Good catch. I forgot to mention that. That is in fact the case. And if it's intentional, then it's even more imperative to get the authorities crawling up their backside.
I have no doubt that it is intentional; since STO launched, Cryptic's Cstore practices have been shady at best. Of course they apparently are falling back to the excuse that it is a bug, but I highly doubt it. It falls in line with what marketing practices they have done in the past.
"Oh my, how horrible, someone is criticizing a MMO. Oh yeah, that is what a forum is about, looking at both sides. You rather have to be critical of anything in this genre as of late because the track record of these major studios has just been appalling." -Ozmodan
Well - thing is - I don't actually mind the boxes. I just despise the spam about them!
I think it's stupid to buy keys for these things. But I wouldn't want to try to stop anyone else from doing so.
Hell, if they hadn't made me so mad with the spam, I would've been more than happy to sell any un-opened boxes I collected on the exchange, instead of destroying them on sight outright like I do now.
The boxes are not really the problem. It's the spam that there's no way to be completely rid of that's the problem.
-Logan ---------- "Wake UP! Time for SCIENCE!" -Adam Savage "Mythbusters" ----------
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.
After reading through this post to be honest I'm shocked they haven't found a way to ensure that players spend actual cash on this. While I was prepared to write a post about Cryptics greed I can't say i see a problem with this as long as they are allowing folks to get C points through normal gameplay means.
... I can't say i see a problem with this as long as they are allowing folks to get C points through normal gameplay means.
Yes, they can... when the Dilithium Exchange is up and running. Curious that it was down the weekend they introduced these new "lockboxes" so the only way to obtain keys was via the C-Store.
Well - thing is - I don't actually mind the boxes. I just despise the spam about them!
I think it's stupid to buy keys for these things. But I wouldn't want to try to stop anyone else from doing so.
Hell, if they hadn't made me so mad with the spam, I would've been more than happy to sell any un-opened boxes I collected on the exchange, instead of destroying them on sight outright like I do now.
The boxes are not really the problem. It's the spam that there's no way to be completely rid of that's the problem.
Last time I looked at the exchange the boxes were selling for a low as one credit. Im saving a stack of 10 to try and sell after its over and different boxes start dropping. They drop so often that an unopened box isnt worth much.
Really? This game sucks and Im not having fun? Im going to unsub right now. Thanks for the tip.
Well - thing is - I don't actually mind the boxes. I just despise the spam about them!
I think it's stupid to buy keys for these things. But I wouldn't want to try to stop anyone else from doing so.
Hell, if they hadn't made me so mad with the spam, I would've been more than happy to sell any un-opened boxes I collected on the exchange, instead of destroying them on sight outright like I do now.
The boxes are not really the problem. It's the spam that there's no way to be completely rid of that's the problem.
Last time I looked at the exchange the boxes were selling for a low as one credit. Im saving a stack of 10 to try and sell after its over and different boxes start dropping. They drop so often that an unopened box isnt worth much.
Did the same, sorta. I actually caught 4 stacks of 10 for 1ec/stack so I scooped them up. I'll continue using my future stipends to buy keys until I get the Galor.
I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil
Since they were selling for 1 EC apiece, and my Vice Admiral commonly has over 2 Million EC (give or take whatever she spends for repairs and upgrades at any given time.), I decided... what the hell?
In one day I bought enough stacks of 10 to account for over 800 Boxes.
Then I destroyed them all.
If my math is correct, that's potentially over $900.00 of sales Cryptic/PWE won't be getting.
MUA HA HA HA HA!
-Logan ---------- "Wake UP! Time for SCIENCE!" -Adam Savage "Mythbusters" ----------
The boxes are still in the game. But the Devs (Stahl I'm assuming had a lot to do with this) have created an easy way to turn off the spam about them in the main options panel.
This is good news. In one easy programming coding fix, they've fixed the most game-breaking aspect of the lock-boxes. People can now easily ignore the boxes and the spam about them and not have their game interupted.
Just wish they hadn't taken so long to do it. They let the threadnought about the spam at the site go over 130 pages. Did all the people screaming at them make a difference? I'd like to think so. But we'll never know for sure because even now they've never addressed the issue directly.
And there are still some hard questions - "is this promoting gambling to minors?" is one that comes up frequently. At least a couple of complaints were filed with the ESRB over it. Unknown if anything will come of that.
I hope a message was sent to Perfect World about what we in the western market will and will not support or put up with. But there's no way to know for sure. Again - lack of communication with the fans.
Still - no more spam is a good thing for now.
-Logan ---------- "Wake UP! Time for SCIENCE!" -Adam Savage "Mythbusters" ----------
I think it's more on PWE than Cryptic... since the latter is owned by the former... not sure if this is mentioned already but you can buy the keys with Energy Credits now... the price is about a million Energy Credits per key... last I check...
This really got to me when I tried the game again. It wasn't really that they were in the game but the fact that when I went through the tutorial with a new character EVERY FREAKING DROP was a Cardasian Lock box. I ended up with like 11 of them after the tutorial and it left a seriously bad taste in my mouth. I promptly uninstalled the game and never plan to look back. This gives new players a seriously bad first impression of the game and is what I'd expect from the *new* Cryptic with Perfect World Entertainment pulling their strings.
This really got to me when I tried the game again. It wasn't really that they were in the game but the fact that when I went through the tutorial with a new character EVERY FREAKING DROP was a Cardasian Lock box. I ended up with like 11 of them after the tutorial and it left a seriously bad taste in my mouth. I promptly uninstalled the game and never plan to look back. This gives new players a seriously bad first impression of the game and is what I'd expect from the *new* Cryptic with Perfect World Entertainment pulling their strings.
Bren
I agree the drop rate is stupidly common. The one Very Rare Gold Lockbox I received through a drop from a STF run yielded 1 common team battery. I do not even bother with them at all now, regardless of what quality they are. I trash them as soon as I get them.
At least they patched in a way to turn off the nonsensical and idiotic Galor ship messages from flashing across your screen.
Originally posted by ShardWarrior Originally posted by Brenelael This really got to me when I tried the game again. It wasn't really that they were in the game but the fact that when I went through the tutorial with a new character EVERY FREAKING DROP was a Cardasian Lock box. I ended up with like 11 of them after the tutorial and it left a seriously bad taste in my mouth. I promptly uninstalled the game and never plan to look back. This gives new players a seriously bad first impression of the game and is what I'd expect from the *new* Cryptic with Perfect World Entertainment pulling their strings. Bren
I agree the drop rate is stupidly common. The one Very Rare Gold Lockbox I received through a drop from a STF run yielded 1 common team battery. I do not even bother with them at all now, regardless of what quality they are. I trash them as soon as I get them.
At least they patched in a way to turn off the nonsensical and idiotic Galor ship messages from flashing across your screen.
I got a Cardi Lock box as a FE reward once lol. I ran one of the new FE missions and choose the mystery box because I had gained the other rewards. In that mystery box, was a Cardi lock box. That pissed me off.
Comments
I have no doubt that it is intentional; since STO launched, Cryptic's Cstore practices have been shady at best. Of course they apparently are falling back to the excuse that it is a bug, but I highly doubt it. It falls in line with what marketing practices they have done in the past.
"Oh my, how horrible, someone is criticizing a MMO. Oh yeah, that is what a forum is about, looking at both sides. You rather have to be critical of anything in this genre as of late because the track record of these major studios has just been appalling." -Ozmodan
Yes the keys are bought with c-store points, but you can trade dilithium to get those. You can easily play this game and not spend a dime.
Well - thing is - I don't actually mind the boxes. I just despise the spam about them!
I think it's stupid to buy keys for these things. But I wouldn't want to try to stop anyone else from doing so.
Hell, if they hadn't made me so mad with the spam, I would've been more than happy to sell any un-opened boxes I collected on the exchange, instead of destroying them on sight outright like I do now.
The boxes are not really the problem. It's the spam that there's no way to be completely rid of that's the problem.
-Logan
----------
"Wake UP! Time for SCIENCE!"
-Adam Savage "Mythbusters"
----------
After reading through this post to be honest I'm shocked they haven't found a way to ensure that players spend actual cash on this. While I was prepared to write a post about Cryptics greed I can't say i see a problem with this as long as they are allowing folks to get C points through normal gameplay means.
Yes, they can... when the Dilithium Exchange is up and running. Curious that it was down the weekend they introduced these new "lockboxes" so the only way to obtain keys was via the C-Store.
Last time I looked at the exchange the boxes were selling for a low as one credit. Im saving a stack of 10 to try and sell after its over and different boxes start dropping. They drop so often that an unopened box isnt worth much.
Really? This game sucks and Im not having fun? Im going to unsub right now. Thanks for the tip.
Did the same, sorta. I actually caught 4 stacks of 10 for 1ec/stack so I scooped them up. I'll continue using my future stipends to buy keys until I get the Galor.
I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil
Heh.
Since they were selling for 1 EC apiece, and my Vice Admiral commonly has over 2 Million EC (give or take whatever she spends for repairs and upgrades at any given time.), I decided... what the hell?
In one day I bought enough stacks of 10 to account for over 800 Boxes.
Then I destroyed them all.
If my math is correct, that's potentially over $900.00 of sales Cryptic/PWE won't be getting.
MUA HA HA HA HA!
-Logan
----------
"Wake UP! Time for SCIENCE!"
-Adam Savage "Mythbusters"
----------
An update:
The boxes are still in the game. But the Devs (Stahl I'm assuming had a lot to do with this) have created an easy way to turn off the spam about them in the main options panel.
This is good news. In one easy programming coding fix, they've fixed the most game-breaking aspect of the lock-boxes. People can now easily ignore the boxes and the spam about them and not have their game interupted.
Just wish they hadn't taken so long to do it. They let the threadnought about the spam at the site go over 130 pages. Did all the people screaming at them make a difference? I'd like to think so. But we'll never know for sure because even now they've never addressed the issue directly.
And there are still some hard questions - "is this promoting gambling to minors?" is one that comes up frequently. At least a couple of complaints were filed with the ESRB over it. Unknown if anything will come of that.
I hope a message was sent to Perfect World about what we in the western market will and will not support or put up with. But there's no way to know for sure. Again - lack of communication with the fans.
Still - no more spam is a good thing for now.
-Logan
----------
"Wake UP! Time for SCIENCE!"
-Adam Savage "Mythbusters"
----------
I think it's more on PWE than Cryptic... since the latter is owned by the former... not sure if this is mentioned already but you can buy the keys with Energy Credits now... the price is about a million Energy Credits per key... last I check...
This really got to me when I tried the game again. It wasn't really that they were in the game but the fact that when I went through the tutorial with a new character EVERY FREAKING DROP was a Cardasian Lock box. I ended up with like 11 of them after the tutorial and it left a seriously bad taste in my mouth. I promptly uninstalled the game and never plan to look back. This gives new players a seriously bad first impression of the game and is what I'd expect from the *new* Cryptic with Perfect World Entertainment pulling their strings.
Bren
while(horse==dead)
{
beat();
}
I agree the drop rate is stupidly common. The one Very Rare Gold Lockbox I received through a drop from a STF run yielded 1 common team battery. I do not even bother with them at all now, regardless of what quality they are. I trash them as soon as I get them.
At least they patched in a way to turn off the nonsensical and idiotic Galor ship messages from flashing across your screen.
At least they patched in a way to turn off the nonsensical and idiotic Galor ship messages from flashing across your screen.
I got a Cardi Lock box as a FE reward once lol. I ran one of the new FE missions and choose the mystery box because I had gained the other rewards. In that mystery box, was a Cardi lock box. That pissed me off.