The game is a bit of a trap. I started out on an under-populated server with f2p and small spenders and had a blast. Then we were merged into a server with some big spenders who all went to the same faction and nearly steamrolled the whole server by themselves. Then in season three the same thing happened with new whales all in one faction who put the previous big spenders to shame. It is not possible to acquire the gear to be competitive in this game without spending huge amounts of money. Even if you focus on one good commander, the top end gear will be completely out of reach. After buying the season pass each season, I have enough mid-tier gear to outfit 1 commander. Another issue is the faction imbalance. Some factions have significant disadvantages and are usually empty. Evil commanders are fewer in number and generally less effective than good commanders. In addition, the developers pushed a mid-season update which outraged most of the big spenders in the evil factions. On my server that completely derailed the season. Most of the big spenders on that side demanded refunds and will not be able to recover from the penalty of 100k+ negative premium currency.