"Finally, BioWare is also offering special item packs that remind me of some of the packs offered in the Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer store. You wont be able to unlock these with credits, mind you, but the two packs available (Black Market and Crime Lord) offer players a chance at earning some special items"
Gambling boxes! Probably the worst road F2P has gone down.
Originally posted by trancejeremy "Finally, BioWare is also offering special item packs that remind me of some of the packs offered in the Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer store. You won’t be able to unlock these with credits, mind you, but the two packs available (Black Market and Crime Lord) offer players a chance at earning some special items"
Gambling boxes! Probably the worst road F2P has gone down.
I had pretty decent success getting cool stuff out of them on the PTS. I think they're kind of neat, actually!
Originally posted by BillMurphy I plan on trying it too. I never did get to finish some of my personal stories because other projects popped up. This will allow that, at least!
It is the best part of this game. Only to finish one class story is great expirence
Is it true that the free Cartel Coins that previous subscribers have earned are not available to players unless they re-subscribe?
I have "earned" 900 cartel coins but I won't be able to use them unless I re-subscribe? If it's true, that doesn't make much sense. If they want to reward early subscribers and thank them for their initial support and hopefully lure then back to the F2P game, making them subscribe in order to receive that reward is pretty sad.
I don't see why this would be the case. Where did you hear this?
SWTOR have said it themselves to a degree they only added the second redemption phase after community backlash.
Today we are excited to announce that the global launch date of the Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ Free-to-Play option will be November 15, 2012. This release will be simultaneous across all of the territories and countries The Old Republic™ is available.
If you’re a paying Subscriber at the launch of the Free-to-Play option on November 15th, you will be granted all of the Complimentary Cartel Coins currently listed on your Cartel Coin Ledger page, plus a one-time grant of 250 Complimentary Cartel Coins!
Additionally, we are extending the Rewards Program! All former subscribers who reactivate their subscription by the new date of December 20, 2012 at 11:59pm CST will be granted Complimentary Cartel Coins for their prior paid months up to November 15, 2012. For more information on all of the rewards you could potentially receive, visit www.StarWarsTheOldRepublic.com/FREE.
As always, be sure to check StarWarsTheOldRepublic.com for latest updates and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
So if you don't resub you get nothing regardless of what you may have acrued, if you haven't took up this offer by 20th December you lose out on all prior month complimentary.
It may just be community reading it wrong and poor wording on EA Biowares behalf but seeing as no CM has corrected the 1000 + page posts on the issues on the forums then I do indeed think the way I have described it is right.
Would be good if you journalist types who have a little more power than the average player can seek out a definitive answer.
You have to be active subscriber at the time of launching F2P to get CC. It is believed that the date will be 11/14/12
Edit. They reward active subscribers, not every person who ever played the game. And I think it's a right choice.
I disagree, they should reward those whom paid the 60 dollar box and left after they realized it was a hero's journey done up with light sabers.
We always forget those box prices when it comes to mmo's.
Of course EA's management disagree's with me, but that's no surprise. I'm full of awesome common sense!
i am not bashing you but it is not ea fault if you bought a 60 dollar box without first waiting to see how the game will move and progress and if you will like it .
But it is EA's fault for making a brick that had to go FTP after a year. How about we see some of our$60 back in cartel coins. Oh wait, the game sucked, so I dropped my sub so now I'll get nothing for my money after all. I bought the Digital Deluxe Edition, and if I read correctly, you have to have a new account to go FTP, or else re-sub to get my old account back again.
You read wrong.
If you sub to the game before December 20th you get Cartel coins for when you subbed and extra for having the digital CE edition etc. If you do not want to sub you can still play on that old account as it would be given preffered status so you would have a few restrictions in place but your characters wouldnt be locked or unuseable etc
Originally posted by mmoguy43 Mike, not say you are wrong but where did you get the information that there is "only two character slots per server" ? I have not read that before for free or prefered players.
I have not read that before Me neither, but it seems correct. Sevenstar posted a link about the Cartel Market item list, and on the Subscriber benefits part there's "10 additional character slots per server". Since subs have 12 slots, seems logical that f2p/preferred will get 2 slot.
Which is not a problem, most f2p's have character slot restriction. What IS a problem instead, that I don't see character slot on the aforementioned Market list... Which would be the stupidest f2p decision ever... Or not, that place is already taken by the hotbar restriction from the same company
But seriously, every game selling additional character slots, even those who don't have restriction on it and offering 6-8 slots by default, because character slot is maybe one of the most selling unlocks in any game. I have 4 toons in TOR, so when I check back after f2p, I will have to choose 2 of them, the other 2 stays locked. So far that's the standard procedure in most f2p's. Then I go to the Market to buy 2 more slots, and EA will say: "nope, dude, if you wanna play your other toons, you have to subscribe"? For real? Hilarious
Edit: since nobody else will return, I figured there's no point for me to stick to my old server. So I thought, I will pick 2 toons, then transfer them to an another server, then pick the other 2, this way all 4 will be active on two servers:) Yep, good idea in theory, but just checked the account page, and it said character transfer is currently not available. Lol.
Originally posted by trancejeremy "Finally, BioWare is also offering special item packs that remind me of some of the packs offered in the Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer store. You won’t be able to unlock these with credits, mind you, but the two packs available (Black Market and Crime Lord) offer players a chance at earning some special items"
Gambling boxes! Probably the worst road F2P has gone down.
I had pretty decent success getting cool stuff out of them on the PTS. I think they're kind of neat, actually!
Gambling is gambling, you cannot put a nice face on it no matter how you try. Personally I think it is worse than pay-to-win.
its rly sad, i was so hyped for 4 years during dev of the game, i was so dissapointed with actual gameplay( I played wow for 4 years and I dont find anything in this game new),only good thing were the stories and now ea and bioware are trying to scrap players who bought this game into comming back with wrong attitude, they are offering rewards to only current subs, yes its fair to them, but if you want to get players who bought the game and left it, u gotta target them aswell with some rewards, so if active sub is getting cartel points, then give non active sub less cartel points and believe that would make me want to download the game, log in and actually go for swtor again and then maybe spend something on it actually... Anyway I do rly hope EA will burn since they always fu franchises...
only way i dowload this game is if i can get a slim version of it where only the main story has voice overs otherwise no way the download for swtor is huge
I may be wrong but the impression I keep gettting is that this free to play model is so limited that it may not only fail to attract new players in big enough numbers long term but it also may drive away existing subscribers .
F2P with cash shops is always more expensive than sub. if u plan on playing the game longer than a few weeks its actually cheaper just to sub for a month at a time.
So what happens to us folks who did subscribe who had purple items. Will we be able to log in and use those items , or will we log in and find ourselves naked and be forced to unlock.
Also I noticed that somebody posted you have to have a new account for free to play, I want to know where it said that.
Unfortunaly I find their fremium to be too restrictive.
Well I'm a previous subscriber & may sub again but I honestly have to say after reading everything about the new f2p I'm very disappointed that a f2p player can't even use CC. You'd think since the Cartel Market is opening the same time that f2p will launch that they'd make CC accessible to f2p players as well, so that previous sub players & f2p players who just wanna pay for certain items such as more character slots, expanded inventory or expanded cargo hold could buy these on the Cartel Market without having to sub. It's sad a person is forced 2 pay in order to get the CC in the first place when they have payed for the box, digital deluxe or collector's edition, & previously subscribed or a person who is new to f2p who just wants to buy those items to have less restrictions in game. It kinda defeats the purpose of f2p when you are left with no option of using CC when you choose the f2p gameplay.
Yeah I uh... Jumped the gun on my comments as usual, this,won't be bringing me back sorry swtor its not enough. Sub for ui features ? Lol ok and no endgame = no Rockniss
Well I'm a previous subscriber & may sub again but I honestly have to say after reading everything about the new f2p I'm very disappointed that a f2p player can't even use CC. You'd think since the Cartel Market is opening the same time that f2p will launch that they'd make CC accessible to f2p players as well, so that previous sub players & f2p players who just wanna pay for certain items such as more character slots, expanded inventory or expanded cargo hold could buy these on the Cartel Market without having to sub. It's sad a person is forced 2 pay in order to get the CC in the first place when they have payed for the box, digital deluxe or collector's edition, & previously subscribed or a person who is new to f2p who just wants to buy those items to have less restrictions in game. It kinda defeats the purpose of f2p when you are left with no option of using CC when you choose the f2p gameplay.
I'm not quite get it, you can use coins as f2p too. And yep, it's not a friendly gesture to forcing previous players to resubscribe, but it seems they slowly start to realize it (I mean according to latest changes now you don't have to have a live sub on Nov.15, you can resub until Dec. to receive your coins)
I'm with you on this one though:
players who just wanna pay for certain items such as more character slots
too bad there's no such item on the Market right now... and it doesn't have any sense, more slots meaning more options to snatch the player's money, since it might follow more character unlocks, inventory, etc. Any f2p mmo knows that. But hey, it's EA
Originally posted by mmoguy43 Mike, not say you are wrong but where did you get the information that there is "only two character slots per server" ? I have not read that before for free or prefered players.
I have not read that before Me neither, but it seems correct. Sevenstar posted a link about the Cartel Market item list, and on the Subscriber benefits part there's "10 additional character slots per server". Since subs have 12 slots, seems logical that f2p/preferred will get 2 slot.
Which is not a problem, most f2p's have character slot restriction. What IS a problem instead, that I don't see character slot on the aforementioned Market list... Which would be the stupidest f2p decision ever... Or not, that place is already taken by the hotbar restriction from the same company
But seriously, every game selling additional character slots, even those who don't have restriction on it and offering 6-8 slots by default, because character slot is maybe one of the most selling unlocks in any game. I have 4 toons in TOR, so when I check back after f2p, I will have to choose 2 of them, the other 2 stays locked. So far that's the standard procedure in most f2p's. Then I go to the Market to buy 2 more slots, and EA will say: "nope, dude, if you wanna play your other toons, you have to subscribe"? For real? Hilarious
Edit: since nobody else will return, I figured there's no point for me to stick to my old server. So I thought, I will pick 2 toons, then transfer them to an another server, then pick the other 2, this way all 4 will be active on two servers:) Yep, good idea in theory, but just checked the account page, and it said character transfer is currently not available. Lol.
Ok, you're right and I found it. Here."If you convert to Preferred Status, you will need to choose which two (2) of your characters will remain active, and play those characters within the limits of Free-to-Play access." It is somewhat hidden and not even on the F2P restrictions chart probably because it would make it far to long and frightening if they listed every actual restriction lol.
Sometime after the F2P launch they will sell character slot unlocks. (source)
Ripster: There is a welcome screen that lists a benefit of subscribing as 10 additional slots. Will this mean subscribers will have 22 or that F2P will have 2? Blaine: Great question and we want to make sure we’re clear on this one. Subscribers will still have 12 character slots available on a single server. F2P players will have 2 (as will Preferred). At Launch, we are not enforcing the penalty on subscribers who convert to Free-to-Play, but we will in a subsequent patch. A further wrinkle is that if you have more than two and you delete characters at Launch, you will not get that slot back. Example: I have 10 characters as a subscriber this November, but in December I cancel my subscription. When I login, I can still use all 10 characters (for now), but I cannot create new ones and if I delete one, I will have 9 and not be able to create another until I go down to 1. Make sense?
So what happens to us folks who did subscribe who had purple items. Will we be able to log in and use those items , or will we log in and find ourselves naked and be forced to unlock.
Also I noticed that somebody posted you have to have a new account for free to play, I want to know where it said that.
Unfortunaly I find their fremium to be too restrictive.
Basically, EA is saying bend over to all it's previous subscribers. This is probably the most restrictive f2p rules I have seen.
What will result is they will get some people in the game that never played before, but most past subscribers will find the f2p far to restrictive and will end up not playing.
You will see a short spike in server populations and then another fast decline. Only EA could come up with such brain dead restrictions. Unless they make some changes, they will be taking all servers off line within a year.
You have to be active subscriber at the time of launching F2P to get CC. It is believed that the date will be 11/14/12
Edit. They reward active subscribers, not every person who ever played the game. And I think it's a right choice.
Right, penalize the people who bought the game and actually subscribed. Sounds like it is right out of the EA response book.
Seriously, why stick it to previous people who actually spent some real money on this game, only EA could come up with such a brain dead idea!
This is the same company that gave free play time to make up for the bugs at first ONLY to people who had a level 50 character... and then they had to backpedal so fast they went to ludicrous speed.
EA/Bioware just doesn't seem to have a clue on how to run a MMO (really, not enforce naming restrictions on RP servers) or how to deal with customers.
They can't even communicate properly, I read my email as meaning that I had these CC points but I could only use them when I subscribe again NOT as some claim only if I subscribe before the switch over time.
If the others are right... well I am might try the game out for free and if they pulled a miracle, even subscribe but not if I am not going to get those coins they tried to lure me with.
It just seems like Bioware/EA is completely new with having to deal with customers beyond a single sale. With a single game sell, customer relations are easy, once you got their money, they are at your mercy. With a subscription game and worse a cash shop, they can stop paying you anytime you choose.
I bought Dragon Age but never ever dealt with Bioware, I don't visit their forums I don't interact, they just got a percetange of the price I payed and that is it. Now with a MMO, they got to get me back (well not me perse but people like me) and I need more then you got a free gift if you pay us. Come on, who falls for that.
Ten to one that to buy anything even remotely usefull, the free coins aren't anywhere near enough.
So basically costs about $20+ to unlock everything for one character if the user doesn't subscribed and uses the cash shop. No thank you, cheers to EA for making my decision easier to not play SWTOR again.
premium members do not seem to have that much restrictions on them from what ive read and thats a 5 dollar unlock considering i spent 60$ on this game at release and others get it for free what is 5 bucks? Not trying to stick up for them honestly but what am i missing for premiums that make it so restrictive ? EQ2 had auction house locks , item locks , class and race locks, bag space locks , AA/slider locks at 50% unless you pay 15 a month and lotr online had content locks for anything above 30. So what is making premium for example so bad compared to other freemium games?
Comments
Gambling boxes! Probably the worst road F2P has gone down.
R.I.P. City of Heroes and my 17 characters there
I had pretty decent success getting cool stuff out of them on the PTS. I think they're kind of neat, actually!
It is the best part of this game. Only to finish one class story is great expirence
SWTOR have said it themselves to a degree they only added the second redemption phase after community backlash.
Today we are excited to announce that the global launch date of the Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ Free-to-Play option will be November 15, 2012. This release will be simultaneous across all of the territories and countries The Old Republic™ is available.
If you’re a paying Subscriber at the launch of the Free-to-Play option on November 15th, you will be granted all of the Complimentary Cartel Coins currently listed on your Cartel Coin Ledger page, plus a one-time grant of 250 Complimentary Cartel Coins!
Additionally, we are extending the Rewards Program! All former subscribers who reactivate their subscription by the new date of December 20, 2012 at 11:59pm CST will be granted Complimentary Cartel Coins for their prior paid months up to November 15, 2012. For more information on all of the rewards you could potentially receive, visit www.StarWarsTheOldRepublic.com/FREE.
As always, be sure to check StarWarsTheOldRepublic.com for latest updates and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
So if you don't resub you get nothing regardless of what you may have acrued, if you haven't took up this offer by 20th December you lose out on all prior month complimentary.
It may just be community reading it wrong and poor wording on EA Biowares behalf but seeing as no CM has corrected the 1000 + page posts on the issues on the forums then I do indeed think the way I have described it is right.
Would be good if you journalist types who have a little more power than the average player can seek out a definitive answer.
You read wrong.
If you sub to the game before December 20th you get Cartel coins for when you subbed and extra for having the digital CE edition etc. If you do not want to sub you can still play on that old account as it would be given preffered status so you would have a few restrictions in place but your characters wouldnt be locked or unuseable etc
I have not read that before Me neither, but it seems correct. Sevenstar posted a link about the Cartel Market item list, and on the Subscriber benefits part there's "10 additional character slots per server". Since subs have 12 slots, seems logical that f2p/preferred will get 2 slot.
Which is not a problem, most f2p's have character slot restriction. What IS a problem instead, that I don't see character slot on the aforementioned Market list... Which would be the stupidest f2p decision ever... Or not, that place is already taken by the hotbar restriction from the same company
But seriously, every game selling additional character slots, even those who don't have restriction on it and offering 6-8 slots by default, because character slot is maybe one of the most selling unlocks in any game. I have 4 toons in TOR, so when I check back after f2p, I will have to choose 2 of them, the other 2 stays locked. So far that's the standard procedure in most f2p's. Then I go to the Market to buy 2 more slots, and EA will say: "nope, dude, if you wanna play your other toons, you have to subscribe"? For real? Hilarious
Edit: since nobody else will return, I figured there's no point for me to stick to my old server. So I thought, I will pick 2 toons, then transfer them to an another server, then pick the other 2, this way all 4 will be active on two servers:) Yep, good idea in theory, but just checked the account page, and it said character transfer is currently not available. Lol.
SWTOR 15.11.2012 F2P
SWG 15.11.2005 NGE
The irony is almost too much.
Gambling is gambling, you cannot put a nice face on it no matter how you try. Personally I think it is worse than pay-to-win.
F2P with cash shops is always more expensive than sub. if u plan on playing the game longer than a few weeks its actually cheaper just to sub for a month at a time.
So what happens to us folks who did subscribe who had purple items. Will we be able to log in and use those items , or will we log in and find ourselves naked and be forced to unlock.
Also I noticed that somebody posted you have to have a new account for free to play, I want to know where it said that.
Unfortunaly I find their fremium to be too restrictive.
Well I'm a previous subscriber & may sub again but I honestly have to say after reading everything about the new f2p I'm very disappointed that a f2p player can't even use CC. You'd think since the Cartel Market is opening the same time that f2p will launch that they'd make CC accessible to f2p players as well, so that previous sub players & f2p players who just wanna pay for certain items such as more character slots, expanded inventory or expanded cargo hold could buy these on the Cartel Market without having to sub. It's sad a person is forced 2 pay in order to get the CC in the first place when they have payed for the box, digital deluxe or collector's edition, & previously subscribed or a person who is new to f2p who just wants to buy those items to have less restrictions in game. It kinda defeats the purpose of f2p when you are left with no option of using CC when you choose the f2p gameplay.
I'm not quite get it, you can use coins as f2p too. And yep, it's not a friendly gesture to forcing previous players to resubscribe, but it seems they slowly start to realize it (I mean according to latest changes now you don't have to have a live sub on Nov.15, you can resub until Dec. to receive your coins)
I'm with you on this one though:
players who just wanna pay for certain items such as more character slots
too bad there's no such item on the Market right now... and it doesn't have any sense, more slots meaning more options to snatch the player's money, since it might follow more character unlocks, inventory, etc. Any f2p mmo knows that. But hey, it's EA
Ok, you're right and I found it. Here. "If you convert to Preferred Status, you will need to choose which two (2) of your characters will remain active, and play those characters within the limits of Free-to-Play access." It is somewhat hidden and not even on the F2P restrictions chart probably because it would make it far to long and frightening if they listed every actual restriction lol.
Sometime after the F2P launch they will sell character slot unlocks. (source)
This is the most clear explaination
Ripster: There is a welcome screen that lists a benefit of subscribing as 10 additional slots. Will this mean subscribers will have 22 or that F2P will have 2?
Blaine: Great question and we want to make sure we’re clear on this one. Subscribers will still have 12 character slots available on a single server. F2P players will have 2 (as will Preferred). At Launch, we are not enforcing the penalty on subscribers who convert to Free-to-Play, but we will in a subsequent patch. A further wrinkle is that if you have more than two and you delete characters at Launch, you will not get that slot back. Example: I have 10 characters as a subscriber this November, but in December I cancel my subscription. When I login, I can still use all 10 characters (for now), but I cannot create new ones and if I delete one, I will have 9 and not be able to create another until I go down to 1. Make sense?
edit: nvm, not sure that is right.
Basically, EA is saying bend over to all it's previous subscribers. This is probably the most restrictive f2p rules I have seen.
What will result is they will get some people in the game that never played before, but most past subscribers will find the f2p far to restrictive and will end up not playing.
You will see a short spike in server populations and then another fast decline. Only EA could come up with such brain dead restrictions. Unless they make some changes, they will be taking all servers off line within a year.
I do understand they have to do something to earn money, but this is just horrible, imo.
Restricting hot bars and chat is alone reason enough for me to stay away, so there's no need to comment on the other horrors at all.
This train has crashed and burned once. It will happen again.
This is the same company that gave free play time to make up for the bugs at first ONLY to people who had a level 50 character... and then they had to backpedal so fast they went to ludicrous speed.
EA/Bioware just doesn't seem to have a clue on how to run a MMO (really, not enforce naming restrictions on RP servers) or how to deal with customers.
They can't even communicate properly, I read my email as meaning that I had these CC points but I could only use them when I subscribe again NOT as some claim only if I subscribe before the switch over time.
If the others are right... well I am might try the game out for free and if they pulled a miracle, even subscribe but not if I am not going to get those coins they tried to lure me with.
It just seems like Bioware/EA is completely new with having to deal with customers beyond a single sale. With a single game sell, customer relations are easy, once you got their money, they are at your mercy. With a subscription game and worse a cash shop, they can stop paying you anytime you choose.
I bought Dragon Age but never ever dealt with Bioware, I don't visit their forums I don't interact, they just got a percetange of the price I payed and that is it. Now with a MMO, they got to get me back (well not me perse but people like me) and I need more then you got a free gift if you pay us. Come on, who falls for that.
Ten to one that to buy anything even remotely usefull, the free coins aren't anywhere near enough.
So basically costs about $20+ to unlock everything for one character if the user doesn't subscribed and uses the cash shop. No thank you, cheers to EA for making my decision easier to not play SWTOR again.
There's a cooldown on general chat, I believe. This is common in F2P games to curb farmers and other abusive players that can just make new accounts.