Home The Bridge

When to switch to FTP?

Today my monthly card ran out, and I am seriously considering going the FTP route. I am VIP 13 so I do have enough slots and more replicator uses than my credits allow. Today is also the fifth voyage that has cost quite a lot of dil for very few returns. So what to spend dil on? In fact do I still need it?

So when would you, or did you switch to FTP?
«1

Comments

  • No switch. Started and will stay that way.
    F2P/VIP 0 for LIFE!
  • I switched to semi-FTP after hitting VIP14. All I get is the monthly card and I spend at most 10$ on special offers IF AND WHEN I find them useful. I sometimes go for months without taking any of the special offers, because sometimes the 10xPacks for 10$ is a waste of money, especially if you already have many fully fused characters.
  • IvanstoneIvanstone ✭✭✭✭✭
    I spend dil on event packs and occasionally voyages if I forget to recall. I only do the latter if I'm leaving unusually good rewards behind.
    VIP 13 - 310 Crew Slots - 1055 Immortals
  • Again I forgot to recall my voyage. Now at 15 hrs, 4 4*s, I need to pay 181 dil which I don't have anymore...pff really tough choice.
  • CloneClone ✭✭✭
    For me it's "When you buy 25 packs without getting a single fusible character and get a form letter response telling you this is intentional."
  • So when would you, or did you switch to FTP?

    I switched after having spent £12 or so on three monthly cards.
    "Dance with me. For science."
  • Imho monthly vip is still worth it. Just skip 1 trip to starbucks, baskin robbin, dunkin donuts.... whatever your thing is.

  • Today my monthly card ran out, and I am seriously considering going the FTP route. I am VIP 13 so I do have enough slots and more replicator uses than my credits allow. Today is also the fifth voyage that has cost quite a lot of dil for very few returns. So what to spend dil on? In fact do I still need it?

    So when would you, or did you switch to FTP?

    NEVER! If you love/like to play the game, its just fair that you continue to support the developers so the game can keep running for more years to come, even if its just buy monthly card only. If you don t like the game anymore and/or doesn t care much if its around or not, then just stop playing.

    •SSR Delta Flyers•
  • IrialIrial ✭✭✭✭
    In my opinion, the top priority for Dilithium expenditure is Shuttles, and so you should make sure you have all 4 of these at least.
  • Imho monthly vip is still worth it. Just skip 1 trip to starbucks, baskin robbin, dunkin donuts.... whatever your thing is.

    This, any game I enjoy I'll support at a minimum level. developers either have to charge to sell the game or survive on mini transactions. That part is simple economics. And since they are giving the game away for free they have to survive on the mini transactions. So I might stop buying packages because they don't make sense and DB creates packages that defies logic. But they will get my monthly card at a minimum until I stop playing.
  • bowdybowdy ✭✭✭
    I switched to FtP when voyages was released.
  • GhostStalkerGhostStalker ✭✭✭✭✭
    If the ads keep messing up the way they are, I'm not putting any more money into this game.
  • Stellar IceStellar Ice ✭✭✭✭✭
    This game can be enjoyable without paying for dilithium. It takes time and patience to play that way but many of us enjoy the challenge that f2p provides.
    The VIP 0 Heroes and VIP 0 Champions are looking for like-minded fellow VIP 0 players to join our family of fleets. Please contact me here or on Discord.

    Come join the Star Trek Timelines Discord Community!
    Invitation code: https://discord.gg/8Du7ZtJ
  • Just hit my 1 year anniversary playing this game. Here’s my breakdown

    3 months f2p-very slow
    3 months monthly-made some good progress
    3 months monthly plus 25$ offers. Really got strong
    3 months- mostly monthly, sometimes double up on a great legendary, and some unique offers.

    Im vip 14 and hit top 1000 most events. I used to buy the 25$ 2 super rare event packs but I always get all cards so there’s no point except to get the legendary.

    I think monthly is worth it for the tickets for boosts and for voyages. I don’t need the dil but i use it well so why not.
  • JeanLucKirkJeanLucKirk ✭✭✭✭✭
    This game can be enjoyable without paying for dilithium. It takes time and patience to play that way but many of us enjoy the challenge that f2p provides.

    No doubts about that. But you speak of enjoying. If you enjoy this game and want it to last think about this: Many small things can make a big difference. If you and many others who so far invested zero into STT would at least buy the monthly card it could prolong the lifespan of this app MASSIVELY. Your money, your choice oc.

  • $5 a month isn't much, as people say it's a coffee and a bus trip to get there. There's 4 events for that plus a whole bunch of general gameplay to be had, and it keeps the game going. I dunno, I'd kind of give up spending when I stop playing, not before. You don't have to spend a fortune to make progress, another shuttle, a few more crew slots.
  • No switch. Started and will stay that way.

    It’s so great to hear that you don’t own a television. Really, thanks for sharing.

    First Officer - Task Force April
    Squadron Leader - [TFA] Bateson’s Bulldogs
  • I am an on and off monthly card buyer. I am just missing value from the stuff you can buy. If you play actively dilithium and "direct buys" are Not really worth it. After the first few crew slot upgrades and 4th shuttle the return on investment diminishes extremely.

    I myself am content with rankings between 500 and 1000 and slowly collecting strong crew / crew i like.

    That said i would be willing to spend for offers with apropriate return. Even "Specials offers" are only barely monthly card value though...

    It would be also extremely apropriate to give better benefits to VIP Players that spend huge sums on a largely "simple" game. I.e. 2x, 3x, 4x honor from airlocking crew, an exchange for FF beholds and so on.
  • I am coming to a semi F2P state now, there isn't much for me to spend money on anymore. Only crew that can really help me is immortal legendaries, ones I don't have or duplicates of the power creeps even if I've already got them. Honestly I plan to keep my spending much lower now until DB gives an increased benefits to VIP 14+++ players like me. Either add additional VIP levels or give me increased benefits based on all the VIP points I've accumulated. Like more replications per day etc.
  • When spending no longer provides value. You can define "value" however you want - I've seen a number of different definitions above. That said..

    1) Guys, please stop it with the F2P hate. Most players of freemium games fall into the "never spend a dime" category. The game will not shut down due to the 50 people in the VIP 0 fleet failing to buy a monthly card. The game will shut down due to long-term whales getting fed up and stopping their weekly spending.

    2) The monthly card is a good value. If you're going to keep playing, I'd suggest keeping up your monthly card as a bare minimum. That said, it's also a slippery slope. If you have some dil, you may be tempted to buy more dil in order to get the shinies that you want - but I'd still suggest keeping it up for $5 a month.
    Proud Former Admiral of eXodus
    Proud Former Officer of The Gluten Empire

    Retired 12-14-20. So long, and thanks for all the cat pics!
  • Silver Rose's advice is sound.

    Being F2P to start and staying that way really doesn't unlock the whole game in any meaningful way, but it can certainly still be a fun diversion to Trek fans, so why be terrible to FTPers?

    Deciding to pay, and continuing to pay once your idea of "value added" is gone, is kind of pointless, but it's also safe to assume that the people who are doing so have the means to. So good on you, whales!

    I will, however, add my one nugget of advice that helped me feel less perpetually annoyed at DB/STT: don't think of it as a "Monthly Card." Think of it as a "30-Day Card." If you think of it as "monthly," then at the end of the month, your default is going to be to insta-renew it. You don't have to, after the first 2 or 3 (once you've got your 4 shuttles and some extra crew slots, your spending can be kept quite minimal). So think of it as "30 days," and when it's over, it's over. You only buy a new one when your DIL supply drops below a certain point (me, I like always have two event packs worth of DIL, just in case; I don't spend on anything else other than favorable Voyages and sometimes cadet tickets.

    DB does seem to have gone over to the dark side, in terms of blatantly monetizing every facet of the game, instead of making a kick-**tsk tsk** game, and trusting us to spend our money on it.... but at the same time, so long as I keep my donations to a point where I don't feel taken advantage of or just giving them money out of habit, I'm happy to toss the $4 their way when I actually feel like it will benefit me.

    I'm at VIP 6. Have been for a while. Won't get to VIP 8 (the next one that unlocks anything remotely useful) for a year, at least. To me, the quickest way for DB to make spending easier for casual players without totally devaluing their precious DIL (which they really do seem to overvalue more than any other developers' premium in-game currency) would be to greatly increase VIP perks, both at the top end (to induce whales to spend more) and by having benefits accrue much faster at lower levels (so that we aren't as happy to "plateau" at a lower VIP level if there's nothing easily achievable in the near future). At the bare minimum, each VIP level should add a multiplier to all Daily Missions.

    I mean, if VIP 7 unlocked 5 more crew slots and 2 more replications per day, plus 7x the credits/merits/honor from Dailies, that might actually be something. But it doesn't, so it's not. And thus, I keep my $4 and my pride, for now. At least until the next Faction Event where I really like the threshold 4* enough to buy packs to FF it.
  • Jim SteeleJim Steele ✭✭✭✭✭
    I for one don't mind paying a little on STT since it is good fun to play and I enjoy being a part of an active fleet. That said, once I stop enjoying the game, that's the time to stop playing.

    I'm never going to spend £100 on a single card as it is astronomically above my budget, but the monthly dil is useful just for refreshing voyages, buying the occasional event pull, or buying extra cadet tickets.

    I have bought the in-game offers (when they come my way) in the past, but I am unlikely to do so in the future as I have most SR cards FF already; so I chuck most of the packs away now anyway!

    Jim
    DB: Do Better
  • VIP8 for me. About a 100$ spent. Have a solid amount of crewslots to wrok from. And a pretty good crew.
    239 Immortalized
    Gametag: ECH
  • Irial wrote: »
    In my opinion, the top priority for Dilithium expenditure is Shuttles, and so you should make sure you have all 4 of these at least.
    I think this was true before failed shuttles dropped trainer rewards. These days, I get along fine with 3 shuttles, and am still awash with more trainers of every color than I will seemingly ever get rid of.

    Thanks to the "Immortalize your crew members" achievements, I recently hit the point where I could afford a 4th shuttle ... and decided not to buy it, spending some dil on crew slots instead. I may buy even more, before considering a 4th shuttle.
  • I've switched to F2P twice. Once, before the vault was launched, I stopped buying anything for a few months because there was nowhere to put crew that I liked and sometimes paid for. I didn't start spending again until I was able to free up some slots with the vault.
    I switched again after being provided with several ship schematic offers while others were getting the 10 10x for $10 offers. Since it seemed like DB didn't want my money, I wasn't giving them any. Now that the offers are more evenly distributed, I'm spending again. Sometimes too much. But I'd go F2P again if I thought DB's actions (or lack thereof) warranted it.
  • RennJaxoRennJaxo ✭✭✭✭✭
    Two weeks in a row now I've done the 10 for 10 deal (well, 10 for 13.99 in Canada) and two week in a row I've received zero legendaries, and only a handful of useful four stars. So, now, I guess.
  • If I find that I can go through an entire monthly card without spending dilithium then I will probably switch. But for now it's a small price to pay for a game I enjoy.
    Drunken Dahar Masters is recruiting active players.
    PM for details.

    So long and thanks for all the fish.
  • IrialIrial ✭✭✭✭
    Irial wrote: »
    In my opinion, the top priority for Dilithium expenditure is Shuttles, and so you should make sure you have all 4 of these at least.
    I think this was true before failed shuttles dropped trainer rewards. These days, I get along fine with 3 shuttles, and am still awash with more trainers of every color than I will seemingly ever get rid of.

    Thanks to the "Immortalize your crew members" achievements, I recently hit the point where I could afford a 4th shuttle ... and decided not to buy it, spending some dil on crew slots instead. I may buy even more, before considering a 4th shuttle.

    I agree with you regarding not needing a 4th shuttle to obtain trainers. Where I think the 4th shuttle still plays an important role is the competitive advantage it gives you during Faction events.
  • I decided to spend no more money on this game when they decided not to tell us about the events until 2 day before (bonus crew). Might seem like a little thing to some, but it really aggravates me.
Sign In or Register to comment.