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Economy in General
madrage
Member Posts: 9 Arc User
ok i was not to sure where to put this so i decided to put it here if its not in the right place just move it
Please Remember this post was not created for people that like to troll becoz they dont agree keep in mind i have zero intention to read or reply if your reason is related to greed, or saying it its becoz of to me personally it as Zero reason
i personally believe that the economy in this game is completely broken, most of the items as a price tag that make this game not enjoyable since some items will never be obtainable without spending money, i understand this company want to make money but it gone out of hand, i would like to see a improvement in the economy like hard limit on the max amount that can be ask for on the exchange, i understand you can just spend real money get key sell them and buy anything you want, but that a pay to win mentality and games that as that type of mentality tend to have a low population
i for one is not scared to spend money, i do pay a lot that on the cstore but there items out there that make no sense to why there priced so high, it need to be looked at or corrected
i played a lot of mmog, and economy normally is scaled by the ingame possible income by a player effort that is related normally by credit income, rare items like mats or gear, then the market tend to naturally scaled by percentage of the value of avg income and possibility of selling that item in said scaled value
but this in this game it does not have a economy to speak off, its all random all becoz people over value some items that are from "lockbox" but to be honest half of them prices make most of the item nearly not obtainable
there only 2 thing i can see that would work on fixing the economy
1, Increase credit income by ingame gain *not with real money"
2, very hard limit on how much 1 item can be sold for on the exchange
i want to this game to be improved and to be honest there was a lot of improvement in the last 2 years, but the economy is the only thing that completely and out of wack and need to be fix
Anyway thanks for reading
Please Remember this post was not created for people that like to troll becoz they dont agree keep in mind i have zero intention to read or reply if your reason is related to greed, or saying it its becoz of to me personally it as Zero reason
i personally believe that the economy in this game is completely broken, most of the items as a price tag that make this game not enjoyable since some items will never be obtainable without spending money, i understand this company want to make money but it gone out of hand, i would like to see a improvement in the economy like hard limit on the max amount that can be ask for on the exchange, i understand you can just spend real money get key sell them and buy anything you want, but that a pay to win mentality and games that as that type of mentality tend to have a low population
i for one is not scared to spend money, i do pay a lot that on the cstore but there items out there that make no sense to why there priced so high, it need to be looked at or corrected
i played a lot of mmog, and economy normally is scaled by the ingame possible income by a player effort that is related normally by credit income, rare items like mats or gear, then the market tend to naturally scaled by percentage of the value of avg income and possibility of selling that item in said scaled value
but this in this game it does not have a economy to speak off, its all random all becoz people over value some items that are from "lockbox" but to be honest half of them prices make most of the item nearly not obtainable
there only 2 thing i can see that would work on fixing the economy
1, Increase credit income by ingame gain *not with real money"
2, very hard limit on how much 1 item can be sold for on the exchange
i want to this game to be improved and to be honest there was a lot of improvement in the last 2 years, but the economy is the only thing that completely and out of wack and need to be fix
Anyway thanks for reading
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Comments
I think the thing that is broken is the mentality that one actually should have it show up with no investment of their own.
I am very grateful people sell extras from their Lockboxes and Packs of whatever flavors off on the Exchange...and I can obtain it if I wish to go for it.
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” -- Benjamin Franklin
well i dont agree, and i did invest a fair amout to get the heep of t6 lockbox ship for collection and traits but its very costly and economy base on real money to me that broken due to the economy not scaled with ingame incomes
Patience will reward you.
Prices for ships on the exchange are a bargain when you look at how much it will cost you (on average) to get one with zen.
am not talking exclusively a lockbox ship or lockbox, am talkin the whole exchange in general and 250$ real world money again exchange is control with real world money a pay to win format that proven my point how the economy is broken to my eyes
That was your example in your OP, you can't back away from it now.
If you put a hard EC limit on the value of lock box items you will break the system. The possible "big payoff" either in an item or in EC is one of the things that keeps people paying real money for keys. Real money keeps the lights on for Cryptic. This can apply to just about everything that converts Zen to in game currency. As long as folks are shoveling 10 to 200 US-bucks a pop in Zen purchases at a reasonable clip we all get the play the game. If someone who dumped this weeks 'mad cash' into STO thinks that their lockbox Cruiser is worth 1.3Billion EC, I hope they get it. It'll give them a warm fuzzy for dropping next weeks allowance here instead of Eve.
I'm willing to spend money for things I see value in, in game. Things I don't see value in I don't spend money on.
You can also use in-game resources to buy ships too. For example: dilithium. Trade it for zen, use the zen to buy lock box keys, sell the keys on the exchange. No real money is involved (for you). What STO does instead (with the exception of vet, lifetime, and timed rewards) is allow you to translate effort into whatever you want for the game with the caveat that money can sidestep some or even all that grinding. It's up to you.
Now, there are more effective ways of earning EC than selling lock box keys (and other channels too, ex. earning doffs, making tech upgrades, and running Admiralty) but let's get you started with the basics first. Then, as your economic skills improve, you can look into diversifying.
It's priced with the additional content included with the lock boxes (including lobi). With supply/demand dynamics, there's still going to be a gap between the original price of the key and the value of the non-ship content (people want ship, they don't want kit modules) but the difference isn't going to be as stark as $250 just for one ship. (with that many keys, you should be able to get two: one from the box [on average] and one from the lobi store [with plenty to spare].)
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If you want it badly enough there is always a way without money.
Your item 1 will do the opposite of your goals, by causing massive inflation raising the price of everything in very short order.
As for your point 2, there is already a hard limit on the Exchange (1,500,000,000 EC), which was raised along with personal and Account Bank caps not all that long ago because a lot of high-end stuff like 'Promotion!' package ships were basically never on the Exchange due to being valued higher than the cap it had at the time. So stuff like the T6 TOS Constitution class and Enterprise-J Universe class usually ended up being traded on dedicated chat channels for Master Keys or other high value things, instead of the public Exchange.
I was trying to keep it simple because (though it's unkind to say so) the OP does not seem to understand economics
Also, while it's true you also get the lobi ship and other pack contents, you then need to do all the work to sell the piles of other items. I'd never do a mass pack opening and sale just because that's work, and my job pays me much better for it.
The problem with this idea is eventually you run out of other people's money.
#1 - That causes inflation. If everyone can make more money, then prices increase because players can spend more money to get what they want. This happens in real life and it is basically taught in Economics 101.
The actually solution is create EC sinks in the game. Give a reason for players to actually "spend" their EC where it does not does not transfer to another player, but is actually removed from the game. For example, renaming a ship after the first time (which is free) will cost 3k EC. That 3k EC is removed from the game, but that is not a sink since it is only 3k EC. There needs to be a real reason to for players to actually be willing to use a large amount of EC and make it disappear from the game.
An example could be the option to instead of purchasing a Captain Retrain Token from the C-Store is to give an in game option to purchase a bound to character or account Captain Retrain Token for 10 million EC. That is actually a little less expensive compared to purchasing the Token with Zen.
#2 - There is. It is 1.5 billion EC.
Cryptic raised it from 750m EC to 1.5b EC. This was done when Cryptic increased the max EC cap from 1 billion per character to 2 billion. This is a result of inflation over the years where most of the EC spent within the game has simply been transferring between player accounts rather than being destroyed and removed from the game's economy.
The Dilithium exchange/zen and key market are about the only thing stabilizing the market. Fleets are the other have of the stabilizing equation as it is the eco sink.
There are too many factor that also lend to this mess. An Example from both sides of the equation: LTS Zen Stipends are "Free" money added to the economy (That is permanent as it was a part of the purchase). The Endeavor boxes add quick currency to the game (I guess as an unfortunate side effect of inflation where you need to increase ones wages) which add to the inflation of the vicious cycle.
Aside from that the market is a supply and demand issue. Before the admiralty mirror science ships were dirt cheap in the 200k range. Now they are 2.5 mil as they have a "purpose". The infinity lockbox also stabilized the preferred traits at > 7 mil as it is a little easier to allow a player to adjust supply by choice/value. Inspirational leader was way more before.
The market may be broken but it does get tweaked. Tweaking is a lot safer then an overhaul.
2 things here.
1: Nothing has gotten "out of hand." The VAST majority of items on the exchange have crashed in price over the last 2 years. Remember 100 million EC leeches? They're worth nothing now. Reciprocity? Worthless. Zemoks? Dropped from over 100 million to 30ish million. Kemocite? Worthless. The list goes on.
2: There already is a max amount that can be asked for on the exchange. It's 1.5 billion EC.
Ever heard of a place called Zimbabwe?
There is a hard limit on the Exchange and always has been. It was recently increased to 1.5 billion.
The best way to increase in-game income is to use multiple characters.
The game's economy is run on a player based 'supply and demand' model, so apart from lowering exchange limts and increasing the frequency of Very Rare and Ultra Rare items, there is nothing else Cryptic can do.
With a little patience, very little in this game is out of reach. With a lot of patience, nothing but the subscriber rewards are. The in-game economy is doing just fine.
Yet realize the asking price of an item does mean it's the item's real value just what someone is asking. If no one is willing to pay the price they are asking it's not going to sell - plain and simple - and if items are not selling or taking a long time to sell chances are they are likely asking to much - the items value is solely determined by the prospective buyer.
If no one is willing to pay that price the seller either needs to reconsider and 1) Use the item themselves or on another character; 2) Consider lowering the cost of the item and by how much; 3) Continue to hold out without being undercut.