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  1. #1

    Star Wars: The Old Republic F2P, worth it?

    Hello,
    I just fixed my computer and I was looking for a good free mmo to play and swtor, but I read a lot of things regarding the actual F2P system it has.
    Can anyone please with experience in playing F2P in swtor, tell me if is worth it? I mean, do you need to subscribe to enjoy the game?
    Do the F2P restrictions really remove a lot of things from F2P players? (Gameplay-wise)

  2. #2
    Deleted
    The stop watch is ticking me thinks

  3. #3
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by Bolverk View Post
    The stop watch is ticking me thinks
    Isn't it for everyone?

    Well not me of course. I discovered the secret to eternal life centuries ago

  4. #4
    It depends on what you're willing to spend on the game.

    I'd re-subbed just before F2P, and on the 2nd month grew bored of the game and unsubbed.

    I logged in just then (As a preferred account) and saw that my toon was now forced to display the ugly full face mask (I hadn't purchased any unlocks prior to subbing). I just logged straight back out, as if I have to choose between paying more to display my helm or gimping my toon to display her face (Which I prefer to see, swtor helms are ugly as) then I decided it wasn't worth evening bothering to play.

    a shame, I'd have liked to do the odd warzone on my sniper, but not if I can't at least hide the ugly helm (This was something I knew was coming mind, but oh well...I hear Tera is going F2P...)
    You must show no mercy, Nor have any belief whatsoever in how others judge you: For your greatness will silence them all!
    -Warrior Wisdom

  5. #5
    there are multiple other threads on this subject you should really look at them first.

    I'll repeat my opinion anyways.

    As far as F2P games go it is the worst I have ever personally seen. Bioware/Swtor slaps so many arbitrary restrictions on you its ridiculous.

    F2P on swtor is not worth it if you have ever played any MMO (F2P or not). If you havn't played any MMOs maybe you could be blissfully ignorant to what you are missing out on and it could be ok. If you have played any mmo swtor will remind you about every 5 seconds how much you are not valued as a f2p and rub it in your face what you could have.

    It's not in any sort of encouraging way, they really just want to hate you untill you subscribe. Someone here once used the Carrot or the whip analogy. While some games might have a carrot to lure you into subcribing swtor costantly whips you untill you're forced to buy cartel unlocks or sub.

    People will also argue that unlocks can be bought for in game credits, while that is technically true it's actually a giant joke.
    Almost every non-cosmetic unlock you could buy with credits is sold for retarded prices ABOVE what your maximum credit amount is. Not only that a lot of the ones that are under your credit cap you will still not be able to afford untill you are well into leveling (30-40+) if not max level.

    Then don't even get me started on how F2P gets royally screwed on customer service....

    TLDNR-
    As a free to play game stay far away there are near limitless better options.
    As a subscriber it's "ok"

  6. #6
    I am Murloc!
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    not sure what argroth is angry about.

    It playable, it's fun and it's design to make you want to buy some unlock.

    You got i believe 2 character spot and you can buy more. This is by server, so you could if you wanted try out all classes, just on different server. Or you could unlock character slot to have them on the same server. Convenience has a price.

    You get limited self rez (like a soul stone of warlock), like 5 a week or so, after that you have to rez at the medical droid (graveyard)

    you got 4 action bar, that is 48 hotkey, want more, it's in the store.

    You got limited access to dungeon, battleground, gear, race, want more buy the unlock, you get the principle.

    But for the story, the leveling, it's largely playable and enjoyable.

    It will be enough to give you the sense or wether you like or not the game, and thus wether you want or not to invest.
    TRy it for free, nothing to lose.

  7. #7
    Give it a go, I started out as f2p and got me a subscription because I liked it.

    Otherwise if you like it and don't want to subscribe right away you can get prefered status by buying for a certain amount in the carelshop (4,5euros or something)

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by Argroth View Post

    As far as F2P games go it is the worst I have ever personally seen. Bioware/Swtor slaps so many arbitrary restrictions on you its ridiculous.
    Pretty much this. If you want to really play go for sub , the game is worth it while leveling a toon or two to level 50. After that, not so much.

  9. #9
    Field Marshal Books's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Koxmok View Post
    Hello,
    I just fixed my computer and I was looking for a good free mmo to play and swtor, but I read a lot of things regarding the actual F2P system it has.
    Can anyone please with experience in playing F2P in swtor, tell me if is worth it? I mean, do you need to subscribe to enjoy the game?
    Do the F2P restrictions really remove a lot of things from F2P players? (Gameplay-wise)
    its f2p go found out yourself. sorry to sound so rude but its free, go try it out. tbh it isnt too bad. f2p gives you a decent look at it to see if you like it enough to sub. what have you got to lose?

  10. #10
    The game is cheap enough to sub to but you never know if it will be here in one year.

  11. #11
    I tried it again as a preferred player but it just felt too restrictive and had the feeling that everything in the game was an ad trying to get met o buy cartel coins for every little upgrade or ability so I stopped after about 30 minutes. From what I read you also get more restrictions once you hit level 10 so that's even worse.

    The game itself is still fun and the story seems good so if you want a free time waster go for it but I don't think it can be played seriously without investing real money into it.

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by Vankrys View Post
    not sure what argroth is angry about.

    It playable, it's fun and it's design to make you want to buy some unlock.

    You got i believe 2 character spot and you can buy more. This is by server, so you could if you wanted try out all classes, just on different server. Or you could unlock character slot to have them on the same server. Convenience has a price.

    You get limited self rez (like a soul stone of warlock), like 5 a week or so, after that you have to rez at the medical droid (graveyard)

    you got 4 action bar, that is 48 hotkey, want more, it's in the store.

    You got limited access to dungeon, battleground, gear, race, want more buy the unlock, you get the principle.

    But for the story, the leveling, it's largely playable and enjoyable.

    It will be enough to give you the sense or wether you like or not the game, and thus wether you want or not to invest.
    TRy it for free, nothing to lose.
    Uh, you must be thinking he's a preferred player and he's not. No, you get 2 Action Bars, you get 2 character slots and that's over all servers. The rez at the medical droid likely means you have to clear everything you just cleared in order to get back to where you were before you died. You're limited to 5 Warzones a week. You can only get gear from 3 Flashpoints a week. You can't equip endgame gear without buying an authorization. Your credit cap is limited to 200,000, which isn't much if you want to buy unlocks. The amount of XP you get is reduced. You never get rested XP. You have no bank access. You get limited inventory access.

    Luckily the things on the Cartel Market can be sold on the GTN, including action bar unlocks, authorizations, etc. Many times players will put them up for less than your credit cap. More often, they do not. If you watch the GTN enough, you could find good deals.

  13. #13
    i thought the cred cap was 350k??? - anyway i will be buying cartel items to place on the GTN and i wont be charging more than the credit cap, its a wste of time to do so imo
    and about the rescrictions, every f2p mmo has them, admittaly swtor has a few more but on the whole any f2p will have u grinding your teeth for having to pay more for this and that

  14. #14
    Deleted
    F2P in totaly unworthy, buy sub and enjoy the great game as it should be enjoyed - fully without some unneeded limits that ruin the game experience. Those few $ are rly not THAT much if you calculate and in my humble opinion the game is RLY RLY RLY worth paying for. The first game from many years that rly took my heart completely (4 years of Wow experience, 3 years of Guild Wars 1 experience, maaany years of single player game experience). Seriously, sub and enjoy - simple as that

  15. #15
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by Vankrys View Post
    not sure what argroth is angry about.
    It playable, it's fun and it's design to make you want to buy some unlock.
    I'm sorry, but I just can't see this as true. I can't imagine (might be different for others though) anything with SWTOR's model that would make anyone -want- to buy some unlocks.
    It strongarms you into buying unlocks. Not everyone, but I and a few others, would consider the game unplayable as a complete F2P without buying anything ever.

    Edit: Personally I'd advice you to stay away from the game overall. I wouldn't want to support a game that chooses this kind of model, especially not by encouraging someone else to subscribe to it.

  16. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by btf View Post
    i thought the cred cap was 350k??? - anyway i will be buying cartel items to place on the GTN and i wont be charging more than the credit cap, its a wste of time to do so imo
    and about the rescrictions, every f2p mmo has them, admittaly swtor has a few more but on the whole any f2p will have u grinding your teeth for having to pay more for this and that
    The cap is 350k for preferred, 200k for F2P "normal".

    This is the only F2P MMO also where you need to pay money to be able to get quest rewards.

    I pretty much buy unlocks when I get near the credit cap, otherwise the extra money goes into escrow and is untouchable until you subscribe.

  17. #17
    okie dokie - f2p is 200k, but at least you get the chance to buy items with in game cash rather than spending irl cash to obtain them - this is something all f2p mmo's do, so u cant just bring your anger down on swtor for doing it, they all do it, just slightly different, and u spend irl cash to get better items in most mmo's, just in swtor u spend irl cash to get nearly everything which i dont fully agree with

  18. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by btf View Post
    okie dokie - f2p is 200k, but at least you get the chance to buy items with in game cash rather than spending irl cash to obtain them - this is something all f2p mmo's do, so u cant just bring your anger down on swtor for doing it, they all do it, just slightly different, and u spend irl cash to get better items in most mmo's, just in swtor u spend irl cash to get nearly everything which i dont fully agree with
    The difference is that in other F2P MMOs you're not reliant on the community to put things into your price range. Yes, the ability to sell items on the GTN CAN be excellent, but it requires a community effort. In the other F2P MMOs, you can obtain store currency in game, but once you obtain enough of said currency, you get to pick what you want without having to hope for the community to not be overcharging dickbags.

  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by Koxmok View Post
    Hello,
    I just fixed my computer and I was looking for a good free mmo to play and swtor, but I read a lot of things regarding the actual F2P system it has.
    Can anyone please with experience in playing F2P in swtor, tell me if is worth it? I mean, do you need to subscribe to enjoy the game?
    Do the F2P restrictions really remove a lot of things from F2P players? (Gameplay-wise)
    Without knowing what you're looking for in a mmo, it's hard for us to tell you if you might like it. I'd say SWTOR's F2P status is too restrictive for me to enjoy the game. I find the game way more enjoyable as preferred, and a $5 purchase in cartel coins or getting the security authenticator will get you there. If you think you're going to level more than one character, go preferred. Pure f2p is too gimp an experience to do it more than once imo. BW/EA did not put in this F2P system as a viable alternative to subscription play. SWTOR's "free to play" is more like "free to start", and a good number of the f2p restrictions are put in place to drive the player to sub or spend money in the cash shop (or in game auction house) to unlock things.

    In terms of gameplay the only pinch I sometimes feel is inventory space, vendor prices and the cap on commendations. If you're not going to spend money on unlocks, you're going to be mindful of where the vendors are on the maps you're playing. I can only deploy my companion to sell grey items, anything higher I'll have to visit a vendor. And if you gather/harvest, you're going find your inventory filling up quickly. At around L20 was when I was finally able to put together some money to shop for inventory unlocks on my server's auction house. With regards to vendor prices if you're not a sub, you're going to be paying higher prices (credits and commendations) at every vendor...crafting, mounts, gear you name it. I'm not sure why BW/EA decided to do this since you're already capped on credits and planetary commendations as f2p anyway. The cap on credits isn't a huge deal in terms of every day leveling (there's not a whole lot you need buy while leveling aside from class skills and a mount), but it's a severe hit to your purchasing power on the auction house. Depending on the server you're on, you might find unlocks priced wayyy out of your grasp. I don't let my credits go above the cap. When I get close, I buy an unlock or a piece of gear for alt/companion. What annoys me the most about the commendations cap (these are tokens you earn on leveling planets to buy gear) is that any commendations you've earned above the limit disappears for good, so I gotta keep tabs on how many I have and hoof it back to the main area where the vendors are to spend them if I find myself close to cap. It's a simple convenience issue really.

    Other than those things, the only other annoying thing for me is with crafting. You can only deploy at most 3 companions (even at cap) and you can only queue things one at a time on each of them. What this means is skilling up takes longer. And buying the second/third crew slots will not alleviate this. You just get extra crew slots on your characters.

    The lower xp gain and lack of rested xp aren't a huge deal to me as preferred. I think pure f2p get even less xp than I do, but not sure about this. I don't bother with instances, pvp or space missions, but I do all the quests available to me and have consistently stayed two levels above each planet. With regards to quest rewards, you'll get your choice of gear/commendations. The only thing that's kept from you is the box of credits that sometimes pop up as a choice of reward. You're stuck with a credit cap anyway so the credit boxes are kinda "meh." When I cash in quests, more often than not I'm looking at the gear to decide if I or any of my crew can use it so I'm not looking at whatever "subscribe" messages BW/EA wants me to notice. /shrug. At L27 the messages about "subscribers get blah blah" is just background noise at this point. Only time I notice it is when it splashes across my screen whenever I enter a cantina. Which isn't often since there's nothing going on in them anyway, haha.

    I do find the quests and leveling experience enjoyable. My commando and sorcerer are fun to play, and I like the stories (personal and planet) a lot. If all you want to do is quest and level, what they're giving away for free is sufficient...and they're giving away a lot of content. My thoughts on their free the play model is either spend at minimum $5 to become preferred or just don't bother. If you're looking to any kind of substantive instancing or pvp at endgame, you are better off subscribing. The things that keeps me from giving the f2p experience a ringing endorsement are a) the unlocks don't work work reliably and b) little to no customer support for the cartel market items let alone anything else. BW/EA have a pretty good product overall, but unfortunately they're world champs at mismanaging things into the ground.

    Hope this answers some of your questions.
    Last edited by catcommando; 2013-01-14 at 12:12 AM.

  20. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by btf View Post
    okie dokie - f2p is 200k, but at least you get the chance to buy items with in game cash rather than spending irl cash to obtain them - this is something all f2p mmo's do, so u cant just bring your anger down on swtor for doing it, they all do it, just slightly different, and u spend irl cash to get better items in most mmo's, just in swtor u spend irl cash to get nearly everything which i dont fully agree with
    Yes, but the unlocks cost so many cartel coins that people list items in the 500k+ credit range for the expensive unlocks (ie, epic equipment unlock account wide). I think they cost 1700 cartel coins.
    Its like Bioware set these so expensive that people will sub, buy these, then go Preferred. Makes absolutely no sense.

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