On a serious note, yes I own and kept every mobile phone I have ever had from 3210 - HTC One. I've never paid full price and I always get some form of discount from my mobile phone provider whether its £100 off the price of the phone and/or discount on the contract.
They see it as an upgrade and would rather retain my business than lose it by charging me as though I was a new customer.
This is true of most services in England, gym membership will be renegotiated and hopefully reduced once my initial 12 month contract is up. Buy a new car, go in and ask for the drive-away price (last car I bought - used car - I got £500 off, new cars you get more money off, no salesman is going to say no to £18,000 on a £20,000 car because you're asking for 10% off, its a sale and he is on commission). The blinds in my house the guy started at £1200 I got them for just over £900. Even Novatech, with whom I buy a PC from and have done since early 2000s, I'll phone them discuss what I need and explore the price possibility.
Obviously things like Supermarkets, corner shops etc you wouldn't expect a discount (but even Supermarket's offer loyalty cards offering money, vouchers etc, along with instore discounts).
I don't understand why people are so feverishly defensive over the pricing strategy of this game. Yes I understand its the status quo, it could be made better and to the benefit of all, who actually likes paying more money?
Don't agree fine, but there is no needs for insults or shouting people down. That's how Cryptic (and others) get away with it.
On a serious note, yes I own and kept every mobile phone I have ever had from 3210 - HTC One. I've never paid full price and I always get some form of discount from my mobile phone provider whether its £100 off the price of the phone and/or discount on the contract.
Of course, your new phone subscription is what is truly financing the cost of the discount you get on your phone. But you only buy a Tier 6 ship in the C-Store, not a 12-to-24 month subscription plan with it.
And often with car purchases, the dealership will simply allow you to negotiate the price independent on what exactly "reasons" for them to do so you provide - as long as there is still profit to be made, a key thing is selling a car before you go to someone else, as you pointed out. The car loses value the longer it is staying around, and it occupies space that could be used for the next car. But they will generally not offer unprofitable deals. (Though even that can happen, if they have contractual requirements to sell a certain volume in a time, being unprofitable in the short term can be preferable to losing a contract deal. )
Cryptic however certainly offers discounts.
Sometimes it's a general 20 % off from the price of all ships, sometimes it's 15 % Bonus Zen, sometimes it's a special deal on the initial release, sometimes it's a bundle deal. Right now, the initial price of the ship is lower than standard, there is a bundle deal, and a bonus zen deal going on.
The only C-Store purchase price discount they don't offer is the "trade-in-your-old-ship" deal.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
They are creating stuff for us to buy, make $ off it, and keep this game going for us to enjoy. Your not forced to buy any of it. Its all how much you want it. I won't buy it since I already have a T5 Avenger. However there is other T6 ships I would love to have.
USS Casinghead NCC 92047 launched 2350
Fleet Admiral Stowe - Dominion War Vet.
Yeah - wasn't one of the tenants of Season 10 from the Dev tream "We don't want to invalidate ships you've spent money on" -- yet now they seem to be coming out with T6 iconic (Intrepid, Galaxy, etc.) ships and you'd think they'd give a player who had bought the earlier T5 (whether upgraded to the U version or not) iterAtion of the ship at least some small discount on the T6 version.
Just goes to show when it comes to ANYTHING C-Store, Cryptic's 'word' isn't worth much. If they realize some Whale will pay they'll throw it out the door with some doublespeak if they go back on something said previously.
It's a business and their bottom line is profit above all else.
Name me one single time in the entire history of STO that you got a discount from buying the same ship as you moved from one tier to the next. That was the way it has always been and then with DR hitting last October, it's a surprise to everyone? Really???
You get a discount on the Fleet Module cost for Fleet Ships if you purchased the C-Store version of the same ship beforehand (1 FM instead of 4 FM and FM's are 500 Zen a pop). So yes there IS a precedent of sorts set for getting a discount on a more powerful ship if you had purchased the C-Store version.
Go polish you 'Cryptic White Knight' suit in some other thread.
Formerly known as Armsman from June 2008 to June 20, 2012 PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
Yeah - wasn't one of the tenants of Season 10 from the Dev tream "We don't want to invalidate ships you've spent money on" -- yet now they seem to be coming out with T6 iconic (Intrepid, Galaxy, etc.) ships and you'd think they'd give a player who had bought the earlier T5 (whether upgraded to the U version or not) iterAtion of the ship at least some small discount on the T6 version.
Just goes to show when it comes to ANYTHING C-Store, Cryptic's 'word' isn't worth much. If they realize some Whale will pay they'll throw it out the door with some doublespeak if they go back on something said previously.
It's a business and their bottom line is profit above all else.
Name me one single time in the entire history of STO that you got a discount from buying the same ship as you moved from one tier to the next. That was the way it has always been and then with DR hitting last October, it's a surprise to everyone? Really???
You get a discount on the Fleet Module cost for Fleet Ships if you purchased the C-Store version of the same ship beforehand (1 FM instead of 4 FM and FM's are 500 Zen a pop). So yes there IS a precedent of sorts set for getting a discount on a more powerful ship if you had purchased the C-Store version.
You DO realize that the Discount is NOT between tiers?
Because your example is flawed as Fleet T5 IS STILL T5. You do NOT get a discount owning the T4 Defiant/Galaxy/Intrepid if you wanted to buy the Fleet T5 Defiant/Galaxy/Intrepid and wanted to skip the T5 C-Store versions. You MUST buy the T5 version.
Therefore, his point stands.
As well, it's evident that some refuse to see the simple truth before them. That this is not new, that it has been around for awhile, and that it's not going to change.
So if you really want a T6 then a discount on its Fleet version, pay/grind up, or forever hold your peace (to put it civilly).
And before you start throwing Cryptic Knight accusations, there's a number of dumb moves they've done that I've spoken out against (bullcrap refusal to bring back the old event ships and the forced grind of new event marks each event to name 2 recent ones). However, this isn't one of them. Sure, the 30 USD price tag is a little stiff if you don't want to Dil->Zen grind, and I wish the price would change; bump the T6s to 2500, the T5 Fleet-level and special T5s to 2000 to be in-line with their less unique C-Store T5's (that only cost 2000), but I don't see that happening any time soon.
When you buy a new computer it is possible you also own last year's version of it, the 3 years ago model, a model the manufacturer sold 7 years ago with a kinda sorta similar name, and so on - and you pay full price every time. That's a pretty hostile pricing model computer manufacturers use...
Replace "computer" with product of your choice.
Seriously, who's ever heard of getting discounts on new product based on owning some previous version of it?
You cannot replace "computer" with the product of your choice because it's not the same thing. STO starships are not cars, not computers or race horses.
A better example would be "I bought Windows XP and each time a new windows was released I was offered a discounted upgrade of my purchase, sometimes I even got it free". Software and digital products are not equivalent to hardware purchases. That's spmething a lot of people, including most software companies, don't understand. A few do, luckily, but most don't.
^ Memory Alpha.org is not canon. It's a open wiki with arbitrary rules. Only what can be cited from an episode is. ^
"No. Men do not roar. Women roar. Then they hurl heavy objects... and claw at you." -Worf, son of Mogh
"A filthy, mangy beast, but in its bony breast beat the heart of a warrior" - "faithful" (...) "but ever-ready to follow the call of the wild." - Martok, about a Targ
"That pig smelled horrid. A sweet-sour, extremely pungent odor. I showered and showered, and it took me a week to get rid of it!" - Robert Justman, appreciating Emmy-Lou
As well, it's evident that some refuse to see the simple truth before them. That this is not new, that it has been around for awhile, and that it's not going to change.
Here is another truth: T6 only exists because they wanted to obsolete the T5 end-game
As well, it's evident that some refuse to see the simple truth before them. That this is not new, that it has been around for awhile, and that it's not going to change.
Here is another truth: T6 only exists because they wanted to obsolete the T5 end-game
And new levels, new weapons, new equipment, and new armors of the same design exist in other MMOs to obsolete the old endgame meta and old version of the same weapons. So what exactly is the difference between STO doing it and other MMOs doing it?
I honestly don't see what we're arguing about at this point. It has been done in other MMOs; some of them the ones that others go to play at instead of this one for whatever reason. To think STO would never change the endgame meta and just stagnate is a little ridiculous; just like expecting the WoW/Aion/SWTOR/LoL/Tera/RIFT meta to never change.
Now, honestly, WHY should I even keep on going? The Trek's gone after Starfleet decided to break the Temporal Prime Directive by altering timeline as said in the last Krenim episode.
what temporal prime directive? as long as the omega directive is active, no other directive exists, and it's been active since the end of sphere of influence
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch." "We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
Passion and Serenity are one.
I gain power by understanding both.
In the chaos of their battle, I bring order.
I am a shadow, darkness born from light.
The Force is united within me.
As well, it's evident that some refuse to see the simple truth before them. That this is not new, that it has been around for awhile, and that it's not going to change.
Here is another truth: T6 only exists because they wanted to obsolete the T5 end-game
And new levels, new weapons, new equipment, and new armors of the same design exist in other MMOs to obsolete the old endgame meta and old version of the same weapons. So what exactly is the difference between STO doing it and other MMOs doing it?
other MMOs jump off a cliff all the time too
I honestly don't see what we're arguing about at this point.
That it was not necessary to charge the full nut for a reskin
OP, forget all views of the other players, the pictures of people trying to make fun of you. You have a point that you need to get across, and all of us players are not in the position to help you understand what you have asked. As we have these brand spanking new forums, may I suggest a poll to get a sense of how all the STO players who use the forums agree or disagree with you?
I agree. When you own a T6 fleet ship it is possible you also own the Fleet T5U version of it, the T5 retrofit, the T3/4/5 refit - and you pay full price every time. That's a pretty hostile pricing model Cryptic uses - then agian, it works. People complain but they buy faithfully. Add to that that they pump out a new ship in 4-6 weeks and whales will buy all of them without a scond of hesitation and you see why the pricing is the way it is. 30 currencies for a starship in this game - you can get a full price expansion, digital release of a modern full game or a heap of classic games with lots and lots of playtime for this.
STOs store prices are high. And I don't care if other games are worse, STO is still unreasonably expensive if you decide to invest real money into it.
Each ship takes the same amount of work to make, in fact ships that share parts take more work to make. So why, just because some parts are shared, should they sell the new ship for less?
You pay full price every time because you are literally buying a completely new ship every time. That ship didn't make itself. You wouldn't go to the car dealership every year and demand a new car for free because you own last years model. Labor costs money.
Each ship takes the same amount of work to make, in fact ships that share parts take more work to make. So why, just because some parts are shared, should they sell the new ship for less?
You pay full price every time because you are literally buying a completely new ship every time. That ship didn't make itself. You wouldn't go to the car dealership every year and demand a new car for free because you own last years model. Labor costs money.
Stop the nonsensical car comparison. Software, especially a part of software that isn't functional on its own, is not equal to a car. Dammit.
We are talking about in-game items here, a character in a video game if you will. If you seriously consider it exactly the same as a hardware purchase in the magnitude of a car that's your thing. I don't ask for a discount on STO II or other Cryptic games, but a better comparision would be MS offering discounted upgrades for you each time a new windows is released. You could have owned Windows 3.11 and never paid full price up to windows 10, sometimes they even gave the upgrade away for free.
^ Memory Alpha.org is not canon. It's a open wiki with arbitrary rules. Only what can be cited from an episode is. ^
"No. Men do not roar. Women roar. Then they hurl heavy objects... and claw at you." -Worf, son of Mogh
"A filthy, mangy beast, but in its bony breast beat the heart of a warrior" - "faithful" (...) "but ever-ready to follow the call of the wild." - Martok, about a Targ
"That pig smelled horrid. A sweet-sour, extremely pungent odor. I showered and showered, and it took me a week to get rid of it!" - Robert Justman, appreciating Emmy-Lou
Each ship takes the same amount of work to make, in fact ships that share parts take more work to make. So why, just because some parts are shared, should they sell the new ship for less?
You pay full price every time because you are literally buying a completely new ship every time. That ship didn't make itself. You wouldn't go to the car dealership every year and demand a new car for free because you own last years model. Labor costs money.
Stop the nonsensical car comparison. Software, especially a part of software that isn't functional on its own, is not equal to a car. Dammit.
We are talking about in-game items here, a character in a video game if you will. If you seriously consider it exactly the same as a hardware purchase in the magnitude of a car that's your thing. I don't ask for a discount on STO II or other Cryptic games, but a better comparision would be MS offering discounted upgrades for you each time a new windows is released. You could have owned Windows 3.11 and never paid full price up to windows 10, sometimes they even gave the upgrade away for free.
There currently is a discount on buying the ships. There is a 3-pack deal, and the single unit price is lower. And it's a Bonus Zen event. So just as with Microsoft Windows, you can get your discount and don't have to pay the full price.
But you don't get it because you owned a previous model, you simply get it because it's on sale. But does it matter why you get the discount?
In the end, Cryptic sets their prices for ships based on financing both the development of the ship itself, and any other development for the game that they don't charge directly for. There is no real "unit" price for a ship or any type of software. There is primarily cost for developing the software in the first place. You project how many copies you likely going to sell, and set the price for the "unit" at a point where you recoup the development cost and any distribution cost, and still net a profit.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
There currently is a discount on buying the ships. There is a 3-pack deal, and the single unit price is lower. And it's a Bonus Zen event. So just as with Microsoft Windows, you can get your discount and don't have to pay the full price.
But you don't get it because you owned a previous model, you simply get it because it's on sale. But does it matter why you get the discount?
In the end, Cryptic sets their prices for ships based on financing both the development of the ship itself, and any other development for the game that they don't charge directly for. There is no real "unit" price for a ship or any type of software. There is primarily cost for developing the software in the first place. You project how many copies you likely going to sell, and set the price for the "unit" at a point where you recoup the development cost and any distribution cost, and still net a profit.
True, but a reoccuring sale is not the same thing. Mind you, I don't "demand" anything, I'm just saying a discount on upgraded ships would be a fair incentive for me to get more ships. Say I get 5% off for each predecessor you own. In case of the Galaxy 10% off of the T6 Andromeda permanently, 15-20 if you count fleet and upgrade as well or a whooping 40% during sale (only if oyu own all of them, of course) would look pretty neat, discount offers if you buy all synergy ships (say T6 Defiant comes with T4 refit, T5 Retrofit and T5U upgrade token at a discount) would also be a nice offer.
New ships without lower equivalent can stay at 30 currencies but I personally don't think digital-download full game prices for in-game stuff that gets overhauled by new releases in four to six weeks is very sustainable. Then again I have no idea about stuff like that, I'm just a Targ and don't really care anyway. But STOs macrotransactions are expensive. But the afore mentioned Windows upgrades come at 50-75% discount (depending on the version of course). I like that. I kow that these are different companies and different calculations and overall numbers involved, but I think it's a fair system considering you did spent money before.
^ Memory Alpha.org is not canon. It's a open wiki with arbitrary rules. Only what can be cited from an episode is. ^
"No. Men do not roar. Women roar. Then they hurl heavy objects... and claw at you." -Worf, son of Mogh
"A filthy, mangy beast, but in its bony breast beat the heart of a warrior" - "faithful" (...) "but ever-ready to follow the call of the wild." - Martok, about a Targ
"That pig smelled horrid. A sweet-sour, extremely pungent odor. I showered and showered, and it took me a week to get rid of it!" - Robert Justman, appreciating Emmy-Lou
There currently is a discount on buying the ships. There is a 3-pack deal, and the single unit price is lower. And it's a Bonus Zen event. So just as with Microsoft Windows, you can get your discount and don't have to pay the full price.
But you don't get it because you owned a previous model, you simply get it because it's on sale. But does it matter why you get the discount?
In the end, Cryptic sets their prices for ships based on financing both the development of the ship itself, and any other development for the game that they don't charge directly for. There is no real "unit" price for a ship or any type of software. There is primarily cost for developing the software in the first place. You project how many copies you likely going to sell, and set the price for the "unit" at a point where you recoup the development cost and any distribution cost, and still net a profit.
True, but a reoccuring sale is not the same thing. Mind you, I don't "demand" anything, I'm just saying a discount on upgraded ships would be a fair incentive for me to get more ships.
Cryptic doesn't really care whether you own a ship or not. They care about how much money they make from the ships they offer.
You would have to show some way that the reduced price will be made up in additional volume. Of course, no one here on the forums can really do that. That's something Cryptic will have to test for themselves.
New ships without lower equivalent can stay at 30 currencies but I personally don't think digital-download full game prices for in-game stuff that gets overhauled by new releases in four to six weeks is very sustainable.
Just because they release a new ship every month doesn't mean the ship before is already obsolete.
But cheaper ships are not automatically more sustainable - they could just as well mean they get even less money in total.
At least Cryptic was able to last for about 4 years with Tier 5 ships.
I don't expect Tier 6 to be able to last another 4 years, but 2-3 years could be doable.
The bigger limitation with ships is IMO that players generally look for canon ships. Tier 6 basically coincided with Cryptic completing the Fed canon line-up with the Tier 5 Constellation/Stargazer. Aside from a few (some very obviously) studio kitbashes, they've covered it all. Now with Tier 6, people will want a Tier 6 variant of the canon ships they already own. Question will be if they actually buy all of them as they did the first time?
Then again I have no idea about stuff like that, I'm just a Targ and don't really care anyway. But STOs macrotransactions are expensive.
Yeah, I never thought the name "micro" is fitting. Unless perhaps you count what you get for the money - a virtual ship is micro compared to a full game...
The only way I can really justify the cost is basically combination of 2 factors:
- I got the money, I could spend it on other entertainment options, but I am gonna spend it on entertainment anyway. Sorry starving and sick people of the world, this money is not for you.
- The game is F2P, that means a lot of people simply won't spend a dime, so the few that pay have to carry the cost neccessary to keep the game's business viable (cover the cost + whatever healthy or unhealthy profit margin PWE demans)
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
In the end, Cryptic sets their prices for ships based on financing both the development of the ship itself, and any other development for the game that they don't charge directly for. There is no real "unit" price for a ship or any type of software. There is primarily cost for developing the software in the first place. You project how many copies you likely going to sell, and set the price for the "unit" at a point where you recoup the development cost and any distribution cost, and still net a profit.
In other words, being logical and using basic economics and good business sense. Spock and Ferengi approved.
they set their pricing based on tiers. and then use the excuse of this is how we did it before.
the prices they are setting are way above the cost of designing these items, i guarentee you that.
selling 20 items at 5 quid gets you more money than selling 1 at 30.
and when your customers are jumping ship to your competition in droves, its time to change your pricing.
When was the last time they released a Tier 2, Tier 3 or Tier 4 ship, however? And you may have noticed that all those ship eventually got a Tier 5 version that requires fleet modules. Sure, you technically don't need those Tier 2/3/4 versions of the ships... but if you acquire them, you got an additional costume to pick for your ship. So good reasons that if you like a low tier ship so much you get a Tier 5 Fleet refit, you buy both the modules and the refit. And vice versa. (Because really, why bother with low tier purchases at all? You play these ships for about an hour!)
And sure, it's quite obvious that 20 x 5 is bigger than 30 x 1. But that doesn't mean that you get those 20 buyers instead of the 1. Maybe Cryptic would, but maybe they have a good idea about what people are willing to pay at what price point? I am pretty sure no one here on the forums knows anything, we can just guess, hope or wish for certain numbers, or try to bring in examples from elsewhere.
My example would probably Steam.
Steam sells games at full price normally. But ever so often, they offer huge sales - discounts from 10 to 75 % are possible, usually depending on the age of the game.
They reportedly make a lot of money this way, many people just buy the game when it's on sale, but would never have bought it at the top price.
BUT - there are also people that buy it for the top price. People that wanted the game immediately. If the price had been set lower to begin with, Steam would have made less money.
So for me, this sounds like an argument for Cryptic to make more sales and sales with higher discounts occasionally.
But there is also a good argument to not offer a ship at a low price initially (which they are doing however this time around) - if someone loved a lower tier ship so much that he spend 2,000 Zen on it, there is a good chance he will really want a Tier 6 versions as well. Defaulting to a high price means that it's likely such a player would buy at the high price. Later, sales can be used to also get people that are not that in love with the ship that they'd pay the full price, but still might do it at another price point.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
Comments
They see it as an upgrade and would rather retain my business than lose it by charging me as though I was a new customer.
This is true of most services in England, gym membership will be renegotiated and hopefully reduced once my initial 12 month contract is up. Buy a new car, go in and ask for the drive-away price (last car I bought - used car - I got £500 off, new cars you get more money off, no salesman is going to say no to £18,000 on a £20,000 car because you're asking for 10% off, its a sale and he is on commission). The blinds in my house the guy started at £1200 I got them for just over £900. Even Novatech, with whom I buy a PC from and have done since early 2000s, I'll phone them discuss what I need and explore the price possibility.
Obviously things like Supermarkets, corner shops etc you wouldn't expect a discount (but even Supermarket's offer loyalty cards offering money, vouchers etc, along with instore discounts).
I don't understand why people are so feverishly defensive over the pricing strategy of this game. Yes I understand its the status quo, it could be made better and to the benefit of all, who actually likes paying more money?
Don't agree fine, but there is no needs for insults or shouting people down. That's how Cryptic (and others) get away with it.
And often with car purchases, the dealership will simply allow you to negotiate the price independent on what exactly "reasons" for them to do so you provide - as long as there is still profit to be made, a key thing is selling a car before you go to someone else, as you pointed out. The car loses value the longer it is staying around, and it occupies space that could be used for the next car. But they will generally not offer unprofitable deals. (Though even that can happen, if they have contractual requirements to sell a certain volume in a time, being unprofitable in the short term can be preferable to losing a contract deal. )
Cryptic however certainly offers discounts.
Sometimes it's a general 20 % off from the price of all ships, sometimes it's 15 % Bonus Zen, sometimes it's a special deal on the initial release, sometimes it's a bundle deal. Right now, the initial price of the ship is lower than standard, there is a bundle deal, and a bonus zen deal going on.
The only C-Store purchase price discount they don't offer is the "trade-in-your-old-ship" deal.
USS Casinghead NCC 92047 launched 2350
Fleet Admiral Stowe - Dominion War Vet.
You get a discount on the Fleet Module cost for Fleet Ships if you purchased the C-Store version of the same ship beforehand (1 FM instead of 4 FM and FM's are 500 Zen a pop). So yes there IS a precedent of sorts set for getting a discount on a more powerful ship if you had purchased the C-Store version.
Go polish you 'Cryptic White Knight' suit in some other thread.
PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
Because your example is flawed as Fleet T5 IS STILL T5. You do NOT get a discount owning the T4 Defiant/Galaxy/Intrepid if you wanted to buy the Fleet T5 Defiant/Galaxy/Intrepid and wanted to skip the T5 C-Store versions. You MUST buy the T5 version.
Therefore, his point stands.
As well, it's evident that some refuse to see the simple truth before them. That this is not new, that it has been around for awhile, and that it's not going to change.
So if you really want a T6 then a discount on its Fleet version, pay/grind up, or forever hold your peace (to put it civilly).
And before you start throwing Cryptic Knight accusations, there's a number of dumb moves they've done that I've spoken out against (bullcrap refusal to bring back the old event ships and the forced grind of new event marks each event to name 2 recent ones). However, this isn't one of them. Sure, the 30 USD price tag is a little stiff if you don't want to Dil->Zen grind, and I wish the price would change; bump the T6s to 2500, the T5 Fleet-level and special T5s to 2000 to be in-line with their less unique C-Store T5's (that only cost 2000), but I don't see that happening any time soon.
You cannot replace "computer" with the product of your choice because it's not the same thing. STO starships are not cars, not computers or race horses.
A better example would be "I bought Windows XP and each time a new windows was released I was offered a discounted upgrade of my purchase, sometimes I even got it free". Software and digital products are not equivalent to hardware purchases. That's spmething a lot of people, including most software companies, don't understand. A few do, luckily, but most don't.
Get the Forums Enhancement Extension!
I honestly don't see what we're arguing about at this point. It has been done in other MMOs; some of them the ones that others go to play at instead of this one for whatever reason. To think STO would never change the endgame meta and just stagnate is a little ridiculous; just like expecting the WoW/Aion/SWTOR/LoL/Tera/RIFT meta to never change.
what temporal prime directive? as long as the omega directive is active, no other directive exists, and it's been active since the end of sphere of influence
#LegalizeAwoo
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch."
"We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
That it was not necessary to charge the full nut for a reskin
OP, forget all views of the other players, the pictures of people trying to make fun of you. You have a point that you need to get across, and all of us players are not in the position to help you understand what you have asked. As we have these brand spanking new forums, may I suggest a poll to get a sense of how all the STO players who use the forums agree or disagree with you?
What other MMOs jumping off a cliff might look like:
Each ship takes the same amount of work to make, in fact ships that share parts take more work to make. So why, just because some parts are shared, should they sell the new ship for less?
You pay full price every time because you are literally buying a completely new ship every time. That ship didn't make itself. You wouldn't go to the car dealership every year and demand a new car for free because you own last years model. Labor costs money.
Stop the nonsensical car comparison. Software, especially a part of software that isn't functional on its own, is not equal to a car. Dammit.
We are talking about in-game items here, a character in a video game if you will. If you seriously consider it exactly the same as a hardware purchase in the magnitude of a car that's your thing. I don't ask for a discount on STO II or other Cryptic games, but a better comparision would be MS offering discounted upgrades for you each time a new windows is released. You could have owned Windows 3.11 and never paid full price up to windows 10, sometimes they even gave the upgrade away for free.
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But you don't get it because you owned a previous model, you simply get it because it's on sale. But does it matter why you get the discount?
In the end, Cryptic sets their prices for ships based on financing both the development of the ship itself, and any other development for the game that they don't charge directly for. There is no real "unit" price for a ship or any type of software. There is primarily cost for developing the software in the first place. You project how many copies you likely going to sell, and set the price for the "unit" at a point where you recoup the development cost and any distribution cost, and still net a profit.
True, but a reoccuring sale is not the same thing. Mind you, I don't "demand" anything, I'm just saying a discount on upgraded ships would be a fair incentive for me to get more ships. Say I get 5% off for each predecessor you own. In case of the Galaxy 10% off of the T6 Andromeda permanently, 15-20 if you count fleet and upgrade as well or a whooping 40% during sale (only if oyu own all of them, of course) would look pretty neat, discount offers if you buy all synergy ships (say T6 Defiant comes with T4 refit, T5 Retrofit and T5U upgrade token at a discount) would also be a nice offer.
New ships without lower equivalent can stay at 30 currencies but I personally don't think digital-download full game prices for in-game stuff that gets overhauled by new releases in four to six weeks is very sustainable. Then again I have no idea about stuff like that, I'm just a Targ and don't really care anyway. But STOs macrotransactions are expensive. But the afore mentioned Windows upgrades come at 50-75% discount (depending on the version of course). I like that. I kow that these are different companies and different calculations and overall numbers involved, but I think it's a fair system considering you did spent money before.
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You would have to show some way that the reduced price will be made up in additional volume. Of course, no one here on the forums can really do that. That's something Cryptic will have to test for themselves.
Just because they release a new ship every month doesn't mean the ship before is already obsolete.
But cheaper ships are not automatically more sustainable - they could just as well mean they get even less money in total.
At least Cryptic was able to last for about 4 years with Tier 5 ships.
I don't expect Tier 6 to be able to last another 4 years, but 2-3 years could be doable.
The bigger limitation with ships is IMO that players generally look for canon ships. Tier 6 basically coincided with Cryptic completing the Fed canon line-up with the Tier 5 Constellation/Stargazer. Aside from a few (some very obviously) studio kitbashes, they've covered it all. Now with Tier 6, people will want a Tier 6 variant of the canon ships they already own. Question will be if they actually buy all of them as they did the first time?
Yeah, I never thought the name "micro" is fitting. Unless perhaps you count what you get for the money - a virtual ship is micro compared to a full game...
The only way I can really justify the cost is basically combination of 2 factors:
- I got the money, I could spend it on other entertainment options, but I am gonna spend it on entertainment anyway. Sorry starving and sick people of the world, this money is not for you.
- The game is F2P, that means a lot of people simply won't spend a dime, so the few that pay have to carry the cost neccessary to keep the game's business viable (cover the cost + whatever healthy or unhealthy profit margin PWE demans)
In other words, being logical and using basic economics and good business sense. Spock and Ferengi approved.
And sure, it's quite obvious that 20 x 5 is bigger than 30 x 1. But that doesn't mean that you get those 20 buyers instead of the 1. Maybe Cryptic would, but maybe they have a good idea about what people are willing to pay at what price point? I am pretty sure no one here on the forums knows anything, we can just guess, hope or wish for certain numbers, or try to bring in examples from elsewhere.
My example would probably Steam.
Steam sells games at full price normally. But ever so often, they offer huge sales - discounts from 10 to 75 % are possible, usually depending on the age of the game.
They reportedly make a lot of money this way, many people just buy the game when it's on sale, but would never have bought it at the top price.
BUT - there are also people that buy it for the top price. People that wanted the game immediately. If the price had been set lower to begin with, Steam would have made less money.
So for me, this sounds like an argument for Cryptic to make more sales and sales with higher discounts occasionally.
But there is also a good argument to not offer a ship at a low price initially (which they are doing however this time around) - if someone loved a lower tier ship so much that he spend 2,000 Zen on it, there is a good chance he will really want a Tier 6 versions as well. Defaulting to a high price means that it's likely such a player would buy at the high price. Later, sales can be used to also get people that are not that in love with the ship that they'd pay the full price, but still might do it at another price point.