In
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/sto">
style="">Star Trek Online
players can buy and sell their wares from a central location without
having to
set up their own shop. The convenience is nice, but the auction-style
exchange
in Star Trek Online
is one of the game
systems that wasn’t fully cooked before it left the kitchen.
It
works, and
people can buy and sell, but the system itself could use a few
refinements. The
mechanics plus the fact that it takes a while for player exchanges to
start
building up inventory makes the exchange a late bloomer. It took a
while for
the Exchange to start filling up with useful items, but it is
encroaching on
critical mass for the low to mid-level items.
style="">
Let’s review how to
get our hands on those items.
The
Exchange is located in the Earth Starbase in
the Sol
System at approximately the 10 o’clock position (if you look
at
the Starbase as
a clock face).
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Upon
first opening up the exchange, the page is
empty yet
doors open to thousands of items, it is like going to Walmart online,
what the
heck do you look for first? Are we buying or selling? Let’s
take
a look at
buying first, we’re all about gathering loot right? Buying is
a
simple process,
shopping on the other hand can be somewhat cumbersome with the current
incarnation
of the exchange. Since there is nothing on the
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/81742">Engineering
Report
though, we
will likely be using the exchange in this way for quite some time. Back
on
target, and buying your first item.
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style="">Let’s Go Shopping.
Sorting
through the morass of the exchange is key
to finding
what you’re looking for in terms of gear and items. There are
two
mechanics
provided for helping ease the shopping, filters and categories. Using
the only
two filtering adjusters will allow players to shop for items within a
specific
rank (Ensign up through Admiral) or rarity (common through very rare).
The
categories help pare down the items that fit specific slots in the game
(Personal Weapons, Ship Weapons, Bridge Officers, etc.).
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If by
chance you know exactly what you are looking
for or
can put a few key words into the Search box, the results will be much
more
relevant. One note of interest, the search button (and page button for
thumbing
through the search results) can only be used every five seconds.
I’m sure this
is an anti-pricing compiler and it isn’t a huge nuisance
while
shopping, just
sort of odd at times.
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Once
the search parameters are set and search
results pop
up, it’s time to go shopping. The prices are still all over
the
map, so it’s
too early to start any economic discussions on supply and demand. Shop
smartly
though, there are some decent bargains to be had in addition to ways to
waste a
lot of credits. After finding that perfect item and hitting the
“Buy” button,
the item will show up in your inventory immediately. No mailbox racing
in this
game.
There
is really only one tip for buying, search
long and
hard. There is currently no way to filter search results by price or
quality so
everyone has to dive into the dumpster and look.
style="">Selling the family
jewels.
Selling
is much more stressful because there are a
few
gotcha’s that can bite you if you’re not careful.
The
selling mechanic itself
is easy enough, open the Sell window in the exchange and drag an item
from your
inventory, then set a price. Easy peasy.
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The
pitfalls are in the fact that exchange
auctions have no
set time limit or pricing options, it’s one price fits all.
At
first it may
appear that items in the exchange sale bin can’t be removed,
but
thankfully
there is a “Remove Lot” button that allows players
to take
the items back off
the exchange. The price set is the only price for the item, there is
currently
no way to set a starting type price. This makes it less an auction and
more of
a take it or leave it at the posted rate mobster exchange.
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style="">Major issue incoming.
There
is no fee for putting an item up for
auction. This
plus the lack of a time limit on auction means that the auction house
appears
to be an extension of the bank. If I put up an item for a billion
credits,
nobody is going to buy it. So it will be waiting for me when I get
back. It’s
nice for people that are out of bank space, but horrible for those of
us doing
some shopping. Cryptic needs to figure out a fix for this soon or the
exchange
will be completely unusable.
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style="">Go for a test ride.
The
Exchange is a nice tool that needs some
refinement, but
definitely worth checking out. There may be some deals in there just
waiting
for you. Good luck and happy hunting in the player stocked auction
exchange.
It’s free to shop, what have you got to lose?
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Star Trek Online Game Page.
