Agree with you for the most part. The advice to only get a GB if it's primary benefit is for something you're doing is true for every GB. If a player feels aiding all her friends, neighbors & guildies every day is too boring, she shouldn't get a Seed Vault. If a player doesn't plunder, then kraken is useless. If a player doesn't have any Event main buildings/prizes or TFs, then he really won't get much bang for his buck having Blue Galaxy. If a player only infrequently donates to GBs, then that's not a good time to get an Arc. It does seem a number of players are seeking out the Arc far too early, while having an obviously disjointed, struggling city in most ways (believing the hype about those high Arcs without understanding the game fundamentals at all).
Well for the most part I'd say almost noone should get a seed vault regardless of how much they aid - it never recovers FP, scales poorly, and takes forever to recover the goods it takes to build it - about the only reason to build it is small amounts of diamonds. And Blue Galaxy is also borderline even with the ideal buildings to proc it on. Maybe some settlements down the road with ygg-tree grade rewards I'll change my mind. Mostly my posts have been to try and downgrade the unqualified yes that most people state about Arc to "only if you're really going to use it".
Yet, you're tending to lump players into only 1 of two categories when discussing the Arc. You've already defined everything other than hyperleveling as "just playing". Are you sure you're not now defining everything other than 'a multitude of daily very large fp donations to hyperleveled GBs' as "casual swaps on sub-10 buildings"? Sort of feels that way to me.
No, you made that definition. I just gave an alternate category to hyperlevelling that I called "just playing" which excluded hyper-levelling. I did not state that it was an absolute dichotomy. My quote:
That said, if your goal is to *just play* I would not recommend building Arc particularly early. Not because it's not usable at any particular level - but because using it involves a playstyle that I don't really consider "just playing". So... "Just playing" excludes hyperlevelling or neighborhood sniping (which I think it's fair to say most of the game's population does neither to any large extent). But that doesn't mean there isn't other try-hard strategies that I also wouldn't consider just playing (and may or may not benefit from an arc)
That highlighted part above is where I somewhat disagree. The Return on Investment should make sense, but isn't limited to just replacing the fps spent. And getting that back "fast enough" is subjective.
It mostly is though. Gaining medals for donation is primarily a function of what you can donate to, not whether you have an arc. 30% more medals is hardly a wonderful perk worth thousands of FP. And gaining extra blueprints mostly only matters when you're planning to take buildings past 10. Getting 1 set of blueprints is very straightforward for any building (with the exception of ones people don't want to build or level much and aren't as available to donate to).
Here's an example from my play. I got CF & DT within 2 months of playing. With an extremely low fp/day income of 26-28, neither would on the surface appear to be wise. Yet no one's dailyfp income accurately refects what can be easily obtained.
I think it was ember that set you off on the daily FP income thing... Because my only statement on FP income was that 100 was plenty to use an arc and even to hyperlevel it since it seemed to be stated earlier that it wasn't. I'd agree DT was not wise - unless you're camping a very low age for a very long time (I have one in my perma-iron age world, and none in any other world whatever the age). You can get the goods directly that you want it to make for much cheaper than a set for DT. CF is fine depending on your playstyle (it's similar to arc in that regard - though a bit closer to everyone should have one because even if you don't do the quest loops there's plenty of big rewards from the story it boosts).
Most prize chests for the Daily quests invariably have fps as the most likely outcome. With a good friends list of 75 players full of red tablecloths in taverns, I win a range of 5-9fp every day from visiting. GE at all levels gives fp prizes often. The Events often give alot of fps (& we have alot of events). If you make a few wise GB donations a week to friends/hoodies, the fp packs will add up (Oracles in BA/IA/EMA are quite profitable). Fp packs from utlizing RQs daily is of immense benefit. Perhaps that still wouldn't add up to getting my fps back quick enough by the definition of some folks. But what else did I get for ROI & how quickly? Within a week, I raised CF to level 4. That was plenty to immediately get rid of all my goods buildings opening up huge area for other things. And I could immediately negotiate through all of GE4 - all the diamonds, troops, buildings, etc. With the DT only at level 3-4 during that time, I could rapidly accumulate (via higher level goods received & trading down those goods as needed) enough goods to get SMB & RAH within ~2 weeks or so - much quicker than I could've done otherwise, especially since I wasn't in a guild. (Those GBs were important component for my plan for playstyle). Additionally, I got a head start of getting goods needed for the next Age's tech tree & GE. My "casual play" worked just fine, in my opinion.
That way of thinking also applies to the Arc. Can a person accomplish some of their game goals much quicker with "casual play" of the Arc? If so, I don't care if it takes several months (or more) to recoup the fps spent.
I think it's safe to say from all this that you're not into casual play
at all. Which isn't a bad thing - mostly I'm not either (though I have more fun when I am). Can you have good returns off arc putting that kind of effort? Sure. Do most of the player base put in that much effort? Hell no. Less than 25% of active players finished a level 10 colossus, a gift-wrapped super-building with a questline you could sleep through and complete.
