Dilithium, please end the repetition. Here's how (really simple!):

zebular · July 2012

Okay, this is a rehashing of my largest pet-peeve since the dilithium system came to being. It is now at a breaking point for me so I feel I must speak up one last time.

I don't know how repetitive grinding dilithium is for PvPers, as I only PvE. For me however, grinding dilithium is far too repetitive with the same few daily missions, day in and day out. Repetition kills everything for me.

There is one simple solution that comes to mind (besides quitting the game all-together):

Make all missions that are repeated offer an adequate amount of unrefined dilithium. That way, players like me who play mostly -if not exclusively- PvE can re-do old story-line missions and earn our daily allotment of dilithium that way.

With there being a Dilithium cap, does it really matter if I spend one day farming 100,000 unrefined dilithium instead of 10 days of farming the same amount?

If, for whatever reason, you are worried that hoarding tons of unrefined dilithium might cause some mystical problems, then another solution is very simple to conceive:

Make is so that when a player takes in X amount of dilithium (where X is that player's refinement-per-day cap), story missions will no longer grant dilithium rewards until the dilithium refinement cap has been reset.

I so loathe doing the same daily missions over and over, every day that I play. I no longer find doing non-dilithium missions rewarding simply because almost everything in the game now costs dilithium, in some form or another.

Please kill this repetition and allow us to play the game and earn dilithium, not work for the dilithium (repetitive grind).

Thank you for your time.

dublinraider · July 2012

I agree with the above posting.
Repetition kills fun after awhile.
I haven't done an exploration daily in months.
I find the exploration daily content so repetitive and poor quality i stopped playing it (its the one part of STO that makes me feel like leaving the game).
An Episode Daily would be great.

Do you think Cryptics current choice of Daily Dilithium content is intentionally focussed so players will be become bored and earn less dilithium through content and therefore spend more real money on buying dilithium?

thoroon · July 2012

Make it so, wouldn't change anything for me

I find the episodes more boring than my weekly STF-evening ...

But the idea is good, afaik there exist people who actually would prefer it over all other kind of grinds.

timelord79 · July 2012

Stop caring about dilithium. As a strict PvEr there is no need for Dilithium. It won't buy you any gear you need. And from the C-Store you cherry pick what you need, so the little dilithium you have is enough. Doffing can get you enough for that with turning in contraband.

edude3 · July 2012

I agree to. Perhaps they could change it to items that are picked up could be traded in for dilithium. Also i have discovered at least for me it is way easier to earn free zen and convert it then to grind dilithium.

hawks3052 · July 2012

Good idea signed.

bluegeek · July 2012

Even DOFF assignments award a little bit of Dilithium, you can do them all day long, and you don't even have to be online to earn it except for the time it takes to set up new assignments.

So I don't see any reason why any mission can't reward at least a handful of the stuff. If we have to grind for it, we can at least do our best to be entertained by replaying content we like. It doesn't have to be a thousand Dil at a time.

I understand why significant rewards of Dilithium need to be capped or time-gated somehow, or people would grind 1500 Dilithium rewards over and over, day in and day out. But surely a constant dribble of them wouldn't hurt.

kingdoxy · July 2012

Working as Designed

Getting Dilithium is supposed to be a grind that you want to avoid. That's why Cryptic wants you to spend Z-store points to get it. Its how they make money in the F2P game.

And you say you're getting bored doing the same missions over and over. There are tons of missions to use in the Foundry for the dilithium daily (when the foundry works again).

Or are you bored of doing the same click 3 consoles missions over and over?

j4ck5p4rr0w · July 2012

zebular wrote: »

I so loathe doing the same daily missions over and over, every day that I play. I no longer find doing non-dilithium missions rewarding simply because almost everything in the game now costs dilithium, in some form or another.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but that is exactly how they WANT you to feel. If you actually enjoyed the process of earning dilithium then why would anyone trade zen for it? They WANT you to hate it so much that you would rather buy zen and trade it for however much dilithium you need instead of actually earning that dilithium through gameplay.

captaintrueheart · July 2012

j4ck5p4rr0w wrote: »

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but that is exactly how they WANT you to feel. If you actually enjoyed the process of earning dilithium then why would anyone trade zen for it? They WANT you to hate it so much that you would rather buy zen and trade it for however much dilithium you need instead of actually earning that dilithium through gameplay.

Exactly...

I can only imagine the discussion on designing/creating missions that are intended to keep players from enjoying them...

I understand they need to make money, however I'm not willing to accept that following a "me too" mindset on the popular free to play gimmicks is the right way to go about it. There definitely needs to be some innovation and hopefully the dev team can put some of their creativity to good use and develop something intriguing for the players and profitable for the company at the same time. As it stands, it feels like the only requirement is profitability...

hawks3052 · July 2012

Cryptics Business model will sooner than later be the end of STO and leave a bad reputation on the whole Star Trek IP. The game was much better before F2P and has turned for the worse ever sice.

sdkraust · July 2012

I have 26K Unrefined Dilithium in the past 3 days alone just doing STFs.
That means I had 16K more than this a few days ago.

(I'm also trying to fully equip my Mirror Star Cruiser...)

zebular · July 2012

Thanks for all the support and acknowledgement of this issue everyone! I am glad to see that I am far from alone in my feelings about this issue, even though that in itself is also disconcerting - at least for PWE/Crytpic. Hopefully more who also feel this way will chime in. We need to take a stand and say like Picard and Shelton have said, "The line must be drawn here! This far and no further!"

timelord79 wrote: »

Stop caring about dilithium. As a strict PvEr there is no need for Dilithium. It won't buy you any gear you need. And from the C-Store you cherry pick what you need, so the little dilithium you have is enough. Doffing can get you enough for that with turning in contraband.

Actually, there is quite a bit. Just to name a few would be DOffs, Ships, Crafting, and now the new Fleet operations. As for gear, the dilithium gear is way better than any gear I have seen drop from missions, save for special things like sets and dual-damage type weapons.

kingdoxy wrote: »

Working as Designed

Getting Dilithium is supposed to be a grind that you want to avoid. That's why Cryptic wants you to spend Z-store points to get it. Its how they make money in the F2P game.

And you say you're getting bored doing the same missions over and over. There are tons of missions to use in the Foundry for the dilithium daily (when the foundry works again).

Or are you bored of doing the same click 3 consoles missions over and over?

j4ck5p4rr0w wrote: »

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but that is exactly how they WANT you to feel. If you actually enjoyed the process of earning dilithium then why would anyone trade zen for it? They WANT you to hate it so much that you would rather buy zen and trade it for however much dilithium you need instead of actually earning that dilithium through gameplay.

hawks3052 wrote: »

Cryptics Business model will sooner than later be the end of STO and leave a bad reputation on the whole Star Trek IP. The game was much better before F2P and has turned for the worse ever sice.

If this is true, then this is really, really sad and disconcerting. For the record, again if this is true, this mind-set has caused me to no longer enjoy the game. All that I really am waiting for now is something new to come and take me away from here - unless PWE/Cryptic can turn this abomination of a dilithium system around. I love Star Trek so much and use to have so much fun before the dil system came to be in STO. Since everything, that doesn't award dilithium, has become feeling as though it is all a waste of time, because just how much new stuff is Dilithium or C-Store only, I no longer have the motivation or enjoyment factor for doing non-dilithium rewarding missions and activities.

The only thing they're doing by keeping this system, as it is and continuing to add cash-cow gimicks and more dilithium requirements, is driving players like me away to other games. I've been warning them of this for quite some time now, off and on, yet what happens? More dilithium requirements and more C-Store gimicks. The corporate decision makers need to be evaluated for they have, for me anyway, ruined the concept and enjoyment of this game. There is still hope, but that window of time is fading and some spectacular MMOs are on the horizon.

fereng1fiend · July 2012

zebular wrote: »

If this is true, then this is really, really sad and disconcerting.

What do you mean "if"? The more fun and easy dilithium is to get, the less money they make from people trading zen for it. They want it to be a grind so you would rather pay up and get instant gratification.

zebular · July 2012

fereng1fiend wrote: »

What do you mean "if"? The more fun and easy dilithium is to get, the less money they make from people trading zen for it. They want it to be a grind so you would rather pay up and get instant gratification.

I only say it like that because I am very picky about my use of the English Language and how I come across while using it, as I had a very awesome English and Grammar teacher who left quite an impression upon me. So, with that in mind, I like to be clear and allow the acknowledgement that I do not know everything in some of my statements, such as the one you are referring to.

So yes, while I agree with you that this is indeed the case, I simply do not know for sure. Hence my use of, "if," to denote such.

kingdoxy · July 2012

Folks who are angry about Dilithium being used so much in the game know you can buy 1500 Zen for that 15 buck sub you used to have to pay. Then turn that into something like 525000 delithium (1500 Zen * 350 Dil) in about 15 seconds right?

Or did all you silver players expect everything to be free in this game? I know if worse comes to worse and I really need Dilithium I can spend that 500 Zen stipend I get each month and buy a boat load of Dilithium.

Cryptic isn't running a charity here.

zebular · July 2012

kingdoxy wrote: »

Folks who are angry about Dilithium being used so much in the game know you can buy 1500 Zen for that 15 buck sub you used to have to pay. Then turn that into something like 525000 delithium (1500 Zen * 350 Dil) in about 15 seconds right?

Or did all you silver players expect everything to be free in this game? I know if worse comes to worse and I really need Dilithium I can spend that 500 Zen stipend I get each month and buy a boat load of Dilithium.

Cryptic isn't running a charity here.

That still does nothing to add any value to non-dilithium missions or any rewarding feeling, for me. Nor does it kill the repetitive grind of the handful of dailies that reward dilithium. At this point, in my opinion, the amount of things that cost dilithium in the game severely out-weight the pleasure in making dilithium. A little out-weighting is to be expected, just not practically everything. Before we know it, there won't be Energy Credits anymore and GPL will also become a Zen-Store gimick. Far, far too much if you get what I am saying.

There are still going to be people who would rather buy Zen points and sell them for dilithium and vice-versa. That is a luxury of Pay to Win games. People keep arguing that this game is not Pay to Win simply because of the DE (I have even been one of these people), however if you take a step back and absorb the paragraphs that you posted and all the Zen Gimicks as well as the low/boring income rate for dilithium, it becomes clear (at least it has to me) that this is indeed a Pay to Win game now.

They just need to reevaluate the whole system and their greediness. With the dilithium caps in play, there really is no good reason, in my opinion, why all missions that are repeated cannot or should not reward dilithium. This is my point here.

Besides, I haven't seen dilithium prices over 300 per Zen in quite some time, so while you do make a good point, you are exaggerating quite a bit. As of earlier today, it was between 250's and 280's per Zen.

article001 · July 2012

an Episode Replay version of the Complete 3 Foundry Missions dilithium daily would be cool.

zebular · July 2012

article001 wrote: »

an Episode Replay version of the Complete 3 Foundry Missions dilithium daily would be cool.

Indeed! This is truly a step in the right directly and exactly what I am in favor of to help kill this repetitive and boring grindy feeling. In my opinion, this alone would not be enough however but is a step on the right path.

brokenmirror2012 · July 2012

Im a pvper, heres the perspective on dilith for a pvper. None. Pvpers can make 2000 dilith every 20 hours using only pvp (thats it) It is IMPOSSIBLE to grind dilith using pvp. Dilith is pve only and its a joke. So there needs to be a way to get to the dilith cap by just pvp. With this, 2 pvps are never exactly the same. pvpers can have fun grinding dilith, and it mightbring more pvers to pvp...

HOWEVER: If this is to become a thing in STO. Cryptic NEEDS to ban AFKers.

marc8219 · July 2012

Why not just pvp anyway for the dil? Is much faster and it doesn't matter if you suck, you still get the same dil win or lose.

brokenmirror2012 · July 2012

marc8219 wrote: »

Why not just pvp anyway for the dil? Is much faster and it doesn't matter if you suck, you still get the same dil win or lose.

No dil only the dailys which means 2000 dil if u do kerrat (which is pve technicly) and Arena/C&H

Dilithium, please end the repetition. Here's how (really simple!):

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