Yeah, I already mentioned this, but apparently those glasses are real dark for some people, and they can't see truth when it is right in front of their noses.
There is absolutely nothing "wrong" with the economy of the exchange. Quite the opposite in fact. The new crafting system has flooded the exchange with High quality low Tier equipment, sadly, their doesn't appear to be enough intelligence for certain individuals to find it ... Ah well, more for me ...
Maybe I'll buy some of the stuff for 10K and then sell it for 1Million to the fools who can't use the exchange? .. hmmm ...
Since they nerfed the value of things so we can't get EC as fast, I started putting on the exchange for higher prices to make up for the loss. It worked too. I am making more EC through the exchange now, than when the value was higher. With a full inventory or random drops, I am averaging about 2-14 million on the exchange. And I started doing this before the exchange got hit with the crafted stuff.
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ANyone know what the cost to upgrade a Mark VI item or so to Mark XIV?
An interesting consequence of the upgrade system could be that levelling up some of the usual vendor trash may suddenly seem much more interesting. If the cost isn't excessive.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
Just remember – the market is set not by the sellers but by the buyers.
This is the truth. And i have always put green or blue gear at admiral rank cheaply to help new player's out. The exchange is really bad though now and i feel sorry for new players when they first see this. And when i say cheap it usaully goes as soon as i post it.
There's not as much demand for low level gear as there is endgame level gear.
Thats going to change.
As a previous poster pointed out, upgrading an item from Mk II to MK XII isn't horribly expensive and comes with ten chances for a quality upgrade.
Personally, my crafting toons are slowly turning out low mark versions of things at purple quality so I can use the upgrade process to get to gold quality cheaper.
Simple answer ... The exchange is totally completely and undeniably broken! ... It's a cluster****
However the "broken" part is not, as the backyard economists on here would like to make you believe, a result of the "market". It's a result of bad coding on Cryptic's part.
For example:
I type in "Phaser Beam Array" in the search bar, then I set the rank to "Lt Cmdr" and the Rarity to "Rare" ... I get 1 result for 500K EC.
With the same search title, but with "Any Rarity" I get 12 results, ranging in price from 10K to 2.5Million EC
Now I type in "Phaser Beam Array Mk V" ... Lo and behold I get over 300 results, and many, many Rare and Very Rare items for less than 20K ...
So, the problem has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with "Economies" or "Hoarding" ...
So put away your philosophical textbooks, your treatises on the "Psychology of MMO Gamers" and your "Beginners Guide to Economics"
It's simply that the OP, and apparently many others, do not realise the exchange is **** and don't know how to use it.
This is more or less true. The Exchange is broken.
I have done a search for KDF refugees with no filters since to the best of my knowledge all refugees are all common. Many times I only get a few results and it is not due to the fact there are not that many KDF players. Even the KDF refugees that I am selling would show up.
I get around this by simply typing in a letter in there search bar (like the letter "a") and then do a search. I get dozens or more results doing it this way, but it is not a silver bullet because if a refugee's name does not contain the letter "a" then that refugee will not show up as a search result. When I see very few results I do a search for each vowel since all names must have at least one vowel.
When I have time to craft stuff, it's generally Mark VI and goes on the market for around 15K. (Most days, I only do the 20 hour daily. Also, when I do personal weapons, it goes for 10k or less.) If you really want one or two of something Mark VI, I could probably make it, with a better than even chance of purple over blue for free. I haven't crafted anything green or lower on weeks.
The items are not overpriced - the problem is perception due to a large disparity in purchasing power.
Let's consider the market, ignoring R&D for now.
The consumers of these lower level items consist of new characters in the process of leveling up. (Correct me if I'm wrong, but) the only source of that equipment are other characters under level 50. The equilibrium price (what OP considers "overpriced") is set based on the demand from those consumers, and the supply from the producers.
Assuming a steady rate of new characters, the number of consumers and producers should be constant. As characters level, they enter and leave the market for these items.
The thing is, new characters do not mean new players. There is a massive disparity in purchasing power between a new player and an established player. Consider the income and prices in one US state, and the income and prices in another US state. For the most part, the ratio should be reasonably similar, and prices should look reasonable within that state. However, if you take the income from the lowest paying state and compare it to the prices in the highest paying state, everything will look massively overpriced.
It's not that the items are overpriced, it's that you're a poor man that's just moved into a rich neighborhood. 500k EC for a Rare weapon is perfectly reasonable to an established player working on his 5th character, but prohibitively expensive to a new player on his 1st character.
(Heck, I used over 30 mil just equipping my shuttle for the 4-day Shuttle Event, and didn't even blink. My thoughts were actually "Oh, that's pretty cheap.")
I believe people blaming the new R&D system have it backwards, assuming I'm remembering correctly about being unable to attain items lower than Mk X when level 50. In general, crafting (R&D) should increase the supply of lower Mark items, reducing the equilibrium price.
Keep in mind that for things like low Mark Antiproton weapons, it's reduced from the original price of infinity (unattainable, divide from zero error) so it's still pretty costly.
You can make some good EC from low level stuff. I usually throw what gear I get from rewards or regular loot if I can't use it. And sell it. If I can use it, then I will use it.
The only stuff I usually buy from the Exchange is some Duty officers to help fill out my roster, special lobi box ground weapons, and some of the mirror ships if I see what I like.
To me I don't bother buying gear at low level when I will out level them soon anyways. To me its a waste of EC.
USS Casinghead NCC 92047 launched 2350
Fleet Admiral Stowe - Dominion War Vet.
Comments
Also the "all" tab is similarly broken.
Yeah, I already mentioned this, but apparently those glasses are real dark for some people, and they can't see truth when it is right in front of their noses.
There is absolutely nothing "wrong" with the economy of the exchange. Quite the opposite in fact. The new crafting system has flooded the exchange with High quality low Tier equipment, sadly, their doesn't appear to be enough intelligence for certain individuals to find it ... Ah well, more for me ...
Maybe I'll buy some of the stuff for 10K and then sell it for 1Million to the fools who can't use the exchange? .. hmmm ...
GREED !
Plain and simple.
if ya want some lower level gear crafted....PM me :P
i have no problem crafting MK VI and lower gear for free, and MK VIII and MK X with the rare mats provided (no components neccesary)
i can do good sci and tac consoles, beams, dbb, ground guns, projectiles, deflectors and shields.
only holes are cannons and engi stuff
so yeah, problem solved
Thanks.. That puts things in a different light.
An interesting consequence of the upgrade system could be that levelling up some of the usual vendor trash may suddenly seem much more interesting. If the cost isn't excessive.
Yeah...I mean I personally just use nothing but white vendor gear and mission rewards...don't need anything more while leveling.
This is the truth. And i have always put green or blue gear at admiral rank cheaply to help new player's out. The exchange is really bad though now and i feel sorry for new players when they first see this. And when i say cheap it usaully goes as soon as i post it.
system Lord Baal is dead
Thats going to change.
As a previous poster pointed out, upgrading an item from Mk II to MK XII isn't horribly expensive and comes with ten chances for a quality upgrade.
Personally, my crafting toons are slowly turning out low mark versions of things at purple quality so I can use the upgrade process to get to gold quality cheaper.
This is more or less true. The Exchange is broken.
I have done a search for KDF refugees with no filters since to the best of my knowledge all refugees are all common. Many times I only get a few results and it is not due to the fact there are not that many KDF players. Even the KDF refugees that I am selling would show up.
I get around this by simply typing in a letter in there search bar (like the letter "a") and then do a search. I get dozens or more results doing it this way, but it is not a silver bullet because if a refugee's name does not contain the letter "a" then that refugee will not show up as a search result. When I see very few results I do a search for each vowel since all names must have at least one vowel.
Colonists are all common. Refugees come in every rarity.
Let's consider the market, ignoring R&D for now.
The consumers of these lower level items consist of new characters in the process of leveling up. (Correct me if I'm wrong, but) the only source of that equipment are other characters under level 50. The equilibrium price (what OP considers "overpriced") is set based on the demand from those consumers, and the supply from the producers.
Assuming a steady rate of new characters, the number of consumers and producers should be constant. As characters level, they enter and leave the market for these items.
The thing is, new characters do not mean new players. There is a massive disparity in purchasing power between a new player and an established player. Consider the income and prices in one US state, and the income and prices in another US state. For the most part, the ratio should be reasonably similar, and prices should look reasonable within that state. However, if you take the income from the lowest paying state and compare it to the prices in the highest paying state, everything will look massively overpriced.
It's not that the items are overpriced, it's that you're a poor man that's just moved into a rich neighborhood. 500k EC for a Rare weapon is perfectly reasonable to an established player working on his 5th character, but prohibitively expensive to a new player on his 1st character.
(Heck, I used over 30 mil just equipping my shuttle for the 4-day Shuttle Event, and didn't even blink. My thoughts were actually "Oh, that's pretty cheap.")
I believe people blaming the new R&D system have it backwards, assuming I'm remembering correctly about being unable to attain items lower than Mk X when level 50. In general, crafting (R&D) should increase the supply of lower Mark items, reducing the equilibrium price.
Keep in mind that for things like low Mark Antiproton weapons, it's reduced from the original price of infinity (unattainable, divide from zero error) so it's still pretty costly.
The only stuff I usually buy from the Exchange is some Duty officers to help fill out my roster, special lobi box ground weapons, and some of the mirror ships if I see what I like.
To me I don't bother buying gear at low level when I will out level them soon anyways. To me its a waste of EC.
USS Casinghead NCC 92047 launched 2350
Fleet Admiral Stowe - Dominion War Vet.
Yep. For example, Phaser anything usually goes for good prices. Always has in STO.