DarthTexas: Why is the armor obtained from the Market & mystery boxes not bind to legacy? It seems a step backward in regards to giving players choices and flexibility.

 

Blaine: Bear in mind that you are completely free to trade the armor, mail it to your Alts, or put it on the GTN even though it is not BoL, so you have an awful lot of choice and flexibility. That said – we’ve heard this feedback and are considering some options for the future that may satisfy this desire.

 

Please do it (or alternative) as soon as possible...

Blaine: A large portion of the items in the Cartel Packs are exclusive to the packs. The great news for anyone who does not want to purchase Cartel Packs is all items in the store can be traded (and thus gifted to friends!) and sold on the Galactic Trade Network. This means that you can get what you want via the GTN if you are patient and have the in-game credits to spend.

 

I wan't to scream please get rid of this player abusive money suck, but I will simply ask a question. Does Bioware really believe that Cartel Pack items will be posted on the GTN at a price point most people can afford?

 

I would not be surprised if I see some items are posted between 10 and 20 mill credits. Players who refuse to gamble are forced to save large amount of in-game credits. Not individually listing Cartel pack items seems like a lost money making opportunity. Why leave money on the table?

Blaine: A large portion of the items in the Cartel Packs are exclusive to the packs. The great news for anyone who does not want to purchase Cartel Packs is all items in the store can be traded (and thus gifted to friends!) and sold on the Galactic Trade Network. This means that you can get what you want via the GTN if you are patient and have the in-game credits to spend. Also important to note is this is just the start of the offerings you will see for sale in the Cartel Market. As we gather information and feedback on what players want to see, we will certainly make adjustments.

 

I have to laugh, first you make this important announcement regarding gold selling and how much you are against it, then you happily advertise how players will essentially be able to buy gold from you... Apparently you hold the same line as Blizzard on this issue (with Diablo 3), you are very much against gold selling, unless you are the ones profiting from it.

Edited October 30, 2012 by Rassuro

Some questions:

1. Why Cartel Packs in the first place? :/

 

Skinner Box.

 

Same reason that all the items in Mass Effect 3's multiplayer come randomly in booster packs. A lot of players will feel compelled to try again after purchasing a couple of packs, and may just pay real money to do it.

will things eventually be phased out of the Cartel Packs and into the cash shop as more things get added to the packs? Or will we always be paying to fight RNG?

Was wondering why when you have an update you take the forums down. Can access the rest of the site. Just the forums are locked. If I click on this through a twitter link can get into different topics. Seems like you don't want the community to have too much free time on their hands being able to point out different issues that are still wrong with the game. Why have test down at the same time as regular servers? We know they're not linked. Just seems to be more of the same ''If we keep em off, they can't complain"

Simple question:

 

Do you have plans for adding Faction respec tokens to the Cartel Shop? (ie. Mercenary to Commando, Sage to Sorcerer, ...)

 

Since gear skin changes based on faction and all skills are mirrored, i see no tech reason preventing this and i swear it would be a good selling one, at least i know i would buy it

Edited October 30, 2012 by recsa

My question for the whole "Free-To-Play" thing is that I have been a subscriber since December. The whole Cartel Credits came out and I have a fair number of them. But how do I access Free-To-Play so I can use the credits and does that affect my subscription. I don't know anything in this particular field. I just want a little more knowledge about

F-T-P and what it does and how it affects a long time subscriber, like myself.

My question for the whole "Free-To-Play" thing is that I have been a subscriber since December. The whole Cartel Credits came out and I have a fair number of them. But how do I access Free-To-Play so I can use the credits and does that affect my subscription. I don't know anything in this particular field. I just want a little more knowledge about

F-T-P and what it does and how it affects a long time subscriber, like myself.

As a subscriber 99% of the game remains the same. The only immediately noticeable difference is going to be an orange glowing button for the Cartel Market. You will also see the amount of Cartel Coins you have in the currency tab of your inventory and there will be some inclusion of the Cartel Market in places like the Legacy screen when you choose to unlock a perk. You should be given some Cartel Coins at launch if you are still subscribed, and will get 500 (speculation) coins a month for every month you stay subscribed once F2P launches. You can also buy more coins and spend them however you want in the Cartel Market (or for various unlocks instead of credits if you have no interest in the Market items).

 

 

 

VarrusTheEthical: How often can we expect new content to appear on the Cartel Market?

 

Blaine: You’ll see regular adjustments to the Market that line up with game patches. We plan to make content additions as often as once a month (including new Cartel Packs!), but the major releases will be every 4-6 months.

 

 

 

Does this new 4-6 Month timeline for "major releases" apply only to the Cartel Market or does it tie in with the general content updates?

 

To be more specific, does this mean that the 4-6 week update schedule that EA/BW has promised is for small content additions and that we can only expect to see anything of significance every 4 to 6 months?

What is the reason behind limiting the number of quickbars?

That is a megaton of information and questions answered and things made more clear. Thank you, BW, for the communication.

I'm a guild leader and want to know why you are having F2P have to purchase the guild bank access when that should be a guild leader and/or officers decision. If we decide to give someone access to our guild bank they shouldnt' have to buy the access for that. It seems you are limiting a guild choices on who can or can't have access to a guild bank and that doesn't sit well with me. Edited October 30, 2012 by ScarletBlaze

If I remain subscribed will I have access to all items in the game via normal game progression? Let me give you an example of what I mean by this: Can a player who is not subscribed but spends $100 a month or store stuff be better equipped and geared than me? Are there items that can only be acquired through the store even though I'm a subscription customer? Are you basically making me spend more money by giving me, as a subscriber, the monthly amount of cartel coins that is simply not enough to keep up with the prices on the market?

 

The reason why I ask is because this is exactly what happened in LoTRO and it's the reason why I quit the game... I think this is what players commonly refer to as "pay to win" model. If for the sake of profits the subscribed customer becomes sort of 2nd grade citizen then such a game has no more appeal for me.

As a subscriber 99% of the game remains the same. The only immediately noticeable difference is going to be an orange glowing button for the Cartel Market. You will also see the amount of Cartel Coins you have in the currency tab of your inventory and there will be some inclusion of the Cartel Market in places like the Legacy screen when you choose to unlock a perk. You should be given some Cartel Coins at launch if you are still subscribed, and will get 500 (speculation) coins a month for every month you stay subscribed once F2P launches. You can also buy more coins and spend them however you want in the Cartel Market (or for various unlocks instead of credits if you have no interest in the Market items).

 

You see this is exactly what's wrong and it looks like it will be what makes me quit. If I am a subscriber I should be the maximum level of gameplay that can be reached via the cartel store. Instead you're going with LoTRO model where you give subscribers 500 coins each month which is not nearly enough for all the stuff that will be offered via the store. I know because I played LoTRO. From there on all you have to do is set the prices in such way that my 500 coins are nothing and you force me into spending more than $15 a month. Well it's not going to happen for me. I see enough of market cornering in real life to not have to watch it in virtual world.

 

What needs to happen is you cannot advance via store any more than you can advance via the subscription. That means that if a new type of mount is offered via the store it is automatically available to subscribers via some quest/title/whatever, in other words I don't get it for free but I can get it if I follow my story properly. If that is not the case then why am I subscribing at all? What is my incentive? To go into a cash spending competition with some Wall Street punk with limitless resources?

You see this is exactly what's wrong and it looks like it will be what makes me quit. If I am a subscriber I should be the maximum level of gameplay that can be reached via the cartel store.?

Trick is, it's the same with Legacy, right? If you have a zillion creds, you buy every legacy perk on day one when you roll a toon. If you have a zillion dollars, you buy cartel cosmetic stuff. And if you're a subscriber, you get enough tokens to buy quite a few things up front, and you gain tokens every month. You save up and buy. Your argument about rich people buying everything only works if the Cartel shop was offering +45 stat crystals, etc. If the stuff in the shop was buy to gain an advantage, it'd be awful. This is just saving up and buying. Pay $15/month for a few months or pay $60 today.

 

I'm a guild leader and want to know why you are having F2P have to purchase the guild bank access when that should be a guild leader and/or officers decision.

While I'm not BW, I can speculate on the disaster that they've got to avoid. Since expanded inventories are going to be a perk for subscribers/tokens, I could quickly see guilds being formed specifically to offer players a workaround. Silly, but I suppose they want to make sure that you can't fully-gear a F2P and give them an expanded inventory w/out collecting some Tokens, or else it would make the for-purchase perks meaningless.

Please calrify on this:

 

AlixMV: if you're a Premium Subscriber with Legacy racial unlocks and revert to a Free Account, what will have precedence, the f2p restrictions or the Legacy unlocks?

 

Blaine: First off – if you change from being a subscriber to a Free-to-Play player, you will always go to Preferred status and will never become a Free Account, so you’ll have some features unlocked that you otherwise would not.

 

Then this is said

 

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.

Please calrify on this:

 

AlixMV: if you're a Premium Subscriber with Legacy racial unlocks and revert to a Free Account, what will have precedence, the f2p restrictions or the Legacy unlocks?

 

Blaine: First off – if you change from being a subscriber to a Free-to-Play player, you will always go to Preferred status and will never become a Free Account, so you’ll have some features unlocked that you otherwise would not.

 

Then this is said

 

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.

To put it in terms that are used, there is Subscribing and Free-to-Play. Free-to-Play is then broken down to Preferred Status and Free Account. So, in the second question, when talking about reverting to F2P, it would be as a Preferred Status member.

You see this is exactly what's wrong and it looks like it will be what makes me quit. If I am a subscriber I should be the maximum level of gameplay that can be reached via the cartel store.

If there is not enough to chase after or have fun doing in game to justify $15 a month, what has kept you? If things get worse, then I'd quit too. However, Cash Shops happen in subscription games too. EQ2 had one long before they went F2P, EVE Online added one and even World of Warcraft has taken steps in that direction. I don't get the mentality that everything has to be attainable by everyone, especially when most of it is just recolored items already available. Most of this stuff would not even be bothered with if they were not selling it for cash.

 

Again, if they stop putting in regular content or rewards for subscribers (or don't do a better job of it), well that kind of problem also exists for games that don't have Free Accounts or Cash Shops.

From some F2P trailers I got message "play way you want", which for me meant that if you intend to play only certain part of game(for example pvp) with unlocks and weekly passes you should be able to do it just as fine as if you were subscriber.

Is this really how it's supposed to work, or did I make mistake in my interretation?

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?

 

 

Ok, I asked this in another post, but then realized the gold post was in a thread I could reply to and ask questions, so I have one. In OTHER MMO games when you drop your subscription you keep everything (toons, equipment, etc.). What concerns me is the following. I assume if I was to drop my subscription (money problems, too busy to play, whatever) that I become a preferred member. However, you say eventually in a later patch preferred and f2play accounts would have any toons >2 per server removed.

 

I'm wondering, is there a different account status designation coming for people that actually want to temporarily cancel all play so people who were premium subscribers won't lose toons in that patch? It seems silly to penalize premium subscribers who need to take a break, but would probably come back in the future as premium subscribers again by at some point deleting anything >2 toons on a server.

 

If we have no choice but to eventually lose any toons over 2 on a server if we were premium and needed to cancel, that seems a bit like extortion in a way. I.e. "keep paying $15 a month even though you're not playing at all or you will lose toons".

However, you say eventually in a later patch preferred and f2play accounts would have any toons >2 per server removed.

They won't remove/delete characters when they enforce the F2P restriction on Preferred Status accounts. What will happen is players who log in whlie in Preferred Status the first time after that patch will select which two characters (per server) they want to have access to while in Preferred Status. Anyone who cancels and then resubscribes will have access to all their characters again, whether they logged in as Preferred or not during the lapse in subscription. Edited October 31, 2012 by ripster

They won't remove/delete characters when they enforce the F2P restriction on Preferred Status accounts. What will happen is players who log in whlie in Preferred Status the first time after that patch will select which two characters (per server) they want to have access to while in Preferred Status. Anyone who cancels and then resubscribes will have access to all their characters again, whether they logged in as Preferred or not during the lapse in subscription.

 

Sounds like I read it wrong. They say "we're not enforcing the penalty at launch, but we will in a future patch" and I took it to mean they would force you (or do it for you ) to delete all but 2 toons on a server if you weren't a premium subscriber.

Sounds like I read it wrong. They say "we're not enforcing the penalty at launch, but we will in a future patch" and I took it to mean they would force you (or do it for you ) to delete all but 2 toons on a server if you weren't a premium subscriber.

 

Good lord, no. That would be bone-headed on a scale that would be nigh-impossible to comprehend. No, this is your standard "Pick your (x number of) characters you wish to actually play on this server" deal.

What's going to be the "completion" for you to earn the speeder with friend referral. Currently it says they buy a game code, finish their free time, and have added a paid time or subscription.

 

Would it just be the adding of subscription/time now? I have a trial invite that's started this week and want to know how that will be completed as their paid time doesn't even kick in for a month.