Star Wars: The Old Republic - Part 1

[Nathan]

Ok, decided to continue playing. Even if free, I'm close to stopping again. The game severely gimps you. Normally you can learn 3 crew skills. 1 craft and 2 gathering skills. Well, as a F2P player, you only get to select 1 crew skill. Now think about how fun item crafting is going to be.

 

[Colossal Spoons]

GW2 has no restrictions.... you buy it you own it... no sub required. Oh how I love it!

Which is awesome. It's like SWTOR wants to fail.

 

[Nathan]

Anyone have any predictions? How long do you think they can keep this kind of F2P plan running?

Oh, btw, played the first Flashpoint and the game keeps crashing during the final convo. Every time. Oh, this game is so much fun.

 

[Jennifer Walters]

Lol. Okay. I just ran into the helmet thing myself. What the **** is that ****?

This isn't really free to play. This is more ''Try our game, but if you want to play it to it's capacity you still have to pay." It's basically an extended trial with a **** ton of limitations.

 

[Nathan]

There is even more ridiculous stuff. You can't actually check who's on the servers, without an active subscription.

 

[Jennifer Walters]

Well, who bets a lot of these things will be changed if they really want free 2 play to be successful?

I mean sure it makes me wanna get a subscription a little bit, but it really seems nothing more than EA wanting to be money grubbing.

 

[Nathan]

I really hope they change it. You should really have access to most of stuff from the get-go. At the very least full access to everything regarding your character. Custom titles, hiding head gear, access to all shortcut bars, all 3 crew skills. Don't gimp the player and make the experience a pain in the ass. If a player is not enjoying himself, he's less likely to drop any money into the game.

You can still charge for future add-ons. Wanna have new powers and a new area? Buy the add-on. It's just extra stuff to do and not integral to your characters story. Pimp out the Cash Store with all kinds of cosmetic changes, pets, mounts, clothing, etc. Do you know how fast I'd drop some cash, if they'd offer the Sith Acolyte Armor through the cash shop?

How long has the game been out and this is still not anywhere to be found.

 

[Dark_Lord]

The free-to-play option looks to be for those that complained about getting an MMO instead of a single player KotOR sequel and wanted to at least play the class stories as a sp game. Even then, some of the restrictions are a little extreme. I definitely think they'll change them at some point, although you never know.

 

[Jennifer Walters]

Yep. Basically DCUO's free to play model. It's restricting but not to the point you can't just hop on and have fun.

This is getting less and less fun the further I get into my character's story.

 

[Nathan]

DCUO would be ideal. You have restrictions, but can basically do anything a subscriber can do. Subs get new add-ons for free, FTPers have to buy add-ons. Everyone can wear every gear and isn't forbidden from using rare or end-game items. Your crafting isn't gimped and you've got an in-game shop that allows you to pimp your hero to your heart's desire.

 

[Nathan]

I just deleted my lvl14 Jedi Sentinel by mistake. Stuff like that really kills your mood.

 

[Tanin]

Started playing again today. Rather fun so far

 

[Nathan]

Well, I think I almost got it out of my system again. It would be much more enjoyable if I didn't have to pay for basic gameplay elements and just for the cosmetical stuff or things like EXP boosters. Seriously, I'd so pimp out my character if I'd be able to buy the clothes that I want to wear. But 4-5 bucks to hide my headgear or 3 bucks for additional hotbars? Buzz off EA.

What servers are all of you playing on anyway? Maybe we could occasionally quest together. Right now I'm playing a Trooper, after having accidentally Deleted my Jedi, on 'The Red Eclipse' (PVE) server.

 

[Tanin]

I'm on the Jedi Covenant server as an Imperial Agent. I looked and I have no idea what my gameplay would be like switching to an European server.

 

[Nathan]

Since the European servers are full to burst and I have to wait 40 minutes to get into the game, I joined your server. Playing a Sith Inquisitor by the name Ko'tari.

 

[Nathan]

Reached lvl16 with my Sith Inquisitor. While annoying, the restrictions aren't too bad. That is if you really just treat this as a solo/co-op game and mostly play the story. You only have to buy stuff or need to sub, if you want to play Flashpoints and Operations often, or get into Endgame stuff and PVP.

What I'm doing right now, is I'm playing the Sith Inquisitor story, wait till most of the bugs are ironed out, because there are a ton of them, after they implemented the F2P system, like Cartel Coins not being awarded or subscribers being treated as F2Pers. Then I'll sub once, collected my Cartel Coins, buy unlocks so I have access to all quickbars, crew skills and other basic gameplay elements, so I can enjoy the game fully, even if I don't sub. And whenever I'm in the mood to PVP heavily and do a lot of Endgame stuff, I'll occasionally sub for a month. Then once I've got it out of my system again, I just focus on the story.

 

[Wolfwood]

So I started in on this F2P and the only thing that drives me up a wall is the character slot limitation. The worst part is that they don't even offer an option to buy more space. I would totally buy an extra character slot! Do you not want my money EA?!

 

[Nathan]

Continued with my Bounty Hunter that I created when I first subscribed to the game. I'm at lvl 32 now and still haven't found a decent Bounty Hunter helmet. But apparently badass Bounty Hunter helmets start popping up at mid 30's. So I won't be searching long.

 

[Hellion]

So I started in on this F2P and the only thing that drives me up a wall is the character slot limitation. The worst part is that they don't even offer an option to buy more space. I would totally buy an extra character slot! Do you not want my money EA?!

How many characters can you have now (are there differences between F2P and subs)? I was thinking of starting up again...

 

[The Squirrel]

So I'm trying this out with the switch to f2p. I got a Jedi Knight and a Sith Assiassin going. The story lines play out pretty well so far.

 

[Wolfwood]

How many characters can you have now (are there differences between F2P and subs)? I was thinking of starting up again...

You can only have 2 if you're F2P. As for differences, there are quite a few lol. They break it down on their site, but even then there are some really random and weird limitations that are designed to make you want to subscribe. I'm just chugging through for the story so I might just get a one month subscription just to see as much as I can.

 

[Nathan]

You don't really need to subscribe though if you just want to play the story. Only if you want to PvP and play Operation Flashpoints. But if you mainly treat this as a single player, you don't need to spend a dime.

 

[Nathan]

A little update. Preferred players now get 4 quickbars.

 

[Doc Ock]

I keep meaning to play this...but the consoles are distracting me....I have so little time to do gaming outside of classes its hard to choose between PC and Xbox/PS3. Oh well Break is coming!

 

[Philly Phanboy]

Here is a nice list of all the datacron power up locations. link