To Buff?... Or Not To Buff?... The Question Of The Ages Finally Answered!

Hey Peeps!

Today one of our fellow guildies made a very simple question: What should we buff?

After my long answer on chat it got me thinking. So much so that I knew this kind of thinking could only be resolved with a nice, groovy spreadsheet!

Here's what I did:
I calculated the costs for each of the 3 buffs we can produce so far (though tomorrow we will have new ones that we can build... but that's for another day - maybe...). Then I compared those costs to what we would profit from selling the excess production they delivered for a few key buildings.

In order to be profitable to buff we need to make at least the same value in gold coins as what you'd get resource-wise for the duration of the buff. Ie, a Fish Platter needs to generate 0.11 gold coins in half an hour (or 45 minutes if it's a friend buffing); a Solid Sandwich needs to generate 1.1 gold coins during the 2h (or 3h if a friend's buffing) it is active; and a Aunt Irma's Basket needs to produce 4.3 gold coins during the 6h (or 9h) it is active.

I'll spare you the raw data and simply give you the short version. Suffice to say that I used the NEWFOUNDLAND TRADE SHEETS (NTS) current values for the prices of things, with shortish production times. I do not take the NTS as being an incredibly accurate tool but, nonetheless, it was accurate enough for these purposes.

You can check the SUMMARY HERE, in a chart that I hope is quite clear and straightforward to everybody.
 
All those cells in red mean you are losing gold coins every time you buff.  All those in green mean you can buff at ease for you are profiting (or, at the very least, covering the expenses of making the buff). Those that have numbers simply mean that if the production building is at least that level, you can safely buff without fear of losing gold coins. ;)

At a quick glance we can see that FARMS, HARDWOOD SAWMILLS, LONGBOWMAKERS, STONE MASONS, PINE SAWMILLS and COKING PLANTS/RECYCLING MANUFACTORIES (buffed with baskets) are the LEAST PROFITABLE of all productions analised in the chart. Ie, unless they are very high level - and a friend is buffing you - you are probably making a loss every time you buff.

(this means you'd actually profit more if you sold the resources you used to make the buff)

The MOST PROFITABLE of all productions analised seem to be BREAD, IRON BARS, IRON SWORDS, STEEL BARS, STEEL SWORDS, EXOTIC WOOD PLANKS, BREW (either Brewery or Friary), GOLD ORE, GOLD BAR, NIBS, ADVANCED PAPER and BOOK FITTINGS.

So, if you have limited amount of buffs to use - choose carefully what you should buff.

Of course, all this is assuming the productions are balanced. If they are not, well... until they are we don't have much of a choice now do we?...

Also, it has not been taken into the account the investment made to level up buildings and mines. This is intended merely as a simple guideline to whatever already is in place.It is in no way meant to tell which productions are more profitable or not - that's an entirely different story...

Hope this helps!

Happy buffing!