Pre-made level 50 characters for cartel coins.

[Woetoo]

So...

I've rerolled an alt on another server (a tank).

I've already got 5 level 55's on my primary server, a couple of level 50's and about 12 level 20's I use for crafting infrequently.

Edit: My primary server is an EU server. The Tank was created on a US East server.

 

On the new server, I'm missing my high level, raiding capable, alt healer - but I find myself needing to spent the majority of my time doing stuff on my "main" characters and without the time to level yet another one. Plus I've played through all the class quests for my chosen faction and the non-class quests more times than I care to think about. I know some people find levelling alts a quick and painless process, especially when you can spacebar through everything. I'm not one of those people and spacebar'ing through everything just turns every quest into a grind for me (I do it anyway, because I've seen the story before).

 

I dislike the cartel market. I think there are two extremes of MMO player. Players with a lot of time and no money and players with a lot of money and no time. In my opinion, cash shops in F2P MMO's should be firmly aimed at the latter and not used to double-dip subscribers (and yes, I believe the cartel market within SWTOR is primarily used by subscribers not preferred players). F2P and Preferred players are a commodity, desired by the developer, used as a resource by subscribers. Yet the majority of features that would make preferred players a resource for the subscribers are behind a pay-wall. Cartel market items should be time savers and "bling". We have the bling, we don't really have the time savers. For the players with time, but little money - I think the system should be more "pay-as-you-go", with prices proportional to the subscriber costs. In my mind, a preferred player who pays $15 within a month should be able to experience everything that a subscriber does. That really isn't the case right now.

 

I mention all of that, because if I'm suggesting pre-made characters, despite my severe misgivings about the cartel market... imagine how much the people who actually like the cartel market would want them.

 

I wouldn't want pre-made level 55's. I think that players should at least have to put "some" effort in. I'd have the character in 132 rating blue gear with all companions. Though I can foresee a potential set of technical issues if a player decided to go back and do "low level" questing that obtained those same companions again.

 

I don't believe this would be pay-to-win. At least not in my mind. "win" for me is just that... putting players in a position where they could pay money to leapfrog past the content that the average active level 55 player would experience. Right now, I'd say I'd be okay with players being able to buy gear capable of doing story-mode operations (rating 150's maybe, with a couple of bits of MK-1 Black Market stuff. I assume bolster would take care of PvP?). Anything higher than that would cross my "line in the sand" in regards to pay-to-win. So rather than pay-to-win... more like pay-to-almost-catchup.

 

Hence my suggestion of pre-made 50's.

 

I'd want some restrictions. I still firmly believe the story within the game is still strongest element. Which is why so many people praised 1-49. So I'd want players to experience that a few times before grabbing their credit cards and bypassing it all. For that reason, I'd suggest that nobody below legacy level 40 could purchase a pre-made character. Sadly, for me, because legacy is not account wide - my tank would still remain alone. Since despite being level 55 and doing hardmode operations... he's still only legacy level 25. Despite shooting myself in the foot with my restriction... on balance, I think it's still necessary to avoid gold farmers and similar people using this service to flood the market with high level crafted gear/mats.

 

And obviously, since someone decided that a single companion should be valued at 2100cc, actually more than the whole game costs... it terrifies me how much those same people might actually implement this feature for... but still... maybe it could work out.

 

I've also suggested a non-cartel market solution here : http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=6646950#post6646950

 

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Edited August 19, 2013 by Woetoo

[Reveillere]

That would be awesome indeed but I think Biowares response would be that the story has too many important decisions you need to make and they cant make them for you or some ******** like that

[astrobearx]

lololololol no. i like how what you want and what you think about the CM contradict yourself.

[MaximusRex]

Even if they made a lvl 50 character for sale, you'd still have to run it through the class story. Too much data about your character is tied to the class story.

[Woetoo]

Even if they made a lvl 50 character for sale, you'd still have to run it through the class story. Too much data about your character is tied to the class story.

 

I did consider that.

 

The opinion I came to was that the vast majority of decision tree choices are only valid per planet. So using Voss as an example... if Voss choices only affect Voss.. Skipping Voss shouldn't cause any problems. Repeat logic for all other planets.

Choices may be persistent, but they don't have any long term consequences for future gameplay.

You don't run into the guy you let live on Nar Shaddaa while questing on Makeb. Because other players killed him.

 

Bioware could use their metrics to pre-roll characters that "virtually" made the most common choices to backfill the character's decision tree choices to ensure nothing breaks the game. Though personally, I'm pretty sure that nobody doing Makeb would ever notice the impact of a choice that Bioware made for them.

 

If there are game breaking reasons for being unable to do 1-49 quests. Then just backfill every 1-49 quest as complete.

 

There is precedent for this style of backfilling. A new player of Mass Effect 2 wouldn't notice that their character did or didn't save the alien council at the end of Mass Effect 1. Whereas a player of ME1 would import their character and continue where they left off.

 

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Edited August 13, 2013 by Woetoo

[theUndead]

It doesn't matter how good of a solution it is. The short answer is no it will not happen and shouldn't happen at all. You want to play then make the required effort.

[morfius]

Or just a booster allowing you to level a character to 50 only over class & planetary missions, available for subscribers via legacy & for f2p/preferred as CC item.

[Rooff]

I did consider that.

 

The opinion I came to was that the vast majority of decision tree choices are only valid per planet. So using Voss as an example... if Voss choices only affect Voss.. Skipping Voss shouldn't cause any problems. Repeat logic for all other planets.

Choices may be persistent, but they don't have any long term consequences for future gameplay.

You don't run into the guy you let live on Nar Shaddaa while questing on Makeb. Because other players killed him.

 

Bioware could use their metrics to pre-roll characters that "virtually" made the most common choices to backfill the character's decision tree choices to ensure nothing breaks the game. Though personally, I'm pretty sure that nobody doing Makeb would ever notice the impact of a choice that Bioware made for them.

 

If there are game breaking reasons for being unable to do 1-49 quests. Then just backfill every 1-49 quest as complete.

 

There is precedent for this style of backfilling. A new player of Mass Effect 2 wouldn't notice that their character did or didn't save the alien council at the end of Mass Effect 1. Whereas a player of ME1 would import their character and continue where they left off.

 

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I spacebared through most of my characters storylines and pressed random numbers. I wont notice any backfilling of the class quests.

[Icebergy]

No, absolutely not. That is pay to win.

[a-madman]

No, absolutely not. That is pay to win.

/agree

This shouldnt happen, if you want a lvl 50 go and lvl one!

[Jamalzero]

Im sorry you want pre-made lv 50 characters in the cartel market??? that has to be the most lazy thing I've ever read.....this is worse than the new companion Treek and him not having an actual quest log to get him...

[Spatology]

Terrible idea.

 

Transfer your toon if you miss it so much?

[Alduinsm]

No! .

[CrazyMcGee]

Do Not Want

[Woetoo]

No, absolutely not. That is pay to win.

/agree

No!

Do Not Want

Terrible idea.

 

Your attention to detail and reasoned arguments have swayed me. Oh wait.. no they didn't.

 

As I said originally, I'm not a fan of the cartel market and I wouldn't want anything that I considered Pay-To-Win (I can only use my own definition, trying to accommodate everyone else's definitions is impossible). However when I thought about and considered the alternatives I decided "what's the harm?". I suggested rulesets that would ensure that people initially experienced the whole gaming experience in full for at least their first couple of characters.

 

What it comes down to is that eventually, by the 5th or 6th alt - (for some people) it becomes just a grind. ie. Not a pleasurable experience - and those people might be willing to grab their credit cards to shortcut the experience.

 

I don't for one minute think everyone would want to buy a level 50 character. I'm not even sure I would. And I definitely wouldn't want it so that people felt they needed to buy level 50 characters. But giving people a choice seems like a good thing, especially if it provides additional revenue to fund future content.

 

Transfer your toon if you miss it so much?

 

Ah. Perhaps I should have mentioned that my main characters are on the European server and my Tank was created on a US East server. Currently BW do not allow cross region transfers.

 

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Edited August 19, 2013 by Woetoo

[pubstarrandi]

Yeah, it's interesting but no. Maybe a increased leveling speed(but thats kinda pay to win). But not a complete leveled char.

1. You'd have a severe advantage over the guy that has to level. "Oh you're having to level? Yeah i paid and now im spending that time grinding dailies with all my 20 50+ guys. Money!"

2. It would screw up gaining legacy rep. You'd have a lot of characters, but no rep.

3. the economy for lower level items would suffer and thus, the craftsmen who make them.

4. Story, as mentioned, would be messed up, as you would still have to complete quest line or miss out on entire quest and decisions.

5. 50+ would be racked with tons of rich, noobie players. While you may be purchasing because you have some many chars, many would start off just buying a first char, never having the practice to learn the class. Have fun in Group Finder! Oh, and old planet and lower pvp would feel even more like ghost towns.

6. Speaking of which, the new player would be severely screwed. He would be overwhelmed with all his abilities, as leveling provides a long tutorial into using class abilities. While some would choose not to, if you joined this game to play with friends you'd probably suck it up and pay the money for the new char. Again, have fun with Group Finder/PvP!

7.Most important, it would a terrible step in wrong direction. Pay to 50? Why not, pay to 55? or, pay to valor 80 or legacy 40?

Edited August 19, 2013 by pubstarrandi

[Pingonaut]

Let's throw in some way OP gear to go with it, and an awesome title showing that you bought your character!

 

Seriously, this has been suggested more times than I care to think about. Read up before you post a suggestion. This will never be added for obvious reasons.

[Woetoo]

1. You'd have a severe advantage over the guy that has to level. "Oh you're having to level? Yeah i paid and now im spending that time grinding dailies with all my 20 50+ guys. Money!"

Perhaps. Although a generated 50 would start with less cash than a 50 who levelled. So initially at least, those players would need to transfer money from their main just to level crew skills and pay repair bills. In some ways it'd make a valid cash sink that wouldn't feel punitive.

 

2. It would screw up gaining legacy rep. You'd have a lot of characters, but no rep.

My suggestion was that you couldn't buy a 50 without already having legacy level 40 (or something similar). It wasn't supposed to be a "insta 50 for the swtor noob", but instead a short cut for those players who'd done it all before.

 

3. the economy for lower level items would suffer and thus, the craftsmen who make them.

Fair point.

I'd hope the legacy restriction on purchase lessen the impact, making it a rare occurrence rather than the norm. But then I underestimated how many people would pay real money for the (sparkly horse), erm I mean cartel gear/pets. So maybe it wouldn't be as rare as I might hope.

 

4. Story, as mentioned, would be messed up, as you would still have to complete quest line or miss out on entire quest and decisions.

As I said originally, most story arcs end within the planet anyway. And a pre-rolled character could be backfilled to make sure nothing broke. After all, players levelling now can skip whole planets without breaking anything. This would just be that on a bigger scale.

 

5. 50+ would be racked with tons of rich, noobie players. While you may be purchasing because you have some many chars, many would start off just buying a first char, never having the practice to learn the class. Have fun in Group Finder! Oh, and old planet and lower pvp would feel even more like ghost towns.

Again, I'll mention my intended legacy level 40 restriction.

Though yes, I do agree it's possible you'd have someone with a Mercenary, Marauder and Sorcerer already buying a Sniper and having no clue about how to play it. I'd argue the same is possible with people levelling 1-50, especially when some of the key elements of players rotations are only unlocked very late on.

Favourite example. A juggernaut who levels as DPS and swaps to tank at endgame. That happens now.

Plus, I'd argue that open world PvP while levelling is already a ghost town. There is already too few people and too much separation. Though I take your point about maybe a change like this would make it marginally worse.

 

6. Speaking of which, the new player would be severely screwed. He would be overwhelmed with all his abilities, as leveling provides a long tutorial into using class abilities. While some would choose not to, if you joined this game to play with friends you'd probably suck it up and pay the money for the new char. Again, have fun with Group Finder/PvP!

And your similar question #5, I offer my similar answer #5.

 

7.Most important, it would a terrible step in wrong direction. Pay to 50? Why not, pay to 55? or, pay to valor 80 or legacy 40?

Fair point.

And one I don't really have an answer to.

How would one be different than the other? Only by intent I guess. My intent was to offer a shortcut for someone who's already seen more or less everything already and for whom levelling a 6th or 7th alt wouldn't be as fun as it used to be. But a shortcut that was limited to "almost catch up". A spot where anyone paying money would still be behind the average player.

 

My premise remains that there are players with money but no time and players with time but no money at the extremes. And a million and one variations in between. Catering only to the middle ground seems a missed opportunity.

 

I know a lot of people don't like the "buying power" (ie. buying anything that include stats) on principle. But on a practical level, if those stats are sub-par, would that really be so bad?

 

I tend to dislike the "MMO's are always like that" type answers. So I question stuff. Like this.

 

Hmm, I've no idea why I keep counter arguing this. Since generally I'm trying to argue against all things cartel market related. Especially for subscribers.

 

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Edited August 20, 2013 by Woetoo

[JaceMatai]

I think this is a great idea! It beats a insta-55 button

[AbsolutGrndZero]

Choices may be persistent, but they don't have any long term consequences for future gameplay.

You don't run into the guy you let live on Nar Shaddaa while questing on Makeb. Because other players killed him.

 

 

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Actually Fez Burba is on Coruscant, then you run into him later on Tatooine in the bonus area, and while I think the quest is available either way, he does mention the results of what decision you made in regards to his previous quest (or doesn't know you if you skipped it)

[Forgettableone]

Actually Fez Burba is on Coruscant, then you run into him later on Tatooine in the bonus area, and while I think the quest is available either way, he does mention the results of what decision you made in regards to his previous quest (or doesn't know you if you skipped it)

 

In addition to this there are several class stories (mostly centered around the end of chapter 3) that bring back a couple of people - IA and JK off'f the top of my head.

 

I don't agree with the idea of an insta-50, I'd rather have an xp boost per 5 legacy lvls (as a purchasable per character) so that legacy lvl 50 is the same as perma-double xp with an in-built opt in/out option in case you want to rush X class but take your time on Y...

 

The only way I see this being feasible is if it was a "bare bones" character

- lvl 50 white grade armour and weapons

- 5k in the bank

- Have to do all the class story from 1-50 (to get the companions) - which tbh isn't that tedious, as in real terms it amounts to (at max) 7 parts of a quest chain per planet.

- A block on using other equipment until (for example) the Quesh story line is completed

- As part of the above no access to WZs/FPs until (for example) Belsavis is finished

- Speeder 1 training and an adaptive speeder (preferably something that's loud, flashy and screams "I paid for my levels")

 

So the bottom line would be - you couldn't modify the character in terms of gear until you've learned the class in at least some way, and it'd be to a point whereby your presence wouldn't be detrimental to team mates if you were grouped up.

Edited August 29, 2013 by Forgettableone

[AshlaBoga]

Well you can sort of run into someone you let live from your Class missions on Makeb.

 

 

If you count Darth Zash in Khem's body