You'd still have to check it daily unless it alerted you there is a shard there.
Worse, every 4 hours
I also think this is terrible, and uncreative.
I still wish I'd never aged beyond VF
Every age has had terrible, uncreative GBs, I've had to tell people who ask me for goods to bother building them, explaining to them why virgo/stargazer are useless (stargazer's efficiency is less than sleigh builders in the same space, most people who build virgo don't realize it doesn't work for defence/hood, that it stops at 5, the only case for virgo being to fight ahead on the map if you're super-low-age).
With this one, they basically made an expensive ToR that can't be used for a couple of months (minimum) of the year unless you want to repeat settlements over and over. I get that that's some people's cup of tea, but the game already got me negotiating daily just to get my SC rewards (or lose the FP I put in to it) and I am sure not going to be suckered by this additional shard-lure in to spending diamonds on settlements just to get extra fragments for those somewhat-better-time-rewards. If the reward of the shards is good, I will be even more upset that they made it harder to say no to. Honestly, when you're maxed, and given an opportunity to get more FP per day for less space, it is not easy to say no, and if you're asking me to invest extra time in a game when I'm already split in 10 different directions, well, frankly, you can't beat the FP-for-time-spent of GBG.
People keep saying they needed to do something "strong" for this GB like attack%+ or FP/day, I disagree, how about just not, for a second era in a row, copying a mechanic of an old era (SC being a copy of HC) and show some damn pride in your game, Inno; Create something unique and game-changing that shows that you actually understand your players. It isn't hard if you actually understand your own game. For example, a GB that gives you 1-5 chances to reset a collection, which could be used on GBs, would be completely unique, game changing, give people choice, and actually make sense for a high era. Some people would use it on virgo (making virgo actually useful by letting you set its counters whenever you need it), some people on traz, some on cape, some gamblers on himeji/SC, some others who make huge event buildings on BG. Still others might just use it to do quicker 24 hour quests when an event asks them for it. Something for everyone. But this shard settlement mechanic? This is absolute crap and I'm disappointed.
For the past two ages, I've said if the next era isn't any better, I'd be sending a support ticket with the expectation of the result being my main city being de-aged to VF. I'm going to do it this time and, call me a privileged-acting idiot, but I don't give a crap if the result is being deleted. This game has become less and less fun. Every age is just a new grind to get higher attack% to do the same thing you could already do, due to either the desire for more space or the arms race that GVG's made for top guilds to be able to maintain their rank in the All Ages GVG map. You just try to give us more and more reasons to spend $ on event buildings based on need rather than desire. We _need_ that attacker's defence because we used to be able to fight to 70 attrition until we aged up, now we can't go past 45 with-out burning cash.
The thing is, a lot of people have caught on and are tired of it, the game, and how the game treats them. Many people have left the game and will continue to do so until you make it fun and rewarding, rather than simply addicting people to needing to stay caught up with others. If I'm already screwed due to having aged beyond VF, I guess I'm done. I'm not waiting another year for another chance at a new age potentially being less of a waste.