Firstly, a bit of background - I am a fully maxxed (other than walls - am a third of the way through the blue stuff) TH10, all farmed (just over 3 billion total G+E grab), and am somewhat struggling to find a good place in clash to ply my strategy, and compete on a decent playing field.
I like the idea of troph pushes, but once around the 3600 troph range, the "make a hit, make a def, make a hit" regime can simply no longer compete with the "make 10 hits, make a def, make 10 hits" regime. Which means to compete, you have only 2 options, stay online for huge amounts of time, or start flexing your wallet muscles. Neither of these options are a test of skill, strategy, or clash aptitude, but they will rise you to the pinnacle of ranking prowess.
Put simply, I don't know of any way to cater for the mass gemmers, who are utterly critical to the future of this game, while still allowing trophies to be a genuine clash of strategy. Troph running is not, and can not ever be a level playing field - the game NEEDS it not to be. I am just about ok with that. Just about.
So we turn to clan wars - equal clans (ish) take on each other, each clan decides their strategy, do evenly matched bases fight it out, or do the top go for 3 stars a bit lower. there is no gem impact on any element of this, which means that it can be a truly even crucible of war, between the people who gemmed to a high end base, and those who farmed to it. Everyone is happy, it doesn't devalue the freemium nature of game, and strategy is allowed to flourish, with the best clan coming out on top in most instances....... right?
Well, not exactly. there is one more thing which we have to consider, especially at the top end of clan wars - the unspoken factor which every high clan either loves, or hates, or loves and hates simultaneously , because they are forced to indulge in what they would rather not be forced to indulge in.
The fact everyone knows about it - from the players to the devs, and yet there is no counter, no punishment or anything of the sort, instead what we have is this tacit acceptance that it happens in most top wars, and it is therefore fair. Except there is a grey area where the "top" meets the "near top", where the worlds of "everyone does it" and "some people do it" collide, leading to clan wars full of paranoia, bad feeling and quite often, an utterly pointless waste of time for BOTH parties (though profitable for at least 1 side, I doubt it is fun for either - certainly no fun compared to the close, nail biting wars when both clans are on the same page (be that page A or page B).
So, what am I saying? am I calling for bans and punishment and all kinds of high end counter measures? well, not exactly. I would love for there to be some master stroke which makes everything good n simple once again, but it hasn't happened yet, and I see no sign it ever will - either because it is too hard to counter, or because it would upset too many of the players who fund this game so that the rest of us can play along in the foremost game of its class and era. And lets not forget, the factor which I am talking about doesn't suddenly mean that every base can be steamrolled, it doesn't mean that strategy is taken away, I am sure many could argue it heightens strategy and allows players to truly optimise their efforts - those willing to be ultimate warriors can spend many hours planning for a single raid, and this can be a lot of fun for those players. Just because it doesn't fit with my game ethic, doesn't mean I am blind to any value which is implicit, it just means I can never compete, and being forced to sours the whole concept of war.
So, is there a 3rd way? tacit acceptance (the current situation) is flawed, complete eradication is, at this point, impossible. The "black market" in use of the function is what is at fault - when countries legalise certain drugs, it isn't because they are suddenly good - it is because a monitored, open system is better than tacit acceptable or rules with no teeth. How about we view the whole thing under a new umbrella? a simple check box when carrying out a war search - a yes or no. you tick yes, and you get to go against others who said yes, you also get some inbuilt functionality which allows similar function to what has always previously been external (sandboxing, fully visible traps / CC contents, etc). You tick no on the box, and it is basically much the same as the current situation, but you are going against others who ticked no.
Is it possible some will tick no and then still do what they currently do? yes, it is possible. But if you are brought up in a world where there is the easy way or the hard way to get that function, you will always go the easy way. This should massively water down the current mismatch likelihood - 90% of those who currently benefit from this function aren't doing so to get an illegal upperhand against an unsuspecting opponent, they are simply playing the wars which they are placed into - at the top, if everyone is doing it, and you aren't, you are not some arbiter of morality, you are just an angry, bitter, depressed loser (in the most positive sense of those words, lets not forget, this is me!). most top clans are just after the fully optimised, leave nothing to luck, brain vs brain masterclass. Let them find each other for their battles (and let the current moralists have a go at this form of war too, without jeopardising their moral compass), and let those who are after the less intense experience, find each other. This would give us none gemmers a fair, even place to compete once again, with the best in the world.
Its time to wake up and smell the coffee, this is there, it has been there a long time, and it will probably always be there - do we bury our heads in the sand or do we make the best of what we have? Im not saying this is perfect, but I am saying that what we have at the moment is just a bit further away from perfect.
