GafferGamG Tunnels have a 20% RoI. By the time of the Synod, they're probably one of the most profitable investments left. And aren't there six (planned) rounds of returns after the Synod? That's a total lifetime profit of 120%.
Yes, by the time of Synod Tunnels is the most profitable investments left aside from Tak'kan Mine, which became available after. But Tunnels is too costly. To invest in it you need to skip some other investments here or the next phase and at this point it will most likely be some of the event- or threshhold-important investments.
Also, from what I understand, 3rd phase of chapter 5 is the last investment phase, meaning there is only five rounds after Synod = Tunnels just before Synod will never give you profit, it just repay itself by the end of the game. So essentially, by investing in it you sign up for operating under less money overall (compared to skipping it and having straight up 1.5 kk more) in the next several phases for exactly zero profit.
And since it doesn't give that much stats and isn't linked to any other event aside from Gawnfall isn't it better to invest in, for example, Givini Mage Guild at this point and be done with it?
GafferGamG What do you guys think of Luanell and Uneanun situation, btw? I can make the Succession Crisis work with Luanell-Farnan, and Uneanun support for DK (lowest suitor score here). This actually works out better in terms of raw stats (Acceptance, mostly). But is that better? I don't mind giving up those stats if Luanell's final state is happier single, and the same goes for Uneanun. I can make it work with any combination of their states, really.
Luanel doesn't strike me as unhappy with Farnan, contrary to that in fact. Perhaps a bit peeved by Simon's manipulation initially, but not that much. As for Acceptance, I'm not sure keeping it high will make much difference at this point in the game. Not with thresholds like 1+.
everafter You said this in relation to my comment of considering swapping one for the other.
When I said "not feasible" I meant "not feasible for optimized path", since I saw a trade offs at some point or the other to make it work, trade-offs that S.Mage investments path don't need. You said "To say it’s impossible to trade sanitation mages for tunnels is straight up wrong". That is not what I said. It's possible, but, in my opinion, the pay off overall is lessened.