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What is overall purpose of the Lock Box and Master Key objects

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
This article is about the merits of the recently added lock boxes and master keys. I chose the Star Trek Online Discussion as the place to post this article because it is mainly a opinion article. Also, it is a philosophical argument.

[Personal Opinion]

I do not understand the purpose of the lock boxes and master key. The way I see it, a player goes out into the game and discovers these boxes after overcoming some objective. Then the player must go to the C-store and purchase a key to unlock the boxes. The purchase must be in the form of C-points, but the player can pay real money to get a key, which cost 100 C-Points, or the player can labor in the game for the dilithium to purchase c-points.

Currently, the conversion factor is 225 Dil for 1 c-point. C-points cost the player $6.25 US Dollars to purchase for 500 c-points.
So the math is:

6.25 Dollars/500 c-points = 0.0125

So 100 c-points for a key means:

(100 * 0.0125) = 1.25 US Dollars per key or a 10 pack of keys is 900 c-points which is:

(900 * 0.0125) = 11.25 US Dollars

So, if we generate dilithium to make the purchase that means:

(225 Dil * 100) = 22,500 dil (it takes me about two days of play time to generate 22,500 dil).

So, a ten pack means a player will have to labor for:

(225 Dil * 900) = 202,500 or 202,500/11,250 = 18 days of labor
This of course assumes the price of dilithium stays at 225 dil per c-point.

[Philosophical Note]

I question the merit of this system.

Why?

The player has already paid to get into the game. So the paying player has to then pay an additional fee on top of the $14.99 US Dollars they paid to get into the amusement park.

Doesn't the additional payment nullify the reward for playing?

The player went on a mission and overcame the objective and for their labor and time they now have the honor of paying to see what they won. On top of this, there is no guarantee what the player will receive.

My own personal experience in the game thus far is, I paid 200 c-points and received two items I already had and could not have more than two of.

200 c-points is (200 * 0.0125) = 2.50 US Dollars. And received two items I had purchased previously from the c-store.


To me, this seems shady. On top of paying twice for two items I already purchased from before, that cost more from the previous time, the two items I have now I cannot use.

To me this seems like shenanigans.

I was inspired to avoid this money sink.

Thank you
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