Well, only the hand phaser has the stasis effect. The other one simply fires in a wider arc at the cost of two mods for a blue weapon.
And I think the stasis effect is really only relevant for PvP. It's BOTH arguably harmful for PvP and meaningless for PvE compared to the power loss.
It's meaningless for 1v1 PvP for the most part since you can't do anything to the enemy while the enemy is trapped.
The best I could come up with was to use it to stop a medic or freeze a boss while dealing with Lts with a weapon that is still underpowered. It doesn't appear to stop Thalaron weapons from doing damage while in stasis, for example.
I wish this could have remained its own thread because I imagine anyone who has the pistol would be fine with scrapping the stasis bonus for something useful and better stats.
After two amazing Lobi weapons (the sword -- energy damage against Borg without remodulations -- and the whip -- damage with no resists), this one is a dud. Which I think is a shame because I'd like to be totally 29th century outfitted me and my away team. Everything else 29th century is a force to be reckoned with but the phaser (and by the look of it, the rifle) are substantially less flashy and not well equipped for PvE.
Heck, I thought about getting an away team that's half-pistols and half-rifles but the effects aren't even beneficial since one removes targets from play and the other hits random extra targets, who may be damage immune because of the stasis effect.
Given the price via Lobi, yes it should have more umph.
Given the price via Lobi, yes it should have more umph.
I was brainstorming on the PvP forum and had what I think is a novel idea:
Buff these up to be good weapons. Don't have to be GREAT but good. Eliminate the specials.
Then add a 2 piece set bonus to the guns that gives them 2.5% chance of stasis.
Heck, the way they are, I'd say at the very least nerf the stasis effect on the pistol and make them immune to Borg adaptation. They are from the future after all. Toss in a line about how they have "retroactive remodulation" which Borg cannot adapt to. Their damage is low enough that, without a buff, giving them adaptation immunity wouldn't break anything.
I'm really thinking nerfed bonuses, buffed stats, and a two piece set bonus would be the way to go. It would make them worth outfitting an away team with because the base stats would be decent and the two piece set bonus would be countered by the fact that a player using both can't get a 3 piece bonus from any other set.
my problem is why doesn't cryptic just sell this stuff in the c-store, I would buy it if it was just in the c-store for a set price.
i used to buy everything from the c-store, I prided myself in the fact that I owned everything. I gave more money to cryptic back when it was P2P.
This lock box thing makes me LESS likely to participate and give them money.
I don't like the lockbox thing, I would rather them be in the C-store.
-
Because, their new pricing model revolves around making people that are willing to pay, pay a LOT more than they did before. In this model you're only really satisfied if you're a totally free player, or are willing to shell out vast amounts of cash, being in the middle just leaves one feeling dissatisfied.
Because, their new pricing model revolves around making people that are willing to pay, pay a LOT more than they did before. In this model you're only really satisfied if you're a totally free player, or are willing to shell out vast amounts of cash, being in the middle just leaves one feeling dissatisfied.
There is a third option: People who don't want everything.
Those people can be swayed by a lockbox or two and a C-Store item or two and I suspect represent the stable middle between big spenders and free players.
It's people who want everything for a modest price who get left out in the cold a bit with F2P.
Then again, sub games have cash shop items with a resale value in the hundreds and a cost of obtaining upwards of a thousand. WoW does with its trading cards. The big difference with F2P is that it's more than cosmetic.
Rather than Lock Boxes which are loved or hated, but definitely cause problems on the forums and social media sights for Cryptic or Star Trek Online fans; why don?t we innovate and do something that makes a lot more sense? Something that is fair and something that nicely fits into our Star Trek theme!
What am I talking about? well here we go!!! Why not generate loot that still requires the purchase of *master keys* but is also not such that we gamble with it to such extremes. So what am I edging at?
Why not replace all lock boxes with the following.
Cargo Container: A random common and/or un-common loot drop that could contain amounts of dilithium equivalent to 100 Zen or combinations of Lobi crystals and Dilithium that are worth 100 Zen. Cargo containers could also come with equipment in combination with Dilithium or Lobi Crystal. The equipment inside could be tied to the enemy type that was destroyed as to get special weapons like phased tetryon weapons and etc. To open a cargo container you would need a Master Key. The Grand prize could be Consumable pets and things like that in excess of the normal prize.
Escape Pod: A random rare loot drop that could contain a very rare bridge officer of the alien type being destroyed. Just like the Tholian Lock Box came with Tholian duty officers. The Escape Pod could also contain random rare or very rare duty officers inside. The very rare bridge officers could come with special traits that are found on player characters, such as Space warfare specialist, evasive, efficient or entirely new traits. These options could be extremely diverse. To open the escape pod you would need a master key. The grand prize could be a bridge officer with some unique bridge officer abilities not regularly in the game or even a playable species.
Prototype Schematic: A random rare to very rare loot drop that contains a schematic to build some prototype weapon or gear. To access the schematic you would need a master key to unlock the command code access. The Grand prize of this loot could be a universal or special console.
Derelict Vessel: A random very rare loot drop that that would contain a playable ship from the enemy type that you destroyed. No different than the Ferangi Lock box only containing Ferangi Ships. To access the derelict vessel however would work a bit differently from the other loot drop types because it is hardly fair that they only cost 100 Zen to obtain. To access a derelict vessel you would need to purchase salvage operation rights from the Cryptic Store. This would just be a consumable item that looks like a data pad. It would cost 1000 Zen. The ship that you get would still be random. The grand prize would be the best ship; all other ships from an event would fall into various rarities in the system.
Why do I feel that this system is much better? Well, in this system the prizes are narrowed down so that you reasonably know what you will get. This narrowing down of the prizes simply makes sense and in my own opinion will be better received in a Western Market. So make it so please.
I like and don't like this idea. At least the drop item names seem a lot more trek-like!!!
I think we can all agree that Lobi should be account bound. Get rid of that stupid mission in Drozana so that we can get this over with already.
I think some of us are mistaking "I want" for "PWE should".
Would making Lobi account-bound benefit players? Yes, obviously.
Would it also benefit PWE? I don't believe that it would, but by all means convince them differently if you can make a case. It would cause players to have more Lobi without spending more money; for that to make economic sense, you'd have to show that it either brings in more money-spending players, prevents more from leaving, or causes those already here to spend more money. I don't see how it could do any of those things except in very isolated cases.
Former moderator of these forums. Lifetime sub since before launch. Been here since before public betas. Foundry author of "Franklin Drake Must Die".
To any cryptic dev who reads this can you please look into a rather unusual problem I have been having which is that at the moment I can't buy any items in the lobi store despite having more than enough crystals to do so.
I reported this problem both via the ingame bug report system 3 times!!!! and a few e-mails to the support people and nothing has been done am so frustrated its unreal for its been over 2 weeks now since I reported this . These crystals take up valuable inventory space and I can't buy anything as in the ok pop up comes and I click ok and nothing happens. No item and no crystals are deducted from what I have already. :mad:
I think some of us are mistaking "I want" for "PWE should".
Would making Lobi account-bound benefit players? Yes, obviously.
Would it also benefit PWE? I don't believe that it would, but by all means convince them differently if you can make a case. It would cause players to have more Lobi without spending more money; for that to make economic sense, you'd have to show that it either brings in more money-spending players, prevents more from leaving, or causes those already here to spend more money. I don't see how it could do any of those things except in very isolated cases.
I can say that this does reduce any desire I have to collect Lobi, since I know that it can only benefit one character. I am only opening lockboxes with one character specifically because of this. I am also loath to actually spend Lobi on anything this particular character doesn't need, since I'm not sure whether the items are in transferrable 'crates' and I know that they're all character-bound items once they're unpacked.
Account-bound Lobi would give me more reasons to collect and spend Lobi, which means more lockboxes, and more master keys.
Character-bound Lobi makes me more cautious about spending Lobi and decreases my desire to accumulate it for use on my other characters.
I can certainly understand how making Lobi character-bound potentially increases Cryptic's cash flow... but I question whether it effectively increases their profits over account-bound Lobi.
I don't see how Cryptic benefits from making the Lobi AND the items you can purchase with Lobi character-bound. The double bind would seem to inhibit purchases more than it encourages them.
My views may not represent those of Cryptic Studios or Perfect World Entertainment. You can file a "forums and website" support ticket here Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
I think some of us are mistaking "I want" for "PWE should".
Would making Lobi account-bound benefit players? Yes, obviously.
Would it also benefit PWE? I don't believe that it would, but by all means convince them differently if you can make a case. It would cause players to have more Lobi without spending more money; for that to make economic sense, you'd have to show that it either brings in more money-spending players, prevents more from leaving, or causes those already here to spend more money. I don't see how it could do any of those things except in very isolated cases.
I think it makes people scared to buy on alts and, frankly, they have more to GAIN from people with alts being more satisfied than they have to lose... as I'd imagine people with alts are atypical players, especially people with many.
Of course, the best solution I can think up is to have account bound 5 Lobi packages for sale for 5 Lobi.
People with Free Lobi will have to open a lockbox to transfer their free Lobi and may not be able to transfer all of it. Some people may open lockboxes trying to hit a multiple of 5 to transfer it.
But I am sure they rather you spend your money.. even if you in particular aren't willing to buy more for the one toon.. I am sure others are.. and they are banking on that.
We'd have Lobi as account bound if we didn't have that public outcry about Lobi only obtainable through boxes a while back. When they added them to the episode replays to make those people happy. It successfully locked Lobi to being character bound. It will never become account bound because its possible for players to exploit the free ones during the Episode Replays. I'd love for them to become account personally, I've got different amounts on each toon myself.
Wait... you can still get them through episode replays? If so which ones?
If not then i see no reason why the lobi balance cannot be added to your account bank balance. Point is simple enough, I would spend a bit more to get the things I need for one toon, but I will not, ever, spend all that again on another toon to get the things I need. It ain't gonna happen and I would think many people would feel the same way.
For Cryptic it would mean more lock box sales, for the consumer it would mean we can finally afford the things we want. We are not talking about STF gear here, just a few items on the store that anyone can buy anyway, but if you have 75% of the lobi required on one toon it makes no sense to spend 100% on another, I simply cannot afford to do that.
Only during the Episode Replay weekends...
But, because the exploit exist, it won't be changed sadly. I just wish they'd remove lobi from the replays and make them account bound.
Cryptic, oh Cryptic, I love you guys, you have created the best game I've ever played, more an experience than a game. I spend far too much of my own real money on this game but what the hell, I stopped smoking and am single again (always on the look out for a future ex-mrs Matt ) so I can afford to.
I have a main toon that I always open lockboxes with, so he builds up a respectable amount of Lobi Crystals and I was able to by a Recluse and pass it to my sci toon because it is tradeable.
Now, my Sci toon has just got the Sci temporal ship and the Mobius to play around with all the funky time travel stuff, however as he ain't got no lobi he can't buy the equally funky new lobi store gear to compliment it, and my main, you know the one with all the lobi, can't send it him because it is bound on pickup to character!
Well guys, as much as I love ya, I'm not rolling in dough and there's no way I'm gonna start filling another toon with hundreds of Lobi, so please, consider that if you want people to spend a bit more on lockboxes to buy stuff from the store then make it BoE, just like much of the other gear is, or make the Lobi store an account store for goodness sake.
You will get more sales (I would immediately buy the 50 or so boxes I need to get the rest of the gear) and the customers will be happier, win win scenario IMO.
Cheers
Matt
Ha ha I agree lobi should be account wide! What game were you playing that i am not?
Remove the free Lobi to make Lobi account bound? Silence. Crate the current BoP items to be bind on unpack? Silence. Account bound Lobi store gear? More silence still.
Getting us to open thirteen new lockboxes on one of our eleven alts to give it that sword, whip or phaser we might want it to have, while well upwards of five hundred Lobi sit unused in and shackled to our mains' inventories, is the entire point of the operation. (And in case these numbers seem hyperbolic, they're my numbers.) There's no reason, other than that they might squeeze a few dollars more out of you, and even that seems hardly certain.
They don't acknowledge anything's even going on. I can only conclude they can't come up with a PR friendly lie to explain this. The whole "exploit" concern of the free Lobi was the explanation the community came up with, and has subsequently been resolved in these threads by the community several times over. The general concensus seems to be we'd rather not get the free Lobi then. (Especially now that the twenty free replay Lobi no longer buy us one of those weapons, as they did initially.) Or the free Lobi can be stuffed in a claim-once box on the C-store that unlocks when you complete the Lobi replay accolades. (We know you can do that. You showed us. The claim-once boxes with the account-move and Raptr debacles, and the unlock criteria through C-store unlocks based on accomplishments achieved another server (Tribble) entirely.)
If anyone from STO's plethora of podcasts is reading this, next time you've got one of them over, please ask them why exactly we have these bind on pickup items on that store. Let's make the PR guys work for their money... I'm dieing to see what they come up with.
So ya, 250 Tholian lockboxes and all I got was the Recluse and upgraded Crystal Set, now 250 Temporal lockboxes, Temporal Science Vessel, Temporal Destroyer and Temporal Warfare set. I think this will be my last lockboxes for a long time.
Hi, my name is: Elim Garak, Former Cardassian Oppressor
LTS, here since...when did this game launch again?
Lobi are a really sensitive currency that if you open it on the wrong toon its stuck there and the need toys that you can by with it are stuck mostly to that one toon. Either a way needs to be found to get toys to character that needs it or Lobi need to be account bound.
Hi, my name is: Elim Garak, Former Cardassian Oppressor
LTS, here since...when did this game launch again?
I just wish they would make everything in the Lobi store available in the C-Store so we all could play by being able to buy the stuff. Makes Cryptic (and PWE) the same money.
Player and forumite formerly known as FEELTHETHUNDER
Ok, so since the new lock boxes have been in-game, I've opened about 30 and not got a ship.... =l does my character level affect what I get? (the character I've been using is only lvl 13)
Seriously, I've spent loads of Zen and Energy Credits on lock box keys, and all I got are some duty officer mini packs,.a fleet mark bonus thing, some phased disruptor weapons, a temporal duty officer and some lobi crystals. (I am not Harry Kim, and my mother does not need some new earrings, and my father does not need new cufflinks!!)
Any help in telling me how I go about getting a ship from a lock box would be great!
There's less then a 1% chance that you can win a ship from a Lockbox. Your level has no bearing on that. It's the same 1% chance whether you use 1 Key or 1,000.
STO is about my Liberated Borg Federation Captain with his Breen 1st Officer, Jem'Hadar Tactical Officer, Liberated Borg Engineering Officer, Android Ops Officer, Photonic Science Officer, Gorn Science Officer, and Reman Medical Officer jumping into their Jem'Hadar Carrier and flying off to do missions for the new Romulan Empire. But for some players allowing a T5 Connie to be used breaks the canon in the game.
Ok, so since the new lock boxes have been in-game, I've opened about 30 and not got a ship.... =l does my character level affect what I get? (the character I've been using is only lvl 13)
Seriously, I've spent loads of Zen and Energy Credits on lock box keys, and all I got are some duty officer mini packs,.a fleet mark bonus thing, some phased disruptor weapons, a temporal duty officer and some lobi crystals. (I am not Harry Kim, and my mother does not need some new earrings, and my father does not need new cufflinks!!)
Any help in telling me how I go about getting a ship from a lock box would be great!
levi3 made a thread looking at the New boxes contents and results.
In that thread rachelgarret started compiling that submitted information and generated some results/percentages to help figure your chances. You can find his results so far here.
So far, if you want a Temporal Science Vessel Starship, you have a 0.3% chance.
[SIGPIC]Handle: @kirian_darkstar
Registered: Oct/2009 , LTS : Feb/2011
Fleets: Warriors of the Phoenix, Kirian Industries[/SIGPIC] Three years and still no Captain Klaa hair...
Comments
Given the price via Lobi, yes it should have more umph.
i used to buy everything from the c-store, I prided myself in the fact that I owned everything. I gave more money to cryptic back when it was P2P.
This lock box thing makes me LESS likely to participate and give them money.
I don't like the lockbox thing, I would rather them be in the C-store.
-
I was brainstorming on the PvP forum and had what I think is a novel idea:
Buff these up to be good weapons. Don't have to be GREAT but good. Eliminate the specials.
Then add a 2 piece set bonus to the guns that gives them 2.5% chance of stasis.
Heck, the way they are, I'd say at the very least nerf the stasis effect on the pistol and make them immune to Borg adaptation. They are from the future after all. Toss in a line about how they have "retroactive remodulation" which Borg cannot adapt to. Their damage is low enough that, without a buff, giving them adaptation immunity wouldn't break anything.
I'm really thinking nerfed bonuses, buffed stats, and a two piece set bonus would be the way to go. It would make them worth outfitting an away team with because the base stats would be decent and the two piece set bonus would be countered by the fact that a player using both can't get a 3 piece bonus from any other set.
Because, their new pricing model revolves around making people that are willing to pay, pay a LOT more than they did before. In this model you're only really satisfied if you're a totally free player, or are willing to shell out vast amounts of cash, being in the middle just leaves one feeling dissatisfied.
There is a third option: People who don't want everything.
Those people can be swayed by a lockbox or two and a C-Store item or two and I suspect represent the stable middle between big spenders and free players.
It's people who want everything for a modest price who get left out in the cold a bit with F2P.
Then again, sub games have cash shop items with a resale value in the hundreds and a cost of obtaining upwards of a thousand. WoW does with its trading cards. The big difference with F2P is that it's more than cosmetic.
I like and don't like this idea. At least the drop item names seem a lot more trek-like!!!
I think some of us are mistaking "I want" for "PWE should".
Would making Lobi account-bound benefit players? Yes, obviously.
Would it also benefit PWE? I don't believe that it would, but by all means convince them differently if you can make a case. It would cause players to have more Lobi without spending more money; for that to make economic sense, you'd have to show that it either brings in more money-spending players, prevents more from leaving, or causes those already here to spend more money. I don't see how it could do any of those things except in very isolated cases.
I reported this problem both via the ingame bug report system 3 times!!!! and a few e-mails to the support people and nothing has been done am so frustrated its unreal for its been over 2 weeks now since I reported this
I can say that this does reduce any desire I have to collect Lobi, since I know that it can only benefit one character. I am only opening lockboxes with one character specifically because of this. I am also loath to actually spend Lobi on anything this particular character doesn't need, since I'm not sure whether the items are in transferrable 'crates' and I know that they're all character-bound items once they're unpacked.
Account-bound Lobi would give me more reasons to collect and spend Lobi, which means more lockboxes, and more master keys.
Character-bound Lobi makes me more cautious about spending Lobi and decreases my desire to accumulate it for use on my other characters.
I can certainly understand how making Lobi character-bound potentially increases Cryptic's cash flow... but I question whether it effectively increases their profits over account-bound Lobi.
I don't see how Cryptic benefits from making the Lobi AND the items you can purchase with Lobi character-bound. The double bind would seem to inhibit purchases more than it encourages them.
Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
I think it makes people scared to buy on alts and, frankly, they have more to GAIN from people with alts being more satisfied than they have to lose... as I'd imagine people with alts are atypical players, especially people with many.
Of course, the best solution I can think up is to have account bound 5 Lobi packages for sale for 5 Lobi.
People with Free Lobi will have to open a lockbox to transfer their free Lobi and may not be able to transfer all of it. Some people may open lockboxes trying to hit a multiple of 5 to transfer it.
This would be awesome.
But I am sure they rather you spend your money.. even if you in particular aren't willing to buy more for the one toon.. I am sure others are.. and they are banking on that.
Roll Toon > Roll Through Replays > Give Lobi to alt > Delete Toon > Rinse & Repeat
People cried for a free way to earn Lobi and it bit the rest of us on our bums.
Only during the Episode Replay weekends...
But, because the exploit exist, it won't be changed sadly. I just wish they'd remove lobi from the replays and make them account bound.
Ha ha I agree lobi should be account wide! What game were you playing that i am not?
Remove the free Lobi to make Lobi account bound? Silence. Crate the current BoP items to be bind on unpack? Silence. Account bound Lobi store gear? More silence still.
Getting us to open thirteen new lockboxes on one of our eleven alts to give it that sword, whip or phaser we might want it to have, while well upwards of five hundred Lobi sit unused in and shackled to our mains' inventories, is the entire point of the operation. (And in case these numbers seem hyperbolic, they're my numbers.) There's no reason, other than that they might squeeze a few dollars more out of you, and even that seems hardly certain.
They don't acknowledge anything's even going on. I can only conclude they can't come up with a PR friendly lie to explain this. The whole "exploit" concern of the free Lobi was the explanation the community came up with, and has subsequently been resolved in these threads by the community several times over. The general concensus seems to be we'd rather not get the free Lobi then. (Especially now that the twenty free replay Lobi no longer buy us one of those weapons, as they did initially.) Or the free Lobi can be stuffed in a claim-once box on the C-store that unlocks when you complete the Lobi replay accolades. (We know you can do that. You showed us. The claim-once boxes with the account-move and Raptr debacles, and the unlock criteria through C-store unlocks based on accomplishments achieved another server (Tribble) entirely.)
If anyone from STO's plethora of podcasts is reading this, next time you've got one of them over, please ask them why exactly we have these bind on pickup items on that store. Let's make the PR guys work for their money... I'm dieing to see what they come up with.
LTS, here since...when did this game launch again?
Lobi are a really sensitive currency that if you open it on the wrong toon its stuck there and the need toys that you can by with it are stuck mostly to that one toon. Either a way needs to be found to get toys to character that needs it or Lobi need to be account bound.
LTS, here since...when did this game launch again?
Player and forumite formerly known as FEELTHETHUNDER
Expatriot Might Characters in EXILE
Ok, so since the new lock boxes have been in-game, I've opened about 30 and not got a ship.... =l does my character level affect what I get? (the character I've been using is only lvl 13)
Seriously, I've spent loads of Zen and Energy Credits on lock box keys, and all I got are some duty officer mini packs,.a fleet mark bonus thing, some phased disruptor weapons, a temporal duty officer and some lobi crystals. (I am not Harry Kim, and my mother does not need some new earrings, and my father does not need new cufflinks!!)
Any help in telling me how I go about getting a ship from a lock box would be great!
Welcome to the STO Quarks casino.....
In that thread rachelgarret started compiling that submitted information and generated some results/percentages to help figure your chances. You can find his results so far here.
So far, if you want a Temporal Science Vessel Starship, you have a 0.3% chance.
Registered: Oct/2009 , LTS : Feb/2011
Fleets: Warriors of the Phoenix, Kirian Industries[/SIGPIC]
Three years and still no Captain Klaa hair...
:rolleyes: