Basic economics says reduce EC and/or increase availablity of the goods EC buys.
The chances are that rare things won't drop much in price without their availablity increasing though.
Umm, no. We're not going to start "doom and gloom" about Lockboxes. This has nothing to do with Lockboxes. So, I'm going to stop that right there before this thread derails into a lockbox debate.
And from where do most of the high end items (ships, traits, mythical 2nd plasma omni) on the exchange appear in game? How many items would vanish from the exchange if the box contents were account bound instead of freely tradable?
They are linked to this discussion as a side path. Just as the exchange is a side path.
I remember when Cryptic increased the Energy Credits cap praising, along with some here, that it would help with the inflation. Then a couple of weeks later when there was a dip a lot of, "told you so,". Such things are only a temporary measure & it didn't work it just gave the STO space-rich a higher roof & more room to manipulate the economy. Inflation needs constant maintenance.
There's also more than the 5 currencies that Borticus wants to admit which just dilutes it all into a mish-mosh. There's some good ideas floating around though: ship skins, outfits, an Exchange tax, & unlocking, at least the special console or better the whole ship, of a gamble ship for the account would be great so probably won't even be considered just to restate a few I saw in the forums.
The problem is for my example I want that Hur'q Ravager ship but I, as a casual player, cannot accumulate enough EC fast enough to catch-up & purchase it on the Exchange before it raises in price. A lot of items are that way. STO economy is partially controlled by Cryptic but also has been allowed to be partially controlled by the space-rich so whatever, if anything, Cryptic does will be a difficult balance & probably just doing something once won't work long-term.
I remember when Cryptic increased the Energy Credits cap praising, along with some here, that it would help with the inflation. Then a couple of weeks later when there was a dip a lot of, "told you so,". Such things are only a temporary measure & it didn't work it just gave the STO space-rich a higher roof & more room to manipulate the economy. Inflation needs constant maintenance.
Nobody who knew anything about economics claimed raising the cap would help with inflation.
What it helped with was countering the driving of high-value trade into chat channels with keys as the currency.
I remember when Cryptic increased the Energy Credits cap praising, along with some here, that it would help with the inflation. Then a couple of weeks later when there was a dip a lot of, "told you so,". Such things are only a temporary measure & it didn't work it just gave the STO space-rich a higher roof & more room to manipulate the economy. Inflation needs constant maintenance.
Nobody who knew anything about economics claimed raising the cap would help with inflation.
What it helped with was countering the driving of high-value trade into chat channels with keys as the currency.
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch." "We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
Passion and Serenity are one.
I gain power by understanding both.
In the chaos of their battle, I bring order.
I am a shadow, darkness born from light.
The Force is united within me.
prices on certain things DID shrink when they did that, though
before the EC limit increase, promo ships were averaging 1.5 billion - after, 1.1 billion...so it did deflate a little
There could be a rather large group of players in game not knowing about trading channels or purposely avoiding them. I belong to the latter group by the way. The raise of the EC cap was good for business tin my case. In both directions by the way.
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Glad this isnt LotRO then. Posting fees=bad idea. The tax on sale is fine, but posting fees hurt those without a lot of ec while merely being a slight inconvenience for the ones Bort seems to be trying to drain EC from. Lets stop suggesting a posting fee people, that way lays badness.
It was suggested as a tax for sold items.
It is also why it was recommended as a percentage. 2 or whatever % of a 1.5B ec deal is more than of a 50k deal. As consequence rich players sink more than poor ones do.
Also new or casual players that don’t play the exchange much don’t get targeted at all.
Think the idea is best we had so far.
I know it's a rare thing.. but I disagree with you.
I do like the idea of finding an in game sink for EC, something similar to Phoenix Kits that people would sink funds into.. I don't like the idea of an exchange tax.
Honestly, I don't think it will help. I think what will happen is that people with big ticket items will just go to trade channels instead of using the exchange and that creates a whole other mess of potential problems with scamming players. I like the Exchange because it's simple, and you run no risk of getting scammed unless of course you just decide to pay way more then something is worth which is on you.
I really don't see the Exchange tax working since players can just arrange private trades. Why would I list my 1.5 Billion EC ship on the exchange and pay tens of millions in fees when I can just sell it to you directly in a trade channel and get my entire 1.5 Billion that frankly.. I deserve?
The seller is the one that cranked open all those boxes, they deserve the return on investment.
But to be clear, I don't really believe the market is nearly as inflated as some do. I actually think things are fine the way they are, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.
You are right. I did not take direct EC transactions or trades into account. While I think that cryptic could just tax the former easily as well the latter would be the way to go for peeps then. 1B EC ships would be simply traded via lock box keys or promo boxes hard to be taxed.
To be honest, if they borked up the exchange peeps would be likely be trading keys even if direct trades weren't taxed, simply because without the exchange there would be no point in having any signifcant amount of EC.
I've seen games like that, where nobody accepts money in trade because it's useless.
Well, it's mostly a convenience fee. You can list on exchange, OR go to the work of wheeling and dealing in trade channels.
Trust me I am super rich in many MMOs. Perhaps its sad but I spend more time working markets then playing most games.
All exchange fees are to me is a minor annoyance... that keep me from playing around with pettty little things that are profitable for new players... games with major fees I just past them on. Its like taxing businesses of course you tax them but every time the tax rate goes up the price of their products go up 2x the tax rate. Taxes go up 2% then bump your sell price 4%.
Exchange fees would have the exact opposite effect Bort is looking for. Sell price on the exchange would just go up to cover the fees. Those us sitting on BILLIONS of EC, and billions more of items that can be dropped on the market at anytime are not going to sweat 2% or 10% fees. They will be passed on and our piles of EC will remain... waiting for the day when we are bored and decide to manipulate something for fun.
Whatever sink they come up with... it has to be attractive enough to attract people like me to burn a few hundred million at least... and not punish the new player or weekend player that thinks 10 or 20 million ec is a fortune.
I still say the best way to go is to give EC barons a chance to gamble it away... in fact that Gold Ferengi ship the devs like to bestow at random on big spenders. Offer directly EC vendor gamble boxes with a chance to drop it ... or add it to the dabo wheel as a drop on massive EC bets. Making them events... like say "Big Spender Dabo weekend" an event that lasts one weekend every 3 or 4 months where a min 1 million per dot bet gives you a small chance to win those golden skin I'm a whale ships. They can drop a new Gold skinned ship every few months between Phoenix boxes and imo that would give the barons a reason to go into their bank and pull out 10 or 20 of the 1000 space traits there holding and sell them, or a few of the T6 ships or training books... perhaps someone like me gets tempted to pull out and drop a handful of my 100 quark holo doffs. Make it a timed event and for a few weeks at least after the market will be depressed. Just like Dil goes down for awhile after phoenix.
-Dilitium Bonus Weekend followed within three days by a Phoenix Event -2,000,000 Dilitium MACO Outfits -300,000 Dilitium colored cr*ppy EV Suits -Endeavors giving out tons of EC -Admiralty giving out tons of EC
I don't hold out much hope
'But to be logical is not to be right', and 'nothing' on God's earth could ever 'make it' right!'
Judge Dan Haywood
'As l speak now, the words are forming in my head.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
flash sale of box items for ec. ~3 days a week. contiguous would be better. Random 2 (lock or promo) boxes (if infinity rolls it takes over entirely) Price them at much lower rates than the exchange. Say, 500-600 mil for a grand prize. these items are account bound upon purchase. Items are still one use items.
Give each ship an out of combat HP bar and damaged/destroyed systems as a baseline. Each time you are destroyed in battle you take damage to your ship ooc hp bar and when you hit zero the ship will need repaired before any further missions are undertaken. Systems will function as they currently do with penalties to certain stats. price can be based on level, ship tier, and the mark of the gear, or anything really. (an i want this. )
Convert GPL to Lobi with EC as the fee.
Timed EC buffs. something small but with a noticeable kick. multiple buffs with differing duration and intensity (id say 1hr minimum to 20hr maximum)
You're suggesting a tax that will take money away from players and then redistribute that payment with a server wide reward that's not at all tied to how much tax they paid. How is that in anyway related to a Recruitment Event where nothing is taken away from anyone and individuals benefit from participating in the event as individuals? A Recruitment Event is individual effort for individual reward, the "story" you're talking about exists only in your head, the reality is very different.
I have never suggested a tax. I have never claimed that a tax is related to recruitment events. Your aversion against a tax and the hostility you feel towards anyone you perceive as positive to a tax is quite obvious but please do us both a favour and direct that hostility elesewhere.
So someone TRIBBLE your account or are you just lying despite the evidence contrary to your claims is just on the previous page of this thread?
I support the idea of an exchange tax provided the removed EC has a direct, visible and positive effect on players. How about some kind of point system? Every EC that is taxed out of the game through the exchange will be added to this pool of points which is then distributed evenly among all players. These points could then be traded for some trinkets in a store dedicated to them, like the event token buyback store. The more the players use the exchange to tax EC out of the system the more points will be generated which will give us a motivation to actually help getting the EC out of the game. It would add a level of player control, like the server wide objectives during the original recruitment events, and remove the feeling that hard earned EC isn't simply robbed from us.
Repair Admiralty ships more quickly, Buy admiralty ships, perhaps buy dups of admiralty ships or stat improvement to them. (e.g. +X to Tac, sci, or eng = Y EC ), Buy parts via replicator for healing injuries, repairing ships in Advanced or Elite modes. Buy the ability to replicate additional things. The temporary buff idea is decent, it is really just another consumable.
So for me:
1) Some items for zens or lobi, those that don't sell at all, they could be for EC. (f.e. nobody buying consumable items for lobi, I saw only one elachi crawler at all and I play a lot of ground TFO. In addition realy I hate when I receive ONE! consumable item from lockbox , it will discourage me from buying the keys)
2) Those players, who have a lot of ec and influence the economy, should be able to spend a large amount of ec for something.
Grand Nagus staff replica 20M, Gold vanity shield 50M , K'normian trade ship 70M, Khan's fighter 100M ec , Nagus Marauder (with orange skin) 250M etc. Just only ideas.
3) Tongo mini-game where you can lose a lot ec but win f.e. ship mastery unlock (not fun, if anyone has 10 toons and wants unlock the same mastery on all of them, 10x to put the ship into usable condition just to make Argala 60 times) and other quality of life improvements like teleport from anywhere to anywhere (basically cheats that don't affect power creep)
4) Nice would be a map of Ferenginar, with Sacred Marketplace and Tower of Commerce, where you can rent some fun boffs and doffs and maybe with some quests and doff assignments for ec.
A tax at the end of sale won't impact the seller...but a POSTING fee will. Because you raise that price x% to cover the posting fee...well if it doesn't sell...guess what, you are out the posting fee.
Pretty much what I said, although calling it a "tax" was not the best descriptor. Posting fee is what I meant.
Well, there's a big difference between a fee for LISTING an item and the exchange eating part of the sale price. One you pay as soon as you add the item to the exchange, the other comes out of your profit for selling the item.
I read the whole subjet. There are good ideas, I will not list them, because they are well explained, I prefer propose something else.
Why not a faction/subfaction donation?
There are several factions and subfaction in Star Trek. Example for npc but there are playable too (or if cryptic prefer, can be playable only like Andorian forces for Fed characters): https://sto.gamepedia.com/NPC_faction
We could invest EC into playable or npc factions, for reward most generous donators, the name of players would appear on a board of each factions,.ordered by decreased EC donation. Most generous donator could arbor a title faction theme.
In more of this name, Cryptic could make a special event with for theme the richest factions. Totaly up to Cryptic to choose the faction and the modality. In reward, it could be a T6 ship of the faction, a gold doff, special boff, clothes or equipment, obtainable with an event.
In more a fleet who reach a certain threshold into a faction (like have 3/4 of the fleet invested EC in a faction, with a minimal of 100k) could unlock a special project with the theme of the faction. Redecorate holding or unlock fleet elite equipments. The fleet could also arbor a pin on the front page of the faction. The fleet could choose only one faction at the time and would lost benefits of the current faction if they change.
Hmmm... Too much EC, not enough dil... The answer seems pretty clear to me... just sayin'...!
I always found it the other way around do much dill and not enough EC. I still haven't seen any evidence that we have a problem or EC inflation. This feels to me like we are looking for a solution to a problem that was fixed years ago.
Trust me I am super rich in many MMOs. Perhaps its sad but I spend more time working markets then playing most games.
All exchange fees are to me is a minor annoyance... that keep me from playing around with pettty little things that are profitable for new players... games with major fees I just past them on. Its like taxing businesses of course you tax them but every time the tax rate goes up the price of their products go up 2x the tax rate. Taxes go up 2% then bump your sell price 4%.
Exchange fees would have the exact opposite effect Bort is looking for. Sell price on the exchange would just go up to cover the fees. Those us sitting on BILLIONS of EC, and billions more of items that can be dropped on the market at anytime are not going to sweat 2% or 10% fees. They will be passed on and our piles of EC will remain... waiting for the day when we are bored and decide to manipulate something for fun.
Whatever sink they come up with... it has to be attractive enough to attract people like me to burn a few hundred million at least... and not punish the new player or weekend player that thinks 10 or 20 million ec is a fortune.
I still say the best way to go is to give EC barons a chance to gamble it away... in fact that Gold Ferengi ship the devs like to bestow at random on big spenders. Offer directly EC vendor gamble boxes with a chance to drop it ... or add it to the dabo wheel as a drop on massive EC bets. Making them events... like say "Big Spender Dabo weekend" an event that lasts one weekend every 3 or 4 months where a min 1 million per dot bet gives you a small chance to win those golden skin I'm a whale ships. They can drop a new Gold skinned ship every few months between Phoenix boxes and imo that would give the barons a reason to go into their bank and pull out 10 or 20 of the 1000 space traits there holding and sell them, or a few of the T6 ships or training books... perhaps someone like me gets tempted to pull out and drop a handful of my 100 quark holo doffs. Make it a timed event and for a few weeks at least after the market will be depressed. Just like Dil goes down for awhile after phoenix.
I don’t buy it.
Perhaps it’s due to the fact that every time peeps come up with ideas for “needed” recourse sinks they have a habit of suggesting exactly those that do not happen to hurt them (you know like those who never contribute a poo to a fleet and still want new holdings - lol). Then when a potent sink has been identified they do everything they can to discuss the relevance away from it.
You throw in stuff like Billions of EC, reare items and whatever to underline how rich you are. So are a lot of players. So am I. Yet here you are “threatening” to raise the prices for low end items to hurt new players or troll the market out of boredom. Guess what. The exchange works on both directions and any price increase you make others pay *you* have to pay for your next purchase as well. A flat out increase of 2% there is nothing compared to the 2% that get erased from game every single time a transaction takes place.
Also, your suggestion for a Richie rich gambling system for EC is nothing but decoy as well. Core rule of every gambling is a system where everybody can play in, not only certain levels of wealth. You only bring it up cuz you are an exchange ferengi and you yourself do not have the slightest interest in gambling.
Sure, you would love to have that golden ferengie ship don’t you? I buy that part out of your post as it is the one single item in game you can’t get. Reason is that cryptic hands it only out for players who support STO with RL money and you obviously do not.
I have the golden ferengi ship by the way. It loses its appeal fast the moment you have it. Really, trust me on that one!
In any case. An exchange tax will hurt you out of all people the most. Much more than you can hurt others with it. That much is clear after reading your post on topic so I thank you for it.
Looking for a fun PvE fleet? Join us at Omega Combat Division today.
Self inflicted wound. Last night, like a number of nights, I opened the Hard Endeavor Reward Box - all EC.
Mix it up folks.
'But to be logical is not to be right', and 'nothing' on God's earth could ever 'make it' right!'
Judge Dan Haywood
'As l speak now, the words are forming in my head.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
Sigh..... The more i read this thread, the more that sinking feeling drops down my gut, telling me i will never, ever, in my lifetime (or STO's, whichever ends first) have epic mkXV weapons, consoles or gear.
Every time i look at the exchange a small sparkle of hope ignites inside, for just a few seconds, in which i dream there's something on it that i can afford.
Every time its snuffed out without compassion with me realizing the amounts the stuff i can use have at least one but more often 2 more digits than the total amount of my EC balance.
All hope abandoned i beam back up to my ship and go play with my toys (doff/admiralty) for a while before i have the motivation again to do something like a TFO or something.
I know the feeling - maybe! Presuming you cannot afford most things on the Exchange, not only the very expensive insanely priced things. What you can do to earn EC without investing RL currency, as several people have suggested already, is:
- raise your crafting skills, so you can make upgrades yourself (level 12 and higher crafting skill)
- sell everything you find during missions, get from Deep Space Encounters etc. on the Exchange, even if it's only a tribble for 10 EC.
- sell raw crafting materials, too
- stick with one ship and one set of gear and improve only the items you intend to use in the long run
- do the universal endeavours.
Regarding the How to Get Rid Off EC - question: A fee on the Exchange, to be paid by the buyer, would have my support. But if the Exchange can be bypassed, this wouldn't help to solve the problem. I'd also gladly do more with Consumables ingame - perhaps there can be some more Diplomacy DOFF missions that require medical aid, replicators etc.?
I like doing the Assignment Chains in the DOFF mission tab, and if there was a series of missions that would require me to spend a lot of EC to repeatedly transport consumables somewhere in the galaxy, I'd do it. Especially if there was an Accolade or a title to go with it as a reward.
And if I could spend EC to increase my Diplomacy rating through charity work - someone mentioned the orphans on Bajor - I'd do that, too.
Glad this isnt LotRO then. Posting fees=bad idea. The tax on sale is fine, but posting fees hurt those without a lot of ec while merely being a slight inconvenience for the ones Bort seems to be trying to drain EC from. Lets stop suggesting a posting fee people, that way lays badness.
A tax doesn't impact you for selling - just raise their price another x% to cover the fee. It does impact the buy side - however an additional 2% is not a hardship IMO. It's very easy to earn lots of EC in the game.
And for the space rich that is true. You can just up the price to cover it. But the way i've seen posting fee's done the Seller has to pay a percentage of the sell price up front. Now say its low, like 2%. Those with money won't notice the difference as you said they would just post it at a higher price(which would not help bringing prices down by the way, just removing ec). On the other hand you have someone with say only 15mil ec. They use dil-zen to buy keys. They get lucky and win a t6 ship. A 2% posting fee on say 300mil would be 6mil. Now say they ate that and posted it. For some reason no one buys it in time. Now they are out 6mil and they have spent some since then so they only have 4mil. That means if they want to repost it it will have to be for much less, say 150mil. Someone with lots of money snatches it up for 150 mil, and then resells it for 300mil. Sure they lost 156mil, but they make a profit increasing their EC. The other person made much less than they should have simply because they couldnt post it at the current market price. All I'm saying is that posting fee's hurt the noobs/casuals/space poor. And as you pointed out aren't really a problem for the space rich.
prices on certain things DID shrink when they did that, though
before the EC limit increase, promo ships were averaging 1.5 billion - after, 1.1 billion...so it did deflate a little
That had nothing to do with the EC limit. It had to do with supply going up. All the old promo ships ended up in one big promo box. And Crytpic has been running promo ships promos a lot. So supply went up cost went down a bit.
Comments
The chances are that rare things won't drop much in price without their availablity increasing though.
And from where do most of the high end items (ships, traits, mythical 2nd plasma omni) on the exchange appear in game? How many items would vanish from the exchange if the box contents were account bound instead of freely tradable?
They are linked to this discussion as a side path. Just as the exchange is a side path.
There's also more than the 5 currencies that Borticus wants to admit which just dilutes it all into a mish-mosh. There's some good ideas floating around though: ship skins, outfits, an Exchange tax, & unlocking, at least the special console or better the whole ship, of a gamble ship for the account would be great so probably won't even be considered just to restate a few I saw in the forums.
The problem is for my example I want that Hur'q Ravager ship but I, as a casual player, cannot accumulate enough EC fast enough to catch-up & purchase it on the Exchange before it raises in price. A lot of items are that way. STO economy is partially controlled by Cryptic but also has been allowed to be partially controlled by the space-rich so whatever, if anything, Cryptic does will be a difficult balance & probably just doing something once won't work long-term.
What it helped with was countering the driving of high-value trade into chat channels with keys as the currency.
Exactly.
That was revisionist history at it's finest.
before the EC limit increase, promo ships were averaging 1.5 billion - after, 1.1 billion...so it did deflate a little
#LegalizeAwoo
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch."
"We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
There could be a rather large group of players in game not knowing about trading channels or purposely avoiding them. I belong to the latter group by the way. The raise of the EC cap was good for business tin my case. In both directions by the way.
Looking for a fun PvE fleet? Join us at Omega Combat Division today.
My character Tsin'xing
Trust me I am super rich in many MMOs. Perhaps its sad but I spend more time working markets then playing most games.
All exchange fees are to me is a minor annoyance... that keep me from playing around with pettty little things that are profitable for new players... games with major fees I just past them on. Its like taxing businesses of course you tax them but every time the tax rate goes up the price of their products go up 2x the tax rate. Taxes go up 2% then bump your sell price 4%.
Exchange fees would have the exact opposite effect Bort is looking for. Sell price on the exchange would just go up to cover the fees. Those us sitting on BILLIONS of EC, and billions more of items that can be dropped on the market at anytime are not going to sweat 2% or 10% fees. They will be passed on and our piles of EC will remain... waiting for the day when we are bored and decide to manipulate something for fun.
Whatever sink they come up with... it has to be attractive enough to attract people like me to burn a few hundred million at least... and not punish the new player or weekend player that thinks 10 or 20 million ec is a fortune.
I still say the best way to go is to give EC barons a chance to gamble it away... in fact that Gold Ferengi ship the devs like to bestow at random on big spenders. Offer directly EC vendor gamble boxes with a chance to drop it ... or add it to the dabo wheel as a drop on massive EC bets. Making them events... like say "Big Spender Dabo weekend" an event that lasts one weekend every 3 or 4 months where a min 1 million per dot bet gives you a small chance to win those golden skin I'm a whale ships. They can drop a new Gold skinned ship every few months between Phoenix boxes and imo that would give the barons a reason to go into their bank and pull out 10 or 20 of the 1000 space traits there holding and sell them, or a few of the T6 ships or training books... perhaps someone like me gets tempted to pull out and drop a handful of my 100 quark holo doffs. Make it a timed event and for a few weeks at least after the market will be depressed. Just like Dil goes down for awhile after phoenix.
-Dilitium Bonus Weekend followed within three days by a Phoenix Event
-2,000,000 Dilitium MACO Outfits
-300,000 Dilitium colored cr*ppy EV Suits
-Endeavors giving out tons of EC
-Admiralty giving out tons of EC
I don't hold out much hope
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
Give each ship an out of combat HP bar and damaged/destroyed systems as a baseline. Each time you are destroyed in battle you take damage to your ship ooc hp bar and when you hit zero the ship will need repaired before any further missions are undertaken. Systems will function as they currently do with penalties to certain stats. price can be based on level, ship tier, and the mark of the gear, or anything really. (an i want this. )
Convert GPL to Lobi with EC as the fee.
Timed EC buffs. something small but with a noticeable kick. multiple buffs with differing duration and intensity (id say 1hr minimum to 20hr maximum)
Repair Admiralty Ships for EC
So someone TRIBBLE your account or are you just lying despite the evidence contrary to your claims is just on the previous page of this thread?
Bold and italics added for emphasis.
Thank you for proving my point. Suggest != support.
"-Grind is good!" --Gordon Geko
Accolades checklist: https://bit.ly/FLUFFYS
Playing semantics now... pathetic.
1) Some items for zens or lobi, those that don't sell at all, they could be for EC. (f.e. nobody buying consumable items for lobi, I saw only one elachi crawler at all and I play a lot of ground TFO. In addition realy I hate when I receive ONE! consumable item from lockbox , it will discourage me from buying the keys)
2) Those players, who have a lot of ec and influence the economy, should be able to spend a large amount of ec for something.
Grand Nagus staff replica 20M, Gold vanity shield 50M , K'normian trade ship 70M, Khan's fighter 100M ec , Nagus Marauder (with orange skin) 250M etc. Just only ideas.
3) Tongo mini-game where you can lose a lot ec but win f.e. ship mastery unlock (not fun, if anyone has 10 toons and wants unlock the same mastery on all of them, 10x to put the ship into usable condition just to make Argala 60 times) and other quality of life improvements like teleport from anywhere to anywhere (basically cheats that don't affect power creep)
4) Nice would be a map of Ferenginar, with Sacred Marketplace and Tower of Commerce, where you can rent some fun boffs and doffs and maybe with some quests and doff assignments for ec.
My character Tsin'xing
Not really, seeing as how we have a daily refine cap of 8k DL.
Why not a faction/subfaction donation?
There are several factions and subfaction in Star Trek.
Example for npc but there are playable too (or if cryptic prefer, can be playable only like Andorian forces for Fed characters):
https://sto.gamepedia.com/NPC_faction
We could invest EC into playable or npc factions, for reward most generous donators, the name of players would appear on a board of each factions,.ordered by decreased EC donation. Most generous donator could arbor a title faction theme.
In more of this name, Cryptic could make a special event with for theme the richest factions. Totaly up to Cryptic to choose the faction and the modality. In reward, it could be a T6 ship of the faction, a gold doff, special boff, clothes or equipment, obtainable with an event.
In more a fleet who reach a certain threshold into a faction (like have 3/4 of the fleet invested EC in a faction, with a minimal of 100k) could unlock a special project with the theme of the faction. Redecorate holding or unlock fleet elite equipments. The fleet could also arbor a pin on the front page of the faction.
The fleet could choose only one faction at the time and would lost benefits of the current faction if they change.
I don’t buy it.
Perhaps it’s due to the fact that every time peeps come up with ideas for “needed” recourse sinks they have a habit of suggesting exactly those that do not happen to hurt them (you know like those who never contribute a poo to a fleet and still want new holdings - lol). Then when a potent sink has been identified they do everything they can to discuss the relevance away from it.
You throw in stuff like Billions of EC, reare items and whatever to underline how rich you are. So are a lot of players. So am I. Yet here you are “threatening” to raise the prices for low end items to hurt new players or troll the market out of boredom. Guess what. The exchange works on both directions and any price increase you make others pay *you* have to pay for your next purchase as well. A flat out increase of 2% there is nothing compared to the 2% that get erased from game every single time a transaction takes place.
Also, your suggestion for a Richie rich gambling system for EC is nothing but decoy as well. Core rule of every gambling is a system where everybody can play in, not only certain levels of wealth. You only bring it up cuz you are an exchange ferengi and you yourself do not have the slightest interest in gambling.
Sure, you would love to have that golden ferengie ship don’t you? I buy that part out of your post as it is the one single item in game you can’t get. Reason is that cryptic hands it only out for players who support STO with RL money and you obviously do not.
I have the golden ferengi ship by the way. It loses its appeal fast the moment you have it. Really, trust me on that one!
In any case. An exchange tax will hurt you out of all people the most. Much more than you can hurt others with it. That much is clear after reading your post on topic so I thank you for it.
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Mix it up folks.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
I know the feeling - maybe! Presuming you cannot afford most things on the Exchange, not only the very expensive insanely priced things. What you can do to earn EC without investing RL currency, as several people have suggested already, is:
- raise your crafting skills, so you can make upgrades yourself (level 12 and higher crafting skill)
- sell everything you find during missions, get from Deep Space Encounters etc. on the Exchange, even if it's only a tribble for 10 EC.
- sell raw crafting materials, too
- stick with one ship and one set of gear and improve only the items you intend to use in the long run
- do the universal endeavours.
Regarding the How to Get Rid Off EC - question: A fee on the Exchange, to be paid by the buyer, would have my support. But if the Exchange can be bypassed, this wouldn't help to solve the problem. I'd also gladly do more with Consumables ingame - perhaps there can be some more Diplomacy DOFF missions that require medical aid, replicators etc.?
I like doing the Assignment Chains in the DOFF mission tab, and if there was a series of missions that would require me to spend a lot of EC to repeatedly transport consumables somewhere in the galaxy, I'd do it. Especially if there was an Accolade or a title to go with it as a reward.
And if I could spend EC to increase my Diplomacy rating through charity work - someone mentioned the orphans on Bajor - I'd do that, too.
And for the space rich that is true. You can just up the price to cover it. But the way i've seen posting fee's done the Seller has to pay a percentage of the sell price up front. Now say its low, like 2%. Those with money won't notice the difference as you said they would just post it at a higher price(which would not help bringing prices down by the way, just removing ec). On the other hand you have someone with say only 15mil ec. They use dil-zen to buy keys. They get lucky and win a t6 ship. A 2% posting fee on say 300mil would be 6mil. Now say they ate that and posted it. For some reason no one buys it in time. Now they are out 6mil and they have spent some since then so they only have 4mil. That means if they want to repost it it will have to be for much less, say 150mil. Someone with lots of money snatches it up for 150 mil, and then resells it for 300mil. Sure they lost 156mil, but they make a profit increasing their EC. The other person made much less than they should have simply because they couldnt post it at the current market price. All I'm saying is that posting fee's hurt the noobs/casuals/space poor. And as you pointed out aren't really a problem for the space rich.
That had nothing to do with the EC limit. It had to do with supply going up. All the old promo ships ended up in one big promo box. And Crytpic has been running promo ships promos a lot. So supply went up cost went down a bit.