I was thinking about how hobbled (arguably) some of the classic t5-u ships are. I love my Wells and Möbius but compared to t6 with command/Intel/pilot seating they are distinctly separate and not equal.
My suggestion would be to make a token like the ship upgrade token, but have it be to upgrade one ship BOff seat to one of the new Specializations. I'd happily pay even the zen cost of a new ship for that token as it would bring the old ship on par(mostly) with a t6, not to mention if the choice of the seat to be upgraded and the type of specialization was up to the user to make, I think the variety of combinations would not only make customization much more custom, but boost overall sales for ships and tokens across the board.
I'm sure the argument can be raised that it'd be too much work, but if the payout is that every player buys either zen or the ships and participates, that would be mutually beneficial for everyone, and I think fun for the players as well. Thoughts?
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A T5U that comes from a "fleet" grade ship - like your two mentioned lockbox ships - is of the T5U11 category, which, aside from a single BOff seat and that aforementioned specialization, is statistically equivalent to a fleet T6.
Hull, match. Shields, match. Consoles, match. Weapons and gearings, match. 4 levels of starship mastery (as "legitimate fleet" T6s don't get traits if there's a T6-non-fleet variant with the trait), match.
So, if that missing BOff seat and ability to run with some sort of specialization is that desirable to you, then invest in the closest option that will give you that - or start lobbying for a legitimate T6 variant of your desired design...
Just don't be surprised that if it was picked to be the next upgrade it comes in "Strategist" flavor instead of an OSS-bearing Intel flavor or torp-boat-friendly Command flavor...
To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]
T5U at the very least receive consoles with mostly gimmicky features or set bonuses that can be ported over to their T6 counterparts, skins (which I believe come with T6 anyways now so no more need for T5, I can't verify as I have the T5s of the T6 already minus the Bortasqu which confirms this) but T5-FU receives nothing outside a char-bound admiralty card to thank us for those 1 or 5 fleet ship tokens and upgrade and ship slot per character but a 'now buy it all over again as T6F and the players love it.'
I am aware of the games current limitations. My suggestion was to simply discuss an idea to alleviate some of those limitations, not to have said limitations simply restated.
It's funny because I don't see the T5U's under-perform compared to T6's at all. The difference in overall performance is actually tiny. If it was 10% or even 5% difference you would have a case, but you just don't! Just because T5U's don't have specialized seating, it doesn't make them obsolete. I actually rarely use any of the new powers, stick to my trusted old ones, and I'm not missing anything to be honest.
I brought up that term 'obsolete' here, meaning in the sense of there's no reason whatsoever (admiralty card aside) to buy/grind a T5-FU ship except to keep it 'competitive' if you already have its T5U and never buying/grinding its T6 replacement and a fleet version of it, which if ever doing so, would directly obsolete your existing T5-FU. My fleet Avenger just sits there while the fleet Arbiter completely takes over its role and makes the fleet provision, upgrade, and fleet module completely redundant minus the admiralty card.
An outstanding case but relevant nonetheless, fleet Jupiter vs fleet Atrox has +22.12% hull, +4% increase in shield mod multiplier, +16.7% turn rate, among the other features (boff and specialty seating, pets, starship trait). If a fleet Atrox is ever released in the future, it would have match and slightly overtake the existing Atrox by that much, which is a lot more than a T6 gets over its T5. A second outstanding example I believe is the Bortasq, which received more of a boost than its bundled counterparts.
So a lt->LTC that has abilities based on increasing damage resistance, and other things applicable to ships that have had the benefit of decades of refinement and tuning.
Maybe something that gives a mild but flat across the board increase to system power from maximized energy efficiency.
A secondary specilization that adds .33333 to all subsystem power levels for each point put into it. As well as a few other tricks along the tree.
So definitely engineering oriented.
Maybe call the ships T5U-L with the L for Legacy.
These people just don't know how to setup their ships. Don't complain and just buy a T6. My T5U ships run all content just fine for me. I can't remember the last time i blew up in any mission. Heck its even rare when i take hull damage. The content is just to easy to TRIBBLE up. I own a few T6 and they are no better than any T5U they just may have some special power that most times i wouldn't even use. When T7's come out then there may be a difference.
They don't
Perhaps I misread your intentions...
How does your proposal match, or exceed, the $35 (assuming purchasing the T6 then +$5 for the module) that the current resell the same ship program nets Cryptic?
And it has to bring in that value during the purchase to T6, you can't attempt to use the previous $25 or so investment into a T5 to "offset" this purchase...
Also, you dabble in... dangerous... waters with the "pick a specialization" ability of this token? What happens if I desire to make my Vesta into a strategist if I like it's powers more than the intel or command I "initially" put on it?
And how does your plan affect future ship sales, you know they're gonna want to drop a T6 Rhode Island someday, but your plan would have "invalidated" it because everyone already upgraded their T5 Rhode Islands to T6...
To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]
One: I was only referring to lobi or lockbox t5u ships, assuming players actually spent the money to upgrade already this would in effect be a double dip for cryptic, otherwise it might encourage players who didn't bother to spend the money and do so now, twice. Makes pretty good business sense to me to have people want to pay for the same thing twice.
Two: if you want a strategist seat, I say go for it. Something along the lines of only one seat is upgradable. I'm sure that balance could be calculated before it's released, and would be.
Third: whatever haha.
Nowhere in the OP or subsequent posts of yours (and I just re-checked them) do I see anything referencing attempting to "limit" this to lockbox/lobi ships. At least not to your post immediately above mine.
Well, at least this isn't a blatant across the board power grab...
Still, you're not paying enough attention to the game. There's two new Jem'Hadar ships (JHSS/JHRS?) that are based off the "original" T5 JHAS, but are "updated" to the T6 standards and only differ in the exact specialist seating. And there's two Elachi ships that do the same thing, get the box, tell it to pop the variant with the specialization you prefer. And both these ship models are (re-)consigned to the lockboxes / DOff packs that spawned their T5 inspirations...
So, Cryptic's not above... requesting... that for the infamous 13th BOff seat, T5 mastery power, and specialization seat option that truly differentiates a FleetT6 from a "FT5U / T5U11", you have to pay "full price" for the ship over again - whether that price is $30 or $infinite due to possibly really bad lockbox luck.
Back to square one - show how Cryptic's gonna profit more from releasing a T5U(Lockbox) to T6(Lockbox) token than eventually releasing a "Temporal Cold War" lockbox with a T6 Temporal Science / Temporal Destroyer pack...
To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]
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Hmmm... T6 Nebula... Currently a tank Engi style Sci vessel... I wonder....