Try before you buy?

alexmakepeace

Is there a way to test out ship before purchasing it? Maybe on tribble somehow? I know zen used to transfer over with a character transfer, but it doesn't seem to be doing it now.

dracounguis

If Zen doesn't copy on Tribble I guess you are out of luck for C-store stuff. If lobi ships, and you have some lobi, just keep copying your toon to Tribble (put lobi in Account Bank) till you have enough.

It does seem that Cryptic has made it very hard to test drive ships on Tribble. It's like they don't want you to know now big a POS something is for free.

alexmakepeace

Sigh. Well, if I can't try the ships to see if I like them, I dunno if I'll buy at all...

Hear that, Cryptic? I want a new ship, but I'm probably not going to buy one because I can't tell whether I'll regret it later.

How's this, then: Put some consumable tokens in the C-store allowing us to fly a ship for a day or two, priced at 10, or 50, or 100 zen.

Not the best solution, but better than sinking 2000+ zen into a ship only to find out you don't like it.

Even better would be to have a mission showcasing each ship, like the Odyssey had during the anniversary some years ago, or like the recent FEs.

warpangel

Duh. If people could get all the stuff for free on Tribble, nobody would play on the real server.

johngazman

warpangel wrote: »

Duh. If people could get all the stuff for free on Tribble, nobody would play on the real server.

Since Tribble is periodically wiped, I doubt it.

grazyc2

alexmakepeace wrote: »

Is there a way to test out ship before purchasing it? Maybe on tribble somehow? I know zen used to transfer over with a character transfer, but it doesn't seem to be doing it now.

If you have watched last ep on stoked, Mav asked that to Gekko and he said he would look into it for a system that allows you to test fly your ship before buying it !!!

decronia

If they're worried about losing money on it make the "try" a rental. For example 500zen, as I think the 10-100 is not something that could tempt then into looking into it, for a weeks rental that way whatever the decision they are still up on the money front.

grazyc2

Exactly I don't care if I like the looks of a ship I buy it if it performs bad well so be it. But I think I'm a ship geek just have to buy ships I like don't care if it does perform or not...
And they can Always switch log to Test server to test the ship there, but please no rental option now you gave them a bad idea to set up rental ships 100 zen a day

willamsheridan

As we got the first infos about the redesigned ESD i wrote, here and on Facebook, a few posts about a Holodeck as testing Area. THe inspiration came From the Elite Force games and the ultimate universe Add-on for ST: Legacy

It would be a Holodeck where you get access to every ship, shield, Weapon, console and so on including fleet and reputation stuff. Of course it would only exist there and when you leave the Holodeck, just like the First Contact missions, you find yourself with your old equipment.

So you could try if youprefer the Dreadnought over the Fleet Assault Cruiser or Polaron over Antiproton weapons.

It would have 3-4 Mission difficulties, easy, normal, hard and maybe elite. Where you can fight fighters, frigates, Escorts and cruisers in different environments on large maps so you can try some maneuvers or test some equipment between fights. So you could try out new tactics.

Same idea for ground equipment. Choose between kits, Weapons, armor and shields and fight enemies from different species.

But unlike the space misssions where you get a "own" ship and can equip it with the stuff you want ( and after the mission automatily get your own ship with your installed equipment back) on ground missions you play as yourself and therefore have to take all your weapons and equipment off to use the equipment you want to test. Meaning , after the mission you leave the Holodeck and do not wear any armor, shield or weapon.


Sounds complicated maybe but really its very simple.

And i think it would increase the profit of PWE. the normal Grinders will still get any possible reward but those who are not sure if they need new stuff usually tend to not buying it. THis holo missions could convince them to buy.

ficr

It would be nice but they would loose money.

All you have to do is look at lockbox keys. Impulse buyers fund this game. Satisfaction NOT guaranteed.

ragnar0x

I've seen in Planetside 2 that you can try every weapon for 1 hour and then you have a cooldown of 1 month on that weapon. It could be implemented here, you can try new ship for an hour and then you cannot try it for another month.

aloishammer

kirk2390 wrote: »

If you have watched last ep on stoked, Mav asked that to Gekko and he said he would look into it for a system that allows you to test fly your ship before buying it !!!

You do realize, based on the existing list of things being "looked into," (and how long some of those items have been "being looked into") that "we'll look into it" is Cryptic-ese for "Yeah yeah yeah whatever, next question please," right?

I hear they've been "looking into" revamping PvP since the day PvP was put into the game. How's that worked out so far? :P

revandarklighter

I don't think tribble purpose is "test ship before buy".

If anything I'd rather see some function on Holodeck.
Always thought a nice Idea would be to be able to give every purchased ship back wothing one or two hours of playing after the purchase.
Only once per ship obviously, otherwise that could be exploited like hell...

alexmakepeace

revandarklighter wrote: »

I don't think tribble purpose is "test ship before buy".

No, of course not. I just heard it was possible once, so I thought I'd ask.

decronia wrote: »

If they're worried about losing money on it make the "try" a rental. For example 500zen, as I think the 10-100 is not something that could tempt then into looking into it, for a weeks rental that way whatever the decision they are still up on the money front.

I think 500 zen is excessive because there are so many ships to try! If there were just two or three I might be willing to consider it, but with the ever-growing number of ships there are now, no way!

ficr wrote: »

Impulse buyers fund this game.

We can make this work with impulse buys. Give every newly-minted vice admiral access to trial missions designed to show how frickin' awesome the ship is, making the player go "Whoa! That was so much fun! This ship is awesome! Here, take my money!" or else "Whoa! That was so much fun! This ship is awesome! I'm gonna save up and buy it!"

This is, after all, basically how the latest FEs work, as well as Temporal Ambassador.

kirk2390 wrote: »

And they can Always switch log to Test server to test the ship there, but please no rental option now you gave them a bad idea to set up rental ships 100 zen a day

But we can't switch to the test server to test the ship there. Apparently we used to, but it doesn't work like that anymore.

The more I think about it, I actually like the idea of ship rentals. Sometimes I just feel like flying a different ship than my normal assault cruiser, but I haven't bothered up 'til now to outfit any of my other ships, so I have to go hunt down gear on the exchange, etc. What if I could rent a top-tier ship, pre-outfitted with awesome gear, ready to go have some fun with for a day or two?

willamsheridan wrote: »

Snip

This would be pretty awesome. It doesn't even need to be this elaborate: just a handful of missions which all the ships can access.

Or, if you want something really awesome, give the Spotlight foundry authors special access to make missions showcasing each ship. Spotlight the missions--then they can't be modified without Cryptic's say-so.

farmallm

I would consider it a try. Specially the ones in lobi since those are a huge investment. However the ones from the C store everyone I bought has been worth it. Including the Galaxy pack which both the R and Dread is being used. How I pick is carefully looked over, read the reports from other players and then pick one. However it will have a use and will be used.

tekehd

aloishammer wrote: »

I hear they've been "looking into" revamping PvP since the day PvP was put into the game. How's that worked out so far? :P

I'll look into that.

zbzzn

alexmakepeace wrote: »

I think 500 zen is excessive because there are so many ships to try! If there were just two or three I might be willing to consider it, but with the ever-growing number of ships there are now, no way!

What would you think about a system where, say, you could rent a ship for one week for 500 zen but that cost is also applied to the ship as a sort of down payment, so if you wanted to buy it after your trial, no matter how much later, it would be reduced in cost by that amount? It would still cost 500 zen per rental of each additional ship or each week extension, up to the total cost of the ship, but you could at any time go back and buy a ship that you had previously rented at the reduced cost.

alexmakepeace

zbzzn wrote: »

What would you think about a system where, say, you could rent a ship for one week for 500 zen but that cost is also applied to the ship as a sort of down payment, so if you wanted to buy it after your trial, no matter how much later, it would be reduced in cost by that amount? It would still cost 500 zen per rental of each additional ship or each week extension, up to the total cost of the ship, but you could at any time go back and buy a ship that you had previously rented at the reduced cost.

Interesting idea. What happens if you rent a ship that costs 2500 zen 5 times? Do you unlock it permanently then?

Or what happens if you've rented the ship 4 times, and it comes on sale for 2,000 zen?

cbrjwrr

alexmakepeace wrote: »

Interesting idea. What happens if you rent a ship that costs 2500 zen 5 times? Do you unlock it permanently then?

Or what happens if you've rented the ship 4 times, and it comes on sale for 2,000 zen?

1. Gamer view - yes. Accountant view - no. So the latter.

2. Caveat emptor.

zbzzn

alexmakepeace wrote: »

Interesting idea. What happens if you rent a ship that costs 2500 zen 5 times? Do you unlock it permanently then?

That's what I was thinking. Basically if you rent it enough times that you have paid the total cost, then it becomes yours.

Or what happens if you've rented the ship 4 times, and it comes on sale for 2,000 zen?

I'm not sure. I would imagine that any rented ships would no longer be eligible for discounts.

ralphgraphite

I love a try before you buy idea. Perhaps they could use one of the holodeck maps somewhere for it, have a quick and easy "demo" mission, scan 2 things, kill three mobs type thing that you can run any ship through.

I'd even be happy with this even if they didn't let you customize the ship, and made you fly it stock.

I'd think it would drive sales more than hinder them - there are a few ships that I'm curious about, but am unwilling to commit zen to without knowing what they can do.

organicmanfred

How many games are out there where you can test every vehicle before buying?

grayfoxjames

Think this would be an awesome idea. Don't know how difficult the mechanics of this would be for coding it properly but how about a Holodeck mission like you have on Bajor where you can select any ship, it would come just stock weapons, run the mission and upon exiting you're back on your own ship.

Could be just a 15 minute mission of blowing up some Borg Spheres, some fighters, etc...heck I'd even be willing to pay some (reasonable) EC or Dilithium or GPL or something for the use of the Holodeck to try before you buy and then commit 2,000+ Zen.