What’s absolutely hilarious

100% I would consider myself a whale but I am certainly guilty of spending more than I should, especially on a game that is at minimum, flawed. Let’s face it, it this wasn’t Star Wars, most of us would have left a long time ago

Are you really suprised by this? If anyone paid attention to CG in the past couple of years, this shouldn't be a suprise. They don't care about players, only about money. 

I do find it odd that at the start of the Eras events we were told everyone would be able to take part in it all, and now I find that I cannot partake in this.

I have just read KrjstOff’s reply and now see that I can unlock a lower star Maul. My mistake.

Agree, I am one of those that maybe spends $20-30 a month, era pass, and some time a bit more.   In previous eras I could turn that investment into higher star toons via the era challenges and get more shards. Sure it wasn't a 7 star toon but I was able to shorten my farming later.  I saw value in that.    As you point out, I am having a really hard time seeing the value anymore.  As whaling is not an option or choice I would make for me, I may return to FTP, or who knows maybe there are other games that focus on fun and not money out there.   

Tip for CG:  If you build fun, the money will come.  If your focus is money, what is your product you are selling?  You've got a lot of convincing to do because we are all asking why should I give you money, what do we get in return?  

Not true - you can partake in it and complete the 4 star tier as FTP.

They just gated 7 star unlocks behind a paywall, and for me (and probably others) that's actually a pretty good thing in the long run as it makes ressource management way easier.

I consider myself a "dolphin". I spent a decent amount over the years, but the times I went full whale on stuff is rather limited. Up until the "Era"-era, I would spend crystals and cash to get the 7 star toon at once, which would give me the opportunity to unlock new legendaries in the first event run or get GLs relatively early on. That was my only motivation: Getting the new legendaries on the first instance of the event.

With the Era-system the amount I have to spent is just jacked up so incredibly high, that I won't even consider it.

This leaves me with no other choice than to stop spending crystals and money on unlocking 7 star marquee toons. Because why would I bother? They are locked away in the brain dead era-system for months and I can't use them for anything other that losing brain cells in colosseum. Furthermore I have NO chance at getting new legendaries unless I spend a lot extra on era-levels on top of the 7-star unlock.

"bUt WhAt AbOuT rELiC 10?!" - well, I don't really care about the daily rewards, since I'll probably be able to stay in the 100 era currency bracket no matter what. And the top two reward levels are reserved for spenders anyway, so those are not accessible anyway. And so far I don't really feel that relic delta is too much of an issue. Even though I'm in a 600M guild, the amount of R10s are neglegible. The materials are so hard to come by, that nobody wants to apply R10 to anything on the fear of having to wrestle R10-requirements soon. Therefore I don't really care about R10 right now. It's a novelty at best.

All in all I'm way better off just hoarding crystals, gear and relic materials and wait until the toons are released from Era Prison. Then I can spend my crystals on shards from shipments, which will actually give me around twice as many shards that the crystal shard packs do now, and I will have no issue farming gear an relic materials to take the new toons all the way to at least R7 when I finally get them to 7 stars.

So, yeah, it sucks that Eras is the end of me unlocking new legendaries day 1, but at least the decision is pretty easy. I would have been a way more difficult choice if they had just increased the over all price slightly. But thankfully CG chose to go full re-tard ... 

I agree with posts. Seems like they change the requirements for the new Maul. I think era events-coliseum, new marquee toons, etc.-CG doesn't have the playing time nor players spending lot of $$. This new events are failing. It also seems CG increased crystals,$$, credits, etc. to purchase gear. As far as R10-not for me. I refuse to spend a lot of crystals or $$. I will work on this current era toons, coliseum 5 times. But after this one-not doing it anymore. Coliseum will then only be for dailies. Conquest-the next one should get the stranger-then I am done with that event.

Thanks CG for ruining a game through cost, "bugs," and other "issues." I used to spend a lot of money and time since I stated playing the game about 9 yrs ago. Last year spent less. This year spent even less and playing not as long. Next year will be the same-less $$ until strictly FvP and guild events, dailies.