Problem #1 - Tech Fragments cap is EXTREMELY low.

Then players finds a way to bypass that on a super inconvenient way that is to buy a piece with alts and stockpile Tech fragments. Gotta keep track on timers, which alt has what, etc.. it's an inconvenience to bypass your stupid TF cap, but at the end of the day it works, well not anymore.

Problem #2 - In order to avoid players doing that what did you do? YOU MADE ITEMS NON-REFUNDABLE ANYMORE! Great logic, great solution.

I mean, WHO the hell in the Bioware studios had this brilliant Ben Irving level of an idea?? This brings me back to 1.0 when there were no buy-back and items were non-refundable, Bioware SOLVED this problem just to bring it back now.

Bioware, this is one of the worst decisions you've made throughout 8 years of Swtor.

What impact does it have on players?

1 - You gotta pay 500% more attention before spending Tech fragments.

2 - Gotta ALWAYS go back to Supply vendor to spend TF to not go over the cap, that means you have to always plan ahead of what you gonna buy, you can't just play the game get a bunch of TF and then think of what you need/want.

You have to stop whatever you're doing just to spend TF, this is ANNOYING.

3 - Can't test tacticals anymore. I used to go class by class testing the tacticals to see which one fits my playstyle more, well too bad, now I can't.. I gotta be 100% sure of what tactical I want or else it's 3k TF + 1mil credits wasted on a useless tactical. If it was cheap like 500 TF i'd be OK.

I'm very serious when I say that I can't believe someone inside Bioware studios had this decision, and another one gave this decision a green light. Inteligent employees hired to make important and good decisions to the game just to make this extremely dumb and stupid move, how am I supposed to trust you guys any more???? Again my theory that devs don't even play the game gets confirmed again.

Solution:

1 - Increase the TF cap to 30k, there's NO reason to not increase it.

Bioware you gotta understand something: YOUR PLAYERS WON'T QUIT THE GAME IF YOU INCREASE THE CAP, it's the opposite, the LESS annoyances and inconveniences that you make the less people will quit your game, when your game is CONVENIENT to the players they get hooked, they get loyal. Bad decisions on top of bad decisions is what make your game to fall, I can't believe the extremely inteligent Bioware engineers don't see it or don't understand it.

2 - Make pieces refundable again.

You have no idea how pissed I am for not being able to test tacticals before buying it. It literally kills the alt-friendly system.

If someone knows an in-game solution for these problems, please let me know.

the game does warn you once you get to like 2200 tech frags. every time you get fragments after that it flashes on screen and tells you that you are close to the limit. i haven't had an issue spending the fragments in time and i only have two level 75 characters, would be even easier if i leveled another toon to spend some on.

creative way to stockpile though, i was unaware of that. kind of is lame that they changed it

The reason they did it wasn’t to stop people hording tech frags on Alts using gear.

They did it to stop people from rerolling the amps at no cost. Ie, buy a chest, doesn’t have the amp you want? sell it back to the vendor and keep doing this till the amp you want is on the item.

By doing this, it was by passing their Amplifier slot machine credit sink and they couldn’t have that

As they say in gambling, “ the house always wins “

What is stupid about the change is they have prevented players who accidentally buy the wrong one from being able to return it. This is going to cause a lot of ill will towards Bioware.

My wife got the wrong one because when she clicked, it lagged and she clicked the wrong one without checking. Tries to return as you would expect and finds out she can’t.

The amps are already too expensive because it’s flat out gambling like a slot machine, maybe if they’d cap a price, reset the roll price once a week and lower the costs, people wouldn’t have been using the refund timer to by pass a ****** system.

As for storing extra tech frag, we told them on the pts that players would buy the Armor with refund timers to store them and they should just remove the cap or make it 50k plus.

They completely ignored our feed back on the pts and now they are band aiding things that affect the wrong things.

The game should be about player enjoyment and fun. Not gambling to get amps, not running back to the vendor every 5 mins to buy gear so you don’t cap your tech frags.

Remove the tech frag limit or increase it significantly so players can “PLAY THEIR WAY” and enjoy the game. If they enjoy hording tech frags till they are ready to gear an Alt, let them damn well do it,

the game does warn you once you get to like 2200 tech frags. every time you get fragments after that it flashes on screen and tells you that you are close to the limit. i haven't had an issue spending the fragments in time and i only have two level 75 characters, would be even easier if i leveled another toon to spend some on.

 

creative way to stockpile though, i was unaware of that. kind of is lame that they changed it

Fairly certain it doesn't warn you until you cross the 4000 mark. It doesn't even make sense for it to warn you at less than half the total cap.

the game does warn you once you get to like 2200 tech frags. every time you get fragments after that it flashes on screen and tells you that you are close to the limit. i haven't had an issue spending the fragments in time and i only have two level 75 characters, would be even easier if i leveled another toon to spend some on.

 

creative way to stockpile though, i was unaware of that. kind of is lame that they changed it

It's 4000 tech frags. Yes it does warn you at some point but it's also annoying that you cannot save up for two pieces since the set bonuses go by 2 pieces. I think it's fair to have the cap raised to 10K.

As for the other issue. Yeah it sucks that they are non-refundable because they create a problem for players to maintain a system that players hate anyway so it's a doubly punishing move. Amplifiers are a real big f you to players and not a fun system.

My view is still that amplifiers should be craftable. This way the RNG fest can be avoided. I really don't enjoy blowing a million credits on an amp just to get something decent, not even what I want or the best version of it necessarily. The amplifier system suck balls in short and it's something that I won't spend a lot of attention to beyond getting the first decent one and then leaving it alone till they do something with it that makes it enjoyable again.

I have to agree with this. I see no reason for the tech frag limit...let alone such a low limit. Why?? It's a huge inconvenience to players. So what is so important that you have to burden players with such a limited system?

I also agree that the amp system is nothing but a credit sink. And, that is pretty annoying. And, putting further limits on an already limited system to keep people from circumventing this credit sink, just makes the system more annoying.

So, now we are stuck with having to stop what we are doing when we finally get something going (i.e. got a good group running fp's etc.) to go try to pick out what gear we want. And, then we have to make VERY sure of what we want, and that we select that correct piece or the frags are wasted. That is just piss-poor design. And, players have a right to be angry with it.

Everyone wants the tech frag limit dramatically raised, or just eliminated altogether. Will the devs hear us and fix it? Who knows.

Right on OP, this is dumb af.

But unfortunately trixxie is right, the change was made cause u could get the exact mod with the exact gold amp u wanted from kai zaiken, or the amplified champion shells. I did not have the sanity to buy/sell thousands of times, so i just settled for gold amped crafting mods. Maybe once i got an armouring along the way that was 306, optimised, and gold perked of a desirable type.

Having a cap on tech frags is asinine, it has been from the start, but even more so after this stupid, stupid change. Did i say stupid?

It is further insult to injury that there is still no way to get the exact amp u want w/o either taking absurd amount of credits, or time rerolling mods that u get while doing content. It is infuriating.

I swear these devs r trying their hardest to get us to unsub. Im hanging on by a thread, especially after clearing the new op on hard mode. I have very little desire to continue doing the few things that i still would like to achieve with this toxic, exploitative BW behaviour.

There was a post years and years ago from a developer in regards to the Mission Log only being twenty five missions deep. And if it were to be raised, it would cause system issues on their end, so they kept it at twenty five. So if for whatever reason, raising the Tech Frag limit, or even removing it would cause similar issues, I can understand why.

I'm not a tech guru, so I really don't know. But if that isn't the issue, which it probably isn't, the cap needs to be removed or altered significantly. If someone wants to hoard 10k or even 50k in Fragments, what's the issue? Other than slowing players down by having them return to the Fleet to spend said Frags.

The people that were around during launch remember all the things we put up with due to the lack of content. No Group Finder, Sprint being available at level 15, Mounts at 25, having to run (couldn't mount) through the terminals to reach planets, etc, etc. I could go on and on. The only reason that comes to mind as to why there's a cap on the Frags is to slow people down. That may not be the main reason, but it wouldn't surprise me if it played into it.

People that were using the Class Vendor mechanic by grabbing a piece of gear with the Amp of their choice, and I'm 100% guilty of it myself, are the main reason those items are no longer refundable. Either way you slice it though, people shouldn't be punished by not allowing items to be returned. Come up with a better plan than what was implemented Tuesday. People will sometimes buy items by mistake, either due to lag or accidentally clicking twice.

Fix the current system and the cap needs to be removed, bottom line.

Gotta keep track on timers, which alt has what, etc.. it's an inconvenience to bypass your stupid TF cap

Um just use one toon, make him buy the speeders for 500 fragments and logout. The timer only runs when you are logged on that toon, so if you make a toon, which u dont use you just log to him to buy the speeder and keep them in cargo bay, easy.

There was a post years and years ago from a developer in regards to the Mission Log only being twenty five missions deep. And if it were to be raised, it would cause system issues on their end, so they kept it at twenty five. So if for whatever reason, raising the Tech Frag limit, or even removing it would cause similar issues, I can understand why. .

I don't think this is the case. It was 3k on PTS and raised to 5k, after all.

I don't think this is the case. It was 3k on PTS and raised to 5k, after all.

There are issues they mentioned before with certain high numbers stacking. The problem is, they make those numbers themselves. So why not have these items cost 1000 tech frags and adjust the drop frequency accordingly?

So even if the number is the issue, they should just solve it in the opposite direction. What have we ever needed 3000 tokens for in this game?

They did it to stop people from rerolling the amps at no cost. Ie, buy a chest, doesn’t have the amp you want? sell it back to the vendor and keep doing this till the amp you want is on the item.

Well, the funny thing is that now mainly the pvp players got what they wanted and the rest who want to be best for PVP simply are out of luck cause they started gearing late, after the "exploit"

Even Krea in his guides had all the best amps, already with this way so.....