Hello, Joe and STOers! It’s been…a while since I’ve been able to really sit down and write. My apologies for all the delays on the 14th Anniversary Bundle stuff. I’m trying to think of a way to get that sped up, but since I’m doing the F2P account challenge, I’ve realized more and more it’s taking time from my main STO account, which is where the 14th Anniversary stuff is.
And then Cryptic decides to throw out a Mudd Choice Pack/MEGA Bundle! lol.
So let’s get to it, shall we?
THE ACTUAL NEWS
Cryptic released their expected Mudd Choice Pack/MEGA Bundle (which was previewed with a roadmap stream a few months ago).
The theme?
Mudd’s “Sol System Defense” Choice Pack/MEGA Bundle! (Image below comes straight from the blog.)
Since the ships are related to (Saturn and Mars) or originate from Earth (United Earth Defense Force Vessel) and its solar system, called “Sol System”, this is the “Sol System Defense” Bundle.
All ships here are 32nd Century ships, but the Saturn’s the only one without floating parts (and a transformation, as will be shown in a couple videos later).
If you like 1 ship but not all 3, you could grab 2-4 T6 Ship Coupons, or if you’re in desperate need of T6-X2 ship upgrades, a single choice of the Experimental Ship Upgrade Tokens can fully T6-X2 a baseline T6 ship.
As I don’t really have time to do both a quick look post and the financial aspect post, I’ll attempt to do both in one.
What helps that? Well…
There were zero copies of any ship on the Exchange when I took pictures last week, so I’m operating off a single price comparison for all three ships. As well, all the non-ship items are returning entries, so I can pull prices from older posts for them.
Now, then! Enough chit-chat. Let’s go look at the ships!
THE SHIPS
1) Saturn Intel Science Spearhead [T6]
Initial Release Method: Infinity Lock Box grand prize: Infinity Prize Pack – T6 Ship Choice Box
Initial Release Date: December 7, 2021
Date of Account-Wide Availability: June 20, 2024
Time Between Initial Release and Account-Wide Availability: 2 Years, 6 Months, 13 Days
Claim to Fame: Um…yeah, I got nothing.
The Saturn was the 4th “Science Spearhead” released (the previous 3 were the Crossfield Science Spearhead; the Ba’ul Sentry Vessel; and the Crossfield Science Spearhead Refit).
Considering the Crossfield ships and the king of EPG still being the Verne Temporal Science Vessel (and its faction-specific relatives), the Saturn came into a busy high-end Science class. It needed something special, and a 32nd Century Federation Battle Cloak just wasn’t cutting it.
On the plus side, though, if you like Stargate: SG-1, you could role-play as an Ori Prior flying one of their Ori Warships.
Okay, yeah, not exactly a perfect translation, but still! 🙂
Basic Visual Video
As I’ve tried to do in case other content creators take down their videos, I’ve started doing mini-combat setups to show off a ship’s basic setup and visuals. These don’t include the traits as they may or may not have visuals attached.
I will warn that these aren’t completely stock setups. Some starship and reputation traits are included to help push a bit more damage or survivability, but it’s still generally enough to show how the ships can do without all the fancy consoles and mixed weapon set pieces.
Performance Look
In case you’re new to how I do these overviews, I try to include both a general visual video (had usually been others’ videos, but some are taking theirs down as they step away, so I’ve recently been doing my own basic uploads) as well as a performance-based review/demonstration. So in these sections, you’ll see mostly 6-digit DPS runs so you can see the ship is able to perform at Elite difficulty (even if it’s the low end of Elite).
Why do I do this?
Because…no T6 ship is a 5-digit-only ship. Elite needs ~100k-150k DPS to function well enough to hit all the damage-based requirements. But ships that aren’t meta-defining ships get a bad rap for not being able to push near-record numbers, so they’re considered trash.
If you’re going to be spending ~$110-$140 on ships, you need to see that they’re capable of at least doing Elite-difficulty runs capably (even if not at near-record or optimal numbers).
For the first performance-based video of the blog, then, we take a look at Augmented Dictator Games (“Auggie”) In a mostly Torpedo-based build with a run of over 500k DPS in this video from December of 2021. (NOTE: He’s currently on a STO break as of the time of writing this, so I hope he’ll continue to keep his videos up since they’re a great record of the history of STO and past metas and ship performance.)
2) United Earth Defense Force Vessel [T6]
Initial Release Method: Infinity Lock Box grand prize: Infinity Prize Pack – T6 Ship Choice Box
Initial Release Date: November 16, 2021
Date of Account-Wide Availability: June 20, 2024
Time Between Initial Release and Account-Wide Availability: 2 Years, 7 Months, 4 Days
Claim to Fame: Was among the Torpedo meta choices until the release of the Terran Eagle Pilot Raider in February 2023. The video below, from November 2021, is time-stamped to talking about Torpedo meta-viable ships.
Why isn’t the UEDF Vessel among the top now? The Terran Eagle Pilot Raider comes with a console that, along with boosting Torpedo damage 28%, reduces Torpedo cooldowns on Pilot ships. Combined with needing Concentrate Firepower III, which the Terran Eagle can do, it’s literally the only ship that has Pilot Maneuvers and a high enough Command seat to slot Concentrate Firepower III.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s not that the UEDF ship can’t do a Torpedo build and pull some pretty nice numbers. It’s just that, if you’re fighting to be among the top of the DPS leaderboards now for Torpedoes, the UEDF ship devalued tremendously for that purpose less than a year and a half after its initial release.
Basic Visual Video
Notice near the end that the console for the UEDF ship does give it a slight transformation. Those detached parts are good for something, it seems! (NOTE: I’m okay with detached pieces. It’s science fiction, let’s have a little fun with it!)
Performance Look
Here’s Auggie with his take on a Torpedo/Mine-heavy build, pulling at least 250k DPS. The video is from November 2021, so we’ve had a few advancements since then, but I don’t believe anything from this got nerfed (or not badly if so). You should be able to at least replicate this build with similar performance (if not a tad more now that T6-X2 has been a thing since last year).
Initial Release Method: Infinity Lock Box grand prize: Infinity Prize Pack – T6 Ship Choice Box
Initial Release Date: August 24, 2021
Date of Account-Wide Availability: June 20, 2024
Time Between Initial Release and Account-Wide Availability: 2 Years, 9 Months, 27 Days
Claim to Fame: Uh…you got me here, too. I’m unsure if there’s anything special from the Mars.
I feel the Mars and Saturn are 2 ships where theme trumps performance. That is to say, if you’re wanting this ship or the Saturn, you’re going after something other than high-end Elite builds. Someone can feel free to correct my STO history in the comments, especially if they can point to a video or article write-up by a known DPS-based player or group.
Basic Visual Video
Hopefully you can see in this video, but both the Pilot Maneuvers and the Console have an animation involving the nacelles.
Performance Look
CasualSAB, AKA Spencer, shows what was then a build-in-progress on one of his live streams March of last year. In an Argala patrol on Elite, he parsed a run of over 250k DPS. I’d treat that as a floor for the ship’s performance, and keep in mind we’ve had both the T6-X2 upgrade path and Isomagnetic Plasma Distribution Manifolds (since June 2023) come to the game since this stream, so I’d say the floor for Elite-difficulty potential has risen a bit.
If only 1 or 2 of those ships tickle your fancy, you have a few other options. However, I’ll cover those in the financial aspect, which starts…
…
NOW!
THE FINANCIAL REPORT
And here’s the not-so-fun math of the whole series. I hope you got good looks at the ships! Because from here on, we’re Spread sheeTs Online. (Hey, I tried to be clever! Give me a break!
1) The Ships
So, as you may remember, I said when I started getting prices pre-launch, there were no copies of the ships on the Exchange, and I tend to try to back up my claims. So here’s 3 screenshots of empty Exchange listings for the Mars, UEDF, and Saturn ships.
That means the only places you can get them is in private trades, and quite frankly, I feel I have to assume a market value of 1.5 billion EC each, or else people who want less would just post to the Exchange. This may not be the case, but it’s the best I know to work with unless I go to multiple channels to find a price.
What does 1.5 billion EC look like in terms of Master Keys (11,900,000 EC), R&D Promo Packs (24,900,000 EC), and Delta Alliance Duty Officer Packs (31,400,000)? Well…
Each ship you choose is between 8,400 – 14,240 Zen of value, or in cash terms ~$80-$140.
Theoretically, then, if you wanted all 3 ships on offer, you’d have 25,200 – 42,720 Zen or ~$240 – $520 of equivelant value.
In this case, then getting all 3 ships if you’d wanted them anyway makes this pack worth buying at 14,750 Zen. Using the lowest Zen value, you’d be saving 10,450 Zen, or effectively getting a discount of ~41.47%.
But we all know, there may be other items that tempt you more than a ship. So, let’s get to looking at those!
2) The Other Items
Now, we’ll take a look at what else might have your eye in this Choice Pack/MEGA Bundle.
WARNING: Items here are usually bound (and generally Bound to Account). You cannot sell these items. If you choose anything here, you’re effectively giving up an account-wide ship to help your character or account.
T6 Coupons
A ship is normally 3,000 Zen, but every so often they’ll run a 3-for-4,500 Zen pack around November or December, thus the 1,500 Zen per coupon price.
One choice of Coupons is worth 3,000 – 6,000 Zen, so a full 3-choice selection would be 9,000 – 18,000 Zen of value, depending on how you value the coupons.
T6-X Tokens
These “T6-X” tokens have a little more player-usable value since the introduction of T6-X2 last year. A newly-purchased T6 ship needs 3 of these upgrades: 1 to get to T6-X, and 2 more to get to T6-X2. A single selection of T6-X tokens here is enough to get 3 ships from regular ol’ T6 fully up to T6-X2. A full selection of this for all 3 Choice Pack options then is enough to fully T6-X2 a grand total of 9 ships!
However, I don’t believe you’ll want to choose all T6-X tokens. The values range from 4,800 Zen (20% off a set of 3, then multiplied by 3 to get 9 total tokens) to 9,000 Zen. A full 3-choice pick would then be worth 14,400 Zen – 27,000 Zen.
(NOTE: I’d thought about using the calculations of how Phoenix Prize Pack Events are the cheapest way to get T6-X tokens, but I decided against using that. I do it for the Epic Phoenix Prize Tokens because that’s the only way you can get one [this past Delete-Alt-Control Event notwithstanding]. While Phoenix Prize Packs may be cheaper in the long run, there’s still an element of RNG I’m not comfortable with for setting lowest expected prices.)
Elite BOFF Training Tokens
Elite BOFF Training Tokens give your Bridge Officers a slot for a Personal Ground Trait, a Kit Frame, and an extra Ground Device. If you’re wanting your BOFFs to help you push out better DPS, these are for you.
The value here is quite low. The lowest price for a stack of 16 is 3,840 Zen (calculated from the 4-pack 1,200 Zen price being 20% off, then multiplied by 4 as you’d need 4 packs of 4 to get 16 tokens), while the most expensive method is individually at 500 Zen each, making 16 of them 8,000 Zen. If you use this as your 3 picks, yes, you’ll get 48 Elite BOFF Training Tokens, but you’ll make up anywhere from 11,520 Zen – 24,000 Zen of value.
Ultimate Tech Upgrades
Depending on how you value Ultimate Tech Upgrades, these could either be the absolute cheapest way you can get 10 of the tokens (averaging 1,475 Zen each vs. near 2,000 Zen each normally), or they’re effectively worthless since you can use in-game items to eventually get your gear to Mk XV Epic.
For the value of choosing this 3 times over, then, you’re looking at the widest margin of any possible “extra” in Mudd Bundles: anywhere from 0 Zen for a stack of 30 all the way up to 60,000 Zen of value in Bundles you wouldn’t need to buy.
Choice Pack: Lowest Possible Values
So let’s say you get the Choice Pack and want to make 3 distinct choices. What’s the lowest value of items we can get to make back your 14,750 “investment” back? (NOTE: You can’t sell anything here, so the 14,750 is sunk. It’s more about if you feel you’ll get 14,750 in value so you’ve at least broken even.)
For this, we won’t count the Ultimate Tech Upgrades at all as they skew the possible values too much in either direction. If we say they’re worth 0, then this Bundle could be worth 0 and you’re way overpaying. If we say they’re 20,000 Zen per 10-pack of Ultimate Tech Upgrades, then this is a must-buy just for 1 pick of Ultimate Tech Upgrades (20,000 Zen in value vs. 14,750 Zen used).
So let’s go with the next 3 cheapest options!
Remember, we need an average value of ~4,917 Zen per item to “make back” our 14,750 Zen. It’s fine if we’re over that for a single item, it just means the other 2 items can be a bit lower in value to still hit the 14,750 target.
- Lowest-Valued Items
As you can see, we can’t make back the items using the 3 lowest options individually. In fact, even the T6-X tokens can’t do that on their own; 14,750 Zen would be used for 14,400 Zen worth of tokens.
So we’ll have to include at least 1 of the 32nd Century ships. Since they’re all the same, it won’t matter which one.
We’ll replace the Elite BOFF tokens. They’re not the lowest value, but you potentially get more Space damage- or tanke-enhancing usefulness out of 2 C-Store ships than you would out of 16 Elite BOFF tokens that are really only usable on ground maps.
- With a Ship Included
That changes things a ton! 14,750 Zen now gets you 16,200 Zen in value, a discount of at least 1,450 Zen, or ~8.95%.
That 8,400 Zen for a single ship is also decently above what our needed average is (4,917 Zen).
In fact, if we just take 1 ship, we’d only need to make back 6,350 Zen, or ~3,175 Zen per remaining item, over the next 2 picks to “make back” the 14,750 this Choice Pack costs. Be careful here, though, as you could still overpay!
Let’s look at one more example: One of the three Lockbox ships and 4x C-Store Coupons.
- One Ship and 4x C-Store Coupons
If you just wanted ships, you’d be overpaying. The 4 C-Store ships are 6,000 Zen, plus the value of one of the 32nd Century ships at 8,400 Zen, means you’re looking at 14,400 Zen in value for a 14,750 Zen price tag.
You’d be overpaying by 350 Zen for 5 ships.
- Retrospect: Best Choices for the Choice Pack
So what “should” you do if you buy this Choice Pack?
I’d almost suggest the second option I did (one of the three Lockbox ships; 2x C-Store Coupons; 9x T6-X tokens) is your best mix. You get 3 total ships account-wide unlocked and you get to upgrade all of them to T6-X2 immediately, unlocking their full setup potential (just watch for C-Store ships that have Fleet variants, as you’d likely want to upgrade the Fleet version rather than the C-Store one). If you were missing any highly regarded C-Store ships, whether for gear or setup potential, but still want one of these 32nd Century ships, it’s not a bad choice.
If you’re like me and you’re after account-wide Lockbox/Lobi/Promo ships, your absolute best option is to take all 3 Lockbox ships. I only recommend this if you’re a theme collector (32nd Century stuff) or if you’re a “gamble box” ship collector but want your money to go toward account unlocks rather than single-character purchases.
The MEGA Bundle
Now, here’s the interesting bit…how much is the MEGA Bundle worth?
This release continues the tradition that 7-choice MEGA Bundles are discounted compared to an 8-choice MEGA Bundle (4 ship options and 4 other item options).
Remember that a MEGA Bundle gives you everything once over. There are no multiple picks; you get 1 of each ship and 1 of each Other Item.
How well do we add up?
Using the least expensive version of each item, you’d say 11,840 Zen, or ~32.14% compared to buying everything individually (and the 32nd Century ships being single-character uses).
This is kinda unfair to the rest of the items, though. The ships alone are 25,200 Zen based on my valuations at the lowest possible values. This effectively means you’re paying 200 Zen less for the ships (insert sarcastic “woo hoo” here just because the savings is so miniscule) and getting 11,640 Zen worth of other stuff for free! (…okay, that one wasn’t a sarcastic exclamation. That’s actually kinda nice numbers-wise!).
What Should I Do?
Well…I don’t know your priorities! It’ll vary from player to player. So I’ve got a few categories that might help.
1) “Gotta Be Meta or It’s Junk”
This group of players can easily ignore this Choice Pack/MEGA Bundle. Unlike the previous few Choice Packs/MEGA Bundles which had either interesting, nearly meta, or definitively meta items or ships, there aren’t any ships that have any meta items or setups that you couldn’t do cheaper or spend the 14,750 elsewhere to get.
2) “I love 32nd Century Designs”/”I have a 32nd Century Starfleet-themed character”
Why aren’t you buying this, financial hardships notwithstanding? We’ve had one or two (or three, depending on how you count the Jovian) of the 32nd Century ships grace Mudd’s Bundles category, but this is a dedicated 32nd Century (mostly Starfleet) Bundle. As long as you have the means, grab it! 25,200 Zen individually for a single character only, or 14,750 for all 3 account-wide unlocked? If you like the theme, I feel this is a worthwhile purchase over getting them individually.
3) “One or two ships may interest me, the rest, I don’t know.”
If you’re in “I don’t know” land, I’d say to save your money. Yes, getting all 3 of these ships account-wide unlocked is cheaper than getting them individually, but unless you were already in the market for at least one of them, there’s nothing here you have to have, and you can always buy it later if you end up really wanting something from this Choice Pack/MEGA Bundle.
THE POWER…IS NOW YOURS!
I hope you now have enough information in hand to decide if you want this Choice Pack/MEGA Bundle or if you’d rather wait for a future Pack/Bundle or a re-list of one you’d missed. This theme definitely isn’t for everybody, but if you can find a use for anything, I say go for buying it. Remember that just 1 of the 3 ships along with the 2x C-Store Coupons and 9x T6-X tokens would likely be your minimum choice if you get the Choice Pack, while the MEGA Bundle comes out to an equivalent Zen value decently above its 25,000 Zen asking price.
I’d promise more content soon, but I’m getting over some kind of sinus or respiratory sickness that’s been going around, and free time has been getting less and less this year. I still intend to get the 14th Anniversary stuff, but I think I’m looking at July – September to get it all done, unfortunately.
Until the next post, take care, and continue enjoying Star Trek Online!
Joe and STO 