I tinkered with my gradual difficulty increase proposal. I had each level increase by 7.5% and changed that to 10%.
So, with this proposal, the first 15 provinces of level 1 are easier. However, these provinces have always been very easy with few losses for most players. It really makes very little difference to the resources of advanced players and does make a difference for players that struggle. From province 16 on it is more difficult. Players that are used to going out long can probably still do so, but it will be an increasing challenge.
For level 2 twenty of the provinces are easier. It is more expensive to go out all the way but players still can. Again, for advanced players, having those first 20 provinces easier makes little difference to the resources they had been using, but this does help the more challenged players.
For level 3 the first 25 provinces are easier, but by province 40 it is like the old level 4. With the old tournament for advanced players the troop size was small enough that losses in the first 10 provinces was not that much of a hit, even if you lost everything and had to try a different approach. So this is not as much of a give to strong players as it appears because of the increasing troop size. This is a proposal to smooth out the increased difficulty to actually achieve greater game enjoyment and competition.
For level 4 the first 30 provinces are easier, level 5 the first 35 provinces are easier and level 6 the first 40 provinces are easier. I think people used to being able to go out 60-80 provinces are going to be able to go out 50 provinces, but are then going to question much stronger about going further and how to go further.
If you actually consider arithmetic sequences and series, you have to look at the formulas involved to properly assess the true difference in difficulty, so you have these formulas:
So the common difference for troop size "d" is 1. I think the player's starting troop size is the same for all levels, it is just the enemy's troop size that increases to make the increased difficulty.
So, the sum of player troops for the first 15 provinces is S(15)= 120 times the player's base. So for 15 provinces easier, it is 120 times the player's base that has easier battles. So, it isn't 15 more provinces and that "give" is equal, it is 6 to 7 provinces. It is the provinces which S(n)=240 that an additional 120 troops have battled at harder provinces.
S(n)=n(a1 + (a1 + (n-1)d))/2 d=1 a1=1
S(n)=n(1 + (1 + (n-1)))/2
S(n)=n(n+1)/2
240=n(n+1)/2
480=n(n+1)
n^2 + n - 480 = 0
n is between 21 and 22, so by province 22 difficulty has broken even for level 1 with my proposal, and it is far closer to province 21 than 22. And, that doesn't even take into account that all of the competitive players know not to do the squad size upgrades, so chances are with my proposal, this is an over estimate of the where each province is more difficult.
For my proposal for level 2 giving 20 easier provinces, S(20)= 210. S(n)=420 is where troop resources equalize. S(28)=406 and S(29)=435 so the break even on level 2 with my proposal is province 29.
For level 3 with 25 easier provinces S(25)= 325. S(n)=650 is the break even. S(35)=630, S(36)=666, so for level 3 province 36 is the break even.
For level 4 with 30 easier provinces S(30)=465. S(n)= 930 is the break even. S(43)=946, so province 43 is the break even for level 4.
For level 5 with 35 easier provinces S(35)=630 so S(n)=1260 is the break even. S(50)=1275, so province 50 is the break even.
For level 6, with 40 easier provinces S(40)=820 so S(n)=1640 for the break even. S(57)=1653, so the break even is province 57 for level 6.
So because the troop requirement is increasing with each province, the break even on difficult is far earlier than it appears when troop commitment only is considered.
So, for after 50 provinces, the challenge with my proposal is much greater overall, 40% more difficult for level 1, 30% for level 2, 22% for level 3, 15% for level 4, 10% for level 5, and 6% for level 6. I mostly skip higher provinces at level 6 on live, and they have most been done for competition reasons. This chart shows how it plays out for the competitive players and it actually spreads the ability out. I went out 64 provinces to all 6 levels on live this week with 6 military boosts and a polished bird and I know that I could not do that with this proposal, but it would actually create an environment of competition, fun and not totally slaughter us.