Serious Suggestion.... why not?

spearhawk2013

How about having a new service in the c-store.
the ability to repack a ship into container and be able to use it on another one of your toon?
or ability to switch ship to another one of your toons.
I would certainly pay handsomely for that service.

ltminns

Probably would never happen as your 'handsome payment' probably wouldn't approach what they could make in Key sales to open Lockboxes to get said ship again (or the Lobi needed to accumulate to buy one from the Lobi Store). It is a good idea that has been floating around for a few years by a number of people but barring 'their hearts growing three sizes that day', not likely to happen.

evilmark444

Only way this would happen is if your handsome payment was AT LEAST the cost of a c-store 3 pack ... or in other words the cost of a full triple A console game ... otherwise like Itminns said they make more money forcing you to try your luck again

duncanidaho11

evilmark444 wrote: »

Only way this would happen is if your handsome payment was AT LEAST the cost of a c-store 3 pack ... or in other words the cost of a full triple A console game ... otherwise like Itminns said they make more money forcing you to try your luck again

Assuming of course that the same number of people re-buy lock box and lobi ships as would have repacked them. However if more people would opt into a "re-bundle token" (and it must be said that has to make it account bound, or else here comes the apocalypse) than would bother re-buying the ship then cryptic could end up making more.

The "no" to this probably isn't in grinchy economics (it could easily go either way, without any data its impossible to say just how it'll turn out), but probably a design decision to make lock box and lobi ships more "special," which is built into their "one time use" nature in addition to all the fancy bits. And those that are really interested in using the same ship across multiple characters should really look into using the C-store more in any case.

samt1996

Here's a novel idea... if you delete a character all lockbox and Lobi ships get put into account bound boxes and mailed to yourself.

It would be a significant cost to move the ships by losing an entire toon but still a way.

bobbydazlers

spearhawk2013 wrote: »

How about having a new service in the c-store.
the ability to repack a ship into container and be able to use it on another one of your toon?
or ability to switch ship to another one of your toons.
I would certainly pay handsomely for that service.

been discussed before many times, wont happen.

NEXT.....

spearhawk2013

I think with a high enough price, that Cryptic will see it as worthwhile, i would easy pay 3000 zen or 5000 zen to move one of my ships between my toons.

szim

Are there really that many players who have the same lockbox ship on several different chars? Would Cryptic really lose a bunch of money if they allowed for lockbox ships to be transferable between chars of the same account? I own most lockbox ships and their lobi store counterparts but it never occured to pay twice for the same ship.

bobbydazlers

szim wrote: »

Are there really that many players who have the same lockbox ship on several different chars? Would Cryptic really lose a bunch of money if they allowed for lockbox ships to be transferable between chars of the same account? I own most lockbox ships and their lobi store counterparts but it never occured to pay twice for the same ship.

but if they took the OP's suggestion you would be paying twice, by about 3000-5000 zen.
there would be no way they would do this if there isn't money to be made from it realistically but like I said before this has been suggested many times before even including the offer to pay for the privilege and they all met zero response from cryptic which is why I say it aint ever gonna happen.

Unknown

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evilmark444

Another thing to consider is that part of the reason they made lockboxes was to allow access to ships CBS otherwise would not allow, but putting them in lockboxes makes them "rare" enough that they are ok.

It's possible such a system would go against CBS' mandate that these ships be rare

bobbydazlers

evilmark444 wrote: »

Another thing to consider is that part of the reason they made lockboxes was to allow access to ships CBS otherwise would not allow, but putting them in lockboxes makes them "rare" enough that they are ok.

It's possible such a system would go against CBS' mandate that these ships be rare

transferring a rare ship to another character on your account makes it no less rare, it is more likely that it was stipulated that it is bound to the character that owns it (not when its boxed obviously) and reboxing even to transfer to another character on your account would invalidate this.

alexraptorr

Personally I think they should just go and do what they did with the event ships and make the ship claimable account wide.
And I honestly don't think it would result in less sales, as more people would be willing to spend lots of money trying to get rare ships they could use on any and all of their characters.

lordsteve1

I can only really see this being useful for account bound stuff.
If you can rebox and trade the ships then the economy would collapse as sales of lockbox and lobi ships drives a large amount of it. Their value would drop overnight as you could fly if and decide you didn't like it so sell it on.
Maybe it could help out with storage of ships but really it's not needed as the dry dock feature does this now and extra slots can be bought.
If it was limited to account bound then maybe it would be OK, it would certainly make lockbox ships more appealing to alts as you would be able to move them to the correct character.

But all of this would affect their revenue in a big way so I can't ever see it happening. The cost of repackage would need to equal the cost of the ship to get Cryptic the same returns on it.

samt1996

Don't get me wrong I almost never attack Cryptic (because I'm a rational human being who places blame where it is actually deserved) but when they started giving away account unlocked alien ships three times a year and cheap alien ships in the last few lockboxes it kinda shot their initial claim about CBS forcing them to be rare all to hell. Granted it's been four years so CBS likely changed their policy since they wrote that, but still...

bobbydazlers

alexraptorr wrote: »

Personally I think they should just go and do what they did with the event ships and make the ship claimable account wide.
And I honestly don't think it would result in less sales, as more people would be willing to spend lots of money trying to get rare ships they could use on any and all of their characters.

that would effect its rarity as discussed in an earlier comment.

at the end of the day all you can do is choose wisely, decide what character you want to use the ship and live with your choice as it is permanent.

samt1996 wrote: »

Don't get me wrong I almost never attack Cryptic (because I'm a rational human being who places blame where it is actually deserved) but when they started giving away account unlocked alien ships three times a year and cheap alien ships in the last few lockboxes it kinda shot their initial claim about CBS forcing them to be rare all to hell. Granted it's been four years so CBS likely changed their policy since they wrote that, but still...

there is rare and there is limited edition rare, an event ship is limited edition rare as its limited to the time period and players who take part, lockbox ships are rare in that there are not many players who have that ship.

samt1996

No I mean the booby prizes like the Kazon Raider, Mesh weaver etc. Which are extremely cheap.

breadandcircuses

Eh, if Dry Dock had worked as an Account Bank for ships... that would have sold me on the concept. An individual fee each time I want to re-pack a ship? Nope, I wouldn't bother. I'm content with the T6-11 C-Store and Event Ships that I can have on whatever character I choose, any time I choose to use them.

Others, though, are not content with that. As already mentioned, those folks will spend far more gambling on more lock boxes (for the psychological trill of gambling as well as the actual contents) than they would under a re-stocking fee. It isn't in the company's best interest to do a half-measure that reduces spending from one group without motivating spending from another.

spearhawk2013

I don't understand.
If I bought a ship or won a ship and it became account bound, it does not lessen the worth of the ship
nor make it less rare. It is as rare as it was before. If I stop playing a toon cause another ship comes along
that fits my other classes of toons then what earnings with Cryptic then make?

bobbydazlers

spearhawk2013 wrote: »

I don't understand.
If I bought a ship or won a ship and it became account bound, it does not lessen the worth of the ship
nor make it less rare. It is as rare as it was before. If I stop playing a toon cause another ship comes along
that fits my other classes of toons then what earnings with Cryptic then make?

you are obviously not reading the replys that give good reasons why A: the ship is not an account unlock and B: you cannot rebox and send the ship to another character on your account.

in short these are the mandate laid down by CBS for these ships.

evilmark444

spearhawk2013 wrote: »

I don't understand.
If I bought a ship or won a ship and it became account bound, it does not lessen the worth of the ship
nor make it less rare. It is as rare as it was before. If I stop playing a toon cause another ship comes along
that fits my other classes of toons then what earnings with Cryptic then make?

When you get right down to it CBS really doesn't WANT players using ships from outside their own faction. However, as a compromise, they allow alien ships to be placed in lockboxes specifically to make them very, very rare. If you notice, the C-Store has all faction specific ships, and lockboxes do NOT have ships from the three playable factions (there ARE Romulan ships, but they are Tal Shiar, not RR, just as starfleet style lockbox ships are Terran, not Federation).

Making lockbox ships account bound, or even account pay-to-unlock, as awesome as that would be, would make all of those ships much more common and would therefore by vetoed by CBS. Event ships became account unlock because they are one time only, and can no longer be carried over if you don't finish the project. Re-boxing is kind of a grey area, but very unlikely to ever happen since it would cut into Cryptic's profits, and without a cooldown of some kind it could easily be abused as a pseudo account unlock.

spearhawk2013

evilmark444 wrote: »

spearhawk2013 wrote: »

I don't understand.
If I bought a ship or won a ship and it became account bound, it does not lessen the worth of the ship
nor make it less rare. It is as rare as it was before. If I stop playing a toon cause another ship comes along
that fits my other classes of toons then what earnings with Cryptic then make?

When you get right down to it CBS really doesn't WANT players using ships from outside their own faction. However, as a compromise, they allow alien ships to be placed in lockboxes specifically to make them very, very rare. If you notice, the C-Store has all faction specific ships, and lockboxes do NOT have ships from the three playable factions (there ARE Romulan ships, but they are Tal Shiar, not RR, just as starfleet style lockbox ships are Terran, not Federation).

Making lockbox ships account bound, or even account pay-to-unlock, as awesome as that would be, would make all of those ships much more common and would therefore by vetoed by CBS. Event ships became account unlock because they are one time only, and can no longer be carried over if you don't finish the project. Re-boxing is kind of a grey area, but very unlikely to ever happen since it would cut into Cryptic's profits, and without a cooldown of some kind it could easily be abused as a pseudo account unlock.

They could make it racial based account bound, like the scimitar ships... I bought the pack and that was for all of my rommie toons.

spearhawk2013

bobbydazlers wrote: »

spearhawk2013 wrote: »

I don't understand.
If I bought a ship or won a ship and it became account bound, it does not lessen the worth of the ship
nor make it less rare. It is as rare as it was before. If I stop playing a toon cause another ship comes along
that fits my other classes of toons then what earnings with Cryptic then make?

you are obviously not reading the replys that give good reasons why A: the ship is not an account unlock and B: you cannot rebox and send the ship to another character on your account.

in short these are the mandate laid down by CBS for these ships.

Cause Daddy (CBS) said so eh? *snickers*
Oh well, one can hope they change their minds, one day... before STO has passed on

bobbydazlers

spearhawk2013 wrote: »

bobbydazlers wrote: »

spearhawk2013 wrote: »

I don't understand.
If I bought a ship or won a ship and it became account bound, it does not lessen the worth of the ship
nor make it less rare. It is as rare as it was before. If I stop playing a toon cause another ship comes along
that fits my other classes of toons then what earnings with Cryptic then make?

you are obviously not reading the replys that give good reasons why A: the ship is not an account unlock and B: you cannot rebox and send the ship to another character on your account.

in short these are the mandate laid down by CBS for these ships.

Cause Daddy (CBS) said so eh? *snickers*
Oh well, one can hope they change their minds, one day... before STO has passed on

probably not, once they make a rule they are going to make sure it is adhered to and never changed else some future game company might think they could quote the change in policy as a reason to force them into changes as well.

alexraptorr

On account of all the Event Ships we have had over the years I reject the notion of "rarity" being a problem as pure and absolute nonsense.
We have had Breen, Risian, Ferengi, Kobali and now Krenim ships freely available to ALL players and all which are now account wide unlocks, and we will no doubt continue to see more alien ships being offered up in the years to come.
And I would argue that account unlocks for lockbox ships would not affect the "percieved" rarity in CBS scopes the slightest, as at the end of the day you can only play with ONE character at any given time.

jorantomalak

Id rather have the option to repackage lockbox ships for resale
this wouldnt hurt keys sales one bit
as most keys are sold trying to open newer boxes then old.

SO make a repackage token costing X amount of zen , that can only be used on older box ships not ships from the current lock box.

This way players are happy , cryptic makes a new money grab , and some of us who have their ship rosters inundated by lock box ships have a way to make their EC back.

bobbydazlers

alexraptorr wrote: »

On account of all the Event Ships we have had over the years I reject the notion of "rarity" being a problem as pure and absolute nonsense.
We have had Breen, Risian, Ferengi, Kobali and now Krenim ships freely available to ALL players and all which are now account wide unlocks, and we will no doubt continue to see more alien ships being offered up in the years to come.
And I would argue that account unlocks for lockbox ships would not affect the "percieved" rarity in CBS scopes the slightest, as at the end of the day you can only play with ONE character at any given time.

as I said before "there is rare and there is limited edition rare, an event ship is limited edition rare as its limited to the time period and players who take part, lockbox ships are rare in that there are not many players who have that ship."

I only get this information 2nd hand and a good while ago so I don't know how accurate it is but I gather they are allowed to release a select number of limited edition and a select number of rare ships each year and the rules differ for both naturally.

jorantomalak wrote: »

Id rather have the option to repackage lockbox ships for resale
this wouldnt hurt keys sales one bit
as most keys are sold trying to open newer boxes then old.

SO make a repackage token costing X amount of zen , that can only be used on older box ships not ships from the current lock box.

This way players are happy , cryptic makes a new money grab , and some of us who have their ship rosters inundated by lock box ships have a way to make their EC back.

and so it would snowball, give an inch and they expect a mile, this is why CBS will not change its ruling on these ships.

evilmark444

alexraptorr wrote: »

On account of all the Event Ships we have had over the years I reject the notion of "rarity" being a problem as pure and absolute nonsense.
We have had Breen, Risian, Ferengi, Kobali and now Krenim ships freely available to ALL players and all which are now account wide unlocks, and we will no doubt continue to see more alien ships being offered up in the years to come.
And I would argue that account unlocks for lockbox ships would not affect the "percieved" rarity in CBS scopes the slightest, as at the end of the day you can only play with ONE character at any given time.

As I said earlier, event ships are different because they are a one time only deal, whereas lockboxes, and their associated ships, are always obtainable. Only players who are active during the event, and play enough to collect the required vouchers (or drop an obscene amount of money to get them via lobi store), have access to these ships. And originally these were not account unlock, they made that decision last year because of two reasons. First, many players (myself included) complained that their Delta recruit toons could not have the kobali console. Second, and most importantly I might add, there was a MASSIVE backlash when it was announced that going forward all events would use year specific vouchers, and incomplete event projects would be auto-canceled. Account unlock was put in to appease everyone.