I’m sure this has come up before, but I felt like posting it anyway in hopes that maybe having another voice on the topic might persuade the developers to look into it.
Please make lobi items account wide unlocks (reclaim on each character) or, at the very least, bound to account.
It is absolutely RIDICULOUS to have lobi items locked to a single character. These are BY FAR the most expensive items in the game and take a very large amount of money or enormous amount of game play to acquire.
For example, a single lobi ship costs 900 lobi. Yet the ONLY way to get lobi is via lock boxes which have a lobi drop rate averaging around 5.4-5.5 (let’s round down to 5 for simple math). That means you have to open 180 boxes to get enough lobi. Since lockboxes require a key, that means you have to purchase 180 keys. The cheapest c store option is a 10 Pack... so 18 ten packs. (Avoiding the 20 Pack since that is not always available). Ten packs are 1125 zen each or $11.25. That is $202.50 that one has to spend in real money to get ONE lobi ship that is LOCKED TO ONE CHARACTER. That is RIDICULOUS. C store ships that cost $30 are account unlocks, yet if you spend over $200 for one lobi ship, it’s locked to one character.
Same goes for ground or space items at 200 lobi. Those come out to $45 worth of keys and again, are locked to a single character.
This pricing structure is insane. Please, please consider changing these items to be reclaimable across all characters on an account or, at the very least, make them account bound items so they can be moved between characters at will. (Though not sure how you could move ships around)
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This request comes up as regularly as the moon and has done for years. If they haven't done it now, then they aren't going to, just like the Dil Refining limit requests.
> So if sombody came to you and asked you to make less money, would you consider that reasonable request? Why do you feel it's fine for you to do it to others?
Maybe you need to get your eyes checked and reread my post. I never said anything about them making less money. I only asked them to let us use the items that we have already paid for across multiple characters.
> Buy them on the Exchange, if you do it like I do it costs no money at all.
I have done that as well. Still takes a LOT of time and effort to earn enough EC to cover that many keys. And with all that effort, the items should be account unlocks.
Perhaps not, but it never hurts to ask. Enough unhappy customers can often lead to changed minds.
Maybe not, but the end result would be less income if they made them account unlocks. Remember, Cryptic does not get regular income apart from Monthly subs. Master Key sales give them alot of income, that is needed to keep the game running, pay the Dev's, pay the actors, and pay the licenses etc.
In effect, that is considered a price reduction. In the current state of the game if you wanted "Item A" then you need to spend X amount of Lobi Crystals to obtain it. If you have 5 characters on your account and you want them all to have "Item A" then you need to spend 5X amount of Lobo Crystals. Making Lobi Store items account unlocked means you only need to spend X Lobi Crystals to get them for all 5 characters. That is a price reduction.
> Not going to happen... unless maybe... maybe the price of all Lobi Store items are increased by at least 15x.
The ships are already insanely overpriced when compared to the ones in the C store and exactly why they should be account unlocks.
The space items don’t even have a c store counterpart for comparison. But using c store ships, these lobi items are 150% of the account unlocked ships in the c store. Again, for that price, they should be account reclaimable on every character.
15x increase over items that are already 8-10x overpriced would then be 120x to 150x over priced. Now you’re into just stupid territory.
> In effect, that is considered a price reduction. In the current state of the game if you wanted "Item A" then you need to spend X amount of Lobi Crystals to obtain it. If you have 5 characters on your account and you want them all to have "Item A" then you need to spend 5X amount of Lobo Crystals. Making Lobi Store items account unlocked means you only need to spend X Lobi Crystals to get them for all 5 characters. That is a price reduction.
I am all for them making a fair amount of money to cover game development and pay salaries, etc. but I’m also in favor of a fair gameplay experience for those who pay them that money. I’m not asking for them to adjust the lobi prices, or key prices, or anything like that. While I do think that these prices are ridiculously high in some areas and obviously structured to persuade people to spend more money than they wanted to (I.e. key packs at $11.25 instead of an even $10.00), that’s not the point of the post.
My point is that if they are going to charge high prices for some items, then it is only fair to make them account reclaimable or account unlocks.
I will fairly give them money, if they fairly give me a “product”. However, if you put needless restrictions on said “product”, then I won’t purchase it.
That said, I have purchased keys for cash, I have purchased lobi items, and I may continue to do so. However, I will NOT purchase more keys just to get lobi, just to get the same lobi item on another character. So they aren’t gaining any more money or losing any money from me by restricting lobi items to a single character. They ARE, however, creating frustration in their customers by doing so which then influences the willingness to give them money in the future. Bad experiences lead to less money.
OP is asking for account UNLOCK not bound. This will never happen because right now people buy things like boolean cannons for multiple characters. So it definitely is asking Cryptic to make less money than they do now.
Even account bound will probably never happen because it would still cost Cryptic money when some players use the account bank to shuffle lobi items back and forth instead of buying copies.
I don't mind, since lock box sales are a big part of collecting the money to keep the game running and bringing us new content.
> Key point...from YOU. You are under the mistaken impression that only you matter. And if they change they still don't get more money from you. So it is a lose neutral stance for them. Why would anyone do thay?
I’m honestly surprised at the number of responses in favor of getting less for more. I would think all players would like to benefit from lower costs or greater benefits for the same cost.
At least most people are polite about their opinions.
Still, while I would like to see lobi items becoming account unlocked, I don't see it happening. Cryptic isn't going to give up that money stream. It is you asking them to make less money. So it wouldn't work. Only way it would is if they upped the prices to make up for lost revenue account unlocks would generate.
Message me in-game (@tm706) for help
1st Alpha Quadrant Fleet
It's not that I don't like free or cheaper things, it's that I understand Cryptic/PWE is a business. It costs them money to run the servers and to pay for the writers, artists, coders and voice actors that bring us new content. If they are too generous, they don't make the money that they need to keep doing that.
It will cost Cryptic money if your scheme goes into effect. Lock Boxes give Lobi, Lock boxes need keys, Keys bring in money, Lobi items unlocked for every toon = fewer keys sold = less money into STO = Less money into Cryptic = less funds for expenses = doors closing no more cryptic no more STO. Get it?
>
> Also yes I am a jerk. Doesn't make me wrong.
Definitely not wrong in that statement.
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Geez. Some of you people need to step back and stop taking personal offense to a request for a game improvement. I made a genuine request to the developers and get accused of not having a brain. I didn’t expect to be personally attacked for a simple coding change.
[insert colorful parting language directed towards the rude people here]
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