Some F2P/Preferred Restrictions Loosened

[Edge-]

https://www.swtor.com/info/news/article/20190620

Increased credit cap

Long gone are the days where you could buy a gallon of Bantha milk for five credits. Initially when we developed our Free-to-Play and Preferred models, a cap of 200,000 credits and 350,000 respectively seemed like a fair amount. Over the years, it’s become a simple truth that those credit amounts don’t buy what it used to though. As our game has grown, so has the economy. Taking this into account, we will be raising the credit cap of both Free-to-Play and Preferred members to 1,000,000 credits!



Extra Quickbar

Quickbars are another feature that has been limited between the various account types. Currently Subscribers have six available to them, while Preferred have four and Free-to-Play accounts have just two. When this system was initially designed, only four at most were available. Keeping this in mind, we’ll be adding an additional Quickbar for both Preferred and Free-to-Play accounts - increasing the number to five and three respectively. With this addition, players will be able to have more abilities, Mounts, and Mini-pets available to them for immediate use.



Medical Probe and Quick Travel

Lastly, we will be making changes to Medical Probes and Quick Travel. Medical Probes allow a character to revive where they died instead of recovering at a Medical Station. Quick Travel allows characters to immediately travel to a discovered point on their current planet. Both of these features have been primarily available to Subscribers, while Preferred and Free-to-Play players could only obtain consumable versions via the Cartel Market. Both of these features are being removed from the Cartel Market and every player will be able to revive or Quick Travel where applicable!

TLDR:

1 million credit cap for both account types (YAY FOR BEING ABLE TO USE THE CARTEL MARKET NOW)
1 additional quickbar (5 for preferred, 3 for F2P)
No more medical probe/quick travel restrictions at all.

Now to hope they get rid of the terrible artifact authorization restriction and this game will have a MUCH more friendly F2P model. These are already good changes, and I'm very likely going to be subbing back up for the expansion and then sticking around after as preferred. The credit cap and fast travel changes alone should make it much more enjoyable.

[quras]

Not bad changes at all and given the inflation of so much in the game the credit cap is a nice change.

I never had a problem with on my kids F2P account when it came to quickbars but I'm sure someone out there liked to fill them up with pets and regen items and mounts so overall thats got to be a good thing.

The medical probe and quick travel is the amazing one to me. The ease of travel in swtor is a Godsend so letting every player have that is a solid move in my eyes.

[Rogalicus]

Credit cap is still pretty low TBH.

[Katchii]

Credit cap is still pretty low TBH.

You're not going to be able to buy anything that came from the Cartel Market with that, but it's enough to allow you to purchase a decent amount of stuff that comes in at a few hundred thousand credits.

It's also probably going to help a lot with the super annoying messages you get when you're collecting credits when you're at the cap "YOU CAN'T COLLECT THAT BECAUSE YOU'RE AT THE CREDIT CAP, XXX AMOUNT HAS BEEN PLACED IN YOUR ESCROW ACCOUNT" every time you loot a mob.

Ironically though, I have a feeling this will just serve to inflate the market even more. I know I personally set some things at just below the credit cap to open up the pool of potential buyers, now that the cap is going up, I'm sure that practice (which I got from someone welse so I know I'm not the only one) will be to set things like that at just below the new credit cap.

All in all though, yeah, the changes are fantastic and a move in the right direction. Now they just need to remove or significantly reduce the operations restriction and it would be golden.

[Rogalicus]

You're not going to be able to buy anything that came from the Cartel Market with that, but it's enough to allow you to purchase a decent amount of stuff that comes in at a few hundred thousand credits.

It's also probably going to help a lot with the super annoying messages you get when you're collecting credits when you're at the cap "YOU CAN'T COLLECT THAT BECAUSE YOU'RE AT THE CREDIT CAP, XXX AMOUNT HAS BEEN PLACED IN YOUR ESCROW ACCOUNT" every time you loot a mob.

Ironically though, I have a feeling this will just serve to inflate the market even more. I know I personally set some things at just below the credit cap to open up the pool of potential buyers, now that the cap is going up, I'm sure that practice (which I got from someone welse so I know I'm not the only one) will be to set things like that at just below the new credit cap.

All in all though, yeah, the changes are fantastic and a move in the right direction. Now they just need to remove or significantly reduce the operations restriction and it would be golden.

I agree that it's a big improvement, but IMO they should have raised it for prefs to at least 5 million or something. I've only ever bought some relatively cheap lightsaber color crystal on AH, but even that was like 450K or something, so almost half of the new cap. I have no idea about other prices, but they are probably way higher. I think you are right about inflation, so it'll become worse pretty fast.

[Edge-]

Credit cap is still pretty low TBH.

It sorta is, but at least it's reasonable now and you can buy a few things.

Now I'm just hoping they loosen up cosmetic restrictions a bit (LET ME HIDE MY HELMET) and a few others, but I'm still happy that they're at least finally doing something.

[Katchii]

I agree that it's a big improvement, but IMO they should have raised it for prefs to at least 5 million or something. I've only ever bought some relatively cheap lightsaber color crystal on AH, but even that was like 450K or something, so almost half of the new cap. I have no idea about other prices, but they are probably way higher. I think you are right about inflation, so it'll become worse pretty fast.

Meh, I think that people fall into a few camps. Mainly: Cartel Market whales, subscribers, and F2P/Preferred who have either never spent a dime or have spent so little money it's not really worth mentioning.

Of those folks, the only ones who would really benefit from the cap increase are the F2P folks. Whales will be buying from the market directly so don't really need a huge credit wallet (but are likely already subscribers too) and the subscribers don't have a limit anyway. The F2P folks may really LIKE to have the cap increased, but it hasn't deterred them from playing so far and it likely won't in the future. If they really cared THAT much about getting that stuff they would either subscribe or buy from the market directly. If it has deterred them, then honestly as a business I'm sure EA doesn't want them, or at least doesn't really care, which may sound cold, but if you're not going to be spending any money on the game then I can understand their ambivalence towards making you happy with what the game has to offer.

Having a cap like this really pushes people to become a subscriber or possibly a whale, or at least splurge once and a while. F2P games need a relatively compelling reason to be a subscriber for more than a month, or at least more often than just doing it once for the content and never again. This feels like a relatively painless way to encourage people to be a subscriber, you're not really missing out on anything besides cosmetic stuff from this, because any gear related to performance can either be bought for far less than the cap, or earned in game.

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It sorta is, but at least it's reasonable now and you can buy a few things.

Now I'm just hoping they loosen up cosmetic restrictions a bit (LET ME HIDE MY HELMET) and a few others, but I'm still happy that they're at least finally doing something.

Yeah, lol for sure.

I enjoy the game enough to sub whenever I have the urge to play it. As much as I dislike all the restrictions, I guess they've served their purpose with people like me..."encouraging" me to sub whenever I want to play it just to make sure I don't have to deal with all the stupid restrictions.

[qwerty123456]

Credit cap is still too low. Whenever I unsub I only log on 1 toon per server cause that credit limit crap is bullshit. Atleast put in a cartel market unlimited credits unlock.

After Wildstar shutdown I did end up purchasing all the account unlocks just so when SWTOR inevitably dies my chars last moments wont be with a shitty helmet and terrible armor/dyes. Even if I never played again I'd probably do the same with a credit unlock. Just felt so bad leaving like 5-10 housing plots unfinished.

Meh, I think that people fall into a few camps. Mainly: Cartel Market whales, subscribers, and F2P/Preferred who have either never spent a dime or have spent so little money it's not really worth mentioning.

Of those folks, the only ones who would really benefit from the cap increase are the F2P folks. Whales will be buying from the market directly so don't really need a huge credit wallet (but are likely already subscribers too) and the subscribers don't have a limit anyway. The F2P folks may really LIKE to have the cap increased, but it hasn't deterred them from playing so far and it likely won't in the future. If they really cared THAT much about getting that stuff they would either subscribe or buy from the market directly. If it has deterred them, then honestly as a business I'm sure EA doesn't want them, or at least doesn't really care, which may sound cold, but if you're not going to be spending any money on the game then I can understand their ambivalence towards making you happy with what the game has to offer.

Having a cap like this really pushes people to become a subscriber or possibly a whale, or at least splurge once and a while. F2P games need a relatively compelling reason to be a subscriber for more than a month, or at least more often than just doing it once for the content and never again. This feels like a relatively painless way to encourage people to be a subscriber, you're not really missing out on anything besides cosmetic stuff from this, because any gear related to performance can either be bought for far less than the cap, or earned in game.

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Yeah, lol for sure.

I enjoy the game enough to sub whenever I have the urge to play it. As much as I dislike all the restrictions, I guess they've served their purpose with people like me..."encouraging" me to sub whenever I want to play it just to make sure I don't have to deal with all the stupid restrictions.

A larger/infinite credit cap benefits everyone. If more people can buy cartel market items off the Auction house more people will buy stuff to put on the AH to make a quick buck.

[Katchii]

A larger/infinite credit cap benefits everyone. If more people can buy cartel market items off the Auction house more people will buy stuff to put on the AH to make a quick buck.

You can still use the auction house and buy stuff from it, you just buy things within your budget, which would now be 1 million. People are already buying stuff on the Cartel Market to sell on the Auction House and selling it to those folks who don't have a credit cap. Increasing the cap wouldn't change that.

I'm not disagreeing that it wouldn't benefit everyone, but if you really don't like the cap and want to have the things that cost that much, support the game and pay real money and either sub to eliminate the cap or use real money and buy the stuff directly from the Cartel Market. Having the cap in place is an incentive they're using to get people to sub, and I'm OK with that given that it's really only limiting your cosmetics.

[qwerty123456]

You can still use the auction house and buy stuff from it, you just buy things within your budget, which would now be 1 million. People are already buying stuff on the Cartel Market to sell on the Auction House and selling it to those folks who don't have a credit cap. Increasing the cap wouldn't change that.

I'm not disagreeing that it wouldn't benefit everyone, but if you really don't like the cap and want to have the things that cost that much, support the game and pay real money and either sub to eliminate the cap or use real money and buy the stuff directly from the Cartel Market. Having the cap in place is an incentive they're using to get people to sub, and I'm OK with that given that it's really only limiting your cosmetics.

If you saw the rest of my post you would see that I already spend money and support the game and buy tons of stuff from the cartel market. When I'm not going to play for awhile and just log in to see the new market items and stuff I unsub.


My point is that only so many people can buy plat costumes before everyone has one which is why some sets have ridiculously low pricetags for their tier. If F2P and prefered players could afford 100 million sets other players would be purchasing more of those sets in order to make more money. By having these credit caps hoping to get people to sub they end up harming themselves as well as the community.

You need some restrictions on F2P players when you also have a subscription base but some restrictions end up hurting the game in the long run. Like if you have a game where free players get to do 3 dungeons a day while subs get unlimited, you are going to end up with much longer queue times and harder time to find groups for the sub players. Thats the same thing with a game economy you end up with large playerbase that can only afford X and a much smaller portion that can only sell big ticket items among itself and then eventually be forced to sell the items off at extremely low prices when they can't find any more buyers.

[Katchii]

If you saw the rest of my post you would see that I already spend money and support the game and buy tons of stuff from the cartel market. When I'm not going to play for awhile and just log in to see the new market items and stuff I unsub.


My point is that only so many people can buy plat costumes before everyone has one which is why some sets have ridiculously low pricetags for their tier. If F2P and prefered players could afford 100 million sets other players would be purchasing more of those sets in order to make more money. By having these credit caps hoping to get people to sub they end up harming themselves as well as the community.

You need some restrictions on F2P players when you also have a subscription base but some restrictions end up hurting the game in the long run. Like if you have a game where free players get to do 3 dungeons a day while subs get unlimited, you are going to end up with much longer queue times and harder time to find groups for the sub players. Thats the same thing with a game economy you end up with large playerbase that can only afford X and a much smaller portion that can only sell big ticket items among itself and then eventually be forced to sell the items off at extremely low prices when they can't find any more buyers.

I honestly don't really think that's all that bad...some of those sets and item prices on the auction house are fucking ludicrous.

Didn't mean to imply you personally should spend money, it was meant to be a general "you."

I understand what you're saying, but none of this changes that what F2P/Preferred players are blocked from is essentially cosmetic items because F2P/ Preferred don't have a big enough wallet to hold the money to buy the cosmetic stuff. Nothing in the game that you NEED to have costs as much as or more than the credit cap. Also, you're alluding to subscribers not able to sell these that many cosmetic items for ludicrous amounts of money because F2P/Preferred players can't hold that much money...which just means subscribers selling that stuff won't make as much money.

Keeping people from reaching some insanely huge credit sum just so they can spend it on cosmetic stuff isn't that big of a deal to me.

[Swnem]

You're not going to be able to buy anything that came from the Cartel Market with that, but it's enough to allow you to purchase a decent amount of stuff that comes in at a few hundred thousand credits.

It's also probably going to help a lot with the super annoying messages you get when you're collecting credits when you're at the cap "YOU CAN'T COLLECT THAT BECAUSE YOU'RE AT THE CREDIT CAP, XXX AMOUNT HAS BEEN PLACED IN YOUR ESCROW ACCOUNT" every time you loot a mob.

Ironically though, I have a feeling this will just serve to inflate the market even more. I know I personally set some things at just below the credit cap to open up the pool of potential buyers, now that the cap is going up, I'm sure that practice (which I got from someone welse so I know I'm not the only one) will be to set things like that at just below the new credit cap.

All in all though, yeah, the changes are fantastic and a move in the right direction. Now they just need to remove or significantly reduce the operations restriction and it would be golden.

1m credits will not inflate the market. That isn't much. But, it allows people to buy consumables and the cheapest CM stuff.
I think it makes sense that F2P can't get the best CM stuff. They are not paying a sub afterall, so they should have to shell out the CC's to buy what they want... or sub ofc. It's not a charity, the game needs revenue to keep going.

Also, if you are near the limit, that is when you can deposit it in the bank. No need to get any messages.

[Katchii]

1m credits will not inflate the market. That isn't much. But, it allows people to buy consumables and the cheapest CM stuff.
I think it makes sense that F2P can't get the best CM stuff. They are not paying a sub afterall, so they should have to shell out the CC's to buy what they want... or sub ofc. It's not a charity, the game needs revenue to keep going.

Also, if you are near the limit, that is when you can deposit it in the bank. No need to get any messages.

By inflate the market I just mean things that were purposely priced at or near the credit cap may have their price increased to meet the new cap. The stuff that was already selling for more (considerably more) than the cap will almost certainly be unaffected.

I always forget about the bank in this game, thanks for the reminder.

[Fkiolaris]

In my opinion, these do very little in terms of dealing with the segregation of the player-base. Until they give a realistic option for at least Preferred-status players to a) remove the weekly Warzones cap, b) remove the weekly FP loot cap, c) gain access to Story Mode Ops d) have a proper, albeit slower, participation in endgame gearing, then the above are complete non-points other than perhaps the medical probes. And before any cynics come rushing to answer, I mean in-game and not to sub.

To paraphrase a bit something from the forums, BW need to make up their mind on what SWTOR is and make it clear to everyone: a sub-based game with a F2P taster option or a F2P game with a sub-based bonus option. With changes like the above they seem to be aiming for the middle, and while it's their game and they can do as they like, I would really be surprised if the above changes have any meaningful and lasting impact in terms of F2P/Preferred player activity.

At the end of the day, with the mass exodus from WoW at the moment (as evidenced by the big and lasting so-far population increases in all other major MMOs), Bioware are really missing a trick or two to make their game look attractive to people that are potentially interested in (re)trying the game.

[Swnem]

In my opinion, these do very little in terms of dealing with the segregation of the player-base. Until they give a realistic option for at least Preferred-status players to a) remove the weekly Warzones cap, b) remove the weekly FP loot cap, c) gain access to Story Mode Ops d) have a proper, albeit slower, participation in endgame gearing, then the above are complete non-points other than perhaps the medical probes. And before any cynics come rushing to answer, I mean in-game and not to sub.

To paraphrase a bit something from the forums, BW need to make up their mind on what SWTOR is and make it clear to everyone: a sub-based game with a F2P taster option or a F2P game with a sub-based bonus option. With changes like the above they seem to be aiming for the middle, and while it's their game and they can do as they like, I would really be surprised if the above changes have any meaningful and lasting impact in terms of F2P/Preferred player activity.

At the end of the day, with the mass exodus from WoW at the moment (as evidenced by the big and lasting so-far population increases in all other major MMOs), Bioware are really missing a trick or two to make their game look attractive to people that are potentially interested in (re)trying the game.

Erm... FP's don't drop loot at max level.
Warzone cap is removed by grouping with someone subbed.
In Ossus you have complete end-game gearing participation.

Realise that what you're saying is they should open up the whole game. What would the point of that be? They would lose all sub revenue. Again, this is not a charity, it needs revenue. Up until now the game only added cosmetics to the CM. I very much want it to stay that way.

If you want to play an mmo completely for free, you got many options out there and their corresponding terrible cash shops and content support. F2P is a myth. Someone will have to pay for it or it will close. Choosing F2P leads to predatory design as well that imo just ruins the games.

Having a sub is the best way to ensure stability. The F2P in swtor is supposed to be a long intro to hook you in. The game is very much still a sub based game and that is a good thing. If you are completely opposed to subs, then this game isn't for you. The sub lifts end-game and gives you free CC so you can buy cosmetics in the shop without paying extra.
IMO, if there had to be a choice, i'd rather it was completely sub based again. But, F2P brings more activity to low level planets and thus i think things are fine the way they are. The lifting of restrictions makes that intro less overbearing and allows F2P's to have a better introduction to the game and hopefully sub down the line.

[Fkiolaris]

Erm... FP's don't drop loot at max level.
Warzone cap is removed by grouping with someone subbed.
In Ossus you have complete end-game gearing participation.

Realise that what you're saying is they should open up the whole game. What would the point of that be? They would lose all sub revenue. Again, this is not a charity, it needs revenue. Up until now the game only added cosmetics to the CM. I very much want it to stay that way.

If you want to play an mmo completely for free, you got many options out there and their corresponding terrible cash shops and content support. F2P is a myth. Someone will have to pay for it or it will close. Choosing F2P leads to predatory design as well that imo just ruins the games.

Having a sub is the best way to ensure stability. The F2P in swtor is supposed to be a long intro to hook you in. The game is very much still a sub based game and that is a good thing. If you are completely opposed to subs, then this game isn't for you. The sub lifts end-game and gives you free CC so you can buy cosmetics in the shop without paying extra.
IMO, if there had to be a choice, i'd rather it was completely sub based again. But, F2P brings more activity to low level planets and thus i think things are fine the way they are. The lifting of restrictions makes that intro less overbearing and allows F2P's to have a better introduction to the game and hopefully sub down the line.

I won't engage in this pointless, circular argument in detail for the millionth time. All I will say is that if you believe that SWTOR is actually running because of the subs rather than the whales, then you need a reality check. It would be great for the game to get a proper income from subs and increased participation in the group aspects of the game in general, but so far BW and its supporters refuse to accept the reality that has been staring at them since they implemented their "F2P" model (which is actually B2P if you want anything beyond the first 50 levels)- it simply doesn't work, hence they go from strength to strength in terms of closing down servers while being the only MMO that is based on the biggest IP on the planet. As a comparison, ESO which is also B2P and has a rewarding sub-model rather than a punishing non-sub model, literally doesn't know what to do with all the new players they got in the last 6-9 months. But I guess that makes Zenimax a charity or something.

Anyway, enjoy the game and all the best.

[Swnem]

I won't engage in this pointless, circular argument in detail for the millionth time. All I will say is that if you believe that SWTOR is actually running because of the subs rather than the whales, then you need a reality check. It would be great for the game to get a proper income from subs and increased participation in the group aspects of the game in general, but so far BW and its supporters refuse to accept the reality that has been staring at them since they implemented their "F2P" model (which is actually B2P if you want anything beyond the first 50 levels)- it simply doesn't work, hence they go from strength to strength in terms of closing down servers while being the only MMO that is based on the biggest IP on the planet. As a comparison, ESO which is also B2P and has a rewarding sub-model rather than a punishing non-sub model, literally doesn't know what to do with all the new players they got in the last 6-9 months. But I guess that makes Zenimax a charity or something.

Anyway, enjoy the game and all the best.

Hate to remind you but ESO also has a 60dollar/euro cost for every expansion. Expansion content is free for subscribers on SWTOR.

Also, the game does still have enough subs that it would be a waste of recurring revenue. You can repeat yourself as much as you want, but in terms of content development F2P games are a disaster. Recurring revenue garantees smooth content development. You prefer B2P, i'm not opposed to it, but i know for a fact of people who have tried the game F2P and later subbed cause they loved it. But going full F2P would be the final nail in the coffin. The game is in a better spot now. They loosen some restrictions and you want the whole thing.

The loss in subs had nothing to do with the F2P, it had to do with single player focused expansions, wich were a mistake. They thought they could turn it into a telltale game.
Fact is, the game is doing better with the new producer and we are gonna have an exciting new expansion. You want to sugest new monetary models, go ahead. But i will forever be opposed to F2P cause it's the cancer that kills mmo's.

And for the last time, SWTOR is not an F2P game, it is and always has been an F2P OPTION. The model is subscription based!

[Jotaux]

Hate to remind you but ESO also has a 60dollar/euro cost for every expansion. Expansion content is free for subscribers on SWTOR.

So if I subscribe I get the expansion? Does it go away after I stop subscribing? I'm just playing for the story and just hit 48 on my sith warrior. Probably going to try a republic toon next.

[Jimusmc]

So if I subscribe I get the expansion? Does it go away after I stop subscribing? I'm just playing for the story and just hit 48 on my sith warrior. Probably going to try a republic toon next.

believe they go away after unsubbing, but if you wanna see it 15 bucks aint bad.

[Jotaux]

believe they go away after unsubbing, but if you wanna see it 15 bucks aint bad.

I don't have a lot of time to play, like a couple hours on Saturday. Between raiding, mythic+, the AP grind, and classic, my free time is eaten up. Is there an option to just buy the expansions and play through the story?