I've been subbed since the start so I may need to be corrected here if it works in a way I'm not aware of. Please feel free to do so! It's just me trying to give some ideas to help out! =)

 

With FTP and Preferred having such a "low" credit cap it seems to be one of the biggest issues I personally see trying to play this game for them. Which yes I can see why it's there in some ways, I feel giving how prices are on the GTN it's just out of their reach by far with no hope of ever really being able to obtain much.

 

So my idea/suggestion is to have the extra credits still do what they do with the cap, if they don't remove the cap or make it way higher than it is which ideally now 1 Billion is really the lowest they can go for them to be able to buy a lot of things, is that the GTN be able to make use of these extra credits they have past the cap. Such as say you have 1 Million, and the item you're trying to buy is 4 Million, have it in a way that it takes the 1 Million from your character and the other 3 from the Escrow.

 

With many of the unlock items that only Preferred or FTP can use being in the double if not triple digits of Millions it kind of defeats the point of them being up there in general. Without a way of them being able to obtain them.

 

While this does still give them a cap, and does not allow them to use it on other things it would give them the ability to obtain items from the GTN that they could use. As of right now it makes it harder to buy unlocks, and other items they could use for their character/accounts.

No need to raise the credit cap for F2P/Preferred. Nothing in this game costs more then 1 million credits to play the game, and continuing to raise the F2P/Preferred credit cap will just help Credit sellers. It was bad enough when BW raised the cap to what it is now, they should never raise it again.

 

Not to mention the cap for F2P/Preffered means having a subscription will have meaning, since the cap goes away as a subscriber. Having no cap as a sub is one of the biggest perks the game has to offer, since BW gives away the best part of the game for free with the 1-50 stories.

No need to raise the credit cap for F2P/Preferred. Nothing in this game costs more then 1 million credits to play the game, and continuing to raise the F2P/Preferred credit cap will just help Credit sellers. It was bad enough when BW raised the cap to what it is now, they should never raise it again.

 

Not to mention the cap for F2P/Preffered means having a subscription will have meaning, since the cap goes away as a subscriber. Having no cap as a sub is one of the biggest perks the game has to offer, since BW gives away the best part of the game for free with the 1-50 stories.

 

I could see part of that with the credit sellers, even at the low prices they are selling it for it's always 100M+ which would be over the limit of FTP/Preferred, it would still be nice if they could make it to where they can still earn it in Escrow to use it if only on the GTN. While granted I could see that being a problem with you bringing up credit sellers. Thus goes back to "This is why we can't have nice things." with some people being the way they are about things. It would lead to issues with bots not having to sub to buy things off the GTN and resell it on a subbed account. As of now they would have to sub to buy said items to resale.

 

Was a good idea up until that thought. Lol Unless they can find a way around that, but I doubt there is one.

Every time I read of a subscriber (subscription necessary to post on these forums) talking about increasing the level of participation available to non-subscribers by raising money caps or otherwise doing away with / reducing the non-subscriber set of penalties, I've only one thought: here is a subscriber wanting to drop his or her subscription but isn't happy with the amount of backpedaling going non-sub entails.

Every time I read of a subscriber (subscription necessary to post on these forums) talking about increasing the level of participation available to non-subscribers by raising money caps or otherwise doing away with / reducing the non-subscriber set of penalties, I've only one thought: here is a subscriber wanting to drop his or her subscription but isn't happy with the amount of backpedaling going non-sub entails.

 

That's kind of a sad way to think of things. There are those of us who would rather try to help with ideas of increasing the FTP/Preferred experience rather than hinder it like it has become in some ways. =) I have 5 accounts that are all subbed. 2 From the start, and three at the least 2 to 3 years. Instead of thinking of bad things first off, or assuming such things it's best to think of if the person is trying to just help out. ^.^ After the credits thing was pointed out, while it would be nice to have something like that for them for GTN, it would make it more viable for bots/sellers to cause issues. Tho I do thank you for your concern for losing a sub. =P

 

In all fairness tho! I'd drop several of my 9 subs in WoW or a few of my of my 4 subs in FFXIV before 1 sub of my SWTOR. =) I love this game too much. Also yes I have a lot of subs. Just 50 characters on WoW, and the low count on FFXIV makes it un-fun for me as I love to level. =) I have 82 characters on this account alone for SWTOR. xD So yea, not leaving anytime soon. <3

I think the best way to understand the model used is that it's an extended free trial that they are deceptively calling a F2P model. People who think no credit cap is some kind of perk for sub have just fallen for the propaganda. Stuff like that is not in the spirit of the F2P model at all. The idea of the F2P model, conceptually, goes something like this: "people don't have enough money to spend monthly on a sub due to economic issues, etc., or they can't afford to because of the saturated game market (can only do it for one game maybe at a time) so with the F2P model, we keep the playerbase large by opening up it (and its activities) to everyone. The loss in expected profits from subs is then made up for with in-game-store MTX."

 

There are plenty of games that do more or less as I've described and there is no one saying there should be a credit cap or something because that's silly and contradicts the point of opening up the game to them. SWTOR does not match the spirit of the F2P model. The SWTOR model is more like: "people don't want to sub for this game because we don't release enough content, so with the "F2P model", we trick people into thinking we are opening up the game to everyone and then browbeat them on the details until they either relent, sub, and get hooked on subbing, or they leave. We also do a store with MTX and lootboxes, so we can get as much money as possible out of this model."

 

They have had years, years when they could have removed restrictions like preferred limits on access to group content, that would have drastically improved pop numbers and they didn't. Instead, they actually removed the stuff like ops passes.

 

TL;DR: I agree with you, but I doubt they will ever budge on it because despite the name used for the model, the reality of the model does not reflect the intent that usually goes with the model of that name. And with how little content they produce and how pitiful their "incentives" are for subbing, it's sad but probably true that many would unsub and hurt their profits if they let up on some of the more absurd restrictions.

 

Edit: And to put it in perspective, here are (IMO) some things that would be actual incentives to sub (as opposed to lack of punishment for not subbing):

- 5,000 CC a month instead of 500

- Discount on all CC account unlocks (added to whatever the current promotion is, if relevant)

- Discount on all store purchases, including ones found in-game such as bank vault, etc. (added to whatever the current promotion is, if relevant)

- Discount on all legacy and character unlocks (e.g. discounted credit cost)

(notably, on all of these, without fudging the math by going in and making stuff cost more than it does now, to make these incentives seem meaningful while still charging the same amount)

- Rewards for consecutive months of subbing (ex: an extra stipend of CC for being subbed 3 months in a row, 6 months, etc., to encourage staying subbed, rather than just doing it once for a quick boost and then stopping)

 

Do I think they would do any of this? No. But IMO, those are what can realistically be called "incentives." Having full access to the credits you earn in the game is just baseline experience. Being able to play group content with other players with no restrictions on it is just baseline experience (and imperative for taking advantage of the "increased pop" part of the spirit of the F2P model).

Edited January 20, 2022 by Rolodome

Can F2P, and preferred players still buy from the CM?

Can F2P, and preferred players still buy from the CM?

Yep, preferred definitely can and F2P gets converted to preferred after buying CC or subbing once (I believe that's the min requirement).

No need to raise the credit cap for F2P/Preferred. Nothing in this game costs more then 1 million credits to play the game, and continuing to raise the F2P/Preferred credit cap will just help Credit sellers. It was bad enough when BW raised the cap to what it is now, they should never raise it again.

 

Not to mention the cap for F2P/Preffered means having a subscription will have meaning, since the cap goes away as a subscriber. Having no cap as a sub is one of the biggest perks the game has to offer, since BW gives away the best part of the game for free with the 1-50 stories.

 

As someone who has spent plenty of time as both a sub and pref status, I think you're being far too disingenuous. Back when we had the 350k cap, you had to constantly micromanage your credits because you'd go over so easily (and thus lose access if not deposited into legacy)

 

At 1 mil, you can at least buy the 306 pieces one at a time off the vendor. But when trying to reroll gold amps you were having to constantly withdraw. Most items go for well over 1 mil.

 

What I do think is funny is that you think that the cap increase made things great for credit sellers. Free accounts are unable to send credits through mail. Free accounts lack the space to store much and can't deal with any real trading because of said cap.

 

Credits are easier to come by than cartel coins. When I came back I had 400-700 mil from a few years ago, and that was a lot. I spent a few hundred million to avoid extensively grinding up from 270. In less than a year I was able to become a multi-billionaire, and really over the course of a weekend of selling stuff I sat on because it wasn't worth selling unsubbed, hint hint.

 

Escrow and preventing people from selling/buying doesn't help in the way you think it does - especially if the user subs from time to time. If they don't, they pile up anyway if the player still plays a decent amount. With subs being the only potential buyers, the supply and demand is largely dictated by the current subs. I spent 3-4+ billion over the course of xmas break, often overpaying just a tad. The only reason I spent at all was the sales on account unlocks, giving me incentive to get the most from my coins. Otherwise, I would have just piled up more credits and continued to NOT BUY ANYTHING (of major value at least).

 

On the bright side my time on the PTS tasting 7.0 means that the credits in my account will effectively be out of the market. It may not be quite the same as the "combat upgrade" but its a lot closer to it than even I thought it would be. Maybe the strategy to reduce inflation is alienate a lot of the long time players, might even work.

No need to raise the credit cap for F2P/Preferred. Nothing in this game costs more then 1 million credits to play the game

Try purchasing the Umbara stronghold, or a companion compendium on fleet, for 1 million credits. You can't even get into the room to use the Umbara stronghold kiosk for less than 3.1 million credits, and it's over 1 million to get the compendium. Certain legacy perks are in excess of 2 million, and a non-sub wishing to create a guild, cannot, as its leader, buy the guild flagship, because that's 8 million.

 

All designed to push people to subscribe.

Edited January 21, 2022 by xordevoreaux

As someone who has spent plenty of time as both a sub and pref status, I think you're being far too disingenuous. Back when we had the 350k cap, you had to constantly micromanage your credits because you'd go over so easily (and thus lose access if not deposited into legacy)

 

At 1 mil, you can at least buy the 306 pieces one at a time off the vendor. But when trying to reroll gold amps you were having to constantly withdraw. Most items go for well over 1 mil.

 

What I do think is funny is that you think that the cap increase made things great for credit sellers. Free accounts are unable to send credits through mail. Free accounts lack the space to store much and can't deal with any real trading because of said cap.

 

Credits are easier to come by than cartel coins. When I came back I had 400-700 mil from a few years ago, and that was a lot. I spent a few hundred million to avoid extensively grinding up from 270. In less than a year I was able to become a multi-billionaire, and really over the course of a weekend of selling stuff I sat on because it wasn't worth selling unsubbed, hint hint.

 

Escrow and preventing people from selling/buying doesn't help in the way you think it does - especially if the user subs from time to time. If they don't, they pile up anyway if the player still plays a decent amount. With subs being the only potential buyers, the supply and demand is largely dictated by the current subs. I spent 3-4+ billion over the course of xmas break, often overpaying just a tad. The only reason I spent at all was the sales on account unlocks, giving me incentive to get the most from my coins. Otherwise, I would have just piled up more credits and continued to NOT BUY ANYTHING (of major value at least).

 

On the bright side my time on the PTS tasting 7.0 means that the credits in my account will effectively be out of the market. It may not be quite the same as the "combat upgrade" but its a lot closer to it than even I thought it would be. Maybe the strategy to reduce inflation is alienate a lot of the long time players, might even work.

 

Actually Free accounts can now store a ton of credits. Legacy Storage can hold many billions of credits, so yes you'd still need to manage how much you have on a character dumping it into storage for a credit seller and using a F2P account as a storage bot isn't a stretch. As far as I understand it Legacy storage can still hold up to 100 billion.