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Ten Forward weekly 4/25/23

protoneousprotoneous Member Posts: 3,156 Arc User
From: https://reddit.com/r/sto/comments/12z56k3/ten_forward_weekly_42523/

Credit to: https://reddit.com/user/TheSajuukKhar/
  • Invalidentityname issue is seemingly fixed internally
  • When fixing issues like the french twist hairstyle bug the devs will try to reproduce the issue internally. If they can't reproduce it, they start doing a blind look through the code looking for obvious issues like typos in the code. Some issues can't be recreated internally due to the lack of communication time between the test environment and the server(since Cryptic is the server). Communication time between player clients and the server can cause issues that can't be easily reproduced internally.
  • French twist hairstyle on console should be fixed tomorrow. Issue was caused by the console versions of STO having an automatic, internal, localization system that makes localized words like French, German, etc in the item logical considered an indication for the next part to be localized, so the word(French/German/etc) itself doesn't get included in the translation/localization package sent to players.
  • Texas class on console coming soon
  • Titan-A/New-Connie is being planed and/or worked on right now

    Upcoming update to the exchange/trades

  • Captains will no longer be able to conduct trades that would cause them to exceed EC limit
  • EC and items gained on the exchange will be mailed to players to prevent EC loss due to being near cap
  • Captains wont be able to take EC from mail if it would cause them to exceed EC cap
  • Captains will no longer be able to refine dilthium if it would cause them to exceed dilithium caps
  • Dil exchange will no longer allow captains to withdraw past their dil limit
  • Automatic dilthium refinement will stop if already at max dilthium limit
  • Delete mail button will be disabled on mail with attachments, until attachments are removed, so you can't accidentally delete mail with EC/items attached to it
  • Many of these systems will just silently "fail" on the players part if they try to refine/pull more out then they can hold. Others will inform you that you're at a cap and thus can't pull in any more via a text fly in message.
  • The DilEx will allow you to pull dil in partially. So if you have room for like 500 dil, but 1000 dil on the exchange, you can pull in 500 of that 1000 dil
  • Mail will require you to have the full space necessary to pull items out of mail
  • Changes were made because Cryptic felt like a lot of people were losing resources by accidentally going over cap
  • Changes will be live tomorrow for all platforms
  • Mails from Cryptic(from the auction house) have no limit, so even if your mailbox is full of other mails the Cryptic/Auction house mails will always go through

    Back 2/3 of the stream was Travis Stadelman(Senior Software Engineer), and Keith Brors(Lead Software Engineer) talking about things like the process they go through, systems they added to the game like re-engineering, endeavors, the B-critter tech, various search bars on UI, etc.

  • Gender change in STO isn't that hard to implement itself, theres just a bunch of other things associated with gender changes that the team doesn't currently think is worth the cost.
  • STO now has an official DPS parser built in-game. There's UI/programming work needed to make it more useable, but players can use it currently via the following commands
  • gclcombatstatinit 1 starts the parser
  • gclCombatStatData 0 0 0 displays the data. The 0s can be 1s to give more data
  • Cryptic is trying to make it to where you can copy a loadout from one ship to another. Uses best approximation when moving gear from one ship to the other when slots aren't exactly the same.
  • Separate ground/space loadouts is something Travis wants to. Could probably work it in in the future since they aren't doing as many big new features, and are focusing more on QOL stuff.
  • Pet tab would be pretty easy to make. According to Travis/Keith its mostly up to the design team if they want players to have it
  • Loadout issues explanations. It was an easy design by someone at Cryptic. Parts of it had too many cooks in it, trying to push it in too many directions. Its a complex system since its moving items/power around, which makes it easier to break. Loadouts were written earlier in someone's carrier, so there's a lot of code thats duplicated, and spread around the same/similar things. This makes it hard to track down all the places where something goes wrong, or you catch 3 of them but miss the 4th because you didn't know that other system was there. Code has been cleaned up a lot since then.
  • Cryptic isn't going to make changes to try to make the game match up with Picard(specifically the ENT-G thing). They'll just keep doing what they have been doing the last few years, making stories that sometimes feature cast members from the shows. STO isn't going to massively change the world we play in/isn't going anywhere any time soon.
Post edited by baddmoonrizin on

Comments

  • pottsey5gpottsey5g Member Posts: 4,251 Arc User
    As someone who spends a lot of time crafting and trading I am dreading this upcoming change. Running back and forth with triple or more the amount of clicks to get the goods.

    Then your inbox gets full triple the speed and you have to waste loads of time clicking to remove 100's of emails. Remove all doesn't work due the fleet email I want to keep to keep. This is already by far the worst part of trading and the new change just made it x3 worse. I dont want to spend 30min every day running back and fourth moving items from exchange to mail and deleting mail from a full inbox.

    "EC and items gained on the exchange will be mailed to players to prevent EC loss due to being near cap"

  • missmel#5308 missmel Member Posts: 99 Arc User
    I wonder if the exchange changes will lower the massive over blown cost of buying ships off the exchange
  • phoenixc#0738 phoenixc Member Posts: 5,838 Arc User
    I wonder if the exchange changes will lower the massive over blown cost of buying ships off the exchange

    I hope so, that and the overinflated prices of other things too.

    I tried to get some Fluidic weapons on the exchange for the Chierax I picked up for a theme build and found that the cheapest was an impossible to afford ten million EC for a blue quality DBB. Worse yet, since planned to use the ship as soon as possible to keep the theme as consistent as possible it only had four weapons and no weapons were in the reclaim tab of the dil store to replace the missing ones.
  • missmel#5308 missmel Member Posts: 99 Arc User
    I look forward to more affordable gear...

    I don't know why anyone would put a regular Infinity T-6 ships for over a billion let a lone a Lobi ship happens all the time on PlayStation.
  • avoozuulavoozuul Member Posts: 3,215 Arc User
    edited April 2023
    I lost dilithium in the past due to it withdrawing more than my limit, and while I am glad to see they are fixing this issue I'm still never going to get lost dil back.
    I stream on Twitch, look for Avoozl_
  • darkbladejkdarkbladejk Member Posts: 3,807 Community Moderator
    If there's a mail you want to keep, then take screenshots of it and/or do a brief video scrolling through it. That's a super easy fix that I do for alot of my stuff. Also what are you doing that your mailbox is always full anyways?

    As for gear being more affordable, part of what drives costs is supply and demand. If not alot of Ship X exist currently, prices will be higher. If there is more supply then costs will be lower. Other parts of the demand side include if the ship has desireable traits, consoles, or certain setups that people like for DPS or tanking. Lastly, how hard it is to get supply of said ships is also going to be factored in. While I'm sure some folks can make the argument that part of it is greed, it's not so black and white.
    "Someone once told me that time was a predator that stalked us all our lives. I rather believe that time is a companion who goes with us on the journey and reminds us to cherish every moment, because it will never come again." - Jean Luc Picard in Star Trek Generations

    Star Trek Online volunteer Community Moderator
  • josh#0694 josh Member Posts: 54 Arc User
    edited April 2023
    has anyone tried the built in DPS parser? I can't seem to get it to work using the commands /gclcombatstatinit 1 and gclCombatStatData 0 0 0.

    I was hoping to try it on PC and once I knew if and how it worked test it on console as that's where I really need it.

    Edit: I had the System channel turned off SMH... Also this doesn't work on console.
    Post edited by josh#0694 on
  • rattler2rattler2 Member, Star Trek Online Moderator Posts: 58,582 Community Moderator
    I wonder if the exchange changes will lower the massive over blown cost of buying ships off the exchange

    I'm hoping so too. While Supply and Demand is a thing... it feels like you can't get anything anymore because its so crazy overpriced. A lockbox ship realistically shouldn't cost the same as a Promo due to higher Supply. But that's where a lot of Lockbox Ships are sitting.
    db80k0m-89201ed8-eadb-45d3-830f-bb2f0d4c0fe7.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcL2ExOGQ4ZWM2LTUyZjQtNDdiMS05YTI1LTVlYmZkYmJkOGM3N1wvZGI4MGswbS04OTIwMWVkOC1lYWRiLTQ1ZDMtODMwZi1iYjJmMGQ0YzBmZTcucG5nIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.8G-Pg35Qi8qxiKLjAofaKRH6fmNH3qAAEI628gW0eXc
    I can't take it anymore! Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something CRAZY happens again?!
    The nut who actually ground out many packs. The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
  • baddmoonrizinbaddmoonrizin Member Posts: 10,897 Community Moderator
    /merged threads
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  • pottsey5gpottsey5g Member Posts: 4,251 Arc User
    edited April 2023
    If there's a mail you want to keep, then take screenshots of it and/or do a brief video scrolling through it. That's a super easy fix that I do for alot of my stuff. Also what are you doing that your mailbox is always full anyways?
    Crafting and selling on the exchange already fills my mail box up and every so often I have to sit there mass deleting select messages. This change is only going to make that x3 worse. Dealing with trading messages is already the worst part of using the exchange and this change looks like its going to have a very large negative impact on QoL for those of us who spend a lot of time trading on the market. Massively increasing the amount of clicking and time required along with an increase in running back and fourth from the exchange to mail system. It doesn't feel like this change has been thought out at all.

    EDIT: Seen a lot of other traders worried about this change on YouTube, Twitter, Reddit and other areas.
  • crypticarmsmancrypticarmsman Member Posts: 4,115 Arc User
    rattler2 wrote: »
    I wonder if the exchange changes will lower the massive over blown cost of buying ships off the exchange

    I'm hoping so too. While Supply and Demand is a thing... it feels like you can't get anything anymore because its so crazy overpriced. A lockbox ship realistically shouldn't cost the same as a Promo due to higher Supply. But that's where a lot of Lockbox Ships are sitting.

    I think it was always based on ship/show popularity OR Perceived Power due to layout or a Ship Trait . The more popular/powerful ship (didn't matter if it was Lockbox or Promo) went for the higher price.

    It'll probably cause a few 'mogul' players (those who just played the game because they get their enjoyment from controlling/cornering the in game Markets <--- And yes, these types of players do exist) to just outright quit STO for the most part.
    Formerly known as Armsman from June 2008 to June 20, 2012
    TOS_Connie_Sig_final9550Pop.jpg
    PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
  • pottsey5gpottsey5g Member Posts: 4,251 Arc User
    I look forward to more affordable gear...

    I don't know why anyone would put a regular Infinity T-6 ships for over a billion let a lone a Lobi ship happens all the time on PlayStation.
    My worry is the change might cause gear and ships to get less affordable as the price goes up. The change could drive away the producers and traders who put up a large amount of items. Causing supply and demand to get worse which tends to lead to higher prices.
  • fleetcaptain5#1134 fleetcaptain5 Member Posts: 5,051 Arc User
    Changes were made because Cryptic felt like a lot of people were losing resources by accidentally going over cap

    Not a lot or nowadays anymore, but one of the first times where I bought keys with some Zen I had purchased, I did have the bad luck / lack of knowledge so that I didn't get the EC for a few keys.

    Which is especially painful if you're a new player, with few other options to quickly collect some - extra needed - resources.

    I'm guessing that for most players, this will only happen once and then never again - but it sucks when it does happen, even if it's that one time. So yeah, it's a good thing they're making these changes. Should have happened a long time ago, if you ask me.
  • fleetcaptain5#1134 fleetcaptain5 Member Posts: 5,051 Arc User
    rattler2 wrote: »
    I wonder if the exchange changes will lower the massive over blown cost of buying ships off the exchange

    I'm hoping so too. While Supply and Demand is a thing... it feels like you can't get anything anymore because its so crazy overpriced. A lockbox ship realistically shouldn't cost the same as a Promo due to higher Supply. But that's where a lot of Lockbox Ships are sitting.

    Most stuff from lockboxes is way too cheap, especially from currently dropping lockboxes. Traits, kit modules, even rarer items like Doffs are usually much below the price of the key that was needed to unlock these items.

    That's why the ship prices are so high: because all other stuff is almost useless. If these other items would sell for better prices, players opening the boxes wouldn't be entirely dependent on that one big price to reach break-even point.

    And then there's of course everyone saying that it's best not to open boxes and just buy directly from the exchange. I mean, that's not going to bring down prices either.
  • fleetcaptain5#1134 fleetcaptain5 Member Posts: 5,051 Arc User
    As for the other gear itself: it would also help if most rewards like weapons, kits etc. didn't come from different boxes. When you open an infinity box, there's a chance you're getting a weapon pack, which gives you a couple of dozen options - and each of those options are further divided into even more options like Beam weapons, Cannons and ground weapons. Each of those things has, once again, only a certain chance of dropping the item you actually want (like a dual beam bank or a turret/dual heavy cannon).

    So, before you get that Fluidic dual beam bank, you basically must have won the lottery two or three times over.

    It might also help if the boxes could be traded directly. Some lockbox weapons are cheap, others are expensive. Giving players access to the packs directly (and by that I mean the Infinity weapon packs, not, for example, the 'Herald Antiproton weapon pack') could help even that out a bit.
  • paradox#7391 paradox Member Posts: 1,800 Arc User
    protoneous wrote: »
    From: https://reddit.com/r/sto/comments/12z56k3/ten_forward_weekly_42523/

    Credit to: https://reddit.com/user/TheSajuukKhar/
    • Gender change in STO isn't that hard to implement itself, theres just a bunch of other things associated with gender changes that the team doesn't currently think is worth the cost.
    • Cryptic isn't going to make changes to try to make the game match up with Picard(specifically the ENT-G thing). They'll just keep doing what they have been doing the last few years, making stories that sometimes feature cast members from the shows. STO isn't going to massively change the world we play in/isn't going anywhere any time soon.

    Ok, I'm guessing spaghetti code is the main reason, followed by clipping, clipping isn't a big deal, since even if your character has some sort of wardrobe malfunction there's nothing to worry about since everyone in STO has barbie anatomy, same in Champions Online, it's all smooth.

    As for the Picard elephant, We can at least also ignore canon that takes place in 25th century or later, that means none of the Ni'Var nonsense, renaming Vulcan is and will always be a stupid and Illogical decision, image being a time traveller from the 32nd century looking for a planet that doesn't exist yet, it also ruins our choice in STO, why ally with the KDF, if we're all going to end up joining the Federation anyways.
  • solidshark214solidshark214 Member Posts: 347 Arc User
    protoneous wrote: »
    From: https://reddit.com/r/sto/comments/12z56k3/ten_forward_weekly_42523/

    Credit to: https://reddit.com/user/TheSajuukKhar/
    • Gender change in STO isn't that hard to implement itself, theres just a bunch of other things associated with gender changes that the team doesn't currently think is worth the cost.
    • Cryptic isn't going to make changes to try to make the game match up with Picard(specifically the ENT-G thing). They'll just keep doing what they have been doing the last few years, making stories that sometimes feature cast members from the shows. STO isn't going to massively change the world we play in/isn't going anywhere any time soon.

    Ok, I'm guessing spaghetti code is the main reason, followed by clipping, clipping isn't a big deal, since even if your character has some sort of wardrobe malfunction there's nothing to worry about since everyone in STO has barbie anatomy, same in Champions Online, it's all smooth.

    As for the Picard elephant, We can at least also ignore canon that takes place in 25th century or later, that means none of the Ni'Var nonsense, renaming Vulcan is and will always be a stupid and Illogical decision, image being a time traveller from the 32nd century looking for a planet that doesn't exist yet, it also ruins our choice in STO, why ally with the KDF, if we're all going to end up joining the Federation anyways.

    Yeah, I never liked the "big happy family" thing, either. Oh, sure, Klingons joining the Federation and Romulans reuniting with the Vulcans is nice and idealistic and all... and thoroughly kills dramatic potential.
  • This content has been removed.
  • jonsillsjonsills Member Posts: 10,460 Arc User
    Imagine being a time traveller from the 32nd century - with the DTI chasing you through the eras prior to the 31st, and you simply being arrested for violation of galactic law should you return home. Your own ignorance of the history of a planet (which was well-known in the 32nd century, thank you very much) is probably going to be the least of your worries.
    Lorna-Wing-sig.png
  • phoenixc#0738 phoenixc Member Posts: 5,838 Arc User
    rattler2 wrote: »
    I wonder if the exchange changes will lower the massive over blown cost of buying ships off the exchange

    I'm hoping so too. While Supply and Demand is a thing... it feels like you can't get anything anymore because its so crazy overpriced. A lockbox ship realistically shouldn't cost the same as a Promo due to higher Supply. But that's where a lot of Lockbox Ships are sitting.

    Most stuff from lockboxes is way too cheap, especially from currently dropping lockboxes. Traits, kit modules, even rarer items like Doffs are usually much below the price of the key that was needed to unlock these items.

    That's why the ship prices are so high: because all other stuff is almost useless. If these other items would sell for better prices, players opening the boxes wouldn't be entirely dependent on that one big price to reach break-even point.

    And then there's of course everyone saying that it's best not to open boxes and just buy directly from the exchange. I mean, that's not going to bring down prices either.

    The other edge of that sword is that much of that gear is so overpriced that it just does not sell well enough (if at all), so much so that people avoid selecting that gear (or ship) when opening boxes which makes it even more rare and therefore more expensive. Products languishing on the shelf do not do anyone any good, and in the case of STO it means it eats listing fees over and over which means profits from if and when it does sell are lower for the seller (which in turn tends to jack up prices even further if they do not just pull it off the market out of frustration).
    As for the other gear itself: it would also help if most rewards like weapons, kits etc. didn't come from different boxes. When you open an infinity box, there's a chance you're getting a weapon pack, which gives you a couple of dozen options - and each of those options are further divided into even more options like Beam weapons, Cannons and ground weapons. Each of those things has, once again, only a certain chance of dropping the item you actually want (like a dual beam bank or a turret/dual heavy cannon).

    So, before you get that Fluidic dual beam bank, you basically must have won the lottery two or three times over.

    It might also help if the boxes could be traded directly. Some lockbox weapons are cheap, others are expensive. Giving players access to the packs directly (and by that I mean the Infinity weapon packs, not, for example, the 'Herald Antiproton weapon pack') could help even that out a bit.

    That makes a lot of sense. Another thing that would help too would be to get rid of the booby prizes like useless commodities, newspapers, and (for the most part) missions and whatnot. While it is obvious that they wanted to make a lively commodities market to go with the rest of the mercantile stuff like the exchanges, the players are just not interested enough in that aspect of play for it to go anywhere unless maybe they totally revamped it and made cargo hauling for profit a viable thing like EVE and a few other sci-fi games have.

    The useless cruft like that just discourages people from buying keys since there is a very high chance that they will get nothing but garbage and a trivial amount of lobi that will probably not add up to any useful amount before they swear off buying keys.

    I have only opened about five boxes since 2018 (and those with free keys from holiday giveaways) because I have a very tight budget and cannot justify spending the trickle of zen I can get on keys when out of those boxes I only ever got one pack that was of any use at all (a weapons pack, and that on the last lockbox I opened), the commodities and other junk which was all I got in the other boxes (besides chump change amounts of lobi) were not even worth trying to sell.

    In Defiance I actually used to buy the gamble boxes now and then because while it was still a gamble on whether the items were the particular things I wanted or not, whatever came out generally still had enough value to make the try worth it.
  • tom61stotom61sto Member Posts: 3,673 Arc User
    The changes to the Exchange now mailing you things is a bit odd, as it seems to be a fix for a minor UI/UX problem with EC over-capping, and not something that makes sense on its own. There's already notices for if you put up an item on the Exchange that'd put you over your EC limit, all this does is prevent you from going over that if you withdraw from your Account Bank after listing the item. There just needs to be a check for withdrawing from the Account Bank too when dealing with listed items. The Account Bank also prevents you from drawing or depositing over your limit. After the post-listing check when withdrawing from the Account Bank, all that'd be needed is really some clean-up in the UI to make things unified in how this gets communicated to the player, so they know what's going on instead of the silent fails and fly-ins. I thought the STO team had at least one UI person?

    Dil overdraw changes needed to happen, and those seem to be a nice and clean change. An odd contrast.
  • szerontzurszerontzur Member Posts: 2,724 Arc User
    edited April 2023
    I tried to get some Fluidic weapons on the exchange for the Chierax I picked up for a theme build and found that the cheapest was an impossible to afford ten million EC for a blue quality DBB. Worse yet, since planned to use the ship as soon as possible to keep the theme as consistent as possible it only had four weapons and no weapons were in the reclaim tab of the dil store to replace the missing ones.

    I really wish they'd move the those old weapons to mob group loot tables, or just make the choice packs tradeable directly.

    Being able to get upgradable white quality voth weapons from Voth enemies in space and land would add a lot of appeal and motivation to fighting them. It would potentially breathe some life into older content if there is loot specific to them.
  • legendarylycan#5411 legendarylycan Member Posts: 37,283 Arc User
    and in the case of STO it means it eats listing fees

    STO does not have listing fees.​​
    Like special weapons from other Star Trek games? Wondering if they can be replicated in STO even a little bit? Check this out: https://forum.arcgames.com/startrekonline/discussion/1262277/a-mostly-comprehensive-guide-to-star-trek-videogame-special-weapons-and-their-sto-equivalents

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  • fleetcaptain5#1134 fleetcaptain5 Member Posts: 5,051 Arc User
    rattler2 wrote: »
    I wonder if the exchange changes will lower the massive over blown cost of buying ships off the exchange

    I'm hoping so too. While Supply and Demand is a thing... it feels like you can't get anything anymore because its so crazy overpriced. A lockbox ship realistically shouldn't cost the same as a Promo due to higher Supply. But that's where a lot of Lockbox Ships are sitting.

    Most stuff from lockboxes is way too cheap, especially from currently dropping lockboxes. Traits, kit modules, even rarer items like Doffs are usually much below the price of the key that was needed to unlock these items.

    That's why the ship prices are so high: because all other stuff is almost useless. If these other items would sell for better prices, players opening the boxes wouldn't be entirely dependent on that one big price to reach break-even point.

    And then there's of course everyone saying that it's best not to open boxes and just buy directly from the exchange. I mean, that's not going to bring down prices either.

    The other edge of that sword is that much of that gear is so overpriced that it just does not sell well enough (if at all), so much so that people avoid selecting that gear (or ship) when opening boxes which makes it even more rare and therefore more expensive. Products languishing on the shelf do not do anyone any good, and in the case of STO it means it eats listing fees over and over which means profits from if and when it does sell are lower for the seller (which in turn tends to jack up prices even further if they do not just pull it off the market out of frustration).
    As for the other gear itself: it would also help if most rewards like weapons, kits etc. didn't come from different boxes. When you open an infinity box, there's a chance you're getting a weapon pack, which gives you a couple of dozen options - and each of those options are further divided into even more options like Beam weapons, Cannons and ground weapons. Each of those things has, once again, only a certain chance of dropping the item you actually want (like a dual beam bank or a turret/dual heavy cannon).

    So, before you get that Fluidic dual beam bank, you basically must have won the lottery two or three times over.

    It might also help if the boxes could be traded directly. Some lockbox weapons are cheap, others are expensive. Giving players access to the packs directly (and by that I mean the Infinity weapon packs, not, for example, the 'Herald Antiproton weapon pack') could help even that out a bit.

    That makes a lot of sense. Another thing that would help too would be to get rid of the booby prizes like useless commodities, newspapers, and (for the most part) missions and whatnot. While it is obvious that they wanted to make a lively commodities market to go with the rest of the mercantile stuff like the exchanges, the players are just not interested enough in that aspect of play for it to go anywhere unless maybe they totally revamped it and made cargo hauling for profit a viable thing like EVE and a few other sci-fi games have.

    The useless cruft like that just discourages people from buying keys since there is a very high chance that they will get nothing but garbage and a trivial amount of lobi that will probably not add up to any useful amount before they swear off buying keys.

    I have only opened about five boxes since 2018 (and those with free keys from holiday giveaways) because I have a very tight budget and cannot justify spending the trickle of zen I can get on keys when out of those boxes I only ever got one pack that was of any use at all (a weapons pack, and that on the last lockbox I opened), the commodities and other junk which was all I got in the other boxes (besides chump change amounts of lobi) were not even worth trying to sell.

    In Defiance I actually used to buy the gamble boxes now and then because while it was still a gamble on whether the items were the particular things I wanted or not, whatever came out generally still had enough value to make the try worth it.

    The newspapers and things like the Faulty holo things are actually an additional reward for some boxes.

    But yeah, there is too much useless stuff in the loot box loot tables. Stuff like 1 Salvaged technology or a 100 fleet mark bonus pool, for example.
  • fleetcaptain5#1134 fleetcaptain5 Member Posts: 5,051 Arc User
    edited April 2023
    szerontzur wrote: »
    I tried to get some Fluidic weapons on the exchange for the Chierax I picked up for a theme build and found that the cheapest was an impossible to afford ten million EC for a blue quality DBB. Worse yet, since planned to use the ship as soon as possible to keep the theme as consistent as possible it only had four weapons and no weapons were in the reclaim tab of the dil store to replace the missing ones.

    I really wish they'd move the those old weapons to mob group loot tables, or just make the choice packs tradeable directly.

    Being able to get upgradable white quality voth weapons from Voth enemies in space and land would add a lot of appeal and motivation to fighting them. It would potentially breathe some life into older content if there is loot specific to them.

    While I would certainly like to see more interesting enemy-based loot drops (besides an overall revamp of the whole loot thing, which includes the removal of commodities and beverages), this idea has the negative side-effect of making some of the contents of the lockboxes even more useless.

    Opening those boxes will thus become even less rewarding - meaning that the prices of the big prizes will go up even more as supply diminishes. Fewer people having an incentive to open boxes means lower supply of their contents, after all.

    Keep in mind: keys are something like 12 or 13 million EC right now. For most boxes, you should count yourself lucky if you can sell the contents for a million or two. Lowering that even further will mean that opening boxes will only remain rewarding for an ever smaller group of whales - who will, as a result, have even tighter control of the market.
  • missmel#5308 missmel Member Posts: 99 Arc User
    I'm absolutely not an expert, but why not actually very very small chance to drop an unlocked lockbox...
    It would actually help with availablity...
    It would also make Cryptic look less profiteering...

    And adding a guaranteed drop on Promo and Infinity coupon after a certain number of openings...
    This not being there is the primary reason I don't buy keys is I don't know how many I'll have to open to get the top price...

    But I'm not an expert just someone with an suggestion so don't bite my head off
  • smokebaileysmokebailey Member Posts: 4,668 Arc User
    rattler2 wrote: »
    I wonder if the exchange changes will lower the massive over blown cost of buying ships off the exchange

    I'm hoping so too. While Supply and Demand is a thing... it feels like you can't get anything anymore because its so crazy overpriced. A lockbox ship realistically shouldn't cost the same as a Promo due to higher Supply. But that's where a lot of Lockbox Ships are sitting.

    Like in the real world, it's not about supply and demand, it's about, "WE WANT MORE TRIBBLING EC!"

    So, hope the fix bites the comic book guy folks in the butt. :D
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  • dragon#2626 dragon Member Posts: 275 Arc User
    rattler2 wrote: »
    I wonder if the exchange changes will lower the massive over blown cost of buying ships off the exchange

    I'm hoping so too. While Supply and Demand is a thing... it feels like you can't get anything anymore because its so crazy overpriced. A lockbox ship realistically shouldn't cost the same as a Promo due to higher Supply. But that's where a lot of Lockbox Ships are sitting.

    When they're on the exchange at all. I've been wanting to get my hands on a Rampart, but there are none to be found.
    I swim through a sea of stars. . . .
  • davefenestratordavefenestrator Member Posts: 10,661 Arc User
    Delete mail button will be disabled on mail with attachments, until attachments are removed, so you can't accidentally delete mail with EC/items attached to it

    Nice. It was many years ago but I once deleted an email between alts of some crafted gear, because I was deleting a bunch of "you sold x on the exchange, yay!" mails and got into a mindless rhythm of click-confirm, click-confirm, ... D'OH!
  • baddmoonrizinbaddmoonrizin Member Posts: 10,897 Community Moderator


    The updates that were meant to go live to the Exchange today seem to not be working correctly. We're looking into it, and hope to have some answers soon, although fixes may not go live without additional maintenance. Thanks for your patience.



    Update on this: It appears that the Exchange is currently working exactly as it did before, so if you sell something and the EC would take you over the EC cap, you will not recieve the EC. We'll hopefully have this fixed next week or the week after.
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