Hey devs any chance we will ever see purchasable account unlocks?

detheater

So I'm sure this has been discussed before, but I'm lazy and have little motivation to peruse more than the first page or so of search results so I will ask it anyway. And since Im having problems logging into the game you get my the results of my musing...

I picked up a Wells Uniform pack off of the lobi store because I think it's a pretty cool uniform and I figured I might use it at some point... and I had some random lobi sitting around from my admittedly minor yet failed attempt at the Bug ship a few weeks ago.

Unfortunately, once I purchased it I realized that it is a character only unlock... My own fault for not reading the description... no big deal I'll just hold it until I have a Captain I want to use it on. Then I noticed that there are several uniform packs like that (temporal, Korath, Vaadwaur... all lobi, all uniforms I would like to have in my closet). Anyway... it made me stop and not purchase anymore. Again, no big deal just one less person right?

So this made me think how nice it would be to be able to purchase an account unlock for items. Which is something that other F2P games have. If you ever played SWTOR it was one of my favorite features and also one that made me spend more in the cartel market than I should. Once you purchased and item you could, for a small fee, purchase an account unlock for that item and any character on your account could claim it. You could also do this in The Secret World.

I know that everyone says Cryptic is a bunch of money grubbers and that's why we can't move our lock box ships around but this is a way they could make people happy and still make money off of it rather than people just not outfitting alts as heavily as their main... This could also encourage people to put more time into alts because they could still have their favorite ship or uniform etc...

Anyway I figured I would throw it out there again even if it has been discussed before... Just to say it would be a really nice feature to have.

And While I am at it I will throw out a couple other F2P game features that would be nice in STO:

Account (or legacy) wide reputation (so we don't have to grind again and allowing all characters on your account to contribute to it at the same time, even if it means increasing the # of rep levels) (ala SWTOR)
When subscribed getting a zen amount equal to the sub amount (ala TSW)

gavinruneblade

Most items you buy with zen are account wide unlocks. Ships, costumes, etc.

Everything you buy with lobi is character specific.

So we already have what you are asking for.

detheater

Actually, not trying to be antagonistic here, but you are wrong. We don' have what I was asking for. I specifically asked (in my post) for unlocks for lobi items and lock box ships. I specifically started the post with an anecdote about purchasing the wells uniform and realizing afterwards (admitted that this was my on carelessness) that it was character only.

Yes I get that we can claim zstore items by any character, but that's not the complaint that most people have. The complaint is lock box ships mainly and lobi store ships/items. Getting the amount of lobi together to buy lobi store items is not a small feat as you get like 1-5 from each lock box (barring special events).

It is those harder to obtain items I want to be account unlock-able, like for example you can in SWTOR.

quintaris

That is one feature I really like about TOR. You can spend Cartel Coins to turn anything from a lockbox that you own into an account unlock.

captsol

I doubt they'll ever do this. I was surprised when they made it so you could trade Lobi between your characters. That was enough in their minds. Cryptic is all about making money with STO. If they made it so Lobi Store unlocks were account-wide that would mean they'd lose money every time someone purchased something from the Lobi store. With the way they have it set up that means you have to keep opening lockboxes or the occasional Research or DOFF boxes in order to build up Lobi on all you characters so they can keep raking in the cash. Simple as that.

admrenlarreck

So you want an account unlock for a lobi Item? That's not going to happen. Why? Money

Why would cryptic offer a store token to account unlock something that on average costs 200 Lobi at 6 lobi per key. thats 33 keys. or 41 USD per character.

They would lose money hand over fist.

Personally I think having it all account bound is a great Idea. To bad it will never happen.

oldkhemaraa

I tend to agree with the OP here.

Considering what players have to go through to get Lobi.. it does after all only come from lock boxes..


I usually get 5 lobi per lock box.. yes sometime you can get more, way more.. about the same chance I suspect of getting 2 DS-9's paying dabo.

lets see.. outfit..200-300 lobi that like 40-60 lock boxes...

Yea I really kind of agree... I'd like to see lobi store costumes as account unlock. Ships, no, special items/consoles/weapons/equipment.. no.. Costumes, yes.

detheater

I definitely understand the whole losing money thing and to be honest if the fee didn't try to gouge me I would probably be willing to pay for the unlock on a per character basis... However, in the end I think it would even out...

Currently (I obviously don't have the metrics) but I would be willing to bet that most people don't attempt to outfit many of their alts the same way they do their mains (ships, costumes, items, etc...). I would bet that most people would be a lot more willing to pay a little extra in zen then they are to try to get the lobi/keys to buy/gamble on the same ship on their alt... Not all but most.

So, by doing this you would capture those people that won't pay for the same ship twice unless it is their absolute favorite, but might pay for it if they could unlock it more easily. I think the fear would be that they would lose money but I think in the end that it would even out. And at least for me this would probably encourage me to open more lockboxes because there are several ships that I would like in the lobi store but I just don't see the benefit of buying ships that only one character can fly (part of the reason I didn't try harder for the bug ship).

I have picked up several lockbox/lobi ships on my main, but there are none of them that I will attempt to get on any alts... except maybe the Manasas, which currently is probably my favorite escort. My alts will do just fine with the zstore ships I have purchased.