As of the current version of Star Conflict the caches that are obtainable repeatedly throughout the day are only able to be accessed via Iridium which unlike the caches is not a farmable resource as a limited amount drops per day (with a slight extension to drops if you corporation owns one or more iridium sectors). The issue with this system however is that is creates a constantly draining resource pool for all players especially with some Iridium locked behind Spec Ops which can be impossible to complete for some players (the outcome of the Defiler raid is usually heavily dependent on Destroyers).
Currently the current cache system is very limiting and potentially punishing for players not in a corporation with constant access to an Iridium sector as the amount of Iridium yielded from a purple node is effected by the rank of the battle rather than the maximum rank of the player - potentially allowing for players to miss out on the chance to open a Zeta or Sigma cache completely if they achieved their first victories in rank 1-10 rather than rank 11+.
Suggested Change: The caches should be able to be accessed for credits with current drop rates and Iridium for slightly increased drop rates.
When a cache is first obtained it is shown in the store with two options for redemption:
Alpha cache
-100 Iridium with increased chance for rare components
-1500000 credits with standard drop rates
Beta cache
-150 Iridium with increased chance for rare components
-4250000 credits with standard drop rates
Gamma cache
-100 iridium with increased chance for rare blueprints
-3000000 credits with standard drop rates
Zeta cache
-200 Iridium with increased chance for rare components
-4750000 credits with standard drop rates
Sigma cache
-175 Iridium with increased chance for rare components
-3500000 credits with standard drop rates
Delta caches would also be exempt from this system typically to allow the “Dart” and “Gargoyle” ships to retain their rarity as a semi-premium ship.
Ellydium containers however should be altered entirely as the current version forces players to pay standards (and in turn forced to tolerate the trade system) or deal with intolerable drop rates in order to get specific special module components.
Suggested change: Include Unstable Crystal | Crystal Cascade | Entangled Shards | Crystal storage into a singular cache with varying drop rates. The cache itself should include only the special module components, cost 450 Iridium to access and only drop in trophy search when using Ellydium ships.
PvE players however would have a slight advantage however given the higher credit gain over PvP (further increased if you attempt to PvP in a destroyer which often results in a negative credit gain). As such the credit access cost should be reduced for victories in PvP to a maximum of 40% reduction (with the price reduction lasting for 1hr from the latest victory) to compensate for the lower credit gain in PvP. Gain reduction should be 5%/victory so as to not allow for the total reduction to be accessed with ease.
Notes:
I omitted specific drop rates from the cache access list as we do not have solid numbers for the “very rare, rare, uncommon and common” terms - so it would be useless to attempt to assume the drop rate and then alter it slightly to imply the alteration from Iridium access
I also realised after thinking of this that Koromac had posted a similar suggestion not long ago - however I deemed that the differences between the two suggestions were large enough to warrant for a separate post.