I tried. I really tried to use the crafting system. But I gave up. first I stared making items. But the UI is so clunky. Make a item? Click. wait need components ! click. click. wait, which ones? click. click. okay. click. click. okay wait. how many? click. click. click. click. click. okay now I need another component. which one? click. click. click. click. click. how many, again? click. click. click click.click..... oh look a made a mkII purple bead array. what is it worth? Nothing. trash it! click!
Then, I just logged in to run the research projects. But I was just logged in and clicking on them and then logging off. Then realized that wasn't fun and finally just stopped doing that.
Sorry, I gave it a shot. It just does not added anything to STO for me.
Didn't Cryptic say there will soon be a way to make components in bulk so we don't have to click so much?
Nitpicking is a time-honored tradition of science fiction. Asking your readers not to worry about the "little things" is like asking a dog not to sniff at people's crotches. If there's something that appears to violate natural laws, then you can expect someone's going to point it out. That's just the way things are.
Didn't Cryptic say there will soon be a way to make components in bulk so we don't have to click so much?
coming soon(tm)? Sorry. I can't play what is coming soon. I was playing what Cryptic presented. For me, it is not fun. Nor worthng spending money on. I am not really sure what they were thinking. But logging on to click a mission every 20 hrs for the next year just does not sound like fun. It sounds like the thing in LOST that guy was in a bunker typing in a number everyday for years without know why. Maybe the devs watched that and thought it would fun.
"Star Trek Online is powered by the most abundant resource in the galaxy . . . Gullibility"
Traits unlock at Level 15 right? So why would anyone want to do 20 when they already have everything at 15. Don't get me wrong, the 3 month grind is still BS, but a year? I don't even think this game has that long of a life span.
Anything else besides the traits is pointless to grind for, you can get everything from the exchange already - courtesy of some very bored / very rich and/or very fanatic STO players. And that's how it should be.
Traits unlock at Level 15 right? So why would anyone want to do 20 when they already have everything at 15. Don't get me wrong, the 3 month grind is still BS, but a year? I don't even think this game has that long of a life span.
Anything else besides the traits is pointless to grind for, you can get everything from the exchange already - courtesy of some very bored / very rich and/or very fanatic STO players. And that's how it should be.
what triats? Heard some people talking about that. but I did not see anying the crafting screens talking about trait unlocks.
"Star Trek Online is powered by the most abundant resource in the galaxy . . . Gullibility"
One of them dev blogs said they are traits at level 15. If the traits are a lie, I will be very upset at Cryptic for grinding for nothing.
be kind of nice if they put that info IN THE GAME somewhere. don't know, maybe in the crafting UI that the deisgner of was raving about how good it was. Seems to me, if that was a big draw for crafting, the desinger would have added that info somewhere.
"Star Trek Online is powered by the most abundant resource in the galaxy . . . Gullibility"
I'm just picking up the dailies and be done with it as it turns out you can't even make the non-generic gear without lockbox doffs (you can make xii shield fine, but no maco shield, for instance)
So all I'm doing is doing a daily for the potential horribleness X2 will bring forth regarding upgrades and so on
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 find this endless complaining its not fair from fellow free to play merchants quite at odds with reality. What exactly IS it you are unhappy about? Are you unhappy this free game makes you wait a bit longer for something somebody spent MONTHS programming? Are you unhappy people who have paid the wages of the game provider get better stuff than you? Have you played this game for free so long you believe it is your entitlement by right and cryptic could not just shut down the servers and wipe your account ?
This complaining about a free service is reckless. I have moaned before, but realised I was moaning about something I got for nothing. If you do not like it I suggest you go play something else.
Cryptic, I will forward my C.V. later.
I find this endless complaining its not fair from fellow free to play merchants quite at odds with reality. What exactly IS it you are unhappy about? Are you unhappy this free game makes you wait a bit longer for something somebody spent MONTHS programming? Are you unhappy people who have paid the wages of the game provider get better stuff than you? Have you played this game for free so long you believe it is your entitlement by right and cryptic could not just shut down the servers and wipe your account ?
This complaining about a free service is reckless. I have moaned before, but realised I was moaning about something I got for nothing. If you do not like it I suggest you go play something else.
Cryptic, I will forward my C.V. later.
In fact, how about this for a solution? You give cryptic back all the Zen etc you have earned, and dont log in for three weeks.
Then you get the MOA weapons and every map you enter all enemies and bases implode in a miasma of fizzing microwave esq radiation., .
You would rule the galaxy in 40 minutes and move on to something else.
Everyones a winner. . .
Doesn't sound very interesting at all, i guess i will be sticking with buying upgrades when i need them and just upgrading my gear, if i get pestered cause my gear sucks, i will just say 'blame the devs for making R&D so damn long and TRIBBLE.' its not my fault. :-)
I am not a hardcore gamer, i play when time permits and this system just makes me feel like i am being punished for it.....i know for sure players that do play at all hours of the day will be taking advantage of this by severely overpricing everything....especially the players roleplaying Ferangi.
Lets hope the devs develop some common sense after they see how terribly they impleneted this system, which ultimately rewards hardcore players and punishes the casual, making them hope they can afford the overpriced items that will obviously come around.
I find this endless complaining its not fair from fellow free to play merchants quite at odds with reality. What exactly IS it you are unhappy about? Are you unhappy this free game makes you wait a bit longer for something somebody spent MONTHS programming? Are you unhappy people who have paid the wages of the game provider get better stuff than you? Have you played this game for free so long you believe it is your entitlement by right and cryptic could not just shut down the servers and wipe your account ?
This complaining about a free service is reckless. I have moaned before, but realised I was moaning about something I got for nothing. If you do not like it I suggest you go play something else.
Cryptic, I will forward my C.V. later.
What about the players that have a lifetime subscription, like me, they really need to make a better crafting system, this one, where i have to wait nearly a whole year to level something up and then the materials get so insanely expensive, making it not worth the effort.
In the end, if worse comes to worse, i will just buy the zen thingy, maybe they will use the extra money i give them wisely........maybe not.....
You know... I'll be the first in line to give Cryptic a pat on the back.
But, this crafting system. It's quite frankly a big, fat, W.T.F.
I've been messing around with this thing for quite some time now- Beams lvl 13, Shields and Ground Weapons lvl 12 and Engineering lvl 11.
I've been doing most of my leveling through the Bonus Research because, frankly, the whole idea of pushing a button and waiting is so boring, it makes me want to stab my eyes with my thumbs. So, I push a button and then go do other stuff for twenty hours. Thing is, when I do actually make stuff, the stats on this gear are so off the wall wonky, it's laughable, had it not actually mean wasted materials for me.
Who's bright idea was it to introduce a RNG system to crafting? I can get with criting and getting a higher quality item, that I understand. But what the heck is all this random [ACC], [PvP Res], [PvP Whatever], junk? Is it really too hard to let us craft the gear with the stats we want? Is it going to break the economy to actually empower crafting after all?
And, now, I'm hearing that the new Tech Upgrade system is also RNG. What gives?
A lot of people mentioned this being bad when crafting hit Tribble. I couldn't participate in the system like I wanted because I didn't have the DOffs to do it. People said that turning Crafting into a RNG Slot Machine was a bad idea.
Where were you guys when this feedback was put forth?
This crafting system is so disappointing that I really can't see myself making anything with it outside of Superior Upgrades I'll sell for EC. Then, I'll just BUY the stuff I actually do want off the Exchange.
Sorry Cryptic.
I love your game. I love you guys. I really do.
But this game system is a sad face, thumbs down, loser.
Nearly 1 year to level every R&D School to level 20, no dilithium spent (other than to craft very rare components if you choose to) - not so bad, I don't see what all the complaining is about
Well, other than needing about 200 million EC to start off properly to buy the right DOffs and Materials, and the time to log in every single day for an entire year... doable for some I suppose. I thought I would be that dedicated, but got tired of it and life got in the way, and playing the market became way too time consuming...
On the plus side, I'm at level 20 in Science (just used my daily 8k dilithium to level up faster, just wanted to take advantage of void in market ), level 15 in Cannons with no dilithium spent (with 5 Cannon R&D purple DOffs, but no will to use them like I did with my Science R&D DOffs), and should be level 15 in the other 5 schools in about 3 more months (with no dilithium spent), but then will probably stop there, there isn't that great of an advantage with getting all the way to level 20, so kind of don't see the point. Just a slightly better crit chance, but nothing that's worth the energy to put into it.
So, considering all of that, it would take less than 6 months (logging in every day) and almost nothing in terms of materials to get to level 15 in every school. It's not that bad I suppose...
Nearly 1 year to level every R&D School to level 20, no dilithium spent (other than to craft very rare components if you choose to) - not so bad, I don't see what all the complaining is about
Well, other than needing about 200 million EC to start off properly to buy the right DOffs and Materials, and the time to log in every single day for an entire year... doable for some I suppose. I thought I would be that dedicated, but got tired of it and life got in the way, and playing the market became way too time consuming...
On the plus side, I'm at level 20 in Science (just used my daily 8k dilithium to level up faster, just wanted to take advantage of void in market ), level 15 in Cannons with no dilithium spent (with 5 Cannon R&D purple DOffs, but no will to use them like I did with my Science R&D DOffs), and should be level 15 in the other 5 schools in about 3 more months (with no dilithium spent), but then will probably stop there, there isn't that great of an advantage with getting all the way to level 20, so kind of don't see the point. Just a slightly better crit chance, but nothing that's worth the energy to put into it.
So, considering all of that, it would take less than 6 months (logging in every day) and almost nothing in terms of materials to get to level 15 in every school. It's not that bad I suppose...
The world needs more patience anyway
While I hate the grind, there is little to no cost involved, just time.
1) Do scan/analyze whatever assignments (4 random per space sector and a total of 16 if you really look around a bunch of sectors) to get mats. Added bonus, there are another set of about 8 (I think it's 8 total) in the Dyson sphere space. Just doing the random 4 you find wherever you're parked suffices to get mats to keep on going.
2) Kick off assignments. You can use white RLS doffs, but if you want purples using alt currencies, you can get 2 from getting a doff CXP track maxed and 2 more using fleet credits from the spire.
3) Just kick off the daily. If you want all the schools covered, just use 2 toons, that way you can get all 7 schools at level 15 after about 3 months. Going up from 15 just increases the crit chance on the level 15 gear, but you could alternatively now just get the VR gear to UR with upgrades.
I still hate that it takes a ridiculously long time to get to level 20 (Yes, there are accolades for level 20), but it's not impossible, just a pain. Heck, you get to level 20 and the chance to craft a UR item is pretty crappy, even if you throw two +50 catalysts.
While I hate the grind, there is little to no cost involved, just time.
1) Do scan/analyze whatever assignments (4 random per space sector and a total of 16 if you really look around a bunch of sectors) to get mats. Added bonus, there are another set of about 8 (I think it's 8 total) in the Dyson sphere space. Just doing the random 4 you find wherever you're parked suffices to get mats to keep on going.
2) Kick off assignments. You can use white RLS doffs, but if you want purples using alt currencies, you can get 2 from getting a doff CXP track maxed and 2 more using fleet credits from the spire.
3) Just kick off the daily. If you want all the schools covered, just use 2 toons, that way you can get all 7 schools at level 15 after about 3 months. Going up from 15 just increases the crit chance on the level 15 gear, but you could alternatively now just get the VR gear to UR with upgrades.
I still hate that it takes a ridiculously long time to get to level 20 (Yes, there are accolades for level 20), but it's not impossible, just a pain. Heck, you get to level 20 and the chance to craft a UR item is pretty crappy, even if you throw two +50 catalysts.
I'm a one toon player When I spoke of cost, I was referring to the EC and time cost to get everything to level 20 on one toon within a year (doable on paper). But, sure, if you go the really slow route, on multiple toons, you can get the equivalent.
If I recall correctly, at level 20, crafting the unique science console with an UR Science DOff and 2 +50 catalysts yeilded around a 45% UR chance... kind of sucks for all that effort one put in... the accolade and title don't mean much to me...
I am surprised that you guys are surprised, i mean a company that runs a mmo for free will do anything within the law to force you to buy stuff with real money, its how they fund the game, i mean sure its morally wrong and severely unethical, but its legal.
The whole research idea had potential, but the limit is just insulting and its pretty much saying 'level up in a year (which by then the game will likely be dead or the crafting will be changed....AGAIN, making the year of leveling up a waste of time) so i don't see the point.
I mean i have over 2mil dilithium, which i used to use to get gear via the dilithium store, it was expensive, but it allowed me to avoid crafting, which i HATE severely, but now with that gone, i HAVE to craft to get my gear or buy gear from another player, which will likely be severely overpriced to satisfy some primitive need of greed.
Don't get me wrong, i understand you need to make a profit, but there is a difference between profit and outright greed, but i am diverting....sorry.
As others have said, they are likely just trying to force us to spend dilithium and then buy some more via zen coins, which costs real money and then to buy the research materials, pretty lame, but then they are a company, its not like they are known for their ethics, since all they care about is their profit margin.
I have 231 days left to achieve Lvl 20 on four schools. I have 7 alts each focusing on one school + three others. I'll have Lvl 20 in all 7 schools accessible May 31st 2015 assuming I don't crit once during the process. I likely will finish a week or two earlier based on the cirts I am seeing now.
The 5th slot on each alt will be slowly rounded out to the remaining schools, unless Cryptic adds another school sooner. Podcasts and blog posts hint of more to come.
Given the addition of new possible schools, my completion date of all nine schools, on a single alt will be March 7th, 2016 - 511 days from today*.
*oops likely 2-3 weeks longer assuming I have holidays where I can't get an internet connection.
Now that will be commitment.
I briefly toyed with the idea of finishing a single alt by paying for dilithium. Working out the numbers on the back of a napkin, I was stunned to find that at current dilithium rates of ~150 per zen, the total cost would be in excess of $4500 USD.(LOL no f'ing way. Win a lottery? Yeah then maybe...) This of course is assuming such a large purchase does not drive the value of dil higher during the purchase cycle. Or that I could even buy that much in a single go.
The real question is - will there be content engaging enough to keep me around? New shiney things that will suppress my need to explore strange new worlds, while dumping the occasional shekel into PWE's coffers to keep this train moving? Am I the only one feeling this way?
So - I dropped the coin for the Operations Pack, plus a little for dil. Not for R&D. First purchase in 2 years.
I'll try the new ships with the intent on seeing this through until May.
For the moment i'll grind and store up resources. Make the superior upgrades so I can to save on the dil costs. I'm making decent ec from selling mats and components, but I'm stockpiling the core mats needed for superior tech upgrades.
But there has to be more than grinding more for less. You've got me for 331 more days for sure.
So Cryptic - the ball in in your court. Keep me interested.
I'll admit these are slightly "back of a [English short form of cigarette] packet" calculations.
But the daily seems to crit about 90% of the time so I assume that each daily run is worth 6900 points.
Based on that it takes 92 days to get one school to lvl 15, but if the rest of the schools are rotated in the other daily slots then they will all be around lvl 12 when the first school hits lvl 15. Which means it should only take another 58 days to get the rest of the schools to magic lvl 15.
Or 150 days total to get all 7 schools up to lvl 15.
But to get all 7 schools up to lvl 20 will take around another 292 days.
Which makes a grand total of 442 days to get all the schools up to lvl 20, if you only use the daily missions.
I thought i would just add to this that as of tomorrow I will be level 15 in all schools spread across 5 characters. I have not spent a single piece of dilithium on any advancement. every item is now unlocked and my first two special items I made both were ultra rare quality by using some catalysts.
getting to 20 will certainly be a grind, but it offers nothing i dont have now. just slightly better chances of getting those ultra rares. i still plan to be here in a year anyway.
i did not find the process that hard to do and while it did take logging in every day to complete it, and some minor crafting here and there i got there with actual little effort of clicking a few buttons each day.
so i did not have much of a problem with it before, and i dont now. its easier to just get stuck into it and reap the rewards a few months later rather than worrying about trying to get everything to 20 and accomplishing nothing.
But to get all 7 schools up to lvl 20 will take around another 292 days.
Which makes a grand total of 442 days to get all the schools up to lvl 20, if you only use the daily missions.
That's your problem, only using the daily missions
If you can afford it, crafting the unique item for each school is double the efficiency (12k per day instead of 6k per day). Crafting those will cut your time in half.
Some more calculations:
From level 1 to 15, you can make 6k-7k per day per school. You'll need about 90 days to get to level 15 at that rate, and you can initially only do a couple at the same time, but eventually will have 5 slots open.
Once you reach level 15, you have the unique item available. This is worth 12k R&D exp per slot, and it's worth noting you can run 5 in parallel. At level 15, you'll have 5 slots, so that's potentially 60k per day for that school. At that rate, it will take you 24-25 days to get to level 20 from level 15.
Given all of that, this would be the most efficient way to get everything to level 20 on one character:
Month 1-3: level up 2 schools to 15.
Month 4: Level up school #1 to 20
Month 5: Level up school #2 to 20
Month 6-8: level up 5 schools to 15
Month 9: Level up school #3 to 20
Month 10: Level up school #4 to 20
Month 11: Level up school #5 to 20
Month 12: Level up school #6 to 20
Month 13: Level up school #7 to 20
Note: you can reduce it down to about 11 months if you choose to, as it doesn't take a full month to get from 15-20, but including some time because of life, 13 months would be doable with a little flexibility.
The above was the path I was on, but I got burnt out after completing "Month 4" (I used some of my daily dilithium to speed up month 1-3, wanted to play the market). I swapped months 6-7 with month 5 to try to give myself a break, but I'm only delaying the inevitable... But the point is, if you're dedicated, you can get everything to level 20 without spending a single dilithium speeding up the process.
Comments
Didn't Cryptic say there will soon be a way to make components in bulk so we don't have to click so much?
Joined January 2009
I hope so. Wow, making some many smaller components does get a little annoying.
coming soon(tm)? Sorry. I can't play what is coming soon. I was playing what Cryptic presented. For me, it is not fun. Nor worthng spending money on. I am not really sure what they were thinking. But logging on to click a mission every 20 hrs for the next year just does not sound like fun. It sounds like the thing in LOST that guy was in a bunker typing in a number everyday for years without know why. Maybe the devs watched that and thought it would fun.
Anything else besides the traits is pointless to grind for, you can get everything from the exchange already - courtesy of some very bored / very rich and/or very fanatic STO players. And that's how it should be.
what triats? Heard some people talking about that. but I did not see anying the crafting screens talking about trait unlocks.
One of them dev blogs said they are traits at level 15. If the traits are a lie, I will be very upset at Cryptic for grinding for nothing.
be kind of nice if they put that info IN THE GAME somewhere. don't know, maybe in the crafting UI that the deisgner of was raving about how good it was. Seems to me, if that was a big draw for crafting, the desinger would have added that info somewhere.
Yeah, the UI is too click-heavy and the rewards are ****e until you get to the end.
Crafting IS driving down the prices of leveling gear though. So...yay?
Is there a way to reclaim the max xp? or do we need to grind out the entire thing?
Grind
A one word answer.
As jengoz said , that is connected to the Coming Soon(tm) department , which is connected to the Does This Make Us Money department .
No money , no Coming Soon(tm) .
If you count the number of complaints in this thread , this new system is making them uber rich ... in another dimension .
So all I'm doing is doing a daily for the potential horribleness X2 will bring forth regarding upgrades and so on
Get the Forums Enhancement Extension!
I find this endless complaining its not fair from fellow free to play merchants quite at odds with reality. What exactly IS it you are unhappy about? Are you unhappy this free game makes you wait a bit longer for something somebody spent MONTHS programming? Are you unhappy people who have paid the wages of the game provider get better stuff than you? Have you played this game for free so long you believe it is your entitlement by right and cryptic could not just shut down the servers and wipe your account ?
This complaining about a free service is reckless. I have moaned before, but realised I was moaning about something I got for nothing. If you do not like it I suggest you go play something else.
Cryptic, I will forward my C.V. later.
In fact, how about this for a solution? You give cryptic back all the Zen etc you have earned, and dont log in for three weeks.
Then you get the MOA weapons and every map you enter all enemies and bases implode in a miasma of fizzing microwave esq radiation., .
You would rule the galaxy in 40 minutes and move on to something else.
Everyones a winner. . .
I am not a hardcore gamer, i play when time permits and this system just makes me feel like i am being punished for it.....i know for sure players that do play at all hours of the day will be taking advantage of this by severely overpricing everything....especially the players roleplaying Ferangi.
Lets hope the devs develop some common sense after they see how terribly they impleneted this system, which ultimately rewards hardcore players and punishes the casual, making them hope they can afford the overpriced items that will obviously come around.
What about the players that have a lifetime subscription, like me, they really need to make a better crafting system, this one, where i have to wait nearly a whole year to level something up and then the materials get so insanely expensive, making it not worth the effort.
In the end, if worse comes to worse, i will just buy the zen thingy, maybe they will use the extra money i give them wisely........maybe not.....
But, this crafting system. It's quite frankly a big, fat, W.T.F.
I've been messing around with this thing for quite some time now- Beams lvl 13, Shields and Ground Weapons lvl 12 and Engineering lvl 11.
I've been doing most of my leveling through the Bonus Research because, frankly, the whole idea of pushing a button and waiting is so boring, it makes me want to stab my eyes with my thumbs. So, I push a button and then go do other stuff for twenty hours. Thing is, when I do actually make stuff, the stats on this gear are so off the wall wonky, it's laughable, had it not actually mean wasted materials for me.
Who's bright idea was it to introduce a RNG system to crafting? I can get with criting and getting a higher quality item, that I understand. But what the heck is all this random [ACC], [PvP Res], [PvP Whatever], junk? Is it really too hard to let us craft the gear with the stats we want? Is it going to break the economy to actually empower crafting after all?
And, now, I'm hearing that the new Tech Upgrade system is also RNG. What gives?
A lot of people mentioned this being bad when crafting hit Tribble. I couldn't participate in the system like I wanted because I didn't have the DOffs to do it. People said that turning Crafting into a RNG Slot Machine was a bad idea.
Where were you guys when this feedback was put forth?
This crafting system is so disappointing that I really can't see myself making anything with it outside of Superior Upgrades I'll sell for EC. Then, I'll just BUY the stuff I actually do want off the Exchange.
Sorry Cryptic.
I love your game. I love you guys. I really do.
But this game system is a sad face, thumbs down, loser.
Well, other than needing about 200 million EC to start off properly to buy the right DOffs and Materials, and the time to log in every single day for an entire year... doable for some I suppose. I thought I would be that dedicated, but got tired of it and life got in the way, and playing the market became way too time consuming...
On the plus side, I'm at level 20 in Science (just used my daily 8k dilithium to level up faster, just wanted to take advantage of void in market
So, considering all of that, it would take less than 6 months (logging in every day) and almost nothing in terms of materials to get to level 15 in every school. It's not that bad I suppose...
The world needs more patience anyway
While I hate the grind, there is little to no cost involved, just time.
1) Do scan/analyze whatever assignments (4 random per space sector and a total of 16 if you really look around a bunch of sectors) to get mats. Added bonus, there are another set of about 8 (I think it's 8 total) in the Dyson sphere space. Just doing the random 4 you find wherever you're parked suffices to get mats to keep on going.
2) Kick off assignments. You can use white RLS doffs, but if you want purples using alt currencies, you can get 2 from getting a doff CXP track maxed and 2 more using fleet credits from the spire.
3) Just kick off the daily. If you want all the schools covered, just use 2 toons, that way you can get all 7 schools at level 15 after about 3 months. Going up from 15 just increases the crit chance on the level 15 gear, but you could alternatively now just get the VR gear to UR with upgrades.
I still hate that it takes a ridiculously long time to get to level 20 (Yes, there are accolades for level 20), but it's not impossible, just a pain. Heck, you get to level 20 and the chance to craft a UR item is pretty crappy, even if you throw two +50 catalysts.
I'm a one toon player
If I recall correctly, at level 20, crafting the unique science console with an UR Science DOff and 2 +50 catalysts yeilded around a 45% UR chance... kind of sucks for all that effort one put in... the accolade and title don't mean much to me...
The whole research idea had potential, but the limit is just insulting and its pretty much saying 'level up in a year (which by then the game will likely be dead or the crafting will be changed....AGAIN, making the year of leveling up a waste of time) so i don't see the point.
I mean i have over 2mil dilithium, which i used to use to get gear via the dilithium store, it was expensive, but it allowed me to avoid crafting, which i HATE severely, but now with that gone, i HAVE to craft to get my gear or buy gear from another player, which will likely be severely overpriced to satisfy some primitive need of greed.
Don't get me wrong, i understand you need to make a profit, but there is a difference between profit and outright greed, but i am diverting....sorry.
As others have said, they are likely just trying to force us to spend dilithium and then buy some more via zen coins, which costs real money and then to buy the research materials, pretty lame, but then they are a company, its not like they are known for their ethics, since all they care about is their profit margin.
The 5th slot on each alt will be slowly rounded out to the remaining schools, unless Cryptic adds another school sooner. Podcasts and blog posts hint of more to come.
Given the addition of new possible schools, my completion date of all nine schools, on a single alt will be March 7th, 2016 - 511 days from today*.
*oops likely 2-3 weeks longer assuming I have holidays where I can't get an internet connection.
Now that will be commitment.
I briefly toyed with the idea of finishing a single alt by paying for dilithium. Working out the numbers on the back of a napkin, I was stunned to find that at current dilithium rates of ~150 per zen, the total cost would be in excess of $4500 USD. (LOL no f'ing way. Win a lottery? Yeah then maybe...) This of course is assuming such a large purchase does not drive the value of dil higher during the purchase cycle. Or that I could even buy that much in a single go.
The real question is - will there be content engaging enough to keep me around? New shiney things that will suppress my need to explore strange new worlds, while dumping the occasional shekel into PWE's coffers to keep this train moving? Am I the only one feeling this way?
So - I dropped the coin for the Operations Pack, plus a little for dil. Not for R&D. First purchase in 2 years.
I'll try the new ships with the intent on seeing this through until May.
For the moment i'll grind and store up resources. Make the superior upgrades so I can to save on the dil costs. I'm making decent ec from selling mats and components, but I'm stockpiling the core mats needed for superior tech upgrades.
But there has to be more than grinding more for less. You've got me for 331 more days for sure.
So Cryptic - the ball in in your court. Keep me interested.
But the daily seems to crit about 90% of the time so I assume that each daily run is worth 6900 points.
Based on that it takes 92 days to get one school to lvl 15, but if the rest of the schools are rotated in the other daily slots then they will all be around lvl 12 when the first school hits lvl 15. Which means it should only take another 58 days to get the rest of the schools to magic lvl 15.
Or 150 days total to get all 7 schools up to lvl 15.
But to get all 7 schools up to lvl 20 will take around another 292 days.
Which makes a grand total of 442 days to get all the schools up to lvl 20, if you only use the daily missions.
getting to 20 will certainly be a grind, but it offers nothing i dont have now. just slightly better chances of getting those ultra rares. i still plan to be here in a year anyway.
i did not find the process that hard to do and while it did take logging in every day to complete it, and some minor crafting here and there i got there with actual little effort of clicking a few buttons each day.
so i did not have much of a problem with it before, and i dont now. its easier to just get stuck into it and reap the rewards a few months later rather than worrying about trying to get everything to 20 and accomplishing nothing.
That's your problem, only using the daily missions
If you can afford it, crafting the unique item for each school is double the efficiency (12k per day instead of 6k per day). Crafting those will cut your time in half.
Some more calculations:
From level 1 to 15, you can make 6k-7k per day per school. You'll need about 90 days to get to level 15 at that rate, and you can initially only do a couple at the same time, but eventually will have 5 slots open.
Once you reach level 15, you have the unique item available. This is worth 12k R&D exp per slot, and it's worth noting you can run 5 in parallel. At level 15, you'll have 5 slots, so that's potentially 60k per day for that school. At that rate, it will take you 24-25 days to get to level 20 from level 15.
Given all of that, this would be the most efficient way to get everything to level 20 on one character:
Month 1-3: level up 2 schools to 15.
Month 4: Level up school #1 to 20
Month 5: Level up school #2 to 20
Month 6-8: level up 5 schools to 15
Month 9: Level up school #3 to 20
Month 10: Level up school #4 to 20
Month 11: Level up school #5 to 20
Month 12: Level up school #6 to 20
Month 13: Level up school #7 to 20
Note: you can reduce it down to about 11 months if you choose to, as it doesn't take a full month to get from 15-20, but including some time because of life, 13 months would be doable with a little flexibility.
The above was the path I was on, but I got burnt out after completing "Month 4" (I used some of my daily dilithium to speed up month 1-3, wanted to play the market). I swapped months 6-7 with month 5 to try to give myself a break, but I'm only delaying the inevitable... But the point is, if you're dedicated, you can get everything to level 20 without spending a single dilithium speeding up the process.