Star Trek Online Discussion Thread (now free to play!)

[Scout101]

Not really. What we saw was a rough idea of it from people doing the math on Tribble.

You'd THINK they'd try and give you rough numbers, so you could protect yourself if they know you're going to lose out in conversion. In theory, the 'stolen' chips are to prevent an inrush of currency without going through the new channels, right? They aren't actively trying to screw us (so they say). You'd think they'd want to show us what the limits are, so we can try and cash them in for other stuff rather than losing them completely.

It's the kind of goodwill/trust gestures that seem to be pretty lacking from Cryptic, really. They know they're screwing some of us (whether they HAVE to or not is a side issue), you'd think they'd show us some of the math so we can choose to go through with it or try and get below the line and avoid the cull. What'st he downside to warning us?

Syberghost, maybe that's one you can try and pass up the chain, as you appear to have ins/be buddies with some of these guys? Some sort of chart, so we can figure out the conversion rate, where the caps are, etc.

EDCs are worth X, up until you cash in Y of them, and you only get .25X after that
Rare salvage, Purple salvage, blue and purple tech, etc.

Just knowing those numbers would remove a lot of angst, and let people choose what to do with the info. the issue isn't that the system is changing (not really, people will get used to that), it's that in every one of these changes so far, people have lost out. Showing people that they should cash in that extra stack of EDCs for DIL or BOFFs before the conversion so they don't lose them would make people a lot happier over it.

[syberghost]

I've started a thread on the official forums requesting they give us the numbers in advance this time. Maybe that will get them thinking.

http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/sh...21#post6113721

[J. Allen]

Well crap. I've been saving up EDCs to get some better gear, and now this.

[Scout101]

syberghost wrote:

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I've started a thread on the official forums requesting they give us the numbers in advance this time. Maybe that will get them thinking.

http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/sh...21#post6113721

Thanks! Got a way to get BranFlakes to flag on that one as well? Seems like a no-brainer, as if there has to be a cap, telling us what the conversions will be so we can avoid getting screwed seems like the right thing to do. has the added benefit of chort-circuiting the noise that will come after, if they warned us and gave us enough time to try and adjust.

Rainbow Dash wrote:

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Well crap. I've been saving up EDCs to get some better gear, and now this.

heh, get grinding! Anyone know when the rumored cutover date will be? In any event, saving the EDCs doesn't really do a ton for you. Cash in the 15 for the easy-to-obtain Borg set. After that, just keep pounding the STFs (on elite if you can handle it) to try and get the blue or purple drop. Don't cash any of them in until you see what drops you get. once you've got one or two blue drops, use those two and buy the 3rd with the 40 EDCs, now you've got a set. Earning the drops to get to 40 EDC should hopefully result in at least a blue drop somewhere.

It's the damned purple drops you just can't beat. Can't buy your way out, just the random number generator. And if you have that drop already, can't even pass it to someone in your group that needs it, or even give it to your OWN alt. That's been frustrating, when I just needed that CSE engine drop. Had 7 of the blue drops I didn't want, and couldn't help out anyone else, or my other alts. And then you'd see others in your group get the purple drop they didn't want (once, 2 people in my group got it, both already had 2 full sets), and you get junk. Frustrating, but in theory, part of the upcoming change should fix that.

Unfortunately, it means you lose the LUCKY side of the coin, too. If you get it on your 5th try, you're golden. Not anymore. Guaranteed to get it eventually, which is great (and should have been a factor before, even if it meant gradually increasing your luck with the RNG), but means the shortcut chance is gone. Plus they'll probably nerf it so it takes more work anyway, and is the equivalent of being unlucky 100 times in the old system first

[Hartzilla2007]

Well I just finished changing the uniforms on Kenny and his Boffs to TOS colored version of the TNG uniforms and even made a redshirt Boff which let me take advantage of both TOS and TNG's why of identifying the cannon fodder.

[intrinsical]

Let me play devil's advocate here.

Even if Cryptic publishes a chart that says 1 EDC = X Omega Marks, it tells us nothing. We still won't have any idea how many Omega Marks or any of the other requirements needed to get a piece of MACO gear.

Even today, months after Season 6 was released, no one knows what the cost of tier 5 starbase projects would be since Cryptic never released it and no one has a starbase of sufficient tier to even view the project costs. I am betting the same thing will happen for these Omega Fleet and Romulan personal projects. Chances are, we won't even find out that we're loosing out on the EDC/Borg Salvage conversion rate until a month or two down the road when people finally start unlocking the Mk XII gear projects.

So unless Cryptic publishes two charts, one with EDC/Salvage to Omega Marks conversion rate and another chart with complete cost requirements for each and every Omega Fleet project, I don't see how we'll know if we have been screwed.

[Timelord_Victorious]

I think it will help, if they do.
True, wie don't know what the future costs are, but that would matter more if the conversion will be linear, which I doubt.
The more EDC you have today, the more you suffer diminishing returns I believe. Up to a point where you run into a wall of cap.
That's how they handled things a year ago.
So it could be my current 60 EDC get me still 60 Marks, but at 100 EDC I would only get 90 Marks. At 500 I might only get 250 and every other EDC I might have is simply gone...

So knowing this would very much help me decide, if I better spend what I have know or if I am good keeping it.

[Scout101]

Exactly. It's not about knowing the costs of the new thing, it's just about trying to minimize the pain/loss in the conversion. They seem to insist on the diminishing returns model, so it would be nice to know where the cap is, so you can cash in stuff you've saved up OVER the cap, rather than just have it trashed.

I ASSUME we're getting screwed in the Item costs X today, will cost X + Y tomorrow setup, as that's how they've opperated every time now. I just want to avoid losing stuff completely. If you have tech today and don't have the real gear yet, you should definitely cash in now. The math is more important if you have the gear, or don't have enough tech to get the whole set, in which case it would be nice to know if you should let it convert, or cash it in for DIL now before it evaporates...

[Vendikarr]

intrinsical wrote:

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So unless Cryptic publishes two charts, one with EDC/Salvage to Omega Marks conversion rate and another chart with complete cost requirements for each and every Omega Fleet project, I don't see how we'll know if we have been screwed.

Well of course we're gonna be screwed. We just don't know how bad the sex will be yet.

[intrinsical]

And in other news, Tribble testers are reporting that the old 4 piece Borg set is being split into two totally separate sets. Borg Deflector + Shields + Impulse Engines will form one 3 piece set. Apparently the Borg Console together with some new Borg torpedo and beam weapon will form a brand new set.

[Patrick O'Brien]

Vendikarr wrote:

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Well of course we're gonna be screwed. We just don't know how bad the sex will be yet.

That was funny

[syberghost]

Obviously they're not going to do the system in such a way that everybody immediately shoots to the top of it on stored stuff; that would mean they did all this work to build a system everybody will immediately bypass. That's not healthy for the game. It's the same reason you don't accumulate XP once you hit the current level cap.

[Scout101]

intrinsical wrote:

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And in other news, Tribble testers are reporting that the old 4 piece Borg set is being split into two totally separate sets. Borg Deflector + Shields + Impulse Engines will form one 3 piece set. Apparently the Borg Console together with some new Borg torpedo and beam weapon will form a brand new set.

Kinda makes sense, since they never followed up with any other 4-piece sets, so this one was kinda hanging out there. Plus, it was one of the better set bonuses (usually by using the deflector, engine, and console, and then ditching the shield for the MACO version), so they'd have to getting around to screwing with it eventually.

Console, beam, and torpedo seems like an iffy one to put in there. Personally, don't think i'd use it. Everything in STO forces you into a specific weapon type (all your consoles, bonuses, and even the special weapons on a ship like the lotus or the spinal lance). Put these in, and you're dragging yourself down, or forcing you to change everything to (presumably) plasma. And pretty much every build is geared to protect specifically from Plasma, as it's the STF weapon, so you default to wanting to max that protection.

Wonder if there will be some 6-piece mega-bonus for going with ALL the Borg gear? Conversely, how much of the good bonus will we lose if we're just running the engines and deflector, and ditch the sub-standard shields?

[Scout101]

syberghost wrote:

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Obviously they're not going to do the system in such a way that everybody immediately shoots to the top of it on stored stuff; that would mean they did all this work to build a system everybody will immediately bypass. That's not healthy for the game. It's the same reason you don't accumulate XP once you hit the current level cap.

Perfectly reasonable, they just need to give us an idea of where that cap will be. If it's 100 chips, and you have 400, you can go buy Mk XI gear for your BOFFs, or some extra DOFF Borg, trade for DIL, etc. TELLING the players roughly where that line is (even if we don't get all the math) lets us spend it however we want, since we earned it. Just having the 'extra' get deleted is how you piss off the players for no good reason. Understand the need for a cap, just show the players where it is.

Other side of the coin, if the cap is 1000 chips, the guy with 400 doesn't have to really worry about burning them off, and can spend a few and just let the rest convert, and he's then got some built-up value in the new system.

NOT telling people what's going on is where the angst and rage comes from. And if they're not smart enough to figure that out after doing it a couple times, we're in a lot more trouble than we think. I try to keep operating under the assumption that the DEVs aren't ACTIVELY trying to screw us over, so why would they be opposed to helping us through the transition smartly rather than keeping it a mystery, flipping a switch, and having people pissed off again?

[Hanover Fiste]

intrinsical wrote:

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And in other news, Tribble testers are reporting that the old 4 piece Borg set is being split into two totally separate sets. Borg Deflector + Shields + Impulse Engines will form one 3 piece set. Apparently the Borg Console together with some new Borg torpedo and beam weapon will form a brand new set.

Ah, son of a....

I like my Borg Engine/Deflector/Console + MACO MK XII shield combination.