test content
Logo
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc
Proposal to Make Dilithium a True Time-Based Currency
commodoreshrvk
Member Posts: 477 Arc User
So it seems we the community and the development staff are at an impasse as to whether Dilithium is truly a time-based currency. The development staff contends that is what the currency was intended to do and DStahl provides their interpretation HERE. Long ago with the introduction of the currency it was stated that the desire was that a leveling player would have ample amounts of dilithium accrued by the time they reached max level (this was the justification for the high costs of ships). However, the intention of the currency does not equate to how it is actually functioning. On a fundamental level, dilithium is acting as a time-gated content-specific reward currency. Dilithium is not a time-based currency because there are a multitude of actions in game where time is spent that dilithium is not rewarded for. With the rising competition for dilithium in end-game system purchases, a hard cap on the refinement rate, and potential misbalancing to RWDs, rectifying the problem will be tricky and the currency system will require an overhaul. What I propose here is a pass on the system that will potentially remove damage to zen transactions. Please note any numbers in this proposal are merely placeholders to show the logic. Data mining from the game is required to generate the actual numbers.
Step 1 - Remove unrefined dilithium from the game and the dilithium refining limit.
Unrefined Dilithium Ore is a non-essential pass-through currency. Yes, this will be unpopular and people will scream because of the potential to flood the market with dilithium and buy tons of zen or vice-a-versa but subsequent steps below will provide the proper measures to eliminate that possibility by shifting the caps.
Step 2 - Standardize the dilithium gain per unit time.
This is something that has not been done and will be required for Steps 3 and 4. For this, the developers need to look at the missions that give out dilithium, their reward, and come up with an estimate of dilithium/hour. Then this estimate will be used further in awarding a base amount of dilithium to content and the passive system. Let's take a simple daily for example that rewards 480 dilithium and use that as the baseline. Let's say that daily is expected to take 15 minutes to complete so our dilithium per hour for that mission is 480*4 = 1920. Follow these steps with all dilithium rewarding missions and take the average.
Step 3 - Reward a passive rate of dilithium gain in game.
For simplicity's sake, I have chosen this logic - the passive gain should be at 10-20% of what would be rewarded for that content (i.e. the dilithium/hour rate). It needs to be small so AFK farming does not result in the main method of dilithium acquisition, however, with the logout-timer set to an hour this will have minimal impact. So, every 10 minutes active players in the game will get a ?Refined Dilithium? tick of 192 - 384 dilithium (or whatever the average rate is).
Step 4 - Provide an additional reward for ALL mission content or events.
Just like what currently happens, but the bonus is assessed based on challenge level. The main story missions may only give say a bonus of 200 + that gained from the passive system, Elite STFs will give more, etc... All Exploration, Patrol, etc... missions will get a base level. Events can be timed to award additional bonuses (i.e. bonus passive dilithium gain etc...). If it is truly intended to be a time-based currency, it needs to be rewarded for everything. For missions, the rate of gain is already limited by cooldows and this allows the developer's to highlight certain content as stated HERE.
Step 5 - Ensure that it will not imbalance the Dilithium Exchange.
Here is where the cap should have been in the first place. A hard cap on the amount of zen that can be purchased per day per account needs to be established (say 400-500). The amount of dilithium that can be purchased with zen does not need to be capped. This ensures the people that don't have money have an ingame method to obtain items from the C-Store can occur at a reasonable rate and the people who want to invest money instead of time can still do so as stated HERE. This is done even though it has been stated the exchange counts for a small part of the business HERE.
Step 6 - Make dilithium an account-based currency
This just makes too much sense and eliminates the silliness of Dilithium transferring using the exchange.
Step 7 - Closely monitor dilithium costs for items and inputs for the new systems.
Monitor, monitor, and adjust when necessary as is stated is being done HERE.
Step 1 - Remove unrefined dilithium from the game and the dilithium refining limit.
Unrefined Dilithium Ore is a non-essential pass-through currency. Yes, this will be unpopular and people will scream because of the potential to flood the market with dilithium and buy tons of zen or vice-a-versa but subsequent steps below will provide the proper measures to eliminate that possibility by shifting the caps.
Step 2 - Standardize the dilithium gain per unit time.
This is something that has not been done and will be required for Steps 3 and 4. For this, the developers need to look at the missions that give out dilithium, their reward, and come up with an estimate of dilithium/hour. Then this estimate will be used further in awarding a base amount of dilithium to content and the passive system. Let's take a simple daily for example that rewards 480 dilithium and use that as the baseline. Let's say that daily is expected to take 15 minutes to complete so our dilithium per hour for that mission is 480*4 = 1920. Follow these steps with all dilithium rewarding missions and take the average.
Step 3 - Reward a passive rate of dilithium gain in game.
For simplicity's sake, I have chosen this logic - the passive gain should be at 10-20% of what would be rewarded for that content (i.e. the dilithium/hour rate). It needs to be small so AFK farming does not result in the main method of dilithium acquisition, however, with the logout-timer set to an hour this will have minimal impact. So, every 10 minutes active players in the game will get a ?Refined Dilithium? tick of 192 - 384 dilithium (or whatever the average rate is).
Step 4 - Provide an additional reward for ALL mission content or events.
Just like what currently happens, but the bonus is assessed based on challenge level. The main story missions may only give say a bonus of 200 + that gained from the passive system, Elite STFs will give more, etc... All Exploration, Patrol, etc... missions will get a base level. Events can be timed to award additional bonuses (i.e. bonus passive dilithium gain etc...). If it is truly intended to be a time-based currency, it needs to be rewarded for everything. For missions, the rate of gain is already limited by cooldows and this allows the developer's to highlight certain content as stated HERE.
Step 5 - Ensure that it will not imbalance the Dilithium Exchange.
Here is where the cap should have been in the first place. A hard cap on the amount of zen that can be purchased per day per account needs to be established (say 400-500). The amount of dilithium that can be purchased with zen does not need to be capped. This ensures the people that don't have money have an ingame method to obtain items from the C-Store can occur at a reasonable rate and the people who want to invest money instead of time can still do so as stated HERE. This is done even though it has been stated the exchange counts for a small part of the business HERE.
Step 6 - Make dilithium an account-based currency
This just makes too much sense and eliminates the silliness of Dilithium transferring using the exchange.
Step 7 - Closely monitor dilithium costs for items and inputs for the new systems.
Monitor, monitor, and adjust when necessary as is stated is being done HERE.
Post edited by commodoreshrvk on
0
Comments
This!
Lower the number (400 is simply too much) and you get my vote. I adore the words "per account". Some will ask for "per toon", but that'd be rediculous.
The rest points need no changes.
Great presentation and definetly an improvement over the current silly and pretty confusing system.
Although, if you meant that if the average to get 480 Dil=15 Minutes, then a mission expected to last 30 Minutes should be valued at 960 Dilithium... i could get behind that... perhaps a bonus modifier for completing early? (Note: This is NOT an optional timer... just say ISE complete in 15 Minutes = 480 Dil, complete in 10 (2/3 time) = 640 Dilithium (480 base + 160 (the value of 5 minutes in dilithium)). There should be a nod to skill.
As to a passive Dilithium gain... not a fan (I gain dilithium by being logged in and doing nothing (exploitable)... so I need 15,000 dilithium, just stay logged in for 10 hours and prevent log outs (can be done with a keyboard macro) I'd gain that amount while at work, and sleeping... )... Alternative, perhaps have an method of gaining passive dilithium as you suggest, a holding of a dilithium mine or some sort... that must be defended (actively (thiking PVP/PVE mix here -- BSGO as an example))? As long as you hold the mine... you get the dilithium. Mine goes bye bye... you stop earning. Since we are at war, it makes sense that our enemies would want to limit our resource collection... seems like a solid idea (open PVP really is needed in this game).
Star Trek Online, Now with out the Trek....
Good model. But as I stated in other thread, I think that zen price crash (in S6 zen costs half of the price that was before) is good for pwe business. As this hard cap and changes of S7 are making dilith rare (Starbases, Omega reputation system) and forces players to buy zen in order to obtain more of dilith.
[Combat (Self)] You lose 6549 (7572) Cold from the torment of the underworld.
In-game handle @Janetza
Basically, I think that dilithium should reward a broad range of 'time investments' in gameplay, but I don't think people should earn it for sitting still. That's just inviting abuse, even if there are some sort of caps. We want people to play the game, not just sit there. They're free to socialize and stuff (it is an MMO after all), but rewards should come from gameplay, not just being logged in.
Conjoined, Re-emergence, and . . .
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Nope, for a specific mission you are rewarded the extra dilithium by how long it "should" take you. So if the devs create a mission that should take 15 minutes it awards that amount of dilithium. You can sit in the mission all you want, the only dilithium you are going to get is 15 minutes worth for the mission and the low passive rate.
This is exactly what is meant.
Agreed, that is why I set the bar low for a passive gain. Additionally, you could have a "trigger" for passive gain. Doing some content "triggers" the ticks to start. Think of it like a passive buff then with a countdown timer. Do some content, you get a 30 min timer that counts down to zero. Continuing to missions just keeps resetting the countdown timer.
Like I said above, the numbers are just up there to show the logic behind the concept. I can earn between 170-220 Zen a day so perhaps 200 then.
I am sure it will not be unpopular to players, but the devs and on up might cringe. As for the price of Zen, both ends of the spectrum (high and low conversion rates) are good for business. The system is cleverly buffered at both ends, but seems to be better at the lower end.
If dilithium is truely meant to be a time-based currency, then peoples activities such as socializing, role-playing, testing builds, etc... can only be accounted for by some passiveness in the system. Like I said above, if the logout timer is not enough, if the low rate is not enough, you could put in a "count-down" timer.
To bad it's getting nerfed....
All it means is that Purple Doff's are going to go back to where they were before people caught on to combining the massive Doff packs out of lockboxes with the grinder.
It seems to me though that particularly Federation storyline and patrol missions would take a very long time to assess the durations of and attach appropriate amounts of dilithium to. So maybe that ought to just be a fixed amount, at least initially, and the missions that take really long can pointed out (in our usual howling manner) by the playerbase to the devs after the whole thing goes live.
Another thing they could do is simply add small amounts of dilithium to the loot tables, either instead of dilithium as a mission reward, or in addition to a low baseline reward. Admittedly, it makes more sense that at least most humanoid mobs would drop latinum, but there's still nothing of worth to buy with that. (And buying dilithium packets or the other thing (lobi) in the latinum store would cause problems all of its own: People sitting at the dabo table from 6PM on thursday, tilll 4 PM next thursday, running a script that clicks their mouse for them every thirty seconds. And it's only supposed to be a cosmetic currency anyway. Dilithium packets would be way too practical.)