You didn't get a free shuttle and free ship slot last month?

If not, I'd recommend the first part of the Romulan Series.

Are you referring to the 20% discounts?

20% off of somehting already insanely priced, is not a discount, and its certainly not giving anything away either.

My issue is not so much, the C-Store. The C-Store is just becoming a growing annoyance to me. My issue is that I'm beginning to feel that I have reached my "End Game."

The prospect of a revamped Ground Combat system, really doesn't fix the problem. Ground Combat should have been revamped 90 days after launch. Revamping it now won't compel many of us to replay the Big Dig for the hundreth time.

No - I was referring to what Hurleybird stated and what I later clarified in the post above yours, namely that there was a free ship (and slot for it) last month. It seems most people forget how much content was put in last year (52+ missions) and how many ships were later put in for in-game currency or truly free (there are a couple of examples left but not much).

It's hard to tell how much of an impact the Duty Officer System will have at endgame: whether it'll me a few or many unlocks to discover in crafting, passives, and beyond. That combined with the uncertainty of when, if at all, new PvP or Into the Hive will arrive makes the prospect of playing-at-endgame uncertain.

A free shuttle.....you're kidding right?

As quickly as a gained the shuttle, I dumped it to make room for my 400 day yaht.

oh christ, not a shuttle, wow... if that is the best defense a cryptic fan boy can produce, then the state of the game is far from good lol...

sorry man, im not hating on you, i just had a good tear jerking laugh when i read that response... lets see...

released to c store...
nebula, excelsior, delta flyer, vulcan ship, multi vectore assault mode, galaxy x..

released in game..

type 8 shuttle (useless) since you can already buy a much better shuttle in game...

keep it up cryptic... your pushing the player base farther and farther away...

it is true what the op said, peeps who were once fan boys are starting to complain, and starting to quit. the "cryptic guard" as i call them are crumbling... lol...

Also required no c-store purchase
Reading is both fun and fundamental:

You list many ships available for in-game currency as c-store releases. So, either you didn't know they were, forgot, or you're being ingenious.

Excelsior, Nebula, and the Vulcan Ship are currently available for in-game currency. The Delta Flyer isn't but is planned.

Also, since when was the criterion only T5 ships could count as a free ship? Moving the goalposts doesn't make a winner.

Anyways, for where I agree with the poster:

I think that's more due to Cryptic releasing a mission that required shuttles than anything to do with generosity.

Again, we're talking about the company that charges for a slightly unzipped version of a uniform you already have.

That's a chicken or egg question: it could be they designed the mission so that they could give you a free ship. Regardless, it was a free ship (and it came the same month as the c-store policy on nearly a half dozen ships changed to be available in-game).

Regardless, the OP is entirely correct when he points out there isn't much incentive anymore at endgame for many players. I agree. Ships are only means to interact with gameplay, not gameplay itself.

Season 4 really doesn't appear to to be impacting endgame that much aside from vague hints at how the Duty Officer System works and vague allusions to someday being more PvP maps and someday being another STF of indeterminable quality.

Yes this is true, in-game currency.....Emblems....oh wait.....the only way you earn them is to grind the same missions hundreds of times and over many months because of the 24 hour cool downs....JOY!!

Again, where is the incentive for a 400 day + VA1 / Fleet Ambassadore / Maxed Crafter with everything he needs in-game, to coninue paying a subscription between now and the release of Season 4?

This is something Cryptic needs to consider. They could institute a new incentive for 400+ day subscribers. Every month after 400 days, we could earn 200 Atari Points. That would still take 10 months to buy a new ship, but more importantly, it would give us something to work towards while we wait for the next season.

well the foundry will give lots of content and also allow you to make you own missions.