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Solutions for making daily ec after Tour nerf
xtern1ty
Member Posts: 796 Arc User
I have spoken to a Devwho confirms that Tour of Galaxy has been changed forever and will not be restored to pre-patch. We will no longer be able to rely on it for the reliable ec income it was. There is a lot of confusion, so let me first clarify some misconceptions:
1) Majority of players don't do Tour. Some of you who don't like or don't do Tour think many players didn't do it. That is wrong. Though it's impossible to know how many, a great many F2P players especially, relied on tour for daily ec.
2) Tour was a poor/massive source of income. Wrong. At most, majority of ordinary players made between 1-2 mil ec from running Tour, which isn't bad, but isn't enough to make you rich either when all the daily expenses come into account. It takes a top ship to get the max runs that enables you to get 3mil+ in the hour. And majority never had that, including me. On average, I'd get 1.6 mil. which enabled me to keep my fleet and personal game needs afloat, when combined with daily foundry farm mission.
3) Tour was easy. That's the largest nonsense statement yet. It took alot to get a ship set for tour to begin with and to get as much ec you could during the hour, you had to concentrate and not miss any destinations and find ways to minimize time and distance between runs. Vast majority of players never figured how to do Tour efficiently and made less than they could have if they used a better route. Even if they had a good route, many times Tour was riddled with problems, like massive esd and sector loading times. The last 2 Tours I participated in were like this, with me waiting 45 mins+ on the esd loading screen while the tour time ticked by. Come to think of it, this may have been deliberately planned.
4) Tour was an exploit. This is going to be hard for some to understand. I believe I speak for the majority of Tour runners when I say we never considered doing multiple runs an exploit. It was simply a way to make desperately needed ec. And we were glad it was there to allow us to advance ourselves beyond what we'd normally be able to on a 400k a day ec income. I understand Devs designed the game and knew what purpose they had for Tour, but neither me nor most everyone else knew or thought of it like that. We aren't deliberately responsible for abusing any exploit, which brings me to
5) If devs devs knew it was a exploit, they could have closed it sooner. It's a moot point now, let's just be glad we had that source of income for the time we did, because times are going to get alot tougher for f2p players.
3) Players don't need Tour to make ec. While that is true, it underscores what Tour really meant: A simple way for F2P players to get ec and keep their game going. Removing it, will undermine the ability of many players to keep their game afloatand pay for items on the exchange, unless another simple system of making ec comes about or prices for items like purples and ships are drastically reduced. Let me illustrate this:
With Tour, I was making on average 1 mil daily. In about 3 months I could have saved enough ec to buy a lockbox ship, minus daily fleet and reputation expenses. Without Tour, foundry farm mission will give me on average 400k daily. That will take me 6+ months to get a enjoyable ship. What does it mean to me as a F2P player? Alot. I'm stuck right now in a mirror ship I don't enjoy being in, and saving ec for a better one is going to be a lot harder now. A player can only barely get by on 400k ec a day. That's minimum wage.
What happens next? Hardy players like me can stick it out, but a lot of ordinary F2P players who aren't really expert at the game and play for passtime not brain drain won't be able to make ends meet.
1) Majority of players don't do Tour. Some of you who don't like or don't do Tour think many players didn't do it. That is wrong. Though it's impossible to know how many, a great many F2P players especially, relied on tour for daily ec.
2) Tour was a poor/massive source of income. Wrong. At most, majority of ordinary players made between 1-2 mil ec from running Tour, which isn't bad, but isn't enough to make you rich either when all the daily expenses come into account. It takes a top ship to get the max runs that enables you to get 3mil+ in the hour. And majority never had that, including me. On average, I'd get 1.6 mil. which enabled me to keep my fleet and personal game needs afloat, when combined with daily foundry farm mission.
3) Tour was easy. That's the largest nonsense statement yet. It took alot to get a ship set for tour to begin with and to get as much ec you could during the hour, you had to concentrate and not miss any destinations and find ways to minimize time and distance between runs. Vast majority of players never figured how to do Tour efficiently and made less than they could have if they used a better route. Even if they had a good route, many times Tour was riddled with problems, like massive esd and sector loading times. The last 2 Tours I participated in were like this, with me waiting 45 mins+ on the esd loading screen while the tour time ticked by. Come to think of it, this may have been deliberately planned.
4) Tour was an exploit. This is going to be hard for some to understand. I believe I speak for the majority of Tour runners when I say we never considered doing multiple runs an exploit. It was simply a way to make desperately needed ec. And we were glad it was there to allow us to advance ourselves beyond what we'd normally be able to on a 400k a day ec income. I understand Devs designed the game and knew what purpose they had for Tour, but neither me nor most everyone else knew or thought of it like that. We aren't deliberately responsible for abusing any exploit, which brings me to
5) If devs devs knew it was a exploit, they could have closed it sooner. It's a moot point now, let's just be glad we had that source of income for the time we did, because times are going to get alot tougher for f2p players.
3) Players don't need Tour to make ec. While that is true, it underscores what Tour really meant: A simple way for F2P players to get ec and keep their game going. Removing it, will undermine the ability of many players to keep their game afloatand pay for items on the exchange, unless another simple system of making ec comes about or prices for items like purples and ships are drastically reduced. Let me illustrate this:
With Tour, I was making on average 1 mil daily. In about 3 months I could have saved enough ec to buy a lockbox ship, minus daily fleet and reputation expenses. Without Tour, foundry farm mission will give me on average 400k daily. That will take me 6+ months to get a enjoyable ship. What does it mean to me as a F2P player? Alot. I'm stuck right now in a mirror ship I don't enjoy being in, and saving ec for a better one is going to be a lot harder now. A player can only barely get by on 400k ec a day. That's minimum wage.
What happens next? Hardy players like me can stick it out, but a lot of ordinary F2P players who aren't really expert at the game and play for passtime not brain drain won't be able to make ends meet.
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These are the potential consequences STO faces from reducing the available supply of ec to players:
1) Economy. Items that are over 10 mil will be out of reach to majority of F2P players who will be unable to save enough for their daily game needs
2) F2P. Players who do not pay will not be able to make ends meet without some heavy game involvement. This will force some of those unable to immerse themselves to leave, shrinking the F2P player base.
3) Fleets. Many small fleets will become unsupportable, forcing players to merge/migrate to larger fleets. Fleets that have been inching by till now will have have impaired or cease growth entirely.
4) Spending: With less ec floating around, regular players like me are going to have to tighten our belts and spend less and only for things that matter. A mistaken purchase that could be recoverable from before, can now have devastating consequences for a ordinary player. Less alts will be created because players won't be ale to afford equipping them, which means players will be less specialized and become sloppier.
The Advantages:
Despite from the consequences, there is one major advantage for STO, though not for players themselves:
P2P. The pay to play player base will increase as more players find they need to buy zen or goods they can't otherwise get any other way.
I consider myself an ordinary player, because I'm F2P, not rich, don't make more than a mil a day onn average an have the responsabilities of leading a fleet and caring for my personal game needs like reputation system. All those daily project expenses eat up a sizable portion of my game income and I sympathize with what ordinary players go through because I go through much of the same.
At this very moment, there is a party going on at DS9 attended by some of the rich P2P players in a large fleet. They don't care or concern themselves with the problems of ordinary players, but I do, because I am one of you. How therefore do we solve the burden of keeping our game going as F2P'rs? The Dev I spoke to offered one hint: he said, "Players will have to adapt." In that I agree. We either adapt or have to stop playing the game as interestedly as we have. Here are some solutions for players who find themselves in the squeeze:
1) Cut spending. Alot of items in the exchange are posted by players looking to make a profit. Don't give them that profit. If you need an item, look for ways to get it at the source. With a little extra work, you can usually get an item for free.
2) Sell your items. If you have items that you've been saving and you don't need, sell them. Regular players may not buy them, but rich players might, the less ec in their pocket, the more ec in yours.
3) Go on a budget. Guess what: the same methods that keep you out of debt in the real world work on STO! Chart on paper your daily rep and fleet expenses and anything else you spend on. Then chart your incomes. Cut corners where necessary and devise a plan on paper that leaves you with ec in your pocket at the end of the day. It can be done, trust me.
4) Start Saving. This is really hard for some players. Once you get a few mil in your pocket, you feel the need to spend it. Bad idea. Save your ec, treat it like if it was real money, because you know what? Either it came from zen that you bought or you made it in game, that ec is worth real money. Players paid for the ec at some point, many still do, and you know what they say about money: it's precious. if you make money off the exchange by selling something, save it. If you sell items to Lessa and get ec, save it. Save all the ec you make until you're absolutely certain you need an item.
5) Don't buy in uncertainty or on the spur of a moment. This is self explanatory, and I've heard alot of players who buy something and are disappointed because they thought it would be something else. Be certain of what you're buying BEFORE you buy it. use stowiki.org and search engines to find info on items.
Solutions for the game:
Cryptic may want to ease up on the ec crunch sooner or later, which I personally would welcome since I'm going to weather some tough times meanwhile. There are a few ways to do it:
1) Introduce one or more other missions or minigames that give players ec.
2) Increase the foundry drop cap.
3) Do special events like the one earlier this year for dilithium and reward a worthwhile amount of credits, like 10 or 20 million for completing it.
4) Allow players to get ec not purely based on drops but directly when completing STF's and other PvE missions.
5) Add an ec reward to Episode missions.
- I expect exchange prices to drop due to less influx of EC. So while there is less EC, items should also become more affordable. So who knows if this leads to more sales for PWE/Cryptic.
- The mood in the playerbase is starting to erode. This might lead to less sales.
- There might be more people buying EC illegally from outside sources now. Won't be me but I expect it to happen.
1) Realize that you don't really need that 40 mil ec console, the benefit provided by it is marginal at best.
2) Find other sources. Fleet Alert for example or other missions from the queue offer up a solid loot drop quantity, not to mention the foundry farming.
3) Enjoy the deflation of the market as items decrease in cost just a bit again. Keys for example used to sell for the 1 mil mark, now they sell for 1.4 perhaps this will help a bit.
My opinion? It needed nerfed. So does foundry but yeah. EC is the real time currency in this game, or atleast used to be, and it needs to be returned to that. Kinda ironic though when I think about how purple rock was intended to fill that role hehe. Oh and really a % listing fee for exchange is badly needed to have any hope of fixing the inflation issue.
*edit addon conclusion*
While I enjoy gaining most likely 5x the rewards for my time in game that the average player does it should not be that way. This is one example of the terribad balance of this game that needs to be fixed and this is one baby step in that direction therefor I support it.
This is a time when players need to set their differences aside and pull together, F2P players especially. Because if we don't I potentially see a large number of F2P'rs leaving STO. So what can we do? If you know a player who is struggling, don't be harsh, but understanding. Listen to them and comfort their concerns. Nobody is going to help us, so we need to help ourselves and each other if we can. To this mission, we can start by sharing effective, regular ways to make ec. If you know of any, please post in this thread. Be simple and explain in steps for players who are not die-hard gamers so they understand.
The only reliable simple way left that I know is Foundry Farm runs. On Fed, there are 2 very reliable ones that at the time of this post reward approx. 400k ec in loot when the items are sold to Lessa in ESD. To access the missions on the Fed side:
1) Open Hail Starfleet and head to the Foundry tab
2) Head to the Search Foundry tab on the left side
3) Drop down the search menu using the arrow at top and type in the search box either one of the missions below:
- blast test dummie
- Loot-o-Matic
4) Hail the desired mission(s)
Remember, when you stop receiving loot, you've reached your daily foundry loot limit.
If you know other foundry ec missions, know farming missions for KDF/Rom or know any other ways to make reliable ec, please post below. If no one else, you'll earn my appreciation for your time and helpfulness.
I will post if I find any other methods. Heads up fellow F2P'rs, together we'll get through this.
You're wrong there. If currency stayed as it was before the nerf and the prices went down, THEN it'd be more affordable.
When both availability of the currency and the prices drop, they're just as affordable as before.
In a world where you can only make 400k or so EC per tour compared to 2-3 million, 30 million EC is just as unaffordable as 75 million
You're right. Wrong wording on my part. Meant the same though.
And what on earth in this game costs 75 million, or even 30 million EC that is even remotely necessary for the enjoyment of the game?
Lockbox ships that other people foolishly spend around $150 USD for to throw up on the exchange? That is the only thing I can think of offhand and I'm sorry to say this but those should require a ton of grinding to acquire not just a few days of flying in circles.
I used to be a heavy grinder - but for the most part I was just a saver - don't think I have EVER bought anything for more than $10 million EC - most of the stuff priced over $10 million EC you simply DO NOT NEED
I used to run the tour but stopped that like a year ago and don't think I have 1 toon left that has any driver skill points left.
But the biggest problem i see is Cryptic removing all the ways to make EC
Consoles are quickly being replaced with Fleet gear - the new Mining gear at T1 makes Eng Purple Mk XII exchange stuff obsolete.
So you used to be able to sell weapons for millions - that got taken down
Sci consoles were not as hot - but that also got taken down
Eng Console now getting taken down
Next holding I hear is the Military which will make Tactical consoles - so those will go bye bye on the exchange.
I have always made lots of EC doffing - I wonder when that shoe will drop.
cant use the tour to make ec..
cant use the foundry for ec.
cant use slavers to farm CB for ec.. i used to get over 100 a day.. now today im at 16..
they are taking away the grind and just leaving the only option.. buying zen, using it to buy keys or whatnot and selling them on ex.. which eventually the market will crash and those will get cheaper and cheaper..
[12:44] Vessel One of Two Unimatrix 01 deals 1019527 (1157678) Kinetic Damage to you with Plasma Energy Bolt Explosion.
I wonder if they want people to spend more and more Zen to get those shinnies instead?? Nah.
why wouldnt they?
it is their primary form of income?
[12:44] Vessel One of Two Unimatrix 01 deals 1019527 (1157678) Kinetic Damage to you with Plasma Energy Bolt Explosion.
Happy farmer by Audiodee is the easiest and fastest foundry farm mission. No it does not qualify for rewards but that is fine since you would do it strictly for the EC and leave before completng and then do a spotlight foundry for the dilithium and bonus. How to do a farm mission is another thing.
1. Do it on normal difficulty. normal difficulty drops far more items and it adds up to more than higher difficulty settings.
2. if you do not have 50 inventory slots leave after the first 25 and sell what you have obtained.
3. Check the exchange prices on blue and purple quality items if you are unsure if it is worth tossing on the exchange.
4. Use the vendor to sell averything you do not put on the exchange, do not discard or use the replicator as that gives you less.
5. If you dropped out on #2 because of inventory slots repeat Happy Farmer and do the first 20 which should be when you no longer get any drops. Leave again leaving the mission unfinished to repeat the next day.
6. repeat steps 3 and 4.
7. Repeat step 5 if you were still getting drops or half your inventory spaces were empty in both prior runs.
8. Do any of the spotlight missions for the dilithium if you also want dilithium.
My personal average is 600k EC without touching the exchange and have made 2 million EC with exchange sales from a few lucky drops. This is an average of 20 minutes to get to step 8 and I can repeat it on all my characters for even more profit.
"I'm drunk, whats your excuse for being an idiot?" - Unknown drunk man. :eek:
That's some great Foundry tips jetwtf, thanks for sharing!
It's important to note that the 2 million ec from very rare foundry drops are indeed very rare. I've been doing foundry for months and never had a drop net that much, not even close. But 400k is better than nothing, and you'll get 300k minimum from Foundry dailies guaranteed.
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!
i do agree that this event shouldnt be nerfed simply because its not an exploit, this even has been around for a long long time and people have been doing it all over the place.
it gives u money but not that much money to break any system .
its also boring as hell grinding it every day , especially when u get more experience in the game , so there is no danger of over exploitation of any of it .
on that regard i agree , this even should not be touched...its one of the most abysmal ways in the game to make money and if people like to do it over and over and over for months on end till they ill dream of jumping between points in the night .
no dev should block them do that
as for money and simply f2p players..there are some very very rich f2p players out there.
its not about gold , silver, ft2p but the amount of thinking and digging u make to find a way that works for u to make EC .
I farm the Enemy encounters in Tau Dewa.... the level 40-ish Tholians always drop pretty good loot that can sometimes be pretty great for selling and there's no loot cap! \o/
Couldn't agree more, moves like these from all the MMO's I play are what turns me off from ever considering going with a subscription. I always first look for a value for my money by playing games that are F2P for good reason. If they can offer a multitude of quality to all P2P & F2P players without disrupting the game economy for their F2P player base than bugs I can live and deal with, but each and ever one I have played only shows that they only care about their own pocketbooks and how quickly they can line them with your money and not caring about the F2P player base, and lots of times not even the P2P player base either, while others only cater to the P2P player base and try and act innocent saying "well we did make the game available to play for free". They should have added at the end there "but you're not ever really going to get far that's for sure"
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!
However, as a F2p player until recently, I was able to buy a wells on the exchange (60-80m), use decent setup on my characters, and buy enough keys (using some stipend, a lot of EC, and a lot of dil) to have 800lobis. And I never made the tour. I never use any "grind" for EC. I was not really lucky (never opened a gamblebox ship, had an expensive Doff...), save for the occasional 2-3m item I looted in an eSTF.
So yeah, it took me between 2-3 months to have enough money for the wells. Playing an average 8-10h/week. And several months for the lobis. However, I don't find it difficult, or bad, or anything. I keep earning money, and I saved about 20-30m as of today.
So, I'm sorry for the nerf, and I think Cryptic is doing the usual, removing a whole feature because they are unable to remove a bug/exploit (seen with the import costume in the Foundry, the [borg] weaponry...). However, I don't think it's that bad.
My character Tsin'xing
has any F2P player who opened a lot of boxes got a ship out of it ??
im opened 600-800 boxes by now and never got a single ship ...while gold members i know got 2 ships sometimes from as little as 20 boxes opened
My character Tsin'xing
I've gotten maybe 2 of the mirror universe ships from opening the lockboxes.... and i'm sitting at about 350 Lobi so... what 30-40 lockboxes.... maybe you need to train your luck skill... wait this isn't ESO....
A lot of players bought C-store ships to do the Tour faster, so this argument is moot. The net money Cryptic was losing as a result of players repeatedly doing a 1/4 of the race is probably equivalent to what it was earning as a result of c-store sales motivated by those wanting to speed up the time it takes to complete the tour.
Nobody is "supposed" to do anything markhawk. We play the game as we please within the parameters they have set. If there was a faster way of completing the tour and earning more money, it's not the fault of those people who spent hours researching it and preparing builds specifically for the Tour that you couldn't figure it out. Maybe if you'd actually bothered to research it you would have also benefited?
Argg this drives me nuts, you get nerfed and still make way way more cb then I do!
What the heck you feeding your pilots ;D
What I do is go to T'Kanis enter a fight, blow up ships in this order of preference when possible, Cube, Spheres, and only when you have to probes.
I enter in, hit my automated disruptor turret to blow up the two welcoming probes in seconds ,
Then I go hunting cubes, there not hard to find, blow then up for loot. They die really quick and easy. Pick up loot. Sell it via replicator. Kill any sphere or probe that annoys me. Pick up if any drops from that and kill the next cube.
Then when I see no more cubes I hunt spheres. After awhile new cubes appear. I kill thoses.
You can gain lots of EC this way.
Point Defence turret is really useful if you get tangled in a group of probes and just wish for them to die quickly, although I also use it on cubes.
Also I buy purple consoles on the exchange so not worth the asking price.
For for variety que up for Fleet Alerts while doing this and Gorn Mines.
Here is my routine for when I choose to grind. Go to Dau tau sector for doff missions and sector patrol. Go Fleet Base for CXD doff mission, go to Qournos for turning in dil, do an ec farm foundry mission, then do a foundry spotlight mission for the dil, do reputation, then go to T'kanis pick a fight with the borg and farm as much EC as I wish. Less annoying then Karrat or N'vak, and easier to pick out choice enemies from a distance then say the Kathless Expanse.
Pepper in qued missions of my choice.
Somedays I can't be bother and just do what I feel like. I'm not deseperate for EC now, so its all a matter of whim.
Not only that, but Cryptic didn't bother to put this nerf in the patch update. If they are dead serious with this, why did that have to keep quiet about it? Seems ridiculous to put that in there, not even tell us in the patch notes, but still be something that's gonna stay in-game forever!
I say if you are going to limit it to 1 run every time, then at the very least, increase the reward of EC. Make completing the tour worth 1 mil EC. That's it! No more, no less. At least that's one way to balance the whole thing.
sorry but... running in circles pressing F... NO... just NO!
and 3 mil for one hour of that is a JOKE!
DOffing is where the EC is.
If one source of EC is gone you will soon enough find another good one.
of course that requires a good pipeline (lots of purple doffs and lots of high level characters to start stuff multiple times), it takes time to build that up, but so far doffing has always resulted in enough EC for me to just buy all of the LockBox Ships i wanted.
(granted i am too greedy to actually spend EC on any purple XII consoles)
Just produce what is required for the "flavor of the month"-item and sell it on the exchange, INSTEAD of using it yourself = PROFIT
just find a niche that works for you, optimize your workflow and just keep at it.
and if nothing else works you can still sell some DOffs