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Path to F2P Dev Blog #5

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
edited November 2011 in Galactic News Network [PC]
Stephen talks about the upcoming test of the C-Store on Tribble, and how you can participate, in the latest Dev Blog along the Path to F2P.

Link to the Full Article
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  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    The other way to get Test Points will be to buy Cryptic Points.

    Of course :rolleyes:
    Why would you want Test Points? Well, because during the test period on Tribble, we are going to be releasing some new starships and other goodies on the C-Store. In order to try them out, you'll need to buy them with your Test Points.

    Until today the process was:
    • Put new items on tribble
    • Have people test them
    • Ignore feedback

    I hadn't even considered that you might be able to make your testing process worse. Well, congratulations for surprising me again. The new process is:
    • Put new items on tribble
    • Make people pay to test them
    • Ignore feedback

    The more you try to mindlessly wring profits, the more you hurt the game. And eventually that will hurt Cryptic, if it hasn't already. I guess we'll see when Neverwinter comes out how much negative mind-share you guys have amassed.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    As long as you have a Character on tribble you'll get test points. It doesn't say you have to be logged in. it just says you need a character.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    StormShade wrote:
    Stephen talks about the upcoming test of the C-Store on Tribble, and how you can participate, in the latest Dev Blog along the Path to F2P.

    Link to the Full Article
    So If I buy some C-Points *Right NOW*, I'll get an equal amount on Tribble? If so, I may do that, I've been wanting to buy a few things (on Holodeck, that is).
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    Will the tribble C-store reflect the new prices you guys have been saying you'd be adjusting? and will things we have already purchased on holodeck be unlocked?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    In the future, after F2P is live, will we once again be able to test new ships for free, or are we going to have to pay for new C-store credits to get the 'test' credits to try new ships?

    once again...the question is not for now, but.... After F2P is live.

    In other-words...

    Will paying money to Cryptic for the privilege of finding and reporting the bugs in their new stuff be the norm once F2P is live?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    NOT cool, I alraedy paid 18 months up front to beta test. :mad:
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    So you want me to pay to test your stuff? Ha! Ha! Ha!

    The only thing I'll be spending my money on is a pre-order for a new game.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    Ahnzoog wrote: »
    In the future, after F2P is live, will we once again be able to test new ships for free, or are we going to have to pay for new C-store credits to get the 'test' credits to try new ships?

    once again...the question is not for now, but.... After F2P is live.

    In other-words...

    Will paying money to Cryptic for the privilege of finding and reporting the bugs in their new stuff be the norm once F2P is live?
    You're not paying them to test. You're paying them for their currency to use on Holodeck, which also grants you a limited form of test currency so they can figure out good pricing on items, and what items to actually put up.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    I am sure that some of you are probably balking at the second way to get Test Points. The reason we are making this an option is because we want to find out what C-Store items you value most and we cannot get that information by giving out free and unlimited Test Points.

    Unlimited? No. Free? Yes. Even if you give people free points, as long as they are limited then what they actually spend them on will show you what they value. I'm sorry but that explanation doesnt really make sense, and it just sounds like a wacky way to get people to spend money testing.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    Well...glad the Cstore will be opened.
    Will we finally be able to use the stuff we've already paid for on Holodeck?
    And I hope they give a lot of test points, I've got over 4K on Holodeck and the chance of me buying more right now is out of the question.
    Especially just to fly a unknown ship on the test server.
    Seems to me a much smarter approach would be to let testers fly new ships on Tribble for free, that may encourage more to buy them on Holodeck. ;)
    And that is what they want, right?
    Certainly worked on me with the Grumba and the Vor'Kang...I only bought them after being able to fly them for a while as an "Experimental ships" on Tribble.
    Otherwise, I might not have bought them, especially the Grumba since it's the most expensive ship for the KDF in the C-store.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    Grox wrote: »
    So you want me to pay to test your stuff? Ha! Ha! Ha!

    Actually, if you are paying for a sub, you are already paying them to test stuff...think about it...;)
    No one's forcing players to play on Tribble, if you don't want to, then don't.
    But then, you miss out on the possible rewards given to those that do.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    Paying to test, as an option is breath taking. Especially when it may be the case were your free test point awards can't afford the new ships on test.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    Actually, if you are paying for a sub, you are already paying them to test stuff...think about it...;)
    No one's forcing players to play on Tribble, if you don't want to, then don't.
    But then, you miss out on the possible rewards given to those that do.

    You also have to wait even longer to try out things like the Doff system which would have been on live a long time ago.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    nynik wrote:
    Paying to test, as an option is breath taking. Especially when it may be the case were your free test point awards can't afford the new ships on test.
    They didn't say the free ones wouldn't be enough. What they're trying to do is to see how much people would be willing to buy, in an absolute sense. The only way to do that is to have a limited amount of currency given out in a manner such that not everybody will do it. They figured attaching Test points to Real C-Points would be a good way of doing it.

    Think about it this way: Say there's a lot of TRIBBLE you want to buy on Tribble. You go buy real c-points. When F2P launch comes around, you could have saved your real C-Points to buy all that stuff for real.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    Opening up the C-Store is all well and good. However, you won't see this tester plopping down real-world money for "test points".

    I do, however, have one teeny-tiny question. Will the unlocks that we have on Holodeck be transferred to Tribble? I really miss a lot of my cool shinies that I have taken for granted on the live server.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    You're not paying them to test. You're paying them for their currency to use on Holodeck, which also grants you a limited form of test currency so they can figure out good pricing on items, and what items to actually put up.

    Note, that I did say that I don't mean now... as I can see the value for them in terms of pricing correctly.

    Also, I have already purchased nearly everything there is to buy Fed side on the C-store. So, for someone like me, that's gotten nearly everything, I have no reason to buy more c-store points at this time, other than to do the work of testing for them.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    What exactly is my incentive for buying c-points and getting utterly useless test points ? If you want to know what people buy or not make a poll (ingame)... :confused:
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    Well lets face it chances are most of us are going to have to buy more Cstore points in the near future. even the 400 montly point bounus is never going to score you all the new ships and stuff that is going to be pumped out of the Cstore when F2P rolls around.

    I say bite the bullet now and buy your Cstore points for use on holodeck. You'll then get bounus points to spend in tribble and buy some XP boosters to help make the grind to level 51 easeier.

    I doubt we'll ever see a 20% discount on Cstore points ever again so you might as well buy the points now.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    Ashur1 wrote:
    What exactly is my incentive for buying c-points and getting utterly useless test points ? If you want to know what people buy or not make a poll (ingame)... :confused:
    A poll does not capture the allocation of limited resources, which is the type of data they need for testing the C-Store.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    Kingdox wrote: »
    Well lets face it chances are most of us are going to have to buy more Cstore points in the near future. even the 400 montly point bounus is never going to score you all the new ships and stuff that is going to be pumped out of the Cstore when F2P rolls around.

    I say bite the bullet now and buy your Cstore points for use on holodeck. You'll then get bounus points to spend in tribble and buy some XP boosters to help make the grind to level 51 easeier.

    I doubt we'll ever see a 20% discount on Cstore points ever again so you might as well buy the points now.

    What grind ? They throw xp at you on Tribble like the world is going to end soon. :p
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    Kingdox wrote: »
    Well lets face it chances are most of us are going to have to buy more Cstore points in the near future. even the 400 montly point bounus is never going to score you all the new ships and stuff that is going to be pumped out of the Cstore when F2P rolls around.

    I say bite the bullet now and buy your Cstore points for use on holodeck. You'll then get bounus points to spend in tribble and buy some XP boosters to help make the grind to level 51 easeier.

    I doubt we'll ever see a 20% discount on Cstore points ever again so you might as well buy the points now.

    I don't follow the logic. Why "bite the bullet now" and purchase points that we MIGHT need in the future? Unless they give us one of those sales during the F2P beta test, nobody will be wanting to buy them JUST for the "test points".
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    The only reason I would buy C-Store Points would be to grab up more Duty Officers on Tribble. This also applies to any free points I'll be receiving. But, considering I have some points on Holodeck, I will not be buying points.

    I'd also like to note that I am not pleased with this and, in general, I've been tolerable with a majority of decisions made up to this point.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    How can I know what new goodies I´m gonna value the most if I haven´t tried them in the first place ? And how is limiting our testing abilities going to help the...well, testing ? :confused:
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    jam062307 wrote: »
    Will the tribble C-store reflect the new prices you guys have been saying you'd be adjusting? and will things we have already purchased on holodeck be unlocked?

    The price adjustments will be in. Some items will be missing from the store as we update them, but the vast majority will be there with pricing adjustments.

    You will not have previously purchased items from the C-Store in here.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    The price adjustments will be in. Some items will be missing from the store as we update them, but the vast majority will be there with pricing adjustments.

    You will not have previously purchased items from the C-Store in here.
    Will the Borg Boff be in there? I've been dying to get more Efficiency to boost my Emergency Power abilities.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    Unlimited? No. Free? Yes. Even if you give people free points, as long as they are limited then what they actually spend them on will show you what they value. I'm sorry but that explanation doesnt really make sense, and it just sounds like a wacky way to get people to spend money testing.

    We are giving people free points. There will be a stipend this week, and possibly more later. However, if you burn through your initial stipend you can get more just by purchasing standard C-Points, as many people already do.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    Unlimited? No. Free? Yes. Even if you give people free points, as long as they are limited then what they actually spend them on will show you what they value. I'm sorry but that explanation doesnt really make sense, and it just sounds like a wacky way to get people to spend money testing.

    I agree with this. They can find out want people want to try by limiting how people get test points and how much they get them. With the way they're doing it, it just sounds like they're trying to bring in more money.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    We are giving people free points. There will be a stipend this week, and possibly more later. However, if you burn through your initial stipend you can get more just by purchasing standard C-Points, as many people already do.

    Ok. That makes me feel a "little" better. I'll wait and see how much we get.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    bariman wrote: »
    I agree with this. They can find out want people want to try by limiting how people get test points and how much they get them. With the way they're doing it, it just sounds like they're trying to bring in more money.

    And on top of that for testing for bugs. :eek:
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2011
    The price adjustments will be in. Some items will be missing from the store as we update them, but the vast majority will be there with pricing adjustments.

    You will not have previously purchased items from the C-Store in here.

    why are some things we've purchased already unlocked, such as TNG and TOS series uniforms? Are these items going to be free once F2P launches?
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