Paying Zen to reduce your daily event cooldown

newromulan1

So what do you guys think about buying tokens with zen to reduce your cooldown timers?? It could be coming in the very near future.

Edit: Right now on tribble as you will see in a linked photo below- it shows '0' marks cooldown reduction token to be purchased with zen - in the lower left hand corner of the screen. After someone posted that pic I went on tribble to see and sure enough it is a zen store link - but since it is not yet set up, only a blank confirm to purchase screen comes up when you click it.

I personally don't have a problem with the 'pay 2 win' as long as a significant portion of the extra revenue generated goes back into game development. With a so called free to play - or really: free to pay game, it is extremely important to keep finding new revenue sources to keep development rolling. As alway I will reserve judgment for the rest of this year to see if these extra pay gates are returned to the game in the source of content. I am still hoping on a 5 episode end game featured episode series that raises the level cap and brings an end to the Fed/kdf war - if it takes some more optional pay walls to get featured episode SERIES to return to the game, then I am all for it.

Edit #2 - After 11 pages the accusations and speculation of what this means its getting a little silly. At this time there is NO official word on what these tokens will cost, what mark events/missions/rep systems that they will affect, or if this is definitely coming with the event changes next week. Before you bring out the pitchforks and torches, please wait for official word from either Brandon or one of the Devs. I will of course update this OP again when some official news regarding these tokens is announced. I still welcome your feedback on the original OP idea of using Zen to reduce the wait times, but at this time making wild assumptions like 'cryptic plans to extort us' are neither needed or wanted.

Thx

shpoks

Not sure. I sounds like it has P2W written all over it. I mean, why tokens that reduce cooldown timers, why not be able to buy an entire rep. tier or full rep. for a larger amount then?

erei1

They introduced that in DDO. A paying item to remove your raid cooldown.
There was a huge drama because of that. P2win and all that.

While I'm more or less neutral on the question, even if I don't like it much, you'll probably have the same drama on STO if you add that.

tikonov

http://i.imgur.com/ARyr6Zv.jpg

aloishammer

newromulan1 wrote: »

So what do you guys think about buying tokens with zen to reduce you cooldown timers?? It could be coming in the very near future.

What are you doing?!? Stop giving them ideas already! :eek:

ashkrik23

DCUO has this. I don't think it should be here though.

shpoks

tikonov wrote: »

http://i.imgur.com/ARyr6Zv.jpg

??? :eek:

Is this taken from one of the test servers, or am I that blind that I haven't noticed it in game??

newromulan1

aloishammer wrote: »

What are you doing?!? Stop giving them ideas already! :eek:

I see by the last image post your too late - they already have it ready to go it seems.

farmallm

tikonov wrote: »

http://i.imgur.com/ARyr6Zv.jpg

This looks good, I can use this when I need EC for a purchase or leveling up an Alt to get some EC as well.

bareel

This is bad, very bad.

The Zen to Dilithium exchange itself may encourage Cryptic to tweak rewards to get the most amount of cash out of players but atleast it is somewhat controlled/influenced by the players themselves.

Once this goes live the development question is no longer 'how long should the grind be to keep players in the game' and instead becomes 'how long should the grind be to sell the most reset tokens'.

No thank you. Granted I don't think my opinion matters only the metrics of if this is a good thing for Cryptic's revenue. I don't have a problem with Cryptic trying to make as much money as they can mind you, I just think this will damage long term profits for short term gain because of the impact it will have.

farmallm wrote: »

This looks good, I can use this when I need EC for a purchase or leveling up an Alt to get some EC as well.

Or you could buy a lockbox key and sell it on the exchange. Current system good, this bad.

noblet

The grind will lengthen to encourage you to buy tokens.:D

pyrogxmk3

That way lies Allods, stacking multi-hour respawn timers, and them only ticking down while logged in.

rinkster

tikonov wrote: »

http://i.imgur.com/ARyr6Zv.jpg

Ugh, just ugh.

omegaphallic

I'm okay with this as long as Cryptic doesn't abuse by boosting the grind beyond what it would've been anyways.

I'm very picky about what I grind for anyways. I'm not one of these OCD people who must have everything because its there, and so I just don't bother unless I really really want it, getting it is fun,or I'm bored. Like I'll do

We also don't know how much Zen it will cost to do this. If its like a hundred Zen.

And I don't concider it pay to win, more pay to hurry.


.

farmallm

bareel wrote: »

Or you could buy a lockbox key and sell it on the exchange. Current system good, this bad.

Usually if I buy zen its for a ship, uniform, or other features to help my character. The current system was ok, but you never knew when it was coming. So most of the time I didn't do this due to this.

If I bought a key I rather use it on a lockbox to get lobi. For my chance for a Jem Dread.

maxvitor

That's unlikely, one of the reasons for the grind is to buy time between development release cycles, if they give people a way to circumvent that, they get to end game faster, they get bored faster so they just don't bother logging on between releases, the company ends up with a lot of empty space on the servers, then all the little things like C-store sales and all the revenue generated from having populated servers starts to fall off, then there's always the possibility that customers who've left due to boredom may not return with the next release, which all adds up to lost revenue, it suits their purposes better to drag things out and keep customers coming back, even if they grumbling doing it.

admrenlarreck

maxvitor wrote: »

That's unlikely, one of the reasons for the grind is to buy time between development release cycles, if they give people a way to circumvent that, they get to end game faster, they get bored faster so they just don't bother logging on between releases, the company ends up with a lot of empty space on the servers, then all the little things like C-store sales and all the revenue generated from having populated servers starts to fall off, then there's always the possibility that customers who've left due to boredom may not return with the next release, which all adds up to lost revenue, it suits their purposes better to drag things out and keep customers coming back, even if they grumbling doing it.

I guess you didnt see the pic that was posted. taken from a test server showing this is for sale.

farmallm

For the OP. I rather not spend my zen on it. Since I have other things to do. So I can wait for the next day to do it all over again. Most my playing time is a quick run for Dil, Rep, or work on alt. Depending on where I'm at. So reducing down the time won't do me any good. Unless I can make it reduce 100%. So I can just run in over and over without stopping.

greyhame3

Well, this is dropping the interest I had in trying to save for a life time sub. Oh well.

red01999

Can someone please explain to me IN DETAIL what this is likely to mean?

I mean, for all I know from the sounds of it, it means that you can only play Infected Space Elite once a day or something like that (not saying that's the ONLY event that might be affected, there are tons, just using that as a popular example). I don't play other MMOs so I've never seen anything quite like this, so any insight would be appreciated.

hypl

I don't have much desire to reduce my cooldowns, but I have a feeling PWE will find some way to exploit this in the future. 100% guaranteed.

newromulan1

red01999 wrote: »

Can someone please explain to me IN DETAIL what this is likely to mean?

I mean, for all I know from the sounds of it, it means that you can only play Infected Space Elite once a day or something like that (not saying that's the ONLY event that might be affected, there are tons, just using that as a popular example). I don't play other MMOs so I've never seen anything quite like this, so any insight would be appreciated.

Sorry - other than the screen shot with the '0' cooldown tokens for Zen in the lower left hand corner - there is NO official word on whether this will be coming next week with the update to event changes or what type of events/missions/reps could be affected. You will just have to wait for official word from Brandon or one of the Devs - most likely next week. Sorry.

mikefl

tikonov wrote: »

http://i.imgur.com/ARyr6Zv.jpg

Yes I saw this on Tribble today... It looks like you will be able to buy a reset token for mark daily cooldowns. I did not see anything describing it however to know what it exactly means.

damix4

newromulan1 wrote: »

With a so called free to play - or really: free to pay game, it is extremely important to keep finding new revenue sources to keep development rolling. As alway I will reserve judgment for the rest of this year to see if these extra pay gates are returned to the game in the source of content.

I agree here, although some won't agree. Development of this game needs to be paid so we can get new content and those at pwe have to see that cryptic is making them money. I won't buy those cool-down tokens, but I know some players are frustrated with long cool-down.

Those that are going to buy it have money to spend so I won't try stopping them. I don't care if they finish the reputation before me, I play at my own pace.

Thing is, when some item in c-store gets old, it stops giving them money so they need to change things and make innovations like this. At one maybe even lockbox sale will stop so they will have to make something new.

I don't think the game or space will be empty. When one buys token, he/she/it will actually continue to play for that day as he bought the token for that reason. He will still need to collect the same amount of marks to finish the reputation.

And after he finish it, he will have time to explore the space or do other things (some players were complaining that they weren't able to complete reputations as they had to concentrate on the winter event. There are a lot of players that play only at weekend so they don't have enough time in their life to compete with those that play everyday and fill their reputation daily.

I'm just trying to say that this does not mean DOOM for this game. Those who have money, they will buy it. I just hope it will mean we will have more end game content - real content that is story heavy and star trek heavy.

Correct me in parts where I am wrong, we still haven't seen impact of this tokens for this game so I could be blind.

Thanks for reading

Edit: I don't know if it will actually be used for reputation, someone mentioned it above. in the picture we see it only for daily missions.

jam3s1701

I for one hope this is a massive fake!

I do not agree with this one bit!

newromulan1

jam3s1701 wrote: »

I for one hope this is a massive fake!

I do not agree with this one bit!

I just went on tribble to check - it is not a fake - in fact you can click on it and another box will come up asking to confirm purchase, however, the box just shows my zen balance and is completely blacked out. It does not show any other details.

mikefl

newromulan1 wrote: »

I just went on tribble to check - it is not a fake - in fact you can click on it and another box will come up asking to confirm purchase, however, the box just shows my zen balance and is completely blacked out. It does not show any other details.

Ditto for me as well. I clicked and it offered a purchase of the item but no description probably because the c-store on tribble is dated and doesn't have any current stuff. I definitely think it's part of the bigger plan with the change coming with the event calendar next week. Those that wish to spend can do that vs. trying to schedule around event times I'm betting.

jengoz

if you thought gates and timers were long now. Wait and see, everything is going to take twice as long in the future.... but don't worry, just spend some zen and it will take half as long. This is all much cheaper and easier for them to nerf this then to make any quality content that players would be willing to pay for.

purplegamer

damix4 wrote: »

I agree here, although some won't agree. Development of this game needs to be paid so we can get new content and those at pwe have to see that cryptic is making them money. I won't buy those cool-down tokens, but I know some players are frustrated with long cool-down.

Those that are going to buy it have money to spend so I won't try stopping them. I don't care if they finish the reputation before me, I play at my own pace.

Thing is, when some item in c-store gets old, it stops giving them money so they need to change things and make innovations like this. At one maybe even lockbox sale will stop so they will have to make something new.

I don't think the game or space will be empty. When one buys token, he/she/it will actually continue to play for that day as he bought the token for that reason. He will still need to collect the same amount of marks to finish the reputation.

And after he finish it, he will have time to explore the space or do other things (some players were complaining that they weren't able to complete reputations as they had to concentrate on the winter event. There are a lot of players that play only at weekend so they don't have enough time in their life to compete with those that play everyday and fill their reputation daily.

I'm just trying to say that this does not mean DOOM for this game. Those who have money, they will buy it. I just hope it will mean we will have more end game content - real content that is story heavy and star trek heavy.

Correct me in parts where I am wrong, we still haven't seen impact of this tokens for this game so I could be blind.

Thanks for reading

Edit: I don't know if it will actually be used for reputation, someone mentioned it above. in the picture we see it only for daily missions.

We are constantly being told that STO is doing amazing, that the player base is increasing year over year, and that 2013 was the best year yet. If that's the case, I can't fathom why they need to seek other avenues for monetization.

This is greed. It's incredibly transparent.

newromulan1

jengoz wrote: »

if you thought gates and timers were long now. Wait and see, everything is going to take twice as long in the future.... but don't worry, just spend some zen and it will take half as long. This is all much cheaper and easier for them to nerf this then to make any quality content that players would be willing to pay for.

Well I am sure this will become quite an interesting topic when the official announcement on paying Zen to bypass game timers comes out.

erei1

purplegamer wrote: »

We are constantly being told that STO is doing amazing, that the player base is increasing year over year, and that 2013 was the best year yet. If that's the case, I can't fathom why they need to seek other avenues for monetization.

This is greed. It's incredibly transparent.

This. Earning money is one thing, being greedy is another.