Honestly for the pricing they've gone with for "sale promotions" if they went further (say a 75% reduction) across the board would probably net them more than a 60% increase in sales. It's already been noted with things like Steam sales that reducing the cost to something reasonable can increase sales. The BioWare model of sales is flawed, they could rotate different categories weekly or fortnightly and make far more money if they lowered the pricing properly. https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/174587/Steam_sales_How_deep_discounts_really_affect_your_games.php Even when something is "discounted" I tend to ignore it because the pricing model is simply wrong. I rarely touch the CM stuff now aside from when I was redecorating my stronghold. I'd buy more if the pricing was in the right range, it currently isn't.

They do though. That's the issue, alongside it being part of the business model to sustain games longer term. Personally I'd prefer to see the return of paid expansions instead of the gambling boxes, guess which one makes the game companies more money? As to the whole premise of the game companies defence saying that there is no monetary value, I call BS on that as people sell their accounts. Regardless of the Terms of service companies try to hide behind, they simply can't control the end user variables. As for the issue with amplifiers mentioned above, it's called conditioning. Which is why i'll likely move on when the next tier of gear is released, there are other developers who get it and don't do it to the players, BioWare is failing miserably in that regard. They're not protecting the end user from harmful practices and I find that particular behaviour abhorrent from a development studio.

To be quite honest, bug fixing should be priority number one over any content or PTS testing or any other game changes (including crafting etc). There are numerous bugs that still haven't been addressed and really should be looked at, over development of future content. I wouldn't take an issue with new content taking a back seat to quashing the bugs, I'd welcome it if it improved the game for countless players both old and new alike.

Actually, another BioWare game (Anthem) has a bit more depth to the dye system, in the ability to add different textures to armour (as well as the colour change). I'd love to see dyes with different textures and patterns to you can completely change the item you're wearing depending on material type etc.

From what I've seen about 6.0 PTS testing and certain aspects of the game making it into live, even though the feedback was strongly against certain changes (crafting and amplifiers etc), I'm wondering what difference it will actually make to even provide that insight from a players perspective. Perhaps you can enlighten us, or perhaps even Eric Musco could provide some insight into how player feedback is taken into consideration with regards to PTS testing?

Well they have refined it further with 6.0. I guess it probably will not happen, BioWare probably think Anthem is more worthwhile saving over updating the engine for this game.

Last time I checked (prior to 6.0 landing) I counted 73 Heroics, 1302922 credits from the main quests, 632436 credits from bonus objectives. Also, 73 heroics a day? Good luck.... It would be quicker to spam veteran Hammer Station and literally sell all the loot at 75.

The tuning on the last boss fight in Nathema for veteran absolutely sucks. I'm not remotely surprised players struggle with it.

It's rubbish for PvP. Which is what it was advertised for oddly

I actually agree with the points made by the OP, I do think BioWare should look to allow people to "lock" a guild to their account and that would resolve some of the complaints seen about players losing their guilds. Indeed, I'm currently a "Guild leader" by default of being transferred a guild. I also have zero intention of selling the guild or booting all of the players within (because they may return at some point like I have). I've also given a pseudo guild master rank to some of the active players I trust to be passed the leadership should I become inactive again. The original Guild leader has retained his rank (in pseudo form) and should he wish to return I'll pass the leadership back (we've chatted on Discord). I do believe that there should be some form of "transfer" to active players to allow the continued functioning of a guild, in a custodian form. However I do also think that "locking" guild ownership to an account is also a viable option to stop the selling of guilds if someone is absent due to real life issues.

I lol'd. Thanks.

Free Cartel Coins.

BioWare thanks you for being a sucker for their new credit sink where you get zero rewards or anything of note. Honestly the amplifier system is truly atrocious and BioWare need to come up with a better way that doesn't alienate the players. Plenty of suggestions around the forums on how they could improve, however BioWare doesn't seem to want to be better at what they do, they're certainly silent on the whole amplifiers issue. Well, along with pretty much every other issue with the game with the exception of; - Any server outages. - Server related issues with in-game mail. - Asking for feedback to not update players on progress. Don't expect much of any meaningful responses from BioWare, you'll probably end up being disappointed with any response you may get (when the moons and planets all align).

Either that or the player who thinks Kuat is still the fastest way to level. Had it pop twice on me yesterday, ran the first one and realised how lame the rewards were, took the deserter debuff for the second and logged a different character to continue elsewhere. Not an issue for me, but whoever thinks Kuat is a good way to level or wants the rep from it should visit a stronghold with a contraband slot machine or figure out it isn't the fastest way to level (Kuat has to be the most mind numbingly boring way I could think to level...)

Oddly I have those warnings turned off, because I don't wish to see them on every single transaction I make.

The problem seems to be an endemic one for BioWare as a whole, it isn't just limited to this particular game sadly.

There's definitely a pattern developing here......

Well you can considering the cost BioWare seems to think is acceptable for the RNG system they implemented, instead of providing a better system. So actually, I don't blame any individual who had the smart idea of bypassing the cost involved in the RNG system (which has zero RNG protection and is drawn from a massive pool, with unlimited costs). I blame BioWare for implementing that system when they were provided plenty of feedback on the PTS and chose to yet again ignore the community. The blame lays at BioWare's door on this. It isn't the players who chose to implement yet more RNG, it was BioWare. Also as an aside, I don't consider what the players did as an exploit. Difference of opinion on that one.

Seems to work fine for PvP having zero stats in Shield / Absorb / Defence and just going with DPS mods. Wouldn't try it for PvE content though...

This is true, however I've used the ref. links in the past prior to returning to subscription status after a hiatus, just to check things out without restrictions. So it does have some merit that literally costs BioWare nothing. The other option would be for them to offer old subscribers a discount to entice them back assuming they've enabled communications in account settings. However that would possibly cost them revenue, where the CC doesn't really cost anything. I do however think BioWare need to add something in-game alongside the report spam option, report "referral abuse", so those players doing that on starter planets get removed from the referral system completely. I'm guessing that isn't how BioWare intended for it to be used.

Players bypassed the awful RNG amp design, instead of BioWare fixing the amplifiers and admitting that it wasn't indeed the best attempt they could have made at that part of the new gearing design, they decided to remove the ability to refund the items and regain the 3000 tech fragments and the 1 million credits. That's why you're now feeling pretty annoyed. It isn't because players were abusing the system, it's more like BioWare didn't fix the real problem with the system, which is the amplifiers. I don't know what to say apart from that.

/thread. Dasty wins all, give him your credits now before I send out the Bounty Contracts.

Well I'm 18 out of 25 characters levelled for the new cap of 700. I've got more credits than prior to 6.0 landing. I've hardly touched crafting grade 11. So it isn't about being "credit rich", it's more about being savvy with how you spend credits and making decisions that do that. That initial 1.5 million credits per character is steep for a new player to the game who hasn't yet figured out how to make credits, definitely do not disagree with that part. However the cost is covered by running conquest for one single week with a character and selling the SRMs which sell for around 1 million credits each, so the credits are there to be earned should they wish to do so. I think that all of the changes that BioWare have made to the elder game crafting have hurt newer players far more than the ones that have been around for years. As distasteful as some of the changes are to older players, the entry requirements for newer players or those new to crafting are quite simply off-putting for the time involved as well as the cost involved to get there. The cost of entry shouldn't be increased, crafting is a part of the game that shouldn't just be left to the few players as it essentially kills competition on areas of the game like the GTN sales, which is where inflation kicks in. Again that is detrimental to newer players. Basically the changes to crafting hurt the economy as they currently stand, considering BioWare wanted to introduce credit sinks and remove credits from the exclusive few players, they've actually managed to do the opposite with these particular crafting changes. I'm not sure they've really considered how all of the systems of the game work together (and that isn't meant to be insulting to them, just an insight from a player perspective).

Anthem crafting was atrocious. The RNG on the gearing in Anthem was equally atrocious. Considering Anthem crashed and burned hard, I'm surprised BioWare would even think to copy anything over from that game would be a good idea (it isn't), the only thing it has going for it is the ability to fly. Considering that was the best feature of the game, you would also think they wouldn't have limited it so much BioWare could also simply introduce price controls and only allow items to be sold within a specific range of values. For every single item in the game. BioWare can control the market completely if they choose to do so. Essentially nullifying a majority of the players who try to corner specific parts of the market. It's possible for them to do this. I mean why not piss off the remaining players who only play the GTN game? They've managed to do it to every other type of player.

Well, adding a security key to your account earns 100CC per month, eventually you could bypass all of those "restrictions" by purchasing the unlocks on the Cartel Market, for essentially, free. Same applies to going preferred status, it's just very poor planning if you decide to go the route of non-subscriber and haven't gained those unlocks. I've got most of them for credits off the GTN over the years. Not sure exactly what it is you're complaining about with the above points in mind. Poor planning on your part maybe?