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newromulan
Member Posts: 230 Arc User
Is it just me, or are almost all ships this year gamble box/pack? I know we had the light cruisers in May and T6 vestas in Feb, but this year seems light on cstore ships? Maybe more coming in the Fall?
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We can only play one ship at a time anyway so personally I don't think that they release too few ships to the C-store. One ship every couple of months, and different ones (cruiser, science and escort) mean that for me, C-store releases are just fine.
I have started to seriously dislike the gamble box thing as well though, I certainly agree with that.
Seems to me that the well is starting to run a little dry.
If the apparent need for the recent triple-key promotion is any indication, you're probably right.
Not being able to figure out how to make money from the masses is one of Cryptic's biggest failings, as The Whales aren't a sure thing forever.
Going to have to respectfully disagree there my friend. While yes, some of your lock box ships have cool features like dual specializations, they aren't any more or less capable on average then C-Store Ships. Believe it or not, I actually think they have done a reasonably good job of keeping prize pack ships from being 'pay to win.' Even a ship that looks incredible on paper like the Vengeance isn't so strong that makes something like an Odyssey or Avenger obsolete.
I don't have a problem with 'Gamble Boxes' overall.. in fact.. I kind of like them. I like them because I have the patience and self restraint to resist the shiny and steer clear of them. If there is a ship I really like, I am content to wait until the price comes down on the exchange or to just forget about it all together. I like them because tons of players throw their money away and keep the game online for me to enjoy without having to spend money myself.
The issue I have here is I don't see the model continuing to be sustainable. It only works if the ship is highly desirable and when I look at the Son'a Dreadnought I'm just not seeing it. I'm not saying it's a bad ship.. it's actually quite good, but it doesn't strike me as the type of ship people are going to dump cash into RnD Boxes to try and obtain.
The problem is though, if everyone had as much self-restraint as you and less people were as crazy as I and some others have been, then no one would be trying to get these ships and prices would never come down.
That's the core of the problem: that someone has to spend insane amounts of zen (and thus someone had to spend real money, something like the equivalent of 6-7 full games) to get just one ship and to get these items in the game at all. Eventually people will just stop doing that and I'm thinking that we're slowly reaching that point.
I can only hope that we're reaching it. It will force them to explore fairer alternatives where paying equals getting what you want - as we have in the C-store and which seems quite an effective model. Instead of a ridiculously small chance of getting what you're paying for. I for one cannot wait to see the end of this immoral model that turned the franchise into a cash grab. Using what are in fact gamble boxes (but without adhering to the rules that are commonly required for gambling institutions) to milk what has been a loyal fanbase has slowly started to seriously annoy me.
If we look around at any instance in the game, there are usually many more C-store ships being flown by a much broader part of the playerbase. It seems to me that these ships are popular enough and could easily make up for the losses if they stopped devoting so much time to ships that are only flown by a handful of players.
To me it seems that the lockboxes are not so much required to keep te game going; rather they are an easy way to earn 6-7 times as much per ship. So a cash grab. Which reminds me of Ferengi indeed.
Honestly, people have been saying that for years. We keep hearing that people will get sick of pouring in hundreds of dollars to try and win a ship, but yet every time an Enterprise J or a Connie comes along.. it happens again and again. I however, share your opinion that we might finally be reaching that point where it comes to an end. It just seems to me like they're running out of ships that are so highly desired that people will fork out that type of cash. It is possible that if we're right, it could eventually spell the end of the line, but we all know that's coming at some point anyway. It's unfortunate, but 'all good things' right?
I sympathize completely man.. I really do. It totally sucks that we keep seeing these RnD ships taking priority over the ship you want and other ships like the T6 Vor'cha that are so incredibly over due. It really does suck.. you and players like you have been more then patient and deserve to get the ship you want.
Hello rubber banding my old friend, time to bounce around the battlezone again, where are all my bug reports going?, out of love with this game I am falling, As Cryptic fail to acknowledge a problem exists, Shakes an angry fist, And from Support all I'm hearing are the sounds of silence.
Fix your forum please. Not the first time lately I lose a post. It takes time to write these things in.
Will have to remember to always write in another program, and just paste in this box instead.
Complete and total myth.. always has been.
I don't believe for one second that CBS determines ship rarity, it's impossible to do. You can determine the odds of winning per box, but even that doesn't control overall rarity unless you only sell a fixed number of boxes.
The idea that CBS is monitoring the game that closely is frankly ridiculous. I can assure you CBS has more important things to worry about other then how many Star Trek Online Players have a Constitution or any other class ship. This is just something Cryptic once said in passing to explain why there was no end game Constitution. It wasn't true then, and it isn't true today.
That may have been the case before the Infinity box, but nowadays this is no longer true. Almost nothing has retained a value that's high enough to make it worth it to open the boxes; you're better off selling the keys instead.
And even before the Infinity box this was already true for most items; a handful of Doffs like Soreb or Graga Mal usually being the only exception.
Lockboxes are not any more common than they have been since 2012. One per quarter has been the standard since they began, and having it available for the full quarter, minus the last week or so for the last chance/Infinity box, has been the practice since the third one came out. LTS sales are the same way, 2 per year, one around June and one around November, and have been that way since at least 2013. Promo ships have gotten a bit more common since Delta Rising, usually 4 per year, but sometimes an extra one. Phoenix packs are definitely new since Agents of Yesterday, and I can't speak to Services or other C-Store sales, but they seem to be at about the same pace as always.
In other words: It's mostly just your perception on this.
> seaofsorrows wrote: »
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> I'm starting to wonder how much longer these gamble boxes are going to be viable sources of income. I'm looking at this new ship coming out, and while it has a certain appeal it doesn't seem like the type of ship that people are going to purchase RnD Packs to try and win. The Enterprise J? Yeah, that one I get.. the T6 Connie.. absolutely.. but who's going to buy packs with their horrendous odds to try and win a Son'a Dreadnought?
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> Seems to me that the well is starting to run a little dry.
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> You're assuming people buy these packs for the sole purpose of collecting ships. Lockboxes and Promo/R&D packs have a lot of valuable items in them. The top tier prizes are just a nice bonus.
True enough, we'll see if the box has enough overall value to keep demand up during this promo. You're right, I do assume they buy primarily for the ship, I'm sure there are some that just want the normal content of the box.
Personally, RnD boxes are something I never consider purchasing, but I have no reason to believe that all other players feel the same way.
It's a rare random drop available for a limited time. It doesn't matter what it is. That an item is rare makes it desireable in and of itself.
Originally Posted by pwlaughingtrendy
Network engineers are not ship designers.
Nor should they be. Their ships would look weird.
Don't know if that's true as I haven't kept records on those things, and without that current impression can easily be wrong. For humans, what's in their face always seems exceptional and often that's an illusion.
But I share your impression. Plus it seems to me that their efforts are producing less result. This last Phoenix pack only dropped a bit more than 30 off the pink rock exchange where previous ones dropped by over three times as much. Will be interesting to see how much impact this latest R&D promotion has.
My own unsupported view says that its all running out of stream as all things do in time. Their next expansion will be do or die.
Just a theory and I hope any economy experts will correct me. But the first Phoenix pack the dilithium prices were very high and getting the items in the packs very desirable since they were all unobtainable.
Now many of the first buyers have all the items from the first wave so have little need to try for another wave of packs. And all but the upgrades were one each. And everything is bind to character so no selling. This had a huge impact the first time around because it was all new. Now the market has some saturation and is otherwise choked. No holding something to sell later for those not able to get involved this time. Also no multiples means little need to repeat. As an example, I might have gotten a few of the phaser rifle or shotgun on one character if they were not one per character. Things like that should increase the sales.
Originally Posted by pwlaughingtrendy
Network engineers are not ship designers.
Nor should they be. Their ships would look weird.
True. The Lobi items that can be traded have always been very cheap on the exchange. So you are correct in saying that they have always retained their very low values. Also here you're better off selling the keys.
And since we're not probably going to move on to the bound items: I seriously doubt that most lockboxes are opened for the handful of bound lobi items.
I myself spent a lot of dil getting a Bulwark the first run, but only picked my daily free box for the reruns since I didn't need anything else.
It is not Cryptic's Forum. PWE uses Vanilla to host the forum which is why at the bottom of the page it states "Powered by Vanilla".
What I hate is that they drop lockboxes while I am just playing normally. Boxes that you can't open unless you buy a key. I feel like they were a reward, and then curiousity gets to me and I feel like I should look to see what it in them. And of course, that costs me a $1 a box to open. But its not me thinking "ooh, I might get a big prize". It's more me feeling guilty that I am wasteful if I don't open up a reward I got. Right now, that is the only thing I dislike about this game. It reminds me of watching PBS during campaign drives. "Here, here is $10. Now can we PLEASE just get back to watching Dr. Who".
I'm playing through for the stories now, and having a good time. But once I am done with all the stories, I'm not sure how I am going to feel about playing the game. It's kind of like playing and having ransomware dropped on your computer as a reward...
> warpangel wrote: »
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> seaofsorrows wrote: »
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> I'm starting to wonder how much longer these gamble boxes are going to be viable sources of income. I'm looking at this new ship coming out, and while it has a certain appeal it doesn't seem like the type of ship that people are going to purchase RnD Packs to try and win. The Enterprise J? Yeah, that one I get.. the T6 Connie.. absolutely.. but who's going to buy packs with their horrendous odds to try and win a Son'a Dreadnought?
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> And that's where you go wrong.
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> It's a rare random drop available for a limited time. It doesn't matter what it is. That an item is rare makes it desireable in and of itself.
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> Which was exactly why the T6 Constitution became a prize box ship. Probably the single most sought after ship imaginable - not just a Starship, THE Starship. A ship discussed at great length since day one. They obtained persmission to put it in-game and immediately put it in a (relatively) expensive prize box as they knew that was the guaranteed best way to maximise profit.
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> I'd argue that it really is their 'Goose that lays the Golden Egg' and would wager that any time the Infinity R&D prize box reappears it'll sell well purely because of the T6 Connie.
T6 Connie will probably never see anything like the infinity box. They will probably be able to run a special promo for that ship for the next few years.
That's because lock box ships are kinda 'meh' of late. Son'a Dread? Not interested. Even the regular Son'a lock bocks ships were okay-ish, at best.
Cryptic, offer me a T6 Undine Nicor, or a T6 Mobius, and we're talking again.