Locking the highest level ships behind a pay wall even for subscribers is lame and I can't believe so many people are trying to defend STO for this. If a company is going to offer a Subscription option to a F2P game than it better be all inclusive for at least critical items. That includes bank slots, character slots and game affecting items.
Lots of people hate on SOE but EQ2 does this right in my opinion. I have been subbed to that game since the F2P conversion and I have not spent a dime in the cash shop because for subscribers that game's cash shop is truly all fluff.
Farming Dilithium for Zen is easy, and rather quick.
You can get new ships from joining a fleet and getting fleet ships at 50.
I think you need to do a bit more research before you give up.
So you think a paid subscriber should have to do the same grind as a free player?
Did you not read any of my posts? I'm a subscriber. I pay for this game. A free player does not. Fleet ships also cost "fleet modules" of which I'm unaware of a way to get outside of RMT.
I know of the dilithium grind. I was unaware that as a PAYING subscriber I'd also be subjected to it.
As of this point I see myself as having been ripped off. Had I wanted to do a dilithium grind, I wouldn't have paid for the game in the first place, and just bought the damn zen points.
This sounds really bad to me, I have not played STO and after reading this I am not planning on playing it either. This is the reason why I prefere normal oldskool subscriptions. Just pay your monthly fee and have access to everything, without having to spend more money on ingame items.
To me it is unbelievable that people put up with stuff like this, and I also cannot believe people prefer this over a normal sub game. The worst part of it is that you are actually paying a subscription, but still have to spend more money for ingame items.
that's what I can't get past.... gouging a paying customer for even more money. I know there are tons of ways retailers do this, through DLC, expansions, ect. I just feel a little less pissed off about it. I too would rather a monthly fee, though looking at the prices they're charging, they are probably making money hand over fist by gating content even for a subscriber.
Originally posted by lordstarwolf I know there are tons of ways retailers do this, through DLC, expansions, ect. I just feel a little less pissed off about it.
Only a different approach, Cryptic gives the content expansions for free and charge you for the ships and stuff (those 500 Zen stipends can be used for that if you decide to subscribe). They used to giving out free ships btw, last year the Odyssey / bortaS, at winter the Chel Grett and during the 3rd anniversary the Enterprise-C, same goes to duty officers, some of those are pretty good.
Their model is all about options, you can play the game for free to the cap (there are practically no restrictions until that), and then you can decide how do you wish to continue:
-Totally free with a huge grind,
-some Zen purchases with thoughtful planning (you can play for a year with about 1-2 months worth of a purchase if you're timing it on Zen sales and then spend it only onto the necessary stuff).
-buying the lifetime if the game seems good enough to stick around for 1-1.5 more years and the veteran rewards are appealing,
-or just jump among the whales / gamblers and spend a fortune, buying everything. Not the preferable option I think
(and as you see, I haven't listed subscription, since it's totally not worth it. If you check the f2p matrix, it's obvious that gold status is not the way to play STO...)
Originally posted by flizzer Woah, I'm glad I never tried this one out now. Are you saying you are paying a monthly sub and still need to use the cash shop? But I thought all the pro-sub people told us if you pay a sub, you do not need to use the cash shop. So much for sub games.
Wait. So a piss poor f2p model is an indictment of p2p games? Strong logic there.
Agreed. I guess we should give this one a rest. Everyone who subscribes is basically ripped off. STO isn't a bad game, and though I'm not overly fond of their business model, I suppose it gives those who have enough money to afford a computer but not enough to pay a monthly subscription a half-decent MMO.
I haven't reviewed the changes to SWTOR since it went F2P, but I was burnt out on that one anyway. Lotro deleted my account when they moved european servers, and I haven't played Age of Conan or vanguard since I was in both betas. I don't see any of PW's other MMO offerings as interesting, so I can safely return to my monthly subscription games having been duly burnt. My brief foray into F2P games hasn't been very pleasurable.
That being said...
The Repopulation looks nice. They got the whole kickstarter thing going. It's intending to be F2P with no gated content or required "win" items according to their faq. At least they state up front they won't have a subscription option.
Lotro deleted my account when they moved european servers, and I haven't played Age of Conan or vanguard since I was in both betas.
LotRO, technically there wasn't any account delete, your acc is still at Codies only not available through Turbine's login server (and there was a transfer window open for about 6 months...).
AoC and Vanguard, both have a very decent f2p model now, maybe it'd worth a try to check them. In AoC even the population is healthy nowadays, after the Steam offer's repopulation effect (ok, that was a weak one, /sorry)
Farming Dilithium for Zen is easy, and rather quick.
You can get new ships from joining a fleet and getting fleet ships at 50.
I think you need to do a bit more research before you give up.
So you think a paid subscriber should have to do the same grind as a free player?
Did you not read any of my posts? I'm a subscriber. I pay for this game. A free player does not. Fleet ships also cost "fleet modules" of which I'm unaware of a way to get outside of RMT.
I know of the dilithium grind. I was unaware that as a PAYING subscriber I'd also be subjected to it.
As of this point I see myself as having been ripped off. Had I wanted to do a dilithium grind, I wouldn't have paid for the game in the first place, and just bought the damn zen points.
Aren't you pretty much saying as a subscriber you shouldn't have to raid to get gear, only free players should. The dilithium grind is their how to get the best gear grind or faction grind in most p2p games. So saying a subscriber should just get as much as they want for free isn't very realistic ?
Farming Dilithium for Zen is easy, and rather quick.
You can get new ships from joining a fleet and getting fleet ships at 50.
I think you need to do a bit more research before you give up.
So you think a paid subscriber should have to do the same grind as a free player?
Did you not read any of my posts? I'm a subscriber. I pay for this game. A free player does not. Fleet ships also cost "fleet modules" of which I'm unaware of a way to get outside of RMT.
I know of the dilithium grind. I was unaware that as a PAYING subscriber I'd also be subjected to it.
As of this point I see myself as having been ripped off. Had I wanted to do a dilithium grind, I wouldn't have paid for the game in the first place, and just bought the damn zen points.
Aren't you pretty much saying as a subscriber you shouldn't have to raid to get gear, only free players should. The dilithium grind is their how to get the best gear grind or faction grind in most p2p games. So saying a subscriber should just get as much as they want for free isn't very realistic ?
No, I'm saying there was no point to subscribing to begin with. STO without doubt falls under the "pay to win" category of games. Had I known as much about the game as I do now, I'd just have plunked the subscription fee into their cash shop.
I think STO is a decent game. I can certainly afford the cash shop, I just won't use it however. I think as a subscriber there should have been a way to get a top tier ship without having to use their RMT currency.
Either way, you still grind out fleet marks/raid and still have to use Zen to purchase the Fleet modules.
I don't like the cash shop. All the best gear available being only through RMT currency is an instance of pay to win. I paid for a subscription, there should have been a way available ingame to avoid Zen altogether. The dilithium grind is mind numbingly boring, as it should be I suppose. Not something I see myself putting time into.
In any case, I've already uninstalled the game. I completed all the episodes, and I haven't found the in-game community either helpful or interesting. I'm not displeased entirely with STO, as I ended up putting 80 hrs of gameplay into it, and it did cause me to look up some of the trek lore... but at 50 it now offers nothing to me. The market is saturated with MMO's at the moment, I'll just move on.
Lotro deleted my account when they moved european servers, and I haven't played Age of Conan or vanguard since I was in both betas.
LotRO, technically there wasn't any account delete, your acc is still at Codies only not available through Turbine's login server (and there was a transfer window open for about 6 months...).
AoC and Vanguard, both have a very decent f2p model now, maybe it'd worth a try to check them. In AoC even the population is healthy nowadays, after the Steam offer's repopulation effect (ok, that was a weak one, /sorry)
Yeah I was overseas when the accounts were transferred and wasn't really up on the current Lotro news at the time. I attempted to retrieve my account but apparently the characters aren't retrievable. I've got the feeling once you go F2P you switch from a valued client to just another car at a drivethrough in Mcdonalds. I can understand that, since the infrastructure and time for customer service comes at a premium when so many resources are being used by people that aren't paying a thing. That's why I don't complain at Mcdonalds. I've no wish to level a character again.
AOC... Maybe. I do love the conan movies/novels (not the most recent movie).
Vanguard had alot of promise, I kinda dumped it when I learned that SOE had picked them up. This was hot on the heels of the NGE at the time, and I've yet to this day give anything with "sony" anywhere on the product a second look. I was one of the few to get their refund for Trials of Obi-wan.
I might log into SWTOR to see what's going on, I should have a crapload of the RMT currency there since they gave you a stipend based on the length of your previous subscription, which was about 8 months for me.
All of this is a little off topic though. STO's payment and cash shop model aren't my cup of tea, and I'm moving on. Thank you for the suggestions.
Paying a monthly sub for this game is only good if your going to create foundry missions, otherwise skip the monthly sub.
You dont have to buy Zen unless you want to hurry your progress in the game. Many players convert Dilithium to Zen and Zen to Dilithium. Once you grab the concept on how the game works economically you can start making a killing on selling things on the exchange. There is a learning curve and if you know Eve, you should be able to figure out STO on how it works very easily.
The only thing you should spend money on would be expanding your duty officers so you can unlock more items and possibly unlocking more slots for bank and inventory space. Yeah, there is always that ship you will want and may even buy it, but other than that, dont go crazy and buy every ship. You gotta use your brain and your pocket wisely in this game, because PWE knows how to hook you.
You can get a pretty decent mirror ship off the exchange now, going rate looks to be 100k EC to 400k depending on what ship you want to grab.
I spent a total of $75 for 6 months of entertainment since January and dont regret it. However like every game, when you play it too much, you intend to burnout (or at least me) and I decided to step away for awhile, maybe try some Eve Online now
Level 50 ships are fluff with a slight edge over the level 40 ones. They are NOT the next tier step following the free level 40 ships. All free level 40 ships are totally endgame PvE ready & I have never heard somebody complain because someone else showed up with a free lvl 40 ship in an elite STF (Endgame Dungeon for non STO Players).
If you are one of the two PvP players it might be a difference, but even there its not uncommon that experienced players blow up expensive lockbox ships with their free ships.
Again: Free level 40 ships are the latest Tier type ships; everything after is still latest Tier just with a little plus.
Also: If you have the time you can trade grinded dil into the ingame store currency (Zen).
The only thing you should spend money on would be expanding your duty officers so you can unlock more items and possibly unlocking more slots for bank and inventory space. Yeah, there is always that ship you will want and may even buy it, but other than that, dont go crazy and buy every ship. You gotta use your brain and your pocket wisely in this game, because PWE knows how to hook you.
That's exactly what I did. I put $10 into the game and expanded my inventory and bank. Duty officer expansion is next on the list but I am not slamming at the basic cap just yet.
From the start I knew that subscriptions to this are not worth it and opted to go an see how far not paying would get me. I was impressed enough that I gladly put in a bit of money for basic conveniences that I could have played without if I wanted to.
It will be interesting to see how much longer the game can keep me interested without requiring me to spend a lot. Frankly, I see it as a challenge to figure out the best way to get gear without paying for it directly.
I always found it a big no-no that they don't give you a tier 5 ship token or something if u sub. But as has been said before, liftime or free for sto don't bother with monthly.
To get the tier 5's without paying it's the dilithium grind(you're capped at 8k per day so check the dilithium exchange and work out how long that'll take), the fleet credit grind(you'll need to join a fleet if you haven't figured it out) or wait until they give you a freebie during an event(although these aren't usually worth the wait). Other than that you can grind ec's for lockbox key and hope you get lucky.
Forgot to add that you can also earn some zen by filling out polls/offers etc from the pwe website.
I always found it a big no-no that they don't give you a tier 5 ship token or something if u sub. But as has been said before, liftime or free for sto don't bother with monthly.
To get the tier 5's without paying it's the dilithium grind(you're capped at 8k per day so check the dilithium exchange and work out how long that'll take), the fleet credit grind(you'll need to join a fleet if you haven't figured it out) or wait until they give you a freebie during an event(although these aren't usually worth the wait). Other than that you can grind ec's for lockbox key and hope you get lucky.
Forgot to add that you can also earn some zen by filling out polls/offers etc from the pwe website.
Or work up ECs and buy the ships directly off the exchange - no need for keys.
Or work up dil to exchange for Zen, and buy from the store.
I always found it a big no-no that they don't give you a tier 5 ship token or something if u sub. But as has been said before, liftime or free for sto don't bother with monthly.
To get the tier 5's without paying it's the dilithium grind(you're capped at 8k per day so check the dilithium exchange and work out how long that'll take), the fleet credit grind(you'll need to join a fleet if you haven't figured it out) or wait until they give you a freebie during an event(although these aren't usually worth the wait). Other than that you can grind ec's for lockbox key and hope you get lucky.
Forgot to add that you can also earn some zen by filling out polls/offers etc from the pwe website.
Or work up ECs and buy the ships directly off the exchange - no need for keys.
Or work up dil to exchange for Zen, and buy from the store.
Couple of other options.
so the averae rte is 125-150 dill per zen on a good day, you can get 8000 dil per days so that's between 60 nd 64 en per day give or take. and lets say the ship you want is lets go with a cheap one 1500, that's 24 days of maxing out dil each day and getting lucky on the dil zen exchange, ( a 2500 ship would be 39days ) while this is doable, to be honest most people are going to look at it this way I can spend what takes me 2-3 hour to make at work or I can tunr my fun time into work for 3-5 weeks
and this ladies and gentle men is the trap of F2P, but meh whatever I cant complain I had a LTsub in star trek back before its went F2P so I don't deal with any of this crap
F2P may be the way of the future, but ya know they dont make them like they used to Proper Grammer & spelling are extra, corrections will be LOL at.
So I just hit 50... expecting a new world to open up...
Then I ran into a brick wall named ZEN.
I had found the game enjoyable when I started, and subbed after 20 hours of gameplay. I then played furiously for another 60 hours, and all the while, though cognizant of the C-Store, I hadn't really looked into it... after all, I was a monthly subscriber, not a F2P leech. Then, after hitting 50, I found I had no new ship options other than to purchase Zen. This and of itself wouldn't be a problem, however after looking into it, the zen prices seem ridiculous to me.
I'll freely admit, I'm new to the F2P genre (having been a player of SWTOR prior to it becoming F2P, then STO. My issue is that I see no way to advance for monthly subscribers with a pittance of a stipend of 500 zen. There is no "generic" vice admiral equivilent ship that I can see. Are there any comparable ships available through in-game means? I don't see the harm in paying for convenience or "bling" but I don't see ships available on the exchange or as rewards as far as I can tell without paying 25 bucks or more a ship.
Am I missing something here? I've got no issues paying a monthly subscription for a service, but BIG issues paying real money for pixels.
That sounds wonky... Monthly sub for pixels, or free to play and maybe spend what you would on a monthly sub to obtain the ship. 6 one half dozen or the other...
"The King and the Pawn return to the same box at the end of the game"
I always found it a big no-no that they don't give you a tier 5 ship token or something if u sub. But as has been said before, liftime or free for sto don't bother with monthly.
To get the tier 5's without paying it's the dilithium grind(you're capped at 8k per day so check the dilithium exchange and work out how long that'll take), the fleet credit grind(you'll need to join a fleet if you haven't figured it out) or wait until they give you a freebie during an event(although these aren't usually worth the wait). Other than that you can grind ec's for lockbox key and hope you get lucky.
Forgot to add that you can also earn some zen by filling out polls/offers etc from the pwe website.
Or work up ECs and buy the ships directly off the exchange - no need for keys.
Or work up dil to exchange for Zen, and buy from the store.
Couple of other options.
so the averae rte is 125-150 dill per zen on a good day, you can get 8000 dil per days so that's between 60 nd 64 en per day give or take. and lets say the ship you want is lets go with a cheap one 1500, that's 24 days of maxing out dil each day and getting lucky on the dil zen exchange, ( a 2500 ship would be 39days ) while this is doable, to be honest most people are going to look at it this way I can spend what takes me 2-3 hour to make at work or I can tunr my fun time into work for 3-5 weeks
and this ladies and gentle men is the trap of F2P, but meh whatever I cant complain I had a LTsub in star trek back before its went F2P so I don't deal with any of this crap
It is doable, but I agree that many people are not going to want to wait, and will drop the relatively small amount to get things faster.
And, I have no problem with this given the model. It's a business.
There are those few that are absolutely certain that their entertainment should be 100% free, and that they should be able to acquire things in any game almost instantly. The transactions in these games are not nearly the hellish nightmare they attempt to paint.
The bottom line is that almost everything in this game can be gotten for free if a player is hell bent on never paying a dime. It's going to take more time, however, and there's nothing wrong with that.
I always found it a big no-no that they don't give you a tier 5 ship token or something if u sub. But as has been said before, liftime or free for sto don't bother with monthly.
To get the tier 5's without paying it's the dilithium grind(you're capped at 8k per day so check the dilithium exchange and work out how long that'll take), the fleet credit grind(you'll need to join a fleet if you haven't figured it out) or wait until they give you a freebie during an event(although these aren't usually worth the wait). Other than that you can grind ec's for lockbox key and hope you get lucky.
Forgot to add that you can also earn some zen by filling out polls/offers etc from the pwe website.
Or work up ECs and buy the ships directly off the exchange - no need for keys.
Or work up dil to exchange for Zen, and buy from the store.
Couple of other options.
so the averae rte is 125-150 dill per zen on a good day, you can get 8000 dil per days so that's between 60 nd 64 en per day give or take. and lets say the ship you want is lets go with a cheap one 1500, that's 24 days of maxing out dil each day and getting lucky on the dil zen exchange, ( a 2500 ship would be 39days ) while this is doable, to be honest most people are going to look at it this way I can spend what takes me 2-3 hour to make at work or I can tunr my fun time into work for 3-5 weeks
and this ladies and gentle men is the trap of F2P, but meh whatever I cant complain I had a LTsub in star trek back before its went F2P so I don't deal with any of this crap
tier 5 ships start at 2k and you'll probably want a borg bridge officer aswell so min of 2.5k(likely 3k). Or you could pay the equivalent of 3 months sub. Also don't forget this is per character.
I went for the dilithium(at the time was under 100 dil per zen) however once I got it I found there wasn't much to do with the thing, unless I really wanted to grind the same few instances for the next 6 months which imo is an even bigger problem.
Comments
Locking the highest level ships behind a pay wall even for subscribers is lame and I can't believe so many people are trying to defend STO for this. If a company is going to offer a Subscription option to a F2P game than it better be all inclusive for at least critical items. That includes bank slots, character slots and game affecting items.
Lots of people hate on SOE but EQ2 does this right in my opinion. I have been subbed to that game since the F2P conversion and I have not spent a dime in the cash shop because for subscribers that game's cash shop is truly all fluff.
Farming Dilithium for Zen is easy, and rather quick.
You can get new ships from joining a fleet and getting fleet ships at 50.
I think you need to do a bit more research before you give up.
So you think a paid subscriber should have to do the same grind as a free player?
Did you not read any of my posts? I'm a subscriber. I pay for this game. A free player does not. Fleet ships also cost "fleet modules" of which I'm unaware of a way to get outside of RMT.
I know of the dilithium grind. I was unaware that as a PAYING subscriber I'd also be subjected to it.
As of this point I see myself as having been ripped off. Had I wanted to do a dilithium grind, I wouldn't have paid for the game in the first place, and just bought the damn zen points.
This sounds really bad to me, I have not played STO and after reading this I am not planning on playing it either. This is the reason why I prefere normal oldskool subscriptions. Just pay your monthly fee and have access to everything, without having to spend more money on ingame items.
To me it is unbelievable that people put up with stuff like this, and I also cannot believe people prefer this over a normal sub game. The worst part of it is that you are actually paying a subscription, but still have to spend more money for ingame items.
Only a different approach, Cryptic gives the content expansions for free and charge you for the ships and stuff (those 500 Zen stipends can be used for that if you decide to subscribe). They used to giving out free ships btw, last year the Odyssey / bortaS, at winter the Chel Grett and during the 3rd anniversary the Enterprise-C, same goes to duty officers, some of those are pretty good.
Their model is all about options, you can play the game for free to the cap (there are practically no restrictions until that), and then you can decide how do you wish to continue:
-Totally free with a huge grind,
-some Zen purchases with thoughtful planning (you can play for a year with about 1-2 months worth of a purchase if you're timing it on Zen sales and then spend it only onto the necessary stuff).
-buying the lifetime if the game seems good enough to stick around for 1-1.5 more years and the veteran rewards are appealing,
-or just jump among the whales / gamblers and spend a fortune, buying everything. Not the preferable option I think
(and as you see, I haven't listed subscription, since it's totally not worth it. If you check the f2p matrix, it's obvious that gold status is not the way to play STO...)
Wait. So a piss poor f2p model is an indictment of p2p games? Strong logic there.
Agreed. I guess we should give this one a rest. Everyone who subscribes is basically ripped off. STO isn't a bad game, and though I'm not overly fond of their business model, I suppose it gives those who have enough money to afford a computer but not enough to pay a monthly subscription a half-decent MMO.
I haven't reviewed the changes to SWTOR since it went F2P, but I was burnt out on that one anyway. Lotro deleted my account when they moved european servers, and I haven't played Age of Conan or vanguard since I was in both betas. I don't see any of PW's other MMO offerings as interesting, so I can safely return to my monthly subscription games having been duly burnt. My brief foray into F2P games hasn't been very pleasurable.
That being said...
The Repopulation looks nice. They got the whole kickstarter thing going. It's intending to be F2P with no gated content or required "win" items according to their faq. At least they state up front they won't have a subscription option.
LotRO, technically there wasn't any account delete, your acc is still at Codies only not available through Turbine's login server (and there was a transfer window open for about 6 months...).
AoC and Vanguard, both have a very decent f2p model now, maybe it'd worth a try to check them. In AoC even the population is healthy nowadays, after the Steam offer's repopulation effect
(ok, that was a weak one, /sorry)
Aren't you pretty much saying as a subscriber you shouldn't have to raid to get gear, only free players should. The dilithium grind is their how to get the best gear grind or faction grind in most p2p games. So saying a subscriber should just get as much as they want for free isn't very realistic ?
No, I'm saying there was no point to subscribing to begin with. STO without doubt falls under the "pay to win" category of games. Had I known as much about the game as I do now, I'd just have plunked the subscription fee into their cash shop.
I think STO is a decent game. I can certainly afford the cash shop, I just won't use it however. I think as a subscriber there should have been a way to get a top tier ship without having to use their RMT currency.
Either way, you still grind out fleet marks/raid and still have to use Zen to purchase the Fleet modules.
I don't like the cash shop. All the best gear available being only through RMT currency is an instance of pay to win. I paid for a subscription, there should have been a way available ingame to avoid Zen altogether. The dilithium grind is mind numbingly boring, as it should be I suppose. Not something I see myself putting time into.
In any case, I've already uninstalled the game. I completed all the episodes, and I haven't found the in-game community either helpful or interesting. I'm not displeased entirely with STO, as I ended up putting 80 hrs of gameplay into it, and it did cause me to look up some of the trek lore... but at 50 it now offers nothing to me. The market is saturated with MMO's at the moment, I'll just move on.
Yeah I was overseas when the accounts were transferred and wasn't really up on the current Lotro news at the time. I attempted to retrieve my account but apparently the characters aren't retrievable. I've got the feeling once you go F2P you switch from a valued client to just another car at a drivethrough in Mcdonalds. I can understand that, since the infrastructure and time for customer service comes at a premium when so many resources are being used by people that aren't paying a thing. That's why I don't complain at Mcdonalds. I've no wish to level a character again.
AOC... Maybe. I do love the conan movies/novels (not the most recent movie).
Vanguard had alot of promise, I kinda dumped it when I learned that SOE had picked them up. This was hot on the heels of the NGE at the time, and I've yet to this day give anything with "sony" anywhere on the product a second look. I was one of the few to get their refund for Trials of Obi-wan.
I might log into SWTOR to see what's going on, I should have a crapload of the RMT currency there since they gave you a stipend based on the length of your previous subscription, which was about 8 months for me.
All of this is a little off topic though. STO's payment and cash shop model aren't my cup of tea, and I'm moving on. Thank you for the suggestions.
Paying a monthly sub for this game is only good if your going to create foundry missions, otherwise skip the monthly sub.
You dont have to buy Zen unless you want to hurry your progress in the game. Many players convert Dilithium to Zen and Zen to Dilithium. Once you grab the concept on how the game works economically you can start making a killing on selling things on the exchange. There is a learning curve and if you know Eve, you should be able to figure out STO on how it works very easily.
The only thing you should spend money on would be expanding your duty officers so you can unlock more items and possibly unlocking more slots for bank and inventory space. Yeah, there is always that ship you will want and may even buy it, but other than that, dont go crazy and buy every ship. You gotta use your brain and your pocket wisely in this game, because PWE knows how to hook you.
You can get a pretty decent mirror ship off the exchange now, going rate looks to be 100k EC to 400k depending on what ship you want to grab.
I spent a total of $75 for 6 months of entertainment since January and dont regret it. However like every game, when you play it too much, you intend to burnout (or at least me) and I decided to step away for awhile, maybe try some Eve Online now
Level 50 ships are fluff with a slight edge over the level 40 ones. They are NOT the next tier step following the free level 40 ships. All free level 40 ships are totally endgame PvE ready & I have never heard somebody complain because someone else showed up with a free lvl 40 ship in an elite STF (Endgame Dungeon for non STO Players).
If you are one of the two PvP players it might be a difference, but even there its not uncommon that experienced players blow up expensive lockbox ships with their free ships.
Again: Free level 40 ships are the latest Tier type ships; everything after is still latest Tier just with a little plus.
Also: If you have the time you can trade grinded dil into the ingame store currency (Zen).
That's exactly what I did. I put $10 into the game and expanded my inventory and bank. Duty officer expansion is next on the list but I am not slamming at the basic cap just yet.
From the start I knew that subscriptions to this are not worth it and opted to go an see how far not paying would get me. I was impressed enough that I gladly put in a bit of money for basic conveniences that I could have played without if I wanted to.
It will be interesting to see how much longer the game can keep me interested without requiring me to spend a lot. Frankly, I see it as a challenge to figure out the best way to get gear without paying for it directly.
I always found it a big no-no that they don't give you a tier 5 ship token or something if u sub. But as has been said before, liftime or free for sto don't bother with monthly.
To get the tier 5's without paying it's the dilithium grind(you're capped at 8k per day so check the dilithium exchange and work out how long that'll take), the fleet credit grind(you'll need to join a fleet if you haven't figured it out) or wait until they give you a freebie during an event(although these aren't usually worth the wait). Other than that you can grind ec's for lockbox key and hope you get lucky.
Forgot to add that you can also earn some zen by filling out polls/offers etc from the pwe website.
Or work up ECs and buy the ships directly off the exchange - no need for keys.
Or work up dil to exchange for Zen, and buy from the store.
Couple of other options.
Hell hath no fury like an MMORPG player scorned.
so the averae rte is 125-150 dill per zen on a good day, you can get 8000 dil per days so that's between 60 nd 64 en per day give or take. and lets say the ship you want is lets go with a cheap one 1500, that's 24 days of maxing out dil each day and getting lucky on the dil zen exchange, ( a 2500 ship would be 39days ) while this is doable, to be honest most people are going to look at it this way I can spend what takes me 2-3 hour to make at work or I can tunr my fun time into work for 3-5 weeks
and this ladies and gentle men is the trap of F2P, but meh whatever I cant complain I had a LTsub in star trek back before its went F2P so I don't deal with any of this crap
F2P may be the way of the future, but ya know they dont make them like they used to
Proper Grammer & spelling are extra, corrections will be LOL at.
That sounds wonky... Monthly sub for pixels, or free to play and maybe spend what you would on a monthly sub to obtain the ship. 6 one half dozen or the other...
It is doable, but I agree that many people are not going to want to wait, and will drop the relatively small amount to get things faster.
And, I have no problem with this given the model. It's a business.
There are those few that are absolutely certain that their entertainment should be 100% free, and that they should be able to acquire things in any game almost instantly. The transactions in these games are not nearly the hellish nightmare they attempt to paint.
The bottom line is that almost everything in this game can be gotten for free if a player is hell bent on never paying a dime. It's going to take more time, however, and there's nothing wrong with that.
Hell hath no fury like an MMORPG player scorned.
tier 5 ships start at 2k and you'll probably want a borg bridge officer aswell so min of 2.5k(likely 3k). Or you could pay the equivalent of 3 months sub. Also don't forget this is per character.
I went for the dilithium(at the time was under 100 dil per zen) however once I got it I found there wasn't much to do with the thing, unless I really wanted to grind the same few instances for the next 6 months which imo is an even bigger problem.