Just out of sheer curiosity, is there any significant difference in performance between the T6 TOS Connie and the Kelvin Connie? Because I've been hearing a lot of different things about both of them and I'd like to get some accurate info on them, preferably from someone who owns them both. I have the Kelvin Connie and would like to get the T6 TOS Connie as well, if possible.
Apologies if this has already been addressed in a different thread; please point me to the appropriate thread if applicable.
IMO, Temporal is better than Command as specialization. The Command gimmick is pretty meh IMO, while the Temporal one is basically a stance that gives you some kind of neat buff, and a free damage power that doesn't hit too badly. The Temporal skills are also more offense-oriented then Command, and give you something useful to do with a slot that would otherwise just be an Engineering power.
The BO layout of the Connie is also pretty decent, since you have 3 Lt.Cmdr slots. The weapon layout of 5/3 is preferable to 4/4 if you have a decent turn rate, which the Connie has.
The "Konnie" isn't bad, but IMO the "Connie" is a bit better. (I own both, but on different characters.)
In the end though, you can blow up sh*t like there is no tomorrow with both of them.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
Holy ****...did hartz actually say that they are making money for dev time off a 5 dollar c store item?!? Umm...yeah....
I was unaware that a $130 c-store pack doesn't make money.
Actually, it's not and is likely the root of the whole T6 Connie argument.
Now, before I explain, I should make clear that the following is opinion. I don't have sales numbers for Cryptic, I don't have 'inside information' I'm just a player basing my opinions on what I have seen (or not seen) in game. That being said..
Cryptic is a business, we all know that. They don't do things for free, and the point of Agents of Yesterday was to generate revenue, either directly (selling packs) or indirectly (attracting new players that would eventually spend.) But the point was to make money. The C-Store pack absolutely did not seem to be a big seller. I hardly ever see any of these ships around ESD with the exception of the T6 Temporal Ships that are moderately common. When I was leveling my AOY character, it was very noticeable how few of the C-Store pack ships I saw. I believe most players did exactly what I did and just reclaimed T2-T5 ships that they already owned from previous purchase and give away promotions for their AOY characters instead of buying new ships.
It's my personal belief that they sold far less of these packs then they estimated, and that's probably because people just aren't interested in buying low tier ships that you use for a couple missions and then never use again.
This unexpected shortfall was countered in part by the Kelvin Lock Box. The Kelvin Connie and the Vengeance are ships that generated interest and the result is quite clear, they're everywhere. This box likely helped offset the shortfall, but again probably didn't actually make all that much since the Vengeance seems to be the more popular ship and a lot of people did what I did and got one for a grand total of $0 by just using EC that they already had. I'm sure they made some money, but probably didn't break the bank..
Now comes this promotion. They had to put something that people REALLY wanted into a pack to generate money. It's my personal belief that lack of sales of the AOY Packs are the exact reason you're seeing the T6 Connie in a promotion like it is. I understand, this is nothing but conjecture, and obviously there will be differing opinions. To me though, when I saw the T6 Connie promo I just said to myself "that's how they're going to make up the lack of sales.. got it."
Last year they released the annorax at the same time of year they released the tos promo this time.
It's just when they always do their new promo ship release.
Yup, promo packs come up at regular intervals that are predictable. This time two years ago we had just finished the final T5 JHAS promo. The year before that we had another JHAS promo at the same time of year.
When you see "TRIBBLE" in my posts, it's because I manually typed "TRIBBLE" and censored myself.
Oh, OK. I've never used any of the Jem'Hadar ships so I have no experience with the bug ship. Right now all I have is my KT Connie which I gradually saved up the EC for by just grinding and selling some crafted items, materials, and R&D promo boxes. I'm pretty satisfied with it but I've been curious as to how the T6 TOS Connie compares with it.
Well, I did several various PVE, including Days of Doom and Procycon, with my TOS T6, and it handled VERY well. I was with several of the same team mates, who used the Vengeance, and they got blown away, more than once. I did not blow up whatsoever, and my hull was 103,000 at the most , while theirs were around 80,000-86,000.
Oh, OK. I've never used any of the Jem'Hadar ships so I have no experience with the bug ship. Right now all I have is my KT Connie which I gradually saved up the EC for by just grinding and selling some crafted items, materials, and R&D promo boxes. I'm pretty satisfied with it but I've been curious as to how the T6 TOS Connie compares with it.
The Konnie is nice, but I'm sure glad I spent what I did when I did to get the Connie.
The TOS Connie is basically the jem'hadar bug ship with a different skin and 5 forward facing weapons and the temporal mechanic with the entropy beam.
I have both.
They are correctly priced.
Umm, whaat? Bugship is a hyper-agile pure escort, 23c Connie is a moderately agile cruiser; aside from being promo ships they're about as different as you can get.,,
Anyway, can't comment on the Connie (%£^&"%^ garbage scow...) but the D7 is truely awesome. While it's no great feat for many people, I've finally been able to solo a side on ISE with one, though that probably says more about my piloting and builds than anything else .
For all the noise on these, I just don't see them. I can count on one hand the number I've encountered in the last two weeks. Normally the latest thing is everywhere nearly the day of release. Heck, I can't swing a cat without hitting a JPrise or a Vengeance (the later especially is everywhere).
But a Connie, T'liss or D7? Hen's teeth even after two weeks. They've nearly disappeared even from ESD chat while the promotion is still on.
Given how rare it is to see one of these, I'm wondering if there isn't a lot of hoarding of unopened boxes. Maybe they're hoping for even larger prices down the road. Maybe they've ran of out people willing to pay insane amounts, but yet refuse to lower their price. Or maybe it's hoarding for spites sake, and maybe they'll sell or use them down the road.
Or maybe most of these just became hanger queens.
Or maybe the promotion just bombed as cryptic hit a wall by doing this promotion too soon after the very successful Kelvin Timeline boxes.
Beats me. The only thing I miss about EVE is how open they are with their metrics, just about everything is published. Here in STO- we'll never find out what's going on.
For all the noise on these, I just don't see them.
That's understandable. They're kind of small. Not that many people see me in mine for instance. This is one of the biggest complaints the PvP community had against the idea of this ship waaaaaay back when. It's tiny, it turns well, it's agile and nobody wanted to have to deal with trying to chase something like that down and THEN deal with it being a cruiser.
So the whole "story" started to pop up that it would be too old to function in modern STO. And too small to work as a cruiser.
Now here it is in 2016, and your anecdotal observation apparently backs up PVPers circa 2012's biggest nightmare.
Making this such a meta time paradox when you really stop to think about it.
Given how rare it is to see one of these, I'm wondering if there isn't a lot of hoarding of unopened boxes. Maybe they're hoping for even larger prices down the road. Maybe they've ran of out people willing to pay insane amounts, but yet refuse to lower their price. Or maybe it's hoarding for spites sake, and maybe they'll sell or use them down the road.
I can almost guarantee you this is a big part of it, because I know a few people who are doing it. One guy I talked to has around a dozen promo packs just waiting for the price to skyrocket to even more insane levels after the promo ends, and I know a few others who are sitting on 4-5 promo packs each. It's not a big leap to expect some people who are even more "space rich" to be hoarding even more packs.
The problem is I see less people buying all the time, like I mentioned in another thread most people who want it and can afford the 1b+ price tag already have it, most who want one and couldn't get one when an 800m price was slightly common can't afford to spend that much on one thing and likely never will be able to.
And then there's the people like me who could afford it but have a set limit on how much they'll spend to get one because it's not a "must have" due to nostalgia or feelz or whatever, people can ask 1b+ 'till they're blue in the face but it won't get me to spend that much.
For all the noise on these, I just don't see them.
That's understandable. They're kind of small. Not that many people see me in mine for instance.
While I see your point and I do think its a factor, I have serious doubts it explains much outside the edge cases.
I've gone looking for them, and small things now catch my eye. When flying mine, I've attracted a good deal of attention both with slow fly-bys and tells. So people notice my Connie and I will find theirs if present.
For the record, over the last two weeks as a pause between my normal play- in and out of queues, I've seen three Connies and 1 T'liss. May have been a forth Connie, but their shuttle info was showing instead of the ship and it may have been a T1 (perhaps unlikely given how many characters still flying a T1 have a shuttle although I used to fly my T1 Connie all the time when doffing).
Given how rare it is to see one of these, I'm wondering if there isn't a lot of hoarding of unopened boxes. Maybe they're hoping for even larger prices down the road. Maybe they've ran of out people willing to pay insane amounts, but yet refuse to lower their price. Or maybe it's hoarding for spites sake, and maybe they'll sell or use them down the road.
I can almost guarantee you this is a big part of it, because I know a few people who are doing it.
It's almost certain that some people are doing it.
The problem is I see less people buying all the time, like I mentioned in another thread most people who want it and can afford the 1b+ price tag already have it, most who want one and couldn't get one when an 800m price was slightly common can't afford to spend that much on one thing and likely never will be able to.
And then there's the people like me who could afford it but have a set limit on how much they'll spend to get one because it's not a "must have" due to nostalgia or feelz or whatever, people can ask 1b+ 'till they're blue in the face but it won't get me to spend that much.
Yes, and the sellers are refusing to admit they no longer have a market for the 1b+ people and are refusing to come off their price. Instead their hoarding them and awaiting some other day in the future when they think a bunch of those people are suddenly going to appear.
I wonder if people brought the ship to hoard, and attempt to resell at a profit down the line?
Myself, while I have a Connie for my main (pure lottery win)- I'd buy three more (one for my wife, a D7 and warbird for my alts), maybe four (another Connie for an Alt). But at these prices, whoever has them can keep them. The wife is happy with her TOS skinned Temporal Battlecruiser, and the alts aren't worth that type of expense. Heck, I don't have that much time to play them anyway.
The problem is I see less people buying all the time, like I mentioned in another thread most people who want it and can afford the 1b+ price tag already have it, most who want one and couldn't get one when an 800m price was slightly common can't afford to spend that much on one thing and likely never will be able to.
And then there's the people like me who could afford it but have a set limit on how much they'll spend to get one because it's not a "must have" due to nostalgia or feelz or whatever, people can ask 1b+ 'till they're blue in the face but it won't get me to spend that much.
Yes, and the sellers are refusing to admit they no longer have a market for the 1b+ people and are refusing to come off their price. Instead their hoarding them and awaiting some other day in the future when they think a bunch of those people are suddenly going to appear.
I wonder if people brought the ship to hoard, and attempt to resell at a profit down the line?
Myself, while I have a Connie for my main (pure lottery win)- I'd buy three more (one for my wife, a D7 and warbird for my alts), maybe four (another Connie for an Alt). But at these prices, whoever has them can keep them. The wife is happy with her TOS skinned Temporal Battlecruiser, and the alts aren't worth that type of expense. Heck, I don't have that much time to play them anyway.
^^^
I tend to agree with this. For whatever reason most sellers have it in their heads that 1.2 Billion is the going price; and it's just not. I was lucky to get mine the first night they released for about 880 million EC (combo of EC and master Keys in my case, I base the price on the Key exchange prices at the time I pulled the trigger on the deal).
I was concerned then I might have over-paid; but I've wanted an end-game version of the ship from day one (way back in closed beta in October 2009 I was pissed they said there was not going to be an end game TOS Connie); so I decided it was worth it to me to NOT wait for the day they hit the Exchange. many of my Fleetmates thought they'd hit the Exchange at 750 Million EC regularly after the first week - and I believe two of my Fleetmates caught one at 750 by just sitting there and hitting the 'Search' key and got lucky. <--- But for now, those days are gone as every seller is clinging to their 1 Billion+ price point.
I too think with the Promotion coming to an end, many a speculation has a supply of the R&D Promo packs ready to release on the EC Exchange as soon as they see a stable selling price they like that will allow them to get EC for the 'next' Lockbox/Promo Pack ship they really want.
But anyone who believes Cryptic didn't make a mint off AoY, or the various Connies/Vengeances, etc. is kidding themselves because I'm sure (like me) MANY who swore they'd never open a lockbox/promo pack for a ship (and I said the ONLY way they would get me to was to put a Connie in one) finally pulled out their wallets and spent some real cash on STO for the first time.
I was never a big Romulan fan, so the T'Liss has no pull for me, but if I could swing the EC; and the T6 Temporal pack dropped to 750 Million EC or below, I'd love to get a Klingon D-7 version for my Klingon alt; but overall, and atm I have a T6 TOS Connie for my AoY character, and I'm very content with that. If I ever see one for 750 million or less on the EC Exchange I might pick a D-7 for my Klingon; but I'd never pay 1 Billion+ even for a T6 Connie; but that's me.
All in all I spent around $150 real cash to get my T6 TOS Connie, and I'm okay with that, (going by the Zen and other in game resources I still had after closing my deal.) That said, Cryptic did get that one time $200 Zen purchase out of me so either way I'm out $200 in real cash that went to Cryptic and STO.
[Oh, and before anyone thinks or says I went nuts with opening the Promo Packs; I planned (and did) to spend my unused LTS Zen stipend I had on hand - on Promo Packs when they were 800 EC - and open those (24 in total - which I thought was a reasonable attempt to 'get lucky'). If I didn't get lucky, (and I didn't) I said I'd to a one time $200 Zen purchase and use that to get Promo Boxes and Keys to get the EC to buy one - and I was successful in that the first night.]
Formerly known as Armsman from June 2008 to June 20, 2012 PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
Is it that there are too many of these, and so the people who want them won't budge on their lower asking price and they're waiting for the sellers to respond and lower their price?
OR is it that these are too rare, so there's just not that many of them available, and they're about to go away for good when the promotion ends so speculators who have the paltry few left for sale are just going to keep driving up the prices?
It really can't be that there's not enough of these around, that demand is waning. That's not how supply and demand works.
Is it that there are too many of these, and so the people who want them won't budge on their lower asking price and they're waiting for the sellers to respond and lower their price?
OR is it that these are too rare, so there's just not that many of them available, and they're about to go away for good when the promotion ends so speculators who have the paltry few left for sale are just going to keep driving up the prices?
It really can't be that there's not enough of these around, that demand is waning. That's not how supply and demand works.
I simply think it's the STO equivalent of comic book guy(s) from the Simpsons hording their stashes, hoping to sell them for extortionist amounts of EC.
It's pretty much how the REAL way businesses are these days, it's not supply and demand, it's "WE WANT MORE MONEY (EC)!!!!!"
So I'm confused. Which is it?
It really can't be that there's not enough of these around, that demand is waning. That's not how supply and demand works.
I don't think looking at the big picture here. Keep this in mind:
The law of supply and demand assumes a free flow of goods, services and capital
Hoarders and price fixing therefore can alter that law to various extents.
Price Fixing doesn't have to be a formal or even informal agreement. It can be a social mindset such as "heck, I won't pay that much for X..." or "heck, I won't sell these for less than X...". When both hit at the same time, you get a market without movement, and no exchange of goods. Ideas like "In the future this will be worth.." also have a impact.
Unlike the real life, sellers of these types of items won't go out of business due to lack of sales. There isn't that much pressure on sellers in a MMO unless they need the income for something else- and at this time, what else is there? Well, nothing we can foresee. Thus sellers don't need capital and feel it's better to hoard or sell above market than it is to make EC.
Or none of that may apply. It may simply be the case that few R&D boxes were bought, and supply remains well below demand. The rarity of the ship in actual play shows nothing but a failed promotion.
Only designers have the metrics to determine the actual facts here. I'd love to see total number of boxes sold vs. total opened compare to say the previous promo offering. But we won't see those numbers. I would guess that Hoarding is up very significantly, but that is only my guess.
Whatever the case, the final result is a ship rarely seen in-game whose price after two weeks is stuck well above 1b and deep in the grey market. There are many possible reasons- make your guess.
I see a minimum of one TOS Connie a day outside ESD at log-in, and I'm not even looking for them. The supply is in line with a promotion like this. Anyone trying to sell them for almost double market cap is high as a kite and will not see a return on their investment. If they wish to continue fooling themselves and not make any profit, fine by me. One has a constitutional right to be a fool.
"I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of how awesome I am."
The rarity of the ship in actual play shows nothing but a failed promotion.
This is where I disagree. This is Space Barbie, which is inherently a collectibles market. The rarity of the item doesn't demonstrate a failed promotion. Nor is it indicative of the supply being greater than the demand.
There's a lot of factors at work here.
First there's the hard cap on EC, making the ship sell for goods now, that total beyond the EC hard cap.
Then there's limited time of the promotion.
And there's the high demand for the ship from the rabid fans of it.
The price is high, but it's been driven there by a lot of factors.
My experience with the JHAS is that time will eventually lower the price of this ship (especially if it gets offered again). But until more of them enter circulation, it's price will remain astronomically high because it's one of the ultimate Space Barbie collectibles in a game that treats Space Barbie as very serious business.
I keep reading comments about how this is price fixing or manipulation and I keep thinking "Have you guys ever tried to purchase a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle?" It's the same cheap cardboard that the 1952 topps Andy Pafko is printed on. So it's not inherently a higher quality piece of cardboard. But it's definitely not valued the same.
Or you know the difference between Magic the Gathering's Alpha set Ancestral Recall, and Magic the Gathering's Alpha Set Air Elemental. Same basic cardboard. Both of them are spells that cost blue mana to cast. Very different collectible value.
The rarity of the ship in actual play shows nothing but a failed promotion.
This is where I disagree.
I was stating it only as a possibility, without Cryptic sales numbers it's unknowable.
Are you asserting there that it's not even a possibility? That would be... short sighted unless you have access to Cryptic's numbers.
For what it's worth, I do doubt that it was a failed promotion. I think hoarding is the issue. But I don't know the truth and can't flatly agree or disagree to anything as you seem to have done here.
It's not about the box or the ships, it's about how much cash was spent on purchasing Zen during the period of the promo. Cryptic could care less if there was 0 or 10,000 of these things flying around or not.
It's not about the box or the ships, it's about how much cash was spent on purchasing Zen during the period of the promo. Cryptic could care less if there was 0 or 10,000 of these things flying around or not.
Oh they care.
Best outcome- vast numbers were bought, but very few will be flown for a significant length of time. That way they can make a bucket of money and can sell more ships in the future.
One can make an interesting but unlikely conspiracy theory out of that need btw.
This is Space Barbie, which is inherently a collectibles market.
Which caters to what is likely a minority of the player base.
Space Barbie collectibles in a game that treats Space Barbie as very serious business.
No it does not, see the default uniform and the fact that TOS captains are encouraged to switch to them after they hot the 25th century.
I don't see the connection. You're trying to tell me an in-game piece of dialog is evidence that this game doesn't treat space barbie as serious business? Please clarify. Because I've seen people at the very beginning of this game's existence spend 400 bucks on a lifetime subscription to Champions Online just to get the Mirror Universe uniforms, and those same people created a forum armageddon the day that uniform was released for purchase in the store much much later.
I've got plenty of evidence from past actions and behavior by this community and the company to make me feel like Space Barbie is a very serious and very profitable aspect of this game's life and lifestyle.
So your assertion is that Space Barbie isn't a big deal because the AoY mission arc suggests to people to change uniforms at the end?
The rarity of the ship in actual play shows nothing but a failed promotion.
This is where I disagree.
I was stating it only as a possibility, without Cryptic sales numbers it's unknowable.
Are you asserting there that it's not even a possibility? That would be... short sighted unless you have access to Cryptic's numbers.
For what it's worth, I do doubt that it was a failed promotion. I think hoarding is the issue. But I don't know the truth and can't flatly agree or disagree to anything as you seem to have done here.
I guess it's a possibility, but I read your post on the possibility as being a much stronger assertion than that. Hence my response.
null If the Connie was any more agile I wouldn't be able to control it and acts much more like an escort than a cruiser other than having the increased Hull and Shields.
The negative descriptor in the 2nd paragraph shows a bias against it. It is also stated that you can't comment on it meaning you don't know what you are talking about.
The Connie has identical maneuver stats to the D7, except it turns .5 faster.
Comments
The BO layout of the Connie is also pretty decent, since you have 3 Lt.Cmdr slots. The weapon layout of 5/3 is preferable to 4/4 if you have a decent turn rate, which the Connie has.
The "Konnie" isn't bad, but IMO the "Connie" is a bit better. (I own both, but on different characters.)
In the end though, you can blow up sh*t like there is no tomorrow with both of them.
Well, I did several various PVE, including Days of Doom and Procycon, with my TOS T6, and it handled VERY well. I was with several of the same team mates, who used the Vengeance, and they got blown away, more than once. I did not blow up whatsoever, and my hull was 103,000 at the most , while theirs were around 80,000-86,000.
Then again, maybe I was just more skilled?
The Konnie is nice, but I'm sure glad I spent what I did when I did to get the Connie.
Umm, whaat? Bugship is a hyper-agile pure escort, 23c Connie is a moderately agile cruiser; aside from being promo ships they're about as different as you can get.,,
Anyway, can't comment on the Connie (%£^&"%^ garbage scow...) but the D7 is truely awesome. While it's no great feat for many people, I've finally been able to solo a side on ISE with one, though that probably says more about my piloting and builds than anything else
But a Connie, T'liss or D7? Hen's teeth even after two weeks. They've nearly disappeared even from ESD chat while the promotion is still on.
Given how rare it is to see one of these, I'm wondering if there isn't a lot of hoarding of unopened boxes. Maybe they're hoping for even larger prices down the road. Maybe they've ran of out people willing to pay insane amounts, but yet refuse to lower their price. Or maybe it's hoarding for spites sake, and maybe they'll sell or use them down the road.
Or maybe most of these just became hanger queens.
Or maybe the promotion just bombed as cryptic hit a wall by doing this promotion too soon after the very successful Kelvin Timeline boxes.
Beats me. The only thing I miss about EVE is how open they are with their metrics, just about everything is published. Here in STO- we'll never find out what's going on.
That's understandable. They're kind of small. Not that many people see me in mine for instance. This is one of the biggest complaints the PvP community had against the idea of this ship waaaaaay back when. It's tiny, it turns well, it's agile and nobody wanted to have to deal with trying to chase something like that down and THEN deal with it being a cruiser.
So the whole "story" started to pop up that it would be too old to function in modern STO. And too small to work as a cruiser.
Now here it is in 2016, and your anecdotal observation apparently backs up PVPers circa 2012's biggest nightmare.
Making this such a meta time paradox when you really stop to think about it.
I can almost guarantee you this is a big part of it, because I know a few people who are doing it. One guy I talked to has around a dozen promo packs just waiting for the price to skyrocket to even more insane levels after the promo ends, and I know a few others who are sitting on 4-5 promo packs each. It's not a big leap to expect some people who are even more "space rich" to be hoarding even more packs.
The problem is I see less people buying all the time, like I mentioned in another thread most people who want it and can afford the 1b+ price tag already have it, most who want one and couldn't get one when an 800m price was slightly common can't afford to spend that much on one thing and likely never will be able to.
And then there's the people like me who could afford it but have a set limit on how much they'll spend to get one because it's not a "must have" due to nostalgia or feelz or whatever, people can ask 1b+ 'till they're blue in the face but it won't get me to spend that much.
While I see your point and I do think its a factor, I have serious doubts it explains much outside the edge cases.
I've gone looking for them, and small things now catch my eye. When flying mine, I've attracted a good deal of attention both with slow fly-bys and tells. So people notice my Connie and I will find theirs if present.
For the record, over the last two weeks as a pause between my normal play- in and out of queues, I've seen three Connies and 1 T'liss. May have been a forth Connie, but their shuttle info was showing instead of the ship and it may have been a T1 (perhaps unlikely given how many characters still flying a T1 have a shuttle although I used to fly my T1 Connie all the time when doffing).
It's almost certain that some people are doing it.
Yes, and the sellers are refusing to admit they no longer have a market for the 1b+ people and are refusing to come off their price. Instead their hoarding them and awaiting some other day in the future when they think a bunch of those people are suddenly going to appear.
I wonder if people brought the ship to hoard, and attempt to resell at a profit down the line?
Myself, while I have a Connie for my main (pure lottery win)- I'd buy three more (one for my wife, a D7 and warbird for my alts), maybe four (another Connie for an Alt). But at these prices, whoever has them can keep them. The wife is happy with her TOS skinned Temporal Battlecruiser, and the alts aren't worth that type of expense. Heck, I don't have that much time to play them anyway.
I tend to agree with this. For whatever reason most sellers have it in their heads that 1.2 Billion is the going price; and it's just not. I was lucky to get mine the first night they released for about 880 million EC (combo of EC and master Keys in my case, I base the price on the Key exchange prices at the time I pulled the trigger on the deal).
I was concerned then I might have over-paid; but I've wanted an end-game version of the ship from day one (way back in closed beta in October 2009 I was pissed they said there was not going to be an end game TOS Connie); so I decided it was worth it to me to NOT wait for the day they hit the Exchange. many of my Fleetmates thought they'd hit the Exchange at 750 Million EC regularly after the first week - and I believe two of my Fleetmates caught one at 750 by just sitting there and hitting the 'Search' key and got lucky. <--- But for now, those days are gone as every seller is clinging to their 1 Billion+ price point.
I too think with the Promotion coming to an end, many a speculation has a supply of the R&D Promo packs ready to release on the EC Exchange as soon as they see a stable selling price they like that will allow them to get EC for the 'next' Lockbox/Promo Pack ship they really want.
But anyone who believes Cryptic didn't make a mint off AoY, or the various Connies/Vengeances, etc. is kidding themselves because I'm sure (like me) MANY who swore they'd never open a lockbox/promo pack for a ship (and I said the ONLY way they would get me to was to put a Connie in one) finally pulled out their wallets and spent some real cash on STO for the first time.
I was never a big Romulan fan, so the T'Liss has no pull for me, but if I could swing the EC; and the T6 Temporal pack dropped to 750 Million EC or below, I'd love to get a Klingon D-7 version for my Klingon alt; but overall, and atm I have a T6 TOS Connie for my AoY character, and I'm very content with that. If I ever see one for 750 million or less on the EC Exchange I might pick a D-7 for my Klingon; but I'd never pay 1 Billion+ even for a T6 Connie; but that's me.
All in all I spent around $150 real cash to get my T6 TOS Connie, and I'm okay with that, (going by the Zen and other in game resources I still had after closing my deal.) That said, Cryptic did get that one time $200 Zen purchase out of me so either way I'm out $200 in real cash that went to Cryptic and STO.
[Oh, and before anyone thinks or says I went nuts with opening the Promo Packs; I planned (and did) to spend my unused LTS Zen stipend I had on hand - on Promo Packs when they were 800 EC - and open those (24 in total - which I thought was a reasonable attempt to 'get lucky'). If I didn't get lucky, (and I didn't) I said I'd to a one time $200 Zen purchase and use that to get Promo Boxes and Keys to get the EC to buy one - and I was successful in that the first night.]
PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
Is it that there are too many of these, and so the people who want them won't budge on their lower asking price and they're waiting for the sellers to respond and lower their price?
OR is it that these are too rare, so there's just not that many of them available, and they're about to go away for good when the promotion ends so speculators who have the paltry few left for sale are just going to keep driving up the prices?
It really can't be that there's not enough of these around, that demand is waning. That's not how supply and demand works.
Demand dictates price, basic economics. Someone asking too much literally has no choice but to come down to reality and lower their price to sell.
I simply think it's the STO equivalent of comic book guy(s) from the Simpsons hording their stashes, hoping to sell them for extortionist amounts of EC.
It's pretty much how the REAL way businesses are these days, it's not supply and demand, it's "WE WANT MORE MONEY (EC)!!!!!"
That's the answer.
I don't think looking at the big picture here. Keep this in mind:
The law of supply and demand assumes a free flow of goods, services and capital
Hoarders and price fixing therefore can alter that law to various extents.
Price Fixing doesn't have to be a formal or even informal agreement. It can be a social mindset such as "heck, I won't pay that much for X..." or "heck, I won't sell these for less than X...". When both hit at the same time, you get a market without movement, and no exchange of goods. Ideas like "In the future this will be worth.." also have a impact.
Unlike the real life, sellers of these types of items won't go out of business due to lack of sales. There isn't that much pressure on sellers in a MMO unless they need the income for something else- and at this time, what else is there? Well, nothing we can foresee. Thus sellers don't need capital and feel it's better to hoard or sell above market than it is to make EC.
Or none of that may apply. It may simply be the case that few R&D boxes were bought, and supply remains well below demand. The rarity of the ship in actual play shows nothing but a failed promotion.
Only designers have the metrics to determine the actual facts here. I'd love to see total number of boxes sold vs. total opened compare to say the previous promo offering. But we won't see those numbers. I would guess that Hoarding is up very significantly, but that is only my guess.
Whatever the case, the final result is a ship rarely seen in-game whose price after two weeks is stuck well above 1b and deep in the grey market. There are many possible reasons- make your guess.
This is where I disagree. This is Space Barbie, which is inherently a collectibles market. The rarity of the item doesn't demonstrate a failed promotion. Nor is it indicative of the supply being greater than the demand.
There's a lot of factors at work here.
First there's the hard cap on EC, making the ship sell for goods now, that total beyond the EC hard cap.
Then there's limited time of the promotion.
And there's the high demand for the ship from the rabid fans of it.
The price is high, but it's been driven there by a lot of factors.
My experience with the JHAS is that time will eventually lower the price of this ship (especially if it gets offered again). But until more of them enter circulation, it's price will remain astronomically high because it's one of the ultimate Space Barbie collectibles in a game that treats Space Barbie as very serious business.
I keep reading comments about how this is price fixing or manipulation and I keep thinking "Have you guys ever tried to purchase a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle?" It's the same cheap cardboard that the 1952 topps Andy Pafko is printed on. So it's not inherently a higher quality piece of cardboard. But it's definitely not valued the same.
Or you know the difference between Magic the Gathering's Alpha set Ancestral Recall, and Magic the Gathering's Alpha Set Air Elemental. Same basic cardboard. Both of them are spells that cost blue mana to cast. Very different collectible value.
Which caters to what is likely a minority of the player base.
No it does not, see the default uniform and the fact that TOS captains are encouraged to switch to them after they hot the 25th century.
I was stating it only as a possibility, without Cryptic sales numbers it's unknowable.
Are you asserting there that it's not even a possibility? That would be... short sighted unless you have access to Cryptic's numbers.
For what it's worth, I do doubt that it was a failed promotion. I think hoarding is the issue. But I don't know the truth and can't flatly agree or disagree to anything as you seem to have done here.
Oh they care.
Best outcome- vast numbers were bought, but very few will be flown for a significant length of time. That way they can make a bucket of money and can sell more ships in the future.
One can make an interesting but unlikely conspiracy theory out of that need btw.
Wait, wtf when did this happen? I never saw a news post about a T6 connie? How much is it?
I don't see the connection. You're trying to tell me an in-game piece of dialog is evidence that this game doesn't treat space barbie as serious business? Please clarify. Because I've seen people at the very beginning of this game's existence spend 400 bucks on a lifetime subscription to Champions Online just to get the Mirror Universe uniforms, and those same people created a forum armageddon the day that uniform was released for purchase in the store much much later.
I've got plenty of evidence from past actions and behavior by this community and the company to make me feel like Space Barbie is a very serious and very profitable aspect of this game's life and lifestyle.
So your assertion is that Space Barbie isn't a big deal because the AoY mission arc suggests to people to change uniforms at the end?
I guess it's a possibility, but I read your post on the possibility as being a much stronger assertion than that. Hence my response.
If the Connie was any more agile I wouldn't be able to control it and acts much more like an escort than a cruiser other than having the increased Hull and Shields.
The negative descriptor in the 2nd paragraph shows a bias against it. It is also stated that you can't comment on it meaning you don't know what you are talking about.
The Connie has identical maneuver stats to the D7, except it turns .5 faster.