This change is absurd, being able to complete 1 school per month was ... tolerable after having all crafting capacity stripped, I would not have complained about a reduction to 3 of the same project simultaneously as per what neverwinter provides, or if the xp/project was increased up to(preferably higher than) the value these 20 hour projects were originally on tribble with, as is this is insane
Heh, it wasn't even a case of completing a school in a month...it was getting to L15 in 35 days. L15 to L20 would take take 2.3 times as long as getting to L15 did. It was completing a school in 105 days as opposed to ~345 days.
I was going to keep going and just slowly keep it up on the characters I'd been using, but both yesterday and today my enthusiasm is just...not there any more. Before the new patch I was excited about crafting and the potential and waiting a month or so to get to level 15 and the stuff I really wanted was fine and doable.
Now? The anger is wearing off and I'm finding myself becoming apathetic. I doubt I'll even bother with slotting new projects in another week or so. Might start selling the reward packs from STFs on the exchange for some extra EC, but beyond that? I'm rapidly reaching the point where I just don't care about crafting anymore. I'll enjoy the new Aegis set on the characters that had the old one, but that's probably going to be the extent of my interaction with crafting after a week or so unless they undo the "bug" fix they implemented yesterday.
Heh, it wasn't even a case of completing a school in a month...it was getting to L15 in 35 days. L15 to L20 would take take 2.3 times as long as getting to L15 did. It was completing a school in 105 days as opposed to ~345 days.
that's what I get for not calculating it out, now you've made me more sad I'd be happy with 15 in 35 days just to be able to make things like a TR-116B and the omni-array's but as it stands I won't be able to make either for almost a year.
Initially I was gonna power grind crafting on most of toons to get access to the crafting traits, and perpahs have 1 master crafter for each school just for the sake of it. And, hey, 20 odd days per crafting school seemed reasonable enuff.
But even at the max level opportunity cost vs gear you get and time you spend doing it, really makes it not worth while bothering at all.
But since now it's gonna take 100+ moving sliders to maxx out the school to be able to gamble dil and purple mats for a chance at useful item kinda really makes it not worth bothering at all.
Which brings the topic of purple mats/components. I opened a dozen or so component boxes 6 from ise 6 from exchange, never got a single purple thingy out of it. Now I know there's a cryptic consipiracy aimed at my account, so I never get good stuffs from any kind of gamble boxes. But the question remains: why on earth component boxes do not reward at least 1 purple component?
Initially I was gonna power grind crafting on most of toons to get access to the crafting traits, and perpahs have 1 master crafter for each school just for the sake of it. And, hey, 20 odd days per crafting school seemed reasonable enuff.
But even at the max level opportunity cost vs gear you get and time you spend doing it, really makes it not worth while bothering at all.
But since now it's gonna take 100+ moving sliders to maxx out the school to be able to gamble dil and purple mats for a chance at useful item kinda really makes it not worth bothering at all.
Which brings the topic of purple mats/components. I opened a dozen or so component boxes 6 from ise 6 from exchange, never got a single purple thingy out of it. Now I know there's a cryptic consipiracy aimed at my account, so I never get good stuffs from any kind of gamble boxes. But the question remains: why on earth component boxes do not reward at least 1 purple component?
Because Isolinear Chips are supposed to be expensive? *shrugs* I honestly don't know. It already costs a good amount of dil just to craft one.
Decided that today I'd actually try to craft some stuff instead of doing the Research projects.
To go through and slot three one hour projects on nine toons...feels like it is going to take an hour...and...I'm feeling like I'm just going to go back to the Research projects even if it takes 105 days at this rate.
Decided that today I'd actually try to craft some stuff instead of doing the Research projects.
To go through and slot three one hour projects on nine toons...feels like it is going to take an hour...and...I'm feeling like I'm just going to go back to the Research projects even if it takes 105 days at this rate.
Yeah, I know. I felt the same way since I first tried it on Tribble. It won't be so bad if they ever get it in so you can make components by the stack, doing one at a time is just brutal.
Yeah, I know. I felt the same way since I first tried it on Tribble. It won't be so bad if they ever get it in so you can make components by the stack, doing one at a time is just brutal.
whelp, my predictions where true, they shot the Exchange pricing in the head, pulled another gothca setup to derp for, only to get one item at a mere +1 (from -10 "in comparison to the current content") and it will take for ever for the "illusion" of new content for one to make to become a reality, i laugh at all who spent their soul to get 15 right away.
HAHAHAHAHA!!!!
fools! :cool:
everything i said came true and more, i hate being right when the S****** smells so wrong
Because Isolinear Chips are supposed to be expensive? *shrugs* I honestly don't know. It already costs a good amount of dil just to craft one.
Well we're still in the "early adopters" phase of development, but frankly im really getting kinda sick of "grind hundred days so you get a chance to gamble more" model.
Well we're still in the "early adopters" phase of development, but frankly im really getting kinda sick of "grind hundred days so you get a chance to gamble more" model.
^^ this is an "outstanding citizen" ladies and gentlemen, give this person a medal, slot machines are for casinos, not online games, wait, that reminds ma of lock boxes lol :P
they don't even have "blacksmithing" for melee in here atm ... lol
it's fun making lesser content ... that all 12 of my lvl 50s can't use ... BUUUUUUUT i "guess" since the market is headshot, and all the Very Rare content is the new white and are worthless now, i guess, it is just a waiting game. like, a very long one ...
Like spend a god awful amount of time making vendor trash and a few weeks from now, you can make something that might work out and be "cool", i am not throwing them a cent, it only displays their intent while everyone else gets an inconvenience fee in the form of time
give the R&D system a booo! if you agree and are not interested in the fee jumping to 15 stupidity to support "automation addiction" gaming :rolleyes:
Like I said, "There is literally NOTHING in this game that REQUIRES us to spend ANY real world money. If we do it is because we WANT to, not because we NEED to."
While this is technically true, you're missing an important point.
Cash grab gimmicks are first and foremost only in the game company's favor. The idea is usually to slow a process to a near standstill using in-game methods of advancement. The alternative they offer is the "buy" DIL option so you can spend that DIL speeding up the process. They get away with it by saying you can do it using in-game means, but not for (literally) 500 times the time and effort. This concept has another name: Pay to Win. The best items don't always have to be purchase exclusive for the title to fit. Pay to Win is a system of forcing supposedly "optional" extras into the game that are insanely high priced by game currency standards.
Also, with the "optional" content, there is another point you missed.
If one were to skip the traditional grind that this game has become, there would be very little to do. It would essentially be PVE, PvP, FE reruns, and maybe some RP. The best gear in game is currently locked into the Fleet/Spire/etc. system, but there's a grind to get it. Next best is the Rep system, but that's a grind, too. There's lockboxes, which can be opened with DIL/Zen/EC that one had to grind HARD for. So the solution to gameplay in general becomes Pay to Win. Buy Zen, convert it into DIL, and finish everything quicker (or in the case of Fleets and Rep it literally costs DIL just to start the projects that give gear or progress the fleet). Or just convert the Zen into whatever currency suits your needs.
Bottom line is, there are fewer and fewer portions of this game that have not been monetized. I suspect that by the time STO finally dies (and it eventually will) there will be nothing playable left. Everything will have a grind, or a DIL tax, or some other monetary fee attached to it. This issue at hand isn't just the blatant disregard for the players and obvious cash grabbing tactics at work. It implies many horrible things down the line that will eventually really require money. As it is, we can't have end game gear appropriate to our level until MONTHS after we actually reach max level. The day will come when that gear is never actually attainable. And by the way things are going that day will be coming sooner rather than later. Think about it.
My Old Blog about things that could and should have been added when I wrote it. Not sure what I want to do with it now. I'll just keep it available now that most of it is outdated.
This is a terrible mess In was quite excited at the thought of "crafting" as in designing a desired device (stats bonuses type etc) and going out and getting supplies to create it.
This is horrible. Instead its run Fleet missions for supplies and gamble them against a time gate that you have no control over. The results are randomized allowing no real control over the outcome short of the base type.
I am quite disappointed in Cryptic. Along with the removal of exploration missions which were nothing special but definitely had potential. This is by far the worst "addition" to the game since they removed the random set gear drops from stf's.
It's kind of odd, sitting there and doing some of the calculations.
Okay, so we all know that L15 can now take up to 105 cycles with the 20hr Research Project. Would likely be less because of the odd 7000 instead of 6000 XP you'll get here and there that will become more prevalent - so that would actually be trimmed down a bit.
If I spend an hour a day doing 3x 600 projects, so I'm looking at 7800 a day instead of 6000...I can trim about 24 days off of that - dropping it down to up to 81 days instead of up to 105.
To trim those 24 days looking at a Beam guy would require up to...
Each Focusing Lens would require up to 3x Trionium Gas (Common) and 2x Hydrazine Gas (Common).
Each Emitter Module would require up to 2x Tritanium (Uncommon) and 3x Verteron Particle (Uncommon).
Each EPS Conduit would require up to 3x Hexaflourine Gas (Uncommon), 2x Thoron Particle (Uncommon), and 3x Tritanium (Uncommon).
...so work that out for each day...
6x Hydrazine Gas (Common)
9x Trionum Gas (Common)
18x Verteron Particle (Uncommon)
18x Thoron Particle (Uncommon)
27x Hexaflourine Gas (Uncommon)
39x Tritanium (Uncommon)
...and then run that through 81 days...
486x Hydrazine Gas (Common)
729x Trionium Gas (Common)
1458x Verteron Particle (Uncommon)
1458x Thoron Particle (Uncommon)
2187x Hexaflourine Gas (Uncommon)
3159x Tritanium (Uncommon)
Which will allow you to create 243 Mk VI Arrays...which you can trash for 729k to 1.5m or so EC.
Based on the current lowest single item cost (not necessarily the lowest per item cost)...
486x Hydrazine Gas (Common) is worth 3,013,200 EC.
729x Trionium Gas (Common) is worth 4,585,410 EC.
1458x Verteron Particle (Uncommon) is worth 10,933,542 EC.
1458x Thoron Particle (Uncommon) is worth 10,935,000 EC.
2187x Hexaflourine Gas (Uncommon) is worth 9,622,800 EC.
3159x Tritanium (Uncommon) is worth 25,272,000 EC.
That's 64,361,952 EC of materials...for 24 days saved and 729k to 1.5m in vendor trash.
So then, say in my case, you look at doing this on 9 toons...
579,257,568 EC...to shave 24 days a toon and get 6.6m to 13.5m in vendor trash total.
Course, that's just for one school for each toon...the cost would be more to try to shave some time off the other schools.
Of course, as noted - those are "up to" costs. You might get crits here and there, reducing the amount of mats required because you get 3x components instead of 1x...etc, etc, etc. Going to depend on how your luck goes, right? Mine sucks.
So yeah, I think I'm just going to roll with doing the Research Projects for however long that ends up taking...and...yeah, take it from there. Something where we were looking at around 35 days before we could craft anything of potential purpose now being out at 105 days or so...
...but yeah, I'm not wasting the time nor resources on vendor trash to save so little time overall. I can wait 24 days.
I'd have to join in on this revolt by saying that one year of grinding for ANYTHING, much less a crafting school, is incredibly unreasonable and must be changed immediately.
I'm willing to put up with three months to complete all schools. No further.
Yesterday I spent a good hour clicking making random components from the schools I'm interested in. Then I set up some beam arrays that are useless for the majority of my characters. One came out with an over mod and another with one of the pvp mods, lol pvp mods on mk 4 gear. After looking at the pitiful amount of xp I gained for all that clicking for an hour and waiting for mark 4 gear to come out of the oven and then looking at the xp numbers I'm going to have to reach to hit level 15+ just to craft worthwhile stuff in one school just isn't worth it. From now on when I log in (which isn't every day) I'm just going to line up the 20 hour project(s). This system as is just isn't worth it and I've got better things I can do with my time.
Adjudicatorhawk, Adjudicatorhawk, why have thou forsaken us?
You know I think this can all be solved with one change. Leave the one per school daily project but just change the XP to say 10,000.
10,000 XP would not allow you to level to 15 in 30 days like the old way but it would also not take you 105 days. Instead it would take around 64 days.
Heck even 8,000 XP as it was on Tribble would make it 74 days...you know give the "dog a bone" kind of thing.
Fleet Admiral Thomas Winston James a.k.a. The Grayfox Fleet Leader of:
Liberty Task Force/Liberty Honor Guard
Pride of the Federation/Pride of the Empire
Liberty Guardians U.S.S. Liberty, NX-42813-L, T-6 Legendary Odyssey Class
I broke down the math tonight to see if buying Zen offers any real value in increasing the time to get a character to level 15 in all 7 tiers, and no matter how I look at it there is simply no value there.
The 18,000 dilithium buy now option is prohibitably expensive for increasing the return on value for buying Zen. Even optimal spending, at a rate of 18,000 dilithium per day, it would still cost over $250 US and take 171 days, and that assumes the player spends 432,000 dilithium on day 1 to unlock the 4th slot.
$250 US only saves a player 39 days to get one character to level 15 in all seven tiers. Really? They expect people to pay that much to save so little time? And that assumed the dilithium exchange rate stays at 150 or higher.
Honestly, unless people who buy Zen are really stupid people (unlikely if they have lots of excess cash for a video game) there is no revenue for Cryptic in this current implementation. It may take them a month to realize this, but at some point the Chinese money men at PWE are going to realize what a huge capitalism fail this system is and Cryptic will change it.
If I was giving advice, I wouldn't throw any dilithium beyond the first 432,000 into this system, by no math standard is there any value in doing so, and because there is no value it's hard to imagine this crafting system generates any revenue for Cryptic.
Buying the 10+ million dilithium with Zen to optimally level all 7 tiers to level 20 costs the Zen equivalent of opening 800 lock boxes, and it would still take a player over 18 months... longer than a Moore's Law cycle, meaning this crafting system is Murphy's Law in the context of a revenue stream for Cryptic.
I expect changes, probably lowering the "buy now" from 18000 to 8000, which still makes the system very long to complete, but at least puts value in buying Zen for Dilithium while accounting for a drop in exchange rate for Zen/Dilithium to 120... which is what Cryptic should expect if they intend to sell Zen at rates reasonable to activity. There is no way in hell they keep this system longer than two months, because by then all the podcasts will be showing math on why Zen is such a very bad deal in crafting, and revenue will fall short of the wishful thinking levels their starting assumptions must be if they accept this nonsense as viable.
I'm just spamming the doff assignments to scan TRIBBLE and archeology junk every day. The archeology ones give a nice amount of materials. Even with that, it's a looong and painful road. FYI, hoard all those elite STF boxes. They have a catalyst giveaway going on next weekend when you open boxes. If you have a trustful pal/fleetmate with lvl 15+ access, they could use that to craft you a nice console.
I've come to the conclusion that selling blue components and *maybe* a few purples (god forbid) on the exchange is the only way to make something of this mess. So, in a matter of speaking, I have been crafting. For profit. I mean, I still run STFs and I'm finishing off my 8472 rep, so I might as well make a few bucks of the side, right?
As far as actually leveling goes...seriously even if I had the DIL it costs I STILL wouldn't do it purely out of principle.
My Old Blog about things that could and should have been added when I wrote it. Not sure what I want to do with it now. I'll just keep it available now that most of it is outdated.
I'm just spamming the doff assignments to scan TRIBBLE and archeology junk every day. The archeology ones give a nice amount of materials. Even with that, it's a looong and painful road. FYI, hoard all those elite STF boxes. They have a catalyst giveaway going on next weekend when you open boxes. If you have a trustful pal/fleetmate with lvl 15+ access, they could use that to craft you a nice console.
Lol, with doing the crafting I did yesterday - I didn't have any time actually to play anything...
But thanks for the note about the Catalyst thing. I'll save any boxes I pick up along the way; but yesterday really sucked out any desire to play...
I had some hope for this and I was interested but now - MEH - no hurry. In fact I have no hurry to do anything.
I have billions of EC and millions of refined dilithium - don't feel like using it on anything.
The doff system is just broken for me. Other things are just broken to. I wanted to get one of my KDF - Rommies back into PvP.
I bought some expensive new traits - opened them up - they don't show up in the trait section. I am finished T5 rep in all segments on her - don't have access to any active rep powers.
Can't slot send off doff missions on several toons - even though the slots are all filled and I have everything required.
Sent off some Tickets - but who knows if that will do any good. Some people might be upset that they lost millions of EC on traits that don't work - meh - I just don't really even care.
Lots of good work there Cryptic.
/Rant
P.S. -
Note to Cryptic - people being mad and upset and venting = still kind of good. People not caring any more = very bad.
I remain empathetic to the concerns of my community, but do me a favor and lay off the god damn name calling and petty remarks. It will get you nowhere.
I must admit, respect points to Trendy for laying down the law like that.
Most people who simply get that tired of dealing with it, usually aren't gonna make a fuss about it. They will simply leave.
For every 1 person who might make an 'I Quit' thread here on the forums, there might be 10 who leave without a word, forum-goers or not.
I'll go down in a blaze of glory!
Okay...it might be a matchstick of glory!
Fine...it might be an old match that barely glowers.
Meh...somebody will post a "Where's VD? thread and there simply won't be an answer...
Resolved an issue which was allowing players to run multiple Research Training projects from the same school simultaneously.
Disappointing! This wasn't an issue to begin with, this change need to be undone right away! :mad:
Seriously, it was the one of the only things that made the grindfest/pay2win, and botched craftingXP curve semi-acceptable for a system thats slower and less rewarding than reputation.(inb4 someone claims you can't compare the two).
When the crafting system was being tested on tribble, I quickly felt like I didn't want to waste time on it when it went live, cause it was just gonna be an endless grind. Only one reward I really wanted from that system, and its tradeable, so I could just wait and pay someone else to make it for me, otherwise I could live without it. :cool:
But then it went live with these wonderful missions you could run multiple off and suddenly it was looking like it was worth getting into for myself again! And then you take away that option, making it worthless again. No fun/buzzkill.
"Please, Captain, not in front of the Klingons." Spock to Kirk, as Kirk is about to hug him.
Star Trek V: "The Final Frontier"
Comments
Heh, it wasn't even a case of completing a school in a month...it was getting to L15 in 35 days. L15 to L20 would take take 2.3 times as long as getting to L15 did. It was completing a school in 105 days as opposed to ~345 days.
Now? The anger is wearing off and I'm finding myself becoming apathetic. I doubt I'll even bother with slotting new projects in another week or so. Might start selling the reward packs from STFs on the exchange for some extra EC, but beyond that? I'm rapidly reaching the point where I just don't care about crafting anymore. I'll enjoy the new Aegis set on the characters that had the old one, but that's probably going to be the extent of my interaction with crafting after a week or so unless they undo the "bug" fix they implemented yesterday.
that's what I get for not calculating it out, now you've made me more sad I'd be happy with 15 in 35 days just to be able to make things like a TR-116B and the omni-array's but as it stands I won't be able to make either for almost a year.
Initially I was gonna power grind crafting on most of toons to get access to the crafting traits, and perpahs have 1 master crafter for each school just for the sake of it. And, hey, 20 odd days per crafting school seemed reasonable enuff.
But even at the max level opportunity cost vs gear you get and time you spend doing it, really makes it not worth while bothering at all.
But since now it's gonna take 100+ moving sliders to maxx out the school to be able to gamble dil and purple mats for a chance at useful item kinda really makes it not worth bothering at all.
Which brings the topic of purple mats/components. I opened a dozen or so component boxes 6 from ise 6 from exchange, never got a single purple thingy out of it. Now I know there's a cryptic consipiracy aimed at my account, so I never get good stuffs from any kind of gamble boxes. But the question remains: why on earth component boxes do not reward at least 1 purple component?
Because Isolinear Chips are supposed to be expensive? *shrugs* I honestly don't know. It already costs a good amount of dil just to craft one.
To go through and slot three one hour projects on nine toons...feels like it is going to take an hour...and...I'm feeling like I'm just going to go back to the Research projects even if it takes 105 days at this rate.
Yeah, I know. I felt the same way since I first tried it on Tribble. It won't be so bad if they ever get it in so you can make components by the stack, doing one at a time is just brutal.
+1 Stacks would make crafting a lot less painful.
HAHAHAHAHA!!!!
fools! :cool:
everything i said came true and more, i hate being right when the S****** smells so wrong
Well we're still in the "early adopters" phase of development, but frankly im really getting kinda sick of "grind hundred days so you get a chance to gamble more" model.
^^ this is an "outstanding citizen" ladies and gentlemen, give this person a medal, slot machines are for casinos, not online games, wait, that reminds ma of lock boxes lol :P
pseudo slot machines
Que viva la GRIND, pu
it's fun making lesser content ... that all 12 of my lvl 50s can't use ... BUUUUUUUT i "guess" since the market is headshot, and all the Very Rare content is the new white and are worthless now, i guess, it is just a waiting game. like, a very long one ...
Like spend a god awful amount of time making vendor trash and a few weeks from now, you can make something that might work out and be "cool", i am not throwing them a cent, it only displays their intent while everyone else gets an inconvenience fee in the form of time
give the R&D system a booo! if you agree and are not interested in the fee jumping to 15 stupidity to support "automation addiction" gaming :rolleyes:
whelmp! who's up for some tank games ... lol
While this is technically true, you're missing an important point.
Cash grab gimmicks are first and foremost only in the game company's favor. The idea is usually to slow a process to a near standstill using in-game methods of advancement. The alternative they offer is the "buy" DIL option so you can spend that DIL speeding up the process. They get away with it by saying you can do it using in-game means, but not for (literally) 500 times the time and effort. This concept has another name: Pay to Win. The best items don't always have to be purchase exclusive for the title to fit. Pay to Win is a system of forcing supposedly "optional" extras into the game that are insanely high priced by game currency standards.
Also, with the "optional" content, there is another point you missed.
If one were to skip the traditional grind that this game has become, there would be very little to do. It would essentially be PVE, PvP, FE reruns, and maybe some RP. The best gear in game is currently locked into the Fleet/Spire/etc. system, but there's a grind to get it. Next best is the Rep system, but that's a grind, too. There's lockboxes, which can be opened with DIL/Zen/EC that one had to grind HARD for. So the solution to gameplay in general becomes Pay to Win. Buy Zen, convert it into DIL, and finish everything quicker (or in the case of Fleets and Rep it literally costs DIL just to start the projects that give gear or progress the fleet). Or just convert the Zen into whatever currency suits your needs.
Bottom line is, there are fewer and fewer portions of this game that have not been monetized. I suspect that by the time STO finally dies (and it eventually will) there will be nothing playable left. Everything will have a grind, or a DIL tax, or some other monetary fee attached to it. This issue at hand isn't just the blatant disregard for the players and obvious cash grabbing tactics at work. It implies many horrible things down the line that will eventually really require money. As it is, we can't have end game gear appropriate to our level until MONTHS after we actually reach max level. The day will come when that gear is never actually attainable. And by the way things are going that day will be coming sooner rather than later. Think about it.
There we are, problem solved.
This is horrible. Instead its run Fleet missions for supplies and gamble them against a time gate that you have no control over. The results are randomized allowing no real control over the outcome short of the base type.
I am quite disappointed in Cryptic. Along with the removal of exploration missions which were nothing special but definitely had potential. This is by far the worst "addition" to the game since they removed the random set gear drops from stf's.
Okay, so we all know that L15 can now take up to 105 cycles with the 20hr Research Project. Would likely be less because of the odd 7000 instead of 6000 XP you'll get here and there that will become more prevalent - so that would actually be trimmed down a bit.
If I spend an hour a day doing 3x 600 projects, so I'm looking at 7800 a day instead of 6000...I can trim about 24 days off of that - dropping it down to up to 81 days instead of up to 105.
To trim those 24 days looking at a Beam guy would require up to...
3x Component - Focusing Lens (Common)
6x Component - Emitter Module (Uncommon)
9x Component - EPS Conduit (Uncommon)
...per day for 81 days...
Each Focusing Lens would require up to 3x Trionium Gas (Common) and 2x Hydrazine Gas (Common).
Each Emitter Module would require up to 2x Tritanium (Uncommon) and 3x Verteron Particle (Uncommon).
Each EPS Conduit would require up to 3x Hexaflourine Gas (Uncommon), 2x Thoron Particle (Uncommon), and 3x Tritanium (Uncommon).
...so work that out for each day...
6x Hydrazine Gas (Common)
9x Trionum Gas (Common)
18x Verteron Particle (Uncommon)
18x Thoron Particle (Uncommon)
27x Hexaflourine Gas (Uncommon)
39x Tritanium (Uncommon)
...and then run that through 81 days...
486x Hydrazine Gas (Common)
729x Trionium Gas (Common)
1458x Verteron Particle (Uncommon)
1458x Thoron Particle (Uncommon)
2187x Hexaflourine Gas (Uncommon)
3159x Tritanium (Uncommon)
Which will allow you to create 243 Mk VI Arrays...which you can trash for 729k to 1.5m or so EC.
Based on the current lowest single item cost (not necessarily the lowest per item cost)...
486x Hydrazine Gas (Common) is worth 3,013,200 EC.
729x Trionium Gas (Common) is worth 4,585,410 EC.
1458x Verteron Particle (Uncommon) is worth 10,933,542 EC.
1458x Thoron Particle (Uncommon) is worth 10,935,000 EC.
2187x Hexaflourine Gas (Uncommon) is worth 9,622,800 EC.
3159x Tritanium (Uncommon) is worth 25,272,000 EC.
That's 64,361,952 EC of materials...for 24 days saved and 729k to 1.5m in vendor trash.
So then, say in my case, you look at doing this on 9 toons...
579,257,568 EC...to shave 24 days a toon and get 6.6m to 13.5m in vendor trash total.
Course, that's just for one school for each toon...the cost would be more to try to shave some time off the other schools.
Of course, as noted - those are "up to" costs. You might get crits here and there, reducing the amount of mats required because you get 3x components instead of 1x...etc, etc, etc. Going to depend on how your luck goes, right? Mine sucks.
So yeah, I think I'm just going to roll with doing the Research Projects for however long that ends up taking...and...yeah, take it from there. Something where we were looking at around 35 days before we could craft anything of potential purpose now being out at 105 days or so...
...but yeah, I'm not wasting the time nor resources on vendor trash to save so little time overall. I can wait 24 days.
I'm willing to put up with three months to complete all schools. No further.
Holy TRIBBLE, that is just depressing.
Yesterday I spent a good hour clicking making random components from the schools I'm interested in. Then I set up some beam arrays that are useless for the majority of my characters. One came out with an over mod and another with one of the pvp mods, lol pvp mods on mk 4 gear.
Adjudicatorhawk, Adjudicatorhawk, why have thou forsaken us?
10,000 XP would not allow you to level to 15 in 30 days like the old way but it would also not take you 105 days. Instead it would take around 64 days.
Heck even 8,000 XP as it was on Tribble would make it 74 days...you know give the "dog a bone" kind of thing.
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The 18,000 dilithium buy now option is prohibitably expensive for increasing the return on value for buying Zen. Even optimal spending, at a rate of 18,000 dilithium per day, it would still cost over $250 US and take 171 days, and that assumes the player spends 432,000 dilithium on day 1 to unlock the 4th slot.
$250 US only saves a player 39 days to get one character to level 15 in all seven tiers. Really? They expect people to pay that much to save so little time? And that assumed the dilithium exchange rate stays at 150 or higher.
Honestly, unless people who buy Zen are really stupid people (unlikely if they have lots of excess cash for a video game) there is no revenue for Cryptic in this current implementation. It may take them a month to realize this, but at some point the Chinese money men at PWE are going to realize what a huge capitalism fail this system is and Cryptic will change it.
If I was giving advice, I wouldn't throw any dilithium beyond the first 432,000 into this system, by no math standard is there any value in doing so, and because there is no value it's hard to imagine this crafting system generates any revenue for Cryptic.
Buying the 10+ million dilithium with Zen to optimally level all 7 tiers to level 20 costs the Zen equivalent of opening 800 lock boxes, and it would still take a player over 18 months... longer than a Moore's Law cycle, meaning this crafting system is Murphy's Law in the context of a revenue stream for Cryptic.
I expect changes, probably lowering the "buy now" from 18000 to 8000, which still makes the system very long to complete, but at least puts value in buying Zen for Dilithium while accounting for a drop in exchange rate for Zen/Dilithium to 120... which is what Cryptic should expect if they intend to sell Zen at rates reasonable to activity. There is no way in hell they keep this system longer than two months, because by then all the podcasts will be showing math on why Zen is such a very bad deal in crafting, and revenue will fall short of the wishful thinking levels their starting assumptions must be if they accept this nonsense as viable.
Rules of Acquisition at Priority One
I'm just spamming the doff assignments to scan TRIBBLE and archeology junk every day. The archeology ones give a nice amount of materials. Even with that, it's a looong and painful road. FYI, hoard all those elite STF boxes. They have a catalyst giveaway going on next weekend when you open boxes. If you have a trustful pal/fleetmate with lvl 15+ access, they could use that to craft you a nice console.
As far as actually leveling goes...seriously even if I had the DIL it costs I STILL wouldn't do it purely out of principle.
Lol, with doing the crafting I did yesterday - I didn't have any time actually to play anything...
But thanks for the note about the Catalyst thing. I'll save any boxes I pick up along the way; but yesterday really sucked out any desire to play...
I have billions of EC and millions of refined dilithium - don't feel like using it on anything.
The doff system is just broken for me. Other things are just broken to. I wanted to get one of my KDF - Rommies back into PvP.
I bought some expensive new traits - opened them up - they don't show up in the trait section. I am finished T5 rep in all segments on her - don't have access to any active rep powers.
Can't slot send off doff missions on several toons - even though the slots are all filled and I have everything required.
Sent off some Tickets - but who knows if that will do any good. Some people might be upset that they lost millions of EC on traits that don't work - meh - I just don't really even care.
Lots of good work there Cryptic.
/Rant
P.S. -
Note to Cryptic - people being mad and upset and venting = still kind of good. People not caring any more = very bad.
Indeed on that being very very true.
Most people who simply get that tired of dealing with it, usually aren't gonna make a fuss about it. They will simply leave.
For every 1 person who might make an 'I Quit' thread here on the forums, there might be 10 who leave without a word, forum-goers or not.
I'll go down in a blaze of glory!
Okay...it might be a matchstick of glory!
Fine...it might be an old match that barely glowers.
Meh...somebody will post a "Where's VD? thread and there simply won't be an answer...
Guess this silence is all the answer we need...
Seriously, it was the one of the only things that made the grindfest/pay2win, and botched craftingXP curve semi-acceptable for a system thats slower and less rewarding than reputation.(inb4 someone claims you can't compare the two).
When the crafting system was being tested on tribble, I quickly felt like I didn't want to waste time on it when it went live, cause it was just gonna be an endless grind. Only one reward I really wanted from that system, and its tradeable, so I could just wait and pay someone else to make it for me, otherwise I could live without it. :cool:
But then it went live with these wonderful missions you could run multiple off and suddenly it was looking like it was worth getting into for myself again! And then you take away that option, making it worthless again. No fun/buzzkill.
Spock to Kirk, as Kirk is about to hug him.
Star Trek V: "The Final Frontier"