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Dilithium and the Uniforms

I know the price of the uniforms in the dilithium store caused quite a stir a while back, but it was argued as necessary to serve as a "dil sink". And it seemed to work for a time as the dil : zen exchange rate dropped every so slightly.
But now the rate has risen right back to what it was prior to the items being added.

Can we discuss an alternative dil sink then and perhaps those costume pieces being priced at a more reasonable rate?


I'm asking because my main toon and their crew runs around in the Movies/Khan uniforms, and the jacket and vests would be great. But I have not been playing long and don't have close to a million dil, and refining 8k per day means the better part of a year sloooowly grinding. Per costume piece.
It becomes a non-fun chore, popping onto the game just long enough to refine.
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Comments

  • warpangelwarpangel Member Posts: 9,427 Arc User
    No
  • davefenestratordavefenestrator Member Posts: 10,501 Arc User
    Please see the existing eleventy threads on this for many prior discussions.

    The horse has already been dug up more than once.
  • kjfettkjfett Member Posts: 370 Arc User
    How exactly is it fair to those that paid the price already to then see it slashed because you want to play STO barbies with a specific, gated outfit? Convert Zen to Dil if you want to get around the 8K gate like everyone else or pick a different uniform, etc.

    If the only reason you play the game is to refine Dil to eventually get a specific uniform, what's to say that will change when you get it? The uniform doesn't stop you from enjoying 100% of the content in the game.
    kjfett_14091.jpg
  • duncanidaho11duncanidaho11 Member Posts: 7,867 Arc User
    edited August 2016
    More and lower priced customization options. There's more to gain (at the scale of a population) by selling lots of accessible items rather as opposed to a few extreme luxuries.

    Step 1: reduce the price of the current uniforms (while considering those who have already paid in)
    Step 2: add more items at a lower price point

    But what could these items be?

    I won't step on the proposals made by others (there's a good run of threads around here and reddit with all the discussion those need) but I'll just stress what I want (and I think would fit a lower price point): currently unavailable NPC uniforms and other customization options.

    -Hazari uniform
    -Ocampa uniform
    -Hierarchy collar
    -El-Aurian hat
    -Scientist Jacket (and other unnamed civilian gear, such as seen on DS9 NPC's)
    -Miral/Leeta hair
    -Crazy Klingon hair
    -The never-released Omega/Honor Guard/Maco armors
    Bipedal mammal and senior Foundry author.
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  • jaguarskxjaguarskx Member Posts: 5,945 Arc User
    I know the price of the uniforms in the dilithium store caused quite a stir a while back, but it was argued as necessary to serve as a "dil sink". And it seemed to work for a time as the dil : zen exchange rate dropped every so slightly.
    But now the rate has risen right back to what it was prior to the items being added.

    The spike in the exchange rate is due to the current 20% off ship sale.

    It is extremely difficult to fight against the swell of players who rush towards the Dil Exchange to get Zen for their Dil. Just wait for the sale to end and the exchange rate will drop down again.

    As for the costume themselves... it is a personal thing if you want them or not. I am not that enamored with Star Trek or deep into role-playing that I need to purchase those costumes so I will remain silent on their prices. However, lower "prices" can spur more demand.

  • gavinrunebladegavinruneblade Member Posts: 3,894 Arc User
    "There is more to gain by selling lots of accessible options"

    This may be true of the real world, but it is not true of the digital world.

    In 2014 and 2016 SWRVE reported on the spending habits of 10 million+ gamers for 200+ games combined. Here is a link to the 2016 pdf:
    https://www.swrve.com/images/uploads/whitepapers/swrve-monetization-report-2016.pdf

    The key takeaway is that people who spend the most have the fewest transactions, but a larger share of revenue.

    Those players spending below $5/mo was 39% of all purchases, but only 14.5% of revenue in 2016 down from 27% in 2014.

    Players spending over $50/mo was only 2.5% of purchases but 18% of total revenue, up from 11% in 2014.

    That said, the most financially successful companies offer choices for both groups.
  • nikephorusnikephorus Member Posts: 2,744 Arc User
    Only a sink for those who choose to use it. I'm not interested in any of these uniforms. So I'll be carrying on as usual.
    Tza0PEl.png
  • officerbatman81officerbatman81 Member Posts: 2,761 Arc User
    Necro'ed horse thread.
  • farmallmfarmallm Member Posts: 4,630 Arc User
    Once you get into Admiralty. You can get up some good Dil. Specially if you keep running the Klingon one. I do it daily, and 1 character is already about there for the lowest priced outfit. If you have more than 1 character at Lv60. And with bank. You can swap over Dil, so that will help too.

    Its not that bad. The prices are comparable to the Lobi outfits. Which cost just about as much. And many players have no issues getting those.
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    USS Casinghead NCC 92047 launched 2350
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  • monkeybone13monkeybone13 Member Posts: 4,640 Arc User
    Got%20sink_zpsaanegtaa.jpg~original
  • captainkenny1captainkenny1 Member Posts: 326 Arc User
    farmallm wrote: »
    Its not that bad. The prices are comparable to the Lobi outfits. Which cost just about as much. And many players have no issues getting those.
    Lobi outfits are waaaaay cheaper than the dil costumes, these costumes are around the 5000 zen price range, unlike the 500 zen ones and they are not even account unlock....
  • anodynesanodynes Member Posts: 1,999 Arc User
    A 200 Lobi outfit is only a character unlock, not account, and somebody somewhere bought the Zen to get those 200 Lobi for it. At a much-tested average of somewhere between 4 and 5 Lobi per lockbox, that's an average of between 40 and 50 keys. At minimum, that outfit cost somebody, or some collection of people, 4500 Zen, buying the keys for the cheapest price available, in 4 10-packs at 1125 per pack, and probably more. They got other things with that Zen, though, aside from the Lobi to buy the outfit, so it isn't quite an apples-to-apples comparison, but if the goal had just been the outfit, as it is with these, then about as much Zen was spent.
    This is an MMO, not a Star Trek episode simulator. That would make for a terrible game.
  • ltminnsltminns Member Posts: 12,569 Arc User
    Continual sink? Do continual Upgrade Weekends. All the sink you need.
    '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.'
    Lt. Philip J. Minns
  • farmallmfarmallm Member Posts: 4,630 Arc User
    edited August 2016
    farmallm wrote: »
    Its not that bad. The prices are comparable to the Lobi outfits. Which cost just about as much. And many players have no issues getting those.
    Lobi outfits are waaaaay cheaper than the dil costumes, these costumes are around the 5000 zen price range, unlike the 500 zen ones and they are not even account unlock....

    Lobi outfits are only for the character that unlocked them. Not account. So they are very similar there.

    To get lobi with Dil only. You usually get 4-5 lobi as others said. By opening the lock boxes. For a 200 lobi outfit you will need to open around 40-50 boxes. Keys are 1,125 zen per pack of 10 which would be the best route. Take Dil prices of 420 which is close to current. At 40 boxes you need 4,500 zen or at 50 boxes you need 5,6250 zen. That will be 1,890,000 - 2,362,500 Dil using the exchange.

    So yes they are comparable to to each other.

    Bottom line they are fussing over nothing. Want it cheaper, when on the other hand. They buy lobi outfits all day long at similar Dil prices.
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    USS Casinghead NCC 92047 launched 2350
    Fleet Admiral Stowe - Dominion War Vet.
  • fiberteksyfirfiberteksyfir Member Posts: 1,207 Arc User
    edited August 2016
    Edit: dude above me said pretty much this whole deleted block of text :) readers digest: using currency exchanges and lockboxes these are equal to if not cheaper than 200 lobi outfits.

    The only assumption we can make is people are more or likely pissed we cant get them directly for EC off the exchange so there is no "fair market value" like everything else. Its go dil or go home with no "smart" shortcuts we can take like we do with all the other lobi/lockbox stuff.
  • garaks31garaks31 Member Posts: 2,845 Arc User
    it was not added as a dil sink. it was added for the crème de la crème of the player base

    exc. rates going down was not related to it
  • thay8472thay8472 Member Posts: 6,100 Arc User
    Spec Points.
    2gdi5w4mrudm.png
    Typhoon Class please!
  • ltminnsltminns Member Posts: 12,569 Arc User
    This would have been the lamest sink ever if this was intended as such.
    '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.'
    Lt. Philip J. Minns
  • fiberteksyfirfiberteksyfir Member Posts: 1,207 Arc User
    edited August 2016
    @valoreah youd be surprised how many people will try to go to a store and get the difference back from a sale price for something theyve already purchased. Ive seen it so many times when I worked at a grocery store back in the day and people tried to pull this TRIBBLE all the time.
  • kjfettkjfett Member Posts: 370 Arc User
    valoreah wrote: »
    kjfett wrote: »
    How exactly is it fair to those that paid the price already to then see it slashed because you want to play STO barbies with a specific, gated outfit?

    1) That's their own stupidity to pay that kind of price for a single character costume piece.
    2) Stores have sales all the time. Do you get mad when you paid full price for an item someone else got on sale at a cheaper price?

    1. Their own stupidity? So their intelligence is based on your financial burdens? That's a very unwise perspective on life.
    2. No one in this thread has asked for a sale.

    These outfits are priced to be a rare reward for those that either put a substantial amount of time or money into them. It's not like people are buying them and then living on bread and water to survive....that would be stupid.
    kjfett_14091.jpg
  • gholendhorgholendhor Member Posts: 447 Arc User
    Yet they fail to do the one Dilithium sink people would love. Change the Dilithium to Fleet Mark ratio. 1 to 1 right now. make it more desirable to dump Dilitium into fleets. I know everyone in a fleet has seen progress stall due to empty Dilitium donations.
  • gavinrunebladegavinruneblade Member Posts: 3,894 Arc User
    Priority one asked gecko about it a while back. He said he was open to the idea of changing the dil:fleet credit ratio, but it hasn't happened.
  • arionisaarionisa Member Posts: 1,421 Arc User
    Just let me pay some Dilithium and dress my toons the way I want. My Klingon female desperately wants to wear the same outfit as her Orion (female) captain .... but for some strange reason she can't. Is it made out of some kind of special nano-weave fiber that disintegrates on contact with any skin other than Orion or something ?

    And why can my Orion male Captain run around with no shirt and yet his non-Orion male BoFFs can't ?
    LTS and loving it.
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  • ikonn#1068 ikonn Member Posts: 1,448 Arc User
    edited August 2016
    It's a green thing :smile:

    And @gholendhor is right, IMO, if they would simply make it more worthwhile for people to donate dilithium into fleet projects by getting a better ratio of FMs (1 dil = 3 or 5 FMs), the dil sink problem would pretty much take care of itself with minimal time and effort on the dev's part.
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  • sylveriareldensylveriarelden Member Posts: 531 Arc User
    Change the Dil:Fleet Credit ratio, or allow unrefined Dil to be donated to Fleet projects. Win/win for both the players and fleets.

    It really would be one of the most effective sinks for the game as a whole- if "abundant dilithium" is really such a problem in the game.

    Personally I see that whole hyperbole/conjecture as exactly that- it really has nothing to do with the Dil/Zen market being so high, the market will always be in favor of Zen sellers, regardless of "how much Dil is out there". Who the hell is going to trade for Dilithium with RL cash if it's at a low ratio? I sure as hell wouldn't. The ratio doesn't reflect the amount of "available" dil in the game, it reflects what people are willing to trade it for Zen. If you are a Zen seller, wouldn't you want the MOST dilithium for your Zen, after all?

    Now, I can definitely see more useful dilithium spend items having an effect in game, making it much more valuable than it is- such as non-fleet green to purple quality gear (lower stats, but can buy with Dilithium) and so forth, but definitely NOT ships other than the Tier 1-4 ships people can already acquire with Dilithium in the Shipyard requisitions. Having said items available to non-fleet members would be a good way for people to gear up but also spend their Dil. Perhaps even adding a Fleet module currency variant in Dil (which would compete with the C-store, yes but it's not a total game breaker) might make Fleet ships more enticing to those who have Dilithium as well- and remove the paywall-only nature of them. (never did understand why they did that)

    While I also agree that the Fleet Dil donations do indeed come to a halt- I'd have to say the biggest contributing factor of most fleet projects idling is usually the lack of DOFF donations, not Dil, but it does come a close second.

    It's not you- it's me. I just need my space.

    Being critical doesn't take skill. Being constructively critical- which is providing alternative solutions or suggestions to a demonstrated problem, however, does.
  • farmallmfarmallm Member Posts: 4,630 Arc User
    The fleet idea is good. I like the idea of using it with the store. To help the prices more or give better incentives.
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    USS Casinghead NCC 92047 launched 2350
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  • ltminnsltminns Member Posts: 12,569 Arc User
    One would think that increasing the ratio would be a no-brainer but they have a tendency to overcomplicate things and send them off the rails.

    Look at the Fleet project to just generate more Fleet Credits. A number of people were asking for this. They finally add it but they lower the ratio of Fleet Credits provided per Mark and add all sorts of extra cr*p needed to complete the Project. Probably there was some Geko Metric that showed the simpler approach of 1 Mark giving 50 Fleet Credits '...would be bad… Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light' type bad. ;)
    '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.'
    Lt. Philip J. Minns
  • phenomenaut01phenomenaut01 Member Posts: 714 Arc User
    Again...you can buy keys off of the exchange to get the lobi to buy the lobi uniforms rather than spend any real world currency for Zen, and they aren't character bound on pick up. The comparison doesn't hold up because you can't buy dilithium off of the exchange.
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