A guide to maximizing your f2p experience.

[Deleted]

Not even close, at least with "options" like the hide helmet one. It's quite sad they're so INCREDIBLY greedy they charge you to.......hide your helmet. Come on.

This is funny. Seriously it is. For months people have whined f2p should charge for fluff, for customization and not for game essentials. Now EA charges for what could be considered to be the epitome of fluff and what happens? People whine.

[Hayro1]

Whine? please. You're grasping at very, very thin straws to think I'm whining in any way, I'm simply stating a fact how pathetic it is to charge real money for an option to hide your damn helm. If you can't see how pathetic that idea is, then you're beyond saving. Also, there's a difference between hiding your helm and buying a wardrobe/etc piece, completely different.

[RoninaThorstone]

Also, there's a difference between hiding your helm and buying a wardrobe/etc piece, completely different.

No, not really.

They are both about looking pretty.

[Ciah]

No, not really.

They are both about looking pretty.

Players put a lot of effort (well, some do) into the look of their character's face.
Being able to see it is a lot different in terms of attachment to your character than any other clothes you wear.

[RoninaThorstone]

Players put a lot of effort (well, some do) into the look of their character's face.
Being able to see it is a lot different in terms of attachment to your character than any other clothes you wear.

Then grab a moddable that shows your face and wear it.

Point is, you don't "need it" need it.

[Hayro1]

No, not really.

Yes, yes really. You have the option of hiding your helm up for sale, compared to a piece of X you want to wear. Hide helmet/cloak/etc is pretty standard in every single game, in almost (if not all) F2P games I've ever played.

[RoninaThorstone]

Yes, yes really. You have the option of hiding your helm up for sale, compared to a piece of X you want to wear. Hide helmet/cloak/etc is pretty standard in every single game, in almost (if not all) F2P games I've ever played.

If you look at my post history you will see that I think this is a substandard model.

However, the hide helm thing is not really that big an issue.

[Redblade]

No, not really.

They are both about looking pretty.

Not really, gear is about looking pretty, show/hide head is about being able to see your characters face or not, the latter is a bad idea to prevent your customer from deciding.

[Snorkle]

[/COLOR]And yea it looks like I was mistaken about the 16 character slots thing, not sure where I got that from ><

Originally Posted by SWTOR

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?

(Source)

Aw... so that means I'll have to make 2 chars on another server to check all classes...

[ariakul]

Please stop calling this free to play. They extended the trial to 50.

A little false advertising imho from Bioware.

[RoninaThorstone]

Please stop calling this free to play. They extended the trial to 50.

A little false advertising imho from Bioware.

While I agree with you 100% the title of the thread is to avoid confusion.

[Arlee]

Please stop calling this free to play. They extended the trial to 50.

A little false advertising imho from Bioware.

While you are right, we refer to it as F2P because that's what BioWare is calling it. If they called Pink Puffy Ponies of Love SWTOR Style, that's what we'd refer to it as regardless if it was an accurate description or not.

[Drakos]

For folks asking about character slots. That just isn't ready(like usual EA is pushing it out early). The forums are down now or I would look for the dev comment where they said at some point in the future this will change. They didn't specify, but I got the impression(so take that for what it is) at some point down the road preferred players will have to pick which characters will be active and playable. Which would in theory imply that there would be an unlock for cartel coins to access the locked ones/more slots.

As to 16 slots technically there is no limit on character slots. People who had more than 12 merged together during the last round of merges have more. I've seen a few people say they have 24. If you had 12 or less you are at the cap of 12 though. If you have more you cannot create a new one until you are down to 11.

I imagine the F2P model will evolve. I remember the early days of DDO when you had to buy sigils to level up past level 4. They removed this pretty quick, but it was there at first.

[RoninaThorstone]

For folks asking about character slots. That just isn't ready(like usual EA is pushing it out early). The forums are down now or I would look for the dev comment where they said at some point in the future this will change. They didn't specify, but I got the impression(so take that for what it is) at some point down the road preferred players will have to pick which characters will be active and playable. Which would in theory imply that there would be an unlock for cartel coins to access the locked ones/more slots.

As to 16 slots technically there is no limit on character slots. People who had more than 12 merged together during the last round of merges have more. I've seen a few people say they have 24. If you had 12 or less you are at the cap of 12 though. If you have more you cannot create a new one until you are down to 11.

I imagine the F2P model will evolve. I remember the early days of DDO when you had to buy sigils to level up past level 4. They removed this pretty quick, but it was there at first.

Agreed. Its a shame they are pushing this model out early.

If they offered things for cartel coins like recount, power auras, dbm, gladius, character slots, armor dyes, ect they wouldn't have to charge for silly things like action bars and hide helm. I think we can expect a cash shop 2.0 eventually, probably early summer.

[Deleted]

If you have to buy your way to increased f2p spirit I would just go with: subscribe!
And now I wait for a guide that increased f2p experience without buying for irl cash, but guess there is none until people can gain cartel coins in game and if that will happen... well, time will tell.

[RoninaThorstone]

If you have to buy your way to increased f2p spirit I would just go with: subscribe!
And now I wait for a guide that increased f2p experience without buying for irl cash, but guess there is none until people can gain cartel coins in game and if that will happen... well, time will tell.

I would imagine they will implement a ingame method as soon as they can do it.

[Deleted]

This has to be the weirdest F2P model I have ever seen with the amount of restrictions they are putting on F2P players.

[vizzle]

TOR f2p is such a jumble of crud. Makes you not even want to try it out.

[Freeasacar]

That's because the koreans are awesome at making f2p work.

So true. Koreans have been doing f2p shops for the better half of a decade and the western MMO market has only just started to experiment with this territory. SW:TOR is a good example of a badly implemented f2p system designed to restrict the player rather than give them more motivation to play the game.

Items that you excluded from your list that are necessary to get the most of the game in my eyes are:
- Having access to all 3 Crew Skills (since crafting skills require the materials from 2 gathering skills others to function)
- Unify colors, title and the ability to hide headgear (for anyone who gives a damn about their character)

Honestly even with preferred status it seems to be better value to just subscribe if you want to play the game properly.

[RoninaThorstone]

- Having access to all 3 Crew Skills (since crafting skills require the materials from 2 gathering skills others to function)

You actually only need 2 to get a primary crafting up to 400 and then you can buy the mission only items off the GTN.