Gotta love unbridled paranoia... I've been playing for well over 2 years now and can remember being told 'don't buy an LTS as STO will be shutdown within 6 months, guaranteed!!1!'...
Just because S10 might bring about the beginning of the Iconian War, it does not mean that war will be over in a single season... Cryptic could easily spread the Iconian War across several seasons - the initial invasion, the Alpha Quadrant on the brink of collapse, and then the inevitable turning of the tide, spread over S10, S11 and S12 for example...
This could even be used as a spring board for the introduction of new playable factions, which have united with the Federation/Klingon Empire, in order to stave off the Iconian advance...
Nor does any of this mean there will be no other story arcs that Cryptic can introduce, once the war is indeed over...
What after the Iconians then? Rehashed Borg? Rehashed Dominion? They wiped out any chance of the Krenim and a new temporal war (which had some of the best potentional long term plot). Vidiians aren't a threat, evil pre-ascended Ocompa again and their caretaker? That wasn't exactly a threat. Photonics aren't exactly an issue unless they have a huge leap in tech.
Never say never when it comes to Science Fiction - what can happen is only limited by the writer's imagination...
For one, the start of Dust to Dust references Admiral Tuvok and Voyager being on a highly classified mission in Krenim space, which discredits your remarks as any story related to time travel can easily be moulded and twisted, to suit what ever the writer wants, they just need a good basis for how and why... This reference could be nothing, or could allude to yet another 'bridging episode', or even an entire story arc in S10 for example...
There's also nothing stopping Cryptic digging into Star Trek lore and dredging up some other obscure reference, like they have done with the Iconians, to create the next big-bad that the Alpha Quadrant faces...
You also seem to be forgetting we're less than a century (according to Enterprise) from the Temporal Cold War and the Klingon Empire joining the Federation, there's no reason Cryptic can't start to lay the ground work leading upto these events of the 26th century...
I fully expect either a Cooperative or Cardassian mini faction in the next expansion
They won't do a Cooperative playable faction, as this would then kill off one of the main reasons to purchase the LTS, as it would introduce non-LTS playable Borg...
They won't do a Cooperative playable faction, as this would then kill off one of the main reasons to purchase the LTS, as it would introduce non-LTS playable Borg...
It wouldn't affect that at all, LTS would still be the only way to have Liberated Borg as Federation, Klingon, or Romulan faction (by that I mean a true member of the faction, with access to all the uniforms, not an ally).
Cooperative faction borg would only have cooperative costumes, and wouldn't have access to klingon, romulan, and federation T5-T6 ships. The current story hints that it could be going this way as well, with Seven mentioning that some day the Cooperative will be strong allies. On the other hand, the Cardassian arc is likely the next to be revamped, which makes Cardassian faction seem obvious. At this point it could go either way, but bottom line is Cooperative faction would not hurt LTS sales. Heck, they could even make liberated human, klingon, and romulan cooperative captains LTS exclusive.
I think the amount of money being put into it makes it pretty obvious Cryptic intends to keep STO going for quite a while. Since corporations tend to make fairly sound decisions, this leads me to suggest people who care about the state of PvP or PvE are a minority of the people paying, as a lot of the focus is not directed at improving such things. I'm sure that they're making the smart decision for them... I'm just annoyed at who's apparently getting the main focus, because it's not me.
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You know, you sound exceptionally bitter.
Also not everyone ranks their ships by the potential to hit over 9000* dps
*Note: that's a dragonball reference, I know 9k isn't actually that high in STO.
im just realist
when one does go for getting a promo ship, the rarest of its kind, one would except it's gonna do its job.
with 5x tac consoles, and clear shape/direction of this ship meant usage/role this ship does not offer the "close-to-maximum" potence of its role when cheaper and better BO-layout ships offer stronger alternative in its own category.
i gotta highlight it again: promo ship + rarest of its kind
these two things & its clear meant role atm does not offer what expected, when u can do significantly better for FAR less investment.
I remember way back when before DR was even a glint in the developers eye that the JHAS was going to be the flagship of change and it'd be updated with the times.
they flopped on that and decided to trade values for dwindling cash, not dwindling as in less people, but dwindling as in the value of the item you constantly release in a new form goes down.
At the end of the day, even I will admit that T5-U was one of the worst ideas Cryptic ever executed.
It's confusing to people who don't bother to read the fine print.
It wasn't freely offered to every T5 ship, not even to all of the ones you paid for, thereby opening the door to complaints that people were being 'forced' to pay twice (or thrice!) for the same ship.
Ship Mastery could have been more or less retrofitted onto every single T5 ship, minus the T6 trait, and there would have been way fewer complaints. They could have done away with the -U confusion factor, it would have been cleaner in nearly every respect, and engendered quite a bit of goodwill. Once you've introduced the concept that a ship can be levelled up at 'endgame', there's no reason not to apply that concept to all endgame ships.
People would have still wanted to buy the T6 versions of those ships, like the Pathfinder, or new T6 ships like the Intel and Command ships. It wouldn't have hurt those sales a bit. I hope Cryptic -- and everyone who plays STO -- learned the right lessons from that debacle. But, at least for now, we're stuck with T5-U.
On the other hand, there was no good reason to assume that the JHAS would always and forever be the 'iconic' STO ship. Why in the name of Spock should a Jem'Hadar ship be the iconic STO ship anyway? (If any one ship deserves that title, I'd have to award it to the B'rel.)
I would expect that the T5(-U) JHAS will continue to be a promotional item in the DOFF promo packs from time to time, if for no other reason than to perpetuate the ability to collect the set pieces. The JHSS T6 ship will most likely continue to be a promotional item in the R&D packs.
In case it has not become clear to everyone, when you buy new ships that Cryptic decides are a set you are not buying ships. You are buying costumes, console slots, BOFF stations, and set pieces. If those aren't worth getting, then don't.
Just... learn from history and don't drop hundreds of dollars at a time trying to get this stuff. Even with everything I STILL want a D'Kora for my Ferengi, but I don't beggar myself trying to get it. Ever. All this time and I've never won ANY ship. But I haven't gone broke buying keys, either.
My views may not represent those of Cryptic Studios or Perfect World Entertainment. You can file a "forums and website" support ticket here Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
I would expect that the T5(-U) JHAS will continue to be a promotional item in the DOFF promo packs from time to time, if for no other reason than to perpetuate the ability to collect the set pieces.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe there is a set piece in the JHAS. I got my bug on the very first event (Christmas), and to this date I've never had a console for it. I thought the set pieces were on the two carriers and the new JHSS.
Sollaf: Join date Sep 2009, Lifer. Disgruntled with the JHSS, my Bug feels less shiny now.
there isnt unless they meant the ship itself as a ticket for getting the JASpets for the dread.
other than that, back there JAS was uniq, it was the only ( -fleet- defiant is like a brick, not comperable to the JAS, not to mention its fixed 3X tactical(?!!) seats.. ) ship with 5x tac consoles, we had no other stuff causing trouble in balance that came with the LoR DLC.. so it was the best ship in its category for that time. dps, speed, turn-rate all favored the JAS among the escorts.
( but she wasnt the iwin ship in her glorious time either ) ( kdf BoPs were the real deal because cloak wasnt that available 2 everyone but kdf )
anyway.. now just look at all the new escorts. cloak? right on! 5x tac console? right on! new powers? right on! 5/2 wep load-out? right on!
list goes on.. while the glorious days of flying the most feared ship slowly but steadily faded away..
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe there is a set piece in the JHAS. I got my bug on the very first event (Christmas), and to this date I've never had a console for it. I thought the set pieces were on the two carriers and the new JHSS.
Correct, the T5 JHAS never had a console. It was the JHHEC, JHDC, and now the T6 JHSS that had the consoles.
What it comes down to is, is the whale dumb enough to buy 2 of the same ships, with some tweaked stats in a 10 min notepad job?
Well, he was certainly dumb enough to pay for text "upgrades" using millions of dil...
All I can say is karma, this is what you paid them to do so now you can go ahead and sleep in it.
Sadly, yes they are. What's even sadder is that even if Crryptic posted the odds of winning it (and let's assume they are the legitimate odds of winning one for the sake of argument), people would still dump hundreds of dollars on keys in the hopes of getting a new bug ship.
I just don't see it ... to me if they were getting ready to pull the plug they would pull out all the stops to get people happy and spending money.
When a company is on the ropes they don't go out of their way to make people happy, they just try to suck as much money out as they can before they quit.
What it comes down to is, is the whale dumb enough to buy 2 of the same ships, with some tweaked stats in a 10 min notepad job?
Well, he was certainly dumb enough to pay for text "upgrades" using millions of dil...
All I can say is karma, this is what you paid them to do so now you can go ahead and sleep in it.
Here we go again wit the note pad references...
Clearly you missed this blog regarding the design process, including various proposed designs, and clearly have no idea what's involved when designing full 3D game assets, if you honestly think the JH Strike Ship is nothing more than a 'tweaked stats in a 10 min notepad job' version of the JH Attack Ship...
Note: lawsuits against game companies have be having a lot of wins lately.
Really? I think you need to provide some evidence of this, as most of the cases I've heard of recently have gone no where, if anything, the courts found in favour of the developers...
I consider luck boxes a theft lottery, and many with me, I for one will NEVER open such a bloody box.
No matter what it "MIGHT" spawn, it's pure theft from whomever that uses such a system.
Paying IRL money for a lottery like that should be forbidden by law, IMHO.
I consider luck boxes a theft lottery, and many with me, I for one will NEVER open such a bloody box.
No matter what it "MIGHT" spawn, it's pure theft from whomever that uses such a system.
Paying IRL money for a lottery like that should be forbidden by law, IMHO.
How is it theft? No where is it stipulated that you're guaranteed anything, other than a minimum amount of Lobi Crystals, nor do Cryptic force players to open lock boxes...
Theft is the unauthorised taking of another person's property...
By choosing to purchase keys and then choosing to open lock boxes, the player is entirely responsible for their actions, as they have not been forced into these actions by any other party...
I actually work in the casino industry, and this is a complaint I hear on a regular basis... Someone walks into a casino expecting to walk away an instant millionaire, but walk away with an empty wallet, declaring the casino apparently 'robbed them', but I've not once seen a casino staff member hold them up at gun point and demand they hand over everything they have... The person in question made that decision, not the casino...
Same deal here, the player makes the decision to open lock boxes, no one forces them... You don't like the odds of winning, that's fine, I don't like them either, which is why I don't go out of my way to 'win' with lock boxes - I'll occasionally buy a few keys and try my luck, I've even 'won' a few times, but I don't expect to...
Having said that however, at no point has anything been stolen from me, as I have consciously made the decision to open those lock boxes, knowing full well I'm almost certain to not receive anything substantial...
You don't like them, don't open them... It's really quite that simple...
In common usage, theft is the taking of another person's property without that person's permission or consent with the intent to deprive the rightful owner of it.
Are the lock boxes a 'game of chance'? Absolutely... Are they borderline gambling? Possibly, but I'd also expect that Cryptic (and primarily PWE being the owning company) have already confirmed the legality of offering such lock boxes in game - primarily whether they would qualify as 'online gambling' which, given they cannot be redeemed for real world currency, it's my understanding that there is a loophole there that makes it legal because it does not qualify as 'gambling'...
Is any of this theft? No... It's not...
You open a lock box for a CHANCE to get a ship, no where is it stipulated you WILL GET a ship...
At no point in the history of STO were we able to take a low tiered ship and UPGRADE it to a higher tier. Then or now. And longtime players in STO are surprised by this? Really?
I sure would have like to have taken a few of those lower tiered ships into later tiered status but the responses around here were to "Eat it" and get over it.
Well, I now say to you all: "Eat it."
"Eat it," and get a new ship like everyone else has to. You got your pretty little pony before. Fine. You're not entitled to even more benefits after that.
Too bad, so sad.
Edit: To all the sobbing JHAS guys, I'm sure the T5U Intrepid players are amused by your anger and feelings of being solely picked on.
To be honest they should of done the tokens to upgrade to t6 so nobody lost out.
If the price is of some concern if the tokens actually did that im sure they'd be fine for paying more.
So long as it was for only T5 ships and no other tier - But that's just me, I think only the hardcore players would run around in minimum tier ships as a challenge anyway so its kind of pointless - As they aren't the majority, so money wise it would be kind of silly (wont be much of a profit gain and it would ruin the point of "tier" ships) and any of you who are going to say "BUT WE SPEND MORE MONEY THAN ANYONE IN THIS GAME" - I find that highly debatable.
Are the lock boxes a 'game of chance'? Absolutely... Are they borderline gambling? Possibly...
You mean: ABSOLUTELY, right.
When someone pays a sum for a game of chance, it becomes gambling.
Which is why I said it should be forbidden by law.
As for the definition of theft I am aware what theft means, but that does not mean it still seems like a form of theft to me.
Luck in games (where MONEY is involved) is, for me, a criminal action.
Yes, it is legal, yes it is tolerated by the government.
Still, taking money from someone just to have a chance of getting something (thus lottery) just seems utterly wrong.
Might I point out, that my prime post about this, ended with IMHO?
As in opinion?
Just pointing that out.
At this rate, we can expect the Jem'Hadar Battleship with five universals commander stations and 4 hangar bays.:mad:
I have the same feeling, just curious how it will be introduced. Jhas and Jhss are both promoship and not from lock box or loby shop.
The JHSS is just the first re-release of a promo ship we encounter.
I have no clue yet how Cryptc will treat Lock box/lobi releases.
One way could be to add a new T6 JemHadar Battleship to the Dominion lock Box while leaving the Heavy escort Carrier as second price like Kazon Raider.
I suppose this would work with a Cardassian T6 Keldon Class as well
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You mean: ABSOLUTELY, right.
When someone pays a sum for a game of chance, it becomes gambling.
Which is why I said it should be forbidden by law.
As for the definition of theft I am aware what theft means, but that does not mean it still seems like a form of theft to me.
Luck in games (where MONEY is involved) is, for me, a criminal action.
Yes, it is legal, yes it is tolerated by the government.
Still, taking money from someone just to have a chance of getting something (thus lottery) just seems utterly wrong.
Might I point out, that my prime post about this, ended with IMHO?
As in opinion?
Just pointing that out.
Well, I'm just pointing out it's not theft, and it's not illegal, regardless of how much you dislike it... That's not my opinion, it's fact, that's the point I was making - it also frankly seems you're trying to hide behind the 'it's just my opinion' argument, while making a very direct statement...
Really? I think you need to provide some evidence of this, as most of the cases I've heard of recently have gone no where, if anything, the courts found in favour of the developers...
Let me start by saying I, personally, do NOT believe Cryptic has done anything that could or even should be sued over.
That said, wasn't there a successful lawsuit in regards to Aliens: Colonial Marines? Now I was in the minority that actually enjoyed that game, but I thought I had read that somewhere.
Let me start by saying I, personally, do NOT believe Cryptic has done anything that could or even should be sued over.
That said, wasn't there a successful lawsuit in regards to Aliens: Colonial Marines? Now I was in the minority that actually enjoyed that game, but I thought I had read that somewhere.
Sega agreed to a small payout ($1.25mil, small given the size of the company) though I think that more came down to it being cheaper than paying their lawyers in the long term, as they did not accept fault as part of the offer... This case also seems to be the exception to the rule, that I've seen so far anyway and definitely doesn't count as 'alot of success against games developers'...
Gearbox (the games' developer) is refusing to accept any liability as they were not responsible for advertising of A:CM, that was Sega's doing apparently...
Still not a clear cut victory, just your typical court room maneuvering - big difference being, there was actually some basis to the complaints as the demonstrations of game play were far removed from the final result... Similar claims were made about Watch Dogs btw, but went no where in the end, just alot of online raging...
You dont have to pay real money to open lockboxes.
Also, you can only buy zen from cryptic. You can use that zen for lots of things, not just lockbox keys.
Also, and this can't be stressed enough... If somone spends 200 dollars on zen for keys to try to win a ship, it's his fault and his responsibility, not anyone else's.
Lockboxes in STO are no more real-life gambling than the slot machines in Fallout New Vegas.
The absolute maximum price the STO Exchange supports is 500mil EC. Based on current real dollars -> Zen -> lockbox key -> EC exchange rates, the JHSS is roughly $250 USD to buy out. This price should taper off during the next few weeks until the end of March when the promo ends.
I don't call that a solution, I call that wishful thinking.
Exhibit A: The Pathfinder.
They -could- have just bumped the Fleet Long Range Science Vessel Retrofit to T6. Probably would have involved some kind of 'reset' forcing players to reslot all of their gear. It would have also forced them to invent or clone a bunch of Starship Traits. Let us not forget that it would have also broken their ability to sell T6 ships.
That's not what they did.
If you don't think there would have been negative fallout from resetting everybody's T5+ ships to make them T6, you must not spend much time on these forums. If you think they had the time to create and balance new Starship Traits for all of those ships, you're ignoring the amount of dev resources that went into DR in the first place.
They chose to allow players to make the choice to keep their T5 ship just the way it is or to upgrade with the ability to use Starship Mastery up to level 4. They didn't force anybody to suffer through a reset.
Now, I don't approve of the way the Pathfinder and the JHSS were handled. They should have let people know up front that paying to upgrade their Intrepids was possibly a waste of time -- or explained better how you needed the Intrepid's console to complete the set bonus. They should never have implied that the JHAS would get special treatment.
But they're not going to give everybody free upgrades to T6. That's wishful thinking.
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Comments
Gotta agree with you for the full 100%.
Never say never when it comes to Science Fiction - what can happen is only limited by the writer's imagination...
For one, the start of Dust to Dust references Admiral Tuvok and Voyager being on a highly classified mission in Krenim space, which discredits your remarks as any story related to time travel can easily be moulded and twisted, to suit what ever the writer wants, they just need a good basis for how and why... This reference could be nothing, or could allude to yet another 'bridging episode', or even an entire story arc in S10 for example...
There's also nothing stopping Cryptic digging into Star Trek lore and dredging up some other obscure reference, like they have done with the Iconians, to create the next big-bad that the Alpha Quadrant faces...
You also seem to be forgetting we're less than a century (according to Enterprise) from the Temporal Cold War and the Klingon Empire joining the Federation, there's no reason Cryptic can't start to lay the ground work leading upto these events of the 26th century...
They won't do a Cooperative playable faction, as this would then kill off one of the main reasons to purchase the LTS, as it would introduce non-LTS playable Borg...
It wouldn't affect that at all, LTS would still be the only way to have Liberated Borg as Federation, Klingon, or Romulan faction (by that I mean a true member of the faction, with access to all the uniforms, not an ally).
Cooperative faction borg would only have cooperative costumes, and wouldn't have access to klingon, romulan, and federation T5-T6 ships. The current story hints that it could be going this way as well, with Seven mentioning that some day the Cooperative will be strong allies. On the other hand, the Cardassian arc is likely the next to be revamped, which makes Cardassian faction seem obvious. At this point it could go either way, but bottom line is Cooperative faction would not hurt LTS sales. Heck, they could even make liberated human, klingon, and romulan cooperative captains LTS exclusive.
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Tacs are overrated.
Game's best wiki
Build questions? Look here!
im just realist
when one does go for getting a promo ship, the rarest of its kind, one would except it's gonna do its job.
with 5x tac consoles, and clear shape/direction of this ship meant usage/role this ship does not offer the "close-to-maximum" potence of its role when cheaper and better BO-layout ships offer stronger alternative in its own category.
i gotta highlight it again: promo ship + rarest of its kind
these two things & its clear meant role atm does not offer what expected, when u can do significantly better for FAR less investment.
they flopped on that and decided to trade values for dwindling cash, not dwindling as in less people, but dwindling as in the value of the item you constantly release in a new form goes down.
It's confusing to people who don't bother to read the fine print.
It wasn't freely offered to every T5 ship, not even to all of the ones you paid for, thereby opening the door to complaints that people were being 'forced' to pay twice (or thrice!) for the same ship.
Ship Mastery could have been more or less retrofitted onto every single T5 ship, minus the T6 trait, and there would have been way fewer complaints. They could have done away with the -U confusion factor, it would have been cleaner in nearly every respect, and engendered quite a bit of goodwill. Once you've introduced the concept that a ship can be levelled up at 'endgame', there's no reason not to apply that concept to all endgame ships.
People would have still wanted to buy the T6 versions of those ships, like the Pathfinder, or new T6 ships like the Intel and Command ships. It wouldn't have hurt those sales a bit. I hope Cryptic -- and everyone who plays STO -- learned the right lessons from that debacle. But, at least for now, we're stuck with T5-U.
On the other hand, there was no good reason to assume that the JHAS would always and forever be the 'iconic' STO ship. Why in the name of Spock should a Jem'Hadar ship be the iconic STO ship anyway? (If any one ship deserves that title, I'd have to award it to the B'rel.)
I would expect that the T5(-U) JHAS will continue to be a promotional item in the DOFF promo packs from time to time, if for no other reason than to perpetuate the ability to collect the set pieces. The JHSS T6 ship will most likely continue to be a promotional item in the R&D packs.
In case it has not become clear to everyone, when you buy new ships that Cryptic decides are a set you are not buying ships. You are buying costumes, console slots, BOFF stations, and set pieces. If those aren't worth getting, then don't.
Just... learn from history and don't drop hundreds of dollars at a time trying to get this stuff. Even with everything I STILL want a D'Kora for my Ferengi, but I don't beggar myself trying to get it. Ever. All this time and I've never won ANY ship. But I haven't gone broke buying keys, either.
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe there is a set piece in the JHAS. I got my bug on the very first event (Christmas), and to this date I've never had a console for it. I thought the set pieces were on the two carriers and the new JHSS.
other than that, back there JAS was uniq, it was the only ( -fleet- defiant is like a brick, not comperable to the JAS, not to mention its fixed 3X tactical(?!!) seats.. ) ship with 5x tac consoles, we had no other stuff causing trouble in balance that came with the LoR DLC.. so it was the best ship in its category for that time. dps, speed, turn-rate all favored the JAS among the escorts.
( but she wasnt the iwin ship in her glorious time either ) ( kdf BoPs were the real deal because cloak wasnt that available 2 everyone but kdf )
anyway.. now just look at all the new escorts. cloak? right on! 5x tac console? right on! new powers? right on! 5/2 wep load-out? right on!
list goes on.. while the glorious days of flying the most feared ship slowly but steadily faded away..
Well, he was certainly dumb enough to pay for text "upgrades" using millions of dil...
All I can say is karma, this is what you paid them to do so now you can go ahead and sleep in it.
Correct, the T5 JHAS never had a console. It was the JHHEC, JHDC, and now the T6 JHSS that had the consoles.
Sadly, yes they are. What's even sadder is that even if Crryptic posted the odds of winning it (and let's assume they are the legitimate odds of winning one for the sake of argument), people would still dump hundreds of dollars on keys in the hopes of getting a new bug ship.
When a company is on the ropes they don't go out of their way to make people happy, they just try to suck as much money out as they can before they quit.
Class actions are the only things that make companies do anything (and even then it can take years).
Note: lawsuits against game companies have be having a lot of wins lately.
Don't have a JHAS old or new so not something I can file as I'm not one of the parties agreived.
Here we go again wit the note pad references...
Clearly you missed this blog regarding the design process, including various proposed designs, and clearly have no idea what's involved when designing full 3D game assets, if you honestly think the JH Strike Ship is nothing more than a 'tweaked stats in a 10 min notepad job' version of the JH Attack Ship...
A typically pointless troll post from you...
Really? I think you need to provide some evidence of this, as most of the cases I've heard of recently have gone no where, if anything, the courts found in favour of the developers...
Battlefield 4 Class Action for example...
Care to provide some citations to the contrary?
No matter what it "MIGHT" spawn, it's pure theft from whomever that uses such a system.
Paying IRL money for a lottery like that should be forbidden by law, IMHO.
How is it theft? No where is it stipulated that you're guaranteed anything, other than a minimum amount of Lobi Crystals, nor do Cryptic force players to open lock boxes...
Theft is the unauthorised taking of another person's property...
By choosing to purchase keys and then choosing to open lock boxes, the player is entirely responsible for their actions, as they have not been forced into these actions by any other party...
I actually work in the casino industry, and this is a complaint I hear on a regular basis... Someone walks into a casino expecting to walk away an instant millionaire, but walk away with an empty wallet, declaring the casino apparently 'robbed them', but I've not once seen a casino staff member hold them up at gun point and demand they hand over everything they have... The person in question made that decision, not the casino...
Same deal here, the player makes the decision to open lock boxes, no one forces them... You don't like the odds of winning, that's fine, I don't like them either, which is why I don't go out of my way to 'win' with lock boxes - I'll occasionally buy a few keys and try my luck, I've even 'won' a few times, but I don't expect to...
Having said that however, at no point has anything been stolen from me, as I have consciously made the decision to open those lock boxes, knowing full well I'm almost certain to not receive anything substantial...
You don't like them, don't open them... It's really quite that simple...
When you pay for something, you are expected to get something from it.
If you aim for a ship, then it should be a ship.
Lucky folks might get it from box 5, unlucky folks.... well, some spent hundreds of dollars for a virtual item.
THAT, my friend, is a form of theft.
I think you need to look up the definition of theft...
Wikipedia's definition of the term 'theft'...
Are the lock boxes a 'game of chance'? Absolutely... Are they borderline gambling? Possibly, but I'd also expect that Cryptic (and primarily PWE being the owning company) have already confirmed the legality of offering such lock boxes in game - primarily whether they would qualify as 'online gambling' which, given they cannot be redeemed for real world currency, it's my understanding that there is a loophole there that makes it legal because it does not qualify as 'gambling'...
Is any of this theft? No... It's not...
You open a lock box for a CHANCE to get a ship, no where is it stipulated you WILL GET a ship...
To be honest they should of done the tokens to upgrade to t6 so nobody lost out.
If the price is of some concern if the tokens actually did that im sure they'd be fine for paying more.
So long as it was for only T5 ships and no other tier - But that's just me, I think only the hardcore players would run around in minimum tier ships as a challenge anyway so its kind of pointless - As they aren't the majority, so money wise it would be kind of silly (wont be much of a profit gain and it would ruin the point of "tier" ships) and any of you who are going to say "BUT WE SPEND MORE MONEY THAN ANYONE IN THIS GAME" - I find that highly debatable.
When someone pays a sum for a game of chance, it becomes gambling.
Which is why I said it should be forbidden by law.
As for the definition of theft I am aware what theft means, but that does not mean it still seems like a form of theft to me.
Luck in games (where MONEY is involved) is, for me, a criminal action.
Yes, it is legal, yes it is tolerated by the government.
Still, taking money from someone just to have a chance of getting something (thus lottery) just seems utterly wrong.
Might I point out, that my prime post about this, ended with IMHO?
As in opinion?
Just pointing that out.
I have the same feeling, just curious how it will be introduced. Jhas and Jhss are both promoship and not from lock box or loby shop.
The JHSS is just the first re-release of a promo ship we encounter.
I have no clue yet how Cryptc will treat Lock box/lobi releases.
One way could be to add a new T6 JemHadar Battleship to the Dominion lock Box while leaving the Heavy escort Carrier as second price like Kazon Raider.
I suppose this would work with a Cardassian T6 Keldon Class as well
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Well, I'm just pointing out it's not theft, and it's not illegal, regardless of how much you dislike it... That's not my opinion, it's fact, that's the point I was making - it also frankly seems you're trying to hide behind the 'it's just my opinion' argument, while making a very direct statement...
FYI. Redshirt patch notes.
The JHSS could get cheaper on the exchange soon, but then, demand my fall too.
Let me start by saying I, personally, do NOT believe Cryptic has done anything that could or even should be sued over.
That said, wasn't there a successful lawsuit in regards to Aliens: Colonial Marines? Now I was in the minority that actually enjoyed that game, but I thought I had read that somewhere.
Sega agreed to a small payout ($1.25mil, small given the size of the company) though I think that more came down to it being cheaper than paying their lawyers in the long term, as they did not accept fault as part of the offer... This case also seems to be the exception to the rule, that I've seen so far anyway and definitely doesn't count as 'alot of success against games developers'...
Gearbox (the games' developer) is refusing to accept any liability as they were not responsible for advertising of A:CM, that was Sega's doing apparently...
Still not a clear cut victory, just your typical court room maneuvering - big difference being, there was actually some basis to the complaints as the demonstrations of game play were far removed from the final result... Similar claims were made about Watch Dogs btw, but went no where in the end, just alot of online raging...
The absolute maximum price the STO Exchange supports is 500mil EC. Based on current real dollars -> Zen -> lockbox key -> EC exchange rates, the JHSS is roughly $250 USD to buy out. This price should taper off during the next few weeks until the end of March when the promo ends.
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=1397711
...#LLAP...
I don't call that a solution, I call that wishful thinking.
Exhibit A: The Pathfinder.
They -could- have just bumped the Fleet Long Range Science Vessel Retrofit to T6. Probably would have involved some kind of 'reset' forcing players to reslot all of their gear. It would have also forced them to invent or clone a bunch of Starship Traits. Let us not forget that it would have also broken their ability to sell T6 ships.
That's not what they did.
If you don't think there would have been negative fallout from resetting everybody's T5+ ships to make them T6, you must not spend much time on these forums. If you think they had the time to create and balance new Starship Traits for all of those ships, you're ignoring the amount of dev resources that went into DR in the first place.
They chose to allow players to make the choice to keep their T5 ship just the way it is or to upgrade with the ability to use Starship Mastery up to level 4. They didn't force anybody to suffer through a reset.
Now, I don't approve of the way the Pathfinder and the JHSS were handled. They should have let people know up front that paying to upgrade their Intrepids was possibly a waste of time -- or explained better how you needed the Intrepid's console to complete the set bonus. They should never have implied that the JHAS would get special treatment.
But they're not going to give everybody free upgrades to T6. That's wishful thinking.
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