Yep, this ship's release has been a real sh*t show. I have not seen a single one of these on the Exchange. I can't believe that every one of the plethora of people who have acquired this ship is a savvy Exchange player and have not put some on the Exchange and are doing private deals. i would guess that if some are put up they are immediately snatched up to be sold above 500M EC. I have not seen any in-game.
I am also suspicious about some of these 'winners'. I saw one that had two acquisitions immediately in a row.
They're not on the exchange because their value exceeds the max posting on the exchange. They currently go for 650 million.
IF I EVER BECOME A BILLIONARE IM GOING TO BUY CRIPTIC AND THEN FIRE EVERYONE THAT MADE MONEY OFF THE PLAYERS WITH LOW DROP RATES AND IF THEY WANNA KEEP THERE JOBS THEY HAVE TO GIVE ALL THE MONEY BACK TO THE PLAYERS AND NEVER DO IT AGAIN OR GET FIRED AND THEN I RELEASE ALL THE SHIPS IN THE GAME FREE!!! STAR TREK ONLINE STOLE EVERY BUCK FROM PLAYERS AND THATS WRONG SHAME ON U PEOPLE I WILL BE LOL ING WHEN THEY ARE FORCED OUT THE DOOR IF I EVER BECOME RICH THIS IS A PROMISE captain geko i will throw u out on your TRIBBLE for BETRAYING THE STAR TREK FANS TRUST U MONEY GRUBING STEALING LIEING PRICK!
If you get a Billion Dollars, the first thing you should do is buy a keyboard where the Caps Lock isn't stuck.
The second thing you should do is have someone teach you how to use punctuation because that's got to be the longest run-on sentence in the history of time.
That is by far the most expensive set to assemble in the entirety of the game. It may not be as much of a problem of a longtime player that has collected all kinds of ships in this game. But anyone else, that is a super expensive set to assemble if they want "The Works." This makes the old JHDC+JHAS for the Bugship Hangar Unit look like a bargain.
Except that there isnt a set. Unfortunely, or fortunaly maybe, as you see it, the ship's console doesnt even make a set with the other 2 Krenim ships. Thats really dissaponiting. You have the sci dread console alone, and the other 2 sets separatly: krenim ships and time ships. Wasnt expecting to make a set with the temporal ships, but still cant understand why not with the krenim ships, since the pets even look alot like lil imperium warships.
Yep, this ship's release has been a real sh*t show. I have not seen a single one of these on the Exchange. I can't believe that every one of the plethora of people who have acquired this ship is a savvy Exchange player and have not put some on the Exchange and are doing private deals. i would guess that if some are put up they are immediately snatched up to be sold above 500M EC. I have not seen any in-game.
I am also suspicious about some of these 'winners'. I saw one that had two acquisitions immediately in a row.
This is exactly what happens. There are reasonable and decent ppl who put those ships on the exchange. But a bunch of rotten wannabe ferengis are snatching the 500m ones from exchange and sell them in various places like ESD or some dubious trading channels. Some even use multiple bots to snatch them of the exchange, but sadly Cryptic cant detect them.
Best strategy to get this ship is to spam the exchange with the search word "Annorax" after you saw one or two msg pop up of ppl winning it. I manage to snatch one, like this, friday after tring to get it 2 times with no luck. There are listed for like half a second, and depending on ur lag/ping, you can get it or not.
Hope it helps.
Hey if you have the capital on hand to start that process and selling things for more than you bought them, that's your prerogative but I don't have a problem with it. Happy hunting.
It took days for me to find a SheShar on the exchange that I could afford, I'm just happy to know that that was because players were flipping them, not that they were being sold off site for real money.
Return on investment is the nature of the game.
I paid 495 million for my SheShar, saw it drop to 420 mil, two weeks later.
These are digital goods and they're worth as much fake currency as someone is willing to pay.
They should raise the ceiling on the exchange just because of how much inflation their husband and how devalued EC has become.
I remember when keys cost one third of what they do now.
Exchange cap should be increased by a factor of 5, to accommodate inflation of a factor of 3 and increasingly rare promotional items.
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Yep, this ship's release has been a real sh*t show. I have not seen a single one of these on the Exchange. I can't believe that every one of the plethora of people who have acquired this ship is a savvy Exchange player and have not put some on the Exchange and are doing private deals. i would guess that if some are put up they are immediately snatched up to be sold above 500M EC. I have not seen any in-game.
Why does this silly thread keep going?! You want the ship, you pay for it; you don't want it, you don't pay for it. It's really that simple. Me? I just offered someone 550mil in channel, he said 570, and I said okay. There's no foul play here on Cryptic's end. And yes, I know I paid too much: don't care, though. I paid 450 mil for a JHSS, a few month back, so now I had to pay a good 100 mil extra for getting the shiny fast. I don't see, at all, how this is Cryptic's fault.
I don't know about that. I spent the time I was on sto the last couple days sending PMs to people who won the ships saying "congrats! Interested in 550m ec for that ship?"
Most people said no or didn't respond, but six people said yes and sold me their ships. I resold them to people who wanted them and cleared 543,000,000 ec in profit. I never saw any for sale on the exchange.
This didn't even require a lot of ec to do. At one point, I had two annoraxes in inventory, I had paid 500m for each and sold one for 650m and the other for 625m. So, only one billion ec of capital was used during the entire time.
You have some strange ideas about how the sto economy works. I can tell you from my perspective, as a pretty legit ferengi, that what you're imagining has not been my experience.
I posted in another thread that these promo events are a golden opportunity to get space rich, and I was not wrong.
Did I suck 543 million ec out of other players bank accounts and in to mine? Yes.
Was this wrong? No.
the sellers agreed to sell at a price, and were happy. The buyers agreed to buy at a price, and were happy. No one lied to, no one cheated, no one taken advantage of.
I even phrased all my WTS posts in the trading channel as "anyone want to pay a space fortune for a krenim dread?"
Some people did want to pay a space fortune.
How do people get money to do huge giveaways in sto, to give out big prizes and stuff? Well, you just learned about it!
It's why we call it "giving back!"
No matter how much you are tring to paint this as legit, your wicked lies and deceits are not fooling anyone. "Legit ferengi"... ha, thats the best joke I've heard so far lol
And now I am imagining?? Saw 3 times this ship posted myself on exchange, 2 times I couldnt get it and 3rd was lucky. And some1 in-game that is hunting it too for a few days, saw a few aswell, but snatched by some1 else in a blink of the eye.
Ohh and I know very well how STO economy works. Its not even working since its in the hands of a few wretched players with billions wich flip and corner various markets.
And YES, it is wrong to exploit your fellow sto players, even if, and especially when, they may lack knowledge or be gullible. You want to "give back"? Then educate them, bring awareness to them and not exploit them...
Even your reply is nothing but a covered "dont bother look on the exchange and seek other ways to buy this ship" deceit, instaid of actually helping ppl...
That is why I say the exchange cap should be raised, it would add transparency, and remove fixers, middle men, and arbitrage on these high end items.
That or one thing that would be really awesome is a Ferengi Auction House, accessible from Ferengi Ships, shuttles, any terminal that uses gpl, like near Dabo tables, and maybe Ferenginar can be added as a physical location.
So you can win your auction item, but have to travel to Ferenginar to retrieve it. As a he item is placed in escrow while on auction. I would suggest a listing fee of 10% to reclaim the item if the seller starts it at too high a price and no bids are placed.
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That is why I say the exchange cap should be raised, it would add transparency, and remove fixers, middle men, and arbitrage on these high end items.
That or one thing that would be really awesome is a Ferengi Auction House, accessible from Ferengi Ships, shuttles, any terminal that uses gpl, like near Dabo tables, and maybe Ferenginar can be added as a physical location.
So you can win your auction item, but have to travel to Ferenginar to retrieve it. As a he item is placed in escrow while on auction. I would suggest a listing fee of 10% to reclaim the item if the seller starts it at too high a price and no bids are placed.
Bad idea with the exchange cap. It would only make it easier for exploiters, since at least now they have to bother and risk a bit from profiting.
And good god no Ferenginar. Its enuf allready there is so much focus on this economic TRIBBLE... on a Star Trek themed game... wich is really lame and disgusting I may add!
The thing that I'd like...since the Wells/Mobius consoles can be equipped on it, I'd like to equip ITS consoles on the Well and Mobius. All time ships, or ships involved in that temporal alliance...we should be able to share and share alike :-(
Yep, this ship's release has been a real sh*t show. I have not seen a single one of these on the Exchange. I can't believe that every one of the plethora of people who have acquired this ship is a savvy Exchange player and have not put some on the Exchange and are doing private deals. i would guess that if some are put up they are immediately snatched up to be sold above 500M EC. I have not seen any in-game.
I am also suspicious about some of these 'winners'. I saw one that had two acquisitions immediately in a row.
It might surprise you to learn that winning ships from the promo is random, opening one box does not affect the odds when opening another box.
It always surprises me that there's veteran players that don't know this.
Bad idea with the exchange cap. It would only make it easier for exploiters, since at least now they have to bother and risk a bit from profiting.
And good god no Ferenginar. Its enuf allready there is so much focus on this economic TRIBBLE... on a Star Trek themed game... wich is really lame and disgusting I may add!
Because letting people know what people are willing to pay for thier item is a bad thing?
Thanks for the Advanced Light Cruiser, Allied Escort Bundles, Jem-Hadar Light Battlecruiser, and Mek'leth
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T6 updates for the Kamarag & Vor'Cha
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So we figured with the krenim coming that the year in hell lockbox would have the timeship, NOPE
They make it a doff promo ship, so only very few people will have one. I'll probably never ever have one of the doff box ships because they are OUTRAGEOUSLY expensive.
None of the new lockbox ships excite me other than the nihydron which isn't even tier 6.
And still no T6 BoP that we know is at least in development.
It's like cryptic doesn't want my money, I have no reason so spend any right now.
It might surprise you to learn that winning ships from the promo is random, opening one box does not affect the odds when opening another box.
It always surprises me that there's veteran players that don't know this.
I was so totally surprised by the information provided that I almost had a heart attack. What a goober I have been. I always thought that there was someone from Cryptic monitoring the opening of Promotion Packs or Lockboxes and awarding stuff based upon formulae developed with 'geometric logic'. No sh*t Sherlocks. I know full well how pseudo-random numbers work. Really all depends on what they use to seed the pseudo-random generator now doesn't it.
When I see very odd named accounts awarded two within a second of each other I suspect bots. I see that a website is offering the ship for sale for $200. Someone must either be selling to these ToS violators either wittingly or unwittingly, or they have legions of bots opening up the Promotion Packs.
Well got to get back to playing the game and not the Exchange.
'But to be logical is not to be right', and 'nothing' on God's earth could ever 'make it' right!'
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.'
Did anyone see the results of opening 1000 promo packs over in Reddit? You get about a 1.5% to 2.5% of getting ship traits or fleet ship modules, and it seems no chance in hell of getting the ship unless you're extremely lucky.
It might surprise you to learn that winning ships from the promo is random, opening one box does not affect the odds when opening another box.
It might surprise you to learn that this is actually not the case. It's a public secret the promo boxes give the big prize on a time-based rotation. There are certain unnamed parties on the trading channel who have learned at which minutes, within the hour, you get the grand prize, and when not. You see them win a ship extremely often. Is their behavior unethical? Hella no! They just spent a lot of money figuring out the time table. Cryptic's conduct, however, is questionable in this, as they tell you it's all RND, when in fact it's not.
No one thinks it, it's true; the zen people put on the dil exchange has either been bought by a player with cash, or a lifer or subscriber has put their monthly 500 zen on the exchange. The zen on the exchange has ONLY come from the player base.
I promise myself not to break this rule, but i can't help it when I read threads of how people whine cry after opening boxes and getting nothing. People like me rely on them to make the credits in order to afford 650,000,000 creds easily, no sweat. I've always tried very hard to control the price of master keys by buying out under-cutters. then alternating prices so it looks like people are trying to get more keys than the rest. They get so entrenched or entranced on clicking "buy," that they don't realize I'm slowly rising the price to near or even more than what it was when it was stagnant and no one was buying keys.
Cryptic and PWE know how to run a business, and they know how to take advantage of ignorant customers. The gambling with the lockboxes and promo things is a very old trick. They use it at fairs where you throw balls at bottles to try and win that giant teddy bear .And not to mention the subliminal messages and ship silhouettes they place in signs like "Requisition" and "Admiral's Office." I believe almost all of the fed ships in the tutorial are c-ships, giving people a peek on what they can get later on. Implanting the temptation or want for something as soon as they create a character. The reason why people are crying about "1%ers" and trolling about buying out cryptic and giving back ppl their money... That last one... I won't comment. No one forces you to buy ships, and you can get them for free if you get off your lazy bum and grind dil. I buy zen and sell keys to resell or get everything I want when I want it and not spend more than I need too. But not everyone can sling dough like that so grinding is the way to go if you can't. I know people that have bug ships on like 3 toons all bought with dil they earned doing missions and stuff so I know it is possible. People have posted here and many threads previously that it's possible. I've never attempted it. I can't stand grinding. I come here to try to relax, not to have a second job.
And to finally address the issue about whether it should be more accessible to the public or not? I missed the Intrepid Interiors, and since I have a retro I can't see the bundle to get them from the pathfinder, which I also have. Unless they release them separately, The bridge I have waited 5 years for is unobtainable. That is called "exclusive promotions" and it is to rev people up into throwing their money like they're in a strip joint. Since most people have financial problems (because they can't manage their finances correctly), it is the same people that will sit there with what money they do have and open box after box buying my keys to do so. And in doing so, it's how I have more credits, and they end up with less. That in itself is kind of hilarious (not to them of course).
You see, the reason cryptic has a notification pop on screen when someone wins a ship is so that stupid, i mean unaware, people will think that others are getting ships, like they're going out of style. They fail to realize that hundreds of people are opening thousands of boxes a day and even though you see a winner three to five times an hour, That's three to five lucky people out of hundreds. Another psychological mind game to entice people to buy boxes and keys. When the T6 Bug came out, some people opened over 250 R&D packs for 1K zen a piece and got nothing. They could have spent that same amount of money on x10 master key packs, and sold them via trade or exchange. They could have bought 4 bug ships with leftover credits, yes four, but did it occur to them? No. Why? I don't have a masters in psychology, only a bachelors, so I can't provide any answer other than, "a sucker is born every minute."
I promised myself not to disclose the psychological mechanism/model cryptic uses, how they use it, because people buying my keys is my source of income in game. I can however, afford to post it here in this crybaby thread, because hardly anyone will see it and it will be lost in the forum archives soon. If everyone bought ships the safe way, then there would be no ships for sale. The ship economy would crash and ships would double or triple in price because they would be so rare. That's why you all need to forget everything I've just said, and go back to opening boxes and buying keys and dil. I get a cut of that too from two others that work constantly to manipulate the dil exchange prices. We work very hard so that 1%er's,10%er's, and 50%er's can get things for a reasonable price. The sad part is, that most super wealthy players don't join the club and set their prices accordingly with the rest of us. We have to compete and buy up their stuff to maintain a fair economy for those that work hard in or out of game. To me, anyone that grinds enough dil to buy a bug ship or annorax has my complete and absolute respect and admiration. That is dedication on a very high level (for a video game), discipline, and a lot more rewarding than using cash to buy a ship.
Life is unfair unfortunately. We can't have a society where everyone has the same amount of money and access to the same services. That's called communism and although it looks good on paper and in theory, it has never been practiced correctly to provide equality to their people. Another problem with that is that there is no drive or motivation to compete and make a better product or provide a better service. Capitalism is a catch-22 or double-bladed sword, if you will. It provides better quality and service, but it separates the population into the haves and the have nots. I was a have not over seven years ago. Had to live with my parents when I got back. Worked as a bagger in a grocery store. Then I apprenticed at a local gunsmith and eventually started my own business. Several times I've almost lost everything but have managed to recover, so far. Practically all my time spent at the PC on or off STO is with a phone in one hand and trying to operate a mouse and keyboard in the other. I got spreadsheets, financial software all running in the task tray. It takes me 4 hours to get 7 weapons along with consoles onto a new ship because I got this game windowed. It really gives me a sometimes arrogant, PO'ed attitude towards others when people come on here and complain like this. I don't know what they do for their occupation. I don't really care either. Just please stop posting these complaints about ships, zen, feeling cheated, and rage quitting.
So plan your life and set goals. How you can use the very system that big brother is using to cheat people, to make a profit as well? Piggyback or be a Remora. I constantly have moral battles with myself because I don't like taking advantage of people. I enjoy giving more than taking. And I've given so much already. My friend's tell me I'm an idiot for handing out free bug ships last year. I probably am for doing that, but I wanted those that would never get one, to get a chance to compete in a competition for one. But if I only give, I will end up with nothing left. Like I said, I normally don't tell people this. I've only told a handful that didn't know already, and posted this twice before. To me, it's plain common sense not to throw money without a strategy in place. You wouldn't empty your wallet or purse in a parking lot and drive away. That would be purse stupidity, right? Why do people do it here? How is this any different? You need to stop and think when a promo or lockbox comes out. Wait for sales and discounts if you have the patience. Wait several months till an item drops in price. But if you're like me and you usually have to have instant gratification, then expect to pay however much the going rate is for whatever it is you want.
You can also find a STO e-bayer. What is that, you ask? An "STO E-bayer" is a stereotypical term sprouting from e-bay that a few people use. People constantly place items up for bids or instant buys without researching the going rate and price for that same item. They either price it too high, or too low. The ones that price it low get ripped off big time. For example, a guy on ESD yesterday, I won't say who, posted a "WTS" for an Annorax he got. Someone immediately PMed him and I got beat to the punch, so I messaged him asking him how much he was asking for it. He said 400,000,000 creds. I asked him if he was aware of how much others are paying for it, he said he didn't know, that 400 mil sounded "good," to him. I let him know he could have gotten 200 or more for it if he had waited and hadn't said "Just a sec, I'm in a trade," to me, and not even stop to listen to me when I said "don't sell it yet! let me tell you something." And he didn't even ask anyone how much to sell it for either. He tried to ask the buyer for more after completing the trade, which was kind of pointless, but people that goof up like that, some of us call "STO E-bayers," and they are far and few between, but you can make a killing off of them with some sweet talk, ego stroking, and the temptation of the feeling of exclusiveness. You just have to keep them away from the Exchange and hope they don't ask someone for advice. A way to speed up the process is telling the person one or two others have placed offers on it and it's their last chance to get it. It's not fraud like some people do. Switching an item out quickly. They get the item, they just pay too much cause they didn't do their homework. Always do your homework! You see why your teacher's wanted you to do your homework, now? It's because they have witnessed countless victims fall prey to not doing their homework at the time, and end up paying for it when buying or selling a ship later. Listen to your teachers (if you're in school), and for us adults, think back to the early years and remember what homework is and understand how not doing it can be detrimental. If you have read this far, you're a champ!
"Being a troll myself, I classify this malcontent as a Type-2 Oblivious Troll. My reasons for coming to this conclusion are: The annoying colored text he deploys, the contradictory threads he creates, the excessive whining and foot stamping, the amusement factor of his threads, and the apparent lack of realization that he is in fact a troll, like me, and is not the heart broken, victimized, player, he sees himself as."
Yeah I hate to be mean, but some people just expect everything on a silver platter. Yes, if they spend money on zen then they should get what is advertised. But don't expect too many handouts. I remember pre-launch there people on the old forums saying STo wouldn't last a year. They've said that for over 5 years, going on 6 now. There are just enough ST fans that are willing to put up with the situation to keep the game going. If you were here before PWE took over then you will remember a new c-ship came out like every 8 months. Now you can hardly go two months without some kind of ship coming out. They've gotten old voyager and ds9 cast members to do voice overs, Cryptic only got a few to do voice overs: Leonard Nimoy to narrate, and Zachary Quinto to play an EMH for a few lines. Eventually William Shatner, IIRC, did a few lines of narration. Chase Masterson reprised her role as the annoying Holo-Leeta that can be heard from the docking ring, and Denise Crosby as Tasha Yar Alternate Timeline, or was she hired after PWE bought out STO?
My point is, you can't say every PWE and Cryptic have done is completely bad. They've reskinned and remodeled ships, STF's, story arcs, added Romulans, gave a thought or two to the Klingons, and are putting out more content than ever before. They have also gone to the F2P model which is a catch-22, but it allows those that wouldn't or couldn't pay for a sub to play and not have to pay to run the end game content and raids. They also let you grind for epic-like gear from the rep system, and free ships during special events. They may not be on par with a fleet ship, but they're free. Everyone that was present during the summer risian event had the chance to fly around the resort for 5 minutes a day to get the Nandi Warship which isn't that bad of a ship. How much did it cost to get that ship? Five minutes of pressing WASD and moving your mouse around. Then you could log off if you wanted and continue life. A few people did exactly that. They wait for something good to come along for them to return.
Yes Cryptic/PWE puts out these gambling lockboxes and promotion packs. But you don't have to get them. And if no one bought them, they might put them in a lock box instead. They spent a lot of time making promo ships and if it won't sell one way, they'll find another, and another, until people accept it. Promo ships are very rare and they should be considering how much money people can spend to buy one. Even if they do it the smart way and get it from the exchange or trading channel. As someone mentioned before: The last thing we need is a bunch of OP super dreadnoughts filling social space and STFs. They're rare and expensive for a reason and everyone that spends the time and money to get one is not only trying to get an op ship, but stroke their ego in social space and in fleet as well. Don't lie, you know you do, even if just a little! Same applies to people that own expensive cars. If everyone could afford a mercedes, jaguar, or a chevy corvette then those names would no longer mean anything.
"Being a troll myself, I classify this malcontent as a Type-2 Oblivious Troll. My reasons for coming to this conclusion are: The annoying colored text he deploys, the contradictory threads he creates, the excessive whining and foot stamping, the amusement factor of his threads, and the apparent lack of realization that he is in fact a troll, like me, and is not the heart broken, victimized, player, he sees himself as."
Hey if you have the capital on hand to start that process and selling things for more than you bought them, that's your prerogative but I don't have a problem with it. Happy hunting.
It took days for me to find a SheShar on the exchange that I could afford, I'm just happy to know that that was because players were flipping them, not that they were being sold off site for real money...
You are probably already aware that ships like the Annorax, Sheshar, and Jem'Hadar Bug Ship, are being sold every day by the handful out of game. That is how some people can afford to buy so much zen. They invest in game and get digital and real money at the same time. Some people don't want credits or to trade. They want C-Ships but can't afford them. If they are able to sell one out of game, which is against the TOS so I advise against it, they can have real money to buy the zen they need to get the C-Ships they want without grinding dil. Although this practice is against the TOS that you agree to when you start the launcher, I personally think that if it is going to happen anyways, that it happen within the community and not by gold farmers that spam ads in sector space.
Cryptic made a strategically genius move to have a C-Store. This work for them two ways. An extra source of profit other than subs, and the fact that when they started the lockbox game, people could and do use their cash to buy zen and convert the master keys to credits, or sell promo boxes for credits. This is basically the equivalent of being able to buy digital money with your paypal or debit card, and get anything you want, depending on what you're willing to pay. Don't like grinding dil? Trade zen for dil! You get your dil, and someone that can't or won't spend real cash get's their zen. All of the money stays in the community, except for the aforementioned out-of-game transactions. This was a conscious decision made by management on not only how to maximize profits, but to try and keep the player base at bay. When people could work ingame for free and trade the results for stuff that once could only be bought with real cash, those that were determined and savvy enough started doing just that. Some of them are billionaires that haven't spent a dollar on the game. Some of them haven't spent a dollar unless it was for something you could only get from the store like a retrain token, extra slots, or a ship.
As repetitiveepic stated above, some people are not willing to engage in the economy and enjoy the fruits of labor. I have no sympathy for those that expect ships that are extremely aesthetically pleasing, lore friendly or just plain old OP, to be so easily obtainable by anyone. When people are no longer willing to pay +500 million creds for a ship, they will start to appear on the exchange and sometimes in large numbers which depreciates their value due to the fact that the sellers want a quick cash grab so they can go on a spending spree. But once they are finally there, You can work to get it at a reasonable price. And yes 500 million creds, even though it is a tremendous amount of money, is a fair price for a ship that is special in some way. Not to mention all the creds, cash, or zen they spent on keys and promo boxes to obtain them in the first place. If you want to make millions and billions like the "%er's," then you either need to start treating the STO economy as if it were real life and your creds are real money. Another easy alternative is find people that are very successful and try to find out the tricks of the trade. If you are nice and respectful enough, chances are they won't mind giving you some advice. Also, watch your spending and selling...
Like I said in an earlier post about STO E-bayers, you need to do your homework on how much an item is that you are buying or selling before you click accept on that trade window. If you can't find your answer on the exchange, ask around. Ask in very social places like ESD where there are bound to be people that know. And ask more than one person because they might have just unknowingly ripped off someone else that didn't do their homework, and believe that they bought it for the average price. If you don't, chances are you will end up selling for around the same price that the first person did, and get ripped off also.
One more piece of advice: If someone is willing to sell you something for a price that is x2 or x3 lower than average, grab it if you can, and either resell it, use it, or tuck it away for a later opportunity. They didn't do their homework! It's not your fault that they blindly sold you something x3 lower than the normal price. This is how people learn to be careful and actually do their homework.
I speak from experience: By placing stacks of x99 master keys on the exchange, one after another, for 2 or 3 million creds, not realizing I was selling stacks instead of individual keys, I took a major financial hit because I was too preoccupied or tired to notice. After four times of repeating that mistake, I finally learned to always double check the stack amount, and the number of zeros I typed before I click sell. Some very, very lucky people got their christmas early. You can imagine my surprise and disgust when I realized what I had done and how much of an IDIOT I was. This is how you will feel when you don't do your homework and you TRIBBLE yourself over. If you have already felt this emotion during a similar situation, then heed my advice if you haven't already. You're a champ!
"Being a troll myself, I classify this malcontent as a Type-2 Oblivious Troll. My reasons for coming to this conclusion are: The annoying colored text he deploys, the contradictory threads he creates, the excessive whining and foot stamping, the amusement factor of his threads, and the apparent lack of realization that he is in fact a troll, like me, and is not the heart broken, victimized, player, he sees himself as."
Comments
They're not on the exchange because their value exceeds the max posting on the exchange. They currently go for 650 million.
If you get a Billion Dollars, the first thing you should do is buy a keyboard where the Caps Lock isn't stuck.
The second thing you should do is have someone teach you how to use punctuation because that's got to be the longest run-on sentence in the history of time.
This is exactly what happens. There are reasonable and decent ppl who put those ships on the exchange. But a bunch of rotten wannabe ferengis are snatching the 500m ones from exchange and sell them in various places like ESD or some dubious trading channels. Some even use multiple bots to snatch them of the exchange, but sadly Cryptic cant detect them.
Best strategy to get this ship is to spam the exchange with the search word "Annorax" after you saw one or two msg pop up of ppl winning it. I manage to snatch one, like this, friday after tring to get it 2 times with no luck. There are listed for like half a second, and depending on ur lag/ping, you can get it or not.
Hope it helps.
It took days for me to find a SheShar on the exchange that I could afford, I'm just happy to know that that was because players were flipping them, not that they were being sold off site for real money.
Return on investment is the nature of the game.
I paid 495 million for my SheShar, saw it drop to 420 mil, two weeks later.
These are digital goods and they're worth as much fake currency as someone is willing to pay.
They should raise the ceiling on the exchange just because of how much inflation their husband and how devalued EC has become.
I remember when keys cost one third of what they do now.
Exchange cap should be increased by a factor of 5, to accommodate inflation of a factor of 3 and increasingly rare promotional items.
Why does this silly thread keep going?! You want the ship, you pay for it; you don't want it, you don't pay for it. It's really that simple. Me? I just offered someone 550mil in channel, he said 570, and I said okay.
And yes, I've seen plenty in-game too.
However it is also driving other prices on the market on certain things down, so buyers market there as people try to raise funds.
My character Tsin'xing
No matter how much you are tring to paint this as legit, your wicked lies and deceits are not fooling anyone. "Legit ferengi"... ha, thats the best joke I've heard so far lol
And now I am imagining?? Saw 3 times this ship posted myself on exchange, 2 times I couldnt get it and 3rd was lucky. And some1 in-game that is hunting it too for a few days, saw a few aswell, but snatched by some1 else in a blink of the eye.
Ohh and I know very well how STO economy works. Its not even working since its in the hands of a few wretched players with billions wich flip and corner various markets.
And YES, it is wrong to exploit your fellow sto players, even if, and especially when, they may lack knowledge or be gullible. You want to "give back"? Then educate them, bring awareness to them and not exploit them...
Even your reply is nothing but a covered "dont bother look on the exchange and seek other ways to buy this ship" deceit, instaid of actually helping ppl...
That or one thing that would be really awesome is a Ferengi Auction House, accessible from Ferengi Ships, shuttles, any terminal that uses gpl, like near Dabo tables, and maybe Ferenginar can be added as a physical location.
So you can win your auction item, but have to travel to Ferenginar to retrieve it. As a he item is placed in escrow while on auction. I would suggest a listing fee of 10% to reclaim the item if the seller starts it at too high a price and no bids are placed.
Bad idea with the exchange cap. It would only make it easier for exploiters, since at least now they have to bother and risk a bit from profiting.
And good god no Ferenginar. Its enuf allready there is so much focus on this economic TRIBBLE... on a Star Trek themed game... wich is really lame and disgusting I may add!
It always surprises me that there's veteran players that don't know this.
Because letting people know what people are willing to pay for thier item is a bad thing?
They make it a doff promo ship, so only very few people will have one. I'll probably never ever have one of the doff box ships because they are OUTRAGEOUSLY expensive.
None of the new lockbox ships excite me other than the nihydron which isn't even tier 6.
And still no T6 BoP that we know is at least in development.
It's like cryptic doesn't want my money, I have no reason so spend any right now.
I was so totally surprised by the information provided that I almost had a heart attack. What a goober I have been. I always thought that there was someone from Cryptic monitoring the opening of Promotion Packs or Lockboxes and awarding stuff based upon formulae developed with 'geometric logic'. No sh*t Sherlocks. I know full well how pseudo-random numbers work. Really all depends on what they use to seed the pseudo-random generator now doesn't it.
When I see very odd named accounts awarded two within a second of each other I suspect bots. I see that a website is offering the ship for sale for $200. Someone must either be selling to these ToS violators either wittingly or unwittingly, or they have legions of bots opening up the Promotion Packs.
Well got to get back to playing the game and not the Exchange.
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.'
It might surprise you to learn that this is actually not the case. It's a public secret the promo boxes give the big prize on a time-based rotation. There are certain unnamed parties on the trading channel who have learned at which minutes, within the hour, you get the grand prize, and when not. You see them win a ship extremely often. Is their behavior unethical? Hella no! They just spent a lot of money figuring out the time table. Cryptic's conduct, however, is questionable in this, as they tell you it's all RND, when in fact it's not.
No one thinks it, it's true; the zen people put on the dil exchange has either been bought by a player with cash, or a lifer or subscriber has put their monthly 500 zen on the exchange. The zen on the exchange has ONLY come from the player base.
Cryptic and PWE know how to run a business, and they know how to take advantage of ignorant customers. The gambling with the lockboxes and promo things is a very old trick. They use it at fairs where you throw balls at bottles to try and win that giant teddy bear .And not to mention the subliminal messages and ship silhouettes they place in signs like "Requisition" and "Admiral's Office." I believe almost all of the fed ships in the tutorial are c-ships, giving people a peek on what they can get later on. Implanting the temptation or want for something as soon as they create a character. The reason why people are crying about "1%ers" and trolling about buying out cryptic and giving back ppl their money... That last one... I won't comment. No one forces you to buy ships, and you can get them for free if you get off your lazy bum and grind dil. I buy zen and sell keys to resell or get everything I want when I want it and not spend more than I need too. But not everyone can sling dough like that so grinding is the way to go if you can't. I know people that have bug ships on like 3 toons all bought with dil they earned doing missions and stuff so I know it is possible. People have posted here and many threads previously that it's possible. I've never attempted it. I can't stand grinding. I come here to try to relax, not to have a second job.
And to finally address the issue about whether it should be more accessible to the public or not? I missed the Intrepid Interiors, and since I have a retro I can't see the bundle to get them from the pathfinder, which I also have. Unless they release them separately, The bridge I have waited 5 years for is unobtainable. That is called "exclusive promotions" and it is to rev people up into throwing their money like they're in a strip joint. Since most people have financial problems (because they can't manage their finances correctly), it is the same people that will sit there with what money they do have and open box after box buying my keys to do so. And in doing so, it's how I have more credits, and they end up with less. That in itself is kind of hilarious (not to them of course).
You see, the reason cryptic has a notification pop on screen when someone wins a ship is so that stupid, i mean unaware, people will think that others are getting ships, like they're going out of style. They fail to realize that hundreds of people are opening thousands of boxes a day and even though you see a winner three to five times an hour, That's three to five lucky people out of hundreds. Another psychological mind game to entice people to buy boxes and keys. When the T6 Bug came out, some people opened over 250 R&D packs for 1K zen a piece and got nothing. They could have spent that same amount of money on x10 master key packs, and sold them via trade or exchange. They could have bought 4 bug ships with leftover credits, yes four, but did it occur to them? No. Why? I don't have a masters in psychology, only a bachelors, so I can't provide any answer other than, "a sucker is born every minute."
I promised myself not to disclose the psychological mechanism/model cryptic uses, how they use it, because people buying my keys is my source of income in game. I can however, afford to post it here in this crybaby thread, because hardly anyone will see it and it will be lost in the forum archives soon. If everyone bought ships the safe way, then there would be no ships for sale. The ship economy would crash and ships would double or triple in price because they would be so rare. That's why you all need to forget everything I've just said, and go back to opening boxes and buying keys and dil. I get a cut of that too from two others that work constantly to manipulate the dil exchange prices. We work very hard so that 1%er's,10%er's, and 50%er's can get things for a reasonable price. The sad part is, that most super wealthy players don't join the club and set their prices accordingly with the rest of us. We have to compete and buy up their stuff to maintain a fair economy for those that work hard in or out of game. To me, anyone that grinds enough dil to buy a bug ship or annorax has my complete and absolute respect and admiration. That is dedication on a very high level (for a video game), discipline, and a lot more rewarding than using cash to buy a ship.
Life is unfair unfortunately. We can't have a society where everyone has the same amount of money and access to the same services. That's called communism and although it looks good on paper and in theory, it has never been practiced correctly to provide equality to their people. Another problem with that is that there is no drive or motivation to compete and make a better product or provide a better service. Capitalism is a catch-22 or double-bladed sword, if you will. It provides better quality and service, but it separates the population into the haves and the have nots. I was a have not over seven years ago. Had to live with my parents when I got back. Worked as a bagger in a grocery store. Then I apprenticed at a local gunsmith and eventually started my own business. Several times I've almost lost everything but have managed to recover, so far. Practically all my time spent at the PC on or off STO is with a phone in one hand and trying to operate a mouse and keyboard in the other. I got spreadsheets, financial software all running in the task tray. It takes me 4 hours to get 7 weapons along with consoles onto a new ship because I got this game windowed. It really gives me a sometimes arrogant, PO'ed attitude towards others when people come on here and complain like this. I don't know what they do for their occupation. I don't really care either. Just please stop posting these complaints about ships, zen, feeling cheated, and rage quitting.
So plan your life and set goals. How you can use the very system that big brother is using to cheat people, to make a profit as well? Piggyback or be a Remora. I constantly have moral battles with myself because I don't like taking advantage of people. I enjoy giving more than taking. And I've given so much already. My friend's tell me I'm an idiot for handing out free bug ships last year. I probably am for doing that, but I wanted those that would never get one, to get a chance to compete in a competition for one. But if I only give, I will end up with nothing left. Like I said, I normally don't tell people this. I've only told a handful that didn't know already, and posted this twice before. To me, it's plain common sense not to throw money without a strategy in place. You wouldn't empty your wallet or purse in a parking lot and drive away. That would be purse stupidity, right? Why do people do it here? How is this any different? You need to stop and think when a promo or lockbox comes out. Wait for sales and discounts if you have the patience. Wait several months till an item drops in price. But if you're like me and you usually have to have instant gratification, then expect to pay however much the going rate is for whatever it is you want.
You can also find a STO e-bayer. What is that, you ask? An "STO E-bayer" is a stereotypical term sprouting from e-bay that a few people use. People constantly place items up for bids or instant buys without researching the going rate and price for that same item. They either price it too high, or too low. The ones that price it low get ripped off big time. For example, a guy on ESD yesterday, I won't say who, posted a "WTS" for an Annorax he got. Someone immediately PMed him and I got beat to the punch, so I messaged him asking him how much he was asking for it. He said 400,000,000 creds. I asked him if he was aware of how much others are paying for it, he said he didn't know, that 400 mil sounded "good," to him. I let him know he could have gotten 200 or more for it if he had waited and hadn't said "Just a sec, I'm in a trade," to me, and not even stop to listen to me when I said "don't sell it yet! let me tell you something." And he didn't even ask anyone how much to sell it for either. He tried to ask the buyer for more after completing the trade, which was kind of pointless, but people that goof up like that, some of us call "STO E-bayers," and they are far and few between, but you can make a killing off of them with some sweet talk, ego stroking, and the temptation of the feeling of exclusiveness. You just have to keep them away from the Exchange and hope they don't ask someone for advice. A way to speed up the process is telling the person one or two others have placed offers on it and it's their last chance to get it. It's not fraud like some people do. Switching an item out quickly. They get the item, they just pay too much cause they didn't do their homework. Always do your homework! You see why your teacher's wanted you to do your homework, now? It's because they have witnessed countless victims fall prey to not doing their homework at the time, and end up paying for it when buying or selling a ship later. Listen to your teachers (if you're in school), and for us adults, think back to the early years and remember what homework is and understand how not doing it can be detrimental. If you have read this far, you're a champ!
My point is, you can't say every PWE and Cryptic have done is completely bad. They've reskinned and remodeled ships, STF's, story arcs, added Romulans, gave a thought or two to the Klingons, and are putting out more content than ever before. They have also gone to the F2P model which is a catch-22, but it allows those that wouldn't or couldn't pay for a sub to play and not have to pay to run the end game content and raids. They also let you grind for epic-like gear from the rep system, and free ships during special events. They may not be on par with a fleet ship, but they're free. Everyone that was present during the summer risian event had the chance to fly around the resort for 5 minutes a day to get the Nandi Warship which isn't that bad of a ship. How much did it cost to get that ship? Five minutes of pressing WASD and moving your mouse around. Then you could log off if you wanted and continue life. A few people did exactly that. They wait for something good to come along for them to return.
Yes Cryptic/PWE puts out these gambling lockboxes and promotion packs. But you don't have to get them. And if no one bought them, they might put them in a lock box instead. They spent a lot of time making promo ships and if it won't sell one way, they'll find another, and another, until people accept it. Promo ships are very rare and they should be considering how much money people can spend to buy one. Even if they do it the smart way and get it from the exchange or trading channel. As someone mentioned before: The last thing we need is a bunch of OP super dreadnoughts filling social space and STFs. They're rare and expensive for a reason and everyone that spends the time and money to get one is not only trying to get an op ship, but stroke their ego in social space and in fleet as well. Don't lie, you know you do, even if just a little! Same applies to people that own expensive cars. If everyone could afford a mercedes, jaguar, or a chevy corvette then those names would no longer mean anything.
You are probably already aware that ships like the Annorax, Sheshar, and Jem'Hadar Bug Ship, are being sold every day by the handful out of game. That is how some people can afford to buy so much zen. They invest in game and get digital and real money at the same time. Some people don't want credits or to trade. They want C-Ships but can't afford them. If they are able to sell one out of game, which is against the TOS so I advise against it, they can have real money to buy the zen they need to get the C-Ships they want without grinding dil. Although this practice is against the TOS that you agree to when you start the launcher, I personally think that if it is going to happen anyways, that it happen within the community and not by gold farmers that spam ads in sector space.
Cryptic made a strategically genius move to have a C-Store. This work for them two ways. An extra source of profit other than subs, and the fact that when they started the lockbox game, people could and do use their cash to buy zen and convert the master keys to credits, or sell promo boxes for credits. This is basically the equivalent of being able to buy digital money with your paypal or debit card, and get anything you want, depending on what you're willing to pay. Don't like grinding dil? Trade zen for dil! You get your dil, and someone that can't or won't spend real cash get's their zen. All of the money stays in the community, except for the aforementioned out-of-game transactions. This was a conscious decision made by management on not only how to maximize profits, but to try and keep the player base at bay. When people could work ingame for free and trade the results for stuff that once could only be bought with real cash, those that were determined and savvy enough started doing just that. Some of them are billionaires that haven't spent a dollar on the game. Some of them haven't spent a dollar unless it was for something you could only get from the store like a retrain token, extra slots, or a ship.
As repetitiveepic stated above, some people are not willing to engage in the economy and enjoy the fruits of labor. I have no sympathy for those that expect ships that are extremely aesthetically pleasing, lore friendly or just plain old OP, to be so easily obtainable by anyone. When people are no longer willing to pay +500 million creds for a ship, they will start to appear on the exchange and sometimes in large numbers which depreciates their value due to the fact that the sellers want a quick cash grab so they can go on a spending spree. But once they are finally there, You can work to get it at a reasonable price. And yes 500 million creds, even though it is a tremendous amount of money, is a fair price for a ship that is special in some way. Not to mention all the creds, cash, or zen they spent on keys and promo boxes to obtain them in the first place. If you want to make millions and billions like the "%er's," then you either need to start treating the STO economy as if it were real life and your creds are real money. Another easy alternative is find people that are very successful and try to find out the tricks of the trade. If you are nice and respectful enough, chances are they won't mind giving you some advice. Also, watch your spending and selling...
Like I said in an earlier post about STO E-bayers, you need to do your homework on how much an item is that you are buying or selling before you click accept on that trade window. If you can't find your answer on the exchange, ask around. Ask in very social places like ESD where there are bound to be people that know. And ask more than one person because they might have just unknowingly ripped off someone else that didn't do their homework, and believe that they bought it for the average price. If you don't, chances are you will end up selling for around the same price that the first person did, and get ripped off also.
One more piece of advice: If someone is willing to sell you something for a price that is x2 or x3 lower than average, grab it if you can, and either resell it, use it, or tuck it away for a later opportunity. They didn't do their homework! It's not your fault that they blindly sold you something x3 lower than the normal price. This is how people learn to be careful and actually do their homework.
I speak from experience: By placing stacks of x99 master keys on the exchange, one after another, for 2 or 3 million creds, not realizing I was selling stacks instead of individual keys, I took a major financial hit because I was too preoccupied or tired to notice. After four times of repeating that mistake, I finally learned to always double check the stack amount, and the number of zeros I typed before I click sell. Some very, very lucky people got their christmas early. You can imagine my surprise and disgust when I realized what I had done and how much of an IDIOT I was. This is how you will feel when you don't do your homework and you TRIBBLE yourself over. If you have already felt this emotion during a similar situation, then heed my advice if you haven't already. You're a champ!