[Taku]

While I would LOVE to have the NX Refit as an account unlock, at 14,750 Zen "The price is too damn high!" for just one ship.

T6 ships sell for 3,000 Zen each. Even if you double the price because they are "special" ships, that's still only 18,000 for all three.
150 keys would be 16,875 Zen.
900 Lobi (at 10 per lockbox) would take 90 lockbox keys or 10,125 Zen.
And who KNOWS how much 30 Gold Upgrades cost? (Seriously, I'm asking. Does anybody know?) Anyway, they're the least valuable thing available.

Again, I would LOVE to have the NX Refit unlocked, but this is still going to be a hard pass for me. I'll just have to grind EC for keys and grab another 2,500 Lobi to get everybody an NX.

[Solace]

While I would LOVE to have the NX Refit as an account unlock, at 14,750 Zen "The price is too damn high!" for just one ship.

T6 ships sell for 3,000 Zen each. Even if you double the price because they are "special" ships, that's still only 18,000 for all three.
150 keys would be 16,875 Zen.
900 Lobi (at 10 per lockbox) would take 90 lockbox keys or 10,125 Zen.
And who KNOWS how much 30 Gold Upgrades cost? (Seriously, I'm asking. Does anybody know?) Anyway, they're the least valuable thing available.

Again, I would LOVE to have the NX Refit unlocked, but this is still going to be a hard pass for me. I'll just have to grind EC for keys and grab another 2,500 Lobi to get everybody an NX.

When you buy the pack you can choose 3 items. You can have all 3 ships or 150 keys etc etc.

[Taku]

When you buy the pack you can choose 3 items. You can have all 3 ships or 150 keys etc etc.

Yeah, I know. You can get 30 Lobi, an NX, and 50 keys if you want. But it doesn't change the fact that it's an overpriced boondoggle.

[Account003]

overpriced

And yet 99.999% of the STO playerbase be like:

[Taku]

Maybe for the Original Legendary Pack, not for this.

[Sunfire]

Nope.

[StarMagi82]

All aboard the Nope Boat for this one. Too expensive.

[Petrarch]

I'd been thinking about this the last couple of days (not about buying it, just about what their MO seems to be these days) and I get that MMOs need to make money to cover costs, fund development and whatnot, but it has, to my eyes anyway, just got far too expensive for "new" stuff and is sliding down into a cash grab as each month passes.

Of course I've sepnt my fair share of coins on it over the years, but I don't like the frequent pricey bundles appearing one after the other and the constant stream of events that pass for content have burnt me out.

I hit the wall a few months ago with STO, I stopped doing endeavours, I didn't do the second featured event nor have I bothered with the Red Angel event either. I'm a lifer with STO so I'll never truly be done with it but I just can't get around, over, under or through that wall anymore and if I'm honest, I don't want to either. I think after 10 years it's time to head into drydock for some extended shore leave.

[Three of Seven]

I do think this is somewhat exploitative, there are people who can get addicted to buying stuff, like these kinds of packs, which masks itself as a deal, but we know that a lot of people will get the Master Keys to open up lockboxes. The other part of this is that the FAQ is about people buying multiple of these packs, so they are expecting a lot of sales from this no doubt.

I don't get why people spend so much money on packs like this, it's a small little dopamine hit, but surly there must be some level of regret after making such a purchase.

[Mack]

Meanwhile MMO's with more content : https://store.eu.square-enix-games.com/en_EU/xiv_sales (I don't even like fantasy genre but that's eye-opening)

Wonder what is Cryptic's goal these days. Lame delivery timelines such as an entire year for faction revamp.. expensive packs.. 2-3 episodes at max per quarter.

[Bar'ol]

I will never understand why people keep defending cryptic with these insane costs of bundles. People keep buying them and so cryptic keeps doing it. Give them inch they will want more. How much money they rack in why cant they release more content the one episode every three or so months. Make a new expansion, season, or whatever they want to call it with more then a few new things. They really are milking this franchise every ounce they can get and people who are fans, I guess, eat it up.

[Draco]

I said it before: I think a big part of the problem is the in game economy. It is not that time consuming to farm hundreds of thousands of dil on a few alts, each month (I've done it, less than an hour a day, admittedly working from home during the pandemic and being bored helped, I probably will get sick of the farming soon - some admirality, contraband doff assignment and reps from 'x rep marks' boxes). Which translates to about 2k zen a month for me. Plus the 500 all serious players get.... Anything that I really _want_ to get, is in reach, unless it is priced like these latest packs.

I feel the only way out of this spiral is to make it impossible to get zen (or whatever currency translates to real life dollars) in any other way than paying real life dollars - I'd hate this! But it would work, farming for zen stops being a thing. Or to go back to a subscription model, a certain amount each month, which will incentivize regular content or people will stop subscribing - I'd be happy with that! But I can't see this happening.

But like everything - C-level managers only care about the short term, never mind that it is ruinous in the long term, by then they will have received their bonuses and moved on to the next strip mining opportunity.

[Arno12]

I'm not playing STO much anymore, games gotten stale and I'll be honest I got tired of all these "bundles," coming out. Fallout 76 takes up my free time now, sure it's not perfect but I have fun, and it Micros are mostly cosmetic.

[Silek]

It just seems like the packs are so unreasonable. Paying X amount of dollars for a ship or services is one thing, but this 'skys the limit' approach is mean natured.

[Sul-Matuul]

The thing that really annoys me is that these sort of prices are no longer “micro” transactions like when this sort of thing first started in gaming. Games these days expect you to pet the equivalent of the court of an full game for a selection of pixels or content that should be in full release anyway.
In fact STO is even worse in that they don’t seem to release any actual content besides rehashing the same tired mechanics ask the time. Even the latest TFO is just the same as multiple older missions but with different scenery in a time-gated event to fill up the metrics.
And even if you did manage to afford these massive bundles, there’s not really any benefit to you other than the really expensive skin on your character and some minor stats boosts.
There’s no way in hell gamers should find it acceptable to pay £100’s for mere pixels and not get any new content worthy of their time.
Aside from the skins on them these ships really can’t take that long to create. The basic blocks are there already, just swap some coffee to give a ship different console layouts and have at it. Even writing from home should be a simply case of tinkering some numbers to make the next ship; provided it didn’t need a new model etc.

Players need to stop be so willing to spend so much money off silly baubles and ships expect some actual decent gameplay for their investment.