The prizes sucking so damn hard is my main gripe against the FA's...
Is it really too hard to just make it more akin to FoE's weekly Guild Expeditions? Keep the teamwork based progress, but make the following changes to the maps;
a) -'Green' becomes the 'Easy Path'.
Each point can give either some coins/supplies, or a broken shard for completion. Not worth much, sure, but then, this is why it's the 'Easy Mode' path!
- 'Blue' becomes the 'Hard Path'.
Takes more effort (ie: badges + various types) to complete, but the completed points can give out things like a broken shard/runeshard/instant/minor event deco. (ie: Silver/Bronze Guards, Victory Banner thingy, etc...)
- 'Orange' become the 'Lunatic Path'
Rewards here are the 'best' of the basic points, and can offer things like instants/runeshards and/or a better event deco or two. (ie: a couple of the pop+culture ones like Rainbow Gate/Unicorn)
b) The bigger 'Waypoint Intersections' can offer a slightly better prize, but bump up the badge requirement for them - perhaps by Lv3, even requiring say 4-5 different types of badges to complete!
Have fewer of them, but let them offer some slightly better prizes, such as the Elemental Codices, and/or the smaller culture buildings from previous events.
Again, those that cross over the blue/orange paths are the harder ones to achieve, but give the best rewards vs. the blue/green intersections.
c) Much better prize for each end stage!
Lv1 obviously should be modest - it's level freaking 1!
But where's the harm in say giving out a 2x2 or 3x3 event culture building, or perhaps a bigger package of better instants + runeshards + 1 deco?
Lv's 2 & 3 though should easily be worth a couple event buildings - an Orc Nest AND a Grounds/Orc Strat would make Lv2 'worth it' no matter what chapter a player is in for example.
Finishing Lv3? Why not the Mana Hut AND the 1st 'grand prize' of the featured 'special event building' (ie: everyone finishing lv3 this previous FA gets the Herds building?!)
Now damn, THAT would be worth jumping through hoops & grinding out badges for!
As is, I was drained after just 3 days this past FA, and everything about the game became a horrible, fun-sucking chore.