[Draco]

With a fast, cloaked ship you can have a single team member speed run through the trench part without dropping cloak or firing a shot and open the prompt for the whole team to skip to the entry point, that vastly speeds up the run.

Nice tip! I don't usually use a cloak on my main, I'll be sure to run this TFO mostly with my Klingon recruit

[Sorotia]

Tbf if they didn't add the buyout button people would probably start complaining that there isn't one, so why not gain money in the process I guess.

Except you see...the buyout system replaced a system that was free. You used to be able to start one event and if you didn't finish it you could finish the grind on a different event for free. But they axed that system for the buyout system.

There was never any complaints about there being a lack of a "buyout" system.

But either way, they do these back to back to back to back to back events to wear people out and hope people just buy it out. I'm sure the end of this chain of events will coincide nicely with the summer event so that's more grinding for people to do while putting little effort into the game. They get money for doing practically nothing...

[Sul-Matuul]

It's going to last all year they said. So it'll be this event, then probably one more before summer, maybe one during the summer and two following it. I reckon it'll be ongoing until at least Black Friday, i think that was when the last one ended roughly. Generally you only need to do about 2/3rds of the grind to earn the ship if last year was any indication so it's not like to need to go the full way if you don't want to.
The only reason to grind absolutely every day is if you want all the individual rewards, the bonus dilithium post-completion, and any marks earned too.

[Jestersmith]

Except you see...the buyout system replaced a system that was free. You used to be able to start one event and if you didn't finish it you could finish the grind on a different event for free. But they axed that system for the buyout system.

There was never any complaints about there being a lack of a "buyout" system.

But either way, they do these back to back to back to back to back events to wear people out and hope people just buy it out. I'm sure the end of this chain of events will coincide nicely with the summer event so that's more grinding for people to do while putting little effort into the game. They get money for doing practically nothing...

I think you will find that many people said on multiple old posts that if they introduced a buy out button they would use it to avoid the grind or the fact they missed the event by say a day or so. Its an option not a must use though allowing people the have the choice of if they want to do so or not. This has also been said on things like specialization grinding and more. Like STO or not it gives you the choice on these things and its not a must do thing if you want the items that are on offer.

Myself i still enjoy the game and i like the fact that i have a choice buyouts for me all depend on my goings on at the time i have in the past bought stuff out to avoid the grind and other times i have just completed it and on a few occasions if i have not liked the look of an item i have just not taken part in the event and forgone the item all together the last Summer event ship and Red Angel Armor being my last ones i didn't do again its an option for people.

As for the grind on a different event for the item this was also an issue as you only had a limited number of slots to do that so many people filled them up and ran out of space when events came along.

I do though still miss the token days for events as i always had 3 events in advance myself so soon as the item hit the game i had it if i wanted it.

[Sul-Matuul]

The old system was quite nice because you could "bank" some token to give you a head start on the next event like Jester says. I can kinda see why they would remove that as it meant people could potentially skip their events totally if they'd saved enough from previous ones; kinda gonna be a bit annoying if you were the dev who made that new event!

The buyout option is a plus though for those who might miss days. It's also there if people simply don't want to play the event; but in return Cryptic makes some money off your impatience. It's there if you want to use it, and tbh I find nothing bad about it.

Personally I'll do the grind. It takes mere minutes a day and some of the missions are quite fun. Plus the new system of giving multiple ways to get the daily progress is even better, there's something for everyone.

[Sorotia]

snip

Yeah...I'm sure some whales probably said that...but the fact is they completely destroyed the free system and now if you basically don't grind the event or buy it out the only way you can obtain the item is from the incredibly expensive Mudd's Market (even with deep discounts they still gouge you). They also made the buyout very expensive.

Overall it's just another predatory attempt to make money with little effort

[Sul-Matuul]

Not really.

If you want the rewards you either play the game or you buy it with cash via the buyout.

If you really wanted an old reward then yes you are limited to the Mudd's Market or the Phoenix boxes, but then a lot of games would not even give you a way to earn old time limited rewards from years past. New players are stuck to this way, but that is how it's been in computer gaming forever; you join the party late you'll have missed some of the previous loot.

[Jestersmith]

Yeah...I'm sure some whales probably said that...but the fact is they completely destroyed the free system and now if you basically don't grind the event or buy it out the only way you can obtain the item is from the incredibly expensive Mudd's Market (even with deep discounts they still gouge you). They also made the buyout very expensive.

Overall it's just another predatory attempt to make money with little effort

Destroyed the free system how so even before the buyout option you had to grind the event so that has not changed has it. What you have now is an option, if you so choose to want to use that ability to buyout this is not forced on you to get these item's, if this was a forced thing i would understand and agree but it isnt. And as for being expensive small events like the forthcoming ones are not that expensive to buy if you choose to and ships are normally about 6000z that reduces daily the more you partake in the running event at the time.

[Petrarch]

The STO folks have issued a clarification about the infinity/promo pack reward, it will only include ships that were available as of 31/12/20 - anything that's released or added this year won't be included.

[Jestersmith]

Tweet update added to original post.

[Blaster]

Except you see...the buyout system replaced a system that was free. You used to be able to start one event and if you didn't finish it you could finish the grind on a different event for free. But they axed that system for the buyout system.

There was never any complaints about there being a lack of a "buyout" system.

But either way, they do these back to back to back to back to back events to wear people out and hope people just buy it out. I'm sure the end of this chain of events will coincide nicely with the summer event so that's more grinding for people to do while putting little effort into the game. They get money for doing practically nothing...

To be perfectly honest, the buyout system doesn't cost too much, its not a massive amount of money to waste to get a ship (Even though I tend to grind rather than buyout). Also, STO is a free to play game, they've got to get the money from somewhere, and if people like the buyout system its not going anywhere fast, because hey, free money.

[Sul-Matuul]

The STO folks have issued a clarification about the infinity/promo pack reward, it will only include ships that were available as of 31/12/20 - anything that's released or added this year won't be included.

That is...disappointing to say the least. It really ships include any new ships too just to really entice people and offer more choice.

[WelshAvenger]

I suppose it's like the T6 tokens, there were certain ships that you couldn't buy with them, such as anything that they'd recently released.

[Sorotia]

Destroyed the free system how so even before the buyout option you had to grind the event so that has not changed has it. What you have now is an option, if you so choose to want to use that ability to buyout this is not forced on you to get these item's, if this was a forced thing i would understand and agree but it isnt. And as for being expensive small events like the forthcoming ones are not that expensive to buy if you choose to and ships are normally about 6000z that reduces daily the more you partake in the running event at the time.

You could pick and choose what to do in the old system...if it had a item you liked but a STF you didn't you could skip it and do something better later. If Cryptic was decent they could have left that system in along with the adding the buyout, but no...they left removed the token system so it forces you to play it or buyout. They don't even add old items to the phoenix store anymore and instead they gouge you on Mudd's Market

Sure they added buyouts which some players wanted....but they screwed players in multiple ways all in the name of greed

- - - Updated - - -

That is...disappointing to say the least. It really ships include any new ships too just to really entice people and offer more choice.

Which means they're probably planning something OP in the coming months that they'll sell in a promotional pack, if it's Klingon themed...perhaps a Temporal Qugh with a mycelial lance weapon like J'ula's? 32nd Century Crossfield refit or other ships from season 3? You can bet something will be released if they placed that stipulation.

[ForTheGamer]

Yeah. Something is obviously coming that's gonna be "omg, this is so op".

Then again, most people are probably going to buy something like, I don't know, the Universe ships.