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What happened to the exchange?!
whitewhale80
Member Posts: 86 Arc User
I must admit that I took an almost 2 year break from STO and I'm currently only just catching up on things so forgive me if I have missed anything obvious!
Have just started a new character and decided to hit the exchange to see what items are available, it is after all a large resource of bargains and rare items and perfect for fitting out any tier of ship... Or not.
Mk 4 uncommon stuff (The few items that there are!) suddenly going for several hundred thousand a piece? Warp cores in the millions? If they have been a frugal a player up to that point may have 30/40 thousand EC to hand, who on earth would want to blow that much money for an item that will be obsolete in a few hours of gaming once the next rank is hit?
What used to be a massive and competitive market now contains few items with extortionate prices, my RA character still rocks a mk2 phaser relay as the replacement consoles are more then the national debt of Zimbabwe. What the hell happened?
Have just started a new character and decided to hit the exchange to see what items are available, it is after all a large resource of bargains and rare items and perfect for fitting out any tier of ship... Or not.
Mk 4 uncommon stuff (The few items that there are!) suddenly going for several hundred thousand a piece? Warp cores in the millions? If they have been a frugal a player up to that point may have 30/40 thousand EC to hand, who on earth would want to blow that much money for an item that will be obsolete in a few hours of gaming once the next rank is hit?
What used to be a massive and competitive market now contains few items with extortionate prices, my RA character still rocks a mk2 phaser relay as the replacement consoles are more then the national debt of Zimbabwe. What the hell happened?
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We have a new crafting system in place as well. Through bad decision making cryptic sided the mods on crafted items can’t be selected and are random. Crafting mk12 stuff is expensive. Mk2 stuff for free.
So what you see are the results of carfted items with partial upgrade results.
For PVE guns with Crit D x 3 / PEN are probably most desirable and peeps try to manufacture those in the lower mk levels because its cheaper there.
They put the stuff they don’t need on the exchange for you to get.
It’s either pay for what you want or manufacture it yourself under a horrible nerve consuming system off dullness.
Edit: Also, welcome back to STO.
Looking for a fun PvE fleet? Join us at Omega Combat Division today.
The good news is that at that level, almost every story mission you do gives you at least one piece of gear that you can probably use. Your other option is that if you have any friends or fleet members that can craft, they can probably make whatever you need. Making a Mark IV item is extremely cheap so they can probably get you what you need for pretty much nothing.
Is there one particular item you're having problems getting? You mentioned Warp Cores in the millions? At Mark IV?
If you need it, I can probably craft whatever you need and send it to you. Just message me your charcter@handle and I can make it for you.
There's also no reason why someone should only have 30k-40k. You do all the material scans, and because of the twisted logic of a lot of the players in the game, you sell most of those materials like z-particles for some hefty EC. Do the R&D requisition every 4 days for 1000 dil and sell most of that. It's actually a far better conversion of dil to EC than doing keys. You can sell materials, use the proceeds to buy components for crafting if you wanted to, and in most cases end up with a profit.
And of course once you hit level 10/11, you can grind doffs and have the EC you need to buy some of the more expensive things.
This is basically what I do with a new toon and haven't had much of a problem not having adequate gear while leveling up to 50.
The upgrade system allows reliably to improve the Mark of items (for the cost of some Dilithium usually), but a quality upgrade (from uncommon to rare, from rare to very rare and so on) is random with only a low probability. That makes very rare (or better) Mark II items highly desirable, as upgrading them from Mark II to Mark XIV is guaranteed, and for every time you increase the mark, there is a chance that you improve the quality. Once an item is at Mark XIV, it takes a lot of upgrades before you have another quality improvement proc.
So people look for a low mark item that has the modifiers they want, and they upgrade in the hope that they eventually get the item to epic quality.
I suppose it's a side effect of few new players populating those tiers and the R+D system knee capping demand at low levels.
Lower level items cost more as they are better to upgrade to Ultra rare or gold level then higher level items. Upgrading a mk 2 item with the right mods to Ultra rare or higher is better then a mk 14 item with the same mods. Hence why the low level items cost more.
Contraband and Z-particles are always profitable
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
2. Exchange slots are limited and the handling is a hassle. Worthless items are just not worth my time or the slot especially as chances to actually sell them are low.
3. STO items have no easy percievable value and exchange gives you nothing but current offers. So most people list items simply somewhere close to the current price without further thinking about it.
4. There is a vast availability of this gear right in the missions you do and the leveling curve is so steap that most people would buy anything anyway.
Add in the already named crafted MK II + a single upgrade kit already applied which simply level with you and that most low level chars are twinks of high level chars...
This process is standard for every game without continious influx of new players. It is actually more suprising that there are any offers at all. They maybe come from the few new players that think their MK IVs must be more valuable then the other MK IIs.
(Yep the looks can be deceiving lol...)
I'll make it for you at a reasonable cost.
(no guaranteed mods)
I post low level stuff on the exchange for under 100k all the time.
I do it mostly to gain points in the R&D skills.
I've never played the game to make a killin'.
At the moment, I'm mostly playing Proxima@DaveyNY (Talaxian Delta Recruit).
Look me up in the game or message me.
If she can't make the item ya need, I've got two other toons who between them, have all the R&D's up to level 15.
I Was A Trekkie Before It Was Cool ... Sept. 8th, 1966 ... Not To Mention Before Most Folks Around Here Were Born!
Forever a STO Veteran-Minion
If all you want to do is gear a lowbie.... make your own. It's not hard really. then as they gain levels you can upgrade the gear.
My character Tsin'xing
My character Tsin'xing
It comes out of an OLD lock box. All other things being equal, there aren't very many people opening the lock box that it came out of, which of course is going to lower the availability and jack up the price.