You might be right that the dilithium requirements may not be that bad, but I dont see it myself, 20, 30, 40 or 50k an item (excuse me for not knowing the exact prices) is still a lot, for casual players anyway, and up to Season 7, they were free.
MACO/Omega/KDF MK X = 3,500 dilith (each piece) MACO/Omega/KDF MK XI = 5,500 dilith (each piece)
Yes you can, and I have. The trouble is, Lt Feras doffs seem to have been particularly chosen for their mediocrity. I still end up on the exchange looking for doffs most of the time. And remember you have been playing for a year, new players have a much harder struggle to learn the system. My new toons start off well, mainly because my existing toons can sub them some good doffs, someone new to the game cant do that unless they are in a very kind fleet.
I don't know what game you are playing, but the ones I get from Ferra are very-very good in quality.
Did you complete a whole duty officer commendation series? After I completed all of the diplomatic duty officer ranks, Ferra started to give me some really nice duty officers. You just have to know how to use the officers.
You can also get higher ranked duty officers from the fleet store. Instead of paying for them with energy credits and dilithium, you can now buy duty officers with fleet credits.
Love my Steam Runner and My Armitage. I am Primarily Escort Pilot with the flip side Carrier pilot.
I use the console on the steamrunner on my bug (helps the team in stfs abit).Id use the steamrunner because it has good stats but it is ugly .I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder but that thing is ugly ugly ugly ugly ..... :P
[QUOTE=glassguitar;6942621 STFs are faceroll easy with crappy gear as long as you actually know how to play your toon in a teamwork setting[/QUOTE]
Which, having soloed to lv50, the average f2p player..... not so much.
Or if you don't have much experience with team-coordination online MP games. /shrug
MACO/Omega/KDF MK X = 3,500 dilith (each piece)
MACO/Omega/KDF MK XI = 5,500 dilith (each piece)
I don't know where you are getting those numbers.
I got my numbers directly from the system.
Just unlocked my first Romulan Tier 1 store today, Mk XI pistols. 11k dil each. Ooh. Aah.
(personally, I don't cap my daily dil, across hours of play. No STFs, so the dil is mostly coming from 45 minutes of Strange New Worlds, daily Academy test, sometimes the Academy event if I can stomach it, and mostly-non-crit doff assignments. Oh, and mining. Total, less than 100k dil since I started playing. And I blew a chunk of that on zen. Finally found my way to Defera, so I've got a whole ~90 omega marks. Definitely not cashing those in for dil any time soon.)
Well my console was 15K, Green Scorpions are 15K, Borg Set (14+14+14+15) used to be 0 and about 15+1 missions, and I am only at T2. Guess I am assuming T3,4,5 will be more expensive.
I don't know what game you are playing, but the ones I get from Ferra are very-very good in quality.
Did you complete a whole duty officer commendation series? After I completed all of the diplomatic duty officer ranks, Ferra started to give me some really nice duty officers. You just have to know how to use the officers.
You can also get higher ranked duty officers from the fleet store. Instead of paying for them with energy credits and dilithium, you can now buy duty officers with fleet credits.
Yes, done that, and I have to disagree with you.
Some doffs are OK, but a lot are stubbon and/or unruly (or something else that comes up red in mission selection), there is not a single one with Resolve, and when I make a list of what skills I am looking for and, more importantly, what I am not, hey presto, Fab Engs, Def Offs, Exp Epts, Q Mstrs, Dia Engs, and Techns score low on logical and temwork, stubborn their not so bad (except when you really need it) and half of the others get rulled out for many missions because of other negative traits.
I have bought some, but my best doffs have come from the exchange and occasionally the doff grinder (which I miss using).
I concede your point on the fleet store, as I dont do starbases.
Zen
The current exchange value of the Zen to Dilithium will continue to fall, levelling off for a while at about 100, (probably when the STFers who cashed out at the end of Season 6 dump their Dilithium mountains.) before dropping again till it settles around 60 to 75 - I predict.
Why, because for all the little Dilithium bonuses Cryptic have restored since Season 7 went live (first the STF, then the Reputation costs and rewards), they have not addressed the real issue, which is the massive increase in Dilithium sinks (ipp doff costs and having to pay for STF weapons and items).
Unless Cryptic flood the entire player base with heaps of Dilithium (their current tactic of feeding back small Dilithium concessions is neither working, nor will it ever work), few of the Free-to-Play players (who are the main Dilithium sellers), will want to exchange their Dilithium, simply because they now need it all to spend on their toons. And hence, the value of Dilithium must continue to rise.
Doffs
For new players, upgrading their doffs, first to green and upwards to purple, is one of the best ways to get a steady income of Dilithium (also Energy Credits and useful items). Quite simply for Dilithium (other than via contraband) you need Resolve and you cant buy either Resolve doffs or good doffs unless you have heaps of cash, which by definition, being new, you dont. The massive Dilithium cost to upgrade doff makes this path all but impossible except for the Dilithium rich.
STF
Now when I go the Zen store, Dilithium store or the exchange and buy something, I expect to a) get it, and b) pay for it (rather obvious - but please bear with me), when I play 20 odd missions to get enough chips (or points) for an item I do not want to a) also pay for it, and b) not get it for 2 days (and it is 2 days, if you have a first life).
Now I dont think that I am being greedy here, I think that it is perfectly fair to either pay for something or (to use an unfortunately common term) grind for it. I do not think that we all should have to grind, pay - and wait!
The Game
What is a game? (again, please bear with me). Game are things people do for fun, that fun is different for each person, some like to build their starbases (personally, I dont - the cost to reward seems much to high), but others of you do and I hope that it is rewarding for you. Some people like to play hours on end day after day, again thats great for those of you who do. And others play for a few hours, a few days per week (probably most of us).
(and my point)
It is Cryptics job to make the game enjoyable for everyone and each persons choice of playing style, thats what the game is there for (Please remember, it is A GAME - and only, evermore, just a game). It may be a hard balancing act, and I do understand that they need to make money, but every change they make should be made to make the game more enjoyable for each type of player. This is basic economics for any company that runs any kind of service.
And as many have said before me (so I'm not laboring it in this post), the grind, whats with the grind, this is a game for (state your deity now)s sake, its supposed to be fun, and not just for those with massive disposable hours, fun for everyone! So many of the Season 7 changes make the average person want to play less, not more.
And what will happen
Less players, Gold account holder numbers and Zen sales drop, so less money and eventually the game becomes uneconomical and folds. I love playing this game and will be very sad when its gone.
The Solution - please Cryptic
Quite simply, drop the Dilithium requirements for the entire Reputation system and earned items, we dont even need the Dilithium drops/rewards if we dont need to spend it for the earned items (unless, of course, you really need to give us Dilithium so that we can sell it on the exchange).
Drop all the time gated times to zero or something trivial, does it really add anything to the game playing fun for anyone to wait days for things. OK so some people will put in colossal hours of play to get it all now - so what? Good luck to them. I wont, most people wont (or cant, because they dont have the time), - but does this hurt anyone?
Return the Dilithium costs for the doff exchange system to Season 6 levels, what does it matter to you (or your profits - if that is the driver) if people can upgrade all the way to purple doffs? Toons will level up slightly faster, have more cash and the exchange prices will fall a bit, but will that spoil the game economy?
The Result
Everyone will have a little more, wait a little less, the economics will change slightly, but there will be more fun. People will be happy, they will want to play more, they will tell their friends and they will want to play too, the exchange will level out (not to my personal benefit - please note), Zen will be worth spending cash on, you sell everyone nice things for extra cash and you will make more money.
Does it matter how fast starbases or embassys are built? or how quickly toons level up? or whether so-and-so gets all his Mk12 gear in a week? What matters is that more people play the game and enjoy it.
Surely, it is that simple, isn?t it?
I agree with everything in this post. The real issue is, PWE has added very very small increases in dilithium and added more and more dilithium sinks. It's supply and demand. The price of zen will continue to fall. Who know PWE? Maybe instead of backing dollars, pounds and euros with gold, we can back our currencies with dilithium? Wouldn't that be something?
I see that the latest patch (http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=482851) is making it a little easier to get more Dilithium, in the "dailys" and mining events. This, of course, is good news to many, however it still fails to alter the fundamental changes introduced by Season 7.
No matter how easy it is to reach the daily 8K cap (or get closer to it, if your a casual player), it is the new Dilithium sinks, that makes people hoard all the Dilithium they generate for their own toons.
"When I have all the purple doffs and the xii gear I want, I'll start exchanging my Dilithium for Zen like I used to before.
(unless, that is, I suddenly develope an interest in starbases, embasies or whatever the bottomless pit is next.)"
No matter how easy it is to reach the daily 8K cap (or get closer to it, if your a casual player), it is the new Dilithium sinks, that makes people hoard all the Dilithium they generate for their own toons.
Indeed, i'm sitting on 700k dilithium and i'll keep hoarding it. So what? Play the game if you want your rewards! :P
Is that refined? I have a similar amount in unrefined due to the massive STF trade ins. Admittedly I've been putting it *somewhat begrudgingly* into my fleet as and when.
Though now the base projects are on rerun I can stockpile again for my own uses.
I thought Zen value would rise once we were able to cash in rep for dilithium ore, but that hasn't been the case.
I still think it'll happen but my guess is that those who use dil are constantly depleted and those who have it aren't selling it in sufficient quantities. But the hoarders are eventually going to have a surplus and they'll have to offload it.
It's just gonna take longer than anticipated. That dil drought that started during season 7 really didn't help.
I honestly applaud you for saying that you thought the value of Zen would go up and it has gone down.
Still, the law of supply and demand has to be acknowledged and respected.
You cannot reduce the amount of dilithium in the game without it having an impact on the value of zen.
Cryptic increased the demand for dilithium at the same time they sharply reduced the supply of it. The value of Zen has fallen 33% in less than a month. It will fall further in the future. Stores and banks are being used up and people are more resistant to buying more in the future.
If Cryptic wants to destroy the value of Zen then why should I go buy more of it. I want to invest the money Ive earned in good investments and not things falling in value.
People that used to buy zen are frustrated because they get less value for their money.
The prices may stabilize a bit as people quit buying zen so reduced dilithium gets paired with reduced amounts of zen ... but was this Cryptics goal or design.
Probably not. They say they thought dilithium reserves would go up - they havent - theyve dropped hard. They will drop more. Its a problem and its growing.
I'm still trying to figure out what people are angry about.
At the moment I can easily hit the 8k dil refining limit on one character (which is typically all that interests me). At current exchange prices I can get almost 80 zen per day. This allows regular purchase of zen for store items. I can buy a lot more store items now than what I could in the past.
What is the reason for this? The dil sinks that have been added. Most things that people want to buy/start project cost dil. Clearly there are a lot of people that want to buy dil to speed up projects, ship fitting or whatever. That number significantly exceeds the number that want to sell dil at the moment.
If people are unhappy with the amount of dil they can buy you could actually buy store items and sell them for ec. You don't have to buy dil. In fact it's possible to be patient and live with 8 k dil per day per character. In addition if you take away most of the dil sinks why would people want to buy dil with zen?
Why do people think reduced dil stockpiles are a bad thing?
I'm still trying to figure out what people are angry about.
At the moment I can easily hit the 8k dil refining limit on one character (which is typically all that interests me). At current exchange prices I can get almost 80 zen per day. This allows regular purchase of zen for store items. I can buy a lot more store items now than what I could in the past.
What is the reason for this? The dil sinks that have been added. Most things that people want to buy/start project cost dil. Clearly there are a lot of people that want to buy dil to speed up projects, ship fitting or whatever. That number significantly exceeds the number that want to sell dil at the moment.
If people are unhappy with the amount of dil they can buy you could actually buy store items and sell them for ec. You don't have to buy dil. In fact it's possible to be patient and live with 8 k dil per day per character. In addition if you take away most of the dil sinks why would people want to buy dil with zen?
Why do people think reduced dil stockpiles are a bad thing?
Because they're looking at it from the opposite direction - not "how much zen can I get for my daily 8k" (like you are), but "I want to spend $20+ on zen, to then buy up all the dil so I can throw 100k of it at a project NOW." Those people would prefer the exchange rate to be 200-300 dil per zen. Whereas f2p players (who want some zen items, bought with Dil) prefer the ratio to be as low as possible.
There does seem to be an issue of people getting upset because people are spending their dil on stuff they want to use in the game, or for building their starbase/embassy.
Maybe people should review and scale down their goals. Instead of deciding that tier 5 starbase is their goal why not just focus on just getting a single project running, or maybe taking a break because you're supposed to have fun playing a game.
On the more factual side are there that many players that still have a dil stockpile. Most of the players I know with large stockpiles burnt it on starbase project contributions, and most of those were depleted around the time we hit tier 3.
Because they're looking at it from the opposite direction - not "how much zen can I get for my daily 8k" (like you are), but "I want to spend $20+ on zen, to then buy up all the dil so I can throw 100k of it at a project NOW." Those people would prefer the exchange rate to be 200-300 dil per zen. Whereas f2p players (who want some zen items, bought with Dil) prefer the ratio to be as low as possible.
They need to change their approach to how they spend their zen. The zen cost of store items is constant. Those items could be traded or sold for ec. The items or ec could be used to buy dil contributions from players. In fact one of the fleets I'm in has often offered lockbox ships or millions of ec for recruitment of players.
This is where some ferengi logic is required to advance starbase projects.
The Majority of Dilithium sinks will be finished in 2 months I would say, since thats around the time frame for tier 5 of the Reputation systems. Then it will be back to the Starbase, As for the Cosmetic projects, You could always hold off on them. They will start repeating, Stahl said they would. Progress the starbase as quickly as you can, work on the cosmetics when they replay.
"Stahl said they would"? No offense bro but Stahl says a lot of things and makes a lot of promises that he don't keep. KDF is still waiting for content that was suppose to bring KDF
up to par with the Fed sinse at least from what i know of season five some have even said since the beginning of the game. Sorry but his words/promises don't a lot have of credit with me and with a few other people i know
The Emperor isn't please with Cryptic apparent lack of progress for the Empire. Lord Vader is on his way
Stahl is not believable anymore. If he says something the best notice you can make of it is that his lips are moving.
I do not think people are entitled to get to tier 5. But I do think they are entitled to have a chance at it. If STO puts up projects to work for then there must be a reasonable chance to get to the end of the rainbow to collect your pot of gold. For most players in regular fleets this is not true.
The people in fleets that I serve do not want projects that cannot be achieved. They do not want projects they have no hope of accomplishing. And they do not want to go into a pvp match and see someone with a tier 5 fleet ship that they do not have equal access to in their own fleet.
And maybe some of us know that if Zen sales start to fall because people quit buying dilithium which is inevitable that Cryptic will come up with some other lousy pay to win item, ship, console, or race that will bork pvp and game balance even more.
Everybody knows that if you want to pvp in space you need a pay to win ship and if you want to pvp on ground you would do well to buy a Cat.
There needs to be an option fo direct Buy Dilith without allowing speculators to benefit
Compensation for goods and services is not ethical? You still have some unusual opinions sollvax. Also, I've provide a solution that people want to deliberately ignore because it would solve their problems.
bugshu you don't need lock box ships to pvp, and if you ground pvp don't get a cat that's the opposite of a good idea.
There seems to be a lot of people either not wanting to earn, trade or buy their ships. That's fine you don't have to. You get a perfectly good and effective ship at level 40. If you play the game you can have enough ec, dil or fc to buy another ship but you're not required to. You could even run a race 25 times and get a good ship.
The people in fleets that I serve do not want projects that cannot be achieved. They do not want projects they have no hope of accomplishing. And they do not want to go into a pvp match and see someone with a tier 5 fleet ship that they do not have equal access to in their own fleet.
FYI some of the best fleet ships are T1/T3. The T5 ones are meh, to say the least.
Anyway, this whole starbase stuff is a huge vanity project. None of the reward is unique; lockbox ships and weapons can be found on the exchange and there is no EC cap but your intellecutal limits, and this gear is equivalent or superior to the fleet one. Of course this rewards people playing smartly instead of fat wallets but i'm ok with that.
I often stop contributing to starbases and I think i have a lot more fun doing that. Taking a break is also a valid option, and remember that as soon as you get frustrated about STO cryptic wins, because it means you'll likely do something not reasonable to make this stop.
dariusmajere, do share your secrets with us, please?
Oh, and in supply and demand it is not just the supply that determines the exchange prices, I am more commenting on the demand increases. Are they ever likely to fall?
Will wiser people than me, please respond.
Per day:
Turn in contraband 2000
Turn in prisoners: 1000
Colonist relocation 500
Various other 50-250dilithium quests: 250-750
Collect reputation turnin: 940
That's 5000 dilithium without even firing a shot, maybe 15-20 minutes work. You can easily do the contraband stuff 2 or 3x a day and exceed cap.
Now throw a 1800+ dilithium (with rep turnins) elite STF on it... Nobody should be having trouble earning dilithium. I can't refine my fast enough, I'm on a 300k surplus and it grows every day. There are a ton of sinks right now, but that will die down in a month or two and Starbase production will pick back up.
I'm not having issues earning dilithium anymore, most people shouldn't unless they want to remain ignorant, the real problem is the massive dilithium sinks in every part of the game. If it were reasonable that is one thing, but everything is taking several days worth of dilithium, which in Zen value is crazy expensive. So it doesn't make sense, it needs fixing to be more reasonable.
Hmm, I'll have to look up where you get those. I've gotten a small number on my Orion so far, but my Fed has yet to see one. Also a more reliable way/place to get colonists for the relocation quest.
Hmm, I'll have to look up where you get those. I've gotten a small number on my Orion so far, but my Fed has yet to see one. Also a more reliable way/place to get colonists for the relocation quest.
It's from the same guy on Qonos that gives you the contraband mission. There are also other common but random ones that you can get in space that are more efficient (4 for 500 instead of 10 for 1000; plus a better chance of success).
It's from the same guy on Qonos that gives you the contraband mission. There are also other common but random ones that you can get in space that are more efficient (4 for 500 instead of 10 for 1000; plus a better chance of success).
Yeah, I'd seen those missions. I meant getting the actual prisoners for the turn-in.
....ah, I see. Crit successes on certain Esp & Military assignments. No wonder I haven't seen any prisoners Fed-side.
I spent two weeks doing this with three KDF toons. I can count on one hand the number of times I hit the refining cap. Yet I still bought everything I wanted. Then I bought some fleet doff packs and sold them on the exchange for a big chunk of change that I use to equip my characters. I got bored of that and started playing the game again.
KDF remain Dil and contraband machines. As pointed out above the Dil sinks are only vanity items and don't need to be used. Anyone who claims Dil is scarce or hard to gain now is a fool. But their foolishness keeps Zen prices low, so let them remain fools.
Anyone who claims Dil is scarce or hard to gain now is a fool. But their foolishness keeps Zen prices low, so let them remain fools.
This post has never really been about the acquisition of Dilithium, End Game players will not have a problem reaching the 8k cap and anyone can reach it if they are prepared to grind.
The actual issue is the new sinks, the effect that has on the exchange and the grind factor which puts off casual players (like my ex-fleetmates, who just cant be bothered with it all anymore).
And I have a fear is that as we the players home in on the best way to play the game to maximise out return (for the time we put in), there are Cryptic "bean counters" out there looking for what they see as the next "shortcut" to nerf!
I have another fear (whilst I am here) that they will see the (oh so boring, boring, boring, click slide, click, slide...) reputation system as a success and if we ever get a level cap raise or anything else for end gamers, yup, it is going to be the same reused (from the starbase projects) code. What would have been so hard about one single "pay (x EC, y Dil, z Exp) now" button?
I spent two weeks doing this with three KDF toons. I can count on one hand the number of times I hit the refining cap. Yet I still bought everything I wanted. Then I bought some fleet doff packs and sold them on the exchange for a big chunk of change that I use to equip my characters. I got bored of that and started playing the game again.
KDF remain Dil and contraband machines. As pointed out above the Dil sinks are only vanity items and don't need to be used. Anyone who claims Dil is scarce or hard to gain now is a fool. But their foolishness keeps Zen prices low, so let them remain fools.
humblesheep is right,it's not about reaching the 8K Dilithium cap,it's the amount of Dilithium one needs to,well....get anywhere within the game.Gone are the days where one could aquire a nice piece of high end gear as a loot drop or mission reward,it has all been put in the Dilithium only grind.
8000 Dilithium (or 8500 for the veterans) a day is meaningless when on average one needs 35000 Dilithium a day.
Another overlooked fact is......while the current exchange rate is awesome for people trading Dilithium for Zen,it also means that less people are inclined to contribute to fleet projects because of it.
The PWE/Cryptic sweatshop...not where the game is made,but where the game is played!
Take back your home,end the grind!
Volunteer moderators policing the forums is like a mall cop trying to solve a murder.
Comments
MACO/Omega/KDF MK XI = 5,500 dilith (each piece)
I don't know where you are getting those numbers.
I got my numbers directly from the system.
I don't know what game you are playing, but the ones I get from Ferra are very-very good in quality.
Did you complete a whole duty officer commendation series? After I completed all of the diplomatic duty officer ranks, Ferra started to give me some really nice duty officers. You just have to know how to use the officers.
You can also get higher ranked duty officers from the fleet store. Instead of paying for them with energy credits and dilithium, you can now buy duty officers with fleet credits.
I use the console on the steamrunner on my bug (helps the team in stfs abit).Id use the steamrunner because it has good stats but it is ugly .I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder but that thing is ugly ugly ugly ugly ..... :P
Which, having soloed to lv50, the average f2p player..... not so much.
Or if you don't have much experience with team-coordination online MP games. /shrug
Just unlocked my first Romulan Tier 1 store today, Mk XI pistols. 11k dil each. Ooh. Aah.
(personally, I don't cap my daily dil, across hours of play. No STFs, so the dil is mostly coming from 45 minutes of Strange New Worlds, daily Academy test, sometimes the Academy event if I can stomach it, and mostly-non-crit doff assignments. Oh, and mining. Total, less than 100k dil since I started playing. And I blew a chunk of that on zen. Finally found my way to Defera, so I've got a whole ~90 omega marks. Definitely not cashing those in for dil any time soon.)
Well my console was 15K, Green Scorpions are 15K, Borg Set (14+14+14+15) used to be 0 and about 15+1 missions, and I am only at T2. Guess I am assuming T3,4,5 will be more expensive.
Yes, done that, and I have to disagree with you.
Some doffs are OK, but a lot are stubbon and/or unruly (or something else that comes up red in mission selection), there is not a single one with Resolve, and when I make a list of what skills I am looking for and, more importantly, what I am not, hey presto, Fab Engs, Def Offs, Exp Epts, Q Mstrs, Dia Engs, and Techns score low on logical and temwork, stubborn their not so bad (except when you really need it) and half of the others get rulled out for many missions because of other negative traits.
I have bought some, but my best doffs have come from the exchange and occasionally the doff grinder (which I miss using).
I concede your point on the fleet store, as I dont do starbases.
I agree with everything in this post. The real issue is, PWE has added very very small increases in dilithium and added more and more dilithium sinks. It's supply and demand. The price of zen will continue to fall. Who know PWE? Maybe instead of backing dollars, pounds and euros with gold, we can back our currencies with dilithium? Wouldn't that be something?
No matter how easy it is to reach the daily 8K cap (or get closer to it, if your a casual player), it is the new Dilithium sinks, that makes people hoard all the Dilithium they generate for their own toons.
"When I have all the purple doffs and the xii gear I want, I'll start exchanging my Dilithium for Zen like I used to before.
(unless, that is, I suddenly develope an interest in starbases, embasies or whatever the bottomless pit is next.)"
Indeed, i'm sitting on 700k dilithium and i'll keep hoarding it. So what? Play the game if you want your rewards! :P
God, lvl 60 CW. 17k.
Though now the base projects are on rerun I can stockpile again for my own uses.
God, lvl 60 CW. 17k.
I still think it'll happen but my guess is that those who use dil are constantly depleted and those who have it aren't selling it in sufficient quantities. But the hoarders are eventually going to have a surplus and they'll have to offload it.
It's just gonna take longer than anticipated. That dil drought that started during season 7 really didn't help.
Still, the law of supply and demand has to be acknowledged and respected.
You cannot reduce the amount of dilithium in the game without it having an impact on the value of zen.
Cryptic increased the demand for dilithium at the same time they sharply reduced the supply of it. The value of Zen has fallen 33% in less than a month. It will fall further in the future. Stores and banks are being used up and people are more resistant to buying more in the future.
If Cryptic wants to destroy the value of Zen then why should I go buy more of it. I want to invest the money Ive earned in good investments and not things falling in value.
People that used to buy zen are frustrated because they get less value for their money.
The prices may stabilize a bit as people quit buying zen so reduced dilithium gets paired with reduced amounts of zen ... but was this Cryptics goal or design.
Probably not. They say they thought dilithium reserves would go up - they havent - theyve dropped hard. They will drop more. Its a problem and its growing.
At the moment I can easily hit the 8k dil refining limit on one character (which is typically all that interests me). At current exchange prices I can get almost 80 zen per day. This allows regular purchase of zen for store items. I can buy a lot more store items now than what I could in the past.
What is the reason for this? The dil sinks that have been added. Most things that people want to buy/start project cost dil. Clearly there are a lot of people that want to buy dil to speed up projects, ship fitting or whatever. That number significantly exceeds the number that want to sell dil at the moment.
If people are unhappy with the amount of dil they can buy you could actually buy store items and sell them for ec. You don't have to buy dil. In fact it's possible to be patient and live with 8 k dil per day per character. In addition if you take away most of the dil sinks why would people want to buy dil with zen?
Why do people think reduced dil stockpiles are a bad thing?
Entitlement.
Because they're looking at it from the opposite direction - not "how much zen can I get for my daily 8k" (like you are), but "I want to spend $20+ on zen, to then buy up all the dil so I can throw 100k of it at a project NOW." Those people would prefer the exchange rate to be 200-300 dil per zen. Whereas f2p players (who want some zen items, bought with Dil) prefer the ratio to be as low as possible.
There does seem to be an issue of people getting upset because people are spending their dil on stuff they want to use in the game, or for building their starbase/embassy.
Maybe people should review and scale down their goals. Instead of deciding that tier 5 starbase is their goal why not just focus on just getting a single project running, or maybe taking a break because you're supposed to have fun playing a game.
On the more factual side are there that many players that still have a dil stockpile. Most of the players I know with large stockpiles burnt it on starbase project contributions, and most of those were depleted around the time we hit tier 3.
They need to change their approach to how they spend their zen. The zen cost of store items is constant. Those items could be traded or sold for ec. The items or ec could be used to buy dil contributions from players. In fact one of the fleets I'm in has often offered lockbox ships or millions of ec for recruitment of players.
This is where some ferengi logic is required to advance starbase projects.
"Stahl said they would"? No offense bro but Stahl says a lot of things and makes a lot of promises that he don't keep. KDF is still waiting for content that was suppose to bring KDF
up to par with the Fed sinse at least from what i know of season five some have even said since the beginning of the game. Sorry but his words/promises don't a lot have of credit with me and with a few other people i know
There needs to be an option fo direct Buy Dilith without allowing speculators to benefit
I do not think people are entitled to get to tier 5. But I do think they are entitled to have a chance at it. If STO puts up projects to work for then there must be a reasonable chance to get to the end of the rainbow to collect your pot of gold. For most players in regular fleets this is not true.
The people in fleets that I serve do not want projects that cannot be achieved. They do not want projects they have no hope of accomplishing. And they do not want to go into a pvp match and see someone with a tier 5 fleet ship that they do not have equal access to in their own fleet.
And maybe some of us know that if Zen sales start to fall because people quit buying dilithium which is inevitable that Cryptic will come up with some other lousy pay to win item, ship, console, or race that will bork pvp and game balance even more.
Everybody knows that if you want to pvp in space you need a pay to win ship and if you want to pvp on ground you would do well to buy a Cat.
Compensation for goods and services is not ethical? You still have some unusual opinions sollvax. Also, I've provide a solution that people want to deliberately ignore because it would solve their problems.
bugshu you don't need lock box ships to pvp, and if you ground pvp don't get a cat that's the opposite of a good idea.
There seems to be a lot of people either not wanting to earn, trade or buy their ships. That's fine you don't have to. You get a perfectly good and effective ship at level 40. If you play the game you can have enough ec, dil or fc to buy another ship but you're not required to. You could even run a race 25 times and get a good ship.
FYI some of the best fleet ships are T1/T3. The T5 ones are meh, to say the least.
Anyway, this whole starbase stuff is a huge vanity project. None of the reward is unique; lockbox ships and weapons can be found on the exchange and there is no EC cap but your intellecutal limits, and this gear is equivalent or superior to the fleet one. Of course this rewards people playing smartly instead of fat wallets but i'm ok with that.
I often stop contributing to starbases and I think i have a lot more fun doing that. Taking a break is also a valid option, and remember that as soon as you get frustrated about STO cryptic wins, because it means you'll likely do something not reasonable to make this stop.
God, lvl 60 CW. 17k.
Per day:
Turn in contraband 2000
Turn in prisoners: 1000
Colonist relocation 500
Various other 50-250dilithium quests: 250-750
Collect reputation turnin: 940
That's 5000 dilithium without even firing a shot, maybe 15-20 minutes work. You can easily do the contraband stuff 2 or 3x a day and exceed cap.
Now throw a 1800+ dilithium (with rep turnins) elite STF on it... Nobody should be having trouble earning dilithium. I can't refine my fast enough, I'm on a 300k surplus and it grows every day. There are a ton of sinks right now, but that will die down in a month or two and Starbase production will pick back up.
Completed Starbase, Embassy, Mine, Spire and No Win Scenario
Nothing to do anymore.
http://dtfleet.com/
Visit our Youtube channel
Hmm, I'll have to look up where you get those. I've gotten a small number on my Orion so far, but my Fed has yet to see one. Also a more reliable way/place to get colonists for the relocation quest.
It's from the same guy on Qonos that gives you the contraband mission. There are also other common but random ones that you can get in space that are more efficient (4 for 500 instead of 10 for 1000; plus a better chance of success).
Yeah, I'd seen those missions. I meant getting the actual prisoners for the turn-in.
....ah, I see. Crit successes on certain Esp & Military assignments. No wonder I haven't seen any prisoners Fed-side.
My KDF regularly hits this, but not my Feds.
I spent two weeks doing this with three KDF toons. I can count on one hand the number of times I hit the refining cap. Yet I still bought everything I wanted. Then I bought some fleet doff packs and sold them on the exchange for a big chunk of change that I use to equip my characters. I got bored of that and started playing the game again.
KDF remain Dil and contraband machines. As pointed out above the Dil sinks are only vanity items and don't need to be used. Anyone who claims Dil is scarce or hard to gain now is a fool. But their foolishness keeps Zen prices low, so let them remain fools.
This post has never really been about the acquisition of Dilithium, End Game players will not have a problem reaching the 8k cap and anyone can reach it if they are prepared to grind.
The actual issue is the new sinks, the effect that has on the exchange and the grind factor which puts off casual players (like my ex-fleetmates, who just cant be bothered with it all anymore).
And I have a fear is that as we the players home in on the best way to play the game to maximise out return (for the time we put in), there are Cryptic "bean counters" out there looking for what they see as the next "shortcut" to nerf!
I have another fear (whilst I am here) that they will see the (oh so boring, boring, boring, click slide, click, slide...) reputation system as a success and if we ever get a level cap raise or anything else for end gamers, yup, it is going to be the same reused (from the starbase projects) code. What would have been so hard about one single "pay (x EC, y Dil, z Exp) now" button?
humblesheep is right,it's not about reaching the 8K Dilithium cap,it's the amount of Dilithium one needs to,well....get anywhere within the game.Gone are the days where one could aquire a nice piece of high end gear as a loot drop or mission reward,it has all been put in the Dilithium only grind.
8000 Dilithium (or 8500 for the veterans) a day is meaningless when on average one needs 35000 Dilithium a day.
Another overlooked fact is......while the current exchange rate is awesome for people trading Dilithium for Zen,it also means that less people are inclined to contribute to fleet projects because of it.
Take back your home,end the grind!
Volunteer moderators policing the forums is like a mall cop trying to solve a murder.