Sam on Maui

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!

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.

On the official boards I've seen a number of requests to make life easier for small fleets to advance in the Fleet system. Now, looking at the fact that the size of a fleet doesn't directly correlate to the amount of people (the fleet I'm in is small, has a high number of contributors, and is pretty high up there, or so I'm told)? The problem isn't the size of the fleet! Its the number of people pitching in. Anyhow, this is my suggestion from off the boards.   If you look at Dave Ramsey's recommendation for getting rid of debt, he uses what is called the Snowball Method.  He admits it isn't ideal mathematically, however, its easy to understand and it works for people mentally. This idea, this mentality, works for exercise and fitness goals, weight loss, etc. Have a plan, go one step at a time, and you'll get there.  That's the problem with the current system - you're presented with these large, gargantuan projects that can be summed up wi...

Well, as an encouraging sign, the total volume seems to be doing pretty well these days!  In fact, it looks like we had a high point just a few days ago, but it didn’t seem to be a fluke so much as just a high point. Certainly, its not anomalously high. Offers to buy sell Dilithium seem to be up as well, but I don’t know if that’s because there’s more Dilithium to go around, or because folks are trying to get the price back down.

I’ve recently been wondering about how the market has been doing. Its all well and good to look at charts, but sometimes it’s a bit much to take in at once. So, I decided to break my combined chart down into its independent pieces. I also put in a line with the average over the measured period. While not exactly a baseline, its still a useful thing to see. So, as such, we’ll be looking at: Zen:Dilithium Exchange Rate Top 5 trading pools for buying Zen volume Top 5 trading pools for buying Dilithium volume Top 10 trading pools volume We’ll be covering the period from September 19, 2012 until February 2, 2013.

First off, let me apologize for missing a few days recently. In the general scheme of things, it should be okay since I’m more trying to track trends than anything else, but I’m still disappointed with myself. I’ve got my desktop back up and running, though, so hopefully everything will back to normal soon.

Just data today, folks!

Sadly, I missed Sunday, January 6th. So, there’s a data point missing. I do apologize for that! Anyhow, school is presumably back in session, the holidays are over, and there’s a little rise in the Z:D rate. Anyhow, here’s the data!

Goodness gracious, the market was the pits over New Years! karst was kind enough to point out that Z:D got as low as 1:87 on December 29th . Of course, if folks are having fun doing other things, I’m certainly not going to complain! I’ve been taking a break from playing Star Trek Online; got up to the Adamantine League in Playdom’s Avenger’s Alliance, got some excellent deals on Steam and Xbox Live Arcade, taking trips to Barnes & Noble, etc. But, you didn’t come here to listen to me blather, so without further ado...

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.

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!

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!

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...

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.

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 Mo...

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 pr...

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.