Ducats: My Tale Of Frustration, Hatred & Suggestion.

[Drasiel]

Ducat farming crushes my soul, due to inopportune play times, bad luck, and key/forma choked reward tables. I am aware of the better ways to farm for ducats, I don't need to be told, this is to hopefully make an awkward grindy system better.

 

The Background

 

When complaints about "nothing to do with useless prime parts" was common, so were a plethora of prime parts. Forma was rare, keys didn't drop, and prime parts rained like mana from heaven.

 

Then came drop changes, the addition of keys, the addition of fusion cores, the addition of credit caches (now since removed). It became more difficult to get prime parts.

 

Enter the Void trader. A place to finally do something cool with our backlog of prime parts! The community more or less rejoiced and prime parts were traded for ducats. Some of us quickly burned through our backlog of prime parts. Then came the ducat price adjustment: what used to be comfortably acquirable with a few visits to the void became a nightmarish slog as common components were reduced to 10, uncommons to 20, and rares to 50. Of course we the player didn't have any way before hand to know which prime part was which until a ducat sell list was compiled.

 

And so, myself being one of the players who burned through my excess primes early (at least the ones I was willing to part with) set out to halfheartedly seek primes in the void.

 

Playing Keys of the first or second rank seems to be a complete waste of time. Honestly I don't know how people even manage to get the prime parts from these keys, all I can get are more useless t1/t2 keys. Just for an example I spent 30 minutes in a t2 survival and ended up with 2 parts worth 10 ducats each. 30 minutes of time for 20 ducats does not a feeling of time well spent give.

 

Playing t3 keys seems to mostly result in forma, although the chances of getting a prime part are much better. It almost feels like a worthwhile amount of time spent to run these.

 

T4 keys seem to be the defacto place to go for prime parts. The chances of getting a rare prime part are much much better than any other key. Which is somewhat ironic considering how difficult it is to get any prime part at all in a t1 key.

 

So we are left with one key tier that is better by far than all the other tiers. It's the hardest tier, arguably intended for "endgame" players. One could argue that this is proper for the void trader since it's obviously and end game system. Except the void trader isn't an endgame system. Most of what he sells are cosmetics or weapon side grades.  Aside from prime mods everything else he sells is very much middle game type content, and as such should be accessed more easily from middle game content.

 

 

The Proposition

 

This is a suggestion that wouldn't need any adjustment at all in the void drop tables. It is simply to make all void unique material saleable.

 

1. Make argon tradeable to the void trader for 10 ducats. This is not something we can stock up ahead of time so is an excellent trading commodity. You could only prepare at most a day ahead of the void traders visit.

 

2. Make Forma Blueprints (only blueprints, not completed forma as then people could just buy forma in the market and sell for ducats) tradeable to the void trader for 10 ducats. Anyone who has spent a lot of time in the void currently or in the past normally has more than they could build in a years worth of time. This would make forma bps more valuable, help get them used up and out of player inventories, and as result maybe even help with forma sales in the market.

 

3. Bump up the common and uncommon prime part values to 20 and 30 respectively. Prime parts should always be more valuable than the other void detrius.

 

4. Allow keys to be sold to the void trader for 5 or 10 ducats each. That way we can go for the guaranteed low value, or run them for a higher chance of ducats. This might cause an issue with the fact that we can buy keys in the market, however keeping them at a very low value would likely discourage this kind of behaviour.

Edited May 30, 2015 by Drasiel

[Nah_NotReally]

I play casually and usually stay in T1 and T2 missions. How is it that I build up prime parts at a relaxed pace of play if there is such a problem with farming them?

Edited May 30, 2015 by Joenorthrup

[7grims]

The current ingame system is out of proportion.

We can sell parts and receive around 10 to 50 ducats.

Yet to acquire void trader items, we spend up to 300 ducats or more. (except on the cosmetics which have a way lower price)

And lets not forget, we also spend allot of credits buying those, with the additional credits price of maxing those prime mods later.

 

And yah, thats an awesome idea for argons :D

Edited May 30, 2015 by 7grims

[Drasiel]

I play casually and usually stay in T1 an T2 missions. How is it that I build up prime parts at a relaxed pace of play if there is such a problem with farming them?

 

Luck mostly. The drops are random, there will always be people who do better or worse than you. I can spend 4 hours running different void missions and get 1 or 2 actual void parts. I'm sure there are others who have completely the opposite experience.

[pauli133]

The current ingame system is out of proportion.

We can sell parts and receive around 10 to 50 ducats.

Yet to acquire void trader items, we spend up to 300 ducats or more. (except on the cosmetics which have a way lower price)

And lets not forget, we also spend allot of credits buying those, with the additional credits price of maxing those prime mods later.

that's how resource sinks work.

[7grims]

that's how resource sinks work.

 

Yah pretty soon will be all sinking in dept xD

[Tuuhea_Takasumu]

My personal experience has been that T4's are the crappiest place to get parts to sell, majority of time it's either cells or forma. Sabotage missions are the fastest ducats I've seen, any level.

[Drasiel]

that's how resource sinks work.

 

But it was a resource sink that was clearly designed under a previous drop table and feels like it was intended to clear out banks of prime parts. Right now if you run the void all the time, are just plain lucky, or still have a bank of prime parts the sink is laughably easy. If you don't it sucks worse than a starving leech.

[FelisImpurrator]

Actually, I just ended up running T2/T3 Sabotages (well, Sabotages in general, really) and some Mobile Defenses. T4 Sab is crap parts that only make up in sheer volume, a lot of other T4 drop tables seem crap for the effort:reward ratio, and until now I still cannot figure out how the common/uncommon/rare value is dictated.

 

I mean, every Odonata part is thirty ducats. A lot of T4-only drops, like Nyx Systems, are worthless ten ducat items. How does this work? Does anyone have the drop table this was based on anywhere?

 

But it was a resource sink that was clearly designed under a previous drop table and feels like it was intended to clear out banks of prime parts. Right now if you run the void all the time, are just plain lucky, or still have a bank of prime parts the sink is laughably easy. If you don't it sucks worse than a starving leech.

I do agree that, like certain other things (alert rewards, hello), it feels like it was designed for an old drop table and has just fallen drastically behind the current state of the game.

[Countess_Hapmuhr]

I would complain about the ducat prices, the void being filled with junk now and all that, but I'm honestly trying to get the Skana, so I don't have the time.

Edit:

Agh, finally got lucky and got enough ducats for the Skana. So here is a longer version:

The prices are too high and the RNG is too random. I've been away for quite some time, so having tried all tiers of towers now, I can safely say that DE has added so much junk into them. To run T4 survival and get three orokin cells is a joke. Or getting a forma for that matter. T4 is serious business and requires end-game gear, yet the rewards don't seem to reflect that. Just getting 10 ducat stuff from a T4 is an insult in itself.

What I think DE needs to do is either:

1) Adjust void trader prices so that more people than those with T4 keys can reasonably bang out the ducats for at least one of the expensive items.

2) Adjust the ducat rewards for blueprints so that the rewards match the tiers better.

3) Keep the void trader available for a whole week, giving anyone else than no-lifers a shot at farming it.

Edited May 30, 2015 by Hap-muhr

[VampirePirate]

Ducat farming crushes my soul, due to inopportune play times, bad luck, and key/forma choked reward tables. I am aware of the better ways to farm for ducats, I don't need to be told, this is to hopefully make an awkward grindy system better.

 

The Background

I stopped reading right here.   I don't have a problem because I get what I need just by playing casually (no grinding) or by helping others.  I seem to always have enough parts to trade for ducats and well prepared for when the trader comes.  My only advice is, plan ahead and get all your stuff to trade for ducats long before the trader comes.  That way, when he does come, you will be ready.

[(PSN)DanteVincent]

Got 7k myself and i barely play void anymore, 1 T4D per day.

 

I fail to see the issue.

 

You bring up other valid points though like forma bps.

[Drasiel]

I stopped reading right here.   I don't have a problem because I get what I need just by playing casually (no grinding) or by helping others.  I seem to always have enough parts to trade for ducats and well prepared for when the trader comes.  My only advice is, plan ahead and get all your stuff to trade for ducats long before the trader comes.  That way, when he does come, you will be ready.

 

It's great that you don't have a problem. That doesn't mean that others don't. I have played the void both casually and grindingly since U7 and watched the void slowly become the only focus for long term players because it has some of the best affinity, the best rewards, the best credits, and now the void trader. I hate that tileset I have played it so much. I don't want to play it everyday. I should be able to dedicate a solid time to grind the components for ducats in a day or two.

 

Just so you know what I mean by casual:

 

If you spend 30 (dedicated, nothing else) minutes in the void every day of the week prior to the void trader showing up you should be able to accrue enough ducats for inventory. That would be 7 straight hours of void if you wanted to do it all at once. Seem reasonable? Because right now you can't do that. It's all dependent on luck. 

 

So what do you mean by casual Vampire pirate? Is it an hour in the void a day? Two? Because that's about what a "casual" player can often have as their entire play session for a day. 

[Taranis49]

Actually, I just ended up running T2/T3 Sabotages (well, Sabotages in general, really) and some Mobile Defenses. T4 Sab is crap parts that only make up in sheer volume, a lot of other T4 drop tables seem crap for the effort:reward ratio, and until now I still cannot figure out how the common/uncommon/rare value is dictated.

 

I mean, every Odonata part is thirty ducats. A lot of T4-only drops, like Nyx Systems, are worthless ten ducat items. How does this work? Does anyone have the drop table this was based on anywhere?

 

I do agree that, like certain other things (alert rewards, hello), it feels like it was designed for an old drop table and has just fallen drastically behind the current state of the game.

 

It gets even worse when some prime frame parts have arbitrary values between just the BP or if the part's actually built. Case in point:

 

 

The aforementioned Nyx systems go up in value to 50 if built, whereas the value of others like the Frost Prime chassis don't change. It's not even consistent with parts from the same frame sometimes.

[FelisImpurrator]

It gets even worse when some prime frame parts have arbitrary values between just the BP or if the part's actually built. Case in point:

 

 

 

The aforementioned Nyx systems go up in value to 50 if built, whereas the value of others like the Frost Prime chassis don't change. It's not even consistent with parts from the same frame sometimes.

Wait, what? Junk Nyx systems go up to 50 built?

 

That makes me think Nyx Systems at 10 is a bug. An old one. Since every Nyx part is worth 50.

 

(Although, why is Nyx in particular the only warframe to be comprised entirely of 50 ducat parts, then? Loki and Nova are more valuable at this point, if I remember my prices correctly, but they have crap ducat pieces that stay crap.)

[Grulos]

Forma bp is the worst thing you can get from the void (along with orokin cells). 10 or 20 ducats per forma blueprint is good.