Ok guys... lets try to keep it constructive in here and not take potshots of any kind. Its alright to disagree, but lets limit the direct debating. I'm half tempted to just close this now, however we are having some decent brainstorming here. We've already established the problem... so lets focus on solutions. If you feel one is not viable... lets try and address it constructively.
If this devolves into an extended argument between two people again I will just close this. So... agree to disagree and move on. No digging in for trench warfare.
Not sure where I read this idea. What are the negatives for allowing a set amount of lobi to be brought for Dill and if that is feasible what ratio? I for one would be very tempted to buy lobi store items if I could convert dill to lobi at the right ratio. Although I am not sure what that ratio should be. I guess there are two ways to do this. Either put a dill cost on items and that way if one wanted they could say only items below 80 lobi have a dill cost. Or just do x amont of dill to buy x lobi packs?
If this devolves into an extended argument between two people again I will just close this. So... agree to disagree and move on. No digging in for trench warfare.
There won't be any more issues, we have corrected the problem.
Not sure where I read this idea. What are the negatives for allowing a set amount of lobi to be brought for Dill and if that is feasible what ratio? I for one would be very tempted to buy lobi store items if I could convert dill to lobi at the right ratio. Although I am not sure what that ratio should be. I guess there are two ways to do this. Either put a dill cost on items and that way if one wanted they could say only items below 80 lobi have a dill cost. Or just do x amont of dill to buy x lobi packs?
I am not sure, but I thought I read somewhere that there was a technical issue with rewarding Lobi. They gave it as a reason a long time ago why they stopped doing the feature episodes for Lobi Rewards. I don't know if this constraint would effect this idea or not, but it's honestly a great idea.
If they worked out a way to turn Dilithium into Lobi.. that would be a huge sink and would immediately make Dilithium every bit as valuable as Zen. The problem I can see from their side is that Lobi is the 'reward' for opening lock boxes and I know Cryptic is hesitiant to cut into that revenue, but they have done it in the past. They are giving away Lobi recently for events and in the past they have given it out for feature episode replays so I wouldn't say it's completely off the table.
This is honestly my favorite of the ideas so far because it would create permanent need to burn Dilithium as to where most other ideas are will quickly be exhausted and no longer needed.
'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.'
Not sure where I read this idea. What are the negatives for allowing a set amount of lobi to be brought for Dill and if that is feasible what ratio? I for one would be very tempted to buy lobi store items if I could convert dill to lobi at the right ratio. Although I am not sure what that ratio should be. I guess there are two ways to do this. Either put a dill cost on items and that way if one wanted they could say only items below 80 lobi have a dill cost. Or just do x amont of dill to buy x lobi packs?
yea, they could do like dil conversion and set it to a certain amount per day or week. It might help deal with certain issues.
They could also create more interchangability(possibly at a loss) between currencies and make them more alternative ways to get things as opposed to the only way to get things. Then you can use all resources to get what you want and it's more efficient for the player. The stiff one currency per item access is not great for players. If I earned a little of everything, or had the choice to grind one thing and exchange at a loss, I could get more items with my time and play the game better. This might get it so elite missions are common again.
Ok guys... lets try to keep it constructive in here and not take potshots of any kind. Its alright to disagree, but lets limit the direct debating. I'm half tempted to just close this now, however we are having some decent brainstorming here. We've already established the problem... so lets focus on solutions. If you feel one is not viable... lets try and address it constructively.
If this devolves into an extended argument between two people again I will just close this. So... agree to disagree and move on. No digging in for trench warfare.
hello thank you for coming to check on the thread.
can you please notice that it is always the same person involved in these problems?
when it is always the same culprit involved (the other party changes from day to day) can you please do something about the 1 consistent person?
Response to moderated post redacted. -- WingedHussar
As I had two different idea's about more options for Dilithium, and the later one I thought was really cool as we could all contribute toward and uses two Currency already in game. While one currency is rarely used, while the other is Dilithium, and gives another option to trade for various Items. It wouldn't penalize those those in smaller Fleets, or not even perhaps in a Fleet. But like all things people still have to choose where to spend their currency based on what they require.
Hopefully you'll read the other thead and scroll to the bottom of page two.
Allowing a set amount of lobi to be brought for Dill would be a bad idea.
1. Lobi is valuable because you only can get it by opening lockbox, so they need to encourage opening lockbox. Some items (gear which is character bound) even f2p use key to open box to get lobi.
2. When you put another currency in the exchange you create another problem in how to manage the currency to market fluctuation. That will be another headage to manage. It will be worst, now you have to keep an eye on lobi, dill and zen. So better keep the exchange only between dill and zen. However, they can have special promo where you can buy lobi items for large amount of dill. That way when they need to reduce dill have a promo and they can reduce the amount of dill significantly.
Eliminate the increasing dilithium reward for the surplus daily event progress. Instead give us "event vouchers" - one for each extra completion. Then give us a way to unlock old event rewards we don't have in the event reclaim store. Each for the price in vouchers equal to the number daily completions it needed. It can only be used for rewards that are older than a year. This way you can eliminate one of the sources of dilithium and finally give players a way to get older event stuff they missed out on, stuff over a year old...heck, you can make it two years. Enough to maintain the incentive or players to get it during the event's first run.
Eliminate the increasing dilithium reward for the surplus daily event progress. Instead give us "event vouchers" - one for each extra completion. Then give us a way to unlock old event rewards we don't have in the event reclaim store. Each for the price in vouchers equal to the number daily completions it needed. It can only be used for rewards that are older than a year. This way you can eliminate one of the sources of dilithium and finally give players a way to get older event stuff they missed out on, stuff over a year old...heck, you can make it two years. Enough to maintain the incentive or players to get it during the event's first run.
That would only work though for as many things that people are missing. We'd be back at square one after that.
I'm not proposing it's the only thing implemented, just one of them. After and if you get everything you were missing, there could be more options for using the vouchers like conversion into phoenix boxes...or just horde them for future spending.
Cosmetics and/or consumables for dilithium does not work as a meaningful sink. We have known that for ages now.
Players only pay dilithium if there is no other way and it has a noticeable impact on your characters performance.
Because if not the better option is to trade it for zen and save for the next shiny. Or if you really raking it in grab some master keys to improve your energy credit balance.
That is just how it is.
---snip---
There are other things cryptic will not change to address the situation because it would hurt their bottom line.
Taking a hard look at all the noob trap items in the zenstore and move them into the dilithium store. Yes boosts I am talking about you! Total noob trap. Nobody worth their salt should touch those ever. Personally I think the only reason they are still in the zenstore is for some obscure legaleze mumbojumbo justifieing their presence as lockbox waste (it's not gambling! all the prizes in there are actually worth more than the key!).
Not that boosts would be a viable option for a dilithium sink because there are generated so many of them as lockbox waste.
But there is other stuff in the zenstore that simply doesn't make sense to me anymore (or never did).
Take drydock slots for example. When they introduced them in 2015 I thought those would make a decent dilithium sink instead. And then they made them a zen purchase.
Here is how drydock slots worked before they made T6 ships available to play after the tutorial:
- Each time you get a promotion and a new ship you put the old one into drydock until you unlock admiralty. Once you have the admiralty cards you delete all the obsolete ships.
Here is how drydock slots work now that you can play T6 ships almost immediately:
- What drydock slots?
But drydock slots are stored character data! That is expensive and somebody must pay for that! - Cryptic already stores ship mastery levels on all your purchased ships regardless whether they are drydocked or discarded.
Or duty officer slots. Which actually made sense back in the day to be a zen purchase because doffing predates lockboxes. Does it still make sense to keep them as a zen purchase? Investigate that Cryptic. Would I buy more duty officer slots on other characters if they were dilithium purchases instead? Maybe, I don't know, but I am cheap and miserly.
Been over a year since I last posted on these forums. Right now, I'm getting my Schadenfreude tickled something fierce. Seeing one player saying that my having alt pylons for generating dil is evil, or that my "fun is wrong," regardless of why I would do such a thing(raising a small fleet by throwing refined pink rock into fleet projects must be wrong then). Then again, I diverted much of my time to another MMO that offers more fun for my time, and a better "Space Barbie" experience.
There's a simple solution to come up with. Allow us to trade up Phoenix Pack tokens in rarity. Flat 10 per rate might work. While adding items to the Phoenix Pack(retired T5-U ships such as the old Elachi or Tal Shiar ships) on a more regular basis. Instead of undermining the Phoenix Packs.
Or allow R&D to craft outfits while using refined dilithium. Unbound, per character when completed. Pull the outfits out of the lobi store, put them in the R&D. Allow people to sell those outfits on the exchange or trade with other players.
Allow players to purchase ship slots with dilithium. Or outfit slots. Or vanity shields. Or drydock slots. Or character renames. Or even make vanity shields an R&D craftable item that's unbound. Or craft weapons of weapon pack flavors with dilithium(such as Wide-Arc Destabilizing Tetryon or Wide-Arc Corrosive Plasma Dual Heavy Cannons).
I already know Cryptic doesn't have what it takes to do player housing(pretty sure it was Paragon Studios who made that work with the Supergroup Bases and Lairs in City of Heroes/City of Villains), so that's out of the question. At the least, I still don't know why Cryptic never enabled players to finish purchasing the Fleet Colony decorations after all these years. It's the only fleet holding that still hasn't been opened up.
Allowing a set amount of lobi to be brought for Dill would be a bad idea.
1. Lobi is valuable because you only can get it by opening lockbox, so they need to encourage opening lockbox. Some items (gear which is character bound) even f2p use key to open box to get lobi.
2. When you put another currency in the exchange you create another problem in how to manage the currency to market fluctuation. That will be another headage to manage. It will be worst, now you have to keep an eye on lobi, dill and zen. So better keep the exchange only between dill and zen. However, they can have special promo where you can buy lobi items for large amount of dill. That way when they need to reduce dill have a promo and they can reduce the amount of dill significantly.
I think that will never come because in order to get lobi for dill it whould be cheaper than trough keys. And with keys there is always a chance to win grand prize!
1. I would think about crafting system again. It is already in the game and so it would be easier to implement! Can there be added 1 or 2 (for the start) gear for each type that are:
1) unique both with stat and visual
2) dil expensive for those stat
Also this would be little extreme one: is it possible lets say to build some kind of ship, fighters or shuttle that we can craft it for dil? So that in the end result product would cost 2-3 mil dil?
For this solution it would require that those things gets constantly updated and add new stuff with the ones we get in the game. Either once a year or once a 6 months.
2.Is it possible to add dill exchange like the one for ec exchange? Only different set of items in game. Maybe lobi to be able to sell trough dill exchange only or some other premium items?
The dil issue is as folks have pointed out that any given character has a limited need for dial but endless ability to generate it.
There needs to be something worthwhile to keep spending dilithium on. If you look at most of the suggestions on, say, reddit they revolve around additions to the dil store or uses for dil that follow the same pattern. Folks will use their dil to buy them but eventually they’ll have what they need and the issue will return.
Zen actually has exactly the same issue but the combination of its scarcity combined with continual novel expenses (new ships, new bundles) prevents it from happening to zen. Zen supply is always low and demand high. Dil demand is low and supply high.
They could take the same approach and continually add new expensive things to drop your dil on but the cost to benefit for cryptic is probably not going to justify the continual expense. It’s an indirect generator of sales and won’t compete with the zen store in terms of income.
So probably the better option is some kind of consumable purchased for dil that has to be repurchased to maintain the benefit. Many players would just ignore this though.
I think the real solution might be a combination of approaches. Rotating a valuable item over time priced so it would take a player a few months to generate the dil is probably a good start. Put Lobi or lockbox ships on regular rotation. Lobi at 2-3 mil dil and lockbox at 8 mil Just one ship at a time. For most players it’ll work like the event campaign, but balanced against their other dil expenses. It’ll also help curb the escalation in lockbox ship prices and key prices. It doesn’t devalue boxes, don’t put ships in rotation for 12 months after their inclusion.
Allow the exchange of dil for Lobi. Put a daily limit on it as with dil refinement.
Add some account and character utility that can be purchased exclusively with dil. More bank slots and account bank slots. A couple of character slots that can only be bought with dil. Add duty officers that can only be purchased with dil. Add more cosmetics that can only be purchased with dil. More one time purchases is not a long term solution but if they’re expensive items they’ll certainly help in the short term.
Improve the drop rate on Epic Phoenix tokens. That way people might actually buy boxes for tokens. As it stands we only open them for upgrades. Or a way to combine lower tokens to create higher tokens. Make it 4:1 green to blue and increase by triple each step up. Blue to purple 12:1 purple to very purple 36:1 very purple to epic 108:1or something. Give people a compelling reason to buy Phoenix boxes. Not one so out of reach they don’t bother.
IF YOU MAKE EPIC TOKENS DROP MORE FREQUENTLY add event ships to Phoenix rewards and not endlessly into Mudd’s to drive up zen demand further.
But the golden goose is something players want to spend dil on again and again and again.
The 'Technical' reason they couldn't continue to give out Lobi with the Featured Episode Rerun Events is that the Developer that coded it left and no one else could figure it out, don't you know. That big one in the late Summer of 2013 you could get about 450 Lobi, enough for a couple of Rare Consoles and a Rare Ground Weapon, that at the time were non-upgradeable. 😉
'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.'
Except that there is a "supply chain" that Cryptic feeds off at the end of the day .
Cryptic feeds off whales & spenders , whales and spenders feed off playing with casuals / non-payers in game .
If this turns off the casuals / non-payers , who will now see their dreams of a Zen ship float over the rainbow and disappear -- combined with the selection of a less then stellar endgame material that this game offers -- well let's just say that this might not end well .
Spot on. Any online game needs both funding and happy players. As I mentioned in another chat, it really is this simple:
- cryptic wanted this (maxed dil-ex)
- now they are probably seeing high turnover for brand new players
- who look for ways to farm, and realize, there's no zen other than cash
- and then see the price of just one end-game ship, nevermind everything else (mudd's, gambling odds, ec exchange prices)
- and see the size and scope of the end-game (it's tiny/simplistic compared to other MMOs)
- and probably like me evaluating other MMOs go hmmmm (k thanks no, bye)
Devs: Provide the option to Turn OFF full screen flashes from enemy ship explosions
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Well, look at these Mudd Choice Bundles. They consider a pack of three Account-wide Premium ships as equivalent to a Phoenix Epic Prize Token (good for a single-Character Event ship). Go figure.
Post edited by ltminns on
'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.'
So lets imagine something, buying keys for dil. Have it fixed at 40000 dil per key. That puts the price roughly equivalent to 400:1 dil:zen. Thus if the Dilex were 400:1 then you buy keys with zen or dil at the same effective price. If it were at 500:1, though, then instead of spending zen on keys, you'd be better off spending zen for dil then using that dil to buy keys because you could either spend ~2k zen on 20 keys or 2k zen on 1 million dil, and buy 25 keys with dil. Below 400:1 you'd rather spend dil on zen if you want keys because zen purchase of keys is a better value.
That is what we call a pressure valve. Keys might be at 400:1. while something like drydock slots could be 200:1, doff slots 300:1. and at 450:1 maybe you have character slots. What this kind of scheme would do is make dilithium more valuable the higher the dilex, and offer a direct way to get zen items for dil, which creates a compelling value for dil the more of it here is on the market, while offering constant ways to release the pressure of an increasing dilex and still reserve zen demand for the ships and other high value items.
And balk at the key example all you want, but name me a more effective thing to serve as a useful pressure valve. Key sales don't crash the dilex, ship bundles do.
High selling Zen items like keys will NEVER be made permanently available for Dil. I could see it maybe happening once or twice a year (still unlikely), but not more than that.
High selling Zen items like keys will NEVER be made permanently available for Dil. I could see it maybe happening once or twice a year (still unlikely), but not more than that.
As I stated in another Thread. Neverwinter, occasionally runs the Sale of a specific Lockbox that doesn't require a key to open. They charge 75k Astral Diamonds per box. As their Dilithium Exchange (Astral Diamonds) current cap is 750 (and it has been hovering at cap for years) that is the equivalent of 100 Zen per Key.
Post edited by ltminns on
'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.'
High selling Zen items like keys will NEVER be made permanently available for Dil. I could see it maybe happening once or twice a year (still unlikely), but not more than that.
Did you fail to read the whole thing?
No, I read the whole thing, it's simply never going to happen. They're clearly aware that they have trouble controlling dil inflation, so there's no chance they would put themselves in a position where they would lose money if they fail at it again and the dilex gets back above 400:1. Would it help? Definitely, but I can guarantee you that they would never do it, at least not as a permanently available option.
Comments
If this devolves into an extended argument between two people again I will just close this. So... agree to disagree and move on. No digging in for trench warfare.
There won't be any more issues, we have corrected the problem.
I am not sure, but I thought I read somewhere that there was a technical issue with rewarding Lobi. They gave it as a reason a long time ago why they stopped doing the feature episodes for Lobi Rewards. I don't know if this constraint would effect this idea or not, but it's honestly a great idea.
If they worked out a way to turn Dilithium into Lobi.. that would be a huge sink and would immediately make Dilithium every bit as valuable as Zen. The problem I can see from their side is that Lobi is the 'reward' for opening lock boxes and I know Cryptic is hesitiant to cut into that revenue, but they have done it in the past. They are giving away Lobi recently for events and in the past they have given it out for feature episode replays so I wouldn't say it's completely off the table.
This is honestly my favorite of the ideas so far because it would create permanent need to burn Dilithium as to where most other ideas are will quickly be exhausted and no longer needed.
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.'
yea, they could do like dil conversion and set it to a certain amount per day or week. It might help deal with certain issues.
They could also create more interchangability(possibly at a loss) between currencies and make them more alternative ways to get things as opposed to the only way to get things. Then you can use all resources to get what you want and it's more efficient for the player. The stiff one currency per item access is not great for players. If I earned a little of everything, or had the choice to grind one thing and exchange at a loss, I could get more items with my time and play the game better. This might get it so elite missions are common again.
https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline/#/discussion/1262413/is-the-dilithium-exchange-disabled/p2
As I had two different idea's about more options for Dilithium, and the later one I thought was really cool as we could all contribute toward and uses two Currency already in game. While one currency is rarely used, while the other is Dilithium, and gives another option to trade for various Items. It wouldn't penalize those those in smaller Fleets, or not even perhaps in a Fleet. But like all things people still have to choose where to spend their currency based on what they require.
Hopefully you'll read the other thead and scroll to the bottom of page two.
1. Lobi is valuable because you only can get it by opening lockbox, so they need to encourage opening lockbox. Some items (gear which is character bound) even f2p use key to open box to get lobi.
2. When you put another currency in the exchange you create another problem in how to manage the currency to market fluctuation. That will be another headage to manage. It will be worst, now you have to keep an eye on lobi, dill and zen. So better keep the exchange only between dill and zen. However, they can have special promo where you can buy lobi items for large amount of dill. That way when they need to reduce dill have a promo and they can reduce the amount of dill significantly.
That would only work though for as many things that people are missing. We'd be back at square one after that.
Cosmetics and/or consumables for dilithium does not work as a meaningful sink. We have known that for ages now.
Players only pay dilithium if there is no other way and it has a noticeable impact on your characters performance.
Because if not the better option is to trade it for zen and save for the next shiny. Or if you really raking it in grab some master keys to improve your energy credit balance.
That is just how it is.
---snip---
There are other things cryptic will not change to address the situation because it would hurt their bottom line.
Taking a hard look at all the noob trap items in the zenstore and move them into the dilithium store. Yes boosts I am talking about you! Total noob trap. Nobody worth their salt should touch those ever. Personally I think the only reason they are still in the zenstore is for some obscure legaleze mumbojumbo justifieing their presence as lockbox waste (it's not gambling! all the prizes in there are actually worth more than the key!).
Not that boosts would be a viable option for a dilithium sink because there are generated so many of them as lockbox waste.
But there is other stuff in the zenstore that simply doesn't make sense to me anymore (or never did).
Take drydock slots for example. When they introduced them in 2015 I thought those would make a decent dilithium sink instead. And then they made them a zen purchase.
Here is how drydock slots worked before they made T6 ships available to play after the tutorial:
- Each time you get a promotion and a new ship you put the old one into drydock until you unlock admiralty. Once you have the admiralty cards you delete all the obsolete ships.
Here is how drydock slots work now that you can play T6 ships almost immediately:
- What drydock slots?
But drydock slots are stored character data! That is expensive and somebody must pay for that! - Cryptic already stores ship mastery levels on all your purchased ships regardless whether they are drydocked or discarded.
Or duty officer slots. Which actually made sense back in the day to be a zen purchase because doffing predates lockboxes. Does it still make sense to keep them as a zen purchase? Investigate that Cryptic. Would I buy more duty officer slots on other characters if they were dilithium purchases instead? Maybe, I don't know, but I am cheap and miserly.
There's a simple solution to come up with. Allow us to trade up Phoenix Pack tokens in rarity. Flat 10 per rate might work. While adding items to the Phoenix Pack(retired T5-U ships such as the old Elachi or Tal Shiar ships) on a more regular basis. Instead of undermining the Phoenix Packs.
Or allow R&D to craft outfits while using refined dilithium. Unbound, per character when completed. Pull the outfits out of the lobi store, put them in the R&D. Allow people to sell those outfits on the exchange or trade with other players.
Allow players to purchase ship slots with dilithium. Or outfit slots. Or vanity shields. Or drydock slots. Or character renames. Or even make vanity shields an R&D craftable item that's unbound. Or craft weapons of weapon pack flavors with dilithium(such as Wide-Arc Destabilizing Tetryon or Wide-Arc Corrosive Plasma Dual Heavy Cannons).
I already know Cryptic doesn't have what it takes to do player housing(pretty sure it was Paragon Studios who made that work with the Supergroup Bases and Lairs in City of Heroes/City of Villains), so that's out of the question. At the least, I still don't know why Cryptic never enabled players to finish purchasing the Fleet Colony decorations after all these years. It's the only fleet holding that still hasn't been opened up.
I think that will never come because in order to get lobi for dill it whould be cheaper than trough keys. And with keys there is always a chance to win grand prize!
1. I would think about crafting system again. It is already in the game and so it would be easier to implement! Can there be added 1 or 2 (for the start) gear for each type that are:
1) unique both with stat and visual
2) dil expensive for those stat
Also this would be little extreme one: is it possible lets say to build some kind of ship, fighters or shuttle that we can craft it for dil? So that in the end result product would cost 2-3 mil dil?
For this solution it would require that those things gets constantly updated and add new stuff with the ones we get in the game. Either once a year or once a 6 months.
2.Is it possible to add dill exchange like the one for ec exchange? Only different set of items in game. Maybe lobi to be able to sell trough dill exchange only or some other premium items?
There needs to be something worthwhile to keep spending dilithium on. If you look at most of the suggestions on, say, reddit they revolve around additions to the dil store or uses for dil that follow the same pattern. Folks will use their dil to buy them but eventually they’ll have what they need and the issue will return.
Zen actually has exactly the same issue but the combination of its scarcity combined with continual novel expenses (new ships, new bundles) prevents it from happening to zen. Zen supply is always low and demand high. Dil demand is low and supply high.
They could take the same approach and continually add new expensive things to drop your dil on but the cost to benefit for cryptic is probably not going to justify the continual expense. It’s an indirect generator of sales and won’t compete with the zen store in terms of income.
So probably the better option is some kind of consumable purchased for dil that has to be repurchased to maintain the benefit. Many players would just ignore this though.
I think the real solution might be a combination of approaches. Rotating a valuable item over time priced so it would take a player a few months to generate the dil is probably a good start. Put Lobi or lockbox ships on regular rotation. Lobi at 2-3 mil dil and lockbox at 8 mil Just one ship at a time. For most players it’ll work like the event campaign, but balanced against their other dil expenses. It’ll also help curb the escalation in lockbox ship prices and key prices. It doesn’t devalue boxes, don’t put ships in rotation for 12 months after their inclusion.
Allow the exchange of dil for Lobi. Put a daily limit on it as with dil refinement.
Add some account and character utility that can be purchased exclusively with dil. More bank slots and account bank slots. A couple of character slots that can only be bought with dil. Add duty officers that can only be purchased with dil. Add more cosmetics that can only be purchased with dil. More one time purchases is not a long term solution but if they’re expensive items they’ll certainly help in the short term.
Improve the drop rate on Epic Phoenix tokens. That way people might actually buy boxes for tokens. As it stands we only open them for upgrades. Or a way to combine lower tokens to create higher tokens. Make it 4:1 green to blue and increase by triple each step up. Blue to purple 12:1 purple to very purple 36:1 very purple to epic 108:1or something. Give people a compelling reason to buy Phoenix boxes. Not one so out of reach they don’t bother.
IF YOU MAKE EPIC TOKENS DROP MORE FREQUENTLY add event ships to Phoenix rewards and not endlessly into Mudd’s to drive up zen demand further.
But the golden goose is something players want to spend dil on again and again and again.
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.'
Spot on. Any online game needs both funding and happy players. As I mentioned in another chat, it really is this simple:
- cryptic wanted this (maxed dil-ex)
- now they are probably seeing high turnover for brand new players
- who look for ways to farm, and realize, there's no zen other than cash
- and then see the price of just one end-game ship, nevermind everything else (mudd's, gambling odds, ec exchange prices)
- and see the size and scope of the end-game (it's tiny/simplistic compared to other MMOs)
- and probably like me evaluating other MMOs go hmmmm (k thanks no, bye)
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.'
That is what we call a pressure valve. Keys might be at 400:1. while something like drydock slots could be 200:1, doff slots 300:1. and at 450:1 maybe you have character slots. What this kind of scheme would do is make dilithium more valuable the higher the dilex, and offer a direct way to get zen items for dil, which creates a compelling value for dil the more of it here is on the market, while offering constant ways to release the pressure of an increasing dilex and still reserve zen demand for the ships and other high value items.
And balk at the key example all you want, but name me a more effective thing to serve as a useful pressure valve. Key sales don't crash the dilex, ship bundles do.
High selling Zen items like keys will NEVER be made permanently available for Dil. I could see it maybe happening once or twice a year (still unlikely), but not more than that.
Did you fail to read the whole thing?
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.'