Hello!

Is it just me, or has anyone else been bugged about the fact that acquiring Cartel Certificates is almost completely impossible now? When the Cartel Market first launched, they were a LOT more common, and they were far more useful. The packs that were released carried reputation vendors that held items worth spending your cartel certificates on, but now having that reputation buff is pointless.

Bioware should consider buffing the drop rate of Cartel Certificates solely because of the fact that they used to be useful and the items were cool to get. For instance, say your server's economy is **** and black primary dyes are through the roof on prices. You could just go to the Binary Star Realty vendor and buy one for a couple of cartel certificates and some credits.

Isnt they only way to get certs is from old packs and the contraband slot machine currently? Packs being rare these days not to mention pretty pricey? The slot machine having abysmal drop rates. Also, while allowing access to some items from 1-2 vendors, there is currently no way to increase rep with the other cartel vendors making them useless unless you already have their reputation maxed back when you could earn rep (currently unavailable as well). Think there is another post somewhere discussing this stuff.

Ashur

RERUN THE OLD PACKS.

What is it with people? Am I the only one who understands what's "needed" to resolve this?

RERUN THE OLD PACKS.

It isn't intellectually hard.

RERUN THE OLD PACKS.

I'm pretty sure there's an idea lurking around somewhere.

RERUN THE OLD PACKS.

Oh, yeah, that's it! Rerun the old packs. Like they did last summer. Geez. Bonus feature: you get the chance to raise your reputation with the rep-oriented CMC vendors.

RERUN THE OLD PACKS.

 

What is it with people? Am I the only one who understands what's "needed" to resolve this?

 

RERUN THE OLD PACKS.

 

It isn't intellectually hard.

 

RERUN THE OLD PACKS.

 

I'm pretty sure there's an idea lurking around somewhere.

 

RERUN THE OLD PACKS.

 

Oh, yeah, that's it! Rerun the old packs. Like they did last summer. Geez. Bonus feature: you get the chance to raise your reputation with the rep-oriented CMC vendors.

Seconded.

So, was doing a little research folks, and the CM certs has been a long standing point of contentions with about 3-6 posts about them in the suggestions box every year. A couple noteworthy threads point out what you all already know: The drop rate is for them from the contraband slot machine is incredibly low, at 0.05% chance.

The original poster of this thread did some very nice empirical evidence of cost to return on this and how nonviable the slot machine decoration is as a way to acquire the certs. So the first suggestion would be to rollback or re-adjust the drop rates of the certs within the contraband slot machine decoration.

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=913995

While this next recent thread is unfortunately a bit inflammatory initially, there are a couple constructive suggestions on how to bring back the certs, as well as a god point that the slot machine decoration being the only viable way to aquire the certs is incredibly unfair to new players to the game.

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=923990&highlight=cartel+market+certificates

While the suggestions of putting the certs themselves up for direct sale in the CM for coins isnt a bad idea, I'm guessing that the coon value for them would be difficult to appraise and the fact they are already a legacy bound item may add to the difficulty of putting them up for direct sale, since direct sale items thus far have all been bind on equip and then unlockable for additional coins through collections.

The SWTOR Team has periodically brought the old CM packs back for limited runs, allowing the player base to purchase the old packs again to get the certs and reputation and so on. However, this seems to be about once a calendar year, making it a long time to wait, and while the drop rates are better, not everyone has the real life funds to shell out for the packs in significant quantity.

The main issue with the Certs being such a scarce item at this point is that there are a large number of vendors that require them. All the CM reputation vendors, many of which provide items only obtainable from those vendors (or as lucky drops from chance cubes) as well as the decoration vendors that provide a wide array of popular npc decorations like bartenders and dancers and medical droid vendors and so on.

So I have some additional suggestions to alleviate the problem, some of which have probably been mentioned in other threads or on fan sites.

One option is to do away with them completely, although this would further invalidate the contraband slot machine deco as a method for reputation farming and nothing more.With the teams recent purge of most of the commendation currencies from the game (data crystals etc) in favor of making everything for credits, however, this might be a viable alternative. Either the vendors that sell items for Certs sell them for credits only, or they sell the item for two different ways, either credits + certs as they do now, or strictly credits. Obviously purchasing for credits only would be much more expensive credits wise but having two purchase options would open up the availability of the items locked behind the certs, and with the move to strictly credits having already caused inflation on the economy the risk of further inflation related to such a move would be minimal.

Another option is to add the certs into the pool of drops from Grand Chance Cubes, or introduce them back into the pack drop pools on their own as a possible item that shows up as a drop instead of a jawa scrap drop (a legacy bound item already) or in substitution of a companion gift. Such a move would let the SWTOR team control the drop rate to maintain some rarity while providing an alternative to a less then half a percent chance from the slot machine decoration. Jawa scraps are great ways for acquiring crafting mats, but adding the certs in as a chance to show up in place of scraps, maybe with the same drop rate as the artifact quality jawa scraps, would add in a more viable way to acquire the certs and obtain the items they are used to purchase.

What is NOT being suggested here is the removal of the reputation vendors themselves. Those vendors provide a plethora of unique and rare items that are almost as difficult to obtain as the certs themselves, and are a valuable service if you have a cert or two for things like primary or secondary black dye and so on. We lost so many skins when the planetary comms vendors were removed, I am in no way advocating or suggesting we do such a thing with the certs vendors.

TL;DR: To alleviate the scarcity of Cartel Market certificates, suggestions are to

a)Revamp or roll back the drop rate nerfs of the Contraband Slot machine decoration to drop CM certs more reliably

b) Put the certs up for direct sale, with a regularity perhaps similar to the black and white dye sales

c) Bring the old packs that dropped the CM certs back more regularly, perhaps a bi annual instead of annual rotation

d)Replace the Certificate requirements from the costs of items from the vendors that currently require them, similar to how the data crystals and other commendation currencies were removed and liquidated into credits values

e)Keep the certs as part of the item costs from the vendors that require them, but offer a second price for those items form those vendors based on credit value so that the items can be purchased for a combo of certs and credits or just credits, with the credits cost being higher then the combo of course.

f)reintroduce the certs as drops in the new packs, as part of the same table rotation as jawa scraps or the companion gifts. Or add them as drops from chance cubes.

The only problem with them dropping from command crates is that command crates aren't related to the cartel market in any way. While it would certainly be a nice way to get such items, it doesnt make a lot of sense since the certs were originally intended as a reward for buying the CM packs and things like that. Getting them from the slot machine deco, which only drops from CM packs, is about s close as it gets really.

Not saying I dont like the idea, just pointing out why it makes less sense then most of the other potential ideas. But hey if the SWTOR team picks that one, I sure as hell wont complain.

There was another thread of similar topic where a dev responded. Maybe someone knows which one. He said something about "lets not do that again" regarding the contrsband slot machine but indicated he would ask the team about it. I meant to post a question asking him why "lets not do that again" to understand what issues made them want to avoid it "again."

Ashur

There was another thread of similar topic where a dev responded. Maybe someone knows which one. He said something about "lets not do that again" regarding the contrsband slot machine but indicated he would ask the team about it. I meant to post a question asking him why "lets not do that again" to understand what issues made them want to avoid it "again."

 

Ashur

maybe there was some kind of outcry in regards of the slot machine nerf...

but they could just (as others have suggested) include the certificates in the current packs or as a direct sale

Honestly guys they should just turn cartel certs into Jawa Junk (Which is the new form of currency used by vendors) and just update the Cartel Bazaar vendors to accept that currency instead.

Not really a good idea, unless you mean the purple ones. But even then it's not a great idea.

The Jawa tokens:

* Aren't new. They've been around for a fair while now.

* Aren't *the* new form of currency. They are *a* currency. Most vendors use other things. (Completed Bounty Contracts, Gray Helixes, Rakghoul DNA Cannisters, etc.) In fact, only the Jawas accept them.

* *ARE* extremely plentiful. They drop from GC crates, Conquest rewards, and probably other things. I seem to have a never-ending supply of them in all three colours.

The items you could buy from the CMC vendors were originally intended to be fairly rare, clearly. Why? Because they cost CMCs, which were never available in large quantities even when they did drop from packs. So that mount costs two or three, or even five or eight CMCs. That meant a dozen packs, maybe more like twenty, before you could get enough CMCs to buy it.

Yes, I agree, right now, CMCs are rarer than that, probably too rare, but converting them to Jawa tokens isn't the answer. They should rerun the old packs. Annually would be a good start, maybe as often as every six months, but probably not more often than that.

Add certificates and rep items to new packs.

Give them a chance at replacing the Jawa scrap and companion gifts.

One specific rep per pack type, per shipment, or just random rep items. Whatever.

Old packs being re-released, even as a best-of, would work as long as the best-of had the rep items appropriate to that shipment.

I recently dropped 750K credits into the cartel slot machines.

In return for my 750K credits and time I got:

• 1 Scavenged Scrap
  
• 1 Assorted Droid Parts
  
• 2 Jawa Junk
  
• 2 Cartel market Certificates
  
• 192 Green Rep items
  
• 165 Blue Rep items
  
• 54 Purple Rep items
  

My reputation has long since been maxed, so I sold the rep items back and got 396K for them.

That left me with the other items at a cost of 354K credits and the time it took me to burn a thousand coins.

I do not want this to turn into a slot machines thread, just thought that I would throw out the numbers behind my recent acquisition of 2 Cartel Market certificates.

Not really a good idea, unless you mean the purple ones. But even then it's not a great idea.

 

The Jawa tokens:

* Aren't new. They've been around for a fair while now.

* Aren't *the* new form of currency. They are *a* currency. Most vendors use other things. (Completed Bounty Contracts, Gray Helixes, Rakghoul DNA Cannisters, etc.) In fact, only the Jawas accept them.

* *ARE* extremely plentiful. They drop from GC crates, Conquest rewards, and probably other things. I seem to have a never-ending supply of them in all three colours.

 

The items you could buy from the CMC vendors were originally intended to be fairly rare, clearly. Why? Because they cost CMCs, which were never available in large quantities even when they did drop from packs. So that mount costs two or three, or even five or eight CMCs. That meant a dozen packs, maybe more like twenty, before you could get enough CMCs to buy it.

 

Yes, I agree, right now, CMCs are rarer than that, probably too rare, but converting them to Jawa tokens isn't the answer. They should rerun the old packs. Annually would be a good start, maybe as often as every six months, but probably not more often than that.

Im just trying to help I can't offer a flawless solution since they keep changing currency everywhere. And yeah I meant the purple ones those are the ones called Jawa Junk if I remember right. If they adjust the price properly they can make it fair. Even by doing this people will still need to purchase old packs to get enough reputation level to aquire em. So its still a challenge to get your hands on them even with Jawa Junk.

If you want alternatives then they can add a vendor that lets you purchase 1 Cartel Cert for a fair ammount of Jawa Junk, but its kinda the same as the other option. This would just save the devs time messing with the vendor's files and adding a global conversion for certs and all that by just adding a new vendor with the function to convert them for players that need them.

Do you really want to count on re-runs of the old packs to get Cartel Certificates, now that they've increased the CC prices? OH heck no...

Personally, I would like to see a tiny increase to the Certificate drop rate on the Contraband Slot Machine. But let's be honest, that item isn't common and hasn't been available for years.

We need some way to trade for them using Dark and Light tokens, or Jawa Scraps, or something, even if they cost quite a lot of them.

Do you really want to count on re-runs of the old packs to get Cartel Certificates, now that they've increased the CC prices? OH heck no...

 

Personally, I would like to see a tiny increase to the Certificate drop rate on the Contraband Slot Machine. But let's be honest, that item isn't common and hasn't been available for years.

 

We need some way to trade for them using Dark and Light tokens, or Jawa Scraps, or something, even if they cost quite a lot of them.

Buff the drop rate from the slot machine, but being able to trade for CMC's is not a viable option, IMO.

So as of today which packs exactly drop them?

Keeping a few very old packs but won't sell them if they're certificate-dropping packs...

So as of today which packs exactly drop them?

 

Keeping a few very old packs but won't sell them if they're certificate-dropping packs...

You can probably find out which packs have a chance at certificates here:

http://dulfy.net/2013/02/04/swtor-cartel-market-pack-list/#5

If I remember correctly, certificates only had about a 10% chance or less to drop.

I seem to remember the general consensus among forum posters was that anything more than 2 certificates in a hypercrate was considered lucky. YMMV.

You can probably find out which packs have a chance at certificates here:

 

http://dulfy.net/2013/02/04/swtor-cartel-market-pack-list/#5

 

 

If I remember correctly, certificates only had about a 10% chance or less to drop.

 

I seem to remember the general consensus among forum posters was that anything more than 2 certificates in a hypercrate was considered lucky. YMMV.

Thanks! But that kind of doesn't compute. Never bought any of those listed with certs and I did get 20+ certificates from packs... years ago. I remember buying quite a few deep core and outer rim and apprentice's shadow packs

Thanks! But that kind of doesn't compute. Never bought any of those listed with certs and I did get 20+ certificates from packs... years ago. I remember buying quite a few deep core and outer rim and apprentice's shadow packs

The old packs dropped a good amount of Cartel Certificates when they were initially released. During the re-release, they dropped about 1 or 2 per hypercrate. There were a couple of long discussion threads complaining about the greatly reduced drop rate, since many people had shelled out quite a bit of money to stock up on Certificates. IIRC, it came out to about $10 of real money spend for each Certificate.

Considering that it can take 10 Certificates (plus credits) to get a mount, pet, or cosmetic item, that's WAY too expensive.

I think the Certificate drops started with Shipment 2: Contraband and ended with Shipment 7: Explorers packs.

The old packs dropped a good amount of Cartel Certificates when they were initially released. During the re-release, they dropped about 1 or 2 per hypercrate. There were a couple of long discussion threads complaining about the greatly reduced drop rate, since many people had shelled out quite a bit of money to stock up on Certificates. IIRC, it came out to about $10 of real money spend for each Certificate.

 

Considering that it can take 10 Certificates (plus credits) to get a mount, pet, or cosmetic item, that's WAY too expensive.

 

I think the Certificate drops started with Shipment 2: Contraband and ended with Shipment 7: Explorers packs.

So are you saying Explorers DID have them despite being listed as not on Dulfy's? Cause I never had any coin to buy packs before explorers. And I did get two dozen certs...

To say it otherwise I have a couple old packs around, really would like to know if they have a chance to contain certs, or if I can sell them instead. Need to check which packs...

Maybe they should make them have a chance to drop from Command Crates and make cartel market rep drop from the command crates as well while they are at it problem solved

YES - Bring back Cartel Market Certificates, or even New CM rep vendors.

NO - Keep your grubby hands off old rep; it had its time window - get over it

Every time there's a thread for CMCs, there's always at least one WAH~, I want it and I want NOW WAHer trying to make a blatant grab for old rare rep - *snickers.