Raised this issue with my guild, almost ALL of the advanced players have said that NONE of them ever bought diamonds but have stockpiled THOUSANDS. Most from doing GE4 AND world farming. Some stating that wishing wells also give diamonds, although I personally have 5-6 and have NEVER seen a diamond from one. The "balancing" Inno are describing is being applied to the wrong area, they should be looking at these BIG GE4 payouts and, more importantly, WORLD FARMING!
If the prices increase, I'm out and I don't think I would be the only one.
– Wishing Wells do give Diamonds – There are calculations to be found in the forums on this subject.
– Diamond Farming just means more work for a period of time till you got a WW farm up and running – then it can turn (by player choice) into a dayli easy collect with that chance of winning some diamonds – The more WWs the merrier. 5-6 WWs aint gonna cut it, which is why you have not experienced it yet. Btw it is also adviced from top players not to have WWs in your main city and to have them in farms instead.
– GE level 4 – yes quite good chances to win more diamonds than spending doing it
(if any at all).
FOE is still a free to play game and what makes players buy diamonds are amongst other things based on the mistakes they make early on in the game and for some continuing to do even later in the game.
2nd is naturally the need to surpass your competitors, to win that Building in top level etc. – its a choice – Any player have to realize that their is no final price to win in this game – if you are ranked No. 1 on a Server then what? – you are not getting any special price for that – let that sink in for moment.
Early on I played in a No Diamonds Guild which was still ranking in top 10 on the Arvahall server. That time it was calculated that players not using diamonds would be about 3 weeks behind players using diamonds. I am sure its not exactly like this anymore, but facts are that the game can be played without buying diamonds, the only one to decide are the individual player him er herself. Want to grow really fast – then learn how to harvest Diamonds, or buy some or simply just take your time to play the game.
And there is no reason to bash on top players – Most of them have been around since the game started – so they learned how to play the game to their outmost atvantage – ever heard about a game where it is not like that?.
And what is wrong with world farming ? – Nobody is restricted from doing it. If you have enough time then you can do it. If you do not have enough time chances are that you properly work, so you choose the easier option – to buy your way through.