0.38 UPDATE
So, no changes to kingdom structure, administration, rewards, or anything else in this update. Although I’m not surprised, it’s extremely disappointing. But that’s not even the worse part. This update now makes the Food Deal one of the most rewarding passive activities in the game and as I’ve discussed previously, full kingdoms with active players are essentially losing out on benefits enjoyed by smaller kingdoms every day because there’s simply not enough inventory for all.
Take a look at this table (using Tier X Mark Loot chance probabilities):
If a player does the Daily Siege and the Daily Dungeon with no gem spend, their expected Ruby Marks to be earned is ~60/week. If they invest in the first Dungeon cache regularly (table assumes no investment in Siege caches ever) then they can expect a weekly return of ~90; invest in the second Dungeon cache regularly, you can expect a weekly return of ~130.
Recall these facts about the Food Deal:
Obviously the translation of Marks to Chests has been negated by 0.38 but the fact remains that the progressed player (with currently maxed followers based on 5 playthroughs) can earn ~100 Ruby Marks / day from the Food Deal. Over the course of a week that is ~700 Ruby Marks, or 5x the amount of Ruby Marks they would earn by playing Events every Day and spending 400 gems every 3 days. This is highly beneficial and players would be foolish to pass it up. But that is what happens every day in full kingdoms; multiple players miss out on the opportunity to participate at all any while other players feast at the first available opportunity.
These are the worst type of incentives and engenders ill will towards the overall game design. The fact that this was completely ignored as part of 0.38 update was an egregious oversight.
P.S. please don’t ignore this post because you don’t like the title.