The largest single driving factor in inflation is the amount of currency in circulation, basic Econ. 101.
I don't have a problem with the changes, but to deny that inflation is a possible outcome for this change, is naive at best.
I doubt it will make everything more expensive. More likely it will make the previous barter commodity less valuable as it is now less required until the lockbox ships go over the new cap again.
Those EC prices don't mean anything if nobody is willing to pay them. The market isn't baked in. It's constantly fluctuating by supply and demand. Listed prices do not and never have meant selling prices. I can put up 40 stacks of Engine Batteries at 1 billion each and that doesn't mean that the prices for Engine Batteries has spiked. It doesn't mean that Engine Batteries are suddenly overpriced because the exchange cap is raised.
It just means that I'm an idiot who decided to be cute and list 40 stacks of Engine Batteries for 1 billion EC each instead of things that people will pay a fair price for.
The largest single driving factor in inflation is the amount of currency in circulation, basic Econ. 101.
I don't have a problem with the changes, but to deny that inflation is a possible outcome for this change, is naive at best.
That's rubbish. I don't even know where to begin. Inflation depends solely on the net INFLUX of currency. If players "create" more EC, (say by playing a mission and selling the reward) than they destroy, you have a positive net influx of EC and thus inflation.
Second, EC caps have absolutely nothing to do with inflation. Increasing EC caps will not increase the total amount of EC (cash and stored item value) in the game. There's only one way to create new EC. Getting loot and selling it to a NPC vendor.
This is a good thing, with the only drawback being that fleet ship modules will still be out of reach with the EC cap as they're steadily well above 15M. Same goes for Starship Upgrade Requisitions.
Gotta hope that the fleet mods and Upgrade tokens come down in price, at least to the new EC cap for silvers. I'm willing to spend real money on the game, but payday isn't here just yet and I'd like to upgrade a T5 Meshweaver a friend was able to give me.
The Upgrade tokens, the last time I looked a day or so ago was sitting just over 15 mil. At the time I saw no way I could get it, for obvious reasons. Now I see the EC increase and think to myself that it's a good thing, it's also made it more frustrating now that I'm short on buying an Upgrade by a few hundred thousand EC.
Haven't logged in yet after the patch, so no idea where things are now. It'll be later today before I'm able to log in, so hopefully things will come down in price enough.
I haven't looked into fleet mods but if they become affordable, I may start looking into fleet ships too.
"Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do." - Isaac Asimov
The largest single driving factor in inflation is the amount of currency in circulation, basic Econ. 101.
I don't have a problem with the changes, but to deny that inflation is a possible outcome for this change, is naive at best.
That's rubbish. I don't even know where to begin. Inflation depends solely on the net INFLUX of currency. If players "create" more EC, (say by playing a mission and selling the reward) than they destroy, you have a positive net influx of EC and thus inflation.
Second, EC caps have absolutely nothing to do with inflation. Increasing EC caps will not increase the total amount of EC (cash and stored item value) in the game. There's only one way to create new EC. Getting loot and selling it to a NPC vendor.
That's taking a rather narrow-minded view to Inflation:
"Inflation is the rate at which the general level of prices for goods and services is rising and, consequently, the purchasing power of currency is falling."
The 'purchasing power of currency' can also fall, simply because prices are rising, due to reasons other than 'printing' EC. The STO economy is easily manipulated/cornered, etc. It is believed that Druk and his kind -- who can now swoop up expensive ships off Exchange far more easily -- will use the new cap to increase prices -- thus causing Inflation. We'll see in a week or so.
P.S. I'll be glad if I'm wrong on this, but I doubt it.
The largest single driving factor in inflation is the amount of currency in circulation, basic Econ. 101.
I don't have a problem with the changes, but to deny that inflation is a possible outcome for this change, is naive at best.
That's rubbish. I don't even know where to begin. Inflation depends solely on the net INFLUX of currency. If players "create" more EC, (say by playing a mission and selling the reward) than they destroy, you have a positive net influx of EC and thus inflation.
Second, EC caps have absolutely nothing to do with inflation. Increasing EC caps will not increase the total amount of EC (cash and stored item value) in the game. There's only one way to create new EC. Getting loot and selling it to a NPC vendor.
That's taking a rather narrow-minded view to Inflation:
"Inflation is the rate at which the general level of prices for goods and services is rising and, consequently, the purchasing power of currency is falling."
The 'purchasing power of currency' can also fall, simply because prices are rising, due to reasons other than 'printing' EC. The STO economy is easily manipulated/cornered, etc. It is believed that Druk and his kind -- who can now swoop up expensive ships off Exchange far more easily -- will use the new cap to increase prices -- thus causing Inflation. We'll see in a week or so.
P.S. I'll be glad if I'm wrong on this, but I doubt it.
The largest single driving factor in inflation is the amount of currency in circulation, basic Econ. 101.
I don't have a problem with the changes, but to deny that inflation is a possible outcome for this change, is naive at best.
That's rubbish. I don't even know where to begin. Inflation depends solely on the net INFLUX of currency. If players "create" more EC, (say by playing a mission and selling the reward) than they destroy, you have a positive net influx of EC and thus inflation.
Second, EC caps have absolutely nothing to do with inflation. Increasing EC caps will not increase the total amount of EC (cash and stored item value) in the game. There's only one way to create new EC. Getting loot and selling it to a NPC vendor.
That's taking a rather narrow-minded view to Inflation:
"Inflation is the rate at which the general level of prices for goods and services is rising and, consequently, the purchasing power of currency is falling."
The 'purchasing power of currency' can also fall, simply because prices are rising, due to reasons other than 'printing' EC. The STO economy is easily manipulated/cornered, etc. It is believed that Druk and his kind -- who can now swoop up expensive ships off Exchange far more easily -- will use the new cap to increase prices -- thus causing Inflation. We'll see in a week or so.
P.S. I'll be glad if I'm wrong on this, but I doubt it.
It is possible to corner specific markets, but even then it's a risky gamble. Druk is as close to an expert on the economy as there is in the forums, and he'll tell you the same thing. Cornering a market only works if the demand is there and you can near-guarantee that you are the only supplier. Since most of these things come from lockboxes, it's extremely improbable that you'll be able to corner the market due to the sheer number of lockboxes being opened at any given time.
Even the wealthiest people in STO will tell you that cornering any market is not sustainable. Possible in the short term, but simply not viable in the long term. The market will burn you.
Addresses the symptom, not the problem which is an ever increasing amount of EC floating around. Long-term solution would be an EC sink the same way there are dilithium sinks in the game and/or replacing the EC on the Exchange with a currency with real value like dilithium.
I'm not hopeful that anything will be done, however, since the inflated economy forces newer players to buy Zen to go the Zen/Key/EC route if they want to buy that shiny new ship or console on the Exchange (assuming they don't want to play the gacha game with lockboxes) or just buy the EC from a gold farmer.
As one of the well-to-do in STO, I approve of these changes and believe they are a positive step forward in the economy of STO. A rising tide lifts all boats.
No, a rising tide just lifts EC prices. Wait for it.
Those EC prices don't mean anything if nobody is willing to pay them. The market isn't baked in. It's constantly fluctuating by supply and demand. Listed prices do not and never have meant selling prices. I can put up 40 stacks of Engine Batteries at 1 billion each and that doesn't mean that the prices for Engine Batteries has spiked. It doesn't mean that Engine Batteries are suddenly overpriced because the exchange cap is raised.
It just means that I'm an idiot who decided to be cute and list 40 stacks of Engine Batteries for 1 billion EC each instead of things that people will pay a fair price for.
It's never that simple, really. If you have like 5 Vonph ships, for instance, all listed at prices > 200 mil, then, sure, ppl can always decline to buy them. But then they have nothing. So, you can either continue to have nothing, or eventually, grudingly get the least expensive of those listed ships.
The STO Economy is never truly 'supply & demand' (despite what the tycoons would have us believe), because it's too easy to corner the market on certain items. You really think the Delta Prime Trait is worth over 300 million EC?! Or Kemocite going for hundreds of millions when it first came out?! See, unlike a RL economy, where you can just shop elsewhere, when you don't like the high prices in one store, the STO economy is basically just a single store, where a handful of super rich folks just keep buying up the good stuff, and flipping them with outrageous profit margins.
Naturally, people can always still say no. But let's not pretend Exchange prices aren't massively, artificially cranked up for certain items.
Addresses the symptom, not the problem which is an ever increasing amount of EC floating around. Long-term solution would be an EC sink the same way there are dilithium sinks in the game and/or replacing the EC on the Exchange with a currency with real value like dilithium.
I'm not hopeful that anything will be done, however, since the inflated economy forces newer players to buy Zen to go the Zen/Key/EC route if they want to buy that shiny new ship or console on the Exchange (assuming they don't want to play the gacha game with lockboxes) or just buy the EC from a gold farmer.
Some Fleet Projects offer minor EC sinks. Probably not nearly enough, though.
Even the wealthiest people in STO will tell you that cornering any market is not sustainable. Possible in the short term, but simply not viable in the long term. The market will burn you.
True. But I don't think tycoons are really in it for the long haul. They just want to clean out, making killer profits, for a reasonably short time. The professional ones always seem to know when the hausse is going to be over, and let go before that happens (which is why Druk always tells ppl to do their homework: study prices, when events occur, or certain promotions, etc, and in what cycle). It's a real profession; and why noobs usually get burned, badly, when they don't unload in time.
The limit of the caps meant that the really valuable items couldn't be listed on the the exchange. This means private sales only and the result of that is near non-existent competition, so prices stay high.
Now that you can list items up to 1.5B EC that "should" cover the cost of all items and means once people start the old undercutting game the prices will drop a little bit. They will still stay high but there will always be someone trying to undercut you, and that means charging ridiculous prices will no longer guarantee you a sale.
This works in favour of the buyers.
Additional to this, because keys will no longer be required as a currency for buying large value items their use will go back to being for opening boxes or selling on the exchange again. That means their value might drop somewhat. And that is only ever a good thing for buyers.
Keys control the price of everything else, lobi ships, lockbox ships, traits, costumes. All has its price based on what it costs in keys to get that item.
Now the real issue is that there's simply too much EC. What's needed is a sink, something that destroys EC for good. Simply having a higher valued item cap won;t do that, the EC just moves somewhere else. We need a means to blow all that EC on things that are desirable and cost a lot. Look how good the Phoenix boxes are with the dilithium.
I will say this, yes, a good side-effect will be getting rid of the black-market trades, so sales can become more transparent. I'm still not convinced this will lead to lower prices. But I could just be too paranoid.
I don't see this helping prices, just making everything more expensive.
Cryptic need to find a way of stopping prices of items going above the exchange limit.
The answer to that is simple.
Do not allow trades. Players would still be able give items to other players, but without a trade window pop up; it would be a direct transaction. For example, you offer a Lobi Ship to Player X who accepts it and it go directly into his / her inventory. That's the end of the transaction. If you are expecting Player X to give you something in return, then you would need to trust Player X enough before doing so.
Players who are expecting to earn EC from the sale / trade of the Lobi Ship in the above example would be forced to use the Exchange and be subject to the price limit of the Exchange.
If the trash mobs actually dropped worthwhile loot, and if vendors actually paid for said loot... I could see the EC cap as being a good thing.
But really the only way for a casual player to get those levels of EC is to buy keys and drop them on the exchange. And with the price cap going up so will prices.
That means it's no longer a cost-savings to buy keys and they buy a ship off the exchange. Now I have to spend 2-3 times the cost of a T6 ship to put down keys to get the new shiny I want.
Really the only "advantage" is I'm not playing the lock-box lottery-sham.
I don't see this as an advantage, or even a good thing. It is an attempt by Cryptic to double-capitalize on certain items. First the winner of the ship pays out the TRIBBLE for the keys to win it.... then someone has to pay for the keys to dump on the exchange to raise the EC to buy it.
Wasn't that hard to see through it, I realized right away when I saw it go by on Facebook. Sad part is I failed econ 101 and took other more worthwhile courses instead... That's why I'm so good at spotting obvious schemes and scams like these.
It's amazing to see how many people don't understand economics and a market.... And have these notions of economic nobility and greed.
All this is very simple, if a ship is listed for 1.5 billion and you don't want to pay that, then DON'T! No one is forcing you!
I have never bought a lockbox ship or any item for millions let alone billions, never been forced too and I can play the game just fine. If no one is WILLING to buy the ship for 1.5b then the price will go down to a point where people are willing to buy.
And as a casual player, to be honest I haven't got a clue where people get that kind of money on here... and frankly I don't care about the credit cap change.
But yea if I ever opened a lockbox and was lucky enough to get a ship, or find another item/commodity that was in demand for a decent price; you bet I would want to get top dollar out of it; We all would...
Now game economics are a bit different than real life, but in the end a few things are still the same (game vs real life).
Sellers want top dollar
Buyers want it cheap
Every Buyer wants to be a Seller to make the top dollar
Things are only worth that someone is willing to pay
Money is just printed out of nothing
Now please go look at real prices and economic policy and stop fretting so much over a game.
[End Rant]
"Tickle us, do we not laugh? Prick us, do we not bleed? Wrong us, shall we not revenge?" -General Chang
But really the only way for a casual player to get those levels of EC is to buy keys and drop them on the exchange. And with the price cap going up so will prices.
That means it's no longer a cost-savings to buy keys and they buy a ship off the exchange. Now I have to spend 2-3 times the cost of a T6 ship to put down keys to get the new shiny I want.
Ummm.... yeah... More supply means higher prices... That is real economic logic.
I hope all the clueless posters in this thread are proud of themselves.
So far we've seen Enterprise-J prices DROP from 1.5 billion to 1.2 billion thanks to the new currency limits. We've also seen Amarie prices DROP from 1.3 billion to under a billion EC.
I hope that this is a lesson for you guys that higher limits DO NOT make prices go up. They ENCOURAGE COMPETITION and help to lower prices.
When you see "TRIBBLE" in my posts, it's because I manually typed "TRIBBLE" and censored myself.
I hope all the clueless posters in this thread are proud of themselves.
So far we've seen Enterprise-J prices DROP from 1.5 billion to 1.2 billion thanks to the new currency limits. We've also seen Amarie prices DROP from 1.3 billion to under a billion EC.
I hope that this is a lesson for you guys that higher limits DO NOT make prices go up. They ENCOURAGE COMPETITION and help to lower prices.
Wow less than 24 hours after it's integrated & you & others are claiming some sort of victory LOL. That sounds more like timely ego peacocking than calculated statistics. There are spikes & slumps in all types of markets but to insinuate that within 24 hours the medium has been determined for the STO economy I think is naive' or just full of something. Don't get me wrong I hope you are correct & prices for everything falls a bit because that means we all win & have it better except those that strive to corner the market, but I've played long enough to see where the Dilithium exchange even fluctuates from high to low & vice versa but over the years it's gotten higher & higher overall not lower.
This is my problem with the "million dollar candy bar" claims & similar for in game & real life. There are exorbitant prices in real life for products & services that have nothing to do supply & demand but some trending or branding & the same is true in game. I agree that we all as consumers decide what we will or will not buy, we have the power, & this hopefully will shed light upon the perceived value of items in game. However, every value of every service &/or item is initially determined by Cryptic with giving it a certain amount if sold to the vendor so then we sell for so much higher on the Exchange or how much they dictate supply & to whom receives the supply.
For example, I have a Tadaari, not really an example because I have a Tadaari, but I would rather exchange it for something I would want & use versus this Tadaari that I'm sure is nice ship but I don't see fitting in the scenario of any of my characters. I've recorded it's price fluctuate up & down depending on all sorts of variables like how many are on the Exchange, how recent was the last Infinity Box or whichever Box it was originally released from & I know unless they discontinue it it eventually will diminish in price over the years while still maintaining a certain value based upon how well it performs. I can attempt to sell on the Exchange or with a trade channel or in zone I could try exchanging it with a player directly. & now I realize I've forgotten my point LOL because I remembered the fact that Lobi & Lock Box ships are per character irritates me.
The argument that claims victory stating that just because someone posts an item for so so such a high price, maybe just one item those Batteries are worth 32,120,000 million ECs, doesn't mean it sells for that price therefore doesn't mean inflation also means just because some player posts something of value for a low price means the overall market's prices are falling neither. The aide or the hindrance to the STO economy by this move will take time to gather data & calculate & compare & we'll all play a part, but I'm pretty sure it'll take longer than 24 hours to determine the long-term outcome.
Now I have to go attempt to collect lots of particles or something like that for 8 toons now LOL.
I hope all the clueless posters in this thread are proud of themselves.
So far we've seen Enterprise-J prices DROP from 1.5 billion to 1.2 billion thanks to the new currency limits. We've also seen Amarie prices DROP from 1.3 billion to under a billion EC.
I hope that this is a lesson for you guys that higher limits DO NOT make prices go up. They ENCOURAGE COMPETITION and help to lower prices.
Wow less than 24 hours after it's integrated & you & others are claiming some sort of victory LOL. That sounds more like timely ego peacocking than calculated statistics. There are spikes & slumps in all types of markets but to insinuate that within 24 hours the medium has been determined for the STO economy I think is naive' or just full of something. Don't get me wrong I hope you are correct & prices for everything falls a bit because that means we all win & have it better except those that strive to corner the market, but I've played long enough to see where the Dilithium exchange even fluctuates from high to low & vice versa but over the years it's gotten higher & higher overall not lower.
This is my problem with the "million dollar candy bar" claims & similar for in game & real life. There are exorbitant prices in real life for products & services that have nothing to do supply & demand but some trending or branding & the same is true in game. I agree that we all as consumers decide what we will or will not buy, we have the power, & this hopefully will shed light upon the perceived value of items in game. However, every value of every service &/or item is initially determined by Cryptic with giving it a certain amount if sold to the vendor so then we sell for so much higher on the Exchange or how much they dictate supply & to whom receives the supply.
For example, I have a Tadaari, not really an example because I have a Tadaari, but I would rather exchange it for something I would want & use versus this Tadaari that I'm sure is nice ship but I don't see fitting in the scenario of any of my characters. I've recorded it's price fluctuate up & down depending on all sorts of variables like how many are on the Exchange, how recent was the last Infinity Box or whichever Box it was originally released from & I know unless they discontinue it it eventually will diminish in price over the years while still maintaining a certain value based upon how well it performs. I can attempt to sell on the Exchange or with a trade channel or in zone I could try exchanging it with a player directly. & now I realize I've forgotten my point LOL because I remembered the fact that Lobi & Lock Box ships are per character irritates me.
The argument that claims victory stating that just because someone posts an item for so so such a high price, maybe just one item those Batteries are worth 32,120,000 million ECs, doesn't mean it sells for that price therefore doesn't mean inflation also means just because some player posts something of value for a low price means the overall market's prices are falling neither. The aide or the hindrance to the STO economy by this move will take time to gather data & calculate & compare & we'll all play a part, but I'm pretty sure it'll take longer than 24 hours to determine the long-term outcome.
Now I have to go attempt to collect lots of particles or something like that for 8 toons now LOL.
That was a pretty long and empty ramble. HIgher exchange and etc. limits do not cause higher pricing as we have seen today. A 750M limit DID NOT stop prices from going up to 1.5 Billion EC on most promo ships. Yet we have seen an immediate, multiple hundreds of millions reduction on promo ship prices across the board since the doubling of exchange limits. This is due to the transparency of pricing thanks to a higher exchange limit.
Inflation is caused by one thing. Actual inflation. Players playing admiralty, doffing, selling loot to vendors, or doing tour the galaxy if they're broke enough. These actions cause inflation. Not character, bank and exchange limits. Character and bank limits don't change anything beyond QOL as any player can just create new characters to get around the limit. Higher exchange limits however decrease prices, as we've seen today and as we will continue to see going forward.
When you see "TRIBBLE" in my posts, it's because I manually typed "TRIBBLE" and censored myself.
methinks what y'all are forgetting is that the temporal light cruiser(constitution class) still hasn't shown up on the exchange, my guess is that the price on that just doubled........
Last time I've read anything about the asking price of that ship players who had it were asking for more than the new price limit on the Exchange. I don't care for that ship (or any lock box / lobi / promo ship) and I don't belong to any trade channels so I have no clue what it's assumed value currently is.
Well, I saw that some of the ship Upgrade tokens came down in price to exactly 15 million. Now I just have to hope they stabilize there and I'll be able to get one once I've saved up enough. Payday is next week and I can't wait on getting the EC increase, I want my upgrade now.
"Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do." - Isaac Asimov
Comments
Right, I keep forgetting where I am.
That's rubbish. I don't even know where to begin. Inflation depends solely on the net INFLUX of currency. If players "create" more EC, (say by playing a mission and selling the reward) than they destroy, you have a positive net influx of EC and thus inflation.
Second, EC caps have absolutely nothing to do with inflation. Increasing EC caps will not increase the total amount of EC (cash and stored item value) in the game. There's only one way to create new EC. Getting loot and selling it to a NPC vendor.
Gotta hope that the fleet mods and Upgrade tokens come down in price, at least to the new EC cap for silvers. I'm willing to spend real money on the game, but payday isn't here just yet and I'd like to upgrade a T5 Meshweaver a friend was able to give me.
The Upgrade tokens, the last time I looked a day or so ago was sitting just over 15 mil. At the time I saw no way I could get it, for obvious reasons. Now I see the EC increase and think to myself that it's a good thing, it's also made it more frustrating now that I'm short on buying an Upgrade by a few hundred thousand EC.
Haven't logged in yet after the patch, so no idea where things are now. It'll be later today before I'm able to log in, so hopefully things will come down in price enough.
I haven't looked into fleet mods but if they become affordable, I may start looking into fleet ships too.
That's taking a rather narrow-minded view to Inflation:
"Inflation is the rate at which the general level of prices for goods and services is rising and, consequently, the purchasing power of currency is falling."
The 'purchasing power of currency' can also fall, simply because prices are rising, due to reasons other than 'printing' EC. The STO economy is easily manipulated/cornered, etc. It is believed that Druk and his kind -- who can now swoop up expensive ships off Exchange far more easily -- will use the new cap to increase prices -- thus causing Inflation. We'll see in a week or so.
P.S. I'll be glad if I'm wrong on this, but I doubt it.
We shall indeed.....
It is possible to corner specific markets, but even then it's a risky gamble. Druk is as close to an expert on the economy as there is in the forums, and he'll tell you the same thing. Cornering a market only works if the demand is there and you can near-guarantee that you are the only supplier. Since most of these things come from lockboxes, it's extremely improbable that you'll be able to corner the market due to the sheer number of lockboxes being opened at any given time.
Even the wealthiest people in STO will tell you that cornering any market is not sustainable. Possible in the short term, but simply not viable in the long term. The market will burn you.
I'm not hopeful that anything will be done, however, since the inflated economy forces newer players to buy Zen to go the Zen/Key/EC route if they want to buy that shiny new ship or console on the Exchange (assuming they don't want to play the gacha game with lockboxes) or just buy the EC from a gold farmer.
It's never that simple, really. If you have like 5 Vonph ships, for instance, all listed at prices > 200 mil, then, sure, ppl can always decline to buy them. But then they have nothing. So, you can either continue to have nothing, or eventually, grudingly get the least expensive of those listed ships.
The STO Economy is never truly 'supply & demand' (despite what the tycoons would have us believe), because it's too easy to corner the market on certain items. You really think the Delta Prime Trait is worth over 300 million EC?! Or Kemocite going for hundreds of millions when it first came out?! See, unlike a RL economy, where you can just shop elsewhere, when you don't like the high prices in one store, the STO economy is basically just a single store, where a handful of super rich folks just keep buying up the good stuff, and flipping them with outrageous profit margins.
Naturally, people can always still say no. But let's not pretend Exchange prices aren't massively, artificially cranked up for certain items.
Some Fleet Projects offer minor EC sinks. Probably not nearly enough, though.
True. But I don't think tycoons are really in it for the long haul. They just want to clean out, making killer profits, for a reasonably short time. The professional ones always seem to know when the hausse is going to be over, and let go before that happens (which is why Druk always tells ppl to do their homework: study prices, when events occur, or certain promotions, etc, and in what cycle). It's a real profession; and why noobs usually get burned, badly, when they don't unload in time.
The limit of the caps meant that the really valuable items couldn't be listed on the the exchange. This means private sales only and the result of that is near non-existent competition, so prices stay high.
Now that you can list items up to 1.5B EC that "should" cover the cost of all items and means once people start the old undercutting game the prices will drop a little bit. They will still stay high but there will always be someone trying to undercut you, and that means charging ridiculous prices will no longer guarantee you a sale.
This works in favour of the buyers.
Additional to this, because keys will no longer be required as a currency for buying large value items their use will go back to being for opening boxes or selling on the exchange again. That means their value might drop somewhat. And that is only ever a good thing for buyers.
Keys control the price of everything else, lobi ships, lockbox ships, traits, costumes. All has its price based on what it costs in keys to get that item.
Now the real issue is that there's simply too much EC. What's needed is a sink, something that destroys EC for good. Simply having a higher valued item cap won;t do that, the EC just moves somewhere else. We need a means to blow all that EC on things that are desirable and cost a lot. Look how good the Phoenix boxes are with the dilithium.
The answer to that is simple.
Do not allow trades. Players would still be able give items to other players, but without a trade window pop up; it would be a direct transaction. For example, you offer a Lobi Ship to Player X who accepts it and it go directly into his / her inventory. That's the end of the transaction. If you are expecting Player X to give you something in return, then you would need to trust Player X enough before doing so.
Players who are expecting to earn EC from the sale / trade of the Lobi Ship in the above example would be forced to use the Exchange and be subject to the price limit of the Exchange.
If the trash mobs actually dropped worthwhile loot, and if vendors actually paid for said loot... I could see the EC cap as being a good thing.
But really the only way for a casual player to get those levels of EC is to buy keys and drop them on the exchange. And with the price cap going up so will prices.
That means it's no longer a cost-savings to buy keys and they buy a ship off the exchange. Now I have to spend 2-3 times the cost of a T6 ship to put down keys to get the new shiny I want.
Really the only "advantage" is I'm not playing the lock-box lottery-sham.
I don't see this as an advantage, or even a good thing. It is an attempt by Cryptic to double-capitalize on certain items. First the winner of the ship pays out the TRIBBLE for the keys to win it.... then someone has to pay for the keys to dump on the exchange to raise the EC to buy it.
Wasn't that hard to see through it, I realized right away when I saw it go by on Facebook. Sad part is I failed econ 101 and took other more worthwhile courses instead... That's why I'm so good at spotting obvious schemes and scams like these.
Have fun with it.
All this is very simple, if a ship is listed for 1.5 billion and you don't want to pay that, then DON'T! No one is forcing you!
I have never bought a lockbox ship or any item for millions let alone billions, never been forced too and I can play the game just fine.
If no one is WILLING to buy the ship for 1.5b then the price will go down to a point where people are willing to buy.
And as a casual player, to be honest I haven't got a clue where people get that kind of money on here... and frankly I don't care about the credit cap change.
But yea if I ever opened a lockbox and was lucky enough to get a ship, or find another item/commodity that was in demand for a decent price; you bet I would want to get top dollar out of it; We all would...
Now game economics are a bit different than real life, but in the end a few things are still the same (game vs real life).
Sellers want top dollar
Buyers want it cheap
Every Buyer wants to be a Seller to make the top dollar
Things are only worth that someone is willing to pay
Money is just printed out of nothing
Now please go look at real prices and economic policy and stop fretting so much over a game.
[End Rant]
-General Chang
Ummm.... yeah... More supply means higher prices... That is real economic logic.
So far we've seen Enterprise-J prices DROP from 1.5 billion to 1.2 billion thanks to the new currency limits. We've also seen Amarie prices DROP from 1.3 billion to under a billion EC.
I hope that this is a lesson for you guys that higher limits DO NOT make prices go up. They ENCOURAGE COMPETITION and help to lower prices.
Wow less than 24 hours after it's integrated & you & others are claiming some sort of victory LOL. That sounds more like timely ego peacocking than calculated statistics. There are spikes & slumps in all types of markets but to insinuate that within 24 hours the medium has been determined for the STO economy I think is naive' or just full of something. Don't get me wrong I hope you are correct & prices for everything falls a bit because that means we all win & have it better except those that strive to corner the market, but I've played long enough to see where the Dilithium exchange even fluctuates from high to low & vice versa but over the years it's gotten higher & higher overall not lower.
This is my problem with the "million dollar candy bar" claims & similar for in game & real life. There are exorbitant prices in real life for products & services that have nothing to do supply & demand but some trending or branding & the same is true in game. I agree that we all as consumers decide what we will or will not buy, we have the power, & this hopefully will shed light upon the perceived value of items in game. However, every value of every service &/or item is initially determined by Cryptic with giving it a certain amount if sold to the vendor so then we sell for so much higher on the Exchange or how much they dictate supply & to whom receives the supply.
For example, I have a Tadaari, not really an example because I have a Tadaari, but I would rather exchange it for something I would want & use versus this Tadaari that I'm sure is nice ship but I don't see fitting in the scenario of any of my characters. I've recorded it's price fluctuate up & down depending on all sorts of variables like how many are on the Exchange, how recent was the last Infinity Box or whichever Box it was originally released from & I know unless they discontinue it it eventually will diminish in price over the years while still maintaining a certain value based upon how well it performs. I can attempt to sell on the Exchange or with a trade channel or in zone I could try exchanging it with a player directly. & now I realize I've forgotten my point LOL because I remembered the fact that Lobi & Lock Box ships are per character irritates me.
The argument that claims victory stating that just because someone posts an item for so so such a high price, maybe just one item those Batteries are worth 32,120,000 million ECs, doesn't mean it sells for that price therefore doesn't mean inflation also means just because some player posts something of value for a low price means the overall market's prices are falling neither. The aide or the hindrance to the STO economy by this move will take time to gather data & calculate & compare & we'll all play a part, but I'm pretty sure it'll take longer than 24 hours to determine the long-term outcome.
Now I have to go attempt to collect lots of particles or something like that for 8 toons now LOL.
That was a pretty long and empty ramble. HIgher exchange and etc. limits do not cause higher pricing as we have seen today. A 750M limit DID NOT stop prices from going up to 1.5 Billion EC on most promo ships. Yet we have seen an immediate, multiple hundreds of millions reduction on promo ship prices across the board since the doubling of exchange limits. This is due to the transparency of pricing thanks to a higher exchange limit.
Inflation is caused by one thing. Actual inflation. Players playing admiralty, doffing, selling loot to vendors, or doing tour the galaxy if they're broke enough. These actions cause inflation. Not character, bank and exchange limits. Character and bank limits don't change anything beyond QOL as any player can just create new characters to get around the limit. Higher exchange limits however decrease prices, as we've seen today and as we will continue to see going forward.
Last time I've read anything about the asking price of that ship players who had it were asking for more than the new price limit on the Exchange. I don't care for that ship (or any lock box / lobi / promo ship) and I don't belong to any trade channels so I have no clue what it's assumed value currently is.