I don’t mind that you can buy pins for gems, but I think there should also be ways to earn them for in game achievement. An easy start would be to add a pin for each mission that already exists, with a bronze / silver / gold / platinum / diamond variant based on how far along you are. I’d also add a a pins to each tier completion reward for events, and add more missions that awarded special pins and perhaps a few gems. Ideas:
Titan Smasher: Deal 10k / 25k / 50k / 75k / 100k damage to a titan in a single hit.
War MVP: Score the most point for your alliance in 1 / 5 / 10 / 20 / 50 wars.
Raid Master: Have a win streak of 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 raids.
King of the Hill: Reach the top 1000 / 100 / 50 / 10 / 1 players.
Lastly, I’d allow players to show 3-4 pins at once to show off their achievements, or the favorite things they’ve bought.
I like this idea. I think it would be nice if they offered national/country flag pins ( 1 for sure, 2 max) free of charge or at least as a reward for, I don’t know…getting your Stronghold to Lvl 5?? I would really like to have a tiny American flag pin without having to spend gems for it.