The Other Wall |

ganondorf
Chief Security Officer

Posts: 102

The Other Wall Aug 7, 2014 6:36:07 GMT -8

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Post by ganondorf on Aug 7, 2014 6:36:07 GMT -8

We've been doing a tremendously good job at getting over the Dilithium Wall lately. You've all been awesome!

I'm making this post to get your ideas for how we might get over the OTHER wall - the Energy Credit Wall.

For starters, I've got two ideas (well, sort of three)

First, we could use the EC in the Bank in one of two ways... we could simply withdraw it all and use it to buy commodities at the cheapest possible price, which would mean going through Ryvaken (our resident Ferengi) to take advantage of his EC store discount. That'd be the simplest way.

Or, we could use the EC in the Bank as an incentive for donations, in a manner similar to the previous Zen contests - with the understanding that whoever wins would then use that EC to buy commodities and earn all of those Fleet Credits.

Second, stay with me now... we could run Ground STFEs. These now reward Plekton particles, and are the ONLY source for Plekton particles. As Crafting takes off and people will want the elite gear that's available, Plekton particles will come into high demand. In theory, those particles should leap up into the millions of EC. If we ran this as a fleet a few times in a night, we could (again, theoretically), earn several million EC in a night (while also earning dilithium, Omega marks, and probably accolades for at least a few of us).

Does anyone else have any other schemes in mind to earn massive amounts of EC to get over this wall? Let's hear it!

ganondorf
Chief Security Officer

Posts: 102

The Other Wall Aug 7, 2014 7:54:59 GMT -8

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Post by ganondorf on Aug 7, 2014 7:54:59 GMT -8

Having just read the notes for today's patch, another option may have presented itself...

It looks like "Tour the Galaxy" will reward an entire team for completion. I'm wondering, does that mean that we can split up and each cover some section of the galaxy? One takes Cardassian space, one Romulan, one Klingon, one Federation, and one Borg, for instance - and still get the 475K EC each? That might be worth looking into...

ryvaken
Cadet

Posts: 30

The Other Wall Aug 7, 2014 23:03:46 GMT -8

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Post by ryvaken on Aug 7, 2014 23:03:46 GMT -8

There's an EC wall?
...wow. Learn the Rules, guys, learn the Rules. 2, 3, 9, 12, 13, 18, 26, 29, 34, 35, 54, 82, 89, 111, 141, 177, and 284 are particularly relevant.

Right, basic EC earning tips. Tour the Galaxy is your biggest single payday but it's dull and tedious so screw that.

Story missions and patrols tend to have the best drop rate of white and green vendor trash. Running queue events drops a bit better, but not enough to make up for the loot split. Some of the Breen maps involve scanning freighters that award expensive tier commodities.

I'd skip the "pick up everything, sell everything" thing except not all selling is equal. In general, vendor sell tabs buy at 50% item value, replicator recycling buys at 40%. Device vendors (batteries and consumables) are the most common and reliable high-buying NPCs. That 10% can translate for a few thousand EC per item.
Prioritize critical space pieces. Even low quality shields, deflectors, engines, and cores sell higher than the best weapons and consoles. Some drops are commodities you can use directly, they're not very expensive but you get 100% of the value instead of half.

Duty officer assignments can return a good profit simply through massive numbers, but you'll get the best results from selling commodities. Federation space is usually good for that. On the flip side, sphere space has good assignments for buying the commodities at a discount. The dilithium mine assignment is worth a good 30k a day.

Daily and hourly reputation projects almost always award items more valuable than their EC cost.

Buying commodities from the replicator is a desperation move. If you're filling up fleet projects that way, you're paying 150 EC to the fleet credit. From a normal vendor, that's 100:1. From a discount vendor, 75:1. Without a high tier embassy we don't have a discount vendor for the commodities we need. In any case, with the bulk purchases we're looking at, that adds up fast. The replicator is not your friend.

As a reference, Ferengi buy at 80%, applied to all these ratios. 120:1 at the replicator, 80:1 at most vendors, 60:1 at the discount vendors. The embassy vendor only gives me 75:1 last I checked, more than a year ago.