Following up on their promises from last week, Cryptic published their current F2P plans for STO today. There’s the standard feature matrix giving an overview of their F2P model and an FAW page. There’s also a new subforum to handle questions from current subscribers. There’s no mention of a date or timeframe beyond the “this year” in the initial leak.

The features list and FAQ both mention several times that the details of F2P are subject to change depending on testing and feedback. Overall though, I imagine most of what they’ve outlined will be how the change happens.

The C-store is getting an itemization and price review. The FAQ says that ship prices will not go up, but I assume that consumable prices will based on how Champions Online’s store changed. A few of the premium species will become free (Ferengi, Rigelian, Pakled, and Tellarite) and some will become earnable in-game (Liberated Borg, Joined Trill, and Federation Klingon).

Lifetime and monthly subscribers will become gold players and still have access to everything they do now. They’ll start receiving a stipend of 400 C-store points every month, as long as they continue to subscribe.

New players and former subscribers will be silver players. Silver players will have access to all content: sectors, missions, foundry missions, fleet actions, featured episode series, and special task forces. They can join fleets. There are no restrictions on Federation character career paths, and they will be able to roll a Klingon Empire character. Silver players are limited to two characters slots, will not be able to create Foundry missions, and will not qualify for Veteran Rewards. Former subscribers can keep any existing Veteran unlocks. They will have limits on their in-game chat and mail until they’ve played twenty hours total across all characters on the account or bought C-store points. This is one of the limitations that may change depending on how well it handles problems with spammers.

The initial level unlock for the Klingon faction is being changed from level six (pretty sure about that) to level 25. This means the starting level for Klingon Empire characters will be 25 and existing characters under that level will get bumped to 25 (no one will lose low-level characters). Cryptic states this is to improve the Klingon faction experience, and I assume this is a temporary change until Cryptic and Perfect World develop enough Klingon content to make it a full-fledged faction. It’s honestly not a large speed bump as it’s less than a week of effort to hit level 25, but I can imagine this being one change that the community doesn’t like.

Overall, I think Cryptic’s plan is pretty solid. Existing subscribers will see very little change except for whatever happens with C-store pricing, and free players will be able to access all of the content in the game without paying a penny. The limitations all revolve around customization and convenience items.

Personally being a lifetime subscriber, I’m happy to start accruing some free points to spend in the C-store. Were I a monthly subscriber, I’m not sure if I would drop to silver or not. Overall the only benefits to staying subscribed are the stipend and the Veteran rewards, everything else can be unlocked via purchase except the Foundry editor. It really comes down to whether or not I feel that $15 a month is worth it to support further development in the game, and that’s something I’ve always felt strongly about since I bought a lifetime subscription.

Star Trek Online F2P Details
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4 thoughts on “Star Trek Online F2P Details

  • September 6, 2011 at 6:38 pm
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    That looks awfully familiar compared to CO’s F2P plan, but even less restrictive. Am I missing something or is losing Foundry creation access the big downside for going silver?

    • September 6, 2011 at 7:53 pm
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      It’s only a big issue if you want to create missions, you can still play Foundry missions as a silver. There’s quite a bit of drama on the forums today because people feel there’s not enough differentiation between being a gold and a silver member. Were I not a lifer, I probably could drop to silver and not notice much difference, but I would have to buy a few unlocks in order to have access to my alts (and possibly more depending on whether I keep my bridge officers slots, etc.).

      I think the decision boils down to how often you play. For a lot of people that play a single character and want to pop in every couple of months and play through the Features Episodes, a silver account will be plenty. For those who have multiple characters or want to create Foundry content, then a gold account works better.

      I assume Cryptic expects that there are more former players who will come back and make the occasional C-store purchase than current subscribers who will drop from gold to silver.

  • September 6, 2011 at 11:01 pm
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    I ended up wasting most of my time when I was subscribed due to health problems, so the Silver ‘free’ level will be great. I have 6 characters and apparently you don’t lose access to them, just ‘gold’ features for them, so I can continue to play all of them when I have the time. If I wanted that is, only one really has much play time on it. I do have a Klingon and a Gorn at starting level, so I’ll just leave them on hold until they add the new content for that side. I just hope the new pricing makes more sense.

  • September 9, 2011 at 5:51 am
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    The silver option looks pretty full featured to me. I’m not sure what I’d be tempted to actually spend money on. So far the only FtP MMO that has successfully extracted much money from me is DDO, or LoTRO if you count the fact that I spent $200 to go lifer the firts few months it was out.

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