Thanks for playing and than you for the detailed feedback. First let me say that what you are noticing is real and shared by many players including myself. I think it is healthy for a game to oscilate between feeling powerful and feeling challenged, and the beginning of RoW is certainly challenging. I think you will find things unfold better than you might expect. Shipping artifacts to RoW is a big boost that starts rapid progression in RoW (after you ship the first artrifact, the next one isn't far behind, and with artifacts you can get enough sword production to push the RoW expeditions for compounding progress). Additionally, the tier2 reset is not painful. You keep all your artifacts, both altars, prestige. You really only lose inventory which you will recover in an hour or two.
I don't claim the balancing is perfect, only that I try to notice when it goes too far in one direction and I correct.
As for having more interesting cross-realm mechanics - to be honest that was never the vision. Not because I don't think it's cool, but because I didn't think I could handle the complexity with my current game design skills. So to be transparant what you can expect moving forward:
Realms get more novel (R3 is very different, and the upcoming R4 even more so), but the cross-realm mechanics stay flat. Old realms become (check in a couple of times per day) as the latest realm is meant to capture majority of attention.
Great! I'm glad to hear you sticking to your vision. What you are describing makes sense, especially with the oscillation of difficulty and power. I'll stick with it to continue to feel it out.
Just some more brainstorming: to help curb the initial "wall" feeling the introduction to this section has, make it so the Realm of War have some very clear bonuses (global or for R1) that this section introduces. Maybe prestige/sacrifices in future realms have small bonuses to previous realms, something like that. I imagine this "Quest" mechanic I have yet to see could have some impact like that, but because I don't see it right away, I'm more left with this feeling of having to climb a separate mountain than the one I've already been climbing. --and then I feel the exhaustion "groan" instead of excitement as a player.
Maybe a better way to put it is I was expecting a power spike for the Realm of War and not uncovering another difficulty layer. Its possible my own personal bias led to that expectation and subsequent frustration. Its just that uncovering a "Realm of War" sounded so cool, ya know? And it takes some work to unlock it as well. But when I did unlock it, it felt more like I opened a piece of coal for Christmas. Do with that what you will.
A quick note: of the effects you list as the RoW's positive "Bonuses", Sacrificing Batch + Cap are actually negatives as sacrificing in this realm is just plainly more expensive.
Anyways, again, great game. I'm definitely rooting for ya and how you refine your craft!