I did a little bit of the math in a previous thread and my having an LTS has resulted in my not spending over $1,000 additional bucks on this game since launch.
Sweet !!
I've still spent out on the 3 flagship packs, plus other ships. I use my stipend for DOFFs and some keys.
I wont put money in to the game not whert it I work hard for my money to just to give it away and not get any thing in return so no now if they lower the price I may conseter it or I may not
make sure if you want to get a RMC or not before hand.
you can only get it if you have the collector's edition or if you buy the EU/UK Gold edition.
Why do you want to get this 1st before a lifetime sub?
you get 1k zen from it if you buy the UK/EU Gold edition, 2 months of gold status and 500 zen a month for 2 months... at least 1 month of gold status and 500 zen from the collector's edition. sorry not sure on the collector's since I applied that code after I bought the Lifetime on one account.
if you apply the codes after the lifetime sub, you dont get the extra zen. cause your already at gold status from the lifetime sub.
I got the lifetime for $199. The monthly sub is $15. I had one of the discounts for $12/month. Therefore 16 months for the LTS to save me money. Less if I had been paying the full $15/month.
So other than the 500 Zen Stipend, what makes a monthly subscription worth the $15?
For me, I paid for the LTS the day they announced hiring Commander Ander who is from City of Heroes (Dr Aeon) where he was one of my favorite mission writers and Gorngonzolla (aka Synapse from City of Heroes) who did a lot of the mechanics and powers I liked.
I've enjoyed the new missions Ander did and the Romulan powers Gornie did over here. For me, totally worth it. The actual mechanical benefits never entered the equation.
This is a mixed blessing for me. I like to see the City of Heroes devs working on this game, but I would rather have them working on City of Heroes than here. I remember thinking after they announced when the servers will shut off permanently, thinking that City of Heroes had introduced some really good missions with that last Issue that never made it to the live servers and was only on the test server.
It takes 3.3 to 5 years for the LTS to pay for itself and the other benefits aren't worth it for the price. The LTS was certainly worth it when I got it during Beta, but post-F2P, it has certainly lost its value. It is easy to create a pseudo-Liberated Borg as long as your character is female and Starfleet or Federation-aligned Romulan with the Seven of Nine costume.
The smartest thing to do is just subscribe for a month to get the Gold Member benefits or if you desperately need the LTS, then buy it when it is on sale.
No doubt.... The F2P conversion and subsequent farming development philosophy engaged in by Cryptic has really destroyed any real value since they seem to not exclude such account from all the new F2P joy.... :mad:
If you are looking for an excellent PvE fleet consider: Omega Combat Division today.
Former member of the Cryptic Family & FriendsTesting Team. Sadly, one day, it simply vanished - without a word or trace...
I'm gold since the release of the game (with some brake). Since the F2P i never really felt the subscription worth it, it sweet, but not really worth it. Like someone say is probably better to be gold during the time you level up your toon and after just by zen when you really need it.
But now with the new upgrade system i feel it close to be an insult on the lts and gold, make pay just more than the silver because we have no advantage, just the right to pay like everyone else even if we already pay for the game.
Honestly i stop my subscription already and i will never advice anyone to pay for that.
[..]
Honestly i stop my subscription already and i will never advice anyone to pay for that.
No doubt..... This is thread is the first time since the game's release in which I have recommended against buying a LtS or even gold account. It is rather vexing....
Why does it seem Cryptic has forgotten about those segments of the community? Especially the elements of which that still regularly pump money into the game. Sad really..... :mad:
If you are looking for an excellent PvE fleet consider: Omega Combat Division today.
Former member of the Cryptic Family & FriendsTesting Team. Sadly, one day, it simply vanished - without a word or trace...
Its always been recommended to me to eventually get a gold account,but i am very apprehensive about it.
Everytime theres a big patch downloaded,its always festooned with bug problems,and today server crash.God knows,what will happen on and after the October 14th patch for DR.
I do love this game,but due to its unreliability,i am currently not prepared to pay out for a gold or lifer account. its too risky.
well personally, I don't think its worth it anymore. but each person and what they think is worth what is different..
you need t personally ask yourself if you plan to play this game for about 3 years (as that is roughly the amount of time you need to play to make it worth it over a monthly sub). its actually two years and a handful of months, but I am rounding up to 3 years for ease of making my point lol.
secondly, is there any of the perks you are interested in, and do they seem to be worth 150- 300 bucks depending on when you buy.. and further more, how long are those perks going to be viable..
finally, there is the stipened (which comes later and later for me each month, very unreliable on the date that you actually get it.. I feel that since the stipened started, with them being later and later, they have skimped me a month or two). however, I still get a stipened eventually, and it does come in handy. however, if you are not planning on playing for a long term run (2 or more years) and you don't make a lot of purchases, this is not a good selling point. as it would be cheaper to just buy the zen you are looking for.
again, the lts is a program where you have to put your faith in the game and its developer.. it is you saying that the game and developer are going to be around for the long term, and that you feel spending the 300 is a good investment into that company and game. again, this will differ from user to user, and ultimately, only you know the answers to the question of weather it is worth it or not..
personally, id say it was worth it a few years ago, but at this juncture, as the game is moving into its 5th year, and most games only have a shelf life of 7-10 years, and with most games the development gets shifted after x amount of years that it would not be worth it. again, if you were buying 2 years ago, I would have said go for it, but now, my advice is to just play for free and get what you can out of the game for free.
For me it was worth it as I use just about all the perks that come with it. Account bank, extra bank/inventory slots, the free shuttles, the free ships, the unique Android BOFF, two of my characters are the ex-borg species unlock, the EC cap removal, you name it. I've even been to tribble server and cautiously tested out some of the pre-release content.
And when the upcoming login queues come with the release of DR, I'll be one of those with a priority login.
Why would you factor a subscription fee that the game doesn't charge for playing into a LTS paying for itself? Unless you played when it was p2p. But now, it's not a factor.
how does anyone figure 3 years to pay for it'self?
199 (on sale)
199/15 =13 months. that's not counting the stipend or value of any of the goodies.
It is 3 years because $200/$5 = 3.33 years. Besides the monthly stipend, what value does a Gold Membership have to cover the extra $10 per month? There is a reason why tons of players say that just subscribe for just a month since most of the gold membership rewards are unlocked for doing just that.
The rewards from the LTS have a variable quality to them. Not everyone gets the same value out of the Veteran Rewards and the original LTS rewards. The monthly subscription is a terrible deal since spending $15 per month to get $5 worth of Zen sucks and there is little difference between the Gold Membership and Silver Membership.
If a person starting the game had $200 and was given a choice about getting 18,000 Zen (includes 1 month subscription and EC Cap increase) immediately or 6,500 Zen after 13 months, then most people would pick the 18,000 Zen immediately.
Just because you may not think much of the monthly sub and it's perks doesn't mean everyone else shares that opinion.
But here's the thing, it's not a subscription. What is it a subscription for? What you have to remember is that although it is called a lifetime subscription, it's not a subscription to anything. You're just buying a bundle of goodies for $199 (on sale).
So, all the monthly guys are doing is renting out a bundle and getting some zen that they could farm pretty easily. I'm surprised there are still people out there paying per month for the LTS bundle.
I don't feel the $300 price tag is too expensive. My issue with it is, there just isn't enough there for incentives to be a lifetimer. The Captain's Table doesn't offer anything special, there is no Transwarp directly to it, and the perks of a whole $5 in ZEN each month really doesn't make up for the lack of stuff added to the Veteran rewards since the 1,000 day point. The things I think are need are:
Federation President and/or Commander In Chief uniform 100% lifer exclusive
More Veteran hull types and an exclusive Warp Nacelle glow color.
Transwarp to the Captain's Table with no cooldown.
Special items offered that are bind on pickup at the Captain's Table that you can't get anywhere else.
I am sure I and everyone else could easily come up with additions to the heavily neglected lifer and gold subscription models. PWE definitely needs to take note.
<
> <
> <
>
Looking for a new fleet? Drop by the in-game chat channel, "tenforwardforum", and say hi to the members of A Fleet Called Ten Forward (Fed) and The Orion Pirates (KDF). If you already have a fleet you are happy with, please feel free to drop by our chat channel if you are looking for a friendly bunch of helpful people to socialize with.
I was just looking at it from the perspective of the monthly sub was just a blow back to the p2p days and no one was using it, so why even think about it when factoring game costs .
However, I'm still a fair bit off from deciding that the LTS package is worth buying. Even at $199, you'd have to be certain you were going to play this game for 3-5 years to really see the benefit from it. I'm not sure I'm ready to say I'll be here in 6 months, never mind 3 years
Get an envelope and every time you think about it, get that $15 and put it in there. I'd say you also pay a little here and there for zen too? Maybe put every second zen payment aside. Within 9-12 months you'll have enough to pay for that LTS bundle.
I know it's easier said than done, but give it a shot. If you're here for the long haul, you'll save a packet (that you can then spend on zen/dili etc.)
You would really need to sit down and carefully consider what you would specifically want out of the "Lifetime" package, and work out the costs of those things separately to work out if the pricetag is worthwhile.
Based of course, on waiting around till the next Lifetime sale and buying at a nice big discount.
I personally only went the lifetime route after the launch of Legacy of Romulus, because I knew that I would end up with nine main toons (Starfleet, KDF, and Romulan factions, each with a tactical, engineer, and science toon). I'm also a regular and heavy player, logging in almost every day. I based it on the idea that a big release like LoR would mean the game should last at least another year. Prior to that, it wasn't worthwhile for me. This "how many regular toons?" calculation can be the clincher.
As a lifetimer, I can tell you what ended up being of particular value to me personally are:
The account-wide bank (it's amazing how handy that becomes to swap between toons, and hold the main pot of ec)
Extra inventory/toon bank slots
Extra respec tokens (something like six available for each toon, and you do end up using them as you change skills and tweak the build)
Daeinos Destroyer for the Rom sci toon (used to use the lifetimer KDF ship till the Mogh came out)
Android bridge bunnies
500 zen monthly stipend (this is a nice bonus but wouldn't do a "how long till I get my money back in zen?" thing)
Some of the package's things are purchasable separately (e.g. account bank, extra slots) and others have comparable items (e.g. ship, bridge officer) so that made it easy to work out a lifetime vs separate purchasing package price. There are other bits and pieces like costume things (nice to have but for me, not part of the "is this worth it?" consideration), titles, the "lifetime extra 5%" thing you see in team missions, etc.
So basically, the lifetime package can be worthwhile, but you need to really look at your specific circumstances and work out if the benefits of importance to you are worth the pricetag, and then to wait till a lifetime sale before putting cash down.
[..]
If a person starting the game had $200 and was given a choice about getting 18,000 Zen (includes 1 month subscription and EC Cap increase) immediately or 6,500 Zen after 13 months, then most people would pick the 18,000 Zen immediately.
That is a real face palm thought for me. I dont understand how Cryptic fails to recognize the total and complete loss of value for such an account status and continuously fails to rectify the situation. Every time they add another F2P piece of goodness for players to enjoy over and over again, they should also add the tagline "except for LtS account holders". It really perplexes me...
If you are looking for an excellent PvE fleet consider: Omega Combat Division today.
Former member of the Cryptic Family & FriendsTesting Team. Sadly, one day, it simply vanished - without a word or trace...
I don't feel the $300 price tag is too expensive. My issue with it is, there just isn't enough there for incentives to be a lifetimer. The Captain's Table doesn't offer anything special, there is no Transwarp directly to it, and the perks of a whole $5 in ZEN each month really doesn't make up for the lack of stuff added to the Veteran rewards since the 1,000 day point. The things I think are need are:
Federation President and/or Commander In Chief uniform 100% lifer exclusive
More Veteran hull types and an exclusive Warp Nacelle glow color.
Transwarp to the Captain's Table with no cooldown.
Special items offered that are bind on pickup at the Captain's Table that you can't get anywhere else.
I am sure I and everyone else could easily come up with additions to the heavily neglected lifer and gold subscription models. PWE definitely needs to take note.
Keep dreaming...... I cant remember them doing anything with the CT in what three years? I've not been there since season 2 sadly since it simply was not worth the effort in the first place.
If you are looking for an excellent PvE fleet consider: Omega Combat Division today.
Former member of the Cryptic Family & FriendsTesting Team. Sadly, one day, it simply vanished - without a word or trace...
I have a lifer account but i got it when the game first launched and i dont see much benefit to it to be honest. It seems more less a gimmick, i dont get much out of it month to month. Id keep your money and micro instead.
100% true, you can get everything you need for a couple dollars !!
Only time to go gold is if you level a new character up, then its worth it !!
For all other time silver with 1.000.000.000 ec unlock is all you need.
I think I've used all the perks my lifetime subscription gave me. The bank slots are probably the least visible to me, but I wouldn't want to have any less than I do, so I think they are actually pretty good.
Of course, I bought it around the game's anniversary. (Shortly before there was a sale. While a regular subscription was still running.) I don't regret it.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
Its always been recommended to me to eventually get a gold account,but i am very apprehensive about it.
Everytime theres a big patch downloaded,its always festooned with bug problems,and today server crash.God knows,what will happen on and after the October 14th patch for DR.
I do love this game,but due to its unreliability,i am currently not prepared to pay out for a gold or lifer account. its too risky.
I never bothered with gold, I just waited for the sale so I could get the lifetime membership for $100 less- I knew at that point it was now or never and so far it's working out
Fireworks emote worth 300 $ is what it comes down to.
Way I see it, there isn't anything to do but work on unlocks or stacking resources for your next item/ship.
So just buying everything will kill the gameplay for me personally.
Like I enjoyed the doff system well enough before they ruined it. But would I have done it, if it weren't in anticipation of buying something later, hell no.
I think the one thing they did get right and is the core gameplay is earning and unlocking, so no, the fireworks emote is not woth the cost of 11 completely new games.
The game was originally brought to you by Atari, which had a different philosophy than Cryptic. There have also been developments in gaming -- not just the tech that supports the ability to play it, but what constitutes "best practices" in supplying customers with what they want.
I bought my lifetime subscription before the game was released. I was an early adopter, and feel I have been treated fairly by the Cryptic team. While some of the decisions they have made have resulted in somewhat of a loss of value to the LTS, it's still worth the investment.
Part of the reason I bought it, was that I wanted to play a part in providing STO with cash flow to help improve the game: thereby ensuring its success and my continued ability to play it. It's a wonderful game (I consider it my Trek consumption between movies and while I wait for them to come out with a new series). They have listened to players demands. You can't simply ask them to develop something and hope it comes out tomorrow. There were complaints about space gameplay...they improved them. There were complaints about the robustness of ground play....they improved them. You're talking endless meetings to get ideas down on paper, artists who draw it out, code that needs to be written and re-written. My God, there's probably a crew of 20 people at Cryptic who have been crying themselves to sleep because they've been averaging 2-hours of sleep a night for the last 2 months. All because Cryptic execs want us to be happy and launch a competitive product (albeit so they can make more money, but it is what it is).
They made all these improvements in an environment that is highly competitive. It's not like Cryptic WANTS to release updates with bugs, but you're talking about a multi-billion dollar industry and competition is fierce. If I was still in school and writing exams, I'd be pretty darned happy with a 98%. It's not 100%, but it's pretty darn close.
The fact that farming has made its way into STO is not surprising, and to an extent it should be tolerated. Farming is a way to play the game between updates, figure out mechanics, and earn currency. That spammers are trying to sell currency can often be viewed as a negative, but ALL GREAT ONLINE GAMES HAVE THESE. They are a necessary part of gaming culture that indicates the currency is desirable. It is a necessary evil that you only see in games that are increasing in popularity (again, it is a visible manifestation of my LTS paying off).
Would I like more? Sure, who wouldn't? The best way to ensure I get it is to make emotional and logical appeals to forum readers to do what I did some 2.5-3 years ago and invest in a lifetime subscription. Give them cash flow that enables them to purchase the technology and staff required in order to stay competitive. This will increase the voice of lifetimers, thereby ensuring we get what we ask for. Squeaky wheel and all that.
All that said, the F2P did devalue the LTS somewhat, and I'm hoping the DR release will result in what we were promised: "DEFINITIVE IMPROVEMENTS TO THE LTS PERKS" (I can't find the link, but they did say it).
Comments
LOL, I will jump on this band wagon, LTS in open beta.... and saving up free Zen for a ship in DR
Sweet !!
I've still spent out on the 3 flagship packs, plus other ships. I use my stipend for DOFFs and some keys.
oh the irony
you can only get it if you have the collector's edition or if you buy the EU/UK Gold edition.
Why do you want to get this 1st before a lifetime sub?
you get 1k zen from it if you buy the UK/EU Gold edition, 2 months of gold status and 500 zen a month for 2 months... at least 1 month of gold status and 500 zen from the collector's edition. sorry not sure on the collector's since I applied that code after I bought the Lifetime on one account.
if you apply the codes after the lifetime sub, you dont get the extra zen. cause your already at gold status from the lifetime sub.
So other than the 500 Zen Stipend, what makes a monthly subscription worth the $15?
This is a mixed blessing for me. I like to see the City of Heroes devs working on this game, but I would rather have them working on City of Heroes than here. I remember thinking after they announced when the servers will shut off permanently, thinking that City of Heroes had introduced some really good missions with that last Issue that never made it to the live servers and was only on the test server.
ingame: @.Spartan
Original Cryptic Forum Name: Spartan (member #124)
The Glorious, Kirk’s Protegè
But now with the new upgrade system i feel it close to be an insult on the lts and gold, make pay just more than the silver because we have no advantage, just the right to pay like everyone else even if we already pay for the game.
Honestly i stop my subscription already and i will never advice anyone to pay for that.
This right here.
For example I paid about $150 to take my family to a movie twice.
Lifetime sub go on sale fairly often for $200.
All depends on what you have and what you want to spend it on.
Why does it seem Cryptic has forgotten about those segments of the community? Especially the elements of which that still regularly pump money into the game. Sad really..... :mad:
ingame: @.Spartan
Original Cryptic Forum Name: Spartan (member #124)
The Glorious, Kirk’s Protegè
well personally, I don't think its worth it anymore. but each person and what they think is worth what is different..
you need t personally ask yourself if you plan to play this game for about 3 years (as that is roughly the amount of time you need to play to make it worth it over a monthly sub). its actually two years and a handful of months, but I am rounding up to 3 years for ease of making my point lol.
secondly, is there any of the perks you are interested in, and do they seem to be worth 150- 300 bucks depending on when you buy.. and further more, how long are those perks going to be viable..
finally, there is the stipened (which comes later and later for me each month, very unreliable on the date that you actually get it.. I feel that since the stipened started, with them being later and later, they have skimped me a month or two). however, I still get a stipened eventually, and it does come in handy. however, if you are not planning on playing for a long term run (2 or more years) and you don't make a lot of purchases, this is not a good selling point. as it would be cheaper to just buy the zen you are looking for.
again, the lts is a program where you have to put your faith in the game and its developer.. it is you saying that the game and developer are going to be around for the long term, and that you feel spending the 300 is a good investment into that company and game. again, this will differ from user to user, and ultimately, only you know the answers to the question of weather it is worth it or not..
personally, id say it was worth it a few years ago, but at this juncture, as the game is moving into its 5th year, and most games only have a shelf life of 7-10 years, and with most games the development gets shifted after x amount of years that it would not be worth it. again, if you were buying 2 years ago, I would have said go for it, but now, my advice is to just play for free and get what you can out of the game for free.
hope this helps, have a good one.
For me it was worth it as I use just about all the perks that come with it. Account bank, extra bank/inventory slots, the free shuttles, the free ships, the unique Android BOFF, two of my characters are the ex-borg species unlock, the EC cap removal, you name it. I've even been to tribble server and cautiously tested out some of the pre-release content.
And when the upcoming login queues come with the release of DR, I'll be one of those with a priority login.
For me it was worth it.
199 (on sale)
199/15 =13 months. that's not counting the stipend or value of any of the goodies.
It is 3 years because $200/$5 = 3.33 years. Besides the monthly stipend, what value does a Gold Membership have to cover the extra $10 per month? There is a reason why tons of players say that just subscribe for just a month since most of the gold membership rewards are unlocked for doing just that.
The rewards from the LTS have a variable quality to them. Not everyone gets the same value out of the Veteran Rewards and the original LTS rewards. The monthly subscription is a terrible deal since spending $15 per month to get $5 worth of Zen sucks and there is little difference between the Gold Membership and Silver Membership.
If a person starting the game had $200 and was given a choice about getting 18,000 Zen (includes 1 month subscription and EC Cap increase) immediately or 6,500 Zen after 13 months, then most people would pick the 18,000 Zen immediately.
But here's the thing, it's not a subscription. What is it a subscription for? What you have to remember is that although it is called a lifetime subscription, it's not a subscription to anything. You're just buying a bundle of goodies for $199 (on sale).
So, all the monthly guys are doing is renting out a bundle and getting some zen that they could farm pretty easily. I'm surprised there are still people out there paying per month for the LTS bundle.
Cheers!
Federation President and/or Commander In Chief uniform 100% lifer exclusive
More Veteran hull types and an exclusive Warp Nacelle glow color.
Transwarp to the Captain's Table with no cooldown.
Special items offered that are bind on pickup at the Captain's Table that you can't get anywhere else.
I am sure I and everyone else could easily come up with additions to the heavily neglected lifer and gold subscription models. PWE definitely needs to take note.
> <
> <
>
I was just looking at it from the perspective of the monthly sub was just a blow back to the p2p days and no one was using it, so why even think about it when factoring game costs
However, I'm still a fair bit off from deciding that the LTS package is worth buying. Even at $199, you'd have to be certain you were going to play this game for 3-5 years to really see the benefit from it. I'm not sure I'm ready to say I'll be here in 6 months, never mind 3 years
Cheers!
because every time i think about it I don't have the cash to plunk down
I know it's easier said than done, but give it a shot. If you're here for the long haul, you'll save a packet (that you can then spend on zen/dili etc.)
Cheers!
Based of course, on waiting around till the next Lifetime sale and buying at a nice big discount.
I personally only went the lifetime route after the launch of Legacy of Romulus, because I knew that I would end up with nine main toons (Starfleet, KDF, and Romulan factions, each with a tactical, engineer, and science toon). I'm also a regular and heavy player, logging in almost every day. I based it on the idea that a big release like LoR would mean the game should last at least another year. Prior to that, it wasn't worthwhile for me. This "how many regular toons?" calculation can be the clincher.
As a lifetimer, I can tell you what ended up being of particular value to me personally are:
- The account-wide bank (it's amazing how handy that becomes to swap between toons, and hold the main pot of ec)
- Extra inventory/toon bank slots
- Extra respec tokens (something like six available for each toon, and you do end up using them as you change skills and tweak the build)
- Daeinos Destroyer for the Rom sci toon (used to use the lifetimer KDF ship till the Mogh came out)
- Android bridge bunnies
- 500 zen monthly stipend (this is a nice bonus but wouldn't do a "how long till I get my money back in zen?" thing)
Some of the package's things are purchasable separately (e.g. account bank, extra slots) and others have comparable items (e.g. ship, bridge officer) so that made it easy to work out a lifetime vs separate purchasing package price. There are other bits and pieces like costume things (nice to have but for me, not part of the "is this worth it?" consideration), titles, the "lifetime extra 5%" thing you see in team missions, etc.So basically, the lifetime package can be worthwhile, but you need to really look at your specific circumstances and work out if the benefits of importance to you are worth the pricetag, and then to wait till a lifetime sale before putting cash down.
That is a real face palm thought for me. I dont understand how Cryptic fails to recognize the total and complete loss of value for such an account status and continuously fails to rectify the situation. Every time they add another F2P piece of goodness for players to enjoy over and over again, they should also add the tagline "except for LtS account holders". It really perplexes me...
ingame: @.Spartan
Original Cryptic Forum Name: Spartan (member #124)
The Glorious, Kirk’s Protegè
Keep dreaming...... I cant remember them doing anything with the CT in what three years? I've not been there since season 2 sadly since it simply was not worth the effort in the first place.
ingame: @.Spartan
Original Cryptic Forum Name: Spartan (member #124)
The Glorious, Kirk’s Protegè
100% true, you can get everything you need for a couple dollars !!
Only time to go gold is if you level a new character up, then its worth it !!
For all other time silver with 1.000.000.000 ec unlock is all you need.
Of course, I bought it around the game's anniversary. (Shortly before there was a sale. While a regular subscription was still running.) I don't regret it.
Most of the helpful stuff can be got for a month sub. Only the uniforms and Veteran ship etc are long term sub or LTS bound.
I never bothered with gold, I just waited for the sale so I could get the lifetime membership for $100 less- I knew at that point it was now or never and so far it's working out
Way I see it, there isn't anything to do but work on unlocks or stacking resources for your next item/ship.
So just buying everything will kill the gameplay for me personally.
Like I enjoyed the doff system well enough before they ruined it. But would I have done it, if it weren't in anticipation of buying something later, hell no.
I think the one thing they did get right and is the core gameplay is earning and unlocking, so no, the fireworks emote is not woth the cost of 11 completely new games.
I bought my lifetime subscription before the game was released. I was an early adopter, and feel I have been treated fairly by the Cryptic team. While some of the decisions they have made have resulted in somewhat of a loss of value to the LTS, it's still worth the investment.
Part of the reason I bought it, was that I wanted to play a part in providing STO with cash flow to help improve the game: thereby ensuring its success and my continued ability to play it. It's a wonderful game (I consider it my Trek consumption between movies and while I wait for them to come out with a new series). They have listened to players demands. You can't simply ask them to develop something and hope it comes out tomorrow. There were complaints about space gameplay...they improved them. There were complaints about the robustness of ground play....they improved them. You're talking endless meetings to get ideas down on paper, artists who draw it out, code that needs to be written and re-written. My God, there's probably a crew of 20 people at Cryptic who have been crying themselves to sleep because they've been averaging 2-hours of sleep a night for the last 2 months. All because Cryptic execs want us to be happy and launch a competitive product (albeit so they can make more money, but it is what it is).
They made all these improvements in an environment that is highly competitive. It's not like Cryptic WANTS to release updates with bugs, but you're talking about a multi-billion dollar industry and competition is fierce. If I was still in school and writing exams, I'd be pretty darned happy with a 98%. It's not 100%, but it's pretty darn close.
The fact that farming has made its way into STO is not surprising, and to an extent it should be tolerated. Farming is a way to play the game between updates, figure out mechanics, and earn currency. That spammers are trying to sell currency can often be viewed as a negative, but ALL GREAT ONLINE GAMES HAVE THESE. They are a necessary part of gaming culture that indicates the currency is desirable. It is a necessary evil that you only see in games that are increasing in popularity (again, it is a visible manifestation of my LTS paying off).
Would I like more? Sure, who wouldn't? The best way to ensure I get it is to make emotional and logical appeals to forum readers to do what I did some 2.5-3 years ago and invest in a lifetime subscription. Give them cash flow that enables them to purchase the technology and staff required in order to stay competitive. This will increase the voice of lifetimers, thereby ensuring we get what we ask for. Squeaky wheel and all that.
All that said, the F2P did devalue the LTS somewhat, and I'm hoping the DR release will result in what we were promised: "DEFINITIVE IMPROVEMENTS TO THE LTS PERKS" (I can't find the link, but they did say it).