I see everything you find boring.
I didn’t say everything is boring, just the settlement stuff is the most boring challenge to me. It only requires more space and time (or portal profits to skip). I have not portal profit through any chapter yet so I have played out every chapter. Each chapter progressively requires more time, not because it’s any harder, but the build times for everything is longer. Like some things literally take over 12hrs to craft and then you might have to build more crap out of the raw materials afterwards. Making something 12+ hrs to craft instead of 4hrs doesn’t make it more challenging. It makes it
slower. And if you are meant to be able to skip through this challenge with portal profits, then it is also not much of a challenge, is it?
I enjoy the social/group elements—Spire and yes, FAs. It doesn’t matter how good you are as an individual in the Spire because you can’t get the big diamonds at the end unless everyone climbs together. So the stronger players have to teach the weak how to climb until the group can do it collectively. Unfortunately, the Spire has an end so once you’ve hit Gold, then you’ve collective mastered the challenge. Since I built a FS from scratch, we’ve already done the hardest possible Spire challenge, which is getting to Gold starting with nothing. Likewise, in FAs, it doesn’t matter how big your shantytown spread is unless you also show up for your team during the shootout.
This game is designed to be slow and challenging.
I don’t think there is a way to play a more challenging version of the game than the one I am already playing. Not everyone cares to master the triumvirate of Spire, FA, and tourney. I’m in Gold Spire FS, have won several FAs, and one of my FS gets 19 chests so it’s a very pedal to the metal style of play. On top of that, I create my own fun and challenges, like owning and operating a Lvl 19 Dust Museum. Two days ago, I got a msg from a random neighbor asking what happened to my museum since I haven’t put my city back after the last FA yet. I have visitors who miss it!