Well we are getting closer and closer to finally getting these expensive ships as account-wide unlocks. I know it will happen eventually so I'll be patient! The main question here is if we should be able to reclaim them on characters that have them unlocked already. My ship inventory is clogged with obsolete Lockbox/Lobi ships and I'm not going to spend rediculous amounts of cash on ships slot increases. I'd really like to dismiss without losing them permanently considering the cash I've dumped into them. There is also a cap on ship slots so that would only postpone the problem. I think ship collector's like myself would be ecstatic to have ships in their collection without wasting ship slots on ones they never use.
Thoughts?
Should we be able to reclaim dismissed Lockbox/Lobi ships? 92 votes
I want them all account unlocks!
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What I'd prefer is they fix the database so it only loads our current ship and nothing else, thus allowing us to have infinite ship slots.
I did read them all and I do understand. I think the problem is that you do not see past the symptom to the underlying problem. The biggest reason people dismiss ships is lack of ship slots. This drives sales of ship slots but what about when those are full? Hence the original requests for this feature coming from people who literally cannot buy more ship slots because of the database limit. With infinite ship slots you would never dismiss any ships so reclaiming them would be meaningless.
As described by the devs on several occasions the database limit is that it loads every ship, every ship saved costume, and every loadout each time you change maps. This is a big performance hit to the servers. To limit the impact they limit ship slots. Each time they improve the database performance they increase the maximum number of ship slots we are allowed to buy.
This is what I described as putting a bandaid on a batleth wound. There is no reason for the game to need any data on the ships we cannot fly. If we're not at a ship selector no data on them is relevant.
I suspect, because sto uses the champions online engine, they modified the chapions build swap system for ship swapping (the champions one changes costume, power selection, stance, power trays etc) and that one is intended to be used on the fly between fights within a mission. Hence keeping the data available is logical for them. If I'm correct, fixing the problem is potentially too big an effort to be feasible. Which is unfortunate.
Account wide unlocking would surely result in them lowering the drop rate and increasing the lobi prices to keep their key sales steady. I think this secondary effect is worse than the benefit.
Thus I want neither account wide unlocks nor reclaimability. I want enough ship slots that no one ever dismisses any ship.
I say 'accidentally' in that they thought they were dismissing one ship and just didn't just make sure they had the right one.
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I'd be fine with paying some fee to duplicate them for alts but only if that comes as part of a more comprehensive set of updates to catch alts up. Some things need to upgrade for alts for free. Some need to be discounted for alts. Some things I'd pay for. You can sort out which is which but I think a good system has some of all three types of alt catch-up mechanisms...
... And if you look at other MMOs of a certain age, you generally have some of all three. (Paid catch-up, discounted catch-up, free catch-up.) For example, WoW made most cosmetic items account-wide (mounts/pets), made reputation heavily discounted, and made leveling catch-up a paid feature.
Right now, we really just have rep bonuses.
I'd pay for copies of certain ships to be account-wide if specializations and starship traits became account-wide for free, for instance. Or I'd pay for specializations to be account-wide if lockbox ships became paid account-wide unlocks.
Basically, I'm willing to pay a tidy amount for more viable alts if Cryptic is also willing to provide some features for free to make alts viable. Grease the gears of alting, basically, and I'll be willing to meet the team partway on paying for it.
But one counter they could pull on this is that you would have to "Win" your ship or purchase from the store before it becomes unlocked account wide. That way they can ensure you have gone through the heartache of getting the ship. Sure you can grind it out for free, but you could've also been given the ship and how fair would it be to those who worked hard to purchase the ships using EC they ground out. For those getting from the exchange, they could also throw the tag on it, or accolade "Spent obscene amount of EC for a XYZ ship!" and that would unlock the ship on the account...
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This is an idea I think could work. Much like how swtor has an option where you can spend their zen equivalent to unlock things for other characters. That would probably prevent pwe/cryptic from feeling the need to change drop rates or lobi prices and give more options to players.
+1 good idea.
Mind you, I would not expect Cryptic to offer up account reclaims of these ships for free, a one-time Zen unlock price would be appropriate I'd think.
Considering the price of these ships I can hardly think that many people run multiple versions of the same ship on their alts, account reclaims might encourage lockbox/Lobi ship sales.
I fail to see how reclaiming these ships on a SINGLE character would have any effect on Cryptic's profit.
I think this isn't really a case where Cryptic can earn noteworthy amount of money, but they can get earn themselves some good will.
An account unlock would hurt them financially, and I think it's not really needed.
Maybe they should just make it a 100 Lobi reclaim token. Then they can still earn from it.
I based on vote and comment off of the OP's reasoning for making the poll in the first place, he first mentioned he would like the option so he does not have to purchase extra ship slots, (thus robbing Cryptic the ability to make additional income). Second, As the lobi and lockbox ships require keys to obtain, if someone dismisses a ship for any reason, they are stating they are no longer going to use the ship. If they decided weeks ,months, years to pilot the ship again, they should pay for the privilege of owning it again.
I understand that my views are in the major minority here, and I do believe that Cryptic will add the reclaim option in the future, but it does not change my views on the subject.
I wish we could re-box ships and move them to another character, that would be nice.
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