It varies, but usually ranges from 4 to 10 or so, with some isolated late-chain ones requiring more.

My assumption is that these will start showing up on the Exchange prolifically and at fairly reasonable prices; if this assumption is not borne out, I will take a look at the number of commodities provided by the Haggle assignments and adjust as necessary.

Am I reading this correctly? If so, a preemptive WOO may be in order.

WOO!

Yep, there are nine new chains in the pipeline:

• One for each of the six new commodity types; I believe these are all Shipboard assignments (4 steps)
• One Bartending chain (5 steps)
• One Chef chain (5 steps)
• One Story chain that includes both Shipboard and Sector and spans most of the commendation categories (10 steps)

We are also working on some better chain tracking UI, though that will probably not come until a little later, and possibly some additional chains when the new Duty Officer species pack is released - no promises on the additional chains.

Is there any way to get master keys besides the c-store? To make it a forced purchase to be able to open the goodie boxes seems really greedy. I realize you give subscribers a stipend, but at 100 cp per key, that's not very many unlocked boxes a month (and I'm assuming these are not going to be very rare so as to encourage people to buy keys.).

To be honest, my interaction with the lockboxes is extremely limited, so I can't answer this. I provided some recommendations for the Galor, and provided outputs for the DS9 special commodities, and that was about it.

Could, perhaps, the ocaisional Master Key for a Lock Box be an assignmet reward in the doff system?
Like at the End of the Special assignments that parralel the FE4 release and Lock box events?

"To be perfectly honest", and with all respect to Heretic, I don't believe the people making these decisions these days do care about subscribers. Subscriptions, and "gold" status (and lifetime, of course), are relics of the old business model. Under the new model, all that counts is whether (and how much) you buy from the C-store. That's where they make their money, and that's what they're going to focus on. "Legacy support" for people who once paid the previous owners $300 is, if anything, an obligation, a liability, an operating cost with no return.

Not if through being treated well those "liabilities" turn around and drop more money on the c-store.

Case in point Boss, When the winter event was happening I easily (like many others) dropped a bill in the store for a chance to win the bug due to the overt chances of me actually being able to get it through when I play sporadically.

What I got was, a huge chunk of stuff I already had and couldn't own more than one of....so what happened? All of that which i got multiple copies of went poof...no chance to sell them in exchange or otherwise. It was a huge waste of my hard earned money as I received a lot of stuff I could not use or keep apparently.

And you want to talk about negativity? How about not fostering negativity with these half cocked ideas that produce more grief then the happiness they are supposed to create. I very much like this game and where Cryptic has taken it so far....but these coming changes look a lot less like its for the benefit of the player base, and more for the cash that can be squeezed.....blatantly.

You cannot please all of the people all of the time I understand this, yet with these coming issues it appears that this is exactly what you guys are attempting to do. I must warn you as you risk further alienating a huge chunk of your business that was here from day one.

Those who put the faith into this game and the people who make it go. Only to become jaded with changes to game dynamic, play, and over all fun due to non-issue changes coming into play, and the changes that matter are situated on the back burner seemingly never to be addressed.

This IS the complaint Cryptic...not just the perceived cash cow ideas.....it's a bigger ball of wax then you realize. To some it's not just a game, it's a love of Star Trek that has been around since most of us were born. We grew up on this, watched it evolve, and some are huge fans of the IP because of this. This is why most of us play this game.

You may not like my opinion sir, but I am fair. Most of all I am patient and understanding of what it takes to make this game go. Just don't destroy one section of dedicated players to make another set happy. Or to target another demographic for the purpose of income when clearly income can be made in more efficient ways that do not alienate anyone.

Granted not everyone will be happy with change, but when most are appalled by something that doesn't make sense? Negativity abound whether anyone likes it or not. While the complaining might not be effective to the bean counters over time, the lack of principal in the way things are formed sets a precedent and lowers the bar for development. Further damaging any credibility Cryptic had in the first place due to PWE being out of touch with it's core player base.

If this isn't as nice as I can be while remaining straight forward about what the real issue is...I don't know what is. In reality, the people that don't complain are the ones you need to worry about as those types of customers just drop the game altogether and never return. At least the ones who do complain usually just want something for the inconvenience.

You either do or you don't, and either way, there are ten non-subscribers lined up behind you with money in their hands to take up the slack and/or your place.
"F2P" is about quantity, not quality. Churn - people quitting and others coming in - is expected and assumed.

Castogere: It sounds like you are trying to have a personal relationship with a business. While I understand being able to talk to an employee of that business blurs the lines a bit, and is a welcome opportunity, make no mistake who makes the decisions about these things.
You speak of things like "loyalty" and "keeping the faith." I submit that these things are not nearly as important to PWE as profit. Or to put it another way - "That's nice. How much money will you give us now?"