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What is the Best Bang for the Buck when spending real cash?
grisdon
Member Posts: 4 Arc User
I am new to STO and loving it. My first rule for playing an MMO is this: "If you are having fun DO NOT READ THE FORUMS." I am breaking that rule because I could not find this answer elsewhere.
I am at level 40+ and am happy with my ship, uniform, inventory, etc.. but I want to give STO some cash. I am enjoying the game and want to support it. I am also thrifty and want to get the most for my money.
What is the best value out there? Is it buying timecards on Amazon, waiting for zen to go on sale, starter packs, etc..
Cheers!
I am at level 40+ and am happy with my ship, uniform, inventory, etc.. but I want to give STO some cash. I am enjoying the game and want to support it. I am also thrifty and want to get the most for my money.
What is the best value out there? Is it buying timecards on Amazon, waiting for zen to go on sale, starter packs, etc..
Cheers!
Post edited by grisdon on
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Ships are "on sale" at various times of year (usually in connection with new content), as well as some other things like uniforms & the like. Just depends on what you consider valuable.
Savik - Vulcan Fed Temporal Sci
Dahar Masters Fleet: Alphal'Fa - Alien KDF Engineer Qun'pau - Rom/KDF Engineer D'nesh - Orion KDF Scientist Ghen'khan - Liberated KDF Tac
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STO player since November 2013
Second, I recommend you consider being a Gold (i.e., paid not free) member for one month. You get a lot of little things that you keep when you cancel your 'subscription' like more bank slots, the account bank, more bridge officer slots, etc. The only benefit you don't keep is the raised Energy Credit cap. I would buy that after you cancel back down to silver status.
As for Zen, centaurianalpha mentioned the sales - I never buy anything unless it is on sale. I try not to buy any Zen (you know you can trade refined Dilithium for Zen on the dilithium exchange, right?) at all, but when I do I wait until they have a Zen sale. Then I hold the Zen until the item I want is on sale, so it is like saving 25-35% or more. It only requires patience, and MMOs are built to make money off those who have no patience.
--Red Annorax
Only when you accept your promotion. Retrain tokens are not rewarded if you have already accepted promotions prior to subbing for 1 month; meaning they are not retroactive.
The $15 sub gives you a lot and it is well worth the money you pay. I subbed for 1 month last year when I had 4 toons. I have a total of 9 toons now so I will sub again later this year to expand the inventories for my 5 newer toons.
That's why I said "make and level".
i know i am not going to spend a penny on this game. i will not even Open Lock boxes or Promo packs. STO Rebirth ended as a big Joke. that costed a lot of time to even try to play it. -.-
Anywaste, back to the OP's question...
If you want to spend real money on the game outside of subscribing for on month to get a lot of bank / personal inventory space, an account bank (which makes it easy to transfer items between character; unless the item is bound to the character), and retrain tokens among other things, you can by Zen when there is a sale.
Sales of any kind are not pre-announced at all; they simply happen and are announced on the day that it happens. That day is generally Thursdays after the weekly maintenance has been completed. Typically you get a 15% Zen bonus when a sale occurs and that applies to whatever amount of Zen you decide to purchase. When you purchase $50 USD or $100 USD worth of Zen you always get a 6% Zen bonus. However, that is probably more money you want to spend at once.
Wait for sales on other items if you can to stretch out your purchased Zen. For example, this weekend is a good time to buy the newly released T6 iconic starship if you want them. Each individual ship is discounted by 16.67%. If you buy the 3-ship bundle, then it is a 33% discount. Also on sale are "services" which has a 20% discount; I am going to buy Doff (duty officer) slots for my Delta Recruit and one of my existing captains since 100 slots now costs only 580 Zen instead of 725 Zen.
"Doffing" or Duty Officer mission is a way to earn experience, but they also reward some dilithium ore, EC, and some times other things like another Doff and R&D material; it depends on the Doff mission you are doing.
If you have the time and patience you should always gather and refine dilithium ore into dilithium crystals. There is a 8,000 daily refinement cap, but no hard cap on the amount of dilithium ore you can get everyday. Exchanging dilithium crystals for Zen means you can get Zen for free. This ultimately means you can spend less real money on the game to buy things from the C-Store, or not spend any real money at all. The exchange rate does fluctuate depending on demand. The release and weekend sale of the T6 iconic starships means there is a high demand for Zen so you need to trade in more refined dilithium crystals for each Zen now compared to last week.
Personally, I only buy Zen when it is on sale. When I purchase something from the C-Store 50% - 60% of the Zen I spend comes from refined dilithium. Lastly, I generally only buy items from the C-Store when they are on sale, unless it is something I need immediately or I cannot wait for the next sale. To me this is a win-win scenario. Cryptic gets some real money from me, and I get a lot of value from the real money I spend.
I will also buy some Zen when it goes on sale. Do you just have to watch the startup screen or do they also announce sales on Facebook, Twitter, etc.?
Cryptic has a good track record of expanding STO's content so I find myself returning to the game on a regular basis.
Yes, watch the start up screen for potential sales. Sometimes it is also listed in the "news" section. If you allow the pictures to cycle you should see the 20% off Services announcement. I don't use Facebook or Twitter so I dunno.
Remember, weekly announcements and any sales occurs on Thursday after maintenance has been performed. If you suddenly get an itch to buy something from the C-Store on Tuesday, it is in your best interest to wait two days to find out if there is sale.
I believe Zen sales typically happen 4 times per year so roughly every 3 months. I think there was a sale in January or February so there will probably be another Zen sale later this month or next month.
Well, I have to say that the lifetime sub (LTS) is not quite as good of a value as it was prior to Delta Rising and the release of T6 starships. The veteran T5 ship you get for buying the LTS or having been subscribing for 1,000 days (or is it 800 days?) is no longer considered a top tier ship anymore. I assume it can be upgrade to T5u for free though.
Having said that there are a lot of other perks for buying the LTS. Most notably is the 500 monthly Zen stipend. Assuming the LTS is purchased on sale for $200 USD (only happens twice per year), after 40 months players will have received $200 worth of Zen and anything after that is "pure profit".
Ah, yes.... I have forgotten about the EC Cap Remover.
F2P players can only have a max of 10 million EC per toon. Purchasing the EC Cap Remover increases the limit to 1 billion EC per toon. Not a big deal if your toons are nowhere near 10 million EC each, but when you get close to it, then it is something you should buy. It probably took me around 6 - 8 weeks of casual play when I first started playing STO to get 10 million credits.