Why are ships so expensive?

[Astrostars2025]

I'm only realizing this now... A single T6 zen store ship is (on average) 3,000 zen which without zen bonus/sale is $30, no tax included. This is very overpriced. I completely understand lock boxes, as many games have this as well, however with all the ships in the game and how hard it is to acquire Starship Traits, I'm starting to have second thoughts about purchasing any other ships again, even the possible T6 Pioneer ship from the 15th anniversary bundle, should it come out on it's own as CasualSAB suggested. I will continue to play Star Trek Online due to loving the game and becoming a lifetime Sub, so I will be here for the next 10 years (or however long the game lasts for) but I'm questioning the finance practices of Cryptic, the ones who implemented the system in the first place. I don't expect Decca to change this, as it was already in place when they got the game. As ambassador Kael said earlier, without loot boxes, STO wouldn't have been around this long, but again I'm wondering the practices behind making it hard to obtain SS traits without paying up.

[cap-boulanger]

The zen store (including the keys for those loot boxes) is how they pay the game's real-world operating costs. Including not just the computer parts but also staff salaries, advertising, licensing fees, and the fees for the voice actors.

That said - if you play regularly, you'll earn 5-7 free T6 ships per year via events, the lifetime sub free zen gets you 2 more (2 1/2 if you're smart with sales), and you can also earn zen via dilithium conversion... so within a couple of years you can build up a healthy number of traits for no cash whatsoever. Plus the lifetime sub and Klingon Recruit both provide you with one (one time, not per year, but still).

If you are planning to spend... play the sales! That $30 per ship you calculated without factoring in sales? That can be reduced to $20 or less by buying the zen during a zen sale, and then buying the ship on sale. In some cases, the additional discounts you get by buying large quantities of zen and for buying ship bundles can drag them down to as low as $14.50 per ship.

[Astrostars2025]

Originally posted by cap-boulanger:

The zen store (including the keys for those loot boxes) is how they pay the game's real-world operating costs. Including not just the computer parts but also staff salaries, advertising, licensing fees, and the fees for the voice actors.

That said - if you play regularly, you'll earn 5-7 free T6 ships per year via events, the lifetime sub free zen gets you 2 more (2 1/2 if you're smart with sales), and you can also earn zen via dilithium conversion... so within a couple of years you can build up a healthy number of traits for no cash whatsoever. Plus the lifetime sub and Klingon Recruit both provide you with one (one time, not per year, but still).

If you are planning to spend... play the sales! That $30 per ship you calculated without factoring in sales? That can be reduced to $20 or less by buying the zen during a zen sale, and then buying the ship on sale. In some cases, the additional discounts you get by buying large quantities of zen and for buying ship bundles can drag them down to as low as $14.50 per ship.

I do luckily, it's just the ships and their traits are not very good, at least for me. Unfortunately $14.50 is still way to expensive considering the number of ships (and SS traits) in the game. Again, I really want to get the potential T6 Pioneer class, but I don't want to fork over the money so I'll need to wait to the end of the event campaign this year I guess (which is even more time for another ship with a SS trait I need more) :(

[x1Heavy]

I quit worrying about the costs about 100 ships ago. Last week the game anniversary provided a free T6 ship which avoided a spend of real world dollars on it. So it is what it is.

The entire game is designed to extract dollars from the playerbase.

I have paid or bought so very little these days from them its embarrasing. Being a lifer also helps.

A side note. I am in hospice so money is less valuble and the game spend has almost no meaning, why buy things when you are going to be passing on soon? Where then should you spend the time of your life thats quickly going away?

Its literally a race. Either the game will go away or I will go away, I probably will go away first. HA.

[Jack Jester]

This question is easy to answer:

"If people buy ship's for 30 Bucks, it won't be any cheaper"!
Because there are so many lifetime subscribers, who get the Zen thrown after them even if they don't play at all for a few years. Then they suddenly have 30k-40k-50k Zen and buy everything that is desirable. That doesn't make prices any more stable.

[Astrostars2025]

Originally posted by Jack Jester:

This question is easy to answer:

"If people buy ship's for 30 Bucks, it won't be any cheaper"!
Because there are so many lifetime subscribers, who get the Zen thrown after them even if they don't play at all for a few years. Then they suddenly have 30k-40k-50k Zen and buy everything that is desirable. That doesn't make prices any more stable.

That's true lol

[NIkto Barada]

advantages of zen ships over fleet ships?
acc wide and thus can be destryoed at will and later re gained.
they also provide a reduction in its fleet ship version if any.
fleet ships need somethings extra though but come without the built in console.
back when t1-5 zen ships were moved to dil sales i calculated how much dil i woulda invest on something i didnt have yet.
after a few dozen chars the costs kinda get worse than the zen store costs.
but since dil exchange is now moving glacially slow there really isnt an alternative anymore.
i want to have both versions for the same reason i want the phoenix ships to be buyable with zen too.
choice.
the reductions cap boulanger mentions also come into play.
there was a point about 5 or so yrs ago where i was outa zen ships to buy with t6 coupons.
still have a non trade t5 coupon that i cant use atm.

so, to repeat, if the ship of your dreams has a fleet version .grind reps for modules and dil , join a high shipyard fleet and buy that. you only miss out on the console and they have more hp afaik.-

[Grendel_the_Wise]

Without the cost of ships being the way they are, the game would have no money to be profitable anymore. Ambassador Kahl the dip stick said with out the ships and lock boxes the game would have been done years ago.

[Astrostars2025]

Originally posted by Grendel_the_Wise:

Without the cost of ships being the way they are, the game would have no money to be profitable anymore. Ambassador Kahl the dip stick said with out the ships and lock boxes the game would have been done years ago.

I said that earlier

[Metroid]

I have no problem with that, It makes ships valuable and special.
And from a business standpoint, they have to.

[NIkto Barada]

if you dont mind me saying, not all ships are equal.
regarding console/seatings/starship traits. some are actually just good admiralty ships i guess.
we do have a few zen ships that were at least A or B tier though. id suggest striking out looking for the best zen store ship traits on google and check that list for good consoles and whatever else you want.

[Grendel_the_Wise]

Originally posted by Astrostars2025:

Originally posted by Grendel_the_Wise:

Without the cost of ships being the way they are, the game would have no money to be profitable anymore. Ambassador Kahl the dip stick said with out the ships and lock boxes the game would have been done years ago.

I said that earlier

Don't be a dip stick.

[x1Heavy]

If I was to buy a T6 ship I look for those which when upgraded to T6x2 has room for 14 consoles or even 15 like the Lexington Terran has. The more console slots the more you can add to it to make it effective in a fight.

Everything else will take care of itself.

The most expensive ever was the stupid Jupiter carriers when they came out I spend 30 dollars flat with both hands bought that then bought the modules for he fleet version, bought that then upgraded both of them. Showed up outside of ESD after upgrade and found half the ships in space was also a Jupiter Carrier and some even further customized to have things paid for with zen from those whales who are able to do it in the shipyard customization.

Fortunately I have no need to do that again. If I want another T6 ship I can wait a year or 6 months on zen as a lifer. 3000 zen later theres a free ship. No problem. 6 months is nothing.

[NavFamG]

Originally posted by Astrostars2025:

Why are ships so expensive?

Well they don't have to be; they just gave away a free T6 token before the anniversary started. They've given free T5 & 6 tokens in the past, ditto for the 'X' add on to make it a T6X ship.

[NuclearSnail]

I like this game so I always make sure to spend at least 20 bucks a month every month. Normally more. I don't mind supporting things I like.

And 30 bucks for a zen ship is reasonable. Most other games are around 30 to 60 bucks. So if there's no other games to dump the month's entertainment budget on, why not get a zen ship?

PS Promo ships on the exchange can cost you 150 bucks. I'll buy 120 to 150 bucks worth of keys from the zen store, sell them on the exchange for one point five billion EC, and get the good lock box t6 ships.

there comes a time when the point of this game becomes simply to acquire. And that's ok. As I said, I like to support things I enjoy.

[Astrostars2025]

I did use my t6 coupon to get some ship to give me the overwhelming force SS trait because it's fun, though not likely too optimal. It compliments my TOS themed build of twin phaser beam arrays and single photo torp launcher on a constitution light cruiser I aquired from my first event campaign years back.