Like I said before, whether intentional or not this "upgrade" to the Exchange functions as a time gate, AKA a mechanic a game developer may employ to artificially inflate "play time," often with the intent to convince investors that their investment has been put to good use.
I'm not saying that's what Cryptic is doing, I'm just saying that coupled with the observations I made earlier on this topic things begin to smell like fish.
The funny part is that things like time gates and grind can be implemented in a manner that uses entertainment as a disguise. The fact that this was not even attempted makes the smell grow more pungent.
I sincerely doubt bringing such concerns here will have a positive impact. Just look at the notes for the latest update. In fact, I just went in-game to confirm that there hasn't been a stealth revision. There hasn't.
My conclusion, therefore, is that we must find a more effective way to communicate our concerns and to the right people.
That is something I have noticed with programmers in general. they get an idea, and it's usually good, but unless they actually use the software in a regular basis, the implementation , well it generally sucks. anyone that has used Office for any amount of time probably knows what I mean
Have to admit. I hate this new system. Never had a single issue with the old one in 7 years. It's a game and you have just made it more tedious and slightly less fun.
This change is bad, very bad. It doesn't improve anything, only makes things needlessly more complicated for players, especially for traders of course.
It's just a poorly implemented system, there to annoy people. And do you know who's amongst the people it annoys most?
Players who open large ammounts of lockboxes and need to sell all the TRIBBLE that comes with them.
You think this was a clever move, Cryptic, to anger your biggest money makers for a change that benefits litterally nobody but makes the big spenders hate gambling in your game?
There was a simple solution for this minor credit overcap problem: Just send the EC overflow, if it occurs, as a mail attachment. Nothing else.
If you don't want to undo the changes, at least make it so you can loot and delete every mail by one click. That would be acceptable too.
Next thing you should do is increase the ec limit for account banks (at least 10b). 1 bil is a joke these days. Banks should be bigger than your personal inventory and even that can hold 2 bil.
It would also be really nice if Kael could be bothered to show up here, in the official forum, and tell us if they are even planning to do some changes or revert it.
These changes really annoy a lot of players and STO is already a very click heavy game. Stop making everything a slog!
This system just came to console with the recent patch and I have to agree. This is one of the worst fixes to a problem they've implemented. This makes me not even want to use the exchange at all now. Why make something so tedious, even more of a pain?
One of the first posters to this thread hit the nail on the head, but not the way he wanted. He said "this system was broken because you could lose out on substantial amounts of EC if you were not careful." That is exactly right... if "YOU" were not careful. This is a player problem, not a "the Exchange is broken" problem. If you have that much energy credits, I don't exactly feel that bad, if you can't keep track of your over 2 Billion plus energy credits. It only cost 500 Zen, from what I've read to unlock the 2 Billion cap on PC, and consoles already have that cap for all accounts regardless. If it is really that big of an issue, just raise the freaking EC cap on all platforms. I mean, seriously.
I like that they fixed the mail so that you can get your stuff anywhere at any time now... However...
That only means that there is going to be more mail clogging up peoples email boxes, and I have a hard enough time sending out fleetwide emails as it is because people's email boxes are full, and there is no notification to even let them know that their box is full.
Everytime I send out a fleetwide email, I get at least 50 system responses that say "the email recipients box is full". It doesn't tell me who they are, and even if if it did, there would be no way for me to send them an email to let them know that their box is full!
Any solutions for this dilemma would be appreciated!
You could try your fleets Message of the Day function under the News tab in the Fleet interface to get your members to check and clear their mail since that message zips across the players screen (unless they've disabled it).
From there you wish to consider building an external communication system (Discord or Guilded come to mind) since the likelihood of this new time gate being addressed in a meaningful way is near zero if the established pattern of behavior remains consistent.
Cryptic's software folks confirmed on Ten Forward Weekly that the exchange messages don't count against the cap for box limits. Ie. they shouldn't prevent any communications.
Box being full is another issue and something that could be helped with a notification pop-up or tally you can reference to tell how close you are to the cap (or if you're at it). That would also be useful for folks like myself who've saved all their community/Foundry mails for posterity (and while we're at it feature suggestions: mail export to txt file option would be great for those like me who want to hang onto their fleet/friend/community mails. It would also remove pressure to save everything for reference/feel good recollections).
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Cryptic's software folks confirmed on Ten Forward Weekly that the exchange messages don't count against the cap for box limits. Ie. they shouldn't prevent any communications.
Nevertheless, Jenica actually brought up a very good point! Fleet mail may well not count towards the mail box limit, but sales messages (the kind where you are told you won an 'auction'), still do. (Sic!) Which means Cryptic basically removed one potential overflow issue (that didn't even exist), and applied it to your mail box instead! And, to add insult to injury, I guarantee more ppl will run into a 'mailbox full' issue than ever hitting the 2 billion EC cap.
Comments
I'm not saying that's what Cryptic is doing, I'm just saying that coupled with the observations I made earlier on this topic things begin to smell like fish.
The funny part is that things like time gates and grind can be implemented in a manner that uses entertainment as a disguise. The fact that this was not even attempted makes the smell grow more pungent.
I sincerely doubt bringing such concerns here will have a positive impact. Just look at the notes for the latest update. In fact, I just went in-game to confirm that there hasn't been a stealth revision. There hasn't.
My conclusion, therefore, is that we must find a more effective way to communicate our concerns and to the right people.
That is what the CM is for. Kael is meant to be a liaison between the players and the devs. Draw your own inference.
Indeed.
It's just a poorly implemented system, there to annoy people. And do you know who's amongst the people it annoys most?
Players who open large ammounts of lockboxes and need to sell all the TRIBBLE that comes with them.
You think this was a clever move, Cryptic, to anger your biggest money makers for a change that benefits litterally nobody but makes the big spenders hate gambling in your game?
There was a simple solution for this minor credit overcap problem: Just send the EC overflow, if it occurs, as a mail attachment. Nothing else.
If you don't want to undo the changes, at least make it so you can loot and delete every mail by one click. That would be acceptable too.
Next thing you should do is increase the ec limit for account banks (at least 10b). 1 bil is a joke these days. Banks should be bigger than your personal inventory and even that can hold 2 bil.
It would also be really nice if Kael could be bothered to show up here, in the official forum, and tell us if they are even planning to do some changes or revert it.
These changes really annoy a lot of players and STO is already a very click heavy game. Stop making everything a slog!
One of the first posters to this thread hit the nail on the head, but not the way he wanted. He said "this system was broken because you could lose out on substantial amounts of EC if you were not careful." That is exactly right... if "YOU" were not careful. This is a player problem, not a "the Exchange is broken" problem. If you have that much energy credits, I don't exactly feel that bad, if you can't keep track of your over 2 Billion plus energy credits. It only cost 500 Zen, from what I've read to unlock the 2 Billion cap on PC, and consoles already have that cap for all accounts regardless. If it is really that big of an issue, just raise the freaking EC cap on all platforms. I mean, seriously.
--Sadriel Fett
"There are few problems in the galaxy that cannot be solved by the suitable application of concentrated phaser fire."
That only means that there is going to be more mail clogging up peoples email boxes, and I have a hard enough time sending out fleetwide emails as it is because people's email boxes are full, and there is no notification to even let them know that their box is full.
Everytime I send out a fleetwide email, I get at least 50 system responses that say "the email recipients box is full". It doesn't tell me who they are, and even if if it did, there would be no way for me to send them an email to let them know that their box is full!
Any solutions for this dilemma would be appreciated!
From there you wish to consider building an external communication system (Discord or Guilded come to mind) since the likelihood of this new time gate being addressed in a meaningful way is near zero if the established pattern of behavior remains consistent.
Box being full is another issue and something that could be helped with a notification pop-up or tally you can reference to tell how close you are to the cap (or if you're at it). That would also be useful for folks like myself who've saved all their community/Foundry mails for posterity (and while we're at it feature suggestions: mail export to txt file option would be great for those like me who want to hang onto their fleet/friend/community mails. It would also remove pressure to save everything for reference/feel good recollections).
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
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Nevertheless, Jenica actually brought up a very good point! Fleet mail may well not count towards the mail box limit, but sales messages (the kind where you are told you won an 'auction'), still do. (Sic!) Which means Cryptic basically removed one potential overflow issue (that didn't even exist), and applied it to your mail box instead! And, to add insult to injury, I guarantee more ppl will run into a 'mailbox full' issue than ever hitting the 2 billion EC cap.