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pfreeman
Member Posts: 86 Arc User
When STO launched there was a handful of different currencies for various thing. You had your regular C-Points and Energy Credits; but then a bunch of different things such as Marks of Exploration, Badges of Exploration, Honor, Starlfeet Merits, etc. In total, about 11 different currencies. At the time you guys at Cryptic announced that this was too many and was to confusing; and that the bulk of the different currencies would all be rolled up into one currency, Dilithium. Of which you had two forms, Ore and Refined; this was to help cap the amount of usable Dilithium out there as people had, and still do have millions if not billions of EC.
Time has passed and it seems now that Cryptic has decided to go back to the old ways and even gone one step further. It now seems that ever new 'big thing' released has it's own currency system attached to it. We are currently up to 18 currencies, and I probably am forgetting a few.
Which is really just ridiculous. I know there's been talk about a need to create an EC hole so that players don't just keep building up EC into the millions; but the current plan seems to be to give us more money of different types, rather then give us a way to get rid of EC!
Now In the real world I don't carry anywhere near that much different currencies (I have regular cash, and a couple points programs, at most I'm at 6 different currencies. Oh and I can transfer currency points making them kind of mute).
And as a casual gamer all these new currencies are primarily grinding currencies, which isn't how I want to spend my time in the game. But if I want any of the new stuff being released I have to spend what little free time I have to play STO doing the same thing over and over again so I can buy what I want.
So my request is simple:
1) get rid of all these marks & badges; convert them to Dilithium or EC.
2) let us spend our 3 currencies on the new stuff; mainly EC so that we can get rid of the millions we quickly earn up
3) If you insist on keeping the 20-odd currencies allow us to exchange them. Buying Marks for EC would be a good way to start draining our EC amounts.
peter
Time has passed and it seems now that Cryptic has decided to go back to the old ways and even gone one step further. It now seems that ever new 'big thing' released has it's own currency system attached to it. We are currently up to 18 currencies, and I probably am forgetting a few.
Which is really just ridiculous. I know there's been talk about a need to create an EC hole so that players don't just keep building up EC into the millions; but the current plan seems to be to give us more money of different types, rather then give us a way to get rid of EC!
Now In the real world I don't carry anywhere near that much different currencies (I have regular cash, and a couple points programs, at most I'm at 6 different currencies. Oh and I can transfer currency points making them kind of mute).
And as a casual gamer all these new currencies are primarily grinding currencies, which isn't how I want to spend my time in the game. But if I want any of the new stuff being released I have to spend what little free time I have to play STO doing the same thing over and over again so I can buy what I want.
So my request is simple:
1) get rid of all these marks & badges; convert them to Dilithium or EC.
2) let us spend our 3 currencies on the new stuff; mainly EC so that we can get rid of the millions we quickly earn up
3) If you insist on keeping the 20-odd currencies allow us to exchange them. Buying Marks for EC would be a good way to start draining our EC amounts.
peter
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Post edited by pfreeman on
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— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
Erm.. would you mind to explain what currencies are those?? :eek:
And I was pretty sure he meant "moot," not "mute."
EC
Dilithium (ore and refined)
GPL
Fleet marks
Fleet credits
Rep marks (several kinds)
Rep objects (BNPs, so on)
Event currencies (Q pictures, Risa things, so on)
I think you get the picture.
- Judge Aaron Satie
There is a major difference between what we have now and what we had before Dilithium. Back then there was a bunch of currencies for doing the exact same content. If I gained 100 Marks of Exploration II, then I couldn't use them to buy level appropriate equipment when I got promoted. I would have to use Marks of Exploration III. The current system rewards Marks for doing different content. If I want to get Omega Marks, then I have to battle the Borg. If I want Undine Marks, then I have to battle Undine. The only problem with the Reputation System is BNPs, VCIs, and IIs taking up an inventory slot instead of being part of the Assets Tab.
Cryptic will never implement this. They want us to do the appropriate content to get the appropriate equipment. Why should someone do the new content when they have thousands of Omega Marks by just running ISE all the time? The most I can see them doing is Reputation Marks to Fleet Marks conversion projects.
But they converted all the marks and badges into dilithium (despite the fact we got screwed over by the exchange rate) to get rid of additional currencies!
Also agree with OP. There's no point in pitching the dilithium conversion when the game went f2p to reduce the number of currencies needed to buy things... when you just replace it with more currencies.
One of the things Cryptic made a mistake on, unfortunately.
I meant the new currencies.
- Judge Aaron Satie
For me GPL is simply "fun money", I have GPL because sometimes I simply like playing Dabo to pass a little bit of time when I don't feel like "playing" STO. The only thing I do with GPL is to purchase Contraband whenever I see that Doff mission. I rather earn enough GPL playing Dabo to use for the Doff mission I mentioned. I end up spending less EC in Dabo to win enough GPL for the Doff mission than it costs to actually buy Contraband from the Exchange; typically 40k - 42k ECs.
There are only 3 currencies. Zen, dilithium crystals and energy credits.
As for Event currencies... I merely view them as "commodities" to be sold on the Exchange. I do the events on Risa simply to put the favors up for sale on the Exchange. I only spend 15 favors in total to buy Risian food for 3 tribbles.
So did I. I meant both examples as equally ridiculous.
Not exactly.
As has been said, there aren't that many 'currencies' in the game.
EC, dilithium and zen.
Things like marks, lobi crystals, event thingies are more like tokens. Collect enough to get X from a set menu.
Currencies per se are more flexible.
Whether the currencies are used between players or the game itself is irrelevant. The OP's original argument (that I agree with) is that the dilithium conversion was pitched to get rid of currencies and condense them into fewer ones.
This included the 'tokens' by your definition.
Cryptic went back on their plans to make the currencies in STO fewer -- which includes tokens (like lobi and reputation marks), making the ethics and reasoning behind the original dilithium conversion completely null and void. Except, of course, to punish successful players by making the exchange rate extremely unfair.
Oh, yeah that's a currency too.
Okay 4 currencies in the game.
1. Zen
2. Dilithium
3. Lobi Crystals
4. EC
Perhaps a good EC sink would be "purchasable" Lobi Crystals. Say 1 Lobi Crystal = 400 million ECs. They can only be purchased at a Lobi store of course. And as usual they are account bound.
This person can't get enough marks so he wants them interchangeable. anyone else have that problem? I'm f2p and I don't.
Support the Typhoon and Jupiter class starships!
"I don't want to do the stuff that rewards the stuff I want..."
Didn't they just close another thread like that from somebody?
I think you're missing the point.
Cryptic used to have marks which was a currency that used to exist. These marks, could only be used on specific items and in order to earn the marks, you had to do very specific tasks(todays rep system currency another words).
What the OP is trying to say is, (or at least what I got out of it) is if I'm going to sit down to play the game and try to earn some gear, why do I need to play specific content for it? The whole idea of dilithium was to derail this so that you could play whatever content you wished, and depending on what you played and in some cases for how long, you would earn the appropriate dilithium.
What I would like to see is keep the rep systems, but make the 'rep currency' generic so I could place them wherever I see fit. I'm still playing the game, I'm still playing the content, I still have to earn it, all that changes is that I get to play to content I want, or better yet, play with a lot more variety of ques.
Name the currency, token, or whatever you want to call it. There is some pathway to ZEN in it. Or there is some mechanic tied to that currency which adds grind. Which makes people play longer and possibly spend more.
All of it adds up to $$$. This is why you have dozens and dozens of currencies which will only grow larger over time. They did not go back on what they said about eliminating currencies, they just never did it to begin with.
So do you think people should get thematic rewards (ala rep) without someone doing the associated thematic content?
This. Why would the officials of New Romulus allow access to their fighters and equipment to you for killing Borg thousands of light years away? Reputation Marks can be considered as the respect gained from a certain organization for doing certain tasks for that organization. So a universal reputation mark or using just dilithium and energy credits makes no sense.
No. Totally disagree.
That's for lazy players who do not want to devote the time and effort to the game. You want gear from a specific rep even if it is only a single console, then you need the marks for that rep system.
Yes but you're not playing the content they WANT you to play.
Because the Romulan Repulic is currently in no condition to fend off a Borg assault so, let's give the guys risking their butts a little reward in exchange for having nuked a few cubes?
I'm all for condensing the reps to a single Mark.
But the number of marks rewarded in content like the Borg STF's would have to be DRASTICALLY reduced.
That would be the ONLY way Cryptic would be able to condense the Marks.
PWE wants players sinking time into the game, grinding is how this is accomplished.
Now we have marks that are tied to the type of gear, e.g. Romulan, Nukara, etc. instead of the level of gear. Your Romulan marks are always good for buying any Romulan rep gear that you want; they're never worthless for Rom gear. Of course it's also true that, unlike back in the day, there is no way to earn these marks before you hit 50 anyway, and the rep store doesn't have gear less than mk XII so it's not a perfect comparison anyway, but it still holds that at no point will your marks become worthless like they did in the past.
I'm still not a fan of all the new currencies though.. It makes it increasingly complicated to keep this flow chart presentable.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y110/mightybob2000/4589dfgh3798/STOCurrencyConversion.jpg~original
Joined January 2009
on the flip side, something DOES need to be done about the issue of marks. as it stands we have 5 reps, and the promise of many more to come. cryptic will have to stop riding the line between a casual game or a hardcore game soon. if they want to continue to cater to the casual player, they cannot keep requiring new marks every season. merging some would help ALOT. for example romulan and nukara are already gotten from the same places, merge those two. dyson and undine are both in the sphere, and i cant be the only one that thinks taking out the voth fleet will help the counter command with dealing with the undine.
what ever mark type is next can hopefully be merged with omega somehow. either way, cryptic has shown no plans to get creative with the rep system again, which means the only way they are going to keep dishing out "content" is to add more reps. at what point is too many reps? assuming this game survives 10 years, which it might, we could very well end up with 10 rep systems by season 12. nothing stopping them from releasing even more after that. i for one do agree that a way to mix marks, or transfer marks is necessary.
People really need use their brains more, very few of these so called currencies even take up any inventory space, so why care?
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!
i'll never understand why some people keep throwing around the words "lazy", "effort" in a freaking game, as if sitting your TRIBBLE hours(or days) on end to get a virtual trinket makes you a better person or something.
Me neither granted I'm a gold subscriber, but like you I go out and earn what I need. If I don't need it then I don't farm it simple! I've dragged 7 toons through all the reps without any issue. Cryptic have already made the mark requirements easier by bringing in the sponsorship tokens. What more do people want?
I swear over half the player base is just becoming plain lazy.
Because people who start these types of thread are the same kind of people that expect everything handed to them on a plate! Yes its a game, and yes it still requires "effort" to play through. But some people what everything straight away the second they log into the game