There is no excuse not to be able to afford a tos connie if you've played the game for a year+
Been here since closed beta and I stick to cstore ships only, as they're guaranteed and account unlocked. No excuse required, as character unlocked gamble ships don't fit that criteria.
Don't get me wrong, some of the ships and traits look good, but I would need to many of each gamble ship to ever be a feasible endeavor...
I would gladly loan out ec for people to buy the ships they want, but the general playerbase in this game is so incompetent at learning the very basics of STO's economy that I'd never get repaid and would wind up space broke in a day.
Well, the problem with that is that it's not exactly easy to learn.
People who know how to make money don't often share that information. It's nothing against them.. I get it.. if you tell everyone how to do it, then it hurts your bottom line. It's not like the 'uber rich' are being intentionally selfish, it's just that being too forthright with information will hurt them, it's not like learning how to up your DPS, people don't share the information.
What doesn't make sense is why people who are so rich have to hold it over people and be so rude about it. I have been playing this game for years, I can make enough money to save up and buy an occasional lobi ship or two, but how people make billions is still beyond me. Call me 'incompetent' if you wish but my normal path when I don't understand something is to gather information on that topic and educate myself. In this case, the information simply doesn't exist.
If someone is willing to teach, I'm willing to learn.. otherwise, don't judge people for not knowing how to do something.
I explained how to make money off lockbox ships a few posts up.
A helpful tip for those with capital to invest.
What would you suggest for someone starting out? maybe someone who can't afford to spend a few hundred million per ship to just sit on and wait?
Don't get me wrong, the information was good and well appreciated, but it's something to work up to not something to start with. I'm not asking you to divulge all your secrets, it's understandable why you wouldn't want to, just a couple easy things for those struggling to make money to get them a start.
What would you suggest for someone starting out? maybe someone who can't afford to spend a few hundred million per ship to just sit on and wait?
WAY off topic
for just starting out hit the missions/patrols that pay out a ton of vendor trash... 1 argala run is generally worth 100k or more ec. Assuming you can stomach the grinding and alt grinding ofc.
back on topic a t6 Fleet ship is 5 modules, each at 500z, so ok if thats a bit too cheap, then double it. that $50 for a 'ooo shiny' for cryptic and still maintains the best reasons for the promotion! vessels
Might as well weigh in on this, since I'm being pestered to.
I think it's a great idea, but it probably won't be implemented because A) Most veteran players are elitist snobs that don't realize the resource gulf between a new player and someone who remembers when the Romulans were first introduced as a faction, and The development team has, by and large, proven itself to be largely indifferent to player ideas, even when they were good ones.
honestly, if they don't have the specialist seating, they're not T6. You might as well ask for a T5/T5-U Connie since that's essentially what it is close to.
Works for me. If lockbox versions are T6 Fleet level, make a 'poor man's' endgame Connie be either T5-U or T-6 non-fleet level. Maybe give it the same ship mastery but 1/2 strength. I'm sure Cryptic could sell plenty of them in the C-store. Even if the poor man's version comes 3-6 months after the lockbox version.
Half the time I don't use any specialist powers on my ships anyway so no great loss.
So tons of people want an end game Connie/T'liss/D7(K't'inga)/Khenn but don't/won't shuck out the absurd buckets of $$ or EC to get them at current market prices. I'm sure there are a few others that came out of Promotion! boxes or other sources as well.
So how about this:
Fleet t6 versions, no specialist seating, no ship trait, no special weapon or console, "just" the ship and normal seating and t1-4 mastery. This gives Cryptic their money, retains the value of the originals, and lets the rest of us pick a favorite ship to fly.
This exactly this is more how it should have been done instead of the finger raised by Cryptic and CBS to Trek fans.
Your idea is never going to happen.. 0% chance. The best way to get the ship you want is to learn how to play the game of generating money. I figured some helpful advice on how to get what you want would be beneficial to you, but that's fine.. we'll stay on topic of things you want that are never going to happen.
And while I'm not financial Wizard, I know that doing patrols for vendor trash is not how you're going to get billions of EC. I have EC, I'm no where near the same category as Druk, but I can buy Lobi ships when I want them. I was hoping that those 'in the know' would give a little information to help those who were struggling, but if it's off topic then never mind.
There is no excuse not to be able to afford a tos connie if you've played the game for a year+
I guess you never crafted gear or upgraded it or bought it of the exchange never chipped in a single EC to your fleet projects either. Plus have a life outside of this game.
I explained how to make money off lockbox ships a few posts up.
A helpful tip for those with capital to invest.
What would you suggest for someone starting out? maybe someone who can't afford to spend a few hundred million per ship to just sit on and wait?
Don't get me wrong, the information was good and well appreciated, but it's something to work up to not something to start with. I'm not asking you to divulge all your secrets, it's understandable why you wouldn't want to, just a couple easy things for those struggling to make money to get them a start.
For what it's worth, your tip was appreciated.
Grinding dil is an obvious one, but there are others.
Degrinding blue/purple doffs down to white and selling the whites on the ex, crafting mk2 weapons trying to get good mods, farming contraband with kdf doffing, producing upgrade techs, admiralty, endeavors, flipping keys for like 100k profit. It all adds up.
What matters most is that you get in the right mindset of never wasting your money, always only using it to get more money.
Those are some solid tips.. thanks. Hopefully, people will take them and use them since they really are the best way to get things they want in this game. Proposing a fundamental change to the entire business model is highly unlikely to yield any real result while changing the tactics one uses to get the things they want is a much more viable course of action.
Ultimately OP, your best bet is going to be either using this advice and buying the ship, or playing the 'lock box lottery.' I use a lot of the tricks listed and while I'm no billionaire, ships that range for 3 or 4 hundred million are usually within range for me. If I used Druk's tactic and flipped lock box ships a long with some of the stuff Napalm said, a billion EC really wouldn't be that daunting of a task.
I know you think we took your thread off topic, but ultimately we're just trying to tell you how to get what you want in the highly likely event that your proposal is not implemented. You have the information, it's just a matter of putting the knowledge to use.
The idea you have proposed would kill the games single biggest money making device and ultimately hurt the game for everyone. It's far more beneficial to everyone if instead, you just adjust your approach and use what you have been given to get what you want. Sorry if you think this is off topic, but it really is the best way to help you.
I explained how to make money off lockbox ships a few posts up.
A helpful tip for those with capital to invest.
What would you suggest for someone starting out? maybe someone who can't afford to spend a few hundred million per ship to just sit on and wait?
Don't get me wrong, the information was good and well appreciated, but it's something to work up to not something to start with. I'm not asking you to divulge all your secrets, it's understandable why you wouldn't want to, just a couple easy things for those struggling to make money to get them a start.
For what it's worth, your tip was appreciated.
Grinding dil is an obvious one, but there are others.
Degrinding blue/purple doffs down to white and selling the whites on the ex, crafting mk2 weapons trying to get good mods, farming contraband with kdf doffing, producing upgrade techs, admiralty, endeavors, flipping keys for like 100k profit. It all adds up.
What matters most is that you get in the right mindset of never wasting your money, always only using it to get more money.
The thing is, you can acquire EC while a new player - it is probably the easiest of the main resources to get in bulk, hence why there are so many EC billlionaires.
If you start a new Fed and skip the tutorial and then vendor every item of value, you'll have about 3770 EC. (IIRC)
Then go to the exchange, where you take a glance at the prices of training manuals for abilities people actually want (no one for example, uses gravity well 2) and then you either trawl through the bridge officer category looking for boffs with those abilities, then you turn them into manuals.
You then list the manuals for sale.
This step gives you potentially up to 1m EC if you did the right manuals in about a day or two once the stuff is sold.
You now have the float needed to look at some of the Ferengi's points above. (you'll need to be level 11 to do the doff grind-down, level 15 to start the crafting of weapons, multiple characters to do effective Contraband farming, level 15 in crafting skills to do the upgrades people actually use (not really an option for a brand new player) level 52 to start admiralty (and with a steep initial overhead; the 5+1 ships you get through levelling by missions are not enough) Endeavours you'll really need to be level 50+ to do most of the ones seen so far, and flipping keys will require at least 5m EC to get the key to flip.
Of these, for someone just starting out, my method above/grinding down doffs are the most reliable profit to get enough EC that you can start looking into flipping stuff.
Another to consider is buying the 20-pack of lockboxes for the Infinity box with Dil when it is around - once the next lockbox is released, you can sell them for a vast profit if you don't mind the wait and opportunity cost in inventory space. (2000 Dil buys 11 packs of 20, each pack can sell for hundreds of thousands of EC, so one pack's worth goes on the contraband needed to replace the 2000 Dil investment; the rest are pure profit)
Once you get to those levels of EC, it is important to know the market; buy when price is low, sell when it is high. Goes for everything, although lockbox ships are a main example of this because of the Infinity box (and the same purposed old way of dropping all boxes for a time) rapidly increasing supply which then gets used up until the next infinity box.
Your idea is never going to happen.. 0% chance. The best way to get the ship you want is to learn how to play the game of generating money. I figured some helpful advice on how to get what you want would be beneficial to you, but that's fine.. we'll stay on topic of things you want that are never going to happen.
And while I'm not financial Wizard, I know that doing patrols for vendor trash is not how you're going to get billions of EC. I have EC, I'm no where near the same category as Druk, but I can buy Lobi ships when I want them. I was hoping that those 'in the know' would give a little information to help those who were struggling, but if it's off topic then never mind.
Thanks anyway Druk/Nabreeki.
its and idea thread it doesn't matter if it gets implemented or not, if you look at my second post in this thread I stated I expected it to be ignored by the devs.
Also I was responding to your statement as to where a noob starts... You start there, moving up to the big stuff others suggested. Its not the be all no, its the start point.
its and idea thread it doesn't matter if it gets implemented or not, if you look at my second post in this thread I stated I expected it to be ignored by the devs.
Also I was responding to your statement as to where a noob starts... You start there, moving up to the big stuff others suggested. Its not the be all no, its the start point.
Fair enough, I hope you're able to get the ship you want.
I have nothing else of value to add on the topic of your idea, so I'll let it rest there. Best of luck to you.
@kodachikuno - There are incentives for all types of playstyles. That is what motivates multiple types of players to be here. As much as your claim could be partially reasonable, you still got T6 fleet ships. And they're pretty amazing. If in doubt, FED: Fleet Arbiter Battlecruiser, KDF: Fleet Kurak (Mogh T6) battlecruiser and ROM: Fleet Morrigu (T6 Mogai) are the best fleet choices. OSS, good tactical slotting, can use beams, dual beams +omnies or dhc +turrets due to their 5-3,5-3,4-3 weapons layout.
Or if you want to support the game and buy a zen ship, even a single purchase, I totally recommend the Tactical Flagships. FED: Endeavour Class, KDF: Martok Class and ROM: Khopesh class. The console which they come with (Tactical Flagship Computer) is amazing and the trait they provide is also amazing. You just need to have a Torpspead2/3 slotted and you'll end up with 30% all damage to beams and around 5%+ crth and +20% crtd (roughly).
Science is also a nice place to play. And can get very effective with lower expenditure. Sci ships with their secondary deflectors and the sensor analysis can be quite nasty.
@repetitiveepic - You can't win this one out. There are distinct classes of players who won't turn in time to manipulate the market. And presuming they would, they need a hefty pile of resources to start with. Which they don't possess and largely are not committed to farm it. If you want to make a good deed, have the guy pick a ship from the lobi store and gift it to him. He's clearly not gonna get closer to one than accidentally colliding with one in ESD.
As a casual player, I understand the lack of time or the lack of resources. And I understand that some random guy telling you "Go farm it, look, that's how it's done" won't make much of a difference.
@kodachikuno again - Cutting someone with "kthxbai" is like trying to argue that you weren't the first guy in your class in the math olympics because you have a mental handicap. It's there, we notice it, we tried to ignore it, don't try to over-argue it. Makes you look bad, gives us a milion reasons to amuse ourselves. The entitled "non-judgemental, new-age, japanese-comic-loving, hipsterish" individual is actually not such a likable guy. You don't want to be that guy, regardless of what you friends tell you.
This topic can be easily closed after someone simply rambles some emotional post after mine. Regardless of who that is. You got all the aspects of your ship issue covered in our posts. Now you just gotta read and choose. And I understand your point of view.
Honestly earning EC in the game is not hard, as @repetitiveepic has said quite often. Just just need a small initial investment of a few keys and you can can start climbing up that ladder. Simple really to earn your way from there.
Buy key > sell for EC > buy some undervalued training manuals or weapons or consoles > sell for profit > repeat several times until you have around 50-100M > buy and resell undervalued lockbox ships to leap frog up. Even making a coupne of EC each time you resell will add up.
I'm pretty casual, free-2-play and I've managed to get up to several hundred million EC, 4K dilithium and a T6 Connie. All over the course of one year of casual play.
Every billionaire in game started out like any other player with 0 ec. I see people online wasting every bit of ec on useless stuff, no wonder they have no space money to buy the expensive stuff. The first year I played I was space poor as well, but I learned what was valuable and profitable. Then I rolled out a new toon and started out with buying and reselling Saurian brandy. I know that sounds weird but hey it was a start with the same routine for every other item that can be put on the exchange, the items just went bigger and more expensive over time. Btw I bought that brandy on sfa for 16 ec and sold on the exchange for 4000 ec. Kdf needed it for doffing so don't know if it is still needed, but hey you got to start somewhere and 4 billions later I look back and say: what a ride! Ps. I didn't spend a single real life dime on the game besides my LTS
Comments
Been here since closed beta and I stick to cstore ships only, as they're guaranteed and account unlocked. No excuse required, as character unlocked gamble ships don't fit that criteria.
Don't get me wrong, some of the ships and traits look good, but I would need to many of each gamble ship to ever be a feasible endeavor...
Well, the problem with that is that it's not exactly easy to learn.
People who know how to make money don't often share that information. It's nothing against them.. I get it.. if you tell everyone how to do it, then it hurts your bottom line. It's not like the 'uber rich' are being intentionally selfish, it's just that being too forthright with information will hurt them, it's not like learning how to up your DPS, people don't share the information.
What doesn't make sense is why people who are so rich have to hold it over people and be so rude about it. I have been playing this game for years, I can make enough money to save up and buy an occasional lobi ship or two, but how people make billions is still beyond me. Call me 'incompetent' if you wish but my normal path when I don't understand something is to gather information on that topic and educate myself. In this case, the information simply doesn't exist.
If someone is willing to teach, I'm willing to learn.. otherwise, don't judge people for not knowing how to do something.
A helpful tip for those with capital to invest.
What would you suggest for someone starting out? maybe someone who can't afford to spend a few hundred million per ship to just sit on and wait?
Don't get me wrong, the information was good and well appreciated, but it's something to work up to not something to start with. I'm not asking you to divulge all your secrets, it's understandable why you wouldn't want to, just a couple easy things for those struggling to make money to get them a start.
For what it's worth, your tip was appreciated.
WAY off topic
for just starting out hit the missions/patrols that pay out a ton of vendor trash... 1 argala run is generally worth 100k or more ec. Assuming you can stomach the grinding and alt grinding ofc.
back on topic a t6 Fleet ship is 5 modules, each at 500z, so ok if thats a bit too cheap, then double it. that $50 for a 'ooo shiny' for cryptic and still maintains the best reasons for the promotion! vessels
I think it's a great idea, but it probably won't be implemented because A) Most veteran players are elitist snobs that don't realize the resource gulf between a new player and someone who remembers when the Romulans were first introduced as a faction, and
Works for me. If lockbox versions are T6 Fleet level, make a 'poor man's' endgame Connie be either T5-U or T-6 non-fleet level. Maybe give it the same ship mastery but 1/2 strength. I'm sure Cryptic could sell plenty of them in the C-store. Even if the poor man's version comes 3-6 months after the lockbox version.
Half the time I don't use any specialist powers on my ships anyway so no great loss.
This exactly this is more how it should have been done instead of the finger raised by Cryptic and CBS to Trek fans.
I was just trying to help you.
Your idea is never going to happen.. 0% chance. The best way to get the ship you want is to learn how to play the game of generating money. I figured some helpful advice on how to get what you want would be beneficial to you, but that's fine.. we'll stay on topic of things you want that are never going to happen.
And while I'm not financial Wizard, I know that doing patrols for vendor trash is not how you're going to get billions of EC. I have EC, I'm no where near the same category as Druk, but I can buy Lobi ships when I want them. I was hoping that those 'in the know' would give a little information to help those who were struggling, but if it's off topic then never mind.
Thanks anyway Druk/Nabreeki.
I guess you never crafted gear or upgraded it or bought it of the exchange never chipped in a single EC to your fleet projects either. Plus have a life outside of this game.
Those are some solid tips.. thanks. Hopefully, people will take them and use them since they really are the best way to get things they want in this game. Proposing a fundamental change to the entire business model is highly unlikely to yield any real result while changing the tactics one uses to get the things they want is a much more viable course of action.
Absolutely agreed.
Ultimately OP, your best bet is going to be either using this advice and buying the ship, or playing the 'lock box lottery.' I use a lot of the tricks listed and while I'm no billionaire, ships that range for 3 or 4 hundred million are usually within range for me. If I used Druk's tactic and flipped lock box ships a long with some of the stuff Napalm said, a billion EC really wouldn't be that daunting of a task.
I know you think we took your thread off topic, but ultimately we're just trying to tell you how to get what you want in the highly likely event that your proposal is not implemented. You have the information, it's just a matter of putting the knowledge to use.
The idea you have proposed would kill the games single biggest money making device and ultimately hurt the game for everyone. It's far more beneficial to everyone if instead, you just adjust your approach and use what you have been given to get what you want. Sorry if you think this is off topic, but it really is the best way to help you.
The thing is, you can acquire EC while a new player - it is probably the easiest of the main resources to get in bulk, hence why there are so many EC billlionaires.
If you start a new Fed and skip the tutorial and then vendor every item of value, you'll have about 3770 EC. (IIRC)
Then go to the exchange, where you take a glance at the prices of training manuals for abilities people actually want (no one for example, uses gravity well 2) and then you either trawl through the bridge officer category looking for boffs with those abilities, then you turn them into manuals.
You then list the manuals for sale.
This step gives you potentially up to 1m EC if you did the right manuals in about a day or two once the stuff is sold.
You now have the float needed to look at some of the Ferengi's points above. (you'll need to be level 11 to do the doff grind-down, level 15 to start the crafting of weapons, multiple characters to do effective Contraband farming, level 15 in crafting skills to do the upgrades people actually use (not really an option for a brand new player) level 52 to start admiralty (and with a steep initial overhead; the 5+1 ships you get through levelling by missions are not enough) Endeavours you'll really need to be level 50+ to do most of the ones seen so far, and flipping keys will require at least 5m EC to get the key to flip.
Of these, for someone just starting out, my method above/grinding down doffs are the most reliable profit to get enough EC that you can start looking into flipping stuff.
Another to consider is buying the 20-pack of lockboxes for the Infinity box with Dil when it is around - once the next lockbox is released, you can sell them for a vast profit if you don't mind the wait and opportunity cost in inventory space. (2000 Dil buys 11 packs of 20, each pack can sell for hundreds of thousands of EC, so one pack's worth goes on the contraband needed to replace the 2000 Dil investment; the rest are pure profit)
Once you get to those levels of EC, it is important to know the market; buy when price is low, sell when it is high. Goes for everything, although lockbox ships are a main example of this because of the Infinity box (and the same purposed old way of dropping all boxes for a time) rapidly increasing supply which then gets used up until the next infinity box.
Also I was responding to your statement as to where a noob starts... You start there, moving up to the big stuff others suggested. Its not the be all no, its the start point.
so make your own thread and stop derailing this one kthxbai.
Fair enough, I hope you're able to get the ship you want.
I have nothing else of value to add on the topic of your idea, so I'll let it rest there. Best of luck to you.
@kodachikuno - There are incentives for all types of playstyles. That is what motivates multiple types of players to be here. As much as your claim could be partially reasonable, you still got T6 fleet ships. And they're pretty amazing. If in doubt, FED: Fleet Arbiter Battlecruiser, KDF: Fleet Kurak (Mogh T6) battlecruiser and ROM: Fleet Morrigu (T6 Mogai) are the best fleet choices. OSS, good tactical slotting, can use beams, dual beams +omnies or dhc +turrets due to their 5-3,5-3,4-3 weapons layout.
Or if you want to support the game and buy a zen ship, even a single purchase, I totally recommend the Tactical Flagships. FED: Endeavour Class, KDF: Martok Class and ROM: Khopesh class. The console which they come with (Tactical Flagship Computer) is amazing and the trait they provide is also amazing. You just need to have a Torpspead2/3 slotted and you'll end up with 30% all damage to beams and around 5%+ crth and +20% crtd (roughly).
Science is also a nice place to play. And can get very effective with lower expenditure. Sci ships with their secondary deflectors and the sensor analysis can be quite nasty.
@repetitiveepic - You can't win this one out. There are distinct classes of players who won't turn in time to manipulate the market. And presuming they would, they need a hefty pile of resources to start with. Which they don't possess and largely are not committed to farm it. If you want to make a good deed, have the guy pick a ship from the lobi store and gift it to him. He's clearly not gonna get closer to one than accidentally colliding with one in ESD.
As a casual player, I understand the lack of time or the lack of resources. And I understand that some random guy telling you "Go farm it, look, that's how it's done" won't make much of a difference.
@kodachikuno again - Cutting someone with "kthxbai" is like trying to argue that you weren't the first guy in your class in the math olympics because you have a mental handicap. It's there, we notice it, we tried to ignore it, don't try to over-argue it. Makes you look bad, gives us a milion reasons to amuse ourselves. The entitled "non-judgemental, new-age, japanese-comic-loving, hipsterish" individual is actually not such a likable guy. You don't want to be that guy, regardless of what you friends tell you.
This topic can be easily closed after someone simply rambles some emotional post after mine. Regardless of who that is. You got all the aspects of your ship issue covered in our posts. Now you just gotta read and choose. And I understand your point of view.
Just just need a small initial investment of a few keys and you can can start climbing up that ladder.
Simple really to earn your way from there.
Buy key > sell for EC > buy some undervalued training manuals or weapons or consoles > sell for profit > repeat several times until you have around 50-100M > buy and resell undervalued lockbox ships to leap frog up.
Even making a coupne of EC each time you resell will add up.
I'm pretty casual, free-2-play and I've managed to get up to several hundred million EC, 4K dilithium and a T6 Connie. All over the course of one year of casual play.
I see people online wasting every bit of ec on useless stuff, no wonder they have no space money to buy the expensive stuff.
The first year I played I was space poor as well, but I learned what was valuable and profitable.
Then I rolled out a new toon and started out with buying and reselling Saurian brandy. I know that sounds weird but hey it was a start with the same routine for every other item that can be put on the exchange, the items just went bigger and more expensive over time.
Btw I bought that brandy on sfa for 16 ec and sold on the exchange for 4000 ec. Kdf needed it for doffing so don't know if it is still needed, but hey you got to start somewhere and 4 billions later I look back and say: what a ride!
Ps. I didn't spend a single real life dime on the game besides my LTS