Well, with the current system, every item already has been assigned a base value, which is where the tax on items has been noted as so extreme relative to the GTN. The tax on items is not following the going average on the GTN, but a preset value determined by BW, which is why the transaction tax can be 40%+ of the value of the item on the GTN. So, the work has already been done. No, what I was suggesting is that in peer-to-peer exchanges, those not set as a market item but direct trade/sale, the tax added to the sale would be a percentage of the price the seller is asking. A person who wants to sell a dye module for 50 million to someone nearby might have to pay 5 million to complete the transaction, making their actual profits only 45 million, while a person selling that same dye module for 10 million would only pay 1 million. A person who gave the module away for no gain on their part would not be assessed any tax, because they are not gaining anything in the transaction (indeed, they are losing the entire amount they may have paid into the economy to acquire the item in the first place). Thus, the more someone inflates the price, the more they lose in the sales tax, while those who seek a smaller amount lose less to initiate the transaction. This incentivizes lower prices while also still allowing philanthropy. The option that the tax be assigned based on how much farther above the set value of the item (the direct profits) the seller is asking also has merit, but that would also make lowering the price below that value not incentivized. The point is to put in downwards pressure on prices while not penalizing those who want to be generous. The current system does not do this, and pushes people to sell for as high a price they can get by selling to everyone on the open market at super-inflated prices to recoup the massive loss of the transaction tax while completely nullifying the ability of those who wish to sell at a very low price or even no price to those they want to help in the game.

The newly implemented system does not address the core of the economic issue, that of the very high prices on the GTN that drives the economy into inflation feedback. The sellers simply have to add the cost of the exchange to the price they were already charging, which means prices continue to climb higher in a feedback loop as the prices increase, increasing the need to add more to the price and harming those who have been generous in the game by gifting to others for no credits returned to them from the action. Rather, replace the current tax system which is based on set values independent of the asking price to one based on what the seller is asking for. The larger the price asked, the more the tax, with the desired sell price that BW wants an item to go for factoring in the price+percentage tax. This would encourage a downwards trajectory on market prices and no penalize those who seek no profit in aiding others.

The real fallacy of this solution to the GTN inflation (which is at the core of the problem they were supposedly trying to fix) is that it doesn't affect what the problem is. Charge a tax on an item fifty percent of its going price on the GTN? Then all I will do as a seller is -add- that amount to my asking price to cover my expenses. That pushes prices even higher, not lower. Charge a tax on players trading to make a profit? Again, they just raise their prices to compensate, and the buyer has to cover the extra cost. The end result is far higher prices with the sellers pretty much unaffected and the market paying the extra to obtain what they want, which is exactly how it was before the new system was put in place. What it does affect are generous players who either helped their friends or new players by gifting them items they had no means of obtaining themselves for no credits asked. That was a cost entirely borne by the initial purchaser, with no financial return to them. Now, they must pay for their generosity in an out-of-scale way that simply makes it impossible to help others in this way. The GTN cannot be used for this, as the intent by the giver is to provide it to a specific person for no credits asked, not the general playerbase of the game. If BW wanted to actually correct the issue, then they could have just as easily set a top limit on each item's selling price on the GTN, which would have required about the same work as this, and reduce credit payouts from missions across the board. Or, institute the tax rate on the price -asked-, with the higher the price, the more the seller pays. With the quicktravel and regular travel costs being enforced by the requirement to travel to play the game, that would have either stabilized things or gradually drawn down the credit supply in the game. All BW has done here is eliminate the generosity of those players who want to help their friends or new players they may not even know. There is a reason SWTOR has a reputation among gaming circles as the most mercenary and money-is-all-we-are-interested-in games in the MMORPG world, and this just cements it more.

What I don't understand in these changes is the concept that the way to fix the economy is to penalize the players for playing the game as intended. The use of Strongholds, the options to use them to travel to other planets rather than incur a loss of time and credits, the use of quicktravel rather than walking (which in some cases is simply not possible), all were put in as intended and have been used as intended. Players have also always been able to gift items they themselves have expended effort and money to obtain. To then seek to penalize the use of these intended mechanics really is dishonesty on the part of the Dev team. Rather, the concept should be to offer new -beneficial- options to drain the economy, such as cosmetic changes and extra hook options to SHs, special access to a 'classic' section of the CC or GTN with items not currently available on the market, new SHs and Flagships which can offer additional services to offset the proposed upkeep costs while leaving all existing SHs and Flagships without upkeep or access costs. Those are some suggestions that come to mind off the top of my head, the point being to offer something additional to current content that can serve as credit sinks rather than penalizing players for doing what they have been doing for some time now and was fully intended to be used as such by the Dev Team.

What I've noticed is this: The first time you log into the game, no problems. If you log out and then try to log back in, you encounter the login bug with the download issue. If you completely power down your PC and restart, you can then get back into the game, but the issue will repeat if you then log out and try to log in. Did this twice and worked both times. Hope this helps

[Daily - Bag and Tag] - It seems fish are spawning where the second tracking marker should be.

Indeed. Seems the Decos now despawn behind you at about 40-50 meters, and respawn once you get closer. Very, very bad for the larger SHs, and very disorienting. Makes me wonder just how badly the code was damaged.

Why would you need it? The amount of hook usage isn't tied to anything I know of now, is it?

On the other hand, if a person is trying get -everyone- merged just because PVP isn't happening to -their- expectations, it does beg the question of why they think their side of the game requires everyone to bear the price of their personal satisfaction. Perhaps the reason people don't queue for PVP is because of the people who PVP? I know almost every time I have tried to do it, it has featured about the most toxic players I've ever met, and never seems to change. Why would anyone want to play with people like that? Ultimately, if PVP isn't popping, I wouldn't blame the servers at this point, but the PVP community. There are plenty of people playing, just not the PVP side from what I am hearing.

Oh, they are quite able. They could just insert about half a thousand artificial accounts with SHs and see how the system handles that many. The simple fact is that they don't, because they didn't think it could cause a problem when -every- -single- decoration in -every- -single- SH has to have LOS calculations done on them constantly when they didn't have to before. I agree with others who believe this is the source of the problem, but quite frankly am shocked such a thing wasn't tested before release. Surely, the shear number of additional calculations that was going to add to the engine should have warranted stiff testing on that alone. "Let's be honest, MMO players just aren't good at that sort of thing." - SWTOR Dev I guess we've found what the STWOR Devs aren't good at.

They have made an excellent additional PVP Arena. I'm sure all the PVPers out there will rejoice that they now have a private SH to conduct their battles in and hack-and-slash to their heart's content. The Devs have succeeded in this. They have made a terrible Stronghold. It has very limited potential to be anything but a rusty scrapyard, and the forced PVP nature of at least two of the main areas of the SH (along with the very bold red letters telling you about it) mean that, even if you don't want to PVP in your, essentially, home, you will be forced into it anytime you use those areas. And, of course, there is no way to turn that off. So, the PVPers get their SH, and the rest of us are left dreaming of what it could have been to us. Bravo.

Actually, this has to be worst FP I've ever experienced in this game. 4 hours wasted with zero story content and just a combat grind. All because no one in the entire Dev team thought to put in a Mission prompt to indicate you had to go to -YOUR SHIP- in order to get the mission, rather than the staging area for the FP as in past missions. There is absolutely -Zero- indication where you have to go to start this, and if you do the FP in 'Story Mode' without launching from the ship, you get -ZERO STORY-. No, this has not been worth the wait, because the Devs forgot the most basic part of the FP....giving people the start point and withholding any story content if they actually play 'Story Mode' without it.

The reason you do not understand it is because you are looking at the game solely as a grinding/accomplishment game, which it is not. It is a RP game, and many people want to generate alt characters to participate in RP with their Guild, do in-game activities, and explore other specializations without having to spend a great deal of time doing what they have already done on previous characters. Also, some people lack the time they once had to grind, and still want to be able to generate and use an end-game character that they simply cannot stand to grind out with the game's incredible time-sink design. Also, another reason is for a player who made a mistake on their character to have the option to rebuild them, perhaps also to participate in content they missed and passed by. So, not to make a new character, but to regenerate an existing one. Finally, why you would make a request to increase the price of such an option to such an unreasonable degree is baffling to me. It smacks of a punitive measure, which puts at odds your credibility as a poster as nothing you say in your post justifies it. Perhaps you simply can't stand anyone playing the game anyway but yours, or you are pushing an agenda and the post was simply a smoke screen, but either way, you were wrong to make such an ungrounded and thoughtless request. Especially after asking for explanation on something you admit you don't understand.

Pretty shoddy work for a professional company. An issue on their end, after all this time in operation, and they -had- to take down the game early, for an extended period of time? That sort of stuff might happen in a start-up company where a technician runs a program they weren't supposed to and it messes up the server, but that they are making this an early update means it wasn't a maintenance issue but someone playing around with the update itself when it should have been isolated. Either way, costs those of us who aren't West Coast a day of play, so I'm not too 'thankful' for their work right now.

Well, I must say, I wasn't expecting to lose an entire day of play just so some people could get the next update sooner.