Sam on Maui

Another quiet week of numbers, it seems. Massively has been doing a nice bit of interviews with Dan Stahl (part one and two ), which has some nice food for thought about the future. I've been working a little on my Romulan character, getting Lockboxes opened up for Lobi, and all has been pretty nice, really. Now, that said, the number seem pretty good to me.

Three statisticians went out hunting, and came across a large deer. The first statistician fired, but missed, by a meter to the left. The second statistician fired, but also missed, by a meter to the right. The third statistician didn't fire, but shouted in triumph, "On the average we got it!" Its been a while since I've done looked at averages. Now, I have to fully admit that my data is a merely a small slice of what Cryptic has available to them. Moreover, I would imagine that Cryptic has access to economists and statisticians if they need a consult. I've got Excel and no formal instruction in the field. But, hey, when has that stopped me? While I'll warn against looking too much into my numbers and charts, its still interesting to look at. But first, our normal compound view of things...  

Ah, computers. They're wonderful when they work, and, well, discouraging when they don't! Due to technical issues I missed tracking 6/24/13, so there'll be a hole in the data there. I also missed 6/21/13, but that's just my fault! Nobody to blame but myself... Due to some loose screw in my head, I'll be trying the Windows 8.1 preview, so if my computer blows up and there's no reporting? That might be why. In the meantime...

Greetings one and all! By now I hope you've heard about the Dilithium Mine Outpost . I've personally not had a chance to check it out, but it should be an interesting new addition to the game. Looks like we can all read up together, perhaps :) I should also mention I'm debating the value of the By The Day chart. Right now its so cluttered its really hard to glean a whole lot of insight! Reducing it from 8 weeks to 4 weeks, however, doesn't seem to provide enough. I'll be pondering this, but if any of you Excel fiends out there have some advice, I'd love to hear it. Any now for the charts!

Steady as she goes! The Legacy of Romulus has launched over a week ago, and folks seem to be enjoying themselves. My friends are thrilled with the new content, but it seems the post-update jitters are still there with the servers. Hopefully they'll be fixed soon, so it'll be smooth sailing from here on out

   And we have Romulans! First off, I'd like to welcome anybody who is getting into Star Trek Online with the launch of The Legacy of Romulus. Its a great game, a fun community, and one of the best MMOs out there if you're looking for something different than the norm. Secondly, I'd like to apologize! For whatever reason I didn't log yesterday's data! Eeek! I think I did, but either I forgot to save or my brain stopped working. Regardless, here comes the data!

Cryptic’s newest game, Neverwinter, is currently in open beta. Based on Dungeons & Dragons, it takes place in a fantastic fantasy world, with an action-based combat system, a mix of overworld and instancing, and is currently diverting my gameplay time away from Star Trek Online. One of the similarities between Neverwinter and its siblings is that it has a time-based currency that can be bought and sold with Zen. Much like Questionite and Dilithium, Astral Diamonds are awarded in-game and can be used to purchase things, including Zen. Of course, right now the economy is just starting, there’s precious little in the shop, and the number of people playing is relatively low.

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 +...

Another eventful week. If you've been in the market to buy Dilithium with your Zen, this has probably been a fantastic time for you, relatively speaking. While we've not hit the same levels seen last year, its definitely a possibility at this point. If you're selling Dilithium? Its still a pro-Dilithium market, in my opinion, and I've been cheerfully selling at current prices. The Z:D rate has been steadily climbing, while the top 10 offers remain relatively low in volume. I'm still holding to the theory that the big Zen spenders who are willing to pay a premium on their Dilithium are not active in the market right now, opting to wait for The Legacy of Romulus. There was a massive drop in trading after the announcement on March 21st. It did start to recover, but then something else happened.

Looks like trading is back to normal, but wow! Z:D is at a relative high, still hovering around 1:100. Its dipped below 1:100 around the end of March, but that’s about it. Right now people buying offering to buy Dilithium is really driving traffic, though. If you go by Wednesday’s sampling, there’s 635,877 Zen difference between the top 5 pools to buy Dilithium and the top 5 for buying Zen (so, $6,358.77).

Looks like the Dilithium Exchange is trying to get back to normal after a big drop last week! Wow! Trepidation over what the surprise announcement really put a damper on trading. Of course, it wouldn’t have been so impressive if not for the relative high volume we’ve been experiencing as of late. It’ll be interesting to see how things go while the new update is in testing. Starting this week, provided I don’t screw it up somehow, I’ll be cross-posting on Priority One’s website . It’s a great opportunity, and I’m looking forward to seeing where this goes. Of course, the day I need to work on everything is the day Live Writer/Blogger go weird on me... ah well. And now, on to the data!

I’ve had a great week off from work! I got to play paintball on two different days at Maui Paintball , got to see my visiting sister, and generally just relaxed! I won’t be playing again until the end of April, but it’ll be in a charity tournament to benefit the Wounded Warrior Project. So, er, yeah, I’ll need to get in better shape in the next month... A very awesome surprise is I got to chat with Tony from Priority One Podcast . So, tentatively speaking, you’ll hear me on the April 1st show next week! Anyhow, Zen and Dilithium trading has really dropped since the Legacy of Romulus announcement. The Z:D ratio has been going up as well, and we’re over 1:100 again for the first time in a while. I suspect there’s a good number of players who aren’t participating in the market right now, opting to wait for LoR to come out. Now, are they saving up their Dilithium and Zen? Are they taking a break? I really don’t know, and I suspect your guess is as good as mine. Anyhow, now for the rest...

I recently bought Privateer Press’ Formula P3 Modeling & Painting Vol. 1: Core Techniques . As a relative new comer to painting miniatures, I felt it’d be a helpful introduction for me. They had a nice little sample, which gave me some nice ideas, plus a helpful trick for painting gold metal. I went ahead and ordered it. Since I’m watching this a bit at a time, as not to be overwhelmed, I thought I’d share my thoughts as they came.

A shadow looms. What is it? Well, I’ll find out in about 6 hours as of this writing. Okay, no I won’t, I’ll be asleep. But, the sharp drop in trade volume today is almost certainly because of it. Something’s coming, and I’m assuming people are holding onto their Zen and Dilithium until they know what it is. This is definitely a relative high for Z:D. It hasn’t been to 1:99 since December, really. Its still an amazing rate for people buying Zen with Dilithium, but if you want to buy Dilithium? This is a better time than its been in a while. Of course, by the time you read this, everything may have changed. Now, the charts:

Sorry its late; been sick the past few days. Back to bed after this! 1/7/2013 89 90 95 90 89   88 1/14/2013 88 88 87 87 85 85 84 1/21/2013 84 87 90       92 1/28/2013 94 94 92 91 89 89 90 2/4/2013 90 91 91 91 92 91 91 2/11/2013 91 92 91 91 90   90 2/18/2013 90 92 94   91 90   2/25/2013 91 91 90     88 88 3/3/2013 89 89 89 90        

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.

Onward and upward, I reckon? It seems there’s a lot more Dilithium and Zen trading hands than I’ve seen in a while. That said, it also seems that the Z:D ratio' of being under 1:100 is pretty much the new norm. I figure with people getting to where they want to be in the Reputation system, they’re using their Omega and Romulan Marks to buy Dilithium to sell or use for Fleet projects. So, why is the price not really going adjusting much? Seems that people are willing to pay the higher prices for Dilithium, and sellers are more than happy to sell at that price per Zen.

More playing with numbers! Sometimes I feel like an old druid or something, looking at numerical guts in an attempt to predict the future. Well, not quite. More like looking at the data, all spilled out on the floor, going, “Well, that’s interesting.” Average Z:D Average Buying Zen volume Average Buying Dilithium volume Average Buying Total Voume So, what can we see here? I’ll go ahead and say that this is almost like a Rorschach test due to the lack of better information. I’ve never made it a secret that my way of getting data is limited, and is at best the tip of the iceberg. We can’t see the successful transactions, nor can we get a full picture of offerings (ie, entire the 1:25 to 1:500 range). That said, I think we can say that trading seems to be up, with more offerings being up on the board than before. Now, whether that means the number of successful transactions is up or not is impossible to tell, simply because when the Exchange updates itself, you only...

Well, I think its safe to say whatever rut we saw pre- and post- Season 7 is over, at least for trading volume. Wow. How long will it last? Not a clue. But, overall, it seems there’s a lot of people buying and selling Dilithium (although there’s a sharp dip recently – wonder if I messed up recording a number?).

Happy Valentine’s Day! This time of year I’d normally be complaining that City of Heroes was rerunning the same event as last year, and that Halloween plus Christmas got all the developer love. sigh Can’t do that anymore. So, be sure to enjoy your games, whatever they are, while they’re still around. Anyhow, enough of that, and onto the data!