SWTOR: Catch-All

Will there be any severe and annoying limitations playing through the story when the full free-to-play model opens up on November 15th? I quite disliked the MMO style controls when I played the Beta, but I think I could put up with it for a KOTOR like experience. Which characters have the most enjoyable storylines?

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

Will there be any severe and annoying limitations playing through the story when the full free-to-play model opens up on November 15th? I quite disliked the MMO style controls when I played the Beta, but I think I could put up with it for a KOTOR like experience. Which characters have the most enjoyable storylines?

Smuggler, Bounty Hunter, Sith Inquisitor

I for one am very interested in what results a FTP model like this will achieve. Reading the list of FTP imposed restrictions was far more entertaining than I thought it would be as well. With stuff like no sprint, no bank, no public chat, and... Less hot bars <-- hehe.. yeah, I went from a puzzle wtf look on my face to the giggles quickly. XD. Really becuase I has a notion that this was being done to generate a larger player base, leading to more payers and a better product for the existing players to hang around. Though from the look of this so far it appears more like a we need more payers and a way to annoy the freeloader types to gtfo.
Yep, I am interested in seeing what results this sort of approach gets in this case. Good, bad or meh.. We will be watching.

Tanglebones wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:

Will there be any severe and annoying limitations playing through the story when the full free-to-play model opens up on November 15th? I quite disliked the MMO style controls when I played the Beta, but I think I could put up with it for a KOTOR like experience. Which characters have the most enjoyable storylines?

Smuggler, Bounty Hunter, Sith Inquisitor

I found the Imperial Agent far more interesting than either the Bounty Hunter or Sith Inquisitor. I was able to bulldoze my way through Jedi Knight, but that still was a pale comparison.

Pex-Corrh wrote:
Tanglebones wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:

Will there be any severe and annoying limitations playing through the story when the full free-to-play model opens up on November 15th? I quite disliked the MMO style controls when I played the Beta, but I think I could put up with it for a KOTOR like experience. Which characters have the most enjoyable storylines?

Smuggler, Bounty Hunter, Sith Inquisitor

I found the Imperial Agent far more interesting than either the Bounty Hunter or Sith Inquisitor. I was able to bulldoze my way through Jedi Knight, but that still was a pale comparison.

Sith Warrior and Jedi Knight are a bit more like the original KOTOR, but I also enjoyed the Agent storyline more so far since it's a bit meatier.

RPS wrote an article today discussing a bit of the free to play changes.

More upsetting, meanwhile, are all the arbitrary restrictions free players have been saddled with. In addition to things like lowered chat access and super limited numbers of instance runs, space battles, and PVP skirmishes, BioWare’s also announced that free players will accrue experience at a significantly slower rate. And though the above video doesn’t mention any oh-so-trendy “boosts” in the Cartel Market, I’d be willing to bet an agonizing night’s stay in a Sarlacc Pit that we’ll see something to that effect.

The bolded bit has me a bit worried. It's hard to tell if they're exaggerating things. The rest doesn't really matter for soloing the story, but if it gets really grindy, that's not going to be fun. I suppose I will just have to get a feel for the leveling up rate myself.

Going back to something someone said a while ago, it really seems like EA want this to still be a subscription MMO with a crappy F2P mode bolted on. I'm wondering if they would be better served by keeping the subscription model and having a really good trial system, although that would need some work and I seem to recall they gutted the development staff a bit a while back. It seems they're more determined to change/fix the game by hitting it hard with a massive hammer than many slight tweaks and adjustments.

Scratched wrote:

Going back to something someone said a while ago, it really seems like EA want this to still be a subscription MMO with a crappy F2P mode bolted on. I'm wondering if they would be better served by keeping the subscription model and having a really good trial system, although that would need some work and I seem to recall they gutted the development staff a bit a while back. It seems they're more determined to change/fix the game by hitting it hard with a massive hammer than many slight tweaks and adjustments.

Yep. When they describe it as free to play, they really mean that you're free to subscribe if you want a playable game.

As for better served, I don't know that there's anything they could have done to boost paying subs. The game was bleeding subs, so they had to do something to try and reinvigorate the game. This however, I don't know that what they're doing with F2P is going to do anything but hurt them overall.

AnimeJ wrote:

This however, I don't know that what they're doing with F2P is going to do anything but hurt them overall.

Most likely.

What they're going to get at first is an influx of people who were too cheap to buy it at launch, but were interested in it (this includes me, so hopefully no one takes it as an insult). They'll hop in, create a few characters, and play the starting areas. After the restrictions get too annoying, they'll quit.

The problem is with what really hooks most players into an MMO. You need to bring the player in, immerse them in content, and let them get invested in the game itself. You need them to want that shiny new weapon, or piece of armor, and you want them to be willing to invest more time into their character. At a point, the player becomes more and more willing to spend time/money on that character.

But everything I've read here is really just absurdly annoying. They're basically saying I can create a character, and mindlessly grind it up all I want, with crap gear and no real social options, along with less abilities in a game that seems like it wasn't designed well in the first place.

I'm starting to wonder if Turbine is funding this F2P project, just to make LOTRO look all that much better.

PurEvil wrote:
AnimeJ wrote:

This however, I don't know that what they're doing with F2P is going to do anything but hurt them overall.

Most likely.

What they're going to get at first is an influx of people who were too cheap to buy it at launch, but were interested in it (this includes me, so hopefully no one takes it as an insult). They'll hop in, create a few characters, and play the starting areas. After the restrictions get too annoying, they'll quit.

The problem is with what really hooks most players into an MMO. You need to bring the player in, immerse them in content, and let them get invested in the game itself. You need them to want that shiny new weapon, or piece of armor, and you want them to be willing to invest more time into their character. At a point, the player becomes more and more willing to spend time/money on that character.

But everything I've read here is really just absurdly annoying. They're basically saying I can create a character, and mindlessly grind it up all I want, with crap gear and no real social options, along with less abilities in a game that seems like it wasn't designed well in the first place.

I'm starting to wonder if Turbine is funding this F2P project, just to make LOTRO look all that much better.

Rofl at the secret Turbine plan. I'm probably going to log on next weekend to check it out but at most I'm going to finish my Republic storyline. I was at 47 when Diablo 3 came out and I cancelled my subscription. I'd be willing to keep the game on my hard drive and try other storylines, but the experience sounds too painful.

What are the social restrictions? The only ones I saw were early limits to what a spammer can do with a throw-away account. Once you play for a while or give them $5 those go away…

Apparently, there's some confusion about the bonus "Cartel Coins" being sent out. It seems that, even if you show a balance in your SWTOR account, you will not receive that balance unless you actually have a paid subscription active.

For anybody pondering whether it's worth resubscribing in advance just for the bonus "Cartel Coins," Tobold did the math. I guess you would need quite a chunk of "Cartel Coins" for that to be worthwhile.

I find the whole system kind of perplexing.

Purely from the outside looking in, I'm getting the feeling that they really don't have a good plan for getting people back into the game and the systems and restrictions they've put in place seem more confusing than enticing. Mind you, I'm one of the biggest Star Wars geeks you're gonna' find and I had planned to spend years in this game but I've already stepped away because there was just nothing to keep me there. I'd planned to resub every now and then but so far I haven't seen anything to make me spend my time and money with this game instead of the, literally, hundreds of other games at my fingertips. It's really disappointing to me and lately I've been having some serious nostalgia for the sandbox nature of the old SWG. Despite all of that games problems I DID spend years playing that game without feeling like I was on a repetitive treadmill to nowehere like I did with TOR.

Kehama wrote:

Purely from the outside looking in, I'm getting the feeling that they really don't have a good plan for getting people back into the game and the systems and restrictions they've put in place seem more confusing than enticing. Mind you, I'm one of the biggest Star Wars geeks you're gonna' find and I had planned to spend years in this game but I've already stepped away because there was just nothing to keep me there. I'd planned to resub every now and then but so far I haven't seen anything to make me spend my time and money with this game instead of the, literally, hundreds of other games at my fingertips. It's really disappointing to me and lately I've been having some serious nostalgia for the sandbox nature of the old SWG. Despite all of that games problems I DID spend years playing that game without feeling like I was on a repetitive treadmill to nowehere like I did with TOR.

I couldn't have said it better. +100

Anyone else getting multiple spam messages from them about complimentary cartel coins? It's freaking me out because I though I'd unsubscribed from all emails from them, and EA was recently hacked, so I'm afraid someone is buying things that these coins come with...

NSMike wrote:

Anyone else getting multiple spam messages from them about complimentary cartel coins? It's freaking me out because I though I'd unsubscribed from all emails from them, and EA was recently hacked, so I'm afraid someone is buying things that these coins come with...

I just got a single mail from them earlier today.

I got one earlier this week, but only just the one.

I will try f2p once it comes out. There were interesting things about the combat with the companions and aoe that I am going to refresh my memory on.

I get the feeling it won't last long because RIFT, GW2 and the little I played of TSW spoiled me with dynamic questing. I just don't know how long I can go back to the infinite back and forth between hub and objective. Plus fast travel... oh man it is already giving me knots in my stomach just thinking about travel in SWTOR.

fangblackbone wrote:

I will try f2p once it comes out.

I think the update for that is happening right now.

F2P is now live..

Tried to download/install the game this morning, got the launcher up, but couldn't get farther because I didn't have an account. Finally got registered this afternoon, been running for about 90 minutes at 2.15 MB/s, and not even halfway through the install.

Maybe I'll get to try it tomorrow.

I'm unclear on whether or not I need to swap servers or join a new GWJ guild or what. When I signed in tonight, I know I had to delete three characters and rename the two I decided to keep.

I hadn't kept up too much with the actual way Bioware was implementing F2P, but when I found out I'd either have to subscribe or pay money for the rest of the action bars in the UI, I almost shut the game down.

What a clusterf*ck.

I'm so tempted to give this a go again, cause I didn't finish any of the story lines on the toons I had and I liked all of them. What's that about deleting characters? Did you have to do that cause of the server move, or because it was free to play?

Wow. I logged back in as a FTP and quite frankly am rather insulted. First, I find theres a 2 character limit not per server but for the entire game. So I went in and deleted my old alts so that I could start over, only to encounter a bug where the game still thinks those old characters are still active (from the forums it looks like a problem most free players are experiencing). Fortunately, I didn't delete my level 47 main so I took him for a spin. At every corner I felt nickeled and dimed. Want to get lightside/dark side points? Want a cargo hold or a UI with more than 2 toolbars? Want to display a freaking title next to your name? Pony up son.

I understand the devs gotta make money, but charging me to display my legacy name and title smacks of desperation. LOTRO and DDO are huge successes because they actually offer you do some value for the money.

So you have to delete characters (I had about 6 ALTs, IIRC) if you even want to access the game?

Demiurge wrote:

I hadn't kept up too much with the actual way Bioware was implementing F2P, but when I found out I'd either have to subscribe or pay money for the rest of the action bars in the UI, I almost shut the game down.

What a clusterf*ck.

I... wow, that is seriously stupid.

Did they even look at any of the successful F2P titles out there that were conversions from sub-based games? Because it sure doesn't sound like they did any research.

Farscry wrote:
Demiurge wrote:

I hadn't kept up too much with the actual way Bioware was implementing F2P, but when I found out I'd either have to subscribe or pay money for the rest of the action bars in the UI, I almost shut the game down.

What a clusterf*ck.

I... wow, that is seriously stupid.

Did they even look at any of the successful F2P titles out there that were conversions from sub-based games? Because it sure doesn't sound like they did any research.

Ugh. I kinda want to go back and play now that it's F2P - I was looking forward to running through a couple of the stories I hadn't tried. This is making my interest wane rapidly.

Uninstalling. I never thought I'd say that when F2P came out, but this is awful.

Tanglebones wrote:
Farscry wrote:
Demiurge wrote:

I hadn't kept up too much with the actual way Bioware was implementing F2P, but when I found out I'd either have to subscribe or pay money for the rest of the action bars in the UI, I almost shut the game down.

What a clusterf*ck.

I... wow, that is seriously stupid.

Did they even look at any of the successful F2P titles out there that were conversions from sub-based games? Because it sure doesn't sound like they did any research.

Ugh. I kinda want to go back and play now that it's F2P - I was looking forward to running through a couple of the stories I hadn't tried. This is making my interest wane rapidly.

Unless you're going to pay for more character slots (which I'm only half sure you can do and cannot currently verify) or more likely resubscribe, you won't get that chance.

Demiurge wrote:
Tanglebones wrote:
Farscry wrote:
Demiurge wrote:

I hadn't kept up too much with the actual way Bioware was implementing F2P, but when I found out I'd either have to subscribe or pay money for the rest of the action bars in the UI, I almost shut the game down.

What a clusterf*ck.

I... wow, that is seriously stupid.

Did they even look at any of the successful F2P titles out there that were conversions from sub-based games? Because it sure doesn't sound like they did any research.

Ugh. I kinda want to go back and play now that it's F2P - I was looking forward to running through a couple of the stories I hadn't tried. This is making my interest wane rapidly.

Unless you're going to pay for more character slots (which I'm only half sure you can do and cannot currently verify) or more likely resubscribe, you won't get that chance.

I really don't care about endgame, so I was going to delete my old characters

namikaze wrote:

Uninstalling. I never thought I'd say that when F2P came out, but this is awful.

I think I will as well.

The contrast between this and GW2 which is currently adding even more stuff for me to do for free, is telling.

It really is a shame. On this week's podcast, the Halo 4 Dev said that one of the worst things a game can do is close off great content through poor design choices. That is TOR's problem to a tee. I know there are probably great quest and environments in the game that I never experienced but the game just puts to many pointless barriers between me and fun.