October 6th, 2021 1:33pm
Welcome to FMA StoneCommander! I know Lemon answered your questions already but another opinion can't hurt.
1. Not sure the exact numbers, as there becomes a point where leveling up is so rare that I don't really pay attention. Just know that the amount of experience between levels increases every level, so your first skill points should be used on the skills you find most important (since you will be getting them easily.)
2. It would likely be best for you to save the energy for rehearsals. I have personally operated with the belief that influence is the best campaign to run but it is still somewhat slow. A full season of 60 energy influencing campaign will only net you around 8k influence or 16k if you have the "Administrator" perk. Unfortunately, this is honestly the only way to truly build a large amount of influence. While some groups are able to score very high without a lot of influence (Rebels last season for example), groups with 100k+ or even 200k+ require less rehearsing over the course of the season to get high scores. While this is the only way to build lots of influence, hosting your own event is an alternative way to earn money (and a lot more of it). This leads into
3. Hosting an event is extremely important for gaining money in FMA! A full, 30 group event, with $40 ticket prices has given me easily over $100k in past seasons. Honestly, I'm not sure what the optimized set up would be for events and I can only talk from personal experience, but I always try to host as large of an event as I can with high ticket prices. While upgrading staff can be important at times, I always host my event first and then spend the rest of my money on staff.
TL;DR 1. A little, then a lot. 2. Rehearse now, Campaign influence when you need it and have Administrator. 3. Event first, staff last.
Hope this was helpful!