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OK. I'm getting fed up with the naked abject greed of people in the Exchange. I would rather spend real money getting something I want from the store than paying millions of in game credits for it. The time value is simply not there for me given I'm a very busy person in RL with a wife and kids and two companies I own. Moreover I have lots of disposal money to burn on things that fit my fancy such as STO. Shoot I have purchased everything in the store already to support you folks.
Consequently, I was wondering if since you folks are dead set on stocking the Store with lots of items that cant be earned in game as promised (yet) how about stocking it with something that can be earned in game such as BOs?
I was think you could have people select a race at the same price of a toon race, select its gender and then charge say 100 points for each level of rarity. It is a win/win for you and for the players. Hell it might even have the effect of lowering the astronomical prices of BOs in the exchange too boot!
I would really rather not buy credits from nefarious third parties if you know what I mean but I'm really getting frustrated not being able to get the bridge crew I want to RP.
Consequently, I was wondering if since you folks are dead set on stocking the Store with lots of items that cant be earned in game as promised (yet) how about stocking it with something that can be earned in game such as BOs?
I was think you could have people select a race at the same price of a toon race, select its gender and then charge say 100 points for each level of rarity. It is a win/win for you and for the players. Hell it might even have the effect of lowering the astronomical prices of BOs in the exchange too boot!
I would really rather not buy credits from nefarious third parties if you know what I mean but I'm really getting frustrated not being able to get the bridge crew I want to RP.
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Who is encouraging bad practices? As much as I dont like the idea of a store for a sub based game, As long as something is obtainable in game then I really dont see an issue (other than extravagant pricing model) with a shop to be frank. I say this as one of the biggest opponents against the store in the first place.
In short, putting stuff in the shop without a reasonable way to get said items in game, especially if they have a direct impact on game play, is a bad business model in my opinion. I think I have been pretty damn clear about that in many posts.
I'd even be willing to toss out 250 C Points for it (that i got for free with my preorder)
Untill that happens... Not gonna happen.
I would never post anything for an uber rediculous amount on the exchange. Even though I want the quick EC (everyone does) it's just plain unrealistic to expect someone to pay an ungoddly amount for something you could really use.
Even the heavy purp weapons in game are stupidly priced with even dumber individuals feeding this madness by paying for it.
It puts much into perspective. I would rather sell an item/BO for a reasonable price than to gouge the community because I think i need that much EC's.
I am forced to say if such a thing did hit the store I would have to purchase as well due to time being a factor and availability of the type I wanted.
It's silly little things of this nature that make the game a hassle, especially for low end chars grinding their way up. Granted at VA I have no problem getting EC's. Even with an abundance of such paying such a high amount is lunacy. I understand the time involved to earn such things...however fairness would be a pleasant change of pace. As it stands, I stopped going to the exchange all together.
More than three days now and no response from anyone at Cryptic. I guess they have no interest in the idea. :mad:
Sure. I do. Hell I work practically every day of the year. Strong work ethic - it builds character (and pays the bills)!
Anyway, factual quip aside, I'm one day ahead of you guys due to the international dateline and I dont know the cultural practices concerning federal holidays in the gaming industry in the States since I dont work in that industry. Moreover given I saw posts in other threads the past couple days, I figured the devs were "on the job" so to speak.
I would totally buy Very Rare Bridge Officers in the C-Store. Honestly, this might be something to get me to break my embargo and purchase some extra BO slots from the C-Store too. :rolleyes:
Precedent has set the price too, 240CP will get you the Borg BO and I believe she's considered VR (she has Superior/unusual Traits). Race, gender, traits, and career are all hard-wired in though, but this does unlock for all Fed characters on the account. (Another 240 gets her on your Klingon side.)
Allow me to pick race, gender, traits, and career, but keep it as a single-character only service. That would be a fair trade off, I think. But since the customization does make things more complicated and gives the player more power... Maybe even going as high as 300CP would be acceptable.
Skills could remain random, that's fine, I can change those in-game. But it would be nice if we could pick those too... Hmmm... If those were unlocked, 400CP would be ok.
So yeah, I'd open up the wallet and give Cryptic $5 of real world money for some pixels if I could buy a customized BO in the C-Store and save my time/effort of game play in coming up with millions of credits to buy off the exchange. $4M if I want a BO with Beam Overload III? $20M for Efficient Trait? Sheesh!!!
Sure, getting EC can be "easy" if you put time into it. But as the OP mentions, some of us don't have that time with Real Life, work, social calendars, etc. STO is a hobby for me (an addiciting, fun one, to be sure), and I put money into my hobbies. I would likely outfit my whole crew this way. That's $20. Per character... I have two "main" characters, and I've started two others... Hmmm... :eek: (Yeah, I'm ashamed to say, I'd probably do it, as least on those two mains.)
Should these CP-purchased BOs be in-game tradable? Hmmm.... Not sure about this one. If they were locked from trading, I wouldn't mind. I could see advantages, but I could think of abuses too. Thoughts?
While I agree with your overall position (I cant believe I'm typin' this...) I think $5 is an under valued amount given the importance of of BOs in game. I think BOs should be $10 or about half the price of the best- err.. most expensive ship in game for a BoA officer.
For none BoA officers the price should be at least $15 and people should be limited to say four max purchases per account.
This is so because at $5 or even $10 price ranges I can easily see people buying them and putting them on the AH for millions of credits as a way to fund a fleet starbase and other such endeavors should the devs include them in game.
Seriously though, they charge $6 now to unlock the Amazon Borg on all your Fed and Klingon characters. Why would I ever want to spend more than that on a single BO for a single character?
I'm not sure what you meant by "putting them on the AH for millions of credits" - but if you mean the exchange, that's why I mentioned about locking them from trade. I could get behind that and agree it that if they could be traded/sold they would be abused. Don't limit to four.
Maybe I want ground traited/skilled and space traited/skilled characters speparately. I should be allowed (and they'd want me) to buy as many BO as I'd like.
But just like the Amazon/C-Store Borg or the Holo Friend Referral BO, lock them to that one Captain and prevent trading/selling. Problem solved.
P.S. I get it - AH == Auction House == Exchange, right?
That is why I made a distinction between BoA and none BoA. The none BoA would be more expensive.
Additionally, the Amazon Borg is reasonably priced given you really have no customization options on it. So I would think having those options would be worth an additional three or four dollars. Also the price takes into account the different levels. Maybe a green one would be $5 and a white one $3 or something along those lines.
I think they should revamp the Exchange so that no item can be sold for more than three times it's established value.
Not that it really matters to me, if I want something I just go out and try to get it on my own. Or make do with something else.
Also, I'm not a greedy SOB so I always sell my extra, common stuff for half it's value and the fancy stuff is usually posted at least at a 20% discount.
I'm here to have fun, not make a pile of galactic credits.
I considered that but ultimately decided against it as a bad thing for the players. As I posted what I think should be done is a listing fee that is a percentage of the value listed. Then the person buying it would also pay a tax equal to the same percentage. Something like this would work well as a natural downward pressure devise.
Thank you ahead of time for any info.
From I have determined over the past six months, the price is based on the following things in order of general priority:
As far as any being "more powerful" that depends on your game play style as well as knowledge of abilities. Regarding your last question, sadly, I'm no where near an expert on the Eng play. I do only Tac. Maybe someone else can respond properly.
Some Abilities are only available from in-game BOs. Highly sought after examples include Beam Target Shields Subsystems III, Viral Matrix III, and Auxiliary to Structural III. For more check out the blue powers listed here:
http://stowiki.org/Bridge_officer_ability
I understand Escort pilots are quite fond of BTSS3.
Traits that I have noticed are desirable for your Away Team are Empathic (found on Betazoids, grants a healing bonus to every member of the Team), Telepathy (Trills/Vulcans, increases Expose chance/duration), Teamwork (Bolians/Humans, improves Team Exploit damage), Lucky (Many races, increased critical chance), etc. A common BO might have a Basic version of one of these granting a +2.5% buff, Uncommons give 5%, a rare BO might have a Superior version granting 7.5% buff. A very rare BO could have two Superior traits!
The biggest exception that I know to that rarity thing are Uncommon Saurians that have the Efficient Space Trait. And while the Amazon Borg BO, now available for purchase in the C-Store, is also Efficient, the "green" Saurian is the only in-game available BO that can be found with Efficiency, which is very popular. I could be wrong, but I think they're the most expensive BO on the Exchange. An Efficient BO assigned to your ship grants you +5 to all four Efficiency skills, which, among other things, increases your ships power levels (a little bit). For details on Efficiency, check out the Power Calculator thread in my signature. I happen to have the Amazon Borg and two Efficient Saurians, giving me +15 to my Efficiency Skills (alas, my Captain is not also Efficient, else I could have +25, lol). :cool:
All this being said, if there is a choice between a male/female version of a BO with the same stats, usually the female will cost more for reasons which should be obvious.
As to the in-game Borg Bridge Officer, yes there is one. I do not have this, so I don't know some of the details except to say you have to get the Liberated Accolade by getting killed in a special way during the Khitomer Accord STF Raid Mission. I also know he is a Science Officer and does not have Efficient trait.
Thanks again!
The name is color coded. The ranking system is the same as weapons. The difference is traits between them.
I just had an Awesome Idea!
How about having to travel to Catia to pick up Caitian recruits? Vulcan for Vulcans etc.
Orionis sector for liberated Borg Bo's
Don't know how this would C-Store, but it would be a fun addition to the immersion. Maybe have to visit that planets academy and see what recruits are available.
Either way please put level III BO powers in the trainers instead of making us do the trade thing.
It would be an interesting RP thing and maybe fun if implemented properly but it should be option methinks; otherwise it would merely a time sink.