this is clearly gambling with real money. I wonder how many gambling laws are being violated here. sound like its time to pull the plug on this. I am tired of wasting money.
Actually, there are no gambling laws being broken. Contrary to what the armchair QQ crowd may want to say, legally this is not gambling. The R&D pack is a regular item, that has a regular price. For a limited time you may get a bonus, however you are still guarenteed the regular reward. Ergo by law its not gambling.
It may be risky yes, its not certain sure. But under the definition of gambling (at least as per US law, which is the one that matters here) its not gambling.
You however are welcome to stop paying money at anytime.
Actually, there are no gambling laws being broken.
Yep. Most Asian countries have very strict gambling laws. These formulas that the Chinese and Koreans use in all their F2P games specifically take these into account.
Did you expect to pull one from just a dozen boxes? The drop rate is something like .1%. You'd have to be EXTREMELY lucky to get one from 12 boxes.
.....I only bought one 4 pack R & D and got the ship on the third box.....So I guess I'm on the EXTREMELY lucky list....Fun Fact: I've opened over 800 lockboxes and never got any of the ships, so my luck is that bad.
Lucky both you. I did 4 packs total with what zen I had collected up. I know I'll prob end up dropping enough to do another 4 or so packs before the end of the deal. It seems there dropping with all the freaking emits for them. Just not for those that actually want them with some decent luck
Now I'm just waiting for some one to post they got 2 on there first box.
I bought on the 11/12/2014 2 x 5300 zen, Which I bought 42 R'n'D Boxes in total and I didn't get ONCE a "ELACHI DREADNOUGHT CRUISER" out of 42 boxes.
I wasn't interested in the Crafting materials from the R'n'D Boxes only to get a "Elachi Dreadnought Cruiser".
Considering it only cost 2500 zen to get a ship or a Bundle i.e 5000 zen for a Multi - mission Vesta Bundle or 10,000 zen Dyson Science Destroyer Bundle from C-Store.
I feel I was ripped off or this may just been a glitch in the promotion event.
I am Disgusted how this event happened, even my friends can't believe how many R'n'D boxes I got.
I do play many of your other games too, I Have subscription on Star trek online.
I love STO very much it's a great game and I very rarely complain about game issues.
I have been with PWE since 27/08/2009.
I bought on the 11/12/2014 2 x 5300 zen, Which I bought 42 R'n'D Boxes in total and I didn't get ONCE a "ELACHI DREADNOUGHT CRUISER" out of 42 boxes.
I wasn't interested in the Crafting materials from the R'n'D Boxes only to get a "Elachi Dreadnought Cruiser".
Considering it only cost 2500 zen to get a ship or a Bundle i.e 5000 zen for a Multi - mission Vesta Bundle or 10,000 zen Dyson Science Destroyer Bundle from C-Store.
I feel I was ripped off or this may just been a glitch in the promotion event.
I am Disgusted how this event happened, even my friends can't believe how many R'n'D boxes I got.
I do play many of your other games too, I Have subscription on Star trek online.
I love STO very much it's a great game and I very rarely complain about game issues.
I have been with PWE since 27/08/2009.
I bought on the 11/12/2014 2 x 5300 zen, Which I bought 42 R'n'D Boxes in total and I didn't get ONCE a "ELACHI DREADNOUGHT CRUISER" out of 42 boxes.
I wasn't interested in the Crafting materials from the R'n'D Boxes only to get a "Elachi Dreadnought Cruiser".
....
I hope this can be resolved
Sell the Accelerators, Catalysts, VR materials, Rare materials + components, and some Lobi Special Boxes, and you probably have enough EC to buy a lockbox ship (if not the Sheshar). That should resolve your issue.
I wasn't interested in the Crafting materials from the R'n'D Boxes only to get a "Elachi Dreadnought Cruiser".
Then you should of sold the boxes as others said. You woul dhave had under 420mil if you had at the prices early on in the promotion, which would be enough to buy the ship as more are won and prices start to drop.
They are sold as R&D packs, this promotion just adds a bonus to the box in the form of lobi every time or the rare chance of the ship. When I feel like buying the boxes it is for the mats only, anything else is a bonus. If you weren't interested in the contents then you shouldn't have bought the boxes.
I feel I was ripped off or this may just been a glitch in the promotion event.
You only feel ripped off, but you weren't. Nowehere does it say you will get the ship but that there is a chance. That chance is small and there is no glitch as others are getting it.
"No offense, but your mistake. You could have sold each of those 42 boxes (or purchased lockbox keys to sell instead) on the exchange, which probably would have given a return of sufficent EC to simply purchase the ship from the exchange - a GUARANTEED method of obtaining it as oposed to playing the gambling game."
Oh really sunshine.Take the stuff you got and sell it on the exchange. Well that's not happening any more. Thanks to all the mess of season 9.5 and now season 10 caused with the exchanges you now have none that can be obtained threw this manner. On Friday the 12 of December, 2014 there were 12 to 17 of these ship for sale. By Saturday morning they were all gone. These items are now in the hands of whoever or whomever runs 3rd party sight of Divine Treasury.com.( i took a look and they showed up there). They scooped all for them up for between 500 and 479 million each and that's, that.
Thanks season 9.5 and 10 for messing up the economy of the game so badly that very few of these are opened and every fewer make it to the exchange. Also thanks for making it so that sites like that can make profit by reselling them to you at $175 USD each. Bet they were did not cost that much to get form pwe\cryptic for the get-go.
I'm about $300 in so far, really thinking about quitting and charging back my paypal account. I've been playing about 2 months, I'm capped, geared in mkiv. I've played mmo's before and they're simple, rush to cap and enjoy the endgame. Well this game has no endgame. We've been playing the same damn endgame since level 45. Compared to most other games out there the endgame is a joke. People that play other games laugh at this one, and really I'm fu**ing bored. I'll put 50 more into getting this ship, which I'm almost at the point of not caring anymore. If I get it I'll play a bit longer, if not I'm quitting. I already cancelled my registration.
My sincere condolences to players that have lost so much money on these things. I myself know what that sting feels like.
LOCKBOXES are DESIGNED to LURE in the unsuspecting and preys on those desperate and hopeful enough to "try their luck". Its legalized gambling in its worst form and in my moral barometer ranks pretty low. The moral compass of temping people with these things is sickening.
But is it not supposed to be a businesses interests to make as much money as they can?! You might argue.
Gee let me see. When EVERY SINGLE THING in the game is premised on TRIBBLE one over I'm all for saying drop this game like the plague and find something more enjoyable to invest yourself in. How many times have you paid to upgrade something already sold to you?
Clearly this game's developers have long ago lost their concept of designing a game based on passion.
Only their greed shines through!! Obstinate, uncompromising, lust for the all important dollar.. I'd be willing to compromise was there a clear indication that the revenue of these sales were going back into the game, but clearly its not. What passes for "content" in Cryptic's mind is player sponsored RL money drain projects of ABSOLUTELY zero story.
The fact that they just upped all the difficulty across the board in this fail of a update, goes to show you that by hook-or-crook, carrot-or-stick, they will force players to spend money TO BE ABLE to play.
For those still desperate for these ships. Wait a while. I seriously doubt you will be needing them.
I'm about $300 in so far, really thinking about quitting and charging back my paypal account. [snip] I'll put 50 more into getting this ship, which I'm almost at the point of not caring anymore.
The last 4 messages in this thread have been about more reliable ways to get the ship. Going by previous events (lockboxes and the bug promos), you have less than 1% chance of getting the ship per R&D box you open. Why are you doing this?
Players shouldn't have to spend 300+$ to get an item in an online game. Just saying, if they want to keep their customers. Which I will not be if the next 20 fail. If you haven't noticed on the exchange r&d boxes are less than 2mil, ships going for 650. When event ends the box price will go up but so will the ship. I'd have to sell 300 or more boxes .
Players shouldn't have to spend 300+$ to get an item in an online game. Just saying, if they want to keep their customers. Which I will not be if the next 20 fail. If you haven't noticed on the exchange r&d boxes are less than 2mil, ships going for 650. When event ends the box price will go up but so will the ship. I'd have to sell 300 or more boxes .
They shouldn't have to spend 300+ bucks to get a ship, I agree. Though sadly, so long as people like you are willing to throw that kind of money at the game on a chance, they wont stop using this kind of system.
At the end of the day, you're complaining but they've already got $300+ from you so why should they care? Before F2P that kind of income would have taken them about a year and a half to garner from you with a monthly sub fee.
Join date is wrong, I've actually been around since STO Beta.
True alters don't have a "main". Account wide unlocks for all unique event rewards!!
True that, their "promotions" or "scam" as I'd call it are really harsh on the players. This is my first event like this, and it started with 5000 zen, fifty bucks. That didn't go, so I kept throwing tens at it and it never came, now I'm deep in and realizing how much I dislike the game along with their marketing, I no longer want to play. This is why when I get off work I'll be talking with paypal.
True that, their "promotions" or "scam" as I'd call it are really harsh on the players. This is my first event like this, and it started with 5000 zen, fifty bucks. That didn't go, so I kept throwing tens at it and it never came, now I'm deep in and realizing how much I dislike the game along with their marketing, I no longer want to play. This is why when I get off work I'll be talking with paypal.
That's your fault not Cryptics, in the same way it would be your fault if you put all that money into a fruit machine. I was against these things from the start but it has proven to be very successful and brings in a shed load of money to the game, so they will be staying.
In this case you are buying the R&D boxes and you should be buying them for what they are, the ship is a possible and very low chance bonus, the lobi you get are also a bonus. This means they are not a scam as you are getting what you have paid for R&D mats, they do not promise that you will get the ship.
If I remember rightly, making these promotional ships hard to get is the only reason they can put them in the game at all.
All they have to show is you got what you paid for, which you did as you got the R&D mats, and Paypal will not refund your money.
If you "just want the ship" its almost always better to sell keys/boxes and buy it from the exchange.
In case of the sheshar, assuming 9mil per box and ship cost of 600mil, you need to sell ~67 boxes which means 17 4-packs aka 17k zen which is propably much less than what some ppl put in.
Me personally, I always get a fixed small number of boxes for the fun of opening them and if that fails I go for either buying one for ec or forget about the ship.
Its well known how boxes work and how low the chances are.
Just opening box after box after box is like going in a casino, betting everything on roulette and expecting to get lucky enough to win and buy the casino
True that, their "promotions" or "scam" as I'd call it are really harsh on the players. This is my first event like this, and it started with 5000 zen, fifty bucks. That didn't go, so I kept throwing tens at it and it never came, now I'm deep in and realizing how much I dislike the game along with their marketing, I no longer want to play. This is why when I get off work I'll be talking with paypal.
Just remember that you'll get banned if you try to reverse the payment.
The formidable Elachi Sheshar Dreadnought Cruiser swoops into battle! For a limited time only you have a chance at winning this brand new ship every time you open a Research and Development pack! Now's your chance Captains! This promotion lasts from December 11th to January 5th at 10am PST.
I've played Ultima Online for 17+ years and just started playing Star Trek Online, so I thought I would give it a try since it was a Holiday promotion and in "UO" Holiday promotions were to make players happy and give them a "Fair Chance" at something rare. Well I NEVER thought I would be scammed like this by a gaming company!!!!
Quantity: 10,600 ZEN
Unit Price: $ 100.00
Quantity: 10,600 ZEN
Unit Price: $ 100.00
$200 = 21,200Z
1,000Z = 4 Research and Development Material Packs
84 Research and Development Material Packs = ZERO Elachi Sheshar Dreadnought Cruiser
I've played Ultima Online for 17+ years and just started playing Star Trek Online, so I thought I would give it a try since it was a Holiday promotion and in "UO" Holiday promotions were to make players happy and give them a "Fair Chance" at something rare. Well I NEVER thought I would be scammed like this by a gaming company!!!!
Quantity: 10,600 ZEN
Unit Price: $ 100.00
Quantity: 10,600 ZEN
Unit Price: $ 100.00
$200 = 21,200Z
1,000Z = 4 Research and Development Material Packs
84 Research and Development Material Packs = ZERO Elachi Sheshar Dreadnought Cruiser
Really
You got what you paid for the R&D mats, you also got 840 lobi. The ship has an extremely low chance. It was never promised. Therefore not a scam. Just because another games does promotions in a certain way does not mean others will.
If you had sold those packs at 9,000,000 each then you would have made around 765,000,000 so would have been able to buy the ship and still have change.
Lockboxes, Upgrading gear, etc. have outcomes dictated by random number generators. Basically you are playing slots. And in any form of gambling... the house always wins!
Unless you spend enough...
Strange game.
The only winning move is not to play.
How about a nice game of chess?
--- Wargames
-AoP- Warrior's Blood (KDF Armada) / -AoP- Qu' raD qulbo'Degh / -AoP- ProjectPhoenix Join Date: Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Lockboxes, Upgrading gear, etc. have outcomes dictated by random number generators. Basically you are playing slots. And in any form of gambling... the house always wins!
Players shouldn't have to spend 300+$ to get an item in an online game. Just saying, if they want to keep their customers. Which I will not be if the next 20 fail. If you haven't noticed on the exchange r&d boxes are less than 2mil, ships going for 650. When event ends the box price will go up but so will the ship. I'd have to sell 300 or more boxes .
Been selling mine for around 8 - 8.5 mill with no problems. the first night of the release I got my ship on the 12th box click. I have a friend that got his on his 3rd click so it is totally random.
I've played Ultima Online for 17+ years and just started playing Star Trek Online, so I thought I would give it a try since it was a Holiday promotion and in "UO" Holiday promotions were to make players happy and give them a "Fair Chance" at something rare. Well I NEVER thought I would be scammed like this by a gaming company!!!!
Quantity: 10,600 ZEN
Unit Price: $ 100.00
Quantity: 10,600 ZEN
Unit Price: $ 100.00
$200 = 21,200Z
1,000Z = 4 Research and Development Material Packs
84 Research and Development Material Packs = ZERO Elachi Sheshar Dreadnought Cruiser
Really
I have an active Ultima Online account that is just as old as yours. My main char is on Napa Valley but I rarely play even though it is active. All MMO's actually have that game to thank since it is the grand daddy that started it all. The one thing that always irritated me though was the how many bugs it was plagued with.
On the research packs you need to remember that the ships is meant simply as a rare bonus. what your paying for as the title infers is "research and development" materials. With the Lobi you got at least you should be able to buy a nice ship from the Lobi store.
They shouldn't have to spend 300+ bucks to get a ship
lol, says who? you make it sound like that's a golden rule. It's a matter of perspective; to you it's not worth it. to me I would have spent that much money on this Elachi ship even though I got mine on the 12th click. I've only been playing since November and have spent a ton of money on this game. I would have spent more if I had not hit the Zen buying wall limit on both ARC and Steam. I even had Valve call me because I had spent so much. And you know what I regret none of it because I have had a good time.
If you want to see expensive ships check Star Citizen out where they can go upwards of 2500.00 and sell out in seconds not minutes.
The Elachi ship though should be a low chance to get because it is one power house of a ship.
lol, says who? you make it sound like that's a golden rule. It's a matter of perspective; to you it's not worth it. to me I would have spent that much money on this Elachi ship even though I got mine on the 12th click. I've only been playing since November and have spent a ton of money on this game. I would have spent more if I had not hit the Zen buying wall limit on both ARC and Steam. I even had Valve call me because I had spent so much. And you know what I regret none of it because I have had a good time.
If you want to see expensive ships check Star Citizen out where they can go upwards of 2500.00 and sell out in seconds not minutes.
The Elachi ship though should be a low chance to get because it is one power house of a ship.
Way to quote part of my post from weeks ago and take it so out of context.
Join date is wrong, I've actually been around since STO Beta.
True alters don't have a "main". Account wide unlocks for all unique event rewards!!
Comments
Actually, there are no gambling laws being broken. Contrary to what the armchair QQ crowd may want to say, legally this is not gambling. The R&D pack is a regular item, that has a regular price. For a limited time you may get a bonus, however you are still guarenteed the regular reward. Ergo by law its not gambling.
It may be risky yes, its not certain sure. But under the definition of gambling (at least as per US law, which is the one that matters here) its not gambling.
You however are welcome to stop paying money at anytime.
Yep. Most Asian countries have very strict gambling laws. These formulas that the Chinese and Koreans use in all their F2P games specifically take these into account.
I am in full agreement with this post.
.....I only bought one 4 pack R & D and got the ship on the third box.....So I guess I'm on the EXTREMELY lucky list....Fun Fact: I've opened over 800 lockboxes and never got any of the ships, so my luck is that bad.
PS. GOOD LUCK TO ALL
Now I'm just waiting for some one to post they got 2 on there first box.
ol
I wasn't interested in the Crafting materials from the R'n'D Boxes only to get a "Elachi Dreadnought Cruiser".
Considering it only cost 2500 zen to get a ship or a Bundle i.e 5000 zen for a Multi - mission Vesta Bundle or 10,000 zen Dyson Science Destroyer Bundle from C-Store.
I feel I was ripped off or this may just been a glitch in the promotion event.
I am Disgusted how this event happened, even my friends can't believe how many R'n'D boxes I got.
I do play many of your other games too, I Have subscription on Star trek online.
I love STO very much it's a great game and I very rarely complain about game issues.
I have been with PWE since 27/08/2009.
I hope this can be resolved
nothing will happen dude.
Sell the Accelerators, Catalysts, VR materials, Rare materials + components, and some Lobi Special Boxes, and you probably have enough EC to buy a lockbox ship (if not the Sheshar). That should resolve your issue.
Then you should of sold the boxes as others said. You woul dhave had under 420mil if you had at the prices early on in the promotion, which would be enough to buy the ship as more are won and prices start to drop.
They are sold as R&D packs, this promotion just adds a bonus to the box in the form of lobi every time or the rare chance of the ship. When I feel like buying the boxes it is for the mats only, anything else is a bonus. If you weren't interested in the contents then you shouldn't have bought the boxes.
You only feel ripped off, but you weren't. Nowehere does it say you will get the ship but that there is a chance. That chance is small and there is no glitch as others are getting it.
Oh really sunshine.Take the stuff you got and sell it on the exchange. Well that's not happening any more. Thanks to all the mess of season 9.5 and now season 10 caused with the exchanges you now have none that can be obtained threw this manner. On Friday the 12 of December, 2014 there were 12 to 17 of these ship for sale. By Saturday morning they were all gone. These items are now in the hands of whoever or whomever runs 3rd party sight of Divine Treasury.com.( i took a look and they showed up there). They scooped all for them up for between 500 and 479 million each and that's, that.
Thanks season 9.5 and 10 for messing up the economy of the game so badly that very few of these are opened and every fewer make it to the exchange. Also thanks for making it so that sites like that can make profit by reselling them to you at $175 USD each. Bet they were did not cost that much to get form pwe\cryptic for the get-go.
Don't feed trolls. Especially poorly done ones.
LOCKBOXES are DESIGNED to LURE in the unsuspecting and preys on those desperate and hopeful enough to "try their luck". Its legalized gambling in its worst form and in my moral barometer ranks pretty low. The moral compass of temping people with these things is sickening.
But is it not supposed to be a businesses interests to make as much money as they can?! You might argue.
Gee let me see. When EVERY SINGLE THING in the game is premised on TRIBBLE one over I'm all for saying drop this game like the plague and find something more enjoyable to invest yourself in. How many times have you paid to upgrade something already sold to you?
Clearly this game's developers have long ago lost their concept of designing a game based on passion.
Only their greed shines through!! Obstinate, uncompromising, lust for the all important dollar.. I'd be willing to compromise was there a clear indication that the revenue of these sales were going back into the game, but clearly its not. What passes for "content" in Cryptic's mind is player sponsored RL money drain projects of ABSOLUTELY zero story.
The fact that they just upped all the difficulty across the board in this fail of a update, goes to show you that by hook-or-crook, carrot-or-stick, they will force players to spend money TO BE ABLE to play.
For those still desperate for these ships. Wait a while. I seriously doubt you will be needing them.
The last 4 messages in this thread have been about more reliable ways to get the ship. Going by previous events (lockboxes and the bug promos), you have less than 1% chance of getting the ship per R&D box you open. Why are you doing this?
They shouldn't have to spend 300+ bucks to get a ship, I agree. Though sadly, so long as people like you are willing to throw that kind of money at the game on a chance, they wont stop using this kind of system.
At the end of the day, you're complaining but they've already got $300+ from you so why should they care? Before F2P that kind of income would have taken them about a year and a half to garner from you with a monthly sub fee.
That's your fault not Cryptics, in the same way it would be your fault if you put all that money into a fruit machine. I was against these things from the start but it has proven to be very successful and brings in a shed load of money to the game, so they will be staying.
In this case you are buying the R&D boxes and you should be buying them for what they are, the ship is a possible and very low chance bonus, the lobi you get are also a bonus. This means they are not a scam as you are getting what you have paid for R&D mats, they do not promise that you will get the ship.
If I remember rightly, making these promotional ships hard to get is the only reason they can put them in the game at all.
All they have to show is you got what you paid for, which you did as you got the R&D mats, and Paypal will not refund your money.
If you "just want the ship" its almost always better to sell keys/boxes and buy it from the exchange.
In case of the sheshar, assuming 9mil per box and ship cost of 600mil, you need to sell ~67 boxes which means 17 4-packs aka 17k zen which is propably much less than what some ppl put in.
Me personally, I always get a fixed small number of boxes for the fun of opening them and if that fails I go for either buying one for ec or forget about the ship.
Its well known how boxes work and how low the chances are.
Just opening box after box after box is like going in a casino, betting everything on roulette and expecting to get lucky enough to win and buy the casino
My character Tsin'xing
I've played Ultima Online for 17+ years and just started playing Star Trek Online, so I thought I would give it a try since it was a Holiday promotion and in "UO" Holiday promotions were to make players happy and give them a "Fair Chance" at something rare. Well I NEVER thought I would be scammed like this by a gaming company!!!!
Quantity: 10,600 ZEN
Unit Price: $ 100.00
Quantity: 10,600 ZEN
Unit Price: $ 100.00
$200 = 21,200Z
1,000Z = 4 Research and Development Material Packs
84 Research and Development Material Packs = ZERO Elachi Sheshar Dreadnought Cruiser
You got what you paid for the R&D mats, you also got 840 lobi. The ship has an extremely low chance. It was never promised. Therefore not a scam. Just because another games does promotions in a certain way does not mean others will.
If you had sold those packs at 9,000,000 each then you would have made around 765,000,000 so would have been able to buy the ship and still have change.
Unless you spend enough...
Strange game.
The only winning move is not to play.
How about a nice game of chess?
--- Wargames
Join Date: Tuesday, February 2, 2010
My character Tsin'xing
Been selling mine for around 8 - 8.5 mill with no problems. the first night of the release I got my ship on the 12th box click. I have a friend that got his on his 3rd click so it is totally random.
I have an active Ultima Online account that is just as old as yours. My main char is on Napa Valley but I rarely play even though it is active. All MMO's actually have that game to thank since it is the grand daddy that started it all. The one thing that always irritated me though was the how many bugs it was plagued with.
On the research packs you need to remember that the ships is meant simply as a rare bonus. what your paying for as the title infers is "research and development" materials. With the Lobi you got at least you should be able to buy a nice ship from the Lobi store.
lol, says who? you make it sound like that's a golden rule. It's a matter of perspective; to you it's not worth it. to me I would have spent that much money on this Elachi ship even though I got mine on the 12th click. I've only been playing since November and have spent a ton of money on this game. I would have spent more if I had not hit the Zen buying wall limit on both ARC and Steam. I even had Valve call me because I had spent so much. And you know what I regret none of it because I have had a good time.
If you want to see expensive ships check Star Citizen out where they can go upwards of 2500.00 and sell out in seconds not minutes.
The Elachi ship though should be a low chance to get because it is one power house of a ship.
Way to quote part of my post from weeks ago and take it so out of context.