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ltminns
Member Posts: 12,571 Arc User
I spent about a half hour on a response to a thread and when I Submitted, it said I did not have permission to post Was it closed and deleted or hidden? Well fortunately when I write longer posts I save the text, in my save buffer, and also paste it into a text file for future use, if need be.
Some thoughts about some of the points raised.
First off, there was FOUR months between the 1st and 2nd Bonus Marks events (February - June) and 'only' two months for the next one (upcoming). Much of that first four month period did not have the Mark boxes.
This change was deliberate because of the upcoming Bonus Marks Event - PERIOD. Accountants working for the PWE Politburo deigned it costing too much in dilitium conversions, so it happened (never mind that you can have all the unrefined in the world - it is still 8k - 9k refined a day per character PERIOD).
If not, why wait until the evening before going to Holodeck to even put it on Tribble. That was to prevent people from saving up more boxes, or even saving boxes and to avoid a prolonged pre-release Forum firestorm. They knew they can't go touching boxes already in inventory without the likelihood of TRIBBLE everything up and causing massive lag as the routines did their openings. So if these 'hoarders' were the problem, this did nothing to 'punish' their supposed ill-gotten ways. They already had their 'stash' and were going to get the bonus on them come the new Bonus Marks Event.
If you don't want people to save boxes - you don't create boxes PERIOD. R&D Boxes are like that and are unbound so that you can sell them - their words. You don't introduce boxes for R&D materials and then immediately (for next week) announce a Bonus Crafting Weekend and not expect people to save them up for it. Unless you are clueless, you would know that would happen, especially given the rather poor chances of getting Purple drops from those boxes to begin with.
Same with the Promotion Boxes wrapping the Romulan Survivor Duty Officer Pack. That was done after running these JHAS promotions they had before without the wrapper. It now allowed people to sell them or open them and then use or sell the Doff Pack. They did it that way so that the promotion actually works after the Promotion Event at ANY time in the future. By the way, this is probably the last hurrah for the Survivors. They will be retired with X2 and there will probably be a Delta Quadrant Blah Blah Pack and the Romulan Survivors will be demoted to a box with four white doffs. Some time in a future with the release of an even newer Lock Box they will introduce a Romulan Survivor Duty Officer Cadre which will be the current pack, but with only a small chance of getting that version.
I never really saved the Mark Packages, because the Events were too few and far between and all my characters need to buy Reputation stuff. If I saved it would be a day or so ahead of time. I did save up the R&D Boxes, I have saved up Risian Birds and Epohhs for turn in during the Bonus Marks - am I an exploiter? If so, do you think Cryptic would specifically state that turn-ins of those items also would be awarded the bonus? How likely would it be that a bird or Epohh would come 'of age' during the Weekend Event - not bloody likely so they knew it would be a thing that people would do and had no problem with it.
What I did do during the last Bonus Mark Event was have my latest Vice Admiral get to 95k Reputation in all four of the old Reputation factions about 4 or 5 days before the Event. I stopped and waited for the Event to get to 100k T5. 1350 Marks for three factions and 750 for the fourth (cheapskate Omega guys). Was this an exploit? No, smart playing. If I had been able to sponsor my seven other characters in Counter-Command about two weeks sooner I would have had them all wait for the Event to reach T5. Alas, was not to be possible until two weeks after the Event.
And again, by the way, Crystalline Catastrophe should award the Nakura Daily Bonus regardless of whether you pick Nakura or Fleet Marks. The Bonus is a separate calculation and should be awarded for running that PVE Queue PERIOD, if eligible for the Day.
Some thoughts about some of the points raised.
First off, there was FOUR months between the 1st and 2nd Bonus Marks events (February - June) and 'only' two months for the next one (upcoming). Much of that first four month period did not have the Mark boxes.
This change was deliberate because of the upcoming Bonus Marks Event - PERIOD. Accountants working for the PWE Politburo deigned it costing too much in dilitium conversions, so it happened (never mind that you can have all the unrefined in the world - it is still 8k - 9k refined a day per character PERIOD).
If not, why wait until the evening before going to Holodeck to even put it on Tribble. That was to prevent people from saving up more boxes, or even saving boxes and to avoid a prolonged pre-release Forum firestorm. They knew they can't go touching boxes already in inventory without the likelihood of TRIBBLE everything up and causing massive lag as the routines did their openings. So if these 'hoarders' were the problem, this did nothing to 'punish' their supposed ill-gotten ways. They already had their 'stash' and were going to get the bonus on them come the new Bonus Marks Event.
If you don't want people to save boxes - you don't create boxes PERIOD. R&D Boxes are like that and are unbound so that you can sell them - their words. You don't introduce boxes for R&D materials and then immediately (for next week) announce a Bonus Crafting Weekend and not expect people to save them up for it. Unless you are clueless, you would know that would happen, especially given the rather poor chances of getting Purple drops from those boxes to begin with.
Same with the Promotion Boxes wrapping the Romulan Survivor Duty Officer Pack. That was done after running these JHAS promotions they had before without the wrapper. It now allowed people to sell them or open them and then use or sell the Doff Pack. They did it that way so that the promotion actually works after the Promotion Event at ANY time in the future. By the way, this is probably the last hurrah for the Survivors. They will be retired with X2 and there will probably be a Delta Quadrant Blah Blah Pack and the Romulan Survivors will be demoted to a box with four white doffs. Some time in a future with the release of an even newer Lock Box they will introduce a Romulan Survivor Duty Officer Cadre which will be the current pack, but with only a small chance of getting that version.
I never really saved the Mark Packages, because the Events were too few and far between and all my characters need to buy Reputation stuff. If I saved it would be a day or so ahead of time. I did save up the R&D Boxes, I have saved up Risian Birds and Epohhs for turn in during the Bonus Marks - am I an exploiter? If so, do you think Cryptic would specifically state that turn-ins of those items also would be awarded the bonus? How likely would it be that a bird or Epohh would come 'of age' during the Weekend Event - not bloody likely so they knew it would be a thing that people would do and had no problem with it.
What I did do during the last Bonus Mark Event was have my latest Vice Admiral get to 95k Reputation in all four of the old Reputation factions about 4 or 5 days before the Event. I stopped and waited for the Event to get to 100k T5. 1350 Marks for three factions and 750 for the fourth (cheapskate Omega guys). Was this an exploit? No, smart playing. If I had been able to sponsor my seven other characters in Counter-Command about two weeks sooner I would have had them all wait for the Event to reach T5. Alas, was not to be possible until two weeks after the Event.
And again, by the way, Crystalline Catastrophe should award the Nakura Daily Bonus regardless of whether you pick Nakura or Fleet Marks. The Bonus is a separate calculation and should be awarded for running that PVE Queue PERIOD, if eligible for the Day.
'But to be logical is not to be right', and 'nothing' on God's earth could ever 'make it' right!'
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
Judge Dan Haywood
'As l speak now, the words are forming in my head.l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
Lt. Philip J. Minns
Post edited by Unknown User on
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bolded for emphasis
its obvious at this point.
ihavenoideawhati'mdoing.jpg
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
Anyways, my point: The dev crew's response (implementing a change that makes non-choice mark boxes automatically off load) show that this was almost clearly unintended, but do not accuse players of exploiting this (being against ToS) an purpose. Like I said: this could've been a reward for those who were patient with their boxes as far as people knew at the time.
Umm, have you been reading this thread? ... every other post is a flame-fest that is so typical of commentary on these forums lately.
http://www.paullinebarger.net/images/bank.png
How is it possible that the OP and others still do not understand that using when dilithium to buy zen from the exchange, YOU ARE BUYING IT FROM OTHER PLAYERS. PWE makes the exact same amount of money from the zen you buy on the exchange as the zen you buy directly.
Let's review for the OP how the dilithium exchange works.
1. Player A purchases zen with his credit card.
2. Player B decides he needs more dilithium than he has or can refine so he posts his zen for sale on the exchange.
3. Player B uses dilithium to buy zen from the exchange.
4, Player A receives the dilithium.
As you so eloquently point out, Cryptic gets it's $25 for each Armitage that leaves the C-store, whether that $25 came from the guy who winds up with the Armitage, or it came from some other guy who put that $25 on the exchange for the dil grinder to buy... Same with every other purchase...
However, your post neglects to consider the following: The exchange works best (at least to the Cryptic/PWE bean counter) when the volume of dilex transactions is high. That means piles and piles of zen are being purchased for introduction into the system...
Now, consider the following. Player's flush with RL disposable income. Facing the prospect of grinding up, and refining, 30,000 dil over the next 3 weeks or dropping a $20, that card's tossing the $20 into PWE's waiting arms relatively quickly. However, if said same player, via mark chicanery, has 30,000 unrefined dil in his back pocket, and just needs to wait out the 3 weeks for it to all refine, more often than not at this point the player's gonna sit on his wallet and let time take it's course... We'll all see the reduction in available zen, which leads to a drop in dil's value, which pulls some F2P grinders out of the game (I ain't grinding no three months for a ship type thinking) which eventually restablilzes the market at a "respectable" number - however, we're not seeing that the overall volume of trades has dropped, which means less zen is being bought solely for the purpose of exchange-dumping, which means that bean counters are unhappy, and so forth until the economy is re-adjusted to make more zen get bought...
TL;DR: More grind, more desire, more zen, happy beancounter...
To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]
When people were saving up Mark boxes for the Mark Bonus Weekend, they were doing so to load up on Marks (obvious). What do you do with Marks? You use them on those Reputation Projects for equipment or services, you use them for the daily/hourly projects to complete a Reputation, OR you trade them in for Dilitium.
If you used them for Marks, what is the ramification for having more? You can buy more Reputation equipment, but there is a diminishing return here in that with the Loadout system, in most cases, you only need one of each Space item. For Ground sets you may want additional items/sets for your Away Team. Don't think there would be a lot of concern here as the Mark Boxes turned in are for that Reputation faction, so it is not like you haven't run that content at all and are getting a free ride. Boffs having good equipment? Meh, who cares from a corporate perspective. Also, Marks cannot be transferred between characters and used.
As far as the daily/hourly projects go, you most likely were at max rep, or, if not, you cashed in the Mark boxes for that leveling up anyway. Not much of a concern here. I would say that if you run the three hourly ones per day for a Sponsored character (45 Marks) you are only shaving TWO days off the twenty to get to max. Doesn't seem like a big concern item.
So now we come to the other use - conversion to Unrefined Dilitium. Could this be their biggest concern, (especially if people then waited with their treasure trove of Marks for the Bonus Dilitium Weekend)? Now with loads of Unrefined - what are the ramifications? Not much for a character as that pesky 8k - 9k daily refining limit still holds. So what would be the concern if there is still a hard limit on the refine? Well none for that but with huge reserves of Unrefined, you don't have to spend any part of your gaming day hunting it down. Less play time for whatever stats they were concerned with.
What can you do with Refined Dilitium? Well buy stuff in the Reputation or Fleet Store - but those are bound. Buy Reputation Project items? Bound also and the law of diminishing returns from above. Donate to Fleet Projects - ok not much to add here. Crafting? Here level up quicker or produce more high quality items - again ok. All of this is still limited by that daily refine limit.
Could they be concerned about Unrefined Dilitium for a reason we don't know yet? Like maybe new Fleet Holdings with X2 that allow donations of Unrefined? Who knows.
So why would they want to stop the increase of held Mark Boxes? Increase the need for characters to log in and do stuff more often, for reasons as yet unknown to us mere mortals, or just to stop the players from getting more stuff from the game because they can.
Who knows, but we have been getting more of these kind of changes lately and with very little advanced notice to reduce forum outrage ahead of time.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
STODev 2: Naaaa
STODev 1: Oh wait, this one player just spent a whole bunch of zen upgrading his bank so he can hold tons of mark boxes for the future, believing that mark boxes are going to continue be a thing
STODev 1&2: Auto turn-in time
*true story, well at least the part of me spending money to max my bank THE DAY BEFORE THE AUTO TURN IN PATCH
Now i'm going to have a bank full of pretty much nothing
there wouldn't have been any gain from it anyway, since the loot from those boxes is determined the minute you got them, and not the minute you open them. Bonus mark event wouldn't have done anything to your existing boxes anyway.
If you feel better by speculating what the devs did, or didn't do, to justify your failed speculation, go ahead.
What you could have done instead: go to tribble and the tribble patch notes to see what will happen in the near future.
Get accurate info on how the bonus mark weekend works and how existing boxes have their loot determined.
hahaha ohhhhyes LIGHT EM UP !!! FLAME ON!!!
It could be that this was a mistake - mark sources they overlooked. It could also indicate that they never really wanted the mark boxes to be picked up at all, it was either a glitch or a temporary solution to get the Daily mark bonuses added to the game. (Some of the events that don't grant the mark boxes kinda make sense to me not being the source of daily rewards. For example, the Voth counter-attack in the undine Battle Zone - if people were "farming" only those, instead of the other events, that may be undesirable for the zone's progress.)
And I tend to think the whole mark bonus event thing helping was never really intended. It seems weird to ask players to hold on to mark boxes so they can cash in more on special events. Especially since this was never advertised as a feature (unlike for example Dilithium Mining Claims increased rewards during the Dilithium events). It seems to defeat the purpose of such events, which is getting people to log in and play the game, ideally with others. Opening mark boxes is a lonely activity.
I could imagine they kept the non-auto-opening boxes around for one event to compensate for the fact that they cluttered up your inventory (an inventory that they just had increased in size.). Though it seems more likely that it just took that long to get a fix implemented, and that the mark event actually showed them it was neccessary.
With the timing of the auto-open boxes and the marks event, one would think there was something to it... Can anyone confirm if holding onto the box till the event worked?
~CaptainSmirk