Worth playing now?

[Edge-]

One thing that I have found can help (especially for new players) is to pretty much ONLY do the class quest line. That will keep your XP in check and allow a smoother progression. You may want to throw in a quest or two on occasion when there's a bit of a dip, but for the most part I found that just sticking to the class story follows the level bracket progression fairly closely.

If you're sub, you'll stay at the right level with just your class missions. If you're F2P/preferred then the planetary storylines will supplement the missing XP (and maybe the odd flashpoint).

But realistically it doesn't matter too much since you scale to the level of the planet you're on. You're still pretty danged OP if you scale down so it's not gonna be much of a challenge, but I don't think anyone is in the leveling experience for the challenge : P

[Spaceboytg]

Worth mentioning for those playing ... there is a 50% sale on collection unlocks right now. There's also a 50% sale on crystals and tunings from the Cartel Market, but the unlocks are the big deal.

[LoreFreak]

How is the new story content? Is it true that Revan is back? o_O

[Nalam the Venom]

How is the new story content? Is it true that Revan is back? o_O

It's probably better if you ask here https://www.reddit.com/r/swtor/

MMO-champ is pretty dead when it comes to swtor stuff

[Spaceboytg]

So I've decided to let my sub lapse and go back to Preferred soon, just because I don't particularly like paying a monthly subscription for any game, and I'm wondering what unlocks folk would recommend buying before then? I've got about 250 million to spend and I'm not sure what unlocks I've already gotten so list everything you think makes the preferred experience as tolerable as possible. The only thing I'll really miss is the lack of a cap on credits but I'm sure I can live with it as I've gotten most every armor or mount I want off the GTN already.

[quras]

So I've decided to let my sub lapse and go back to Preferred soon, just because I don't particularly like paying a monthly subscription for any game, and I'm wondering what unlocks folk would recommend buying before then? I've got about 250 million to spend and I'm not sure what unlocks I've already gotten so list everything you think makes the preferred experience as tolerable as possible. The only thing I'll really miss is the lack of a cap on credits but I'm sure I can live with it as I've gotten most every armor or mount I want off the GTN already.

The big one would be ACCOUNT wide artifact authorization. You could buy it for a single character but most probably want it account wide so you can use any gear you get on any toon. Even new ones you might make.

That's probably the biggest one to unlock for a preferred.

Others I like having are these but they are all not limited to just preferred status. I also try to unlock account wide when I could:
Rocket boost
A few extra Character slots when preferred
Hide head slot
Unify colors
GTN slots
Additional quickbars if you think you need them
Additonal cargo bays - if you don't already have them
Legacy stronghold storage
Crew skill slot
Guild bank
Inventory slots
Outfit designer

[Spaceboytg]

Thanks quras! The only thing out of that that I'm sure I don't have already is the 3rd crew skill slot and some GTN slots. I wish there were some way to see which unlocks I already have applied while I'm still subbed lol. I might buy the few things you mention that I'm not sure about just in case I suppose. At worst, I can always try to resell them if I don't need them.

[quras]

Thanks quras! The only thing out of that that I'm sure I don't have already is the 3rd crew skill slot and some GTN slots. I wish there were some way to see which unlocks I already have applied while I'm still subbed lol. I might buy the few things you mention that I'm not sure about just in case I suppose. At worst, I can always try to resell them if I don't need them.

Completely agree with you on the "wanting to know what unlocks I have and don't have" I wouldn't mind a list in the game settings that showed what I have applied and what I haven't.

[Edge-]

Completely agree with you on the "wanting to know what unlocks I have and don't have" I wouldn't mind a list in the game settings that showed what I have applied and what I haven't.

It'd be nicer if those long-ago discussed improvements to the business model ever happened. I remember interviews years ago, I think leading into KotFE, where they talked at length about how they heard and knew that the F2P model wasn't great and that they were looking to reduce some of the restrictions.

Don't think that ever happened. Did they ever even drop the warzone limit that IIRC was announced years and years and years ago?

[quras]

It'd be nicer if those long-ago discussed improvements to the business model ever happened. I remember interviews years ago, I think leading into KotFE, where they talked at length about how they heard and knew that the F2P model wasn't great and that they were looking to reduce some of the restrictions.

Don't think that ever happened. Did they ever even drop the warzone limit that IIRC was announced years and years and years ago?

Sadly no. it's all the same as it was. The only way to get around the limit is to join them with a subscriber. Then the preferred is exempt from the cap. I think the warzone passes were removed around 2017 and talked about returning but of course never did.

I've found over the years and years I've played, the SWTOR crew is a lot of talk and a lot less action. I guess that can be applied to a lot of game companies these day though.
What I don't understand through is, if it was a money thing, would they not at least make some money off preferred who just wanted to play extra warzones and nothing else? Some money better than no money?

[Edge-]

I've found over the years and years I've played, the SWTOR crew is a lot of talk and a lot less action. I guess that can be applied to a lot of game companies these day though.
What I don't understand through is, if it was a money thing, would they not at least make some money off preferred who just wanted to play extra warzones and nothing else? Some money better than no money?

Yeah. The latest producer at least seems less interested in talking and more interested in working, compared to the previous dudes (who did those interviews). I forget his name, but by all accounts the game seems to be doing pretty well after a bit of a rocky transition?

And at this point, I imagine the business model, and any potential changes, are well in their rear view mirror. SWTOR has always had a poor F2P model IMO (free stories, great! but...basically sub or GTFO beyond that), and it doesn't look like that'll change any time.

[Fkiolaris]

Don't think that ever happened. Did they ever even drop the warzone limit that IIRC was announced years and years and years ago?

On that front, it's one step forward and two steps back. So they increased the cap to 10 per week, but now only wins count for the daily/weekly quest. Which means you can easily blow all your WZs in a week and not be done with the weekly (and I guess if you are really unlucky, even with the daily).