Star Trek Online Discussion Thread (now free to play!)

[Harvey]

Praetor Adele wrote:

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Now, can we get someone on the KDF side to open up the Holdings?

Yes, please.

And I activated the suit, but I still seem to burn up. I will try it again today, though -- it's possible it was just a bug, or I wasn't doing something right.

[Squiggy]

I especially love how it so slow It's unplayable.

[SilentP]

Hell, as it stands, it managed to make my whole internet connection for the flat wig out and give up for a while.

I do however like the change in pace of these fleet missions compared to STFs, actually missions where it doesn't just feel like a DPS race or whatever the term is. And, for the moment at least, it does seem to help make a good passive social locus for the Fleet. I've seen more fleet members in the fast few play sessions than I have for a few months.

[Scout101]

Harvey wrote:

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Yes, please.

And I activated the suit, but I still seem to burn up. I will try it again today, though -- it's possible it was just a bug, or I wasn't doing something right.

Mistake I was having earlier was that I equipped it (it was visable), but I didn't actually turn it ON. Not sure why that's even an option, though. Either wearing the suit or not...

[syberghost]

Well, the new fleet activities seem to be a success; kept my attention for five hours straight today, when I'd only intended to put in half an hour, and that whole time long-absent fleet members were showing up asking questions about how best to invest their hoarded goods in the fleet.

(My fleet, not you guys, although I did help Timelord with some stuff for you too.)

[Aeolusdallas]

-Brett- wrote:

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Good thing, too. If I was paying to not be able to play this, I'd be kind of pissed off.

Pretty much all MMO's are like this on major patch days.

[intrinsical]

I am starting to think Cryptic is treating starships like powersets in Champs Online. I believe from Cryptic's perspective, they are not just selling players a model but more importantly they are selling you starship "abilities". Buying a certain ship gives you a certain subset of boff abilities to choose from as well as a single "special" ability in the form of a console.

And every time you use a boff ability, you're really using a small amount of Cryptic's server. I'm guessing they've calculated the average number of time boff abilities is used over a period of time and figured out how much it costs to run STO servers and pay developers for that period of time. And that gives them a baseline cost of how much ships need to cost in order to run a profitable service.

On a related note, lifetime subscription costs probably $300 because Cryptic believes the average lifer will play for 2.5 years/30 months/912 days. This could explain why they are stopping lifer rewards at 1000 days (oh what the heck, 900 isn't a nice round number so lets give them one more reward at 1000 days as a bonus) Coincidentally, this works out to be exactly $10 per month, about the same as what a gold subscriber would pay in the same 2.5 year period. Using these figures, a $20 starship is equivalent to 2 months of subscription which means Cryptic needs to sell you a ship every two months. Of course, all this is just my speculation. Take it with a huge dose of salt.

[syberghost]

The reason the current Veteran rewards program is being ended at 1,000 is that each tier is just as much work as previous tiers, but is less incentive for new players to subscribe. 1,000 days is a long time for most people.

It will undoubtedly be replaced with other systems for encouraging long-term commitment, which hopefully do more to encourage new Lifetime subs. (Which contrary to popular opinion, Cryptic loves selling; they can do more with all your cash up front in development terms, and C-store sales will keep the lights on later.)

That doesn't mean that when 1,500 days comes along they won't decide to give us a little thanks; it just means they're not planning for it right now.

[Scout101]

Given the lack of real difference between the Gold and Silver, hard to tell that they really DO love the subs. I agree that they SHOULD, for all the reasons you mention, there's just no incentive to DO it given the lack of bonuses, perks, access, or limitations. Silver can get you almost the exact same stuff, for free. Gold still has to pay for most of the stuff (everything's Zen store, really), so why not save the sub money and buy it directly?

If i took all my sub money, plus what I'd bought separately, I'd be way up if I hadn't subbed, and I'd have all the same stuff, access, etc.

Should be more stuff for the Gold/LTS members, to encourage them to hand over large chunks of money (which pays for further development). Things like free sets of keys to the constant lockbox nonsense would be no-brainers. Discounts on the Zen store over Silver members, etc. Pick you own ideas, but there's no real perk to paying upfront anymore.

[STR]

intrinsical wrote:

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And every time you use a boff ability, you're really using a small amount of Cryptic's server. I'm guessing they've calculated the average number of time boff abilities is used over a period of time and figured out how much it costs to run STO servers and pay developers for that period of time. And that gives them a baseline cost of how much ships need to cost in order to run a profitable service.

Nah. That's not how they price things like this. Cost is minuscule when you're dealing with intangibles like this. Pennies per ship per year. The price floor is set by the man hours it takes to develop new content plus an acceptable margin for shareholders. Mind you, that's the floor, what the price might be during sales.

When they're setting the standard price for new items they base it on what has and hasn't worked in the past. Basically, price it at what the market will pay. They pick a balance between price per unit and number of units sold (x*y=z, where z is maximized) and that's what they price things at.

[Ronald Held]

Anyone see the new content yet? is the Foundry back?

[Aeolusdallas]

Ronald Held wrote:

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Anyone see the new content yet? is the Foundry back?

I have been enjoying the Tholian ground fighting and the Starbase defense fights are a blast.

[syberghost]

Foundry could be next week.

[syberghost]

Update on Foundry:

http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/sh...11#post4834511

Sounds like they're getting close.

[Ayelbourne]

So, Tholian lockboxes with a bunch of Tholian ships to fly...

I don't mind lockboxes, but humanoids flying Tholian ships is just too much imho.

How could you ever make a ship designed for tholian physiology habitable for humanoids??