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Please reevaluate the value of XP boosts
sonnikku
Member Posts: 77 Arc User
I've been farming Argala like crazy, but honestly, I'm tired of it. And I want to fill out the rest of my leveling with just quests. Now, I'm willing to pay for the privilege of not having to bang my head against the wall doing patrols, but when I saw the value of the paid xp boosts, I was left scratching my head. (20% more xp until you reach)
10k skill points for 975 zen?!?! That's insane! Argala is paying out that much per visit! Put another way, that's like forking over nearly $10 to save yourself the 5 minutes to do an Argala run. Who in these forums in their downright gizzard would buy these things? XD
Now I know what you're thinking. "But Sonikku, if you don't like it, don't buy it. And keep grinding." But I want to make Cryptic some money here. And they're just taking up space in the C Store. We could both win, but now that the xp rates have been skewed, it's probably time the paid XP boosts were adjusted accordingly. Unless of course these things are actually selling like hot cakes at present values and all you guys are scooping them up like crazy? :eek:
10k skill points for 975 zen?!?! That's insane! Argala is paying out that much per visit! Put another way, that's like forking over nearly $10 to save yourself the 5 minutes to do an Argala run. Who in these forums in their downright gizzard would buy these things? XD
Now I know what you're thinking. "But Sonikku, if you don't like it, don't buy it. And keep grinding." But I want to make Cryptic some money here. And they're just taking up space in the C Store. We could both win, but now that the xp rates have been skewed, it's probably time the paid XP boosts were adjusted accordingly. Unless of course these things are actually selling like hot cakes at present values and all you guys are scooping them up like crazy? :eek:
Post edited by sonnikku on
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In other words; just grind some more. Might better just up and remove the paid xp boosts from the store.
My pitch I've been making is:
Phase out lifetimes. Continuing to offer it discourages adding new value to it. Possibly phase out stipends for subs after a certain date instead of or in addition to the phaseout of lifetimes.
Triple XP for gold. (I've got math explaining why 3x skill/spec is comparable to hourly rate of progress in a subscription game. If you've played games like WoW, I don't think this should be too surprising as a number, although I also have an argument for boosting queue event XP on its own by a healthy amount as a side proposal.)
And... Adding to the pitch...
Introduce weekly gold subs for $4-5.
You could still get a month for $15 as a form of bulk discount. But increasing value for a sub increases the appeal of a more "bite-sized" sub as a gateway purchase.
$5 a week or $15 a month for triple XP. Seem worth it if you're a serious player?
But, ultimately - I prefer stuff to be useful, and so skill point boosters need a ... boost.
Neither the skill point threshold they stop working nor the percentage buff is noteworthy IMO.
Would the lifers have to also subscribe to get this? Not saying they should or shouldn't but it's a big change to the current model.
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
Joined January 2009
I agree.. I actually had some of the old 8 hour ones in my bank and used them when they raised the level cap.
If it were up to me, they'd just write that off and throw it into existing lifetime accounts because lifers are likely spenders. It's not like that thinking is totally alien to Cryptic since they did upgrade lockbox ship to ten console when fleet tier came out and made the T5U upgrade free for lockbox ships.
But they could alternatively just make a special "legacy lifer only" C-Store entry to get a month's worth of the bonus XP for 500 ZEN, so you choose between hanging onto your existing stipend or getting the bonus XP, each month.
That may be, but whatever poor value they "may" have been after that change became a god awful abysmal one after the skill points needed to level from 50-60 were increased dramatically. (They said content awarded proportionally more xp so there would be net no change, but the paid boosts weren't raised at all in proportion so Cryptic ended up devaluing their own c store item.) All I'm asking is for them to be brought back in line with what was appropriate relative to their worth before. I'm trying to make Cryptic money here but they aren't making it easy. They're basically leaving money on the table.
tl;dr: If you're going to dramatically increase the grind to make more money, be sure the buyable remedy actually remedies the grind.
The caps are part of what makes them an awful value with all the XP tinkering that's been done, especially since the caps on the boosters don't scale with level.
Yeah, that's a pretty sweet deal. I'd pay 500 for it. I wonder if something like this might be in the works later this spring. The only problem I see with it is that it amounts to an admission that exp is borked.
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
I'm honestly not sure if it is borked by pure F2P standards but it's definitely borked for anybody who's paying $15 a month, who I think should be getting a $15 a month game experience when they do sub.
The sub benefits aren't great anyway. You get 5$ worth of Zen and pay essentially 10$ for a lot of one-time things, like respecs. And while this is not directly linked to the xp boosters and other xp issues, it would be one point to increase the value.
THIS is an issue. As it currently is, the monthly sub is not worth it. You would be better off just getting $15 of Zen a month. They need to readjust to make the subs have more value.
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That was a 24 nerf that got reverted, I believe, to temporarily choke off gains during the exploit. Not that 6k for 975 ZEN is a good deal when you need 150k per commendation level.
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No one likes being stuck up at gunpoint. I have left two games that I'm sure some would call better than STO because the way they treated free players.
Having said that given a 2 mins search you also note excessive costs for bank and especially account bank slots.
Reduction of those would be a massive step towards extra cash flow.
There's two methods to apply incentive's to sub. One is to give them benefits like increased XP and other goodies, but there should always be a way for the non-sub to stay competitive without having to pay. Hence the boosters. If they were sellable on the exchange then they would sell like hot cakes for 8 game hrs, 20 game hrs and 40 game hrs. Prices would be aimed to be slightly higher than a sub for a month so have those at $3, $6 and $12 with a 3x bonus. The time is game time, NOT a timer that is always counting down. This way it doesn't force players to spend extra time ingame and yet gives them a reward for having spent some moolah.
Those are based on 4 hrs per session and up to 5 sessions per week.
Gold Subs work out at 3x bonus for $15 a month.
Lifers get same as Gold plus a lifer bonus of 10% instead of 5%.
Add a donation tier with KS style stretch goals that the Dev's and the Community come up with that are viable with enough value put into the fund. It would be similar to the monthly sub for Star Citizen which gives them the ability to do their Web shows and other PR work that connects directly with the community.
"You don't have to do something again and again and again repetitive that doesn't have much challange, that's just a general good gameplay thing."
I'm not being held at gunpoint to play STO. If you *are* being held at gunpoint then please try and call the police rather than post on this forum.
Maybe he can't, he's held at gunpoint? Should we call the police?
Genius.
They only nerfed the boost for 24 hours while investigating fast leveling. The value was reverted back.
However, they never adjusted it after increasing XP required per level (and boosting XP awarded from patrols).
Huh?
I'm not talking about eliminating lifers. I'm talking about not selling NEW LTSes past a certain point. Most hybrid games I'm aware of discontinued the LTS offer when they went F2P (discontinued selling new ones, people who already had it kept it) because as long as they offered new ones, they couldn't properly focus on making the sub option worthwhile.
I've been saying for awhile that I see it as a multi-step solution. The 300% boost for gold is part of the solution, not the whole solution and other balancing/boosts should be looked at, IMHO.
This is one for gold players. It doesn't mean that there should be none for free players. I would also be a fan of, for example, boosters that are accessible for dilithium or EC or crafting or drops or lockbox drops that generate the same boost and don't stack with a gold XP boost.
Just because I am suggesting a gold XP boost doesn't mean I don't think there shouldn't be some other options. The options are not mutually exclusive.
At the same time, I think it makes sense that it be baked into the $15 a month package as a passive option (regardless of whether it's available in other ways) because $15 should feel like $15 worth of value and because direct purchasing should be rewarded.
That doesn't mean free players or indirect purchasers should be punished but I think HOW you acquire things like XP boosts should be different.