ZAX - Duration Testing

blargskull

I really don't use the ZAX... ever.

Today February 26th, I placed a tiny bid of 7500 AD for 10 Zen.



Now we wait and see if I get my Zen before Christmas!

Meanwhile others should / could post the time and date of their bids, when they posted and when they collected. Then maybe one of you who is into collecting this data can make a graph or a pie chart... mmm... pie. Maybe we can see an exponential wall we will hit?

Good luck!

xenocide

I have a listing posted
Dec 24th 2020, still pending

plasticbat

My Oct 29th listing went through on Feb 16.
My Nov 17th listing is still pending.

namelesshero347

11/3 order filled today - 115 days

namelesshero347

plasticbat said:

My Oct 29th listing went through on Feb 16

I place my order 5 days after yours, and it took 10 additional days. Wait time went parabolic already.

mentinmindmaker

namelesshero347 said:

Wait time went parabolic already.

The AD injected into the economy as reimbursement for the Bonding runestones pushed ZAX queue length up a lot.

hotfrostworm

You will need a lot more data for an accurate picture. I could see an exponential curve, as you have the longer delay making donors hoard their zen. At one point, I recall my wife estimated a $5000 per day feed into the backlog. However if the flow wanes as the backlog grows then the wait will increase on an exponential curve.

Very interesting math study, I plan to keep my eye on this thread.

regenerde

Well,
listing from October 20. went through on February 2. -> 105 days
listing from October 27. went through on February 12. -> 108 days
listing from November 6. is still in the queue
and i'd say we'll be looking at 6 months waiting time at some point in the not so distant future.

Considering that Astral lockboxes have seen a little improvement, i'd suggest they get a permanent spot in the Wondrous Bazaar to take some pressure from the ZAX.

namelesshero347

mentinmindmaker said:

namelesshero347 said:

Wait time went parabolic already.

The AD injected into the economy as reimbursement for the Bonding runestones pushed ZAX queue length up a lot.

I'm not done with that injection yet. The 5 order limit is holding me back.

xenocide

You will have to wait until orders posted after the bonding exchange went live to start to get an accurate picture.

Once the bonding exchange happened the backlog increased by about 20 million astral diamonds over 14 days, so any exchanges posted after those dates will see a dramatically increased wait time, compared to listings posted before the exchange

blargskull

From what I am seeing you are all limited to recent orders? How long do they retain the history? Bonding exchange can't effect postings prior to February of this year.

hotfrostworm

blargskull said:

From what I am seeing you are all limited to recent orders? How long do they retain the history? Bonding exchange can't effect postings prior to February of this year.

I don't think this is limited to time as much as number of listings. I have an oldie for you. I bought Zen for AD back in 2018. The transaction was within the month of July, less than 30 days, tiny amount only 100 zen for 50,000 AD. If you used the zax to transfer AD from character to character then you probably have limited history on real transfers.

Edit: In fact, from July to August of 2018, I made several micro trades for zen at 1:500, all of which took no longer than 8 to 12 days to fill. These were done to buy more character slots.

blargskull

Posted	Received	Wait in Days	DBP	DBR	Additional Time
10/20/20	2/2/21	105	N/A	N/A	N/A
10/27/20	2/12/21	108	7	10	3
10/29/20	2/16/21	110	2	4	2
11/3/20	2/26/21	115	5	10	5
11/6/20			3
11/12/20			6
11/17/20			5

*DBP = Days Between Posting, DBR = Days Between Receipt

Not bad for a person who only had 6 months of html class back in 2009.

melechest

I had posted at the end of September. Still nothing....

blargskull

melechest said:

I had posted at the end of September. Still nothing....

Whoa! I assume you posted at 750 AD per Zen? If not, you will never see your Zen for less.

---ALSO---

Based on my rough data table, I am going to predict the 3 last postings above will arrive;

11/6/20 on 3/4/21 = 118 days
11/12/20 on 3/16/21 = 124 days
11/17/20 on 3/25/21 = 128 days

plasticbat

If you want more historic data points:

Post received
July 18, Sep 6, 2020
Aug 7, Oct 5
Aug 10, Oct 8
Aug 17, Oct 17
Aug 24, Oct 28
Sep 6, Nov 17
Oct 7, Jan 10
Oct 13, Jan 21

sandukutupu

melechest said:

I had posted at the end of September. Still nothing....

Wow!! I would like to know the amount you requested, if you posted at 750 AD? I mean to say, maybe it takes a bit longer to process 500,000 Zen.

kharkov58

You can only post for 5000 zen in a single order. The orders for the end of October came in the middle of this month.

hotfrostworm

blargskull said:

Based on my rough data table, I am going to predict the 3 last postings above will arrive;

11/6/20 on 3/4/21 = 118 days
11/12/20 on 3/16/21 = 124 days
11/17/20 on 3/25/21 = 128 days

I think you over shot the mark, I believe it will be closer to this;

11/6/20 on 3/3/21 = 117 days
11/12/20 on 3/13/21 = 121 days
11/17/20 on 3/21/21 = 124 days

@plasticbat I notice one of yours spikes "Oct 7, Jan 10" you went from a wait of 2 months to 3 months on this date and this was long before anyone knew about bondings being exchanged for AD.

xxsuperheroxx

doo deeee dooooo huh =/ i want to play where to we find this ZAX? I am of the opinion that the length of time would be directedly coincide with the amount of greed one has with in their offer. Like in the auction house. I was very good on the world of warcraft one I undermined every ones prices to the point their bought my wears to resell just to be over priced as I would post yet more hides at the same low low prices. I had or have millions of gold or close to millions of gold it's been some time bla bla bla I killed every thing I walked every where killed and skinned and even farmed fly farming is sooooo much faster. anyway given the original posted has their bit offer at 750 AD for 1 zen I would if it were possible to do so put mine offer at 1000 AD's for 1 zen.

I am new here so I am not in the knowing of the system but were some one to point me in the right direction I want to start havoc in the zen market just so the fun of it. =P sooooo where can I play at were does one find this exchange I want stuff I want to make a tank a female drow little itty bitty thing with a huge weapon! I miss my female troll she was so lovely with her neon purple braids welding two two hand axes magical flames it was most intimidating in pvp why do they always force the crown on me I just wanted to kill other players. oh well no troll for poor superhero.... dooo deee doooo which side is the horde side in the pvp here?

plasticbat

hotfrostworm said:

blargskull said:

Based on my rough data table, I am going to predict the 3 last postings above will arrive;

11/6/20 on 3/4/21 = 118 days
11/12/20 on 3/16/21 = 124 days
11/17/20 on 3/25/21 = 128 days

I think you over shot the mark, I believe it will be closer to this;

11/6/20 on 3/3/21 = 117 days
11/12/20 on 3/13/21 = 121 days
11/17/20 on 3/21/21 = 124 days

@plasticbat I notice one of yours spikes "Oct 7, Jan 10" you went from a wait of 2 months to 3 months on this date and this was long before anyone knew about bondings being exchanged for AD.

AD (not rAD) was added a lot before bonding exchange which is 'recent. In the whole duration of Redeemed Citadel, AD (not rAD) can be obtained by every account daily. I think the Bonding exchange is the 3rd or 4th times they pumped real AD (not rAD) to the game directly within a year. i.e. Cryptics's QE3 or QE4.

plasticbat

xxsuperheroxx#8731 said:

doo deeee dooooo huh =/ i want to play where to we find this ZAX? I am of the opinion that the length of time would be directedly coincide with the amount of greed one has with in their offer. Like in the auction house. I was very good on the world of warcraft one I undermined every ones prices to the point their bought my wears to resell just to be over priced as I would post yet more hides at the same low low prices. I had or have millions of gold or close to millions of gold it's been some time bla bla bla I killed every thing I walked every where killed and skinned and even farmed fly farming is sooooo much faster. anyway given the original posted has their bit offer at 750 AD for 1 zen I would if it were possible to do so put mine offer at 1000 AD's for 1 zen.

I am new here so I am not in the knowing of the system but were some one to point me in the right direction I want to start havoc in the zen market just so the fun of it. =P sooooo where can I play at were does one find this exchange I want stuff I want to make a tank a female drow little itty bitty thing with a huge weapon! I miss my female troll she was so lovely with her neon purple braids welding two two hand axes magical flames it was most intimidating in pvp why do they always force the crown on me I just wanted to kill other players. oh well no troll for poor superhero.... dooo deee doooo which side is the horde side in the pvp here?

Zax (Astral Diamond Exchange) is the 3rd symbol from the left in the top bar of your screen.
The exchange rate is capped at 750 AD to 1 Zen.
If you want to buy Zen using AD, choose the 'Buy Zen' tab.
You will see the 'Top Zen listings' is empty because using Zen to buy AD does not need to wait.
If you want to see how long the queue is, click the 'Sell Zen' tab.
As this moment, players of the game want to buy 67 million Zen.

xxsuperheroxx

oh my waiting 6 months for 10 cent's or less given the coupons or rate exchange per amount saving for higher amounts per purchase for zen. a single zen is one penny Character slots are 500 zen for 2 LOL doohhh LOL and a cap of ten transactions at any given time 375.000 AD for 500 zen huh is there a limit to how many AD's one can post Like one million for x amount of zen?

plasticbat

xxsuperheroxx#8731 said:

oh my waiting 6 months for 10 cent's or less given the coupons or rate exchange per amount saving for higher amounts per purchase for zen. a single zen is one penny Character slots are 500 zen for 2 LOL doohhh LOL and a cap of ten transactions at any given time 375.000 AD for 500 zen huh is there a limit to how many AD's one can post Like one million for x amount of zen?

Limit to 5 postings. Cap 5000 Zen per posting. 5000 Zen can be purchased with US$50 (if no discount). Each Zen "worth" 10 cents (if no discount).

blargskull

@xxsuperheroxx#8731 just to expand on what @plasticbat said, since AD is made from playing the game (grind currency) it has been too easy to make. One account can generate 100,000 rough AD per day (133 Zen). However other sources for AD include campaign currency and events. Zen can only be obtained with cash or trade with other players. A single account making 750,000 AD per day (1000 Zen) can be adding $10 per day to that $670,000 backlog. The players who buy Zen with cash would need to throw away more than the players who request it.

plasticbat

blargskull said:

@xxsuperheroxx#8731 just to expand on what @plasticbat said, since AD is made from playing the game (grind currency) it has been too easy to make. One account can generate 100,000 rough AD per day (133 Zen). However other sources for AD include campaign currency and events. Zen can only be obtained with cash or trade with other players. A single account making 750,000 AD per day (1000 Zen) can be adding $10 per day to that $670,000 backlog. The players who buy Zen with cash would need to throw away more than the players who request it.

To be more specific, each account can generate over 100K rough AD (rAD) per day but only 100K can be converted to refined AD (AD) per day. Refined AD can be used to buy stuff. Rough AD cannot be used until after it is converted to refined AD.

lantern22

I posted for 25000 Zen on December 20. Still yet to be filled, would expect it around end of April. If I remember I'll come back and post it here.

Expect the times to blow out a lot for requests posted after the bonding AD influx

blargskull

The last time this backlog grew "out of control" (40 million I think?) someone at Cryptic raised the cap from 500 to 750 (without much warning). Naturally this has the same affect as raising minimum wages. All the players are content for a brief time, then the prices in the AH go way up and you are paying a lot more for wards and enchants. A few months later and the backlog returns bigger than before.

I buy all my zen for cash, when I see something I really want, can only be purchased with zen, and I have the spending money. Most of my zen purchases have been made on Champions. I think I spent something like $30 on there. This is what should tell you Cryptic don't care about the zax backlog;
1. Most prices are in round numbers in the Zen store, maybe if you are using a coupon it will have an offset. This leaves the buyer with little to no remaining zen after the purchase. The price for VIP is 1000 so all you need is to payout $10 and you are even. With a 15% off coupon it comes to 850 and you have 150 remaining. You can still buy a key or something. If they drop the price to 999 now I have 1 zen, I toss it in the zax and pull out 750 AD. With the 15% coupon, 849 and I am probably going to spend 100 and drop the 51 into the zax.
2. The backlog makes free players wait too long. Most players are going to post up their bid and grow tired waiting. My guild leader is very impatient and buys zen by the buckets for cash. He has no endurance for waiting on anything. They know this, it works in their favor.
3. The cash player has not much to gain from trading zen into AD. Is that mythic mount in the AH really worth more than $50 cash? Most players will just buy something from the zen store they can sell on the AH for even more AD, such as wards and enchants.

In Champions there are some items offered in the zen store you cannot buy in the AH. Then our trade is gold based and not crystal based. For a little over 100 gold, I can and do buy cosmic keys to open loot boxes. How can I get gold? I place items for sale in the trade house. We make very little crystal currency per week, Champions Questionite store offers vehicles, powers, and whatnot for big prices. Never a backlog and yet the players still buy zen for various items.

Ok that is a bit of a "rant", I am off topic in my own thread... moderators why haven't you banned me yet?!

hotfrostworm

Number 2, "Buckets"? They must be virtual buckets. o.O

I believe they would have a difficult time changing the cap, that is PWE's (parent company) money and not theirs directly. Did they raise the cap to 750 on the other two games or just this one?

I will be interested to see, if you get paid your 10¢ before others who posted before you. I don't think it works that way, but if it does, people will want to reduce the size of their requests. What do you plan to spend your Zen on anyway? You must have one Hell of a coupon!

Wendy was online late last night, she told me some one was in Protector's Enclave ranting about the ZAX, and how long the wait is for freemium users.

eladonwarps

To answer, I can confirm that STO is still capped at 500, but our exchange rarely hits cap. Exchange is instant in both directions, and those rare times we get close to cap, we almost always get a weekend event that makes a decent sink - upgrade or phoenix boxes (our Refining-upgrade system is for all gear and mostly uses our Refinable premium currency, Dilithium.) Our refining limit on Dil is also still per character, not account wide, at 8000 per day.

Just realized I said "our" alot to mean STO, but I've mostly stopped playing NW over combat changes, so...

blargskull

@eladonwarps#6040 I mainly play here or Champions, I honestly don't recall the last time I was on STO... a few years maybe? I mainly play with my friends on other PS4 games. I would be surprised, if I put in more than 15 hours a week on all Cryptic games combined. I have been replaying a lot of my PS4 lately as my HDD crashed and I replaced it with SSD Barracuda. Between all that work and sleep really gets in the way.

@hotfrostworm I am pretty sure he has been supporting China's complete military budget. As he is one on my PS4 friends and plays Stardew Valley, Omega Quintet, and Caravan Stories.