I am trying to decide the same thing. I was a preorder player, then have not really played much and recently came back. When I look at the free vs. pay differences, I don't see much of a difference between the two besides some inventory space and +500 funny bucks. Doesn't look like that much of a difference to me.
It comes down to a matter of value and time. People who purchased 3.5 years ago, yes they got a lot of value for their time. The problem is now is that I'm not certain though how much more time STO has. Giving them $300 or $200 up front with no contracted delivery means they could close tomorrow and you are out the money. Now they won't close tomorrow but they will close sometime in the future when interest in the game fades enough. Or Bioware could come along and get the franchise much like they did with Star Wars and STO would be forced to close.
I'm sure STO has several years left. The main thing is value. What are you getting for $300 or $200? Not much really. The Chimera is nice but you can play all of the end game stuff and do just fine with a normal free ship. You do get 500 Zen per month but you could also take that $200 and buy Zen directly and would end up with a lot of Zen and buy out the majority of the Z-Store.
What I would recommend is get a couple of free characters, play to level 50, then go Gold for 1 month. You will get the vast majority of LTS benefits for that month and when you sub expires you will keep them.
Until more value is added to the LTS, I don't see myself purchasing one.
I would try for an LTS if it were in a lock box, but as 99.9998% of the game has argued that would be a horrible idea. It would sell more keys... but somehow that doesn't make sense.
I'm considering the LTS but can't find the answer to this Q
a.
Are the veteran rewards just once time only, or do they unlock for each character?
Some Vet Rewards, like additional character slots, are account-based. Others, like the pets and costume pieces and ships are per character.
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.
I've been around on and off since beta, but I only got my LTS back in January. I'd say it was worth it but YMMV. Each of your characters automatically levels up as gold (handy with my new alts from LoR), an android BO, the 1000 day vet ship (not yet for Rommies sadly), one of the vet ships (including the awesome Kar Fi if you're KDF). You can be a liberated borg human/klingon/romulan. It's not just the 500 zen stipend, which is also nice.
My alt army: K'ymara, Orion Engineer. Caedera of Borg, Liberated Borg Tactical, Elyza Vix, Joined Trill Scientist. Christina Bellona, Augmented Human Tactical. T'Lana, Vulcan Scientist. Arbol, Martian Tactical. Ayzer Bryn, Joined Trill Engineer. Hawke, Betazoid Scientist. Karna Valkras, Klingon Engineer. Beth Parker, Human Tactical Sarel, Romulan Engineer (Federation). Yazuri, Reman Scientist (KDF)
I will admit, I very much regret not getting myself a life time sub at game launch 3+ years ago. And ever sub sale since me and my good friend always debate going for it.
Some Vet Rewards, like additional character slots, are account-based. Others, like the pets and costume pieces and ships are per character.
What is kept when a gold account expires?
Account bank
Shared slots
Extra ship / char slots - will this be reduced and any char in it greyed out?
The feature matrix / Faq does not do a good job of explaining what features are retained / reduced upon subscription expiry, except for a vague description, which i figure, is intentional..
Comments
I'm sure STO has several years left. The main thing is value. What are you getting for $300 or $200? Not much really. The Chimera is nice but you can play all of the end game stuff and do just fine with a normal free ship. You do get 500 Zen per month but you could also take that $200 and buy Zen directly and would end up with a lot of Zen and buy out the majority of the Z-Store.
What I would recommend is get a couple of free characters, play to level 50, then go Gold for 1 month. You will get the vast majority of LTS benefits for that month and when you sub expires you will keep them.
Until more value is added to the LTS, I don't see myself purchasing one.
I would try for an LTS if it were in a lock box, but as 99.9998% of the game has argued that would be a horrible idea. It would sell more keys... but somehow that doesn't make sense.
K'ymara, Orion Engineer. Caedera of Borg, Liberated Borg Tactical, Elyza Vix, Joined Trill Scientist. Christina Bellona, Augmented Human Tactical.
T'Lana, Vulcan Scientist. Arbol, Martian Tactical. Ayzer Bryn, Joined Trill Engineer. Hawke, Betazoid Scientist. Karna Valkras, Klingon Engineer. Beth Parker, Human Tactical
Sarel, Romulan Engineer (Federation). Yazuri, Reman Scientist (KDF)
I have done gold a few times, just to get the extra slots for my toons, thats worth it when you think of the zen it costs.
However I cannot see myself spending that much money on a game. If it was say ?80. Then yes I would.
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What is kept when a gold account expires?
Account bank
Shared slots
Extra ship / char slots - will this be reduced and any char in it greyed out?
The feature matrix / Faq does not do a good job of explaining what features are retained / reduced upon subscription expiry, except for a vague description, which i figure, is intentional..