Day 24. I was able to make some more progress toward my goals before the server shut down. I may get back on tonight after I get home from work, but for now, I'm going to post my progress. My zen total is 4658. I traded at a rate of 92 to 93 to one. The exchange looks to be on the rise again. I predict that by the end of this project, it will be betweeen 95 and 100 to 1. I think the recent rise in the exchange is due to the Dominion lock box. If the craze lasts for the entire time of the Dominion lock box, the exchange rate may get way higher than 100 to 1.
You might want to check out the surveys linked in the bar above the forums. I've made thousands of ZEN over the last couple months doing those, and filling a few offers in with an alternate email I don't use very often. Obviously you want to avoid the ones that require credit card info, but as long as you're cautious you can get lots of ZEN without being spammed or scammed. Plus some of the surveys are actually interesting.
I would do the surveys if they were open to residents outside the USA... Will check out the offers though. This thread has been an entertaining read while the launcher refuses to load...
I am ashamed to say I have spent money on zen to get what I want, ships basically, though I think i am done doing that...
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
ODYSSEY SCIENCE CRUISER - U.S.S. MAIDEN TORONTO NX-971312-B
VESTA MULTI-MISSION SURVEILLANCE EXPLORER - U.S.S. HOPE IN HELL NX-902013-A
I got a Bortasqu 3 pack a few months ago without spending real money, I just farmed dil on 4-6 characters per day. It was well worth it, don't listen to these naysayers, just because they can't pilot it good doesn't mean its a bad ship for everyone. People rather just bash the ship rather then admit it is the way they are piloting the ship that is at fault.
It does require piloting skill and practice to handle it, but if you can, there is no better cruiser. I can handle using DHC on it with no problem in STFs, so to me it is worth giving up the manuverablilty of the Fleet Torhkat for having 5 tac consoles, or sensor analysis, universal stations, and more survivability.
Day 24. My final total is 4770 zen. I traded at a rate of 94 to 1. I've only maxed out one of my toons for tonight and only put in a little bit of work for the other two, but I'm going to call it a night. I'm going to get up early so I can finish maxing out the other two toons before work. That should put me really close to my end goal. By tomorrow night, I should have this project complete. Hopefully everything works out like I planned.
Congratulations on reaching your goal! Don't let the nay-sayers get to you (I'm sure you don't), gaming is all about personal choice. I know more than a few that are downright deadly with their Bortasqu.
You've inspired me to embark on a project of my own, to get a Vesta pack for my sci!
I got a Bortasqu 3 pack a few months ago without spending real money, I just farmed dil on 4-6 characters per day. It was well worth it, don't listen to these naysayers, just because they can't pilot it good doesn't mean its a bad ship for everyone. People rather just bash the ship rather then admit it is the way they are piloting the ship that is at fault.
It does require piloting skill and practice to handle it, but if you can, there is no better cruiser. I can handle using DHC on it with no problem in STFs, so to me it is worth giving up the manuverablilty of the Fleet Torhkat for having 5 tac consoles, or sensor analysis, universal stations, and more survivability.
well in STFs you have big targets that don't move a lot.
and a few small ones on fixed paths
in PvP you will not have much fun with DHCs if an Escort parks in your rear arc.
therefore i go with 360? turrets, they can't hide from those and with rapid fire and various energy or attack pattern buffs they do a nice amount of DPS too (more than beams anyway).
Day 25. Final zen total comes to 5001. I'm finally finished. Tonight was actually one of the harder nights. It seems that I drew aggro from every enemy in the STFs the minute I started firing my weapons. I fought through it though. I traded for my final zen at a rate of 94 to 1. The exchange rate is still slowly on the rise in favor of zen. Still think it has something to do with the Dominion Lockbox, but it will probably rise even more when the Andorian ship comes out. It's still below what it was when I first started, but I think that will change soon.
Upsides to this project: I obtained a $50 ship pack for free. Sure someone paid for that zen, it just wasn't me. I also proved that the dilithium exchange is not a bad system, and compared to other MMO's, it is actually a great system for the F2P players to get items from the store without having to spend their grocery or gas money.
Downsides to this project: To be able to complete this project in this amount of time, everything else stopped dead in its tracks in favor of grinding dilithium. Starbase projects, reputation systems, everything else was put on standby. If I couldn't get dilithium from it relatively quickly, it didn't happen.
Here's what I did to get dilithium:
Eta Eridani dailies: Treelus sattelite repair, Alhena distress call, Sh'mar distress call, Salvage dispute (only once you picked up 10 computer core fragments)
Duty officer missions: Turn in contraband, critical successes on Doff missions,
(Whenever I obtained a significant amount of energy credits, I went to the exchange and purchased every piece of contraband I could so I would have enough to continue to turn in Contraband)
STFs: Specifically, Infected (Elite), and Khitomer Accord (Elite) Both Space
The thing with STFs is not only do you earn 980 dilithium, but with the Elites you always get 60 or more Omega marks. turning in 50 Omega marks gets you 500 dilithium. many times I also got lucky and picked up 11 borg neural processors. That was another 2000 dilithium. The STFs were my primary source of dilithium during this. The other were just to help grind out the last little bit for the day.
Now you all might be wondering what I'm planning on naming my ship. I found a website, http://www.mrklingon.org/, that translates English to Klingon so I decided to name my ship: I.K.S. Hos 'ej quv. Translated, that means strength and honor. I think it's a good name for a Bortasqu' War Cruiser.
I want to thank everyone for following this thread. I am going to take a break from grinding zen to finish my reputations, and maybe get my starbase to teir 2 or higher, but this doesn't mean I won't grind zen anymore. I won't put any more daily updates here, but I will update this thread whenever I get something for free, and I encourage anyone else who may have been inspired by this project to post your progress here as well. If you see me in game, don't hesitate to say high. My handles are:
Ive been following the progress for a while now and just wanted to chime in and say gratz man. 25 days for a 5000 zen ship pack, if this DOESNT prove to a majority of people that STO has one of the most considerate f2p models ever they are living a bitter angry life, i am a lifer and i love this game obviously. I drop plenty of money in to it, but i know most dont have that luxery, you've shown that just because you dont want/cant spend real world currency you are NOT denied getting nice things. I really hope people take what you did here and go "wow! that could be me!"
please look me up in game oban@salvo85 and send me a friend request, I would like to give you a bit of a reward (10 lockbox keys) for being such a trooper and generally a posotive piece of news in a sometimes hostile place.
Wow! I appreciate it. I sent you a friend request earlier. I hope this can serve as an inspiration for the F2P community that you dont have to spend your hard earned money to get the nice things in STO. I didn't even do the free zen surveys. I'll post a photo of my new ship later tonight after work.
Way to go! I'm a lifer, but haven't paid for anything for a long while. I tend to think "I'll get more with the stipend later" and buy little items I want right now, instead of saving for big ticket items. So props to you for patience.
I would also note that the PvP dailies give good amounts of Dilithium, for those people that enjoy PvP.
Regarding the surveys: I've totaled my amounts, and since I started doing surveys and little offers on July 3 (2012, so about seven months ago) I've earned 4989 Zen to supplement my stipend. Which is a bit more than 7 times slower than it took you to earn 5k Zen.
I would also be interested to know how your EC totals are doing now. More to the point, is grinding for Dil and Zen related to that total, or completely separate?
Upsides to this project: I obtained a $50 ship pack for free. Sure someone paid for that zen, it just wasn't me. I also proved that the dilithium exchange is not a bad system, and compared to other MMO's, it is actually a great system for the F2P players to get items from the store without having to spend their grocery or gas money
If nothing else this shows rather clearly that if someone wanted the 3 ship pack and doesn't mind spending a little money...
You could grind half with Dilithium and pay half, $25 and do so in a fairly quick amount of time. Either in 13 or so days of hard core grinding, or else 25 days but only do about half as much as you did.
been checking in on this thread every couple days though I've only been playing a couple of weeks. Been a good read. Congrats on the ship(s?)
well done, screenshot or it didn't happen!
while I'm still leveling up and I'm not really that keen on running multiple characters I think I've kind of started a project of my own. Though for now with the rate so high I think I'm going to just stock up on dilith till it comes down under 90 again and I don't think I'll be aiming for something that's 5k! I recon it wont be hard at all to save up ~2kzen problem will be ignoring everythign else that you need to buy... Looking at the Multi-Mission Strategic Explorer, as long as it's not rubbish.
rather than being full f2p I'm pretty sure I will spend some cash unlocking some conveniences like inventory slots and so on which I'll gladly do. I think I'll be getting my moneys worth. But no way am I buying keys for lock boxes. I don't like that system much.
As far as my EC totals go, they're not so good. Whenever I earned a good amount of EC, I always spent it on the exchange to buy more contraband for the turn in contraband doff mission.
Comments
Rest in Peace Brothers
I would do the surveys if they were open to residents outside the USA... Will check out the offers though. This thread has been an entertaining read while the launcher refuses to load...
I am ashamed to say I have spent money on zen to get what I want, ships basically, though I think i am done doing that...
VESTA MULTI-MISSION SURVEILLANCE EXPLORER - U.S.S. HOPE IN HELL NX-902013-A
It does require piloting skill and practice to handle it, but if you can, there is no better cruiser. I can handle using DHC on it with no problem in STFs, so to me it is worth giving up the manuverablilty of the Fleet Torhkat for having 5 tac consoles, or sensor analysis, universal stations, and more survivability.
Rest in Peace Brothers
You've inspired me to embark on a project of my own, to get a Vesta pack for my sci!
well in STFs you have big targets that don't move a lot.
and a few small ones on fixed paths
in PvP you will not have much fun with DHCs if an Escort parks in your rear arc.
therefore i go with 360? turrets, they can't hide from those and with rapid fire and various energy or attack pattern buffs they do a nice amount of DPS too (more than beams anyway).
Upsides to this project: I obtained a $50 ship pack for free. Sure someone paid for that zen, it just wasn't me. I also proved that the dilithium exchange is not a bad system, and compared to other MMO's, it is actually a great system for the F2P players to get items from the store without having to spend their grocery or gas money.
Downsides to this project: To be able to complete this project in this amount of time, everything else stopped dead in its tracks in favor of grinding dilithium. Starbase projects, reputation systems, everything else was put on standby. If I couldn't get dilithium from it relatively quickly, it didn't happen.
Here's what I did to get dilithium:
Eta Eridani dailies: Treelus sattelite repair, Alhena distress call, Sh'mar distress call, Salvage dispute (only once you picked up 10 computer core fragments)
Deferi Dailies: Rescue Deferi captives, Emancipation, Aiding Deferi
Starfleet/Klingon Academy: Final Exam question
Investigate Officer Reports
Duty officer missions: Turn in contraband, critical successes on Doff missions,
(Whenever I obtained a significant amount of energy credits, I went to the exchange and purchased every piece of contraband I could so I would have enough to continue to turn in Contraband)
STFs: Specifically, Infected (Elite), and Khitomer Accord (Elite) Both Space
The thing with STFs is not only do you earn 980 dilithium, but with the Elites you always get 60 or more Omega marks. turning in 50 Omega marks gets you 500 dilithium. many times I also got lucky and picked up 11 borg neural processors. That was another 2000 dilithium. The STFs were my primary source of dilithium during this. The other were just to help grind out the last little bit for the day.
Now you all might be wondering what I'm planning on naming my ship. I found a website, http://www.mrklingon.org/, that translates English to Klingon so I decided to name my ship: I.K.S. Hos 'ej quv. Translated, that means strength and honor. I think it's a good name for a Bortasqu' War Cruiser.
I want to thank everyone for following this thread. I am going to take a break from grinding zen to finish my reputations, and maybe get my starbase to teir 2 or higher, but this doesn't mean I won't grind zen anymore. I won't put any more daily updates here, but I will update this thread whenever I get something for free, and I encourage anyone else who may have been inspired by this project to post your progress here as well. If you see me in game, don't hesitate to say high. My handles are:
Fed: Maynard@19Delta30, T'Manda@19Delta30
Klingon: Korloth@19Delta30
Rest in Peace Brothers
please look me up in game oban@salvo85 and send me a friend request, I would like to give you a bit of a reward (10 lockbox keys) for being such a trooper and generally a posotive piece of news in a sometimes hostile place.
Rest in Peace Brothers
I would also note that the PvP dailies give good amounts of Dilithium, for those people that enjoy PvP.
Regarding the surveys: I've totaled my amounts, and since I started doing surveys and little offers on July 3 (2012, so about seven months ago) I've earned 4989 Zen to supplement my stipend. Which is a bit more than 7 times slower than it took you to earn 5k Zen.
I would also be interested to know how your EC totals are doing now. More to the point, is grinding for Dil and Zen related to that total, or completely separate?
If nothing else this shows rather clearly that if someone wanted the 3 ship pack and doesn't mind spending a little money...
You could grind half with Dilithium and pay half, $25 and do so in a fairly quick amount of time. Either in 13 or so days of hard core grinding, or else 25 days but only do about half as much as you did.
been checking in on this thread every couple days though I've only been playing a couple of weeks. Been a good read. Congrats on the ship(s?)
well done, screenshot or it didn't happen!
while I'm still leveling up and I'm not really that keen on running multiple characters I think I've kind of started a project of my own. Though for now with the rate so high I think I'm going to just stock up on dilith till it comes down under 90 again and I don't think I'll be aiming for something that's 5k! I recon it wont be hard at all to save up ~2kzen problem will be ignoring everythign else that you need to buy... Looking at the Multi-Mission Strategic Explorer, as long as it's not rubbish.
rather than being full f2p I'm pretty sure I will spend some cash unlocking some conveniences like inventory slots and so on which I'll gladly do. I think I'll be getting my moneys worth. But no way am I buying keys for lock boxes. I don't like that system much.
As far as my EC totals go, they're not so good. Whenever I earned a good amount of EC, I always spent it on the exchange to buy more contraband for the turn in contraband doff mission.
Rest in Peace Brothers