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Tour the Universe cooldown change -- 4 hour cooldown added *now in patch notes*

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  • mll623mll623 Member Posts: 135 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    I can't believe the reactions I am seeing from the community regarding the event fix.

    "Tour the Universe" was never intended to be the primary source of EC for newer players. It was supposed to be an incentive to explore the game universe while receiving a reward commensurate with the time invested. However, history has shown that any possible exploit or loophole will be abused to the point where it ruins the experience for legitimate users.

    Starting the mission, flying through 3 or 4 sector blocks, dropping and repeating to generate EC is obviously an exploit. It defeated the purpose of the event. It even hurt new players by flooding the game with EC concentrated in the hands of more experienced players, inflating exchange prices.

    Essentially, the event participants brought this on themselves by over-exploiting a hole in the game code. You got to keep all the EC you earned from cheesing the event, which is more then I would have given you.

    If you want free EC, just keep a toon slot cycling through levels 10-39 and sell low level gear. You can get half a million a day selling contraband from DOFF assignments. Play the exchange, or actually play the game.

    Don't fly in circles like a headless chicken and expect to profit from it.
  • aelfwin1aelfwin1 Member Posts: 2,896 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    mll623 wrote: »
    However, history has shown that any possible exploit or loophole will be abused to the point where it ruins the experience for legitimate users.

    How did this ruin your experience ?
    Starting the mission, flying through 3 or 4 sector blocks, dropping and repeating to generate EC is obviously an exploit.

    No it isn't .
    It defeated the purpose of the event.

    No it didn't .
    It even hurt new players by flooding the game with EC concentrated in the hands of more experienced players, inflating exchange prices.

    Have the exchange prices dropped since the change ? And I'm talking about items of worth here like purple weapons consoles and lockbox ships .
    FYI not only the prices didn't go down (and it's been a couple of months now since the change) , but on more then a few occasions they went up .

    Why ?
    Because those holding these items no longer have access to the easy EC that the players had , which in turn means less sales .
    And that means that they have to make up for the less sales in volume by raising prices .
    At least that's how it works in STO -- which means that real world economics don't always apply to a game .
    Don't fly in circles like a headless chicken and expect to profit from it.

    Don't worry , I already do that in STF's .
    And yes , they had long ago stopped being 'fun' (lack of diversity , lack of challenge , 3.5 years of the same 3 missions , you name it) -- and now they feel exactly like flying in circles like a headless chicken for profit .

    Oh, and since this is how Tour of the Universe was introduced to the players , this was the way it was intended to be played .
    Either shorter flying in circles like a headless chicken for profit , or a longer flight in circles like a headless chicken for profit .

    If Cryptic was that bothered by it they could have fixed in two weeks , not after almost two years .
    Letting this become a preminent fixture in the game makes it Cryptic's fault , not the players .
    But you're welcome to try an re-wright history . :)
  • markhawkmanmarkhawkman Member Posts: 35,236 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    aelfwin1 wrote: »
    Why ?
    Because those holding these items no longer have access to the easy EC that the players had , which in turn means less sales .
    And that means that they have to make up for the less sales in volume by raising prices .
    At least that's how it works in STO -- which means that real world economics don't always apply to a game .
    If no one is willing to pay that high a price then the price will come down eventually. :P Fake economy or not.
    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
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  • kblarghkblargh Member Posts: 170 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    Sorry, but i gotta disagree here. If the prices were ever gonna come down on the exchange, they would have by now.

    And no. The "It'll take months for the exchange prices to simmer down" TRIBBLE might have been acceptable a few months back, as far as benefit of the doubt went, but when a white DOFF goes from 20000 to 40000, or a fleet ship module goes from 5mil to 7mil from then to now, just no. There's a limit to rainmaking, and this one has hit it.

    Now, you can go with the "but companies want to make money" thing, and i'll go with it, because it's true. But to come down on the players for playing the game, like it harms anyone else, i think that one has come and gone.

    And no, there is no specific way you're supposed to play the game. You play a game however you want to, provided it doesn't ruin the fun for anyone else. And in this case, it didn't, no matter how anyone will want to spin it.
  • mightybobcncmightybobcnc Member Posts: 3,354 Arc User
    edited October 2013
    In STO's economy supply and demand is a much stronger market force than how much EC everyone has. In fact, gameplay changes are also a stronger factor than the amount of EC flowing around.

    DOFF packs, their unique DOFFs, and ships are only available for a limited time. The supply dries up and their prices skyrocket. Amount of EC people have has nothing to do with it. Tufflis used to only be 18 million and now they're 140 million because there's been no fresh supply in months. Yes people do pay that much for them.

    Strange artifacts fall like rain from the sky in a DOFF pack and their price plummets for months on end.

    New stuff in the C-store makes the dilithium exchange and the price of Contraband twitch, etc..

    The devs make a dozen different flavors of Disruptor weapons (spiral wave, polarized, elachi, etc etc) and Antiproton then falls out of favor as the must-have high-level gear. Devs add awesome consoles and gear to fleet holdings and then the console prices on the exchange fall through the floor (tactical consoles are the only holdouts for the most part).

    The devs nerf the tour and, oh look, no changes in exchange prices. Of the 3 factors I mentioned, this is the weakest. The other two easily overpower any effect it had.

    I'm not complaining about any of these things, mind you, I'm just saying they're all stronger forces on exchange prices than how much EC players are getting. I was really disappointed when I found out that the tour nerf happened but frankly it was inevitable. They never envisioned the loopholes players would come up with. I've only played it once since the nerf happened because it's not worth my time and I can make EC much faster by doing other things. It just used to be a nice bonus for some quick and easy EC, and was simultaneously fun when it came to racing other players that used the same route.

    My one actual complaint is that slipstream doesn't carry over through sector borders/load screens anymore. That has me pissed. If there's a 4 hour cooldown then frankly it shouldn't matter how fast players complete it. That is an unnecessary nerf that I hate.

    Joined January 2009
    Finger wrote:
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  • bradchristopher1bradchristopher1 Member Posts: 307
    edited November 2013
    In STO's economy supply and demand is a much stronger market force than how much EC everyone has. In fact, gameplay changes are also a stronger factor than the amount of EC flowing around.

    DOFF packs, their unique DOFFs, and ships are only available for a limited time. The supply dries up and their prices skyrocket. Amount of EC people have has nothing to do with it. Tufflis used to only be 18 million and now they're 140 million because there's been no fresh supply in months. Yes people do pay that much for them.

    Strange artifacts fall like rain from the sky in a DOFF pack and their price plummets for months on end.

    New stuff in the C-store makes the dilithium exchange and the price of Contraband twitch, etc..

    The devs make a dozen different flavors of Disruptor weapons (spiral wave, polarized, elachi, etc etc) and Antiproton then falls out of favor as the must-have high-level gear. Devs add awesome consoles and gear to fleet holdings and then the console prices on the exchange fall through the floor (tactical consoles are the only holdouts for the most part).

    The devs nerf the tour and, oh look, no changes in exchange prices. Of the 3 factors I mentioned, this is the weakest. The other two easily overpower any effect it had.

    I'm not complaining about any of these things, mind you, I'm just saying they're all stronger forces on exchange prices than how much EC players are getting. I was really disappointed when I found out that the tour nerf happened but frankly it was inevitable. They never envisioned the loopholes players would come up with. I've only played it once since the nerf happened because it's not worth my time and I can make EC much faster by doing other things. It just used to be a nice bonus for some quick and easy EC, and was simultaneously fun when it came to racing other players that used the same route.

    My one actual complaint is that slipstream doesn't carry over through sector borders/load screens anymore. That has me pissed. If there's a 4 hour cooldown then frankly it shouldn't matter how fast players complete it. That is an unnecessary nerf that I hate.

    Any chance we might see in Season 8 a correction for the SST carry over, since you cannot run it more than once, and it really doesn't matter how long it takes to finish it, so we can get through faster, so i can do some other form a grinding to earn the ec no longer provided by running this event multiple times?
  • bradchristopher1bradchristopher1 Member Posts: 307
    edited November 2013
    Any chance we might see in Season 8 a correction for the SST carry over, since you cannot run it more than once, and it really doesn't matter how long it takes to finish it, so we can get through faster, so i can do some other form a grinding to earn the ec no longer provided by running this event multiple times?

    No mention of 'Tour' here

    http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?p=13388081#post13388081:(
  • cptlankfordcptlankford Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited November 2013
    Okay whose bright idea was this??? First, you add a cooldown to the mission so players are only able to run it once. Now you've cut the EC rewards if half??? GRRRRR

    It use to be 50,000ec per sector block but now its 50,000ec per political sector block group! What was 50K x 13 blocks for 650K is now 50K x 7 political block groups for only 350K..... Seriously what are you gonna do next? Are you gonna start taking away EVERY means of generating EC??? Quit messing with EC earning potential!

    Sincerely,
    Unhappy STOer
  • atlmyklatlmykl Member Posts: 305 Arc User1
    edited November 2013
    It's been 350k for as long as I have been running it. At least 2 months.
  • blevokblevok Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited November 2013
    It use to be 50,000ec per sector block but now its 50,000ec per political sector block group! What was 50K x 13 blocks for 650K is now 50K x 7 political block groups for only 350K

    negative. it was always 350 per run.
    Fleet: Stargate-Union
    Pizza: Pepperoni
    Kalek shel'tek!

    "Do not make me look foolish by allowing yourself to be murdered" -Lord Yu
  • azurianstarazurianstar Member Posts: 6,985 Arc User
    edited November 2013
    I can understand them nerfing the EC exploiting, but they really put the kabosh on playing any event now, except the mark bonus event, which is obvious.
  • blevokblevok Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited November 2013
    No purpose in even having this event now.

    350 is not bad really. add that to a foundry farm and vendor trash from pve and you could still rake in 1.5 mil a day. and that's a respectable base income.
    Fleet: Stargate-Union
    Pizza: Pepperoni
    Kalek shel'tek!

    "Do not make me look foolish by allowing yourself to be murdered" -Lord Yu
  • ladymyajhaladymyajha Member Posts: 1,428 Arc User
    edited November 2013
    Quit messing with EC earning potential!

    Why? Less EC farming potential means prices on the exchange goes down, which means new players have a better chance of getting mk xii equipment without grinding. With all the complaining about the grind, myself included, this actually seems to be a GOOD thing. Slightly less grind, more accessability for all items. I mean last time I checked this was Star Trek not Rogue Trader.
  • cptlankfordcptlankford Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited November 2013
    Less than 2 weeks ago I was if fact making 650K per run... Maybe something got shaken loose with the latest series of patches, idk. At any rate I need large amounts of EC to devote to our fleet primarily. We have no interest in becoming a mega fleet and with my limited available playtime this was one thing I looked forward to when the event coincided with my schedule.

    It just seems that every time I turn around there are less and less ways to grind out EC as opposed to trying to craft, buy low/sell high, or some other durn thing to do with the Exchange. I haven't scored more than 200K in a foundry since they lowered the loot cap on missions. I don't have the EC needed to do much doffing of any kind either. Even the crafting supplies market, one of the few I actually got involved in, seems to be drying up.

    With half my fleet members locked out of the game by this dreaded crash bug its more important than ever for the ones that can get on to get every last bit out that we can.

    As I said opening this post I don't know if my PC was just slow on the pickup of the TtU adjustment or what, but from my perspective it was a nerf as the amount I personally was earning was durn near cut in half.
  • atlmyklatlmykl Member Posts: 305 Arc User1
    edited November 2013
    Less than 2 weeks ago I was if fact making 650K per run... Maybe something got shaken loose with the latest series of patches, idk.

    No you were not. Here is a link to a 14 month old thread. 350K ec's


    http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=356911
    However even if you get through all the sector blocks its only 350k at the end of it. Am I Missing something?

    So just keep doing tour, you are getting the same ec's you were before.
  • smokeybacon90smokeybacon90 Member Posts: 2,252 Arc User
    edited November 2013
    Definitely always been 350k per lap, I used to make 6 full laps = 2.1 Million. I remember it well.
    EnYn9p9.jpg
  • jetwtfjetwtf Member Posts: 1,207
    edited November 2013
    350k isnt worth the time to do it. unless ofcourse it takes 5 minutes or less... I can do Happy Farmer in less than 10 minutes with an everage of 600k to 700k. or buy 3 mini packs and grind the green/blue DOFFs to white and exchange them for 600k+ profit after the 200k initial cost. Tour.. I did it once and never again because it was never a great EC creator unless you used the exploit. The exploit on the other hand... made foundry farming and doffing useless. If tour is your main source of EC and not an i am bored may as well do it scenario then you are missing out, it is that simple.
    Join Date: Nobody cares.
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  • smokeybacon90smokeybacon90 Member Posts: 2,252 Arc User
    edited November 2013
    jetwtf wrote: »
    it was never a great EC creator unless you used the exploit. The exploit on the other hand... made foundry farming and doffing useless.

    Exactly, they never needed to nerf the whole thing, they just needed to add a requirement that the entire lap be completed to get the full reward. As I said, I got 2.1 million in 1 hour (in an event that can sometimes not come up for another 24+ hours), which is pocket change compared to foundry or ker'rat farming, but I did the tour because it was fun, and a break from combat.

    But that was ignorantly taken away from us, and did nothing at all to address to problem of EC inflation.
    EnYn9p9.jpg
  • edited November 2013
    This content has been removed.
  • crusader2007crusader2007 Member Posts: 1,883 Arc User
    edited November 2013
    jetwtf wrote: »
    350k isnt worth the time to do it. unless ofcourse it takes 5 minutes or less... I can do Happy Farmer in less than 10 minutes with an everage of 600k to 700k. or buy 3 mini packs and grind the green/blue DOFFs to white and exchange them for 600k+ profit after the 200k initial cost. Tour.. I did it once and never again because it was never a great EC creator unless you used the exploit. The exploit on the other hand... made foundry farming and doffing useless. If tour is your main source of EC and not an i am bored may as well do it scenario then you are missing out, it is that simple.


    So there is no more 50K per block anymore?

    Also, Happy farmer has been deleted? If you do a search for farm, grind or EC in the foundry search you would see most have been nerfed or deleted....my former EC grind titles no longer there....what is an alternative to make EC these days after the GRIND orgy? This is ridiculous from Cryptic's part to nerf ways to make EC :mad:
    DUwNP.gif

  • atlmyklatlmykl Member Posts: 305 Arc User1
    edited November 2013
    In before the thread merge. Mwahahaha!
    So there is no more 50K per block anymore?

    Also, Happy farmer has been deleted? If you do a search for farm, grind or EC in the foundry search you would see most have been nerfed or deleted....my former EC grind titles no longer there....what is an alternative to make EC these days after the GRIND orgy? This is ridiculous from Cryptic's part to nerf ways to make EC :mad:

    The point of this thread is it was never 50k per block, it has always been 50k per FACTION block, or 350K for a full run. Now some of the faction blocks can be as small as 1 or 2 sectors.

    Also keeping a lid on ec grinding is good for you. If you could grind as long as you wanted to some people would. You would have to grind as many hours as they do to keep up. This way there is a cap, prices do not inflate 10x and you only need to grind for a few minutes each day.
  • jetwtfjetwtf Member Posts: 1,207
    edited November 2013
    So there is no more 50K per block anymore?

    Also, Happy farmer has been deleted? If you do a search for farm, grind or EC in the foundry search you would see most have been nerfed or deleted....my former EC grind titles no longer there....what is an alternative to make EC these days after the GRIND orgy? This is ridiculous from Cryptic's part to nerf ways to make EC :mad:

    It was not deleted, all foundry missions require republishing each season. theres a post in the news section explaining that.
    Join Date: Nobody cares.
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  • crusader2007crusader2007 Member Posts: 1,883 Arc User
    edited November 2013
    atlmykl wrote: »
    The point of this thread is it was never 50k per block, it has always been 50k per FACTION block, or 350K for a full run. Now some of the faction blocks can be as small as 1 or 2 sectors.

    Also keeping a lid on ec grinding is good for you. If you could grind as long as you wanted to some people would. You would have to grind as many hours as they do to keep up. This way there is a cap, prices do not inflate 10x and you only need to grind for a few minutes each day.

    Dude...chill out you DON'T own this thread nor were you the OP who posted:
    Okay whose bright idea was this??? First, you add a cooldown to the mission so players are only able to run it once. Now you've cut the EC rewards if half??? GRRRRR.... Sincerely,
    Unhappy STOer

    There was a questioning of what made the Tour rewards reduce. All I want is to obtain information but now will test it myself.

    Secondly, you are wrong regarding the EC grinding...point not being I wanted to grind as much as can be piggy happy but just asking about an ALTERNATIVE way...that's all. If you want to fume please don't troll against others who are just looking for clarity.

    Anyway, Branflakes mentioned its a transition period for Happy farmer and should be back after they fix the Foundry:
    Missions are republishing. That typically takes days because there are thousands of missions. If you're not seeing it yet it is because it is still republishing.

    Cheers,

    Brandon =/\=
    DUwNP.gif

  • atlmyklatlmykl Member Posts: 305 Arc User1
    edited November 2013
    Dude...chill out you DON'T own this thread nor were you the OP who posted:

    You asked a question.
    So there is no more 50K per block anymore?

    It was answered. So you were offended by an answer? Should people get you permission before replying to any thread?

    Nobody owns a thread on a public forum. I guess if you don't want replies you probably should not ask a question on a forum, ever.
  • salynraydersalynrayder Member Posts: 139 Arc User
    edited November 2013
    How does one get this mission?
  • oldravenman3025oldravenman3025 Member Posts: 1,892 Arc User
    edited November 2013
    How does one get this mission?


    Talk to Jay Yim at ESD when the event is live. He's the big, black guy with the engineer's kit at Club 47.

    For KDF, talk to Targak on Qo'noS. Where he's at, I have no idea, since I never ran the Challenge when I played a KDF Klingon alt.
  • oldravenman3025oldravenman3025 Member Posts: 1,892 Arc User
    edited November 2013
    jetwtf wrote: »
    350k isnt worth the time to do it. unless ofcourse it takes 5 minutes or less... I can do Happy Farmer in less than 10 minutes with an everage of 600k to 700k. or buy 3 mini packs and grind the green/blue DOFFs to white and exchange them for 600k+ profit after the 200k initial cost. Tour.. I did it once and never again because it was never a great EC creator unless you used the exploit. The exploit on the other hand... made foundry farming and doffing useless. If tour is your main source of EC and not an i am bored may as well do it scenario then you are missing out, it is that simple.


    It isn't meant to be a sole source of EC for a player, but one of several.


    And having an Account Bank makes it easy to build up EC when running multiple characters in the event. I manage to make a little over a mil in one event, running three characters in the Tour. And it all goes into the account bank. That's still not too shabby for doing nothing but flying around the cosmos.
  • anodynesanodynes Member Posts: 1,999 Arc User
    edited November 2013
    Talk to Jay Yim at ESD when the event is live. He's the big, black guy with the engineer's kit at Club 47.

    For KDF, talk to Targak on Qo'noS. Where he's at, I have no idea, since I never ran the Challenge when I played a KDF Klingon alt.

    Targak is in the bar area right past the Commodity Broker in First City. It's a bit of a pain for KDF, since they start far off in a corner of the map, so I've only done it once on my KDF-aligned characters to get the Well-Traveled trait.
    This is an MMO, not a Star Trek episode simulator. That would make for a terrible game.
  • mayito2009mayito2009 Member Posts: 643 Arc User
    edited November 2013
    LOL I only have 20 thousand EC in my bank and people are crying because they only are making few millions per hour, good grieve the greed is strong here. :eek::D:D
    Seek and ye shall find. Ask and ye shall receive. Rabboni
    Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety" (Benjamin Franklin).

    Most unexpectedly, this turned into a flame-fest! Closed it goes!. /sigh What flamefestery is this? pwlaughingtrendy
  • bradchristopher1bradchristopher1 Member Posts: 307
    edited November 2013
    mayito2009 wrote: »
    LOL I only have 20 thousand EC in my bank and people are crying because they only are making few millions per hour, good grieve the greed is strong here. :eek::D:D

    My point is, don't ask Perfect World/Cryptic to penalize others just because you don't know how to generate your income more effectively. :rolleyes:
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