As for any who think I don't want to support the game, you are mistaken. In the first month I've been here, I've encouraged two former players to start playing again, and introduced one new player. (And at least one of them has potential to spend serious money here.) Arc seems to want free players, so here I am. According to Arc, I am helping just by playing. Now, I never said I wouldn't spend money on this game. The more this game proves itself to me, the more likely I am to spend money.
As pointed out by someone above, Arc is not the developer / publisher of STO. Arc is merely the name of a portal. Cryptic is the studio that developed STO and Cryptic is owned by Perfect World Entertainment.
If you want to spend real money on STO, then the best time to do it is when there is a 20% bonus sale for Zen. The announcement of all sales / promotions takes place on Thursdays right after maintenance. They are displayed in the launcher right after you sign in so do not immediately click the "Engage" button. When purchasing Zen the extra 20% of Zen will be added to your order during checkout and before you confirm your purchase. The best bang for the buck is purchasing $50 worth of Zen. Whenever you buy $50 worth of Zen you always get a 6% bonus added to your purchase That means $50 gets you 5,300 Zen. During the 20% Zen bonus sale the 20% does not include the extra 300 Zen from the normal 6% bonus, it is only applied to the $50 worth of Zen. That means during the Zen bonus sale, a $50 purchases will give you 6,300 Zen.
Naturally, the best time to spend Zen is to wait for the 20% off sales. However, you need to be patient since ship sales, service sales, master key sales, etc... only occurs about 4 times per year if I remember correctly. Again, if there are any it would be announced on Thursday after maintenance.
Hi all. I just got my first character up to level 50. Yay! I had done my homework, and I knew ahead of time that I wouldn't be unlocking a free ship at this tier. So, how do you get a tier 6 ship? Here's what I found. You can buy one with zen, get a fleet ship, buy one off the exchange, find one in a lock box (or similar promotion), get one with lobi crystals, or get one from an event. Did I miss anything?
Yes, you forgot the "Please come back to STO, have a free ship!" that Cryptic does if you stop playing for 4-8 months. Of course, not the fastest way to get a T6 ship...
As for any who think I don't want to support the game, you are mistaken. In the first month I've been here, I've encouraged two former players to start playing again, and introduced one new player. (And at least one of them has potential to spend serious money here.) Arc seems to want free players, so here I am. According to Arc, I am helping just by playing. Now, I never said I wouldn't spend money on this game. The more this game proves itself to me, the more likely I am to spend money.
As pointed out by someone above, Arc is not the developer / publisher of STO. Arc is merely the name of a portal. Cryptic is the studio that developed STO and Cryptic is owned by Perfect World Entertainment.
If you want to spend real money on STO, then the best time to do it is when there is a 20% bonus sale for Zen. The announcement of all sales / promotions takes place on Thursdays right after maintenance. They are displayed in the launcher right after you sign in so do not immediately click the "Engage" button. When purchasing Zen the extra 20% of Zen will be added to your order during checkout and before you confirm your purchase. The best bang for the buck is purchasing $50 worth of Zen. Whenever you buy $50 worth of Zen you always get a 6% bonus added to your purchase That means $50 gets you 5,300 Zen. During the 20% Zen bonus sale the 20% does not include the extra 300 Zen from the normal 6% bonus, it is only applied to the $50 worth of Zen. That means during the Zen bonus sale, a $50 purchases will give you 6,300 Zen.
Naturally, the best time to spend Zen is to wait for the 20% off sales. However, you need to be patient since ship sales, service sales, master key sales, etc... only occurs about 4 times per year if I remember correctly. Again, if there are any it would be announced on Thursday after maintenance.
To be clear, 50 $ is the first time you get a charge bonus, but the more you spend, the higher the percentage bonus will be (it goes up to 15 % at 199€ for example). But 50 $ is of course already plenty to spend on a Free game, and it's the first offered amount that grants such a bonus at all.
Otherwise definitely recommend waiting for bonus Zen offerings and sales in the C-Store if you can. Interestingly, lately they have always had sales for a newly released ship pack on its release week-end. Of course, that means buying a full pack, not just a single ship.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
In a "free to play" game, yes, I do expect to get a top tier character, ship and gear without paying one cent. Otherwise, they would be guilty of false advertising.
You are wrong on what free to play means, it doesn't mean you get the best shinies free, it means you can PLAY all the content (missions) without paying.
You are wrong on what free to play means, it doesn't mean you get the best shinies free, it means you can PLAY all the content (missions) without paying.
There is no universally accepted definition for the term "Free To Player". Though there are different types of F2P models like "Freemium" where the base game can be free, but expansions must be purchased. People are generally free to interpret what "Free To Play" means to themselves. Whether or not it is a widely accepted interpretation... that is a different matter entirely.
For the most part just about everything in STO can be obtained for free as long as players are willing to spend the time grinding for dilithium and exchanging it for Zen.
The only things that are absolutely hidden behind a paywall are the veteran perks like the veteran T5 and T6 starships. The only way to get them is to purchase the Lifetime Subscription or pay the $15 monthly fee and subscribe long enough to get all the perks. That's 1,000 days or slightly over 33 months.
Grinding can take a long time though. The exchange rate of Dilithium for Zen is 320:1 the last time I checked. When new T6 ships are announced, I would guess the exchange rate will increase to something like 340:1 or 350:1; assuming it is 320:1 prior to the new T6 ship announcement.
In a "free to play" game, yes, I do expect to get a top tier character, ship and gear without paying one cent. Otherwise, they would be guilty of false advertising.
You are wrong on what free to play means, it doesn't mean you get the best shinies free, it means you can PLAY all the content (missions) without paying.
Why necro?
That aside, F2P means different things in different games and even across all games.
Its moot here because you can actually have everything in the game for free with the exception of a very tiny number of special offers (founders-buy-in rewards, couple of lifetime perks, etc are not purchasable with zen).
Here is an example... lord of the rings online. Its free to play, but you have to pay to get a lot of the quests and to really enjoy the game. Its unpossible to earn your way for free; stuff costs too much and their zen equivilent is earned very, very slowly (pennies worth / hour). This isnt false advertising: their EULA and all the stuff you can read tell you exactly what is free and what is not. Its like a buy one get one free deal: you can't just take the free one and leave the paid for one, but is not false advertising its just understood that it really means 50% off.
Necro is typically regarded as 3+ months, not weeks. I also have not said STO isn't F2P so the constant saying it's F2P is irrelevant. Play is a simple term, play. Not free top TRIBBLE for all like the poster I quoted said (and expects). That use of LOTRO is a sign of what I would exactly call something that is pay to play as content is locked behind needing to spend somehow. Just because they incorrectly use a term doesn't make it right.
Agreed but its also not misleading or false advertising or whatever because its clearly stated what you get for free in the EULA. Incorrect use of the term is where you are struggling. Accessing the game at all is playing it. If you didnt pay for that, its free. If there are other things you can do that costs, you still played the game for free. And the EULA covers that in fine print if you care to read it. I grant you that it can be shady and misleading (esp for some of the worst games that give very little away and claim free) but advertising has always been misleading -- you never ask the guy selling you something to describe it to you, you ask his customers.
I'm pretty sure no one was talking about free-to-best .
And having several friends who've worked there way up to endgame without spending a cent in LotRO, their free to play is doable... over time. Doesn't hurt to have a guild that will go out with you on speed hunts to grind out the kill 90/180 critters achievements for the 15 cents towards your quest bundles. Fortunately those activities also offer small permanent character advancement so guildies almost always have an alt that can benefit from coming along and making it a bit more like a virtual picnic than a total slog.
There is a T6 on exchange, and price ranges from 100 to 500+k energy creds. And you can buy modules, it would be 4-5 for a good ship. And that will be 60-70k energy creds. You can farm dilithium with several characters, that may be exhausting, but you'll get your claimable by other chars ship. Nothing is free in your life, and ether you spend time, or money. And money is a time and time is money.
In a "free to play" game, yes, I do expect to get a top tier character, ship and gear without paying one cent. Otherwise, they would be guilty of false advertising.
You are wrong on what free to play means, it doesn't mean you get the best shinies free, it means you can PLAY all the content (missions) without paying.
Why necro?
That aside, F2P means different things in different games and even across all games.
Its moot here because you can actually have everything in the game for free with the exception of a very tiny number of special offers (founders-buy-in rewards, couple of lifetime perks, etc are not purchasable with zen).
Here is an example... lord of the rings online. Its free to play, but you have to pay to get a lot of the quests and to really enjoy the game. Its unpossible to earn your way for free; stuff costs too much and their zen equivilent is earned very, very slowly (pennies worth / hour). This isnt false advertising: their EULA and all the stuff you can read tell you exactly what is free and what is not. Its like a buy one get one free deal: you can't just take the free one and leave the paid for one, but is not false advertising its just understood that it really means 50% off.
Actually, with Lord of the Rings Online, it's actually very possible to earn pretty much everything in game without spending money. The only thing you're really locked out on, is their idea of PvP(Player vs Monster Player) unless you're a subscriber. As you complete deeds, you earn turbine points. Earn a certain amount on a throwaway character(I think you can earn around 200+ in the starting zones alone, for a few hours work), scrap the toon, rinse, repeat. The Riders of Rohan expansion cost....4995 when it hit the store, or I could've shelled out 50-70 clams for it. Took me a week or two, and I had that expansion off of Turbine Points alone.
Regions cost around 400-1000 each, I think. Unless you want/need the PvMP, everything in the game can be earned, in game. Just pay time.
Well, in STO you can get everything via the combo of the EC Exchange and the Dilithium/Zen exchange. It's a question of time, of course. If you have neither time nor money for this game, then you probably won't have access to a lot of stuff... But then - if you don't have much time for it, you probably don't really need new toys all the time, you still haven't "played out" the ones you got.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
It's easily possible to get anything in this game for free, you just to put in the time/effort. Grind dilithium and convert to Zen, even on the 3 starter toons that would net you around 75 Zen per day or slightly more if you have the fleet mine access. Then you could buy keys to sell for that elusive lockbox shop or save up for account unlocks from the C-store. Farming EC is a little harder as it has to come from selling stuff and the market can vary wildly sometimes. But things like keys, rubidium, z-particles, salvaged tech; they all sell for consistently high prices and can be had quite easily.
Then you've got all the freebies you can rake in over the year. Anniversary ship, summer event ship, winter ship, plus each of those normally has a giveaway over a few days at launch to get at least one ship (though at lower tiers). Then the new seasons normally have a giveaway as well and finally there's been several episodes over the years that give out free ships (Ambassador can still be had at T5).
But if you want a viable near-endgame ship for reasonably decent prices pick up the Tholian meshweaver for around 3-4 million. It's easily capable of any content and can be upgraded to T5-u status for another 750 Zen or around 10 million EC.
Mnay of the lock boxes 'more available' raider or destroyer - they're usually fairly cheap on the exchange and can be upgraded to T5U. Some of cheaper ones will require an upgrade token - check the wiki before you buy just to make sure.
Fate - protects fools, small children, and ships named Enterprise Will Riker
Member Access Denied Armada!
My forum single-issue of rage: Make the Proton Experimental Weapon go for subsystem targetting!
Well, in STO you can get everything via the combo of the EC Exchange and the Dilithium/Zen exchange. It's a question of time, of course. If you have neither time nor money for this game, then you probably won't have access to a lot of stuff... But then - if you don't have much time for it, you probably don't really need new toys all the time, you still haven't "played out" the ones you got.
Well, anything except items that are explicitly labeled as veteran rewards.
Malon garbage scow (or whatever it's actually called ).
Tholian Meshweaver
Nihydron Destroyer
APU Cruiser
Kazon Raider
They are all quite capable at the endgame content as they are only missing a single boff power slot and some hull/shield hitpoints. You can still use ship traits with any ship so just slot all the free ones you get from spec trees or mission rewards.
And they will sink you maybe 3-4 million in the exchange, plus an upgrade token (however you choose to buy one). Pretty cheap investment for good quality ships more than capable of endgame.
So far most people have said that you do not need a T6 to enjoy or be competitive in PVE or endgame content, and I wholeheartedly agree. However, you might be wondering why and I will tell you. Between T5U and T6 there is no significant difference in ship performance. The only two things you get with a Tier 6 ship is a starship trait and BOFF seating that differs from your standard Tactical, Engineer and Science. It's fun to play with Intelligence, Command and Pilot abilities but in many cases you will stick with your standard class abilities for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th ability slots.
Performance wise T5U and T6 ships are more or less identical. They both have 11 consoles and ship specifications that is geared toward their specific ship category. Some ships do stick out but it's because they are extraordinary and unique. The only true edge T6 ships have are their starship traits but once unlocked you can slot them for any of your ships. Even your T1 ships will benefit from them.
What really matters is how you gear your ship and how you set it up for hull/shield regeneration, speed, turn rate, defense, AOE or 1 vs 1, crit and what not. This may seem very obvious but in many cases I see players in super good T6 ships with very good potential, only to appear worse than T5 or even T4.
An easy way to make use of free stuff and getting relatively competitive is getting a Phaser build for the Quantum Phase set you get from missions, or a Polaron or even Tetryon build for the free Chronometric Polaron and Temporal Phase (Antichroniton) sets.
Wow, this thread really took off while I wasn't looking. I thought this was settled. I don't want to argue with anyone. But, for those who may have missed what I said, I will restate. T5u and T6 are the same to me, and I now have a few T5u ships, like the garbage scow. I am looking forward to getting the free summer event ship, whatever it will be. I don't expect to be able to get the very toughest ship in the game for free. I get that Cryptic has to make money with this. But, I do expect to be able to get a ship that can handle tier 60 content, because this game is advertised as "free to play". I know that "free to play" means different things to different people. To me, "free to play" means that you don't have to pay anything to have a decent chance to win all PVE content. To say that you can play end game content in a T1 ship is like saying a little league team can play against the world champions. I've played plenty of other games and I've read the EULA for all of them, including this one. But, just because an advertiser or rules lawyer can squint and point at the fine print of a legal document and say "see, it is 'free to play'", I'm not going to care. At the end of the day, I will have to make a choice. Do I play the game for free, pay something, or walk away from it? My choice will be heavily influenced by whether or not this game meets my standards of a "free to play" game. I know that dishonesty and legal trickery are common in advertising, but the company that advertises truthfully is more likely to get my bu$ine$$. I am sorry if my take on "free to play" is different than yours. But, it is what it is. But, if you want to talk about how this game is doing for me, then perhaps we can do that. Either way, see you in game
FWIW while I do pay into the game, I have acquire 5 or 6 *good* t6 ships without spending real money.
- got my paradox sci boat from turning a few dil2zen into keys and literally got the current box ship with 3 keys used. Not a viable approach, but once in a while someone gets lucky, guess it was my turn (I flipped the ship for the paradox, obviously the paradox isnt from a box).
- breen carrier, free from event and a good ship
- benthan, which I farmed EC for and purchased off exchange
- balthim raider, which I farmed for
and it hardly counts because it stinks but a free kobali cruiser is in the mix too and my feds have a totally worthless flying pizza cutter that was free for some random reason.
Thats on top of what I actually bought with a mix of real money, my lifetime zen buildup, etc... I bought a pilot ship, a BOP, a scryer, faeht, and a couple more.
But the point is I have at least 4 endgame ships that did not cost a cent of real money. It takes time to get them that way. Ive got almost 200M and will be able to pick up something else soon.
I have several t6's that I've gotten from give away in the last year or so. I have bought a couple packs as well and also bought cheap ships on the exchange. (I still like the nihydron destroyer.) It's just a matter of time. Keep playing and have fun.
You can't get veteran or lifetime subscription rewards without paying money. Mostly, these are cosmetic things - character titles, costume pieces, the fireworks emote, the mugato companion, that sort of thing. More solid benefits include the veteran ships and shuttlecraft, the android bridge officer, and the Talaxian and Liberated Borg species choices.
There are a few promotional bits and pieces that might cost money. The Red Matter Capacitor is the most significant one I can think of. You can't get a Steamrunner-class starship without going through Steam, you can't get the Khan outfit without going through ARC... there was some promotional thing that got people an orange mugato-like pet, I forget the details... and there was some other promotional thing where you could get a T1 version of the Andorian ships.
But that's pretty much it for Content Hidden Behind The Paywall Barrier. Anything else, you can get for Zen and EC, and you can get those by grinding within the game: all they cost is time. Most of the subscriber benefits are kind of nice to have, but they don't have any significant impact on the gameplay - a Talaxian captain wearing a lifetime combadge and flying a Chimera-class heavy destroyer has no actual advantage over some other guy in a ship they ground out Zen for.
Comments
As pointed out by someone above, Arc is not the developer / publisher of STO. Arc is merely the name of a portal. Cryptic is the studio that developed STO and Cryptic is owned by Perfect World Entertainment.
If you want to spend real money on STO, then the best time to do it is when there is a 20% bonus sale for Zen. The announcement of all sales / promotions takes place on Thursdays right after maintenance. They are displayed in the launcher right after you sign in so do not immediately click the "Engage" button. When purchasing Zen the extra 20% of Zen will be added to your order during checkout and before you confirm your purchase. The best bang for the buck is purchasing $50 worth of Zen. Whenever you buy $50 worth of Zen you always get a 6% bonus added to your purchase That means $50 gets you 5,300 Zen. During the 20% Zen bonus sale the 20% does not include the extra 300 Zen from the normal 6% bonus, it is only applied to the $50 worth of Zen. That means during the Zen bonus sale, a $50 purchases will give you 6,300 Zen.
Naturally, the best time to spend Zen is to wait for the 20% off sales. However, you need to be patient since ship sales, service sales, master key sales, etc... only occurs about 4 times per year if I remember correctly. Again, if there are any it would be announced on Thursday after maintenance.
Yes, you forgot the "Please come back to STO, have a free ship!" that Cryptic does if you stop playing for 4-8 months.
Otherwise definitely recommend waiting for bonus Zen offerings and sales in the C-Store if you can. Interestingly, lately they have always had sales for a newly released ship pack on its release week-end. Of course, that means buying a full pack, not just a single ship.
You are wrong on what free to play means, it doesn't mean you get the best shinies free, it means you can PLAY all the content (missions) without paying.
There is no universally accepted definition for the term "Free To Player". Though there are different types of F2P models like "Freemium" where the base game can be free, but expansions must be purchased. People are generally free to interpret what "Free To Play" means to themselves. Whether or not it is a widely accepted interpretation... that is a different matter entirely.
For the most part just about everything in STO can be obtained for free as long as players are willing to spend the time grinding for dilithium and exchanging it for Zen.
The only things that are absolutely hidden behind a paywall are the veteran perks like the veteran T5 and T6 starships. The only way to get them is to purchase the Lifetime Subscription or pay the $15 monthly fee and subscribe long enough to get all the perks. That's 1,000 days or slightly over 33 months.
Grinding can take a long time though. The exchange rate of Dilithium for Zen is 320:1 the last time I checked. When new T6 ships are announced, I would guess the exchange rate will increase to something like 340:1 or 350:1; assuming it is 320:1 prior to the new T6 ship announcement.
Why necro?
That aside, F2P means different things in different games and even across all games.
Its moot here because you can actually have everything in the game for free with the exception of a very tiny number of special offers (founders-buy-in rewards, couple of lifetime perks, etc are not purchasable with zen).
Here is an example... lord of the rings online. Its free to play, but you have to pay to get a lot of the quests and to really enjoy the game. Its unpossible to earn your way for free; stuff costs too much and their zen equivilent is earned very, very slowly (pennies worth / hour). This isnt false advertising: their EULA and all the stuff you can read tell you exactly what is free and what is not. Its like a buy one get one free deal: you can't just take the free one and leave the paid for one, but is not false advertising its just understood that it really means 50% off.
And having several friends who've worked there way up to endgame without spending a cent in LotRO, their free to play is doable... over time. Doesn't hurt to have a guild that will go out with you on speed hunts to grind out the kill 90/180 critters achievements for the 15 cents towards your quest bundles. Fortunately those activities also offer small permanent character advancement so guildies almost always have an alt that can benefit from coming along and making it a bit more like a virtual picnic than a total slog.
Actually, with Lord of the Rings Online, it's actually very possible to earn pretty much everything in game without spending money. The only thing you're really locked out on, is their idea of PvP(Player vs Monster Player) unless you're a subscriber. As you complete deeds, you earn turbine points. Earn a certain amount on a throwaway character(I think you can earn around 200+ in the starting zones alone, for a few hours work), scrap the toon, rinse, repeat. The Riders of Rohan expansion cost....4995 when it hit the store, or I could've shelled out 50-70 clams for it. Took me a week or two, and I had that expansion off of Turbine Points alone.
Regions cost around 400-1000 each, I think. Unless you want/need the PvMP, everything in the game can be earned, in game. Just pay time.
Grind dilithium and convert to Zen, even on the 3 starter toons that would net you around 75 Zen per day or slightly more if you have the fleet mine access.
Then you could buy keys to sell for that elusive lockbox shop or save up for account unlocks from the C-store.
Farming EC is a little harder as it has to come from selling stuff and the market can vary wildly sometimes. But things like keys, rubidium, z-particles, salvaged tech; they all sell for consistently high prices and can be had quite easily.
Then you've got all the freebies you can rake in over the year. Anniversary ship, summer event ship, winter ship, plus each of those normally has a giveaway over a few days at launch to get at least one ship (though at lower tiers). Then the new seasons normally have a giveaway as well and finally there's been several episodes over the years that give out free ships (Ambassador can still be had at T5).
But if you want a viable near-endgame ship for reasonably decent prices pick up the Tholian meshweaver for around 3-4 million. It's easily capable of any content and can be upgraded to T5-u status for another 750 Zen or around 10 million EC.
Member Access Denied Armada!
My forum single-issue of rage: Make the Proton Experimental Weapon go for subsystem targetting!
My character Tsin'xing
Malon garbage scow (or whatever it's actually called
Tholian Meshweaver
Nihydron Destroyer
APU Cruiser
Kazon Raider
They are all quite capable at the endgame content as they are only missing a single boff power slot and some hull/shield hitpoints. You can still use ship traits with any ship so just slot all the free ones you get from spec trees or mission rewards.
And they will sink you maybe 3-4 million in the exchange, plus an upgrade token (however you choose to buy one). Pretty cheap investment for good quality ships more than capable of endgame.
Performance wise T5U and T6 ships are more or less identical. They both have 11 consoles and ship specifications that is geared toward their specific ship category. Some ships do stick out but it's because they are extraordinary and unique. The only true edge T6 ships have are their starship traits but once unlocked you can slot them for any of your ships. Even your T1 ships will benefit from them.
What really matters is how you gear your ship and how you set it up for hull/shield regeneration, speed, turn rate, defense, AOE or 1 vs 1, crit and what not. This may seem very obvious but in many cases I see players in super good T6 ships with very good potential, only to appear worse than T5 or even T4.
An easy way to make use of free stuff and getting relatively competitive is getting a Phaser build for the Quantum Phase set you get from missions, or a Polaron or even Tetryon build for the free Chronometric Polaron and Temporal Phase (Antichroniton) sets.
- got my paradox sci boat from turning a few dil2zen into keys and literally got the current box ship with 3 keys used. Not a viable approach, but once in a while someone gets lucky, guess it was my turn (I flipped the ship for the paradox, obviously the paradox isnt from a box).
- breen carrier, free from event and a good ship
- benthan, which I farmed EC for and purchased off exchange
- balthim raider, which I farmed for
and it hardly counts because it stinks but a free kobali cruiser is in the mix too and my feds have a totally worthless flying pizza cutter that was free for some random reason.
Thats on top of what I actually bought with a mix of real money, my lifetime zen buildup, etc... I bought a pilot ship, a BOP, a scryer, faeht, and a couple more.
But the point is I have at least 4 endgame ships that did not cost a cent of real money. It takes time to get them that way. Ive got almost 200M and will be able to pick up something else soon.
There are a few promotional bits and pieces that might cost money. The Red Matter Capacitor is the most significant one I can think of. You can't get a Steamrunner-class starship without going through Steam, you can't get the Khan outfit without going through ARC... there was some promotional thing that got people an orange mugato-like pet, I forget the details... and there was some other promotional thing where you could get a T1 version of the Andorian ships.
But that's pretty much it for Content Hidden Behind The Paywall Barrier. Anything else, you can get for Zen and EC, and you can get those by grinding within the game: all they cost is time. Most of the subscriber benefits are kind of nice to have, but they don't have any significant impact on the gameplay - a Talaxian captain wearing a lifetime combadge and flying a Chimera-class heavy destroyer has no actual advantage over some other guy in a ship they ground out Zen for.