New Hoverjet... Anyone Gotten it yet?

[Kaos Arcanna]

I've been opening boxes, but I haven't had any luck getting the new jet yet (which I want for concept purposes...)

Not even a shark costume piece yet either.... sigh.

[JaguarX]

not yet. But then again aint been opening boxes.

Is that thing available in the drifter store yet? I know he carry some vehicles.


I thought the shark pieces were already available in the costume creator with gold sub?

[LaughingAlex]

I keep trying with the boxes using keys I got through questionite and globals, it feels like the chance is just way to low.  And bothersome for me.  I did get a shark costume peice, and sold it promptly though.  I actually am more interested in legionary gear for a couple characters, but even so, I'd really rather the devs introduce a way to improve sub-par vehicles that don't have four weapon slots and four mod slots, as well as actually get them that 10% boost to health/damage ect.  It annoys me how they've implemented vehicles like this.  And people say it's a bad idea to allow for more customizability.....sigh.

[Kaos Arcanna]

I keep trying with the boxes using keys I got through questionite and globals, it feels like the chance is just way to low.  And bothersome for me.

Honestly, the stats overall on this lockbox set feels lower than others. I have probably opened around 20 of these boxes so far, and  I haven't gotten one piece of Legion gear ... and generally my numbers for Legion gear are a bit better than that. So, no legion gear, no vehicle ... no costume pieces... I may just give up on them for now as it doesn't look like I'm getting anything I really want out of these lockboxes anytime soon.

[PSI-on]

Sadly he never has the same ones the lock box has, but it's possible he'll get something sort of close to it at some point. As for the shark costumes, no, they are new for this box as far as I know.

not yet. But then again aint been opening boxes.

Is that thing available in the drifter store yet? I know he carry some vehicles.


I thought the shark pieces were already available in the costume creator with gold sub?

[PSI-on]

This is how Cryptic, or possibly PWE, want to run it. I hate it, myself. I must admit it's cheaper to open boxes here than in NW or STO, and seemed like they had better chances at the tanks, but sadly as they catch in popularity they will likely fall in line with STO and NW in cost and rarity. Heck, notice how the first two lockboxes had like, at least 3 vehicles, after that it was just one thing or two. The costume stuff is nice, but I've never been big on collecting options that way. I hated when CoX did something like this, but at least when they did it you bought one (or what? a pack of 5 with a vet point as I recall?) and each one you opened had 5 chances at rewards. One of the things I loved about City, even when they went and got a cash shop and went free to play, they did things right, you felt like you were getting your moneys worth, and they gave enough back to us for free to make us feel appreciated and not like a money grab.

Also, are players really saying we shouldn't be able to customize the vechiles? That's terrible. It's bad enough there's not even a crappy one you can get for free, AND not any that really cover magic themed characters or any theme outside of tech mostly, but I can't imagine ANYTHING wrong with changing colors or even upgrading them some how. Heck, you can do that with mounts and companions in NW, why can't Cryptic just decide on some company wide polices and structures.

I keep trying with the boxes using keys I got through questionite and globals, it feels like the chance is just way to low.  And bothersome for me.  I did get a shark costume peice, and sold it promptly though.  I actually am more interested in legionary gear for a couple characters, but even so, I'd really rather the devs introduce a way to improve sub-par vehicles that don't have four weapon slots and four mod slots, as well as actually get them that 10% boost to health/damage ect.  It annoys me how they've implemented vehicles like this.  And people say it's a bad idea to allow for more customizability.....sigh.

[General Idiot]

Heck, notice how the first two lockboxes had like, at least 3 vehicles, after that it was just one thing or two. The costume stuff is nice, but I've never been big on collecting options that way.

Those two first ones didn't have legion gear, become devices or costume pieces though. In terms of how many shinies are in each box, it's more or less even. They're just not all vehicles anymore.

[PSI-on]

I can agree with that, and I'm sure legion gear is a big thing, but are become devices popular? I never see anyone ever use anything but the "grow big, shrink small" things. Also, I got the impression was the vehicles were supposed to be their big deal, cash cow thing, and there for the main attraction. Don't get me wrong, I know a lot of people talk about the gear, but the most excitement I hear is over the vehicles in the boxes. Also those first two boxes also dropped better mods for vehicles actually dropped weapon mods, and had better vehicles tech wise. (I got lucky and got the Avalanche tank, it's 8 slots, bonuses, and the incendiary rounds are insanely destructive, on the other hand my GF managed to get the Mantis bike in the last box and while it looks awesome, it's only 7 slots. I will say I'm glad there is verity in some ways for them, but to be fair, if there's other ways to get that legion gear outside the lock boxes, then I just don't know.

Those two first ones didn't have legion gear, become devices or costume pieces though. In terms of how many shinies are in each box, it's more or less even. They're just not all vehicles anymore.

[JaguarX]

I can agree with that, and I'm sure legion gear is a big thing, but are become devices popular? I never see anyone ever use anything but the "grow big, shrink small" things. Also, I got the impression was the vehicles were supposed to be their big deal, cash cow thing, and there for the main attraction. Don't get me wrong, I know a lot of people talk about the gear, but the most excitement I hear is over the vehicles in the boxes. Also those first two boxes also dropped better mods for vehicles actually dropped weapon mods, and had better vehicles tech wise. (I got lucky and got the Avalanche tank, it's 8 slots, bonuses, and the incendiary rounds are insanely destructive, on the other hand my GF managed to get the Mantis bike in the last box and while it looks awesome, it's only 7 slots. I will say I'm glad there is verity in some ways for them, but to be fair, if there's other ways to get that legion gear outside the lock boxes, then I just don't know.

There is other ways of getting legion gear, assuming level 40 legion gear is what ya mostly looking for. There is usually a good amount on the market usually in the 100-200G range. Sounds like a lot but really that is cheap considering that 100G is the going rate for keys and then still no guarantee of getting legion. The top desired one though is more expensive at about 1999-3500G (the one with large amount of avoidance.). The down side is the ones on the AH market is just about all level 40s. There might be a few other levels sprinkled in there but better off just opening lockboxes for specific levels.

[LaughingAlex]

The initial grav bike boxes and the hover tank boxes were also bad for another reason; they'd 100% rip you off if you got the lowest end reward, as they'd just smother you with 50-75 rank 1 or 2 vehicle mods that were totally useless.  The recent boxes at least give mods that are sellable.

[LaughingAlex]

I'm going to take back that statement.  The sheer number of mods from the boxes is causing them to drop in price so much that you aren't even getting your money worth anymore from the boxes.  Problem is once just ONE person puts a mod up for under the lowest price, that becomes the new price and it tends to stay that way.  Some rank 5 mods are selling for not even 2-3 globals now and some rank 7s which used to cost 100 globals don't even cost 15 anymore(the most recent ones I got only cost 25 but some jerk put just ONE up for 18, so much for even getting a dollar of globals from that box anymore).

[JaguarX]

I'm going to take back that statement.  The sheer number of mods from the boxes is causing them to drop in price so much that you aren't even getting your money worth anymore from the boxes.  Problem is once just ONE person puts a mod up for under the lowest price, that becomes the new price and it tends to stay that way.  Some rank 5 mods are selling for not even 2-3 globals now and some rank 7s which used to cost 100 globals don't even cost 15 anymore(the most recent ones I got only cost 25 but some jerk put just ONE up for 18, so much for even getting a dollar of globals from that box anymore).

I contribute to that a lot. Putting about 15-30 at a time for quarter of the price, which fills up on average bout 2-3  pages, then someone goes a bit lower, then next round, I put it lower than that price.

Originally I didn't think it would have that much effect since I figured after they sale, the price would go back to normal, but instead, people started to put it around the price I listed and or lower. Then to sell quick, I go lower than the already lower price and so on.

When I started to put mod rank 7s on the market they were going for at least 100, so then I started to rid of mine for 25-30. Then ones costing 10-15 started to pop up everywhere. I haven't put a rank 7 mod on there since in a few days.

But had lot of mod ranks 5s and sold those pretty cheaply. Like I said, the intended effect wasn't to crash the prices forever, but I guess that is the downside to markets where players control the prices. They are either set way to high or end up set way too low. I seen a few rank 5 that cost lower than what a person could get from simply selling them to an NPC.

[PSI-on]

Have ya'll concidered buying up the ones cheaper than the price you want them to be and then selling them yourself at the price you want? It's my understanding that's how the people playing the market keep prices at a point in STO, or are there just too many around to gather them all up?

I contribute to that a lot. Putting about 15-30 at a time for quarter of the price, which fills up on average bout 2-3  pages, then someone goes a bit lower, then next round, I put it lower than that price.

Originally I didn't think it would have that much effect since I figured after they sale, the price would go back to normal, but instead, people started to put it around the price I listed and or lower. Then to sell quick, I go lower than the already lower price and so on.

When I started to put mod rank 7s on the market they were going for at least 100, so then I started to rid of mine for 25-30. Then ones costing 10-15 started to pop up everywhere. I haven't put a rank 7 mod on there since in a few days.

But had lot of mod ranks 5s and sold those pretty cheaply. Like I said, the intended effect wasn't to crash the prices forever, but I guess that is the downside to markets where players control the prices. They are either set way to high or end up set way too low. I seen a few rank 5 that cost lower than what a person could get from simply selling them to an NPC.

[LaughingAlex]

For the far lower end theres just to many.  In the medium price end of mods that are far rarer you can, but even then someone will still underbid you because the mods are that numerous.  The markets buckling from this huge influx of mods, the double questionite weekend has left questionite prices way to high and even trying to buy keys with globals(which your getting less of due to the lowered mod prices) is becoming more expensive to(keys on auction cost about 140-150 globals now).  I cannot keep up and sadly i'm not gonna spend another dollar on boxes like this.  I'm beginning to question if I should use the next stipend for something else because unless they post an AV on the drifter store I won't be able to get it, cause I never buy vehicles in the C store because they are always junk.

Understand: if they DON'T put an AV on the drifter store, this'll be the last time I even open boxes with keys obtained via globals/questionite.  The boxes are netting far less and less globals in return, each global is meaning less in return due to keys prices going up so much.  Once boxes could get you maybe 50-120 globals now on average I'm guessing thats down to maybe 10-40 globals on average just due to the devaluing of the mods alone.

[JaguarX]

Have ya'll concidered buying up the ones cheaper than the price you want them to be and then selling them yourself at the price you want? It's my understanding that's how the people playing the market keep prices at a point in STO, or are there just too many around to gather them all up?

I have the beans to do that as I have plenty of globals since I don't spend it on much besides buying a gear piece here and there leveling up (highest rank gear I ever bought was a blue level 32 primary defense gear). Besides that, I use what drops from mission completions.

I figured that is what people have been doing with the cheap stuff I sale. Like keys, I usually sell keys at half the low end going rate (50-60 globals a pop on a 100-120 global market on the low end with average about 150-200.) at about 10-20 at a time. But those goes in minutes. I assume people are either using them or reposting them for higher price. 

[PSI-on]

Wish I knew when you sale keys then lol. I open them, but before anyone thinks I'm selling, I actually tend to pack rat and hoard. So every gear, mod, vehicle, and costume piece I get I either use or store away, never to be hear from again :3 . I hope my questions haven't upset people, I must admit I'm still rather noobish to this game and all that jazz, it's hard leaving CoX where I was pratically a master at it after 8 years of it, to knowing nothing in a game I enjoy less, but feel it's all I have. But I must agree with ya'll, if there's one thing I learned from the way Cryptic handled Villains, handled Klingons, and handled the market place in all it's current games it's that they don't understand how to balance economies OR factions. Believe me, the do some crazy stuff to the economy in STO and not long ago, two times I think, hurt the market in NW.

I have the beans to do that as I have plenty of globals since I don't spend it on much besides buying a gear piece here and there leveling up (highest rank gear I ever bought was a blue level 32 primary defense gear). Besides that, I use what drops from mission completions.

I figured that is what people have been doing with the cheap stuff I sale. Like keys, I usually sell keys at half the low end going rate (50-60 globals a pop on a 100-120 global market on the low end with average about 150-200.) at about 10-20 at a time. But those goes in minutes. I assume people are either using them or reposting them for higher price.

[Kaos Arcanna]

I still haven't gotten the jet, but I did manage to get a piece of the shark outfit tonight. (It's definitely not a piece that already exists because it unlocked for me and I own all the purchasable costume pieces and most of the recognition unlockable ones.)

At the very least, I should have enough drifter salvage to buy a VTOL vehicle from the drifter salvage if they put one there.

[JaguarX]

Wish I knew when you sale keys then lol. I open them, but before anyone thinks I'm selling, I actually tend to pack rat and hoard. So every gear, mod, vehicle, and costume piece I get I either use or store away, never to be hear from again :3 . I hope my questions haven't upset people, I must admit I'm still rather noobish to this game and all that jazz, it's hard leaving CoX where I was pratically a master at it after 8 years of it, to knowing nothing in a game I enjoy less, but feel it's all I have. But I must agree with ya'll, if there's one thing I learned from the way Cryptic handled Villains, handled Klingons, and handled the market place in all it's current games it's that they don't understand how to balance economies OR factions. Believe me, the do some crazy stuff to the economy in STO and not long ago, two times I think, hurt the market in NW.

hey it happens. What you feeling CO, is what many felt coming to COX or any game new for that matter. To some the COX market was alien to them although the vets would say "Oh it's easy to make money." Easy for them because they been playing it for years.

[PSI-on]

Indeed it was new and had much longer to get used to, but unlike these games it didn't also suffer from thoughtless interference from the dev team. (Mind you I don't play the market, ever, not interested) Just using NW as an example, two hot ticket items on the market were once dragon eggs and mounts from lockboxes. The first was ruined when they started dropping gift boxes for a week or so, each one having a change to drop a dragon egg, a chance high enough to tank that market a bit. For lockbox mount (which you can imagine are as hard to get as ships in STO and vehicles in CO) were hit very hard by a bug that raised the chance to almost 50%, which the dev team KNEW was there and would hit live with the expansion (and so did MANY players) but refused to fix before hand, not only that but after it was abused and exploited literally within minutes of going live, forcing them to go down 45 minutes later to patch it so why not have just patched it in the first place, and dispite the fact it was abused and exploited the team did not only refuse to do a roll back to take away the cheated mount BUT publicly praised and congratulated the exploiters as "lucky" and to "enjoy their mounts." The prices of those types of mounts quickly plummeted.

As far as I know our CoX dev's didn't do anything that massively screwed with the market, short of getting rid of base salvage and using invention salvage in everything, though I seem to recall that not making as big an impact as I was afraid it would have. There's been other things done to STO, but I can't think of them well right now.

hey it happens. What you feeling CO, is what many felt coming to COX or any game new for that matter. To some the COX market was alien to them although the vets would say "Oh it's easy to make money." Easy for them because they been playing it for years.

[JaguarX]

Indeed it was new and had much longer to get used to, but unlike these games it didn't also suffer from thoughtless interference from the dev team. (Mind you I don't play the market, ever, not interested) Just using NW as an example, two hot ticket items on the market were once dragon eggs and mounts from lockboxes. The first was ruined when they started dropping gift boxes for a week or so, each one having a change to drop a dragon egg, a chance high enough to tank that market a bit. For lockbox mount (which you can imagine are as hard to get as ships in STO and vehicles in CO) were hit very hard by a bug that raised the chance to almost 50%, which the dev team KNEW was there and would hit live with the expansion (and so did MANY players) but refused to fix before hand, not only that but after it was abused and exploited literally within minutes of going live, forcing them to go down 45 minutes later to patch it so why not have just patched it in the first place, and dispite the fact it was abused and exploited the team did not only refuse to do a roll back to take away the cheated mount BUT publicly praised and congratulated the exploiters as "lucky" and to "enjoy their mounts." The prices of those types of mounts quickly plummeted.

As far as I know our CoX dev's didn't do anything that massively screwed with the market, short of getting rid of base salvage and using invention salvage in everything, though I seem to recall that not making as big an impact as I was afraid it would have. There's been other things done to STO, but I can't think of them well right now.

yup sometimes though, lower prices isn't a bad thing. It make it easier to obtain for those that are not or not yet rolling in currency. It's bad to people looking to sale a few items and get rich off their luck from people who are not so lucky. 

Especially mounts, should be affordable instead of an elite item that one have to get lucky to get or have to spend oodles of currency to buy.

[PSI-on]

I agree,  honestly, being one of those people who have such trouble earning or grinding stuff out. The irony is on the forums they try to convince people they should be paying higher prices on all things as a standard then they came to. Basically insisting 100,000 - to 200,000 AD should be the standard for even the most basic of gear. They pay no attention and don't think before they act, unbalancing the market, while trying to convince player they should be paying huge prices so that the market can be a better money sink (since in NW the currency you have to trade with in this game is the same you use to buy cash items with, instead of using the gold the game also has, and AD like Q has a daily cap). It's at the very least fascinating to watch it unfold.

yup sometimes though, lower prices isn't a bad thing. It make it easier to obtain for those that are not or not yet rolling in currency. It's bad to people looking to sale a few items and get rich off their luck from people who are not so lucky. 

Especially mounts, should be affordable instead of an elite item that one have to get lucky to get or have to spend oodles of currency to buy.

[LaughingAlex]

I got another costume peice I decided to sell this time.  Hopefully i'll get the price i'm asking for(alot), which should hopefully push my luck more favorably.

Edit: Sold a sharkskin shoulder pads minutes after posting this for 1000 globals at 10:38 pm mountain time.

....At around 11:20 I started a MASSIVE chain of boxes now, because 7 keys purchased with that 1000 globals lead to rank 7 lucks of the gambler, another sharkskin costume peice, and some rank 7 presence enhancements.  So I'll likely be able to open another 7-8 boxes again and hopefully keep this chain going till I can get an AV.  This is done entirely with globals earned from the boxes and from the occasional grinding.

Edit again:  Another chain started with another sharkskin costume piece.  My character is now up to 144 drifter salvage.  I'm being very surprised right now.

[Kaos Arcanna]

I just read on the Forums from someone who's been doing statistical analyses of the drop rates of the various box item goodies that the chance of getting a vehicle is about .25% per box.

So... I'm probably going to have to hope that something shows up in the Drifter or Zen Store if I'm going to get to make my concept.

[General Idiot]

The chance of getting ships from lockboxes in STO is 1/250, I'd imagine it's the same here for the top stuff.

[Nos482]

rank 7 lucks of the gambler

uh-huh.
Wrong game

[LaughingAlex]

uh-huh.
Wrong game

Oh LOL, ok Rank seven gamblers gems.  Still though nice catch there.  My luck ran out for now but I'll have more mods on sale.  I'm now close enough that if they release a new vehicle for 200 drifter salvage i'll be able to get it pretty quickly now.  I kept getting good mod roles and costume pieces but the chain of boxes opened finally ended last night.  So i'll have to go back to getting questionite for now.  I'll get another one up eventually.

Basically Boxes opened that give good priced mods = more boxes opened from keys purchased directly from the auction.  That said I really question doing this again as I said before, simply because of the luck I've been having with the boxes.  The % is I agree, far to low for something you pay to open.

If the mods at the bottom end were always crap guaranteed then I wouldn't even be willing to open them.

[PSI-on]

Sadly, that's how all lockboxes work in STO, CO, and NW.

Oh LOL, ok Rank seven gamblers gems.  Still though nice catch there.  My luck ran out for now but I'll have more mods on sale.  I'm now close enough that if they release a new vehicle for 200 drifter salvage i'll be able to get it pretty quickly now.  I kept getting good mod roles and costume pieces but the chain of boxes opened finally ended last night.  So i'll have to go back to getting questionite for now.  I'll get another one up eventually.

Basically Boxes opened that give good priced mods = more boxes opened from keys purchased directly from the auction.  That said I really question doing this again as I said before, simply because of the luck I've been having with the boxes.  The % is I agree, far to low for something you pay to open.

If the mods at the bottom end were always crap guaranteed then I wouldn't even be willing to open them.

[LaughingAlex]

The problem is, and understand I'm aware my buying keys on the auction isn't any better, is that it's a total gamble in which it's to much luck involved.  If there was no drifter salvage at all I'd totally be unwilling with the kinda rates they have; because, low and behold drifter salvage is just about the only way I tend get any vehicles at all.  I'd never seen a single box give me a good vehicle from a box.  When I did get vehicles from the grav bike boxes(biggest waste of money ever), they were crappy raptor bikes, totally worthless and useless to me.  Only reason I got them in fact, was because I was going for a widow because that was actually a good vehicle.

The fact is the percentage for the vehicles is to low, which was why the vehicle boxes were so unpopular, they were truely "all or nothing", because only the very best reward which had an even smaller chance than the current boxes was even remotely worthwhile.  And boxes popularity certainly hasn't improved.

[PSI-on]

Then you'd be equally annoyed to know Lobi and Bars, the salvage equivalent in STO and NW, have much higher drop rates than the salvage. Sadly, and I'm not defending them, this is how they want to make money. They rip us off on what amounts to gambling with real money for make believe trinkets. Also sadly it went over so well for them in STO, that they've shoe horned it into every thing else. Frankly I'm just glad we can talk honestly about it here cause on the NW servers they've started banning people who complain, and I so wish I was being over board about that. Mind you not every complaint, but lately it doesn't take much to get banned. The only way we can change their minds on lockboxes would be to make a big stink about it as a group, and even then it'd be a small chance since they truly believe they have all the power. Just another reason I miss CoX, they never had to stoop this low and I'd happily trade earning Paragon Points IN game for all the stuff Paragon just gave us for free or allowed us to unlock for free in game vs. all the stuff we're sort of pushed to buy in current cryptic games just to compete. Trust me, I'm just as sick and tired of lockboxes as you are, but I don't see them ever going away.

The problem is, and understand I'm aware my buying keys on the auction isn't any better, is that it's a total gamble in which it's to much luck involved.  If there was no drifter salvage at all I'd totally be unwilling with the kinda rates they have; because, low and behold drifter salvage is just about the only way I tend get any vehicles at all.  I'd never seen a single box give me a good vehicle from a box.  When I did get vehicles from the grav bike boxes(biggest waste of money ever), they were crappy raptor bikes, totally worthless and useless to me.  Only reason I got them in fact, was because I was going for a widow because that was actually a good vehicle.

The fact is the percentage for the vehicles is to low, which was why the vehicle boxes were so unpopular, they were truely "all or nothing", because only the very best reward which had an even smaller chance than the current boxes was even remotely worthwhile.  And boxes popularity certainly hasn't improved.

[LaughingAlex]

Then you'd be equally annoyed to know Lobi and Bars, the salvage equivalent in STO and NW, have much higher drop rates than the salvage. Sadly, and I'm not defending them, this is how they want to make money. They rip us off on what amounts to gambling with real money for make believe trinkets. Also sadly it went over so well for them in STO, that they've shoe horned it into every thing else. Frankly I'm just glad we can talk honestly about it here cause on the NW servers they've started banning people who complain, and I so wish I was being over board about that. Mind you not every complaint, but lately it doesn't take much to get banned. The only way we can change their minds on lockboxes would be to make a big stink about it as a group, and even then it'd be a small chance since they truly believe they have all the power. Just another reason I miss CoX, they never had to stoop this low and I'd happily trade earning Paragon Points IN game for all the stuff Paragon just gave us for free or allowed us to unlock for free in game vs. all the stuff we're sort of pushed to buy in current cryptic games just to compete. Trust me, I'm just as sick and tired of lockboxes as you are, but I don't see them ever going away.

I agree, even super paks did not go this far as to outright rip everyone off.  You always got your moneys worth, while the lock boxes you get a tiny figment no matter how you look at it.  It's like atlas shrugged, only give the common person the tiniest scraps.

[PSI-on]

Indeed, I always praised how Cox handled the cash store. Even when it was the super booster packs you got a whole lot for your ten bucks (full costume sets, emotes, a special feature *usually a power* and more). No one does that anymore, it's a disheartening at the very least. Only thing I didn't like was buying powersets. Just never liked the idea, but even then you unlocked a full set, usually for more than one AT, which could lead to so many incredible character combos. Even the costume things didn't bother me cause they gave some hats for free, bundled some up fairly and let you buy them very cheaply piece meal. Meanwhile, unlike Cryptic, they always made sure to give us free powersets, free costume sets, and kept the major content updates being free. No one really does that anymore. Cryptic will throw like 20 new and expensive things in the store before they finally put in a free event or story arc at some point, and even then they'll let you earn some stuff in game, but leave an option to pay some way to get it easier or sooner.

I agree, even super paks did not go this far as to outright rip everyone off.  You always got your moneys worth, while the lock boxes you get a tiny figment no matter how you look at it.  It's like atlas shrugged, only give the common person the tiniest scraps.

[LaughingAlex]

Indeed, I always praised how Cox handled the cash store. Even when it was the super booster packs you got a whole lot for your ten bucks (full costume sets, emotes, a special feature *usually a power* and more). No one does that anymore, it's a disheartening at the very least. Only thing I didn't like was buying powersets. Just never liked the idea, but even then you unlocked a full set, usually for more than one AT, which could lead to so many incredible character combos. Even the costume things didn't bother me cause they gave some hats for free, bundled some up fairly and let you buy them very cheaply piece meal. Meanwhile, unlike Cryptic, they always made sure to give us free powersets, free costume sets, and kept the major content updates being free. No one really does that anymore. Cryptic will throw like 20 new and expensive things in the store before they finally put in a free event or story arc at some point, and even then they'll let you earn some stuff in game, but leave an option to pay some way to get it easier or sooner.

Honestly i worry NCSoft shut CoX down because of the store, they saw something progressive that could make money and it offended them.  You'd think companies would look at how CoX handled free to play in general, it allowed alot of in the middle and always rewarded veterans for the money they gave the game, rather then saying "your no longer subscribed, screw you your no better then the freeloader".

[PSI-on]

Not sure if we should get into this type of topic, but I'm pretty sure it had nothing to do with money. Even Tarbula Rasa got some big last day send off and every game they closed so far everyone with an NCSoft account got free trials to games. This time we got the finger, they fired the devs same day and made them keep quiet about it, not only gave us no event but didn't even wait til the last issue was released especially since it was practically ready, gave us back a little money, but no trials just a bunch of lies and making sure they could sit on the IP, they even withheld one signature to prevent Paragon from buying it all up an ending everything. No, my friend, this was a sudden and out of no where choice, much like a kid throwing a temper tantrum. I'm convinced there was a big disagreement and NCSoft vindictively over reacted, maybe even to make an example of them. That's why we got no notice and no mercy, and why unless we can at least truly embarrass them it'll be hard to get the game back short of a concentrated effort on emulation or something more on their level.

That being said though, CoX, no matter how you had it sliced, usually had themselves on the ball. Innovative, created many ideas most people use today, fun and friendly, attracted the right kind of people, and had a way of making money the old school way with respect and value to the customer and service to help them when they needed it.

Honestly i worry NCSoft shut CoX down because of the store, they saw something progressive that could make money and it offended them.  You'd think companies would look at how CoX handled free to play in general, it allowed alot of in the middle and always rewarded veterans for the money they gave the game, rather then saying "your no longer subscribed, screw you your no better then the freeloader".

[LaughingAlex]

Definently attracted the right kind of people and gave the good kind of deals.  I sometimes feel CO does the opposite.  Especially when you have cheating-level exploits lasting for a year being used by those who litterally try to insult others for not getting there level of play.  I am wondering though, if the exploit of using teleosaurus pharamones or 5x eruptions is why people did buy keys.  If thats the case then maybe boxes will be forced to improve or fade from CO.

Given I don't think cryptic tries to attract the worst kinds of players, but I suspect publisher medling for the lowest common denominator catering we sometimes see, and the shoddy implementation of the lockboxes(particularly the to low a chance to get anything good) certainly doesn't help the game.  The fact that CO lost all but like a few developers for a full year prevented any bug fixes, so it's hard for me to say how popular lockboxes really are when in order to get legacy gear you HAD to open them and open drifter boxes.

[PSI-on]

Lockboxes are popular in STO and NW, so they blindly believe it will work here, maybe to the extent it'll blind us or make up for lack of content and fixes, or maybe they think if we buy enough it'll prove the game is worth giving a budget and development to, but let's face it. In reality you have to spend money to make money, and they simply don't wanna do that. I think the biggest issue with the people attracted is that they are all free. We saw it in CoX to a smaller extent when it went to Freedom. Not having to pay attracts everyone, even the bored jerks of the net with nothing better to do AND the evil real money traders in droves. At least CoX had the smarts to put up pay walls (what was it, 5 dollars to be premium and talk in more channels? And could do mail til lvl 10?) while Cryptic messes it up by letting anyone in and no walls. NW is flooded with real money traders, I've never seen such rude and crude behavior before from players. Please tell me I'm not dreaming and we of CoX were usually on our better behavior.

Definently attracted the right kind of people and gave the good kind of deals.  I sometimes feel CO does the opposite.  Especially when you have cheating-level exploits lasting for a year being used by those who litterally try to insult others for not getting there level of play.  I am wondering though, if the exploit of using teleosaurus pharamones or 5x eruptions is why people did buy keys.  If thats the case then maybe boxes will be forced to improve or fade from CO.

Given I don't think cryptic tries to attract the worst kinds of players, but I suspect publisher medling for the lowest common denominator catering we sometimes see, and the shoddy implementation of the lockboxes(particularly the to low a chance to get anything good) certainly doesn't help the game.  The fact that CO lost all but like a few developers for a full year prevented any bug fixes, so it's hard for me to say how popular lockboxes really are when in order to get legacy gear you HAD to open them and open drifter boxes.

[LaughingAlex]

Well I was about to start one last chain, and the first key I used of the three I bought, I got the AV, finally.  I will get screenshots over in a bit.

Edit: Having to reset my imageshack password, since it's been forever since I'd used image shack.  Once thats up I'll show it(it may be a short while, RL stuff today).

[JaguarX]

Lockboxes are popular in STO and NW, so they blindly believe it will work here, maybe to the extent it'll blind us or make up for lack of content and fixes, or maybe they think if we buy enough it'll prove the game is worth giving a budget and development to, but let's face it. In reality you have to spend money to make money, and they simply don't wanna do that. I think the biggest issue with the people attracted is that they are all free. We saw it in CoX to a smaller extent when it went to Freedom. Not having to pay attracts everyone, even the bored jerks of the net with nothing better to do AND the evil real money traders in droves. At least CoX had the smarts to put up pay walls (what was it, 5 dollars to be premium and talk in more channels? And could do mail til lvl 10?) while Cryptic messes it up by letting anyone in and no walls. NW is flooded with real money traders, I've never seen such rude and crude behavior before from players. Please tell me I'm not dreaming and we of CoX were usually on our better behavior.

I think it was 5 dollars to talk in most channels. That change originally didn't go over as well at first but it did significantly decrease the gold farmer spam. Although the "pay real money" for PL spam was in force still.


In CO, haven't seen any Gold farmer spam.

Heard there were some in NW though.

Unknown about STO.

[LaughingAlex]

http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/4163/djz4.jpg  Here is the image.

[PSI-on]

I hated the pay wall cause it affected friends, it was annoying, but I understood it's necessity. I can see how most would hate it, but sometimes a one time minor pain can help avoid hours, days, weeks, months of more.

As for the rest, I see it like this:

by and large CO is a barren failure that even Cryptic has ignored up til now (making it really their fault) so there isn't a good reason to Gold Farm here.

NW is so terrible that you literally can't do much in PE without seeing Gold Farmers spamming day and night....ALL day and night. It used to be way worse, two or three working for the SAME SITE would spam there message 5 to 10 times in a ROW so it would be the only thing in the chat window, practically on each others heels. It was almost impossible to report spam one before the next one started. Recently they added an auto silence to anyone who talks more than three times in a row (or repeats the same message more than 3, not sure) all that has done is make them spam only three times in a row and much like the Mighty Hydra of old, you ignore one, two take it's place, still all day.

And interestingly enough, dispite STO's popularity their gold spammers haven't been too crazy, nothing like NW's at least. One random message here or there (unless they've changed since NW came out), it was annoying but no where NEAR the in your freaking face that NW has to deal with.

Annoying yes, but sometimes little pay walls help to limit those things, maybe not out right stop, but it makes a difference and eases your legit customers.

I think it was 5 dollars to talk in most channels. That change originally didn't go over as well at first but it did significantly decrease the gold farmer spam. Although the "pay real money" for PL spam was in force still.


In CO, haven't seen any Gold farmer spam.

Heard there were some in NW though.

Unknown about STO.

[PSI-on]

oooooooh, I'm so jelly right now ; _ ;

http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/4163/djz4.jpg  Here is the image.

[Kaos Arcanna]

Still haven't gotten it, but on the bright side having seen it in action I don't feel as bad about it.

Maybe the one that comes to the C Store or Drifter Store will more properly fit my concept. 8-)


(That being said I'll probably still keep opening lockboxes cause I am using the Double XP boosters and the
mods to make better mods.)

[LaughingAlex]

The day before I began moving I was able to slip a third speed boosting mod in.  So far it's lightning fast with the mods, but its clunky without anything upgrading it's speed.  It's tough enough that I'd rather use it for a direct fight then most vehicles though.  If it had 2 more weapon slots that'd be icing on the cake.