Also, those "Tholian Lockboxes". Valuable to someone else in any way, or worthless trash clogging inventory space?
That's something I'm wondering as well, since they basically cost $1.25 in "real" money to open each one. I've only been playing for a week and I've already got almost 100 of these things.
Also...anyone have any pointers on the best way to collect more DOFFs, outside of buying them on the Exchange or sending lots of money to Cryptic for DOFF packs? I've been looking at the fleet projects that Vaarna has going, trying to see where I can contribute, and I've noticed almost all of them need DOFFs.
Tholian Lockboxes are gambling, plain and simple. You might get lucky and get a Tholian ship, which you can use or sell for big bucks on the Exchange. Most likely you'll get crap or something you could just buy with credits from the Exchange (due to the high demand for the Tholian ships, the prices on the Subspace Jumper consoles and other cool stuff are around 1 mil now). Generally you need to think in terms of Master Keys, since those are what sets the Zen:Credits ratios in the game (last time I checked 125 Zen Master Key is 1.7 million credits). So, generally just scrap the boxes.
As for DOFFs, here's how it goes:
1) The classic method is to go to Starfleet Academy and take the Recruitment assignments there. These have a ~3 day cooldown (IRL time like all doff things). The main NPC for this is the Personnel Officer, who is on the other end of the booth with catman (the Commendation contact) in the small circular building on the upper edge of the map. She will give you 5 assignments, one for a Junion Duty Officer Pack, and four that give 2 doffs in the dual category (Tactical, Engineering, Science and Civilian) the assignment covers. In addition to the Personnel Officer, there are three Cultural Exchange contacts around the Academy who give a random doff of a specific species: Andorian, Tellarite (these two are arguing behind the circular building) and Vulcan (she's found at the central park).
All four NPCs can provide Reassignment, with the Cultural Exchange contacts giving only doffs of their species in return.
2) Earn Fleet Marks and use them to contribute to the Starbase. This is the fastest way to get Fleet Credits, but you can also buy commodities from vendors (list in the wiki, they all sell the commodities for half the replicator price) and contribute Dilithium (and doffs). When you have enough Fleet Credits, you can buy doffs at the Starbase (currently you can buy random white and green quality doffs, and random white quality Engineering/Operations doffs), with prices starting at 500 Fleet Credits.
The Exchange comes in for selling and buying high caliber purple doffs you either need or don't need. Normally your primary source of Purple doffs without dilithium is to complete assignment chain, specifically Colonization chains (completion gives specific Blue doff, critical success in the repeated Support Colonization Efforts assignment unlocked afterwards gives a specific Purple doff that can be acquired multiple times).
