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Originally Posted by manlai You'll be able to buy them just the same after f2p.

That wasn't quite a response to what I asked. I'm sure I can buy them after it goes F2P, but if I buy it now, will they remain after it goes F2P?

Originally Posted by pacifickarma That wasn't quite a response to what I asked. I'm sure I can buy them after it goes F2P, but if I buy it now, will they remain after it goes F2P?

I meant they will operate the same after f2p. Everything you unlock prior is grandfathered in no matter what it is. Buying toon slots won't change after f2p. I'm just saying that buying them now is will have the same result as buying them after f2p.

Well, Cryptic has announced a Thanksgiving 20% off C-Store sale billed as the last sale "before all the big changes come to the C-Store in early December." So this could be the last chance to pick up some account-wide unlocks at the lower prices.

http://forums.startrekonline.com/sho...d.php?t=241934

Originally Posted by manlai f2p is set to January 17, 2012 so you have some time to make a decision.

Earlier indications were that the C-Store changes from Tribble wouldn't go live until F2P actually launched, but with this latest sale announcement it sounds like they changed their minds and are going to update the C-Store early in December along with all the other Tribble test server changes coming to the Holodeck live server.

Also, the current Steam sale has the STO Digital Deluxe Edition for $7.49 (50% off). It's been on sale cheaper and you're probably better off just waiting for F2P, since you'll essentially be paying to beta test the F2P build going live in the next few weeks. One notable bonus item is the Automated Defense Battery, which is supposed to be good for knocking out torpedoes.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/901222/

I'm a little ticked off that the current Seam DDE has that battery whereas the DDE at launch had that useless console. I tried to get the battery, but cryptic denied me.

Quick question: I picked up a cheap, new copy of STO at Gamestop that advertised the free Constitution ship. I added the code to my account, and it added 30 days of time, but no Constitution. It isn't in the "special unlocks" area of the c-store or anywhere else I can find. Any suggestions?

Originally Posted by pacifickarma Quick question: I picked up a cheap, new copy of STO at Gamestop that advertised the free Constitution ship. I added the code to my account, and it added 30 days of time, but no Constitution. It isn't in the "special unlocks" area of the c-store or anywhere else I can find. Any suggestions?

Check all the other categories of the in-game C-Store (including Ships and Misc). I think it's in Ships, but sometimes things are in weird areas. I just activated a CE last month and the Constitution was available to be claimed on all my Fed characters. (I let my sub expire after the free 30 days though, or I else would look in my C-store for the exact category.)

Originally Posted by pacifickarma Quick question: I picked up a cheap, new copy of STO at Gamestop that advertised the free Constitution ship. I added the code to my account, and it added 30 days of time, but no Constitution. It isn't in the "special unlocks" area of the c-store or anywhere else I can find. Any suggestions?

Its in the Special unlocks section for me.

You might need to talk to Cryptic customer Support to have the item given to you.

Thanks for the suggestions. It doesn't show up in the "Special Unlocks" section, or anywhere else I can find. I've submitted a ticket to see if it can be fixed.

Edit: The ship mysteriously appeared under the "Featured Items" tab tonight. I went ahead and claimed it, but it was odd that it wasn't where it was supposed to be.

They just posted a blog recapping the F2P build which they're now calling Season 5 (not sure if there's a distinction between the two, actually). They mention leveling has been sped up... Anyone know if it's going to be as inflated as it's been on Tribble? It's kind of ridiculous as it is, especially with all the XP from assignments.

At least that means it'll be easier to find people eligible for STFs, but hitting the cap and still having 4-5 sectors of missions to go feels weird.

Originally Posted by metaly They just posted a blog recapping the F2P build which they're now calling Season 5 (not sure if there's a distinction between the two, actually). They mention leveling has been sped up... Anyone know if it's going to be as inflated as it's been on Tribble? It's kind of ridiculous as it is, especially with all the XP from assignments.

It sounds like they're bringing over almost all of the changes as-is from Tribble, but I guess they can use the live testing on Holodeck to tweak a few numbers before they let masses of free players in. It's already one of the quickest leveling MMOs. I don't know why they would speed up leveling then add dilithium currency and STF changes to add grind and really slow down the ability to gear up. I guess they just expect everyone to pay up to avoid the dilithium grind. I hope they lower dilithium costs on in-game items and crafting and raise the daily refining cap before the real F2P launch.

I also hope they improve the emblem/mark to dilithium conversion formula, otherwise vets will lose a lot of value of their in-game assets.

I'm waiting to see how they handle veteran to Silver account conversions. They really haven't given many specifics, but I think pre-F2P subscribers who bought the game should be able to keep more of what they had and have more feature perks than a new free account starting from scratch who hasn't paid anything. Right now, it sounds like there's a possibility of losing a lot of Boffs and having character, ship, bank and inventory slots locked.

I like the Turbine LOTRO system, where previous subscribers get to keep a lot of (but not all) unlocks on old characters. LOTRO also gives a bump up in status to free players who spend any real cash in their store. With Cryptic's Gold and Silver system, "free" Silver players only get exactly what they buy and no extra benefits from spending money. So, a Silver player could spend $100 on the game and still have all the same account restrictions as a completely free player. They really need to add a third, middle tier between Silver and Gold, something like Silver Plus or Silver Premium for vets and players who spend money on the game.

Originally Posted by metaly They just posted a blog recapping the F2P build which they're now calling Season 5 (not sure if there's a distinction between the two, actually). They mention leveling has been sped up... Anyone know if it's going to be as inflated as it's been on Tribble? It's kind of ridiculous as it is, especially with all the XP from assignments. At least that means it'll be easier to find people eligible for STFs, but hitting the cap and still having 4-5 sectors of missions to go feels weird.

I remember the devs talking about making the first 20 levels or so go by fast but the longer you played the slower the leveling got. This faster leveling at the start of the game I think is so you get hooked faster and then hit the pay wall after you've invested a decent amount of time making you want to fork over cash to keep going.

I consider that is what they mean by faster leveling but trying to get that point across in the official forums is pointless. And Cryptic also won't bother to clarify what they mean. Either way we'll find out in Dec what it will be like for the free players when the build goes live next week.

Haven't played this in forever, man am I rusty! I tossed some particle traces in the fleet bank for anyone who uses that stuff, I also have a ton of stuff I could put in the fleet bank, but it looks pretty full right now......

Well it's pretty late notice in this thread, but FYI the F2P build is going live on Holodeck today, Dec.1. If there was anything you neglected to do on Holodeck prior to the switchover, unfortunately it is too late.

The beginning of the end. But I feel it's going to be a spectacular crash and burn. I got my front row seat. Got yours? In a little over a month they'll be giving them away for free.

I played the game early on, but haven't in many months now. I already found the leveling to be kind of ridiculously fast. I did log recently for a quick check and noticed that they finally added an option to stroll around your ship, which is good for RPers, though I don't yet know if there's much point to it (any clues?).

If the F2P is handled like Champions has been so far, I don't think it will be terrible. I just wish they'd have a little more variety in the types of missions that all seem to be the same simple templates. Maybe add some actual puzzle solving to some missions, rather than "go here scan this, then go there and kill", all in a very linear fashion. Or at least try some things to make it feel less linear.

The transition to F2P couldn't really be hancled any more differently than they did for CO. With CO it seems the consensus is that current subscribers got a pretty good deal, were treated with respect, and overall F2P enhanced the product. People can play for free but there is still incentive/value to maintaining a sub, and nothing was really taken away from current subscribers.

For STO, current subscribers have been wholly reamed up the ass, with a minimum of 30% of their current assets "stolen" by Cryptic via their conversion formula to the new economy. If you are very wealthy up to 60% or more of your total assets could be lost in the currency conversion. That represents nearly a year or more of play for longtime players, who ironically, amassed such great reserves of wealth because there has been literally nothing new to do in the game for the past 11 months except grind daily missions for wealth.

Repeated promises of "nothing will change for subscribers", "you aren't going to lose anything" have repeatedly been ignored and broken in favor of more ass-reaming. They openly stated that while a few C-store items would increase in price, most would be coming down. In reality, over 80% of the items in the store have seen a price hike. To add to the insult, C-store items that used to be per-account unlocks like pets and tribbles, are now per-character. Got 4 characters? Gotta pay 4 times to get the pet on each. Delete that character so you can make another? Those purchases are erased with the character. Oh don't forget the price didn't go down as a result of this change either.

If you thought leveling was pretty ridiculously fast before, know that it actually has been made even faster. However, due to the dilithium economy, you will be stuck grinding dilithium for literally weeks and months in order to gear up. At higher rank upgrades (starting with captain I think), you actually are not awarded enough money to buy a new ship, so you are forced to grind the dilithium out (note that this only applies to free players, subscribers get the tokens like always). So there is a very awkward imbalance between being overleveled yet underequipped, until you reach max level where you literally grind dilithium for months before you can outfit yourself with the max grade gear. Of course the handy way to get around that is to buy dilithium from the exchange, in trade for Cpoints you bought from Cryptic. The dilithium economy was also devised to simplify the mess of currencies that were in the game before. Emblems, marks, merits, badges, medals, etc. it was all confusing. Well now we have just dilithium, EC, and GPL, but there's also a plethora of borg salvage/pickups you need to get the STF gear, "unreplicatable materials" you need to craft, etc. which are all essentially still currency, except this time around they also take up space in your inventory.

I don't know if it has changed in the holodeck build of F2P, but for the entire tribble testing period, you were forced to play the story missions through one-by-one. Instead of it being based on level, it is not a totally linear process. To access the already-released FE's, you have to play through all the missions, since they're incorporated into the storyline missions.

There is little value to subscribing/maintaining a subscription. It is far more effective to simply buy $15 worth of CPoints every month than keep paying for a Gold account. You get a lot more for your money that way.

Nearly everything in the game has become attached to the "real-world" currency dilithium (real world because it's tradeable for C-points, which can be bought directly for RL money). What used to be easily obtainable in-game (such as crafting) now require dilithium, meaning you either have to trade for it on the exchange or grind it out by playing- even if you are a subscriber.

Virtually no content has been added to the game with F2P, and none in the past 11 months since the last featured episode series was released. This comes after repeated promises by the Cryptic team that they were shooting for "5 or 6 series in 2011". The DOFF system is finally being released, after being delayed about 6 months (supposed to have launched with Season 4). Missions-wise, there is one single "new" mission, which is the borg ground invasion on Deferi. They "promise" Season 5 will come in Feb (which means it got delayed yet again) but nobody believes them at this point.

The F2P build of the game, now officially live on the holodeck (main) server, is still rife with bugs, incomplete functionality, and imbalance. This is after 2 months of development. I have personal doubts that anything substantial will change before they open the servers up to F2P players. The game has launched for a second time in an unfinished and buddy state.

Originally Posted by Ruahrc The F2P build of the game, now officially live on the holodeck (main) server, is still rife with bugs, incomplete functionality, and imbalance. This is after 2 months of development. I have personal doubts that anything substantial will change before they open the servers up to F2P players. The game has launched for a second time in an unfinished and buddy state.

A good summary of what I've been reading on the official forums.

I'm kinda glad I got to play a month before this F2P transition. As a new player, I got all 18 months of content at once, unlike long-timers. I have VAs of each class with ships and decent equipment, so I just have to work on my Klingon. I only played 30 days, so I don't have much wealth to lose.

If it wasn't for the F2P announcement, I probably never would have tried the game. It didn't seem worth a monthly fee, but I did enjoy it. It sounds like they're really going in the wrong direction in a lot of ways, but I'll still pop back in and give it a try again. If the dilithium grind is as bad as it sounds, I probably won't stick around long, but I'm hoping it doesn't live down to the negative hype.

Originally Posted by pacifickarma Thanks for the suggestions. It doesn't show up in the "Special Unlocks" section, or anywhere else I can find. I've submitted a ticket to see if it can be fixed. Edit: The ship mysteriously appeared under the "Featured Items" tab tonight. I went ahead and claimed it, but it was odd that it wasn't where it was supposed to be.

Unless they changed it, remember you can claim that ship, take the phasers off, then trash it and reclaim it again for more phasers. This is an easy way to outfit entire ships with phaser arrays (which would alleviate some of the problems with all the forced grinding for gear before max level).

I want to make a new thread for CAG STO on here since the front page info is mostly irrelevant and f2p is open next month. If anyone has any thoughts about what info they want to see in the FAQ, let me know. Also, anyone know who I talk to in order to nuke this thread?

Can't we wikify/update the OP and thread title to reflect all that's changed? I think it is a bit of a waste to discard 57 pages of discussion, not all of which is necessarily obsolete anymore.

Wikified the OP for ya's. Wish I could play along with you guys, but my schedule just doesn't allow enough free time any more.

Heads up the tribble rewards are hitting live today and the holiday event started as well.

It looks like each toon can get a goodie bag each day that has a chance at some cool rewards. The Golden ticket reward is a flyable Jemhadar Ship.

You can buy additional goodie bags and it looks like some folks on the forum has baught over 100 of these grab bags at 100($1.25) Cstore points. Some of the folks on the official forums are bonkers.