LOL! The only thing all the other "hunger strikes" got us was the F2P model. I have to agree with the quoted point. We're already at the bottom of the barrel. There really is no place left to go. It is definitely a deal with it or leave proposition these days. No offense intended to the other guy, but that's really all there is to it at this point.

Excellent point. Well done.

The gambling bags are fine. The problem is, many of the items in the bags are only available from the bags (the GTN nonsense notwithstanding.. unless you're sitting on 50 million credits). They need to allow the items to be purchased in the store. I'm willing to bet they will make far more money that way because I doubt people are stupid enough to keep spending real money on a "chance" of getting something specific. Then again, I'm probably overestimating the intelligence of gamers... I do that fairly often.

I certainly can't find a single fault in any of this. Not that I was looking for one.. just a different way of saying "I agree." This would absolutely be the best method. I'm hoping the whole HK-51 quest is a sign they'll move the "rare" things in that direction, even though HK will be incredibly common by day 2.

Well, the tooltip for the crystals does say level 10. Perhaps this has something to do with it being a play test on the play test server. There are characters of varying levels on the play test server. Perhaps they are letting even the low levels test things. It would be incredibly unbalancing for a level 10 to have any single item granting them a level 50 stat. I'm fairly certain BioWare knows this. If BioWare sincerely wants to win, they oughta have cash shop gear scale to your level. At least, with crystals. That would be a great idea. As for the white crystals being available in the cash shop, you'd have to be ignorant to think they wouldn't be. After all, if it's guaranteed to make them money it's guaranteed to be in the cash shop one way or another. You can't seriously fault them there. Sure, I spent 4 million on the two crystals my marauder has but I haven't played that character in 6 months. I wouldn't mind having a white crystal on a newer toon. Yeah, I paid my dues.. I should be able to use my crystal wherever I want. Failing that, I should have an outlet to get another one.

While I am incredibly glad I didn't waste all those credits on the rocket boots, I am very disappointed in myself for spending millions of credits on other unlocks that are practically given away now. Still, I agree with the above quoted response. The ratio seems to be very low from cartel coins to credits. The credit vs. coin cost of Legacy items should be balanced. Perhaps BioWare sees it that way. As it is, credits have very little meaning in comparison given the cartel coin pricing being what it is. But then, we still do not know the real dollar value of a cartel coin. That may change things significantly.

Without having my opinion skewed by reading everyone elses', here are my opinions on the Cartel Shop. These opinions are all about the items since the system worked perfectly for me (known issues aside). I like most things about the cash shop, including the restrictions for F2P. Every restriction for F2P makes my subscription that much more valuable and I'm all for adding meaning to a subscription. I like the layout and the fact you there are double precautions in place to help prevent accidental purchases. I do think the prices are a bit high (especially considering how few points subscribers are getting for the past year - and the fact I'm still being shorted 300 points I should have.. but that's another story). I don't have specifics because I know the prices will fluctuate and it appears you have plans for sales to be faded in and out. That helps with over pricing. The main thing I dislike are the packs. The clothing packs are okay, except I did not notice any items from the clothing packs available separately. I did not like any of the full suits available. I did like pieces of several. There is no way I will overpay for a full suit if I am not planning to use all (or most) of the pieces. You should offer all of the pieces in a full suit separately and have the total cost of buying the suits separately be slightly higher than buying the suit in bulk. That way, people who do want the full suit can get it a little cheaper buying the whole thing and those of us who just want a couple of pieces can purchase those without a thousand or more coins. The other thing I sincerely disliked is the "Gambling" packs. Firstly, many of the items are not available on the store (currently) by themselves. They should be. It's difficult for me to gamble real money in real life. It's difficult for me to spend real money on a pretend, virtual item. Combining the two is about the worst thing you can do, in my opinion. You're only giving subscribers 500 coins a month (and far less than that for previous months), so we'll only be able to afford one gamble pack a month. The thing is, you put ALL the good stuff in the gamble packs. I would be far more willing to purchase the items separately, even if it costs more than a gamble pack, than risk spending five - six times more on the gamble packs and never getting the item I wanted. I understand this is absolutely a cartel coin sink (no doubt about that) and the cost of the packs are relatively cheap for what you can get. However, I will never buy one when real money is involved. I would be far more willing to buy the items I like outright. Finally, any pretend item I purchase with real money (above and beyond my subscription) needs to be bind to legacy. I did notice how some items are freely tradable after 5 days. That's okay, I suppose, if it includes ALL cartel store bought items. However, I still think all cartel store items should be bind to legacy. You are undermining your ability to make money when subscribers are buying the most wanted items and selling them for in-game credits. I have no data for this.. it's just a feeling. Regardless, the items do need to be tradable (at least between your own characters) or else I won't be buying them. That's all for now. I'll include more as I think of it. I hope this feedback matters to someone (at BioWare).

Greetings BioWare! Now that the final server merges have been complete for awhile and things have settled down a bit, is there any word on the server transfers we've been waiting 9+ months for? Thank you.

Why exactly could you not do that before? Is your imagination not strong enough for role-play? I don't intend this to be antagonistic. I simply fail to understand how people role-play at all without exorcizing their imagination. Is this the same thing as "hard core" RPers who shut out people because the little floaty over their head isn't "RP enough?" I honestly don't get this argument. Thanks.

Again, there are unintended consequences to this "fix." A broader view never hurt anyone.

I would feel the same about it if they let us change our first names back.. you know, the ones people actually know an individual character by. The change of our stable (Legacy) names where others can have them and we lose the character identity and reputation (or have our hindered by griefers and other poor players) associated with them is an awful and far reaching side effect. I would rather lose the name than have other potentially harmful people sharing it with me. That's why Legacy names are completely meaningless to me (as of this change) and I'll just hide them on all of my characters to ensure I am not associated with negative elements in-game.

Many agree with you, don't worry. Some people are just too inconsiderate to consider something meaningless to them can be very important to others. Rather, they don't care as long as they get what they want. You know, as if they are the only ones paying for this game.

Except that he didn't get the point at first. Keep reading and you'll get the point too. Also, this was the first post regarding the subject. It wasn't crying (thanks for the insult), but you're right... it is pointless.

I wasn't talking about bans. Reputation is player to player, not player to BioWare. People can easily (and I never mentioned intentionally) ruin your reputation purely by coincidence. Also, this does nothing for first names to which the damage has already been done as has the damage regarding legacy name changes. They can already change first names and are apparently waiting for the cash shops to let us do it on our own. This is no argument, though I do get your point. The fact is, characters could marry each other, be friends, lovers, siblings or whatever else they want all the while having different legacies. That's what role-playing is in these exceptionally non-RP environments we call MMOs. It's acting like you can do something that is not within the game mechanics. Legacy served a far greater purpose by allowing our own characters to be recognizable and identifiable in an easy and consistent manner, regardless of faction. Now that is blown and is far more unfortunate than before when RPers had to pretend things (and yes, I am a RPer). Regardless, it doesn't matter and neither do we. BioWare will do whatever they want and there is nothing we can do to change it if we don't like it. That's life.

Exactly.

I completely disagree. That is exactly what it was until this entirely unnecessary change.

Then what about first names that are "locked" to unsubscribed people that no longer play? I know at least 2 of the names I lost in the transfer are on accounts where that character has not been played (at least) since the server transfers. Not in any sort of meaningful way, at any rate.

It's not the name they are taking since you can retain that. It's the reputation you have spent so long building they can potentially destroy. Do you (generally speaking, not you directly) really want someone to associate your character with some ninja griefing moron because you share the same Legacy name? That is the biggest issue here, in my opinion. That is what I mean by personal identifier. I am not so shallow or elitist in my thinking that I am the only one deemed worthy or clever enough to have a name combination no one else can have ever. It's bad enough they took our first names with forced server merges and all the reputation we built with those names up to that point. Now, some random jerk can further ruin in-game reputation that you have already rebuilt now that BioWare has removed the single most solid character identifying concept in the game and allow anyone to share it.

Well then where is the offer for free first name changes? Far more of us lost far more first names (and I'm pretty sure far more of us were far more upset about losing those than a unique Legacy name). The very least you could do is allow us to reorganize our first names to fit the legacy name scheme we want. Even if first names are still not unique (which is beyond me since Legacy denotes some sort of importance we no longer have), this would be a much easier pill to swallow if we could at least attempt to have our first names go along with our "free" Legacy name change.

The point is, it doesn't have to be intentional harassment to ruin your in-game reputation. Any ninja'ing, griefing moron can "happen" to have your Legacy name and likewise "happen" to ruin your in-game reputation. While his example was extreme, the underlying issue is quite valid.

Ultimately I agree with you here as well. The half-baked way they are going about doing this is what is ticking me off and there is no indication they will ever move toward account code identification either. Just another half cocked, seemingly unnecessary change with absolutely no explanation or consideration for the loyalty of paying customers who have been paying since beta (i.e., those of us who have put up with the massacre of every other personally identifying aspect of our characters).

That's another great point. To a lesser extent, what about those douchebags who will create a new character (even on the same account), join your guild "anonymously," clean out the guild bank and then say it wasn't them. "It must've been someone else... anyone can have my Legacy name!" I guess the answer will be "lock down your guild vault and only let trusted officers hand out items."

Well I apologize I did not explain myself fully in the top post. That is the nature of venting (and is why my signature has the norman bates quote). Thanks for helping draw out the rest of my point I did not articulate well enough the first time.

Don't get me wrong. I will, of course, suck this one up too. I'm just venting because I see this as.. well I've already explained how I see it. For the rest, yes, obviously I am the one who makes my character unique from a RP perspective which is about all there is left for uniqueness. The ability to pull mods out of top tier armor (to keep your set it has to be top tier) for an extremely high price helps with a more unique appearance. However, character names are the personal identifier that sets you a part from everyone else at a glance. It is a matter of "Oh, I know that guy" because of my Legacy. It has nothing to do with how "cool" I think my Legacy is. The same issue goes for first names. As a poor example, there can be 10 "Anakin Skywalker"... how exactly do you tell them a part when you see them on a list? Furthermore, do you really want someone to associate your character with some ninja griefing moron because you share the same Legacy name? That is what I mean by personal identifier. I am not so shallow or elitist in my thinking that I am the only one deemed worthy or clever enough to have a name combination no one else can have ever.

Even MORE people lost MORE first names during the server merges. How are they fixing that?