I actually find I get more fp packs than I would get having the TFs. They cost me 500 population each as well so I save more room by not having them. If they were lower Aged ones I would have been more inclined to keep them, but because of the pop cost being 2.5 times for equally spaced Alchemists I chose to remove them to save on space I would have to use to construct the Town Houses. A TF for HMA costs me 3.21 Town Houses, whereas the 5 Alchemists is only 1.29 Town Houses.
According to my data, this is not correct. I'll try to explain why, I'll gladly be corrected if there is any mistake.
First, let's talk about the "scaling" of both choices. FP scale with arc (and finding better swap partners). Quest scale with LoA, StM, CF and -because the rewards are FP- with arc too. In other words, while fp swaps increase the snowball effect of questing, this is also true for farms SKW or any FP building (as more fp --> higher arc --> more fp). Because of that, we must focus on the differences between questing and FP buildings (loa, stm, cf) and ignore the similarities (fp snowballing).The next step would be in which scenario (which combination of levels for loa, stm and cf) is the breakpoint of questing against each FP building.
Sadly, this question doesn't have a general answer, because not only depends on loa, stm, cf. It also depends on city layout, happyness and which special buildings do you have available.
By city layout I mean how well you can position the event buildings: can you connect a farm with a single road piece, or you need 5? Were you lucky with your maraja set so you can position them optimally, or you have to use a very weird configuration to get the 4piece bonuses?
By happyness I mean: are your happyness requirements covered without needing any cultural buildings (or leveling sophia more than you want to?)
Because there is no general answer, I'll explain the
current situation of my city, with what I've found to be the most optimal situation. [1]
CF
Lvl 10. Past 10 the ROI decreses harshly. In my case, I go from 128.9 daily quests to 130.17. This results in in 0.4 fp produced/day, which is a really low return on investment.
Coins- StM
I have enough StM lvl, SoKs and SKWs so that my coins production is higher than my supplies production. So, what limits the amount of UBQs I can do is my supplies production, not coins.
LoA (or RAH)
I have 52 alchemist and have LoA at lvl 3. I pernanently use 60% tabern boost except on Saturdays (when I need extra turn for negotiating GE, in that case I use 12h 40% boost). With these conditions, raising a lvl in LoA reports an increase of 1 daily quest (0.3fp/day) and costs 170 fp. Factoring in rewards from swaping FP, this means I would recover my investment in (more or less) 1 year, which is my upper limit.
For someone who went full alchemist (instead of hybrid Fp-alchemist). The optimum lvl of LoA could be 7, 115% bonus (that's a rough guess).
Happyness, layout
Thanks to Marajá Palaces and other event buildings, I have over 2000 happyness that I don't need, so it isn't a restriction. Layout is a much more complex phenomenon, so I'll keep it out.
Conditions
So, for the sake of comparing clockmakers/alchemist vs FP buildings, I'll use the following conditions:
CF lvl 10
StM lvl infinite (because, eventually, everyone will get enough soks to overpower supplies)
LoA 115% bonus
Permanent 60% supplies bonus from tabern
No Inno tower
No happyness concerns
Each alchemist requires 8.28 tiles (1 road tile and 1.28 tiles worth of housing) and produces 1.33 quests, 0.4 fp.
Each farm requires 30 (building) + 3/2 (roads, this value can vary between 1/2 and 6/2, depending on city layout) + 12.82 (3.2 houses each requiring 4 tiles, as they don't need to be road connected) = 44.32 tiles, or 5.35 alchemist.
Results
For a full HQS city with the above conditions
Terrace Farms produce 5 fp, and alchemist produce 2.14 FP. Those alchemist also produce 32 medals, and 26.6 goods.
Other:
Owning an Inno tower puts Terrace farms further ahead
Sacred sky watches, cherry sets and other special buildings have even higher FP efficiency than farms.
Questing requires investing in LoA, FP buildings don't.
Final conclusions
Hybrid FP buildings + questing is the best choice. This way you get enough goods to negotiate Guild expedition IV but don't overproduce them, and focus on maximising FP rewards which is the main factor that drives long-term growth.
[1] Disclaimer. This is for low ages ( at least HMA, LMA and colonial). For higher ages (future onward), where goods are actually valuable and can be exchanged for FP donations, this doesn't hold true. Then, rising CF level past 10 is a good idea. I've avoided this topic to avoid complicating things even more, and because.. at that point in the game you are more a salesman (finding customers for your goods) than a strategist.
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