The price in real money for ZEN has not changed, and there are always Sales as well. As the exchange rate continues to creep up, one day, it WILL hit a point where it's cheaper to BUY ZEN with real money than it is using Dil..
It is very nearly always cheaper to buy Zen with real money than with dilithium. US federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, even assuming that you pay 1/3 of that out in taxes, you get roughly $4.80 for an hour of work. That's 480 zen per hour. At the absolute minimum exchange rate, you can get 320 Zen per day per character, factoring out veteran and fleet refining. Already, you need to get your daily 8000 dilithium in under 40 minutes per character for it to be more efficient to get Zen for dilithium than to get it through a minimum wage job. At 50 dilithium per Zen, you would need to get to your 8000 in under 20 minutes. Those rates have essentially never happened, and anything above them just shrinks that required time to get the dilithium to convert to Zen even more unrealistically short.
In short, if you want Zen for the most-efficient investment of time, pick up a minimum wage side job, at least here in the US.
While these are all fun number games, ultimately - you're playing a game. This is hopefully more fun or diversion to the player than working a minimum wage job or any other job.
And the goal of getting Zen is not just having Zen, but using it for something in game. Which also means the player needs to play it. So any comparison with an actual job is misleading.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
Waaah, waaah, even though I am doing the devs a huge favour by playing their game for free, the economy in the game makes it so hard for me to get those shiny bundles of polygons, waaah, waaah...
Dil to Zen isn't an issue in itself, it's the worth of Zen going higher that is - in other words, players can expect everything Zen related to go higher in prices. I don't care for myself, I'm LTS and I also spend money when I need it (or want something), this does not concern me personally, I do however care for people that simply cannot pay that much or at all because they are less fortunate then portion of us (or from countries with very low wages, or cannot find a job etc, everyone should have the same chance of having fun, paying should be for convinience not required). I generally want to see more players, not less, I don't want players leaving the game.
My earlier post wasn't a doom post either, something similar happened in Neverwinter - and of course the game survived, but lost quite a chunk of playerbase. With incoming STBeyond and new series, of course the STO will attract new players (I don't see it dying anytime soon), it's just the portion of old playerbase that I care about and don't want to see leaving.
The price in real money for ZEN has not changed, and there are always Sales as well. As the exchange rate continues to creep up, one day, it WILL hit a point where it's cheaper to BUY ZEN with real money than it is using Dil..
It is very nearly always cheaper to buy Zen with real money than with dilithium. US federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, even assuming that you pay 1/3 of that out in taxes, you get roughly $4.80 for an hour of work. That's 480 zen per hour. At the absolute minimum exchange rate, you can get 320 Zen per day per character, factoring out veteran and fleet refining. Already, you need to get your daily 8000 dilithium in under 40 minutes per character for it to be more efficient to get Zen for dilithium than to get it through a minimum wage job. At 50 dilithium per Zen, you would need to get to your 8000 in under 20 minutes. Those rates have essentially never happened, and anything above them just shrinks that required time to get the dilithium to convert to Zen even more unrealistically short.
In short, if you want Zen for the most-efficient investment of time, pick up a minimum wage side job, at least here in the US.
While these are all fun number games, ultimately - you're playing a game. This is hopefully more fun or diversion to the player than working a minimum wage job or any other job.
And the goal of getting Zen is not just having Zen, but using it for something in game. Which also means the player needs to play it. So any comparison with an actual job is misleading.
Not true
A comparison with an actual job is not misleading if you look at a common denominator. TIME
I use an average of 1h / 8000d as an average reference
1z now is 300d
100z now is $1 ( without factoring in sales )
i'm not from the US, so i will use anodyne's calculation of $4.80/hr after tax or $7.25 pre tax.
4 hours of playing will net me 8000x4 = 32000d = 107z
2 hours of working ( after deducting 2 hours of commuting/waiting to fit in with the 4 hours of playtime comparison ) = $9.60 = 960z
If one argues that one is "playing" vs boring work, i think many here will attest to how " boring " grinding can also be.
So ultimately, its the captain's choice
Don't use cash ( for whatever reason ) and grind in game for about 28z an hour?
or
Beat the crowd by finding a job, and converting the pay into zen at 480z/h
At current Dilithium exchange rates, one will have to grind for 17h just to get the same amount of zen 1hr of part time work @ minimal wage pays out.
No matter how one sees it, the math just doesn't work out for full grinding into zen at current exchange rates..
The fact anyone spends Zen on dilithium has always been a mystery to me and, bluntly, I'm fine with the exchange rate being high because, to me, that means game content isn't being deliberately hobbled and made more grind-centric around an in game currency that is artificially restricted to promote a monetary gain over what is actually fun and engaging.
If I'm getting what the game service promises me as the value proposition (i.e. entertaining gameplay) I'm content to spend in limited quantity to acquire said value.
Dilithium exchanges and systems like it (*cough* lockboxes *cough*) have done tremendous harm to the style of game construct I far prefer to play, so while I feel for those for whom exchanging was a go to strategy to support their play time, I don't lament the current state of affairs.
I would also argue the bigger issue here is that I would wager ZEN purchase for STO in general have gone significantly down due to:
- DPS ridiculously out of control for all ship combat (not just BFAW) and a few clear front runner horses in those cases; a lack of diversity in gameplay dramatically downturns the value of acquiring more options to play with, period.
- Similarly, we have more BOFFs than we'll ever need and they have not been integrated into meaningful gameplay with reasons to care about your 'big 4' in space and land. Admiralty system would have been better served by being an Away Team mission system, integrated with but distinct from DOFFs, to make us care about maintaining a roster here in a worthwhile, more active way.
- The fact that some of the most profitable game experiences are totally passive ones (DOFF, Admiralty) means alt rotating is the path to profit even though we are not really performing an engrossing activity.
- Buying another ship when I already have a massive fleet of them, across alts, is simply overkill
- The general North American and European economies are at present struggling for the middle classes; no matter how I consider that, that's not STO's fault, but it has to reduce Zen purchases when your market areas are spending less
- Fleets, due to things like the dilithium component, don't really promote teamwork so much as sponging off critical resource contributors, reducing their cohesion, camraderie and game value.
- Event logic has never evolved past 'do this one thing 20 times'. I actually liked the foot races in the winter event. I didn't like them past the 10th repetition in close order that I was required to do in order to make the first 9 worthwhile. This is a Zen issue as I know this acts as a constant deterrent for people to even play the game, and that clearly translates to reduction in sales of currency.
These of course are just my opinions and I suspect unpopular ones for those who want dilithium to be their ticket to acquisition. As far as I'm concerned, the more abundant refined dilithium is at the moment, the better because I'm not feeling compelled to pursue activities that are punitively tedious just to secure the resource. Then again, my desire to play at all lately given the things mentioned above is heavily reduced, so that too may just take my perspective out of the land of relevance for those still actively engaged.
"The only thing mankind learns from the study of history is that mankind does not learn from the study of history." ~G. Santayana
it slows down the botters and the contraband crowd
let any one toon or toons on the account get to the cap, those that want to run one character can hit the cap, those that want to run more than one character can mix/match to hit the account cap
those that run 10 plus toons now have to waste time making multiple accounts
those that already run multiple accounts now have to waste time making even more accounts to try and game the system
that's what you want at the end of the day, a more even ground for all while at the same time discouraging botting and toon cycling for sake of dil
I have been thinking about this for a while now and I think it could work pretty well actually. I mean we'd have to make the account cap something higher then 8k of course...but it can't be too high either. The trouble is, to make this work, I think the account cap maybe too low for many player's liking. I think having it in the 20-30k per day range would be reasonable and should help stablized the dil influx from the hard core grinders. And of course for the silly people with the cap unrefined dil on multiple toon, we'd have to set a new account wide unrefined limit...or just remove it all together. Course I can see the flames of people only being able to refine 20-30k per account (and I am leaning towards the 20 side).
Hardcore grinder? With admiralty and doffing I think I need to play 1 pve or so to reach the daily refinement limit on a char. That’s roughly 10 minutes in sum. Your suggestion would give me no reason to play this game for longer than 30 minutes per day because my progression would simply be terminated after that.
I don’t think that would be a good game design for a mmorpg.
So...your doffing and admiralty and rep turn in gives you about 20k dil for ONE character?!? WTF are you doing that the rest of us are not...and if you can do that now, what reason do you have to play...well EVER since you can't even refine that much dil now without playing at all. If you are talking about doffing and admiralty on multiple toons to get around 20k...well then yes, you are indeed one of the hard core farmers this is meant to hurt. With this system you don't have to keep swapping to alts to play a click game and you can play the couple of toons you want to for that day and have fun. Or if you find the click game fun, log in and play the click game.
Oh and thank you for demonstrating why this won't work with your immediate, knew jerk it will ruin the game.
I can hazard a guess. There are a couple of Admiralty missions whose base dilithium payouts are 1000d or 2000d. If you crit those, and you cycle with pass tokens to get the highest ratio of these as well as the 500d Payout missions?
Voila, you could be generating a lot of dilithium very quickly if you have a lot of ships to draw from for your fleets.
"The only thing mankind learns from the study of history is that mankind does not learn from the study of history." ~G. Santayana
Prices are really not that bad. There is not much difference between 240 and 290 tbh. Plus side, I am getting a little bit more DIL for the thousands of ZEN that I buy every month.
+50 is actually a lot. Buying fleet ship module would cost an extra 25k dil, and most players don't make even half of that in a day. So it's quite a lot for the person who doesnt sit there and grind all day.
it slows down the botters and the contraband crowd
Another idea I have to disagree with. Cryptic provides the means to make alts for free up to 3 or 4 slots, and then charges for each new toon slot. It then also charges for every lockbox, lobi, rep, etc. etc. item on top of XP, R&D, etc., meaning a LOT has been put and continues to be put into alts by many people, or multiple mains (I have 3 mains). This is a source of revenue for them, a source of enjoyment for us to keep things fresh, a way to play more without constantly logging on other accounts, and to make use of account-wide giveaways.
I have to say it again, really bad idea, and I'm glad Cryptic has more sense than shoot themselves in the foot and hurt the game worse than a cap-locked 500-1 Dil-Ex in the community's attempts to keep that from happening.
Devs: Provide the option to Turn OFF full screen flashes from enemy ship explosions
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Why would Cryptic want to do anything to fix this 'problem?' The more expensive Zen is through use of Dilithium, the more likely players are to buy Zen with cash instead. There is one reason that the price is so high, people are paying it.. it's that simple.
Yup... if anything, Cryptic would push the price higher if* they could.
*Assuming they don't fiddle with it behind the scenes now.
Assuming all of the Zen on the exchange is put there by players, which is reasonable enough, Cryptic wouldn't give a fig about what the rate on the exchange is because they make their money either way. Only the amounts placed on there from LTS stipends, or surveys wouldn't be direct mon
The price in real money for ZEN has not changed, and there are always Sales as well. As the exchange rate continues to creep up, one day, it WILL hit a point where it's cheaper to BUY ZEN with real money than it is using Dil..
It is very nearly always cheaper to buy Zen with real money than with dilithium. US federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, even assuming that you pay 1/3 of that out in taxes, you get roughly $4.80 for an hour of work. That's 480 zen per hour. At the absolute minimum exchange rate, you can get 320 Zen per day per character, factoring out veteran and fleet refining. Already, you need to get your daily 8000 dilithium in under 40 minutes per character for it to be more efficient to get Zen for dilithium than to get it through a minimum wage job. At 50 dilithium per Zen, you would need to get to your 8000 in under 20 minutes. Those rates have essentially never happened, and anything above them just shrinks that required time to get the dilithium to convert to Zen even more unrealistically short.
In short, if you want Zen for the most-efficient investment of time, pick up a minimum wage side job, at least here in the US.
While these are all fun number games, ultimately - you're playing a game. This is hopefully more fun or diversion to the player than working a minimum wage job or any other job.
And the goal of getting Zen is not just having Zen, but using it for something in game. Which also means the player needs to play it. So any comparison with an actual job is misleading.
Not true
A comparison with an actual job is not misleading if you look at a common denominator. TIME
I use an average of 1h / 8000d as an average reference
1z now is 300d
100z now is $1 ( without factoring in sales )
i'm not from the US, so i will use anodyne's calculation of $4.80/hr after tax or $7.25 pre tax.
4 hours of playing will net me 8000x4 = 32000d = 107z
2 hours of working ( after deducting 2 hours of commuting/waiting to fit in with the 4 hours of playtime comparison ) = $9.60 = 960z
If one argues that one is "playing" vs boring work, i think many here will attest to how " boring " grinding can also be.
So ultimately, its the captain's choice
Don't use cash ( for whatever reason ) and grind in game for about 28z an hour?
or
Beat the crowd by finding a job, and converting the pay into zen at 480z/h
At current Dilithium exchange rates, one will have to grind for 17h just to get the same amount of zen 1hr of part time work @ minimal wage pays out.
No matter how one sees it, the math just doesn't work out for full grinding into zen at current exchange rates..
This is basically the assumption that I was working from. An hour of work right now frees you up from several hours of grind in the game, at current exchange rates, allowing you to just do what you want, not worrying about the dilithium payout. You brought up commute time, too, which was a factor that I glossed over, as it makes the math more complicated, since you also have to figure in the cost of getting to said job and back home. Public transportation in some places, or fuel (and maintenance costs) for a vehicle, as well as the time to get there and back that you mentioned. Those who live in petroleum-producing nations would generally pay less for fuel vs. those that don't, and those that live in nations that subsidize public transportation to a greater degree would pay less for that vs. those that don't, all complicating the math, and making the equation more specific to geographic location.
This is an MMO, not a Star Trek episode simulator. That would make for a terrible game.
I can only speak for myself here but I doubt that I'm alone in this.
I contraband farm and chat in my favorite channels while I do it on 2 KDF toons for a total of maybe 40 minutes every day that I log in. That nets me enough CB for all 5 of my captains to do enough turn-ins to meet the 8k refine limit if I even bother to put in the effort to log in multiple times/day for those turn-ins. So we're talking a 20-40k refined Dil/day depending on how lazy I'm feeling on any particular day. Add in how easy it is to bring in Dil through the Admiralty system on each captain and you're pretty much golden without even actually playing the game. All it takes from then on is time to let it pile up and then converting that Dil to Zen on the exchange when the price is good enough for you. That's the Supply end.
Now let's consider the Demand...first with the C-store ships they've been releasing. Once you've played the game long enough, you'll start looking at ship stats first before anything else while considering paying out the DilZen that you've earned. And, honestly, not many ships (and their traits) the past year have been worth paying out for. The last must-have bundle I bought was for the Battle Cruisers and their shared ship-trait. The ships I recently bought were mainly due to me finally giving up on a decent C-Store Sci ship for my Rom and throwing DilZen that was just sitting there toward that goal for my FedSci cap instead at Ship Sale purchase prices which I buy all my ships at anyways.
And then there's the lockbox game and the reward for gambling. Similar deal. The only ship worth burning keys on in a very long time (IMO) is the Krenim Sci-naught out of all the lockbox ships available right now. So, I can burn my DilZen on a slim chance for that or I can just sell those keys (that I also purchased at sale prices) and buy whatever else I want with the gobs of EC that I sold the keys for...or not buy keys at all and just let the dilithium keep piling up.
So, if anybody else's experience is similar to mine (easy supply, meh demand), then I can see why there's so much inflation at the moment. And it's probably going to continue unless they choke out the easier ways to earn dil (and probably chase off people like me in doing so) or start selling some more must-have ships/gear so we throw the reserves we all have at getting them.
The price when there was nothing to spend dilithium on is completely irrelevant. At the same time the hay day of the game prices of 120-140 have become irrelevant as well. The game has changed. With the new producer we saw a large influx of dilithium as well as more interesting and desirable lockbox items and ships. So for now it's up up and away.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: "We think we've come so far. Torture of heretics, burning of witches, it's all ancient history. Then - before you can blink an eye - suddenly it threatens to start all over again."
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
I'm sure someone has already said it, but why prices are how they are now, is exactly the reason why the price was so inflated years ago, it was too darn easy to get truckloads of dil! How did Cryptic fix that? They put the stop on the firehose amounts of dil that players were just swimming in, and saved the market from insane inflation!
We need to stop having events rewarding 50k dil, And especially those dil weekends need to stop which were a terrible idea from the start. The reputation mark and elite mark turn ins also need to be nerfed by probably half since we got so many reputations we can turn marks in for, and several other things including admiralty I'm sure. Not going to be a popular solution, but it must be done eventually! Right now the market only favors those with armies of alts who are willing to grind hours every day, not casuals who do things by normal play. I hate every time a dil rewarding event or weekend comes up, meaning more out of control inflation...
(3) Lock Box Keys ?? Has any one noticed the Exchange price for Keys has been stagnant for what a year ?? @4mill and holding; Surely they aren't driving the market !!
I'm sorry...but BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
You think that keys jumping to 4 mil in recent times is stagnated prices....yeah...that right there kinda ruined all your credibility.
The word "Stagnant" may not have been the best word to use. Averaged would have been better. If you "average" the price over the year, my statement remains "Valid" at "about" 4 mil and holding. 'nuff said...
IMHO one way to bring it down would be to increase the refining cap from the current 8 k to a more realistic 16k a day. The excess Dilth would very quickly be eaten up by fleet projects or conversion to zen. I have so much unrefined ore on my toons its sickening. I easily gather way more dilth a day then the 8k capthrough farming and mission rewards.
More and more people complain about the Dil Cap. Increasing the cap will only bring more dil to the exchange for more Zen, to buy More Keys, to sell on the exchange, or take pot-shots at the Lock Box Lottery/gambling geni.
People with "tons of dil sitting around" are obviously NOT donating it to fleet projects. Across my 9 toons I have over 1million Dil on 3, and at leat 600k on the rest, and after 5 years of playing, I keep about 5K unrefined on each toon. All 9 of my toons are in Fleets, and they all have over 1.5mil Fleet credits.
Want Zen, then whip out the REAL MONEY.. Don't want to, or your folks won't let you spend Real Money, then Dil is the only alternative. IMHO, the ONLY reason dil has any "perceived" value, is that it is the ONLY OTHER way, besides REAL MONEY, to buy Zen. And the "percieived" value of ZEN is based on what people will pay.
The price in real money for ZEN has not changed, and there are always Sales as well. As the exchange rate continues to creep up, one day, it WILL hit a point where it's cheaper to BUY ZEN with real money than it is using Dil..
Dilithium Exchange - Working as Intended....
Guy if your fleet is like ours all our projects are filled and done so yeah nothing to donate dilth to any more. So dilth just builds up and with a cap at refining raw undrefined is a massive srocklpile that cant be used until its refined and with an 8k a day cap on refining it builds up faster then you can refine it. So yeah I have tones of unrefined dilth that I can't use until it's refined but at 8k a day cap it just grows.
usually...about the time winter wonderland rolls around, the dilithium rates tank, the past two years, not counting this one, this has been the norm. this year? seriously off the rails as a result with the timing of the events.
Murphy's laws:
1- Murphy’s Law tells us that anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
2- And anything that does go wrong will get progressively worse.
3- And if you survive the first two laws it’s time to panic.
see folks,
cause if you can PAY- to avoid hundreds and HUNDREDS of hours of in game grinding... by A swipe of a credit card...
that's pay to win-
and if the game makes the grind, so long, so pointless, that the OBVIOUS choice is to just swipe a credit card...
that's a crappy pay to win game-
Eh. That sounds more like "pay to convenience". A real p2w game is one of those Korean-sourced free-for-all PvP games. With "insurance" (only purchasable in the cash shop) to keep from losing your gear on death.
With auto-health-rechargers (only in the cash shop) to keep you on an even footing with the other pvpers who have them.
With absolutely-required crafting/enchanting boosters (only in the cash shop) to keep your gear from being destroyed when you try to up it to Epic Mk 14.
With best-in-slot gear, only in the cash shop.
And no way to get stuff from the shop other than spending actual cash (no exchange, or an exchange with no limits, so that only the best of the best players can hope to get any currency from it).
Oh, yeah, and since they're Korean-style MMOs, their "grinds" make STO look like a casual walk in the park.
Really not seeing what's worth all the drama.
(oh, and "dedicated teams, without refine limits/etc" is one reason why Neverwinter's economy was so screwed - uber-dungeoneers farming tons of great loot from the endgame, and selling it on the auction house for refined diamonds... the super rich, got super-richer. And everyone else was left in the dust. It was great, two expansions into the game, to have an exchange pegged at 500 for months, with so little zen for sale that it took 2-3 days for your offer to go through. No idea what it's like now, haven't played since Icewind Dale.)
Or this game could be like star wars the old republic where it's pay to survive where alternatives like dilithium are unheard of and f2ps are regarded as homeless bums
Captain Joseph Riker, U.S.S. Odyssey==General V'Mar, U.S.S. Blackwater-A==Admiral Laura Holmes, U.S.S. Forward Unto Dawn Grand Master Thotok, son of Koloth, I.K.S. Sompek==Dahar Master Shanara, I.K.S. Balth'Quv Admiral R'Tath V'Tirex, R.R.W. Dhael Glohha'enh==Commander Ta'eth Korval, R.R.W Hachae ch'Rhian==Admiral Vranuk, R.R.W Delevhas
it slows down the botters and the contraband crowd
let any one toon or toons on the account get to the cap, those that want to run one character can hit the cap, those that want to run more than one character can mix/match to hit the account cap
those that run 10 plus toons now have to waste time making multiple accounts
those that already run multiple accounts now have to waste time making even more accounts to try and game the system
that's what you want at the end of the day, a more even ground for all while at the same time discouraging botting and toon cycling for sake of dil
I have been thinking about this for a while now and I think it could work pretty well actually. I mean we'd have to make the account cap something higher then 8k of course...but it can't be too high either. The trouble is, to make this work, I think the account cap maybe too low for many player's liking. I think having it in the 20-30k per day range would be reasonable and should help stablized the dil influx from the hard core grinders. And of course for the silly people with the cap unrefined dil on multiple toon, we'd have to set a new account wide unrefined limit...or just remove it all together. Course I can see the flames of people only being able to refine 20-30k per account (and I am leaning towards the 20 side).
Hardcore grinder? With admiralty and doffing I think I need to play 1 pve or so to reach the daily refinement limit on a char. That’s roughly 10 minutes in sum. Your suggestion would give me no reason to play this game for longer than 30 minutes per day because my progression would simply be terminated after that.
I don’t think that would be a good game design for a mmorpg.
So...your doffing and admiralty and rep turn in gives you about 20k dil for ONE character?!? WTF are you doing that the rest of us are not...and if you can do that now, what reason do you have to play...well EVER since you can't even refine that much dil now without playing at all. If you are talking about doffing and admiralty on multiple toons to get around 20k...well then yes, you are indeed one of the hard core farmers this is meant to hurt. With this system you don't have to keep swapping to alts to play a click game and you can play the couple of toons you want to for that day and have fun. Or if you find the click game fun, log in and play the click game.
Oh and thank you for demonstrating why this won't work with your immediate, knew jerk it will ruin the game.
Hi,
given the general tone of your reply I’m under the impression that you had trouble to comprehend or perhaps even to read what I wrote. That’s why I decided to give it another try and to help you out.
I currently play 9 characters in this game. All of them play distinct and influential roles in STO’s teamed PvE and PvP end game contend. Contend my friends and I enjoy doing most. The number of chars helps me to keep the contend of this game fresh and diversified for me.
Like every mmorpg player I share the drive to develop my characters further and to make them better than they already are. Since I have my stuff together for the most part the only thing I need for that is Dil, the one currency one can never have enough of. Fortunately accumulating it is very easy at the moment. Here is a breakdown of my main sources on a single char/day basis:
1) Doffing: ~2000 Dil; 1k one can get easily from the dil mine and colonial assignments. The rest you get is spread over your ship stations. I also collect contraband but rarely turn it in and rather save it for times when RL does not permit me to do 3) as much.
2) Admirality: ~4000 Dil; 2k are an abstraction of the rerun of the Klingon tour of duty assignment chain which’s completion I manage approximately every 15 days. Rest comes from a focus on regular KDF campaign assignments with a special attention towards event rewards.
3) PvE: ~2500 Dil; 1 advanced or elite run from queue list is usually enough. And hey, game is easy remember.
Now what you misunderstand as hardcore grinding or “farming” is just a toonhop for me. All those klicks from Admiralty and Doffing I undertake while I wait in other’s lobby’s or in the queue list for the next pve to pop. That’s why I reach the daily refinement cap on a character within 10 minutes or so before I hop to the next toon better suited for the next PvE coming up. My deck of 9 chars is well balanced for an average gaming time of 2-3 hours with plenty of time to spare actually.
I claim the result of your “thinking for a while” and what suggests an account wide refinement limit to be bad as in REALLY BAD because it would slow down my toon's progressions by roughly 2/3 flat. Fun would suffer because the very reason I play a mmopg (progress my toons while having fun with my friends) would be crippled only to cater to those who want to enjoy this game strictly free to play and naturally want to grab more free stuff for doing less. Players would not be encouraged to make more toons or to play more or buy more and the entire game would suffer because of it.
I don’t think this would be a good mmorpg game design from basically everybody’s perspective involved, hence my reply to your post.
Post edited by peterconnorfirst on
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Since cryptic is already using the "Exclusivity" excuse for throwing out the lockboxes or any other previous ships... Why not let set ships and consoles be sell able to players by players using Dil instead. Just make sure that the only way for that Ship to be resold is complete with the desire console.
That way even new players can have those ships and those who don't want them anymore for newer ships could just sell them. I think most new players or those who have missed those ships would buy them and Dill would actually be worth something. Also how about the ability to buy other faction's ship via the ferengi using Latinum. And Dil can be exchange for Latinum.
For example I'm a KDF and want that sweet Scimmy I could buy one from the ferengi. But the price should be high enough as not to let Cryptic lose money on all of this but still viable for players to grind for Dil->Latinum.
Also I would like to suggest that Latinum should also be used on another way. Making Fleet Projects much faster by dropping a ton of it reducing the time for it to complete.
Adding actual Fleet to Fleet sieges between Fleet factions that would make the Starbase take damage and can only be repaired by using Dil and Latinum would make it more interesting bring a bit of PvP back in the game. But for those who can burn money an alternative to quick repair instead of using Dil would be Zen repair. I wont go on to details since it's just on my head right now.
Anyway I respect everyone who would think this is a stupid idea but hey it's just an idea. No harm on trying to suggest it right?
it slows down the botters and the contraband crowd
let any one toon or toons on the account get to the cap, those that want to run one character can hit the cap, those that want to run more than one character can mix/match to hit the account cap
those that run 10 plus toons now have to waste time making multiple accounts
those that already run multiple accounts now have to waste time making even more accounts to try and game the system
that's what you want at the end of the day, a more even ground for all while at the same time discouraging botting and toon cycling for sake of dil
I have been thinking about this for a while now and I think it could work pretty well actually. I mean we'd have to make the account cap something higher then 8k of course...but it can't be too high either. The trouble is, to make this work, I think the account cap maybe too low for many player's liking. I think having it in the 20-30k per day range would be reasonable and should help stablized the dil influx from the hard core grinders. And of course for the silly people with the cap unrefined dil on multiple toon, we'd have to set a new account wide unrefined limit...or just remove it all together. Course I can see the flames of people only being able to refine 20-30k per account (and I am leaning towards the 20 side).
Hardcore grinder? With admiralty and doffing I think I need to play 1 pve or so to reach the daily refinement limit on a char. That’s roughly 10 minutes in sum. Your suggestion would give me no reason to play this game for longer than 30 minutes per day because my progression would simply be terminated after that.
I don’t think that would be a good game design for a mmorpg.
So...your doffing and admiralty and rep turn in gives you about 20k dil for ONE character?!? WTF are you doing that the rest of us are not...and if you can do that now, what reason do you have to play...well EVER since you can't even refine that much dil now without playing at all. If you are talking about doffing and admiralty on multiple toons to get around 20k...well then yes, you are indeed one of the hard core farmers this is meant to hurt. With this system you don't have to keep swapping to alts to play a click game and you can play the couple of toons you want to for that day and have fun. Or if you find the click game fun, log in and play the click game.
Oh and thank you for demonstrating why this won't work with your immediate, knew jerk it will ruin the game.
Hi,
given the general tone of your reply I’m under the impression that you had trouble to comprehend or perhaps even to read what I wrote. That’s why I decided to give it another try and to help you out.
I currently play 9 characters in this game. All of them play distinct and influential roles in STO’s teamed PvE and PvP end game contend. Contend my friends and I enjoy doing most. The number of chars helps me to keep the contend of this game fresh and diversified for me.
Like every mmorpg player I share the drive to develop my characters further and to make them better than they already are. Since I have my stuff together for the most part the only thing I need for that is Dil, the one currency one can never have enough of. Fortunately accumulating it is very easy at the moment. Here is a breakdown of my main sources on a single char/day basis:
1) Doffing: ~2000 Dil; 1k one can get easily from the dil mine and colonial assignments. The rest you get is spread over your ship stations. I also collect contraband but rarely turn it in and rather save it for times when RL does not permit me to do 3) as much.
2) Admirality: ~4000 Dil; 2k are an abstraction of the rerun of the Klingon tour of duty assignment chain which’s completion I manage approximately every 15 days. Rest comes from a focus on regular KDF campaign assignments with a special attention towards event rewards.
3) PvE: ~2500 Dil; 1 advanced or elite run from queue list is usually enough. And hey, game is easy remember.
Now what you misunderstand as hardcore grinding or “farming” is just a toonhop for me. All those klicks from Admiralty and Doffing I undertake while I wait in other’s lobby’s or in the queue list for the next pve to pop. That’s why I reach the daily refinement cap on a character within 10 minutes or so before I hop to the next toon better suited for the next PvE coming up. My deck of 9 chars is well balanced for an average gaming time of 2-3 hours with plenty of time to spare actually.
I claim the result of your “thinking for a while” and what suggests an account wide refinement limit to be bad as in REALLY BAD because it would slow down my toon's progressions by roughly 2/3 flat. Fun would suffer because the very reason I play a mmopg (progress my toons while having fun with my friends) would be crippled only to cater to those who want to enjoy this game strictly free to play and naturally want to grab more free stuff for doing less. Players would not be encouraged to make more toons or to play more or buy more and the entire game would suffer because of it.
I don’t think this would be a good mmorpg game design from basically everybody’s perspective involved, hence my reply to your post.
So...you are toon hopping...which currently is the best way to farm the fake purple crystals in the game. Look, I admit that I do the same thing. Which does in fact make you one of the hard core farmers of dil. You can deny it all you want, but you are hopping between 9 toons to maximize their dil output each under the current system. Under the new system proposed, you would instead just concentrate of a couple of toons you were interested in ACTUALLY playing that day for a few hours instead of toon hopping 9 times to maximize your dilitium. It would free you to ACTUALLY PLAY THE GAME...instead of 1 queue on each toon. Now, you could toon hop to maximize your admiralty and doffing and play almost no time as well...but hey if you find that fun...I suppose more power to you?!? The whole point would be to make it so you don't need to toon hop to reach cap.
But like I said, your knee jerk reaction is all I needed to show why it wouldn't work.
And while you may cry about your fun being crippled...which it really wouldn't be, to say that your fun is somehow more important that somebody else's fun is kinda...well...egotistical don't you think? What matters isn't if the system is better for YOU or even for ME (because actually it'd be terrible for me...I am one of the people who actually BUYS zen every once in a while and almost never do the dil to zen...so I want 500 to 1)...what matter is if it's good for more players first of all...then followed by is it good for the enough of the people who spend money. Well...optimally...but it will be the other way around. Anyways, since the people who spend money will be people like you or me instead of these F2P dil converters, I doubt this would happen.
I’m not admitting anything because I don’t need to. I play the game for my entertainment in correlation to how much time I can or want to afford for it. My desk of characters is balanced accordingly and makes different approaches to the same contend possible without me ending up bored.
In short I have 9 different characters because I want to play 9 different characters.
Has it ever occurred to you that 9 toons simply need 9 times more Dil than 1 toon and that for the same amount of progression?
It’s the way this game is designed and your suggestion works in direct contradiction towards that and is thereby bad. It will be for as long as reputation gear, fleet gear, gear upgrades as well as lobi/lock box stuff aren’t account wide unlocks. And even then because differnt stuff will still cost.
Lol also, I’m not crying. I just managed to do fine under the current game rules which does not stop me to point out BAD ideas in forums.
Post edited by peterconnorfirst on
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So help me understand here ? we are unhappy about the cost of Dil per Zen that OTHER PLAYERS are asking for on a FREE MARKET called the Dilithium Exchange.
Thoughts are that there is too much dil flooding the market causing the price to rise. So you want dil to be harder to obtain so there's less of it readily available ?.
So basically a Nerf to dil rewards ?.
Now usually the rarity of an item is what adds to the value not something that is readily available, correct me if i'm wrong with this statement.
Perhaps its all the Nice Events and Promotions (Thank you Cryptic/PWE) that offer nice rewards that can be fast tracked by the purchase of Zen. I.E the Special Event ships, or R&D Promo ships. Or Z-Store sales that has made the desire for Zen cause an inflation in the market not the actual amount of dil floating around.
So help me understand here ? we are unhappy about the cost of Dil per Zen that OTHER PLAYERS are asking for on a FREE MARKET called the Dilithium Exchange.
Thoughts are that there is too much dil flooding the market causing the price to rise. So you want dil to be harder to obtain so there's less of it readily available ?.
So basically a Nerf to dil rewards ?.
Now usually the rarity of an item is what adds to the value not something that is readily available, correct me if i'm wrong with this statement.
Perhaps its all the Nice Events and Promotions (Thank you Cryptic/PWE) that offer nice rewards that can be fast tracked by the purchase of Zen. I.E the Special Event ships, or R&D Promo ships. Or Z-Store sales that has made the desire for Zen cause an inflation in the market not the actual amount of dil floating around.
This was my take too. Surely if less DIL is available, then it is going to be rarer and worth more zen per unit?
And if people don't buy at the high rate, surely sellers will eventually drop it to a price it will sell at?
I don't use the Dil Exchange so I may be missing something here though.
Nerfing dilithium rewards is definitely not the answer. That just cuts people with no stockpile off at the knees.
I honestly couldn't tell you what the solution is. Dilithium is down like Gasoline is. It's great for people buying gas and dilithium, sucks for anyone selling it.
Cryptic has no reason to fix it. Our market misfortune is their profit. Many newer players don't even realize there's a problem. I started playing at the tail end of Season 5. Dilithium was @76. It had stabilized at around 150 for a good long while. After Delta Rising though...it was just a steady march to where it is now.
You'd basically need someone with a metric crapton of zen to sell cheap for an extended period and crash the market to trigger a reset. So without any generous rich folks trying to Mr. Robot the dilithium market for TRIBBLE and giggles or a worthwhile dilithium sink, this is the condition of business and it isn't changing anytime soon.
"Rise like Lions after slumber, In unvanquishable number, Shake your chains to earth like dew, Which in sleep had fallen on you-Ye are many they are few"
what are people saying about getting a sh*t-ton of dilithium from admiralty? I get 2k at the most, thats not very much. Oh sure completing kdf tour of duty gives you 30k but thats more of a long term project
Captain Joseph Riker, U.S.S. Odyssey==General V'Mar, U.S.S. Blackwater-A==Admiral Laura Holmes, U.S.S. Forward Unto Dawn Grand Master Thotok, son of Koloth, I.K.S. Sompek==Dahar Master Shanara, I.K.S. Balth'Quv Admiral R'Tath V'Tirex, R.R.W. Dhael Glohha'enh==Commander Ta'eth Korval, R.R.W Hachae ch'Rhian==Admiral Vranuk, R.R.W Delevhas
Comments
While these are all fun number games, ultimately - you're playing a game. This is hopefully more fun or diversion to the player than working a minimum wage job or any other job.
And the goal of getting Zen is not just having Zen, but using it for something in game. Which also means the player needs to play it. So any comparison with an actual job is misleading.
My earlier post wasn't a doom post either, something similar happened in Neverwinter - and of course the game survived, but lost quite a chunk of playerbase. With incoming STBeyond and new series, of course the STO will attract new players (I don't see it dying anytime soon), it's just the portion of old playerbase that I care about and don't want to see leaving.
See see, you're on to something there. We need a new shiny massive dil sinkhole in game, that'd help.
Not true
A comparison with an actual job is not misleading if you look at a common denominator. TIME
I use an average of 1h / 8000d as an average reference
1z now is 300d
100z now is $1 ( without factoring in sales )
i'm not from the US, so i will use anodyne's calculation of $4.80/hr after tax or $7.25 pre tax.
4 hours of playing will net me 8000x4 = 32000d = 107z
2 hours of working ( after deducting 2 hours of commuting/waiting to fit in with the 4 hours of playtime comparison ) = $9.60 = 960z
If one argues that one is "playing" vs boring work, i think many here will attest to how " boring " grinding can also be.
So ultimately, its the captain's choice
Don't use cash ( for whatever reason ) and grind in game for about 28z an hour?
or
Beat the crowd by finding a job, and converting the pay into zen at 480z/h
At current Dilithium exchange rates, one will have to grind for 17h just to get the same amount of zen 1hr of part time work @ minimal wage pays out.
No matter how one sees it, the math just doesn't work out for full grinding into zen at current exchange rates..
If I'm getting what the game service promises me as the value proposition (i.e. entertaining gameplay) I'm content to spend in limited quantity to acquire said value.
Dilithium exchanges and systems like it (*cough* lockboxes *cough*) have done tremendous harm to the style of game construct I far prefer to play, so while I feel for those for whom exchanging was a go to strategy to support their play time, I don't lament the current state of affairs.
I would also argue the bigger issue here is that I would wager ZEN purchase for STO in general have gone significantly down due to:
- DPS ridiculously out of control for all ship combat (not just BFAW) and a few clear front runner horses in those cases; a lack of diversity in gameplay dramatically downturns the value of acquiring more options to play with, period.
- Similarly, we have more BOFFs than we'll ever need and they have not been integrated into meaningful gameplay with reasons to care about your 'big 4' in space and land. Admiralty system would have been better served by being an Away Team mission system, integrated with but distinct from DOFFs, to make us care about maintaining a roster here in a worthwhile, more active way.
- The fact that some of the most profitable game experiences are totally passive ones (DOFF, Admiralty) means alt rotating is the path to profit even though we are not really performing an engrossing activity.
- Buying another ship when I already have a massive fleet of them, across alts, is simply overkill
- The general North American and European economies are at present struggling for the middle classes; no matter how I consider that, that's not STO's fault, but it has to reduce Zen purchases when your market areas are spending less
- Fleets, due to things like the dilithium component, don't really promote teamwork so much as sponging off critical resource contributors, reducing their cohesion, camraderie and game value.
- Event logic has never evolved past 'do this one thing 20 times'. I actually liked the foot races in the winter event. I didn't like them past the 10th repetition in close order that I was required to do in order to make the first 9 worthwhile. This is a Zen issue as I know this acts as a constant deterrent for people to even play the game, and that clearly translates to reduction in sales of currency.
These of course are just my opinions and I suspect unpopular ones for those who want dilithium to be their ticket to acquisition. As far as I'm concerned, the more abundant refined dilithium is at the moment, the better because I'm not feeling compelled to pursue activities that are punitively tedious just to secure the resource. Then again, my desire to play at all lately given the things mentioned above is heavily reduced, so that too may just take my perspective out of the land of relevance for those still actively engaged.
I can hazard a guess. There are a couple of Admiralty missions whose base dilithium payouts are 1000d or 2000d. If you crit those, and you cycle with pass tokens to get the highest ratio of these as well as the 500d Payout missions?
Voila, you could be generating a lot of dilithium very quickly if you have a lot of ships to draw from for your fleets.
+50 is actually a lot. Buying fleet ship module would cost an extra 25k dil, and most players don't make even half of that in a day. So it's quite a lot for the person who doesnt sit there and grind all day.
Another idea I have to disagree with. Cryptic provides the means to make alts for free up to 3 or 4 slots, and then charges for each new toon slot. It then also charges for every lockbox, lobi, rep, etc. etc. item on top of XP, R&D, etc., meaning a LOT has been put and continues to be put into alts by many people, or multiple mains (I have 3 mains). This is a source of revenue for them, a source of enjoyment for us to keep things fresh, a way to play more without constantly logging on other accounts, and to make use of account-wide giveaways.
I have to say it again, really bad idea, and I'm glad Cryptic has more sense than shoot themselves in the foot and hurt the game worse than a cap-locked 500-1 Dil-Ex in the community's attempts to keep that from happening.
Assuming all of the Zen on the exchange is put there by players, which is reasonable enough, Cryptic wouldn't give a fig about what the rate on the exchange is because they make their money either way. Only the amounts placed on there from LTS stipends, or surveys wouldn't be direct mon
This is basically the assumption that I was working from. An hour of work right now frees you up from several hours of grind in the game, at current exchange rates, allowing you to just do what you want, not worrying about the dilithium payout. You brought up commute time, too, which was a factor that I glossed over, as it makes the math more complicated, since you also have to figure in the cost of getting to said job and back home. Public transportation in some places, or fuel (and maintenance costs) for a vehicle, as well as the time to get there and back that you mentioned. Those who live in petroleum-producing nations would generally pay less for fuel vs. those that don't, and those that live in nations that subsidize public transportation to a greater degree would pay less for that vs. those that don't, all complicating the math, and making the equation more specific to geographic location.
I contraband farm and chat in my favorite channels while I do it on 2 KDF toons for a total of maybe 40 minutes every day that I log in. That nets me enough CB for all 5 of my captains to do enough turn-ins to meet the 8k refine limit if I even bother to put in the effort to log in multiple times/day for those turn-ins. So we're talking a 20-40k refined Dil/day depending on how lazy I'm feeling on any particular day. Add in how easy it is to bring in Dil through the Admiralty system on each captain and you're pretty much golden without even actually playing the game. All it takes from then on is time to let it pile up and then converting that Dil to Zen on the exchange when the price is good enough for you. That's the Supply end.
Now let's consider the Demand...first with the C-store ships they've been releasing. Once you've played the game long enough, you'll start looking at ship stats first before anything else while considering paying out the DilZen that you've earned. And, honestly, not many ships (and their traits) the past year have been worth paying out for. The last must-have bundle I bought was for the Battle Cruisers and their shared ship-trait. The ships I recently bought were mainly due to me finally giving up on a decent C-Store Sci ship for my Rom and throwing DilZen that was just sitting there toward that goal for my FedSci cap instead at Ship Sale purchase prices which I buy all my ships at anyways.
And then there's the lockbox game and the reward for gambling. Similar deal. The only ship worth burning keys on in a very long time (IMO) is the Krenim Sci-naught out of all the lockbox ships available right now. So, I can burn my DilZen on a slim chance for that or I can just sell those keys (that I also purchased at sale prices) and buy whatever else I want with the gobs of EC that I sold the keys for...or not buy keys at all and just let the dilithium keep piling up.
So, if anybody else's experience is similar to mine (easy supply, meh demand), then I can see why there's so much inflation at the moment. And it's probably going to continue unless they choke out the easier ways to earn dil (and probably chase off people like me in doing so) or start selling some more must-have ships/gear so we throw the reserves we all have at getting them.
Isn't the record high somewhere in the mid-600 range?
The exchange has had a fixed 50-500 range, as long as I've been playing (2011? 12?). But it could have been different back before then.
/shrug
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
We need to stop having events rewarding 50k dil, And especially those dil weekends need to stop which were a terrible idea from the start. The reputation mark and elite mark turn ins also need to be nerfed by probably half since we got so many reputations we can turn marks in for, and several other things including admiralty I'm sure. Not going to be a popular solution, but it must be done eventually! Right now the market only favors those with armies of alts who are willing to grind hours every day, not casuals who do things by normal play. I hate every time a dil rewarding event or weekend comes up, meaning more out of control inflation...
Guy if your fleet is like ours all our projects are filled and done so yeah nothing to donate dilth to any more. So dilth just builds up and with a cap at refining raw undrefined is a massive srocklpile that cant be used until its refined and with an 8k a day cap on refining it builds up faster then you can refine it. So yeah I have tones of unrefined dilth that I can't use until it's refined but at 8k a day cap it just grows.
1- Murphy’s Law tells us that anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
2- And anything that does go wrong will get progressively worse.
3- And if you survive the first two laws it’s time to panic.
Eh. That sounds more like "pay to convenience". A real p2w game is one of those Korean-sourced free-for-all PvP games. With "insurance" (only purchasable in the cash shop) to keep from losing your gear on death.
With auto-health-rechargers (only in the cash shop) to keep you on an even footing with the other pvpers who have them.
With absolutely-required crafting/enchanting boosters (only in the cash shop) to keep your gear from being destroyed when you try to up it to Epic Mk 14.
With best-in-slot gear, only in the cash shop.
And no way to get stuff from the shop other than spending actual cash (no exchange, or an exchange with no limits, so that only the best of the best players can hope to get any currency from it).
Oh, yeah, and since they're Korean-style MMOs, their "grinds" make STO look like a casual walk in the park.
Really not seeing what's worth all the drama.
(oh, and "dedicated teams, without refine limits/etc" is one reason why Neverwinter's economy was so screwed - uber-dungeoneers farming tons of great loot from the endgame, and selling it on the auction house for refined diamonds... the super rich, got super-richer. And everyone else was left in the dust. It was great, two expansions into the game, to have an exchange pegged at 500 for months, with so little zen for sale that it took 2-3 days for your offer to go through. No idea what it's like now, haven't played since Icewind Dale.)
Grand Master Thotok, son of Koloth, I.K.S. Sompek==Dahar Master Shanara, I.K.S. Balth'Quv
Admiral R'Tath V'Tirex, R.R.W. Dhael Glohha'enh==Commander Ta'eth Korval, R.R.W Hachae ch'Rhian==Admiral Vranuk, R.R.W Delevhas
Hi,
given the general tone of your reply I’m under the impression that you had trouble to comprehend or perhaps even to read what I wrote. That’s why I decided to give it another try and to help you out.
I currently play 9 characters in this game. All of them play distinct and influential roles in STO’s teamed PvE and PvP end game contend. Contend my friends and I enjoy doing most. The number of chars helps me to keep the contend of this game fresh and diversified for me.
Like every mmorpg player I share the drive to develop my characters further and to make them better than they already are. Since I have my stuff together for the most part the only thing I need for that is Dil, the one currency one can never have enough of. Fortunately accumulating it is very easy at the moment. Here is a breakdown of my main sources on a single char/day basis:
1) Doffing: ~2000 Dil; 1k one can get easily from the dil mine and colonial assignments. The rest you get is spread over your ship stations. I also collect contraband but rarely turn it in and rather save it for times when RL does not permit me to do 3) as much.
2) Admirality: ~4000 Dil; 2k are an abstraction of the rerun of the Klingon tour of duty assignment chain which’s completion I manage approximately every 15 days. Rest comes from a focus on regular KDF campaign assignments with a special attention towards event rewards.
3) PvE: ~2500 Dil; 1 advanced or elite run from queue list is usually enough. And hey, game is easy remember.
Now what you misunderstand as hardcore grinding or “farming” is just a toonhop for me. All those klicks from Admiralty and Doffing I undertake while I wait in other’s lobby’s or in the queue list for the next pve to pop. That’s why I reach the daily refinement cap on a character within 10 minutes or so before I hop to the next toon better suited for the next PvE coming up. My deck of 9 chars is well balanced for an average gaming time of 2-3 hours with plenty of time to spare actually.
I claim the result of your “thinking for a while” and what suggests an account wide refinement limit to be bad as in REALLY BAD because it would slow down my toon's progressions by roughly 2/3 flat. Fun would suffer because the very reason I play a mmopg (progress my toons while having fun with my friends) would be crippled only to cater to those who want to enjoy this game strictly free to play and naturally want to grab more free stuff for doing less. Players would not be encouraged to make more toons or to play more or buy more and the entire game would suffer because of it.
I don’t think this would be a good mmorpg game design from basically everybody’s perspective involved, hence my reply to your post.
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Since cryptic is already using the "Exclusivity" excuse for throwing out the lockboxes or any other previous ships... Why not let set ships and consoles be sell able to players by players using Dil instead. Just make sure that the only way for that Ship to be resold is complete with the desire console.
That way even new players can have those ships and those who don't want them anymore for newer ships could just sell them. I think most new players or those who have missed those ships would buy them and Dill would actually be worth something. Also how about the ability to buy other faction's ship via the ferengi using Latinum. And Dil can be exchange for Latinum.
For example I'm a KDF and want that sweet Scimmy I could buy one from the ferengi. But the price should be high enough as not to let Cryptic lose money on all of this but still viable for players to grind for Dil->Latinum.
Also I would like to suggest that Latinum should also be used on another way. Making Fleet Projects much faster by dropping a ton of it reducing the time for it to complete.
Adding actual Fleet to Fleet sieges between Fleet factions that would make the Starbase take damage and can only be repaired by using Dil and Latinum would make it more interesting bring a bit of PvP back in the game. But for those who can burn money an alternative to quick repair instead of using Dil would be Zen repair. I wont go on to details since it's just on my head right now.
Anyway I respect everyone who would think this is a stupid idea but hey it's just an idea. No harm on trying to suggest it right?
I’m not admitting anything because I don’t need to. I play the game for my entertainment in correlation to how much time I can or want to afford for it. My desk of characters is balanced accordingly and makes different approaches to the same contend possible without me ending up bored.
In short I have 9 different characters because I want to play 9 different characters.
Has it ever occurred to you that 9 toons simply need 9 times more Dil than 1 toon and that for the same amount of progression?
It’s the way this game is designed and your suggestion works in direct contradiction towards that and is thereby bad. It will be for as long as reputation gear, fleet gear, gear upgrades as well as lobi/lock box stuff aren’t account wide unlocks. And even then because differnt stuff will still cost.
Lol also, I’m not crying. I just managed to do fine under the current game rules which does not stop me to point out BAD ideas in forums.
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Thoughts are that there is too much dil flooding the market causing the price to rise. So you want dil to be harder to obtain so there's less of it readily available ?.
So basically a Nerf to dil rewards ?.
Now usually the rarity of an item is what adds to the value not something that is readily available, correct me if i'm wrong with this statement.
Perhaps its all the Nice Events and Promotions (Thank you Cryptic/PWE) that offer nice rewards that can be fast tracked by the purchase of Zen. I.E the Special Event ships, or R&D Promo ships. Or Z-Store sales that has made the desire for Zen cause an inflation in the market not the actual amount of dil floating around.
This was my take too. Surely if less DIL is available, then it is going to be rarer and worth more zen per unit?
And if people don't buy at the high rate, surely sellers will eventually drop it to a price it will sell at?
I don't use the Dil Exchange so I may be missing something here though.
I honestly couldn't tell you what the solution is. Dilithium is down like Gasoline is. It's great for people buying gas and dilithium, sucks for anyone selling it.
Cryptic has no reason to fix it. Our market misfortune is their profit. Many newer players don't even realize there's a problem. I started playing at the tail end of Season 5. Dilithium was @76. It had stabilized at around 150 for a good long while. After Delta Rising though...it was just a steady march to where it is now.
You'd basically need someone with a metric crapton of zen to sell cheap for an extended period and crash the market to trigger a reset. So without any generous rich folks trying to Mr. Robot the dilithium market for TRIBBLE and giggles or a worthwhile dilithium sink, this is the condition of business and it isn't changing anytime soon.
Grand Master Thotok, son of Koloth, I.K.S. Sompek==Dahar Master Shanara, I.K.S. Balth'Quv
Admiral R'Tath V'Tirex, R.R.W. Dhael Glohha'enh==Commander Ta'eth Korval, R.R.W Hachae ch'Rhian==Admiral Vranuk, R.R.W Delevhas