User:Eklinaar/Subscriber benefits breakdown

This guide assumes the buyer is paying with US dollars, is getting a rate of 100 per dollar, and would be paying full price on C-Store items. Purchasing or C-Store items on sale would change the results of this examination. Prices are based on this page. This guide also does not consider items the buyer would not purchase individually, but simply operates with a total estimated value of all items.

=Summary of Conclusions=

When considering the price of a single month's subscription, if you gain one promotion on one character, the value of benefits earned is roughly equivalent to what you could purchase if you'd spent the subscription fee on instead. If you gain multiple promotions in a single month, you're earning well over the value of the subscription fee.


 * One month's stipend + benefits of a single promotion == one month's subscription fee

When comparing the price of a lifetime subscription to the sum of all benefits received, the break even point on a lifetime account purchased at full price occurs at the following times based on how many characters were leveled from 0 to cap while subscriber benefits were active:


 * 1 capped character, 25 months
 * 2 capped characters, 5 months
 * 3 capped characters on a lifetime account break even before considering stipends.

If the lifetime account is purchased on sale, the break even point is substantially sooner. See the last section of this guide for a more detailed analysis.

=Subscriber benefits=


 * 500 per month
 * 1000 value for 30 inventory slots per capped character (per capped character)
 * 1500 value for 60 bank slots per capped character (per capped character)
 * 3000 value for 6 retrain tokens per capped character (per capped character)
 * 500 value for 4 BOff slots per capped character (per capped character)

Total benefits equivalent to 6000 per capped character, equivalent to 12 months worth of a stipend or $60 of character-only unlocks.

This means every time you earn a promotion on any character while you are a subscriber, you gain roughly 1000 ($10) of benefits (though what you gain varies slightly at different ranks). Half of that is the free respec per rank, and half of that is some combination of bank, inventory, and BOff slots. So, this means that for any given $15 month subscription (equivalent to 1500 ), you break even for that month if you earn one promotion on one character. 500 monthly stipend + 500  respec + 500  of slot unlocks = 1500  = $15.

In addition to this, subscribers also gain one-time account unlocks of 1 extra character slot (roughly 312.5 ) and the Energy Credit Cap unlock (500 ). These benefits only unlock once. I did not include them in the above analysis.

=Single month option=

It should be noted for the particularly thrifty spender that there is a very worthwhile option of subscribing for a single month. This is because a number of the subscriber benefits are retroactive on preexisting characters and remain even after a subscription lapses. These are the bonus inventory slots per promotion, bonus bank slots per promotion, bonus BOff slots at specific promotions, and 1 extra character slot. The retrain tokens are not retroactive and the Energy Credit cap increase is removed once the subscription lapses.

It works in this way: if you have several capped characters already and you have never subscribed, subscribe for a single month. While the subscription is active, be sure to log in with each character. These characters will retroactively receive the inventory, bank, and BOff slots that are included in the promotion benefits for subscribers. They will not receive any retrain tokens (unless they gain new promotions during the one month subscription). If this account has never before had a subscription, it will also receive 1 extra character slot. If this account has had a prior subscription, it will not receive the 1 extra character slot, and characters will only gain retroactive benefits from promotions achieved after the last subscription lapsed. It's not possible to receive any per-character benefits more than once by lapsing and subscribing repeatedly.

For players looking to get a lot of value for a little money, this is by far the best option. The formula for value received on an account that has never before had a subscription is as follows:

850 + (3000  * number of capped characters) = value of services gained

The breakdown of the above formula is as follows:
 * ~350 value for one extra character slot (one-time account unlock)
 * 500 value for a single month's stipend
 * 1000 value for 30 extra inventory slots (per capped character)
 * 1500 value for 60 extra bank slots (per capped character)
 * 500 value for 4 extra BOff slots (per capped character)

=Lifetime benefits=

This guide does not attempt to place value on exclusive lifetime and veteran rewards that have no clear counterpart in the C-Store, like the Fireworks, titles, and skill point boost, and assumes their worth at 0. Obviously, they are worth something, but there is no basis to apply an estimated value.

This guide assumes the base benefits of purchasing a lifetime account are worth 1950
 * ~825 value for 3 extra character slots (1 for subscribing, 2 for lifetime, price estimated at a round number between the 2 and 4 pack in the C-Store)
 * 500 value for Energy Credit cap increase
 * 625 value for Liberated Borg playable captain

This guide assumes the estimated value of account unlocks for Veteran Rewards are 6475
 * ~550*2 value for 2 exclusive costumes variants (based on value of other costume packs)
 * 625 value for 2 character slots
 * ~500 value for Captain's Yacht (based on value of other shuttles)
 * 250 value for 2 costume slots
 * 2000 value for Vice Admiral Ship Tokens (only counting this once per account since the token is per-character and ship purchases are usually account-wide)
 * 2000 value for exclusive Heavy Destroyer unlock

Adding the two above totals of 1950 for base benefits and 6475  for account-wide Veteran Rewards, account-wide unlocks for a lifetime subscription are worth 8425.

This guide assumes the estimated value of per character unlocks for Veteran Rewards is 3550
 * 500*4 value for 4 skill retrain tokens
 * 250*3 value for 3 starship slots
 * 500 value for exclusive Android Bridge Officer (based on value of other BOffs)
 * 300 value for exclusive Mugato companion (based on value of non-combat companions)

Combining the above total of 3550 of per character Veteran Rewards with the total of 6000  of subscriber benefits for capping a character, the per capped character benefits of a lifetime subscription are 9550.

Given all the above assumptions, the formula for determining the value of a given lifetime subscription is as follows:

8425 + (9550  * number of characters) + (500  * months since purchase) = total  value of current lifetime benefits

From here, it is easy to determine the break even point. If you purchased your lifetime subscription at the full price of $300, it can be assumed this money is worth approximately 30000. Then the break even points are as follows.


 * One capped character after 25 months: 8425 + (9550  * 1) + (500  * 25) = 30475
 * Two capped characters after 5 months: 8425 + (9550  * 2) + (500  * 5) = 30025
 * Three capped characters before receiving any stipends at all: 8425 + (9550  * 3) + (500  * 0) = 37075

If you purchased your lifetime subscription at the sale price of $240, then the assumed value is 24000, and the break even points are sooner.


 * One capped character after 13 months: 8425 + (9550  * 1) + (500  * 13) = 24475
 * Two capped characters before receiving any stipends at all: 8425 + (9550  * 2) + (500  * 0) = 27525

If you purchased your lifetime subscription at the sale price of $200, then the assumed value is 20000, and the break even points are even sooner.


 * One capped character after 5 months: 8425 + (9550  * 1) + (500  * 5) = 20475
 * Two capped characters before receiving any stipends at all: 8425 + (9550  * 2) + (500  * 0) = 27525