Cartel shop suggestion!

[tuborgen]

Why isn't there any character customisation in the cartel shop?
I for one would gladly use my coins on different hairstyles, body types etc. I hate that some of my tanking chars use the body option number 2 =\

thoughts?

[Kelimbror]

thoughts?

They spent more time deciding what to restrict and what to charge you for it instead of creating extra things that people would actually spend money on. Pretty much the entire reason why the F2P model is considered bullshit. It would have prevented the outcry of people wailing (rightly so) about action bars and other nonsense, even given that you can buy them with in game currency.

Hopefully they'll keep taking feedback on how terrible it is to have so many vital things as the only things you can buy and decide to actually invest time in making the game better. They haven't really shown that mentality in the past, so I don't expect it in the future.

Who knows though?

[Steelyorc]

They spent more time deciding what to restrict and what to charge you for it instead of creating extra things that people would actually spend money on. Pretty much the entire reason why the F2P model is considered bullshit. It would have prevented the outcry of people wailing (rightly so) about action bars and other nonsense, even given that you can buy them with in game currency.

Hopefully they'll keep taking feedback on how terrible it is to have so many vital things as the only things you can buy and decide to actually invest time in making the game better. They haven't really shown that mentality in the past, so I don't expect it in the future.

Who knows though?

On my server...people are spending tons of money on the CC. And it shows. I love the weapons, most of the armor pieces (all of the full sets!), and all the mounts.

I'm not a big "pet guy", but even those are interesting.

Great job Bioware!

[RoninaThorstone]

thoughts?

-Ranked Warzone Authorization: Augments weekly warzone passes to give access to ranked warzone in addition to regular warzones.
-Hard Mode Operations Authorization: Augment weekly operation passes to give access to hard mode operations in addition to story mode operations.
-Advanced Artifact Authorization: (Requires Artifact Authorization) Grants the ability to wear up to Hard gear in addition to Story gear and PvP gear.
-Character Slot: Expand available character slots by one.
-Hair style pack: Contains 5 of 50 new and unique hair styles, with a chance to find rare and iconic styles.
-Addon Pack A: Contains damage meter, raid alert, and auras
-Armor Dye Pack: Contains 5 of 50 new and unique dyes, with a chance to find rare and iconic colors.
-Addon Pack B: Contains galactic Marketeer, mission queue, and treasure detector
-Character rename: Allows you to change the name of one character
-Legacy rename: Allows you to change your Legacy title
-Body type Pack: Contains 4 new body type consumables, one use.
-Face lift: Allows you to change your characters face once.
-Ship customization pack(I): Contains 3 of 60 pieces of art, furniture, holograms, and more for your ship interior.
-Relationship: Initiates a relationship with a crew member of your choice. Khem Val needs love too!
-Transfer: Allows you to transfer the character you use this item on. Warning: Activating this item will log you off that character.
-Ship customization pack(E): Contains 5 of 25 cosmetic upgrades for your ship's exterior such as changing lazer color, ships color, decals.
-Alternate Animation pack: Contains 10 of 200 different animations that can augment signature abilities to new and exciting attack sequences! IE: Master Strike (B)
-Social pack A: Contains anything for rare social gear to role playing items such as a bottle of Alderaan Wine.
-Social pack B: Contains role playing emotes, speech bubbles, portable chairs, and audible catch phrases.
-Story Reboot: Start your personal quest over again but scaled to level 50 (instanced areas). Go back and make different choices to see different endings.
-Advanced UI customization: Gain even greater control of your UI by adjusting the size and position of buff bars, debuff bars, separating menus options, action bars, and adjusting the chat box.
-Unlock race: Cathar: Explore the galaxy as as Cathar.
-Unlock race: Droid: Droids can not be force users.
-Cybernetics: Use this item to add cyborg attachments to your other races. IE: Sith cyborg.
-Unlock race: Wookie: Can not be force users.
-Addon: Galactic Loot: Search for item drops, flash point and operations maps, and bosses with this addon.
-Unlock Macros: Create complex series of attacks with the push of a button with macros.

[Kelimbror]

On my server...people are spending tons of money on the CC. And it shows. I love the weapons, most of the armor pieces (all of the full sets!), and all the mounts.

I'm not a big "pet guy", but even those are interesting.

Great job Bioware!

I'm glad you're enthusiastic, but disregarding all the negatives to be an EA cheerleader (because it was EA that approved the cash shop items) is not productive. Other than the couple of things that ONLY come from Cartel Boxes, there's nothing interesting to spend money on. Other games make sure to have plenty of cosmetic items, mounts, pets, etc to entice people to spend money on. (No there are not plenty of any of these things now) Only a couple of mounts, a handful of pets, and shitty recolored skins for armor. This is not going to cut it going forward.

The bulk of the SWTOR Cartel Market is just restrictions. It's great to be all positive, but you have to look at the data. This was a terrible first showing of the Market and is very unrewarding for everyone other than EA. You can have everything there is with a few credits from people mass buying boxes. Hopefully in the future they add a lot more items to better reward people who are giving them money.

[Steelyorc]

I'm glad you're enthusiastic, but disregarding all the negatives to be an EA cheerleader (because it was EA that approved the cash shop items) is not productive. Other than the couple of things that ONLY come from Cartel Boxes, there's nothing interesting to spend money on. Other games make sure to have plenty of cosmetic items, mounts, pets, etc to entice people to spend money on. (No there are not plenty of any of these things now) Only a couple of mounts, a handful of pets, and shitty recolored skins for armor. This is not going to cut it going forward.

The bulk of the SWTOR Cartel Market is just restrictions. It's great to be all positive, but you have to look at the data. This was a terrible first showing of the Market and is very unrewarding for everyone other than EA. You can have everything there is with a few credits from people mass buying boxes. Hopefully in the future they add a lot more items to better reward people who are giving them money.

Opinions are opinions...yours is an opinion as is mine.

I love being tagged as a EA fan boy simply because I committed the capital offense of expressing satisfaction with the game.

Thanks alot

[Morros]

Opinions are opinions...yours is an opinion as is mine.

I love being tagged as a EA fan boy simply because I committed the capital offense of expressing satisfaction with the game.

Thanks alot

Don't let him get you down, this is still a great and fun game. He's normally pretty pessimistic.

Cartel Market has been great, but I'm a subscriber so I get to spend my coins on things that aren't unlocks.

[Kelimbror]

Opinions are opinions...yours is an opinion as is mine.

I love being tagged as a EA fan boy simply because I committed the capital offense of expressing satisfaction with the game.

Thanks alot

It's not an opinion. It's a basic comparison of other Cash Shops with this one. Initial launches have provided much more incentive to spend money on extras. They clearly spent more time developing restrictions or else their whole strategy disregards a wealth of extras available. It's not like they don't have lots of data to compare. EA clearly just wanted money from restrictions. I specifically commended your enthusiasm while saying it's not helpful to be oblivious. Get a grip.

this is still a great and fun game. He's normally pretty pessimistic.
Cartel Market has been great, but I'm a subscriber so I get to spend my coins on things that aren't unlocks.

I guess you don't keep up to date. The majority of my posts beginning this game were how awesome everything is. Then calling them out for poor decisions, then finding out that you can sell unlocks and buy them with credits. I dropped my major complaints with the system since they are unlockable by playing the game. You are also insinuating that I don't subscribe, which is wrong. As a subscriber I am thoroughly not pleased with the current market. I bought everything available for a pittance in credits instead of wasting my Cartel Coins and have nothing exciting enticing me to spend money or continue subscribing.

[Morros]

I guess you don't keep up to date. The majority of my posts beginning this game were how awesome everything is. Then calling them out for poor decisions, then finding out that you can sell unlocks and buy them with credits. I dropped my major complaints with the system since they are unlockable by playing the game. You are also insinuating that I don't subscribe, which is wrong. As a subscriber I am thoroughly not pleased with the current market. I bought everything available for a pittance in credits instead of wasting my Cartel Coins and have nothing exciting enticing me to spend money or continue subscribing.

By keeping up to date, do you mean forum posts? If yes, then you're partly correct. I stopped playing SWTOR for a while myself because the rest of my guild decided to stop playing, and this was before the server merge and LFG. It was hard to find a good guild or groups to do stuff with. I have only recently returned, and I didn't bother with reading previous forum posts.

However, I have gathered that you are a staple in the SWTOR community here on MMO-Champion and you only really want what is best for the game, and I respect that completely.

I was never insinuating that you personally, do not describe, however I do recall a somewhat recent post by you where you stated that you re-subbed for the Cartel Coins, and then planned on dropping to a Preferred account. If I took this information out of context, I apologize, but the original statement was not meant towards you specifically.

I can understand why people are up in arms over this cash shop and F2P model, however, being a subscriber the restrictions have not really affected me so I cannot speak out against them from personal experience. I currently do Hard Mode Operations with my guild, and I'm very happy with the available content, so F2P or Preferred status would never be an option for me.

On a personal note, I really don't find most of the restrictions to be too harsh. Quickslots being one of the ones that seem pretty harsh, however, most classes won't really need more than two for leveling content. I know from experience though that only having two could be a huge pain for Level 40+ Guardians and the like.

But this is also only the first iteration of the cash shop and F2P system for SWTOR, we all know EA isn't the most consumer-friendly corporation, and many people expected exactly what was delivered, but as we've seen in a recent post, they are alleviating the Quickslot issue for Preferred accounts, which is a step in the right direction. I believe the cash shop and F2P system will expand rather quickly over the next few months based on player feedback and activity, and have decided to hold any judgement on it for another few months.

I would like, for a second, to compare the Cartel Market to the Black Lion Trading Company from GW2. I will hence forth refer to them both as cash shops.

-Both Cash Shops sell boosts.

-Both Cash Shops sell vanity gear. However, SWTOR's cash shop sells vanity gear with level restrictions, however it comes pre-loaded with stats, this may or may not be beneficial to you depending on your use for it. SWTOR's vanity gear also can be used for any armor type. GW2's vanity gear is restricted by armor-type or gimmick items that cannot be worn in combat.

-Both Cash Shops can be used to purchase extra inventory and/or bank space. However in GW2 there is no way to increase inventory or bank space without using Gems. You can still choose to upgrade these things using Credits in SWTOR rather than Cartel Coins.

That's where their similarities end, but they are pretty significant, especially considering that GW2 launched with the intention of being B2P and having a cash shop, and SWTOR did not.

There is definitely room for improvement with the Cartel Market, but comparing it to other Cash Shops, it's really not that bad. SWTOR also offers the Cartel Packs with rare items, mounts, pets, etc, and if you don't need them you can sell them.

[Kagonos]

This is only its initial iteration, too. Now that it is established, they can begin to cull player opinions of what else they might want to see in the cartel shop as well as data about what people are already buying. I agree that there's probably not enough stuff to buy just yet and some of the items are a bit underwhelming, but, that's to be expected. Hopefully they release more items to be purchased in the cartel shop at a decent rate to keep it fresh. I imagine that they will probably "retire" certain things as well, but I haven't played any games that have a cash shop like this, so I'm likely wrong; we'll see.

[Kelimbror]

There is definitely room for improvement with the Cartel Market, but comparing it to other Cash Shops, it's really not that bad. SWTOR also offers the Cartel Packs with rare items, mounts, pets, etc, and if you don't need them you can sell them.

But you are completely forgetting every way that they differ. Using your specific example of GW2, you don't have to pay past the box sales (that many SWTOR players have already spent) to have full access to the game. They give you ample character slots, but the ability to buy enough to see every class. They don't restrict you from any feature at all, only offer upgrades to existing features. And on top of all that, you can literally turn your gold into cash shop currency by playing the game. It is controlled to not get out of hand or cause people to make a profit by flipping these currencies, which is acceptable to prevent chaos.

So you see, just by using your one example SWTOR's cash shop is awful.

In response to you and Kag's claims that this is the initial offering, you forget that in this market you have no time to make these mistakes. It doesn't matter what the cash shop looks like in a year, because this was their best chance to gain customers. Anything in the future can only pale with their missed opportunity. And furthermore, why should anyone playing this game think that playing MMO catch up is acceptable? EA has been doing this since day 1. It's time to start being ahead of the game, instead of relying on your customer base to tell you how stupid you are.

[RoninaThorstone]

So much derail.

We might as well just start this thread over.

[Morros]

But you are completely forgetting every way that they differ. Using your specific example of GW2, you don't have to pay past the box sales (that many SWTOR players have already spent) to have full access to the game. They give you ample character slots, but the ability to buy enough to see every class. They don't restrict you from any feature at all, only offer upgrades to existing features. And on top of all that, you can literally turn your gold into cash shop currency by playing the game. It is controlled to not get out of hand or cause people to make a profit by flipping these currencies, which is acceptable to prevent chaos.

So you see, just by using your one example SWTOR's cash shop is awful.

In response to you and Kag's claims that this is the initial offering, you forget that in this market you have no time to make these mistakes. It doesn't matter what the cash shop looks like in a year, because this was their best chance to gain customers. Anything in the future can only pale with their missed opportunity. And furthermore, why should anyone playing this game think that playing MMO catch up is acceptable? EA has been doing this since day 1. It's time to start being ahead of the game, instead of relying on your customer base to tell you how stupid you are.

I was only comparing Cash Shops, not entire Game Models, so my example is not awful.

As for your initial example of GW2's box cost, there is no cost for SWTOR now, it can be downloaded for free. It doesn't matter if people have "paid" for it already, SWTOR's subscription model, and GW2's B2P/Cash Shop model are different and incomparable. Now that SWTOR has a F2P option, it becomes somewhat comparable. For those who bought the box, well you bought the box when the game's only method of playing was subscription-based, and as long as you subscribed you will be upgraded to "Preferred" status, which is quite playable considering the restrictions are a bit more relaxed.

GW2 does have the currency exchange option, which gives it points over SWTOR.

GW2, imo, also has a far superior "Auction House" than any other MMO out there.

To be quite honest, I don't look at EA playing catch up as an issue, the content already in-game is plenty enough to keep me occupied, I don't really know what more people want. Operations are a ton of fun, Flashpoints are fun, Warzones are fun, and every class has a unique story. Plenty of content imo.

I know this thread has gotten off-topic and I apologize.

[Deleted]

So much derail.

We might as well just start this thread over.

yup drailed by the first reply, thats gotta be a record even for this place.

[Kelimbror]

I was only comparing Cash Shops, not entire Game Models, so my example is not awful.

Nothing else I mentioned past the purchase price has anything to do with the game model and only talks about how the Cash Shop interacts with the game. So good job overlooking the entire point. Additionally, I didn't call anything of yours awful.

To be quite honest, I don't look at EA playing catch up as an issue, the content already in-game is plenty enough to keep me occupied, I don't really know what more people want. Operations are a ton of fun, Flashpoints are fun, Warzones are fun, and every class has a unique story. Plenty of content imo.

I know this thread has gotten off-topic and I apologize.

It is an issue. We are not even talking about content catch up here. We're talking about F2P features/restrictions and the Cartel Market. They are constantly getting overwhelming complaints and then have to eventually change their stance. A perfect example is going from 1 action bar to 4. Things like this have happened since the game launched. You'd think they'd know how to discern what is a good decision regarding the market, but they clearly haven't done any work on creating actual content for the Cartel Market. They were too busy trying to figure out how to restrict the entire game and offer that as Cartel Market items instead.

And for pete's sake, this isn't getting off topic. People wanted suggestions for the Cartel Market...you've gotten lots of them. Unfortunately you can't just give neat little lists to make it perfect, because people and the game are messy by nature. I have a simple two point plan to make the Cartel Market into a more profitable, as it should be feature:

1) Get rid of all the BS restrictions from the Cartel Market and give them back to the game.

2) Actually spend our money we give you and your time to create new things to buy on there instead of how to brick wall the whole game.

Wow, revolutionary. I'm perfectly fine with the restrictions since you can buy them with credits, but if you really want an improved cash shop...that's what it would look like. It doesn't stop me from being able to say it was a stupid design choice.

[Steelyorc]

There is no discussing with kittyvicious

he is right..there is no other angle....certainly no other opinions

[Lemmiwink]

The whole "How to make Cartel Shop better" twist worries me. People seem to be overly concerned about getting new items from the cartel shop over new content now. To me, as a paying subscriber and occasional cartel shop customer, content is what matters most. New FP's, operations, class quests etc. are way more important than stash.

But, I don't want to contribute to derailing so here is my take on it:

- Add some more armor sets
- Add some light sabers etc.
- Add real customization options
- Add server transfers
- Add Quality of Life features like purchaseable addons etc.
- Add new story arcs for your class, even sub-plots that are purely instanced would be awesome and something even subscribers would buy. Like bonus missions....

[Razael]

I'd like a Species change personally, want to make my female Rattataki Assassin into a red Twi'lek with Black tattoos like some artwork i saw somewhere but can't remember

[Psychlon]

Why isn't there any character customisation in the cartel shop?
I for one would gladly use my coins on different hairstyles, body types etc. I hate that some of my tanking chars use the body option number 2 =\

thoughts?

It will come

[Morros]

Nothing else I mentioned past the purchase price has anything to do with the game model and only talks about how the Cash Shop interacts with the game. So good job overlooking the entire point. Additionally, I didn't call anything of yours awful.

You definitely mentioned the restrictions, and character slots, so good job overlooking your own post.

It is an issue. We are not even talking about content catch up here. We're talking about F2P features/restrictions and the Cartel Market. They are constantly getting overwhelming complaints and then have to eventually change their stance. A perfect example is going from 1 action bar to 4. Things like this have happened since the game launched. You'd think they'd know how to discern what is a good decision regarding the market, but they clearly haven't done any work on creating actual content for the Cartel Market. They were too busy trying to figure out how to restrict the entire game and offer that as Cartel Market items instead.

And for pete's sake, this isn't getting off topic. People wanted suggestions for the Cartel Market...you've gotten lots of them. Unfortunately you can't just give neat little lists to make it perfect, because people and the game are messy by nature. I have a simple two point plan to make the Cartel Market into a more profitable, as it should be feature:

1) Get rid of all the BS restrictions from the Cartel Market and give them back to the game.

2) Actually spend our money we give you and your time to create new things to buy on there instead of how to brick wall the whole game.

Wow, revolutionary. I'm perfectly fine with the restrictions since you can buy them with credits, but if you really want an improved cash shop...that's what it would look like. It doesn't stop me from being able to say it was a stupid design choice.

I still don't get what you mean by actual content in the Cartel Market. By comparison, the Cartel Market has more vanity items in it than GW2's Black Lion Trading Post, and that game was intended to be built around a cash shop. First you complain that the restrictions are too much, then due to player request they lessen one of the restrictions, and now you're complaining about them changing something for the better? I really think you just need something to complain about, and that's fine there are a lot people like that, but I now realize that trying to have a conversation with you is pointless. Your stuck in your own opinions and you absolutely refuse to see it any other way. That's your prerogative and I certainly am not faulting you for it.