It's been kind of annoying getting the smalls out of lock boxes.
Then again, let's take a look at the other boosts for sale, yeah?
Commendation (Large) 800 Zen for 20% up to 10,000 CXP.
Commendation (Small) 200 Zen for 20% up to 2,000 CXP.
XP (Large) 975 Zen for 20% up to 10,000 SP.
XP (Small) 200 Zen for 20% up to 3,000 SP. (Is that a typo or is it actually 3k instead of 2k?)
So they're adding...
R&D (Large) 800 Zen for 20% up to 10,000 RP.
R&D (Small) 200 Zen for 20% up to 2,000 RP.
And what? Lol, c'mon...I can't see why folks are getting all antagonistic over this. I mean, personally, I always thought it was a case that PWE told Cryptic they had to put in some boosts...but Cryptic thought boosts were stupid, so they made the most ridiculous boosts and priced them at insane costs so nobody would touch them. They could turn to PWE and say, "Well, we put them in - not sure why nobody's buying them." Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.
10 000 XP = 1.5 Research Projects
You can instantly complete those 1.5 research projects for 1.5x18k=27k Di.
27k Di = 170 Zen at current exchange rates.
Question: why would I pay 800 Zen when I can get same result with 170 Zen?
10 000 XP = 1.5 Research Projects
You can instantly complete those 1.5 research projects for 1.5x18k=27k Di.
27k Di = 170 Zen at current exchange rates.
Question: why would I pay 800 Zen when I can get same result with 170 Zen?
And if you are finishing now you are over 50% better off actually crafting items rather than doing dailies... So in effect the same progress can be made for less than 100Z...
And some ppl had hope that with the new boss thing were going to change.. LOL
Nice trolling cryptic
this had nothing to do with Ricossa, but one of D'Angelo's. figures someone would misplace the blame early. we wont see any of Ricossa's own mistakes until some point next year when D'Angelo's plans have ran their course.
as for the XP boosters, i dont care.
T6 Miranda Hero Ship FTW. Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
And what? Lol, c'mon...I can't see why folks are getting all antagonistic over this. I mean, personally, I always thought it was a case that PWE told Cryptic they had to put in some boosts...but Cryptic thought boosts were stupid, so they made the most ridiculous boosts and priced them at insane costs so nobody would touch them. They could turn to PWE and say, "Well, we put them in - not sure why nobody's buying them." Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.
10 000 XP = 1.5 Research Projects
You can instantly complete those 1.5 research projects for 1.5x18k=27k Di.
27k Di = 170 Zen at current exchange rates.
Question: why would I pay 800 Zen when I can get same result with 170 Zen?
When you look at it this way it does add plausibility to Virusdancers theory
10 000 XP = 1.5 Research Projects
You can instantly complete those 1.5 research projects for 1.5x18k=27k Di.
27k Di = 170 Zen at current exchange rates.
Question: why would I pay 800 Zen when I can get same result with 170 Zen?
5 things
1. You sir, get the top marks for the maths. Well reasoned, well spotted, and well articulated. I tip my hat, sir, I tip my hat.
2. This illustrates to me why a dili/zen exchange has always been stupid (and multiple currencies in general when there are conversion points) because the requirement to keep these kinds of prices in check not only requires cross checking all features across all costs as a basic component but as the dilithium to zen price fluctuates, how on earth can anything then be valuated with consistency? I know that posture is unpopular, but I've never liked any of the 'play for free with other peoples money' aspects of F2P, I acknowledge my bias.
3. It further illustrates to me where whomever is making pricing decisions needs to revisit the concept of _micro_ transactions as a basic business concept. Ever since this model came to the west, micro has apparently meant 20 to 30 bucks (not an exclusively Cryptic phenomena) rather than piece meal across many 1-2 dollar transactions, and no, a buck twenty-five for a single random output lockbox key doesn't count. This business model has been diseased in this format from day one.
4. Boosts, of any kind, in any game, are a point of expenditure I will _never_ spend money on. Ever. If a boost comes as a side benefit of some package of services, fine (like a sub bonus), but there is never a case where I feel it's a worthwhile investment. Having them in your model, at all, is the truest form of cash grab because it promotes deliberately hobbling intelligent content progression breaking the game structures just to promote an expenditure point. I have no doubt much of the angst over the DR leveling changes (which I personally do not share, but understand the point at least) are directly attributable to this kind of logic at work. Boosts not only promote that kind of broken approach, like a steep R&D leveling curve only to now boost it, but try to encourage a consumable purchase to exhaust playtime faster; spend now, to play less, and the less you play, the more we made from you.
5. Taking bets on how fast your news item spreads and then rapidly evokes a change in pricing/implementation of the R&D system. Not to be negative, but this store item was just ridiculously ill-advised. Maybe virusdancer's theory is dead on (and i'm awed I may be agreeing with him o.O ).
"The only thing mankind learns from the study of history is that mankind does not learn from the study of history." ~G. Santayana
Well, this is not mandatory to use, so it doesn't really affect me as a player at all.
But Cryptic / Perfect World should oversee the entire Boost section on their Z-store, made the mistake to buy a XP-boost once and the boost hold for two missions.. I felt violated for that price.
There are lots of good opinions in this thread, not just flame so hopefully someone will listen to the complaints.
Assume you are trying to progress in one school. Also assume you have 3 R&D slots open.
Now you can do 3 daily research missions which take 20 hrs and will reward 18-21k XP.
With a 800Z 10k booster active you will receive a bonus of 3.6-4.2k
After 3 rounds of dailies (60 hrs) you will have recived 64-73k XP (dependant on crits) and used up the boost. The cost of these dailies is 9 white materials (total value c 1,000 EC - ie virtually nothing - the only real cost of doing daily R&D is time)
Now consider rather than buying a boost you use your dilithium to finish now.
800Z = 129,600 dilithium at current prices.
A finish now on an R&D daily costs 18,000 dil. So you will be able to finish now on 7 tasks and still have a little dil left over. Assuming you do this and then just do the regular missions for the rest of the time the total XP gainied from the 16 dailies that you could do is 96k-112k. (you will need an extra 7 white materials :rolleyes:)
ie approx a 50% increase in XP returns by NOT buying the booster and spending your dil on finish now instead.
With all of this said, the finish now on dailies is ridiculously overpriced - I would NEVER recommend anyone actually do this - they should actually craft items and it absolutely necessary rush those missions.
Whatever way you look at this is is a total waste and completely mispriced
I just wish generally people would refrain from doing this dilith conversion. The dilith market is heavily manipulated and gamed and has always seemed full of shenanigans. Market forces aren't at play. And many of us believe that PWE is behind a lot of the manipulation to make buying actual Zen more desirable than converting.
800 zen for 1.5 days worth of free XP, WTFLOL does not even come close. Take into account that 1 of these lessens your grind from 90ish days to 89ish days, and well... I better stop now
Wow.............11 pages without one single deviating opinion..... Cryptic I hope you get the point how much of utter TRIBBLE this is. Go back to school to learn some math and back to your parents right after to catch up on your upbringing!
Or you might just start playing your own product and get some knowledge about it. You're certainly lacking in one of the fields. Take your pick.
I won't be paying a dime on anything until you put the fun back into the game.
As it stands right now, you have sucked ALL the fun out of this game with massively nerfed rewards across the board, and killing queues with stupid difficulty increases.
And to think, I was actually going to buy the delta ops pack, I am really glad you showed your true colours before I did.
I can't say any of the new changes have made the game any more enjoyable for me. The current Q quests are bugged and a waste of my time right now. All the changes to the icons and images are making me have to relearn what things are, that is a big fat annoyance. The new BOff system is 'meh' and something else I have to relearn...
Suggestion, next time just add the new game content (storylines, and gameplay) without all the changes, and I'm sure 99% of the players would be happier.
In this galaxy there’s a mathematical probability of three million Earth-type planets. And in the universe, three million million galaxies like this.
I can't say any of the new changes have made the game any more enjoyable for me. The current Q quests are bugged and a waste of my time right now. All the changes to the icons and images are making me have to relearn what things are, that is a big fat annoyance. The new BOff system is 'meh' and something else I have to relearn...
Suggestion, next time just add the new game content (storylines, and gameplay) without all the changes, and I'm sure 99% of the players would be happier.
Yeah, the Icon and boff system changes were entirely unnecessary. Another example of "fixing" something that wasn't broken or in need of change and creating more bugs in the process.
As for the R&D boosts... useless to me, I don't use the R&D system, I have fleet-mates for that.
I don't believe Cryptic has some sinister plot to push players away, but they sure seem to be doing a good job of it nonetheless. They really need to start listening to player's complaints and work to improve what needs improvement.
The game is so grind-intensive from what it was when I left not long after launch, that at this point, I have no desire to play an alt. It's just not worth the time, nor the effort.
I must agree with most opinions here.
The booster size is miniscule. But the Zen prices are not miniscule.
You are effectively paying substantial Zen for a drop in the ocean.
Not a very interesting proposition I'm afraid.
I bought an XP boost once to help with the 50-60 level up grind. I just about gagged when I realized that blowing about ten bucks amounted to about one Argala run's worth of XP during double weekend. In hindsight, I should have done the math and ran the numbers before buying. But at the time I just couldn't believe Cryptic would allow such a wide disparity in value to cost to exist in their boosters. I made a thread about it, asking for opinions on whether others agreed it was time to reevaluate it's cost even though I had more or less given up hope on Cryptic reading feedback by that point. It received universal consensus, a shocker of these forums. :eek: Anywho, you better believe I did my homework before blowing zen this time. :P And... I think I'll be hanging onto my zen.
Thanks, but no thanks Cryptic. It's a great concept, good idea no doubt. But the price to value ratio needs to be tightened up first.
Comments
/10chars.
Sorry, I'm weak and couldn't resist
Then again, let's take a look at the other boosts for sale, yeah?
Commendation (Large) 800 Zen for 20% up to 10,000 CXP.
Commendation (Small) 200 Zen for 20% up to 2,000 CXP.
XP (Large) 975 Zen for 20% up to 10,000 SP.
XP (Small) 200 Zen for 20% up to 3,000 SP. (Is that a typo or is it actually 3k instead of 2k?)
So they're adding...
R&D (Large) 800 Zen for 20% up to 10,000 RP.
R&D (Small) 200 Zen for 20% up to 2,000 RP.
And what? Lol, c'mon...I can't see why folks are getting all antagonistic over this. I mean, personally, I always thought it was a case that PWE told Cryptic they had to put in some boosts...but Cryptic thought boosts were stupid, so they made the most ridiculous boosts and priced them at insane costs so nobody would touch them. They could turn to PWE and say, "Well, we put them in - not sure why nobody's buying them." Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.
10 000 XP = 1.5 Research Projects
You can instantly complete those 1.5 research projects for 1.5x18k=27k Di.
27k Di = 170 Zen at current exchange rates.
Question: why would I pay 800 Zen when I can get same result with 170 Zen?
I do hope you advertise these boosts on the login screen, I would hate to think that all the ridicule you are incurring is limited to this forum.
And if you are finishing now you are over 50% better off actually crafting items rather than doing dailies... So in effect the same progress can be made for less than 100Z...
...#LLAP...
I'm sure some will get it?
USS Casinghead NCC 92047 launched 2350
Fleet Admiral Stowe - Dominion War Vet.
this had nothing to do with Ricossa, but one of D'Angelo's. figures someone would misplace the blame early. we wont see any of Ricossa's own mistakes until some point next year when D'Angelo's plans have ran their course.
as for the XP boosters, i dont care.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
If you bloody put in untold amount of grinding in game just so you can earn some more bucks you are ***** ******** ******** and **** ********. :mad:
Thought it might be a good idea to censure myself so I don't get banned on top of this ****!
A test server is supposed to be used to properly test patches before patching anything....
When you look at it this way it does add plausibility to Virusdancers theory
5 things
1. You sir, get the top marks for the maths. Well reasoned, well spotted, and well articulated. I tip my hat, sir, I tip my hat.
2. This illustrates to me why a dili/zen exchange has always been stupid (and multiple currencies in general when there are conversion points) because the requirement to keep these kinds of prices in check not only requires cross checking all features across all costs as a basic component but as the dilithium to zen price fluctuates, how on earth can anything then be valuated with consistency? I know that posture is unpopular, but I've never liked any of the 'play for free with other peoples money' aspects of F2P, I acknowledge my bias.
3. It further illustrates to me where whomever is making pricing decisions needs to revisit the concept of _micro_ transactions as a basic business concept. Ever since this model came to the west, micro has apparently meant 20 to 30 bucks (not an exclusively Cryptic phenomena) rather than piece meal across many 1-2 dollar transactions, and no, a buck twenty-five for a single random output lockbox key doesn't count. This business model has been diseased in this format from day one.
4. Boosts, of any kind, in any game, are a point of expenditure I will _never_ spend money on. Ever. If a boost comes as a side benefit of some package of services, fine (like a sub bonus), but there is never a case where I feel it's a worthwhile investment. Having them in your model, at all, is the truest form of cash grab because it promotes deliberately hobbling intelligent content progression breaking the game structures just to promote an expenditure point. I have no doubt much of the angst over the DR leveling changes (which I personally do not share, but understand the point at least) are directly attributable to this kind of logic at work. Boosts not only promote that kind of broken approach, like a steep R&D leveling curve only to now boost it, but try to encourage a consumable purchase to exhaust playtime faster; spend now, to play less, and the less you play, the more we made from you.
5. Taking bets on how fast your news item spreads and then rapidly evokes a change in pricing/implementation of the R&D system. Not to be negative, but this store item was just ridiculously ill-advised. Maybe virusdancer's theory is dead on (and i'm awed I may be agreeing with him o.O ).
These are also in the latest lockbox and the market has set the EC price on them already.
2000xp boost... 20-100k
10,000 250-700k
GO compare what players think they are worth with the zen cost Cryptic and then come back.
But Cryptic / Perfect World should oversee the entire Boost section on their Z-store, made the mistake to buy a XP-boost once and the boost hold for two missions.. I felt violated for that price.
There are lots of good opinions in this thread, not just flame so hopefully someone will listen to the complaints.
Now you can do 3 daily research missions which take 20 hrs and will reward 18-21k XP.
With a 800Z 10k booster active you will receive a bonus of 3.6-4.2k
After 3 rounds of dailies (60 hrs) you will have recived 64-73k XP (dependant on crits) and used up the boost. The cost of these dailies is 9 white materials (total value c 1,000 EC - ie virtually nothing - the only real cost of doing daily R&D is time)
Now consider rather than buying a boost you use your dilithium to finish now.
800Z = 129,600 dilithium at current prices.
A finish now on an R&D daily costs 18,000 dil. So you will be able to finish now on 7 tasks and still have a little dil left over. Assuming you do this and then just do the regular missions for the rest of the time the total XP gainied from the 16 dailies that you could do is 96k-112k. (you will need an extra 7 white materials :rolleyes:)
ie approx a 50% increase in XP returns by NOT buying the booster and spending your dil on finish now instead.
With all of this said, the finish now on dailies is ridiculously overpriced - I would NEVER recommend anyone actually do this - they should actually craft items and it absolutely necessary rush those missions.
Whatever way you look at this is is a total waste and completely mispriced
...#LLAP...
I just wish generally people would refrain from doing this dilith conversion. The dilith market is heavily manipulated and gamed and has always seemed full of shenanigans. Market forces aren't at play. And many of us believe that PWE is behind a lot of the manipulation to make buying actual Zen more desirable than converting.
From the Lockbox FAQ:
Or you might just start playing your own product and get some knowledge about it. You're certainly lacking in one of the fields. Take your pick.
Dat Boost! Oh my.
As it stands right now, you have sucked ALL the fun out of this game with massively nerfed rewards across the board, and killing queues with stupid difficulty increases.
And to think, I was actually going to buy the delta ops pack, I am really glad you showed your true colours before I did.
Suggestion, next time just add the new game content (storylines, and gameplay) without all the changes, and I'm sure 99% of the players would be happier.
Yeah, the Icon and boff system changes were entirely unnecessary. Another example of "fixing" something that wasn't broken or in need of change and creating more bugs in the process.
As for the R&D boosts... useless to me, I don't use the R&D system, I have fleet-mates for that.
I don't believe Cryptic has some sinister plot to push players away, but they sure seem to be doing a good job of it nonetheless. They really need to start listening to player's complaints and work to improve what needs improvement.
The game is so grind-intensive from what it was when I left not long after launch, that at this point, I have no desire to play an alt. It's just not worth the time, nor the effort.
but the prices are at least 4x to high to make any sense
every player which buys such a booster for such a price should get a free "i am an idiot certificate"
The booster size is miniscule. But the Zen prices are not miniscule.
You are effectively paying substantial Zen for a drop in the ocean.
Not a very interesting proposition I'm afraid.
Thanks, but no thanks Cryptic. It's a great concept, good idea no doubt. But the price to value ratio needs to be tightened up first.
I have to hope that's not plausible logic at work but as conspiracy type reasoning goes, I get it.