Not entirely free. But thats ok.

[Astalas]

So I'm having a lot of fun in the game but its way different from typical mmo's and I'm having a little trouble navigating the markets, items and ships. My question is to the more experienced players of STO, what should (if anything) I purchase with real cash? The game is free and I have no problem spending some money on it. Thanks.

[Groundpenguin]

Only thing that can become neccecary is the increase in EC cap but that doesn't come into play until end game.

[Zenith]

I can't really think of anything you 'need' to spend real money on.

[KadeSmash85]

Ya I never spend money on in game items and stuff. Like never once have I purchased anything for Guild Wars 2 or WoW (yes even WoW has in game items you can buy).

[Zenith]

That being said, I did pay for a lifetime sub when the game first came out.

[Astalas]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Zenith:

That being said, I did pay for a lifetime sub when the game first came out.

What do you get for a sub? Also, are cash store ships much better than the EC bought ships? I dont really plan on doing pvp but I'd like to stomp some mobs. Thanks.

[Kinja]

I have over 400 hours played(it's not recorded on steam because i don't like the steam version of the game) and i've not spent a single $ on it. You don't need to buy anything. And if you do, you just rafine Dilithium and exchange it for Zen.

[Wobby]

To see what u get for a sub, go to the game site. there is a comperison page.

[cowinspace]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Irrelevant:

What do you get for a sub? Also, are cash store ships much better than the EC bought ships? I dont really plan on doing pvp but I'd like to stomp some mobs. Thanks.

Subs can create Fleets(guilds), gain +1 Boff slots, +30 inventory slots, +60 bank slots, 20 account bank slots, 1 respec token per rank gained (I don't think these are awarded if you sub after gaining a level), 8 foundry slots if you want to create content, priority login (this is the main benefit, you skip login queues at busy times), no ads, increase ec limit(ingame money) and you get 500 zen/month.

Inventory and ec cap increases are by far and away the most valuable. The 500/month is also nice as you can just let it build for a while and cash it for dilithium or buy a zen ship or fleet modules.

[NaijaMan]

I always feel a deep sense of disgust when folks come on here with that "It's not free" rubbish. Do you think it's cheap to make a game? Do you think it's cheap to requisition servers to host your enjoyment? And people keep whining about how they spent $1 on something and how the world must now care about their woes...

[Firewalk]

If you wanna buy something, that comes down to what your character is mostly. Theres a few ships on the C-Store that are worth their money and... some that need some real improvement to make me recommend them.

[capto]

i only been in game for 3 months so far my experience is fun so i bought some account bank space thats about it . based on what i researched so far its just the matter of research on what your going for on the ship and i got 5 mirror ships from my fleet for free . a little better than the captain defiant i had .my understanding so far is most of the purple stuff decent ones is in auction and if your dedicated which im sinking into is grind fleet marks and dilithium ...and the omega armor suit for anti borg incursions .with the voth on season 8 i do like the part where you fightin inside that fortress and a purple gear award for escaping is a good incentive.

[Yorae Moogle]

The only 'necessities' to buy if you are a free player is the EC cap increase as if not you'll eventually hit that cap, and if you play with all your alts a lot, you'll also want the account bank space.
Though if you just pay for a month and level up your chars, they'll get expanded inventorys, more BOFF space, expanded bank, an account bank of 20 which you will kep when the month is over and it reverts back to silver. Will also get 500 Zen which i recomend you use on the EC cap increase when you go back to silver.
Doing it that way gives you a bit more, but for the same price ($5.00 for expanded Inventory and $10.00 for the 10 slot Account back, or $15 for one month which gives you 20 space account bank, 500 Zen, additinal BOFF slots and bank space as you level up)

[LordKazuhito]

only thing i really paid for was my Wrath of Khan uniforms.. I love that era of federation

[Yorae Moogle]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Sailor Moon:

only thing i really paid for was my Wrath of Khan uniforms.. I love that era of federation

They just finally updated The Wrath of Khan uniform so they now have the proper ranks instead of them all just showing the 'Captain' rank on them
Of course now this means i have to fix the ranks on all my Federation characters and theor bridge crews...

[D.T.]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Astalas:

So I'm having a lot of fun in the game but its way different from typical mmo's and I'm having a little trouble navigating the markets, items and ships. My question is to the more experienced players of STO, what should (if anything) I purchase with real cash? The game is free and I have no problem spending some money on it. Thanks.

if you absolutely must spend cash, make sure u spend it on something that will last you forever, untill you decide to never play the game again. something like the (listed above) energy credit cap increase, which is 500 zen. and the way things are right now, with the new voth lock boxes around, theres tons of new mirror universe ships in the exchange...its literally the cheapest ive seen ships. not only that, but there is the obelisk carrier practically being given away just for 25 minutes of your time, which is also a Tier 5 ship for free.

there is no forced spending on the game, considering once you hit rank 10 you can start queing for the instances wich reward dilithium, as well as going and doing your own dilithium mining on either the asteroid for pubs, or your fleet dilithium mine, or both if you want. remember you can refine up to 8,000 dilithium a day, per character. so playing alts can be benificial, even if only played for dilithium alone. example: with 2 characters you can refine 16k dilithium a day, and exchange every bit of it for zen, which is 'Account Bound,' unlike dilithium its available to your entire account, so technically you CAN take dilithium youve earned from other characters and put them on another, or just horde the zen-to-dilithium exchange that is always busy with people exchanging the 2.

the only real cause i can see for going gold, or getting a lifetime, is if you want to start your own fleet, but now there are fleet starbases, and i'll have to say if your starting out and are planning on starting your own fleet, consider the time its going to take to upgrade it, it could take years with a very small fleet. the starbases can be upgraded to tier 5, with other projects that can be done as well in the fleet. just to give an example on time, the fleet i am in has around 200+ people in it, and has been around at least since december 2012, and right on the edge of getting tier 5, like a hair away from it. yet it will take another week or 2 depending on when projects are started, to get to the next tier, and maybe even longer! so i recommend getting to know someone, and get to know some people who own their own fleets, so you can be on the same page and know you wont be booted out for lack of whatever, like communication or donations and what not.

however, if you feel you just want to support the devs and ect, thats also your parogative. I'm not going to lie, I like supporting things i like... however when PWI took over STO everyone feared it would be a nightmare. truth is, it (in my experiences) is the most lenient f2p game out there, which allows you to get everything in the game in a reasonable ammount of time without having to spend money (minus the lifetime sub or the monthly sub, which is only purchaseable via real money, but as stated above not necissary at all due to the dilithium-to-zen exchange that is made available). also keep in mind that any ships you buy from the C store with ZEN will permanantly be unlocked for any future characters you may create or have, that sides with the faction the ship belongs to. (tip- Z-points, C-points, Zen, Cryptic points, are all the same thing. same with Z-store and C-store, its the same thing. Zen is a PWI addition to the game, C points is what it used to be called (and still is in some cases). so just dont let that confuse you as well! ;)

i hope this clears up a little bit about the questions about sto and its f2p ability. you dont have to be a star trek fan to enjoy the game (coming from a non-star trek fan when they started). but now i'm watching the original star trek episodes from 1966... darn you STO...darn you