Keys useless on old box's?

neoforce42 · October 2015

So I had dilithium saved up for general mining of it, got around 20+ and thought might as well give the box's ago since I don't care much for the ships on c-store or have everything that I want. Anyway basically not a single rare ship except 1 mirror ship that doesn't even match my tier...so basically 1 ship that'll I'll never use and would waste 1 slot. Anyway are the odd's that bad to get any decent ships?, seriously makes me wonder why people buy for those, I'm a life time member so I would have expected to be less crappy.

capnmanx · October 2015

Well it is a lottery. How many times have you won the lottery?

There are people who have spent 100s and not won anything decent; then there are the lucky few who get the grand prize afer opening just a few boxes. It's random.

neoforce42 · October 2015

Well lottery's always seemed pointless but even lottery's let you win something decent sometimes.
It's weird how unlucky it is to get the ships and yet my game is always telling me how some random person got a ship, whenever a new box has arrived....hundreds of people somehow seem to have that ship straight away which is ridiculous.

capnmanx · October 2015

I have won two lockbox ships. I'm only guessing at how many boxes I've opened in total, but I'd say I'm averaging about one decent win for every 40-50 boxes I open (there abouts anyway). I'd probably be considered uncommonly lucky, if the complaints on the forums are anything to judge by.

The fact that so many messages pop up saying 'playerX has won shipY' just goes to show how many people open the dang things every day. It's how the game makes most of its money these days.

neoforce42 · October 2015

I suspect there's a filter that makes it more likely for people that buy the key's online. I guess I need to mine more dilithium for the keys before I try again, sounds like 40-100 is probably the best estimate for now plus good excuse to mine those Lobi's since got about 100+ roughly. I'm due for another set of keys soon but guess wouldn't hurt to wait for sale too to get the most out of the key's then wait till sales over to use them.

neoforce42 · October 2015

coldnapalm wrote: »

They post what the odds are online (and the grand prize is less then a percent). If you can't be bothered to look at what the odds are before you play...well who's fault is that again?!? Basically, sell your keys and buy what you want. Let some other poor sap try them silly stupid odds.

Pretty sure you never posted the current odd's so don't expect us to guess what you're talking about, I wouldn't need to post about this if I know what the odd's were realistically. Not my fault if the system is in favour of the house...

Also it's obvious you're trying to flame, which last time I checked is against the T & D, it's obvious that I'm unaware of any current odd's or I wouldn't have been unsure about this, telling someone that they couldn't be bothered without even knowing if they know about it is practically flaming. It's well known that the key's are unpredictable.

markhawkman · November 2015

the odds are posted by players not cryptic, and deduced based on copying stuff to tribble.

turbomagnus · November 2015

Last thing I heard, there's only about a half a per cent chance of winning the 'Grand Prize' ship, but a 2.75 per cent chance of winning a 'Consulation Prize' ship (though those were removed from the Herald LB)...

Unless, of course, one is a certain player whom seems to be able to win a ship every time they open a Lock Box...

Keep in mind that the odds were changed with the Year of Hell LB removing the 'small' prizes like boosts and DOff mini-packs, adding "Extra Large" prizes and adjusting the odds table appropriately, then removing 'Consolation Prize' ships entirely with the Herald LB... But as you're opening older Lock Boxes, the odds posted here should still be somewhat helpful;
http://sto.gamepedia.com/Xindi-Amphibious_Lock_Box

noroblad · November 2015

neoforce42 wrote: »

So I had dilithium saved up for general mining of it, got around 20+ and thought might as well give the box's ago since I don't care much for the ships on c-store or have everything that I want. Anyway basically not a single rare ship except 1 mirror ship that doesn't even match my tier...so basically 1 ship that'll I'll never use and would waste 1 slot. Anyway are the odd's that bad to get any decent ships?, seriously makes me wonder why people buy for those, I'm a life time member so I would have expected to be less crappy.

The keys worked fine, so not useless. Keys -> boxes = lobi. Anything else you get along with the lobi in your box = bonus.
also your mirror ship could be worth a few million or be of use in the new admiralty missions thingy. I had an old APU that I got for like 500k months ago that sold for over 10 times that thanks to admiralty.

Also, most old boxes only have t5 max ships, t4 second tier prize. The vast majority of those are not as good as the best t6 ships, though they are still usable.

neoforce42 · November 2015

turbomagnus wrote: »

Last thing I heard, there's only about a half a per cent chance of winning the 'Grand Prize' ship, but a 2.75 per cent chance of winning a 'Consulation Prize' ship (though those were removed from the Herald LB)...

Unless, of course, one is a certain player whom seems to be able to win a ship every time they open a Lock Box...

Keep in mind that the odds were changed with the Year of Hell LB removing the 'small' prizes like boosts and DOff mini-packs, adding "Extra Large" prizes and adjusting the odds table appropriately, then removing 'Consolation Prize' ships entirely with the Herald LB... But as you're opening older Lock Boxes, the odds posted here should still be somewhat helpful;
http://sto.gamepedia.com/Xindi-Amphibious_Lock_Box

0.50% certainly makes the whole mining for ships since like a never end mining. I guess there must be an easier way to get the ships guaranteed like on the exchange, to sell key's.

noroblad wrote: »

neoforce42 wrote: »

So I had dilithium saved up for general mining of it, got around 20+ and thought might as well give the box's ago since I don't care much for the ships on c-store or have everything that I want. Anyway basically not a single rare ship except 1 mirror ship that doesn't even match my tier...so basically 1 ship that'll I'll never use and would waste 1 slot. Anyway are the odd's that bad to get any decent ships?, seriously makes me wonder why people buy for those, I'm a life time member so I would have expected to be less crappy.

The keys worked fine, so not useless. Keys -> boxes = lobi. Anything else you get along with the lobi in your box = bonus.
also your mirror ship could be worth a few million or be of use in the new admiralty missions thingy. I had an old APU that I got for like 500k months ago that sold for over 10 times that thanks to admiralty.

Also, most old boxes only have t5 max ships, t4 second tier prize. The vast majority of those are not as good as the best t6 ships, though they are still usable.

Well the key's feel useless if the odd's are pretty extremely low, I was mainly just interested in finding ships like the Xindi ships, I'm sure they'd upgrade them eventually.

centaurianalpha · November 2015

If you are opening boxes for ships, you will be disappointed 99.9% of the time. I have currently opened some 470 boxes of different factions, and got only about 4 MU ships, which cannot even be upgraded. I'm now regretting the dismissal of some of those, but I was never really looking for them in the first place.

The main value in opening a lock box is the DOff packs, which are actually cheaper in a lock box than the Z-store in many cases. Mining claims are an added bonus, although you can buy more dil with zen than hoping to get a mining claim. Lobi are the most valuable content, but comparatively expensive vs. Z-ships, unless you're willing to wait for a Lobi sale a couple of times a year.

neoforce42 · November 2015

It sounds like a Lobbi ship vs Box drop nightmare. Either way saving my dilithium, will have to consider trading keys in the exchange.

noroblad · November 2015

neoforce42 wrote: »

It sounds like a Lobbi ship vs Box drop nightmare. Either way saving my dilithium, will have to consider trading keys in the exchange.

the economy changes a lot. You have to do the math yourself.

earlier this week for example, a new box ship was 150 million ec, a key was 4 million. Dil was 230 to a zen.
mathing that out,
a ship is worth 38 keys in EC.
It would take 1.1 million dil to get 38 keys at that rate.
You get 4+ lobi / box. 38 keys gets you an average of say 200 lobi. It takes 900 for the ship. It takes a whopping 175+ keys to assure the lobi to buy a ship! 38 keys wont assure you a ship.

Put all that together and you can see that earning EC for the ship is the most effective right now. At other times, at other price points, other methods are better, though in general most of the time buying the ship is still best. Ive opened boxes for dil to get a ship before because it was cheaper. That's been a while, but you have to consider all the options.

autumnwind34 · November 2015

The "grand prize ships" aka the good ones, when opening a box you have a 1 in 250 chance so going through only 20 boxes Im not surprised you didnt get what you wanted

paulyman · November 2015

So you opened 1 box and didnt get the grand prize so you are upset? and no there is no difference how the key is earned. its luck. if everybody got the grand prize every time they opened a box the keys would be more expensive.

fraghul2000 · November 2015

centaurianalpha wrote: »

If you are opening boxes for ships, you will be disappointed 99.9% of the time. I have currently opened some 470 boxes of different factions, and got only about 4 MU ships, which cannot even be upgraded. I'm now regretting the dismissal of some of those, but I was never really looking for them in the first place.

The main value in opening a lock box is the Doff packs, which are actually cheaper in a lock box than the Z-store in many cases. Mining claims are an added bonus, although you can buy more dil with zen than hoping to get a mining claim. Lobi are the most valuable content, but comparatively expensive vs. Z-ships, unless you're willing to wait for a Lobi sale a couple of times a year.

As far as those doff packs are concerned, there is a difference between those sold in the c-store and those that can be found in lockboxes. The c-store ones have more doffs, a guarantee for more higher quality doffs, a bonus item and are occasionally part of a promotional event /w extra loot.

Overall, I'm so glad I spent EC on lockbox keys when each lockbox was released and don't "have" to do it nowadays. I got all the old consoles, ships and costumes when lockbox keys were ~600k EC, which meant a single, daily foundry battleship run would buy me a key on the exchange. 90 minutes of online time would easily result in 10-12 keys and where the daily dilithium exchange cap would almost buy me another key (8000 dilithium @85 dil/zen)

I truly feel sorry for those people who just started playing in the last 1.5 years. You guys have to spend 10-times as much online for the same results.

nyxadrill · November 2015

Lockboxes. I'll tell you the secret to them..."The house always wins".

Welcome to the world of the Random Number Generator.

kittykaboomboom · November 2015

IF the RNG hates you, you get TRIBBLE. If the RNG likes you, you get good stuff. IN other words, you have to be lucky.
NO, buying keys online doesn't help
NO, being subscribed or LTS doesn't help.
NO, the drop chance is not cumulative.

Keys useless on old box's?

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