since i love debating, here i go again:
"are set and no changes will be made": thank you for pointing out that no matter how many times me and other ask for bigger bp requirement or for other more "heroic" ones, nothing will be done. kinda killing the discussion here... great to know they "are set" and there's nothing we can do.
We did seek input from the players about these settings and what they thought of them. Most players had unrealistic settings which would have excluded the vast majority of the players from ever attaining the award. As it stands, with the current settings, only 10% of the entire player population across all worlds will be eligible for the award. When Inno saw those stats, they decided that the settings were deemed adequate for enough players to achieve and gain entry to the Hero Worlds.
2 and 3. wait. 3 is a subpart of 2 or not? if i built 7 / 7, doesn't that mean i also built 4 / 7? is there ANY way to get 7/7 without getting 4/7? if there is none, the 3 is not actually an option, everyone who made 3 should have done 2 at a point... i only see 3 put there to count as "multiple ways", could also add option 4 - built 5/7 and option 5 - built 6/7, so we have more ways to "transcend"
Options 2 and 3 are mutually exclusive because the alliance which builds 4 Wonders will not necessarily be the alliance which builds all 7 Wonders. Because Wonders can be destroyed or taken down a level through sabotage and other means, alliances which attain one of those awards will not by default become the alliance which attains the other award.
For example: Alliance A is building Wonders 1, 2, 3, and 4, while Alliances B and C are trying to complete Wonders 2, 4, 5, and 7. Alliance A completes their 4 Wonders before any other alliance is able to. After this, Alliances B, C and D conquer some cities on Alliance A's Wonder Islands taking their Wonders down to Level 9. This allows all other alliances in the world the opportunity to complete their Wonders.
and about the ballance. or lack of it. how option 1 could EVER be in ballance with 2 (ok, and 3 if i missed something in my previous point). So to say, a player have the choice of either found a lousy town, or wait 4 months (yes, for MU there's 4 moths till the age of wonder is starting) then starts building wonders which will also take a long time. Ballance 1 town founding with 4 wonders built... hard to say which... dunno, maybe we can find players with under 7500 bp part of wonder-building alliances. yeah, that will ballance the thing more... (just joking on this one)
anyway, i see it's pointless to debate, "these requirements are set and no changes will be made" cleared that up. another call made without players actually being consulted. that will probably be a no-worth-playing world for some of us.
If you haven't already figured it out, the Wonders are a way for an entire alliance to gain entry to the Hero Worlds through team work and cooperation. They also gain a bonus in the Hero Worlds as well for having completed 4/7 Wonders or 7/7 Wonders. The Heroic Tactician is there for players who are not in those alliances or are in a world where Wonders will not be available for some time. There is no need to 'balance' these awards against each other since there is no impact on the game play by getting them.
And as for your claim that this was all done without consulting the players, you may want to look more closely at the Forums. As I said above, the players were asked for feedback about the Heroic Tactician award requirements but that feedback was too unrealistic. But as far as the Awards go and how they are handed out, that is a decision left solely to Inno. Last I heard, no one was consulted about what requirements should be had for any other awards for the game.
. However, I have a few questions.