i know some players say that when their GB's get to around level 120, it is more efficient to use swap threads instead of 1.9 threads.
i'm having a hard time working out why that is ?
To answer the question actually asked, the reason with very high level GBs is that the effect of 1.9 threads on them becomes less pronounced the higher you go.
With 1.9:
- cost increases to level 10, which is the most expensive level for a while, but pre-10 levels are cheap anyways to high level players
- cost decreases til level 50 or so. from level 30-50 levels can be almost free (especially with certain eras of building that have weird numbers (PME to FE))
- cost starts increasing again. By level 70-80 it's more expensive than level 10 again. By level 100+ costs are getting pretty crazy, and the amount you're getting back from 1.9 is barely increasing by comparison. Around 120 close to half the (very expensive) building level is being "self-primed".
One of the first adaptations that some of those players hitting those high levels may have turned to is increasing the ratio to 1.92 or 1.95 or even 2.00 but that only takes another 100 or 200 FP off the thousands it costs per level though. Higher-than-1.9 threads are actually much better for catching up new players than being an added bonus to strong ones
But come with the downsides that it slows down threads a lot since the profit-motive goes away for taking spots, and also prices a number of players out of taking high spots they may wish they could take if it wasn't at a loss. Still if your guild has enough high arcs that want it, it can work.
Switching back to "swaps" is kinda a new one on me, but for a sufficiently selfish player with sufficient opportunity, I could see the point. If you have enough buildings that are more-exploitable than yours in the thread, and an effectively unlimited reserve pool to make sure you get the good spots, you could effectively get a return on your crap spots, and possibly even have someone snipe 1 & 2 after you've "primed via swaps". Mostly I saw this when 1.x's were new (even did it a little at first, though I tried to make sure not to overdo it and leave the people who swapped to me a "fair" return - not everyone was "ready" to make the shift to 1.x's yet - the willingness to pay 1.9 at a loss for blueprints came later). But in recent times if guilds have both they usually have rules that you can't send the building to 1.9 if you used it in swaps. Many guilds have just gone "no swap threads" instead to avoid the drama.
So what is the answer for those really high levels?
- 1) Accepting that they just *are* that expensive.
- 2) Make more FP - Snipe your neighbors. Be an active participant in 1.9 threads while your Arc returns more than 1.9. Do more GBG. If you don't need as much boost as you've built for GBG switch your city space usage back towards making more FP.
- 3) Sell Advanced Era Goods. Unlike FP swaps, there is no implied promise of getting some FP back for a goods buyer typically - and in fact you usually try to engineer a situation where you're sure they did give you net-FP; a super-high-level building is often a good option for this. On older worlds this can be harder as there's plenty of people willing to give away goods for free. But on newer worlds (say up to 2-3 years old), selling goods can be a real option. You'll need a lot of sales (and thus a lot of goods production) for this to be a big help.