Currency

jessica1860

T
Star Trek online needs to drop the engery credits system to better be closer with the world of Star Trek in the shows mankind has dropped the money system to better themselfs the game should do the same I mean those vice A gears are way to over priced a person would need to know a trick to outfit his whole fleet with that price tag

starkaos

You mean replace it with dilithium? No thanks.

sumghai

EC is actually quite easy to earn-in game, through recycling loot drops and doing "Tour the Galaxy".

So what do you propose as an alternative to EC? We get the majority of gear for free?

Also, bear in mind that:

- This is a MMO, not a TV show. Economics is an integral part of MMOs, especially in measuring the amount of rewards you get from a mission or comparing the relative value of gear.

- Even in Trek canon, depictions of money and economy are inconsistent:

Pro money

• Kirk intends to pay the miners on Rigel XII for the lithium crystals, which to him appears as the normal course of action (TOS: "Mudd's Women").
  
  
• Kirk says, "The Federation has invested a great deal of money in our training." (TOS: "Errand of Mercy").
  
  
• Kirk asks Spock, "Do you know how much Starfleet has invested in you?". Spock starts to reply, "Twenty-two thousand, two hun ..." (TOS: "The Apple").
  
  
• Cyrano Jones negotiates the price of the Tribbles with the bartender on a Federation space station. The bartender is expected to pay with credits (TOS: "The Trouble with Tribbles").
  
  
• McCoy negotiates with an alien about a transfer to Genesis, and he says he would have enough money for that ("Star Trek III").
  
  
• Scotty says that he is going to buy a boat ("Star Trek VI").
  
  
• Beverly Crusher buys a roll of cloth, and has her account on the Enterprise billed (TNG: "Encounter at Farpoint").
  
  
• Four Starfleet starships rally at a planet called Dytallix B, which is said to be owned by the Dytallix Mining Corporation. Dytallix is apparently in Federation space (TNG: "Conspiracy").
  
  
• The Federation bids a sum of 1,500,000 Federation credits for the Barzan Wormhole (TNG: "The Price", offer depicted in STTNG: The Continuing Mission).
  
  
• It becomes obvious that Dr. Apgar's reason for developing the Krieger wave generator was to sell it to the highest bidder (TNG: "A Matter of Perspective").
  
  
• Federation officers have to and are able to pay for drinks and for holosuite usage in Quark's bar (DS9).
  
  
• Quark sells his damaged shuttle to a scrapyard, obviously in the Sol system (DS9: "Little Green Men").
  
  
• Joseph Sisko is maintaining a restaurant in New Orleans, which is open every evening. Would he be at other people's service just for fun? (DS9: "Homefront", "Image in the Sand").
  
  
• Yanas Tigan owns a mining company on New Sydney. Although the planet may not be under Federation jurisdiction, Trill is clearly supposed to be a Federation member (DS9: "Prodigal Daughter").
  
  
• Tuvok, together with Janeway, buys a meditation lamp from a Vulcan master who doubles the price when he notices their Starfleet insignia (VOY: "The Gift").

Contra money

• Kirk tells Spock about 20th century Earth: "They're still using money. We need to get some." In the same movie, when Kirk is unable to pay in the restaurant, Gillian asks sarcastically, "Don't tell me they don't use money in the 23rd century.", and Kirk tells her "Well, we don't." ("Star Trek IV")
  
  
• Picard tries to explain to Ralph Offenhouse from the 20th century that there would be no need for his law firm any longer: "A lot has changed in three hundred years. People are no longer obsessed with the accumulation of 'things'. We have eliminated hunger, want, the need for possessions." (TNG: "The Neutral Zone")
  
  
• When she asks how much the ship has cost, Picard tells Lily: "The economics of the future is somewhat different. You see, money doesn't exist in the 24th century... The acquisition of wealth is no longer the driving force in our lives. We work to better ourselves and the rest of humanity." ("Star Trek: First Contact")
  
  
• When Nog suggests that Jake should bid for a baseball card in an auction, Jake says: "I'm human, I don't have any money." Nog replies: "It's not my fault that your species decided to abandon currency-based economics in favor of some philosophy of self-enhancement." Jake: "Hey, watch it. There's nothing wrong with our philosophy. We work to better ourselves and the rest of humanity." (DS9: "In the Cards")
  
  
• Jake talks to Quark about publishing a book on his life on the occupied station with the Federation News Service. Quark asks, "And they are not paying you?", which Jake confirms (DS9: "You Are Cordially Invited").
  
  
• Janeway is visibly not accustomed to using money on the Mari marketplace. She may be just unsure about the value of the alien currency though (VOY: "Random Thoughts").
  
  
• Paris says about the significance of Fort Knox: "Well, uh, when the New World Economy took shape in the late 22nd century and money went the way of the dinosaur, Fort Knox was turned into a museum." (VOY: "Dark Frontier")

tsurutafan01

Trying to eliminate money from the future was one of the dumbest of dumb Roddenberry decrees.

When you go over everything he did, and I say this only with love... that's really saying something.

rakija879

Dilithium is a poor substitute for gold pressed latinum!

daedalus304

remember mankind is now part of a federation and must follow other cultures as well, we cannot force the *no currency* thing on them, vice versa.

hell there were still forms of currency in Star Trek even on earth, Transporter credits, replicator tickets, etc.

for outside earth, there is still Latinum, Lobi, gold in some cultures though more primitive ones.

I say put all the non Federation/KDF equipment in the Latinum department, and all the stuff the Fed/Kdf requisition/make under the EC.

the1tigglet

absolutely not, do not replace it with an entirely dil system

bad choice. we'll end up with the problems that another game has right now where there's only 1 currency and the people in charge of the game want our money so badly that they broke their economy entirely. It starts with a G and ends with the number 2. Worst economy I've ever seen in an mmo is where they have a conversion but nerf loot so bad in the game that you can't actually earn anything via regular gameplay.

No thanks.

This economy is perfectly fine, they do have a credit system in ST btw it was setup to ensure that people could get the things they need by working early on in the years after First Contact. It just wasn't essential to life because they had eliminated a consumer based economy and replaced it with a resource based economy where people would work towards bettering their community as a whole. Of course there were people who did the dirty work but there was a ranking system involved in that, so that those who had not done the dirty work weren't put in charge until they actually had experience doing the dirty work which kept the system honest.

Anyway, they do need to do one thing, which is improve the EC gathering ratios because I've been playing since pre-beta and it's really difficult to get what I need because people are charging so much for them. I need right now a second polarized disruptor beam array mk XII [acc] and since they only drop from instances they are only sold in the exchange and thus they are charging more for these things then they do for mirror universe ships from lockboxes. Weird.

walshicus

tsurutafan01 wrote: »

Trying to eliminate money from the future was one of the dumbest of dumb Roddenberry decrees.

When you go over everything he did, and I say this only with love... that's really saying something.

Not really. Why have money if your society - like the Federation - is completely post-scarcity? As Iain M Banks' "Culture" would say, money is impoverishing.

voyagerfan9751

walshicus wrote: »

Not really. Why have money if your society - like the Federation - is completely post-scarcity? As Iain M Banks' "Culture" would say, money is impoverishing.

The problem is, people just don't understand a "no money" society. Probably why you have so many inconsistencies within Star Trek on how "money" is handled.

Say I want some Starbucks (yes for the sake of argument, we are suggesting Starbucks surived into the 24th century), how do I get it? Do I just ask the Barista and and she gives it to me?

What about Quarks? It is not run by the Federation, so presumably requires some form of monetary compensation. But how does a Starfleet Officer pay Quark? Since his principle society doesn't need money, I would assume a Starfleet Officer doesn't get paid. So where does he get the money to pay Quark for that Raktijino?

ussweatherlight

There is always scarcity. Theres a limit on how quickly resources can be accumulated and transported.