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STO economy, starting point...

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
Here is a VERY rough concept of what I think Cryptic should consider changing the STO economy in to.

Firstly, do not even touch the creation of gear in the beginning. This opens up a whole realm of imbalance and pain, and frankly the current economy needs to be brought under control first. Only allow players to make equipment if it is ABSOLUTELY necessary. Otherwise, this creates a situation where investments in skills or schematics become wasted resources and time, as dropped loot will always tend to be better, and once everyone has bought item X, nobody will be left who will want it.

Second, some sort of credit sink is needed. It doesn't need to huge, and it certainly should not be punitive but it needs to exist, otherwise inflation beyond belief will take hold. To a degree, it already has.

Third, and this is the most important one, is to focus on dealing with consumables. The basis of the economy, and of player crafting, should be consumables. Consumables are created, purchased, used, and once used are gone. This means they have to be created and purchased again. The system of batteries will have to be overhauled severely. These, and the consumables on the ground, will have to be extended and expanded greatly. Loot drops will have to be limited to only the most basic and weakest of consumable. All others should have some level of increasing power, up to having a dramatic effect on the outcome of battle. These non-basic items should be player crafted ONLY.

Fourth, players should not have craft skills. Player BOffs should have craft skills. By the time you hit captain, you can have a lot more BOffs than you ever need on the ground or in space. Use some of them for various crafting skills, and provide distinct crafting BOff skills for each of the three types of BOffs.

Fifth, the current "crafting" system should be removed from being a vendor exchange system, and turned in to something that a player's BOffs do for them. Your BOffs should be the ones modifying equipment, similar to what we saw in the shows. Memory Alpha should be for the crafting of new items, as per point three, and the expenditure of resources to research new item schematics.


Anyways, that is my starting point for what a STO economy should look like.
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    Bump...

    Thoughts, comments, flames?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    You know, if they made crafting something you do on the bridge while traveling to a system, that would give a lot more meaning to actually go into your own bridge. Crafting can be assigned to an officer depending on what kind of crafting you want to create: Engineering based items or usables should be done by the Engineer. Scientific based items and usables by a science officer, and of course tactical items for the tactical class.

    While they are crafting they can be indisposed, for a couple of minutes to an hour even. Crafting can consist of three stages: research, production, testing, when all three stages are finished the player get's the item in question.

    Crafting can be done through trading for the equipment, or using various junk you find in space which are pretty much 80% merchant loot.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    Right now the store and loot system is confusing as hell. :confused:

    You have Energy Credits which are the most akin to "Gold" in other games, however you only get them by breaking down items to an NPC vendor or by using the exchange. Then you can spend them on "base items" which are generally the inferior version of a given rank tier.

    Oh yeah, Energy Credits are also used for Character and Ship tailoring. :(

    You have Badges (PVE and PVP) which are given for repeatable content. These items are usually better than the "base items" purchased with Energy Credits.

    You also have Merits which are used for BOff purchases and renames, including ship renames. They can also be used for skill training. Most missions come with Federation Merits and as such are fairly easy to stockpile.

    Then you have the Crafting system which is more of an "Upgrading of dropped loot" system. You have limited "recipes" of items to be upgraded. The base item has to be "dropped" loot as far as I can tell. Since there's no way to purchase the "base" items that I know of.

    Here's what really annoys me: In order to reach the next crafting tier, I purchased two Personal Shields MK II in order to upgrade them at Memory Alpha, for some reason Romaine doesn't recognize them as the ingredient from the Personal Shield upgrades.

    Here's what the crafting system really needs:

    1) Get it away from Memory Alpha beyond the crafting tutorial. If you want us to go back to Memory Alpha for better recipes every so often that's fine, but don't make us go back every time we have something to craft.

    2) More consistency: I see what the base system of crafting is: Base item + Salvage = Upgraded Item. That's a good start, however I think a lot of people would also like Salvage + 1/2 price of energy value of base item = Base item. Another idea is to be more consistent with the Salvage required to give the same bonus to an applicable item. Why can't Romaine make Type II Disruptor Arrays with an accurate bonuses, as opposed to "just" Phasers?

    It's a sad thing when the crafting system is a worse lotto game than the overinflated exchange.
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