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R&D economics
msduck
Member Posts: 44 Arc User
hi folks
being an accountant (in real life) I was curious as to prices of various rare materials on the exchange, and saw a variance that's only explainable by artificial limitations- Argonite Gas goes for 800k, while Trellium K is only 7.
this is because some stfs are harder than others, while other stfs are simply more popular- everyone loves grinding the borg- hence the value of the TK.
now we had a similar situation when the omega system first started, people would end up with two pieces of the set and then spend hundreds of hours grinding the third mission trying to complete it.
I doubt that's what will happen this time- what is happening is gold farming. Which is bad both for the player (credit risks) and the game ( as gold farming expands, people will buy less zen.)
one option, to me, is to 'balance' the issue, by placing a Ferrengi merchant on starbases who will let you trade two rares you don't want for your pic of one you do.
the second is a bit more fun- perhaps the gamers of triskelon got bored- an open stf like pvp that pits random teams against each other, on random maps, with the winners get a random drop of rd materials and dilithium, and the loses just the dilithium.
ideas?
being an accountant (in real life) I was curious as to prices of various rare materials on the exchange, and saw a variance that's only explainable by artificial limitations- Argonite Gas goes for 800k, while Trellium K is only 7.
this is because some stfs are harder than others, while other stfs are simply more popular- everyone loves grinding the borg- hence the value of the TK.
now we had a similar situation when the omega system first started, people would end up with two pieces of the set and then spend hundreds of hours grinding the third mission trying to complete it.
I doubt that's what will happen this time- what is happening is gold farming. Which is bad both for the player (credit risks) and the game ( as gold farming expands, people will buy less zen.)
one option, to me, is to 'balance' the issue, by placing a Ferrengi merchant on starbases who will let you trade two rares you don't want for your pic of one you do.
the second is a bit more fun- perhaps the gamers of triskelon got bored- an open stf like pvp that pits random teams against each other, on random maps, with the winners get a random drop of rd materials and dilithium, and the loses just the dilithium.
ideas?
Post edited by msduck on
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Joined January 2009
I kept tabs on prices during the R&D weekend. The last R&D weekend benefited from the release of the upgrade system's boost in the number of players, and mats prices dropped quickly during the weekend event. This R&D weekend event barely budged prices down. Why? The DR bump is already gone, the queues are harder this time around, so less mats farmed this weekend.
http://steamcharts.com/app/9900#All (See LoR's bump compared to DR's fail bump)
Welcome to the new STO economy. Casual players be damned.
From now on ~90% of all VR/R materials will be used to craft upgrade kits. And here there is one fundamental issue and one that is the result of what items which kit can upgrade.
The fundamental issue is the ratio of rare to very rare crafting materials. You either get 5:1 (advanced) or 7:3(elite) rare:veryrare items, according to my findings(which could be wrong, please correct). Upgrade packs however use 13:1 rare:veryrare items. In the long run rare items will be the bottleneck and become more expensive than the veryrare particles.
Then there is the issue of which upgrade packs are needed the most. These will be beam upgrade packs, and to a lesser extent cannon upgrade packs.
You need one or the other to upgrade all your 6-8 weapons AND tactical consoles(Torp boats will get away a bit cheaper here). Both upgrade packs do not need Tetrazine. The beam kit in particular needs 7 Rubidium.
So we will end up with (price) rare > veryrare (this is still a while away, as there are some stockpiles of rare materials that still need to be used up). Rubidium > BetaTachion = ZParticle >> Tetrazine.
This all assumes that rare matials drop at the same rate, which they seem to be.
My suggestion:
- increase drop rates of rare particles to 10 from advanced and 20 from elite(the rest will have to come from other sources, like doff missions etc.).
- change the firing sequencer to use Tetrazine instead of Rubidium.
certain items are more popular than others --- the omni beams for example. The materials to craft those are therefore in more demand. Same for upgrade kits.
I have stacks of 100 of TrellK and less than 10 Dent.
The same is true for the blue materials as well... I have stacks of the stuff that is not used for anything, and low numbers of the stuff I use.
I suspect the demand for certain items will increase, and continue to do so; my own experiments with trying to get my XIV romulan hyper torp from purple to gold show it is going to be a very, very long slog indeed; millions and millions of ec spent on materials every day, the real limit is the 8k dillithium limit to do the upgrades themselves- it seems clear to me that this system is designed to make people buy zen, the only problem is (to me) there is little or no chance that buying the zen will improve matters.
it's much like the boxes having only 4.5% chance of dropping something nice. If I am going to spend $20 a week on a hobby, I want an actual chance of an improvement on that hobby, otherwise im better off investing in lottery tickets.
how about a vendor that lets you trade x amount of rare materials for the ones you do want? (several other games use that)
you could even make it in game / in universe- give the ferrengi something to do- have a ferrengi station where you can buy/sell dilithium, ec, rare materials, and rare drop items for zen.
I think we alls eem to agree its broker, and I don't want to move it to pay to win, any other idea?
Part of the problem here is that the mats with the upward pressure on prices are from ques that are either problematic to start (not popular, require more than 5 people), or have particularly restrictive failure conditions.
which is why no one plays it
that's why there is such a huge price difference between the mats, some need a dedicated special team to get - the odds against a random pick up team winning are simply ridiculous.