[PODCAST] Tribbles in Ecstasy Take 245: Rantmas Eve

midniteshadow7

Tribbles in Ecstasy Take 245: Rantmas Eve has warped on to Holosuite Media, you can download and stream it from:

http://holosuitemedia.com/tie245/

In this year's penultimate episode, the crew discuss the news from this past week for Star Trek Online (Console news: 1:54:21), Star Trek Timelines (2:07:38), Star Trek News (2:22:37) plus Listener Feedback (3:01:59).

Our community questions this week are:
1. Did you make use of the Star Trek Online $100 zen promotion and if so, what did you win?
2. What are your thoughts on the up and coming Star Trek Timelines 1.6 release?
3. What are your thoughts on the Ezri Dax character from DS9 TV series and/or the novels?

LLAP

sunseahl

Capin' she can'na take anymore!​​

chozoelder2nd

1.) Yeah... no. I'm not someone who can go around throwing Benjamins all willy nilly towards microtransactions in a F2P game, nor am I someone who just happens to have 10k Zen lying around to start spending. I'm not a whale.

3.) I hope you're noticing that I'm skipping super hard on questions relating to Timelines. :P

Trigger warning... I think? Idk. I was honestly surprised at the vitriol for Ezri so I'm just gonna leave this here just in case. If this triggers anyone then sorry.

I finished all of DS9 somewhere near the beginning of November. I liked Ezri. I think it's pushing it a little when I hear words like "bitchy" or "whiney". While I liked Jadzia, I definitely didn't see her in the same light as everyone else seemed to see her. She was far away from being my favorite character. My favorites were Sisko and Odo. I guess Jadzia just didn't quite click for me as hard as it did for other fans. In that regard, I didn't automatically hold a grudge against her just because she was "the replacement".

Truth be told, I actually preferred Ezri's cute, unexperienced and growing character to Jadzia being a smart TRIBBLE (this is not a negative) that seemed to have as few flaws as possible. While it's true that Ezri has eight lifetimes worth of experience, we know that this alone is not enough to actually mold her into who she really is. Ezri is not Jadzia. Ezri is Ezri and it's going to take more than just her past experiences to figure things out. Is it a trope? Yes, but it's the one that I prefer more than the overly confident "there's only a handful of things I can't handle " one. The unfortunate thing is that we only got one season of her.

Remember when Ezri convinced Worf that getting rid of corruption in the Klingon Empire was the right thing to do? Ezri definitely had her moments. The episode where she helps Garak was one of my favorites.

So I like Luke Skywalker more than Han Solo. So what? I'm not gonna blame anyone for liking Jadzia more than Ezri nor am I going to try and change anyone's opinion, though the hate for Ezri feels like it's going overboard.

I haven't read any of the books. I'm currently watching through all of Enterprise for the first time as DS9's replacement and watching two other shows on top of it as well. I can't consume more than that atm.


Feedback

I'm tilting my head when people were saying "I'd think about it if it was a guaruntee drop of my choice" on the forums.

For those that don't know why ships from promo packs are crazy stupid expensive.

Promo pack ships are top tier when it comes to rarity. Granted the drop rate is higher than lockbox ships (at least according to the general word of mouth: 1/250 for lockbox, 1/100 for promo), but the reason why they're so pricey is because they're a limited timed promotion and take months for them to come back whereas lockbox ships tend to stay for longer periods of time. Whether it's by EC or Zen, many people continuously spend away just for "a chance" to land even a single ship. Then there's the whales who open them in bulk and don't care about the drop rate because they're still going to have tons of lobi in the end. Most of the time, that's what people go for when they're trying to earn lobi. Since the drop rate on the ship is higher, people open these to get lobi instead of lockboxes because it's better to spend 1k Zen on 40 lobi with a higher chance of a MUCH rarer ship rather than spend 1,125 Zen on an average of 5 lobi per 10 boxes (50 lobi) with a lower chance of a lower rarity ship. The reason why promo ships have a higher drop rate is because opening a promo pack is by definition more expensive than opening a lockbox.

Does anyone honestly think they would just hand over one for $100? Don't get me wrong. I would love to be wrong and I know that $100 for a character-bound virtual toy is already an absurd price point, but the reality is that there are already enough people gambling away and chasing after them at higher prices. (1.2 to 1.5 billion EC is a lot more than $100 worth of in-game items.) The "Treat Yo'self" promotion is honestly only for those that are buying the new Infinity promo packs in bulk. Spend $100 worth of Zen and receive four items worth $10. It's a bonus worth 10% of what you spent.

I honestly don't know what to say at all the backlash. I don't know why a deal not meant for them upset a lot of people. If I see a deal or promo that doesn't suit me, I just say "meh" and move on. Black Friday was a thing that happened. Did people forget about the recent 25% discount on everything in the C-Store? Wasn't that a great deal for pretty much just about everyone? No? Ok...

Am I defending this "Treat Yo'self" promotion? No. The Black Friday bonuses were far better than this in terms of being more bang for your buck. However, considering that this was obviously targeted at whales buying promo packs in bulk, it makes sense that a bonus 4-pack would be what they prefer instead of a C-Store ship they might already own. I think it should've been a 20% bonus, e.g. a free 8-pack for every 10k Zen spent. That would've been the ideal sweet spot imo.

I'm just baffled at the suggestion of giving away a guaranteed promo ship for only a third of what it usually costs in trade channels. The promo packs are successful enough to continue the practice. There's no reason to just give a promo ship at approximately 495 million ec when they're listed on trade channels for nearly 1.5 billion ec.
(I used the second best Zen to EC ratio, selling keys. The best Zen to EC ratio is selling promo packs, but I used keys since those are always readily available.)

Well... maybe there's a valid reason if we're talking about "the spirit of the holidays" and being more than simply just nice to your customers every once in a while, but they're not going to be generous by hurting one of the most successful money makers this game has. They're going to be generous in other ways (sales, free endgame event ships, freebie giveaways ect).


I was gonna add some points on why exactly the Phoenix upgrades are so amazing, but I'm a little drained atm. Plus, I don't want to make you read too much. Sorry about the long feedback.

alex1ger

Good morning and let's get some feedback in just before the show...



Community questions:

1.) Nope. I don't like the odds of that promotion, I'm at odds with Perfect World's rather unprofessional demeanor (we went over a lot of examples before) and even if those things were not enough to stop me (and they are...), I WILL NOT support Cryptic during this expansion's life-cycle.

2.) I don't play Timelines, I don't play Timelines, I don't play Timelines, I don't play iiiiiiiiiiiiit. (Imagine the "ride of the valkyries" playing in the background.)

3.) If it's not in-game/on-screen, it didn't happen. *shrug* So let's talk about her on DS9. I liked Jadzia, I did not quite hate Ezri as a "replacement", but she was so... bland and annoying. If she had gotten more than a season, it might have worked. But the way it was I remember her being shoved in my face with the intent of being "cute". Her interactions with the crew made me cringe, that relationship between her and Bashir made me cringe... well, to be fair, Bashir himself made me cringe.
And the one thing I remember about her was when she tried to "psychoanalyse" Garak and instead Garak turns around and pushes all her buttons.
I mean, she was supposed to be a counselor, right? Letting a "client" get under her skin like that was really unprofessional. And at the same time I cheered for Garak. I mean, on a human level what he did right there was rather rude and unnecessary and uncalled for. But I cheered for him, because he SHUT HER UP.
Sure, when she started crying in the bajoran temple I felt a little bad for her, but it was so satisfying to have someone just play her like a violin. You know, if Garak hadn't been Garak, he might have been an awesome counselor...



Feedback:


Eucl3D shutting down:
Yes, those 3D-printed ships that have been announced and shown around at STLV? Not happening. And we know that because we read news-sites and social media and the twitter devtracker, but I guarantee you there are people who don't and who keep waiting for an official announcement. Communi-thinga-majic.
And at the same time, Perfect World really REALLY likes to partner up with companies that just FAIL to deliver. That groupees debacle, the hubbub about WizKids, now Eucl3D going down in flames MONTHS after the partnership was announced and BEFORE anything even started to happen...
"Technically" none of that is PW's fault, but they are involved in all of it and one of these days people will start to remember them as the one thread that connects all these mishaps.


K13 special unlocks on console:
What do you say? The consoles don't have agents of yesterday/K13? Yes, you are correct. They don't. The blog MEANT to talk about the dilithium mine cosmetic projects...
You know, I understand that mistakes happen and I will look the other way every once in a blue moon. But right now it feels like if there is ANY amount of copy-paste involved something WILL be wrong. Let's be real, with this kind of track record, is there really ANYTHING you say that I can rely upon?
I'm not saying, I'm just saying. You know? Communi-thinga-majic...


Tales from K-13 part 4:

Here we go again. Again... expertly written. Again... things don't add up.
I mean, the story of those officers... sure, I don't mind that. Let me rephrase that... I actually liked that part of the blog. The fact that there is a male nurse? That's nice. And he ends up hooking up with the vulcan security officer? Aww, that's nice.

Now remind me, why do Nereda and Drij (the cardassian and the orion "timecops") do this kind of "clean-up" duty? Shouldn't our people do that? Wasn't the temporal nonsense supposed to end with ragnarok?