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Two Dilithium Exchange fixes that might solve the problem

smi3thsmi3th Member Posts: 211 Arc User
Okay, there have been a few trivial gestures to try to address the Dil/Zen imbalance (like pass/reroll tokens now costing dil) but I don't feel they have done anything other than annoy people. So here are two ideas to maybe fix this:

1. Dilithium Sales: Just as Cryptic periodically marks down Zen Store items, they ought to periodically reduce the dilithium price for things. When a sale is on people think "I should take advantage of the sale!" and the demand for the currency goes up. This couldn't just be the dilithium store; aside from phoenix tokens nothing there really gets bought. It would need to apply to other things that you can spend dil on, like rep gear, fleet gear, and fleet projects. People would scramble to use their dil at these times.

2. Character-only zen items moved to the dilithium store: I tend to associate the Zen store with things I can buy for my whole account, while the dil store sells things I can only use on one character. But there are some things in the Zen store, like bank slots and such, that are per character. These could have their price converted into Dil and sold in the dilithium store.

Hopefully this would be at a better rate of exchange than 1:500 as the DilEx currently is, to encourage people to buy these things, and also in the event that these changes actually do move the needle of the dil price down.

Thoughts?
Post edited by baddmoonrizin on

Comments

  • pottsey5gpottsey5g Member Posts: 4,164 Arc User
    A Dilithium Sale could well make things worse rather then better. The problem isn't the price of the items its the lack of useful things to spend Dilithium on against the massive increase of new Dilithium the devs have created flowing into the game.

    Not sure a character only zen items to Dilithium will help matters. I cannot think of anything that would have a meaningful impact on me spending extra Dilithium by changing the price from Zen to Dilithium.
  • davefenestratordavefenestrator Member Posts: 10,501 Arc User
    > 2. Character-only zen items moved to the dilithium store:

    Already done for T1-T5 ships, but probably only because not many people were buying them. Which probably also means it isn't helping that much.

    It's likely the same with other things: Cryptic will only move things with low sales, because moving popular items would hurt their revenue. Cryptic gets zero real world money from dil store sales, the dil just evaporates.

  • spacehermitspacehermit Member Posts: 355 Arc User
    If Cryptic were really interested in solving the dilithium exchange problem they have surely had enough time by now to have done something. They haven't, so I assume they like it the way it is.
  • seaofsorrowsseaofsorrows Member Posts: 10,918 Arc User
    smi3th wrote: »

    1. Dilithium Sales: Just as Cryptic periodically marks down Zen Store items, they ought to periodically reduce the dilithium price for things. When a sale is on people think "I should take advantage of the sale!" and the demand for the currency goes up. This couldn't just be the dilithium store; aside from phoenix tokens nothing there really gets bought. It would need to apply to other things that you can spend dil on, like rep gear, fleet gear, and fleet projects. People would scramble to use their dil at these times.

    This wouldn’t do anything for one key reason.. it doesn’t address the problem that there is nothing to spend that Dilithium on. What would people scramble to get during this sale? There is nothing that people need that requires Dilithium so putting it on sale wouldn’t move the needle.
    2. Character-only zen items moved to the dilithium store: I tend to associate the Zen store with things I can buy for my whole account, while the dil store sells things I can only use on one character. But there are some things in the Zen store, like bank slots and such, that are per character. These could have their price converted into Dil and sold in the dilithium store.

    This idea, I like. I don’t think it would solve the problem by itself, but I think it would have a positive impact. These are things that people commonly need, and it taxes bigger spenders because lets face it.. us Vets and Power players make a ton of Alts. This isn’t a bad idea.

    Already done for T1-T5 ships, but probably only because not many people were buying them. Which probably also means it isn't helping that much.

    As you said yourself, that was a failure because they used items no one wanted anymore. They made T1-5 ships irrelevant with the introduction of scaling T6 then put the now nearly useless (outside of skins and a couple consoles) items in the Store as a Dilithium Sink. The entire idea was a joke and did little other then drive the value of these ships down even more by removing them as account unlocks.
    If Cryptic were really interested in solving the dilithium exchange problem they have surely had enough time by now to have done something. They haven't, so I assume they like it the way it is.

    I have to agree. So far, everything Cryptic has done outside of the Vanity Shield idea has been nothing but talk. Cryptic says they want to address the problem, we keep hearing that they have something coming.. blah blah blah..

    Meanwhile, they have continued to enforce the same practices that put us in this spot to begin with all while saying they want to fix it. Cryptic’s words and actions say different things and I am judging by actions.

    Cryptic has no interest in fixing the Dilithium Exchange.. none.
    Insert witty signature line here.
  • husanakxhusanakx Member Posts: 1,589 Arc User
    If Cryptic were really interested in solving the dilithium exchange problem they have surely had enough time by now to have done something. They haven't, so I assume they like it the way it is.

    Exactly this.

    Why does everyone believe Cryptic considers anything broken ? Waiting 4-8 days for someone to buy your spare dil from you is exactly what they want. You can still convert... but they want the impulse buys a few day delay will create. Its not broken... its working as intended.
  • kayajaykayajay Member Posts: 1,990 Arc User
    Oh, I've resigned myself to the Dilly Exchange being dead and buried. There's no point in grinding, since it's now only good for Rep Projects and anything you might from the Store. You can sell Zen for it still...but I don't think I ever once bothered to do that. All I ever used it for was to gain Zen and get something from the C-Store. I wouldn't mind if some great items or services were added to Dilly...but there's nothing there. Occasionally a Vanity Shields, but apart from that.

    Now, if extra ship slots, older items from the C-Store or Lobi Crystals were available to buy from the Store, then I'd be a happy camper, but at the moment...it's pretty utterly pointless.
  • smi3thsmi3th Member Posts: 211 Arc User
    This wouldn’t do anything for one key reason.. it doesn’t address the problem that there is nothing to spend that Dilithium on....

    There are lots of things to buy with dilithium. Such as:
    * Item upgrades - probably the biggest one
    * Phoenix packs
    * Fleet Gear
    * Reputation Gear
    * Fleet Projects

    The problem isn't that there's nothing to buy... the problem is that you can get to the point that you don't need to do these things any more. Your ship can hold maybe 25 different items and once they are all elite mk XV you don't need to do any more upgrades or gear purchases for example.
    2. Character-only zen items moved to the dilithium store: ...

    This idea, I like...

    Thanks... but a big part of this is that it synergizes with part #1 about having sales on Dil items... if you need a a bunch of slots for your new toon, and then a dil sale happens, you are probably going to scramble to spend all that dil right now.

    Imagine what the dilex would look like if lockbox keys were sold in the dil store instead of for zen?
    Already done for T1-T5 ships, but probably only because not many people were buying them. Which probably also means it isn't helping that much.

    Actually the irony is I think they screwed this up here. They were originally account unlock items.

    There are some of the T1-T4 ships I would buy for zen but would not pay dil for. I would buy them for consoles or skins or unique items like the quad cannons... but only if I could do it account-wide.

    The T5s you can still pay zen for BTW.
    Cryptic gets zero real world money from dil store sales, the dil just evaporates.

    This is not true... the whole point of the dil exchange is that dil and zen are supposed to be interchangeable. Yes you can earn dil by playing, but it takes a *long* time to get enough dil to do anything significant. As long as the pay players have a reason to need dilithium then dilithium generates revenue for the company. But the dil exchange needs to work for that to happen.

    The flow of dil is controlled by the fact that you can only refine so much dil in a day for each toon. If you have more toons you can refine more dil but you paid zen for the toons and the stuff they need.
    Cryptic has no interest in fixing the Dilithium Exchange.. none.

    I don't think it's really fair to say that. I think it's a matter of priorities. Yes, they would like to fix the dil exchange, but right now they have to work on the new Terran Storyline and the designs for the new T6 ship they want to sell. So I think they do want to fix the problem but that issue is nowhere near the top of the list.

    Part of the reason the vanity shield thing was a bust is because it was limited-time only. There are some I would have bought but I missed my chance. :) But honestly, the vanity shields are another thing that could have been account-unlock for zen.

    Having the Dil Exchange work is an important feature of the game though, because without the F2P players the game is in trouble. F2P allows people to join the game and get a taste before they decide if they want to continue. Not only do they populate the game but also they grind for stuff by providing the pay players with dil that they can use. And some of those players become pay players, which is more likely if they want to keep their dil to buy stuff instead of spending it on the exchange. If there is no way to get zen for dil the F2P players get frustrated and go elsewhere. And most players are F2P.

    All in all Cryptic needs to look at the demand for dilithium as an important part of their marketing strategy, and treating the dil store as a revenue generator is an important step.
  • gaevsmangaevsman Member Posts: 3,190 Arc User
    edited December 2021
    smi3th wrote: »

    1. Dilithium Sales: Just as Cryptic periodically marks down Zen Store items, they ought to periodically reduce the dilithium price for things. When a sale is on people think "I should take advantage of the sale!" and the demand for the currency goes up. This couldn't just be the dilithium store; aside from phoenix tokens nothing there really gets bought. It would need to apply to other things that you can spend dil on, like rep gear, fleet gear, and fleet projects. People would scramble to use their dil at these times.

    This wouldn’t do anything for one key reason.. it doesn’t address the problem that there is nothing to spend that Dilithium on. What would people scramble to get during this sale? There is nothing that people need that requires Dilithium so putting it on sale wouldn’t move the needle.
    2. Character-only zen items moved to the dilithium store: I tend to associate the Zen store with things I can buy for my whole account, while the dil store sells things I can only use on one character. But there are some things in the Zen store, like bank slots and such, that are per character. These could have their price converted into Dil and sold in the dilithium store.

    This idea, I like. I don’t think it would solve the problem by itself, but I think it would have a positive impact. These are things that people commonly need, and it taxes bigger spenders because lets face it.. us Vets and Power players make a ton of Alts. This isn’t a bad idea.

    Already done for T1-T5 ships, but probably only because not many people were buying them. Which probably also means it isn't helping that much.

    As you said yourself, that was a failure because they used items no one wanted anymore. They made T1-5 ships irrelevant with the introduction of scaling T6 then put the now nearly useless (outside of skins and a couple consoles) items in the Store as a Dilithium Sink. The entire idea was a joke and did little other then drive the value of these ships down even more by removing them as account unlocks.
    If Cryptic were really interested in solving the dilithium exchange problem they have surely had enough time by now to have done something. They haven't, so I assume they like it the way it is.

    I have to agree. So far, everything Cryptic has done outside of the Vanity Shield idea has been nothing but talk. Cryptic says they want to address the problem, we keep hearing that they have something coming.. blah blah blah..

    Meanwhile, they have continued to enforce the same practices that put us in this spot to begin with all while saying they want to fix it. Cryptic’s words and actions say different things and I am judging by actions.

    Cryptic has no interest in fixing the Dilithium Exchange.. none.

    The t1-t5 ships could have a token to make them scalable, no trait, just the perks of the fleet t6 ships, you purchase that token with dill, and as is per ship, per char... well, perhaps it will be interesting? (the idea is for ships that does not have the fleet version, because they are too low or you like the skin or whaever..

    I know i would like to have a more powerfull Exceter!
    The forces of darkness are upon us!
  • davefenestratordavefenestrator Member Posts: 10,501 Arc User
    gaevsman wrote: »
    The t1-t5 ships could have a token to make them scalable, no trait, just the perks of the fleet t6 ships, you purchase that token with dill, and as is per ship, per char... well, perhaps it will be interesting? (the idea is for ships that does not have the fleet version, because they are too low or you like the skin or whaever..

    I know i would like to have a more powerfull Exceter!

    That would cost them T6 sales, so no hope of that. For the Exeter you need to buy one of these:

    Temporal Light Cruiser (TOS)
    Legendary Miracle Worker Light Cruiser (TOS)


  • starmanjstarmanj Member Posts: 714 Arc User
    Forgot one: Players who earn dilithium and send it to other toons on account.
  • millefune#8468 millefune Member Posts: 310 Arc User
    I hear and see free mission Transwarps going off all the time at hubs. Make it cost 320 Dilithium (same as the price of the transwarp coils from the Dilithium Store) instead of it being free. Cheap enough that it's still worth using to save time, and will used often enough to make a dent in the supply.
  • davefenestratordavefenestrator Member Posts: 10,501 Arc User
    edited December 2021
    I hear and see free mission Transwarps going off all the time at hubs. Make it cost 320 Dilithium (same as the price of the transwarp coils from the Dilithium Store) instead of it being free. Cheap enough that it's still worth using to save time, and will used often enough to make a dent in the supply.

    I doubt that will work, I expect people will go back to just alt-tab, get a drink, check their phone, etc. I have never purchased a transwarp coil and I first played a bit in 2012 then steadily since 2014.
  • kayajaykayajay Member Posts: 1,990 Arc User
    I just accept an episode that's in the system or sector that I want to be in, for whatever reason, get a free transwarp there (which has no cool-down) and then drop the episode.
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