The Glade 4.0

In case anyone is still following, or interested in checking it out without paying

http://www.swtor.com/info/news/news-article/20121108

Here is a list/calculator to help you plan your cartel coin spending..

http://www.swtor-spy.com/guides/swtor-c ... ator/2769/

FYI, Anyone who had an active account at any time will get some cartel coins. If you purchased any form of collectors edition, you also get some coins. You can log into your account and click the 'Cartel Coins' link on the left side of the page to see your balance.

And here is a breakdown on the restrictions for Free to Play. It also discusses the difference between 'Preferred Status' and regular free to play.

http://dulfy.net/2012/10/24/swtor-free- ... trictions/

Wow. This is an awful F2P model.

I mean, I patched and logged in to see about continuing the BH, Smuggler, and Knight stories that I'd started and gotten interested in.

First thing I realized? Oh, I only get two of my characters. Okay, no big deal. I imagine I can unlock additional slots so I can play my 3 alts and continue my main with the new content (which, yeah, I'd have to microtransaction)... Or, not. I flip through the cartel coin store and don't see additional character slots. And the additional content is more of a macrotransaction.

Hrm. Wait, what's this?

I have to pay over $20 just to get a functional interface back, since quickbars are six bucks a pop? Wow, EA, you're not doing me any favors, here.

So I go and do some math. Aside from a few other WTF moments (really? You're going to charge for hide headslot functionality!?), I discover that, in order to play the story content reasonably in something like the manner I'm accustomed, I'm looking at probably most of a $40 cartel coin purchase to get my "preferred" account up to snuff. At that point, it's probably better to just pony up for 3 months of subscription and figure the game closes down entirely by then since this isn't exactly going to win back lapsed customers.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

You get all of your characters.. .for now.

Eventually, they'll lock it to 2.

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Grenade 3 Sports Drink. It's fire in the hole.. Your hole!

Well, that's.. marginally less horrible. Until eventually, at least. I still can't play any of them past level 10 with one quickbar.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Two quickbars.

It's dumb. very dumb. Locking basic UI functions? Bad move.

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Grenade 3 Sports Drink. It's fire in the hole.. Your hole!

I see people complaining about stuff they dont' get for free.

I'm sorry, but if you want stuff, pay for it.

The game will certainly fail if they base the Free to Play model on giving things away.

I don't mind paying for things. As I said, I perfectly expected character slots to be on sale, and would have happily bought a few. Likewise additional story/mission content, etc.

But charging me money for the basic tools necessary to play the game? That's what makes me log out and uninstall for good.

And I'm not kidding when I say basic tools -- I literally had 3 full rows of hotkeys that I'd use *in combat* on Keslyn, and my knight was already well into her second in the mid-twenties. When the game is built around having frequent use of a plethora of medium-cooldown, once-or-twice-a-fight abilities, offering 12 quickslots is not sufficient to play the game.

At that point, charging me for the tools to play the game at even a basic level is insulting, let alone uninviting.

If my disappointment and disdain for the model they've implemented has come off as animosity towards those who still subscribe -- it wasn't my intention. I didn't come back looking to freeload completely, and I'm well aware of the financial realities of free to play models. And I accept them elsewhere, where there's respect and trust on both sides of the equation. And, to be honest, I'm not sure why I'm surprised; EA's earned little respect from me in the past for exactly these kinds of decisions.

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

24 quick slots. There's a second row you can use; I set up for Retro and I still have a seecond row.

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Grenade 3 Sports Drink. It's fire in the hole.. Your hole!

As Dalantia pointed out, there are two quickbars available to F2P players. You can enable the 2nd one (assuming you still have the default UI) by opening the interface editor.

If two aren't enough, for 240 coins ($2) you can unlock an additional one (up to six), forever. And for 540 coins ($5) you can unlock an additional one for every character on your account, forever.

I think this F2P model is actually very good, and extremely generous, perhaps too much (in my opinion) for free players.

You have everything you need to level two characters to 50, and sufficient things you can unlock via cartel coins, or legacy, to make the free to play version of the game more than an adequate gaming experience.

holy **** it is the opposite of generous and good

City of Heroes was generous and good. Champions, STO, A WHOLE LOT OF OTHER THINGS are generous and good.

This? This is crap. BASIC UI FUNCTIONALITY SHOULD NEVER BE RESTRICTED BEHIND A PAYWALL. This is perhaps the most restrictive FTP system I have ever seen.

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Grenade 3 Sports Drink. It's fire in the hole.. Your hole!

I haven't seen a lot of CoH chatter here, and I've never played it.

Is that game still doing well?

Edit: Apparently it's not doing so well? They are shutting down the servers on Nov 30th
http://na.cityofheroes.com/en/news/news ... et_faq.php

City of Heroes was doing well for four or five years as a free to play title.

I'm man enough to admit when I'm wrong. Thanks for the heads up about two free quickbars. That's still not anywhere near generous, in my book, though, because, as Dalantia said, basic/essential UI functionality should never be behind a paywall. Content, sure. Interface, no.

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

For $20, you can have every quick bar on every character you ever make. That's only slightly more than the cost of a month as a paying subscriber.

The cost to unlock bank and inventory spaces is similarly low.

I wouldn't call that a pay wall.. more like a pay curb...

This. Easily. I was looking forward to coming back when it goes F2P, but all these restrictions make me not want to bother.

Age of Conan, DDO, and Lord of the Rings Online, have very, very good F2P systems that are not nearly as restrictive. And I don't think I've ever seen an MMO type game that restricts basic UI elements based on whether or not you pay for it. That's just retarded. Especially in a game that encourages/requires multiple skills and utilities to hotkey. I understand trying to encourage people to pay for the game, but there are much better ways to do it.

Hell, all three of the games I mentioned above enticed me to subscribe for multiple months based entirely on what I saw and experienced during my F2P. Which is EXACTLY what the F2P system is supposed to do. SWTOR's F2P system seems like it is designed to do the exact opposite, which is drive people away from the game and make them not even want to bother trying it at all.

Stupid, stupid system.

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"I Live, I Love, I Slay, and I Am Content."
- Conan the Barbarian

Of those games, I've only played LotRO, and that was prior to it going free to play, so I'm not familiar with it's model.

Besides the UI gripe, what makes it 'better'?

Lets do this from the perspective of a sustainable business model and not from an 'I want more free stuff' business model..

The UI gripe is a big one. As I said, I'm far more comfortable paying for content. Charge me $5 for each class's Act 2 and another $5 for each class's Act 3 (and grandfather in characters who are already in a given Act) and I'd cough up the money. The temporary boost buffs are fine (more xp, more money, whatever it was they've got) and usually good sellers in a F2P model. The limit on flashpoints is reasonable, as is purchasing extra trips. The rest XP for subscribers only seems a little petty, but only a little bit (and that only because rest XP is a big boost to mitigating that alts are going to have to run a lot of the same planetary quest content just to keep up with their stories' level).

Hide headslot's actually kind of strange. Selling aesthetic/appearance customization options is usually nice. However, it feels off here because they're asking me to pay to avoid their ugly equipment, not get something shiny and special. Especially since most of the head slot options for my Miraluka JK *alter* her blindfold to one I *did not choose* at character creation. (She uses the big faceplate that covers her from nose to forehead. With her current, and the three other headslots I had in her inventory, item it gives her the little Morpheus sunglasses that look stupid). I've played my Bounty Hunter helmetless her entire career, and now she's stuck with an atrocious flared helmet.

And then, finally, there's the quickbar problem. My knight isn't even a Sentinel, and she's literally filled her two quickbars at level 24. I'm pretty sure my Shadow will be unplayable. Giving me something unplayable for free isn't doing anybody any favors. It makes them look bad, and it turns me off from wanting to try to see if the game's improved.

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

What Kaffis said. Charge me for Content or Aesthetics and wardrobe/appearance options. Not for quickslots and basic UI functionality. I shouldn't have to pay to change the fundamentals of how the game works.

As far as the other games I listed, they basically function as a watered down version of the full game. I get access to certain zones/levels, but I have to pay to access different content. But the game still looks and functions the same, regardless of if you've paid or not. The nice thing about LOTRO is that while you have to "buy" the higher level zones and questing areas to continue leveling your character, you do so with Turbine Points. Which you can either buy with real money, or earn in-game through questing and completing deeds. So it is actually possible to get to max level without spending a dime of real money, just by questing in different areas with more than one character. Time-consuming? Yes. And it's not exactly the most practical way to do it, but it IS possible.

_________________
"I Live, I Love, I Slay, and I Am Content."
- Conan the Barbarian

SWTOR gives you access to all planetary content 1-50 (basically the entire game that isn't end-game stuff). Access to flashpoints and warzones can be purchased inexpensively, in various ways.

Other than the 24 quick slots, and possibly the limited bag slots, what is the major complaint with the SWTOR model? $5-10 dollars to give yourself access to however many quick slots you need doesn't sound like a huge barrier to game play. You certainly won't need more that the two they give you until you are at least level 30, and probably higher depending on your class. This means you can play most of the game for free, and decide if you want to spend a few dollars to add the convenience of the hotbars once at higher levels.

It's not like having 24 quickslots is going to keep you from playing. Its no hindrance at all until higher levels.

"Preferred Status" (previous subs) are getting two additional quickbars (four total).

Subscribers have six (recently increased from four), and new Free accounts are still limited to two.

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=562422

F2P Launched and server populations are down across the board. I logged into Ebon Hawk during Prime Time. There were 9 people on Tython, 17 on Ord Mantell, and 31 on Coruscant.

I got a Knight to 49. I didn't do any Flash points after Cad. I didn't do any Heroics after Balmorra. There weren't people to play with.

The Old Republic is a litany of disasters. I'd rather have the single-player game they carved up to make this one. I'd much rather have KoTOR 3 than The Old Republic as this point. The most expensive MMO in history has not even had a profitable month. The best MMO launch ever, including WoW, in terms of initial software sales, and their subscription rate is the low 10s of 1000s 11 months later.

I'm sad this game; I'm sad Bioware is off in bad game-maker land.

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Khross, you are krazy,

All thanksgiving weekend ALL of the servers were FULL. Check the official boards. F2P players were complaining of a 3 hours queue.

There were 8 instances of Fleet on Harbinger, and the new dailies areas (Section-X) had 10 instances at one point.

I spent some time on Ord Mantell buffing newbs and it was pretty full with several instances all weekend.

I logged in last night and ran a few dailies on my Consular, and didnt have any trouble finding groups for the daily H4's for BH comms...

4 slots is actually playable. That's good news, I'll have to suck up the helm or fork over a bit. Probably depending on whether I can purchase cartel coins offline ala timecard-esque setups, and what the lowest denomination to do so is.

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Some other things they are doing to bridge the gap between fresh 50's and end game.

* Free PvP recruit gear at 50 (this started in 1.3)
* Free 99 Tionese Commendations (enough to buy a full set of basic Rakata gear).

This is enough to get started doing hard mode version of flash points, or do the level 50 warzones.