anyone to say that "non coiners" can compete with those that even spend a few hundred dollars on the game is not realizing the facts. Yes, they can if they have the protection of a large coalition willing to take them in other than that they are sitting ducks. Membership has gone down as well. Many of these so called "powerful" coalitions who claim they only take say, level 60 or higher have been allowing lower levels to join indicating that there is not as many people playing this game as everyone thinks. Either that or actually finding members who don't quit after level 30 anymore is not an easy task. So, IMO, there is no doubt that "coiners" have a huge upper hand and sadly iit is ruining the game. But how else can you compete? Any wall under level 5 you are dog meat. Personally, they should change the name of this game to "Sparta, War of Egos".

its extremely difficult to find people who survived all that process from starting game until they reached that certain level or army size.

1,now, only small portion of them actually raid properly

2,only small part of 1,these actually keep their army and don't completely wipe it off every pvp

3,and only small part of 2,have same goals as your coalition, for example pantheons.

Hackerista said:

Good explanation on categorizing coiners, I do agree on that people who spend such little as going out for a drink they are not coiners. It's an affordable expense of their entertainment.

About the 2types of coiners I do not think there are sponsored players but just very wealthy people. For an average person like me, spending 100$ for a game might be a lot comparing to my salary, but for a person who earns thousands per month, for them spending 1k$ per month  might be just a days work. So things are kind of relevant to what people do for a living , to what they prefer to spend on (some prefer spending on a game rather than drinking 3drinks for example) etc. We cannot just categorize all people, because from a 'branch' million other branches come out...

Everybody is free to spend or not to, it's up to them :) The game is Free to play after all!

In my experience "very wealthy people" don't play silly on line games. I am from the American working class, so yes I will play online games mixed with a normal social life. If I were "very wealthy" my days would be spent jet setting all over the world, it sure in the hec wouldn't be spent playing a computer game. That is just crazy to me.

Hackerista said:

In my experience "very wealthy people" don't play silly on line games. I am from the American working class, so yes I will play online games mixed with a normal social life. If I were "very wealthy" my days would be spent jet setting all over the world, it sure in the hec wouldn't be spent playing a computer game. That is just crazy to me.

I wish I had that kind of army ..That's around 116m 696k Of off , without the use of elixirs, general items, boosts etc... There are only very very few people who can have that army...

Hackerista said:

terrytapp27 said:

Hackerista said:

In my experience "very wealthy people" don't play silly on line games. I am from the American working class, so yes I will play online games mixed with a normal social life. If I were "very wealthy" my days would be spent jet setting all over the world, it sure in the hec wouldn't be spent playing a computer game. That is just crazy to me.

Some of them do play online games Archon , they are humans too :)

I never said that the wealthy are "not humans"  

All I am saying is if I were wealthy I would not be wasting my money playing an online game, I would most definitely be spending my money on much more exciting real life adventures. 

There are only very very few people who can have that army...

Hmm...

I have probably a similar offense value, except it contains much more classical units (including LOTS of veterans, because I've been playing for years in top coalitions holding pantheons), and certainly much less champions... ^^

But the total offense value itslef is not exceptional and is rather modest from today's standards. I mean after 2 1/2 years and level 125 Persians play, including the apparently easy rewards that could be obtained then (that was much before I could reach that level - an my top level to hit is still only 90 right now)..

Of course, the above offense contents comes mostly from money. It's quite obvious.

There, where I don't agree with my colleagues is about the "a bit faster" part... :p If it was, then it would probably not be such an issue, but knowing some of those super coiner are sometimes only a few months old in the game, it would just be honest to say they progress "a lot faster". ^^

However, the "progress" concept is not all about troops numbers. It's aslo about how they're able to build a bonded team, which is still the most important aspect in the game.

Just coming alone and spending here won't save them from playing mistakes, and it won't be enough to build a lasting team. Actually, they'll probably get bored fast enough and leave as fast as they came. In most cases, they'll just be going past what's really interesting in the game : team play, and satisfying reward from long playin, rather than buying a ready-made city and get bored with it.

Now, yes, you can notice some level 21+ buildings an decor in some cities.

However, you have to distinguished those who get this after 3 months, and those who get them after 2+ years on the game.

Building level 5 fortifications and decor do require drachmas, but you get discounts from the wheel quite often (not for lots of them, though, usually from 1 to 3 items, but it still helps over time).

The other quite important point to remind is it was much easier to get lots of drachms in the old days. You were litterally drenched in drachmas, from achievements, tournaments, quests, Persian missions, and just levelling up, plus old fashioned colonies were easier to defend.

People having known this period know how fast you could get decent amounts of drachmas to toughen your city defense from fortifications and decor. However, I agree it's not as easy now, but it's not unusual at all for ancient cities to be filled with decor.

As for sketches : once all that would require drachmas (i.e. fortifications and decor) has been built, and since you still get drachmas from tournaments on a regular basis, buying sketechs to upgrade a few important building isn't silly after all. Especially the harbor + port combination, along with full galleys upgrade using GPs, that allows to carry 50K at once, which is useful everyday.

About GPs : long time players now how easy they were to get then. You got some from every persians mission, and for some months, you got them very easily from every tournament (that were much rarer than now, btw, and lasted longer). Once again, we got actually drenched in GPs for some time (then they made them harder to earn) and signing up to Sparta was a breeze then. I actually still have 10,108 GPs sitting doing nothing, as I'm going on earning some.

The truth is, I wish they would make sketches available for GPs. It would be fairer IMHO, especially for non coiners.

Now about coining. First of all, some items giving obvious advantages were made expensive on purpose, so people should self limit and not abused from them.

However, well... Since no limitations were made about, for instance, the number of items you can buy for a given time, then of course, some crazy people are able to spend crazy money to get crazy amounts of drachmas. This is where the problem is.

Else, if you look at the random chests offers, some are sometimes quite interesting, offering fair amounts of drachmas + champions + boosts etc. for very low prices, such as $ 4.99.

Over time, collecting these, you can get quite a fair amount of champions to enhance the regular troops you get by patiently playing Persians.

So once again, some old player owning a large number of champions is not necessarily abnormal.

Yes, they have spent some money, but as long as they've kept their expenses reasonable and managed their drachmas reasonably, they can ease their gameplay without endangering their lives, and lots of players casually buy some packs.

Add to this the fact you still get some from tournaments, and it just means they've been playing for long enough to have accumulated special items, champions, boosts, hiiden paths, and of course drachmas to buy sketches, more champions, etc.

Here is an example from just the 2 last tournaments, showing drachmas, champions, boosts, hidden paths, GPs and other items can be gotten without paying a dime:

Now of course, I agree there's a difference when people who have joined recently are displaying silly numbers of champions as shown above.

What can be said ? Are these people happy ? Aren't their lives quite vain, if that's all that count in their lives ? Can you even prevent them from spending silly money ? Probably not anyway.

You should probably not make yourselves sick about this. Fortunately, they're not that many.