Life force (reserve/cache) NEEDS to remain the proposed 1:1 ratio. It's fair for big and small.
It forces someone to log on at make sure they are kept with a minimum safety net. It's fair because if it still shifts back in 7 days, not sure if it's 7 days from the time you convert, or 7 days like a market reset, but either way it would allow a time where if someone slipped up, or fell asleep, or couldn't make it on, or just didn't log on, (which is one of the points of the update) then they are 'caught slipping', and they can be more easily thrashed. It creates a strategy where one has to keep track on their target, and log on themselves, yes the big guys should be forced to as well, to be able find when it is the best time to hit their target.
Meanwhile 1:1 ratio means people aren't losing their entire dmu income for converting at an expensive ratio that makes it virtually impossible to use if it is more than 1:1 ratio, and the fact that it resets every 7 days means it's just a dmu sink for people 'trying to catch up'.
Also if certain people don't need to worry about descension because of untouchable backup, certain people never need to convert that, and others will have to put a huge majority of their income into it.
In essence it would be fairer to add alliances to ascension and give one group a 10 percent bonus to their stats then change it from 1:1 ratio to the proposed 50:! or 100:1. Adding an alliance bonus would be a far better update than a non 1:1 ratio, and I don't think anyone would implement a 10 percent bonus to certain factions.
I'm not joking, and I KNOW i'm even understating the impact. Think it through, and you'll come to the same conclusion. Convert 10:1 to lf, then whatever:1, then 7 days later that amount that you are trying to build is taken away. That's just a complete dmu sink, and it's effects would create a severe imbalance in the server, we don't need another thing to imbalance the server. We're having enough trouble trying to get rid of the imbalances that currently exist.
Again having the cache/reserve thingy reset, but at no loss of dmu through a 1:1 conversion rate, will force activity, and create an opportunity for anyone to find a better opportunity to strike, provided they LOG ON and PLAY. That is fair for all. Make people recon their targets, and find the right time.
I personally feel the change in powerup cost is fine, but I understand the argument that might make things a bit unstable, that way I say if implemented and everyone is given 1/2 of what they ascended with for all ascensions, what you receive you can only convert 1/3-1/5 of it at a time, and only once a week.
That way people can get a feel on what people (the majority of the server) are doing, and no one will spend all of their's say on charisma and production, only to be caught off guard and smashed by a guy who spent all the points on attack powerup. Also doing it this way would make it so people would be wary that if they used the advantage for the 1st conversion to nail someone, the person they nailed could use their 2nd conversion to hit back. Thus making things interesting, but not devastating, and allow for self-correcting. People could still put themselves in a bind, but overall it would be much harder. Not to mention it just sounds like there could be a world of potential fun.
Level 100 on things is not high enough, even if that is the way it is to go, which I disagree with. If everyone gets those app points equal to half of what they ascended with, with the increase in what they are worth, it will help the top too. Maybe they get 1-2 charisma levels or something, but those 1-2 levels at where they are is still a huge upgrade in that stat. 2 levels might not sound like a lot, and I'm not aware of how many it would actually buy, but if those 1-2 levels means an extra 50-100k extra planets a day, that's still a huge increase, and one that people have to pay for anyway after this app boost to reach that level...not to mention the gains already consolidated. In other words if someone gets to say 200k-400k planets a day, from 20k, the time to accrue the necessary planets to build an account is still a very long lead time for big accounts, ones that would be boosted themselves by the app give.
Let's look at the differences here. Level 100 charisma will give you 8 planets per fleet per day. Meanwhile charisma 500 will give you 216 planets per fleet per day. So 100 is still far too low considering where people are (and the insane fleets people have at those levels). Do you feel the curve, I sure can picture it in my mind.
Then you compound that with production so that the planets you get, or already have is multiplied by production? At production level 100, thats only 4.0x original dmu creation per planet. Production 500 will give you 36x original dmu creation per planet.
Keeping it the way as it was proposed and coded into the dev server by Forum is fine, as those with insane fleets, multiplied by non priced changed fleets will still take time and effort to work for, meanwhile those ahead continue their exponential growth. People will still need to buy those levels and they won't be cheap even at forum's current cost level reduction when at say level 200 or even 300.
The point is growth needs to be accelerated for active accounts so they may attempt to catch up if they play hard, continue to ascend, etc.
At the VERY LEAST it should be how forum coded it into the dev server until someone is 50 percent of the 500/700 barriers, then maybe have it to normal (how much they currently cost right now), then at the 500/700 limits it increases as proposed.
A level 250 charisma is 42.8 planets per fleet per day. Much better than 8, and still far away from 216, but it does create the type of growth that would get people excited about their accounts again. Again, the head start is there for the top, as everyone that wants to play or ascend again would still need to purchase those upgrades, and need to pay the increased costs as well when they reach those barriers, which will slow them.
So production 100 isn't even close to being enough. Production 250 is 12.5x, which is much better yet still far below 36. Production 350 is 20.25x which is much better than capping the decreased costs at 100 and still far away from level 700 which 64x. Production 699 at current prices, still costs over 1 bill life force. Production 300 still costs 81 million life force, so what people get from ascension, and app gives and what they need to strive for is still a long journey...this is just one stat mind you.
So when looking at it, I don't even see how even doing 1/25th of current costs would in any way jeapordize the top accounts, let alone how Forum originally coded the costs in the dev server a few days back.
What's to stop the top from ascending again? After all the rates just like descension were announced that they could fluctuate. We've all known that there would most likely be an increase in max ascensions, and you know what, there probably will be again sometime down the road in a year or two or three.
Again why should the top accounts be immune from ascending again? Well they basically are, even with this update, but the option is STILL THERE, and there's 10 of them to use (at least). That's plenty of cushion if you ask my opinion.
The other point is the raiding/revolution. Some say caps, some say rankings based on army size, the main point on whatever the solution is, that no account should be able to have huge amounts raided from it, unless they are inactive and not logging on.
So undeveloped planets remaining raidable keeps with that spirit that if you don't log on, you can have those you haven't trained be raided. Raiding resource planets should continue to be impossible, and revolution should be removed.
Very important
If for any reason revolution remains it is just TOO EASY for someone to be 'sat on' (constantly hammered as much as possible) using revolution, especially using teams and thus if people's planets are constantly being removed, and there isn't anything anyone can do about it, that will cause many to not play, and not log on.
So if we are looking for a fix, revolution should be removed. After all, there are plenty of other ways people can destroy an account, taking away someone's trained income en mass just destroys one's desire to play ascension, and raiding inactive accounts of undeveloped planets is enough.
If revolution remains as proposed (not my proposal), and lf conversion rate changed from 1:1 to anything but 1:1, ascension will still be pretty much unplayable, and making ascension playable is what we are try to do, not make it APPEAR playable.
In fact it'll be worse than it is now and more unplayable if revolution remains, and anything but a 1:1 conversion rate.
Why code it, implement it, and then have to do another update? Lets get it right, and make sure that the small accounts aren't easily destroyed, that teaming up to get around rank or maybe even army size limits won't work, and that 90 percent of the server needs to focus on constantly converting at a loss, while the other 10 percent, some of which similar in size never have to convert.
Even with all these updates, people at the top most likely will still completely pull away based on how far ahead their exponential curve has gotten, but at the very least the above updates would make the game interesting, fairer, and more playable.
Again look at the curve for production and how it goes by levels 100 at a time. These are current costs.
Production
100 4x cost for that level (not cumlative) = 3 mill lf
200 9x = 24 mill lf
300 16x = 81 mill lf
400 25x = 192 mill lf
500 36x = 375 mill lf
600 49x = 648 mill lf
700 64x = 1 bill lf
800 81x = 1.5 bill lf
900 100x = 2.187 bill lf
1000 121x = 3 bill lf
1100 144x = 4 bill lf
1200 169x = 5.184
Now look at a faster rising exponential curve with charisma
100 8x = 3 mill lf
200 27x = 24 mil lf
300 64x = 81 mill lf
400 125x = 192 mill lf
500 216x = 375 mill lf
600 343x = 648 mill lf
700 512x = 1 bill lf
800 729x = 1.5 bill lf
900 1000x = 2.187 bill lf
1000 1331x = 3 bill lf
1100 1728x = 4bill lf
1200 2197x = 5.15 bill lf
For people already with hundreds of billions of planets, level 100 is far too low of a catch up mark as you can see. Uber accounts will stilll be uber, nothing in this will change this, not one bit. Anybody on top, will still be kings, and anybody on top should have no reason to quit the game because of this update, why? Because this update doesn't allow in any way for people to really catch up if the top people play ascension, and if they don't that often, it still won't allow people to catch up. What this update will do is create growth, induce excitement, and take out how much damage a bully can do.
I think it's a fair update if it goes like I outline above. I feel Forum was close to hitting the mark, and if people really wanted this update to catch up, they should be asking for much more, not compromising for less. So cut down the middle and do something again like Forum stated with a couple of twists for the reasons I gave above.
Overall though, an update like this would be for the betterment of the server. Lets not backtrack, and lets not have forum implement updates that won't fix the systemic problems ascension currently faces.
We need people who have accounts of all sizes to log on more often, not just force the smaller ones.

Thanks for reading, took a long time I'm sure lol
Forum I hope you read my post

It's 60 pages in of itself
