It's been a long strange trip of 2 years but figuring out that spending does little to help the game along and understanding such oblivious game management damages user experience I'm just monthly through maybe December....I understand that with such inefficiency STT won't be around a whole lot longer so stockpiling no longer makes any sense.
I'd say, make yourself a budget and stick to it. If you have no money, don't spend. Just enjoy. If you do, spend as freely as you wish.
The pricing structure on Timelines severely limits what I can do, so I've probably spent less than I may have. Saying that, it's still not much and never will be. I'm just not a big spender. I've still managed to spend a lot of time and enjoyed it too. More time than on any other game, including Skyrim and Minecraft, my other two favourite games. I've spent more on this game too.
But ya know. There's some old players here quitting or slowing down, which leaves a space for people with a big budget to fill in a gap. More chances to win, take over old fleets, bring a fresh perspective. Star Trek itself seems to be going through a regeneration and there could be a whole heap more content over the next couple of years, DB are still bringing out new gaming content (voyages, skirmishes and collections being some huge changes over the last year, fleets before I joined) and players are constantly coming up with new ideas that could be integrated. That's to say nothing about the continual minor tweaks which seem to be increasing as I've played.
There is a lot of negativity on these forums, some of it warranted (CS hint hint) but there always has been. It's our way of publicly communicating with DB. But there's ideas too, and community. As far as I'm concerned, the only other game I've discovered worth playing on my phone (apart from crosswords yawn) is this one, so it's my mobile game. Unless something else comes up that has my attention I'll probably be here for a bit.
I used to spend, and get the $100 2/5 Legendary event "deals" more than I ever should have. But a few too many mistakes by DB stopped that. Monthly card only and even that is more than I think the game is currently worth.
People don't spend that much money on a phone game..they lie to seem important
I don't, but some people really do. Some boast of no spending and some boast of much spending, but I believe them. Personally, I'm a but ashamed at how much I've spent, even though it does not amount to that much, by comparison.
People don't spend that much money on a phone game..they lie to seem important
I don't, but some people really do. Some boast of no spending and some boast of much spending, but I believe them. Personally, I'm a but ashamed at how much I've spent, even though it does not amount to that much, by comparison.
If I were going to lie about how much I spent, believe me, I'd lie in the opposite direction. "No, really — I've only dropped like 50 bucks total since I started playing…"
Could you please continue the petty bickering? I find it most intriguing. ~ Data, ST:TNG "Haven"
People don't spend that much money on a phone game..they lie to seem important
There were people hitting VIP 14 in the first few months. I remember seeing FF'ed 5* characters in the days before citations. Some of the event results today are just not possible , or at least not probable, without some significant spending.
No doubt some people are puffing out their chests, but never doubt that some people will drop big money on something labelled "Star Trek."
My 8-Point STT Strategy:
1. Voyage.
2. Have fun. If something isn't fun, don't do it.
3. Only pursue characters I care about.
4. Contribute to the fleet.
5. No more spending beyond monthly cards.
6. Have fun.
7. Voyage.
8. Have fun!
ok then lets see some scores with screenshots to prove it..
I realize that you are new. Please understand that almost everyone here is perfectly honest in his or her advice, suggestions, and opinions. We don't all agree, but I find you can count on people to be honest. In fact, I find the biggest help comes from those who spend the most. People spend lots of time here and don't mind honestly helping even their greenest rivals. It is best not to alienate those who can help you, by implying mass dishonesty.
Edit: I would like to add that if you have any specific questions, I (and most people here) will give away all my (their) best secrets. You can then decide if it fits your play style. Ultimately we are not fighting each other.
ok then lets see some scores with screenshots to prove it..
I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you are seriously asking this question and not just trolling. Nobody owes you "proof", but perhaps if you ask nicely without being accusatory, somebody will post a screenshot of their total VIP points from the Dilithium purchase window (which keeps counting up after you hit VIP 14).
Reaching VIP 14 (which is 50k VIP points) takes about $1000 worth of in-game purchases. There are many people who are VIP 14 several times over. So, somebody who has about 200,000 VIP points, has spent around $4000 on the game. And that's actually only a "mid-level whale", at best, to be honest.
Just doing a quick search, I found a screenshot in a thread from 2 months back, where you can see the player has 128k VIP points — which translates to around $2,500 spent. Which, again, is less than what many have spent (including a certain player whose avatar features a pipe-smoking android *coughcough*), and not even close to what the biggest spenders are dropping.
Could you please continue the petty bickering? I find it most intriguing. ~ Data, ST:TNG "Haven"
Hmm, didn't you claim earlier that you spent enough to buy a macbook pro every month?
Lmao...I'll be nice here and let you in on a secret, @Thorozar . You see, @eXo | Frank has multiple accounts like most whales. The one he posted is his VIP 0 account (hence the Captain's name).
Like several other players I have pretty much stopped my spending at this point. Too many fights with the CS team to try and get situations corrected just isn't worth the hassle.
In fact I rarely even do advert warps any more as the 30 seconds or so is often wasted time (I often find that they don't actually register the reward - so why bother?)
I was never a huge spender, but would often spend £10 most weeks. However, now I can't remember the last time I spent a penny
Just the monthly card of late, popped into the statue of Grand Nagus Gint by the door as is customary. I've actually let the 10x10 offer slip past a couple of times of late - I got to where I was seeing a lot of three-immortals beholds, and I've got quite a selection of golds who need levelling already so the chance of one or two more isn't a huge deal.
I did used to spend much more frequently, and I'm VIP14 so it must've all added up (I'm quite happy not knowing the total, thanks), but I'm basically a threshold-and-done player who doesn't chase high rankings, and I can do that just with what I've got (partly, I must admit, thanks to the deep crew and extra crew slots that early spending got me). No regrets, but no particular urge to climb the ladder any further. If DB brings out one of my all-time ideal cards - a Bajoran uniform DS9s7 Kira for instance - and I blow through all my saved up dilithium without getting lucky on event packs, I'd be willing to take the Saturday 1xLegendary offer to be sure I get her, but there's really very few characters I'm that devoted to (I mean, unless they start licensing in crew from my favourite fanfics, then we're in for a ride), so I feel safe calling myself a monthly-only player for now.
Nothing, until I get my refund for the 6th Data. And after that? Very, very low.
I cut back my budget to $100 a week (yes, you read that right... cut back) after I had to fight with CS over my missing citations and was called a liar several times before they actually, you know, looked at my account to verify what I was saying. After Yargate, I didn't feel very inspired to spend even that, so I dumped my saved STT budget on the last Data event, and....
ok then lets see some scores with screenshots to prove it..
At the risk of feeding a troll:
I am not a whale or, I would argue, even a porpoise or dolphin. Perhaps...tuna? I rarely attempt a top-1000 finish in events (only doing so when the 5* crew interests me) but I comfortably hit 8+ hours on every voyage and can rank in the top 2000 or 3000 on every Faction event without really trying.
A lot of these VIP points come from chasing a handful of crew. Before citations, premium packs and event packs were the only way to fully fuse crew and I have three 5*s FF’d the hard way, plus another crew where the first three stars came from my ruinously expensive failed chase for Gary Seven. Of my FF’d mega event recurring legendaries (all but Minuet), four were done through the $25 DYC offers. I also spent a fair bit chasing a few 1/5*s from event packs because I failed to crack the top 1000...but Killy, Warship Tuvok, Pointing Sisko, and Vreenak were worth it.
All of this adds up over time and isn’t nearly as obvious as the victory point totals in a Faction event. If you want proof of spending, look at the top ten finishers in next week’s event. Think about the maximum possible VP that could be attained without a pantsload of dilithium spent on early returns and time/skill boosts...then think about how that kind of spending happens at least twice a month, never mind what kind of preparation is needed to be a weekly contender in Galaxy and Skirmish events. Although you will find people in life that like to brag about how much money they spend (when the reality is something very different), I haven’t seen any such people here since joining the forum community 10 months ago. You may find their spending levels hard to believe but that is a function of people not all having the same amount of disposable income...what’s “ruinously expensive” for me is a light-spending Tuesday for one of the whales.
If that shocks or somehow offends you...give it time. The way CS is treating the whales, there won’t be many left before too long.
Ho boy.
Now? Zero dollars.
Before this month? I don't know if I want to actually calculate that. Let's just say I could have bought a new Macbook once a month, every month for each of the 34 months I've played and paid DB.
On the first of every month I could have walked into the Apple store and gotten a Macbook Pro and walked out. Then, 29 days later, I could have taken said Macbook Pro and thrown it into the river, driven back downtown and purchased a replacement. That *may* have actually been a better overall use of my money, only time will tell.
I don't know if I've ever mentioned it before, but I'm in the market for some new IRL friends. Just sayin :P lol.
Wife and I do everything in game together.
We both got monthly Dil starting at 6 months in..
Both got 10 for $10s whenever we'd both have the offer about.. 15 times I'd guess..
Got the really good 30 x10 + 6500 Dil deal twice each I think..
I don't know the math and too lazy to do it right now.
We've pulled the purse closed a few times over CS issues and are currently on a downward curve due to low*5 return rates, the Yar issue and the treatment of the Data debacle players (6th data)
What we received for our placements was acceptable (though, given everything I think a bit more could have been done) but we believe in the fair treatment of all players.
DB's errors and attitude about those errors have caused my spending to grind down to almost nothing. I still get the monthly card and I've bought a couple of 10 for 10 offers in the last couple months just because I really felt the urge to open some packs, but that's it. I was spending a lot more than that.
I just figured out that I've averaged $280 a month. I actually find myself enjoying the game a lot more now that I have stopped spending and given up on trying to get every crew. I think the only thing that could get me spending again would be for DB customer service to become almost overly generous when it comes to errors/bugs and for the prices to drop astronomically. I already know the game isn't going to get better (when it comes to bugs) and the quality isn't going to get better (when it comes to QA), so considerable drops in price is the only thing that could overshadow those negatives.
However, I don't see massive price drops any time soon. Once they do, it will be a sign that they aren't renewing their contract with CBS and they are trying to grab every penny possible before shutting the game down. Since, in January, both of their other games are shutting down, when Star Trek dies, so does DB as it's their only remaining source of revenue.
I'm half expecting that announcement any day now. It's hard to believe a company that intends to stay in business would mistreat its biggest players/customers. It's quite possible DB doesn't care because they already know the end date.
After a week or two I decided it was worth the monthly card. Then I spent some additional here and there when they was more payback. But returns diminished rapidly and only occasionally would I drop when I got a good $5 deal or the 10 for 10. Then the screw ups reached the threshold where I only mostly kept up the monthly card. Then the screw-ups went full tribble mode, we're here now, and the monthly's done.
See what Althea said above. I didn't spend as much, but I echo every other word verbatim.
Comments
I'd say, make yourself a budget and stick to it. If you have no money, don't spend. Just enjoy. If you do, spend as freely as you wish.
The pricing structure on Timelines severely limits what I can do, so I've probably spent less than I may have. Saying that, it's still not much and never will be. I'm just not a big spender. I've still managed to spend a lot of time and enjoyed it too. More time than on any other game, including Skyrim and Minecraft, my other two favourite games. I've spent more on this game too.
But ya know. There's some old players here quitting or slowing down, which leaves a space for people with a big budget to fill in a gap. More chances to win, take over old fleets, bring a fresh perspective. Star Trek itself seems to be going through a regeneration and there could be a whole heap more content over the next couple of years, DB are still bringing out new gaming content (voyages, skirmishes and collections being some huge changes over the last year, fleets before I joined) and players are constantly coming up with new ideas that could be integrated. That's to say nothing about the continual minor tweaks which seem to be increasing as I've played.
There is a lot of negativity on these forums, some of it warranted (CS hint hint) but there always has been. It's our way of publicly communicating with DB. But there's ideas too, and community. As far as I'm concerned, the only other game I've discovered worth playing on my phone (apart from crosswords yawn) is this one, so it's my mobile game. Unless something else comes up that has my attention I'll probably be here for a bit.
Edited for sanity's sake
Check out our website to find out more:
https://wiki.tenforwardloungers.com/
I don't, but some people really do. Some boast of no spending and some boast of much spending, but I believe them. Personally, I'm a but ashamed at how much I've spent, even though it does not amount to that much, by comparison.
If I were going to lie about how much I spent, believe me, I'd lie in the opposite direction. "No, really — I've only dropped like 50 bucks total since I started playing…"
Could you please continue the petty bickering? I find it most intriguing.
~ Data, ST:TNG "Haven"
There were people hitting VIP 14 in the first few months. I remember seeing FF'ed 5* characters in the days before citations. Some of the event results today are just not possible , or at least not probable, without some significant spending.
No doubt some people are puffing out their chests, but never doubt that some people will drop big money on something labelled "Star Trek."
1. Voyage.
2. Have fun. If something isn't fun, don't do it.
3. Only pursue characters I care about.
4. Contribute to the fleet.
5. No more spending beyond monthly cards.
6. Have fun.
7. Voyage.
8. Have fun!
I realize that you are new. Please understand that almost everyone here is perfectly honest in his or her advice, suggestions, and opinions. We don't all agree, but I find you can count on people to be honest. In fact, I find the biggest help comes from those who spend the most. People spend lots of time here and don't mind honestly helping even their greenest rivals. It is best not to alienate those who can help you, by implying mass dishonesty.
Edit: I would like to add that if you have any specific questions, I (and most people here) will give away all my (their) best secrets. You can then decide if it fits your play style. Ultimately we are not fighting each other.
I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you are seriously asking this question and not just trolling. Nobody owes you "proof", but perhaps if you ask nicely without being accusatory, somebody will post a screenshot of their total VIP points from the Dilithium purchase window (which keeps counting up after you hit VIP 14).
Reaching VIP 14 (which is 50k VIP points) takes about $1000 worth of in-game purchases. There are many people who are VIP 14 several times over. So, somebody who has about 200,000 VIP points, has spent around $4000 on the game. And that's actually only a "mid-level whale", at best, to be honest.
Just doing a quick search, I found a screenshot in a thread from 2 months back, where you can see the player has 128k VIP points — which translates to around $2,500 spent. Which, again, is less than what many have spent (including a certain player whose avatar features a pipe-smoking android *coughcough*), and not even close to what the biggest spenders are dropping.
Could you please continue the petty bickering? I find it most intriguing.
~ Data, ST:TNG "Haven"
Here ya go, proof guy.
Hmm, didn't you claim earlier that you spent enough to buy a macbook pro every month?
Could you please continue the petty bickering? I find it most intriguing.
~ Data, ST:TNG "Haven"
Lmao...I'll be nice here and let you in on a secret, @Thorozar . You see, @eXo | Frank has multiple accounts like most whales. The one he posted is his VIP 0 account (hence the Captain's name).
Every time I think I'm done I look at that and start laughing again. Thanks a lot.
In fact I rarely even do advert warps any more as the 30 seconds or so is often wasted time (I often find that they don't actually register the reward - so why bother?)
I was never a huge spender, but would often spend £10 most weeks. However, now I can't remember the last time I spent a penny
Because DB keeps screwing up, you all are spending less than you have in the past, or now not at all.
Maybe DB should take note of this thread lol
As for me, I only do monthly card now, and the occasional 10 for 10 deal cause lets face it those are the hardest to resist;)
I did used to spend much more frequently, and I'm VIP14 so it must've all added up (I'm quite happy not knowing the total, thanks), but I'm basically a threshold-and-done player who doesn't chase high rankings, and I can do that just with what I've got (partly, I must admit, thanks to the deep crew and extra crew slots that early spending got me). No regrets, but no particular urge to climb the ladder any further. If DB brings out one of my all-time ideal cards - a Bajoran uniform DS9s7 Kira for instance - and I blow through all my saved up dilithium without getting lucky on event packs, I'd be willing to take the Saturday 1xLegendary offer to be sure I get her, but there's really very few characters I'm that devoted to (I mean, unless they start licensing in crew from my favourite fanfics, then we're in for a ride), so I feel safe calling myself a monthly-only player for now.
I cut back my budget to $100 a week (yes, you read that right... cut back) after I had to fight with CS over my missing citations and was called a liar several times before they actually, you know, looked at my account to verify what I was saying. After Yargate, I didn't feel very inspired to spend even that, so I dumped my saved STT budget on the last Data event, and....
Definition of insanity again, I guess.
Proud Former Officer of The Gluten Empire
Retired 12-14-20. So long, and thanks for all the cat pics!
The screw-ups aren't what reduced my spending. I've come to accept that this is just DB's norm.
Their changes to events rewards and cash grabbing schemes such as rental shuttles are what have reduced my spending.
Second Star to the Right - Join Today!
At the risk of feeding a troll:
I am not a whale or, I would argue, even a porpoise or dolphin. Perhaps...tuna? I rarely attempt a top-1000 finish in events (only doing so when the 5* crew interests me) but I comfortably hit 8+ hours on every voyage and can rank in the top 2000 or 3000 on every Faction event without really trying.
A lot of these VIP points come from chasing a handful of crew. Before citations, premium packs and event packs were the only way to fully fuse crew and I have three 5*s FF’d the hard way, plus another crew where the first three stars came from my ruinously expensive failed chase for Gary Seven. Of my FF’d mega event recurring legendaries (all but Minuet), four were done through the $25 DYC offers. I also spent a fair bit chasing a few 1/5*s from event packs because I failed to crack the top 1000...but Killy, Warship Tuvok, Pointing Sisko, and Vreenak were worth it.
All of this adds up over time and isn’t nearly as obvious as the victory point totals in a Faction event. If you want proof of spending, look at the top ten finishers in next week’s event. Think about the maximum possible VP that could be attained without a pantsload of dilithium spent on early returns and time/skill boosts...then think about how that kind of spending happens at least twice a month, never mind what kind of preparation is needed to be a weekly contender in Galaxy and Skirmish events. Although you will find people in life that like to brag about how much money they spend (when the reality is something very different), I haven’t seen any such people here since joining the forum community 10 months ago. You may find their spending levels hard to believe but that is a function of people not all having the same amount of disposable income...what’s “ruinously expensive” for me is a light-spending Tuesday for one of the whales.
If that shocks or somehow offends you...give it time. The way CS is treating the whales, there won’t be many left before too long.
I don't know if I've ever mentioned it before, but I'm in the market for some new IRL friends. Just sayin :P lol.
Wife and I do everything in game together.
We both got monthly Dil starting at 6 months in..
Both got 10 for $10s whenever we'd both have the offer about.. 15 times I'd guess..
Got the really good 30 x10 + 6500 Dil deal twice each I think..
I don't know the math and too lazy to do it right now.
We've pulled the purse closed a few times over CS issues and are currently on a downward curve due to low*5 return rates, the Yar issue and the treatment of the Data debacle players (6th data)
What we received for our placements was acceptable (though, given everything I think a bit more could have been done) but we believe in the fair treatment of all players.
I just figured out that I've averaged $280 a month. I actually find myself enjoying the game a lot more now that I have stopped spending and given up on trying to get every crew. I think the only thing that could get me spending again would be for DB customer service to become almost overly generous when it comes to errors/bugs and for the prices to drop astronomically. I already know the game isn't going to get better (when it comes to bugs) and the quality isn't going to get better (when it comes to QA), so considerable drops in price is the only thing that could overshadow those negatives.
However, I don't see massive price drops any time soon. Once they do, it will be a sign that they aren't renewing their contract with CBS and they are trying to grab every penny possible before shutting the game down. Since, in January, both of their other games are shutting down, when Star Trek dies, so does DB as it's their only remaining source of revenue.
See what Althea said above. I didn't spend as much, but I echo every other word verbatim.