[STO] Dilithium Tracking 12/27/12

Ho-ho-ho, Merry Christma... er... Happy Boxi... er... Hey, New Year’s is coming up! Well, the boring Western one. Chinese New Year won’t be here for a while yet. Anyhow, here are the charts for this week. We’re still seeing a pretty low Z:D rate, with the Zen and Dilithium buying rates having their ups and downs.

[STO] Christmas came early!

I play Star Trek Online with friends of mine on Maui. Sometimes we're just chatting online, sometimes we're running fleet actions, sometimes we're doing our own thing. Anyhow, I was pleasantly surprised with a $20 Perfect World gift card! What did I do with it?

I bought two 10-packs of Master Keys, of course! Upon opening them? I received:

• 1 Very Rare Gamma Quadrant Elite Duty Officer
• 1 2,000 CXP Bonus Pool
• 2 10,000 CXP Bonus Pools
• 3 Rare Shield Packs
• 3 Standard Duty Officer Mini-Packs
• 4 1,000 Skill Bonus Pools
• 6 Gamma Quadrant Duty Officer Mini-Packs
• 151 Lobi Crystals

So, now, I am over 3/4 of the way to my last Ferengi Marauder component. I'm utterly thrilled by this, to say the least. Moreover, looking at the rest of what I got? I've got a nice assortment of marketable items, plus things to help my fleet long.

Merry Christmas, folks!

[STO] Dilithium Tracking 12/20/12

Another week, and there seems to be a significant increase in offers being made.  Its certainly been rising. However, the Z:D Exchange rate is still very low. Will it get better as time goes on? Hopefully. Maybe its different where you’re at, but as of last Friday, the K-12 students here have gotten on winter/Christmas break. I think college students have been off a bit longer.

Myself? Between moving, attempting to try EVE Online and Playdom’s Marvel: Avenger’s Alliance (silly Facebook game), I’ve been having fun. Haven’t done much in the way of fleet events, STFs, etc., simply because I prefer to do those on my desktop computer which is currently boxed away. Of course, when I’m set back up on there, I’ll be installing The Secret World, check out Guild Wars 2’s winter event, etc.

Anyhow, more charts! As always, make of it what you will!

[STO] Buying Master Keys with Energy Credits.

I've already gone over how to buy Master Keys without spending a dime. But, because there are so many uses for Dilithium and Zen, suppose you don't want to use such a precious resource for buying Master Keys? This is perfectly understandable. So, how else can you buy them?

Energy Credits!

Many players are more adept at earning Energy Credits than they are anything else. If anything, once you become a Vice Admiral, the need for Energy Credits goes down. You can get most anything you want through enough play and a bit of luck. Moreover, as you go through the end-game content, you will continue to earn drops and other rewards.

You will need to make use of the Exchange in order to really earn credits, however. Keeping track of changes in the game will also help you find needs other players may have. This is important, as the more necessary the item is, and the more inconvenient it is to get, the more its potentially worth. Additionally, if things fluctuate in value, keeping track of when it might be cheapest to buy is time well spent.

One of the most relevant pieces of news, for instance, is when Cryptic has Master Keys on sale! Right now until Thursday, December 27th, Master Keys are 15% off, and the prices of Master Keys on the Exchange have gone down accordingly. Instead of paying 1.4-1.5 million EC per key, its possible to get them for 1-1.1 million EC instead.

For further reading on ideas to make more Energy Credits:

• Experiment with Uncommon Unreplicatable Materials
• DOFF Experiment, nearly 24 hours later.
• Making money with Duty Officers without playing poker.
• Great read on making Energy Credits.

[STO] Dilithium tracking 12/13/12

Onward and upward? And downward? And up again?

We’ve had some ups and downs since last week, when Q’s Winter Wonderland began. Zen:Dilithium prices reached the lowest I’ve ever seen, and the volume on the market has been going back up. It’s a little odd there is so much volume buying Dilithium at current pricing, though. At least, right now and at these prices. I would’ve imagined heavy Dilithium buyers would prefer to try and force the price back to being more pro-Zen (right now its very pro-Dilithium)!

Now, that said, I’ve heard at least one person claim there are groups of people/players trying to lower the exchange rate of Zen to Dilithium. Which is an interesting though, and really something I would more associate with EVE Online than anything else. But, it is plausible, I guess. I’m not sure what the mechanics of currency manipulation would be in this case, but if you are good at farming Dilithium, a low Z:D rate really is in your favor.

[STO] A closer look at the past month

I believe it’s a little too soon to figure much out, however, its still interesting to look at. I’m really looking forward to seeing how things chart out for the rest of the quarter. After the holidays, and things have had time to settle down.

That said? The November 30th changes brought about the ability open your OMEGA box regardless of OMEGA Reputation level (normally you’d have to wait until Tier III), Also, the ability to take on Dilithium-earning Reputation projects at any level rather than waiting for Tier V.

Right now the overall amount being traded is higher than its been in a while, but at the same time the Z:D rate is also lower than I’ve ever seen it. It took a while for prices to come down, so I guess it’ll take a while for them to go back up as well. Certainly the people buying Zen like the current rate, but I’m a little surprised that the volume of people buying Dilithium is so high while at such a unfavorable rate.But, it is the weekend, so that could change on Monday or Tuesday.

Update: A poster on the official Star Trek Online forums pointed out there was a spike in Dilithium purchasing starting November 18th. The poster believed it relates to a 10% bonus to buying Zen at that time. Likewise, there's a special that Cryptic/PWE are having with Ultimate Game Card, so buying a UGC for Zen will get you a 15% bonus to the Zen you buy. This special started December 1st, and will continue til January 31st, 2013. This could be a factor with people buying Dilithium at such a relatively high rate right now.

[STO] Zen:Dilithium down to 1:101! Downside to Q's Winter Wonderland, maybe?

Its the holidays! In MMO terms, its a generic winter celebration encompassing the same general span of time as Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, New Year's, and Consumermas in general. For Star Trek Online players, that means it is time once more for Q's Winter Wonderland. There's a lot of great prizes this go round, ranging from costume parts to a Breen ship! Seriously, check them out.

But, at the same time? The event went live yesterday. The Z:D rate from 1:110 when I first checked it to 1:107 last night (Hawai'i Standard Time), and down to 1:101 during my lunch break.

Coincidence? Perhaps. It is a weekend, after all, and we all know that weekends bring a drop in the price of Zen as more players log in and try to buy Dilithium. But I'm wondering if a not insignificant portion of the players are currently playing the Winter Wonderland rather than earning Dilithium for themselves and their fleets, nevermind actually selling Dilithium. And that Breen Ship looks pretty darn good if you ask me!

Maybe its bad or unfortunate timing, but its going to be difficult to gauge the effects of the November 29th/30th patch until things return to "normal." In the mean time, I'm not going to be surprised if Z:D dips below 1:100. In fact, I have a lone Zen on the market for 1:99, just in case I miss it! So, if you're selling Zen, now might be a bad time for you. Its certainly a great time to buy Zen, though.

What I'm hoping, however, is that Zen sellers will start to fight back a bit more so the price goes back up. Granted, that's not in my favor, but I'd rather see it higher so its more of a win/win than it is now. Granted, there are many players who'd rather pay money than earn the Dilithium, but its still not as equitable as I'd like it to be.

Of course, when I log in tonight, I'm looking forward to being able to buy the last 9 Zen I need to buy a 10-pack of Master Keys. Yay! :D

[STO] Dilithium Tracking 12/6/12

Another week, another update! November 30th saw another update to increase Dilithium earning. Did it work? Too soon to tell. Prices are still incredibly low, and my sampling method only shows pools of offers, not actual transactions. Here’s hoping, though.

By the way, you can follow me on Twitter for updates. I typically use #STOnomics as the hashtag for these.

More charts after the break.

Farewell, City of Heroes!

On today's radio show, Jonathan asked me to come on for a bit to talk about the closing of City of Heroes. I was there up to the end last night, and watched the Paragon Twitch.TV until they shut off the feed. I'm not a long time player; only started playing in 2005 (around i4 and i5).

I played on Guardian before moving to Freedom a few years later to join a RP group. Eventually a new SG started called the Liberty Alliance, and that was my home group for most of the time. Great, wonderful people!

Stopped playing last year January due to a pinched nerve, and actually stopped playing games for several months. When I recovered, I didn't go back to playing, sadly. However, I did manage to get back to say my goodbyes, provide some closure in plot threads, etc.

Anyhow; here's a video of that part of the radio show. Enjoy! If you want to hear the full show, you can get it from http://alertinternetsurfer.com/, plus they do live-stream on Saturdays at noon, Hawai'i Standard Time.