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.

In the Assault on Tython flashpoint, the bases of several trees are expanded and are allowing the NPCs to hide inside them and continue attacking while the player cannot attack. You have to let you companions take them out (while you stand around doing nothing since you cant target them with direct attacks), which slows the whole process down immensely.

Thanks. I asked because they seem to be operating in all the usual places more or less the same as they always have been. Reporting them has not seemed to reduce that at all, but perhaps it is just a matter of them being able to quickly set up new accounts when one gets banned. Bioware really needs to go after the people selling them the credits too, I'm pretty sure that is how the credit sellers get the majority of their credits now (from both players and guilds sitting at the credit caps)

Are we sure this happened or is it that credit sellers have changed the way they ply their trade and do not advertise in game anymore (or at least to a lesser degree) because that is how they get caught.

It encourages the use of gold sellers which brings credits that are currently out of the economy (being held by gold sellers to sell for cash) back into the active economy. Also with the high credit prices for Cartel Market items, it encourages the use of off-GTN sales/exchanges which bypass the only true credit sink in the game. Both of these things lead to inflation because they do not remove credits from the economy which is a vital aspect of a properly functioning economy.

It disincentivizes subs. When a new player gets done with his first character and looks at his balance then looks at the prices on the GTN he will reasonably assume he has no chance to buy anything there. In that case, there is no reason to sub as his credits won't matter anyway. The same is true for the returning player and even current subs. If they have no realistic chance to obtain those levels of credits playing they game in a way they enjoy, the f2p game will serve them quite well. Lost subs equals a dying game.

I hope you are right. The last attempt to curb "influx" of credits came with a major credit exploit that wiped out anything it might have gained.

My concern with raising the GTN cap is how many of the things listed for 1 billion will double or triple in price because the only thing keeping them in check was the GTN cap and the "difficulty" of selling things in Trade Chat on the Fleet. Could an increase in the GTN cap trigger a spurt of mega inflation?

The whole problem with the "needs" vs "wants" argument is that it is "wants" that get players to sub. A f2p player who plays up to his max level is going to look at what he earned completing missions and what even a minor cosmetic item costs on the GTN and make the judgement that he is never going to have enough credits to buy it and thus will not sub (same goes for a returning preferred player looking at his bank account and prices). A subbed player is going to make the same assessment on whether to re-sub. The high prices on the GTN (and elsewhere) disincentivize player subs. Whether it is a "need" or "want" is irrelevant. It is doubtful that Bioware would even be talking about fixing the economy if they had not made the assessment that the high prices are impacting their revenues negatively. Comments on the forums rarely, if ever, have an impact.

The best solution is to make sure all player to player transactions are taxed at some rate, whatever that ends up being (even if its just a set transaction fee based on the "rarity" of the items traded). That draws out credits from the economy far more effectively than the small credit sinks like QT tax and it impacts the players with the most credits the most since they are the ones currently trading off-GTN for free (and removes far more credits from the game than thousands of QTs). Some players with billions don't care about the cost of the minor credit sinks because to them they are insignificant and others don't use them at all because they never leave their strongholds anymore, trading exclusively on and off GTN.

You could accomplish the same thing as a partial credit wipe, the reduction of credits in game, with big taxes on big trades or more specifically making sure every player to player transaction actually removes credits from the game proportionate to the value of the items traded. It doesn't need to be perfect, but simply having categories (bronze, silver, gold, platinum for CM items or green, blue, purple, gold for gear) with a set tax applied to complete the transaction, a transaction fee per se. There would still be the people that don't want the economy fixed (because it devalues their stockpiles) to complain but a lot of the people threatening to quit would likely be alright with a "tax" approach as opposed to a "deletion" approach.

But you can't get the achievement for reaching the maximum reputation. Bioware allowed those items to continue to drop because people begged for it so they could complete their reputation tracks (not that the reputation levels are worth anything). It also helps out long term players that have maxed out rep on everything else so they can still get the Conquest points.