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Why is zen so expensive?.....
captainkirk
Member Posts: 3 Arc User
I only live on my social security disability and Zen coins is like spending all of it to buy enough Zen to buy the Discovery Temporal Starship for example( 10000 zen for $100.00 ) for gaming coins ? Is there a code I could get to be able to get the ship instead of a whole Bundle, The pandemic is hard on everyone and players had to use everything they had to stay ahead of their Bills, and players like me that are dedicated loyal players struggle Because we are unable to work and just sit here play our games watch Tv and every month pay our bills just so we can have a little left to get to the next month. have a heart for us.. I looked on the single starship list but didn't see the Temporal Discovery Starship. please help me out.. thanks...
Post edited by baddmoonrizin on
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Answers
The story content, patrols, TFOs are all free with no limits on how much you play them each day.
The paid ships are what keep the game running, and Cryptic decides how to sell them and for how much as a business decision to make enough money to pay for all the free content while making a profit.
That means charging more for the special ships. That means not everyone can get all the paid things they want, but it also means the game keeps running year after year and you got to play episodes and TFOs with the real actors from Discovery.
If you just want a Crossfield Class ship, you have an option.. it won't be quick.. but it's doable for cheap. The 'Legendary' version sadly, is off the table.. that one is pay or do without, I'm sorry.
Around the start of the year, Cryptic introduced an approximately year long event called Event Campaign III. This is a series of 5 events at 3 weeks each, you can get 50 daily progress for each day played. Actually, the cooldown is 20 hours, not 24 so you can actually get a little more then that. Once the player saves up 3500 total daily points, they get to choose between a number of great prizes, but two of the possibilities are the Mirror Crossfield Science Destroyer, or the Crossfield Science Spearhead as your reward.
Now, two of the events are already over (Voth Advance and Tholian Trouble) so if you didn't play any of those, then you don't have any progress. But, there are 3 events left which will get you very close to what you need. You need 3500 Total points, if you did all 21 days of each of the 3 events at 50 per day you could come out with 3150 points. While that is just short, you should be able to buy out the remainder for far far less then it would cost to try and buy the legendary pack just to get one ship. I don't know exactly how much it would be to buy out the last 350 points, but it would be a small amount.. maybe someone else knows that. If however, you did the event every 20 hours instead of once per day.. you might even be able to make that up and get it 100% free.
This isn't a perfect option, it will take months and you will have to be diligent in making sure you get your event progress every day, but if you really want a Crossfield without having to pay a lot of money it's a viable option for you. The sad reality is you're never going to get Cryptic to sell the Legendary Ships individually, the full pack is a big seller to them and simply put, it would be taking money away from them which I would bet they can't afford to do.
I know, the impression is that they're being 'greedy' but try and keep in mind the reality of the 'free to play' system from the perspective of the developers. They need to do whatever they have to do to make money, to keep the lights on, to pay people who need to make a living. They don't have the benefit of a game like Star Wars The Old Republic, WoW, or other titles that have money rolling in every month from subscriptions. When they find something that makes money, they're going to push it and they are not going to do anything to compromise that. Simply put.. it's a matter of survival for them.
I hope you're able to take part in the next 3 events for Event Campaign III, it won't be quick, but it's a viable path to the ship you want without having to pay hundreds of dollars to get it. I can't imagine those last 350 points would cost more then $20 or so.
Good luck to you.
Because they consciously made the choice to cut out the subscription option. Key word being OPTION. Cryptic willingly kicked money off the table, turning their nose up at it. Whether or not it made huge money, it still made them money when they offered the subscription option.
I still think Cryptic cancelling the normal subscription was a bad idea.
I like your kicking money off the table, turning their nose up at it description. I'll have to remember that & borrow it sometime.
What I also remember is when & how Cryptic cancelled normal subscriptions they had a choice & decided not to bump-up everyone on the normal subscription plan to the next tier of whatever players were at as a thank you gesture for subbing for whatever amount of time but instead just dropped players with no prior notice.
Since then Cryptic has bene usually better in giving some advance notice on things.
For the record, I agree with you.
Recently, I have started looking more closely into the financial aspects of MMO's in general, as well as the evolution of how 'Free 2 Play' rose to be more popular then the subscription based model. To put things simply and quickly, I have gained a new appreciation for the Subscription Based model, and have changed the view I once held that it was inferior to 'free 2 play.'
Without straying too far off topic, the focus of development is just vastly different for both styles of game. If you exist on a subscription model, you have players that are currently paying every month. As a developer, your focus is on keeping those players, the focus is on making the game as enjoyable as possible so people want to keep playing. Not only do they want to stay, they want their friends to join them, and then they want to stay. Your livelihood is convincing players to keep playing your game.
Free2Play changes that, people playing your game doesn't matter, it only helps you if they pay. That means as a F2P developer your focus has to change from making the game better to making people want to pay, which is challenging. If you just make the game great, there is no incentive for people to pay, the game is already awesome and they get it for free. Yes, there will be a small group that feel that it's good so they will pay out of principal, but the majority will just enjoy your game until you go broke. That's where tactics like 'create the problem, sell the solution' come into play. Progression takes too long? Buy it out. Travel around the world is too cumbersome? pay for quick travel or faster movement. Inventory too small? Buy more space.. things like that. The focus isn't on finding these issues players have and just fixing them, it's about using that as an opportunity to get players to spend some money. The idea of 'selling power' is also more prevalent in F2P games, and sadly, STO is a great example of that.
The more time I spend playing a Subscription Based game like SWTOR or a game that costs money and then remains free with Cosmetic purchases (Guild Wars 2) the more I see the failings of the F2P system. I honestly would LOVE it if Cryptic brought back the Subscription model, but I don't expect that to ever happen. I don't even know if it would work at this point, with all the 'pay for power' stuff and all the monetization that's been put into the game to support the 'Free 2 Play' model over the years, I believe that sadly, it's likely too late to go back now.
Changing the model was a mistake in my opinion, but I would have to have access to their full numbers and their rational for the switch to make a completely informed judgment, and they are rather tight lipped about both. I am a former subscriber myself, and I miss the model. Yeah, you had to pay every month but every player was contributing and you didn't have ship bundles that cost hundreds and hundreds of dollars. I do miss that.
Well that would certainly make a difference upon my perspective & I had thought of that possibility too which if is the case I'm sure that PWE has it in a clause that Cryptic cannot divulge those details directly. It not only sounds plausible but probable but then again Cryptic are the developers & in my mind's eye that makes STO more theirs than the publishers therefore more culpable but not really sure in those intricate corporate big-money situations. But I still stand by thinking it was a very short-sighted attempt to increase LTS sales & those slot packs & an overall bad decision for the health of STO.