[Paran]

These ships can be bought with 900 lobi, right?

I believe the answer is No to that question. Much like the Styx cant be purchased with Lobi from the current Emperor lockbox. These ships gets added to the Infinity lockbox 6 months after their lockbox vanishes.

This is what they said when the emperor box was added. The box before that had a lobi ship added at the same time, not the same as was in the box, but that pattern was broken with the emperor box. Now when the Section 31 box was announced we yet again had no new lobi ship announced as well, only a lobi combadge or something like that.

[Rellimie]

These ships can be bought with 900 lobi, right?

No.

[casualsto]

This devaluates lobi and will result in lesser boxes being opened. But hey, cryptic had to make some mistakes too.

[Paran]

This devaluates lobi and will result in lesser boxes being opened. But hey, cryptic had to make some mistakes too.

Well from Cryptics viewpoint it makes more sense this way. Lobi is not a resource that expires with time. By now there are people who have huge amounts of it stored. The ones who do are the people who keeps buying a lot of keys to open boxes. So if they add desirable ships to the Lobi store then theres a good chance many of these people would just use Lobi they already have to pick it up from there rather than invest new money into more keys to gamble the new box for the ship.

So we will probably keep seeing desirable ships being added to both the R&D boxes, current lockboxes and even directly into the infinity boxes like the example i linked above, infront of putting them into the lobi store. It makes more money for Cryptic.

[casualsto]

Or it actually backfires, since the old whales want their resources to be worth something. If that lobi drops in worth, they won't invest.

The lockboxes had two reasons: potential drops and lobi drop.
Lobi drop was a sure way of getting that ship after opening enough boxes.

If there is no sure way of getting them, there is minimal point in investing into them. And that's how you risk a safe market for a potential grow that's unlikely to monetize as advertised and/or projected.

[Paran]

As far as i read, Lobi could never be used to get a ship from the current lockbox. And if thats been omitted somewhere than that's at least how it has worked for a good while now. So there has, as far as i know, never been a sure way of getting them besides spending EC on the exchange. The lobi store was, as far as i know, always a different loot table to add a side benefit to opening boxes. But if they find that the lobi store risks undermining the sale of keys, then we can be sure they will act.

Its also a question of costs. Do they spend the money right now to produce enough ships to have spares for the Lobi store? Looking at the previous lockbox, the chances are high that the answer is no. And then campaigns that they believe bring in the most money will have priority for ships.

And they have better telemetry about sales than we do.

Theres no other way to get the Styx than to open Emperor boxes. But that box has been their most profitable in a very long time, so much so that they extended its time period. So if the ship is seen as desirable enough, then the whales will spend.

Whales are already bathing in Lobi and they keep spending. So you can be sure that lobi isnt the reason whales gamble boxes. Lobi is the reason newbs gamble boxes to get Meta consoles and the Iconian staff. But they also stop spending for lobi when they have these. And if there isnt enough new players then this source of spending for lobi wont pay for itself.

[Arno12]

Other than the ships are there any things worth getting from this lockbox?

[Lars2510]

Got to say, as a cruiser fan, I am going to get absolutely no benefit from this pack on the FED side.

However the science destroyer would make an extremely interesting escort-style vessel with all that stealth. Wondering whether to start a new toon specially...

[Paran]

Other than the ships are there any things worth getting from this lockbox?

Depends on what kind of toon you are going to play. The lockbox has interesting traits and consoles for some builds that uses weapons with some control powers. Theres also some other tools for other niche builds. Besides the reputation they add, i dont think theres anything in this box for the current DPS meta.

Ship traits:

The following trait could be a nice addition to a pet build. Would depend on the actual damage of the added pet once summoned and how its affected by team abilities.

Need-to-Know Basis is an ace up your sleeve, charged by activated Ensign Bridge Officer Abilities. Using 10 of these causes a Section 31 Intel Science Destroyer to appear and fight alongside you for 31 seconds, dealing significant area of effect damage with its abilities and opening up a full salvo with its weapons suite.


This trait could be interesting for control users or Sci power users. DoTs are boosted by the temporal specialization that most sci dabbling captains use. Depends on actual stats again.

Nano-infestation is a formidable spaceborn affliction built with nano-scale blueprints recovered from Section 31 archives. It infects the target ship when you activate a Control Bridge Officer ability, causing its replicators to make copies of itself. After an incubation period, it spreads to all nearby enemy ships, infecting them with the same damage over time.

Consoles not part of one of the ships:

This console could be interesting depending on actual stats. Perhaps for Intel ships or raiders who already have rear arc bonuses for it to stack with where it also adds perks for attacking the front.

The Computer-Assisted Flight Algorithms console allows your ship to perform Flanking maneuvers in space, dealing additional damage to the enemy’s rear arc and improving your turn and flight speed. When active, attacks to the enemy’s front increase the maneuverability bonuses and provide Damage Resistance, while attacks to the enemy’s rear deal even greater bonus damage and reduce the console’s own cooldown.


This console intrigues me. Again depending on stats. But from the description it makes all weapons on your ship create rifts. That in itself sounds like the gravimetric torpedo. If this "pulls other rifts to itself" means it will also pull in gravity wells/aftershock gravity wells and similar hazards, then this will be a really nice console for people mixing in control powers with weapons or weapons on a science focused ship. If they scale with EPG then again, really interesting.

The Boronite Laced Weaponry console infuses your ship’s weapons with specially prepared boronite, causing your weapon attacks to tear open rifts in subspace near your primary target and draw all existing rifts to that location. Rifts deal kinetic damage over time to nearby hulls.


Weapons:

The new phasers included generate less threat and gives a boost to turnrate and flight speed. The threat thing may be useful for people in intel ships not gearing up for tanking. Again, not Meta but not everything has to be to be useful.

Additionally, the Section 31 Lock Box has new Space weapons within the Section 31 Weapon Pack. Covert weaponry optimized for discretion, these Phasers are available as either cannon or beams. These weapons generate half as much Threat as normal weapons, and replace the traditional Phaser proc with a boost to flight speed and turn rate. Rarely, weapon packs contain the Section 31 Shield, providing the aesthetics of the Section 31 Intel Science Destroyer to a ship that equips it in its vanity shield slot.

New captain traits:

A lot of interesting ones here. Unconventional systems could be cool for people who depend on a lot of console based abilities. Depending on actual effect. Mirage decoys could be awesome for people loving hangar pets. They could make fighters actually viable compared to frigates due to higher survivability. Unless there is a crippling cooldown.



Finally the new lobi console could be nice for the people wanting to play with mines for some reason.

Covert Minelayer Suite

The finest in [A2/AD warfare, this console dramatically improves mine performance. Specifically, it increases Mine damage, decreases Mine global cooldown, and adds ‘creep’ functionality to all Mines. Any mines that find themselves too far away from enemy ships will slowly move toward the closest enemy ship within sensor range. This creep can be disabled by activating the Console and toggled freely.

[Sorotia]

Other than the ships are there any things worth getting from this lockbox?

It sounds like there may be a interesting thing or two in their if you're into sciencey builds. But like a lot of things with STO, we won't know if they're any good till they actually launch.

[Petrarch]

I don't suppose there's any preview shots of what the new phasers actually look like when they're firing yet is there? I'm curious if they've stuck with the Discovery pulse effect, the solid beam that the Enterprise/S31 ships used or gone for a new effect entirely.

[Haseo]

I don't suppose there's any preview shots of what the new phasers actually look like when they're firing yet is there? I'm curious if they've stuck with the Discovery pulse effect, the solid beam that the Enterprise/S31 ships used or gone for a new effect entirely.

i second this

[Bridger]

I don't suppose there's any preview shots of what the new phasers actually look like when they're firing yet is there? I'm curious if they've stuck with the Discovery pulse effect, the solid beam that the Enterprise/S31 ships used or gone for a new effect entirely.

i second this

This will give you your answers.

[Sorotia]

I don't suppose there's any preview shots of what the new phasers actually look like when they're firing yet is there? I'm curious if they've stuck with the Discovery pulse effect, the solid beam that the Enterprise/S31 ships used or gone for a new effect entirely.

If I had to guess I would hope it would be the section 31 weapons or at least something different.

Seems to be 3 versions of the Discovery pulse weapons (if we go by the space set, the wide angle dbb has a similar sound effects and visual effects to the two Discovery lock box weapons) I would hope they don't do a fourth.

[Haseo]

This will give you your answers.

O_O ok now im excited