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Originally posted by Magaskaweel
According to http://www.swtor.com/free/features there are no hotbar restrictions. Am I missing something, or should we trust some fluff blog site over the official one?

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Pretty sill limitations I admit.

But I'm not affected by this as I will be always subbed to SWTOR.

Wow, they are testing things and people take it for granted.

BTW, Based on community feedback (people that actually play the game), they got rid of the 1 quickbar restriction.  Tey also added a third tier of F2P.

darthhater.com

I wonder what happens to former subscribers who have purple gear.  To me the restrictions are way to many.  There is noo way I could play or would be able to unless my toons were grandfathered in.

Originally posted by erictlewis

I wonder what happens to former subscribers who have purple gear.  To me the restrictions are way to many.  There is noo way I could play or would be able to unless my toons were grandfathered in.

 

Previous subscribers do not lose what they have.  If you had a character created with a race already that is not an option for the F2P option, then you can still play that character.  If you already had cargo space and inventory space and legacy levels, then you still have those also!  So your toons are grandfathered in, you can Play Now!  Hurray!

Edited for typos.

Yo Dwag, i heard you like skillbars, so i put two skillbars instead of one in a game where you probably want four.

Am i not the generous one? Now stop B* and go Pay me.

I will always love you Arts of Electronica. I love it when power suits are behind major decisions in a game.

Originally posted by erictlewis

I wonder what happens to former subscribers who have purple gear.  To me the restrictions are way to many.  There is noo way I could play or would be able to unless my toons were grandfathered in.

 

what a clueless comment... NOTHING.

Did they get rid of the quickbar restriction yet?

Originally posted by matraque

Originally posted by erictlewis

I wonder what happens to former subscribers who have purple gear.  To me the restrictions are way to many.  There is noo way I could play or would be able to unless my toons were grandfathered in.

 

what a clueless comment... NOTHING.

They have preferred player status and can wear all purple items that they already own. Also all inventory and cargo unlocked by them will be available for them.

They also added one more bar for F2P players

As a Preferred Status Player, you will gain the following benefits compared to Free-to-Play Players:
• The Sprint ability at Level 1
• Access to your Cargo Hold (an 80 item Player Bank)
• Access to Secure Trade (starting at level 10)
• The ability to send Mail, including one (1) attachment
• Increased allowance for chat message frequencies in Public chat channels (such as /general)
• An increased Credits Cap
• Access to the Who List
• Three (3) additional Sale Slots on the Galactic Trade Network (for a total of 5)
• One (1) additional active Crew Skill Slot (for a total of 2)
• Reduced skill point respecialization costs
• Increased Server queue priority

In addition to the above benefits, Subscribers who return as Preferred Status Players will find that they retain any Cargo Hold and Inventory expansions they had unlocked, any Legacy Unlock or Perk they have gained (including Species) and can continue to use any Artifact equipment that was bound to them previously.

Originally posted by TeknoBug

Did they get rid of the quickbar restriction yet?

That being said, based on community and internal feedback here and further deliberation, we will in short order make the following changes to the Free to Play restrictions:

• Free-to-Play players will now get a second quickslot bar.
• Free-to-Play players will now be able to do 5 Warzones per week instead of 3.
• The Cartel Coin item lock (i.e. temporary bind) will be reduced to 3 days for Free-to-Play players, and 2 days for subscribers.

Originally posted by Sevenstar61

• Free-to-Play players will now get a second quickslot bar.

So how long will 2 quickslot bars last for those of you have actually reached level 50? Won't this merely delay how long it takes before free players reach a point which effectively makes the game unplayable without paying?

Originally posted by lowendahl

Originally posted by Sevenstar61

• Free-to-Play players will now get a second quickslot bar.

 

So how long will 2 quickslot bars last for those of you have actually reached level 50? Won't this merely delay how long it takes before free players reach a point which effectively makes the game unplayable without paying?

 

 

 

 

You can manage with 2 bars if you absolutely don't want to spend any cash for additional one. You can use the ability window for 1h buff, and abilities you do not use often. You don't need to use all abilities, game is playable without using everything available. Inconvenient but doable. Some classes: operatives, marauders have more usable abilities so it might be tougher. But doable for sure.

jesus mother of christ. Bioware is still in denial that  this game lacks in so many deptarments.

They are giving you teh story for free....k bioware "WE ALL QUIT AFTER THAT" . Charging for action bars, mail, able to equip items.

This isn't f2p this is a "lets get as much as we can before we close shop down" grab if i've ever seen one. You people should seriously be insulted that this company is doing this to players.

ALl they had to do was invest their time in a better space combat, a better world environment, less instancing, customized ships. bla bla bla .....instead they invest all their resources into ripping you off. 

I will not play f2p, i would gladly come back and pay for a sub, if they fixed the shit that was and is still broken from closed beta.

Originally posted by Karteli

Originally posted by kulhat

Hey!, maybe they WANT to annoy people away, what do we know :)

All this will surely work in that direction.

This is a good speculation as to their intent.  If EA can MAKE this game fail, then they might be able to excuse themselves from their obligation with George Lucas .. an obligation which carries a high cost.

 

In essense, EA might be trying to get this game to tank, because in the long run, it's more profitable.  They still need to show that they "tried", which will be important in court hearings.

lol.   Problem is the 'speculators' don't have a clue.   A brief rundown:

BioWare and Pandemic formed a Company (VG Holding Corp.) in 2005.   This Company (BioWare/Pandemic) got in bed with Lucas Arts (the publisher) to make SWTOR.   They didn't have the money to do this.   So they took advances.   They took a LOT of advances.    Close to $190 million worth of advances.

Sometime later, BioWare sells itself to EA.    It was an interesting deal.   First, because it cost EA $620 million in cash.  Then EA had to buy-out another $155 million in VG stock options.   Second, are more importantly, they had to give VG (which had money problems) $35 million (as a loan) for them to take care of their obligations.  Plus they had to absorb $190 million of debt owed to Lucas Arts from the production advances BioWare took.

When EA took over BioWare, the absorbed the Company.  Including the LA debt.   BioWare doesn't exist as a separate company.  They ARE EA.   They're a division.   Like Chevy and Buick are divisions of GM.     So they're not going to escape this debt by throwing up their hands and saying "oh my, this isn't working."

Beyond the debt, there is the royalty situation.   As long as the game runs, LA will get royalties.   LA usually takes 30% though who knows what they're taking here...   So, Fremium or not, 30% (or some lower number perhaps) of every dollar will have to go to LA.   And you can be sure, George Lucas has very good accountants and attorneys and much bigger pockets to pay them.   After all, they're about 20 times the size of EA.

Hell, at $3.3 billion, George Lucas personally is worth almost as much as EA (Lucas is personally worth $3.3 billion, EA is worth $3.8 billion (market cap, worth less on the books (equity method))).

So, grand Internet 'thinkers' to the contrary, I see no way out of this mess beyond EA going Chapter 7.