Again, I never said "new" ships. The ships the mudd's bundle are not "new", but they are still creating a ton of zen demand. Focusing only on "new" ships misses the actual point.
Theres been all of two bundles, for a total of 10 ships, on Mudd's this year. That would still make this year one of the lowest in STO history.
So, again, the idea they are "increasing" anything is just demonstrably wrong.
Maybe so. One thing they've definitely been doing, though? Almost constant sales, for over a year now. There's almost constantly something on sale. Sales demonstrably spiked the exchange in the past; now, with barely a few days between them--a week or so, tops--it's not so much spiking as doing a zoom climb.
Or at least it was, before it hit the cap and bounced so hard the exchange literally emptied.
So forget about "new" bundles of any kind. It's a demonstrable fact that it's Cryptic's actions that are causing this, if only through the unending sales.
I don't think the sales an really be put on the devs themselves though. I've repeatedly said that I think it's a higher up than the devs or even Andre Emerson whom is dictating the necessary sales. I think it's PWE pushing for the maximum amount of revenue they can squeeze out of the game they're publishing.
Emerson's the current executive producer, I think? To be sure, just about every current practice of Cryptic's that's been bugging me started right about when he came in. I'd buy that he's had a major hand in this nonsense.
The EP for STO before Emerson now helms Cryptic's Magic: The Gathering MMO, and it seems the monetization strategy is as bad if not worse than STO is. Also, given Emerson was installed under PWE's watch that choice is likely to have been made to make this game more in line with PWE goals, not just some random choice that happened to support what's happening now.
Yeah the phoenix box would work better if it didn't feel completely pointless to engage in it. I only open phoenix boxes when I need to upgrade something, because the odds are so unbelievably bad for any of the stuff that I might actually want from the higher tiers, that there is absolutely no point in dumping my dil into a trash compactor.
You have to make the sink WORTH it in order for it to be an effective sink. And right now there is really no reason at all to actually go further than the bare minimum when using phoenix boxes.
Because the phoenix box model sucks. Which is why it's a generally useless dilithium sink. And you just pointed out why -- it's RANDOM and it's only for a SINGLE CAPTAIN, so of course nobody buys into it. It's not worth it. It's good for one thing and one thing only: gear upgrades.
Dismantle the box, put all its offering onto the dil store as either high-cost (couple mil per T6 event ship) account unlocks or low-cost (1/2 mil per T6 event ship, in line with the 150k it costs to buy the specialty T4s) captain unlocks. Will it help? Maybe. Will it do better than the current system? Almost certainly.
But again, we already saw Cryptic try this with the Wrath of Khan uniforms, and no one bought into it because they care more about playing the dil-Ex like the stock market then they actually care about spending dil on things.
Also, making the Phoenix Box items account unlock would remove its viability as a sink because anyone can easily get that much dil on an account in short time. It would drain dil maybe for a second, but we would be back where we are now in no time. Even per character Phoenix Box rewards wouldn't last long if they were guaranteed because people wouldn't get them all per character in the first place, and the price needed to make them an effective sink would just turn people off from them like the WoK uniforms did because, again, people don't want to spend that much dil on something. Ships especially would have to stay per character if you wanted it to be a sink that actually lasts more then a microsecond.
The whole thing that makes a sink viable is high cost with slow rewards, requiring constant input to get anywhere close to what you want. Like fleet holdings. Making something a high cost, but one time shop, isn't a viable sink.
The issue with those uniforms was that they were far too expensive and single character unlocks. The sheer amount of dil that you had to put into them was too extreme for what they were. You're forgetting that people have to want the sink, for it to be effective. Its not that they would rather just play stock market simulator, its that cryptic erred in making them so incredibly expensive.
Had they been around half their original cost in dil, they might've been more effective. Had they been the same cost or a bit higher but had been account wide, they might've been effective.
Its entirely possible to make a sink tooo much for it to actually be effective because people will be less willing to buy into it for that price.
With ships those are actually more likely to do okay at high dil prices if they were sold purely for dil, because they're ships and serve a more important role than uniforms do. But they would need to be careful to not make them too expensive once again.
We're at the point where, for the average players, most dil sinks would either be too much for them to the point that it only discourages them, where for the richest players the ones with all the dil, sinks have to be balanced because too little and it doesn't affect them at all, and too much without actually being enticing means they'll ignore it.
I'm of the mind that we should probably do away with dil and get a new currency to replace it, reset the market and try and balance the new market before it gets out of hand. (But cryptic probably doesn't mind enough to try such a thing)
At this point they aren't going to budge on their unreasonable business practices and at the same time they have no idea what they can even do to get people playing again much less buying anything. Its like those Epic tokens for most people who have acquired a substantial amount of them even with them being extremely rare if you play actively there is nothing to spend them on.
In beginning of how DR was rolled out it was sort of insulting on buying the same ship more than once but the way specializations work its sort of needed now to have versions of the same ship with different specializations. The other aspects though is its almost been a complete decade since they did that fleet revamp and the social aspects of this game have never changed in the entire history of the game which has killed it being that its a mmorpg that is based on social aspects in the first place. Then moving content to where it completes itself regardless of what players do between playing and just afking it out.
I would like to see the game prosper especially now that new stuff is coming out for the franchise but something has to change for the better or its just going to be a bunch of content people want but are not going to buy until the game eventually just shuts down.
Random thought, but how many of YOU would spend more dilithium on Phoenix boxes if they:
a.) Allowed you to trade 10 tokens for 1 token of a higher rarity?
b.) Added all the old, discontinued Lobi/Lockbox T5 ships for epic tokens? (still single-character unlocks)
Personally, I am also of the mind that the value of Dilithium has been greatly devalued over the years due to actual developmental neglect. I know people like to point to things like Fleet Holdings, but honestly, Dilithium has always been a big bottleneck there - people don't WANT to spend dilithium on fleets. Usually, I've found that holding upgrades are typically funded by only a handful of people instead of something that everyone really pitches in for. I sincerely think that adding stuff like hangar pets to every Reputation would drain far more overall Dilithium from the game than another giant Fleet Holding would - it's something that people would actually want/use.
Random thought, but how many of YOU would spend more dilithium on Phoenix boxes if they:
a.) Allowed you to trade 10 tokens for 1 token of a higher rarity?
b.) Added all the old, discontinued Lobi/Lockbox T5 ships for epic tokens? (still single-character unlocks)
I spend quite a fair amount on Phoenix boxes even now, but I'd be willing to spend more if both these options were available.
It would be tricky, though:
- if you leave both options available at all times, the prices would need to be high enough that very few people would be able to get everything they need in a short time frame but low enough that people would still be willing to buy;
- if you enable these options only at certain times (like it was for the boxes before, like it is for the Experimental Upgrades now), it might not be enough to stem the tide.
And speaking of the Experimental Upgrades, that's another big mistake they made in my opinion: putting them only sometimes in the Phoenix store while also always selling them in the Zen Store AND giving them away for free with every other event.
They could've been a good sink, but they weren't. They could've been an even better sink if they made them - and yes, I realize this would be unpopular - for a single upgrade instead of account wide. That, together with availability only through the Phoenix store would've given better results.
As it stands, everything they tried to do to correct the situation has been half hearted at best, and each move was immediately undermined by something else.
Personally, I am also of the mind that the value of Dilithium has been greatly devalued over the years due to actual developmental neglect. I know people like to point to things like Fleet Holdings, but honestly, Dilithium has always been a big bottleneck there - people don't WANT to spend dilithium on fleets. Usually, I've found that holding upgrades are typically funded by only a handful of people instead of something that everyone really pitches in for. I sincerely think that adding stuff like hangar pets to every Reputation would drain far more overall Dilithium from the game than another giant Fleet Holding would - it's something that people would actually want/use.
That has also been my experience so far: only a handful of people within my fleet would spend dilithium, while the majority would invest fleetmarks and expertise because they are inexpensive and can be acquired without limits and much faster without the need to create multiple characters to circumvent the daily refining cap.
Not agreeing with someone doesn't give you the right to be an TRIBBLE.
Ci sono tre tipi di giocatori:
- quelli a cui non va mai bene niente... e vanno sul forum a trollare;
- quelli che sono talmente imbesuiti da credere a qualunque cosa i dev dicano, perfino che la luna è fatta di formaggio... e vanno sul forum a trollare;
- quelli che credono a quello a cui è giusto credere, sono d'accordo con quello con cui è giusto essere d'accordo e sono critici con quello che non va;
Ai giocatori dei primi due tipi, gratis in omaggio un bello specchio lucente su cui arrampicarsi. E una mazzata in testa per la loro poca intelligenza e compassione verso gli altri giocatori che non la pensano come loro.
Agli appartenenti al terzo tipo, invece, dico grazie. Anche se non sempre si riesce a mantenere la calma, siete quelli per cui vale la pena incazzarsi.
They could've been an even better sink if they made them - and yes, I realize this would be unpopular - for a single upgrade instead of account wide. That, together with availability only through the Phoenix store would've given better results.
Not popular, but still a valid idea.
My only problem would be the insanely low drop rate of UR tokens.. if they had been VR instead but one time only use for 1 character, that might have actually worked. Especially if Phoenix Boxes were the absolute only way to get them.. smart.
Sadly, it's too late now and that ship has sailed. It's extremely obvious to everyone except for one obvious sycophant that Cryptic has no desire to fix this 'problem' and things are how they are by design. The other game they run is the exact same way, for the exact same reason.
You have good ideas, so do many others who have contributed ideas but sadly we're all wasting our time discussing solutions since they would need to be implemented by someone that has absolutely no interest in any solutions. They don't see it as a problem and all we're doing is arguing in circles with the one person on earth that just won't accept the truth. Shame because there have been some pretty solid ideas offered by the community and they have all been ignored.
They could've been an even better sink if they made them - and yes, I realize this would be unpopular - for a single upgrade instead of account wide. That, together with availability only through the Phoenix store would've given better results.
Not popular, but still a valid idea.
My only problem would be the insanely low drop rate of UR tokens.. if they had been VR instead but one time only use for 1 character, that might have actually worked. Especially if Phoenix Boxes were the absolute only way to get them.. smart.
Sadly, it's too late now and that ship has sailed. It's extremely obvious to everyone except for one obvious sycophant that Cryptic has no desire to fix this 'problem' and things are how they are by design. The other game they run is the exact same way, for the exact same reason.
You have good ideas, so do many others who have contributed ideas but sadly we're all wasting our time discussing solutions since they would need to be implemented by someone that has absolutely no interest in any solutions. They don't see it as a problem and all we're doing is arguing in circles with the one person on earth that just won't accept the truth. Shame because there have been some pretty solid ideas offered by the community and they have all been ignored.
Oh yeah, absolutely. A downgrade from UR to VR would work much better.
But you're right, it's too late now and even if they changed it, with how many are already circulating, it wouldn't matter.
And I agree: this situation is by design. It's been a point of many a discussion with my fleetmates and there are some very worried they're just gonna increase the cap like they did in Neverwinter. If that's the move they're gonna make, the price would skyrocket immediately.
As you said, though, nothing we say is of any use because they just won't implement any of the ideas we've been giving them.
Still, I think threads like this can be beneficial to the playerbase because they act as a vent valve for people's frustration.
We just need to ignore the usual suspects and don't jump down each other's throats.
Not agreeing with someone doesn't give you the right to be an TRIBBLE.
Ci sono tre tipi di giocatori:
- quelli a cui non va mai bene niente... e vanno sul forum a trollare;
- quelli che sono talmente imbesuiti da credere a qualunque cosa i dev dicano, perfino che la luna è fatta di formaggio... e vanno sul forum a trollare;
- quelli che credono a quello a cui è giusto credere, sono d'accordo con quello con cui è giusto essere d'accordo e sono critici con quello che non va;
Ai giocatori dei primi due tipi, gratis in omaggio un bello specchio lucente su cui arrampicarsi. E una mazzata in testa per la loro poca intelligenza e compassione verso gli altri giocatori che non la pensano come loro.
Agli appartenenti al terzo tipo, invece, dico grazie. Anche se non sempre si riesce a mantenere la calma, siete quelli per cui vale la pena incazzarsi.
there is a really unwanted side effect : the price of the lockbox key (was at 5 millions ec when I left the game a year and half ago) + stuff from boxes (kit modules, weapons, consoles) are overpriced.
STO's 'hybrid' FTP model was probably always going to reach this point someday after it was introduced, I am just surprised it took this long.
This has never been a true free to play game; items that you purchase with Zen can give you a measurable advantage ingame rather than just being cosmetic, so they are always going to be in demand versus the purely cosmetic items that many games deal in, but the often stated idea that everything can be aquired ingame without paying real money has never been the case while doing so relies on purchasing Zen via the Dilithium Exchange from other players rather than direct from Cryptic/PWE - at some point somebody has to buy that Zen with real money, and be willing to part with it.
In games where the purchase of currency is regulated at a fixed price by the publisher and the rate at which that currency can be earned by actually playing the game is a known quantity things are better controlled to a degree (I do not claim they are perfect by any means) - in STO as a so called 'FTP player' you are aiming at a constantly moving set of goalposts trying to earn enough to exchange for Zen, and the general trend has almost always been upwards. Of course some players always find a way to game the system, in pretty much every game, but STO's player driven exchange has been more vulnerable to such effects.
And then we have the various gamble boxes that just accelerate the trend. Regardless of however many ships are added to the Zen store for direct purchase in any given period, gamble boxes with desirable new ships and items are always being added to fuel the demand for Zen either for the keys to open them and or purchase the packs that have a chance to reward them, as well as the need to earn lobi by doing so for items that end up in that store.
Well, someone obviously has taken control of the Exchange. In a decade, I've never known just one person to dictate the price and wow, but they must have a lot of money to spend on doing it.
The issue with those uniforms was that they were far too expensive and single character unlocks.
Well yes, that's what makes it a sink.
If it was account unlock it wouldn't have been a sink because the dil farmers can make that much with no effort, so you aren't removing any substantial amount of dil from the game by doing that. Likewise, if its half the cost then its pretty cheap(for dil farmers), and you are, again, not removing a substantial amount of dil from the game because the dil farmers can make it up with little effort. And either way the normal player is going to find it too expensive to be worth it, so they are unlikely to use it regardless.
Again, its like fleet holding projects. A single fleet holding project for the Colony World takes up anywhere from like 27K to 118K, and only gives 1,000 EXP of the 250,000 EXP you need for that section of the holding. That's why its an effective sink. Very high cost for very little overall reward.
What you are saying here is that you want a sink... that isn't actually a sink. You just want easy account unlock stuff, or medium cost character unlock stuff, which is the exact opposite of a sink.
Like, if they put the old event ships as character unlocks in the dil store they would be like 3-4 mil a pop. They ain't going to use the same rates they used for the T1-4 zen store ship because event ships aren't zen store ships. And with Mudd's Market existing theres no reason to not put these ships there, and no reason to not buy them from there.
That line of thought is precisely why those uniforms never sold in the Dil store. Weren't they 1 million dil or something equally absurd? That's 2000 zen at the worst possible exchange rate which could get you 4 different accountwide uniform unlocks instead. It was designed to fail at that price and no one should ever have been expected to take it seriously.
I think the fact that the dilithium exchange is maxed out at 500 is a non issue. If there's no dilithium to exchange into zen that could be a negative for STO. It's a shame Cryptic didn't activate a charge zen bonus to coincide with all this activity of sales because I won't buy without, but that's just me personally. Perhaps this will finally drive me to be one of those only play when there's events players instead of about every other day.
Uhm...when is there *not* an event going?
Good point, Cryptic does have events back to back ... to back it seems at times. I feel like a hamster on a wheel at times because of FOMO. I suppose that's what Cryptic wants, but I'm not sure that's better than playing the game because of enjoyment. I know there's a few missions I'm still trying to complete at least once, but I just don't feel the desire to play as much as I used to anymore.
If they really wanted to sink dill all they have to do is put more stuff in the phoenix box.
It doesn't sink anymore because it hasn't had anything new added to it for ages. All it is is a upgrade box. No one cares all that much about the gold phoenix tokens. I mean why better event ships can be had in the mudd store as account unlocks.
If they actually want to drop dil back to the 450 mark and hold it their. They could make the gold tickets account unlocks... and start adding the less tempting lobi ships to the box even if they are not account unlock it would help. Their are a bunch of early lobi ships that are not going to be big sellers in mudd choice packs (and cryptic has lots of lockbox/promo ships to fill mudd packs with for years yet).
Lobi ships should start being account unlock via Phoenix gold tickets. Add one new ship every 2-3 months. That one change would keep the dill in the 400-500 range perm. AND it would actually make Cryptic more money then putting those low value lobi ships in the Mudd packs. Their are people that would buy Dill with $$$ to take a swing at a gold ticket to unlock a lobi ship. Its a win win win for Cryptic. But its still cryptic I won't hold my breath. lol
To add to the idea of lobi ships in the Phoenix. They could even make it a limited time deal. With the gold tier never having more then 1-2 lobi ships available at a time. That way they could still add them to mudd packs later then they could justify putting 4 or even 5 ships in a mudd pack and trying to get people to buy their multi pack. It would be a little less offensive if they had offered the lower end lobi ships as Phoenix unlocks previously.
Since you always need both sides to maintain balance.. I will be recklessly negative.
"Realistically pessimistic" is probably the most...well..."realistic" option, TBH. I expect something that will temporarily ease the problem, only to have it come back again and they scramble to some up with some new short term fix.
I'm not trying to bash them; I know it's not easy trying to deal with all of the factors involved. But the most important thing here is 'regularity'. They can't just come up with some new holding or dil item that people want and then forget it about until we have this problem again. They have to actually make a schedule for dil sink items and stick to it. It has to be a regular thing, or this problem will just keep happening over and over again.
I mean, basically, I would say they need to put out a new holding and or dil exclusive ship at least every 4 months or so. And yes I know holdings take a lot of design work, so they should basically kill 2 birds with one stone and use whatever the new holding is as a map in some new episode so they are getting 2 uses out of the design work (like they did with the colony holding).
hwo to f2p get a gamma recruit now? I can't buy the character slots or the access to another species now without spending money. All of my character designs are pointless as I can't buy the things I need to make my characters how I want to. They should not have tied everything nice into the game to money. They should have made a more profound game.
We need to be able to modify/upgrade your own starship interior/exterior/weapons/consoles all with Dilithium. Customizations/quarters/holodecks/10fd's .... This is Star Trek .. why dont we have the ability to do MORE on our starships? 1/2 the content has been missing for over 10 years
Since you always need both sides to maintain balance.. I will be recklessly negative.
"Realistically pessimistic" is probably the most...well..."realistic" option, TBH. I expect something that will temporarily ease the problem, only to have it come back again and they scramble to some up with some new short term fix.
I'm not trying to bash them; I know it's not easy trying to deal with all of the factors involved. But the most important thing here is 'regularity'. They can't just come up with some new holding or dil item that people want and then forget it about until we have this problem again. They have to actually make a schedule for dil sink items and stick to it. It has to be a regular thing, or this problem will just keep happening over and over again.
I mean, basically, I would say they need to put out a new holding and or dil exclusive ship at least every 4 months or so. And yes I know holdings take a lot of design work, so they should basically kill 2 birds with one stone and use whatever the new holding is as a map in some new episode so they are getting 2 uses out of the design work (like they did with the colony holding).
Agreed. Whatever measure they take, whatever sink they can manage to think of, it can't be a one-time thing only. They need to think of a series of items (and I include ships in this category) to release regularly so that people will have something to spend the dilithium on.
Not a new holding, though, because that is not gonna help: the people that contribute to their developments are too few.
We need something that the majority of the playerbase will want to invest on. And we need that something to be released 3 or 4 times a year, at the very least.
Not agreeing with someone doesn't give you the right to be an TRIBBLE.
Ci sono tre tipi di giocatori:
- quelli a cui non va mai bene niente... e vanno sul forum a trollare;
- quelli che sono talmente imbesuiti da credere a qualunque cosa i dev dicano, perfino che la luna è fatta di formaggio... e vanno sul forum a trollare;
- quelli che credono a quello a cui è giusto credere, sono d'accordo con quello con cui è giusto essere d'accordo e sono critici con quello che non va;
Ai giocatori dei primi due tipi, gratis in omaggio un bello specchio lucente su cui arrampicarsi. E una mazzata in testa per la loro poca intelligenza e compassione verso gli altri giocatori che non la pensano come loro.
Agli appartenenti al terzo tipo, invece, dico grazie. Anche se non sempre si riesce a mantenere la calma, siete quelli per cui vale la pena incazzarsi.
Comments
The EP for STO before Emerson now helms Cryptic's Magic: The Gathering MMO, and it seems the monetization strategy is as bad if not worse than STO is. Also, given Emerson was installed under PWE's watch that choice is likely to have been made to make this game more in line with PWE goals, not just some random choice that happened to support what's happening now.
You have to make the sink WORTH it in order for it to be an effective sink. And right now there is really no reason at all to actually go further than the bare minimum when using phoenix boxes.
The issue with those uniforms was that they were far too expensive and single character unlocks. The sheer amount of dil that you had to put into them was too extreme for what they were. You're forgetting that people have to want the sink, for it to be effective. Its not that they would rather just play stock market simulator, its that cryptic erred in making them so incredibly expensive.
Had they been around half their original cost in dil, they might've been more effective. Had they been the same cost or a bit higher but had been account wide, they might've been effective.
Its entirely possible to make a sink tooo much for it to actually be effective because people will be less willing to buy into it for that price.
With ships those are actually more likely to do okay at high dil prices if they were sold purely for dil, because they're ships and serve a more important role than uniforms do. But they would need to be careful to not make them too expensive once again.
We're at the point where, for the average players, most dil sinks would either be too much for them to the point that it only discourages them, where for the richest players the ones with all the dil, sinks have to be balanced because too little and it doesn't affect them at all, and too much without actually being enticing means they'll ignore it.
I'm of the mind that we should probably do away with dil and get a new currency to replace it, reset the market and try and balance the new market before it gets out of hand. (But cryptic probably doesn't mind enough to try such a thing)
In beginning of how DR was rolled out it was sort of insulting on buying the same ship more than once but the way specializations work its sort of needed now to have versions of the same ship with different specializations. The other aspects though is its almost been a complete decade since they did that fleet revamp and the social aspects of this game have never changed in the entire history of the game which has killed it being that its a mmorpg that is based on social aspects in the first place. Then moving content to where it completes itself regardless of what players do between playing and just afking it out.
I would like to see the game prosper especially now that new stuff is coming out for the franchise but something has to change for the better or its just going to be a bunch of content people want but are not going to buy until the game eventually just shuts down.
a.) Allowed you to trade 10 tokens for 1 token of a higher rarity?
b.) Added all the old, discontinued Lobi/Lockbox T5 ships for epic tokens? (still single-character unlocks)
Personally, I am also of the mind that the value of Dilithium has been greatly devalued over the years due to actual developmental neglect. I know people like to point to things like Fleet Holdings, but honestly, Dilithium has always been a big bottleneck there - people don't WANT to spend dilithium on fleets. Usually, I've found that holding upgrades are typically funded by only a handful of people instead of something that everyone really pitches in for. I sincerely think that adding stuff like hangar pets to every Reputation would drain far more overall Dilithium from the game than another giant Fleet Holding would - it's something that people would actually want/use.
It would be tricky, though:
- if you leave both options available at all times, the prices would need to be high enough that very few people would be able to get everything they need in a short time frame but low enough that people would still be willing to buy;
- if you enable these options only at certain times (like it was for the boxes before, like it is for the Experimental Upgrades now), it might not be enough to stem the tide.
And speaking of the Experimental Upgrades, that's another big mistake they made in my opinion: putting them only sometimes in the Phoenix store while also always selling them in the Zen Store AND giving them away for free with every other event.
They could've been a good sink, but they weren't. They could've been an even better sink if they made them - and yes, I realize this would be unpopular - for a single upgrade instead of account wide. That, together with availability only through the Phoenix store would've given better results.
As it stands, everything they tried to do to correct the situation has been half hearted at best, and each move was immediately undermined by something else.
That has also been my experience so far: only a handful of people within my fleet would spend dilithium, while the majority would invest fleetmarks and expertise because they are inexpensive and can be acquired without limits and much faster without the need to create multiple characters to circumvent the daily refining cap.
Ci sono tre tipi di giocatori:
- quelli a cui non va mai bene niente... e vanno sul forum a trollare;
- quelli che sono talmente imbesuiti da credere a qualunque cosa i dev dicano, perfino che la luna è fatta di formaggio... e vanno sul forum a trollare;
- quelli che credono a quello a cui è giusto credere, sono d'accordo con quello con cui è giusto essere d'accordo e sono critici con quello che non va;
Ai giocatori dei primi due tipi, gratis in omaggio un bello specchio lucente su cui arrampicarsi. E una mazzata in testa per la loro poca intelligenza e compassione verso gli altri giocatori che non la pensano come loro.
Agli appartenenti al terzo tipo, invece, dico grazie. Anche se non sempre si riesce a mantenere la calma, siete quelli per cui vale la pena incazzarsi.
Not popular, but still a valid idea.
My only problem would be the insanely low drop rate of UR tokens.. if they had been VR instead but one time only use for 1 character, that might have actually worked. Especially if Phoenix Boxes were the absolute only way to get them.. smart.
Sadly, it's too late now and that ship has sailed. It's extremely obvious to everyone except for one obvious sycophant that Cryptic has no desire to fix this 'problem' and things are how they are by design. The other game they run is the exact same way, for the exact same reason.
You have good ideas, so do many others who have contributed ideas but sadly we're all wasting our time discussing solutions since they would need to be implemented by someone that has absolutely no interest in any solutions. They don't see it as a problem and all we're doing is arguing in circles with the one person on earth that just won't accept the truth. Shame because there have been some pretty solid ideas offered by the community and they have all been ignored.
Oh yeah, absolutely. A downgrade from UR to VR would work much better.
But you're right, it's too late now and even if they changed it, with how many are already circulating, it wouldn't matter.
And I agree: this situation is by design. It's been a point of many a discussion with my fleetmates and there are some very worried they're just gonna increase the cap like they did in Neverwinter. If that's the move they're gonna make, the price would skyrocket immediately.
As you said, though, nothing we say is of any use because they just won't implement any of the ideas we've been giving them.
Still, I think threads like this can be beneficial to the playerbase because they act as a vent valve for people's frustration.
We just need to ignore the usual suspects and don't jump down each other's throats.
Ci sono tre tipi di giocatori:
- quelli a cui non va mai bene niente... e vanno sul forum a trollare;
- quelli che sono talmente imbesuiti da credere a qualunque cosa i dev dicano, perfino che la luna è fatta di formaggio... e vanno sul forum a trollare;
- quelli che credono a quello a cui è giusto credere, sono d'accordo con quello con cui è giusto essere d'accordo e sono critici con quello che non va;
Ai giocatori dei primi due tipi, gratis in omaggio un bello specchio lucente su cui arrampicarsi. E una mazzata in testa per la loro poca intelligenza e compassione verso gli altri giocatori che non la pensano come loro.
Agli appartenenti al terzo tipo, invece, dico grazie. Anche se non sempre si riesce a mantenere la calma, siete quelli per cui vale la pena incazzarsi.
This has never been a true free to play game; items that you purchase with Zen can give you a measurable advantage ingame rather than just being cosmetic, so they are always going to be in demand versus the purely cosmetic items that many games deal in, but the often stated idea that everything can be aquired ingame without paying real money has never been the case while doing so relies on purchasing Zen via the Dilithium Exchange from other players rather than direct from Cryptic/PWE - at some point somebody has to buy that Zen with real money, and be willing to part with it.
In games where the purchase of currency is regulated at a fixed price by the publisher and the rate at which that currency can be earned by actually playing the game is a known quantity things are better controlled to a degree (I do not claim they are perfect by any means) - in STO as a so called 'FTP player' you are aiming at a constantly moving set of goalposts trying to earn enough to exchange for Zen, and the general trend has almost always been upwards. Of course some players always find a way to game the system, in pretty much every game, but STO's player driven exchange has been more vulnerable to such effects.
And then we have the various gamble boxes that just accelerate the trend. Regardless of however many ships are added to the Zen store for direct purchase in any given period, gamble boxes with desirable new ships and items are always being added to fuel the demand for Zen either for the keys to open them and or purchase the packs that have a chance to reward them, as well as the need to earn lobi by doing so for items that end up in that store.
That line of thought is precisely why those uniforms never sold in the Dil store. Weren't they 1 million dil or something equally absurd? That's 2000 zen at the worst possible exchange rate which could get you 4 different accountwide uniform unlocks instead. It was designed to fail at that price and no one should ever have been expected to take it seriously.
Maybe at 100k it would have been viable. Maybe.
Good point, Cryptic does have events back to back ... to back it seems at times. I feel like a hamster on a wheel at times because of FOMO. I suppose that's what Cryptic wants, but I'm not sure that's better than playing the game because of enjoyment. I know there's a few missions I'm still trying to complete at least once, but I just don't feel the desire to play as much as I used to anymore.
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
It doesn't sink anymore because it hasn't had anything new added to it for ages. All it is is a upgrade box. No one cares all that much about the gold phoenix tokens. I mean why better event ships can be had in the mudd store as account unlocks.
If they actually want to drop dil back to the 450 mark and hold it their. They could make the gold tickets account unlocks... and start adding the less tempting lobi ships to the box even if they are not account unlock it would help. Their are a bunch of early lobi ships that are not going to be big sellers in mudd choice packs (and cryptic has lots of lockbox/promo ships to fill mudd packs with for years yet).
Lobi ships should start being account unlock via Phoenix gold tickets. Add one new ship every 2-3 months. That one change would keep the dill in the 400-500 range perm. AND it would actually make Cryptic more money then putting those low value lobi ships in the Mudd packs. Their are people that would buy Dill with $$$ to take a swing at a gold ticket to unlock a lobi ship. Its a win win win for Cryptic. But its still cryptic I won't hold my breath. lol
Since you always need both sides to maintain balance.. I will be recklessly negative.
"Realistically pessimistic" is probably the most...well..."realistic" option, TBH. I expect something that will temporarily ease the problem, only to have it come back again and they scramble to some up with some new short term fix.
I'm not trying to bash them; I know it's not easy trying to deal with all of the factors involved. But the most important thing here is 'regularity'. They can't just come up with some new holding or dil item that people want and then forget it about until we have this problem again. They have to actually make a schedule for dil sink items and stick to it. It has to be a regular thing, or this problem will just keep happening over and over again.
I mean, basically, I would say they need to put out a new holding and or dil exclusive ship at least every 4 months or so. And yes I know holdings take a lot of design work, so they should basically kill 2 birds with one stone and use whatever the new holding is as a map in some new episode so they are getting 2 uses out of the design work (like they did with the colony holding).
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
You win the forums today
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
Agreed. Whatever measure they take, whatever sink they can manage to think of, it can't be a one-time thing only. They need to think of a series of items (and I include ships in this category) to release regularly so that people will have something to spend the dilithium on.
Not a new holding, though, because that is not gonna help: the people that contribute to their developments are too few.
We need something that the majority of the playerbase will want to invest on. And we need that something to be released 3 or 4 times a year, at the very least.
Ci sono tre tipi di giocatori:
- quelli a cui non va mai bene niente... e vanno sul forum a trollare;
- quelli che sono talmente imbesuiti da credere a qualunque cosa i dev dicano, perfino che la luna è fatta di formaggio... e vanno sul forum a trollare;
- quelli che credono a quello a cui è giusto credere, sono d'accordo con quello con cui è giusto essere d'accordo e sono critici con quello che non va;
Ai giocatori dei primi due tipi, gratis in omaggio un bello specchio lucente su cui arrampicarsi. E una mazzata in testa per la loro poca intelligenza e compassione verso gli altri giocatori che non la pensano come loro.
Agli appartenenti al terzo tipo, invece, dico grazie. Anche se non sempre si riesce a mantenere la calma, siete quelli per cui vale la pena incazzarsi.