Suggestion to replenish c-store & legendary: new c-store refits of old loot box ships

duncanidaho11

I know the initial horror to the idea.

"But, loot box is a pillar of STO and regular c-store ships don't sell enough to warrant replacing the format. Would have happened years ago! Can't be done, harrumph!"

Let me draw your attention to two things before you run free to set fire to the idea:

1. Legendary ships that undercut loot box sales exist but many remaining premium candidates lack the number of variants required to justify the bundle (Jellyfish, Freedom, 26c Flagships, ect).
2. The regular c-store is tapped out.

To point two: we are now roughly down to the following ships that could be released to the c-store per existing conventions.

1. D'Kyr
2. Constellation/Cheyenne
3. Challenger (wolf 359 kitbash)
4. Curry (wolf 359 kitbash)
5. Niagra (wolf 359 kitbash)
6. Springfield (wolf 359 kitbash)
7. Dyson Destroyers
8. Yeager

Cryptic's regular c-store reservoir could be fully depleted within a year and a half if Cryptic avoids the fallbacks that could have been applying all this time but haven't (new ships, KDF/ROM/DOM ships, the Theseus, new ships from the IP, ect.) The freaking Yeager could hit STO out of sheer necessity. That would leave the regular c-store with re-released existing c-store ships which isn't likely to hold interest for long (the prime candidates have already been done too but for the Sovereign). This is an impending cliff to the format, forcing Cryptic into lower-interest content they've been avoiding per their likely metrics. No other suggestion (ex. try making Khitomer alliance refits of existing ships to make c-store re-releases feel less stale) has been taken up either.

So how do you deal with depleting a non-renewable resource through intensive exploitation? Tap another resource to help refill the pool of potential ships. But as stated Cryptic hasn't bee going for the obvious candidates, likely due to metrics. But there's almost no c-store choices left. None...except for what loot boxes took.

"C-store connie when?" No, none of that. What Cryptic could viably do is create new refits of expendable loot box ships for the regular c-store (who've had their sales and are drifting to the long, dark tea time of obscurity). Unlike the c-store, the pool for loot box ships is renewed constantly by the IP and that process leaves ships/themes like the Freedom, Jellyfish, Xindi ships, 26c Flagships, Herald, Undine, Vaadwuar, Hirogen, and so on unlikely to see further expansion due to priorities. New canon ships are guaranteed to take release slots from them, consigning refits to oblivion. This is an entire category of ship that won't get made otherwise.

You aren't sacrificing much (if anything) in sales to make these refits either. Most, if not all candidates have already been used for mudd bundles. The old variants also still have a place in the game per unique traits, consoles, and hull variant (which could be made more desirable for those that pick up the new c-store variants and become attached to them). Existing ship holders are moving down market to pick up new pieces for their ships (whereas with c-store rereleases it's a fully doubled cost). And most importantly it opens up point one to buff new sales beyond regular c-store: with more variants you can now quadruple dip on loot box ship sales with new legendary bundles some time after the new c-store variant, which isn't an option now for any of these ships. While they may be near-or-totally-irrelevant in loot boxes, the fact the game would be selling these ships more accessibly should buff interest per the doors being blown off their artificial exclusivity to premium formats, reaching the sub-whale market (who've never had access), as well as simply providing more variety for the regular c-store (it's grown very monotonous). So, give us a 2409 Freedom class, TOS Parliament, Khitomer Alliance Anorax, Inquiry's deflector refit, Tholian refits, 32c refits of 26c flagships, future Undine vessels, and so on. These ships don't have a home otherwise, and the c-store & legendary formats are crying out for more ships to give homes to.

Ie. Use "OMG they opened up the loot box gates and gave us [insert ship here] at a reasonable price!" (kind of) as a new psychological hook to justify revisiting old ships, replenishing the possible content and interest in the regular c-store, with restricted choices and careful timing to avoid stepping on other release formats. It cuts against a common impulse (protect loot box desirability!) but we've been there with event campaigns, mudd bundles, and the first legendary bundle. Loot boxes are not inviolate and their content can and has been strategically pilfered for other formats. And there's still more to gain from making loot box content marginally more accessible, making the game appear less predatory in its monetization as the F2P genre increasingly struggles against its own exploitive reputation. STO PR also needs more wins to make up for the enthusiasm debt incurred by (for example) releasing every desirable ship from the newer shows in very expensive and hostile formats.

This could solve two mounting problems for the game's marketable ship content. On top of that, given the speed with which loot box ships are replenished, by the time the ideal candidates for c-store refits are tapped out we're likely to see more candidates drift into viable use (ex. the present 32c line). This is a long-term resource to pull from as needed. This isn't "get rid of loot boxes and sell new ship's in the c-store." That argument falls to real economics. What I'm proposing here are two ADDITIONS to those sales by creating a new class of c-store ship to slot into the current RNG ship lifecycle after mudd's but before legendary, while also enabling those legendary variants (ex. Vengeance). Bring some excitement back to the c-store, throw in the odd bit of apparent mercy from loot boxing (while maintaining the pillars of the game's economy in reality) by releasing these refits one every once in a while to avoid this dynamic from getting stale and supplement other kinds of regular c-store releases (hopefully building up more interest in the format).

And Cryptic can experiment with this with low risk, as at worst they cut the long dark tea-time sales of a near-dead ship or two then abandon the format from there if the metrics don't work out. It's a low-stakes play to try with potentially big, long term strategic benefits.


Thank you for coming to my street corner rant. Mind the pigeons.

davefenestrator

I could see going directly to Legendary for bundles of Tholian, Herald, etc. enemy faction ships, giving us the tac, sci, cruiser and carrier and set consoles in one bundle, but just doing that in Mudd's seems more likely since that requires much less effort for a niche bundle. A Muud's "sale" price of $150 also makes giving up the lock box sales acceptable to sales & marketing.

I don't see them doing two reworks of alien ships, or placing any of them in the c-store.

duncanidaho11

davefenestrator wrote: »

I could see going directly to Legendary for bundles of Tholian, Herald, etc. enemy faction ships, giving us the tac, sci, cruiser and carrier and set consoles in one bundle, but just doing that in Mudd's seems more likely since that requires much less effort for a niche bundle.

I don't see them doing two reworks of alien ships, or placing any of them in the c-store.

None of the enemy faction ships qualify for Legendary. Each only has a single variant, effectively or totally. If any of these has a T5 variant, it only differs in not having a passive bonus for the console. Never have separate classes been included and there's no sign Cryptic may start including them. Legendary ships culminate a LINE of ships, including all customization options on top of traits/consoles. This is why single ships should not qualify, even when they could be marketable (ex. Vengeance, Atlas). Just as well, it wouldn't be legendary to create a single ship and place that at the helm of a faction-line up. That's just replicating a faction mudd bundle with a new refit that cannot stand for the group. Maybe they could try that out, but I see far more problems in marketing that then going my route as you're sacrificing many more sales per ship, more directly antagonizing existing mudd bundle owners with the first refit by making it doubly expensive for less content [no new console], and filling fewer release slots overall.

That's just worse for everyone concerned and the presumption that these ships need to be held onto for the sake of loot box exclusivity is reflexive. Cryptic has already placed the original variants for most in the c-store via mudds and exposed them to the Event Campaign. They've tapped out whatever market exists for them, at high prices. So, refit and go lower market (which is at its literal content limit) to buff interest and find new customers for this content, following the interest/price point/time gradient a step further, without stepping on the original ships. Cryptic almost doesn't have anything else to work for the regular c-store unless they break core business practices with their other formats (ex. release new IP ships to the regular c-store) which adds a significant cost against those alternatives (as they're less able to optimize core pillars just to keep the ancillaries alive). That needs to be weighed against maxing out per-Freedom class sales because tradition.

Ergo, make new refits for spent loot box ships, sell them in c-store (there's no chance of seeing them any other way). Then, for those that do well (most likely FED but not exclusively), make legendary versions to revitalize that tapped-out format too. It's an option that doesn't exist now and won't exist under current practice. They preserve their core pillars while adding sales over ship's a lifespan and solving some pretty stark content problems.

Every other choice Cryptic has is one they've avoided. For example: selling new c-store ships without an existing place in the franchise, some might love that but with how assiduously modern Cryptic's avoided brand new c-store ships we can't bank on players flocking to them systemically. It's a case of trying something new or walking into bad choices, per their likely metrics, because nothing but routine can be envisioned. If that's what you've got for a Trek product, burn it down and start over (which if the regular c-store dies due to flagging engagement is a literal point to start making).