Buying a ship with EC or trying my chance with lock boxes?

[Stegosaurus]

Been looking for a new science vessel to use since I've primarily been focusing on tactical lately. After re watching Discovery, I absolutely love the look and specs the Crossfield Science Spearhead has to offer. Been thinking that while there are better ships out there, I really want this one. Problem is, last I checked it was going for 1 billion EC on the exchange. Quick calculation of selling Z Store items on the exchange put the price at roughly $110. Would I be better off trying to open maybe 60-80 infinity or discovery lock boxes and try my chance at unlocking it or just shell out the $110? *side note: I already have a phaser build and various science consoles/abilities lined up and ready.

[ImperatorPavel]

It's 100% chance of getting the ship you want if you buy via the Exchange. It's quite a bit less chance if you open loxkboxes.

The next Meta Event/Event Campaign rewards a coupon that can be redeemed for a lockbox/Promotion! ship, so that's another avenue, although it'll be a while before that ends.

[A Fat, Angry Serval]

No matter what, buying a lockbox ship off the exchange is ALWAYS going to be cheaper than gambling for it.

[Wolverine]

Well, i don't get it - why spend well over 100$ on a single ship, when you could get a LTS during the next sale for 150$, receive 500 ZEN per month for as long as the game runs, use that ZEN for buying lockbox keys during a sale and then either sell those keys for EC or trade them directly for the ship you want?

This will of course take more time then just more or less buying the ship directly - but the longer your play the game the more you'll get from that LTS, while that one ship will remain only one ship on that one character.

Anyway, just my 2EC, it's your call in the end...

[Stegosaurus]

Originally posted by Logan:

Well, i don't get it - why spend well over 100$ on a single ship, when you could get a LTS during the next sale for 150$, receive 500 ZEN per month for as long as the game runs, use that ZEN for buying lockbox keys during a sale and then either sell those keys for EC or trade them directly for the ship you want?

This will of course take more time then just more or less buying the ship directly - but the longer your play the game the more you'll get from that LTS, while that one ship will remain only one ship on that one character.

Anyway, just my 2EC, it's your call in the end...

I already have an LTS. So it would take quite a while. I might follow suit with the Meta Event that was mention though, since 1 billion EC is a ridiculous amount for anything in my honest opinion, even if it's something that I really want.

[Szeron]

There are 3 versions of the ship.
Crossfield - comes from lockboxes.
Mirror Crossfield - comes from promo packs
Glenn - part of the 10th Anniversary Legendary Bundle.

To no surprise, none of them are cheap. Glenn depends entirely on them offering the bundle again, and comes at a king's ransom(the cheapest it's been available on PC is 19,500 zen).

The Crossfield and Mirror Crossfield can potentially be obtained for free if you complete the next meta-event campaign(which will probably take around a year). However, prices of a lot of these ships are likely to drop around that time as well(unless they actually manage to make the reward packs account-bound). The Tzen-tar(arguably one of the most powerful ships in the game) went from a 1.5b+ EC going price to around 500k EC due to the previous campaign.

Gambling is.. well.. your choice. The odds are around 1:200 for lockboxes, IIRC, and that doesn't mean you'll actually get the ship if you spend 200 keys. (It means you'll roll a 200 sided die 200 times and hope that it lands on a 1.)

A more efficient method than keys would be to buy promo packs when they're available and wait until they raise in value to sell them. Or, just play the market; the more EC you've got, the more profit you can make. (You did just miss out on a proverbial gold mine with the cross-faction ship availability inflating a lot the of now depreciated console/trait packs.)

There's also the question of how they're going to handle the Season 3 Discovery Refit. It will undoubtably be a new ship, but who knows how they'll try to market it.

[Stegosaurus]

Originally posted by Szeron:

There are 3 versions of the ship.
Crossfield - comes from lockboxes.
Mirror Crossfield - comes from promo packs
Glenn - part of the 10th Anniversary Legendary Bundle.

To no surprise, none of them are cheap. Glenn depends entirely on them offering the bundle again, and comes at a king's ransom(the cheapest it's been available on PC is 19,500 zen).

The Crossfield and Mirror Crossfield can potentially be obtained for free if you complete the next meta-event campaign(which will probably take around a year). However, prices of a lot of these ships are likely to drop around that time as well(unless they actually manage to make the reward packs account-bound). The Tzen-tar(arguably one of the most powerful ships in the game) went from a 1.5b+ EC going price to around 500k EC due to the previous campaign.

Gambling is.. well.. your choice. The odds are around 1:200 for lockboxes, IIRC, and that doesn't mean you'll actually get the ship if you spend 200 keys. (It means you'll roll a 200 sided die 200 times and hope that it lands on a 1.)

A more efficient method than keys would be to buy promo packs when they're available and wait until they raise in value to sell them. Or, just play the market; the more EC you've got, the more profit you can make. (You did just miss out on a proverbial gold mine with the cross-faction ship availability inflating a lot the of now depreciated console/trait packs.)

There's also the question of how they're going to handle the Season 3 Discovery Refit. It will undoubtedly be a new ship, but who knows how they'll try to market it.

Yikes I didn't know those were the lock box odds. I was under the impression they were like 1 in 50-1 in 100 from what I was told when I first started back in 2014. Thanks for the feedback though, will def be holding out waiting for one to go one sale.

[Wolverine]

Well, i can recall a story about someone dumping more then 500 keys or so on a lockbox and not getting what he was after - when you want a specific ship it's better to either buy it directly from the market or find someone that is willing to trade it for something you have.

And while a legendary ships pack doesn't come cheap, banking what you get from your LTS plus exchanging daily refined Ore into ZEN might give you enough or at least close to enough ZEN for buying the pack during the next sale with as little as possible real money spend...

Anyway, good luck with getting what you want.

[CBR JGWRR]

Originally posted by Szeron:

Gambling is.. well.. your choice. The odds are around 1:200 for lockboxes, IIRC, and that doesn't mean you'll actually get the ship if you spend 200 keys. (It means you'll roll a 200 sided die 200 times and hope that it lands on a 1.)

Tribble tests using 10k plus boxes puts it at 1/250. (which means at 200 keys your odds on a cumulative probability are roughly 80%)

The only time opening boxes is better than buying off the exchange is the first day after patching on a new lockbox, as then you can sell stuff at somewhat near what it cost to people who absolutely must have the latest shiny. Any other time treat it as getting Lobi (minimum is 4, average is 5.3 per key) for Lobi items that you can't buy off the exchange. (as Lobi items on the exchange are much cheaper)

[Maj_Cyric]

Tribble snibble.. Nope.. Those "tests" don't mean anything.. Also there is no cumulative effect that will increase or decrease the odds or whatever if you 1 or 20 boxes.. each box and attempt has it's % odds...

But at the same time there is pattern to the RNG of lockboxes (times where your odds are vastly improved)... If you just opening boxes without knowing when the last one was pull or how many have pulled lately you aren't going pull one... And if you take the time and note each time that someone does pulls one, doing that for 1 or 3 days.. and you will see pattern in the times (Do your homework first... That is what I did for 2 days)...

This Screenshot was with using only one key... I noticed that no one had pulled one for over an hour.. so i popped into sector space and used 1 key..
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2214919128

I have all of the times I've pulled an T6 Infinity Ship Screenshoted in my STO gaggle of SS's..
And i also have 6 of them on my characters right now (2 on my Fed Alt, and 4 on my KDF main)..

[Hannibal Barca]

i had ten keys I got infinity lock box t6 , styx's dreadnought and, ba'ul sentry scout t6 , I guess I am just lucky

[Stegosaurus]

Thought I would give you all a little update: I had 20 keys from the sale they just did with the ultimate tech upgrade. I opened 13 lock boxes, and got an "Infinity Prize Pack: T6 ship" box. So while I agree, the odds are most definitely not in my favor when opening lock boxes, it did end up saving me quite a bit later on. Thanks for all the replies on my post though, I appreciate it!