Wait, what.??? People still play thic garbage-can-in-space? Really? Even F2P? The developers "retired" in shame to get away from this game. Take a hint. Even F2P, this game is lame, even if it had NO restrictions.
I wonder what happens to former subscribers who have purple gear. To me the restrictions are way to many. There is noo way I could play or would be able to unless my toons were grandfathered in.
I may go back for a month or two but I'll just sub. I hate restrictions. ANY restrictions. Even if I don't generally use whatever is being restricted as I know I'll alwasy reach a point where that ONE thing I want to get to/do will be locked out.
I wonder what happens to former subscribers who have purple gear. To me the restrictions are way to many. There is noo way I could play or would be able to unless my toons were grandfathered in.
Previous subscribers do not lose what they have. If you had a character created with a race already that is not an option for the F2P option, then you can still play that character. If you already had cargo space and inventory space and legacy levels, then you still have those also! So your toons are grandfathered in, you can Play Now! Hurray!
I wonder what happens to former subscribers who have purple gear. To me the restrictions are way to many. There is noo way I could play or would be able to unless my toons were grandfathered in.
I wonder what happens to former subscribers who have purple gear. To me the restrictions are way to many. There is noo way I could play or would be able to unless my toons were grandfathered in.
what a clueless comment... NOTHING.
They have preferred player status and can wear all purple items that they already own. Also all inventory and cargo unlocked by them will be available for them.
They also added one more bar for F2P players
As a Preferred Status Player, you will gain the following benefits compared to Free-to-Play Players: • The Sprint ability at Level 1 • Access to your Cargo Hold (an 80 item Player Bank) • Access to Secure Trade (starting at level 10) • The ability to send Mail, including one (1) attachment • Increased allowance for chat message frequencies in Public chat channels (such as /general) • An increased Credits Cap • Access to the Who List • Three (3) additional Sale Slots on the Galactic Trade Network (for a total of 5) • One (1) additional active Crew Skill Slot (for a total of 2) • Reduced skill point respecialization costs • Increased Server queue priority
In addition to the above benefits, Subscribers who return as Preferred Status Players will find that they retain any Cargo Hold and Inventory expansions they had unlocked, any Legacy Unlock or Perk they have gained (including Species) and can continue to use any Artifact equipment that was bound to them previously.
That being said, based on community and internal feedback here and further deliberation, we will in short order make the following changes to the Free to Play restrictions:
Free-to-Play players will now get a second quickslot bar.
Free-to-Play players will now be able to do 5 Warzones per week instead of 3.
The Cartel Coin item lock (i.e. temporary bind) will be reduced to 3 days for Free-to-Play players, and 2 days for subscribers.
Free-to-Play players will now get a second quickslot bar.
So how long will 2 quickslot bars last for those of you have actually reached level 50? Won't this merely delay how long it takes before free players reach a point which effectively makes the game unplayable without paying?
Free-to-Play players will now get a second quickslot bar.
So how long will 2 quickslot bars last for those of you have actually reached level 50? Won't this merely delay how long it takes before free players reach a point which effectively makes the game unplayable without paying?
You can manage with 2 bars if you absolutely don't want to spend any cash for additional one. You can use the ability window for 1h buff, and abilities you do not use often. You don't need to use all abilities, game is playable without using everything available. Inconvenient but doable. Some classes: operatives, marauders have more usable abilities so it might be tougher. But doable for sure.
jesus mother of christ. Bioware is still in denial that this game lacks in so many deptarments.
They are giving you teh story for free....k bioware "WE ALL QUIT AFTER THAT" . Charging for action bars, mail, able to equip items.
This isn't f2p this is a "lets get as much as we can before we close shop down" grab if i've ever seen one. You people should seriously be insulted that this company is doing this to players.
ALl they had to do was invest their time in a better space combat, a better world environment, less instancing, customized ships. bla bla bla .....instead they invest all their resources into ripping you off.
I will not play f2p, i would gladly come back and pay for a sub, if they fixed the shit that was and is still broken from closed beta.
Hey!, maybe they WANT to annoy people away, what do we know
All this will surely work in that direction.
This is a good speculation as to their intent. If EA can MAKE this game fail, then they might be able to excuse themselves from their obligation with George Lucas .. an obligation which carries a high cost.
In essense, EA might be trying to get this game to tank, because in the long run, it's more profitable. They still need to show that they "tried", which will be important in court hearings.
lol. Problem is the 'speculators' don't have a clue. A brief rundown:
BioWare and Pandemic formed a Company (VG Holding Corp.) in 2005. This Company (BioWare/Pandemic) got in bed with Lucas Arts (the publisher) to make SWTOR. They didn't have the money to do this. So they took advances. They took a LOT of advances. Close to $190 million worth of advances.
Sometime later, BioWare sells itself to EA. It was an interesting deal. First, because it cost EA $620 million in cash. Then EA had to buy-out another $155 million in VG stock options. Second, are more importantly, they had to give VG (which had money problems) $35 million (as a loan) for them to take care of their obligations. Plus they had to absorb $190 million of debt owed to Lucas Arts from the production advances BioWare took.
When EA took over BioWare, the absorbed the Company. Including the LA debt. BioWare doesn't exist as a separate company. They ARE EA. They're a division. Like Chevy and Buick are divisions of GM. So they're not going to escape this debt by throwing up their hands and saying "oh my, this isn't working."
Beyond the debt, there is the royalty situation. As long as the game runs, LA will get royalties. LA usually takes 30% though who knows what they're taking here... So, Fremium or not, 30% (or some lower number perhaps) of every dollar will have to go to LA. And you can be sure, George Lucas has very good accountants and attorneys and much bigger pockets to pay them. After all, they're about 20 times the size of EA.
Hell, at $3.3 billion, George Lucas personally is worth almost as much as EA (Lucas is personally worth $3.3 billion, EA is worth $3.8 billion (market cap, worth less on the books (equity method))).
So, grand Internet 'thinkers' to the contrary, I see no way out of this mess beyond EA going Chapter 7.
Hey!, maybe they WANT to annoy people away, what do we know
All this will surely work in that direction.
This is a good speculation as to their intent. If EA can MAKE this game fail, then they might be able to excuse themselves from their obligation with George Lucas .. an obligation which carries a high cost.
In essense, EA might be trying to get this game to tank, because in the long run, it's more profitable. They still need to show that they "tried", which will be important in court hearings.
lol. Problem is the 'speculators' don't have a clue. A brief rundown:
BioWare and Pandemic formed a Company (VG Holding Corp.) in 2005. This Company (BioWare/Pandemic) got in bed with Lucas Arts (the publisher) to make SWTOR. They didn't have the money to do this. So they took advances. They took a LOT of advances. Close to $190 million worth of advances.
Sometime later, BioWare sells itself to EA. It was an interesting deal. First, because it cost EA $620 million in cash. Then EA had to buy-out another $155 million in VG stock options. Second, are more importantly, they had to give VG (which had money problems) $35 million (as a loan) for them to take care of their obligations. Plus they had to absorb $190 million of debt owed to Lucas Arts from the production advances BioWare took.
When EA took over BioWare, the absorbed the Company. Including the LA debt. BioWare doesn't exist as a separate company. They ARE EA. They're a division. Like Chevy and Buick are divisions of GM. So they're not going to escape this debt by throwing up their hands and saying "oh my, this isn't working."
Beyond the debt, there is the royalty situation. As long as the game runs, LA will get royalties. LA usually takes 30% though who knows what they're taking here... So, Fremium or not, 30% (or some lower number perhaps) of every dollar will have to go to LA. And you can be sure, George Lucas has very good accountants and attorneys and much bigger pockets to pay them. After all, they're about 20 times the size of EA.
Hell, at $3.3 billion, George Lucas personally is worth almost as much as EA (Lucas is personally worth $3.3 billion, EA is worth $3.8 billion (market cap, worth less on the books (equity method))).
So, grand Internet 'thinkers' to the contrary, I see no way out of this mess beyond EA going Chapter 7.
So if we tally up the numbers of SWTOR for EA:
1.) $620 million to aacquire VG Holding Coro (Bioware and Pandemic)
2.) $155 million in VG stock options
3.) $35 million sundry VG debt
4.) $190 million of Bioware debt to Lucas Arts
5.) $300 million in SWTOR production and development costs.
6 .) $200 million in SWTOR marketing costs.
7.) $500 million in stock buyback to raise the price of their (EA) stock after SWTOR's spectacular underperformance.
I play SWTOR. I enjoy it. But, the Cartel Market and the F2P plan is going to fail. I just went on the PTS, and everything in the market is junk.
(1) If people were not willing to pay a monthly subsripition before, they are not going to pay a lower weekly subsrciption now. (The free verson of the game is not playable.)
(2) People who log in to try the game out for the first time are going to quit because it won't be fun with the limitation.
(3) The gambling cases are going to cause existing subsrcibers to quit. Here's why: I went onto the PTS andI spent all the coins that they give you on cases. I ended up getting a bunch of the same items and did not want to use any of them. It seems like they created a few good things and are holding them up as a carrot while in reality the cases are filled with junk 95% of the time. This is just going to piss people off. Pissed of players will find another game. This is as true a fact as can be.
I wonder if they're not doing the routine of deliberately and knowingly going overboard with their initial restrictions, fully expecting backlash.
Because what they do then, is make a few concessions over things they were never "married to" in the first place, such as allowing one extra quick bar, to which players say "okay well that's better" and then are accepting of it.
Basically, they're doing a version of haggling... start way higher than you intend to sell something for, so that when you've haggled down a bit, you end up getting exactly what you wanted, or even a bit more.
Wouldn't surprise me at all.
I just hope people are weighing the restrictions on their own merit, and not accepting it because it's "not as bad as it could have been".
It sounds cynical, I know... but you really have to read between the li(n)es with anything big companies like this do. Everything is calculated, even the things that seem random and ridiculous. They're not flipping coins or making these decisions willy-nilly.
I really liked the City of Heroes F2P model (game's closing in November due to NCSoft decision, likely to get more to play GW2). They favored previous subscribers that's subbed for 2-5 years and you were already ahead of younger players when the game went F2P.
With SWTOR, subbed players will only get 900 cartel when the game goes F2P, as far as I know and there's very little worth getting under 900, if I bother to log in I'll probably spend all that cartel on unlocking the other 2 quickbars. At least they're revamping the restrictions, they would've been the laughing stock in game reviews and magazines in the coming months.
This is just... damn. Like getting a free cinema ticket just to discover the "catch" - a dude with a baseball bat tenderizing your face before, during and after the movie.
"Now THAT should teach the f2p crowd to play for free in OUR game!"
(3) The gambling cases are going to cause existing subsrcibers to quit. Here's why: I went onto the PTS andI spent all the coins that they give you on cases. I ended up getting a bunch of the same items and did not want to use any of them. It seems like they created a few good things and are holding them up as a carrot while in reality the cases are filled with junk 95% of the time. This is just going to piss people off. Pissed of players will find another game.
Welcome to the world of lockboxes / lootboxes (PWE/Turbine) :I
"they created a few good things and are holding them up as a carrot while in reality the cases are filled with junk 95% of the time" that's exactly the point. And not to forget it's only a few seconds work to them to increase that 95% for, let's say 98%. And a few months later to 99%.
Comments
Pretty sill limitations I admit.
But I'm not affected by this as I will be always subbed to SWTOR.
Wow, they are testing things and people take it for granted.
BTW, Based on community feedback (people that actually play the game), they got rid of the 1 quickbar restriction. Tey also added a third tier of F2P.
darthhater.com
eqnext.wikia.com
Anything new here? Hmmm... Nope. o/
I wonder what happens to former subscribers who have purple gear. To me the restrictions are way to many. There is noo way I could play or would be able to unless my toons were grandfathered in.
Previous subscribers do not lose what they have. If you had a character created with a race already that is not an option for the F2P option, then you can still play that character. If you already had cargo space and inventory space and legacy levels, then you still have those also! So your toons are grandfathered in, you can Play Now! Hurray!
Edited for typos.
Yo Dwag, i heard you like skillbars, so i put two skillbars instead of one in a game where you probably want four.
Am i not the generous one? Now stop B* and go Pay me.
I will always love you Arts of Electronica. I love it when power suits are behind major decisions in a game.
what a clueless comment... NOTHING.
eqnext.wikia.com
Did they get rid of the quickbar restriction yet?
They have preferred player status and can wear all purple items that they already own. Also all inventory and cargo unlocked by them will be available for them.
They also added one more bar for F2P players
As a Preferred Status Player, you will gain the following benefits compared to Free-to-Play Players:
• The Sprint ability at Level 1
• Access to your Cargo Hold (an 80 item Player Bank)
• Access to Secure Trade (starting at level 10)
• The ability to send Mail, including one (1) attachment
• Increased allowance for chat message frequencies in Public chat channels (such as /general)
• An increased Credits Cap
• Access to the Who List
• Three (3) additional Sale Slots on the Galactic Trade Network (for a total of 5)
• One (1) additional active Crew Skill Slot (for a total of 2)
• Reduced skill point respecialization costs
• Increased Server queue priority
In addition to the above benefits, Subscribers who return as Preferred Status Players will find that they retain any Cargo Hold and Inventory expansions they had unlocked, any Legacy Unlock or Perk they have gained (including Species) and can continue to use any Artifact equipment that was bound to them previously.
Sith Warrior - Story of Hate and Love http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxKrlwXt7Ao
Imperial Agent - Rise of Cipher Nine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBBj3eJWBvU&feature=youtu.be
Imperial Agent - Hunt for the Eagle Part 1http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQqjYYU128E
That being said, based on community and internal feedback here and further deliberation, we will in short order make the following changes to the Free to Play restrictions:
Sith Warrior - Story of Hate and Love http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxKrlwXt7Ao
Imperial Agent - Rise of Cipher Nine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBBj3eJWBvU&feature=youtu.be
Imperial Agent - Hunt for the Eagle Part 1http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQqjYYU128E
So how long will 2 quickslot bars last for those of you have actually reached level 50? Won't this merely delay how long it takes before free players reach a point which effectively makes the game unplayable without paying?
You can manage with 2 bars if you absolutely don't want to spend any cash for additional one. You can use the ability window for 1h buff, and abilities you do not use often. You don't need to use all abilities, game is playable without using everything available. Inconvenient but doable. Some classes: operatives, marauders have more usable abilities so it might be tougher. But doable for sure.
Sith Warrior - Story of Hate and Love http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxKrlwXt7Ao
Imperial Agent - Rise of Cipher Nine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBBj3eJWBvU&feature=youtu.be
Imperial Agent - Hunt for the Eagle Part 1http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQqjYYU128E
jesus mother of christ. Bioware is still in denial that this game lacks in so many deptarments.
They are giving you teh story for free....k bioware "WE ALL QUIT AFTER THAT" . Charging for action bars, mail, able to equip items.
This isn't f2p this is a "lets get as much as we can before we close shop down" grab if i've ever seen one. You people should seriously be insulted that this company is doing this to players.
ALl they had to do was invest their time in a better space combat, a better world environment, less instancing, customized ships. bla bla bla .....instead they invest all their resources into ripping you off.
I will not play f2p, i would gladly come back and pay for a sub, if they fixed the shit that was and is still broken from closed beta.
lol. Problem is the 'speculators' don't have a clue. A brief rundown:
BioWare and Pandemic formed a Company (VG Holding Corp.) in 2005. This Company (BioWare/Pandemic) got in bed with Lucas Arts (the publisher) to make SWTOR. They didn't have the money to do this. So they took advances. They took a LOT of advances. Close to $190 million worth of advances.
Sometime later, BioWare sells itself to EA. It was an interesting deal. First, because it cost EA $620 million in cash. Then EA had to buy-out another $155 million in VG stock options. Second, are more importantly, they had to give VG (which had money problems) $35 million (as a loan) for them to take care of their obligations. Plus they had to absorb $190 million of debt owed to Lucas Arts from the production advances BioWare took.
When EA took over BioWare, the absorbed the Company. Including the LA debt. BioWare doesn't exist as a separate company. They ARE EA. They're a division. Like Chevy and Buick are divisions of GM. So they're not going to escape this debt by throwing up their hands and saying "oh my, this isn't working."
Beyond the debt, there is the royalty situation. As long as the game runs, LA will get royalties. LA usually takes 30% though who knows what they're taking here... So, Fremium or not, 30% (or some lower number perhaps) of every dollar will have to go to LA. And you can be sure, George Lucas has very good accountants and attorneys and much bigger pockets to pay them. After all, they're about 20 times the size of EA.
Hell, at $3.3 billion, George Lucas personally is worth almost as much as EA (Lucas is personally worth $3.3 billion, EA is worth $3.8 billion (market cap, worth less on the books (equity method))).
So, grand Internet 'thinkers' to the contrary, I see no way out of this mess beyond EA going Chapter 7.
So if we tally up the numbers of SWTOR for EA:
1.) $620 million to aacquire VG Holding Coro (Bioware and Pandemic)
2.) $155 million in VG stock options
3.) $35 million sundry VG debt
4.) $190 million of Bioware debt to Lucas Arts
5.) $300 million in SWTOR production and development costs.
6 .) $200 million in SWTOR marketing costs.
7.) $500 million in stock buyback to raise the price of their (EA) stock after SWTOR's spectacular underperformance.
You're suggesting SWTOR cost EA $2 billion?
Free to Play is expensive.
I play SWTOR. I enjoy it. But, the Cartel Market and the F2P plan is going to fail. I just went on the PTS, and everything in the market is junk.
(1) If people were not willing to pay a monthly subsripition before, they are not going to pay a lower weekly subsrciption now. (The free verson of the game is not playable.)
(2) People who log in to try the game out for the first time are going to quit because it won't be fun with the limitation.
(3) The gambling cases are going to cause existing subsrcibers to quit. Here's why: I went onto the PTS andI spent all the coins that they give you on cases. I ended up getting a bunch of the same items and did not want to use any of them. It seems like they created a few good things and are holding them up as a carrot while in reality the cases are filled with junk 95% of the time. This is just going to piss people off. Pissed of players will find another game. This is as true a fact as can be.
What is EA thinking???
That we are all robots ready to drop our cash into their pockets.
http://thewordiz.wordpress.com/
I wonder if they're not doing the routine of deliberately and knowingly going overboard with their initial restrictions, fully expecting backlash.
Because what they do then, is make a few concessions over things they were never "married to" in the first place, such as allowing one extra quick bar, to which players say "okay well that's better" and then are accepting of it.
Basically, they're doing a version of haggling... start way higher than you intend to sell something for, so that when you've haggled down a bit, you end up getting exactly what you wanted, or even a bit more.
Wouldn't surprise me at all.
I just hope people are weighing the restrictions on their own merit, and not accepting it because it's "not as bad as it could have been".
It sounds cynical, I know... but you really have to read between the li(n)es with anything big companies like this do. Everything is calculated, even the things that seem random and ridiculous. They're not flipping coins or making these decisions willy-nilly.
I really liked the City of Heroes F2P model (game's closing in November due to NCSoft decision, likely to get more to play GW2). They favored previous subscribers that's subbed for 2-5 years and you were already ahead of younger players when the game went F2P.
With SWTOR, subbed players will only get 900 cartel when the game goes F2P, as far as I know and there's very little worth getting under 900, if I bother to log in I'll probably spend all that cartel on unlocking the other 2 quickbars. At least they're revamping the restrictions, they would've been the laughing stock in game reviews and magazines in the coming months.
This is just... damn. Like getting a free cinema ticket just to discover the "catch" - a dude with a baseball bat tenderizing your face before, during and after the movie.
"Now THAT should teach the f2p crowd to play for free in OUR game!"
Welcome to the world of lockboxes / lootboxes (PWE/Turbine) :I
"they created a few good things and are holding them up as a carrot while in reality the cases are filled with junk 95% of the time" that's exactly the point. And not to forget it's only a few seconds work to them to increase that 95% for, let's say 98%. And a few months later to 99%.