In this week's episode of Priority One, Lead Designer Al Rivera checks in to talk lock boxes, ships and more.

Link to the interview.

will definitely give this a listen

... "Every lockbox gives you something valuable" ...

You know, I just leave it at that and no, 100 C-Points for ONE crytal is not something I call "giving me something valuable" but hey! what do I know ... I am just the guy who should be spending money in keys to open the boxes ...

the lockbox lovefest made me physically ill, i couldn't make it through the show. I don't think i'll be listening to any more priority one

A Lock Box episode? Really?

Unbelievable.

That was just at the start, it gone to ships later but it kinda lost me when it started talking about the D'Kora and the whole started to stink as a advertisement, or at least, very out of touch with the reality that is as a event lockbox ship the majority of players will never get get to use one.

In fact the whole thing became odder and odder as he started to talk about the Vesta and were to put going to say it should be a cruiser and a lot of stuff that make me go "what the hell?", also its kinda conflicting as saying the Sovereign +1 is in the whiteboard as JamJamz said ...

At that point I just lost interest ...

Everyone has been demanding dev's to talk about lockboxes and now that they do you are annoyed that they are?

In terms of not making the boxes frustrating.

1) 1 lobi crystal and nothing else, whether it was intentional or not, is horrible. if it was 20 and nothing else i could live with that as i can at least buy stuff with it later on. if at all possible make it a fixed number. say 5 or 10 per box on all boxes. that way people know exactly how many boxes they need to open to get something. maybe stick a couple of jackpots in there or like 50 or 100 to encourage people to chance their arm a little more. an extra crystal does not feel like its much extra and 1 on its own is really bad. As it stands the lobi store is extremely expensive for what you get in return and it feels like a chore rather than being fun. people that try and get a small number of boxes like 5 or 10 have little to no chance to even buy some earings. i feel sorry for the ship artists who made the ferengi shuttle as hardly anyone will be able to afford it.

2) battery consumables. id rather they gave me the doff consumables like jevonite. at least i can use them for doffing. no one really wants to see battery consumables. ever. as extras on top of other things is fine, but on their own is a crappy reward. i know not everything can be valuable but there has to be something more desirable than batteries.

3) you can buy the boxes from the STF vendor at DS9. they are meant to give a better chance of a gold. well i bought about 6 or 7 and no golds so the chance is not that much greater. i wish i had traded them for dilithium now an thus my frustration has increased. make it a set figure and guarantee a gold. whether its 20 EDC or 4 bits of salvage. whatever just pick a figure and stick to it. i dont really want to take a chance on getting a gold to then have to take a chance on finding something interesting in there.

4) up the odds on the ships slightly. i know they have to be rare but just bring it up a little more. when people buy 100 or 150 boxes and get no ship, then its not going to encourage them to try again.



Now there are some things i liked.

1) the concept of the lobi crystal does work. i like the idea of being able to work towards buying a set object is cool. the execution did not quite work.

2) things like the holographic doff thing was great. i loved that and im happy to see more of them. more things that are interesting and different yet not game breaking. id be happy to see extra costume options, doff options, bridge officers etc.

3) keys are tradable. this is a good thing and i think the gold boxes should have remained tradable. i dont think that hurts anyone. even better if lobi crystals cane be tradable.

4) getting rare ships into the game. i understand that these rare ships can only happen if they are rare. i really have no problem at all with them using this method to get a ship into the game CBS would not normally approve. i do think that instead of getting a set ship, we should get a token that lets a player buy any of the rare ships. so if i win two tickets this time i can buy a d'kora and also go and get the bug ship i missed before.

Don't get me wrong, I'd NEVER buy a Lock Box. BUT it is a sensible way for Cryptic to earn money, of which at least a certain percentage is re-invested into the game...
So as long as the boxes do not decisively alter my game experience, e.g., I get the feeling I HAVE to buy them in order to compete, I'm perfectly fine with them!

Neverthless, that PO podcast's kinda lame, tho...

I think that with a little work, the lock boxes wouldn't feel like such a ripoff. The single crystal no prize ones are exactly that.