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Spending real cash to get your loot!
ShardWarrior
Member Posts: 290
Get ready for "Cardassian Lock Boxes"! http://www.startrekonline.com/node/2864
So there is a chance you will get a Cardassian Ship or other cool stuff as a drop in game.... awesome right? Well, keep on reading...
"To open one of the Lock Boxes, a character will also need an item called a Master Key. Master Keys can be purchased in the C-Store for 100 CP, or in a 10-pack for 900 CP. If you attempt to open a Lock Box without a Master Key, you will get a message explaining that you need one. If you have more than one Master Key, then only one key will be consumed each time you open a Lock Box."
So, in order to see what is in that spiffy loot box you just got... hand over 100 C-Points for it.
Comments
Iwas wondering when this would start. It was just way to easy to max out this game without spending a penny. Even so, 100 cpoints is only 2-3 days of grinding without paying. So its still a good deal.
Im waiting for the dilithium refining to cost c-points. Or expect Cryptic to start buying back the C-points on the exchange till it reaches a 300 to 1 ratio or more.
And I assume that this is also the case for SUBSCRIBERS?
This applies to anyone, even lifetime subs I believe. Some people on the STO forums call it "A nice way to spend your stipend". Heh.
But hey, if you don't want to spend the CP's on a master key, you can put it up for sale on the auction house for EC's.
Be aware, however, that subscribers and lifetime subs get 400cp per month.
Funny enough, the issue that kept coming up in both Cryptic games was subscibers complaining that there was nothing worth while to spend the stipend on.
There is NO miracle patch.
95% of what you see in beta won't change by launch.
Hope is not a stategy.
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"This kind of topic is like one of those little cartoon boxes held up by a stick on a string, with a piece of meat under it. In other words, bait."
Right, but do you want to waste a stipend on a very small chance of getting the ship? I dunno if I would. /shurg
SOE have a similar thing with EQ2, you need to subscribe to be able to use the cooler loot you have collected.
I see your point. There is a similar thing going on with grab bags in CO at the moment. They are tradable so that makes it a bit easier to get what you want. Personalli I tend not to bother with that type of thing but I have 680 or so points that i don't know what to do with. I just don't buy much from the C-store so it wouldn't sting as much.
There is NO miracle patch.
95% of what you see in beta won't change by launch.
Hope is not a stategy.
______________________________
"This kind of topic is like one of those little cartoon boxes held up by a stick on a string, with a piece of meat under it. In other words, bait."
No doubt they got this gem of an idea from KingsIsle Studios. They do this in spades in their Wizard 101 game. Kill the big bosses and they drop crap. They have a 0.001% chance to drop something interesting, but lo and behold, there is a snazzy chest in the room and for some real money(Crowns), you can open it for a chance at some gear, usually crap. Even worse is that you can keep doing it, like a slot machine, hitting those people with gambling fever where it really hurts.
When offering a game for free, companies need to appeal to people willing to spend money in as many ways as possible. Without those people, this game (and any free to play for that matter) would not last.
In STO, I started playing for free, and ended up having fun. I wanted to support the further development of the game, so I went gold for a month. Getting C-points and free respecs every 10 ranks on every character is a nice park too!
Some people are into gambling and have fun with the chance to get something ultra rare, so those people will spend money on that chance. People who don't have the cash to spend on it, are still able to do everything and buy everything in the game, thanks to the dilithium/c-point exchange.
All in all, I'd say they're making smart choices with their store.
Sorry but this is a crap way of getting people to support your game. There are plenty of ways to get people to spend money on F2P games that wont make it pay 2 win or a cheap gimmick like this. Reminds me of some kind of facebook game.
Right, but do you want to waste a stipend on a very small chance of getting the ship? I dunno if I would. /shurg
I see your point. There is a similar thing going on with grab bags in CO at the moment. They are tradable so that makes it a bit easier to get what you want. Personalli I tend not to bother with that type of thing but I have 680 or so points that i don't know what to do with. I just don't buy much from the C-store so it wouldn't sting as much.
I can understand your point of view. I just don't really understand why Cryptic doesn't take a little more time to rethink the method of how they do things like this.
I would not say that. They are much better off adding more content to the game first. Give the playerbase something to actually do first, then worry about adding in all that leet gear for you to use it on.
I agree.
Some intersting tweets being made by Thomasthecat about this.
Here
My guess is, this is just the beginning of the truck load of stuff to hit the c-store exclusively. I was actually quite shocked Cryptic recently gave away a free ship to players.
Utterly fascinating to read him trying to say these are different than the holiday gift boxes.
I'm ok with this.
I think he is enjoying this.
He's Loling at you guys!
It is expected for the apologists to be ok with anything Cryptic does.
Scumbags.
Since when did i become an apologist lol?
Seriously.
Competition in f2p and freemium market in NA & EU increase drastically almost every month.
Playerbase is not growiwng that fast. Same people just playing few games at same time and /or hopping between them.
Many games competing for same wallets. What that mean?
You'll see more and more things like that in other f2p / freemium games. There are sales plan to do for supervisors and financial quarterly revenues to show investors and shareholders.
MMO including mmorpg market is on fast-track to copy Asian market.
Few big p2p titles + maybe few indie p2p titles+veeeery few B2P titles+ ALOOOOT of f2p & freemium titles , many with cash shops MUCH more influential , big and expansive than in 'early freemium days in west'.
Say 'bai' to cash shops only offering vanity items
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Like I said.
Western mmorpg market and f2p system is heading into asian style f2p. Well actally it is asian style + 'optional' sub so it is worse lol
So noone will say it in capital letter but in those f2p games ,you have to "suck it up or gtfo and stop playing f2p games". Bitching on forms won't change microtransaction directions.
F2P / freemium market is getting more and more saturated and it will get even more saturated so game companies will be forced to use dirtier "shop sales" to get money.
Preety simple actually.
But at least you unlock the ENTIRE game when subscribing! Same in LOTRO and DDO!
But for Cryptic subscribing to the game was and never will be enough. That's the BIG difference here and why I have grown an extreme hate against Cryptic!
And now they are owned by PW, it will only get worse and worse.
Wrong.
There are store-only things that affect gameplay directly (give advantage) in Lotro (store-only relics, removal scrolls, stat- tomes, etc) + there are also boxes + store keys in Lotro as well Boxes are only way for example to get rare skin for monster player - don't think anyone got it yet. Diffrence is that keys can drop in game BUT drop rate is so low that keys are like Yeti - many heard noone saw lol
edit:
oh here topic about Lotro Box'es (unlocked with key from store)
http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?435978-Steel-Bound-Loot-Box-what-did-you-get
The Stat tomes is the only thing that comes to mind, but have absolutely ZERO affect on the game. Especially now the stat cap has been removed with RoI expac !
Stat tomes are nice for solo players and will make it easier to level during the lower levels, but that's pretty much it! At higher levels they have litterly no effect at all anymore and are just a waste of TP.