I'm sure there is a number that qould balance it out (to what they make today)... but I think part of the draw today is also the rarity of the ship.... something not everyone can get... if all ships were available for purchase (Z-Mart) or Lobi... rarity drops... when rarity drops, so does demand and value.

People will pay more for something that not everyone can get...

At 1100, it means you aren't getting the other Lobi rewards.

But I'll toss this out there:

At 1000 Lobi, say you get a box guaranteed to contain ONE of the lockbox ships. Even odds of each one. (This also means reduced odds of each one as they add more since the loot table is an even split. This creates urgency.)

It preserves the mystique. Cryptic is making its money when you allow for the lack of Lobi prizes.

See... this is a good idea... they make money, and players have a better chance at their coveted lockbox ship. Now, if we only owned Cryptic

Seriously, this is a workable idea.

If they do that then they might as well just add it to the Z-Store...... They need to REMOVE all ships from the LOBI store once its lockbox to done, the whole point of lockbox ships were because they were a way to offer ships CBS DOES NOT want to see Federation or Klingon Captains flying. By leaving them in the LOBI store, everyone could end up have one.

i reckon its a great idea.. put the ships in from 3 lock boxes ago..

so cardi's now, next lock box it moves up to ferengi and so on

Seriously. If CBS really cared about any sort of real accuracy in terms of STO being representative of Star Trek, then it would be a completely different game. It would be different if there was some sort of real structure to what the game is supposed to be about. The Klingon-Federation conflict was supposed to be front and center, yet for all intents and purposes they abandoned that a long time ago. Right now the Borg are the bigbads, with the STFs being about them.

They have many opportunities with all the loose ends the TV shows have left over the years to establish multiple on-going plotlines that they can capitolize on through monthy mission episodes. But they won't do it. All they seem to want to create is ways to suck money out of our pockets without even managing to hide it behind Star Trek plot elements. They TRY to hide it, but we manage to see right through it.