Where did I say it was bad? All I did was correct the person saying that items could exist in the game without any money being spent. That's all.
you didn't say it was bad, you didnt say it was good either.
you didn't even say if it was an agreeable thing, an egregious thing. you didnt say you were correcting someone or even quoted a more relevant part of the thing you were replying.
makes it too open to interpretation don't you think?
If not for Free to Play I would never have even tried Star Trek Online; too many MMOs have been a disappointment so I've never had any interest in investing money just to be disappointed by another one (or playing a free demo that isn't representative of the later game grind).
When STO became Free to Play I jumped in to give it a go; while it still had many elements that annoy me about MMOs (boring ground combat, still a fair amount of grind) the good more than made up for it, especially once I'd been playing for a while and started getting the hang of outfitting my ship (I say started getting the hang of as I'm not even sure I fully understand everything today ).
Anyway, my point is that I wouldn't have played at all if not for Free to Play, and while I don't buy loads of stuff I have bought a lump of Dilithium, an Armitage Heavy Escort Carrier and a few other bits and pieces from the ZEN store (with actual money, rather than Dilithium farming for it). I don't feel that any of this has given me an unfair advantage or gives me any kind of particular edge over other players; the Armitage is a great escort with cruiser like quality and a hangar bay, but at the same time that means it's neither a full escort, full cruiser or full carrier, so it trades specialisation for flexibility, suits me fine but I think that a well specialised ship from an entirely non-paying player could take me out just fine.
All of my high level equipment has been acquired from the Reputation system, and given how long it takes to get to the higher tiers its not like I was in any particular rush to get enough Dilithium as long as I kept my daily quota up (which also topped off my marks and energy credits too).
I would like to see more subscription only content though, or even given subscribers some way to earn master keys other than spending ZEN, the idea of subscribing then blowing all my stipend on lockboxes isn't that appealing. Or even better; give subscribers access to lock-box items from a store directly, leave the random stuff to us free players. They could also give subscribers access to Mk XII crafting; while it could seem a little unfair it would actually bring down the price of a lot of Mk XII equipment that can only currently be obtained by drops or a random duty officer assignment. I would still want Mk XII crafting for everyone, but it could be made available to subscribers early; so even content that free to play players can still enjoy would be of benefit to subscribers if they always had access to something in advance. Might also serve as a good way to add some extra beta testing before content is released to the masses. If they'd done this with the Reputation system then subscribers could have had a month advantage on Reputation progress, which would be well worth paying for.
I'm sorry but when people make excuses for Cryptic's incompetent behavior, I have to giggle. Even Single Player Star Trek Games like Bridge Commander and Starfleet Commander III trounce this feeble attempt.
Here's a whacky idea. Maybe people aren't making excuses for STO, maybe they actually like it. I know I do.
People in this world need to realise that other people have their own opinions that are as valid to them as your opinions are to you. If someone has a different opinion to you that doesn't make them stupid or apologists or wrong. It's quite simply an indicator that they're an independent person who has made up their own mind based on their personal experiences.
People who are incapable of understanding this really must have a limited understanding of the concept of diversity.
Where did I say it was bad? All I did was correct the person saying that items could exist in the game without any money being spent. That's all.
Agreed. In the strictest definition, I am wrong. Someone, somewhere did spend real money on it. I guess my point is more replying to the OPs suggestion that the best things in game are not available to F2P players. That's just false.
The biggest "pay wall" is the Lobi Store, which isn't even really a wall. (Keys, Buy with EC or Convert Dil and Buy with Zen. Open Boxes with the keys, get Lobi)
Yes, it is slower for someone who doesn't spend money.
But absolutely everything the game offers (execepting Vet and Lifetime Rewards) is available to any player.
You do not need any of them items from the lobi store. I have run and cleared Elite STFs with opional with gear you can get of the ecxhange or sets found in game. Most of them are just fun toys and will hurt your DPS not help anyway.
When comparing the state of the game, I'd choose post-S5 F2P over S1-S4 subscription everytime. F2P repopulated the game, reactivated a lot of old players, game us content and bugfixes at a steady pace, as well as much more to do ingame and a lot more variety.
With the abundance of MMOs out there nowadays, running a subscription MMO is basically a sure way to run it into the ground, except if it's made by Blizzard or in it's first year. If the reports are to be believed, pretty much every big MMO that went from subscription to F2P has gotten healthier.
I prefer the FTP model over monthly subscription because once you own something in STO, it's yours no matter what happens (unless STO goes bankrupt). Under the subscription model, everything you have in game is being rented. Once you stop paying the rent, you walk away without anything other than fond memories.
I've been playing since f2p started, and not once have i ever felt the need to run out and spend money on this game. Not to mention I have played other games where its a HELL of alot more pay to win than this game will ever be.
Usually when I put cash into this game is when I really want something and don't feel like going into the grind to do it or don't feel like finishing the grind.
I've only ever payed full price for 2 ships in this game: The Armitage and Atrox. All my other ships i've bought have been met halfway with dil to zen conversions and with the case of my fleet failquarius, bought all the fleet modules with EC.
The simple fact that I can access all this stuff and approach it how I see fit is what makes this f2p model so great. Some F2P will give you a choice of spend money or you cant get the item. STO: I can choose to grind and spend cash. One can augment the other: Don't feel like grinding that much, spend a lil cash to make up the difference. Don't feel like spending money, grind a bit to make up the difference. It goes both ways, and thats what makes it good.
I guess my point is more replying to the OPs suggestion that the best things in game are not available to F2P players. That's just false.
That's definitely true that it's false.
I should apologize, because F2P discussions tend to put me in a haze - I saw something, and I basically just replied to that without taking the whole into consideration...even as it was part of what I said. Somebody has to pay - that somebody does not have to be you...
I should apologize, because F2P discussions tend to put me in a haze - I saw something, and I basically just replied to that without taking the whole into consideration...even as it was part of what I said. Somebody has to pay - that somebody does not have to be you...
You shouldn't feel the need to apologize. You are absolutely correct. Someone along the line, someone did spend money. It's one of the beautiful things about the free to play model is that there are "whales" who spend inordinate amounts of real life cash , and so these things become available to everyone. AND the casual F2P player (whom the OP would believe is only "leeching") will often see the new shiny and decide they can budget it.
Because of Cryptic's generous way of making all content available to any player, and the fact that other players (whales) make all the stuffs available too, this is a very friendly F2P environment, where the increased cash flow has resulted in more than doubling the team size working on the game ... the first results of which we won't really see until Season 8.
Compared to a lot of other FTP models, STO is probably one of the best I've played. Other FTP MMO's would require a lot more to be bought than what STO requires when playing. Really you could get to end game without spending a dime, where in other MMO's there is either a spot in the lower levels or mid levels where it becomes almost impossible to keep playing without spending money. STO is rewarding to the point you WANT to spend money, not because you have to but because you want to.
If the argument is they are being greedy, go check out the other sci-fi game that went FTP and then tell me how greedy Cryptic is in comparison. :P They are Saints compared to most of these other FTP MMO's out there in free content. lol
I have to agree with you on this. I did not have to spend anything to reach end-game if I wanted to, but I did spend money. I think this game in F2P is a good one. All the awards they got are not just made up. You can buy ships, or items, or keys, or choose not to. I don't see why there are so many negitive comments out there. I love the game.
At the end of the day, money should be a side-effect of actually having content that people enjoy. The lock-box ships have hideously unbalanced PvP which I will continue to maintain was better during the "Year of Hell" as you put it. Increasing the amount of in-game currency available is not solving the problem that Cryptic, out of their own sheer laziness what to make maximum profits with minimum effort.
So you're saying that the growing development team having a regular paycheck is less important than you having new mission content you'll blast through in a couple of days? That paying the sever costs comes second to a new mission that'll provide 30mins to an hours enjoyment too you?
Bear in mind that this game was voted best "FREE TO PLAY" MMO by some website or magazine I've never even heard off. If they had a PC Gamer Gold Award I would be impressed . They were not voted BEST MMO and cannot even compete with the industry giants of WoW and EvE which are considerably better games in a multitude of different ways.
Of course they're not going to compare to WoW and Eve, they're far bigger studios backed by even bigger parent companies. That's like saying that a random Indie game can compete for Game of The Year next to studios like EA and Nintendo.
Oh and lets mention another Free 2 Play MMO called Luna Online that I played for a bit that had the same number of endgame instances and raids that WoW did over STO's Eight. When you compare them, its laughable just how lazy Cryptic are.
Cryptic have been riddled with setbacks from day one, starting with the limited time left on the license to push out a Star Trek MMO and no code or assets from the previous developers, Atari finding out the hard way that an MMO isn't an instant money maker and needs a constant pumping of resources to keep people playing and more importantly paying resulting in them laying off most of the dev teams for STO and CO and then the fate of the studio being up in the air for a while whilst Atari attempted to sell it or write it off.
Right now the staff is back up to the level that they need to pump out a decent amount of content and we have had constant hints (and Dan Stahl outright telling us) that the season that the enlarged dev team has been devoting most of their resources to producing is Season 8, after all programmers take time to train when programming for a custom built engine like this.
I'm sorry but when people make excuses for Cryptic's incompetent behavior, I have to giggle. Even Single Player Star Trek Games like Bridge Commander and Starfleet Commander III trounce this feeble attempt.
Yes yes, we get it, you don't like the game, which of course raises the question of why you play it, or if you even play it at all and just troll the people who do enjoy playing it all day on the forums.
That being said plenty of other people do enjoy playing, at least they enjoy playing it enough to actively pay money for subscriptions, lifetime subs and Zen.
And as for Luna online, I've played it, compared to STO it's an extremely simplistic game engine, it wouldn't surprise me if they could knock up an end-game dungeon in a lazy afternoon. Now ask any foundry designer if they can knock up something they'd consider an end-game dungeon in a lazy afternoon.
Its quite sad when the players have to make excuses for the company that is running the game. A lot of us can see that this game is a train-wreck and Cryptic haven't really devoted time to fixing bugs or repairing their system (UI fixes, B'Rel Battle Cloak as a few things that need fixing) so why do people continually bury their head in the sand over Cryptic's short-comings?
Its a pity we cannot have a bigger and more responsible company do it. If they could do it right... they shouldn't have done it at all. Just my opinion.
Because of Cryptic's generous way of making all content available to any player, and the fact that other players (whales) make all the stuffs available too, this is a very friendly F2P environment, where the increased cash flow has resulted in more than doubling the team size working on the game ... the first results of which we won't really see until Season 8.
In addition to that, there is endgame gear which doesn't even require to convert Dilithium to Zen or buy stuff off the exchange which other people have payed for.
Random Drop and Fleet purples, Doff-consoles, Omega/Romulan faction gear, MkXI Breen/JemHadar/Aegis purples. Put those on the Chell, free Bortas or the 9-console RA ships and you're set. Not a single dime spent. Chances are good, if you're a halfway decent player, you'll outperform 95% of the Zen, Lockbox and Fleet Module vessels out there.
-The Vesta set.
-Both store Defiant models.
-The EC Cap Increase.
-6 character slots.
-3 Fleet Ships.
-Opened ~350 lobi worth of lockboxes.
-4 ships with multiple Fleet weapons
-Several of the store costumes (admittedly, acquired from promotional giveaways)
Amount of cash I've spent on the game? Zero dollars and zero cents.
Love it. And I fully appreciate those who DO spend cash on it, for letting me continue to play as I do.
This game has continually gone to the dogs since Free 2 Play was released. The problem is now, pretty much EVERYTHING in the game requires money if you want to be a decent player and Cryptic has taken a road of blatant exploitation of their player base. This has unfortunately become the literal translation of a Chinese sweatshop in which you grind and grind to get little reward that has really any value.
So I think Cryptic should abandon the Free 2 Play model and go back to the Subscription Model which they had when this game came out. Sure, there were problems back then too but at least they developed some new content without the incessant need to get greedy and try to make the player, even subscribed players like myself now, pay for everything.
Its unfortunate that such a game like this has gone the way it has, however if people stopped buying zen and focused on only the free features, then this game would rapidly change back to the subscription base and free stuff that we used to have because we were PAYING for the game back then.
This game could easily survive on subscriptions alone, even with the amount of lifetimers but Cryptic want their new coffee machine or water cooler so they do not actually want to change back. Why change if the sheep are buying into it?
This game could easily survive on subscriptions alone, even with the amount of lifetimers but Cryptic want their new coffee machine or water cooler so they do not actually want to change back. Why change if the sheep are buying into it?
Cryptic is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of a company that makes nothing but F2P games. The decision is out of their hands. Like it or not, F2P is here to stay. Don't expect future Cryptic games to even have the OPTION of a subscription, because it's likely they won't.
If that decision works out for them financially, and it almost certainly will, I wouldn't be surprised if it gets retrofitted into STO and CO eventually; although that being said, no such plans have been announced to the best of my knowledge.
Former moderator of these forums. Lifetime sub since before launch. Been here since before public betas. Foundry author of "Franklin Drake Must Die".
So basically... TRIBBLE all the F2P people who either 1) Can't afford a subscription (due to IRL costs), or 2) Just want to play a game and have fun without having to open their wallets, and just leave to people to p2p?
Really OP? The amount of scorn I have for you right now... well sufficed to say you just got onto my ****list with this little post. You do know the majority of players in this game are F2P right? And those F2P players DO buy zen (many of them anyways). And that does support the majority of in-game changes and IMPROVEMENTS (yes, those exist) that you and other p2p players enjoy right?
Dude, get off your high horse, get your head out of your rear, and go hide in some corner and call yourself good, because nobody else will.
It is said the best weapon is one that is never fired. I disagree. The best weapon is one you only have to fire... once.
Even if someone could provide a quote or something that backed up that rather dubious claim... The very idea of a sub only model has gone the way of the doodoo bird.
There's what, 2 MMO's out there still using that model, WoW and EVE. Both of which are not typical of the mainstream MMO market.
WoW is so huge and has such a loyal following that they can get away with asking for a sub, because so many people will pay it rather then give up their WoW. EVE is in many ways the same thing, but for slightly different reasons. The typical EVE player has invested so much time and money that the sub no longer is an issue.
It's a proven fact that most F2P games actually make more money then they did as subscription games. So why in the world would any company willingly give up profits? It's not like STO would see a huge spike in cash if they did that, so you'd see even less content then you do now.
FWIW, it is possible to play EvE f2p, thanks to being able to buy game timecards with ingame currency. Requires a reasonably active commitment to the game to do so though.
I've maintained for some time now (to IRL friends with an interest in such things, no forum quotes here to fall back on) that WoW was, is, and will be the last of the truely successful pay2play MMos. With TOR, TERA and FF:ARR going the way they are, and ANet sticking to buy2play with GW2, I've so far been completely right.
- Bug Ship
- Breen Cruiser
- Cardassian Galor
- Dominion Dreadnaught
- Tholian Orb Weaver
- Tholian Recluse Carrier
- Ferengi D'Kora
- Fleet Weapons (Dilthium needed which can be produced in small amounts in game or converted from zen)
- Temporal Warfare Set
- New Jem'Hadar Mark XII Set
- Ferengi Set
Not to mention that Fleet ships require Modules which are absurdly expensive on the exchange or 500 Zen each.
ALL OF ABOVE preform above and beyond other ships at that level and all of them involve some form of real life money.
Um... I don't have any of those and I do just fine on my Adapted Borg, Omega Weapons and Romulan Singularity Harness Heavy Escort Carrier. I paid for the carrier because I love the look of it and it gives me a decent mix between escort, cruiser and carrier and is a blast to play as an Engineer, but it's not really any better than other easily obtainable ships like the Star Cruiser (which I switched from). It's pure vanity and variety, and hardly necessary.
Given the amount of time requirement to get Reputation system gear, obtaining enough Dilithium is trivial by slotting in a few STFs each day or getting Dilithium in a variety of other ways. Hell, completing the Omega Reputation gives you around 9,000 and the Romulan ones gives you even more (32,000 or so?). It is extremely easy to keep up with Dilithium.
If you don't like how long it takes to grind enough Dilithium to trade in to get a free C-Store only ship or enough master keys for lockboxes then tough; Dilithium grinding doesn't pay the bills, so of course it isn't possible to churn out as much ZEN as you like after a few hours effort! As much as the grinding sometimes annoys me to, it's part of what makes it so worthwhile when you finally turn it into that item you've been after for so long; if you don't want to wait then you can cough up some cash, it's really pretty simple.
I'm also not sure how Fleet Ship Modules are expensive; they're 500 ZEN each, but you only need four to buy a ship that is an upgraded version of the 2,500 ZEN non-fleet variety. You're saving 500 ZEN there on an upgraded ship, though you won't get any unique console(s) that original ship had. Or, if you got the original ship then it's only 500 to upgrade. Considering my fleet is a while away from tier V shipyard I'm going to get plenty of use out of my non-fleet Heavy Escort Carrier; 500 ZEN at that point will be a bargain to upgrade it, and I might even have enough Dilithium by then to get it for free.
Free to Play is a pretty simple system; all the good stuff costs Dilithium, which requires time to produce (otherwise everyone and his mum would have Mk XII Very Rare everything a few days after hitting level 50). If you can't wait, you cough up some money to speed the process along. You don't have to do that though, as there is plenty of stuff to be doing while you work up the necessary funds; you pay purely for convenience. The subscriptions aren't even a bad deal really, since they get an included stipend which means that every time your stipend comes in you can leap-frog the free to play players. If you're online enough to justify it then a subscription is still a decent deal; personally I play in bursts rather than regularly so it doesn't suit me, though if it had enough extra perks I could potentially still be tempted.
FWIW, it is possible to play EvE f2p, thanks to being able to buy game timecards with ingame currency.
I've heard that but I'm not sure how easy it is to actually pull off, so I didn't mention it.
WoW was, is, and will be the last of the truely successful pay2play MMos.
I agree, for much the same reason as it managed to get 10+ million people, it will manage to retain it's pay2play model.
One of the issues with the monthly sub is the fact that the rate hasn't gone up in what 10+ years? CoH was released in 2004, and I know that was $15/month, I think Everquest might of been that price as well, and that came out in '99.
When you figure inflation, $15 in 2004, is $18.23 today, so today a monthly sub to WoW effectively costs $3 less then it did when the game was released.
This and for many other reasons the whole monthly sub thing is effectively over. Every MMO released since WoW came out, have gone F2P since, if they weren't released that way.
What a fun thread to read. I like having the OP completely ignore everything being said.
Also, the game is TRIBBLE, you're right. It's really crappy that you HAVE and HAVE to login to play this game, completely destroys your real life.
Now for you: I'm playing with the thought of buying lifetime-membership right now. This, although I'd never pay for a F2P-game normally. This game is award winning, and I'd place this on a higher place than WoW. Why? WoW is grinding, also I don't like most of the fantasy settings.
Also, if you want nice endgame-content, try out Roleplay. I'd not say that Star Trek Online is an MMO but an MMORPG. Sadly many old players left during the pay2play-phase, thus the Roleplayers, especially in german language, is really low. Thank god I've found a fleet not completely dead, atm we're in a state to actually RP a bit. I hope, it'll become more, and am actively working for it. Phoenix Command would be the name for the german RP-fleet.
Comments
you didn't say it was bad, you didnt say it was good either.
you didn't even say if it was an agreeable thing, an egregious thing. you didnt say you were correcting someone or even quoted a more relevant part of the thing you were replying.
makes it too open to interpretation don't you think?
but yea if THAT was your point, ofc yr right.
Interested in Role Playing? Join the 12th Fleet Science division!
When STO became Free to Play I jumped in to give it a go; while it still had many elements that annoy me about MMOs (boring ground combat, still a fair amount of grind) the good more than made up for it, especially once I'd been playing for a while and started getting the hang of outfitting my ship (I say started getting the hang of as I'm not even sure I fully understand everything today
Anyway, my point is that I wouldn't have played at all if not for Free to Play, and while I don't buy loads of stuff I have bought a lump of Dilithium, an Armitage Heavy Escort Carrier and a few other bits and pieces from the ZEN store (with actual money, rather than Dilithium farming for it). I don't feel that any of this has given me an unfair advantage or gives me any kind of particular edge over other players; the Armitage is a great escort with cruiser like quality and a hangar bay, but at the same time that means it's neither a full escort, full cruiser or full carrier, so it trades specialisation for flexibility, suits me fine but I think that a well specialised ship from an entirely non-paying player could take me out just fine.
All of my high level equipment has been acquired from the Reputation system, and given how long it takes to get to the higher tiers its not like I was in any particular rush to get enough Dilithium as long as I kept my daily quota up (which also topped off my marks and energy credits too).
I would like to see more subscription only content though, or even given subscribers some way to earn master keys other than spending ZEN, the idea of subscribing then blowing all my stipend on lockboxes isn't that appealing. Or even better; give subscribers access to lock-box items from a store directly, leave the random stuff to us free players. They could also give subscribers access to Mk XII crafting; while it could seem a little unfair it would actually bring down the price of a lot of Mk XII equipment that can only currently be obtained by drops or a random duty officer assignment. I would still want Mk XII crafting for everyone, but it could be made available to subscribers early; so even content that free to play players can still enjoy would be of benefit to subscribers if they always had access to something in advance. Might also serve as a good way to add some extra beta testing before content is released to the masses. If they'd done this with the Reputation system then subscribers could have had a month advantage on Reputation progress, which would be well worth paying for.
Game Balance - Ship Size and Wingmates
Here's a whacky idea. Maybe people aren't making excuses for STO, maybe they actually like it. I know I do.
People in this world need to realise that other people have their own opinions that are as valid to them as your opinions are to you. If someone has a different opinion to you that doesn't make them stupid or apologists or wrong. It's quite simply an indicator that they're an independent person who has made up their own mind based on their personal experiences.
People who are incapable of understanding this really must have a limited understanding of the concept of diversity.
Agreed. In the strictest definition, I am wrong. Someone, somewhere did spend real money on it. I guess my point is more replying to the OPs suggestion that the best things in game are not available to F2P players. That's just false.
The biggest "pay wall" is the Lobi Store, which isn't even really a wall. (Keys, Buy with EC or Convert Dil and Buy with Zen. Open Boxes with the keys, get Lobi)
Yes, it is slower for someone who doesn't spend money.
But absolutely everything the game offers (execepting Vet and Lifetime Rewards) is available to any player.
That's all I am saying, I guess.
"We are smart." - Grebnedlog
Member of Alliance Central Command/boq botlhra'ghom
With the abundance of MMOs out there nowadays, running a subscription MMO is basically a sure way to run it into the ground, except if it's made by Blizzard or in it's first year. If the reports are to be believed, pretty much every big MMO that went from subscription to F2P has gotten healthier.
I've been playing since f2p started, and not once have i ever felt the need to run out and spend money on this game. Not to mention I have played other games where its a HELL of alot more pay to win than this game will ever be.
Usually when I put cash into this game is when I really want something and don't feel like going into the grind to do it or don't feel like finishing the grind.
I've only ever payed full price for 2 ships in this game: The Armitage and Atrox. All my other ships i've bought have been met halfway with dil to zen conversions and with the case of my fleet failquarius, bought all the fleet modules with EC.
The simple fact that I can access all this stuff and approach it how I see fit is what makes this f2p model so great. Some F2P will give you a choice of spend money or you cant get the item. STO: I can choose to grind and spend cash. One can augment the other: Don't feel like grinding that much, spend a lil cash to make up the difference. Don't feel like spending money, grind a bit to make up the difference. It goes both ways, and thats what makes it good.
That's definitely true that it's false.
I should apologize, because F2P discussions tend to put me in a haze - I saw something, and I basically just replied to that without taking the whole into consideration...even as it was part of what I said. Somebody has to pay - that somebody does not have to be you...
You shouldn't feel the need to apologize. You are absolutely correct. Someone along the line, someone did spend money. It's one of the beautiful things about the free to play model is that there are "whales" who spend inordinate amounts of real life cash , and so these things become available to everyone. AND the casual F2P player (whom the OP would believe is only "leeching") will often see the new shiny and decide they can budget it.
Because of Cryptic's generous way of making all content available to any player, and the fact that other players (whales) make all the stuffs available too, this is a very friendly F2P environment, where the increased cash flow has resulted in more than doubling the team size working on the game ... the first results of which we won't really see until Season 8.
I have to agree with you on this. I did not have to spend anything to reach end-game if I wanted to, but I did spend money. I think this game in F2P is a good one. All the awards they got are not just made up. You can buy ships, or items, or keys, or choose not to. I don't see why there are so many negitive comments out there. I love the game.
So you're saying that the growing development team having a regular paycheck is less important than you having new mission content you'll blast through in a couple of days? That paying the sever costs comes second to a new mission that'll provide 30mins to an hours enjoyment too you?
Of course they're not going to compare to WoW and Eve, they're far bigger studios backed by even bigger parent companies. That's like saying that a random Indie game can compete for Game of The Year next to studios like EA and Nintendo.
Cryptic have been riddled with setbacks from day one, starting with the limited time left on the license to push out a Star Trek MMO and no code or assets from the previous developers, Atari finding out the hard way that an MMO isn't an instant money maker and needs a constant pumping of resources to keep people playing and more importantly paying resulting in them laying off most of the dev teams for STO and CO and then the fate of the studio being up in the air for a while whilst Atari attempted to sell it or write it off.
Right now the staff is back up to the level that they need to pump out a decent amount of content and we have had constant hints (and Dan Stahl outright telling us) that the season that the enlarged dev team has been devoting most of their resources to producing is Season 8, after all programmers take time to train when programming for a custom built engine like this.
Yes yes, we get it, you don't like the game, which of course raises the question of why you play it, or if you even play it at all and just troll the people who do enjoy playing it all day on the forums.
That being said plenty of other people do enjoy playing, at least they enjoy playing it enough to actively pay money for subscriptions, lifetime subs and Zen.
And as for Luna online, I've played it, compared to STO it's an extremely simplistic game engine, it wouldn't surprise me if they could knock up an end-game dungeon in a lazy afternoon. Now ask any foundry designer if they can knock up something they'd consider an end-game dungeon in a lazy afternoon.
Its a pity we cannot have a bigger and more responsible company do it. If they could do it right... they shouldn't have done it at all. Just my opinion.
In addition to that, there is endgame gear which doesn't even require to convert Dilithium to Zen or buy stuff off the exchange which other people have payed for.
Random Drop and Fleet purples, Doff-consoles, Omega/Romulan faction gear, MkXI Breen/JemHadar/Aegis purples. Put those on the Chell, free Bortas or the 9-console RA ships and you're set. Not a single dime spent. Chances are good, if you're a halfway decent player, you'll outperform 95% of the Zen, Lockbox and Fleet Module vessels out there.
If you find a lot of players doing that, chances are that the company must have done something right.
-The Vesta set.
-Both store Defiant models.
-The EC Cap Increase.
-6 character slots.
-3 Fleet Ships.
-Opened ~350 lobi worth of lockboxes.
-4 ships with multiple Fleet weapons
-Several of the store costumes (admittedly, acquired from promotional giveaways)
Amount of cash I've spent on the game? Zero dollars and zero cents.
Love it. And I fully appreciate those who DO spend cash on it, for letting me continue to play as I do.
And they couldn't play the way they do if you weren't doing what you do...
You benefit.
They benefit.
Cryptic benefits.
Everybody benefits.
Qft amen.....i totally agree.
Cryptic is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of a company that makes nothing but F2P games. The decision is out of their hands. Like it or not, F2P is here to stay. Don't expect future Cryptic games to even have the OPTION of a subscription, because it's likely they won't.
If that decision works out for them financially, and it almost certainly will, I wouldn't be surprised if it gets retrofitted into STO and CO eventually; although that being said, no such plans have been announced to the best of my knowledge.
Really OP? The amount of scorn I have for you right now... well sufficed to say you just got onto my ****list with this little post. You do know the majority of players in this game are F2P right? And those F2P players DO buy zen (many of them anyways). And that does support the majority of in-game changes and IMPROVEMENTS (yes, those exist) that you and other p2p players enjoy right?
Dude, get off your high horse, get your head out of your rear, and go hide in some corner and call yourself good, because nobody else will.
Even if someone could provide a quote or something that backed up that rather dubious claim... The very idea of a sub only model has gone the way of the doodoo bird.
There's what, 2 MMO's out there still using that model, WoW and EVE. Both of which are not typical of the mainstream MMO market.
WoW is so huge and has such a loyal following that they can get away with asking for a sub, because so many people will pay it rather then give up their WoW. EVE is in many ways the same thing, but for slightly different reasons. The typical EVE player has invested so much time and money that the sub no longer is an issue.
It's a proven fact that most F2P games actually make more money then they did as subscription games. So why in the world would any company willingly give up profits? It's not like STO would see a huge spike in cash if they did that, so you'd see even less content then you do now.
I've maintained for some time now (to IRL friends with an interest in such things, no forum quotes here to fall back on) that WoW was, is, and will be the last of the truely successful pay2play MMos. With TOR, TERA and FF:ARR going the way they are, and ANet sticking to buy2play with GW2, I've so far been completely right.
Given the amount of time requirement to get Reputation system gear, obtaining enough Dilithium is trivial by slotting in a few STFs each day or getting Dilithium in a variety of other ways. Hell, completing the Omega Reputation gives you around 9,000 and the Romulan ones gives you even more (32,000 or so?). It is extremely easy to keep up with Dilithium.
If you don't like how long it takes to grind enough Dilithium to trade in to get a free C-Store only ship or enough master keys for lockboxes then tough; Dilithium grinding doesn't pay the bills, so of course it isn't possible to churn out as much ZEN as you like after a few hours effort! As much as the grinding sometimes annoys me to, it's part of what makes it so worthwhile when you finally turn it into that item you've been after for so long; if you don't want to wait then you can cough up some cash, it's really pretty simple.
I'm also not sure how Fleet Ship Modules are expensive; they're 500 ZEN each, but you only need four to buy a ship that is an upgraded version of the 2,500 ZEN non-fleet variety. You're saving 500 ZEN there on an upgraded ship, though you won't get any unique console(s) that original ship had. Or, if you got the original ship then it's only 500 to upgrade. Considering my fleet is a while away from tier V shipyard I'm going to get plenty of use out of my non-fleet Heavy Escort Carrier; 500 ZEN at that point will be a bargain to upgrade it, and I might even have enough Dilithium by then to get it for free.
Free to Play is a pretty simple system; all the good stuff costs Dilithium, which requires time to produce (otherwise everyone and his mum would have Mk XII Very Rare everything a few days after hitting level 50). If you can't wait, you cough up some money to speed the process along. You don't have to do that though, as there is plenty of stuff to be doing while you work up the necessary funds; you pay purely for convenience. The subscriptions aren't even a bad deal really, since they get an included stipend which means that every time your stipend comes in you can leap-frog the free to play players. If you're online enough to justify it then a subscription is still a decent deal; personally I play in bursts rather than regularly so it doesn't suit me, though if it had enough extra perks I could potentially still be tempted.
Game Balance - Ship Size and Wingmates
I've heard that but I'm not sure how easy it is to actually pull off, so I didn't mention it.
I agree, for much the same reason as it managed to get 10+ million people, it will manage to retain it's pay2play model.
One of the issues with the monthly sub is the fact that the rate hasn't gone up in what 10+ years? CoH was released in 2004, and I know that was $15/month, I think Everquest might of been that price as well, and that came out in '99.
When you figure inflation, $15 in 2004, is $18.23 today, so today a monthly sub to WoW effectively costs $3 less then it did when the game was released.
This and for many other reasons the whole monthly sub thing is effectively over. Every MMO released since WoW came out, have gone F2P since, if they weren't released that way.
Also, the game is TRIBBLE, you're right. It's really crappy that you HAVE and HAVE to login to play this game, completely destroys your real life.
Now for you: I'm playing with the thought of buying lifetime-membership right now. This, although I'd never pay for a F2P-game normally. This game is award winning, and I'd place this on a higher place than WoW. Why? WoW is grinding, also I don't like most of the fantasy settings.
Also, if you want nice endgame-content, try out Roleplay. I'd not say that Star Trek Online is an MMO but an MMORPG. Sadly many old players left during the pay2play-phase, thus the Roleplayers, especially in german language, is really low. Thank god I've found a fleet not completely dead, atm we're in a state to actually RP a bit. I hope, it'll become more, and am actively working for it. Phoenix Command would be the name for the german RP-fleet.
Greetings
Silverman