@sheldoncooper, the comment about 500:1 being a bad deal in neverwinter has context. Here in sto 500:1 is the cap, but nw had another route to convert zen. Their auctionhouse runs on dil (astrals), not ec (gold). When I was still playing there were times that zen commodities (keys, coal wards, etc) were selling for over 600:1 on the auctionhouse, making the 500:1 exchange a really bad deal. In sto that mechanic doesn't apply.
So your comment was right as far as sto, 500:1 is the best deal possible for a seller. But so was his, in neverwinter.
Thought you might appreciate the context even though the conversation has moved on.
So, wait, you buy stuff from other players with dil? Like, I want the kemocite. Instead of 20 million ec I give some amount of dilithium?
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."
So, when rates are high, Zen sellers boast, and Dil sellers complain.
And when rates are low Dil sellers boast, and Zen sellers complain.
And in either case, the ones doing the boasting don't seem to think there is anything wrong at all...
I'm really glad I'm not advocating for any specific point-of-view, I've tried to point out the issues with the current high rates as unbiased as I can. Which, in hindsight, probably make me appear to support the Dil seller's point-of-view.
So, I'll just cover my bases and go over the effects of having an extremely low rate.
First off, Zen sellers will complain lol. But more importantly there will be fewer of them offering to sell Zen for dilithium, which results in less Zen income for Cryptic.
Also, the amount of dilithium offers would pile up, resulting in rates approaching the minimum rate of 25:1, which would be woefully insufficient to maintain Cryptic's Zen sales, but would also make grinding dilithium much more profitable than buying it with Zen. This would effectively crash the Dil/Zen economy, anyone remember Neverwinter? Yeah, similar scenario. (Just at the opposite end of the spectrum)
Which means that STO needs** paying players to keep buying Zen to exchange for dilithium, rather than it being more time-efficient to just grind out the dilithium. I'm reluctant to say this, but for the system to work it has to be harder (more time-consuming) to get dilithium through in-game means than buying it with Zen.
This does not, however, mean that Zen sellers should be selling their Zen at exorbitant rates, as dilithium sellers need to feel as they are getting rates that would justify their efforts, just as Zen sellers feel they should get rates that would justify their investment.
Which brings me back to the argument that the demand for dilithium hasn't increased much (and possibly decreased as current 'sinks' finish up), yet the demand for Zen has increased , with each new C-Store ship and lockbox. So, STO needs something that Zen sellers would find worth buying dilithium to use on.
**Perhaps not need, specifically, but it would be beneficial to the general health of the game in terms of financial solvency.
Now, I think I'll leave this thread alone as I believe that many would find this comment 'flame worthy' and I'm really in no mood to get into an argument over something which Cryptic will no doubt look into and make up their own minds on...
I do not recall ever hearing a complaint from a zen seller when the price was in the 130's. Nor when it began to rise to the 180-250 range. Nor in the last 5 months when it has doubled in price. I guess I might not have noticed but I was much more active then.
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."
You all realize that the original post was only three weeks ago and the price is up almost 25% since then?
Low cost zen is gone.
There has never been low-cost Zen, and there has never been high-cost Zen. If it hits the cap of 500, that will be low-cost Zen (yes, low-cost, because it could be undervalued). If it was ever at the cap of 25, that would be high-cost Zen. Anything between the caps is a fair market value based on what sellers of each currency think it's worth.
I have no more dreams of converting my dil to Zen, but I realize how easy it is to get dil now, and how little there is to spend it on, so it's perfectly logical that I'd need a ton of it to buy a currency that's based on cash.
You all realize that the original post was only three weeks ago and the price is up almost 25% since then?
Low cost zen is gone.
There has never been low-cost Zen, and there has never been high-cost Zen. If it hits the cap of 500, that will be low-cost Zen (yes, low-cost, because it could be undervalued). If it was ever at the cap of 25, that would be high-cost Zen. Anything between the caps is a fair market value based on what sellers of each currency think it's worth.
I have no more dreams of converting my dil to Zen, but I realize how easy it is to get dil now, and how little there is to spend it on, so it's perfectly logical that I'd need a ton of it to buy a currency that's based on cash.
"Low-cost value" to whom, I wonder?
I'd really love to hear your explanation of "value" here... if anything, I'd see the "value" of Zen being over-inflated by the fact you can simply obtain more Dilithium in exchange for your Zen if you're selling it, rather than the opposite?
OTOH, if the market was 130:1 then you'd obtain less Dil for selling Zen, which would mean the Zen is undervalued, no?
Perhaps it's just me who's confused by your statement.
It's not you- it's me. I just need my space.
Being critical doesn't take skill. Being constructively critical- which is providing alternative solutions or suggestions to a demonstrated problem, however, does.
I do not recall ever hearing a complaint from a zen seller when the price was in the 130's. Nor when it began to rise to the 180-250 range. Nor in the last 5 months when it has doubled in price. I guess I might not have noticed but I was much more active then.
That's because Zen sellers have never had a reason to complain in the past- until the prices started rubber-banding. Once they realized they couldn't obtain MORE dil for their Zen did they complain- but not beforehand.
It's not you- it's me. I just need my space.
Being critical doesn't take skill. Being constructively critical- which is providing alternative solutions or suggestions to a demonstrated problem, however, does.
that is the game for me! Why can't we have this in STO? Make it so!
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."
You all realize that the original post was only three weeks ago and the price is up almost 25% since then?
Low cost zen is gone.
There has never been low-cost Zen, and there has never been high-cost Zen. If it hits the cap of 500, that will be low-cost Zen (yes, low-cost, because it could be undervalued). If it was ever at the cap of 25, that would be high-cost Zen. Anything between the caps is a fair market value based on what sellers of each currency think it's worth.
I have no more dreams of converting my dil to Zen, but I realize how easy it is to get dil now, and how little there is to spend it on, so it's perfectly logical that I'd need a ton of it to buy a currency that's based on cash.
"Low-cost value" to whom, I wonder?
I'd really love to hear your explanation of "value" here... if anything, I'd see the "value" of Zen being over-inflated by the fact you can simply obtain more Dilithium in exchange for your Zen if you're selling it, rather than the opposite?
OTOH, if the market was 130:1 then you'd obtain less Dil for selling Zen, which would mean the Zen is undervalued, no?
Perhaps it's just me who's confused by your statement.
Just because you need a wheelbarrow full of rubles to buy a sandwich doesn't mean that the sandwich is now "high cost." It means rubles experienced huge inflation due to supply increases with no corresponding demand increases.
Any market value is the right cost, not high-cost or low-cost. If it hits 500 and it could've sold at 1000 without a cap, that's some low-cost Zen right there. You'd be getting it for 50% off - what a deal!
Zen for 490 dil isn't expensive. Rubles are just worthless.
Honestly, I'd be telling Zen sellers to suck it up if the rate had a fallout that wasnt advantageous to them and the complained, and wanted Cryptic snd others to take action, call other people names, etc.
The market rate is what it is, if you find it advantageous, buy/sell, if not, dont.
Not likely, but not because of the powercreep itself. Anything that is powercreep is usually a one-time purchase, that is a bandaid not a cure.
Anything that is expensive enough to impact those who are swimming in dil locks out the dil poor. Anything cheaper than that has a small and temporary effect.
One mobile game I used to play had guild wide buffs that cost like $25 each and lasted a day plus there were 5 total. No guilds sustained that permanently, but it did get used occasionally. That is a permanent sink via powercreep in a form I could support, but tweaking the numbers to fit stos economy and gameplay.
but a console that costs 10 million dil? No. Useless as a sink and not good powercreep.
I think a lot of people here don't know what a fair price and a just price are.
A fair price is a price both parties agree to. It's the price that convinces producers to provide a supply, but is sufficiently low that consumers will pay it. If the market is working - if folks' zen is selling - the current price is fair. Since the market IS moving and nobody is being forced to buy Zen, definitionally, the price is fair.
The just price is the price which causes the least harm. Since we're talking about essentially setting the cost in game hours of imaginary space ships and the numbers attached to them, since you don't need an imaginary space ship with high numbers to play the game, and since Cryptic gives away for a low number of hours three high numbers imaginary space ships a year, the difference in justice between the "least just" price and the "most just" price is marginal. It's also going to be mostly found in the second order effects of any effort to change the price.
Basically, outside the dilex, any change to supply and demand on dilithium will have winners and losers. These winners and losers are not direct participants in the dilex - when they want dilithium, they earn it in play; when they want Zen they buy it with their preferred national currency.
And, by my analysis, changes to the game to reduce supply or increase demand for dilithium produce a lot more losers than winners in this lot. The only possible exception - and thus the only change of that sort I can endorse - is to raise the refining cap by 100-200% and make it account wide rather than character wide (losers: people who seriously dilithium farm on multiple characters lose refinenent capacity. Winners: easier logistics for everyone; might encourage more active KDF play).
Would you guys be happy if they added a big dilithium sink attached to a new kind of power creep?
An electronic component may need a sink to get rid of the excess waste heat that we never wanted in the first place. Dil doesn't need a "sink," it needs a real use, like buying fancy ships and costumes and such. I have the feeling that such things are stuck as Zen/metrics only from here on out, though.
I think a lot of people here don't know what a fair price and a just price are.
A fair price is a price both parties agree to. It's the price that convinces producers to provide a supply, but is sufficiently low that consumers will pay it. If the market is working - if folks' zen is selling - the current price is fair. Since the market IS moving and nobody is being forced to buy Zen, definitionally, the price is fair.
The just price is the price which causes the least harm. Since we're talking about essentially setting the cost in game hours of imaginary space ships and the numbers attached to them, since you don't need an imaginary space ship with high numbers to play the game, and since Cryptic gives away for a low number of hours three high numbers imaginary space ships a year, the difference in justice between the "least just" price and the "most just" price is marginal. It's also going to be mostly found in the second order effects of any effort to change the price.
Basically, outside the dilex, any change to supply and demand on dilithium will have winners and losers. These winners and losers are not direct participants in the dilex - when they want dilithium, they earn it in play; when they want Zen they buy it with their preferred national currency.
And, by my analysis, changes to the game to reduce supply or increase demand for dilithium produce a lot more losers than winners in this lot. The only possible exception - and thus the only change of that sort I can endorse - is to raise the refining cap by 100-200% and make it account wide rather than character wide (losers: people who seriously dilithium farm on multiple characters lose refinenent capacity. Winners: easier logistics for everyone; might encourage more active KDF play).
So I can't endorse sinks.
I was with you until that last part - people who seriously farm dilithium don't just use multiple characters, they use multiple accounts. That change wouldn't work as well as you think it would.
Aside from a dilithium sink, i think that reducing the cost of items in the dilithium store and rep stores would go a long way.
E.g. currently i find the dilithium cost of BM phaser beam arrays too high for the actual value of the weapon, especially since you need multiple. Cutting the dilithium cost by 50% would IMO lead to more purchases thereby siphoning away dilithium fom the market.
This program, though reasonably normal at times, seems to have a strong affinity to classes belonging to the Cat 2.0 program. Questerius 2.7 will break down on occasion, resulting in garbage and nonsense messages whenever it occurs. Usually a hard reboot or pulling the plug solves the problem when that happens.
Aside from a dilithium sink, i think that reducing the cost of items in the dilithium store and rep stores would go a long way.
E.g. currently i find the dilithium cost of BM phaser beam arrays too high for the actual value of the weapon, especially since you need multiple. Cutting the dilithium cost by 50% would IMO lead to more purchases thereby siphoning away dilithium fom the market.
Why are you assuming that the number of new phaser array purchases from people who don't want to buy at the current price but would want to buy at half price is greater than the number of phaser arrays that are being purchased right now? Anything less than that would mean more dil inflation.
You all realize that the original post was only three weeks ago and the price is up almost 25% since then?
Low cost zen is gone.
There has never been low-cost Zen, and there has never been high-cost Zen. If it hits the cap of 500, that will be low-cost Zen (yes, low-cost, because it could be undervalued). If it was ever at the cap of 25, that would be high-cost Zen. Anything between the caps is a fair market value based on what sellers of each currency think it's worth.
I have no more dreams of converting my dil to Zen, but I realize how easy it is to get dil now, and how little there is to spend it on, so it's perfectly logical that I'd need a ton of it to buy a currency that's based on cash.
Aside from a dilithium sink, i think that reducing the cost of items in the dilithium store and rep stores would go a long way.
E.g. currently i find the dilithium cost of BM phaser beam arrays too high for the actual value of the weapon, especially since you need multiple. Cutting the dilithium cost by 50% would IMO lead to more purchases thereby siphoning away dilithium fom the market.
Why are you assuming that the number of new phaser array purchases from people who don't want to buy at the current price but would want to buy at half price is greater than the number of phaser arrays that are being purchased right now? Anything less than that would mean more dil inflation.
The current price is too steep for people to experiment. Currently a beam array from the rep store cost 22500 dilithium. http://sto.gamepedia.com/Bio-Molecular_Disruptor_Beam_Array
For any build one usually needs 6 BA for a total cost of 135000 dilithium. That's a little over 2 weeks worth of refined dilithium for a single character.
A lower dilithium cost will allow for experimentation. Currently the threshold is simply too high.
Using rep gear can be a bit risky since you essentially trade one modifier for the rep specific mod and with the high cost involved players will be less inclined to test.
This program, though reasonably normal at times, seems to have a strong affinity to classes belonging to the Cat 2.0 program. Questerius 2.7 will break down on occasion, resulting in garbage and nonsense messages whenever it occurs. Usually a hard reboot or pulling the plug solves the problem when that happens.
It won't be long for 500 mark. This morning it was like 498. That will make a 3k zen ship be like 1,500,000 dil worth. Going by my usual dil farming, that would take me over a year to farm out. So basically, its just cheaper for me to buy the zen with $. Then sit there and farm only dil for a year on my characters.
USS Casinghead NCC 92047 launched 2350
Fleet Admiral Stowe - Dominion War Vet.
Having thought about it i'll admit I don't like the current Dilex rate, but i except it is what it is. I just have to wait a little longer and refine a few extra days or a week in order to have enough Dil to purchase the require amount of Zen i need for the C-Store item i want.
I've dropped several thousand pounds on the game over the 4 and a bit years i've been here, but currently i'm not in the position to drop anymore real cash on the game (Unemployment). However although i do grind dilithium across my account i remember that i'm earning this dilithium by playing a game i enjoy. If grinding Dil is no longer fun because the Dilex rate makes earning Zen take a little longer, than time to re-evaluate why you are really logging in and playing a computer game which is primary for entertainment value. Patience is a virtue.
Also whether the Dilex is 50-1 or 500-1 every bit of Dilithium you are using to purchase Zen off that exchange is earned by simply logging in and playing, so Dil is free and every bit you use to buy Zen is free Zen someone else has paid for.
The biggest hindrance isn't ness the price of the Dilex but the daily refinement cap. I can quite easily earn over 152000k dil on a single character, but can only get access to 8000k a day.
More people need to unlock lower tier ships for admiralty cards. That chewed up a bit of my Dilithium surplus .
This too. I actually did this as well, not originally for the admiralty cards but because I liked having options. I actually had to get more Dry Dock storage just so I wouldn't have to decom the old ships.
Some of them are actually still quite useful (well, to me, anyway- but then again I never bought into the "FOTM/shiny/blingy" mentality) to me and I'll occasionally bring em out to play a few episodes with.
A few of them require a ton of Fleet Credit which I've been trudging along trying to obtain as well- I kind of wish they'd offer alternative methods of getting them (like Dil or EC) but that will likely never happen, either. For "base" ships that have been released with the game, I don't see the point in payment methods being exclusive anymore, seeing as how there's a ton of others that are exclusive, but I'm not going to hijack this thread with that argument.
It's not you- it's me. I just need my space.
Being critical doesn't take skill. Being constructively critical- which is providing alternative solutions or suggestions to a demonstrated problem, however, does.
Comments
Low cost zen is gone.
So, wait, you buy stuff from other players with dil? Like, I want the kemocite. Instead of 20 million ec I give some amount of dilithium?
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
And when rates are low Dil sellers boast, and Zen sellers complain.
And in either case, the ones doing the boasting don't seem to think there is anything wrong at all...
I'm really glad I'm not advocating for any specific point-of-view, I've tried to point out the issues with the current high rates as unbiased as I can. Which, in hindsight, probably make me appear to support the Dil seller's point-of-view.
So, I'll just cover my bases and go over the effects of having an extremely low rate.
First off, Zen sellers will complain lol. But more importantly there will be fewer of them offering to sell Zen for dilithium, which results in less Zen income for Cryptic.
Also, the amount of dilithium offers would pile up, resulting in rates approaching the minimum rate of 25:1, which would be woefully insufficient to maintain Cryptic's Zen sales, but would also make grinding dilithium much more profitable than buying it with Zen. This would effectively crash the Dil/Zen economy, anyone remember Neverwinter? Yeah, similar scenario. (Just at the opposite end of the spectrum)
Which means that STO needs** paying players to keep buying Zen to exchange for dilithium, rather than it being more time-efficient to just grind out the dilithium. I'm reluctant to say this, but for the system to work it has to be harder (more time-consuming) to get dilithium through in-game means than buying it with Zen.
This does not, however, mean that Zen sellers should be selling their Zen at exorbitant rates, as dilithium sellers need to feel as they are getting rates that would justify their efforts, just as Zen sellers feel they should get rates that would justify their investment.
Which brings me back to the argument that the demand for dilithium hasn't increased much (and possibly decreased as current 'sinks' finish up), yet the demand for Zen has increased , with each new C-Store ship and lockbox. So, STO needs something that Zen sellers would find worth buying dilithium to use on.
**Perhaps not need, specifically, but it would be beneficial to the general health of the game in terms of financial solvency.
Now, I think I'll leave this thread alone as I believe that many would find this comment 'flame worthy' and I'm really in no mood to get into an argument over something which Cryptic will no doubt look into and make up their own minds on...
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
There has never been low-cost Zen, and there has never been high-cost Zen. If it hits the cap of 500, that will be low-cost Zen (yes, low-cost, because it could be undervalued). If it was ever at the cap of 25, that would be high-cost Zen. Anything between the caps is a fair market value based on what sellers of each currency think it's worth.
I have no more dreams of converting my dil to Zen, but I realize how easy it is to get dil now, and how little there is to spend it on, so it's perfectly logical that I'd need a ton of it to buy a currency that's based on cash.
"Low-cost value" to whom, I wonder?
I'd really love to hear your explanation of "value" here... if anything, I'd see the "value" of Zen being over-inflated by the fact you can simply obtain more Dilithium in exchange for your Zen if you're selling it, rather than the opposite?
OTOH, if the market was 130:1 then you'd obtain less Dil for selling Zen, which would mean the Zen is undervalued, no?
Perhaps it's just me who's confused by your statement.
Being critical doesn't take skill. Being constructively critical- which is providing alternative solutions or suggestions to a demonstrated problem, however, does.
That's because Zen sellers have never had a reason to complain in the past- until the prices started rubber-banding. Once they realized they couldn't obtain MORE dil for their Zen did they complain- but not beforehand.
Being critical doesn't take skill. Being constructively critical- which is providing alternative solutions or suggestions to a demonstrated problem, however, does.
So, wait, you buy stuff from other players with dil? Like, I want the kemocite. Instead of 20 million ec I give some amount of dilithium?
[/quote]
Exactly. This rendered ec (gold) worthless, and had been exploited multiple times. The most famous being caturday
https://blog.nwo-uncensored.com/exploit-history-caturday/
that is the game for me! Why can't we have this in STO? Make it so!
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
Just because you need a wheelbarrow full of rubles to buy a sandwich doesn't mean that the sandwich is now "high cost." It means rubles experienced huge inflation due to supply increases with no corresponding demand increases.
Any market value is the right cost, not high-cost or low-cost. If it hits 500 and it could've sold at 1000 without a cap, that's some low-cost Zen right there. You'd be getting it for 50% off - what a deal!
Zen for 490 dil isn't expensive. Rubles are just worthless.
All the more reason to remove the market cap.
Honestly, I'd be telling Zen sellers to suck it up if the rate had a fallout that wasnt advantageous to them and the complained, and wanted Cryptic snd others to take action, call other people names, etc.
The market rate is what it is, if you find it advantageous, buy/sell, if not, dont.
Basically, yes - although personally I would say to just increase it by a huge amount, to 5k or so. Removing a cap entirely can be... problematic.
So, wait, you buy stuff from other players with dil? Like, I want the kemocite. Instead of 20 million ec I give some amount of dilithium?
[/quote]
Exactly. This rendered ec (gold) worthless, and had been exploited multiple times. The most famous being caturday
https://blog.nwo-uncensored.com/exploit-history-caturday/[/quote]
that is the game for me! Why can't we have this in STO? Make it so!
[/quote]
Well, it basically means removing ec as a currency. And it is exploitable enough that it caused cryptic to do a rollback.
Plus, it is functionally the same as an uncapped exchange.
I'm open to bring persuaded it can work, but right now I see more cons than pros.
Anything that is expensive enough to impact those who are swimming in dil locks out the dil poor. Anything cheaper than that has a small and temporary effect.
One mobile game I used to play had guild wide buffs that cost like $25 each and lasted a day plus there were 5 total. No guilds sustained that permanently, but it did get used occasionally. That is a permanent sink via powercreep in a form I could support, but tweaking the numbers to fit stos economy and gameplay.
but a console that costs 10 million dil? No. Useless as a sink and not good powercreep.
A fair price is a price both parties agree to. It's the price that convinces producers to provide a supply, but is sufficiently low that consumers will pay it. If the market is working - if folks' zen is selling - the current price is fair. Since the market IS moving and nobody is being forced to buy Zen, definitionally, the price is fair.
The just price is the price which causes the least harm. Since we're talking about essentially setting the cost in game hours of imaginary space ships and the numbers attached to them, since you don't need an imaginary space ship with high numbers to play the game, and since Cryptic gives away for a low number of hours three high numbers imaginary space ships a year, the difference in justice between the "least just" price and the "most just" price is marginal. It's also going to be mostly found in the second order effects of any effort to change the price.
Basically, outside the dilex, any change to supply and demand on dilithium will have winners and losers. These winners and losers are not direct participants in the dilex - when they want dilithium, they earn it in play; when they want Zen they buy it with their preferred national currency.
And, by my analysis, changes to the game to reduce supply or increase demand for dilithium produce a lot more losers than winners in this lot. The only possible exception - and thus the only change of that sort I can endorse - is to raise the refining cap by 100-200% and make it account wide rather than character wide (losers: people who seriously dilithium farm on multiple characters lose refinenent capacity. Winners: easier logistics for everyone; might encourage more active KDF play).
So I can't endorse sinks.
An electronic component may need a sink to get rid of the excess waste heat that we never wanted in the first place. Dil doesn't need a "sink," it needs a real use, like buying fancy ships and costumes and such. I have the feeling that such things are stuck as Zen/metrics only from here on out, though.
I was with you until that last part - people who seriously farm dilithium don't just use multiple characters, they use multiple accounts. That change wouldn't work as well as you think it would.
E.g. currently i find the dilithium cost of BM phaser beam arrays too high for the actual value of the weapon, especially since you need multiple. Cutting the dilithium cost by 50% would IMO lead to more purchases thereby siphoning away dilithium fom the market.
Why are you assuming that the number of new phaser array purchases from people who don't want to buy at the current price but would want to buy at half price is greater than the number of phaser arrays that are being purchased right now? Anything less than that would mean more dil inflation.
The lowest I have seen was 99
The current price is too steep for people to experiment. Currently a beam array from the rep store cost 22500 dilithium.
http://sto.gamepedia.com/Bio-Molecular_Disruptor_Beam_Array
For any build one usually needs 6 BA for a total cost of 135000 dilithium. That's a little over 2 weeks worth of refined dilithium for a single character.
A lower dilithium cost will allow for experimentation. Currently the threshold is simply too high.
Using rep gear can be a bit risky since you essentially trade one modifier for the rep specific mod and with the high cost involved players will be less inclined to test.
USS Casinghead NCC 92047 launched 2350
Fleet Admiral Stowe - Dominion War Vet.
I've dropped several thousand pounds on the game over the 4 and a bit years i've been here, but currently i'm not in the position to drop anymore real cash on the game (Unemployment). However although i do grind dilithium across my account i remember that i'm earning this dilithium by playing a game i enjoy. If grinding Dil is no longer fun because the Dilex rate makes earning Zen take a little longer, than time to re-evaluate why you are really logging in and playing a computer game which is primary for entertainment value. Patience is a virtue.
Also whether the Dilex is 50-1 or 500-1 every bit of Dilithium you are using to purchase Zen off that exchange is earned by simply logging in and playing, so Dil is free and every bit you use to buy Zen is free Zen someone else has paid for.
The biggest hindrance isn't ness the price of the Dilex but the daily refinement cap. I can quite easily earn over 152000k dil on a single character, but can only get access to 8000k a day.
Some of them are actually still quite useful (well, to me, anyway- but then again I never bought into the "FOTM/shiny/blingy" mentality) to me and I'll occasionally bring em out to play a few episodes with.
A few of them require a ton of Fleet Credit which I've been trudging along trying to obtain as well- I kind of wish they'd offer alternative methods of getting them (like Dil or EC) but that will likely never happen, either. For "base" ships that have been released with the game, I don't see the point in payment methods being exclusive anymore, seeing as how there's a ton of others that are exclusive, but I'm not going to hijack this thread with that argument.
Being critical doesn't take skill. Being constructively critical- which is providing alternative solutions or suggestions to a demonstrated problem, however, does.