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luckbox odds coming to STO soon?
faxmachine
Member Posts: 120 Arc User
yesterday they updated the neverwinter luckboxes to show the odds:
https://www.arcgames.com/en/games/neverwinter/news/detail/11517143
there must have been some legal reason they were forced to do this so it will probably happen in STO soon too.
greate news!
https://www.arcgames.com/en/games/neverwinter/news/detail/11517143
there must have been some legal reason they were forced to do this so it will probably happen in STO soon too.
greate news!
Post edited by baddmoonrizin on
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But at least now theres no hiding it..
> And you're going to get the inevitable 'I bought 250 boxes and never got a ship' if they do it that way. Needs to be displayed as a percentage or some folk won't understand.
If they adopt the NW model you'll get your ship guaranteed with 250 boxes. If you scroll down you see every box fills a reward bar with milestone prizes. All of them probably more or less worthless filler, but at 250 you get a choice box of the lockboxes' main prizes.
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Having said that, perhaps this is a way around the legality issues. Its not a gamble box anymore... at 250 boxes you get the big prize.
I think its an interesting idea to get around the its gambling arguments. However prepare yourself. Those "you opened 100 here is a prize, 200 here you go 250 WO WO" prize boxes will be account bound. Also expect the odds on unbound wins to go DOWN.
The idea sounds interesting and could be implimented into STO, however we would need new UI elements. It might also mean an increase in supply for certain ships as well on the Exchange. I don't see them forcing account bind on pickup on anything as that would cause some serious backlash and throw the economy out of whack.
People who open boxes usually get stuff they don't need and post them on the Exchange for those who do. Changing that would not only devalue the lockbox gear, it would probably cause a lot of gear to just be seen as vendor trash rather than something someone else COULD use, but also cut into Cryptic's income.
I don't know how similar Neverwinter's lockboxes are to STO's, but there are ways to make this work over here if they do decide to do it. And from my perspective, account bind on pickup is not one of them.
All true. I'm very happy with being able to buy weapon packs, traits, etc. from the exchange instead of opening lock boxes for them, and being able to sell my own unwanted items when I do open boxes for the lobi.
One simple way to offer a guaranteed ship choice after 250 boxes would be to sell the ship choice box for lobi.
Unlike adding a bar that increases every box opened, doing that would not require any code changes. It might also be a change Cryptic management could live with.
Except that Cryptic also runs Neverwinter. So... why would they need to "live with it" when they're already doing it in one of their other games?
Sorry if I wasn't clear, I wasn't saying that Cryptic couldn't live with a progress bar.
I was saying: this is an easier alternative method that probably requires less developer effort.
And considering just the alternatives: it is one that Cryptic could accept, as opposed to other alternatives they might not.
With all that said this reminds me of a hybrid system between what SWTOR does and what STO does now. Basically over in SWTOR the longer you went without a grand prize of sorts, you got increased odds of dropping one until you got something. If they did bring this to STO I think it would do alot of good to bringing down some of the ship prices in the long run.
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Not necessarily, it could simply be that Gearbox told them to be more transparent, or even that the Neverwinter team specifically decided it was the best thing to do.
That's funny
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
You're not wrong, telling people the odds doesn't really seem to effect people's willingness to buy. This though, in my opinion, is an argument in favor of posting the odds. If it's not going to dramatically hurt sales (or might not effect it at all) then there is no downside. There is never a downside to transparency between parties when conducting transactions. It also gives Cryptic an 'out' when people complain about 'I spent (insert insane amount of money here) and I didn't get a ship' Cryptic can fall back on the fact that they were up front with the odds from the beginning. If someone has the information, and they spend anyway, the responsibility is on them for the outcome. At least that's how I see it.
Interestingly enough, CasualSAB over on Youtube just released a video on this very thing that's pretty good. They did a very in depth dive of Star Trek onlines current drop rates, STO's current 'pitty system' and also discussed the Neverwinter Change and how it could effect STO if it was implimented. You can see that video here.
It's a very good video, and I very much recommend it, especially if you're one of those people that thinks that people selling Lockbox or Promo ships on the exchange for 1.5B are being 'greedy.' The average ship costs about $200 USD and the math in this video shows that most of these 'greedy' transactions are being done at either 'break even' or even at a loss.
If you're unhappy with exchange/trade prices.. start focusing your blame where it belongs. On the poor drop rates dictated by Cryptic.
> yesterday they updated the neverwinter luckboxes to show the odds:
>
> https://www.arcgames.com/en/games/neverwinter/news/detail/11517143
>
> there must have been some legal reason they were forced to do this so it will probably happen in STO soon too.
>
> greate news!
There are legal reasons. Gearbox is a Swedish Company and Sweden has been one of the more aggressive countries pushing for lockbox transparency and regulations.
https://mediawrites.law/the-swedish-consumer-agency-publishes-report-on-loot-boxes-and-other-gambling-like-features-in-games/
To be clear I'm not suggesting they will make all lockbox items won account bound.... only ones people win with a new pity system.
Its the other way around if they give people pity mid tier prizes it will destroy the market for them. It would increase supply on top end and mid tier rewards and greatly devalue them. Which would mean cryptic would ultimately sell far fewer keys.
I was only half joking. IMO they will account bind anything you get from the pity system. Which imo isn't bad. You opened 250 boxes here is that ship for your own use. Don't think it will be a problem. The alternative is every new ship will have far less value on the exchange as the supply will be greatly increased. If odds on a ship are 1/250... giving away one 100% of the time at 250 doubles the drop rate. Doubling the drop rate = low value. Just remember back to the time Cryptic tried having GOLD lockbox shsips... and the pack only had two ships in it. The drop rate was = to the inf box prize maybe even worsse... BUT with only two options in the box (Na'kuhl Acheros Battlecruiser or Herald Vonph Dreadnought Carrier) they where heavily oversupplied. I remember buying both those ships for 70m when inf box ships where at 200-300.
I don't know perhaps with the current trend for ships going past the 1.5b ec exchange limit perhaps some over supply wouldn't be terrible and not cost Cryptic a ton of real $. I still don't think they will experiment that much with their $ systems... its a big risk to saturate ship supply. To be clear I also like the idea in general. Its a cute way to potentially get around some future legal issues.
You expect these guys to be able to add something like this with their 'busy' schedules?
PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
Kael is on vacation for a few weeks (he's moving), so it probably got overlooked. Announcements are currently being handled by the Neverwinter CM I believe.
Given that STO is doing, possibly, WAAAAAAAY better than NW, they might be more reserved swapping to the NW way of doing the lockbox. I wouldn't mind the rate improvements but more so, i like the idea that unlocking them builds to a guaranteed reward of actual value. That would be a nice addition. At that point, you've already paid for it and it makes the lottobox seem less predatory.
I know a few of the asian MMO markets were hit with actual legislation a year or so ago, which required lockbox odds to be made public, so it might be a small reason but I seriously doubt gearbox would have been the driving factor. Not unless THEY were trying to avoid legislation, i suppose. I'd love to hear the actual reasons behind it, as well as the actual drop rates pre and post change.
Regardless, I'll be curious to see if this DOES hit STO or CO, but I doubt STO will be happening anytime soon.
Actually, no. According to the financial details released when PWE was sold to Gearbox, NW had made approximately double the revenue STO had despite being a younger game.
I'm not sure where people get this impression that STO is somehow the biggest game Cryptic has?
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
Looks like an unambiguous win all around.
(edited for formatting)
The only reason this game is even relatively successful at this point is the gambling. Take that away and it probably couldn't break even without laying off half of the already small dev team. There is no way it could survive purely on it's own merits even with the Trek name pinned on it.
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