Eh? Wasn't the overwhelming feedback a resounding no to lock boxes?
Wasn't the DOFF packs a better deal?
What exactly are you thanking Cryptic and the team for? For not giving you the odds on getting a ship, but allowing you to spend money trying to get one?
Shesh, way to eden man, way to eden...
In my opinion the lockboxes are a good thing. Their implementation needed improvement, and that's exactly what is happening.
DOFF packs? No, not really. My doffs were mostly purple anyway and I didn't really want to buy more DOFF slots. I only bought about 10 DOFF packs, although I was lucky and got three Jem'Hadar ships.
Yes, I'm thanking Cryptic for a service that I appreciate. I've been very lucky with dropboxes. Using the Jem'Hadars and D'Koras I picked up from the dropboxes I've been playing the exchange and now have a multiples of every lockbox ship. I appreciate a system that allows you to accomplish a task many ways, as this one does.
i'm definitely not supporting this lock box. they said they would never put faction ships in the lock box, but they just did with new skins wtf. i don't see anything in here for me. wtf cryptic.
Wasn't the plan at some point to allow players to open up a mystery box and find one of the many different lock boxes that have been available?
Those mystery boxes have thus far been pretty much completely useless to most players and those players that realise that many players don't understand how a mystery box works, well they make a pretty penny on the exchange.
They're probably working on it as we speak. And like I told another poster, the people who made these lockboxes aren't the same people who fix game issues.
The fact it's taking this long tells me they'll fix a bunch of them at once (or at least try to), on Thursday, which is their normal patch day.
Im really hoping for Thursday, because fleets will start hitting the first tier or upgrades any time now. I know I am a one-man (two account, 5 fed char) fleet and I will hit the MilXP for T1 shipyard by Thursday. Then comes upgrade to Base Tier1. That takes some serious resources. The ungrinder and CXp turn in would be very helpful.
I am disappointed in the newer C-Store. Anyone notice that the ship variants that add more components are gone. More than a little frustrating.
I feel forgotten by Cryptic. Namely, I start new characters. My latest "Main" is such a character. There is *NO* way for him to get the Jem Hadar Bug, Galor class ship, or other earlier rewards.
I would suggest that there be no gold boxes dropping from enemies anymore. They never showed up anyway. Instead, have all gold boxes available in the dilitium store or from STFs, etc. I don't want a box that could give me a plain or gold. If I am spending EDCs or Dill, give me the gold one. Additionally, No more removing *any* purchases from the ZEN store. Zero, none, nadda. In digital distribution, there is almost no cost to keeping it there anyway.
P.S. Despite the transition to ZEN, the game still calls the store the C-Store.
The lock boxes should be made common quality, that way we don't have to roll on them constantly during STF/Fleet missions. They would be way less annoying that way.
Yes. However, I wanted to let folks know that we made a small alteration to the loot quality with this box.
Instead of being flagged as Uncommon/Green, the Tholian Lock Box will be Common/White in quality. Since default loot threshold in teams is Uncommon, this should allow them to not get caught in the Need/Greed/Pass window in most group encounters. Just make sure that your team leader sets the loot threshold appropriately.
If you don't roll on batteries, you won't roll on Lock Boxes.
And just to reiterate BranFlakes' earlier statement, there will be no "Gold" boxes this time around. At this time, we have no intention of introducing them, either.
Translation:
"We've datamined that 9 out of 10 players always 'Pass' on any lockbox drops; and the 9 that do are very, very annoyed at having to click 'Pass' during combat. Thus we've just decided to throw them in your inventory and take up space until you decide to go and use them or manually delete them."
Formerly known as Armsman from June 2008 to June 20, 2012 PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
"We've datamined that 9 out of 10 players always 'Pass' on any lockbox drops; and the 9 that do are very, very annoyed at having to click 'Pass' during combat. Thus we've just decided to throw them in your inventory and take up space until you decide to go and use them or manually delete them."
Yup. Oh well. Not a problem...until they sneakily remove the ability to delete the entire stack with one click.
I am disappointed in the newer C-Store. Anyone notice that the ship variants that add more components are gone. More than a little frustrating.
I feel forgotten by Cryptic. Namely, I start new characters. My latest "Main" is such a character. There is *NO* way for him to get the Jem Hadar Bug, Galor class ship, or other earlier rewards.
I'm not sure what you mean about not getting ship variants in the C-Store. I can see all the one I didn't buy just fine.
Also, Jem'Hadar, Galor, D'Kora and Tuffli are all purchasable in exchange.
The lock boxes should be made common quality, that way we don't have to roll on them constantly during STF/Fleet missions. They would be way less annoying that way.
I think they are common in regards to the need/greed system.
I wonder how many people will forget to reove the super tholian heat gas stuff from the ships.
i really thought that the fact that these ships were not even designed for use by carbon based life forms would be enough for them not to try to lock box them. like, the entire interior would have to be rebuilt for it to even be usable. the interior is built for spiders, and the environmental conditions are built for providing the opposite of optimal for humanoids. it would make more sense to try to make a unidine bioship usable for players.
i really thought that the fact that these ships were not even designed for use by carbon based life forms would be enough for them not to try to lock box them. like, the entire interior would have to be rebuilt for it to even be usable. the interior is built for spiders, and the environmental conditions are built for providing the opposite of optimal for humanoids. it would make more sense to try to make a unidine bioship usable for players.
Don't forget that the Enterprise crew managed to fly the Xindi Insectoid craft. I suppose it would be like that.
i really thought that the fact that these ships were not even designed for use by carbon based life forms would be enough for them not to try to lock box them. like, the entire interior would have to be rebuilt for it to even be usable. the interior is built for spiders, and the environmental conditions are built for providing the opposite of optimal for humanoids. it would make more sense to try to make a unidine bioship usable for players.
If it wre just 1 of the tholian ships... say the small one.. i could of let it pass... but well... the fighter, the frigate... and the carrier... I want to be a tholian if im going to fly one of them.
I'm seeing "chance" and "may" used a lot in the blog. What are the guaranteed rewards from one of these things? As far as I can see, the only guaranteed reward is four lobi crystals.
The reason the gamma quadrant doff deal was popular (I spent about $40 on them, and $0 on master keys) is because there was a guaranteed reward, not because the perceived value was higher. You have to make opening a single lock box worth it, not average the value over ten or more.
The last lockbox, on paper, seemed like an improvement on the one before. So I'm going to hold off on passing final judgement until I see this thing in action. Doubling the minimum number of LC (again) would be meaningless if the prices in the Lobi store doubled along with it. (It would actually be a net loss, as only the minimum drop's been doubled.)
And to tell the truth... I've got a bit of ship-class fatigue. To be fair, I'm a purist, so I never much cared for the alien ships, and Feds flying anything other than Federation ships are an eyesore to me. The mirror universe variants I could live with as I'm sure they'll come with an option for a regular look, but you've gone ahead and added not one, but two alien ships this time? Not counting the shuttle.
Thank Gozer PvP's dead! Fleet ships might dilute them a bit, but this game is going to end up looking so carnivally...
Hey at this rate, the duty officer pack with at least two white doffs in it, might make most of the EC back that the key would cost you on the exchange. Haha.
Then I can tell you that it's safe to wait until tomorrow. I'll have found a firm answer on this subject by then, and you'll have time to react.
Here's the firm answer:
We are not changing existing Mystery Boxes. Although they will no longer be dropped or sold in-game, existing items will not go away. However, from now on, they will always either drop a Ferengi Lock Box, or a Gold Ferengi Lock Box. We will not be altering the internal odds or drop tables of those.
Jeremy Randall
Cryptic - Lead Systems Designer
"Play smart!"
Don't forget that the Enterprise crew managed to fly the Xindi Insectoid craft. I suppose it would be like that.
In Star Trek they are always flying completely alien ships or using their devices without any real difficulty. Which is crazly, lol. In real life it would be difficult for a member of one Navy to use equipment on a ship from another Earth navy.
1 - All rewards are bind on pick-up? Or we can trade everything in the exchange or with friends?
2 - About the Fleet Credit Boosters: I pay the normal ammount of Fleet Marks and get more fleet credits OR pay 25% less Fleet Marks and gain the same amount of fleet credits?
Is nice to you use this, but in both cases is really worse to my Fleet. I donate less amount of Fleet Merits and get more credits. To become fair, the Fleet Booster have to send more 25% of Fleet Merits too, and this sell like water in the desert. But if you only help the member and not the fleet, is a fail, because you need a well-finished tier to get good stuff to spend your credits. And if you only get more Fleet Credits, your get more money but have to wait the same time to spend this in the starbase.
3 - Please, show the details of each ship. Talking only about names don't see too good to me. I have a D'kora and a Freighter, and I want to know the details of the other ships because if I spend a lot of Zen credits in keys, I want details... much details about the rewards. Pics and other things.
Something looks like a lot one of Champions Online Sword. Ok, I can handle with this and can accept, but if Crypt want to re-use Champions Online parts, please, send some of this unique stuff to make new KDF uniforms.
We are too desesperate we wish to wear a batman costume because the kdf players never receive enough attention to get a good and decent options of uniforms to buy in the C-store.
5 - The whole options looks good, maybe I can open an box or two to see if really worth. But I don't have enough interess about lobi because is toon-related, and having the stupid and worse to spend lobi, I am forced to open more lockbox to get anything in the Lobi Store to the right toon. And this is more like a scam instead a good, nice and fair deal. If the lobi store accept wide-account lobi cristal, I have more reasons to collect lobi cristals, but if not, I really don't have enough reasons to buy something to take dust in my toon bank.
The community feed back was overwhelmingly to scrap the lockboxes!!!
Oh well, more stuff to drift in space as i'm sure they'll be 2-a-penny and ofc lifers can STILL only buy 4 keys a month!
Pass!
The sales of keys seems to tell a different story. If you assume that the top end ships have a 2% drop rate, every time you see ship spam, you can assume about 50 lock boxes have been opened.
The same 30 or so people crying here about lock boxes, that are voluntary participation, aren't likely to have much of an impact when they are obviously selling a boatload of keys.
I don't care that much for the lockboxes, so I haven't really participated, other then using my stipend to open a few gold ones.
I'm not sure why people are so concerned about how others play the game. If you don't want to participate, don't open any. It's selfish to expect them to stop offering something that is obviously very popular just because you can't stand it.
There is still a FAQ and a separate Ship Blog that will be coming out over the next couple of days. We know you have questions about those, and we're hoping that those upcoming posts will answer them.
Jeremy Randall
Cryptic - Lead Systems Designer
"Play smart!"
There is still a FAQ and a separate Ship Blog that will be coming out over the next couple of days. We know you have questions about those, and we're hoping that those upcoming posts will answer them.
soooo will the end date for the tholian lock boxes be in this FAQ????
cause that is a very FAQ and i really want to know
Comments
In my opinion the lockboxes are a good thing. Their implementation needed improvement, and that's exactly what is happening.
DOFF packs? No, not really. My doffs were mostly purple anyway and I didn't really want to buy more DOFF slots. I only bought about 10 DOFF packs, although I was lucky and got three Jem'Hadar ships.
Yes, I'm thanking Cryptic for a service that I appreciate. I've been very lucky with dropboxes. Using the Jem'Hadars and D'Koras I picked up from the dropboxes I've been playing the exchange and now have a multiples of every lockbox ship. I appreciate a system that allows you to accomplish a task many ways, as this one does.
Wasn't the plan at some point to allow players to open up a mystery box and find one of the many different lock boxes that have been available?
Those mystery boxes have thus far been pretty much completely useless to most players and those players that realise that many players don't understand how a mystery box works, well they make a pretty penny on the exchange.
Im really hoping for Thursday, because fleets will start hitting the first tier or upgrades any time now. I know I am a one-man (two account, 5 fed char) fleet and I will hit the MilXP for T1 shipyard by Thursday. Then comes upgrade to Base Tier1. That takes some serious resources. The ungrinder and CXp turn in would be very helpful.
I feel forgotten by Cryptic. Namely, I start new characters. My latest "Main" is such a character. There is *NO* way for him to get the Jem Hadar Bug, Galor class ship, or other earlier rewards.
I would suggest that there be no gold boxes dropping from enemies anymore. They never showed up anyway. Instead, have all gold boxes available in the dilitium store or from STFs, etc. I don't want a box that could give me a plain or gold. If I am spending EDCs or Dill, give me the gold one. Additionally, No more removing *any* purchases from the ZEN store. Zero, none, nadda. In digital distribution, there is almost no cost to keeping it there anyway.
P.S. Despite the transition to ZEN, the game still calls the store the C-Store.
I wonder how many people will forget to reove the super tholian heat gas stuff from the ships.
Translation:
"We've datamined that 9 out of 10 players always 'Pass' on any lockbox drops; and the 9 that do are very, very annoyed at having to click 'Pass' during combat. Thus we've just decided to throw them in your inventory and take up space until you decide to go and use them or manually delete them."
PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
Yup. Oh well. Not a problem...until they sneakily remove the ability to delete the entire stack with one click.
I'm not sure what you mean about not getting ship variants in the C-Store. I can see all the one I didn't buy just fine.
Also, Jem'Hadar, Galor, D'Kora and Tuffli are all purchasable in exchange.
It would be great if you vaporised like you do on the new demon planet if you forget to vent the super hot atmosphere!!
I think they are common in regards to the need/greed system.
Join Date: March 2009
Thanks Cryptic for introducing the Kelvin Timeline. It remembered why I decided to never more put any money on this game.
i really thought that the fact that these ships were not even designed for use by carbon based life forms would be enough for them not to try to lock box them. like, the entire interior would have to be rebuilt for it to even be usable. the interior is built for spiders, and the environmental conditions are built for providing the opposite of optimal for humanoids. it would make more sense to try to make a unidine bioship usable for players.
Don't forget that the Enterprise crew managed to fly the Xindi Insectoid craft. I suppose it would be like that.
If it wre just 1 of the tholian ships... say the small one.. i could of let it pass... but well... the fighter, the frigate... and the carrier... I want to be a tholian if im going to fly one of them.
The reason the gamma quadrant doff deal was popular (I spent about $40 on them, and $0 on master keys) is because there was a guaranteed reward, not because the perceived value was higher. You have to make opening a single lock box worth it, not average the value over ten or more.
And to tell the truth... I've got a bit of ship-class fatigue. To be fair, I'm a purist, so I never much cared for the alien ships, and Feds flying anything other than Federation ships are an eyesore to me. The mirror universe variants I could live with as I'm sure they'll come with an option for a regular look, but you've gone ahead and added not one, but two alien ships this time? Not counting the shuttle.
Thank Gozer PvP's dead! Fleet ships might dilute them a bit, but this game is going to end up looking so carnivally...
because it needs to be in Programmer speak for them to understand...
There fixed that for ya Nagus
Actual Join Date : Feb 2010
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Here's the firm answer:
We are not changing existing Mystery Boxes. Although they will no longer be dropped or sold in-game, existing items will not go away. However, from now on, they will always either drop a Ferengi Lock Box, or a Gold Ferengi Lock Box. We will not be altering the internal odds or drop tables of those.
Cryptic - Lead Systems Designer
"Play smart!"
I currently use the Ferengi Merchant Jacket, and looks mighty fine.
1 - All rewards are bind on pick-up? Or we can trade everything in the exchange or with friends?
2 - About the Fleet Credit Boosters: I pay the normal ammount of Fleet Marks and get more fleet credits OR pay 25% less Fleet Marks and gain the same amount of fleet credits?
Is nice to you use this, but in both cases is really worse to my Fleet. I donate less amount of Fleet Merits and get more credits. To become fair, the Fleet Booster have to send more 25% of Fleet Merits too, and this sell like water in the desert. But if you only help the member and not the fleet, is a fail, because you need a well-finished tier to get good stuff to spend your credits. And if you only get more Fleet Credits, your get more money but have to wait the same time to spend this in the starbase.
3 - Please, show the details of each ship. Talking only about names don't see too good to me. I have a D'kora and a Freighter, and I want to know the details of the other ships because if I spend a lot of Zen credits in keys, I want details... much details about the rewards. Pics and other things.
4 - Look this:
http://images-cdn.perfectworld.com/www/73/99/73997a60ec57a361f507727674fd53b71342551516.jpg
Something looks like a lot one of Champions Online Sword. Ok, I can handle with this and can accept, but if Crypt want to re-use Champions Online parts, please, send some of this unique stuff to make new KDF uniforms.
We are too desesperate we wish to wear a batman costume because the kdf players never receive enough attention to get a good and decent options of uniforms to buy in the C-store.
5 - The whole options looks good, maybe I can open an box or two to see if really worth. But I don't have enough interess about lobi because is toon-related, and having the stupid and worse to spend lobi, I am forced to open more lockbox to get anything in the Lobi Store to the right toon. And this is more like a scam instead a good, nice and fair deal. If the lobi store accept wide-account lobi cristal, I have more reasons to collect lobi cristals, but if not, I really don't have enough reasons to buy something to take dust in my toon bank.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
I want to know the specs on the ship's. what are the lay out. can cryptic tell us what the consoles and officer lay outs please.
The sales of keys seems to tell a different story. If you assume that the top end ships have a 2% drop rate, every time you see ship spam, you can assume about 50 lock boxes have been opened.
The same 30 or so people crying here about lock boxes, that are voluntary participation, aren't likely to have much of an impact when they are obviously selling a boatload of keys.
I don't care that much for the lockboxes, so I haven't really participated, other then using my stipend to open a few gold ones.
I'm not sure why people are so concerned about how others play the game. If you don't want to participate, don't open any. It's selfish to expect them to stop offering something that is obviously very popular just because you can't stand it.
Cryptic - Lead Systems Designer
"Play smart!"
cause that is a very FAQ and i really want to know