Not currently worth funding in my opinion. Stonemason doesn't make that much sense either once upgraded. Right now it only makes sense for the level 1 members to fund the perk based on the cost. And its ridiculous that you cant fund a perk while upgrading
A perk that I'd gladly fund and upgrade would be one that speeds building time. Draining the treasury for +2 attack, +100 HP, or a few minutes of exploration time is less appealing in the early/middle levels.
We have 3 in our guild built already and by November expect to have around 10. BP points sound a expensive way to fund it. On the surface it sounds like this perk needs some adjustment otherwise it will be ignored. If the perk was activated for the whole guild irrespective of building the perk it could be a good way to get new members to join your guild and as payback from the advanced players to the lower level smithy and mason funders.
I have a big +1 about this perk being nearly pointless unless your guild is all high level players. In mine, we have a mix of PH5-7, I estimate it would take ten contributors to be able to continuously maintain it and still build our towns. The problem is that to fund it, each person either has to spend 6-10 hours raiding to fund 10%, or skip/detour an exploration to hunt a bigger fish. I did some back-of-the-envelope math and when you compare the 10% time reduction against the detours and lost trips, we would be exploring less, losing EP/BP and resources if we fund this perk. In short, you benefit by not using it. IMO, the bonus should be boosted to at least 25%, and the BP cost needs to be changed to a more readily-available currency. Since this perk is all about exploration, and EP is largely unused, that seems the obvious solution. If not that, gold would also work. With a 25% time reduction, I'd have no problem paying 100 EP or 100,000 gold for 5% funding.
Spread the word, devs do listen But they better come out with new maps, perks is real pointless when map is all opened sail in circle killing same fish serpents etc. etc.
I can live with the reduced BP cost. It is now totally affordable, but I still think the Observatory needs two more fixes: 1. Explorations that are In-progress when the perk is funded need to get the benefit. Due to players around the world playing at different times, I can see where a lot of people will always miss out on the perk because they send their ship out, go to bed, then the next continent's players fund the thing. 2. Bump the benefit to at least 20%, or provide an upgrade (that costs 30BP/5%) to allow it. #2 definitely need to be done -especially if #1 is impossible. But really, it needs it regardless. A 10% reduction basically means you get one extra trip for every 10 explorations. It's just doesn't have the appearance of being that useful.
