Should I try out Star Trek Online?

[houser2112]

If only your missing 0 was the actual situation. 83000 dil is only a week and a half's worth.

[Elheru Aran]

If only your missing 0 was the actual situation. 83000 dil is only a week and a half's worth.

Then either it was a very different time in the game or I was doing something wrong. *shrugs* Both are quite possible.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

As predicted the dil-to-zen rate has spiked (albeit only by 5 or so), it was hovering around 415 the last week or so, now it's 420 and is likely to stay that way until the event ends. The advanced mission itself does award 720 ore so, and because it fills really quickly you're not stuck in a queue like with a lot of PvE co-op missions.

Most Tier-6 starships are 3,000 Z each, however the true secret of getting the most bang for the buck is that if the desired ship is part of a "discount pack", to buy the pack instead. For example, the T6 cross-faction bundles give you 3 ships for the price of two, and the mega bundles give you 3 bundles for the price of two. Each ship within a bundle will come with its own unique console which will award a set bonus when combined with the others, further increasing the incentive.

If all you have is one or two characters then yes, converting dil in any meaningful quantity is going to take a very long time. Having been playing since the game went Free-to-play back in early 2012 I've utilised the character slots that came with each expansion, in conjunction with those awarded with the LTM, to the point where I have ten active, representing each combination of Tac/Eng/Sci and Fed/Kli/Rom, plus one AOY. Some players have many many more.

Even so, the 80,000 dil per day only works out to 190 Zen at the current exchange rate (215 if I use the extra available from the fleet mine and vet rewards, but those are a pain in the ass to collect). By way of comparison, the monthly stipend for subscription is only 500 Zen- I can see how this would force many players into shelling out real money, excluding bonuses for larger purchases a 3000 Z ship will set you back US$30.

[Simon_Jester]

Incidentally, the problem of people having more and more alts probably does a lot to run up the dil:zen ratio. If there was, for example, an account-wide cap of 20000 dilithium per day instead of 8000 per character, you'd probably see a dramatic fall in the exchange rate.

Because if you can have as many characters as you want grinding their eight thousand a day, the only limit is the amount of time you care to sink into it... which results in a LOT of toons that exist purely to grind dilithium, who are driving up the exchange rate.

[mr friendly guy]

Well since I generally shell out real money, the high zen to dilithium ratio would benefit me.

However I am undecided about buying more ships at the moment and I don't have any gear I particularly want to upgrade at the moment, so I guess I will have to wait and see if the rates still hold when I do need the dilithium. Or maybe I will have enough if I keep on processing my daily 8000 dilithium.

[houser2112]

So this crystalline event is not a one-time thing, as I understand. Are the rewards for completing the 14-crystal project the same each time? I ask because there are 7 more days to go, so 7 more shards. Would it be worth saving them for the next time so I get a new reward that much quicker, or should I turn them in as I get them for the dil + other sundry things as I can do now?

[Lord Revan]

depends on what we get next time, which obviously we don't know yet.

[houser2112]

So the rewards aren't the same each time. I think I'll save them then. There's nothing all that compelling in those one-shard projects, from what I remember.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

So this crystalline event is not a one-time thing, as I understand. Are the rewards for completing the 14-crystal project the same each time? I ask because there are 7 more days to go, so 7 more shards. Would it be worth saving them for the next time so I get a new reward that much quicker, or should I turn them in as I get them for the dil + other sundry things as I can do now?

The dilithium rewards are the same, the only variation is the piece of gear you get along with it. The 14-day project offers more dil-per-shard than the daily bonus, so it's better to save them once you turn in the first fortnight's worth. After a couple of cycles you'll find yourself with 14 shards saved up for the next project and so can claim the reward immediately.

Well since I generally shell out real money, the high zen to dilithium ratio would benefit me.

However I am undecided about buying more ships at the moment and I don't have any gear I particularly want to upgrade at the moment, so I guess I will have to wait and see if the rates still hold when I do need the dilithium. Or maybe I will have enough if I keep on processing my daily 8000 dilithium.

It adds up more quickly than you think- it's only if you suddenly need a large amount of it (such as for projects) that it becomes a good idea to sell Zen.

Incidentally, the problem of people having more and more alts probably does a lot to run up the dil:zen ratio. If there was, for example, an account-wide cap of 20000 dilithium per day instead of 8000 per character, you'd probably see a dramatic fall in the exchange rate.

Because if you can have as many characters as you want grinding their eight thousand a day, the only limit is the amount of time you care to sink into it... which results in a LOT of toons that exist purely to grind dilithium, who are driving up the exchange rate.

I've advocated something similar, with an account-wide cap that increments by 8,000 per level-60 character, meaning that alts can't grind dil without being suitably levelled. And toons do need a certain amount of dil investment to get gear suitable for farming.

According to the forums, the current limit for characters is 51, with character slots currently costing 625 Z for 2 and 1,065 Z for 4.

[FaxModem1]

Has the Foundry been shut down? I can't seem to access my content anymore.

[Lord Revan]

Has the Foundry been shut down? I can't seem to access my content anymore.

it's been down since last patch, due the lighting upgrade, there's a crap ton of maps they need to update and I suspect getting foundry back up isn't priority number 1.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

I honestly don't think I've ever used the Foundry.

[bilateralrope]

I logged in because I'm thinking of returning to STO. I'll probably start playing when I clear my Steam backlog, or when the lifetime subscription next goes on sale.

What happened to my engineering kit/modules ?

The help button says something about kits and modules being revamped. From what I can tell this seems to be the removal of the mechanic/fabrication distinction for modules and allowing them to be upgraded. But that doesn't explain why the kit and modules I used to have equipped are gone. I'm ruling out the possibility of my account being hacked because my energy credits and other tradeable items remain untouched. Any idea what happened ?

Mine were cheap and thus easily replaced, so I don't mind too much. I just want to know why so I can evaluate the chances of it happening again.



I also noticed the fleet module section on the exchange. Which looks like a legit way to convert Zen into EC.

[Feil]

They may be in your overflow box. Kits and modules have been separated. Now, rather than loading a kit with modules and equipping it, you equip modules directly and your kit is just an extra piece of equipment, like your deflector and warp drive. This means that a five item kit now takes up 6 squares of inventory instead of 1, which may have resulted in your modules being dumped into your overflow, especially if you had multiple kits in your inventory.

[bilateralrope]

How do I access this overflow bag ?

[bilateralrope]

Hmm. Logged back in. The kit was equipped again, the modules sitting in my inventory.

The ticket I filed with the GMs has gone missing. So I guess that's all sorted.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Hmm. Logged back in. The kit was equipped again, the modules sitting in my inventory.

The ticket I filed with the GMs has gone missing. So I guess that's all sorted.

This was done a few weeks or months ago, because of the change all the kit modules from your character would be dumped in your inventory (and logging out/in is the known fix for players whose gear went missing). An interesting side effect is that in doing so it actually unbound any modules that were previously set to bind on equip, so your could sell any on the exchange those you no longer needed.

If you only just returned, you missed the Black Friday sales- 25% off everything (in Arc, the mega packs were 50% reduced). Every other sale has only been 20%- I ended up buying the Delta Ops and Temporal Agent packs. Mastering those new ships is going to take me weeks

[EnterpriseSovereign]

This is unexpected- in the time since the Black Friday, the dil-to-zen exchange rate has dropped significantly, it's now just over 300:1. I haven't seen the rate this low in over a year!

[bilateralrope]

This is unexpected- in the time since the Black Friday, the dil-to-zen exchange rate has dropped significantly, it's now just over 300:1. I haven't seen the rate this low in over a year!

This is probably pulling a lot of dil out of circulation.

I'm trying to decide between spending my excess uncommon tokens on more chances for more prize packs (to get more chances at the T6s) or upgrade tokens.

[FaxModem1]

Well, I decided to try it out. I got myself the Zephram Cochrane shotgun, which is wonderful.

[FaxModem1]

Also, anyone else find it appropriate that the Klingons ice fish by punching the ice with a gauntlet? It just seems so...Klingon.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

This is unexpected- in the time since the Black Friday, the dil-to-zen exchange rate has dropped significantly, it's now just over 300:1. I haven't seen the rate this low in over a year!

This is probably pulling a lot of dil out of circulation.

I'm trying to decide between spending my excess uncommon tokens on more chances for more prize packs (to get more chances at the T6s) or upgrade tokens.

As I already have the T6 vessels I'm probably not going to spend much on this. With the exchange rate being at a 2-year low (280 or so) I've converted 5,000 Zen worth of Dil (in batches of 500) in recent days. My trick was only converting when I had enough dil on any individual character to get 500 in one go- so as the price dropped the necessary quantity of refined dil fell accordingly.

I really really hope more events like this happen

[mr friendly guy]

Didn't even know about this event, because I have been busy trying to restore files to my hard drive and destroying ransomware.

I think I should get another 500 zen as part of my subscription and got a humble of dilithium. I want to try the phoenix lock box and see if I can get a red matter capacitor and the kobali starship. Fingers crossed.

[mr friendly guy]

Spent a bit of dilithium on the phoenix box, and got most of what I was hoping to get. The kobali ship was always a tough ask, but I got some nice consoles and more importantly, the red matter capacitor.

[bilateralrope]

I've got enough very rare, rare and uncommon tokens to get everything they offer. Which items are worth grabbing ?

I'll convert any excess tokens into upgrade items.