test content
Logo
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc
What's with the MASSIVE reduction in EC values for EVERYTHING!?!
hereticknight085
Member Posts: 3,783 Arc User
Title says it all.
I spent a few weeks away from the game, and when I get back, a mk XI white shield which used to sell back to a vendor for 15k ECs is now worth 5k. I could list a huge number of items which have had their EC values cut down to anywhere from 20% what it used to be to a few that weren't hit as hard and worth 50-70% of what they used to be.
I used to go out and come back with a full inventory and sell it all to a vendor for 3-400k ECs (dependent on what I picked up drop-wise, sometimes only 200k worth lol), but now a full hold only nets me at MOST 200k. And that's if I'm really lucky with almost pure weapons and equipment being dropped.
Was there ever a reason given for this massive reduction in EC sell-back value?
I spent a few weeks away from the game, and when I get back, a mk XI white shield which used to sell back to a vendor for 15k ECs is now worth 5k. I could list a huge number of items which have had their EC values cut down to anywhere from 20% what it used to be to a few that weren't hit as hard and worth 50-70% of what they used to be.
I used to go out and come back with a full inventory and sell it all to a vendor for 3-400k ECs (dependent on what I picked up drop-wise, sometimes only 200k worth lol), but now a full hold only nets me at MOST 200k. And that's if I'm really lucky with almost pure weapons and equipment being dropped.
Was there ever a reason given for this massive reduction in EC sell-back value?
It is said the best weapon is one that is never fired. I disagree. The best weapon is one you only have to fire... once. 
Post edited by hereticknight085 on
0
Comments
A totally new character must become a materials mule or buy keys. Hint buy keys. Hint hint. Buy keys. Did we mention we'd really like you to buy keys? Have you bought some keys today??
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
Which then brings up the second part of my question. Why?
The R&D Promo's killing the R&D market...meh.
The claim was "normalization"...reducing certain items while increasing others. Thing is, the increase was nowhere near the decrease. One could say it was potentially because of inflation, but it really didn't address inflation. People with oodles of EC are still trading expensive items amongst themselves...the change didn't adversely affect them, imho. It only affected those that didn't have oodles of EC. Which of course leads to folks buying Zen to get items they could sell to those that are dealing in high priced items...and well, yeah - that's likely why, eh? They wanted to increase RMTs so they devalued vendortrash.
But its had opsit effect on menu players e,g last 2 weeks I've spent zero mins in game and as things are going I'm going to uninstall and even stop coming on here.
They've earned 50 million each on their own? I look at 50 million as my zero in case I decide I really want to buy something like leech or tractor doff etc...
I started 1 character since DR and she has a grand total of 6 million mostly from sale of radiogenic and rubidium. Without that she'd have maybe a million. Without support it will take her at least 3 months if not 6 to buy anything decent.
I have 5 characters only but each is played as a full character.
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
So that deflectors and stuff isn't as expensive as it used to be, since they were no longer deemed that important to warrant the price.
It didn't just affect EC prices - Dilithium and Fleet Credit cost also went down for deflectors, shields, engines and warp/singularity cores.
But it seems people only really feel the "vendor trash" nerf.
On the plus side - we got larger inventories and no longer have to store R&D Materials in the regular inventory, so you can collect more trash before you go to a regular trader. Unless you always used the replicator, then you have no advantage.
Also the crafting system with more people maxing out their crafting schools and crafting better and better items then posting those on the Exchange have created more supply then what was available previously. Good side, toons living 'in poverty' so to speak; can now afford better gear then they ever could have, had the prices remained the same or keep rising. As more and more higher level crafters flood the market with higher quality items the price will drop as supply is outpacing demand (More sellers and less buyers as more people get the gear that they want, therefore aren't shopping anymore for other gear, even those with numerous alts).
Also the overall Market is now 'correcting' itself from the monster inflation that has plagued the Exchange for the last 2 or so years making having anything less then 100 Million ECs broke. Things have now hit and passed peak with EC values now starting to increase (deflation), which goes back to the Vendor Loot nerf. Less ECs in the market, the more valuable they become. Basic Economics 101.
Only mystery is the 'Key Market' that one stomps me. There's more supply then ever, yet prices still go up and up. Was about 1.8 Million last year at this time, now its between 2.3 to 2.8 Million (Around 2.4 Million ECs last time I checked). Also the Dilithium market has found a balancing area around 155 to 165 dilithium per Zen, which isn't particularly high, but isn't super low either.
Basically what I said in a nutshell. It's a buyer's market, and a seller's nightmare.
Don't worry things cycle around and eventually things will hit an equilibrium point and prices/values of items will either start to flat-line or start increasing again (a bit slowly). Think the days of Monster Sky-High Inflation are gone, pending of course some nerf or buff that affects the economy and turns it back in favor to the rich/sellers.
The Exchange doesn't support that. Ship prices, DOFF prices, Key prices, etc, things like Plasmonic Leech, etc, etc, etc.
That the price of certain items have dropped drastically is a result of oversupply from R&D...not that sellers had to drop prices because players were poorer. That folks got caught with their pants down around their ankles when it was obvious that was coming was a failure of them to see the whole picture...
There is so much EC out there, that it could take years for the vendortrash nerf to have that kind of impact if it ever does. In the interim though, it just creates a wider gap between the well to do and the not so well to do - where the easiest way to get around that is to line Cryptic's pockets further.
My Foundry missions | My STO Wiki page | My Twitter home page
I can understand that items would be deemed not important enough and therefore have their costs/value reduced, but at the same time, the ability of players to get ECs so they can afford it has been hit as well, and now even with the lowered costs, they still can't afford things.
My character Tsin'xing
Can I have your stuff?
Most of us quitters already gave our stuff away.
Sadly, a lot of the people I gave mine too have also quit since....
That's a lot of wasted stuffs.
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
LOL, I remember those days. I used to actually "Greed" on things I couldn't use. :P
Isn't "Greed" actually the same as "Pass"?
Uhh, this happened MONTHS ago if my memory serves me right. Where have you been? You must have been gone longer than a few weeks.
That's no longer possible at reasonable speed. I Haven't purchased a lock box ship with EC since that nerf. I'm not spending real money for EC. I rather play other games before I do that. Funny how the Galor went from 120 million to 220 million after the nerf. The rich get richer and poor get poorer BS kicked in. The P2W is sneaking back in slowly IMO.
Going from 5 million EC an hour to 900 thousand. Hurts like hell. If I wanna slave, let me slave, but don't nerf slaving. I was poor already cryptic :P
It is now... it used to be you'd occasionally get a full set of folks that would only "Need" the needful things. I haven't seen that since the EC "normalization" awhile back. Funny thing, that.
The problem with nerfing supply rather than providing desirable EC sinks is that you end up making things hard on new players far faster than you actually reduce the total amount of EC's in the economy. Of course, players leaving (especially long time players) does remove EC's... unless they donate them to Fleets, Friends, or the "can I haz your stuffs" people. The ones that leave but "might come back" are the real EC sink these days. :P
Loot like a breen set from the breen missions were like 200,000 you turn them in you get 100,000. After the changes a few months ago those 200,000 had dropped to 67,000 thus you only got like 37,000 for them. That's a huge chopping block cut.
I am only taking the loot that pays back more. Putting it on exchange doesn't fetch a lot either.
Time will only tell!