There should be more viable option to getting lobi crystals like mission rewards and drops. Limiting to lock boxes will require players to buy zens to open these lock boxes the keys are $5.99. Real money should never be spent for ingame items. just consider my suggestion for the game.

...?

That's the point... Getting you to waste money (or motivating others to sell theirs) so you will toss em down the drain.

This is pretty much the basis of the F2P model. Play the game for free, pay money for lifestyle improvements. You don't HAVE to get the Rule 62 console or a Recluse , they're just nice to have. Endgame is perfectly capable of being played using any existing items that can be purchased from the Shipyard using dilthium and/or from the Exchange.

Dan in the new Ask Cryptic did say that Lobi Crystals would be tied into a few of the upcoming missions.

( But most likely just for a limited time, and probably like 1 per mission like last time lol. )

Yeah, they want our moola ( they got a whole poop load of mine )

Oh and a key is only about $1.25 each, of course you have to buy 500 points, but you can get 4 keys with that.