In an MMO, minimum wage is universally described as a players "daily," not to be confused with the "Daily" as a system function in STO. That first hour you log in and perform a routine that accumulates Dilithium, DOFFs, Marks, etc... is in MMO economic design considered minimum wage.
Confusing that with minimum wage in real world economies would be a mistake. It is one of the big differences between MMO economics and real world economics, but in the end the economic impacts can be described similarly.
The Foundry daily "quickie" mission absolutely represented the biggest portion of minimum wage in STO for a vast number of players. It defined how wealth was previously accumulated on a per character basis. It represented an enormous bubble in the economy that no longer exists, not just for dilithium but fleet marks too. It hit my fleet, Jupiter Force, for around 3.5 million dilithium a week. It likely hit the economy as a whole for well over 3-4 hundred million a week.
The bubble has existed for a long time, and is part of all the economic data that they used to develop their season seven economic model. Absent a way (like DOFFs) that allows them to add hundreds of millions of Dilithium back into the economy via the minimum wage function of STO (the players daily), the economy will remain downsized... and at some point a system wide price adjustment will be required to address the new normal.
So what your saying is the vast majority of STO players are getting most of their income from a know exploit? Oh Dear. In short your just admitting your were exploited and are very sad that you cant. Also I find that offensive I have never used those missions, and I know many others who felt the same way. Maybe that was how most folks got dilithium in your fleet but must of ours comes from STFs and now FAs. We were deeply concerned at launch of S7 but now we are doing fine. Thanks.
Or you could say, they closed a known exploited and shockingly require players to actually play the game. A terrible tragedy I know, whatever will those people with 12 alts do every day?
Factually false. Cryptic counted on abuse when they added 50 fleet marks to the Foundry Daily in season six. It was by their design, and they knew it at the time.
I am among those who are happy they have removed the abuse of the Foundry Daily mission, because it cheapened the Foundry long term as a content engine for the game.
The problem was the poor planning involved in the transition away from the Foundry Daily as an economic function in the game. Good that they got rid of it, but horrible how they made no adjustments at all to compensate for it's loss within the STO economy.
So what your saying is the vast majority of STO players are getting most of their income from a know exploit? Oh Dear. Maybe that was how most folks got dilithium in your fleet but must of ours comes from STFs and now FAs. We were deeply concerned at launch of S7 but now we are doing fine.
You describe it as an exploit, but forget that Crytic highlighted a Foundry mission that made fun of that "exploit" and added 50 fleet marks as a bonus reward to that "exploit" near the beginning of season six to encourage it's exploitation to fix the problem of a huge lack of fleet marks in the game.
These Foundry missions have tens of thousands of reviews. It's been a major part of the STO economy since season five. It has likely been the sole reason many small fleets got to Tier III.
The change won't hurt big or active fleets. It does kick casual/small fleets in the nuts.
So what your saying is the vast majority of STO players are getting most of their income from a know exploit? Oh Dear. Maybe that was how most folks got dilithium in your fleet but must of ours comes from STFs and now FAs. We were deeply concerned at launch of S7 but now we are doing fine.
Also lowered. (STFs, I mean.)
And while he has good points, I think Cryptic's design philosophy was rooted in real world economics, not some kind of MMO game commentator economics perspective, as among other things I think they have more access to real MBAs than people from the gaming press. And I don't mean that in some kind of cynical "Cryptic is grabbing your cash" kind of way.
I think Cryptic's desire was to equalize player incomes and combat P2W and do so while hopefully increasing their profits.
I think they just haven't used the right strategy for that. But to build the appropriate counter, I'd need numbers, a calculator, a white board, and access to real people I could talk to. I hope Cryptic has this discussion productively on their own in their next patch post-mortem meeting.
Factually false. Cryptic counted on abuse when they added 50 fleet marks to the Foundry Daily in season six. It was by their design, and they knew it at the time.
I am among those who are happy they have removed the abuse of the Foundry Daily mission, because it cheapened the Foundry long term as a content engine for the game.
The problem was the poor planning involved in the transition away from the Foundry Daily as an economic function in the game. Good that they got rid of it, but horrible how they made no adjustments at all to compensate for it's loss within the STO economy.
That goes for Dilithium and fleet marks.
Yup. That 1440 Dil / 50 FM per character acted as oil on the hinges of the economy. Without it, progress for most mid-level fleets has stalled and people are probably less likely to top-up their reserves with the odd Zen purchase...
Factually false. Cryptic counted on abuse when they added 50 fleet marks to the Foundry Daily in season six. It was by their design, and they knew it at the time.
I am among those who are happy they have removed the abuse of the Foundry Daily mission, because it cheapened the Foundry long term as a content engine for the game.
The problem was the poor planning involved in the transition away from the Foundry Daily as an economic function in the game. Good that they got rid of it, but horrible how they made no adjustments at all to compensate for it's loss within the STO economy.
That goes for Dilithium and fleet marks.
Falsity of that is very open to debate, we certainly never see a dev admit to any such thing.
The problem was they had a lot different theories, and they tried a couple different things. In point of fact they are still trying them. The 29th will see dil rewards for rep advancement, which should effect every character at level 50. We will see STF rewards going to 960+200+500 plus more loot bags, and FAs are still worth a good amount of dilithium and EC. Those who play will be rewarded.
Or you could say, they closed a known exploited and shockingly require players to actually play the game. A terrible tragedy I know, whatever will those people with 12 alts do every day?
Well, if they.. you know... PAID for those 12 alts and now had a substantial game change imposed on them... most likely they would be justifiably upset. Also, I challenge calling it an exploit. Cryptic used it to prop up flagging interest in Starbases by adding FMs to it, knowing full well how it was used.
I see talk of the Season 7 changes as being a re-distrubtion of wealth and that F2P somehow benefits from that. I am afraid that this is wrong.
There are several currencies in the game.
Dilithium (Time based, but can be bought with money)
Marks (Time based only)
=================================================
The key point is it isn't an attempt to play robin hood, it's a attempt to get people ot buy zen through frustration. The real currency that is being tinkered with here is time... let me illustrate...
Let explain my own conclusion about how much the average player needs per to do per day to keep up with personal progression and fleet progression.
I set the goal at:
60 Romulan Marks per day
75 Omega Marks per day
50 Fleet Marks
Setting up Doff Assignments
1 Dilithium based PVE
5 minutes to queue up your rep projects
5 minutes to contribute to fleet projects
The result is at the moment for one character you need:
15 Minutes for the 60 Romulan Marks, using the Tau Dewu daily.
15 Minutes for the 75 Omega Marks, using ISE
45 Minutes for the 50 Fleet Marks, using Officer reports (until the daily minefield is fixed)
20 Minutes for setting up Doffs, (includes travel to various places)
20 Minutes for Dilithium PVE, SB24
10 Minutes for queuing projects
Total: About 2 hours (not including time wasted due to loading transitions etc)
In terms of Dilithium farming you will make from 2 hours work...
960 from ISE
1440 from Officer Reports
1000avg from doffing (more if you have the option to do rare assignement and then crit them, plus of course contraband)
1440 from SB24
total Dilithium: appx 4840. (this can be boosted by increasing weekly incomes like cashing in 5 contraband and 5 BNP's, those rewards would then be divided over 5 or 7 days... if you have a lot of Purple doffs you could crit a lot of missions and get maybe 2-3k dilith from assignments)
======================================
I have 3 characters so to keep up with the daily I would need to do 6 hours per day.
Therefore, most of this work is shunted to the weekends, apart from Officer reports which is on a timer.
Now, previously I could earn;
50 Fleet Marks in 0.5 Minutes
8000 Dilith in 1 Hour.
Doffing 20 minutes.
Total 1 Hour 20 minutes (at most).
======================================
What they are targeting is in fact your time. The only part of the above list that can be converted from time to money is Dilithium. The rest I have to do by playing missions, but Dilithium... I can pay for that with money instead of time.
Now think about what they did with Dilithium... the introduced new sinks aaaaand they spread Dilithium more thinly over more content (= more time required to harvest it).
======================================
It's not about redistribution of wealth... it's about exploiting the finite time people have and it's value.
You describe it as an exploit, but forget that Crytic highlighted a Foundry mission that made fun of that "exploit" and added 50 fleet marks as a bonus reward to that "exploit" near the beginning of season six to encourage it's exploitation to fix the problem of a huge lack of fleet marks in the game.
These Foundry missions have tens of thousands of reviews. It's been a major part of the STO economy since season five. It has likely been the sole reason many small fleets got to Tier III.
The change won't hurt big or active fleets. It does kick casual/small fleets in the nuts.
It was an Exploit. I don't describe it as that it is a simple fact. As you said yourself it cheapened the whole foundry system. Yes they knew about, i don't denied that, but that doesn't mean they encouraged it, adding to the missions rewards does not translate to condoning exploitation. If anything making fun of it should help players release they shouldn't do it. I never used it, and I am very pleased it closed.
Small/Casual fleets have the same choices they had before, accept it will take them time to achieve their goals, or they can start looking around to merge or accepting they won't have tier 5 starbase.
It was an Exploit. I don't describe it as that it is a simple fact. As you said yourself it cheapened the whole foundry system. Yes they knew about, i don't denied that, but that doesn't mean they encouraged it, adding to the missions rewards does not translate to condoning exploitation. If anything making fun of it should help players release they shouldn't do it. I never used it, and I am very pleased it closed.
Small/Casual fleets have the same choices they had before, accept it will take them time to achieve their goals, or they can start looking around to merge or accepting they won't have tier 5 starbase.
The thing is, it hasn't closed, one can (once they patch the fix) earn 50 Marks from a 10 minute 5 Man Gorn Minfield daily.
So you can be pleased as you want but it will still only take people a few minutes to get 50 marks.
I anticipate that the Foundry daily will go to one or two rather than three missions too.
So you may crow about it being an "exploit" but they've introduced a pretty easy "legal" method into the game now.:cool:
Low last night was 120 - now its back around 128 last I checked. But it is just vapour below 128 as far as I can see.
Burn baby burn Dilthium inferno!
Just in case you are too young to remember the song - or don't want to remember! There is only one person on the forums that I am sure was out there pimping to this in the 70's: Davyny(is that white guy on the keyboard -you? Man those suits hurt the eyes!!)
50 Fleet Marks in 0.5 Minutes
8000 Dilith in 1 Hour.
Doffing 20 minutes.
Total 1 Hour 20 minutes (at most).
Your assumption is that most people could do that. My assumption is that the vast majority did not know how and that knowing how made you part of an upper class these changes were designed to curtail.
They removed the easiest method to farm it this has been expected. Although I must admit a bit of surprise at the speed of the market drop.
That and no one has really unlocked the higher tiers of reputation yet so just what is all this dil being purchased being used for? I don't fully understand that part either. Especially because the first rep item I'm getting cost 500 marks and 15,000 dil and I gotta say if you spend the time to get that many marks I cannot see how the dil is an issue for you.
Well if you do elites you get 60 Omega Marks and 960 Dil per - so we need to do 9 in order to get the 500 Omega Marks which only give you 960x9=8640 Dil + 1,000 dil from 5 of the BNP. So the 15K Dil is not equivalient to the 500 Omega Marks. It is more equivalent to around 15 elite STFs.
15x60=900 OM
15x960=14400 DIL
15/5x1000=3000 DIL (from the BNP)
Little Extra Dil there, however you need the additional BNP in multiples of 5 to get you the DIL. (you could do it in 14 Elite STFs also, but might as well go for 15)
15 elites - not really looking forward to that many runs in a row, let along in a few days. And of course now you're not contributing any DIL to your Fleet Starbase (or Embassy). I think everyone was just building the starbases too quickly, or quicker than PWE had planned. Had to put a crutch (or several) in the way, so preoccupy individuals with Repution (helpy selfy) and preoccupy the Fleet with a flashy new Embassy.
Don't get me wrong I do like the new content, however I do see through the extra cost and thinning of the markets for everything is the price to pay for new content. And believe me, I think there is going to be much more content in the near future, so we feel we are getting an ROI
Right now, this is a "Robin Hood" model of game balance and that won't fly as well as they think it will. Is the sky falling? Eh. Kindof. But very slowly. Not at the same rate as dilithium is declining but if this IS driven by game balance, it will result in Cryptic running up a budget deficit in their attempts to manage the game economy, which will force correction on their part. Possibly an unpleasant one for the operation of the game and the amount of capital they have access to.
I think you're completely overestimating the issue. People won't act stupidly, they often do but when money is involved everyone suddenly gets a brain. Paying customers won't be able to buy off every single item the game has to offer, they will have to play it too, I guess that's a part of the "evil plan". After all if you want them to stay they should be committed to the game.
Money will remain a shortcut but you won't be able to buy everything, they will also have to play the game regularly to get some dilithium for free. If the market reaches some people's limit then be it, they won't buy 200k worth of dil to completely equip their ship right now, they might buy some stuff and play for the rest.
There's no "robin hood" logic, I really think the current design is made to force people to play the game instead of just buying everything. It's very similar to the former STF reward drops, and I guess it's designed so that people actually play the game instead of buying zen, be happy one day with their new set and then get bored, see no difference because they're still unable to play a ship even with top endgame fear, and quit because they have nothing to do.
The dilithium market crashing is ultimately a positive change for the game, it means everyone is busy and that the money shortcuts aren't just "endgame gear in the cash store", which is the worst possible design ever. Sure, there are time gates, there are tiers, but requirements are so low that it's a complete joke and just a matter of time, so, ultimately, dilithium gathering is supposed to be what keeps us busy.
Those who were dil exchange addicts will complain but the vast majority of the server won't care, they'll keep progressing and buy minor shortcuts and will understand that their best interest is playing the game instead of using the credit card.
I trust Dan Stahl when he says that the exchange is insignificant compared to regular c-store purchases, and I guess that's why they are ready to sacrifice such a little income to keep people actually playing the game on the long term to make them willing to buy new ships, lockbox stuff - something you'll ignore if you only play 20 minutes a day.
The thing is, it hasn't closed, one can (once they patch the fix) earn 50 Marks from a 10 minute 5 Man Gorn Minfield daily.
So you can be pleased as you want but it will still only take people a few minutes to get 50 marks.
I anticipate that the Foundry daily will go to one or two rather than three missions too.
So you may crow about it being an "exploit" but they've introduced a pretty easy "legal" method into the game now.:cool:
You totally missed the point. The value isn't in marks, you can always get marks. The point is the dilithium, 2k dil for less then 5 mins of effort. That is the exploit. If you can get 2k for doing what amounts to nothing the system doesn't work. Dil must be earned through effort.
The mission is still running and thats great, and if they want to make it 1 20 mins mission thats totally cool with me. But cannot be 2k dil for not playing the game.
I hope everyone gets 50 Marks and 400 dil by spending 10 mins gorn mine field. Then 50 more and more dil from SB24. But to do it they must play an FA and so put forward effort.
And Cryptic accountants are rejoicing in song as this forces players to buy more z-points to convert to Dilithium to make up for the lack of Dilithium being generated in the game. :mad:
Meh, I stopped buying Zen, I hope others did as well. Zero point buying Zen for the levels the exchange is at right now.
I trust Dan Stahl when he says that the exchange is insignificant compared to regular c-store purchases, and I guess that's why they are ready to sacrifice such a little income to keep people actually playing the game on the long term to make them willing to buy new ships, lockbox stuff - something you'll ignore if you only play 20 minutes a day.
I don't trust people who deceive, the STF dilithium fiasco really shows how bad they dropped the ball on this season.
Also if there intention was to get more people playing, they will be failing because the content is all grind orientated people are working, but not really playing or letting their hair-down in game. This is an entertainment product, you want people to play more making it more entertaining NOT forcing people to log on every day just so they can get to end game in 2 months instead of 6 is not really winning formula for customer retention, growth or happiness.
I think you're completely overestimating the issue. People won't act stupidly, they often do but when money is involved everyone suddenly gets a brain. Paying customers won't be able to buy off every single item the game has to offer, they will have to play it too, I guess that's a part of the "evil plan". After all if you want them to stay they should be committed to the game.
Money will remain a shortcut but you won't be able to buy everything, they will also have to play the game regularly to get some dilithium for free. If the market reaches some people's limit then be it, they won't buy 200k worth of dil to completely equip their ship right now, they might buy some stuff and play for the rest.
There's no "robin hood" logic, I really think the current design is made to force people to play the game instead of just buying everything. It's very similar to the former STF reward drops, and I guess it's designed so that people actually play the game instead of buying zen, be happy one day with their new set and then get bored, see no difference because they're still unable to play a ship even with top endgame fear, and quit because they have nothing to do.
The dilithium market crashing is ultimately a positive change for the game, it means everyone is busy and that the money shortcuts aren't just "endgame gear in the cash store", which is the worst possible design ever. Sure, there are time gates, there are tiers, but requirements are so low that it's a complete joke and just a matter of time, so, ultimately, dilithium gathering is supposed to be what keeps us busy.
Those who were dil exchange addicts will complain but the vast majority of the server won't care, they'll keep progressing and buy minor shortcuts and will understand that their best interest is playing the game instead of using the credit card.
I trust Dan Stahl when he says that the exchange is insignificant compared to regular c-store purchases, and I guess that's why they are ready to sacrifice such a little income to keep people actually playing the game on the long term to make them willing to buy new ships, lockbox stuff - something you'll ignore if you only play 20 minutes a day.
I don't think anything you said disagrees with anything I said.
The big difference being that whether the dilithium market rebounds when people give up on transactions or Cryptic subsidizes it at a low rate for design reasons.
Encouraging more gameplay versus dilithium purchasing IS a big part of what I mean when I say this is an anti-P2W, Robin Hood strategy, along with the idea of players having more purchasing power through gameplay if the depressed ZEN market holds or is subsidized in a holding pattern.
This may sound ignorant, but I would think that a low Zen/Dilithium ratio would be bad for Zen sales. If the ratio is low, people will be able to grind Zen like nothing.
I myself ground over 400 Zen worth of Dilithium this weekend.
Only so long as there's Zen in the market, I used to help keep it in myself by constantly buying low, selling high, but with the recent ship sale I dropped 4000 Zen on the Oddessy bundle, then due to the current state of the market and constant decline in the value of Zen combined with the need for Dilithium in the Rep system has seen me sell the last of my Zen and hold it as Dilithium at least until the market can remain stable for a week.
Who sets it though, if Cryptic/PWE does then that means there's an official value for nearly everything in game in dollars, if the playerbase sets it then someone will sell at a lower price to undercut and get their dilithium faster.
Comments
So what your saying is the vast majority of STO players are getting most of their income from a know exploit? Oh Dear. In short your just admitting your were exploited and are very sad that you cant. Also I find that offensive I have never used those missions, and I know many others who felt the same way. Maybe that was how most folks got dilithium in your fleet but must of ours comes from STFs and now FAs. We were deeply concerned at launch of S7 but now we are doing fine. Thanks.
Factually false. Cryptic counted on abuse when they added 50 fleet marks to the Foundry Daily in season six. It was by their design, and they knew it at the time.
I am among those who are happy they have removed the abuse of the Foundry Daily mission, because it cheapened the Foundry long term as a content engine for the game.
The problem was the poor planning involved in the transition away from the Foundry Daily as an economic function in the game. Good that they got rid of it, but horrible how they made no adjustments at all to compensate for it's loss within the STO economy.
That goes for Dilithium and fleet marks.
Rules of Acquisition at Priority One
You describe it as an exploit, but forget that Crytic highlighted a Foundry mission that made fun of that "exploit" and added 50 fleet marks as a bonus reward to that "exploit" near the beginning of season six to encourage it's exploitation to fix the problem of a huge lack of fleet marks in the game.
These Foundry missions have tens of thousands of reviews. It's been a major part of the STO economy since season five. It has likely been the sole reason many small fleets got to Tier III.
The change won't hurt big or active fleets. It does kick casual/small fleets in the nuts.
Rules of Acquisition at Priority One
Also lowered. (STFs, I mean.)
And while he has good points, I think Cryptic's design philosophy was rooted in real world economics, not some kind of MMO game commentator economics perspective, as among other things I think they have more access to real MBAs than people from the gaming press. And I don't mean that in some kind of cynical "Cryptic is grabbing your cash" kind of way.
I think Cryptic's desire was to equalize player incomes and combat P2W and do so while hopefully increasing their profits.
I think they just haven't used the right strategy for that. But to build the appropriate counter, I'd need numbers, a calculator, a white board, and access to real people I could talk to. I hope Cryptic has this discussion productively on their own in their next patch post-mortem meeting.
Yup. That 1440 Dil / 50 FM per character acted as oil on the hinges of the economy. Without it, progress for most mid-level fleets has stalled and people are probably less likely to top-up their reserves with the odd Zen purchase...
Falsity of that is very open to debate, we certainly never see a dev admit to any such thing.
The problem was they had a lot different theories, and they tried a couple different things. In point of fact they are still trying them. The 29th will see dil rewards for rep advancement, which should effect every character at level 50. We will see STF rewards going to 960+200+500 plus more loot bags, and FAs are still worth a good amount of dilithium and EC. Those who play will be rewarded.
Well, if they.. you know... PAID for those 12 alts and now had a substantial game change imposed on them... most likely they would be justifiably upset. Also, I challenge calling it an exploit. Cryptic used it to prop up flagging interest in Starbases by adding FMs to it, knowing full well how it was used.
There are several currencies in the game.
Dilithium (Time based, but can be bought with money)
Marks (Time based only)
=================================================
The key point is it isn't an attempt to play robin hood, it's a attempt to get people ot buy zen through frustration. The real currency that is being tinkered with here is time... let me illustrate...
Now, previously I could earn;
50 Fleet Marks in 0.5 Minutes
8000 Dilith in 1 Hour.
Doffing 20 minutes.
Total 1 Hour 20 minutes (at most).
======================================
What they are targeting is in fact your time. The only part of the above list that can be converted from time to money is Dilithium. The rest I have to do by playing missions, but Dilithium... I can pay for that with money instead of time.
Now think about what they did with Dilithium... the introduced new sinks aaaaand they spread Dilithium more thinly over more content (= more time required to harvest it).
======================================
It's not about redistribution of wealth... it's about exploiting the finite time people have and it's value.
#2311#2700#2316#2500
It was an Exploit. I don't describe it as that it is a simple fact. As you said yourself it cheapened the whole foundry system. Yes they knew about, i don't denied that, but that doesn't mean they encouraged it, adding to the missions rewards does not translate to condoning exploitation. If anything making fun of it should help players release they shouldn't do it. I never used it, and I am very pleased it closed.
Small/Casual fleets have the same choices they had before, accept it will take them time to achieve their goals, or they can start looking around to merge or accepting they won't have tier 5 starbase.
The thing is, it hasn't closed, one can (once they patch the fix) earn 50 Marks from a 10 minute 5 Man Gorn Minfield daily.
So you can be pleased as you want but it will still only take people a few minutes to get 50 marks.
I anticipate that the Foundry daily will go to one or two rather than three missions too.
So you may crow about it being an "exploit" but they've introduced a pretty easy "legal" method into the game now.:cool:
#2311#2700#2316#2500
Burn baby burn Dilthium inferno!
Just in case you are too young to remember the song - or don't want to remember! There is only one person on the forums that I am sure was out there pimping to this in the 70's: Davyny(is that white guy on the keyboard -you? Man those suits hurt the eyes!!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_sY2rjxq6M
Your assumption is that most people could do that. My assumption is that the vast majority did not know how and that knowing how made you part of an upper class these changes were designed to curtail.
Well if you do elites you get 60 Omega Marks and 960 Dil per - so we need to do 9 in order to get the 500 Omega Marks which only give you 960x9=8640 Dil + 1,000 dil from 5 of the BNP. So the 15K Dil is not equivalient to the 500 Omega Marks. It is more equivalent to around 15 elite STFs.
15x60=900 OM
15x960=14400 DIL
15/5x1000=3000 DIL (from the BNP)
Little Extra Dil there, however you need the additional BNP in multiples of 5 to get you the DIL. (you could do it in 14 Elite STFs also, but might as well go for 15)
15 elites - not really looking forward to that many runs in a row, let along in a few days. And of course now you're not contributing any DIL to your Fleet Starbase (or Embassy). I think everyone was just building the starbases too quickly, or quicker than PWE had planned. Had to put a crutch (or several) in the way, so preoccupy individuals with Repution (helpy selfy) and preoccupy the Fleet with a flashy new Embassy.
Don't get me wrong I do like the new content, however I do see through the extra cost and thinning of the markets for everything is the price to pay for new content. And believe me, I think there is going to be much more content in the near future, so we feel we are getting an ROI
Cryptic will invent new dili sinks, thats for sure.
I think you're completely overestimating the issue. People won't act stupidly, they often do but when money is involved everyone suddenly gets a brain. Paying customers won't be able to buy off every single item the game has to offer, they will have to play it too, I guess that's a part of the "evil plan". After all if you want them to stay they should be committed to the game.
Money will remain a shortcut but you won't be able to buy everything, they will also have to play the game regularly to get some dilithium for free. If the market reaches some people's limit then be it, they won't buy 200k worth of dil to completely equip their ship right now, they might buy some stuff and play for the rest.
There's no "robin hood" logic, I really think the current design is made to force people to play the game instead of just buying everything. It's very similar to the former STF reward drops, and I guess it's designed so that people actually play the game instead of buying zen, be happy one day with their new set and then get bored, see no difference because they're still unable to play a ship even with top endgame fear, and quit because they have nothing to do.
The dilithium market crashing is ultimately a positive change for the game, it means everyone is busy and that the money shortcuts aren't just "endgame gear in the cash store", which is the worst possible design ever. Sure, there are time gates, there are tiers, but requirements are so low that it's a complete joke and just a matter of time, so, ultimately, dilithium gathering is supposed to be what keeps us busy.
Those who were dil exchange addicts will complain but the vast majority of the server won't care, they'll keep progressing and buy minor shortcuts and will understand that their best interest is playing the game instead of using the credit card.
I trust Dan Stahl when he says that the exchange is insignificant compared to regular c-store purchases, and I guess that's why they are ready to sacrifice such a little income to keep people actually playing the game on the long term to make them willing to buy new ships, lockbox stuff - something you'll ignore if you only play 20 minutes a day.
God, lvl 60 CW. 17k.
You totally missed the point. The value isn't in marks, you can always get marks. The point is the dilithium, 2k dil for less then 5 mins of effort. That is the exploit. If you can get 2k for doing what amounts to nothing the system doesn't work. Dil must be earned through effort.
The mission is still running and thats great, and if they want to make it 1 20 mins mission thats totally cool with me. But cannot be 2k dil for not playing the game.
I hope everyone gets 50 Marks and 400 dil by spending 10 mins gorn mine field. Then 50 more and more dil from SB24. But to do it they must play an FA and so put forward effort.
Meh, I stopped buying Zen, I hope others did as well. Zero point buying Zen for the levels the exchange is at right now.
Jim
I don't trust people who deceive, the STF dilithium fiasco really shows how bad they dropped the ball on this season.
Also if there intention was to get more people playing, they will be failing because the content is all grind orientated people are working, but not really playing or letting their hair-down in game. This is an entertainment product, you want people to play more making it more entertaining NOT forcing people to log on every day just so they can get to end game in 2 months instead of 6 is not really winning formula for customer retention, growth or happiness.
#2311#2700#2316#2500
I don't think anything you said disagrees with anything I said.
The big difference being that whether the dilithium market rebounds when people give up on transactions or Cryptic subsidizes it at a low rate for design reasons.
So that means less grinding for players who want to buy something from the C-store.
of course not ,by adding 50 fleet marks they only made people stop using it.
*facepalm*
Exactly, which is why this is anti-P2W.
I'm just not convinced this is a better approach than P2W or the best counter to P2W.
MMOs are not perfectly games. Applying game design thinking without second guessing this approach to them can burn a developer.
Only so long as there's Zen in the market, I used to help keep it in myself by constantly buying low, selling high, but with the recent ship sale I dropped 4000 Zen on the Oddessy bundle, then due to the current state of the market and constant decline in the value of Zen combined with the need for Dilithium in the Rep system has seen me sell the last of my Zen and hold it as Dilithium at least until the market can remain stable for a week.
Who sets it though, if Cryptic/PWE does then that means there's an official value for nearly everything in game in dollars, if the playerbase sets it then someone will sell at a lower price to undercut and get their dilithium faster.
I don't subscribe to this game to add extra "chores" to my life. If someone expects me to do the work, then I expect to be the one getting paid.
My character Tsin'xing