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I wish I could purchase certain ships separately from these bundles
robert
Member Posts: 129 Arc User
A minor vent.
I saw the new Legendary Romulan Ship bundle and as much as I liked to own the updated Scimitar, I can't bring myself to purchase the bundle due to the fact that I already own a good majority of the ships that are included in the bundle.
I saw the new Legendary Romulan Ship bundle and as much as I liked to own the updated Scimitar, I can't bring myself to purchase the bundle due to the fact that I already own a good majority of the ships that are included in the bundle.
Post edited by baddmoonrizin on
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I thought the bundle includes the new D'deridex and new Scimitar along with different variations of each ship.
It is just the 2 ships (plus a C-Store ship token), with a bunch of optional skins (costumes) for those 2 ships. It does not unlock any existing T1-T6 C-Store ships, just the skins. You aren't being charged for any T1-T6 ships that you already own.
wow, the bundle seems incredible pricey now that you cleared this up to me.
$78 for 3 ships where two of them are already fleet level is not too bad. You also get the costume unlocks, 3 promo duty officer packs and two experimental tokens. Paying list price would be expensive I agree.
I was just going with the traditional definition from the old studies of player spending habits, where the typical FtP player often purchased microtransaction-level things but rarely went for large expenditures even when it would save them money in the long run. People still argue why those habits are so prevalent (in my case it is fixed income and the tendency of emergencies coming up that cut into any attempt to set aside a larger gaming fund reserve) but the trend is firmly established.
Like most things it is a form of bell curve and in this case you have the whales on the high spending tail and the zero spenders on the other extreme of it. Also, the statistics may have changed since then, the last study I saw was about five or six years ago, but since they were not much different from the ones earlier than that (like the early ones that PWE used as a basis for their FtP push about a decade ago), I suspect they probably did not change that much since the last one I saw.
STO sadly really doesn't have 'micro' transactions. Pricing those ships at the cost of sometimes multiple full games is puzzling, but something the market by large accepts.
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2: Many many many many many many many many many many people only want the ships, not the extra items.
3: Cryptic is well aware of point 2 above, and uses the extra items to justify charging a higher price than if they were only selling the ships.
4: If #3 above were not actually true, they would offer an option with just the ships. But because they know the vast majority of people would buy the cheaper option (which would mean less profit) they don't give that choice. It's all or nothing.
5: I'm not saying any of the above is right/wrong/etc. I'm just describing the situation as it exists.
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
Note though that 3 x 2400 zen C-Store ships (20% off sale) = 7200 zen, vs. 7800 zen for this 3-ship bundle.
The extra cost is actually only 600 zen, the difference is that they make you buy 3 ships at once when many players would rather only buy 1 ship and might not want the other two ships at all.
Absolutely. They know offering individual ship would mean less profit, so they don't do it.
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
By now many of the players have given in and bought at least one, 30$ ship—so two ships at 40 or 45$ feels just uncomfortable enough of an impulse buy that we can rationalize it to ourselves.
And for people who already bought one Ledgendary ship—it is even an easier sale. “Well I do collect ships—don’t I?“ we reason. “I can use the trait or the admiralty card or the other 1% fluff that may make my game 1% more enjoyable,” we argue.
Next year we’ll be telling the dissident customers 100$ platinum ships are “a good value,”or maybe they would prefer a 30$ “trait-only” ships—no need to even make a model.
It's 2 x Legendary + 1 x any regular C-Store T6 for $78 so not really $45 per ship.
If you get it on sale, but then using that logic then a c store ship isn't worth 30 dollars either so the value is less.
Yes on sale at the normal 20% off, C-Store ships cost $24, and 3 x $24 = $72 so just $6 less than this 3-pack.
Ignoring the other stuff, you could look at this pack as $24 for the C-Store token then 2 x $27 for for the legendary ships. Cryptic does make you buy 3 ships at once though. Some people might be happier paying $50 for just the one legendary ship they want.
Yeah, "if they currently have the zen" is the key here. As a ftp player since - geez, a long time ago, 2012? I did sub a few months back then - I've never had more than ~5-6k zen from exchanging Dil. But, then, I play on and off, and in the cheap-exchange days, I virtually never made the full 8k daily refinement. Heck, even these days, it's only when I have some sort of super bonus (leveling a new character through a pile of reps at once; the daily big dil payouts at the end of an event, etc). And in the last few years, it's never been more than 2-3k zen.
So yeah - all these big bundles? They're something I just stare at from a great distance. They never were any kind of option.
(and yes - I can't imagine ever dropping $50+ into a game's cash shop to buy some Big Pricey Item. I've only ever gotten single ships, or once a cross-faction 3-ship pack. Back when those existed and were 4k. I'm one of those ftp players who only considers 'micro' transactions for real cash. The current trend of 70-100+ bundles is basically just a big "you're no longer a target customer" sign. /shrug)
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That said - yeah, they're not going to sell those ships separately, that's the point. They know most players only really want one or two of the ships in these big bundles, so you can only get them with a pile of other trash you'd rather not pay for. That's business.
I second this. The ships themselves were the seller for me; I couldn't have cared less for the rest. Now, some of the fluff actually works - i.e. the mirror pack that was released a few months back, that was a nice touch - but a lot of it doesn't.
"There's No Way Like Poway!"
Real Join Date: October 2010
Also, they're never going to sell singles of the really-wanted ships (T6 Connies). Unless it were at an absurd premium that would still keep people from buying them.
But that's why they do it...charge you extra money for stuff you don't care about to make a bigger profit or cause a longer grind if you exchange the zen, and then you've got even a longer wait because of the dilithium exchange (and could very well miss a sale)