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Lobi shuttles are too expensive
fovrel
Member Posts: 1,448 Arc User
The other day I bought a shuttle in the lobi store. I had some spare lobi in my bank and I wanted the shuttle. I am very happy with it. As a matter of fact I do like a lot of the shuttles from the Lobi store.
If I want to buy another I need 300 lobi. I estimate I have to open 50 boxes, 4 10-packs of keys, 4000 Zen. That is a lot for just one little ship. I almost can buy all the shuttles in the C-store and have them unlocked on my account. Contrary to the main ships, the shuttles are a funny side-kick, also because there is hardly any content for them.
You may say opening boxes for lobi also gives you a change to win a grand prize, but I am not interested in any lockbox ship. I can also look on the exchange for lobi shuttles and I did, but the choice was limited. I also don't know if they are priced right. 40 keys in EC is still 40 keys, it is too much for me.
If I want to buy another I need 300 lobi. I estimate I have to open 50 boxes, 4 10-packs of keys, 4000 Zen. That is a lot for just one little ship. I almost can buy all the shuttles in the C-store and have them unlocked on my account. Contrary to the main ships, the shuttles are a funny side-kick, also because there is hardly any content for them.
You may say opening boxes for lobi also gives you a change to win a grand prize, but I am not interested in any lockbox ship. I can also look on the exchange for lobi shuttles and I did, but the choice was limited. I also don't know if they are priced right. 40 keys in EC is still 40 keys, it is too much for me.
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But I do think you're on the right track here--Lobi shuttle prices are bordering the absurd if not there already. It should reflect the C-Store pricing and be around 1/6 the price of a T6 Lobi ship.
If there are posts here that do not appeal to you, or opinions you disagree with, the best way to deal with that is to resist the urge to add comments. Instead, engage with the content you like! Don't feed the trolls!
I'm not really interested in these ships anymore as I prefer to fly Federation ships now but if you realise that, to get 900 lobi crystals, you'll need at least 150 keys or so (assuming that you'll get some luck and obtain 20 or even 50 crystals in one box and following the OP's estimate) then I think that a price reduction would be reasonable.
I mean, 150 keys equals somewhere close to 15.000 zen. That's just ridiculous for a single ship if you can also get 5 3-packs or 15 account unlocked ships with that amount of zen.
Reducing the prices may also increase people's interest in lock boxes so there wouldn't necessarily be a loss for Cryptic either if they made the prices a bit more reasonable.
T5/T6 Lobi ships should be 500 and 600 respectively, just my opinion.
My belief is that it was never intended for people to be specifically going after (i.e, opening boxes for) Lobi items. They were meant as insurance - if, after opening many boxes and not getting any of the Super Jackpot Prizes, you could still get yourself something with the Lobi that had built up over time.
Of course, people being people, it was bound to get messed up. (And then the rise to T6 came, and ships got bumped to 900 lobi, which does feel a bit high compared to the T5's.)
That said, plenty of the lobi ships show up in the exchange. And even if the one you want doesn't, you can try to find one of the folks who bulk-open boxes (who presumably have piles of lobi sitting around) and hire them to buy one for you. But it's really a bad idea to open lockboxes just for the Lobi (just like it's a bad idea to open boxes just for the Grand Prize ships) - if you're opening boxes, you need to be happy with all the stuff that's in there, otherwise it's a better idea to spend EC (and/or zen->keys) to get the things you want.
Yes but someone needs to get those lobi ships and place them on the Exchange as well. It would likely be better for everyone if they cost less lobi.
And since the release of the Infinity box, it's hard to be happy with what's in the boxes besides the lobi. Before this release, one could items that, with some luck, sold for multiple times the price one needed for another key*. Now basically everything in those boxes is worthless. Which makes opening large amounts of boxes less attractive.
* There was a time where I could buy some keys, got lucky, sold some expensive items and could buy more keys, sold the expensive items from that etc. Eventually I ended up with over 3000 lobi and several Xindi Narcine ships. I think I started with like 10 keys, all bought with EC which I obtained by selling some Z-particles and Rubidium.
That's just not possible today anymore - or at least much more difficult to do.
At least that's how I perceive it.
On the flip side, the infinity boxes make OLDER lockbox stuff that doesn't have as much supply as the more recent stuff more available. An enterprising Exchange person could take advantage of that, especially if T6 versions can use the T5 skins. Not to mention the Admiralty Cards they provide.
Hell... the old Mirror ships should be hot sellers for KDF and Romulans as they flesh out Admiralty rosters with more than just Tac ships! AND T6 versions of ships like the Negh'Tev and Morrigu are able to use not only the T5 parts, but MIRROR skins as well! So not only do you get the Admiralty Cards, but an appearance unlock for those ship lines thus adding more customization options.
And I love my little Arwing... I mean Aeon. Chronometric Polaron Omni, Wide Angle Quantum... she's a nasty little thing.
Four of my Characters use the Aeon, one the Voth, and one the Rozenkeno. One character that has the Aeon also has the Ferengi Na'Far, and Tholian Widow. The Na'Far was an Arc freebie. All other Lobi Shuttles were purchased on the Exchange. Back a few years ago you could pick them up for under 30 Million. I have one fun setup that uses all the special Shuttle Consoles/Space Equipment.
I always like using two-seater Shuttles on all my Characters where I can. The Voth Heavy Fighter, in effect, has three as they have built-in Hazard Emitters.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
Dang it... would have been nice to get a Na'Far... but I think I missed that one.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
It does, but I never use it. I don't fly the Na'far either, to be honest; it's the sort of ship one uses for the look of the thing more than anything else.
Wait I thought Lobi was account bound and unsellable... And OP if you feel the shuttles and all are overpriced don't buy them. If more people did that maybe the price would be reduced shrug. IMHO Lobi ships are a bargin compared to the RNG lottery costs for ships or chasing that one console to make a fullset thats only in an RNG lockbox paywall.
Yes, but many of the things you can buy with Lobi are tradeable. So you pay someone with Lobi to buy it for you (well, or say "buy a <whatever> and sell it to me for $EC"). Assuming it's not already on the exchange, of course.
Ok by cost I am not counting what is sold on the Exchange but the costs involved in actually playing Cryptic's lottery where the odds are against you.
I kind of agree that they are too expensive for "gonna get them all" collectors. I avoid them. Mostly. I actually have two of them. One (Voth Fighter) I got for my char that pulled the Bulwark out of the Doff-promobox and the other is a Ferengi shuttle I got for free for successfully logging into the game by using Arc or some such silliness. That one is still in the account bank.
As far as I know (and explain myself with the prices) the shuttles are sold with the intention to be sold only for those who really, really want a specific one for a reason and plans to use it; like I got the Voth Fighter to complement the Bulwark for one char. I would not use that one (outside its pretty kewl Admiralty card**) for any other char if it where an account unlock.
**negates all modifiers
That's an interesting thought. The main reason I bought the Rozhenko is that I could use the special consoles that came with the other theme ships; allowing this on other shuttles (e.g. Voth, Vaadwuar and future shuttles, if there are any) might encourage people to buy them.
Sadly the shuttle event is a rare occasion and always the same maps with little to no new content or mechanics ever added, so it seems kinda pointless now.
I fully agree the price should be dropped by like 25-50% maybe. In fact all the lobi ships are ridiculous prices. I get that they are there to give you and end of line reward for the gambling and all but the prices are just daft for what they give. Lower the prices slightly and you'd put them within reach of players and they would be more willing to by one.
At the moment nobody really saves up lobi to buy a lobi ship, they just get one whenever they happen to earn enough which may take years. Lower prices would encourage direct saving for them.