Well, I did it.  I restarted my PC game.  

Right from the start, you get energy replenished every 4 minutes.  That should be a big help.  There's also a quest toward the beginning where the mayor gives you food - olives - that wasn't there before.  And the quest to regester your game on the cloud is at the beginning as well.

WendyDarling wrote:

The beginning of the game is way more fun than where we're at, anyway. 

So true Wendy.

Things that have been changed since the game was first issued:

Energy replenishes after 4 minutes.  Makes it very hectic at the early levels and it's impossible at time not to lose energy.

The mayor used to give you 3 crystals at the start when you're learning about speeding things up, now he gives you 10.

The mayor gives you free food - olives - once you've completed the first relic.

The gift from the mayor of the skycrystal charm arrives as soon as you've built the general store to level 1.

The second letter from queen sophia used to give you 3 crystals and 500 bolgins.  Now you get  20 crystals and 1,000 bolgins.

And of course there's the new food prices.

I imagine the extra goodies are to make up for the fact that people starting now will never get a chance to buy anything on sale.  It's been almost 1 year since the last food sale.

I got my last orb at feeding 71 with WendyDarling.  I don't have any dark stones, should I have some or do they only come after you open the dark island and then feed the chest?  My next feed requires 3 goblin herringbones (or bevels?) and I only have one and they're insane expensive at auction so I'll wait until shrine time tomorrow and try to get a couple.
I uninstalled and redownloaded the game, now Shaggy seems to be able to look at messages without his progress being reset, but over the last few days I've cashed in all his money collectables in preparation for restarting so I'm in limbo regarding that.

I'm really feeling stressed over my free to play games the past few days. 

So I finally get around to playing my iPad game and the iPad is set to send me alerts and messages.

What's the first message I see?  'Queen Sophia entrusts the kingdom to you!  You are our only hope.  Let's go back and help the citizens up!"

Nag, nag, nag.