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Is the cost of ships a bit much?
ericsonxx
Member Posts: 253 Arc User
I mean, 2500 Zen is like 25 dollars, right? Holy cow, thats kinda crazy. I could see 5 bucks or so, maybe 7, but 25? I could be wrong, isn't 100 zen=1 dollar?
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Between Stipend and playing I generally earn around 3,000 Zen per month - meaning I have no issues getting a new $20-$25.00 ship per month for free. In fact I have not purchased any Zen on this account in almost 7 months now and currently have over 15,000 Zen. So just by playing people are earning themselves C-Store discounts anywhere between 10% and 100%.
The official story from Cryptic is that the cost of the ship is related to the cost to create it and the man-hours put in by the DEVs.
As far as it being too expensive, most things in the C-Store are around the industry-standard price: $25.00 Steeds in WoW, $20.00 Steeds in LotRO, etc - and you get far more usage out of a T5 ship for $25.00 in STO then you do a $20.00 Steed in LotRO.
And, as I said above, with Dilthium farming most people aren't paying full price for things in the C-Store - unless they have poor impulse control and just can bother to wait a month or two to get it for nearly nothing.
Heheh, then why are they charging so much for such minimal efforts? Half-hearted reskins. Weirdly thought out plan for new fleet ship stats. Charge an arm and a leg for a Single-Character Ship Unlock.
The work effort is less than what game modders do in a day with their labor of love. Yet Cryptic has resorted to this stupid plan with Starbases and Fleet Ships for the most minimal of efforts.
Which is wrong. There is no free zen, someone is still paying real money for that zen, even if it isn't you personally.
Someones impulse buying. Apparently alot of someones because Cryptic is reporting record sales.
Money changed hands, period. They don't give you and me and everyone else that stipend out of the kindness of their hearts.
Not Really crazy atall, they need to make money to contribute to funding this game, thats if players are willing to spend the cash to get point, and many players just save up dilithium to convert to points. i myself have managed to save enough dilithium to get the galaxy x. Payed players get 500 points a month aswell so there are always ways to not spend real world cash on ships.
And even with the 500 Zen monthly stripened, these Fleet ships really are too high a price in my books. Why? For starters, these ships are not permanent unlocks, and if you lose it, you have to pay again for a replacement. Second, they are character-only, compared to C-store ships which are account-wide. So even with the discount, you still have to pay $5 per character to get a replacement. Third, Fleet ships are basically an extra console and a few extra buffs.
So if you put all this together, to me it just doesn't seem a wise buy. I rather stay with my old Tier 5 ships or Tier 5 C-store ships. Though it does seem appealing to fly ships like the Sabre and Nova at endgame without being a liability (which unfortunately, their C-store ships don't give you the $20 discount, ah...... expensive character only ship).
How about money to pay the devs to fix the bugs you are whining about? How about writers and programs to develop new content for you to play? What about the janitor that cleans and stocks the Cryptic Studios bathroom to make sure that the devs don't get sick?
They are not making a profit just for one product. They are making an ENTIRE GAME! They make one product or service and sell it to support all the other services with it.
Unless you are suggesting that Cryptic starts charging 150 zen per patch...
Nothing micro here.
Its either food fo a week for 2-3 people or a new ship that could be made pointless a month later. hm...
Tis to high an entry barrier cryptic, go learn something from other games. Or steam.
^^ ^^ ^^ ^
Imagine your local green grocer could only ever sell you one melon. Sure you could then claim another melon as a replacement when you ate the one you had before - but how does the green grocer stay in business?
They could probably sell them for cheaper each if they were single unlocks and they were assured that you had some reason to buy them again and again and again.
The result was that there are enough guys out there who willfully pay 20+ bugs for an single In-Game Federation ship. No matthe what it cost, the Federation playerbase will buy it anyway seems to be Cryptic's motto since F2P launch.
That's funny. The Fleet Qin is exactly the same as the regular Qin, with just an added console and some spec changes. Same with the Fleet Escort. If they only sold one of each, they would have recouped their costs.
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That assumes those are the only costs they are recouping..... since 99.9% of the game is free, the costs of everything else in the game become part of the development costs of things like new ships.
It's an on-going process..., the servers running seven days a week, twenty four hours a day...
They and the power they use have to be paid for, the daily expenses and wages have to also be paid long after a particular digital ship is released.
The fact that They can actually be F2P, is a wonder in my book.
I guess They are lucky that so many Star Trek fans are willing to part with their money so easily...
I would..., if I could afford it just to help keep the game going.
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Do you know how software sales work? You make something once then you sell it forever. Microsoft has sold 525 million copies of windows 7. Should they stop charging money for it?
No, that money they make off the software goes into other develompment and support. Just like Cryptic.
$25 bucks isn't too much considering the Ship is your character in space. Its not just a simple mount or gear. You are your ship in 50% of the game. And add in zen you can farm and sales its not too much to ask to keep the game running.
But that's exactly what happens when you grind dilithium.
So while you might call it "work" I call it simply doing STFs to earn end-game gear, and making some Dilithium on the side. While you might call it work I simply calling doing Dailies because I'm bored with STFs at the moment, and making some Dilithium on the side. While you might call it work I simply call it doing some PvP or Warzones, and making some Dilithium on the side.
I'm simply playing my VAs and Cryptic is giving me Dilithium/Zen to do so. It's not like there's 100 other things to do with a VA that don't earn you Dilithium.
Don't forget the building lease in Silicon Valley as well as competitive wages to encourage workers to move to the Valley.
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I kind of agree with you on that. Especially if your a "gold" member still paying and not an LTS like me. You putting out what $15 a month for "gold" and guys/girls like me who got LTS crapped out somewhere between 200 to 300. Plus, most gold and LTS still are buying from the C-store. I could see maybe a 20% C-store discount for gold and LTS. Plus that may be a little more incentive for people to go gold or LTS than some title or combadge.
Well, I am definitely one of those impulse buyers. I bought the armitage this month, and after watching the episode of voyager regarding the uss prometheus, I decided to buy the multi vector advanced escort as well. Both are great ships, but since we can only fly one ship at a time, I should have waited. I could have at least given myself the time to break in each ship. Patience and common sense is a virtue I wish I had.
Yup, that's why Cryptic had it $1 = 80 points. Made stuff seem cheaper. Now even a 6 yr old can do the math.
** Simply amazing! **
Charging alot for SINGLE CHARACTER UNLOCK ships. That if for some reason you remove it, you have to repurchase again at full cost. Not to mention the most minimal of gains for the cost. Hell, for some the gains are questionable in quality at best.
Even the Pre-S6 C-Store ship pricing was questionable at best. For endgame ships, costing $20-25 USD... for a single ship. You know, in other MMORPGs, $25 USD buys you an entire expansion pack full of whole new maps, levels, regions, equipment to be had, new skills, more NPCs / Monsters / etc, etc., etc. But in STO, that price gets you 1 ship...
Now you have Season 6's system where that insanely high cost gets you even less bang for your hard earned money.
Again, simply amazing how fellow players go around justifying these actions.
WOW.