As many of you are aware, I have hated F2P and perfect world, and Cryptic, for going the F2P route. I hate "microtransactions" and "debiting you to death" types of games. I have often stated "let me keep paying my $15 a month and not change anything"... well, they kind of did...
So with my 960+ cryptic points, I got something like 482k refined dilithium, not the ore, but the dilithium. So:
For $15 a month, I will have 1200 cryptic points.
At 50 rD per point that's 60,000 dilithium on the low end, and at 500 the high end (which I found a buyer for) that's 600k rD. It takes me playing casually about 4 months to level a character to VA, so in addition to dailies and events, that's 240k on the low end if i short sell and 2.4 million rD if I just casually sell it to the stupid consumers who buy high, which there were some last night!
So I get to play my game while paying the same amount, and not notice a thing

There is no sarcasm in this post. This is a genuine thank you to Cryptic.
Comments
it still remains to be seen how it pans out over a long period of time but it pretty much does what i want it to. play the game a lot and get rewards by cashing in my dilithium. i know someone has to pay for me to get those points either through a stipend or unused points or buying new ones but i generally dont care. what other people do is up to them and as long as there are points to buy im delighted.
I thought this would be like an auction system - bid, bid, bid. Whoever bid the most, gets the CP. As it is now, there is no risk involved at all. You state how much of what you want and how much you're eager to sell/buy, and it does everything for you.
Quite frankly, this works too well, in my opinion. I suppose right now most people are testing, so many of them would rather get the dilithium instead of CP, but I don't think the exchange rate will be so good once this goes life. I managed to buy 1500CP for about 400000 Dilithium, which was a total of what I got from my imported character (500+ emblems and other stuff) and a couple of my tribble chars. For me, that's a lot of CP (living in europe, unfavourable currency rates + tax...).
What I especially like about this is that you can buy or sell any amount of CP/Dilithium you want. You may do a single daily for 480 Dilithium (1 Emblem), and immediately post an offer for 2CP, 240 Dilith each, thus step by step getting closer to an item you want.
We'll see how this works out, but I'm optimistic.
Please explain this to me. The dilithium, and all rewards for that matter, I get from the doff system are TRIBBLE. It so far has netted me jack axcept something else to do. I DO like playing the doff system, don't get me wrong. But for me, its like going to the casino and playing Keno. No real rewards, nothing to do all the time, and not something to go to Vegas for, but nice casual fun while there.
How am I not leveling and being made rich of this doff system?!?!?!!?
It's simple, really - my character is already a VA, so no leveling required. Second, my character currently has no need of dilithium whatsoever, so any amount gained is 'more than I need'. I never claimed the rewards were making me rich.
Ah, I ask cause I have seen so many posts about "I became VA and got <insert rediculous amount> of dilithium through the DOFF system" and I am like "how?!?!?!"
I thought you were one of THOSE people
How so? I thought the stipend was 400 points?
And in any case...I doubt very, very much that anyone would give you 500 dilithium for a single point. (I certainly wouldn't.)
I guess I forgot to mention I will not be subscribing. No point, I will take the $15 and instead buy cryptic points. I will then use those to buy dilithium.
First day the exchange went on, I sold them for just that.
And sure, you would not give me 500 D (can we invent a symbol for dilithium please!), other smart, good with their money folks would not either. But there are those that will. When the exchange went live, I sold all my points for 500 D each.
I am an American capitalist, I am not banking on smart consumers, there are too few of those. I am banking on the dumb ones
I am going to test this on a weekend as well when prices skyrocket for everything (and I get more points). We shall see.
People will still do this but it will only drive the dilithium cost per C-point in the upwards direction untill it hits a few points from the cap.
"Silver" F2P accounts can generate 480,000 dilithium a month PER account...and there will be a lot more of them than "Gold" accounts who are only guaranteed to generate 400 CP/Month
So if a Silver wants to buy my 400 point stipened , the hardcore dont wanna pay a centf2per will have 1200 Dilithium to spend per point.. Given there are likely to be 4-5 silver accounts per gold account, and those will be competing for the same 400 point stipened , it can only be good for Gold members.
I like the exchange too...though i dont think ill use it cos i dont see value in dilithium weapons, HOWEVER it gives Golds a good chance to triple their dilithium/month IF they want to burn their Stipened on the C-points/Dilithium exchange to kit their toons out... all in all , Choice is good for business
I guess there is a little Ferengi in all of us
I think you are right. I think the cap is more for the high end than low end. I do not anticipate having any problem selling c-points for 500 D or more.
BUT, being Cryptic I am sure there is going to be some massive TRIBBLE up embedded in this system no one thought of, so I am not being 100% absolute. They added dilithium to crafting, so clearly there is a brain dead idiot running around at Cryptic, and hell, he might have had his hand in this too.
It's like when you play poker. If you play for fun with no real money involved, people's betting behavior is quite different than when real money is involved, even if it is a little amount.
Keep in mind that my old VAs got less than that from ALL their converted marks/emblems/etc.
A. they might have to if they do not wish to pay $10 to $20 or more for c-store stuff
B. I have a very strong feeling (this is where everyone doubts me and cryptic proves me right in two to three weeks) that we are going to see a lot more stuff on the c-store that we wont be able to get in game, like consoles and what have you, which are going to be VERY needed with the new space skill "revamp" they rolled out on tribble, which is.... well about as good an idea as adding rD to crafting, haha
WOW, I thought it was going to take a long time, as long as items that sale on the exchange, not so.
Great job Cryptic, I like it.
Pro Tip: That's a sure sign you undervalued your C-Points - before you make a sale, click on the other tab (Buy C-Points) and see what the average rate is they're going for and price accordingly. If you want a quick sale, ask for less dilithium than everyone else is asking for - if you want a good deal and are prepared to wait a little while, price your C-Points in the mid-range.
At the moment I'm playing the market - buying low and selling for a profit - it takes a while and you need patience but it's possible to make C-Points (or dilithium) just by buying and selling.
Kindest regards,
Sasdean