I like how they pointed out that they KNOW everyone is going to be going for the S31 vanity shield - it's matte black, almost no detail, yet it's insanely popular, because basic black goes with everything.
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.
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.
Black is universal... and stylish black always sells in these types of things.
The classics never go out of style... I just bought myself a new pair of ray ban clubmasters and I have photos of my grandfather in basically the exact same pair 50 some years ago.
0
rattler2Member, Star Trek Online ModeratorPosts: 58,577Community Moderator
Might cause a momentary spike down for the dil-ex, but until they make changes to limit how much dil people can rake in it can't fix the issue.
Still a good first move in the end.
This, combined with some work on the Phoenix Box, would go a long way on their own, and help while they look into other solutions as well.
One step at a time.
280k for a single unlock is a bit much, but boy I can only say one thing: FINALLY.
That should work well enough. We all know they want to keep in the 475-499 range as often as they can to maximize Cryptic profits. All they need is something time limited they can use as a valve. Vanity shields will work now... and again in 4-6 months if needed. Next year they can find something else to add to their Dil relief valve if they have too.
I hope long term they consider perhaps reimagining Phoenix a bit... to give it value beyond upgrades and one time old unlocks. I still think they have a collection of the older lobi ships that will neither be great mudd pack sales fodder or really entice anyone to burn lobi either. They would be perfect time limited adds to Pheonix. Or perhaps if they need a valve beyond vanity shields later they could even add actual new stuff to phoenix. Time gate some on off vanity shields into phoenix if needed could also drive a bit of value in to dil as needed.
In any event this should do it... I expect dil will drop to the 490 or so mark with this.
I don't think they want it JUST in the 475-499 range. I think they honestly want it as low as it'll go to help out people like me who want as much zen from the exchange as possible to buy a pack I've been wanting.
Why would they want that ? They want it to run at as close to 500 without grinding out as possible. The higher it is the more likely people buy Dilithium with cash money. Of course they want the exchange to be moving... and keeping people playing and grinding. Last thing they want is whales to try and que up and have to wait 20 min for a pop... of for people to have issues completing events in the last week cause people don't que them anymore.
The idea that Crytpic wants to see the exchange drop sub 400 again though seems a bit crazy. The higher the exchange the better deal it is for paying customers. They simply have to balance it a bit to ensure enough free playing dill gathers keep the game alive to give the paying customers a game to actually pay for.
The higher it is, the less zen people have to buy to get the diltihium they want. Buying zen is the objective. Maxed or near-maxed dilex rates doesn't help that.
I fail to see how... if I have $20 to buy zen with to convert to Dil. Do I want a 300 or 500 rate ?
The answer seems pretty obvious to me. Do you want to spend $20 for 600k dil or $20 for 1 million dil.
Dil sellers seem to be blaming others for their own problems. With a string of sales on people who have zen are likely choosing to spend it on sale items. The dil sellers probably see the same items in the store and want to cash out to purchase those same items. There is the disconnect. Of course there is going to be a glut of of dilithium unpurchased and unwanted. Why should someone who wants the same thing as you convert your dilithium into zen so you can make the purchase and they can't?
Dil sellers seem to be blaming others for their own problems. With a string of sales on people who have zen are likely choosing to spend it on sale items. The dil sellers probably see the same items in the store and want to cash out to purchase those same items. There is the disconnect. Of course there is going to be a glut of of dilithium unpurchased and unwanted. Why should someone who wants the same thing as you convert your dilithium into zen so you can make the purchase and they can't?
Doing a Bonus Dilithium Week + the ship bundle sale didn't help the situation (probably helped to trigger it)
Formerly known as Armsman from June 2008 to June 20, 2012 PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
An event like that occurring concurrently shouldn't have much impact in the short term. However much dilithium is eventually refined from the event won't extend beyond 8k/day within the norms of everyone's processing limits. Down the road it will seem like a lot to people who don't engage in farming but to farmers big and small it doesn't mean as much.
0
rattler2Member, Star Trek Online ModeratorPosts: 58,577Community Moderator
I fail to see how... if I have $20 to buy zen with to convert to Dil. Do I want a 300 or 500 rate ?
The answer seems pretty obvious to me. Do you want to spend $20 for 600k dil or $20 for 1 million dil.
If you look at it from a Zen Buyer's perspective, someone selling their hard ground out Dilithium wants the most Zen for that work. If both sides are happy, then the zen and dilithium flows more freely both ways.
> @rattler2 said: > If you look at it from a Zen Buyer's perspective, someone selling their hard ground out Dilithium wants the most Zen for that work. If both sides are happy, then the zen and dilithium flows more freely both ways.
I'm sure anyone who purchase zen for their hard earned dollars wants the most zen for their work too but that's not the way it works. People buy or they don't. Sellers hold what they have and adjust their prices if they want to move it. At least with virtual "stock" it won't rot away. Buyer seller relationships without customer service and interactions are cut and dried and the state of a market without that has little to do with mutual happiness.
0
rattler2Member, Star Trek Online ModeratorPosts: 58,577Community Moderator
If that was the case then why has the market not been capped at max since day one?
Clearly supply and demand in play, but we also have to consider other factors as well. A real balance point makes both sides happy. If it was purely under the control of the sellers they'd try and push for as much as they can get, yet we see fluctuations whenever one or the other becomes more desirable. And we've had luls in the past where the exchange rates would level out at a certain point.
It's a gradual thing. As game systems changed dilithium has lost much of it's primacy. If nothing had changed at all in the game human nature would still prevail. It took years as it was and would have taken more but it was still inevitable. There is always a buyer who would rather pay less. And eventually there is a seller willing to undercut everyone else until that becomes the new norm. The way things have gone have certainly accelerated the process though.
A virtual environment gives you the raw capitalism that real commodities don't. There are no shelf lives, storage fees, and operating expenses beyond time constraints in the equation. There is no empathy because of the faceless interface and knowing that you aren't starving someone because you are soaking them for video game resources.
280k for a single unlock is a bit much, but boy I can only say one thing: FINALLY.
That should work well enough. We all know they want to keep in the 475-499 range as often as they can to maximize Cryptic profits. All they need is something time limited they can use as a valve. Vanity shields will work now... and again in 4-6 months if needed. Next year they can find something else to add to their Dil relief valve if they have too.
I hope long term they consider perhaps reimagining Phoenix a bit... to give it value beyond upgrades and one time old unlocks. I still think they have a collection of the older lobi ships that will neither be great mudd pack sales fodder or really entice anyone to burn lobi either. They would be perfect time limited adds to Pheonix. Or perhaps if they need a valve beyond vanity shields later they could even add actual new stuff to phoenix. Time gate some on off vanity shields into phoenix if needed could also drive a bit of value in to dil as needed.
In any event this should do it... I expect dil will drop to the 490 or so mark with this.
I don't think they want it JUST in the 475-499 range. I think they honestly want it as low as it'll go to help out people like me who want as much zen from the exchange as possible to buy a pack I've been wanting.
Why would they want that ? They want it to run at as close to 500 without grinding out as possible. The higher it is the more likely people buy Dilithium with cash money. Of course they want the exchange to be moving... and keeping people playing and grinding. Last thing they want is whales to try and que up and have to wait 20 min for a pop... of for people to have issues completing events in the last week cause people don't que them anymore.
The idea that Crytpic wants to see the exchange drop sub 400 again though seems a bit crazy. The higher the exchange the better deal it is for paying customers. They simply have to balance it a bit to ensure enough free playing dill gathers keep the game alive to give the paying customers a game to actually pay for.
The higher it is, the less zen people have to buy to get the diltihium they want. Buying zen is the objective. Maxed or near-maxed dilex rates doesn't help that.
I fail to see how... if I have $20 to buy zen with to convert to Dil. Do I want a 300 or 500 rate ?
The answer seems pretty obvious to me. Do you want to spend $20 for 600k dil or $20 for 1 million dil.
If a player needs, say, 280k dilithium, and the exchange rate is 500:1, that will only cost 560z to get. If the exchange rate is 400:1 that same player has to pay 700z to get it. Cryptic doesn't win with higher exchange rates. Crypic doesn't necessarily win with lower exchange rates, but it definitely doesn't win with high ones. Which is why the maxed dilex is bad for them. Sure the players *selling* zen might see it as great. But it's not good for Cryptic...anymore than a permanent 75% off keys would be good for them.
Your forgetting the other end of that math however. Yes the person buying zen isn't having to pay Cryptic as much... but on the other end the person selling dill also is more likely to never have to spend a dime.
The advantage for 500 over 400 for Cryptic imo is simple... the people buying dill where going to buy it anyway. They tend to be either new players or whale types willing to pay rather then grind. You want those people getting a good value so they stick around. The people selling 280k dill are selling it to buy the Zen stuff they want without spending a money. I would suggest Cryptic wants it to be at least someone of a PITA to 100% farm for things like Mudd packs. At 500... most people will farm half and pay half for most things. At 400... that likely still happens. However some people are suggesting 300-350 is more in line which is insane. That means Cryptic is leaning on Whale and New players to pay for farmers zen habits.
In any event I'm sure Cryptic has the metric in hand. I would suggest that no matter what they have said in the past about 350 being ideal ect... is likely a bunch of hog wash. I mean if that was important to them they would have found ways to make that happen. No matter what anyone says about Cryptic... no one can deny that they like to make money and are pretty decent Ferengi. If 350 was the ideal $$ in their pocket sweet spot that is exactly where things would be sitting. I am pretty sure they would prefer things it sit nice and high to dissuade people from running 50 toon farms a little bit... keeping the average 20 or so toon farmers spending 50/50 ect and ensuring new players that decide to throw 20 bucks at the game can buy a few services and spend a little zen to get a Dil head start.
High valued Dil is good for no one but farmers looking to freeload. I think if most people are being honest they know that to be true. Of course someone with a 40-50 toon farm going is going to want to see the value of Dil jump. Average players who are more likely to wallet a bit are more then happy to get a good dil return on their zen.
I fail to see how... if I have $20 to buy zen with to convert to Dil. Do I want a 300 or 500 rate ?
The answer seems pretty obvious to me. Do you want to spend $20 for 600k dil or $20 for 1 million dil.
If you look at it from a Zen Buyer's perspective, someone selling their hard ground out Dilithium wants the most Zen for that work. If both sides are happy, then the zen and dilithium flows more freely both ways.
Well I would suggest that the exchange has been over 450 for a long time now and it was flowing pretty well. Sure a few grumblers are annoyed their 50 toon farms aren't turning out mudd packs a week... but for the most part the average players with extra dill have been selling it.
It would be interesting to see Crytpics actual internal metrics on zen flow for dil. The Zen exchange logs everything and I'm sure they have correlated the data on Zen-Dil. No doubt they have a good idea where the sweet spot is. The fact they have let it ride as high as it has been tells me they are either seeing no difference or a positive one vs the previous lower rates. They don't seem to sleep on things that effect their bottom line.
... but on the other end the person selling dill also is more likely to never have to spend a dime.
Cryptic doesn't care about that and has no reason to. Ever. Zen only has one use. Players who sell dilithium can't take their zen to some other business. So It doesn't matter who ends up spending the zen or on what, only that it gets bought. Players spending less zen on dilithium is a straight loss for Cryptic. Period. There is no 'other side.'
Of course there is. All we are talking about is who does cryptic want to be spending money. Does Cryptic want a player base where almost no one spends anything ? Every game has a few whales of course.... but having a game where only a single % of the pop spend a dime is a recipe for a nasty crash and eol. No doubt if Zen ends up in the system Cryptic wins.... yes your right zen is zen. I am simply suggesting that getting 100% of that zen from a very small subset of the players is not a good situation for long term stability.
With zen around 500... few people can 100% farm the game. Which is a good thing for Cryptic. We have seen plenty of MMOs die over the years after one silly change drives away the $ players. I would suggest its not in Cryptics interest to have so many players paying nothing. The low value of Dill has imo been a good thing for the health of the game as more mid tier players have opened their wallets. I have talked to plenty of people that haven't spent money on STO in years that threw 20 or 30 bucks Cryptics way for one of the mudd packs the last number of months. Yes if they could have sold the dill to someone else buying they would have and yes Cryptic would have made the same thing. However now Cryptic has 2 players spending money instead of one. If for some reason one of them quits they still have at least one person with their linked steam wallet or Arc account at the ready. lol Multiply that out over the game pop and I'm sure Cryptic is seeing more small $ purchases at 500 then they ever did at 350. That is good for the game long term. (even if it doesn't actually put more money in their pocket today... although like most stuff once you get a customer spending a little money they are more likely to do it again)
... but on the other end the person selling dill also is more likely to never have to spend a dime.
Cryptic doesn't care about that and has no reason to. Ever. Zen only has one use. Players who sell dilithium can't take their zen to some other business. So It doesn't matter who ends up spending the zen or on what, only that it gets bought. Players spending less zen on dilithium is a straight loss for Cryptic. Period. There is no 'other side.'
Of course there is. All we are talking about is who does cryptic want to be spending money.
No, there isn't. Cryptic doesn't care *WHO* spends the money. Only that it gets spent. And as long as it gets spent, they have no reason to care. They can't change how economics works, no matter how much they might wish, and F2P games are always going to have the same ratio because that's how the *ECONOMY* is structured. And I don't mean the 'game' economy. I mean the real one. They can't change that reality.
Everything else you added is nonsensical wishful thinking.
Its not some wish thinking its how the game has run since the exchange went over around 450.
Cryptic has the numbers... and you know I have no idea what they say. I'm just trying to explain why I believe they are probably fine with dil running right close to the red line. The balance imo is about numbers of paying customers... vs total $ in. Your not wrong of course zen is zen. I'm not suggesting they are making more money. Just that they are potentially seeing it from a larger number of customers. Anyone that has ever run a company will tell you you NEVER want to back yourself into a situation where you only have a handful of paying customers. You never know when those big players will walk away... and they always do at some point. You have to keep a pipeline running to replace them. Having a good chunk of the player base spending at least a little means you have potential replacements.
They can't do anything to impact the balance of paying customers. That's completely external to anything they can influence. That's the real-world economy. What they can do is keep population numbers up, because an empty MMO will lose its big spenders and die; and keep spending up by adding things to buy, and dilithium is something to buy...if there's something to use it on. If it's too cheap (high exchange rates), people buy it up and run out of things to use it on and stop buying it. If it's too expensive (low exchange rates), less of it sells even if the demand for it goes unmet.
Having a good chunk of the player base spending at least a little means you have potential replacements.
It won't work. Many F2P games have fallen into that trap. Like it or not, the 'spending a little bit' crowd don't generate enough revenue to keep games like this running. They never have. That's why the F2P games out there still running all have the same primary target: the big spenders. It's not simply a matter of greed. It's working within the economic realities of the world.
I see your point. I do believe there is a middle ground somewhere in there that can and needs to be found. But we can agree to disagree.
All games do end for sure... and STO is on the path other games have went down where they just keep throwing more and more on the shoulders of the few whales playing. At some point though they tap out and the game quickly dies. I just hope STO can survive the whale apocalypses when it comes. This time I think the exchange ground out because due to Cryptics stream of decent promos creating access demand on Zen. Hopefully the vanity shield thing pulls things back in for at least a bit. Hey I do enjoy playing STO and not having to spend much. I mean its anecdotal obviously but yes the last 6 or 7 months with the mudd packs I have thrown a bit more Cryptics way then I have in years... and its not that I couldn't just be a whale. So having me spending a little is probably a good thing for Cryptic... but then to shoot down my own point I guess if they do loose the whales I'm not likely to decide to step into their shoes either. lol So ya your point is taken.
@corinthalas Economics ends with a zen purchase. There is no farmer spending traded zen making the company money. The person who used real currency started and completed the transaction. Once it got turned into zen, pazooties, magic mushrooms it's no longer money any more than we are living in the 25th century flying starships. It was already spent. It can be squandered or sit in the game until the servers die and will never have an economic function based in reality again. Selling dilithium is advertising. It encourages people to spend more.
@husanakx Whales don't sell dilithium to get zen. The "broken" part of the exchange was nobody being interested in buying so I'm having difficulty understanding how it corellates to an incoming whale apocalypse. With all of the promotions in effect maybe they have been spending their STO allowance on zen products and don't need in game sundries. Big farmers are implacable. They are engaged in the market persistently and for all their size you should rarely see spikes or lulls in their activity. You do have a lot of small FTP farmers who do it to play who want zen when shiny items and sales come up and they will rush to sell when that happens. This has resulted in a glut of dilithium piled up and very little activity from the buyers end over the course of the string of sales.
Comments
#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!"
#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!"
The classics never go out of style... I just bought myself a new pair of ray ban clubmasters and I have photos of my grandfather in basically the exact same pair 50 some years ago.
This, combined with some work on the Phoenix Box, would go a long way on their own, and help while they look into other solutions as well.
One step at a time.
I know I'll be shedding some Dilithium when this drops.
I fail to see how... if I have $20 to buy zen with to convert to Dil. Do I want a 300 or 500 rate ?
The answer seems pretty obvious to me. Do you want to spend $20 for 600k dil or $20 for 1 million dil.
Doing a Bonus Dilithium Week + the ship bundle sale didn't help the situation (probably helped to trigger it)
PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
An event like that occurring concurrently shouldn't have much impact in the short term. However much dilithium is eventually refined from the event won't extend beyond 8k/day within the norms of everyone's processing limits. Down the road it will seem like a lot to people who don't engage in farming but to farmers big and small it doesn't mean as much.
If you look at it from a Zen Buyer's perspective, someone selling their hard ground out Dilithium wants the most Zen for that work. If both sides are happy, then the zen and dilithium flows more freely both ways.
> If you look at it from a Zen Buyer's perspective, someone selling their hard ground out Dilithium wants the most Zen for that work. If both sides are happy, then the zen and dilithium flows more freely both ways.
I'm sure anyone who purchase zen for their hard earned dollars wants the most zen for their work too but that's not the way it works. People buy or they don't. Sellers hold what they have and adjust their prices if they want to move it. At least with virtual "stock" it won't rot away. Buyer seller relationships without customer service and interactions are cut and dried and the state of a market without that has little to do with mutual happiness.
Clearly supply and demand in play, but we also have to consider other factors as well. A real balance point makes both sides happy. If it was purely under the control of the sellers they'd try and push for as much as they can get, yet we see fluctuations whenever one or the other becomes more desirable. And we've had luls in the past where the exchange rates would level out at a certain point.
Your forgetting the other end of that math however. Yes the person buying zen isn't having to pay Cryptic as much... but on the other end the person selling dill also is more likely to never have to spend a dime.
The advantage for 500 over 400 for Cryptic imo is simple... the people buying dill where going to buy it anyway. They tend to be either new players or whale types willing to pay rather then grind. You want those people getting a good value so they stick around. The people selling 280k dill are selling it to buy the Zen stuff they want without spending a money. I would suggest Cryptic wants it to be at least someone of a PITA to 100% farm for things like Mudd packs. At 500... most people will farm half and pay half for most things. At 400... that likely still happens. However some people are suggesting 300-350 is more in line which is insane. That means Cryptic is leaning on Whale and New players to pay for farmers zen habits.
In any event I'm sure Cryptic has the metric in hand. I would suggest that no matter what they have said in the past about 350 being ideal ect... is likely a bunch of hog wash. I mean if that was important to them they would have found ways to make that happen. No matter what anyone says about Cryptic... no one can deny that they like to make money and are pretty decent Ferengi. If 350 was the ideal $$ in their pocket sweet spot that is exactly where things would be sitting. I am pretty sure they would prefer things it sit nice and high to dissuade people from running 50 toon farms a little bit... keeping the average 20 or so toon farmers spending 50/50 ect and ensuring new players that decide to throw 20 bucks at the game can buy a few services and spend a little zen to get a Dil head start.
High valued Dil is good for no one but farmers looking to freeload. I think if most people are being honest they know that to be true. Of course someone with a 40-50 toon farm going is going to want to see the value of Dil jump. Average players who are more likely to wallet a bit are more then happy to get a good dil return on their zen.
Well I would suggest that the exchange has been over 450 for a long time now and it was flowing pretty well. Sure a few grumblers are annoyed their 50 toon farms aren't turning out mudd packs a week... but for the most part the average players with extra dill have been selling it.
It would be interesting to see Crytpics actual internal metrics on zen flow for dil. The Zen exchange logs everything and I'm sure they have correlated the data on Zen-Dil. No doubt they have a good idea where the sweet spot is. The fact they have let it ride as high as it has been tells me they are either seeing no difference or a positive one vs the previous lower rates. They don't seem to sleep on things that effect their bottom line.
Of course there is. All we are talking about is who does cryptic want to be spending money. Does Cryptic want a player base where almost no one spends anything ? Every game has a few whales of course.... but having a game where only a single % of the pop spend a dime is a recipe for a nasty crash and eol. No doubt if Zen ends up in the system Cryptic wins.... yes your right zen is zen. I am simply suggesting that getting 100% of that zen from a very small subset of the players is not a good situation for long term stability.
With zen around 500... few people can 100% farm the game. Which is a good thing for Cryptic. We have seen plenty of MMOs die over the years after one silly change drives away the $ players. I would suggest its not in Cryptics interest to have so many players paying nothing. The low value of Dill has imo been a good thing for the health of the game as more mid tier players have opened their wallets. I have talked to plenty of people that haven't spent money on STO in years that threw 20 or 30 bucks Cryptics way for one of the mudd packs the last number of months. Yes if they could have sold the dill to someone else buying they would have and yes Cryptic would have made the same thing. However now Cryptic has 2 players spending money instead of one. If for some reason one of them quits they still have at least one person with their linked steam wallet or Arc account at the ready. lol Multiply that out over the game pop and I'm sure Cryptic is seeing more small $ purchases at 500 then they ever did at 350. That is good for the game long term. (even if it doesn't actually put more money in their pocket today... although like most stuff once you get a customer spending a little money they are more likely to do it again)
Its not some wish thinking its how the game has run since the exchange went over around 450.
Cryptic has the numbers... and you know I have no idea what they say. I'm just trying to explain why I believe they are probably fine with dil running right close to the red line. The balance imo is about numbers of paying customers... vs total $ in. Your not wrong of course zen is zen. I'm not suggesting they are making more money. Just that they are potentially seeing it from a larger number of customers. Anyone that has ever run a company will tell you you NEVER want to back yourself into a situation where you only have a handful of paying customers. You never know when those big players will walk away... and they always do at some point. You have to keep a pipeline running to replace them. Having a good chunk of the player base spending at least a little means you have potential replacements.
I see your point. I do believe there is a middle ground somewhere in there that can and needs to be found. But we can agree to disagree.
All games do end for sure... and STO is on the path other games have went down where they just keep throwing more and more on the shoulders of the few whales playing. At some point though they tap out and the game quickly dies. I just hope STO can survive the whale apocalypses when it comes. This time I think the exchange ground out because due to Cryptics stream of decent promos creating access demand on Zen. Hopefully the vanity shield thing pulls things back in for at least a bit. Hey I do enjoy playing STO and not having to spend much. I mean its anecdotal obviously but yes the last 6 or 7 months with the mudd packs I have thrown a bit more Cryptics way then I have in years... and its not that I couldn't just be a whale. So having me spending a little is probably a good thing for Cryptic... but then to shoot down my own point I guess if they do loose the whales I'm not likely to decide to step into their shoes either. lol So ya your point is taken.
@husanakx Whales don't sell dilithium to get zen. The "broken" part of the exchange was nobody being interested in buying so I'm having difficulty understanding how it corellates to an incoming whale apocalypse. With all of the promotions in effect maybe they have been spending their STO allowance on zen products and don't need in game sundries. Big farmers are implacable. They are engaged in the market persistently and for all their size you should rarely see spikes or lulls in their activity. You do have a lot of small FTP farmers who do it to play who want zen when shiny items and sales come up and they will rush to sell when that happens. This has resulted in a glut of dilithium piled up and very little activity from the buyers end over the course of the string of sales.