I noticed that you were interested in new ideas on installment awards for KotFE, and came to offer some advice on that front. An interesting way (I think) to give players some fun awards/ reason-to-sub-considering-almost-zero-new-content might be to try out a monthly locked box system of subscriber awards, let me explain. At the start of every month, you would distribute to every player a sealed and locked lock-box which could only be opened at the end of the month. At the end of the month, every subscriber would have theirs auto-unlock and every non-sub would have to pay whatever CC fee it took to open. Inside every lock-box, you should place an entirely new armor/mount/decoration/etc. that you think people would consider worth $15. And if any player wished to open a box from a time they were unsubbed on, you would still require them to pay the fee to unlock the box (thereby making up for lost sub fees). This would duly address the issues of over-promising and under-delivering that some claim plague your recent releases, and would provide a sort of "mystery box" marketing that has been used to great effect before. Cheers. Box Content Ideas: - This month you might have offered a Life day related mount. -Next month a black forcesaber. -Etc. *And of course, this would only work if the gifts were BOL.

I would agree the movie was poorly thought out and generally mediocre. This may be the result of giving the fans exactly what they wanted: a poor movie which retread worn paths and let better fields lay fallow. The upside to this is that it allows new SF/Space Opera take over where Star Wars is content to retell. EDIT: Did anyone else get annoyed by Boyega's "black-isms?" The whooping and hollering felt like a racial caricature from a Michael Bay movie instead of something genuinely star wars. It simply doesn't make sense that in a post-racial (not to mention isolated) environment, Finn would pick up such characteristics. That particular aspect of the films was quite jarring to me and one of the least likable aspects of the films.

-This may be an attempt to retcon, I think they will establish that anyone can become a jedi.

I just saw the movie (and regretted it) but couldn't help noticing the similarities between TFA and the old republic (specifically kotor). 1) The "Starkiller" super weapon was a Rakatan Rip-off. -By draining the energies of a star it blasted planets (which were conveniently all in the same solar system). 2) "Kylo Ren" was a force hound. Or at least a dark jedi. -He appeared to have very little weapons training (dark jedi-ish) but quite a bit of force training. 3) Rakata Prime was made Canon. http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Rakata_Prime -in case you didn't know. Oh and this quote from Andy Serkis with regards to his character- Q: If Snoke is a “damaged” character, that raises the question: Did his wounds come from the clash between the Rebellion and the Empire, seen in the original Star Wars trilogy? Serkis hesitates here, but then says he believes Snoke was outside of that conflict. A: “No, he’s a new character in this universe. It is very much a newly-introduced character,” Serkis says. “He’s aware of what’s gone on, in the respect that he has been around and is aware of prior events. I think it’d be fair to say that he is aware of the past to a great degree.” My Theory then: At first I suspected that "Snoke" was Darth Plagueis, especially after the lines about wisdom, but now I wonder if "Snoke" is really Soa from TOR? It would certainly explain why J.J. Abrams was given Carte Blanche to reject anything in upcoming SWTOR content that conflicted with his movies. Oh well, it's fun to speculate at least.

The Republic, which is fine when used as a noun is also used adjectivaly. As an example, the guardsmen aren't called "Republican Guards" but instead "Republic Guards." This is a rather peculiar and surprisingly persistent error throughout the game. I would recommend you make the slight alteration to repair it; if only to prevent the annoyingness of future grammer-nazis

Previously, the armor skin for the Imperial Marine (as seen in the Boarding Party FP) was in the game as a common skin called "Flak Armor MKII" Here: http://tor-fashion.com/flak-helmet-mkii-imp/ http://tor-fashion.com/flak-leggear-mkii-imp/ http://tor-fashion.com/flak-jacket-mkii-imp/ And Here is how it looks in game: http://i1358.photobucket.com/albums/q770/Heimir_Smari/SWTOR/SWTOR%20Suggestion%20box/ImpSoldier_zpsdb4ed79a.png As the vendors have been removed it is now unobtainable; please correct that.

Hello, a recently returned player (will leave again as soon as I finish with KOTFE). I just wanted to point out that Bioware is almost certainly lying about why they removed the gear vendors. In case you haven't noticed, Bioware has recently removed most of the planetary vendors. Unnoticed (or at least unremarked on) is that they have also removed the vendors selling common gear (the white gear) which has only armor stats. This gear has just about no effect on players as players don't really go out of their way to buy it. BUT, given the changes to comps and the fact that gear is just a vanity item for comps; this may mean that the common gear was removed so that they can resell the armor skins to us for cartel coins. This may also mean that the real reason they removed much of the orange gear from the planetary vendors was to deprive us of those options as well. /remove tinfoil I just wanted to share my suspicions. It may be that these vendors will be re-added later . . . but will they again charge credits/data crystals or will this gear be for CC?

Hmm, well I have a dissenting opinion. In my past two days of leveling a character, I have exclusively done the class missions (Nar Shadaa, Tatooine, and now Alderaan) and went from being over-leveled by two to under-leveled by two. I think the difference is the play style; I choose to play the class missions and some side quests I haven't tried yet, and skip the planetary arcs (Which I have done 3 times before). The companion helps me get through content I would otherwise be unable to do (and even now I still die all the time) by myself, and makes the leveling smoother (I no longer have to take a three hour leveling break in the middle of the Chapter Climax when it becomes too hard). I prefer the leveling the way it is now.

Idea: Take the Lore plaques (found throughout game, one in front of Karagga statue). and make the messages editable. This would allow players to personally write small notes to themselves.

Hello, With the upcoming changes to leveling (likely making 12XP permanent) I was thinking about all of the planet side missions which will now be skipped by new players. This is a proposal to fix that by removing the xp that planetary missions currently give and replacing those rewards with new reputation tokens and increased credit prizes. Obviously, this means that new reputation will need to be added to the game. I would recommend that there be a reputation vendor on every leveling planet as there is on voss currently. This would give players a reason to stay and explore if they chose to. More importantly, however, this would give the planets a level of re-playability which they currently lack; by giving the new planetary reputation vendors useful cosmetic and stronghold decoration items which players want. However, this change would also mean that players may collect to many credits and cause inflation; to fix that, I propose the removal of credits as a class mission reward (unless it is appropriate for lore reasons, ie you make a decision to get darkside points and credits by betraying someone). This would mean that only side missions and planetary missions granted credits, but it would also increase immersion and make the game more cohesive (as reputation would now be a mechanic spread throughout the game, rather than concentrated at 44+).

I agree. Additionally, I don't think there should be ANY more group check mechanics in daily quests. They suck the fun out of it and become a hassle. I also agree that you shouldn't need a group for old OPS- it just creates a pointless barrier. PS: The majority of the story content at elder game HAS BEEN in the OPS. Players who didn't do KP, EC, and SNV suddenly started fighting Dread troops and the story seemed really lazy to them. As a rule, a story based game like SWTOR NEEDS to allow every player to see ALL of the content. That means that the Oricon quest especially needs to take out the OPS requirement or give the OPS a solo mode to see the story. Otherwise, all of that old group content will just become a big barrier to entry and diminish the overall story. This is why the macrobinoc and seeker droid quest NEED to remove the group requirements- the content is excellent story content which EVERY player should be able to hop into not the ones who are lucky enough to play it when it is released and current.

That might be a complaint, but unlocking the appearance designer tab AND adding outfit both require CC or credits. Additionally, I think the problem with cartel gear is that there is SO MUCH of it that it is hard to find good gear, because it can take hours just going through all of the gear that has already been released. One way to let the cartel gear specifically integrate with the game might be if the supplementary gear (belts, bracers, gloves) dropped in game. This might get people to consider purchasing the rest of the set AND the current supplementary gear sells so cheaply that it doesn't seem like players really care about it in the first place. But these are ultimately just little ideas I had while playing the game, I doubt that any of them will be implemented.

I've been following this thread for a few days, and I must say your hyperbolic statements are quite humorous. However if you are being serious with that statement, then I fear the stick up your ***** may be essentially inextricable.

I was doing the GSI seeker droid dailies on Tatooine when I noticed the variety in outfits of the sand-peoples. Even more variety than the single outfit you can purchase from the social vendor. And then I had an idea: why not add standard and cheap quality statless armor pieces or "skins" to the game to better take advantage of the new Appearance design tab. Another improvement to the game would be if these "skins" would correspond to the armor that the mobs dropping them wore. As an example, this would mean that if I saw an armor piece I wanted on an enemy npc, I could attack him/her for a chance at getting it or getting another armor piece he/she was wearing instead. With this change, there would be more incentive to go back to old planets AND it would give a reason to fight enemies rather than skip them since fighting them will give you a piece or multiple pieces of their armor. This would also give the appearance design tab more relevance since you can now incorporate armor into your outfit that isn't available as adaptive quality armor. EDIT: I also realized that this change might also make the "go kill x" enemies quests less grindy as there is a chance at getting something from the NPC's that is actually usable rather than dozens of random pieces of junk.

An alternative to leveling could be created through the achievement system. If the number of kills of a particular type of enemy increased the ease with which you could kill that enemy- you might no longer need levels at all. AND the player would feel that they were growing in power in a logical way.

Ignorance requires a lack of knowledge, my A's in every undergraduate level economics class implies otherwise. What did you find incorrect? I admit the writing wasn't the best I've ever presented, but I did type it on my phone. - I await your response.

Rather, I think the developers underthought their decisions. It seems that their "fix" involved manipulating every possible variable rather than 1 or 2 (1 being optimal) the net result being huge changes which are never beneficial when you rely upon consumer confidence.

dailies earn more than 100k an hour. The most effective way to make money is by playing the GTN, I hold certain types of items long term.

In light of the changes to the slot machine, I thought I would try explaining the economics behind its new incarnation. Currently, the drops can be found on both the Dulfy.com website and Swtor Reddit page. I don't want to post links as the pages are easy to find, and the moderators are quite anal about such things. In the current slot setup, the expected earnings are about 50% of input with a 1/100000 chance of a BOP mount. Because of this, these machines have no economic incentives to play and unlike their previous incarnation they are unlikely to influence the game in any way. I admit I am disappointed with this development as the Dev team were deceitful in their statements and it represents a missed opportunity to analyze the game, but then again I am letting my sub lapse anyway.

Well only a select few players craft at the upper level, right? (The answer is yes, since there is considerable profit in sales there). Meanwhile, a considerably higher number of players have been new to the game, right? (Another rhetorical question). Therefore, we can conclude that reducing a barrier to gearing (mat cost) and reducing inflation (a goal of Bioware's apparently) will better serve the player base than allowing a minority to affect the experience of others, which potentially reduces player numbers. My contention was never that the slot machines would be phased out, nor that anyone should have to suffer, only that the experience could improve the game on the AGGREGATE, rather than for the benefit of a few. And BTW, the effect of the slots will persist, I have no doubt, but at a different price point.

1. I have not seen these "maths," though I will assume you are being honest in your accounting (are you? .) My point was never that Slots don't get you more credits than crafting, I neither have a means to check nor care. The important bit is the new player experience, and the ability for our money to either gain or remain valuable rather than become a "casual tax" which drives people from the game. 2. I doubt that the non-economic costs you cite are even a TENTH the efficiency of the slots. Those are AVOIDABLE, meaning you can tailor your behaviour to avoid them. The Slot machines are unavoidably a credit sink. For instance, If I don't want to repair my armor, I could instead form groups of players to clear dailies for the credits. Similarly, avoiding the mod-swaps involves "not swapping mods." As such, this non economic taxation discourages the activity it taxes (the same concept as deadweight loss) versus the slots which instead REWARD you for partaking due to market forces. 3. My point was never that altering the machine would be the end of the world, only that this alteration could potentially harm a self correcting action (which I predict has yet to happen). The ultimate goal is simply to see what happens, as such my issue was simply with their potentially self defeating timing.

I don't have that bit of maths, though I think I can "de-obfuscate" (that was a play on words and a java reference (: ). Although the per-unit credit sink may now be lower, you also have to consider what happens to those mats. They are USED UP, and not simply stored. This means that the demand is rather constant, rather than increasingly elastic in the long term (IE: there are not tons of alternatives to item mods from GTN for a character, the other way to acquire them requires grinding for basics and then elites which require minimum time commitments and is very inefficient, besides that the time to grind is artificially limited as new gear is introduced and commendations are downgraded) so reducing the price on mods achieves a much higher Quantity Demanded, perhaps in a non-linear fashion since players will stop consuming the amount they buy and INSTEAD saving them. This can be seen as the new market at the lower price containing: old buyers (consuming mods), old buyers (hoarding mods), new buyers (consuming), new buyers (hoarding/ using on comps). The net result is a higher amount of mods being stored (in vaults), a higher amount being consumed (taken out of supply), and a higher amount being sold (and quickly replaced). With the net effect being higher concentrations of mods and more deflation on NET. ---Also note, players are not all playing the machine for strict item mods but generally for higher amounts of credits, this means that EVEN IF the mods make no/little profit they will still be sold as the player is making more in TOTAL profit and has to sell these mods anyway. IE: the 30-40% credit sinkage may be less efficient in terms of marginal credit sinkage (you didn't give me a marginal amount of "credit sink" so I will assume you are correct, until additional info is added) but the combination of higher total # of players playing, and the continued use of the machine will likely result in higher TOTAL "credit sinkage" over the long run. Just think, if you had the amount of total number of item mods in the game at the previous price vs. now how do you think the numbers would compare?

Well I'll start with the last statements first. The item was NEVER any sort of requirement, as it only makes sense if you can cover the significant costs attached with buying it. You should also note that as more people bought these, the expected earnings would go down in terms of using the machine. This means that in time other means of credit generation would become popular again. You should also note that these slot machines were NEVER the best way to generate credits- playing the market and holding items were, as the slot machine generated a shrinking amount of money whereas playing the market leads to UNLIMITED earning potential. You should also note that that advantage only goes to crafters, meaning that people without the crafting skills will still utilize the machine if they want the mats for less money. They will ALSO sell if the price exceeds a certain price, and so there will STILL be a hard cap that crafters can sell items before slot machine-rs start selling the mats at their cost point. Bottom line is that crafters should NEVER expect the profits they were earning to be true in the future. (ie: if saudi arabia sells oil at 5$ a barrel and no one else can sell that cheaply they can rise to 55$ a barrel, at that point it is profitable for the US to sell and so they can no longer charge 100$ a barrel in the long term. So yes, I expect that bioware has planned this for a long time as a way to limit mod prices and allow new players better entry. The first signs of this are now visible as being the removal of training cost.)

Please explain how this is an issue? I disagreed and provided evidence that the higher efficiency is good for the economy. Note that the inability for entrepreneurial innovation in this game alters the economic models, even so I think I have done well in my predictions.

You miss the contention that the slot machines are a multiplier, my friend. That means that every credit spent on a slot coin generates more "money" (ie; every time someone spends a coin it increases the total economy in terms of value since items of value are being sold, these items themselves are inherently valuable) note that "money" (more accurately I refer to a general store of value which can be non-pecuniary, such as a stack of mats being inherent stores of value) may not be credits. This implies that the machine moves money around FASTER than other means in the game, this would debunk your claim that crafting is more efficient as a sink, since this machine demands more REPETITION (as the lower prices it generates require MORE usage) this is evidenced by the number of mats after the slot's intro being VASTLY higher than before. Additionally, the previous method required high levels of dedication and TIME - which preclude entry into that particular market. This is proven as the profit of a crafter exceeded the profit of a slot-er, meaning that the ease of entry has allowed ANYONE with the 2-3 mill credits to enter this market and deflate credits. The point is that your statement that crafting is more efficient is patently FALSE as the profit of mats is nominally lower, and this is a product of the lower price. The idea that one machine SHOULDN'T control inflation is strange to me, considering that IRL that is one of the jobs of a central bank. In the SWTOR system, that has been replaced with a profit incentive on the part of the players.