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Have a question for the gamers in Star Trek online
My question is if the prices on the Zen Market were more fair. Would you spend more money in the game Be honest about it I say this because the average game is $60. And when we're spending almost double that for just a piece of gear It stops you and makes you think And I know I would spend a lot more money in this game If it was more fair Because remember The average game is $60 And I feel that that's the reason There are so many free-to-play gamers in this game Is the prices are just too high For just pieces of gear And don't get me wrong I understand They need to make money But what's the line that's drawn between making money To keep the game Going or just flat-out way over pricing stuff So what's your guys's thought if they were to make the price is more fair for the items would you guys be willing to spend more money in the game because I know I would
Post edited by baddmoonrizin on
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I don't think I've ever seen an F2P with the 'fair' (low) prices. In STO you don't need to spend $1 period. You can potentially get ANYTHING for free (except LTS on PC). There has to be a balance somewhere. You're also wrong about having to spend double $60 for a piece of equipment, because you don't really need it, and outside of bundles, there is no equipment at that price. Do the game a favour; support it and buy a $30 T6 ship as there's plenty of variety out there.
The issue is that the Dilithium Exchange is a player driven economy, reacting to various in game events such as sales and events that flooded the market with Dilithium. For years it has reflected a higher demand for Zen until we hit the exchange cap. Even the Devs themselves have said in the past that it would be more ideal for all if the exchange rates were more balanced, and they are working on multiple things to try and bring the Exchange back down to a more healthy range. The problem is that it is going to take time and many things working together.
Other than bundles (I'm including legendaries and Mudd stuff in this category) in the C-Store, the most expensive thing really is a $30 T6 ship, which used to follow the trend of +$5 per tier before they stopped selling the T1-4 ships in the C-Store. But we also get at least 3 Event T6 ships a year that we can get for free. And with how the game is set up... you can easily just take an Event T6 with normal gear you can get just by playing, and compete with someone who bought a Legendary.
There is no P2W in STO. Its Pay 2 Have Now. Everything out of the Lockboxes is nice to have, but not required to play.
normal text = me speaking as fellow formite
colored text = mod mode
What is considered "everything is high in price"? And I am asking this honestly. To put it in perspective most subscription MMO's such as WOW, ESO and FFXIV will run you ~$180/year not counting expansion pack years. That's just the subscription.
Now let's look at STO through that filter.
- Most C-store ships. Good, Quality top of the line ships with good traits and consoles run $30. So you could buy 6 ships a year instead of a WOW subscription.
- The "Legendary" ships get a little weird. In some cases they are a tad overpriced. In others not as much. The trick is A. Catching them on sale, and B. knowing what you are buying and doing your own value calculations. When on sale the 10th Anniversary Bundle actually works out to the best value per ship in game. But it is a steep up front cost. It would net you 10 top tier franchise hero ships for the cost of your annual WOW subscription.
- Mudd's Market is grossly overinflated. The stuff on it generally sells only during the periodic 75% off sales. It helps to keep in mind that the stuff in Mudd's Market is all retired event rewards that were originally given free for gameplay. So it's main purpose is you pay extra to get something you missed. The exception is the Mudd's Bundles which are often repackaging previous lockbox ships as Account Unlocks. So the value there is getting a particularly valuable ship/trait/console on all of your characters. Even then they tend to be pricey so use caution and your own value calculations. Honestly the biggest value in most of the stuff in Mudd's market is the given items are generally great for leveling alts. And can be reclaimed on any character from very early in the leveling process. There are a few of those items that might be worth $20 when they are 75% off just to not have to worry about gearing while leveling. But that's a personal choice.
- You never need to touch the gamble boxes and are best served by not touching the gamble boxes. If you want to buy keys, first buy Zen when it's on sale. Then hold it until keys go on sale, then buy keys and sell kets on the Exchange. Use that E/C to but the Gamble Box ship you want.
Is it perfect? No. It's a F2P game that will encourage you to spend on the item shop. It's how they get paid. Always be aware of that. But as far as F2P games go, it's one of the least evil ones. For contrast go look at Diablo Immoral. (And once you see just how evil the monetization scheme is, you will realize that there is no T in the name)
But yeah, speaking as someone who drops cash money rarely if at all - you can get almost anything in this game by just playing it. I've got a T6 DSC Connie on one toon because I was able to get it with the T6 token from last year's Event Campaign - eventually. (I'm saving this year's token until I can get a California-class with it, because I have an idea for a character I want to play, a hard-luck captain who gets assigned a broken-down Cali as their first command and decides to stick with it and improve it as they advance.)
STO pricing seems fair to me for a free to play MMO. STO is also very generous to free players, especially when you add in the multi-event campaign ship giveaways they've had for the last 3 years. Want that $250 TOS Connie? This year is the third chance to get it for free.
One problem with your plan re: the California Class. for the Lootbox/Promo ship rewards it is a reward claim. Not a token. While you can put off claiming the reward until next year, the rewar won't change. And the list of possible reward ships was cutoff at Dec 31, 2021. So the California Class will not be available as this years reward, regardless of when you claim it. Next years event reward choices will include it.
It's not like the Infinity ship box's which you can sit on and save until they add a new ship you want.
It's not like I'm going to just up and abandon STO, after all. Where else can I get this much gameplay for free?
and not because of cost, everything is designed to be just slightly more expensive then the Zen pack you can buy, forcing you to buy more.
I dont mind buying ships, Well I didnt mind, but when Kael gave a really TRIBBLE excuse on twitch as to why they roll lockboxes so hard, I took another long look at the games monetization, and it's designed to bleed people dry.
if it was fair, id spend, I love trek, but I can't really support a studio that wants to pervert the name trek to make a quick buck.
fix the game and do some actual work on it, not just the lockbox system and we'll talk.
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