[Show off your characters!]

They allow actual pictures again now? Cool.  Here is one of my more recent bounty hunters.

Iolanthe Magenta, Pirate Captain

[APAC Shae Vizla Server will kill Satele Shan Server]

19 hours ago, FlatTax said:

OR

P2W transactions should be opposed on principle, and we ought to get beyond arguing over how much advantage-for-money is too much. Any is a problem.

Are you on the Satele Shan server and what is your name of your main if so?   I will next time I play mail you a color crystal (I choose the color, not you) that is a +41 and that I didn't pay a dime of real money for.  As it's a +41, it will be "Best in Slot", yes?  A Again, I didn't have to pay a single dime, heck not even a shiny penny for it.  So where I ask you is the P2W?  Nowhere.  Almost nobody actually cares about the stats on the Cartel Market crystals, we just use them for outfitter.   Does my Purple+41 lightsber do more damage than your red one?   Oh, totally.  Just by being purple, this lightsaber does 10x more damage than a red one!

Sarcasm about purple vs. red, I absolutely DO oppose P2W transactions on principle, and this game does not have them. At all. End of story.   All lightsaber crystals now (except "archived" crafted ones) are +41 now.  So again, if you want a crystal that is totally free to both me and you (well, it will cost me mats and credits to craft if for you, but no real money) it will be whatever color is cheapest to send you with the new tax.  If you care about color, THEN you go to the Cartel Market, and that will not in any way make that transaction a P2W transaction.

[APAC Shae Vizla Server will kill Satele Shan Server]

On 11/19/2023 at 3:05 PM, BlackSilverRoar said:

-1 Not Signed & Opposed to any merge - another *cringe* straw man merge thread by west coast Will Smiths (east coasters know the term) so they can keep their names at the expense of East Coasters bc they're as mediocre as their server bc of themselves and the personalities there aren't holding to nicer APAC.  

 

East Coasters general consensus:  Sounds like a YOU problem.

As a central person who has had my names since pre-launch (except for some I lost in the first two merges) I am on the side of the "west coasters" in your example, but go ahead and act like the "general consensus" of East Coasters is the same.  Also, learn what a straw man is. 

Strawman: an intentionally misrepresented proposition  that is set up because it is easier to defeat than an opponent's real argument.

Whether you agree or not, the not wanting to have a name change forced on us is a reason to not want a server merge.  Just because you don't agree, there is no misrepresentation going on, as if there is a server merge, many players will be forced to change some names, especially those of us who have been here for 12+ years.

[7.3.1 Credit Economy Initiative Update]

On 11/22/2023 at 3:10 AM, Darkestmonty said:

I had some purple BOP item drop, a nice looking chest with unique breast plate and duster style jacket. It was a maybe level 50.

Cost me 4 million to give it to another member from the ops. It's a functional credit sink but that trade tax seemed high for an item I know never saw a single sale on the gtn.

Forgot to reply to this, but assuming you mean Bind On Pickup, I imagine their coding is similar to the way the World of Warcraft "Auctioneer" mod works (as it's a mod, the author is fully clear on it's intended usage.)  It uses the coding to analyze the Auction House and determine a fair price for an item based on what it's sold for in the scans you do.  However, just like Star Wars new coding, they seem to for some reason have prices on BOP items when it totally shouldn't as they have never ever ever been on the AH.... which always confused me, but apparently has something to do with a flaw in the code, which it seems that SWtOR's version of said code has the same flaw.

[7.3.1 Credit Economy Initiative Update]

12 hours ago, TrixxieTriss said:

This is the problem with the changes. If its in an Ops group, they shouldn’t need to use their drops as a credit sink. It should be able to be traded between ops members for an hour with no charge. 

At the very least, though I still think the entire system is pointless as a money sink on top of the travel charges.  As I said before, I no longer go to Tython and give free crystals to new players.  How does this benefit their game in any way?   Could I afford to pay the 'tax' for most of the crystals I give away? Yes, but I refuse to do so for most of them as it's the principle.  Especially with how it doesn't even scale to level, so if a new player wants to give something that their algorithim has decided is a 4,000,000 tax to trade, what's that going to say to a new player?   It's going to very quickly turn them off to the entire game. 

I have over 12 years invested in this game (I was in beta) and I am more than likely not going anywhere, but my concerns of this entire thing is new players.  They don't have 12 years invested in this game, and things like this are going to make many of them say "F this game" very quickly.  Is that really what they want?   People got really worried when EA transferred the game to Broadsword, and I try to remain optimistic, but now the ball on this entire economy initiatve is in Broadsword's ballcourt.  Are they going to keep doing this "Screw the new players while doing nothing to solve the actual problems initiative." or are they going to continue, and kill the game as the doomsayers have been saying for 12 years?   It will happen someday, just really would not like it to be soon.

[7.3.1 Credit Economy Initiative Update]

11 hours ago, airman said:

Explain to me why a Rodian Mayonnaise Sandwich, a 300-credit item that you can buy on republic side Taris, has a fee of 240,000,100 credits when I want to trade someone. Where did you get your econ degree bro?

Because the actual worth of the item doesn't mean anything, it's entirely based upon how much people put it up on the GTN for.  Did anyone actually buy a Rodian Mayonnaise Sandwich for that much?   Possibly, possibly not.  It might be a laundering technique by the gold farmers, i don't know.  But you have right there a PERFECT example of why this credit initiative thing is a complete disaster.  If I want to give a fellow player an item that just dropped in an OPS that I can't use but they can, I shouldn't have to pay a 750,000 fee to do so.  Sorry bro, this item is at best being sold on the GTN, at worst treated as vendor trash, but I'm not wasting 750k to give it you for free.   Same idea, I used to love giving free crafted crystals (many of which are now "archived" and therefore rare colors) for free to new players on Tython, but I can't do that anymore as being so "rare" those crystals have a very high GTN value, so it costs ME two arms and leg just to give them free.  Sorry new players, but I am not paying a fee to EA (or now Broadsword I guess) to give you free stuff.

[Will the PVP Reward Track Armors Ever Return?]

On 10/7/2023 at 12:00 PM, krackcommando said:

i think he's asking about the "new" stuff from the 7.2 patches? and I assume that they will eventually make their way into the "legacy"(?) vendor rotation as well.

Yes. While they do have variant versions of the outfits, the actual ones on the reward track itself don't seem to have been added yet.  So, that's what I am asking sort of, has anyone else seen any word on whether they will ever be added in the future?

[Will the PVP Reward Track Armors Ever Return?]

On 10/2/2023 at 7:27 PM, VegaMist said:

Completing 4 WZ weeklies will easily gain you over 1K points (weekly max). One weekly can usually be done in couple of hours in one evening (3 hours if you're unlucky). If you're going for Achievements, you'd need to add Arenas into the mix. Unless you're for some reason away from computer (traveling, sick, etc.), completing a season in 7 weeks is pretty easy. PVP season runs for 12 weeks, so you can finish at a slower rate - essentially you only need 600 points per week in order to finish it. I believe most, who play PVP regularly, are done with Season 3 by now. And for those who started late, there is a catch up system which goes to level 15 (though while it helps those who start late, it does nothing for those who have to finish early due to live happening - traveling, sickness, etc.). If they make seasons longer, those who are in it for rewards will get bored. So the current length seems to be suitable for most.

Well then I am "unlucky" because it takes me WAY more than 3 hours to get those warzones done.  Maybe I am not playing at the right times, but I play when I am able, and yeah...

So, that still leaves the question, anyone know if the rewards will return? Have they said anything one way or the other?

[The Dev's need to Address PVP in the Upcoming Livestream]

I am on disability and live alone, and I don't understand how those of you with full-time jobs and families manage to complete it each season, much less when you have the Galactic Seasons on top of it.

[7.3 Credit Economy Initiative: Updates and the GTN]

On 9/28/2023 at 10:33 AM, LD_Little_Dragon said:

That doesn't prove anything.  I still maintain the difference between gold and purple augments is neglible.
Also: still not p2w.  Even if gold augs were that awesome, you don't have to pay real money to get them.  Learn what pay to win means before using it.

Honestly, it's gotten to a point the second someone says "P2W" I tune out.  Is X game pay to win? Maybe, maybe not.  But the phrase has been so diluted, so overused that the majority of players have no idea what it actually is.   It's like when people call another game I play Pay 2 Win  (not saying it's name, but by my terminology anyone that plays it should know exactly what characters I am talking about).  Is it? No.  Do they have licensed content that you have to buy that can give you unique perks? Yes. Are those perks required to win though? No.   The strongest character (which to be fair, I wish they'd just remove. God I hate her.) is and always will be free.  Now, you may not like her (as I don't) and you may want to play one of the licensed characters (I play a character of the porcine variety whose license recently released their 10th movie.  In fact, the developers nerfing her has become a meme) but that doesn't make the game pay to win at the least.  Plus, even if you can't get the licensed characters themselves without real money, you can still get their perks as those rotate in an in-game market for currency earned in game. Sure, with the number of perks that exist in the game that might mean it will be awhile before the perks you want rotate in, but that still doesn't make the game pay to win.  You NEVER have to pay to get those perks if you are willing to wait, especially since no perk is mandatory to win. I win all the time with a weak character that being nerfed into oblivion is a meme with perks that I almost never actually end up needing at all. In fact, about 70% of my wins they didn't even get used. At all.

[Will the PVP Reward Track Armors Ever Return?]

Like the title says, will the PvP reward track items ever return? Some days I do PvP all day and barely get any matches, then last week I was almost hospitalized (probably should have been honestly, but I'm an American.... 'nuff said) due to eating way too many Salt & Vinegar potato chips and not drinking enough water.  Do not do this, people.

Anyway, I am fulling willing to buy them in some way, be it with PvP tokens or even Cartel Coins. 

All of the Galactic Seasons stuff can be done pretty easily if you just play the game, but it seems to PvP stuff and the Galactic Seasons stuff on top of it requires the game to be a full-time job.   As someone on disability who lives alone, I don't know how those with actual full time jobs and families manage to complete the PvP seasons at all.

[7.3 Credit Economy Initiative: Updates and the GTN]

On 9/4/2023 at 11:23 PM, TrixxieTriss said:

Actually, anyone posting steam charts knows it’s only a representation of a percentage of the total games population. We know it isn’t the total population.
We aren’t misrepresenting the situation by saying these are the lowest Steam numbers on record or that they present a worrying trend for the games total population.
Because since BW took steps years ago to hide the total games population (as they were embarrassed), the only way to track population trends is through Steam. If BW hadn’t decided to be so dodgy as to take active steps to hide the actual server populations, we wouldn’t need to use Steam to gauge trends.
The problem as I see it, is white knights defending the low numbers constantly & making excuses for them, like they don’t matter. The numbers do matter because they are a canary in the coal mine.

I play another game that is always having their Steam numbers posted as "concerning"  They have never posted their player numbers, so all anyone has is Steam to post.   So, if people posting the Steam charts for SWtOR know it's only a representations of a percentage, then SWtOR players are a lot smarter than that game's players.  This is a game that regularly does licensing with popular media, heck they even recently secured a license with Disney and have another huge license coming in two months (we don't know what yet).... and players post the Steam charts as if they represent proof the game is dying.

As I've said many times before...

Will there come a time when this game dies? Yes.
Will it be tomorrow? No.
Will it be next year? Maybe but probably not.

What it boils down to is that SWtOR DOES know the numbers, and either they will care and try to make changes, or they won't care and the game will die.  Posting the Steam numbers just serves to do what it does with all games, nothing.

[7.3.1 Credit Economy Initiative Update]

On 8/28/2023 at 3:21 PM, denavin said:

Instead of tying it to level how about tying it to the amount of total credits. Just because a player is level 17, 35 or 80 does not mean that they have billions of credits.

I have 32 players most with less than 4 million credits. Why should I have to pay the same amount of tax as a player with Billions of credits that I do not have. That is an unfair and unequal form of taxation. You guys are targeting the wrong players.

Players with Billions should be the ones paying the most and not the players that only have a few million.

I had a character at level 60 that only had a little over 100,000 credits and had to travel to 6 different planets which cost me 30,000 credits @5000 per planet. That cost me 1/3 or 30% of the total amount of all my credits. That is way too much, but a player with 1,000,000,000 credits has over 1 million times more credits and it would have only cost them less than 1% of their total credits. How is fair or equitable for players that are not a billionaire.

Your current tax and fee system only penalizes the players with lower incomes and does little to nothing to the players with billions.

I've been saying that since the start.  Great example is when I was in an OPs with a random person, he got a holocron decoration that I wanted, he didnt need it, so he said he'd let me have it.  We went to trade, and he canceled because it would cost him 720,000 credits to give it to me FOR FREE.  Whether he was able to pay that or not, isn't the point.  He shouldn't have to.  But lets say that he couldn't.  Okay, so he's willing to, but he can't.  Now lets look at it in reverse.  It dropped for me and I am giving it to him. 720,000 credits? I can pay that 2000 times over.  I wouldn't waste the money, but the point is that I could if I was willing, TWO THOUSAND TIMES OVER (well less now because I recently spent 78,000,000 catching up on the PvP Season.)  Now, who is actually being hurt by that exorbitant tax? The poor player in my scenario, or me the rich AF player?

[7.3 Credit Economy Initiative: Updates and the GTN]

On 9/2/2023 at 6:48 PM, TrixxieTriss said:

https://steamcharts.com/app/1286830#1m
That’s why Steam shows the lowest player numbers at the moment in the history of the game 🤷🏻‍♀️

While that may be true, many players still prefer the old launcher.  It's like another game I play, everyone is posting the Steam charts and like the game is dying!!! If the devs don't do something quick it will be the end.. and it's like... Gosh, only about 30k players on average... but what these people forget is that the game is also on Epic, Games for Windows, PS4, Xbox One, PS5, Xbox Series S or whatever the latest gen Xbox is called, and Switch.   It was also on Stadia (LOL) until Stadia shut down recently (they did a special account link where progress and all purchases could be transferred to another platform of your choice) Only Steam makes their player numbers public.

[Why Do Female Characters Have Such Revealing Clothes?]

On 8/22/2023 at 10:16 PM, LD_Little_Dragon said:

Kallig's contenance hides the lekku on a twi'lek inquisitor too.  Just think of it as ancient sith invisibility/camouflage technology and it works.

I mean if you HAVE to come up with a reason, sure.  But its more a case of them not taking player race into account, even more annoying is they continued to not do so except in a few few circumstances, like a Chiss Agent has special dialogue.  But what really annoys me is they didn't even bother to change it so that Aric Jorgan isn't a total moron when you romance him as a female cathar.  Cathar cannot have children with other cathar, and you aren't cathar.  He tells you this.  Even if you are cathar.  While I would understand not bringing the voice actor in just for that, they could have changed the dialogue when they brought him back for Knights of the Fallen Empire.  Same as they could have made Kallig have lekku if you as the player did, even more so with helmets.  While the clipping is bad on outfits like the dancer hats, at least they HAVE clipping for lekku.  The fact that most other hats do not is very annoying.  Epsecially now with the outfit designer, we need more non-human friendly clothing. 

[Why Do Female Characters Have Such Revealing Clothes?]

17 hours ago, Hrafnhildur said:

The reason for the very existence of revealing clothes is a simple one : the Galaxy is big, there are many species with different backgrounds and every individual has its own way of thinking. 

My newest character, a Chiss Inquisitor ( yes, yes, I know there should be no Chiss inquisitor because Kallig couldn't possibly be a Chiss..) wears the Slave Girl outfit because she doesn't want to forget she was born into slavery. 

 

I mean, he could have been.  Chiss who are force sensitive are shunned, there's no reason why he couldn't have found his place in the Empire. Chiss have always been the one alien species more or less respected, not shunned like every other alien.  Makes a hell of a lot more sense than him being a Twi'lek or Nautolan or such.  If he's Twi'lek, where are his lekku?   In the EU lore, lekku include part of the twi'lek nervous system and brain.  Shooting a twi'lek in their lekku is like shooting anaother humanoid in the head.   So, his mask? That's a freaking lobotomy on a twi'lek! 

[7.3 Credit Economy Initiative: Updates and the GTN]

1 hour ago, Darkestmonty said:

Part of the fun was helping other players, but now it's prohibited by exorbitant "taxes" that make zero sense (mats that cost me a few K in creds to get over time are being "taxed" MILLIONS? Absolutely outrageous). This does nothing but irk the heck out of me. 

Yea, while I am still playing, I am much less generous to new players.  Seriously, they need to rethink this taxes BS.  Tax cartel market stuff a set amount based on rarity maybe. I don't know, but mats and such should NOT be TAXED. AT ALL. 

[Why Do Female Characters Have Such Revealing Clothes?]

I was just thinking how many claim it's not lore accurate to wear revealing clothes, no Jedi or Sith does it.

1. Aayla Secura (Jedi in the MOVIES)
2. Darth Talon. (Sith from the comics)

That's just two.  Oh but they are twi'lek.  So maybe only twi'lek are allowed to wear revealing clothes?

[AI generated voices for companions ...]

On 7/27/2023 at 6:19 AM, WayOfTheWarriorx said:

My reply was to the comment which had been non-specific. I took it to mean, like, everyone. heh

Certainly in the examples you gave, yeah, that would be of great benefit to such people, and could apply to other people with special needs as well.  There could be very beneficial aspects to it. As long as it's voluntary and isn't hurting anyone else, certainly they're be no need for any concerns.

I think a great deal of technological innovation really is about making things better, easier, and more efficient.

Let's face it, the computer has come to permeate into so many aspects of life. It's hard to imagine what people did before computers. It's become part of our daily lives as is a source of help, entertainment, even helps us at work.

I suspect some day it won't at all be uncommon for some people, maybe even a lot of people, to have some micro chips in their brains that can do all sorts of things. Maybe even to help with the health of people. A lot of possibilities to be sure.

 

 

 

I was born in 1977, so I have been there for the entire digital age.  This is one of my favorite songs, a parody of The Buggles "Video Killed the Radio Star."   Even though I was born before everyone had a computer and smartphones were still just a dream of a eccentric genius who died penniless with his only friend a pigeon he thought could shoot laser beams from his eyes, I can't today imagine my life without my computer and iPhone.

Digital Life by The History Teachers

[AI generated voices for companions ...]

11 hours ago, OlBuzzard said:

The advancement of technology has been around since before the dawn of the Bronze Age.  (it should be noted that I was NOT actually there ... contrary to the opinion of some).   😉

Technology will continue to grow.  That is the way of things.  Most of what we have discussed are things that have enhanced or deeply improved our quality of life.  That is a VERY good thing.  Technology has not developed to the point of REPLACING life.  Even in extreme cases where cybernetics have been utilized to replace or repair critical organs / parts of our bodies .. we are still at our core of existence ... human.

As we continue to explore this subject I still prefer to see AI VA as a separate matter / thought apart from the discoveries or technological advancements that are still on the horizon made / designed to make our lives better.  AI / VA ...  IMO ...  has it's place.  Its current level of development is not quite to the skill level to be able to replace actors ... (especially the good ones).  

On the other hand ... (remembering the situation on the Mandalorian with the substitute actor for Mark Hamill) .. there may still be the necessity for a limited application of state-of-the art methods such as "Deepfake" (IIRC) as opposed to CGI.  That area of development is still new and still needing improvements.  

One day .. perhaps.  But not today!

 

That is true, but the computer age has advanced much faster than ever before, plus the point of me posting that quote was partially about what an amazing inventor that Nikola Tesla was.... in 1926, while he didn't have the name for it, he described the freaking internet and even smartphones.  The fact that Thomas Edison tried to thwart Tesla at every turn and pretty much did for decades after they both were dead I believe is the only reason it took us until the early 2000's to get smartphones.  In a world where Tesla was not all but forgotten thanks to Edison and Marconi, we would have had them much sooner.  As the rock band named after him sang,

I spent twelve years of hard time,
More like the best years of my life.
Never heard or read a single word
About "the man" and his "wicked mind."
They'll sell you on Marconi.
Familiar, but a phony.
Story goes they sold their souls
And swore that you'd never know.

 

  because when I (and from your post, I imagine you too) were growing up, schools didn't teach us about Tesla.  He invented the radio, he invented freakin' wireless, he even is responsible for the electricity in your home.  He is the one that designed the power plant at Niagara Falls and AC current.

Edison's Medicine by Tesla

[AI generated voices for companions ...]

On 7/23/2023 at 12:23 AM, WayOfTheWarriorx said:

Yeah, well that may be their aim, but if they come and try and do that to me, they're aim better be a lot better than mine.

Yea, kinda of freaky, but on the other hand, it sounds like it's meant for the disabled to help them to lead a better life, so as long as it remains voluntary, it's no different than an advanced wheelchair.   Imagine if Stephen Hawking could have actually spoken to us in a real human sounding AI voice rather than having to constantly one-handed type out and have text-to-speech software speak for him?

On the other hand, if Elon Musk is behind it, it's kind of sus.  

Also, when it comes to the advance of technology, I am always amazed by this quote from Nikola Tesla.  It's a REAL quote, was printed in Collider Magazine in 1926.

When wireless is perfectly applied the whole earth will be converted into a huge brain, which in fact it is, all things being particles of a real and rhythmic whole. We shall be able to communicate with one another instantly, irrespective of distance. Not only this, but through television and telephony we shall see and hear one another as perfectly as though we were face to face, despite intervening distances of thousands of miles; and the instruments through which we shall be able to do this will be amazingly simple compared with our present telephone. A man will be able to carry one in his vest pocket.

Nikola Tesla

January 30th, 1926

[AI generated voices for companions ...]

On 7/15/2023 at 10:28 AM, OlBuzzard said:

An AI could not nor should they EVER be utilized to replace or impersonate characters / people of renown such as Mark Hamil's Luke Skywalker or Patrick Stewarts Capt. Picard. or even a clearly recognizable character such as James Bond 007 or in the case of STO:  the Klingon character Worf or (from DS-9) Binjamin Sisko.   Those could (and probably would) draw a quick reaction based on copyright infringements or perhaps (as we are discussing now) ... VA characters rights from those who characters / actors could have specific contract agreements with the companies that originally produced the works.

Frankly this is one industry that can get very complicated in a hurry when discussing this subject.  

Yet ... when we are looking at a market such as the MMO market most (though admittedly not ALL) characters are created for that game even though it is a part of a particular genre (such as SWTOR and STO).  Almos none of these characters (such as Kira Karsen) are mentioned in previous SW lore (that I'm aware of).  That character is realistically the intellectual property of the company that created the personality.  And I'm quite sure that Lucas Film could easily fit in there somewhere.  

Once again this can get complicated.

Bottom line:  I would imagine that this new technology could only be used in cases where there was no previously utilized character has been created or otherwise (as stated above) in order to ensure that no infringements of any legal claim would occur.  

And something tells me that I've still overlooked something important!  Why?  Because this industry can be tricky to navigate from time to time.  And something tells me that the legal fees have just went up in this industry in order to protect everyone involved in it!

But still .. I like the idea of what OP has presented!  

I mean, they've already done it with Darth Vader.  Albeit, they have James Earl Jones blessing, which to me is the ONLY way it should be done.  With the blessing of the actor or the blessing of their estate if they are passed.  But yea, the recent Kenobi show, Darth Vader is 100% AI voiced.

Here is a link to an article about it: https://techcrunch.com/2022/09/26/ai-is-taking-over-the-iconic-voice-of-darth-vader-with-the-blessing-of-james-earl-jones/

[Social Media - is SWTOR going to be on THREADS?]

On 7/14/2023 at 12:54 AM, Hrafnhildur said:

Yeah and I'll bet they will do on Threads what they did on Facebook - draconic censorship, banning people for alleged "violations" of community standards, forcing people to change names because of political correctness or other imbecile reasons, stealing & selling of personal data and so on. Personally, I don't give a flying duck about any social media, Discord included. 

And about the names, years ago when I still had a Facebook profile two of my friends got weird messages and were requested to change their family names. 

- S. White: he was told "they will help him pick another name" and if he wants to keep " White" , he has to send a copy of his ID card to prove that's his real name and not something chosen to promote " supremacy".  

- B. Wiseblood : British lady with a Native American father, that was her REAL family name , again she was told to send a copy of her ID card, somehow " Wiseblood" was considered a "made up" name. 

I've never seen so much idiocy ! If my family name offends anyone, suck it up, it is MY family name and I can't change it to "something else". 

I used to be friends with a girl (an erotica model and one of the first SG (for those that don't know what SG stands for, not sure I can say the actual name on these forums, so lets just say "Unalive Girls") so semi-famous) whose married last name was shared with a Star Trek character, but she had to change it back to her maiden name on Facebook because they thought that she got her name from Star Trek.  Sure, she could have done that whole ID thing, but she didn't care enough to bother, and her husband was obviously fine with her using her maiden name (I knew him too, they were both very chill.)

[AI generated voices for companions ...]

On 7/14/2023 at 2:04 PM, StrikePrice said:

I'm not suggesting they steal anyone's voice. I'm suggesting they make new, novel voices for companions like PH4-LNX or next season's companion. It would also be great if they could secure permission from all the original voice actors to use their voices to create AI content. That way, making new content would be much easier. Of course, that would require making deals with the original VAs, but it might be possible. 

But if they can do that, why not just do that from the start?  Talking about the future here.  Say I am making a new Batman game.  Why should I hire Tara Strong to voice Harley Quinn when I can instead just create a voice that sounds great and like Harley Quinn should sound for a fraction of the cost using AI software?    Same goes for Laura Bailey, Jennifer Hale, name any other famous voice actor you want, why should I spend that money to hire them when I don't need to?  At best the big names might still have some work where their name becomes a commodity.  I could maybe justify hiring Tara Strong if I use her inclusion to sell the game, but... then the question is do I expect her name to sell enough copies to justify hiring her in the first place? Nah, I'll just use an AI voice. Nobody will care.  Except Tara and everyone else in the voice acting community who will be out of jobs.

[7.3 Credit Economy Initiative: Updates and the GTN]

On 7/14/2023 at 11:28 AM, AndMusicForAll said:

Please stop punishing me for transferring items to wife while we play the game together. I don't care what you do to the market or the fees for quick travel or anything else. Handing over a piece of loot or something I bought from your bloated, over-priced store for Actual Earth Currency should not then be 'taxed' and every day it pushes us further away for no apparent reason. 

There is such a thing as collateral damage and maybe not everything currently implemented is the best idea. Trading items is a fundamental aspect of every mmorpg from the dawn of the industry and this overreaction needs to stop, please. Trying to break the people who might be abusing something doesn't mean you need to break my back in the process. You do understand the majority of people aren't out there trying to manipulate markets, right?

• Tax only trades where items/credits are exchanged from both sides.
• Exempt subscribers from the person-to-person trade tax if your bottom line is more important than breaking the economy's inflation but you still don't want to push away monthly subscription fees.

While I agree with you these taxes are BS, the problem with your ideas is that it would create an issue where one of two things would happen.

1. I trade you the 2 billion item for free.  You then trade me the 2 billion in a separate transaction.  Tax circumvented.

2. We agree to the above exchange, but after your give me the 2 billion item, I cancel your second trade, refusing to give you the credits, or vice versa, I give you the 2 billion first, then you refuse to give me the actual item.   Sure, you could maybe report them for fraud, but I'm sure customer support doesn't care about such things.

Instead, what I think would be a much better scenario to alleviate the worst problems is to allow trade and mail between guildmates to be untaxed (the 4 week membership limit is fine and understandable) and also have a system similar to how WOW  does trades in dungeons.  In WOW, if an item that I cannot use or don't want (though if the item is a higher item level than the item in your current slot, you can't trade it.  That can still be annoying on those items where the actual stats exceed the item level) drops, I can trade it to someone in the current dungeon with a window of a few hours before it becomes bound.  I still can't give it to someone else who wasn't in that dungeon with me.   Something similar would be great, and would make it so if a Holocron of Fear drops, I can give it to the guy standing right beside me without having to pay a 745,000 tax.