Just looking for a definitive answer from Eric as to whether or not Preferred Status players will be able to access various content (at level 70) with patch 5.0.

 

i) Flashpoints [currently unlimited access]

ii) Operations [currently requires a pass that costs 240 cc for 1 character to access for 1 week]

iii) Warzones [currently limited to 5 per week unless a pass as above]

iv) GSF [currently unlimited access]

Just looking for a definitive answer from Eric as to whether or not Preferred Status players will be able to access various content (at level 70) with patch 5.0.

 

i) Flashpoints [currently unlimited access]

ii) Operations [currently requires a pass that costs 240 cc for 1 character to access for 1 week]

iii) Warzones [currently limited to 5 per week unless a pass as above]

iv) GSF [currently unlimited access]

 

It hasn't sounded good but there are enough people who are confused that a definitive 'there's no way for Preferred to do Operations in 5.0' would help clarify the reality that despite a decreasing population and apparent new sub push towards a system that originally pushed this game to F2P/Cartel Market, that Preferred aren't welcome and they don't want the easy money from passes anymore.

 

There's little good will left and certainly not enough for this shift but the longer they delay and gate more and more content behind a sub, the chances are we're going to have a large group quit all at the same time increases. They may think they can avoid this by sneaking changes in but this is the first time in memory I've seen such a defence of Preferred Access/F2P from so many people and it's only going to get worse.

i) Flashpoints [currently unlimited access]

ii) Operations [currently requires a pass that costs 240 cc for 1 character to access for 1 week]

iii) Warzones [currently limited to 5 per week unless a pass as above]

iv) GSF [currently unlimited access]

 

it is all in the devtracker

I)FP non change .. but at lvl70 you will not get any rewards

II)OPs currently no access for Pref in 5.0

III)WZ's no change but at lvl70 you will not get any rewards

IV)GSF no change but at lvl70 you will not get any rewards

the word 'any' needs to be officially clarified, (they may don't know the definite answer)

so you even don't get any credits for completing at lvl 70 as preferred ?.

Edited October 25, 2016 by Nebdar

it is all in the devtracker

I)FP non change .. but at lvl70 you will not get any rewards

II)OPs currently no access for Pref in 5.0

III)WZ's no change but at lvl70 you will not get any rewards

IV)GSF no change but at lvl70 you will not get any rewards

the word 'any' needs to be officially clarified, (they may don't know the definite answer)

so you even don't get any credits for completing at lvl 70 as preferred ?.

If this is true alot of people will go and play some other game.

As of right now the answer is No. They are removing ops passes form the CM and the ones floating around will become bind to legacy.

Without the passes, ftp/preferred can not enter operations. I think there is a limit on the others.

That being said, I wouldn't be surprised to see a "Command Pass" come out that will give access to them.

If this is true alot of people will go and play some other game.

 

Stop speaking for everyone. And stop stoking the flames. You and others are stoking the flames around these forums.

Stop speaking for everyone. And stop stoking the flames. You and others are stoking the flames around these forums.

 

The only flame stoking has been the devs or whoever is making the decisions, playing with the bandaids but not quite ripping them off. Warzone comms binding in today's patch is the most recent ninja move, and I say ninja because I had to tell the Australian message board I post in what was happening. There's no shiny warning in game... the changes are quite capable of causing explosions without help from any of us.

 

It's causing massive uncertainty instead of being upfront and honest ahead of time. Any subs who purchased passes to sell on the GTN are about to be stuck with an item they can't use and will get erased from existence at 5.0 with a complete unknown as to compensation.

 

There could be a new pass system that can keep the players who would take this as the final straw and get them to stay, a change and it's gotten to a point people can't trust them. Where whatever happy middle ground a few weeks away may be that people would have already decided to leave and hit uninstall. So, if making commotion and getting answers helps, then it's what we all should do.

If this is true alot of people will go and play some other game.

 

And others may sub. I suspect there are a lot of F2P players that don't care about group content anyway so I'm not convinced it will be an exodus. Now some people will leave, that happens every expansion in any game. At the same time it will also bring people back.

 

I suppose the clever thing is that they are going to announce more group content in the livestream in January as they said, so perhaps they are getting ready to try to keep more people subbed after playing through the story.

F2P (or Preferred) gets only a demo for SW:ToR. Period. If you want to enjoy all content, sub. It's freakin 15$ a month. 2 boxes of cigarettes, or 5 beers less a month.

And others may sub. I suspect there are a lot of F2P players that don't care about group content anyway so I'm not convinced it will be an exodus. Now some people will leave, that happens every expansion in any game. At the same time it will also bring people back.

 

Solo players who are F2P and don't do group content add nothing to the bottom line or even the ingame population that does anything...

 

They don't really hurt either I suppose, but the game isn't going to survive on them...

 

End game largely just became sub only... which is fine, that doesn't bother me, but I suspect there aren't enough subs left to make it work and this is their last try to force people to sub.

 

F2P was a mistake... a F2P "trial" to level 25 would have made sense, similar to WoW... The CM of course made sense, but subs mostly buy that stuff, not F2P.

 

And of course a PLEX system, which should have been there day 1 of the CM, and I said it back then too, as did 50 other people. Bioware is filled with idiots for not having that for several years now...

F2P (or Preferred) gets only a demo for SW:ToR. Period. If you want to enjoy all content, sub. It's freakin 15$ a month. 2 boxes of cigarettes, or 5 beers less a month.

 

For a lot of people, it isn't worth that anymore, and that's the problem...

 

Bioware things that by putting a higher level, some solo story, and a F2P hard limit on rewards, they'll get thousands of people to sub again.

 

I think they are nuts, but we shall see in a month...

I expect, with the change in terminology from subscriber to premium, there will be premium passes. The price point will have to be more than a months sub for a week's worth of premium status. Probably a minimum of $6 for seven days.

it is all in the devtracker

I)FP non change .. but at lvl70 you will not get any rewards

II)OPs currently no access for Pref in 5.0

III)WZ's no change but at lvl70 you will not get any rewards

IV)GSF no change but at lvl70 you will not get any rewards

the word 'any' needs to be officially clarified, (they may don't know the definite answer)

so you even don't get any credits for completing at lvl 70 as preferred ?.

 

Thanks for that, although, with WZ, isn't it that you can ONLY do 5 matches per week, since there are no longer WZ passes, unless they release a new kind of pass?

Doubt the changes is going to motivate people to sub. If they were willing to support the game, they would not be f2p. they are f2p because they want to play a game for free. Once they find it more restricting than before, they'll just move on.

I guess my next question then becomes, why remove the old passes from the game?

 

I mean if there is a new replacement pass, then sure. But why delete peoples already accumulated passes? Why not let them be used, even if there is no 'reward'?

will Preferred Players be able to access Ops, FPs, WZ's, and GSF in 5.0 YES/NO

 

The answer should always be No because EA cannot take money for old content without providing core features like CXP ... And I am certain that some guys from finance are not happy about this either.

 

Also they must calculate that the new target group casual soloers will not pay a sub like classic MMO players did for SWTOR and that they will not feed the Cartel market as before either.

Edited October 25, 2016 by KnightOfTython

The only flame stoking has been the devs or whoever is making the decisions, playing with the bandaids but not quite ripping them off. Warzone comms binding in today's patch is the most recent ninja move, and I say ninja because I had to tell the Australian message board I post in what was happening. There's no shiny warning in game... the changes are quite capable of causing explosions without help from any of us.

 

It's causing massive uncertainty instead of being upfront and honest ahead of time. Any subs who purchased passes to sell on the GTN are about to be stuck with an item they can't use and will get erased from existence at 5.0 with a complete unknown as to compensation.

 

There could be a new pass system that can keep the players who would take this as the final straw and get them to stay, a change and it's gotten to a point people can't trust them. Where whatever happy middle ground a few weeks away may be that people would have already decided to leave and hit uninstall. So, if making commotion and getting answers helps, then it's what we all should do.

 

The only thing I see is some people want the same thing that I pay $15 a month for but that they get for free. Why sub if you get it all free?

Solo players who are F2P and don't do group content add nothing to the bottom line or even the ingame population that does anything...

 

They don't really hurt either I suppose, but the game isn't going to survive on them...

 

End game largely just became sub only... which is fine, that doesn't bother me, but I suspect there aren't enough subs left to make it work and this is their last try to force people to sub.

 

F2P was a mistake... a F2P "trial" to level 25 would have made sense, similar to WoW... The CM of course made sense, but subs mostly buy that stuff, not F2P.

 

And of course a PLEX system, which should have been there day 1 of the CM, and I said it back then too, as did 50 other people. Bioware is filled with idiots for not having that for several years now...

 

Are there other sub games out there that give full endgame access to non paying customers? Please list them.

For a lot of people, it isn't worth that anymore, and that's the problem...

 

 

Why? Based on what?

Preferred will have all the same access they do now up to level 69. Then at level 70 they will not have the Galactic command but they can still get armor crafted without set bonuses. At level 70 without GC they wouldn't get a reward so that's why the ops passes are going away. Who wants to pay for an OP and get nothing? They are discussing GC passes which will them give them access. It sounds about the same if they offer passes.

Are there other sub games out there that give full endgame access to non paying customers? Please list them.

 

Aion N/A

 

There is sub, and if you don't sub, you can still get all the gear, do all the dungeons, all the content. The game isn't doing very well though, but they don't lock you out of anything.

Solo players who are F2P and don't do group content add nothing to the bottom line or even the ingame population that does anything...

 

They don't really hurt either I suppose, but the game isn't going to survive on them...

 

End game largely just became sub only... which is fine, that doesn't bother me, but I suspect there aren't enough subs left to make it work and this is their last try to force people to sub.

 

F2P was a mistake... a F2P "trial" to level 25 would have made sense, similar to WoW... The CM of course made sense, but subs mostly buy that stuff, not F2P.

 

And of course a PLEX system, which should have been there day 1 of the CM, and I said it back then too, as did 50 other people. Bioware is filled with idiots for not having that for several years now...

 

Well F2P/Preferred people bring a huge number of customers to in-game economy. A lot of Subscribers bought items on CM only to sell them on GTN and get free credits. Since 4.0 local economy got huge inflation (credit value is like 4x less than before - cartel pack now cost around 1,2 mil while before it was around 300k), practically preventing F2P/Preferred from buying any CM stuff on GTN. => Reducing large base of potential GTN customers.

 

Subscribers will not buy a lot of items on CM if no-one will buy them in GTN.

 

Yeah i know, i dont have any real actual data to support this. But it is logical.

Are there other sub games out there that give full endgame access to non paying customers? Please list them.

 

that word. it doesn't mean what you think it means. preferred players that can acess max level content and use its rewards? are not the non paying costumers. they payed enough into the game to be an equivalent of a buy to play customer that doesn't subscribe.

 

so... they are essentially the kind of player that grabs the Secret world with all its DLC's on sale for $30 (yes, costwise, it IS a rough equivalent) and has acess, UNLIMITED acess to everything. they are the player who grabs ESO with all the DLC's so far for $28 (GMG) and again - has unlimited acess to absolutely everything. $40 will get you everything current in GW2 (well... not the old living story, which was free if you would log in while it was active, fairly affordable to buy now IF you want it, as its basically solo story)

 

and then of course, there's STO. and Neverwinter. and WIldstar. and Tera.

 

so why subscribe in some of those games that DO offer subscription? becasue it gives you a LOT of bonuses for doing so. or you could just buy currency and grab whatever you wish piece meal from the shop. or a combination of it.

 

and the games above? are just the ones that I have personaly played. I believe BDO is now $10 to start playing? no subscription necessary, full acess to all. I haven't personaly played it but it sure seems this way/

 

even WoW, that game that everyone brings up - gives an option to trade in game gold for subscription blocks. the starting purchase price to get every expac so far is a bit higher... but they are also quite a bit bigger than competing games, offering more content and larger player base.

 

in other words. not only bioware is pushing way paying customers, just becasue it thinks they are not paying enough, but its offering pitiful justifications to keep charging subscription vs other games on the market.

Edited October 25, 2016 by Jeweledleah

The only thing about WoW I didn't like on their sub plan us that you buy the expansion AND pay sub fees. I honestly wouldn't mind it if preferred players were given the option of purchasing the expansion rather than sub and then having access to it. Then offer subs extra incentives like faster drop rates. Rewards. Etc

The only thing I see is some people want the same thing that I pay $15 a month for but that they get for free. Why sub if you get it all free?

 

Please, I've said repeatedly I think any easing of well, pre pass removal/4.0 status quo is a mistake for the people, as you said who pay $15 dollars a month. The system has been in place too long and we can't afford to lose those players. I'm just arguing for the current system instead of tweaking the paradigm in the hopes they'll persuade us we're getting some premium deal and alienating the people who weren't just going Preferred and free but outlaying money, or paying credits to those who were for the passes, either way- Bioware/EA were getting paid.

 

I've also said, on multiple occasions, the expansion freebie system is doing more harm than good. All of you arguing how the fact we're paying a sub is great and we're supporting the game, it is not supporting the game to eagerly accept free expansions and not think about where the lost dollars are coming from. They're so desperate, they are introducing an RNG gearing system rather than suck-it-up, put on their big boy/girl pants and tell us subs we need to purchase expansions again.

 

I'm actually arguing for us to pay for KOTET and any future expansion because I know that new content doesn't grow on trees. Most subs don't care where the free expansions come from.