The whole point of putting a smelter on a volcano is to harness the heat of the mountain,
Ok, follow me here. if the mountain supplies heat, then why not reduce the amount of coal needed for all its work. I would say half is mnimum and maybe even 2/3rds. so bring the amount of coal down for all work on the new epic smelter. that would make it really attracitve.

Conversely, if the same coal to reso ratio is applied, the new epic forge would have very little applications. It simply uses too much coal too fast. and it does not have a good buff to help defray the high cost of reso..

The epic workyards all suffer from buff fatique. the buffs are expensive and time comsuming to apply. for that reason, i have retired my epic woodyards. And the epic forge looks to be just as useless without some extra bonus to help its massive consumption rates.

To be honest, the epic farmyard is really a great item due to its mechainics. It allows for up to 60 producton in each of its sections and runs at half the speed of the normal yards for wheat, flour etc. Soooooo, it actually will do the work of 15 yards. This makes it attractive for several reasons.
1. less real estate use. always needed. epics use 4-6 spaces, so need to defray that with at least 6 yard producitons. for epic wood, not even close, for epic forge, definitly, and for epic farm, yes.
2. massive production value. for the quests that were introduced, that is a real benifit.
3. flexibility, able to turn from wheat to flour to bread with a little work. can be helpful. especially if youve phased out the bread chain.

Anyway. jsut a suggestin. reduce the amount of coal needed in the epic forge. pleeeeease