• We are looking for you!
    Always wanted to join our Supporting Team? We are looking for enthusiastic moderators!
    Take a look at our recruitement page for more information and how you can apply:
    Apply

[Guide] Analysis of Cape: number of days to reach break-even

DeletedUser27525

Introduction
Cape is a GB that produces FPs only. There has been much debate over whether one should build Cape (e.g. see the comments on the Cape wikia page), since it seems to cost more FPs than it generates. The problem is actually straight-forward: given the amount of FPs needed to level Cape, can a player reach break-even within a reasonable time frame? However, there has been no quantitative analysis to date, which is the purpose of this guide.

Method
Consider the following scenario that allows us to obtain a rough estimate on the shortest time required to reach break-even. Assume that all reward spots are taken by free donors with 1.8 - 1.9x Arc boost and that the owner contributes the remaining FPs. The total investment on each level can thus be obtained. By ansatz, assume that the owner flips Cape to a target level using the said FP allocation within 1 day, reinvests all the FPs generated upon leveling, and collects every day afterwards, waiting for the day of break-even. (The reason for adopting this strategy will become apparent after seeing the complete results.)

Results
Before presenting the complete results let us examine 2 cases which will illustrate how the algorithm works.

Case study: Target level 1
A target level of 1 simply means bringing Cape out of mud and letting it sit at level 1. At level 0, there are 2 free donors, contributing 19 FP for 1st place and 10 FP for 2nd. The owner contributes the remaining 60 - 19 - 10 = 31 FP. The total investment is 31 FP. Remaining at level 1 gives the owner 2 FP per day without further investment. Therefore, this will require 31 / 2 = 15.5 days to reach break-even. In other words, Cape becomes profitable beyond day 16.

Case study: Break-even with respect to Shrine of Knowledge
Cape is often benchmarked against SoK. Cape occupies 20 tiles, equivalent to 5 SoKs. Therefore, in terms of space efficiency, Cape should generate 5 FPs per day just to be on par with SoK. This is accomplished with a target level of 5, where the net total investment by the owner is 618 FPs. This will require 618 / 5 = 123.6 days, or about 4 months, to reach break-even.

Complete results
The following figure shows the number of days to reach break-even (denoted as D hereafter) for target levels 1-79 and free donors with 1.8x, 1.85x, and 1.9x Arc boost. The black point at level 5 is the benchmark with respect to SoK as discussed above.

Cape.png

We make the following important observations:
  1. D increases dramatically at the lower levels.
  2. The dent at level 10 is caused by an increase of 2 FP from level 9, reducing the rate of increase in D.
  3. The rate of increase in D slows down beyond level 10. This is due to the increased ratio of rewards, which reduces the portion of investment by self-leveling.
  4. D obtains a local maximum (blue points) at a target level of 21 (1.9x) or 22 (1.8x, 1.85x). The owner needs to wait for almost a year before s/he gets a return on FPs.
  5. D decreases to a local minimum (red points) at level 57-60 for 1.8-1.9x donors, corresponding to 302 days (10 months) down to 236 days (8 months).
  6. Going to higher levels, the drop in reward ratio causes D to increase again. Currently there is no evidence that D will ever drop again.
The net profit in FP (generated minus investment) over a period of 550 days is shown in the next figure, where the cross-over points at break-even are marked by black dots. For clarity, only the case of 1.9x donors is considered. It is obvious how level 60 outperforms other levels within a time frame of 1.5 years. A close-up around the 0 line is provided as well.
Cape2.png

Close-up around 0 line:
Cape2b.png

Strategies on target levels
Best strategy: target level 60
Fastest for break-even (8 months); profits are better than even level 80 within a time frame of 1.5 years.

Worst strategy: target level 21
Slowest for break-even (1 year); profits are very poor, even worse than level 10 within a time frame of around 450 days.

Practical strategy
In practice, I believe few players would wait to amass 50 sets of blueprints and the required 14135 FPs before building Cape. A practical way is to rush level in 2 stages. In stage 1, build Cape and end at level 10. In stage 2, upgrade to level 60 as fast as possible.

Concluding Remarks
While the presented model ignores (i) other sources of donors (e.g. goods buyers, competitive bidders, altruistic friends), (ii) alternative modes of leveling (e.g. swap-based leveling instead of self-leveling), and (iii) possible setbacks (e.g. owner bought goods with FPs to build Cape, denial of 1.9x donors due to snipers or mistakes), it provides a controlled and well-defined estimate for D.

So, "Is Cape worth building?" If you plan to play longer than the corresponding D of your target level, the answer is yes. Moreover, if you go beyond level 10, it is important not to sit at around level 20 (worst) but to reach level 60 (optimal) as soon as possible, where D is about 8 months with 1.9x free donors and the net total investment is 14135 FPs; otherwise, the day of profitability could be significantly delayed.

As a final note, this analysis only provides a working strategy of getting a return on FPs from Cape within the least amount of time. It does not mean that one should never level Cape beyond 60.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

DeletedUser29726

Your analysis is in some ways much more rigorous than my own on the subject, but the conclusion reached is roughly the same - that once you can level a cape with arc assistance, it makes good sense to take it to 60, but not necessarily further. As for your 2 stage strategy, i'm not sure level 10 is the right point to pause while you wait to start getting the stream of blueprints - in general the levels up to 10 do get progressively worse, and level 7 specifically doesn't even give an additional FP (in order to make level 10 a big deal i guess so it can give two). As such my suggestion would be level 6 until you're ready to really run the thing (or lack better places to spend the FP).
 

DeletedUser27525

Your analysis is in some ways much more rigorous than my own on the subject, but the conclusion reached is roughly the same - that once you can level a cape with arc assistance, it makes good sense to take it to 60, but not necessarily further. As for your 2 stage strategy, i'm not sure level 10 is the right point to pause while you wait to start getting the stream of blueprints - in general the levels up to 10 do get progressively worse, and level 7 specifically doesn't even give an additional FP (in order to make level 10 a big deal i guess so it can give two). As such my suggestion would be level 6 until you're ready to really run the thing (or lack better places to spend the FP).
I agree with you that level 10 may not be an ideal rest area and level 6 may be better. In the big picture (Fig. 2) though, the difference between the two cases may be almost negligible. What I had in mind was to make a compromise by taking out a chunk of the total investment as much as possible without being too close to the worst-case scenario (local maximum). For me, I expect on average I would get 1.85x donors. Drawing a horizontal line at the corresponding local minimum in Fig. 1 would intersect level 10. That's how I came up with the 2-stage strategy. Of course it could vary a lot depending on other factors too.

Thanks for your input and giving me the opportunity to explain this a bit further!
 

DeletedUser31440

I've been looking at some numbers for leveling a Cape up to 80. I might be thinking along the wrong lines here, but the general strategy I'm showing is below:

Level 0-1: Guild Stix to Brix thread, no fp cost to owner. (0 fp cost)
Levels 1-19: More efficient to use swap threads than self leveling with Arcs taking reward spots. (13,233 fp cost)
Level 20-80: Self Level with Arcs taking reward spots at 1.8 or higher if you can find anyone willing. (28,173 fp cost)
Not counting double dips but counting a collection at each level gives 3,238 fp's.

Puts the total fp's (less any rewards from swap threads) at 38,168 fp's.

Pays off cost on the 478th day.

Edited for correct tense and grammar.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Woody*

Active Member
Outstanding guide. You could get even more in the weeds comparing SoKs and the Cape based on how many roads touch the Cape vs. how many roads would be required to fit the SoKs. But, this guide does a great job of painting the big picture on how long the payoff time is on the Cape (and other FP-generating GBs although the curves are obviously different).


I have 2 Recommendations:
#1 - don't place the Cape (assuming you haven't built it yet) until you can power level it.
#2 - If you have the FPs to level it to 60, do it ASAP to start the payoff clock running
 

DeletedUser31440

Played with some numbers and came up with a different strategy.

Use swap threads to level up to 15
Self Level with Arcs taking reward spots at x 1.8 up to level 80*

*It's cheaper to get the first 3 reward spots locked at 1.8 and use swap threads for the remainder, but it also is more time intensive and in my mind not worth the savings.

Total Cost to Level 80 = 31,305 fp's
Days to Payoff after 80 = 392 days

For everyone else to make their own choice for leveling technique please see below:
Total FP's to Level (FPL)
Owner's FP's Spent on Level (FPO)
Owner's FP's Spent on Swaps (FPS)
Arc Lock FP's Spent on Level (FPA)
Approximate Reward FP's from Swaps* (FPR)
* FPR assumes a 50% return, i.e. for every 100 fp's spent in swap threads, owner receives 50 fp's back from rewards

7 Different Leveling Strategies:

A - Self Leveling w/ Arcs: 32,309 fp's - 404 Days to Payoff
FPL = FPO + FPA (FPO = cost of each level)

B - Swap Groups w/ no Arcs: 82,487 fp's - 1032 Days to Payoff
FPL = FPS (FPS - FPR = cost of each level)

C - Swap Groups w/ 1st Arc Locked: 50,321 fp's - 630 Days to Payoff
FPL = FPO + FPA + FPS (FPO + FPS - FPR = cost of each level)

D - Swap Groups w/ 1st & 2nd Arc Locked: 30,376 fp's - 380 Days to Payoff
FPL = FPO + FPA + FPS (FPO + FPS - FPR = cost of each level)

E - Swap Groups w/ 1st - 3rd Arc Locked: 29,765 fp's - 373 Days to Payoff
FPL = FPO + FPA + FPS (FPO + FPS - FPR = cost of each level)

F - Swap Groups w/ 1st - 4th Arc Locked: 31,286 fp's - 392 Days to Payoff
FPL = FPO + FPA + FPS (FPO + FPS - FPR = cost of each level)

G - Swap Groups w/ 1st - 5th Arc Locked: 31,858 fp's - 399 Days to Payoff
FPL = FPO + FPA + FPS (FPO + FPS - FPR = cost of each level)

Best - Lowest fp cost by level - 28,775 fp's - 360 Days to Payoff

Cape 30.PNG
Cape 60.PNG
Cape 80.PNG

3rd Arc is shaded Orange instead of Green because I am on the fence about whether I would consider the GB eligible for swap threads with 3 reward spots already taken.
 

DeletedUser32824

Me and one of the guys in my arc swap group were talking about doing cape after our arcs are done. Both of ours are at lvl 10. Since we will both have lvl 80 arcs I was thinking we just take 1st + our donation to maximize BPs and medals (still have like 9 expansions left). And the rest we could get from Arc80s. I think that might be the best way to ensure we each have all the BPs. Right now I have enough sets to get to lvl 45, but beyond that I wouldn't have enough.

The only issue is that I'm pretty sure he makes more daily FPs than me :(
 

DeletedUser27184

Cape is best after you finish the Arc leveling. No need to plant it before. Once you finish the Arc, you can power level the Cape from zero to 80 in 2-3 months very easly.
 

DeletedUser28132

Your analysis is in some ways much more rigorous than my own on the subject, but the conclusion reached is roughly the same - that once you can level a cape with arc assistance, it makes good sense to take it to 60, but not necessarily further. As for your 2 stage strategy, i'm not sure level 10 is the right point to pause while you wait to start getting the stream of blueprints - in general the levels up to 10 do get progressively worse, and level 7 specifically doesn't even give an additional FP (in order to make level 10 a big deal i guess so it can give two). As such my suggestion would be level 6 until you're ready to really run the thing (or lack better places to spend the FP).

I like this comment a lot. (ilikeitalot). The pause at level 6 advice is very good. Thanks.
 

DeletedUser28132

Wow, fantastic post, Laozi. Thank you for doing this work. I am no mathematician, merely a little Rainman-ish when it comes to numbers, and I came up with similar time frames as well. This OP was exceptionally well done. I would only add, or maybe just stress, that in the real world the time frame will most certainly take longer than the minimum. Unless one is exceptionally disciplined, has a massive daily fp supply when they begin construction and has the support of a disciplined, max level arc guild/friend network, the minimum amount of time one can expect to see a return is closer to 1 year. For most people it's going to be even longer, of course.

Again great information and thanks for posting it.
 

DeletedUser30900

if you wanna necro something, do it with something meaningful.
 

Woody*

Active Member
if you wanna necro something, do it with something meaningful.
I agree, Icar. I would like to add one more recommendation to my others above:

I have 2 Recommendations:
#1 - don't place the Cape (assuming you haven't built it yet) until you can power level it.
#2 - If you have the FPs to level it to 60, do it ASAP to start the payoff clock running


#3 - If you are a player that levels relies heavily on Guild FP-swap threads to gain FP packs, prints and medals plant this early and take it to level 10. (After doing CdM first). This starts the pay off clock for those levels and will help generate the rewards you seek.
 

DeletedUser29726

I recently redid my analysis on the assorted FP producing GBs.

upload_2019-5-13_18-23-6.png

Breakpoint 1 was always chosen as level 10 as a place where many will probably have it anyways (and that it's easy to get to without finding other levelling copies of the same building)
Breakpoint 2 was the local minimum I was able to find where if you're going past 10 it makes sense to take it *at least* that far (assuming 1.9 donors - if you get less than 1.9, then there's a decent chance you should stop a little sooner and prefer the earlier age buildings more)
Breakpoint 3 for now was just left at 80 to give an idea as to how fast the cost is going to go up past the sweet spot. Though I should change it for Himeji at least to 91 to give it a fair shake (it'd still come out as don't do it - but might pay for itself within 10 years then).

Days to even is calculated based on the levelling cost with all spots being taken at the stated donor percentage (1.9). It includes double-collects where relevant (not ToR). It is always calculated from the previous breakpoint. In some cases this isn't the most useful number as you might be deciding whether to build a building you don't even have yet and take it directly through the sweet spot. I didn't include the additional columns so as not to overwhelm.

Not shown in the above numbers:
Innovation tower (from an FP perspective) should probably just not be built until you're ready to do the run to 65 (it's 301 days to break even instead from 0->65).
Temple of Relics to 10 is also mostly paid for by what you're already getting from Temple of Relics to 1, so not taking it to 10 does make a good deal of sense.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

DeletedUser27910

I don't understand your logic here:

"Case study: Break-even with respect to Shrine of Knowledge
Cape is often benchmarked against SoK. Cape occupies 20 tiles, equivalent to 5 SoKs. Therefore, in terms of space efficiency, Cape should generate 5 FPs per day just to be on par with SoK. This is accomplished with a target level of 5, where the net total investment by the owner is 618 FPs. This will require 618 / 5 = 123.6 days, or about 4 months, to reach break-even."

At level 5 Cape produces 5 FPs a day which is the same as what 5 SoKs would produce. After 123 days you get back what you've invested in your Cape but you're still 615 FPs behind what 5 SoKs would have produced. It seems to me it would be more useful to know how long it would take to break even with the SoKs. With large GBs that only produce FPs every other level, the break even point will go up significantly.
 

DeletedUser27525

At level 5 Cape produces 5 FPs a day which is the same as what 5 SoKs would produce. After 123 days you get back what you've invested in your Cape but you're still 615 FPs behind what 5 SoKs would have produced. It seems to me it would be more useful to know how long it would take to break even with the SoKs. With large GBs that only produce FPs every other level, the break even point will go up significantly.
You're right - you will never outperform 5 SoKs if your target level is 5 or below. The example only illustrates how the numbers work in the model. The whole point is to find a target level, and whether the production at that target level justifies the investment.

You can calculate the number of days to outperform 5 SoKs easily. E.g. at breakeven for target level 60, you lost (236 days x 5 FP/day) = 1180 FP compared to SoK. The daily production is 60 - 5 = 55 FP better than SoK. So it will take an additional 1180/55 = 22 days to beat SoK after reaching breakeven.
 

DeletedUser27910

With cape it's not a big deal. It's small enough and generates enough FPs at lower levels that building it is wothwhile. However, if you start to look at HS, I think you might get a different story. HS takes 42 spaces. With that space you can easily generate 9-10 FPs a day. To get that much production from HS you'd have to build it to the level 15-17 range. I'm guessing it would take somewhere around two years to break even and that is assuming you only generate 9-10 FPs a day from the space HS would take up. In CA I'm accumulating so many of the event builds that I could probably trade in most of my SoKs and put up buildings with higher FP production. The way the game is changing I really wonder if HS is worth building any more. With the buildings I have it's clearly not worth building in CA.
 

ODragon

Well-Known Member
The way the game is changing I really wonder if HS is worth building any more. With the buildings I have it's clearly not worth building in CA.

I'm only in Indy and pushed mine to 70. With the Arc and it being a low level GB, the amount of FP to level it is pretty low so it went very quickly. The bonus is that its happiness helps offset the population from the Inno. Now it isn't anywhere near as much happiness as any of the other happiness GBs vs size, it is still a good boost. Long term, it will be interesting to see how many event buildings come out to make it not worth it (especially if you don't have it yet).
 

DeletedUser27525

I did the analysis for HS (and other FP-producing GBs) in this thread. It's the exact same model. You can take a look and decide.
 

RazorbackPirate

Well-Known Member
With cape it's not a big deal. It's small enough and generates enough FPs at lower levels that building it is worthwhile. However, if you start to look at HS, I think you might get a different story. HS takes 42 spaces. With that space you can easily generate 9-10 FPs a day. To get that much production from HS you'd have to build it to the level 15-17 range. I'm guessing it would take somewhere around two years to break even and that is assuming you only generate 9-10 FPs a day from the space HS would take up. In CA I'm accumulating so many of the event builds that I could probably trade in most of my SoKs and put up buildings with higher FP production. The way the game is changing I really wonder if HS is worth building any more. With the buildings I have it's clearly not worth building in CA.
Unless you're putting SoKs into storage to plant HS, this argument doesn't even make sense. I built HS in HMA. From the moment it reached level 3, it has been the sole source of Happy in my city and I pushed it to level 10 prior to building my Arc. Now that my Arc is at 80, I'm pushing it to level 20, along with the rest of my existing GBs.

I first built HS for the Happy. It allowed me to delete the same number if squares of culture buildings and I got extra FPs as a bonus. Now I level HS for the FPs and get extra happy as a bonus. With HS I've also not yet built Alcatraz, saving me a ton of extra squares. Conversely, I've yet to build Cape even though I've been able to for a long while. I'll build Cape eventually, but right now, FP GBs that provide other benefits are far more attractive to me. Including HS.
 
Top