Sam on Maui

Game Dev Tycoon is available for a variety of platforms, and is just a great little game. No DRM, even! I’ll be posting impressions later on, but for now? A little something to help you along! When you make a new combination of game type and genre, you get a  New Combo x.2 bonus for it. But, if it’s a Great Combo? Add in another .2. You’ll go from x1 to x1.2 to x1.4! To help you out, I sat down and went through the first six genres and available combinations I’ve found so far. Use the garage studio to experiment; each genre and game style has things they like during development. As such, go through the various combinations, figure them out, regardless of whether they're a one-time bonus or not. It'll help in the long run. Fantasy + Action = Great Combo Fantasy + Adventure = Great Combo Fantasy + RPG = Great Combo Fantasy + Simulation = no bonus Fantasy + Strategy = Great Combo Fantasy + Casual = no bonus Racing + Action = no bonus Racing + Adventure = no bonus Racing +...

Week 4 and doing pretty well! I’m not entirely sure how I should decide which way to really track my weight. The weekly, predictable fluctuation makes me wonder if I should pick the results from a certain day (say, Friday or Saturday) as my milestone or not.

One of the coolest parts of any board game would be the custom parts. But, one of the worst parts of any board game would be the custom parts. Particularly custom dice. Why? Because they’re harder to fake having, to improvise. So, as a result, I figured I’d better map the dice on these two games, lest I lose them, the dog eats them, or they go off to the 5th Dimension without me.

Last October I posted a blog on buying Zen via Energy Credits . Well, since then the Z:D rate has changed dramatically, and I wasn’t sure how the requisite bits were being priced on the Exchange. Now, both of these factors are constantly in motion, so it was, and is, a snapshot at best. So, time for another snapshot.

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, k...

Contraband is a wonderful item that is a common reward for Marauding Duty Officer assignments with the Klingons Defense Force. When combined with my favorite Duty Officer assignment – Turn Over Confiscated Contraband – it’s a very steady way to earn Dilithium in game, and thus Zen. In turn Zen can be used to buy things in the Zen Store that can be sold for Energy Credits. I’ve got a very small and decently run operation set up with three characters; 1 Federation and 2 Klingon. The two Klingons earn virtually all my Contraband, and all three characters turn it in. But, given the market changes recently, would turning in Contraband for Dilithium then Zen be the best way to buy Energy Credits? Or would it be better to sell the Contraband itself? What offers the better return right now? Excel to the rescue!

More than a few people have been lamenting the General Recruitment Duty Officer assignment now requires 1,000 Dilithium to complete. While a nice pack of DOFFs, its not the only way to get more Duty Officers. What you're paying for is convenience and relative speed to obtain; the two go hand in hand. Buying Duty Officer Packs in the Zen Store is the fastest (practically instant), but most expensive route. General Recruitment costs 1,000 Dilithium, but takes a day to get the reward. Also has a cooldown. Departmental Recruitment and Cultural Exchange Duty Officer assignments take two days, but are free . There is a cooldown for those as well. If you're not in a rush, you can recruit 11 free Duty Officers at Star Fleet Academy. Should you get a critical success on the Cultural Exchanges, you can get two more per critical. For those on a budget, not interested in spending additional money, or whatever, this represents a great means to get Duty Officers for use on your shi...

Well, its been an interesting week in STO land. A lot of it centers around the Task Force Omega Reputation system ; they’re streamlining rewards, expanding them in some cases, lowering them in others, and more. As such, its making me wonder if the current Z:D prices are more from people keeping more Dilithium to themselves, “just in case.” Dan Stahl has been a very busy bee, so its really worth your time to go looking through what he and the other devs have posted . I’ll get some highlights up later, though. Again, knowing what’s coming will help you decide how you want to progress. Overall, I like the changes, but that’s my opinion based on how I play; your mileage may vary.

  Monday Tuesday Wed Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday 8/27/2012     160 165 161 156 158 9/3/2012 157 157 157 156 153 152 153 9/10/2012 154 153 154 154 154 154 154 9/17/2012 155 156 155 155 155 154 155 9/24/2012 154 155 159 165 163 158 160 10/1/2012 161 159 160 159 156 157 157 10/8/2012 157 157 158 159 158 158 158 10/15/2012 160 159 160 160       Well, it looks like the good times of September are over with, at least for now!

Yesterday I started a little experiment to see what I could do with 2 million Energy Credits worth of DOFFs . Nearly a day later? All but three (valued at 108k EC) have sold. From a starting balance of 25k EC, I've gone to 3.692 million EC. Taking away the starting balance and invested amount, I've brought in 1.692 million EC. Now, that did take a while to work through! Biggest obstacles to it being fast were: Exchange limit of 40 transactions. Constant flipping through Buy and Sell tabs for referencing prices. A weird little bug when exchanging higher ranking DOFFs for lower ranking DOFFs (basically, it wouldn't show there be any available on the first try). Time to sell. But, overall, I'd say it was a reasonable use of time. Again, I personally prefer to have multiple avenues to a single goal, so this is just one of many. The best thing is it doesn't deplete my Dilithium Reserves, which I use for buying Crafting Materials as well as buying Zen for...

Based on the article/post I read yesterday on making Energy Credits , I'll be posting an experiment for myself. I took 2 million EC and bought 15 Duty Officer Mini-Packs, leaving me with 25,000 EC. I'll open them all up, and proceed to post them onto the Exchange. Now, I've got 11 existing, salable Duty Officers already, so this won't be exact, but at the same time those DOFFs were free via the Star Fleet Academy recruitment DOFF assignments.

ertihan on the official Star Trek Online boards has a great post on how to make Energy Credits called The Art of the Deal . The art of making EC in STO can be pretty intimidating at times, but the truth is that it's not as complicated as it sounds. The first million can come pretty quickly if you know what you're doing, but here are some tips to get you going.  Its a relatively quick read, and what I really, really like is how ertihan goes from starting up to reaching high levels of Energy Credits in a sensible fashion. Being upfront about costs and risks is another highlight; high risk and high reward go hand in hand, after all! But, the Big Leagues section has some fun reading, good ideas, and moreover an "advanced" economic game. In theory, this is where the Exchange could turn into indirect PVP. Please note: Silver players will need to buy the Energy Credit Cap Increase from the Cryptic Store. Its 500 Zen ($5USD). If you don't want to spend money, make it...

Its been a fun week for Star Trek! Lifetime Subscriptions are on sale for $199 for a limited time, Lifetime holders get all Veteran’s Rewards without waiting (which is causing more than a little division on the forums), the new 1,000 day VR ships have been released, and a new STF for Season 7 has been announced! But, you can see all that elsewhere; you came here for numbers...

There's a lot of great reasons to use Cloud storage like SkyDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc. I love that I can work on files between my smartphone, laptop, and desktop. But, sometimes I wonder, "How do I back this up?" Thanks to a quick internet search, I've got a simple way to mirror some of those files!

Steady as she goes! We’re still coming off the high from last week, but prices aren’t sharply dropping like they did last time. Which is better if you’re buying Dilithium, not so great if you’re wanting to buy Zen. That said, it’s a lot better than the “old days” my fleeties were talking about last night! Its sort of hard to imagine 1:200 or even 1:300 exchange rates, at least for me. As such, well, I find this more favorable, clearly.

UPDATE:  I was told about the Exchange bug! Yay! That completely threw off the value of A. As such, its probably one of the most attractive options you have. UPDATE: There's a revisiting of this with more current numbers. I’ve been going on about buying Energy Credits using Dilithium and Zen for a while now. And, honestly, its great! Those with an abundance of Dilithium or Zen can use their resources to get things they want from the Exchange, contribute to their Fleets, and more. Its very useful, relatively simple, and pretty straight forward. But, what if you wanted to do the opposite?

Logged during lunch for a quick check of my DOFFs, Dilithium, etc. Out of curiosity, I checked the price of Romulan Ale , as I wanted to buy some more for my Fleet. What was 200k EC was now 1 million EC. Whoops! Should've bought sooner! I suspect the price skyrocketed due to the newly announced special project for Starbases . The Conference Room and Hunting Bar look great, have wonderful personality, and are taking up a special projects slot. As such, well, people are clearly trying to burn through their current projects which ought account for the pricing. If you've got it, or have some time to play in Romulan space to get it, right now is looking like a wonderful time to be a seller. After that, I gandered at the Uncommon Unreplicatable Materials pricing. Since I've been keeping my Dilithium rather than selling for Zen right now, I was able to buy a nice batch of it. Reconsidering my pricing, I went with 175k per unit this go around. That's still 25k less than the...

A player I’m happily acquainted with let me know that they got a Korath Temporal Science Vessel! It’s a really cool ship, and one I’d really like to have for my KDF Science character. Best part about it? They didn’t pay a dime. I asked, “how did you do it? What was your strategy?” Their answer?

49,000 Dilithium just went out of my hands! I just bought 49 Uncommon Unreplicatable Materials at 1,000 Dilithium each. Pricing for them seems to be 150k each on the low-ball, and 250k being about normal. Well, I, not being normal, didn't price that way. When I re-evaluated my selling prices for UMs , I decided that 1 Zen to 10k Energy Credits minimum price was agreeable. I would be getting what I felt was a worthwhile price on my time and effort while my buyer was getting a relative deal compared to the rest of the pricing on the market. Even after adding a premium to the price, both of us would be coming out ahead!

Well, its now been 4 weeks tracked! My first month! And, as such, I’m finally getting a view of the “bigger” picture. It was rather nice to get up, log on, and see the 64 Zen I placed for sale at 1:165 had sold, leaving me with a nice sum of over 10,000 Dilithium. Knowing that when rates go back down I’ll be able to make a small profit on that is even better. I know, I know, you want charts, don’t you?