This is the real problem. It is a "tax" aimed at players who aren't the problem and it will only affect new players (you can argue how much but the fact is they are the only ones that will be hurt). Credit farmers don't use QTs (they use bots that repeatedly sweep the same area) and high level players are generating tens of thousands of credits more than they are paying for the QT costs. Just a single off-GTN trade taxed appropriately would actually remove credits from the game (as opposed to slowing the rate of increase) more effectively than hundreds of thousands of quick travels. What is needed is a default tax (based on the theoretical value of the items traded in credits) on all trades outside the GTN which has to be paid by one of the participants before the trade can occur.

I'm starting to wonder if the Cartel Market sales are collapsing under the weight of the huge numbers of credits needed to buy just about any high end items. So few people have enough credits to buy anything with what they earn in game (and prices are reaching the point where 1 transaction maxes out the credit limit on a character) that the sales of the high end stuff may be dipping on the CM. That would explain the pin-prick approach Bioware seems to be taking (draw out just enough credits to stabilize the market but don't fix it - keep CM prices in credits high to encourage people to spend real world money on them with the hopes of cashing in on one big sale).

It's not really "taxing the rich" but "following the money". These trades outside the GTN are for massive values (way beyond what a reasonable increase in the GTN max price would cover) that if taxed would do more in reducing the credits in game than 10 years of QT travel costs. Even if it was something as simple as Bioware setting a transaction fee for anything that doesn't have an in game credit value (set a value for the "class" of GTN item - platinum, gold, silver, etc with hypercrate values based on the chances for those types of drops) for non-GTN player to player trades. Then make it so someone has to pay the tax in order for the transaction to be processed (give each player involved in the trade a checkbox agreeing to pay the tax and one or the other has to check that box to proceed)

The thing is I found it to be just the opposite. I played tons of GSF when it first came out. When conquest first came out (and you had to finish in the top 10 to even get rewards) GSF and PVP were the only way to generate enough points to reach the leaderboard and I played both a lot (burnout is a serious issue for almost all group content). I have since found GSF (and PVP in general) to be severely lacking in repeatability. It's all the same fight over and over (even the different maps all feel the same with the same goals). It's no better or worse than any other content, It's just the type of player you are that determines what is "repeatable" content. Operations, Heroics, Uprisings and Flashpoints have their repeatability issues too. The unfortunate thing is that progressing the story (and star wars is all about the journey) has taken a back seat to making group content, and the story has been very poor quality as a result of trying to make group content into story content to save resources (making both worse than if they had just cycled through the various types - "story" flashpoints are the worst thing ever to happen to the game). What has been surprising in the last expansion was that the sub-expansion supposedly dedicated to PVP actually had the best storyline content since KotFE/KotET (as opposed to 7.0 which was basically a solo operation - super linear and ending with a broken flashpoint). Hopefully that is a start of a new trend.

Could we get some clarification from the Devs on what does and does not stack in abilities "boosts". For example, if I have a character perk that gives a 5% boost to Mastery, and a relic that gives 5% and a guild perk that gives 5% and a utility that gives 5%, do those all "stack" (for a total of 20% to the base) or like the description in the guild perks says ("does not stack with similar effects") only one of them counts. In the guild perks, all of the ones that give an increase to stats seem to be greyed out because I have all the story completion perks (the 5% on various abilities from completing the story).

The question is why charge for Quick Travel and going to your stronghold but not for heroic transports or other rapid transports (that's how it still is on the PTS). Those would seem to be used more by the players you are targeting to "drain" credits from. I know Bioware has said there are other changes in the works but their track record on following up on things that don't work is not very good. The flagship flashpoint for 7.0 is still broken and you still get pulled under the terrain a lot (maybe the fix for that was reducing the cost of dying for armor repair instead of actually fixing what is wrong). How many thousand times have we seen "will be addressed in a future update" and years later, still no fix. I don't have an issue with QT having a cost, but the costs as they are on the PTS are way too high for the planets they are on and there is little faith that Bioware will actually follow up with something that will make a difference in the GTN prices. These credit sinks don't drain credits from the game only slow down the increase and as long as the number of credits in the game continues to increase, GTN prices will not come down.

It's not like that on the PTS either unless you are really high level (like 70-80) and not all gear scales that way, just some of it.

There is something wrong with your numbers here. These are not the kind of credits you generate as a low level character on a starter planet. The 90,000 leaving the starter planet struck me as odd (I've played lots of characters and never that I can recall left a starter planet with more than 20K). Also 800 credits per mob of "level 1" NPCs seemed way to high for a low level character on a starter planet. So I went and took a look myself on the PTS. Level 10 character killing level 6 mobs generated an average of 50 credits per mob or about 200 credits total (n=3) selling everything that dropped (gear, grey items, etc). The jump from the Forge to the Jedi Temple by quick travel was 1,000 credits (that was the furthest distance I recall ever jumping on Tython - It's a really long walk back otherwise). This character is also 2/3 of the way through Tython and has a total of about 2500 credits. I don't see how that character could even come close to 90K before finishing every mission on the planet. Level 80 character killing level 6 mobs generated an average of 850 credits per mob or about 3400 credits total (n=3) also selling everything that dropped. I did get 800 credits per 4 mobs with the level 80 character attacking Flesh Raiders in the Gnarls (The level 10 character got about 100 credits for the 4 mobs) note: the (n=3) means I killed 4 mobs 3 times and got basically the same amount for each group of 4 mobs. Using your example to jump once (700 credits) would take 12-15 (level 6) mobs not 4 (level 1) . Whatever you are doing it is not representative of a new player starting at 1st level on the starter planet.

1. It isn't "accessible" to all individuals, only those playing the RPG content (no travel costs for operations, GSF, or PVP) 2. Whether they slow down inflation is irrelevant because the issue is not inflation but an excess of credits in the game. 3. I have done the experiment and disagree with your assessment. You will net something like 25% more credits on a level 80 character if you walk from where you complete the last mission in a section back to the taxi, fighting mobs along the way. 4. An immediate effect is what is needed. I have seen dozens of players leave because the game becomes tedious to play (slogging through dozens of low level mobs is not fun). The quick travel costs, as they are now configured, will sour new players on the game, especially after they pay millions of credits to unlock faster quick travels only to find out it still costs them to use those "perks" The other micro-sinks are much smaller. Travel by taxi is 10s of credits, travel by ship is at most a few hundred, these quick travel costs are in the thousands and are not adjusted for the level of the planet they are on. There is no reason at all for it to cost more to quick travel between taxi pads on coruscant than it does on Corellia (or even the same) Forgot to add coruscant quick travel costs: Senate tower to just about anywhere is 5000 credits (Black Sun sector was the only one less than that at 4435)

This is incorrect. What it will cause is fewer players using quick travel and slower progress through the game (which incidentally will increase the number of credits they generate by playing since they will be getting more drops from killing more mobs). Quick travel costs will do absolutely nothing to lower costs on the GTN because the players controlling those costs don't use quick travel. Those controlling the prices sit in their stronghold and manipulate prices on the GTN or sell items on the fleet. High prices on the GTN are not caused by current influx of credits but rather the influx of credits from years ago (the hundreds of billions of credits that are already in the game). No one using quick travel is going to use it more than the number of credits they earn from the activities they are doing so it will do absolutely nothing to reduce the number of credits already in the game. Monopolies cause the high prices, not credits earned from missions (or not spent on quick traveling). There is a difference between high prices of desired items and inflation. What SWTOR suffers from is high prices on desired items (inflation would be if the cost of buying something from the vendors kept increasing as more credits flowed into the game) Using travel costs to "fix" inflation is like plugging one hole in a sieve. It will have no effect at all other than to make playing the game more tedious. It is when the game becomes tedious that players leave.

The hardware can have an effect, though it is usually less than the distance and quality of the internet between you and the server. Laptops tend to run hot (both the CPU and graphics card) which slows them down and a lot of people use laptops wirelessly, which is an inherently slower connection speed than a wired connection. The slowest leg in the pathway determines your lag. If you are doing "twitch gaming", a wired connection to a desktop is best (that's about all you can control, everything else is your internet provider).

The best way is to only use gear that drops from the class missions, skipping most of the extra content (Heroics, PVP, GSF, flashpoints. Heroics and flashpoints reward excessive xp and gear for their "level") to stay below the planetary maximum level, using a level 1 companion that doesn't level up as you go through the story (one of the GS companions should do if you haven't increased their level above 1), and limiting yourself to the appropriate abilities for the planet makes things more difficult too. The game is designed to be relatively easy leveling since the focus is intended to be endgame (lvl 80 content) so you do have to put in some effort to make it harder while leveling. Anything that reduces your xp gain rate (White Acute crystal, but that's only available during the Gree event I believe) helps keep you under the planet cap (level sync will not weaken you enough). Also avoid datacrons and completing any of the companion quests (these will eventually give you bonuses to your stats) and playing on a server where you do not have any legacy buffs. Once you get to KotFE and beyond all bets are off on what is difficult and what is not. A lot of the KotFE/KotET content was never rebalanced for the weakening of characters (and companions) in 7.0 so depending on your class, some of it can be quite challenging.

It's pretty hard to control the market with CM items. There just aren't enough of them. Stuff you can craft is much easier. My biggest suggestion is not to try to flood the market all at once but continuously list in smaller amounts. A big bunch at once is easy for billionaires to buy out (and make a big profit on). If they have to constantly go back and buy up small quantities they get bored with it and move on. Most are looking for a quick "buck" and anything that causes them to expend effort causes them to lose interest.

It takes persistence (and lots of mats) but it can be done. You have to keep listing to the point they feel they aren't going to ever be able to sell for what they want (don't list hundreds at once but a few at a time every day, or even several times each day, that makes them have to keep checking and keep buying you out every day - eventually they'll lose patience and give up). Which BIS crystals were you trying to sell?

No restrictions for non-subscribers All players, regardless of account type, can participate in PvP. During previous seasons, non-subscribers were restricted on the amount of matches they could play. With 7.2, free-to-play accounts will be able to participate in PvP; however, they will earn PvP points at a slower pace than Subscribers. from: https://www.swtor.com/info/news/article/20221209

All crystals are purely cosmetic now. They don't work at all in most synced content and are such a tiny drop in the ocean of stats at endgame, that those +41 stats are meaningless

This is the key point. Your ping will be determined by the distance between you and the hardware the "cloud" server is currently running on as well as the quality of the internet infrastructure between you and that physical server. It is very likely that your ping will change from day to day as the "server" shifts around (Amazon has lots of server farms all around the world for use with AWS)

That hits credit sellers/buyers too if you put the same limit on non-GTN mailing of credits (and makes those transactions much more obvious in the game logs). You still need to address the "alternate currency" market of CM items (hypercrates in particular).

Resetting credits to zero doesn't do anything about the influx of credits, so you are making a false comparison (though I do agree something needs to be done about the credits already in the game). The game ran fine for years with low level heroics rewarding "low-level" rewards (heck, I used to run them because it was one of the best ways to collect the low level gear - which is near impossible now). A level 50 character in 1.0 running a low level heroic got low level rewards. The point is that if your goal is to reduce credit influx (which is what Bioware says their goal is with the travel taxes), there are far more effective ways of doing it that charging for quick travel (I'm not even against charging for it, just the ridiculous level of those charges) - which has a disproportionate impact on the same characters you are complaining would be impacted by lowering the heroics credit/gear rewards. Lots of people don't like the quick travel costs, should Bioware scrap those too.

The problem with the economy is influx of credits (at least according to Bioware). Reducing these credit payouts would do more for bringing the economy under control than the low level/casual player punitive changes they are suggesting. Once again more hair splitting

This is my experience with Coruscant heroics as well. The vast majority of players running it are in end game gear, though not "BIS" (implying level 80). I think it's pretty safe to say almost none of them are there for the credits but those credits find their way into the economy anyway.

Now you're just splitting hairs. There is no reason a level 80 character should get 5 times the reward (credits) of a level 35 character for doing the same content considering all of the other rewards the level 80 characters are getting.

Yes, absolutely. The reason for changing them now is that at the time of the original change there were no real rewards for doing that content for high level characters. Now you get DRMs, Tech Fragments, GS "currency", Conquest points (which yield even more rewards). A level 80 character gets lots of materials to upgrade their gear (and "purchase" better gear from doing even the easiest heroics). Far more value to that character than the credits especially when one RPM/OEM that you get for a couple thousand tech fragments sells for hundreds of millions on the GTN.

This one act infused more credits into the game than anything else including when they were still giving credit rewards for conquest. Doing the same content (such as easy heroics/dailies/flashpoints) with a high level character netted 5-10 times more credits than if it was done with a low level character. The "cost" of playing was also not significantly higher for those high level characters. Reverting just this one thing would crush credit influx into the game and put it back to more where it should be. They should go back to the planet level based rewards (same for flashpoints and operations based on their original levels) and create "mission specific" gear drops (like they initially had in flashpoints) to encourage players to replay the content (honestly though, with conquest and GS, there are more than enough rewards for high level characters without showering them in credits too). The next step is to come up with a way to remove the excess credits already in the game (that have been building up now for almost a decade) and to shut down completely buying credits from outside sources for real money (severe bans and removal of credits). Forcing all trades back onto the GTN would make sure all high value transactions are subject to the GTN tax which is really the only credit sink of any significance in the game (and more importantly affects the people with the most credits the most, unlike the travel cost sinks which hurt low level and casual players the most but have no real impact on the stockpiles of credits many players have).

I see the quick travel costs as being targeted against certain things in the game but not really against inflation (that is just lip service on Bioware's part). These costs are targeted at: 1) Slowing down progress through the game since there is so little content added each quarter/year 2) Slowing down gearing since quick travel is used most in jumping between heroics, the best source of DRMs for upgrading your gear (and needed by everyone except end game raiders top level gear) 3) Driving long time players and their credits out of the game by making replaying content tedious. 4) Making the game seem more populated by forcing people to hoof it between heroics/missions instead of quick traveling