[Guide] Cosmic Raven's Version of Heavy Questing

[DeletedUser8152]

I get where you are going with this. But it's not quite the subject matter of the post you are quoting me from.

The bonus resources we score (FPs, Medals, and blueprints) from owning an Arc are actually a very complex function of many different factors:

1. Our Arc's current level, which in turn determines the specific GB donation reward % bonus that will get multiplied to any GB donation reward that we score. This is specifically what my quote above pertains to. Each Arc level above level 10 will only raise the GB donation reward % bonus +1%. In contrast, leveling up the Arc to each different GB level between level 1 and level 10 (inclusive) yields a much larger increase in the GB donation reward bonus than every level above 10.
   
   
2. The specific GB we are donating to. Donating FPs to a level 10 SoZ is never going to pay the same total rewards as donating FPs to a level 10 Alcatraz. Some GBs just have better returns on investment than others.
   
   
3. The specific GB level we are donating to. Donating to any level 1 GB is never going to yield as much ROI as donating to a level 10 GB. Even if we had a +100 % donation reward bonus. Scoring 200% of 10 FPs is still only 20 FPs.
   
   
4. The specific donation reward slot we secure on the current level of the target GB we are donating to. The player who secures the 1st slot always gets paid the largest base package of donation rewards (before any Arc bonuses is applied) and the player in the 6th slot never gets paid anything. So the math here works the same as the math for point #3 above. Scoring 200% of 0 FPs is still only 0 FPs.

Leveling up the Arc from Level 10 to level 11 will cost 995 FPs and yet only increase our Donation Reward Bonus +1%. Since every Arc level above 10 will only increase the donation reward bonus +1%, and since each level will cost more-and-more FPs, the specific case of raising the Arc from level 10 to level 11 is the best case scenario — the higher up we level the Arc, the more FPs each higher level will cost yet we still only get +1%. So let's look at the true impact of increasing the Arc's donation reward bonus +1%.

Securing 1st place on a level 30 Alcatraz pays a base rewards package of:
330 2,816 7

I'm choosing a very high and lucrative GB level here to illustrate my point.

Now let's buff the base rewards above by a Level 10 Arc donation reward bonus of +31%
We would score: 433 3,689 9

Now let's buff the base rewards by a Level 11 Arc donation reward bonus of +32%
We would score: 439 3,745 9

So the total increase between us owning a level 10 Arc and a level 11 Arc when scoring:

• On the same reward slot
• On the same GB level
• And on the same GB type

would be:
+6 +56 +0

So our +1% increase in donation reward bonus, which we paid 995 FPs for, managed to increase our net reward package by what you see above. We would need to score 1st place on a Level 30 Alcatraz 167 times, before we would get back the value of the extra 995 FPs we paid for level 11, when only scoring +6 FPs more each time we scored thusly.

Now let's say we took the same 995 FPs and instead applied them to a brand new SoZ that for some reason we skipped earlier in the game and just now put down in the Stix. We would quickly level our SoZ up from level 0 to level 7, even to almost half-way between level 7 and level 8. These 7 GB levels would combine to increase of our city's combat bonus +21%/+21%, for the same total cost of 995 FPs. By my math, the value of a +21%/+21% combat bonus is worth a Hell of lot more total value to my city than increasing my reward for securing 1st place on a level 30 Alcatraz a grand total +6 FPs, +56 medals, and +0 blueprints.

OK but let's say you and I both have a level 49 arc, that provides a +70% contribution bonus. Advancing to level 50 costs 2605 FP. Suppose we swap 1303 with each other to lock up first place. When it levels, the base 1st place reward is 780 FP, but we will each collect 1326 FP... so we make a 13 FP profit, free and clear. Now I find someone else and swap the remaining 1302, but I put on an extra point and grab 1st from them too. So I've leveled my arc and made a net profit of 25 FP.

 

[DeletedUser27184]

OK but let's say you and I both have a level 49 arc, that provides a +70% contribution bonus. Advancing to level 50 costs 2605 FP. Suppose we swap 1303 with each other to lock up first place. When it levels, the base 1st place reward is 780 FP, but we will each collect 1326 FP... so we make a 13 FP profit, free and clear. Now I find someone else and swap the remaining 1302, but I put on an extra point and grab 1st from them too. So I've leveled my arc and made a net profit of 25 FP.

The 2nd deal will net you only 2nd place on some arc (since no one will give a first place for a second place). So you end up still needing to put ~650 FP's.

 

[DeletedUser23444]

OK but let's say you and I both have a level 49 arc, that provides a +70% contribution bonus. Advancing to level 50 costs 2605 FP. Suppose we swap 1303 with each other to lock up first place. When it levels, the base 1st place reward is 780 FP, but we will each collect 1326 FP

Uh huh...

Now I find someone else and swap the remaining 1302, but I put on an extra point and grab 1st from them too.

You mean you need to try to sucker another player into swapping 50% of the FPs for the entire GB level, but such that you get to secure 1st place on his level 49 Arc, meanwhile you cheat him of an equitable FP swap, since he never has the chance to secure 1st place on your Arc? I doubt that any player with enough savvy to own a level 49 Arc in the first place, would be this foolish about the FP Swaps they agree to. Personally, I try to never pay more than 25% of the total FPs required for the current GB level in order to secure reward slot #2. So there is no way in Hell I would ever agree to swap to your GB as your number slot #2 winner while also agreeing to donate the same number FPs to the current GB level as the player who secured slot #1 — that is beyond foolish. Your strategy with how to get the remaining 1,302 FPs donated to your Arc is unsustainable at best, because eventually you will run out of players to dupe in this way on your server who also own level 49 Arcs.

so we make a 13 FP profit ... So I've leveled my arc and made a net profit of 25 FPs

But for the moment, let’s continue along your line of logic. First, I must point out that your math is incorrect — you would actually get 46 extra FPs if check your math again. And after adjusting the math, you would be saying to yourself: "With the 2,606 FPs that I just swapped to this level of my Arc, I scored 2 x 1st place reward packages (and lost one swap partner because of your greed), and both packages were buffed by my Level 49 Arc bonus, which means that I just scored 1,326 FPs x 2 times = 2,652 total FPs. And since 2,652s FPs - 2,606 FPs = 46 FPs, therefore I profited 46 FPs."

The assumptions you would be making here are not necessarily 100% correct. Why not? It is true that you would have scored 46 more FPs than you spent to level up your own Arc +1 level, for this specific GB level. However, is not necessarily true that these 46 FPs are actually a profit — they might be a profit and they might not be a profit; this really depends on all of the previous FP swaps you have completed since you first constructed your Arc back once it reached level 1.

Remember, you would have had to swap FPs to reach every level below level 49 on your Arc. So even if we said you could follow the precise (unfair) swapping strategy that you laid out above for each Arc level: where you swap fairly with one player on each level where both you and your partner score 1st place on each other's Arc, and then you also screw over one sucker on each level where you score 1st on the Sucker's Arc and the Sucker only got to score 2nd place on your Arc. Let's say you did this for every Arc level between level 1 to level 49. Even in this unsustainable swap fantasy you have, not every single GB level among those 49 GB levels would have turned what you think of as "a profit". On many (if not on most) of those earlier GB levels, you actually needed to swap more FPs to level up your Arc than you could have possible scored, even with screwing over one sucker on each GB level and even after your Arc bonus was applied to every reward package that you scored. So very early on in the lower GB levels, you were actually accumulating successive losses on each level, until finally one day your Arc reached a certain level where all of sudden it "profited" in terms of you scoring more FPs reaching the next level than you actually spent on taking it up that one level. So the 46 FPs "profit" you think you made on level 49→50, and whatever "profit" you think you made on level 48→49 or level 47→48, or even those "profits" yet to come on level 50→51 and level 51→52, and so on, must all be balanced against your earlier losses you incurred, before you can actually say that you have turned a real, mathematical, profit.

Within the Frame of Reference of this one Arc level, yes you profited 46 FPs on these two swaps on this one GB level. But within the larger Frame of Reference of you owning your Arc and all the 1,000s and 1,000s of FPs you had to swap to get up to where it is, the actual point your Arc reaches a profit (and it will or maybe even already has), is a function of how many FP Swaps you have participated in, how high you scored, and the size of the base reward packages that you scored. Now certainly, by the time you reach some Stratosphere level on the Arc, it will have paid for itself. But the reality is you would have gone very deep into FP losses, before you ever reached FP Swap Nirvana and everything started to become self-sustaining from that point forward. Players who own level 49 Arcs also own fields of SoKs, and many GBs that produce FPs per 24-hours (CdM, IT, HS, CC, and AO). A lot of land in their city, along with many GB decisions throughout the game went into them being able to work a Stratosphere Strategy.

You are focused on what I call “Profitability of Swaps and Swoops" — where you spend FPs on a GB to secure a reward slot, and you try to maximize the rewards your score, hopefully turning a profit on each and every swap or swoop. And certainly the Arc' s donation reward bonus certainly helps in this regard. There can be no doubt that the Arc is single most powerful GB in the game of FoE. However, you and I are actually having two different conversations. You don't seem to understand what I am talking about at all.

I'm talking about spending FPs in Swaps to level up GBs in such a way that the player maximizes:

1. The total production capacity of our city — how much STUFF our city produces, which includes: diamonds, medals, coins, supplies, units, goods (both refined and unrefined), FPs, BPs, combat victories, PvP Tower Points, Rank Points, Guild Power, and Support Bonus. These are all the things that we, in some way, produce from our city.
   
   
2. The total efficiency our city's production of all of the STUFF I listed above (measured in total value-per-tile-of land each building consumes). How much of each thing can we produce, from the same finite amount of land we have in our city.
   
   
3. The rate at which a player can increase both #1 above (production capacity) and #2 above (production efficiency), through leveling up their GBs in an optimal order such that each new GB level reached helps the city produce more and more, produce more-per-tile of land, without actually adding more land to the city.

You are not even close to having the same conversation I'm having. Keep in mind that this HQS comes before the Stratosphere Strategy — So we follow my HQS guide in order progress from a 16x16 city with no GBs to get our city set up such that we can more easily afford to participate in a Stratosphere Strategy later on in the game as quickly as possible. Read the objectives of the HQS ealry on in the proper sections of this guide, I actually mention this.

You can either build a hotrod, or drive a hot rod — it is much less effective (if not dangerous) to do both at the same time. The HQS is about building the hot rod. The Stratosphere Strategy is about cruising in the hotrod

Like I pointed out in my last post, a +1% increase in the number of FPs scored from ANY GB level (even a very lucrative GB level) is actually a trivial gain to the efficiency of our city. The FPs you scored from the swap are a function of the swap, those extra FPs you scored are not a function of the rate at which the bonus from your Arc is increasing. You are looking at the FPs that you score by swapping FPs to an Arc. I'm looking at the rate at which we increase the bonuses we get back from leveling up a GB. And I’m further comparing the value of each GB levels bonus increase, compared to how many FPs must be swapped to that GB level, at then looking at how much value we could get from other levels on lower level GBs by swapping the same number of FPs.

Let me go back to the hot rod analogy and state the difference in our two conversations another way — you are looking at the velocity of your hot rod, while I am looking at how we modify the hot rod to improve its rate of acceleration. Since by definition acceleration is a the rate of change in velocity, and I'm looking at the rate of change in acceleration, this means that what I am looking to improve is more powerful than what you are looking at improving.


So as not to confuse other players, let me expound on this.

Let's say a player’s city sits in FE with a level 49 Arc and let’s also say the same city has:

• A level 3 Capitol constructed back in the Industrial Age
• A level 6 LoA constructed back in the Iron Age
• A level 5 StM constructed back in HMA

That player has more-less wasted so much game progress he could have had as a result of the under-leveled GBs in his city. Instead, he could have: a level 49 Arc, a level 10 Capitol, a Level 10 StM, and a level 10 LoA, in the same amount of time playing the game.

Leveling up his Capitol from level 3 to level 10 would permit him to sell off 1 Arcology, which in turn would permit him to add several more SoKs and SSWs to his city, which in turn would help him get the level 49 Arc much quicker since his city now produces more FPs per-day in exactly the same amount of land.

By leveling up both his StM and LoA to level 10 he would have buffed all of his coins and supplies production going all the way back to when he first constructed those GBs, every day between then and now, his coins and supply production would have been GREATLY BUFFED, which means he could have afforded to spam more UBQs per day between then and now and thus he would have scored more FP packs per day, every day between then and now, which he could have swapped to a partner's GB and scored even more FPs packs from more FPs swapped. All of this would have been facilitated by converting highly efficient coins and supplies production into FPs.

I've owned a level 10 LoA since back in Colonial Age and my StM has been level 7 (or higher ) since then as well. StM can actually be 1-2 levels lower than LoA, for the purposes of affording UBQs, since StM bonuses are far-more efficient per level than those of LoA. Even still, I recently completed level 10 StM a few weeks ago. I've also owned a level 10 Arc since Colonial Age. My CF has been level 9 since Colonial age and is currently level 10.

GBs like StM and LoA often get overlooked by players like jaelis, because they are not as sexy as the Arc. A GB like CF might not even get constructed in many cities, let alone reach level 10. But in fact, these GBs combine to be even powerful, when all three of them are leveraged correctly as I recommend in this HQS. My StM + LoA + CF, actually combine to produce more total value per tile of land per the FPs spent to level them up to level 10, Than my Arc provides (and mine is like level 14 now, and I'm about to start Stratosphere it like discussed earlier). Make no mistake, the Arc is an AWESOME GB. But also make no mistake, we get more total value back, compared to the FPs we spend, by leveling GBs up toward level 10 than by taking GBs above level 10.

Not a week goes by where I don't purchase at least 50 FPs outright with coins. Keep in mind my next single FP will cost me 234,450 coins. This means I'm paying nearly a quarter million coins per FP. The ability to sustain affording FPs with coins is because I own a level 10 StM whose bonus is being applied to my field of SoKs, Sacred Sky Watches (SSWs), and Tribal Squares.

Not a day goes by where I don't complete at least 10 UBQs. Keep in mind that in FE where I am, 1 UBQ costs me 250K coins + 250K supplies. I can afford to spend this amount at least 10 times per day. And while I spam these UBQs, my coins and supplies stockpiles still rise each day. On some days I just sit and spam UBQs until my supplies stockpile gets down the the minimum I want to keep on hand, which is 90 million. This means I burn through at least 2.5 million coins and 2.5 million supplies daily on UBQs, and it doesn't phase me at all. This ability to sustain my UBQ habit is because of my level 10 StM bonus and my level 10 LoA bonus. GBs that players like jaelis would tend to leave under-leveled in their pursuit of that level 50 Arc.

Now these UBQs that I spam are also buffed by my level 10 CF bonus. This means that I score 13 FE goods 30% of my UBQs. I score 2,250 medals about 8% of my UBQs. I also score 5 FPs about 8% of my UBQs. I'm actually consistently producing 5-15 FPs per day from three GBs that don't even produce FPs directly, by way of converting their GBs bonuses into completing more UBQs, which lets me convert highly efficient coins and supplies production into: FE goods, medals, and FPs. Oh and by the way, the 100+ FE goods I score daily from these same UBQs are easily worth 45 FPs in trade when I trade them to a player willing to spend FPs on my GBs in exchange for my FE goods.

So yes my original statement is more than true, level up all of the GBs that I recommend to you to level 10, before you start entering a Stratosphere Strategy of taking select GBs above level 10. You will get far more total value back by doing so and you will also get that level 50 Arc sooner than a player like jaelis will. And you won't need to try to screw over some player with his unscrupulous swap strategy.

 

[DeletedUser28897]

As much as it might seem like a wild move to give OF players that supply quest, it's nice but not wildly exploitable. By the time a player hits that age they probably have a lot of premium buildings and limited space, so a town of all blacksmiths would perform worse than one which is maxed out on event buildings with maybe 6-12 blacksmiths wedged in. I like the supply quest and can knock out 3 quests concurrent with the exact same 3 (3 quest givers) mainly using bazaars but it really isn't as imbalanced as one might think.

I enjoyed this guide, I put a similar amount of thought into how I've played the last 2.5 yrs and run my city similarly. I am in the last age and have no goods buildings, no defense, 1 military building, no houses, and complete ge 64/48 every week negotiating most of it, and generate over 225 fps/day.

 

[DeletedUser28897]

I didn't see it written about here much but for a heavy quester there are two goods gbs that are crazy valuable - Dynamic and Seed Vault. Each yield over 40 current age goods.

Also, I'd love to see a discussion about the value of wishing wells vs bazaars vs oasis vs terrace farm because I've hit the point where if I get a new building I'm left with either storing or deleting a building like that. I appreciate this guide a lot because it is difficult to discuss those nuanced topics when most players, even v high ranked players have a bunch of crazy inefficient buildings.

 

[DeletedUser13838]

I've been using blacksmiths for a while to do the 24 hour quests, in addition to my 5 bazaars+aviary (I assume terrace farms work as well) but when using large buildings the imbalance isn't so bad. That the devs haven't figured out how to balance their game correctly has been an issue since at least future era came out.

Regarding the arc, you have to consider the multiplier effect it has.

Suppose you generate 100 fp/day through normal means and you spend it all on GBs via swaps and you average a 30% bonus return from leveling GBs. You spend 100 and get 30 back, you spend that 30 and get 9 back, etc. Over time that 100 will give you back 30/.7 ~ 43

Now suppose you have an arc which provides a boost of 33% making it a 40% bonus

You spend 100 and get 40 back, you spend that 40 and get 16 back, etc. Over time that 100 will give you back 40/.6 ~ 67.

That's a difference of 24/day for every 100 fps you spend daily and pays for your level 12 arc in 9 months.

Now imagine I leveled my arc 5 times and increased my daily fp to 125. I now get 125*30%*(1.38)/(1-.3*1.38) ~ 88 or an extra 21 fp/day. The 21 daily fp alone pays off the additional 5 levels in 8 months but the 88 total pays it in 2. There's even more but this thread isn't about how imbalanced the arc is.

 

[DeletedUser28897]

Nowadays for gbs above a certain lvl (12-15+?) it makes more sense to self lvl and get high lvl arc ppl to take top 3-4 spots.

 

[DeletedUser23444]

Regarding the arc, you have to consider the multiplier effect it has.

Not only did I do this, I broke it down to a detail level that no one else discusses anywhere else. And I never said don't level up an Arc. in fact, it's the top of list of which Gb to level once we own the Arc. But it's not as effective to level an Arc up above level 10 as it is to level most other Gbs up to level 10 (that is the GBs we make use of in this strategy).

Suppose you generate 100 fp/day through normal means and you spend it all on GBs via swaps and you average a 30% bonus return from leveling GBs.

It's not a "bonus return", it's a donation reward, and the entire HQS is 50% about FPs Swaps. (I just haven't documented yet how to best leverage FP swaps; however I mention swapping FPs continuously.)

You guys are still trying to compare an increase in velocity with an increase in acceleration. Clearly you don't remember how Derivatives and Integrals work. Any increase in acceleration will always out-perform an increase in velocity. It's a mathematical fact.

 

[DeletedUser23444]

Nowadays for gbs above a certain lvl (12-15+?) it makes more sense to self lvl and get high lvl arc ppl to take top 3-4 spots.

100% incorrect. Because by self-leveling you miss the chance to score more blueprints for the same GB, with which you could unlock more higher levels. Swapping FPs scores you more blueprints and more FPs, both of which are buffed by an Arc bonus.

 

[DeletedUser28897]

I can take a spot on someone's gb at a profit without a swap at all if I want blueprints. Just keep an eye on your neighborhood/guild/friends and have fp packs. I suspect it would take me 6 months before I ran out of lvls on my gbs, lvling up every 2-3 days.

 

[DeletedUser13838]

Not only did I do this, I broke it down to a detail level that no one else discusses anywhere else. And I never said don't level up an Arc. in fact, it's the top of list of which Gb to level once we own the Arc. But it's not as effective to level an Arc up above level 10 as it is to level most other Gbs up to level 10 (that is the GBs we make use of in this strategy).



It's not a "bonus return", it's a donation reward, and the entire HQS is 50% about FPs Swaps. (I just haven't documented yet how to best leverage FP swaps; however I mention swapping FPs continuously.)

You guys are still trying to compare an increase in velocity with an increase in acceleration. Clearly you don't remember how Derivatives and Integrals work. Any increase in acceleration will always out-perform an increase in velocity. It's a mathematical fact.

I think you read a wee bit too much into what I wrote. The point being that to optimize the arc you need more daily fp whether that comes from gbs, soks or fp packs from loop quests. And as your arc levels the cheaper it becomes to keep leveling (relatively speaking). I'm not sure why the distinction between bonus return or donation rewards matters. And I think your tone is a bit condescending especially in light of the fact that your last sentence has plenty of counterexamples. What it has to do with this thread is beyond me, though.

 

[DeletedUser13838]

100% incorrect. Because by self-leveling you miss the chance to score more blueprints for the same GB, with which you could unlock more higher levels. Swapping FPs scores you more blueprints and more FPs, both of which are buffed by an Arc bonus.

I can use the 500 fp I save by self leveling my arc on other arcs to get bps, not that Im close to needing more arc bps currently.

 

[DeletedUser28897]

Instead of "lvl an arc above 10 before hitting 10 on other gbs" what about lvling gb order when all gbs are above 10? Like should I be working on my chateau or st marks or tor given equal post 10 lvls

 

[DeletedUser23444]

I can use the 500 fp I save by self leveling my arc on other arcs to get bps, not that Im close to needing more arc bps currently.

You aren't swapping FPs efficiently then.

Eventually I will be adding detailed section about how to swap FPs effectively in a way where you maximize the total donation rewards scored from the FPs you swap. You folks must remember, this guide is maybe 30% complete.

 

[DeletedUser13838]

You aren't swapping FPs efficiently then.

Eventually I will be adding detailed section about how to swap FPs effectively in a way where you maximize the total donation rewards scored from the FPs you swap. You folks must remember, this guide is maybe 30% complete.

There is a point after level 10 when you will do better self leveling an arc than swapping and a point beyond that when self leveling isn't as effective. It really depends on the arcs your friends neighbors and guildies have. Right now I can put in about 40-50%of the total cost of leveling my arc to get it leveled but my arc bonus isn't high enough to overcome it by swapping.

 

[DeletedUser23444]

Instead of "lvl an arc above 10 before hitting 10 on other gbs" what about lvling gb order when all gbs are above 10? Like should I be working on my chateau or st marks or tor given equal post 10 lvls

I'm not planning into diving into Stratosphere Strategy (which GBs to take above 10 and in what order) for quite some time. In fact, I'm still number crunching in this area. However that being said, a short list of GBs that should definitely get taken take to Stratosphere would include:

1. The Arc (and it always stays at the front of the line).
   
2. CF (Remember this is a Heavy Questing guide, so we plan to continue working quests forever, which happen to pay diamonds)
3. Alcatraz, which most players should construct (Heavy Questing or not).
   
4. CdM, which most players should construct (Heavy Questing or not).
5. Innovation Tower, which most players should construct (Heavy Questing or not).
   
6. HS, if you have one. (I advocate for constructing the HS in the HQS and I'll explain why in detail at a later date.)
   
7. AO, if you have one, which everyone who fights battles should eventually construct (Heavy Questing or not).
8. CC, if you have one. (I DO NOT advocate for constructing the CC in the HQS and I will explain why in detail at a later date.)

All of these GBs are worthy of leveling up to Stratosphere levels, because their benefits essentially have no ceiling. Except for the Alcatraz, which is about increasing our unit production, all of the others GBs on this list in some way increase the number of FPs our city can produce every day, per-tile of land consumed (or per FP Swap). The Arc is about more than just FPs, because we are also increasing blueprints and medals. The CF is about increasing FP production through being able to spam more UBQs (due to loss-prevention of coins and supplies when we score those packages from any quest). But the CF is about increasing the production of: goods, diamonds, medals from every quest we complete.

I will break down the math in detail later about why I'm for the HS but against the CC (Cape). But for now, I will generalize that all value comparisons must always be based on total value produced, per total tile of land consumed. And that value is always relative to what other options we readily have available. For example, a glass of drinking water is considerably more valuable to man stranded in the middle of the desert than it is to a man stranded in the middle of a fresh-water lake.

 

[DeletedUser23444]

New content added here:

Considerations About Special Events and Special Prizes

• Special Buildings Are Not Always Valuable Buildings!
• Special Buildings For ME And Earlier

 

[DeletedUser28897]

Have you considered not running regular goods buildings at all? If you do then you don't need gbs / special buildings that you specifically want for the 2x unrefined goods. You'd still have the St Marks, RAH, and possibly Wishing Wells for unrefined to trade anyway.

 

[DeletedUser23444]

Have you considered not running regular goods buildings at all? If you do then you don't need gbs / special buildings that you specifically want for the 2x unrefined goods. You'd still have the St Marks, RAH, and possibly Wishing Wells for unrefined to trade anyway.

I always try to deign my city more around quest buildings for goods production rather than conventional goods buildings. However, progressing through the Tech Tree in the later eras is much more about goods and supplies than it is about FPs and coins like it was down in the lower ages. We simply need more goods, and I mean like a whole order of magnitude more. So not producing goods could slow our game progress to a crawl. Also, the HQS is usually practiced in a guild that also helps its members advance, we don't just require higher-era goods for our own consumption, but also to help propagate high-value GBs (like: The Arc, Innovation Tower, CF, and Alcatraz) down through the ranks our of guild. GE has also added a huge drain on goods — guilds require more guild goods than ever, especially when they actively participate in both GvG and GE. Players who negotiate the most difficult GE encounters will require more goods than ever as well.

As mentioned in a few places throughout this guide topic, there are some eras where we will need to produce some goods conventionally because we simply will not be able to rely as much on heavy questing for goods production as reliably as we could in other periods for a number of notable reasons.

1. The "Produce Supplies" quests require us to produce 5 x <24-hour productions>, which means we can complete fewer quests from the same number of buildings as we could back in any period named "an age". And this would be the case if we had the same size building to work with. However...
   
   
2. The regular supply production buildings are usually much more massive, which means that we can construct fewer supply production buildings compared to the same amount of expanded land we had back in any period named "an age".
   
   
3. In fact most building types, including some premium buildings (but never special buildings) are more massive. So building most any type of building in our city in an era will quickly eat up more land. While there are some exceptions to this, it is more the rule rather than the exception.
   
   
4. Most building types, including some premium buildings (but never special buildings) require 2-lane roads to connect them to Town Hall. So on top of the buildings quickly eating away the total amount of expanded land we have, the roads are doing this as well.
   
   
5. Even if we limit our GB selections, we will still own more GBs in a later era than an earlier age, which again takes away land on which we could construct supply production buildings.
   
   
6. There are also city layout considerations. Sometimes things are about what will easily fit in a city layout. This especially true about trying to complete even one more "Produce Supplies" quest, which would mean not only fitting in 5 more supply buildings, but also the population buildings and off-setting happiness buildings to support the increased supply production.

All of the above points will conspire and combined to greatly reduce our questing efficiency in the later eras. This is why the HQS focuses on our ability to spam UBQs in any age or era as the core quest — we want our ability to complete many instances per-day of the UBQ to wax about the same time that our ability to complete many instances per-day of the "produce supplies" quest wanes, which will help reduce the drop-off in our quest efficiency. But even our ability to spam UBQs will be adversely affected in later eras, since the cost of completing UBQ scales up pretty hard each higher era, meanwhile so does the demand for supplies used in building construction and unlocking later era technologies, when compared to the same for coins. The later eras are so much more about supplies than the lower ages were.

But even if there weren't any of this erosion of our questing efficiency, there would still be a lot of value of having a few 3x3 Wishing Wells that each have a 29% chance to spit out 20 free PE goods in an era like CE, especially when we can take those PE goods and sell them to a player down in CA or lower for FP donations to our GBs, plus some lower age goods. And this same value of x2 unrefined goods production is also applied to our GBs that Discounted 24-hour Goods.

 

[DeletedUser28286]

I can use the 500 fp I save by self leveling my arc on other arcs to get bps, not that Im close to needing more arc bps currently.

I'm not sure how you think you are saving FP by leveling your building yourself. I would love for you to explain in more detail so I can understand where you're coming from and not feel like I'm being overly critical, but I am very skeptical about your logic. Let's say my arc is level 5(which it is). It requires 510 points to level. I could either do this myself and get the reward of 3% more (19% -> 21%) contribution rewards from other's buildings, or I could find a friend to swap 20+ points a day with (more if you can if you want to level faster, my city's snowball is still very small). Now, instead of taking a week or two to level on my own, with no rewards other than what the next level will give me, I am giving 20 points a day to someone else's GB and getting 20 back, all while angling toward a top reward spot on their building. So the 510 points I am giving away to someone else's building I am GETTING RIGHT BACK on my building, getting the reward of leveling my own building, AND getting top contribution rewards with a 19% bonus from my current level 5 Arc. Swapping always gives better rewards than self leveling in my book, unless people swoop the top rewards on the building you're contributing, which does happen occasionally if you aren't able to do bulk contributions to lock top spots early.