One of the biggest misconceptions about lock box/promo ships is that you have to gamble to get them. In fact, you can also buy them on the in game exchange for EC, and if you need EC you can take a specific dollar amount and convert it into EC using the methods I will describe below.
Before starting, this entire system is based on the following factors:
Disco connie exchange price (quick exchange search term = "discovery flight")
Promo pack exchange price (quick exchange search term = "promotion")
Promo pack zen price (4-pack costs 1,000zen)
Dollar to zen price ($1 for 100zen, although you get bonuses at the higher purchase amounts)
In a nutshell, you will be buying zen, using it to buy promo packs, selling them on the exchange, then using that EC to buy the ship.
To determine how much of each "thing" you will need, use this equation:
Exchange ship price / Exchange promo pack price = total number of promo packs you would need to buy(with zen) and then sell(for EC).
Just as an example I will use a hypothetical ship price of 1.25bil and a hypothetical pack exchange price of 15mil. So using those example figures and the equation listed above,
1.25bil / 15mil = 84 (number of individual promo packs needed).
Since these come in 4-packs, 84/4 = 21. So you would need to buy 21 of the promo 4-packs to get 84 individual packs to sell. And since these 4-packs cost 1k zen each, 21 x 1k = 21,000 zen needed.
Using those example figures, here are the exact steps you would take to turn money into EC and get a ship:
1) buy (20,000) zen (this will cost exactly $200, and you also get an extra 3,000 zen bonus; so 23,000 total).
2) use your zen to buy (21) of the 4-pack promo packs (which will give you a total of 84 individual packs)
3) sell those 84 packs on the exchange (stacked, not individually) for 1.26bil EC
4) use that EC to buy the ship on the exchange.
Congrats, you just got a disco connie WITHOUT gambling.
Again though, these are just example figures and you will need to do your own calculation at the time if you decide to use this process.
Now, a few helpful tips about the above steps:
Tip 1: ship prices will go down over time, and pack prices will go up. This means if you are willing to wait a while you will get a better deal.
Tip 2: make sure you triple check your numbers when posting your packs for sale. You don't want to accidentally sell them for X-MILLION instead of X-BILLION.
Tip 3: make sure you have purchased the EC cap expansion (2bil max) before selling you packs, or you will LOSE the EC they sell for if it is over the cap you currently have.
Tip 4: although you obviously want to get the most EC you can for your promo packs, you want these packs to actually sell and not sit there forever. This means you will need to slightly undercut the current market price (sort by ascending price per unit to see the lowest).
Lastly, I want to address a few criticisms I know someone will make against this post, but I will be doing that in the NEXT reply to reduce the size of this post.
Thanks for reading!
PS: I am
giving these ships away on TRIBBLE!
PPS: I created a tiny url if anyone would like to share this information:
tinyurl.com/stolockboxes
Comments
If this game were not F2P it would cost $15 per month to play, which would be $180 per year just for subscription cost. That would still NOT include any game store items OR expansions. We get to play STO and it's expansions for free. So someone who pays $100+ for a disco connie also gets free monthly access and free expansions, and would be paying the same amount in a year as someone playing a subscription game for the same time period.
We also cannot ignore the fact that this game allows you to trade in game currency for game store currency on the dilex. This means that over time a person can actually offset ALL or at least SOME of the cost of zen required to buy the ship in question (or anything else they might want).
Actually, nearly all of the ships being sold on the exchange are coming from 2 types of players:
1) Professional "stock broker" players. They buy/sell various items over time and earn many billions. Then with those billions they buy promo packs with EC and sell the ships on the exchange to make even more billions. These folks aren't gambling with any REAL money because they are using EC to fund the entire venture.
2) Outside of those 'professional' market guys you have random joes opening R&D packs because they actually want R&D mats, or lobi. Then when they get lucky and win a ship, many of them would prefer to have the EC to buy other things they want so they just put it on the exchange. These folks also aren't gambling with real money because they bought the pack with the actual intention of getting R&D mats or lobi, which they did.
So in both the 'professional' and random joe scenarios I mentioned, you have people who aren't actually gambling.
Having said all that, it is true that many people do "gamble" to get these ships, but those are people that actually want/keep the ships, meaning they aren't selling them. Think about that. The ships wouldn't be on the exchange if the person wanted them. That means pretty much all of the ones we see on the exchange are from the 2 groups I mentioned above.
Already covered by the previous response. There 2 groups of people listed above are selling these ships because they DON'T want them. If they wanted them, they wouldn't be selling them. There will always be people who would rather have the EC than the ships, meaning there will always be ships for sale.
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
True, although your case would be covered by the same 'random joe' comment in my second post. But for accuracy I added lobi to the comments as well
Also, I created a tiny url if anyone would like to share this with anyone in game:
tinyurl.com/stonogambling
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
and 62. clearly states , The riskier the road, the greater the profit.
most importantly the 10. Greed is eternal.
joking aside. most of the complainers don't want to spend 23k ,don't want to invest much time to collect it... well use your 40+ exc. sell s wisely and often i would suggest.
And that's completely fine. The point is there is a way to get these ships without opening boxes. Sadly many people in game still aren't aware of this. Or even if they know they are on the exchange, they don't understand the process of turning dollars into EC.
Just to be clear, "another group" of (what) specifically? Another group of (people who open boxes) or (people who buy the ships on the exchange)? The comments in which I am referring to "2 groups" are talking about people who sell these ships on the exchange.
For the records I'm also a hard core dilithium grinder, although I'm doing it to acquire these ships for myself not to put them up for sale.
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
Thank you, i'm also interested in one of your ships for testing, (or two, to get pictures of the D7 also.. but that's asking too much), but because of work, i cant login too much, so, if you can, i'll let you my hanlde.. gaevs@gaevs, pretty original eh??
Just sent, enjoy!
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
Thank you!, i'll take a lot of pretty pictures
> gaevsman wrote: »
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> thegrandnagus1 wrote: »
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> gaevsman wrote: »
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> You forgot people like me, that buys R&D for lobi, besides that, good post..
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> True, although your case would be covered by the same 'random joe' comment in my second post. But for accuracy I added lobi to the comments as well
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> Also, I created a tiny url if anyone would like to share this with anyone in game:
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> tinyurl.com/stonogambling
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>
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> Thank you, i'm also interested in one of your ships for testing, (or two, to get pictures of the D7 also.. but that's asking too much), but because of work, i cant login too much, so, if you can, i'll let you my hanlde.. gaevs@gaevs, pretty original eh??
>
>
>
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> Just sent, enjoy!
Today i was able to log in.. thanks a lot for those ships, they are beautiful, im getting very pretty pictures from both! They are full of detail!.. again, thanks for your kind gift, i really appreciate this!
I view this as a negative, not a positive. I've despised F2P ever since the very first game adopted it, and nothing will ever convince me that it is a good thing in any way, shape, or form.
^ Click image to listen to my favorite Trek theme song! ^
I never claimed it was cheap to do this. This thread simply provides instructions on how the ship can be acquired without gambling, meaning without any risk opening X boxes and getting "nothing". If you think the cost is too expensive, that's fine. It doesn't change the point of this thread.
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
Some people will moan regardless lol. Thanks for providing the info on how to do it without gambling Nagus.
Edit: Actually you could say that Nagus IS perhaps offering (one) of the cheapest ways to get the ship, as even if you opened a million of the lock boxes, you still have the same chance of winning/losing as opening just 1. So you could get lucky first try, or be unlucky after the box 1 million having spent you life savings
To be fair, I don't blame anyone for not wanting to spend $200 to get this ship. But people should not misconstrue this thread as an attempt to "convince" them to do it. Explaining HOW something is done is not the same as saying they SHOULD do it.
Even my second post that compares the price of subscribing to a game for a year vs the cost of a ship is simply comparing numbers, not saying a person should do either of those things if they don't feel it is worth it. But as you say, I personally consider $200 for a guaranteed ship a better outcome than opening $200 worth of boxes and getting no ship.
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
These ships are usually announced well in advance, this one especially as it was on the Road Map. That's usually a good time to start hoarding your EC.
He literally suggests to spend up to 200$. This is probably the most expensive method of all.
The same could be applied to a detailed plan about how to rob a bank. Its a very bad idea but its totally not the same as saying people should do it... If it works someone will do it according to the plan.
You havent adressed my question about the zen from the (lifetime)subscription.
I was going to start out by saying 'I'm sorry but' (me being British and all).
But no, I'm not sorry at all, to lambaste you for being so utterly rude to Nagus. Who has done nothing wrong, and has gone out of his way to provide some information; and has not profited from it in any way (god help me, I cant even put a Ferengi joke in here - your response is so outrageous its beyond a joke).
Have some gratitude for a person spending their spare time helping others. And if you can't have the grace to do that, then at least have the manners to leave the man alone.
That is a valid opinion. The thing is, it doesn't matter whether you approve of it or not. If someone else decides they want to do this, their opinion/decision is just as valid as yours.
There is sometimes a point in a discussion where someone makes such a ridiculous statement that it is clear they do not want to have a reasonable conversation. The comment above is just such a statement.
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
He was also generous in copying his ship over to Tribble many times to give people a chance to fly it for nothing.
Thank you, Nagus.
Yeah, right. Except for the fact that one of those two activities is illegal for good reasons and the other is perfectly legal for equally good reasons. It's not even morally questionable or anything like that. Nobody gets to tell others how to spend their money. And yes, I do consider §200 outrageous - so I won't buy the ship under these conditions. But if somebody wanted to do it, it's absolutely none of our business. Which is slightly different from committing criminal acts.
I couldn’t agree more. It’s the helping and contributing part that we do for others which makes playing mmorpgs worthwhile in the end.
The OP did a cool job here so big thank you from me as well.
Looking for a fun PvE fleet? Join us at Omega Combat Division today.
Not even close.
Every time one of these events happens, we get thread after thread from people that spent hundreds on boxes and didn't get the ship..
Hundreds and hundreds of dollars.. every.. single.. time.
What the OP is doing is giving them another way, if they're going to spend that much anyway then might as well use the method where you're at least guaranteed to get the ship. Rather or not $200 for a ship is a fair price is a whole other topic.
The OP is trying to help people and for whatever reason, you have decided to take it personally. Chill out.
The alternative would be for you to get constructive and elaborate a grind/exchange play vs 200$ way.
The OP clearly made a gamble vs 200$ thread as was appreciated as such, especialy as it helps to keep the light on in this game you like play.
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While I'm sure that attitude helps make you the coolest 17 year old in the entire 8th grade, you're not impressing anyone here.
Grow up.
Again, that is a completely valid opinion. But your subjective personal opinion, valid as it might be, is no more "right" than someone else's opposite subjective personal opinion. If you can accept that, you are a reasonable human being.
Someone actually explained this to you before, but you either didn't read it or are purposely ignoring it. The fact is that every time these boxes happen there are people both on the forums and in game who complain about opening hundreds of packs and not getting the ship. For those people they would be far better off using their money on a guaranteed method than essentially wasting it by getting nothing.
The drop rate on these ships is very low. That is why they sell for so much on the exchange. The reason you see winning names flashing by in game is simply because so many people are opening boxes that it gives a false impression that you have a good chance to win, but the market price is proof that the chance is low. If the chance were good they would be cheap.
It's true that some people get "lucky", but you are far more likely to spend the same $200 or more and get no ship by opening packs.
Yeah, me giving stuff away has nothing to do with any of this.
The title of this thread has "gambling" in it. I know some will argue this term, but I don't. If you buy promo packs with real money and open them with the intent to get the ship (not the R&D mats and lobi) then you are gambling IMO. And that is why IMO you are better off buying the ship off the exchange. But it doesn't have to be done exclusively with real money. I grind a ton of dil that I convert to zen and was able to buy (2) of these ships without spending anything. However I understand people who have not been playing since launch do not have as many alts or amount of ships purchased in that time frame for admiralty cards.
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
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