With the number of people bypassing the GTN now, it has lost a lot of it's effectiveness in controlling the economy (you could cut in game rewards to zero and the game would close before it had any impact on the prices of items currently selling off-GTN). The development of alternate currencies (hypecrates and cartel packs) just makes the situation worse as it devalues the credits even more.

Correct. People who don't have those credits go to credit sellers which pumps more "out of the economy credits" back into the system. Credits sitting in credit seller banks don't cause inflation because they are out of circulation. When a "not super wealthy" player buys those credits, they pump them back into the economy directly into the "super wealthy player's bank account". It is a forgone conclusion at this point that at least some of those super wealthy players (and guilds) sell their credits back to credit sellers (since it is now a lot more profitable to buy credits from players than to farm them now) creating a loop that buries the economy.

That may have been the issue in the past (and may be in the future if Bioware is actually able to drain credits from the game) but right now the issue is the amassing of huge amounts of credits through player to player trades that bypass the GTN. If all trades are taxed at their value, the economy quickly comes under control. The amount of credits you can generate as a player is tiny compared to what is already in the game and the credit sellers keep filling in the holes that legitimate GTN trades take out of the system. As to the argument that the number of credits in game doesn't cause inflation, when the number of players holding those massive numbers of credits shrink (they accumulate the credits from everyone else) they have a monopoly. They can buy out any specific item and re-list it for whatever obscene amount they want to (and someone will pay it eventually - buying credits from credit sellers if they need to). That is what drives up prices not the couple of million credits a player gets from leveling their character (daily areas are as different story but that is a whole different argument as several of the daily areas over reward for the time investment - like CZ)

I picked a week to make it affordable for smaller guilds. It would have to be pretty high to somewhat compensate for the fees that aren't collected (we are still trying to pull credits out of the economy after all) if it lasted a whole month. You could run a lot of stuff through a guild in a month and having to pay for "free trading" might cause a little hesitation for people setting up trading guilds designed specifically to circumvent the fees (which guilds are already discussing).

Doesn't really matter if your guild would do it or not. I don't buy credits from credit sellers but that doesn't mean other players don't. All it takes is a couple of guilds set up specifically to do this and you undercut the entire initiative (again, making only the honest players pay the fees). I would much rather see a guild perk you purchase with credits allow trading between guild members tax free for a limited time (1 week for example) rather than an all out as long as the trade is between guild members it's OK, That's way too easy to abuse (and people will abuse it guaranteed).

Perhaps Bioware could institute a "Gifter" status that cannot be obtained in game and only awarded by Bioware that allows gifts without taxes from a specific character (something that can also be taken away if abused). Perhaps they could also create a guild perk that lasts 1 week and costs 1 billion credits that allows free trading within the guild (at least that would pull a billion a week out of the economy in lieu of the missed fees)

Hopefully they will monitor this closely and if there is a lot of that type of activity, punish guilds doing it severely. Up to and including permanent bans of those involved. This is clearly going to happen if guild transactions are not taxed in some form or another. It is very easy to set up a guild to launder these items.

One more was the mailbox credit exploit that came with the latest update (that was supposed to help curb inflation). That combined with all of the big transactions being off the GTN (eliminating the only substantial credit sink in the game) resulted in credits not flowing out of the game as intended (supply of credits drives up prices). Together, the exploits and off-GTN trading have ballooned the number of credits in game ("inflation" has gotten worse as more things moved to off-GTN trade even while influx of credits into the game has been cut massively). Now Bioware has to spend time that could be spent dealing with other things tracking down the exploiters (which if they catch 10% of the people who used it is a big success leaving hundreds of billions of new credits in the game from the exploit). The QT tax was more likely designed to change the way people played since it has no effect whatsoever on credit generation (the amount it draws out compared to what goes into the game every day is insignificant). The most effective credit generators don't even use QT. It is aimed at people playing through the RPG content to slow them down so they aren't asking for new content.

They did "fix" it. That was what resulted in the big credit exploit that undercut the "economy initiative". It now only takes out of the mail as much as you can hold and leaves the rest.

It would be nice if we knew a little more about why these particular levels of "taxation" were chosen. I could see making them more punitive if the goal was to force the items back onto the GTN (assuming GTN fees aren't going to end up with these same modifiers). If Bioware could share the formula they used to come up with these taxes, it would go a long way toward them being more acceptable to a larger part of the player base. The concept is fine, but like the QT costs, the implementation seems flawed.

No, but the number of bugs introduced by even a small update is pretty telling. You can either assume the coders are incompetent (which isn't the case) or the code is so complex (or buggy in its own right) that they don't fully understand it (most likely the case). The revolving door at Bioware makes it pretty likely that no one really understands the intricacies of the code and that they are just piling new code on top of old (that's generally what happens with MMOs anyway). It's also pretty standard for games nowadays to have lots of "inactive" code still in them at release (or built up over time). All it takes is setting the wrong boolean to true (or a mistyped redirecting statement) and you reactivate that code and whatever it does without even realizing it. It might be a minor inconvenience or it might be catastrophic once you trigger it.

Actually, its experience. Over the years they have modified lots of code and there have been innumerable bugs that came out of nowhere in systems barely related to what was changed.

Implementing it the way you claimed would involve modifying old existing code (code as old as the game) since you would have to change the current shift in location code for code that kills and transports you. Just because the function is already supported somewhere else in the game is no guarantee that it won't introduce bugs when you try to use it somewhere else. The same is true for implementing entirely new code (a /kill function). Even the simple change they made to help out characters dealing with escrow and mailed credits backfired and ended up introducing a major credit exploit which did more damage to the game that the QT fees have any hope of fixing.

The issue right now is that there are too many credits already in the game. You could cut rewards to zero and it would have virtually no impact on that issue (and thus prices). It is the excessive number of credits available (via credit sellers, daily missions, etc) plus those already in the game (which is far more than is generated by normal play by any player) that is driving prices up. People list things for higher and higher prices because they know that people will use whatever means necessary (whether legitimate or not) to acquire large numbers of credits. Taxing all trades will reduce the number of credits in game precisely because they do not generate credits on their own. If you put in a sink that takes out 5% of the credits earned then 95% of those credits still go into the game. You need to tax non credit generating activities to pull credits out of the game.

I suspect this would make the harassment RP players get even worse since the trolls would know exactly where to find them. The PVP and PVE zones don't exclude anyone from using them so it would be hard to create an RP zone that did (how would you determine who is rolepaying and who is a potential troll). It's a nice idea, but very hard to implement. You could maybe do something with flashpoints and operations (instanced heroics too) by forcing a group up prior to using it since only one group at a time can be in those.

If you are "in combat" is the relevant part of your statement, in which case you could just let yourself die and respawn at the nearest medcenter affecting the same thing as a /die or /kill mechanic would do except you wouldn't have to wait (still, new code is required to incorporate the "console command"). If you are stuck out of combat (which happens a lot more often than being stuck in combat), /stuck only moves you a short distance away which may or may not result in you still being stuck. Also note that traveling to your stronghold and back is also not a guarantee you will not still be stuck as it places you back in the same location you came from.

It creates an alternate currency (or "black market" if you will) that devalues the credits even more driving prices up further. Which moves even more things off the GTN and reduces the only effective credit sink in the game even further.

This is an important point. In 2023 people expect different things than they did back in 2011. Back then we were just coming off the grind fest that was Star Wars Galaxies and people were willing to put up with the slog and the grind because that was all they knew. In the past decade, lots of QoL changes have been made to every major MMO and anyone playing them has come across one with a "rapid transit" function. It's just something that is expected now and with tons of MMOs with that feature, having it restricted (however little you think it is) can be the difference between subbing to SWTOR or some other MMO.

It would undercut the whole concept. It would be minutes or hours after the change dropped and new "tax free" guilds would be set up to avoid the tax (invite a player to make the trade then they quit afterwards). Unfortunately, the exception would become the rule. There's not an easy way to tax other trades while leaving those in guilds alone that won't undercut the whole initiative.

Except that QT already exists in the game. A /kill or /die mechanic would need to be added (and would contain who knows how many bugs). Again, almost everyone is fine with QT having a fee (It's the amount that is at issue). The issue is that the fee inordinately affects new players who are deciding whether to subscribe to the game, something this game desperately needs.

It wasn't really unthinkable or impossible. It was brought up during the PTS testing and at least they made the "jump to stronghold and back" not have a cost (there are other glitches that require you to leave your current location and return too), but you can't have a stronghold until level 10 (or was it 15) so your "stuck" in more ways than one. I think QT costs should be 0 at least until you hit level 10 and can get a stronghold (The capital world ones are pretty cheap).

No Problem. I think that's the best outcome for those guilds that give prizes. It simply means the prize is a little larger and the player they are rewarding still get the same reward (not having it "devalued" by having to pay a tax on it). Though I could see a system where either party pays the tax through a "checkbox" in the transaction interface.

I'm not sure I understand what you are saying. If a player places a deposit in the guild bank (say 1 million credits) and then withdraws an item (and the guild pays the appropriate tax for that item when it is removed from the guild bank), how is this a duty free trade? Someone still had to pay the tax (who pays it really isn't the issue as long as it is paid, credits flow out of the game).

Could be done as, into the Guild bank is free, out is paid from the Guild bank.

A filter for "unlocked for character" and "unlocked for account" for CM items. Its a bit of a pain to have to wade through items one by one to see if I have them unlocked somewhere already.