1) El Cheapo green Mk X+ unless better isn't significantly more expensive. Green Mk XII [Acc] weapons are better than most Purple Mk XI weapons anyway.
2) Fleet/Rep Mk XII. Especially with the loot boxes one of my few joys is opening them hoping to replace one of my weapons from the hour long reputation projects on my alts. So far though RNG hates me but I still get good dil value for my marks that way.
But other people be crazy, they were buying those mk xii tactical consoles for silly amounts. But I can't complain they helped make me tons of EC so yeah.
Heh, I like my [Mods]...and well, the weapons I run don't come in Mk XII Green. Though for those that don't know (bareel does, that's why he mentioned it): Mk XI Purple is -10% damage strength compared to Mk XII Purple. Mk XII Green is -5% damage strength compared to Mk XII Purple. It's just Polarized Disruptors and Fluidic AP...heh, went the "cheap" way that I could.
Yeah, those Rep Lock Boxes - I always get the weapons I want on toons other than I want them - now that's some RNG hatred going on.
Add to the fact that we need dilithium for a lot of other stuff... we'll need to pick and choose what we use that 8,000 dilithium on, and if we can get items of similar performance so much easier, we're gonna spend our most valuable non-zen currency on more important stuff.
I hope that sums up the thoughts of a lot of other posters here.
But having to choose where the Dil is spent...in a MMO...that's open-ended...where does the issue come about outside of a lack of patience? It's that lack of patience that Cryptic is literally banking on as folks drop out real money for fake money in the game.
Thing is, although we need Dil for the items, we don't need the items. That's just a want. I want all sorts of things that need Dil, but I know that I can't have everything I want in a blink of an eye and that if I did have everything like that I'd be bored out of my gourd with nothing to do. It gives me multiple things to work toward, and yes - I choose which I work toward and when. Cause none of it is needed, just wanted..and yes, there's a Hell of a lot I want that's competing for my Dil revenue...but that just means there's a Hell of a lot of reasons for me to keep playing as long as I'm having fun.
I got my Aegis sets before the dil costs kicked in. My later alts don't have them. Wouldn't even consider it.
That should tell people something about the effects of adding (unreasonable) costs to crafting.
I think I did one Aegis 2pc way back...might have done a 3pc before S7, can't remember off hand. Do know that I pretty much crafted Aegis Engines for everybody up to the release of the Solanae set, and then I didn't bother again.
It's going to get into what folks feel unreasonable, and that's going to vary from person to person. Heh, some folks kept cranking out Aegis sets...that's unreasonable to me. Lol, the current crafting is just a no go.
5k Dil for a VR Mk XI piece...to be that's completely unreasonable. It's just too damn good! It's like Cryptic's lost their mind and are having a Going Out Of Business sale...it's GOOB time! Ahem, for others - they think it is unreasonable to have to pay any Dil.
I don't recall Hawk or any other Dev saying that crafting will let you choose your own mods?
I mean, that would be awesome and might (probably) create enough demand to make the dil costs worthwhile. But that particular detail has escaped me...
I'm starting to get a sinking feeling that crafting isn't going to dramatically change away from the current "storefront" model. ie. a list of gear and the materials required to craft/buy them. Meaning you choose nothing except which materials to spend on which 'recipe' and little or no feeling of building something special.
I was hoping for something that felt like a modular approach with mix and match combinations. Like the new kit frames. Please tell me this is more than just a facelift.
That's the thing, they haven't reached that point in the blogs yet...we don't know any of that because they haven't told us any of that; and look at all the folks just tearing up on Cryptic about how it's garbage, etc, etc, etc. This was just the intro info on the change to the materials.
It's not dropping until the end of July on Holodeck. We're just a little past midway of June.
Folks are showing the same kind of impatience that's causing them issues with Dil...meh.
Heh, I do hope there is some modular angle to it - won't be disappointed if it's not there, cause I didn't really expect it; but I'd really be happy if it was there cause it would be pretty awesome, imho.
It would kind of tie into the whole deck building thing they're trying to do - and - that they've been spreading to various areas of the game, like they did with the Kit Revamp.
This, Absolutely. Dilithium has been overused by now in this game. Asking more from us isn't going to get us to do this revamped crafting. We've got too many Dil sinks already competing for our wallets. Please, Dev Team, enough is enough. We need a progression system that isnt gated by Dilithium. I get Fleet-grade crafted gear costing Dilithium. But anything that equal to being sold on the exchange has no business costing the premium currency.
Agreed. No Dilithium costs for crafting please. Put a hefty EC cost in there instead. We need more EC sinks in game. We can make EC easily enough. Dilithium is not given frequently enough over a wide enough variety of content plus the 8k cap makes EC the better currency to use for crafting.
Agreed. No Dilithium costs for crafting please. Put a hefty EC cost in there instead. We need more EC sinks in game. We can make EC easily enough. Dilithium is not given frequently enough over a wide enough variety of content plus the 8k cap makes EC the better currency to use for crafting.
This sounds like a good idea.
Let us wear Swimsuits on Foundry maps or bridges please! I would pay zen for that.
"We can make EC easily enough." is kind of why it's not a good idea. If you can get comparable gear for EC...why would anybody bother with gear requiring Dil?
And to be honest, I can get Dil much faster than I could get the equivalent amount of EC...unless I were to convert the Dil to ZEN to ItemX to EC.
Pretty much everything I do gives me Dil. Nothing I do gives any noticeable EC rewards.
"We can make EC easily enough." is kind of why it's not a good idea. If you can get comparable gear for EC...why would anybody bother with gear requiring Dil?
And to be honest, I can get Dil much faster than I could get the equivalent amount of EC...unless I were to convert the Dil to ZEN to ItemX to EC.
Pretty much everything I do gives me Dil. Nothing I do gives any noticeable EC rewards.
That is just you.
Let us wear Swimsuits on Foundry maps or bridges please! I would pay zen for that.
And you are just you. You with somebody else is just the two of you. Etc, etc, etc...folks can only speak for themselves. They shouldn't speak for anybody else.
The Q Continuum approves. Glaaar, Splurge and Bink it is !
It is kind of funny...I hate spam, but I would get a chuckle out of somebody saying "WTS GLAAAR - SPLURGE - BINK!" in zone...well, maybe once or twice - but I would still get a chuckle those couple of times.
We're still experimenting with this internally. Ideally, the answer is "They can go in your bank, Account Bank, or Fleet Bank, but not in your normal inventory slots". The reasoning behind this is, it's very difficult to get an item from your normal Inventory into your Material Inventory - you have to launder it through the bank. So if materials can go into your inventory and end up there, you'll have a really hard time getting them back to the "free material bag" if you want them there instead.
You might want to test how this works with the overflow bag. I would hate for crafting materials to get stuck in the overflow bag.
Here's another thing to check besides the overflow bag. In "Duty Officers" tab of the doff window, there is a subtab called "Cargo Bay", which shows the commodities, data samples, and particle traces you have in your inventory and bank. You might want to check that the cargo bay works with the new crafting materials and inventory tab.
Okay... based on the back and forth we're having with the various opinions on cost - specifically dilithium, though the suggestion to make gold-pressed latinum relevant by using that instead was an interesting one. I'll lob my two cents into the discussion.
Ultimately, dilithium is the only time-gated currency we have to deal with. Since there is a hard limit on what I can have and earn in dilithium, there is also a hard limit on my spending... I am happy to use that dilithium on crafting if it gives me equivalent value for the cost (Ex: Ultra Rare Mk XII for 10k dilithium, Ultra Rare Mk XII with a unique [Mod] for 20k dilithium). If not, I'll stick with Fleet. I generally don't purchase the Rep Store items, since they cost more in dilithium than Fleet equivalents; the same will be true of crafting gear if it is of lower quality or higher cost. Now higher quality and higher cost might get my interest, but again if I plan to spend any of my time-gated currency... I'll just save up for the stuff I can keep using rather than spending a little dilithium once on mid-level versions then spending even more later on the high-quality versions.
That's me anyway. All of the concern about cost (for me) is based on what we can get via crafting versus what it costs in dilithium. So I'll wait and see, since we have no idea what exactly can be made in the new system...
With each passing day I wonder if I stepped into an alternate reality. The Cubs win the world series. Donald Trump is President. Britain leaves the EU. STO gets a dedicated PvP season. Engineers are "out of control" in STO.
It's way easier to accumulate EC than it is to accumulate Dil, but...
Proportionally-speaking in terms of relative value? Hard to say. It's too subjective from my point of view. But I suspect you'd have to have proportionally more EC to buy something equivalent to what you could get with Dilithium.
I guess we'll find out what the relative value is when people start trying to sell what they craft.
My views may not represent those of Cryptic Studios or Perfect World Entertainment. You can file a "forums and website" support ticket here Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
Nah I go for one of two options.
5k Dil for a VR Mk XI piece...to be that's completely unreasonable. It's just too damn good! It's like Cryptic's lost their mind and are having a Going Out Of Business sale...it's GOOB time! Ahem, for others - they think it is unreasonable to have to pay any Dil.
considering you can get those for free from random drops, storyline missions or elite stf rewards, it kind of is. i'd move the 5k price to mk xii very rare weapons, and keep the ~15k for fleet quality/mkxiii models if those are ever added.
mk xi items are pretty much vendor sale stuff, even purple quality ones. they're just not that good for any end game build, they're pretty much a noob's choice, something that's there for a short while until replaced with better items.
i don't think spending a limited currency like dilithium is worth it for something you'll trash in few hours/days.
Now clowns, that's another story. They scare the crap out of me.
We fight them too. Entire armies spilling out of Volkswagens.
We do our best to fight them off, but they keep sending them in.
Agreed. No Dilithium costs for crafting please. Put a hefty EC cost in there instead. We need more EC sinks in game. We can make EC easily enough. Dilithium is not given frequently enough over a wide enough variety of content plus the 8k cap makes EC the better currency to use for crafting.
I figure that by now it's too late to rally for that change. If they've already set on making people pay dilithium to craft, nothing but hard metrics is going to change that decision. It is part of how they make money after all.
From what Hawk said, it's likely they will get around to improving the supply of unrefined and refined dilithium sooner or later. My guess is they'll make a small change sooner and think about more changes that may or may not come later. But it's easier for them to simply adjust the value (cost of an item) than to introduce new dilithium payout streams.
Short term, crafting needs a nice win to make people like it. If they lose player interest in the short term, there may not be a long term. My personal opinion is that they should keep the costs low enough to stimulate interest, but not so low that they grossly undercut all of the other gear purchases. They can't make crafted gear dramatically better than anything that exists now without causing an even bigger uproar, so there's a limit to increasing value and interest that way.
Low-end crafting, for character gear below max level, won't have any dilithium costs from what I'm hearing. That part of it will probably be fine. Might or might not be terribly lucrative but excellent for equipping low-level characters with the best gear for the price.
They just need to avoid the problem they had with the last version, where by the time you had the skill points to craft something you'd probably outleveled it by then and didn't need it after all.
My views may not represent those of Cryptic Studios or Perfect World Entertainment. You can file a "forums and website" support ticket here Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
Sounds like they are going to ruin the crafting system! I don't care about the other items much, I just wonder will aegis still there. It's kind of sort of useful until the rep set. Even if the aegis is still there, will aegis be nerfed or buffed. (I have a haunch that it's the former)
It doesnt matter, no one with a little common sense will use the old crafting sytem to get the Aegis set anyways.. so.
But, no. In the annoucement they said the Aegis will be still there to craft. But obviously the resources needed will change.
well, thinking about it, if the 20k dil costs will be for things like shields and warp cores which go for 32k or so, then it should be fine.
it's the internal ship components like shields that cost an arm and leg, stuff like ship weapons usually costs <=20k in reps and in dil shop (except the fleet where they go for 9k dil), so if in the crafting system they're closer to 10k or so, it'll be fine.
now, if weapons and consoles also cost 20k, then those probably won't be that great.
i'd still love it if i could take my fleet and rep mk xii items and upgrade them to mk xiii or something via the re-crafting though. i'd be willing to put dil into that much more than into crafting of regular items.
it'd be a good way to introduce weapon types that go above mk xii without obsoleting the fleet or rep gear. they'd simply become the required building blocks for those rather than something to throw away because new shinies are available, blowing up half of this forum in rage.
in the end, fleet quality mk xiii would still be better than regular very rare mk xiii.
Now clowns, that's another story. They scare the crap out of me.
We fight them too. Entire armies spilling out of Volkswagens.
We do our best to fight them off, but they keep sending them in.
Things about research materials & crafting revamp I would have liked to have seen done:
1. New player captain exploration missions. Adapting the existing missions may suffice, although if it is just a case of throwing in a few extra samples then it is certainly a missed opportunity to add more depth and replayability to our existing missions. For instance, perhaps over time, re-running a mission could earn favor with the local populace - offering new dialogue about where to scan for new materials.
2. Captain specialisations. Each Captain should have innate skills for scanning out materials, with bonuses centered around department and traits.
3. Two-more scanning mini-games (at least). It would have been nice to have three different types of scanning game, depending on the type of material resource being scanned. Even for the most passionate crafters, the same minigame can become boring and unpleasent. The dilithium mining game has an additional bonus in this regard due to score. I like the approach of keeping a minimum amount of materials if you choose to skip the game, but I would also like to be rewarded further for excelling at the game.
4. Equipment stat upgrading. Frankly, I expected this given Cryptic's past insights into stat modification and crafting systems. Given how limited the STO itemization set is (sure there are thousands of items, but in terms of absolute slot types) it might have added that extra set of attainment goals for many people. Perhaps the metrics disagree, but I thought the variable warp core stats were a great move in this direction, albeit less customisable.
5. Tricorder gameplay. While the minigames themselves do lend well.. (I mean, minigame)... to meeting that immersion factor, I would have liked to have seen the tricorder as a new item type come into its own. Different tricorders conferring different scanning bonuses for player captains. Frankly, I thought that opportunity should have come with the kit revamp, but that boat has now sailed, unfortunately.
6. Crafted costumes and ship parts? Just an idea - maybe we could see crafting player/ship costume sets that could be player made and sold. Not tied to gear and stats.
There are plenty more things I would have liked to have seen done, but looking forward to seeing the next few blogs.
I will leave it at this and wait to see the mechanics of the new system. Keeping the dilithium tax in the crafting system as it is now is a sure way to kill the new system from the get go. Sure, a handful of people will use it, a handful of fleet members will use it to help others...but it will still be underused compared to their competition.
I have a feeling now the crafting system is just going to get a slight facelift with more of an emphasis on direct zen purchases. This will not bring back a crafting community, this will not stimulate a player driven economy. Having neither of those is not good for the long-term lifespan of a game.
One thing that has me scratching my head is they are adding in the rare and very rare materials to qued events. I am hoping that it will be part of the loot drops and not have a scanning mini-game that you have to play in the middle of oh say Hive Elite.
The most fun I've had in the game in the last few months has been buying fleet marks off English as a second language players. International business made me feel rich. (:
Anyhow, the absolute biggest piece of news here for me is:
Exploration is now more dead than PvP! We're gonna ignore your questions about it becuase we can only talk about one topic per thread, lol.
I guess losing that 1440 dil Explore Strange New Worlds may help offset the reduction in crafting prices?
Devs do me one more thing, take the dil reward out of CE and I will have no reason to log in again. Make it a clean break for me, please. You killed the calendar, removed mirror incursion, and now the last notion of exploration is gone.
If you have some future version of exploring in the works, you really ought to be hinting at it heavily right now and not leaving us to stew.
Ok, Cryptic, so you feel like you really must "alter" the crafting system...?
I guess some of the elements could use some refinement. And I'm relieved to hear that you will allow us to convert our old materials. But what I really want to know is if I can make better stuff than we could before?
For instance: will we be able to make Mk XII gear? Will we be able to discover how to make gear with special properties? (Like some type of "Polarized Phaser" for example) I mean Will It Be Worth Our Time to Actually Craft gear that we can use at End Game? Or will it be the same old system "warmed over" so that you can capitalize on it?
I mean I understand that you need to "make money" on the game. But you'll be far more successful if you give us a system where we can make gear we really want. And if you don't then you'll just alienate customers who feel like you're just being greedy.
We will be able to make Mark XII gear up to Ultraviolet quality.
They've mentioned that they are looking at crafting our own mods in the gear but nothing concrete yet.
It's way easier to accumulate EC than it is to accumulate Dil, but...
Proportionally-speaking in terms of relative value? Hard to say. It's too subjective from my point of view. But I suspect you'd have to have proportionally more EC to buy something equivalent to what you could get with Dilithium.
I guess we'll find out what the relative value is when people start trying to sell what they craft.
I find it terribly difficult to acquire large amounts of EC, but I do it the slow way of farming gear. I don't sell lockbox associated items.
But your proportional value is correct.
120,000 dilithium for a Rear Admiral Ship.
10,000 EC for an equivalent mirror ship on the exchange.
Then there's the opposite.
Mk XII Deflector or shield is 100,000 ec but sells in a store for 50,000 ec.
A Mk XII Reputation Deflector or shield costs 32,000 dilithium in the rep store. But with set bonuses it is far more valuable.
And the Romulan Plasma weapons cost just as much.
On the whole non lobi-ockbox weapons that can be purchased for dilithium don't compare to the Rep or Fleet gear of the same tear.
Things about research materials & crafting revamp I would have liked to have seen done:
1. New player captain exploration missions. Adapting the existing missions may suffice, although if it is just a case of throwing in a few extra samples then it is certainly a missed opportunity to add more depth and replayability to our existing missions. For instance, perhaps over time, re-running a mission could earn favor with the local populace - offering new dialogue about where to scan for new materials.
2. Captain specialisations. Each Captain should have innate skills for scanning out materials, with bonuses centered around department and traits.
3. Two-more scanning mini-games (at least). It would have been nice to have three different types of scanning game, depending on the type of material resource being scanned. Even for the most passionate crafters, the same minigame can become boring and unpleasent. The dilithium mining game has an additional bonus in this regard due to score. I like the approach of keeping a minimum amount of materials if you choose to skip the game, but I would also like to be rewarded further for excelling at the game.
4. Equipment stat upgrading. Frankly, I expected this given Cryptic's past insights into stat modification and crafting systems. Given how limited the STO itemization set is (sure there are thousands of items, but in terms of absolute slot types) it might have added that extra set of attainment goals for many people. Perhaps the metrics disagree, but I thought the variable warp core stats were a great move in this direction, albeit less customisable.
5. Tricorder gameplay. While the minigames themselves do lend well.. (I mean, minigame)... to meeting that immersion factor, I would have liked to have seen the tricorder as a new item type come into its own. Different tricorders conferring different scanning bonuses for player captains. Frankly, I thought that opportunity should have come with the kit revamp, but that boat has now sailed, unfortunately.
6. Crafted costumes and ship parts? Just an idea - maybe we could see crafting player/ship costume sets that could be player made and sold. Not tied to gear and stats.
There are plenty more things I would have liked to have seen done, but looking forward to seeing the next few blogs.
1. That should tie in with the Reputation system as well. A Reputation system should have enemies and allies behaving differently towards you.
2. I love the idea of Captain profession being tied into what you can craft or a Captain having an edge in crafting a certain item.
3. I would much rather that you could assign your science officer to scanning and recovery duty it is their job after all.
4. Modding equipment is where it's at.
5. It's an interesting point. Tricorders are one of the top tools in Star Trek, equivalent to the Motion Detector in Aliens. In truth it is highly integrated into the game, being the primary way Science officers attack, being our HUD map. But it really doesn't feel like part of the world.
6. All for modifying our ships, but that sounds like it would be complex to integrate other than cosmetic differences.
"Rise like Lions after slumber, In unvanquishable number, Shake your chains to earth like dew, Which in sleep had fallen on you-Ye are many they are few"
Very rare items cost between 19,000 and 23,000 dilithium.
unless you're interested in romulan plasma weapons. the ship ones now cost almost 47k dilithium on tribble.
Now clowns, that's another story. They scare the crap out of me.
We fight them too. Entire armies spilling out of Volkswagens.
We do our best to fight them off, but they keep sending them in.
Comments
Heh, I like my [Mods]...and well, the weapons I run don't come in Mk XII Green. Though for those that don't know (bareel does, that's why he mentioned it): Mk XI Purple is -10% damage strength compared to Mk XII Purple. Mk XII Green is -5% damage strength compared to Mk XII Purple. It's just Polarized Disruptors and Fluidic AP...heh, went the "cheap" way that I could.
Yeah, those Rep Lock Boxes - I always get the weapons I want on toons other than I want them - now that's some RNG hatred going on.
But having to choose where the Dil is spent...in a MMO...that's open-ended...where does the issue come about outside of a lack of patience? It's that lack of patience that Cryptic is literally banking on as folks drop out real money for fake money in the game.
Thing is, although we need Dil for the items, we don't need the items. That's just a want. I want all sorts of things that need Dil, but I know that I can't have everything I want in a blink of an eye and that if I did have everything like that I'd be bored out of my gourd with nothing to do. It gives me multiple things to work toward, and yes - I choose which I work toward and when. Cause none of it is needed, just wanted..and yes, there's a Hell of a lot I want that's competing for my Dil revenue...but that just means there's a Hell of a lot of reasons for me to keep playing as long as I'm having fun.
I think I did one Aegis 2pc way back...might have done a 3pc before S7, can't remember off hand. Do know that I pretty much crafted Aegis Engines for everybody up to the release of the Solanae set, and then I didn't bother again.
It's going to get into what folks feel unreasonable, and that's going to vary from person to person. Heh, some folks kept cranking out Aegis sets...that's unreasonable to me. Lol, the current crafting is just a no go.
5k Dil for a VR Mk XI piece...to be that's completely unreasonable. It's just too damn good! It's like Cryptic's lost their mind and are having a Going Out Of Business sale...it's GOOB time! Ahem, for others - they think it is unreasonable to have to pay any Dil.
That's the thing, they haven't reached that point in the blogs yet...we don't know any of that because they haven't told us any of that; and look at all the folks just tearing up on Cryptic about how it's garbage, etc, etc, etc. This was just the intro info on the change to the materials.
It's not dropping until the end of July on Holodeck. We're just a little past midway of June.
Folks are showing the same kind of impatience that's causing them issues with Dil...meh.
Heh, I do hope there is some modular angle to it - won't be disappointed if it's not there, cause I didn't really expect it; but I'd really be happy if it was there cause it would be pretty awesome, imho.
It would kind of tie into the whole deck building thing they're trying to do - and - that they've been spreading to various areas of the game, like they did with the Kit Revamp.
Agreed. No Dilithium costs for crafting please. Put a hefty EC cost in there instead. We need more EC sinks in game. We can make EC easily enough. Dilithium is not given frequently enough over a wide enough variety of content plus the 8k cap makes EC the better currency to use for crafting.
This sounds like a good idea.
And to be honest, I can get Dil much faster than I could get the equivalent amount of EC...unless I were to convert the Dil to ZEN to ItemX to EC.
Pretty much everything I do gives me Dil. Nothing I do gives any noticeable EC rewards.
That is just you.
And you are just you. You with somebody else is just the two of you. Etc, etc, etc...folks can only speak for themselves. They shouldn't speak for anybody else.
The Q Continuum approves. Glaaar, Splurge and Bink it is !
It is kind of funny...I hate spam, but I would get a chuckle out of somebody saying "WTS GLAAAR - SPLURGE - BINK!" in zone...well, maybe once or twice - but I would still get a chuckle those couple of times.
Here's another thing to check besides the overflow bag. In "Duty Officers" tab of the doff window, there is a subtab called "Cargo Bay", which shows the commodities, data samples, and particle traces you have in your inventory and bank. You might want to check that the cargo bay works with the new crafting materials and inventory tab.
Ultimately, dilithium is the only time-gated currency we have to deal with. Since there is a hard limit on what I can have and earn in dilithium, there is also a hard limit on my spending... I am happy to use that dilithium on crafting if it gives me equivalent value for the cost (Ex: Ultra Rare Mk XII for 10k dilithium, Ultra Rare Mk XII with a unique [Mod] for 20k dilithium). If not, I'll stick with Fleet. I generally don't purchase the Rep Store items, since they cost more in dilithium than Fleet equivalents; the same will be true of crafting gear if it is of lower quality or higher cost. Now higher quality and higher cost might get my interest, but again if I plan to spend any of my time-gated currency... I'll just save up for the stuff I can keep using rather than spending a little dilithium once on mid-level versions then spending even more later on the high-quality versions.
That's me anyway. All of the concern about cost (for me) is based on what we can get via crafting versus what it costs in dilithium. So I'll wait and see, since we have no idea what exactly can be made in the new system...
Proportionally-speaking in terms of relative value? Hard to say. It's too subjective from my point of view. But I suspect you'd have to have proportionally more EC to buy something equivalent to what you could get with Dilithium.
I guess we'll find out what the relative value is when people start trying to sell what they craft.
Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
mk xi items are pretty much vendor sale stuff, even purple quality ones. they're just not that good for any end game build, they're pretty much a noob's choice, something that's there for a short while until replaced with better items.
i don't think spending a limited currency like dilithium is worth it for something you'll trash in few hours/days.
We fight them too. Entire armies spilling out of Volkswagens.
We do our best to fight them off, but they keep sending them in.
We have no idea what the items are going to be...how can you make a comparison?
I figure that by now it's too late to rally for that change. If they've already set on making people pay dilithium to craft, nothing but hard metrics is going to change that decision. It is part of how they make money after all.
From what Hawk said, it's likely they will get around to improving the supply of unrefined and refined dilithium sooner or later. My guess is they'll make a small change sooner and think about more changes that may or may not come later. But it's easier for them to simply adjust the value (cost of an item) than to introduce new dilithium payout streams.
Short term, crafting needs a nice win to make people like it. If they lose player interest in the short term, there may not be a long term. My personal opinion is that they should keep the costs low enough to stimulate interest, but not so low that they grossly undercut all of the other gear purchases. They can't make crafted gear dramatically better than anything that exists now without causing an even bigger uproar, so there's a limit to increasing value and interest that way.
Low-end crafting, for character gear below max level, won't have any dilithium costs from what I'm hearing. That part of it will probably be fine. Might or might not be terribly lucrative but excellent for equipping low-level characters with the best gear for the price.
They just need to avoid the problem they had with the last version, where by the time you had the skill points to craft something you'd probably outleveled it by then and didn't need it after all.
Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
They did it with the rep system, so why wouldn't they do it to another system?
Be ready to get pissed then.
"Oh Lord, Please don't let me F-up"
It doesnt matter, no one with a little common sense will use the old crafting sytem to get the Aegis set anyways.. so.
But, no. In the annoucement they said the Aegis will be still there to craft. But obviously the resources needed will change.
it's the internal ship components like shields that cost an arm and leg, stuff like ship weapons usually costs <=20k in reps and in dil shop (except the fleet where they go for 9k dil), so if in the crafting system they're closer to 10k or so, it'll be fine.
now, if weapons and consoles also cost 20k, then those probably won't be that great.
i'd still love it if i could take my fleet and rep mk xii items and upgrade them to mk xiii or something via the re-crafting though. i'd be willing to put dil into that much more than into crafting of regular items.
it'd be a good way to introduce weapon types that go above mk xii without obsoleting the fleet or rep gear. they'd simply become the required building blocks for those rather than something to throw away because new shinies are available, blowing up half of this forum in rage.
in the end, fleet quality mk xiii would still be better than regular very rare mk xiii.
We fight them too. Entire armies spilling out of Volkswagens.
We do our best to fight them off, but they keep sending them in.
1. New player captain exploration missions. Adapting the existing missions may suffice, although if it is just a case of throwing in a few extra samples then it is certainly a missed opportunity to add more depth and replayability to our existing missions. For instance, perhaps over time, re-running a mission could earn favor with the local populace - offering new dialogue about where to scan for new materials.
2. Captain specialisations. Each Captain should have innate skills for scanning out materials, with bonuses centered around department and traits.
3. Two-more scanning mini-games (at least). It would have been nice to have three different types of scanning game, depending on the type of material resource being scanned. Even for the most passionate crafters, the same minigame can become boring and unpleasent. The dilithium mining game has an additional bonus in this regard due to score. I like the approach of keeping a minimum amount of materials if you choose to skip the game, but I would also like to be rewarded further for excelling at the game.
4. Equipment stat upgrading. Frankly, I expected this given Cryptic's past insights into stat modification and crafting systems. Given how limited the STO itemization set is (sure there are thousands of items, but in terms of absolute slot types) it might have added that extra set of attainment goals for many people. Perhaps the metrics disagree, but I thought the variable warp core stats were a great move in this direction, albeit less customisable.
5. Tricorder gameplay. While the minigames themselves do lend well.. (I mean, minigame)... to meeting that immersion factor, I would have liked to have seen the tricorder as a new item type come into its own. Different tricorders conferring different scanning bonuses for player captains. Frankly, I thought that opportunity should have come with the kit revamp, but that boat has now sailed, unfortunately.
6. Crafted costumes and ship parts? Just an idea - maybe we could see crafting player/ship costume sets that could be player made and sold. Not tied to gear and stats.
There are plenty more things I would have liked to have seen done, but looking forward to seeing the next few blogs.
I have a feeling now the crafting system is just going to get a slight facelift with more of an emphasis on direct zen purchases. This will not bring back a crafting community, this will not stimulate a player driven economy. Having neither of those is not good for the long-term lifespan of a game.
Fleet leader Nova Elite
Fleet Leader House of Nova elite
@ren_larreck
Anyhow, the absolute biggest piece of news here for me is:
Exploration is now more dead than PvP! We're gonna ignore your questions about it becuase we can only talk about one topic per thread, lol.
I guess losing that 1440 dil Explore Strange New Worlds may help offset the reduction in crafting prices?
Devs do me one more thing, take the dil reward out of CE and I will have no reason to log in again. Make it a clean break for me, please. You killed the calendar, removed mirror incursion, and now the last notion of exploration is gone.
If you have some future version of exploring in the works, you really ought to be hinting at it heavily right now and not leaving us to stew.
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=1147591
...it's hitting Tribble.
They've mentioned that they are looking at crafting our own mods in the gear but nothing concrete yet. I find it terribly difficult to acquire large amounts of EC, but I do it the slow way of farming gear. I don't sell lockbox associated items.
But your proportional value is correct.
120,000 dilithium for a Rear Admiral Ship.
10,000 EC for an equivalent mirror ship on the exchange.
Then there's the opposite.
Mk XII Deflector or shield is 100,000 ec but sells in a store for 50,000 ec.
A Mk XII Reputation Deflector or shield costs 32,000 dilithium in the rep store. But with set bonuses it is far more valuable.
And the Romulan Plasma weapons cost just as much.
On the whole non lobi-ockbox weapons that can be purchased for dilithium don't compare to the Rep or Fleet gear of the same tear.
1. That should tie in with the Reputation system as well. A Reputation system should have enemies and allies behaving differently towards you.
2. I love the idea of Captain profession being tied into what you can craft or a Captain having an edge in crafting a certain item.
3. I would much rather that you could assign your science officer to scanning and recovery duty it is their job after all.
4. Modding equipment is where it's at.
5. It's an interesting point. Tricorders are one of the top tools in Star Trek, equivalent to the Motion Detector in Aliens. In truth it is highly integrated into the game, being the primary way Science officers attack, being our HUD map. But it really doesn't feel like part of the world.
6. All for modifying our ships, but that sounds like it would be complex to integrate other than cosmetic differences.
We fight them too. Entire armies spilling out of Volkswagens.
We do our best to fight them off, but they keep sending them in.
It 'sounds' as if Cryptic raised the dilithium prices, so they can pretend as if the current prices will become the new crafting discount prices.
We need more confirmation.
Did Cryptic raise the other reputation item prices?
YIKES! :eek:
Romulan Plasma 44804
Refracting Tetryon 35470
Protonic Polaron 22594
Bio-Molecular 22594
I'm thinking...bug.
We will have to wait and see.