Excellent idea, +rep and 5 start vote.
1.26 words are superior to 2.0 worlds in almost every way. I will explain why because there have been several posts that dont seem to understand the differences properly, or how they affect NON PREMIUM players. If you dont like reading text walls I suggest you look away now and please accept my apologies, but I think this needs said.
1) Farming system: In 1.26 farming is essentially only useful for beginners and those who need lots of resources = just use the market or your other cities to trade, easier with less clicking.
So, these changes in 2.0 hailed as being an improvement are not an improvement, they are a way to keep you clicking on the farming villages more, ergo you need to be online more in order to be successfull. The game is set up more to benefit from the farming... to keep you online more. Fine, Im online all the time anyway, but what about less casual gamers. Basically I dont appreciate being made to click things a million times.
2) Window system: an excellent idea, I see no down side to it at all, it took time to get used to but I now know my way around.
3) Map interface: Awful! There was absolutely nothing wrong with the map interface in 1.26... why they have changed this is totally beyond me. You cannot see as much in the zoomed out version, and for a number of reasons it is more difficult to navigate around. Having a clear picture of where you and everyone else is seems to be far more difficult.
Switching between map views does not work well either.
I do however like the pop up menu for cities, taking you to the screen you want, god power, attack, info etc.
4) Reloading: in 1.26 this was simple, you just clicked on 'city overview' and the whole game reloaded... not so in 2.0, its a total faff, with lots of clicking needed to try and get the thing to reload. There are other problems of this nature as well, the way you interact with the world is just not as user friendly.
5) Attacking/Defending: Now we come to the real crux of the matter. 2.0 seems to have been designed more with the premium player in mind. Fine, you want to look after your income base. But I will never pay, unless I get a serious increase in wages. I am the same as a great many Grepolis players, we think this is one of the best online games out there of this type... but we wont pay the vast amounts needed to keep all premium features activated. I would consider paying something like a flat yearly subscription at the right price. But nothing like the total sum needed to keep all premium features on at the moment.
So, what does this mean? It means premium players have a huge and unassailable advantage over the non premium player. Similar to 1.26 I hear you say... NO, not so. In 1.26 you gain advantages sure, I have activated them so know what they offer. But you can still mix it with the premium players, particularly once you get a few cities yourself, using your tactics/timing/knowledge/alliance etc. In 2.0 premium players have accelerated beyond everyone else far too fast.
Most importantly, the way you can attack and defend has changed with premium, it is easier to manage and easier to plan... so non premium players are at even more of a dissadvantage, as if premium players needed any more help! (I was speaking to a premium player recently, he didnt realise non premium folks didnt even get the attack planner lol).
My rant is over, I dont feel I have explained things as well as I could.
I hope this gives you just some of the reasons that 1.26 is basically a more user friendly game, an easier game to interact with and above all, a FAIRER game.
Long live 1.26.
E