Install Steam
login
|
language
简体中文 (Simplified Chinese)
繁體中文 (Traditional Chinese)
日本語 (Japanese)
한국어 (Korean)
ไทย (Thai)
Български (Bulgarian)
Čeština (Czech)
Dansk (Danish)
Deutsch (German)
Español - España (Spanish - Spain)
Español - Latinoamérica (Spanish - Latin America)
Ελληνικά (Greek)
Français (French)
Italiano (Italian)
Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
Magyar (Hungarian)
Nederlands (Dutch)
Norsk (Norwegian)
Polski (Polish)
Português (Portuguese - Portugal)
Português - Brasil (Portuguese - Brazil)
Română (Romanian)
Русский (Russian)
Suomi (Finnish)
Svenska (Swedish)
Türkçe (Turkish)
Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
Українська (Ukrainian)
Report a translation problem
Discussions Rules and Guidelines
Report this post
You can go all the way to max level for free and the last free ship you decide upon is perfectly competent at end game content. Furthermore, there is an intermediate time-based currency, Dilithium, that you can earn and trade for the premium/paid currency. Dilithium is also used for a lot of end game gear and fleet(guild) development, so the exchange for it is very healthy.
None of the content is locked off behind paywalls, and the game is pretty much what you make of it. There are storylines for each faction that you'll be max level by about the time you're halfway through them - so plenty of story. There is also plenty of purely combat stuff to do at max level if that is your preference(both on ground and space). Also, with the foundry, there are a lot of well-crafted missions and stories that other players have made.. or that you can make.
Purchases in this game are moreso a gesture of wanting to support the developers, in my view. That said, some of the purchases can be relatively expensive if you really want something immediately. Max level ships range $20 to $25 each, and there are several three-variant bundles(one that caters towards each class specialization with item set-bonuses for having them all) that are $50(or $75 if you buy each individually).
Additionally, there is a lockbox system that is borderline-gambling, but nothing from it is required to play the game - It's mostly for the exotic 'collector' type crowd with too much money on their hands. Each lockbox tend to inject life into the ingame market as well with the variety of goods that come out of them(from fancy looking weapons to special duty officers to mirror universe variants of lower level ships).
Again though, you don't have to spend a dime if you don't want to or if money is tight. I've put together ships on a relatively small budget of ingame currency exclusively that completely outperformed people who were flying around in paid ships with all manner of paid gadgetry. Conversely, I've bought ships solely to unlock costume/appearance parts for a different ship (which shares the same chasis) that I enjoy.
Like Szeron said, yes, you can pay some pretty high dollar amounts to get the premium ships, but, again, that's a choice, and you don't have to by any means. You won't be locked off from content because you have to pay to get past said paywall.
The lockboxes are a bit on the gambling side, but like he mentioned, and I mentioned, you can earn the Zen to pay for the keys to unlock the boxes. So, even then, it's not really a gamble. It really just depends on how much time you want to burn to earn the Zen to buy the keys.
Like he mentioned though, you absolutely can get by without spending much, if any, money on the game. So, I encourage you to get into it, and not worry about the money part, as it's really only a small portion overall, and it's MOSTLY cosmetic stuff that isn't necessary anyway. So go have fun!
I respectfully disagree with your statements both in a general and specific scope.
A single smile costs nothing and can change a person's entire outlook on a day of events.
As for the gaming industry, "Free to Play" often makes companies more money than subscription-based games. STO, for example, has gone from being the brink of being shut down before it went free to play to being able to expand the team, create expansions, and hire actual actors from the various series to provide voice-over. Every year since this game has gone free to play has been bigger and better than the last.
Returning to the actual topic at hand, there are two things I forgot to mention:
There ARE a handful of things you cannot get without paying actual money. Veteran rewards can only be obtained by either purchasing a lifetime subscription, or actually subscribing for that length of time. Also, things like the boxed Collector's Edition and Steam Starter Pack are the only way to obtain items specific to them(Red Matter Capacitor and Steamrunner class, respectively). Once more, this stuff is entirely optional and isn't going to gimp you if you do not have it.
Finally, there is one area of the game that is arguably "Pay2Win" - PvP. As things have grown and become more complex, people have found ways to piece together certain items and set up certain ships in cheesy ways that are extremely difficult to compete with. Along with crafting(which is rumored to be getting an overhaul soon), PvP is currently one of the most neglected and unbalanced parts of the game.
ok, if you don't like star trek you will not like sto. It's everybody's thing what to play and what not. It's also ok, when developers of STO (and similar games) earn some money, it's a lot of work spent for our fun. the mainly thing is: it's free for everybody to pay with real money to spare time, but you MUST NOT pay to play the game, you have access to all missions, you can earn ingame-exchange to buy everything you want.
You must know it, i saw you played sto for 289 hours...
Dont misunderstand, I love STO... I just done like the spate of "gimme everything for free and hope that i pay the dev;s out of my good graces" attitude that i see from many F2P officionados... I play it regularly and am a member of a large and active fleet: "Praefortis". I agree that many F2P games make lots of money but most of their development is either content already developed and put out piecemeal after release or its just cash shop updates since thats where the majority of F2P game revenue comes from... STO has the additional income from subs to help with this hence a much higher quality "F2P" game... not so with "Pure F2P" games that i can think of
Our discussion can go longer (perhaps endless) because the differences between our opinions about game concepts are just marginal. It could be more a discussion about interpretation of concepts than the concepts themselves...
It was not my intension to go in this direction or make things better (or worse) as they are, nor to degrade youre opinion.
I think a consense can be found if we say: STO is F2P enough to have a lot of free funny time and not to have the feeling just to be milked for cash.
Back on topic;
OP, in terms of the fees being worth it? thats hard to say, a ship can cost from 1800 zen to 2500 zen whioch is about £20/£25 depending on whether theres a discount offer at the time of purchase... they're good and often are better than the free ships (more consoles, more bridge officer stations etc) and look pretty awesome... but thats a lot for an in-game item, so it depends on its worth to you. You certainly dont need those ships, the free ones every 10 levels are more than adequate and you can customise those as you please. Other fees for character slots, renames, etc are in line with other MMO's, but this game has some very extensive cosmetic options as well, again some at a cost - the more iconic, the more likely there's a cost/ higher cost - usually between 400-600 zen/ £4-£6 give or take.
With new expansions (which are free) come new uniforms/costumes and ships and some of the premium ones become free or lower in cost as well.
Hope that helps makes an informed choice and apologies for derailing the thread with my F2P rant.
and this way, for me, it's totally free. you can buy everything without real money.