Time for a Story.
This past week, possibly the past two weeks (I can't remember exactly) I've been on a mission, a mission to acquire myself a Galor Class Cruiser. This wasn't so much because I wanted to fly a Cardassian ship (the thought of Starfleet Officers flying around in alien craft still doesn't sit well with me from a Trek lore point of view), though I can overlook that. No, what I really appreciated about this vessel was the Bridge Officer slots.
A Lieutenant Commander Tactical (Torpedo High Yield #3 please) and the Universal Lieutenant Slot. This was one setup I had hoped to see on the Fleet version of the Excelsior, though the Ensign slot on there is for an Engineer rather than a Scientist. I'm an Engineering character, so obviously the two Engineering slots on the Galor suit me equally well for Engineering skills.
Anyway, like said, I don't remember when I started, but I didn't want to actually 'buy' any lock boxes (least, with Zen). I've tried that out before, and bought more than I should have. Each time, I got Duty Officers and Lobi Crystals for my troubles. No, this time I was going to try an alternate method, so I went by the route of buying keys off the exchange (at around 1.2mil each). I had saved up 10mil to do this, and am pretty sure I saved up another 6-8 mill again to further attempt my goal, in addition to the odd other key here and there. This did not work.
Then came Dilithium, just enough exchanged for a 10-pack. That failed too. I called time. I'd had enough of failing. I should note that over the course of my attempts, all I saw were messages pop up telling me how everyone else was unlocking everything else. I swear a good portion of my fleet have managed to unlock a rare ship or two this past week. By this point I'd probably opened up (what feels like) 40 - 50 boxes. There was a girl in ESD (I think on Wednesday) who scored a D'Kora and Tholian ship within seconds of each other. Turns out she'd just bought her first 10-pack and only used five keys. :eek:
At this stage, I had the 10mil energy cap limit. I figured to myself the best thing to do to get my Galor would be to buy it outright off the exchange. Meant me saving up 75-mil, something that I couldn't do before hand. So, I purchased more Zen (5300 to be exact). Unlocked the energy credit cap, added another pair of bridge officers to my FED toon, and some inventory slots for my KDF toon. Obviously didn't use it all. I was tempted to convert the remaining to dilithium, but with the exchange rate as it is, I figured that would be a poor choice.
Anyway, today I was sat around on ESD reading the game chat on Religion and the end of the world (it's always Religion or Politics there) and I thought about buying more keys. I also had 31mil energy credits saved up at this point too. There were three Cardassian Lock Boxes sitting in my fleet bank, and I figured I'd discipline myself to buying three keys, open them, and just hope for luck. I ended up buying a 10-pack with Zen (figured I can always save the other keys for the next lock box), though when I went back to my fleet bank, I found the boxes gone. Off to the exchange I went, and luckily found three boxes for 1k (the rest were 30k up).
I opened the first, duty officers and lobi crystals. I opened the second, duty officers and lobi crystals. I opened up the third, I got that Galor.

I was overjoyed.
So, I've got the Galor (my alien Cruiser), I'll soon have the Chel Grett (shame about the lack of bridge) with some aid from Ice Skating and Lobi Crystals (my Escort (
even though it's kind of a Cruiser too)) and I'm hoping that the rumored Dominion Lock Box will have more of an Engineering-Science Dominion Warship in it. I've got 7 keys to spend on that. Then my 'Dominion Wars' fleet will be complete.
But yeah, have had quite a bash at this. Gave up a few times, then gave in, then gave up then gave in again. As luck would have it, buying the 10-pack today was a good decision. Long-term it has cost me a lot of energy credits (I'd say around 35mil), some dilithium and zen, but in the end, I got there. My first Lock Box ship, and I've been playing since F2P. About time I'd say.
Sorry for the bore / essay, just I'm a tad chuffed at the minute. :cool:
Comments
you may try just doing more EC and buying the stuff off the exchange. and open the boxes only for the lobis ..
BSG-Benne Gesserit Consortium
Next time the bright idea of trying your luck with a lock-box comes into your head BUY it outright on the exchange. This could easily have turned into another tear jerking story of some poor sod NOT getting lucky. Why take the risk & gamble on your luck ?
I know your happy, and that's great, but do it the smart way next time kay ?