Honestly, adding a 5% transaction/listing fee to the Exchange would siphon a TON of EC out of the economy/game. This is where inflation is being generated the most, and thus would be the most direct means to curb it.
Obviously, this would result in a lot of the more valuable items being moved to (private)trading channels, but a lot of the high volume commodities on the exchange would still be subject to the sink. Sure, things could be taken further to introduce a further 'tax' to player trades and mails, but implementation of all these measures at once would bring out a lot of community animosity/drama(giveaways being a noteworthy casualty).
Anyways, I suspect I'm going to be visited by a number of Ferengi battlecruisers soon...
I very rarely use the exchange except for certain things. I don't ever have much more than around 15m on any one toon (the one I play most). So an Exchange tax wouldn't hit me hardly at all.
Now a LTS and loving it.
Just because you spend money on this game, it does not entitle you to be a jerk if things don't go your way.
I have come to the conclusion that I have a memory like Etch-A-Sketch. I shake my head and forget everything.
Honestly, adding a 5% transaction/listing fee to the Exchange would siphon a TON of EC out of the economy/game. This is where inflation is being generated the most, and thus would be the most direct means to curb it.
Obviously, this would result in a lot of the more valuable items being moved to (private)trading channels, but a lot of the high volume commodities on the exchange would still be subject to the sink. Sure, things could be taken further to introduce a further 'tax' to player trades and mails, but implementation of all these measures at once would bring out a lot of community animosity/drama(giveaways being a noteworthy casualty).
Anyways, I suspect I'm going to be visited by a number of Ferengi battlecruisers soon...
Inflation is generated by creating EC, i.e. supply, aka "printing money," paired with a lack of enough ways of destroying it. The exchange generates exactly 0 EC it just shifts it between players.
A 1% tax could destroy a significant amount of EC (2+ million per lobi ship, 40,000 per key, etc.) but would be a small enough bite that my guess is many people would still keep ships and keys in the Exchange for the convenience.
A 1% tax could destroy a significant amount of EC (2+ million per lobi ship, 40,000 per key, etc.) but would be a small enough bite that my guess is many people would still keep ships and keys in the Exchange for the convenience.
The problem though is what players will consider appropriate for a cost/benefit ratio. Force them to sink too much just to post something, they'll just stop entirely and shift to Trade channels to circumvent it, driving prices up as the supply stagnates and drops. Put it too low and it won't really impact the issue at hand.
And then we come to the problem of some people who might want to sell something on the Exchange, but can't due to not being able to cover the exchange posting fee. Lets say someone who isn't hoarding millions upon millions of ECs bought a key off the exchange to open the current lockbox. They get the big prize ship, but they're more interested in getting a ship from a previous box. They want to post the ship on the Exchange in order to potentially buy the ship they want (which I believe is actually a common practice for those who have the luck)... but they just blew all their ECs on the key. They're essentially blocked from selling the ship because of the posting fee, and thus forced into Trade channels or just living with a ship they didn't want.
While I agree we need some kind of sink, we also have to consider some of these solutions might be double edged swords. While the example above might be a rare occurance, with the number of players online it is bound to happen.
Its a balancing act, with the scales already unbalanced to begin with. This isn't going to be an easy fix. But at least some of the ideas are better than others, and actually make sense.
I very rarely use the exchange except for certain things. I don't ever have much more than around 15m on any one toon (the one I play most). So an Exchange tax wouldn't hit me hardly at all.
Dosn't sound like it would need to. If your not actively trading on the exchange then your not actively contributing to inflation.
If you buy things on the exchange, then you contribute to inflation.
If you sell things on the exchange, then you contribute to deflation.
If you don't participate with the exchange, then your wealth or lack of it has no effect on inflation.
Heck, if the total EC in the game doubled over night, it would have no effect at all on inflation if it all went into the accounts of people that don't, and continued not to, use the exchange.
To tackle inflation EC needs to be siphoned from the people who participate in the economy, which is why a broker fee would work. Its also why targeting something at the super space rich would work. The best way to become super space rich is to use the exchange. either by selling things bough for real world money, or making smart trades. There will be exceptions. Rattler for instance grinds the game to an excessive degree, day in, day out. But what motivates Ratty to do so is the prospect of buying things on the exchange to play space barbie with.
There really is no reason to make vast amounts of EC other then to use it on the exchange, so targeting the space rich will in some cases cause them to spend more real world money (supporting the game for every one) in order to sell more things for EC and thus deflate the economy, and reduce the EC the compulsive grinders have available to spend on the exchange, thus deflate the economy.
No EC sinks in Fleets just for the sake of sucking up EC as we know how that worked out with the Colony Holding and Dilitium.
No MACO/TNG exorbitant style EC costs for clothing.
There are way too many pendulum sledgehammers as it is.
A Dilitium Bonus Weekend immediately followed by a Phoenix Event does not bode well for planning ahead.
We do know how well the Colony World worked with dilithium. It dropped the exchange by about 20 points immediately, and it didn't return to over 300, where it was right before that release for another 13 months, or about the time that most fleets that were buying it finished their holding. You may not like the Colony World holding, but the actual results don't lie.
There was also a small drop when those dilithium outfits came out. Not so large, and not nearly as long-lasting, but it did budge the exchange at a time when it was approaching the cap. It wouldn't make it back to about where it was before for over a month.
Countering an inflationary event with an immediate deflationary event (actually 2 in a row, since Upgrade Weekends also drain out some dilithium) is sound management.
The first two things don't matter, though, as they aren't repeatable, which is what long-term sinks need to be. I suppose they could try to keep making new outfits to sell for ridiculous EC, but we do know how that works out. Lots of interest for about six months, then dropped because everything else that's newer takes priority.
It's notable that the last Phoenix box event did not drop the dil/zen prices significantly, as they had in the past. I'd argue that part of the problem was also having c-store sales that pushed supply and demand for Zen and dil in opposing directions that mostly cancelled each other out, keeping the dil/zen ratio above 310.
The effect of the last Phoenix event was about average for what they've been over the last year or so, 12-25 point decrease, usually all regained within a week of the event's end. They just don't have the impact that they did the first few times. It was a steady decrease for each of those, even, until it hit this plateau.
This is an MMO, not a Star Trek episode simulator. That would make for a terrible game.
The question is, why is Bort now wanting this fix? There is no fix to this without upsetting a great part of the community. Many of the ideas presented here is just plain loco and even dumb. Millions of EC for a hat? That is one example of the dumb ideas, even the taxation system is dumb.
Truth be told, the only use for EC is to purchase those much desired shiny ships and vanity shields, as well as those "Pay to Win" weapons. Th system from the beginning was broken, repeating the same flaws over again. Remember those hundreds of currencies this game had, was then streamlined then rebooted with more currencies.
That Billion EC ship will continue to be priced at a Billion EC +Other than that, EC has no real usage in STO other than to Finance your fleet projects, rep projects, your new shiny ship, vanity, shields and pay to win items. I think Bort has lost focused on what really matters in this game, and that is more content and an upgrade in game play.
Messing with this fragile economy will only complicate matters more - Someone here suggested in removing all EC rewards from the endeavor system etc.. That may curtail some influx of EC but all this will end up doing is leading the F2P players into the illegal gold trade.
So some folks even recommend a total EC cap per account, can you imagine the firestorm that might create in the community. Cryptic has the power to influence the market, it is their game. EC has little to no value other than what has been mentioned, and there are waaaaay to many WHALES with trillions of EC controlling the exchange and the market. The last thing you want to do is mess with those guys as they are the ones that actually keeping STO afloat. So I say Bort is clueless as to the market of STO, keep the game alive and let the Whales keep prospering.
A 1% tax could destroy a significant amount of EC (2+ million per lobi ship, 40,000 per key, etc.) but would be a small enough bite that my guess is many people would still keep ships and keys in the Exchange for the convenience.
The problem though is what players will consider appropriate for a cost/benefit ratio. Force them to sink too much just to post something, they'll just stop entirely and shift to Trade channels to circumvent it, driving prices up as the supply stagnates and drops. Put it too low and it won't really impact the issue at hand.
And then we come to the problem of some people who might want to sell something on the Exchange, but can't due to not being able to cover the exchange posting fee. Lets say someone who isn't hoarding millions upon millions of ECs bought a key off the exchange to open the current lockbox. They get the big prize ship, but they're more interested in getting a ship from a previous box. They want to post the ship on the Exchange in order to potentially buy the ship they want (which I believe is actually a common practice for those who have the luck)... but they just blew all their ECs on the key. They're essentially blocked from selling the ship because of the posting fee, and thus forced into Trade channels or just living with a ship they didn't want.
While I agree we need some kind of sink, we also have to consider some of these solutions might be double edged swords. While the example above might be a rare occurance, with the number of players online it is bound to happen.
Its a balancing act, with the scales already unbalanced to begin with. This isn't going to be an easy fix. But at least some of the ideas are better than others, and actually make sense.
I was thinking of a tax paid at the time of sale, not the time of posting. So only when your lobi ship sells, you get 198 million EC instead of 200.
New players start with a ship and when you scrap your reward items you get EC, missions reward things you can convert into EC every step along the way. Ships have warp cores that generate energy - your only goal then is to acquire enough fuel for it.
Flaw in your logic. New players start with 0 ECs. You are effectively advocating the total LOCKOUT of the game to new players as you'd have to transfer ECs from older characters to newer ones just to "fuel" the ship. Thereby... you just either killed the game or made it so that the game only works for older players.
Lockbox keys are the biggest cause of inflation because they can be purchased without restriction and buying them doesn't decrease the total number of keys in the economy...because you can just get more from the Z-store.
Except that keys don't GENERATE ECs. They just facilitate the trade of ECs from one player to another. EXISTING ECs. So... have abolutely no impact on the EC inflation.
You can't have anything in the game that's just a one-time-buy and expect it to fix the inflation in the economy...you have to close the loop which means the number of EC will decrease over time to a manageable level. Cryptic's problem in this manner is that they want to earn dollars and as many as they can. They will not do something that would undermine their ability to get those real dollars. Its very shortsighted. Taking away players' ability to turn zen into keys and then sell the keys in the exchange would fix the problem...it would mean that the only way to get keys would either be to craft them, buy them from a vendor, or win them at Dabo.
No it wouldn't, because again Keys do not GENERATE ECs. They just move ECs from one player to another.
Now if we could buy them with ECs from a vendor, that would be one helluva sink that would remove ECs from the Economy. But that would mean no real world money to help support the game. Same with crafting, and even moreso winning them at Dabo.
You're not making ANY sense whatsoever, and frankly... not worth debating with now as it would just be a circular argument that would take over the thread until Baddmoon feels he has to step in.
Now the amount of excess EC in the account of some one who dos not use the exchange doesn't matter at all. To contribute to inflation money has to be in circulation.
Of course, part of why those players don't use the exchange is because the prices of things there are so high they can't afford any of it. Which is due to inflation.
----
And yeah, all the "require you to spend EC to run ship/feed crew/etc" is either a giant roadblock TRIBBLE over 'poor' players, or too small to have any effect on the billionaires.
(really, that's an issue with any ideas to "sell _____ for EC" - in order to actually effect the 'big money' in the game, anything would have to be priced so high it locks out everyone else. Exchange fees work well, though. I think this is the only game I've played that didn't have some sort of tax on the auction house.)
Allow us to buy weapons/consoles/space sets with ec and allow us to upgrade and reengineer them with ec without needing dilithium. I would love to change my weapons, but the amount of dilitihium I would need to buy eight weapons and related consoles and upgrade them all to epic would cost a crazy amount.
That would also allow lower tier/casual players to upgrade their weapons and bring them closer to higher end players and help level out power creep.
And to comment on others saying to make daily surviving a part of the game to reduce ec. That would turn this in to the Sims or GTA instead of a MMORPG. If someone decides to not play for a month or so, their character would be dead.
There are no flaws in my logic. I don't think you understand this topic. Saying "keys don't generate ECs" is nonsensical. People spend zen to buy keys to sell in the exchange to generate ECs. They're a bottomless supply of ECs because there is nothing in the economy to limit the number of keys that can come into the game. In REAL economies you have limitations on the methods of production supply vs demand. There is no limitation on supply in this virtual economy and that is why inflation is already as bad as it is.
You are getting those ECs from another player. NOT out of thin air. Keys move ECs around. They don't generate ECs.
You buy a Key off the Exchange, you trade your ECs for the other player's Key. Its not like selling an item to a vendor and you get ECs in return. So you are wrong. Keys do not generate ECs.
Posting Fee Sale Commission for items sold Close Private Channels
'But to be logical is not to be right', and 'nothing' on God's earth could ever 'make it' right!'
Judge Dan Haywood
'As l speak now, the words are forming in my head.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
How about the part where Keys are magically making ECs?
Where do the ECs you get from selling Keys come from? Another player who already has said ECs.
Let me break it down into simple terms.
Bob has 4 million ECs sitting around doing nothing.
Steve has a key up for sale for 4 million.
Bob buys the key for 4 million.
Bob now has a key.
Steve now has 4 million ECs in exchange for the key.
Where in that exchange is ECs generated, thus adding ECs to the economy? Its a straight up trade. Nowhere is ECs generated in that exchange. Just moved from one location to another. Its no different than buying something from the Dollar Store. You trade $1 for whatever you wanted to buy. That $1 doesn't magically turn into $5 in the process.
Keys only move ECs around. They do not create ECs.
You're not making any sense and arguing for the sake of arguing.
Repetitive stuff.
Exchange Tax could work. Every transaction also destroys EC then. I bet it would be unpopular though. But it shouldn't change anything fundamental about the nature of the trade, just limit the increase in EC value of items since EC itself is a bit more valuable.
One-Time Use Devices & Consumable Ideas:
Consumables certainly might work, ideally something close to what we already have or had.
One Lockbox introduced one-time useable devices that granted one use of a console. As consolation prizes go, this ranks up with Kits as disappointing and useless. However, turned into a device you can buy for EC and slot maybe a stack of 20 or so on a character, it could be interesting. Some existing items like those Hydrogen Surplus Cells would also be popular.
The new faulty holodisguises could also be fun, though they'll never be big on their own. However, maybe you could use the idea and expand it to disguises or "morphogenetic field kit" that turns a player character into a playable version of some NPCs with their own set of abilities. Might be fun for some to fight across Kobali Prime or the Dyson Zone as a Herald or Breen.
Conversions and Unlocks
An EC Fee to unlock Starship Mastery Traits, Console and Hangar Pets you have unlocked on another character could be popular. Make it a bit more expensive for traits and consoles of Lobi/Lockbox/Promo ship
Also, a Mark Conversion system. Say a Reputation Project that turns 125 Marks and 100.000 EC of one kind into a mark choice box. And another project that turns 25 Marks, 1 Elite Mark and 5000.000 EC into a Elite Mark choice box.
A conversion of Lobi into Dilithium or vice versa, for a hefty fee. Could be done as a DOFF assignment perhaps to control frequency.
Something to rebox a Lockbox/Promo/Lobi/Event ship into an account-bound box that can be used on another account.
Do we have the ability to retcon captain skills with EC? I know Champions has that feature.
How about the part where Keys are magically making ECs?
Where do the ECs you get from selling Keys come from? Another player who already has said ECs.
Let me break it down into simple terms.
Bob has 4 million ECs sitting around doing nothing.
Steve has a key up for sale for 4 million.
Bob buys the key for 4 million.
Bob now has a key.
Steve now has 4 million ECs in exchange for the key.
Where in that exchange is ECs generated, thus adding ECs to the economy? Its a straight up trade. Nowhere is ECs generated in that exchange. Just moved from one location to another. Its no different than buying something from the Dollar Store. You trade $1 for whatever you wanted to buy. That $1 doesn't magically turn into $5 in the process.
Keys only move ECs around. They do not create ECs.
You're not making any sense and arguing for the sake of arguing.
I see your problem now.
You don't seem to understand that a person can start the game with no ECs and sell a key and end up with a whole bunch of ECs. You seem to think that ECs aren't created for people who sell lockbox keys. I'm not sure what part I'd have to explain to you again so that you'd understand that selling a key creates ECs for a person selling the key...and that person has not had to do ANY work in the game.
You don't seem to understand the word "create":
In your scenario, the player now has new EC but did not create new EC.
If the EC came from Cryptic / the game like when you sell gear to a vendor you would be correct.
You are wrong because the EC comes from another player. That player is the one who created the EC by doffing, admiralty, endeavors, etc., and after they buy your key they lose the EC. You + 4.x million, Them - 4.x million.
No new EC exists in the game. The act of selling created no new EC. It just transferred EC.
There's a lot of ideas in this thread, some I like, many I don't, but most do not meet the criteria listed by Borticus. Reducing EC inflation in STO, "the game needs sinks for that currency which are Meaningful, Desirable, Repeatable, and Accessible." This is especially true when those criteria are applied to the player base as a whole and not just the whims of the poster or a sub group of players to which the poster belongs.
I don't have a magical idea that alone will significantly impact inflation via sinks, but I can think of a few which hold to all his criteria and combined with additional ideas might act as a significant EC sink.
One idea would be a Holodeck run by Ferengi (Quark's & Drozana) that allows a player to access ALL Ships, traits, and equipment inside the Holodeck simulation at an EC cost. This would allow players to try stuff in Holodeck simulations (that have no rewards) before they purchase them for the game proper. This makes the idea both meaningful and desirable to both the player base and developers as it could induce more Zen sales and Lobi purchases. It's also meaningful in terms of lore and immersion when used in the Holodeck concept and provided by Ferengi. It's repeatable as players constantly change their builds and Cryptic constantly adds more content. Depending on pricing it would also be accessible. I would tier costs based on the rarity/cost of the ship/items involved so that say a promo or lockbox ship would cost significantly more to try out than a Zen or Lobi ship. Only real downside to the idea is that it would cost development time.
Another idea that I imagine has been mentioned already in one form or another is to take items that are not selling in the Zen or Lobi store and place them in a new store that sells the items for EC.
I would also consider it a good idea to include the now rather useless GPL into costs. Not so that you can buy items or services for GPL alone, but rather in combination with EC so that items and services cost EC AND GPL to purchase.
Comments
Obviously, this would result in a lot of the more valuable items being moved to (private)trading channels, but a lot of the high volume commodities on the exchange would still be subject to the sink. Sure, things could be taken further to introduce a further 'tax' to player trades and mails, but implementation of all these measures at once would bring out a lot of community animosity/drama(giveaways being a noteworthy casualty).
Anyways, I suspect I'm going to be visited by a number of Ferengi battlecruisers soon...
Inflation is generated by creating EC, i.e. supply, aka "printing money," paired with a lack of enough ways of destroying it. The exchange generates exactly 0 EC it just shifts it between players.
A 1% tax could destroy a significant amount of EC (2+ million per lobi ship, 40,000 per key, etc.) but would be a small enough bite that my guess is many people would still keep ships and keys in the Exchange for the convenience.
The problem though is what players will consider appropriate for a cost/benefit ratio. Force them to sink too much just to post something, they'll just stop entirely and shift to Trade channels to circumvent it, driving prices up as the supply stagnates and drops. Put it too low and it won't really impact the issue at hand.
And then we come to the problem of some people who might want to sell something on the Exchange, but can't due to not being able to cover the exchange posting fee. Lets say someone who isn't hoarding millions upon millions of ECs bought a key off the exchange to open the current lockbox. They get the big prize ship, but they're more interested in getting a ship from a previous box. They want to post the ship on the Exchange in order to potentially buy the ship they want (which I believe is actually a common practice for those who have the luck)... but they just blew all their ECs on the key. They're essentially blocked from selling the ship because of the posting fee, and thus forced into Trade channels or just living with a ship they didn't want.
While I agree we need some kind of sink, we also have to consider some of these solutions might be double edged swords. While the example above might be a rare occurance, with the number of players online it is bound to happen.
Its a balancing act, with the scales already unbalanced to begin with. This isn't going to be an easy fix. But at least some of the ideas are better than others, and actually make sense.
Dosn't sound like it would need to. If your not actively trading on the exchange then your not actively contributing to inflation.
If you buy things on the exchange, then you contribute to inflation.
If you sell things on the exchange, then you contribute to deflation.
If you don't participate with the exchange, then your wealth or lack of it has no effect on inflation.
Heck, if the total EC in the game doubled over night, it would have no effect at all on inflation if it all went into the accounts of people that don't, and continued not to, use the exchange.
To tackle inflation EC needs to be siphoned from the people who participate in the economy, which is why a broker fee would work. Its also why targeting something at the super space rich would work. The best way to become super space rich is to use the exchange. either by selling things bough for real world money, or making smart trades. There will be exceptions. Rattler for instance grinds the game to an excessive degree, day in, day out. But what motivates Ratty to do so is the prospect of buying things on the exchange to play space barbie with.
There really is no reason to make vast amounts of EC other then to use it on the exchange, so targeting the space rich will in some cases cause them to spend more real world money (supporting the game for every one) in order to sell more things for EC and thus deflate the economy, and reduce the EC the compulsive grinders have available to spend on the exchange, thus deflate the economy.
We do know how well the Colony World worked with dilithium. It dropped the exchange by about 20 points immediately, and it didn't return to over 300, where it was right before that release for another 13 months, or about the time that most fleets that were buying it finished their holding. You may not like the Colony World holding, but the actual results don't lie.
There was also a small drop when those dilithium outfits came out. Not so large, and not nearly as long-lasting, but it did budge the exchange at a time when it was approaching the cap. It wouldn't make it back to about where it was before for over a month.
Countering an inflationary event with an immediate deflationary event (actually 2 in a row, since Upgrade Weekends also drain out some dilithium) is sound management.
The first two things don't matter, though, as they aren't repeatable, which is what long-term sinks need to be. I suppose they could try to keep making new outfits to sell for ridiculous EC, but we do know how that works out. Lots of interest for about six months, then dropped because everything else that's newer takes priority.
The effect of the last Phoenix event was about average for what they've been over the last year or so, 12-25 point decrease, usually all regained within a week of the event's end. They just don't have the impact that they did the first few times. It was a steady decrease for each of those, even, until it hit this plateau.
Truth be told, the only use for EC is to purchase those much desired shiny ships and vanity shields, as well as those "Pay to Win" weapons. Th system from the beginning was broken, repeating the same flaws over again. Remember those hundreds of currencies this game had, was then streamlined then rebooted with more currencies.
That Billion EC ship will continue to be priced at a Billion EC +Other than that, EC has no real usage in STO other than to Finance your fleet projects, rep projects, your new shiny ship, vanity, shields and pay to win items. I think Bort has lost focused on what really matters in this game, and that is more content and an upgrade in game play.
Messing with this fragile economy will only complicate matters more - Someone here suggested in removing all EC rewards from the endeavor system etc.. That may curtail some influx of EC but all this will end up doing is leading the F2P players into the illegal gold trade.
So some folks even recommend a total EC cap per account, can you imagine the firestorm that might create in the community. Cryptic has the power to influence the market, it is their game. EC has little to no value other than what has been mentioned, and there are waaaaay to many WHALES with trillions of EC controlling the exchange and the market. The last thing you want to do is mess with those guys as they are the ones that actually keeping STO afloat. So I say Bort is clueless as to the market of STO, keep the game alive and let the Whales keep prospering.
I was thinking of a tax paid at the time of sale, not the time of posting. So only when your lobi ship sells, you get 198 million EC instead of 200.
Flaw in your logic. New players start with 0 ECs. You are effectively advocating the total LOCKOUT of the game to new players as you'd have to transfer ECs from older characters to newer ones just to "fuel" the ship. Thereby... you just either killed the game or made it so that the game only works for older players.
Except that keys don't GENERATE ECs. They just facilitate the trade of ECs from one player to another. EXISTING ECs. So... have abolutely no impact on the EC inflation.
No it wouldn't, because again Keys do not GENERATE ECs. They just move ECs from one player to another.
Now if we could buy them with ECs from a vendor, that would be one helluva sink that would remove ECs from the Economy. But that would mean no real world money to help support the game. Same with crafting, and even moreso winning them at Dabo.
You're not making ANY sense whatsoever, and frankly... not worth debating with now as it would just be a circular argument that would take over the thread until Baddmoon feels he has to step in.
Of course, part of why those players don't use the exchange is because the prices of things there are so high they can't afford any of it. Which is due to inflation.
----
And yeah, all the "require you to spend EC to run ship/feed crew/etc" is either a giant roadblock TRIBBLE over 'poor' players, or too small to have any effect on the billionaires.
(really, that's an issue with any ideas to "sell _____ for EC" - in order to actually effect the 'big money' in the game, anything would have to be priced so high it locks out everyone else. Exchange fees work well, though. I think this is the only game I've played that didn't have some sort of tax on the auction house.)
That would also allow lower tier/casual players to upgrade their weapons and bring them closer to higher end players and help level out power creep.
And to comment on others saying to make daily surviving a part of the game to reduce ec. That would turn this in to the Sims or GTA instead of a MMORPG. If someone decides to not play for a month or so, their character would be dead.
You are getting those ECs from another player. NOT out of thin air. Keys move ECs around. They don't generate ECs.
You buy a Key off the Exchange, you trade your ECs for the other player's Key. Its not like selling an item to a vendor and you get ECs in return. So you are wrong. Keys do not generate ECs.
Sale Commission for items sold
Close Private Channels
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
Where do the ECs you get from selling Keys come from? Another player who already has said ECs.
Let me break it down into simple terms.
Bob has 4 million ECs sitting around doing nothing.
Steve has a key up for sale for 4 million.
Bob buys the key for 4 million.
Bob now has a key.
Steve now has 4 million ECs in exchange for the key.
Where in that exchange is ECs generated, thus adding ECs to the economy? Its a straight up trade. Nowhere is ECs generated in that exchange. Just moved from one location to another. Its no different than buying something from the Dollar Store. You trade $1 for whatever you wanted to buy. That $1 doesn't magically turn into $5 in the process.
Keys only move ECs around. They do not create ECs.
You're not making any sense and arguing for the sake of arguing.
My character Tsin'xing
When someone posts something to the exchange, someone else, who already has ECs, trades that EC for the item, thus no ECs are generated, only traded.
You don't seem to understand the word "create":
In your scenario, the player now has new EC but did not create new EC.
If the EC came from Cryptic / the game like when you sell gear to a vendor you would be correct.
You are wrong because the EC comes from another player. That player is the one who created the EC by doffing, admiralty, endeavors, etc., and after they buy your key they lose the EC. You + 4.x million, Them - 4.x million.
No new EC exists in the game. The act of selling created no new EC. It just transferred EC.
I don't have a magical idea that alone will significantly impact inflation via sinks, but I can think of a few which hold to all his criteria and combined with additional ideas might act as a significant EC sink.
One idea would be a Holodeck run by Ferengi (Quark's & Drozana) that allows a player to access ALL Ships, traits, and equipment inside the Holodeck simulation at an EC cost. This would allow players to try stuff in Holodeck simulations (that have no rewards) before they purchase them for the game proper. This makes the idea both meaningful and desirable to both the player base and developers as it could induce more Zen sales and Lobi purchases. It's also meaningful in terms of lore and immersion when used in the Holodeck concept and provided by Ferengi. It's repeatable as players constantly change their builds and Cryptic constantly adds more content. Depending on pricing it would also be accessible. I would tier costs based on the rarity/cost of the ship/items involved so that say a promo or lockbox ship would cost significantly more to try out than a Zen or Lobi ship. Only real downside to the idea is that it would cost development time.
Another idea that I imagine has been mentioned already in one form or another is to take items that are not selling in the Zen or Lobi store and place them in a new store that sells the items for EC.
I would also consider it a good idea to include the now rather useless GPL into costs. Not so that you can buy items or services for GPL alone, but rather in combination with EC so that items and services cost EC AND GPL to purchase.