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Custom Ship section in Cryptic Store

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
edited March 2010 in The Academy
Feedback on this idea welcome
Would you the subscibers use a system like this?

Just an idea to pass on to the marketing department.

What about putting into place a reverse downloadable section in the cryptic store, to be used as a customized ship server. The players would first pay to upload thier ship design (no more than one per account) and then any other member would pay for the download of that particular ship. as for worring about holding space on the host location of such uploads, a limit could be put in to hold a design no more than 1 month before it's purged or til it's been paid for. The idea of paid for would work as follows.

I upload a ship to the cyrptic store (insert site location) for say 200 cryptic poitns. Other users cycle through the store find they like the design. they download it for say 50 cryptic points of which I get credited 10 points (cryptic keeps the other 40, thereby making profit for holding the design) til 20 downloads of the design pass at which point my ship is kicked from the system (thus disallowing monopolies)

as for the downloaded customed ship; only one (or whatever cap is appropriate) slot for downloaded custom ships would be allowed (this ensures that they check back for more designs they might like better later to replace the previous)

I believe this system would be acceptable by the community as a whole because it allows for quick sharing of ones ideas and also allows for the person with no time (or possibly access to certain pieces) to just grab what they want (the capitalist ideal) It also allows for a revenue to help fund the service and company on the side and rewards it for allowing people to share thier creations.

Finally as for the Star Trek universe; it's a way to show constant minor upgrades that go into effect in any true ship class, as modern technologies become available and field testing is recieved. This also would allow for community feedback for "future" class designs that could be put in place for all players once they are accepted as a truely useful design amongst the fleet of the various factions by being incorporated into the game as a whole (thus freeing up the design department a bit from conceptual looks and ideas and instead focusing on the look and feel of things like weapons placements, engine effects, etc etc.)
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Well, it sounds good to me!
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    /signed for agreement:)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    While it sounds interesting I dont think this idea would fly past the IP holder since they wouldnt even llet the ability to change the color of your weapons stay in.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Nice idea!
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Do you really think Cryptic would allow someone to upload something that might contain a virus. Bet you,d be sceaming and shouting at them if the servers were crashed and data wiped becuase that had happened.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    scratch the money and cryptic store thing and i might even read the rest... :rolleyes:
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Agathu wrote: »
    While it sounds interesting I dont think this idea would fly past the IP holder since they wouldnt even llet the ability to change the color of your weapons stay in.

    The IP had nothing to do with it.

    Cryptic didnt like people not being able to use multi-coloured weapons. Thats it.

    "Oh blah blah, having multi-coloured weapons stops people being able to identify what they were being shot with'

    Similar to the argument of:

    ' Allowing players to upgrade lower tier ships would unbalance PVP because some players cant handle the idea of getting their butt kicked by a Miranda when they thought it was just some 'noob' '
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Kevscar wrote: »
    Do you really think Cryptic would allow someone to upload something that might contain a virus. Bet you,d be sceaming and shouting at them if the servers were crashed and data wiped becuase that had happened.

    You fail to understand the concept I believe

    1) It's using Cryptic's own ship customization that's in place
    you are Not creating skins and such in your home enviroment.
    sorry if that somehow confused you, or got your hopes up.

    2) you would be uploading (transfering really from a static data controled enviroment that never leaves Cryptics care) your in game designed ship to the Cyrptic store. Hence at what point are you going to enter a virus, since the data never travels beyond thier systems?

    Understand now?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Don't spread FUD. There would be no viruses in this system. If you don't understand how viruses work, don't act like you do. This is part of the modern day problem the world has with computer security. All the people who don't know anything about it, think they're experts.
    OniStorm wrote: »
    Understand now?
    Its not that he didn't understand. It would've taken a few seconds of real thought on the subject to conclude viruses are not an issue. He had an ulterior motive I'm sure. I suspect it's some kind of B trend again. THAT JPEG HAS VIRUSES!!

    If they opened up their customization options a little more, I could see this working out. Maybe not as a C-Store item though. Maybe a console system similar to the exchange could do this idea some justice. I don't see the value in sharing cryptic points with the user simply because they configured a ship. I doubt they'd ever have a 'profit' sharing system like that. It wouldn't be smart business.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    flowover wrote: »
    .I don't see the value in sharing cryptic points with the user simply because they configured a ship. I doubt they'd ever have a 'profit' sharing system like that. It wouldn't be smart business.

    It's not meant to be profit sharing, hence why you are only getting back the original 200 points you spent for uploading your idea, provided of course in the month it's in the store 20 people downloaded it. once it's "paid for" (given you back your initial investment) it's out of the store's storage, regardless of if the month has past or not.

    The system isn't designed for you the subscriber to make money. It's just a way for you to share something your proud of and hopefully get enough people to download to make you feel validated by being re-awarded with the points you spent to share (upload it and have it kept in the system for a month) it to begin with.

    This way the profit goes straight to the company. They literally are after all the designers of the system your using to make the ships, they are providing the service to hold the ship, transfer the ship and for others to use it. It is in all likelyhood that many people are actually going to design exactly the same ship design (after all a room full of monkeys with typewriters will eventually remake all the works of Shakespeare) and with this in mind is why there would be a month or 20 dowload limit of any one person's uploaded design. It allows for a feeling of accomplishment to the designer, allows no monopoly by one person and the only profits are being made by the company providing the service. The consumer meanwhile gets to buy say a design they might not have thought of or even have access to the parts yet normally. It's not like MMORPGs aren't all about the bling anyway right? l:p :D just kidding please put the phasers away....

    If you want a more detailed way as to how this would work here's an example

    you have 500 Cryptic points you have acchieved in game the ability to put on a new sauser section and nacelles on a miranda class starship. You desing it in game and then upload it to the store. This costs you 200 points. You don't loose your designed ship at all you made it you should keep it after all. However Bob also has managed to make exactly the same ship right down to your nacelles, he goes out of town for the weekend though.(god this is starting to sound like a math problem :p) Terry and Tony see your design in the store and have just started playing but think it would be cool to have to be different and to be seen flying togather, they download it. costing each of them 50 points a piece. You collect 20 points back and are now 180 points away from you ship being purged from the store. After another 18 downloads your ship is gone from the store archives and you have been paid back for your contribution and are feeling pretty good about your design, you have an idea for another but you won't be able to upload it without destorying your current one. (hence you have only one slot for a custom made ship slot on your account) but you decide you liked the design and find that the exact same design is available thanks to Bob who uploaded his upon returning home after his weekend away. This costs you 50 points (and takes up your one custom ship download slot on your account) but now you can design a whole new Galaxy class you have unlocked. Once again it costs you another 200 points and will be up on the store for 20 downloads or a months time whichever comes first.

    Tony meanwhile in game is asked where he found such a "cool" design by another captain some 2 weeks after he's been playing and he tells him to check the store. He does but this time it's bob's hey it looks the same so cool with that suscriber he gets what he wants and the three do alot of missions togather, looking like a designed squadron while they blast away at pirates. yeah everyone is happy.

    Meanwhile Cryptic has made 1040 points from you You have spent 50 points altogather
    200 your initial upload before uploading your 2nd design
    800 for the 20 uploads of your ship -200 to upload Miranda class
    40 from your download of Bob's ship -50 to download Bob's ship
    (10 of yours goes to Bob) +200 from the 20 uploads of your ship
    leaving you 450 points total


    You meanwhile have to wait a month (from the time of your first upload) before uploading your new design.

    This last system is in place to not overload the store's hosting function and to keep individual designs at a minimum. The universe would thereby stay constintly fresh and never bugged down with qoute "obsolete" designs


    To recount each account would also be limited to only having 2 custom ships ever at one time.
    1) being the slot that allows them to be able to upload thier custom desined ship slot
    2) being thier custom download ship slot NOTE: any new download over-writes the previous ship.

    No parts from a downloaded ship parts would be available for the custom made ship slot of that account either unless the account had already unlocked them. Hence no free modification parts via buying.


    Editor's Note: not sure if you could make it where the downloadable ship was only usuable after the captain unlocked that tier ship Personally I think if it wasn't too much trouble linking what was available for them to "purchase" to that Captain would be a nice logical idea, but not sure of the amount of programing and space requirements to do that on a per account basis that it would be feasible. If not maybe they could use it like a base for hard points and tech it out with thier own stuff. In which case I'd make the class/tier of each ship a set cost to download and not a standard 50 points accross the board. Say 500 for a tier 3 or 4 and maybe 1000 or more for a tier 5 costume ship.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Who exactly do you think would actually pay real money for this?

    I can think of three groups: the grotesquely lazy, the impossibly stupid and the outrageously wealthy.

    Paying for the honor of not customizing your own ship? For most ship types there are only ~75 possible combinations of Saucer, Hull, Nacelels and Pylons. Most of which folks will never look at since they generally find a hull or saucer they like, and work from there. There are a bunch more options to go through when you take into consideration material and color patterns, but it takes so little time to cycle through them all that I can not imagine anyone paying actual money for this "product".

    A better idea is to allow ship and Alien species enthusiasts the ability to share their configurations in-game. Perhaps by making the Config an inventory item and allowing it to be sent or sold on the Exchange (of course selling on the exchange for anything except a pittance would be pointless since once a single other person had the file they could just copy it and sell/distribute thier own...). Perhaps this sort of interaction could be a vehicle for socialization through Bulletin Boards in public areas where interested parties could peruse the various looks.

    So to sum up: I agree that sharing ship/alien configs would be a good thing. Selling them on the C-Store? Not so much.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    I dont think this will fly. However it could lead to them opening up the current ship customizing system and allowing more detailed customizations. Possibly even a way to save off your customizations and share them with other players.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Keshay wrote: »
    Who exactly do you think would actually pay real money for this?

    A better idea is to allow ship and Alien species enthusiasts the ability to share their configurations in-game. Perhaps by making the Config an inventory item and allowing it to be sent or sold on the Exchange (of course selling on the exchange for anything except a pittance would be pointless since once a single other person had the file they could just copy it and sell/distribute thier own...). Perhaps this sort of interaction could be a vehicle for socialization through Bulletin Boards in public areas where interested parties could peruse the various looks.

    So to sum up: I agree that sharing ship/alien configs would be a good thing. Selling them on the C-Store? Not so much.

    and you expect the company to just be able to give you this and be able to afford this? Do you have any idea of the amount or programming, data, server space and lag to just give you a free place to modify and keep your wants and desires amongst how many tens or thousands of users. Let alone if they are lucky enough to get into the millions of subscribers. Have you not noticed that most small companies out in the MMORPG market have gone to item store to keep afloat or turn a overtly blind eye to off world (redal world) marketing and sale of thier in game products.

    A company needs capital to stay afloat, pay for expansion, more servers, developers, story board writers and artists, content, etc etc. Nothing in this world or any for that matter is free. Stop looking for handouts and be a true supporter of not just the game and universe you love but to the people and company behind it. Is that too much to ask. If so then maybe you need to look at your priorities and instead of looking for freebes, look for a way to change the world to where everything is free to everyone. Do that and we'll have a real life Trek world. :D
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Delusions of Grandeur going on here. Like it has been stated. Each ship has maybe 75 different configurations at most. People wouldn't pay money to not customize their ship, when there aren't that many differences. Besides, you can do it yourself anyways and it's alot more fun that way. CStore should be reserved for especially special items. Like new ship parts or new races. Something you can't get without it.

    I imagine a lot of people would just screenshot what they see in the ship configuration store you're proposing, and easily recreate it on their own. No sense paying money when free is easy!

    The time spent making this system would out weigh any kind of monetary value it would give. A better solution would just let players share their configurations in an exchange'esqe shop. I don't think you understand that the systems and servers are already paid for and developed. Making a new exchange for ship designs probably wouldn't be so impossible as you think.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Good parts from this discussion: An ability to show off what you've done with the character creator or ship creator in general (ala Champions Online's current setup).

    Bad parts from this discussion: Paying for the privledge.

    I'd love to see the Web team do a full ship customization deal (showing what parts were used and what colors), and a somewhat more limited version (given the range of options) for captains (and possibly bridge officers) that you could opt-in on. But, only if they feel they have the time for something like that admidst any other additions to the website.

    But, paying for it? And the specific method suggested? I lolz at.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2010
    Wouldn.t it be easier just to ask cryptic for the ability to stretch and/or distort the different sections of the ship an extended list of materials and colour options.
    If you a really such an egotist that you want people to go oh wow you are fantastic post a JPG on these forums.
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