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The "overburdening" of Dilithium Currency...
dareau
Member Posts: 2,390 Arc User
When I joined, just after the 2nd anniversary event, Dil was used for:
From what I remember, the reason Dil has an "earnings cap" on it is so that the "casual" that barely scrapes up 8k ore a day, and the "hyper grinder" that has all day to play, are keeping pace with each other.
And yes, I know of the whole "mark consolidation", "lets low level content convert straight to high level purchases", etc. etc. that came about during Dil's release before I even showed up.
Since then, every other piece of high end gear has had a dil cost attached to it. Also every new system has had a dil cost attached to it in some way, shape or form - reputation needs dil to spit out the rep parts. Fleets need dil to advance many tracks and the main holding itself. Crafting, and this new gear advancement mechanic - dil needed to see the results of almost any activity in STO...
To top it off, these systems need multiple days worth of dilithium "income" to complete. Days that, as far as dil is concerned, are "over" as soon as 8k is refined. What does 300 rare crafting materials do for me when every shred of dil I make over the next 3 or 4 days is going into an elite fleet part, a holding, a reputation gift, etc instead of being available to use with the crafting system?
Which leads me to the following potential thought - Dil is more a mechanic to limit the desire to play - got your 8k Dil for the day? Put it into system X? K - thks - bye cause you can't do anything else till tomorrow... Remember to look forward for you chance to craft in 6 months after you finish the reputation tracks and get your starbase to T2...
Not exactly a "nice" way to treat the playerbase...
Still, the day is not lost. There is an "easy" remedy in sight. It goes like this:
1. Maintain Dil costs only on "high end" materials and systems. In this case, Mk XIV gear, reputation sets, ships, the new crafting upgrade system, and zen.
2. Everything else that currently has a dilithium cost of some sorts has it converted to a "lesser" currency. Mk XIII gear could use GPL as it's limiter, and Mk XIIs can be a straight out EC cost...
3. Remember that there are more timegates than just the earning of Dil to help keep casuals in range of the Joneses - even the most grindy Joneses can only craft 5 to 10 Mk XIIs a "day", and fleets still need days or weeks to "complete" a holding...
4. Rarity of drop also limits progression some. If Bob's only getting 3 items worth of rare materials from drops a day, well, bob only builds 3 things...
5. This needs to be an ongoing process. Mk XVI comes out? Mk XIV goes to "GPL cost" and Mk XIII goes to "EC cost". Etc. etc.
Casuals already pay a bit of a price in specilization. I can't be a master crafter, major fleet contributor, and DPS master on 4 hours/day. However, on the weekends, I can put in my 4 hours for Dil then advance my crafting some - if I wasn't debating on whether to slow down my fleet or gear acquisition because of the Dil sink...
TL;DR - Dil for high end stuff only, replace with lesser currencies and alternate gates as it's not the best stuff in game anymore...
-
[li]ships
[li]High end gear, whether vendored or crafted
[li]Zen
From what I remember, the reason Dil has an "earnings cap" on it is so that the "casual" that barely scrapes up 8k ore a day, and the "hyper grinder" that has all day to play, are keeping pace with each other.
And yes, I know of the whole "mark consolidation", "lets low level content convert straight to high level purchases", etc. etc. that came about during Dil's release before I even showed up.
Since then, every other piece of high end gear has had a dil cost attached to it. Also every new system has had a dil cost attached to it in some way, shape or form - reputation needs dil to spit out the rep parts. Fleets need dil to advance many tracks and the main holding itself. Crafting, and this new gear advancement mechanic - dil needed to see the results of almost any activity in STO...
To top it off, these systems need multiple days worth of dilithium "income" to complete. Days that, as far as dil is concerned, are "over" as soon as 8k is refined. What does 300 rare crafting materials do for me when every shred of dil I make over the next 3 or 4 days is going into an elite fleet part, a holding, a reputation gift, etc instead of being available to use with the crafting system?
Which leads me to the following potential thought - Dil is more a mechanic to limit the desire to play - got your 8k Dil for the day? Put it into system X? K - thks - bye cause you can't do anything else till tomorrow... Remember to look forward for you chance to craft in 6 months after you finish the reputation tracks and get your starbase to T2...
Not exactly a "nice" way to treat the playerbase...
Still, the day is not lost. There is an "easy" remedy in sight. It goes like this:
1. Maintain Dil costs only on "high end" materials and systems. In this case, Mk XIV gear, reputation sets, ships, the new crafting upgrade system, and zen.
2. Everything else that currently has a dilithium cost of some sorts has it converted to a "lesser" currency. Mk XIII gear could use GPL as it's limiter, and Mk XIIs can be a straight out EC cost...
3. Remember that there are more timegates than just the earning of Dil to help keep casuals in range of the Joneses - even the most grindy Joneses can only craft 5 to 10 Mk XIIs a "day", and fleets still need days or weeks to "complete" a holding...
4. Rarity of drop also limits progression some. If Bob's only getting 3 items worth of rare materials from drops a day, well, bob only builds 3 things...
5. This needs to be an ongoing process. Mk XVI comes out? Mk XIV goes to "GPL cost" and Mk XIII goes to "EC cost". Etc. etc.
Casuals already pay a bit of a price in specilization. I can't be a master crafter, major fleet contributor, and DPS master on 4 hours/day. However, on the weekends, I can put in my 4 hours for Dil then advance my crafting some - if I wasn't debating on whether to slow down my fleet or gear acquisition because of the Dil sink...
TL;DR - Dil for high end stuff only, replace with lesser currencies and alternate gates as it's not the best stuff in game anymore...
Detecting big-time "anti-old-school" bias here. NX? Lobi. TOS/TMP Connie? Super-promotion-box. (aka the two hardest ways to get ships) Excelsior & all 3 TNG "big hero" ships? C-Store. Please Equalize...
To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]
To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]
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It's not about making it convenient for the players. It's about making it profitable for the people who made the game.
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
- if u Need more dili than u can grind just buy Zen for real Money
- if have much more time to Play do more alts
if u have plenty of alts dili income is no Problem at all
22 chars will do a lot of resources per week, even if u only Play 2-3 hours a day
If you want a good amount of dil for your zen, get it now.
Pretty much. It makes sense, discourage Dil to Zen conversion. I see it going over 300 again.
If you need 1 million Dilithium people are going to try and sell you the least amount they can for the most Zen: 50 to 1 or the like. Not 300.
Their lack of patience caused them to do what they did. What's the Dilithium cost to get to level 15 in R&D within a day? Must be astronomical.
Regardless, if you are playing the game to only refine 8K Dilithium, then you are not playing the game.
Cryptic needs to earn money to keep STO going. At the end of the day this game has a business model and that model is to earn real currency to pay for development, maintenance, patches, etc. I am pretty sure most Cryptic employees are not volunteers.
Prior to playing STO I was doing research for an online game that was focused on sci-fi (too many fantasies out there), free to play, and mostly concentrated on single player. STO came out on top because if you really do not want to spend money, then you do not have to because all story missions and mission queues are not hidden behind pay walls. Additionally, no mission absolutely requires the player to purchase a starship with real money to play them. I play elite STFs with the free ships provided in the game or mirror ships purchased using ECs from the Exchange.
Grinding dilithium allows for people who do not want to spend any money an opportunity to gain access to "stuff", but it takes time. If you are patient enough you can eventually everything you want. This is where Cryptic has an opportunity to earn some real money. For those who are not patient or who want to do several things at a time those people can use real money to purchase Zen which in turn can be exchanged for dilithium.
I used a combination of grinding and purchasing Zen to eventually purchase "stuff" from the C-Store like the EC Cap Remover and Doff slots. I could have waited the extra weeks to grind more dil so that I do not need to spend a penny... But I am rational enough to know that Cryptic needs to make money to keep the game going and I have also been enjoying STO enough to give them some money.
In the end if you do not want to spend any money and you do not want to deal with grinding for dilithium, then perhaps it is time for you to look for another game that is more to your liking. The only person "forcing" you to play STO is yourself. Once I get tired of playing STO I will move on myself. However, because I find the game to be entertaining and I do not feel that I am required to mindless grind for the things I want, then I will continue to play.
You forget Supply and Demand, it depends on how much Dil is in the economy that people are will to part with against how much people are willing to pay for it.
So the Zen cost per Dil could go up if Dil dries up on the Exchange.
The most important factor in the dil exchange is whether people are purchasing zen for the purpose of buying Dilithium. This is what can drive the price back down. Small fleets holdings was the biggest contributor for this. It looks promising to me that this might happen now, maybe even without a new fleet holding. If there is one, even better.
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
Yeah, honestly a new fleet holding, i.e. a dil sink where everybody's actually required to pay dil, is going to do a hell of a lot more to bring the zen price down than the crafting grind. Near as I can tell the majority of people are ignoring the "finish now" option and treating it like a different kind of reputation grind.
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
the big problem at the moment is there is not such a great demand for dilithium, many fleets have finished all their holdings for now and especially the dil mine that reduces the demand for fleet dilithium anyway.
many players have also finished all the current reps and have got all the rewards they wanted from them.
so at the moment many players have a glut of refined dilithium and not much to spend it on.
all these things together with the recent dil events have caused the great demand for dilithium there was to slip away and that is what is causing the exchange rate to climb in favour of zen sellers.
maybe it is just your demand for refined dilithium more then that of players in general that is the crux of this thread.
When I think about everything we've been through together,
maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,
and if that journey takes a little longer,
so we can do something we all believe in,
I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.
Eh, if dil value goes up, it means you get more Zen for the same amount of dil. I think you got me backwards.
I think it takes close to 2 mil dil to speed track each school to level 15 instantly.
That's some hardcore gaming ... or Scrooge-like saving :P
If Scrooge had no dil, he would have to pay about $700 to speed track all 7 schools to level 15. (as of today)
To those who did that - thank you for bank-rolling STO for me
That is a mix of the market being flooded with Dilithium and speculation on Delta Rising. As a frequent player of the DL Exchange, I know that the market always spikes when a new c-store item, mainly ships, are announced and when we have market flooding events like the Crystaline Entity that give 50k DL PER CHARACTER. Also... there is less demand for DL since more fleets are hitting T5 starbase. I forsee the DL Exchange dropping back to pre expansion panic levels at some point.
I earned my 1000 days the hard way and I still come back...
I disagree. If Dilithium was to be used like Astral Diamonds, then we'd see an increase in DL prices across the board, along with an increase in our refining cap because Dilithium would have lost significant value, as well as DL being traded in exchange for items on the Exchange instead of ECs.
I know this is part and parcel of the case. This isn't what I'm necessarily arguing...
Think of this as a new player. You know, the ones Cryptic is desperately trying to attract - whether it's for fresh blood and/or fleecing...
As soon as he mints L50, he'll have to invest dil into:
1. Reputation Gear
2. Fleet advancement - unless he's lucky enough to land in a T5 fleet doing nothing but the half-rate mark to credit missions.
3. Ships.
4. Fleet Module - unless he's vendortrashed enough stuff to get one off the exchange
5. T5U module
6. Fleet gear
7. Crafted Gear of Mk XII quality.
8. Upgrading all this gear via the new gear update system.
And, he doesn't have the resources to farm away at the "dil mines" of Pi Canis, Contraband Kitty, etc. etc. just to feed his main, so he'll be seriously constrained by the 8k day limit (8.5k if he's lucky and in a big fleet)
Is this what we really want? Do we want new players, or returning players who may be behind the curve, to be that far behind?
And I have a feeling that the DilEx was "equally profitable" back in the days of S5 where dil wasn't "as needed" - I still found uses for dil off the exchange - starbase decorations, etc. - and right now my finances can afford to keep a 3mo/$30 sub going, but not extraneous zen purchases "hand over foot" to convert to dil... Said family also makes it hard for more than 3 toons to lap an event around my semi-random work schedule...
I"m not saying "kill monetization". I'm not saying that the anticipated dil needs to upgrade one toon are horrendous. I am saying that it might be time to let the "older" stuff not need dil, so that people can focus their dil needs on the newer stuff. This also might have a desired affect upon the inflation of EC on the exchange - as people will be using ECs for GPL conversion at the Dabo table - or spending it on the Mk XII store stuffs - and people aren't gonna be affording or posting 300 million Lobi ships, they'll only be 100 million...
To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]
Until the best stuff is no longer the best stuff in the future, then you have to buy that stuff instead. It's how F2P makes money in a nut shell.
You can set your Exchange Ratio to 1 Dilithium for 1 Zen and then pull it out with any of your characters.
Plus many players don't even hit the cap. Only times I hit the cap is during the Dil events, or when I finish a Rep. Then I have enough for the cap limit for a couple of days.
As for the market as more Dil is needed. I think the prices will drop some. As people will be willing to sell zen for it.
USS Casinghead NCC 92047 launched 2350
Fleet Admiral Stowe - Dominion War Vet.
It make me so mad that Cryptic get the blame and it all PWE who behind it(money grab ideas).
I can still move.
I can still fight.
I will never give up!
The Devs are more visible than PWE, so people lash out at the Devs.
When dil is abundant, zen prices raise. But if dil is in demand, zen prices fall. And zen is pretty expensive right now.
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More visible in the current setting. People who remember what it was like in the old-school Cryptic days have an easier time pinpointing which group is likely making which decisions. Heavy Monetization: PWE. Content Drought: that one is still on Cryptic.