Shouldn't the Breen ship be ultra-rare to get CBS approval?

wolfdelyon

So the devs are giving a free easy-to-get Breen ship for Christmas, which is very nice of them.

However, this raises an interesting question. As far as I recall, they said time and again that CBS are against giving non-Fed/KDF ships because it's not IP-appropriate. They claimed the only way to get a green light for this kind of playable ships is to make sure they remain ultra-rare by using red boxes or lock boxes.

Now, the new ship is really easy to get (do a 5-10 minutes daily 25 times out of 35+ days the event is up), it's free, it has good stats, and it is as IP-breaking as all the lock box ships. This ship is anything but ultra-rare, so this begs the question - How did they get CBS to sign off on a common (i.e., not even rare) playable Breen ship for Starfleet and the KDF?

sollvax

you think many people will do this for 25 days??

jexsamx

It's a fair question, but the answer is probably as simple as the time gate they put on it. 25/35 days isn't that much wiggle room, and a lot of people travel for the holidays, which I suppose could put them out of STO for a while.

They also might have given it a pass because it's the friggin' Christm- erm, Whatever Doesn't Offend You Season, that only happens once a year, and it's the season of giving, so they're giving you a decent shot at a more than decent ship as a gift.

trek21

sollvax wrote: »

you think many people will do this for 25 days??

You might be surprised, judging by all the interest in it :P

And perhaps that policy has changed somewhat recently, otherwise we wouldn't be getting it this easily... something changed, somewhere, to allow this

lordmalak1

I'm thinking advertising gimmick, for the movie and possibly to bring back some warm feelings for STO.

Either way I WANT ONE.

decker03

The arguent of non-Starfleet/KDF ships being in lockboxes only because they have to be rare was maybe plausible with the first winter event (when they really were rare). Now that we have tons of people flying Bugs, Galors, D'Koras and Tholian ships, this argument is completly nullified and so doesn't apply to this ship. Just look at how many different chances we had to get Jem'Hadar ships and how many of them are out there.

Those ships were in lockboxes cause Cryptic gets way more money out of it than from C-Store purchases. Probably so much money, they have wet dreams about it. At this state of the game I can't believe CBS only approves as long as such ships are rare anymore. Also they will make money with the Breen ship from people trying to get it through lobies.

unangbangkay

It's not as if the game is overflowing with alien ships.

Despite loose talk about the Bug being everywhere (due to the reinforcement pack promo), it still makes up a very low proportion of total ships/total players. Further, I've noticed a large number of Bugs are in KDF players' hands, as KDF players are usually heavy on PVP, and the Bug is good for that (to say the least). BUT, KDF players are a minority of the total, which makes the Bug at the very least superficially rare. You simply don't see tons of them running Tour The Universe and such.

It's a similar deal with the Galor and D'Kora, as many of those first Lockbox ships were much rarer than these days' box ships in terms of raw drop rate, and many players simply opened and claimed the ship rather than keeping their boxes for later sale. You won't see them making up the majority of Starfleet, either.

And despite the fact that the Steamrunner is as easy to get as any C-Store ship for any Steam user (and keep in mind Steam makes up 70% of digital market share), I rarely see more than 1 or two floating around ESD, DS9 or other populated space areas even on the most crowded servers.

As for CBS, simple superficial rarity might be enough, or their rarity policy might only be for certain designs (they're sure as hell not objecting to a Fleet Excelsior yet are putting the kibosh on any Fleet Connie classes, amirite!?!). Could be that the Breen ship simply not "iconic" enough for CBS to care.

TL;DR Forumers are exaggerating.

hereticknight085

Actually there is a catch. Unlike previous ships, this one is bound on pick-up. So you can't trade them. It forces you to play the game. I know for a fact I was going to start a tac toon sometime in the near future, and that this ship would be PERFECT for it. BUT I know for a fact as a result, I now need to start it today or tomorrow, and then I need to hope that a level 1 can participate in this event. Otherwise I would just get two with my engi. But due to it being bound on pickup, that ensures a form of rarity. Btw, can new players participate and get this ship? Cuz if not, I'm going to be rather pissed...

tangolight

hereticknight085 wrote: »

Actually there is a catch. Unlike previous ships, this one is bound on pick-up. So you can't trade them. It forces you to play the game. I know for a fact I was going to start a tac toon sometime in the near future, and that this ship would be PERFECT for it. BUT I know for a fact as a result, I now need to start it today or tomorrow, and then I need to hope that a level 1 can participate in this event. Otherwise I would just get two with my engi. But due to it being bound on pickup, that ensures a form of rarity. Btw, can new players participate and get this ship? Cuz if not, I'm going to be rather pissed...

You only have to be level 5 (Fed) or level 24 (Klingon) to participate in the race. You can then get the ship in a box, but just not open it until you're the required level to use it.

unangbangkay

That I didn't know. Guess it's time to put XCOM aside for the weekend and start the Tac toon I've been planning forever :P

crypticarmsman

trek21 wrote: »

You might be surprised, judging by all the interest in it :P

And perhaps that policy has changed somewhat recently, otherwise we wouldn't be getting it this easily... something changed, somewhere, to allow this

Or maybe they ran it past CBS; and because of the 25 day timegate (or hell, because it was for a holiday themed event); CBS just okayed it.

(Man gotta love that even when they get approval to give something free for some work in game - conspiracy theories abound. I seriously doubt PWE/Cryptic would risk the IP license agreement by trying to slip something by CBS.)

hereticknight085

tangolight wrote: »

You only have to be level 5 (Fed) or level 24 (Klingon) to participate in the race. You can then get the ship in a box, but just not open it until you're the required level to use it.

You just made my evening. And ruined it. Made it cuz I can get the thing on my lowbie, ruined it cuz now I have to play through the intro again -.-

xantris

unangbangkay wrote: »

It's not as if the game is overflowing with alien ships.

Despite loose talk about the Bug being everywhere (due to the reinforcement pack promo), it still makes up a very low proportion of total ships/total players. Further, I've noticed a large number of Bugs are in KDF players' hands, as KDF players are usually heavy on PVP, and the Bug is good for that (to say the least). .

It's also because our traditional escorts are terrible, especially the 10 console ones.

tachyonharmonic

I'm sure this could all be answered with a little clarification from Cryptic, should they care to chime in..?

Of course, if the answer conflicts with what they've said before, we might never know.

khayuung

Aw, quit complaining. When something good happens, learn to shut up.

collegepark2151

The blog post did just say it was "bound" but didn't specify whether it was character or account bound. I guess it's possible that it may be account bound and you wouldn't have to start a new toon immediately, but by the time we know what kind of binding it has, it will be too late to use on a new toon if it turns out to be character bound.

vesolc

Its char bound. Like free Bortas and Ody.

luxchristian

It is free. But you have to login 25times and do 25times the same mission. In a period lasting only 31 days.

There won't be that much ships be seen in ESD in 1 or 2 mounths xD

latiasracer

khayuung wrote: »

Aw, quit complaining. When something good happens, learn to shut up.

...Bro, i don't mean to be rude but - Do you know what forums your on?


"Thanks!" is a strange word here....

hereticknight085

latiasracer wrote: »

...Bro, i don't mean to be rude but - Do you know what forums your on?


"Thanks!" is a strange word here....

What is gratitude?

tom61sto

My thoughts on the possibilities of why CBS would be OK with it:

A) With J.J. Abram's Star Trek being a success, they care less about the Prime universe, as anything official will either be re-releases (like TNG on Blu-Ray) or based off the Expanded Universe.

If based on previous metrics available to them, the number of people who actually did 25/35 Winter Wonderlands was extremely low. Given that they could've given one to everyone that tested on Tribble during the last test weekend and not exceeded the rarity level, this seems very likely. The only thing that may come back and bite them is that last Winter Wonderland was pre-F2P and the number of F2P players willing to do it might be much higher.

C) They've been monitoring STO and fan reactions, and the wrong faction ship issue isn't as much as a worry as they'd thought it'd be. The biggest fan reaction (based on forum threads that I've read) was to Tholian ships, and that was more of an issue of how that'd work technically with the vastly different life support needs.