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Things That Just Need To Be Free — 6 Comments

  1. I agree with you on most things, but the cargo bay doesn’t apply to players coming back that will have the preferred status. Preferred get one bank tab, and they keep whatever inventory/bank tab they bought with credits.

    AlixMV: if you’re a Premium Subscriber with Legacy racial unlocks and revert to a Free Account, what will have precedence, the f2p restrictions or the Legacy unlocks?

    Blaine: First off – if you change from being a subscriber to a Free-to-Play player, you will always go to Preferred status and will never become a Free Account, so you’ll have some features unlocked that you otherwise would not. Additionally, you will absolutely retain the Legacy unlocks that you earned/purchased as a subscriber. In almost all cases, if you have been a subscriber, you will find that things you purchased for in-game credits will be retained when you go down to Preferred. Including things like Cargo Hold access and Inventory Slots.

    Source: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=5340746#edit5340746

  2. I was surprised at how much stuff wasn’t available to f2p players. I wouldn’t have known except that I have a friend who decided they wanted to play that way and they were listing the many things they couldn’t do/use anymore.

    I definitely see what you mean about wanting to make sure people are fully invested before charging them an arm and a leg.

    Also, you got to meet the Bioware people? What?

  3. I leveled my first character (Trooper) to 50 with only the first inventory bag unlock (5K credits) and only the first free cargo bay. Yes, I had crew skills, though probably the single combination with the lowest inventory impact. (Slicing, which I only ever use to loot or mission for credit boxes, bioanalysis – one stack of each material represents most of the stuff in my one cargo bay – and biochem). It’s not that hard to spare your companion for 60 seconds to dump your vendor trash (every time you have to run back out of a quest instance or take a taxi flight), and there are vendors in every quest hub for everything else. I hadn’t even bothered to pay the 5K credits on my low-mid-level alts, though I am going through and doing so now during my one-off month of sub time just because it will cost me real money if I want the space after the sub lapses.

    I also made poor Elara go through the entire game without a helmet, because they had not yet implemented hide companion helm and I felt that the increase in stats was not worth being unable to tell the difference between the cute medic my character was sleeping with and Fluffy Kitty McSniperPants. (Ironically, my Trooper does not have any in-game dark side points, though he – and/or myself – probably deserves some for doing this to his in-game bethrothed.) On the plus side, I will never notice that Mr. Furry Pewpew suddenly looks completely different under the buckethead because his skin got stripped off by the restriction on equipping customizations.

    Quibbles aside, I don’t disagree with your main assessment. There are a bunch of technically cosmetic unlocks that feel petty but aren’t worth paying for. (Also, I assume you will still get customizations for your first companion, even if you can’t equip them.) More concerning from my perspective are the things you can’t pay to unlock at any price as a subscriber – things like currency and commendation caps, the permanent penalty to vendor prices, emergency fleet pass/quick travel (no thanks for the one-time consumables at $1 per) and – if the matrix is correct – the ability to mail things to your legacy alts. Things will probably change, but for now it does not feel like EA wants non-subscription to be a viable option.

    • When I was hearing about F2P, I kind of hoped that it would allow me to consume content a la carte – to pick the aspects I wanted and ditch the ones I didn’t. For example, I never PvP and, as you may have read, fail at space. I would happily pay a lesser fee for simply doing ops and PvE content. But buying an ops pass every week, plus all the cash I’d have to spend on unlocks just to put me back where I currently am (like gear authorizations), it adds up very quickly to the price of a sub. You’re right: not subbing is not really a viable option, even for my limited needs.

  4. “Things will probably change, but for now it does not feel like EA wants non-subscription to be a viable option.”

    This absolutely.

    I just cannot imagine how they looked at sub numbers, found they were not high enough, did a F2P conversion and then… set it up as a giant punishment for not subbing. Uh, you’re wanting to lure back people who ALREADY didn’t find a sub worthwhile by penalizing them for failing to pay for something that they already decided wasn’t worth paying for?

    What genius thought that up?

    PS – WTB character slots.

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