So I'm wanting to see what the cost in Cartel coins would be, if possible to have account wide stuff unlocked to play as F2P with the near ability of Pay to Play Subscriber. I just don't have the time/money to do $15 a month for something I may only get to play for an hour or nothing at all. So I'm curious to see the cost of getting account wide unlocks for my 12 characters to be able to play them unhindered by any of the F2P penalties, hide head slot, equip XXX item etc. I don't care about PVP or Ops. I would just like to do PVE stuff & level my characters up & do story stuffs in the small times I have.

 

I know this would cost big up front but over the course of a year, two or more it may work out depending on the cost, which is why I'm trying to figure that out. I haven't had the time to sit in game & look or figure the costs which is why I'm here hoping someone from customer service/forms or players or Santa would help out.lol

 

So first off are there Account wide unlocks for like equipping Ops gear for my characters who used to do Ops & are decked in Top Ops gear from about a year ago, use of GTN etc or is it all per character base?

 

I have 12 characters I'd like to have as much access to play & do whatever with as I can.

 

Thanks

I don't if it still there but wasn't there a preferred bundle that had all sort of account unlocks for significantly reduced price, compared to buying them separately? Really can't remember.

 

Regardless, the most essential for completing a good preferred experience are Artifact authorization, 1 crew skill slot unlock, (5 I think) inventory module unlocks, 2 quick bars, event authorization, 4 cargo bay unlocks (though since your plating time is so limited, you may very well be good with 2.), and Section X access authorization,

 

Other handy but optional unlocks; unify armor colors, hide head slot, display legacy name,

 

If you have a decent amount of credits, most of these can be bought on the GTN. Otherwise, check CM for their prices.

The only argument I can see against this from Bioware/EA's point of view is that it would only reduce revenue from CC purchases. If they made it available to subscribers only with a CC purchase of maybe 4 times the cost of unlocking it on one character (or whatever the average number of characters per account is), then it's revenue neutral. And actually it might produce more revenue initially, as long as the development cost of the feature wasn't too high.

Not sure you can play 12 toons....I think f2p gives you 3...and preferred gives you 6 or 7, I can't recall exactly.

 

Now...I am wondering, if you buy the extra character slots if you can open up additional characters that are locked, above and beyond the 6/7 that you're given...

Not sure you can play 12 toons....I think f2p gives you 3...and preferred gives you 6 or 7, I can't recall exactly.

 

Now...I am wondering, if you buy the extra character slots if you can open up additional characters that are locked, above and beyond the 6/7 that you're given...

 

I was un-subbed for a few months at the beginning of the year, and played preferred for about 2 weeks when I came back. I can tell you from experience that you get 6 character slots per server as a preferred player, and I bought 2 Character slots which indeed gave me 8. When I re-subbed, I then had 14 slots per server.

you can look for the account unlocks on the GTN too if you have enough credits

I was un-subbed for a few months at the beginning of the year, and played preferred for about 2 weeks when I came back. I can tell you from experience that you get 6 character slots per server as a preferred player, and I bought 2 Character slots which indeed gave me 8. When I re-subbed, I then had 14 slots per server.

 

Ah ok, that's good to know. My sub is going to be up by the end of this coming week, and I've been making preparations, by buying all the account wide unlocks I can get my paws on. Now, I do have 22 characters on my preferred server, so I'm wondering if the slot unlocks would work for me. I guess I'll be able to test it out, should make it interesting lol.

 

I just refuse to pay anymore money into this, until something I'm actually interested in comes up, like individual class story extensions, new stories/classes, new races and of course player housing of excellent quality. Then my money will be back with its jingle bells on. I refuse to fund their around the world beer parties anymore. That is a waste of money imo, money that could be used for stories and housing.

To the OP. I was curious about this too, so I did the math and was ready for some loop hole F2P gaming fun..... and I was so depressed by what I found out I just went ahead and resubbed. IMHO it's just really not worth playing F2P at all at all at all... mostly because even with all the purchased unlocks (which are extensive and altogether costed an inordinate amount) you're still subject to a myriad of hindrances, like no rest xp, less choices of rewards for quests, limited FP rewards, no OPs, limited PVP access (though that's changed I think)...

 

F2P is a giant trial run, with it's advertised hindrances smacking you in the face and nearly every turn this game has to offer. It's designed to make you spend more money, so even if you sub and don't play for a few months at a time, you may still come out ahead in the end.

Ah ok, that's good to know. My sub is going to be up by the end of this coming week, and I've been making preparations, by buying all the account wide unlocks I can get my paws on. Now, I do have 22 characters on my preferred server, so I'm wondering if the slot unlocks would work for me. I guess I'll be able to test it out, should make it interesting lol.

 

I just refuse to pay anymore money into this, until something I'm actually interested in comes up, like individual class story extensions, new stories/classes, new races and of course player housing of excellent quality. Then my money will be back with its jingle bells on. I refuse to fund their around the world beer parties anymore. That is a waste of money imo, money that could be used for stories and housing.

 

as a prefered player you get 6 toon slots....but you can increase that as much as you like with slot unlocks....when i let my sub lapse i go from 16 down to 8 (bought 2 slot unlocks so i can have one of each class when between GTcards.

 

you can make preferred play very cloase to sub play via CC or off the GTN...about the only thing you cannot change is 1 item per mail when sending, no sending credits thru mail, max of 3 crew on missions/crafting and only craft 1 item at a time per crew member.

I went preferred for a few weeks a month or two ago, and bought all account-wide unlocks other than Section X authorization. Including the cost of the 600k escrow unlocks I needed, it cost me around 5mil to buy everything on the GTN. Obviously you could save some creds by buying the unlocks before your sub expires, so you wouldn't need the escrow unlocks.

 

If you mostly play the storyline and dailies with the occasional flashpoint thrown in, you probably won't notice the difference. There were two things I couldn't stand though - not being able to queue crafting, and being limited to one mail attachment. For someone who plays (and outfits) a bunch of alts, they were a serious pain. They made some strange decisions with the pay wall imo - they punish some play styles severely (crafting for instance), and others are almost untouched (people who play a single character). I know people who have been preferred since the f2p launch, and they don't notice it at all other than having to buy Ops/FP passes every week on the GTN. They play single characters and don't craft, so in their case it doesn't make any sense to pay for a sub.

as a prefered player you get 6 toon slots....but you can increase that as much as you like with slot unlocks....when i let my sub lapse i go from 16 down to 8 (bought 2 slot unlocks so i can have one of each class when between GTcards.

 

you can make preferred play very cloase to sub play via CC or off the GTN...about the only thing you cannot change is 1 item per mail when sending, no sending credits thru mail, max of 3 crew on missions/crafting and only craft 1 item at a time per crew member.

 

Hmm, I didn't realize about the crafting restrictions, I knew about the 1 item and no credits thru mail. I did purchase a couple of crew unlocks, but I thought they were to be able to do the various jobs...I see what you mean now about the crew doing 1 item at a time, and only 3 on the go. I suppose I can live with that. As someone else mentioned, for only basically running dailies or the odd reputation event (most of which I've finished), I probably won't notice a huge dif, because I'm done everything else.

Edited December 8, 2013 by Lunafox

So I'm wanting to see what the cost in Cartel coins would be, if possible to have account wide stuff unlocked to play as F2P with the near ability of Pay to Play Subscriber.

 

It won't happen sadly, the way F2P is currently structured.

 

Yes, it's possible to unlock enough stuff to remove most (but not all) of the annoying F2P restrictions. Roughly speaking, the cost of buying those unlocks through cartel coins is more of less the same as purchasing the boxed game in the first place.

 

Though if you've been playing for a while, you can buy some of those unlocks using in-game credits. If you really plan ahead, different servers have different economies - prices can vary hugely. So pick a server with a low population and small trade community (RP servers are a good bet) and buy the account version of the unlocks (account unlocks work cross server and cross region). Of course you'll need to find a way to earn credits on that server first. Generally speaking, every F2P player should subscribe for 1 month THEN go F2P.

 

But even after you've bought all those unlocks, to actively do stuff at endgame you'll need to buy weekly passes. The cartel coin price of those weekly passes for ONE type of activity per month is roughly the same as the monthly subscription.

 

Oh and one weekly pass only works for one character. It's not an account wide unlock.

 

Want to do operations AND flashpoints each week... it's cheaper to subscribe.

Want to do operations on two or more characters each week... it's cheaper to subscribe.

Got a lot of alts already and want to actively use them for almost anything... it's cheaper to subscribe.

 

F2P is an extended trial. It's primary reason is to get people to subscribe (Bioware have said so at a cantina tour).

As a secondary benefit, it lets Bioware implement a cash shop for people already paying a subscription.

 

Imagine it: An MMO company says they're going to launch an MMO with a subscription AND a cash shop... they'd be lynched. Yet we accepted it after the fact - because mostly we were glad the game didn't go under.

 

F2P isn't a pay-as-you-go scheme. It *might* be cheaper, if you only play one character and only do one activity two or three weeks each month. Maybe you could get creative and pay for 1 weekly pass with credits and the next with cartel coins - but that sort of credit sink is hard to maintain on a busy server (with expensive GTN prices).

 

So the one-off unlocks cost the same as the boxed game and the weekly passes are more expensive than the subscription. SWTOR is F2P in name only. Oh and after you've bought all those account wide unlocks and temporary weekly unlocks, etc..... You'll end up subscribing, which gets you everything those unlocks bought - so you've effectively bought everything twice.

 

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Edited December 9, 2013 by Woetoo