Originally posted by MikeB

Originally posted by trancejeremy
"Finally, BioWare is also offering special item packs that remind me of some of the packs offered in the Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer store. You won’t be able to unlock these with credits, mind you, but the two packs available (Black Market and Crime Lord) offer players a chance at earning some special items"

Gambling boxes! Probably the worst road F2P has gone down.

I had pretty decent success getting cool stuff out of them on the PTS. I think they're kind of neat, actually!

Gambling is gambling, you cannot put a nice face on it no matter how you try.  Personally I think it is worse than pay-to-win.

F2P with cash shops is always more expensive than sub. if u plan on playing the game longer than a few weeks its actually cheaper just to sub for a month at a time.

So what happens to us folks who did subscribe who had purple items.  Will we be able to log in and use those items , or will we log in and find ourselves naked and be forced to unlock.

Also I noticed that somebody posted you have to have a new account for free to play, I want to know where it said that.

Unfortunaly I find their fremium to be too restrictive.

Well I'm a previous subscriber & may sub again but I honestly have to say after reading everything about the new f2p I'm very disappointed that  a f2p player can't even use CC. You'd think since the Cartel Market is opening the same time that f2p will launch that they'd make CC accessible to f2p players as well, so that previous sub players & f2p players who just wanna pay for certain items such as more character slots, expanded inventory or expanded cargo hold could buy these on the Cartel Market without having to sub. It's sad a person is forced 2 pay in order to get the CC in the first place when they have payed for the box, digital deluxe or collector's edition, & previously subscribed or a person who is new to f2p who just wants to buy those items to have less restrictions in game. It kinda defeats the purpose of f2p when you are left with no option of using CC when you choose the f2p gameplay.

Originally posted by Rain76

Well I'm a previous subscriber & may sub again but I honestly have to say after reading everything about the new f2p I'm very disappointed that  a f2p player can't even use CC. You'd think since the Cartel Market is opening the same time that f2p will launch that they'd make CC accessible to f2p players as well, so that previous sub players & f2p players who just wanna pay for certain items such as more character slots, expanded inventory or expanded cargo hold could buy these on the Cartel Market without having to sub. It's sad a person is forced 2 pay in order to get the CC in the first place when they have payed for the box, digital deluxe or collector's edition, & previously subscribed or a person who is new to f2p who just wants to buy those items to have less restrictions in game. It kinda defeats the purpose of f2p when you are left with no option of using CC when you choose the f2p gameplay.

I'm not quite get it, you can use coins as f2p too. And yep, it's not a friendly gesture to forcing previous players to resubscribe, but it seems they slowly start to realize it (I mean according to latest changes now you don't have to have a live sub on Nov.15, you can resub until Dec. to receive your coins)

I'm with you on this one though:

players who just wanna pay for certain items such as more character slots

too bad there's no such item on the Market right now... and it doesn't have any sense, more slots meaning more options to snatch the player's money, since it might follow more character unlocks, inventory, etc. Any f2p mmo knows that. But hey, it's EA :)

Originally posted by Po_gg

Originally posted by mmoguy43
Mike, not say you are wrong but where did you get the information that there is "only two character slots per server" ? I have not read that before for free or prefered players.

I have not read that before   Me neither, but it seems correct. Sevenstar posted a link about the Cartel Market item list, and on the Subscriber benefits part there's "10 additional character slots per server". Since subs have 12 slots, seems logical that f2p/preferred will get 2 slot.

 

Which is not a problem, most f2p's have character slot restriction. What IS a problem instead, that I don't see character slot on the aforementioned Market list...  Which would be the stupidest f2p decision ever... Or not, that place is already taken by the hotbar restriction from the same company :)

But seriously, every game selling additional character slots, even those who don't have restriction on it and offering 6-8 slots by default, because character slot is maybe one of the most selling unlocks in any game. I have 4 toons in TOR, so when I check back after f2p, I will have to choose 2 of them, the other 2 stays locked. So far that's the standard procedure in most f2p's. Then I go to the Market to buy 2 more slots, and EA will say: "nope, dude, if you wanna play your other toons, you have to subscribe"? For real? Hilarious :)

 

Edit: since nobody else will return, I figured there's no point for me to stick to my old server. So I thought, I will pick 2 toons, then transfer them to an another server, then pick the other 2, this way all 4 will be active on two servers:)  Yep, good idea in theory, but just checked the account page, and it said character transfer is currently not available. Lol.

Ok, you're right and I found it. Here. "If you convert to Preferred Status, you will need to choose which two (2) of your characters will remain active, and play those characters within the limits of Free-to-Play access." It is somewhat hidden and not even on the F2P restrictions chart probably because it would make it far to long and frightening if they listed every actual restriction lol.

Sometime after the F2P launch they will sell character slot unlocks. (source)

This is the most clear explaination

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?

Originally posted by erictlewis

So what happens to us folks who did subscribe who had purple items.  Will we be able to log in and use those items , or will we log in and find ourselves naked and be forced to unlock.

Also I noticed that somebody posted you have to have a new account for free to play, I want to know where it said that.

Unfortunaly I find their fremium to be too restrictive.

 

edit: nvm, not sure that is right.

Basically, EA is saying bend over to all it's previous subscribers.  This is probably the most restrictive f2p rules I have seen.

What will result is they will get some people in the game that never played before, but most past subscribers will find the f2p far to restrictive and will end up not playing.  

You will see a short spike in server populations and then another fast decline.  Only EA could come up with such brain dead restrictions.  Unless they make some changes, they will be taking all servers off line within a year.

I do understand they have to do something to earn money, but this is just horrible, imo.

Restricting hot bars and chat is alone reason enough for me to stay away, so there's no need to comment on the other horrors at all.

This train has crashed and burned once. It will happen again.

Originally posted by Ozmodan

Originally posted by Sevenstar61

You have to be active subscriber at the time of launching F2P to get CC. It is believed that the date will be 11/14/12

 

Edit. They reward active subscribers, not every person who ever played the game. And I think it's a right choice.

Right, penalize the people who bought the game and actually subscribed.  Sounds like it is right out of the EA response book.

Seriously, why stick it to previous people who actually spent some real money on this game, only EA could come up with such a brain dead idea!

This is the same company that gave free play time to make up for the bugs at first ONLY to people who had a level 50 character... and then they had to backpedal so fast they went to ludicrous speed.

EA/Bioware just doesn't seem to have a clue on how to run a MMO (really, not enforce naming restrictions on RP servers) or how to deal with customers. 

They can't even communicate properly, I read my email as meaning that I had these CC points but I could only use them when I subscribe again NOT as some claim only if I subscribe before the switch over time.

If the others are right... well I am might try the game out for free and if they pulled a miracle, even subscribe but not if I am not going to get those coins they tried to lure me with.

It just seems like Bioware/EA is completely new with having to deal with customers beyond a single sale. With a single game sell, customer relations are easy, once you got their money, they are at your mercy. With a subscription game and worse a cash shop, they can stop paying you anytime you choose.

I bought Dragon Age but never ever dealt with Bioware, I don't visit their forums I don't interact, they just got a percetange of the price I payed and that is it. Now with a MMO, they got to get me back (well not me perse but people like me) and I need more then you got a free gift if you pay us. Come on, who falls for that.

Ten to one that to buy anything even remotely usefull, the free coins aren't anywhere near enough.

So basically costs about $20+ to unlock everything for one character if the user doesn't subscribed and uses the cash shop. No thank you, cheers to EA for making my decision easier to not play SWTOR again.

Originally posted by TheOctagon

I thought it was hilariously funny their actually restricting FTP players open chat.

Preferred status = Increased access to Chat and Secure Trading.

I wonder if you'll get a certain word amount you can post per day, then they cut you off.

There's a cooldown on general chat, I believe. This is common in F2P games to curb farmers and other abusive players that can just make new accounts.

Originally posted by cronius77
premium members do not seem to have that much restrictions on them from what ive read and thats a 5 dollar unlock considering i spent 60$ on this game at release and others get it for free what is 5 bucks? Not trying to stick up for them honestly but what am i missing for premiums that make it so restrictive ? EQ2 had auction house locks , item locks , class and race locks, bag space locks , AA/slider locks at 50% unless you pay 15 a month and lotr online had content locks for anything above 30. So what is making premium for example so bad compared to other freemium games?

LOTRO / EQ2:

When you pay to unlock contents (ie quest packs or expansions), you pay ONCE for your whole account. You don't rent content, meaning paying per week for it. LOTRO and EQ2 dosn't have perfect cash shop models, far from it, but their models are superior compared to this, imo.