what is stopping me from purchasing a lot of sets

[illgot]

I love mixing and matching outfits, I also love to constantly change my characters look.

 

But I can't do that in SWTOR, it costs too much money to constantly pop in new mods so I am left with only one choice. I pick the best outfit and stick with it. Each of my 8 characters has one main outfit. I never deviate from this unless something new an exciting comes out (rarely happens) so I never bother purchasing new outfits or trying to gather any for account wide unlocks.

 

It is sad, but the current customization system is restricting fun and keeping my money in my wallet instead of spending it on items in the cartel market.

 

Best system in place is the LoTRO system if you need a reference to a good system which allows for flexible appearance changes.

Edited October 4, 2013 by illgot

[Hambunctious]

You are in for a hatefest. You're going to bring out all the die hard fans who think wanting appearance freedom is wrong, and you are an entitled whiner.

 

I'm on your side, but the fanboys already ignore me.

Edited October 4, 2013 by Hambunctious

[WestXv]

Yeah I used to wear full malak armor but when the gear changes happened I gave up on remoding it cause it was either go broke constantly or just wear the new armor and I don't like going broke when repair costs are so exhorbitant.

[Xienive]

They are much cheaper than they use to be. However I can definitely see where you are coming from, because it would cost quite a bit to change complete sets all the time. I personally feel there are already enough credit sinks in this game, training costs a whole lot, especially if you don't already have another character to help fund it. Then the other problem with being able to have a few different costumes per character is the issue of augments. The cost of augmenting gear is a lot. Buying the augment kit, the cost of adding it to the piece, and the actual augment. Granted you can buy the actual augment item only once but the kits and adding it in is a fortune for the best augments if you want to have different appearance choices. I would say that's an even bigger deal than the cost of removing mods.

 

There really are a lot of cool appearances you can use for different characters but the majority of players will have only one set for their character and after they get all the augments and mods in, regardless if a really awesome set comes out they won't bother with it because it would just be too expensive to try and switch to it. Gotta spend both real money and your fake money.

 

It's great that they tried to make a different appearance system and the dyes are fantastic, but ultimately an appearance tab is just superior to orange mod gear. And if they really wanted to do orange gear they really should have went all the way and made every single orange piece adaptable. You can already look like any class you want to at this point so trying to stay "unique" is irrelevant.

Edited October 4, 2013 by Xienive

[illgot]

Who is being hurt by restricting customization?

 

Free to play players: These guys are being hurt because less money is being invested into the game. With high costs in changing gear, people are not willing to spend as much real money in the Cartel Market purchasing outfits. Why spend a lot of money in real life and then turn around and do the same thing in game just to change your look if you are satisfied with your current look.

 

People that enjoy customizing: I left this game after the original Rakgoul event because I was sick and tired of how all my characters looked. I just came back because of all the customization changes. I still find it extremely lacking and have not had to spend a single dime in Cartel Points because the few outfits I purchased with my accrued points (security key) are all I am willing to afford due to the cost in changing out mods.

 

Bioware: Bioware is making less revenue because players have restrictions which stop player from spending money. The restrictions offer nothing to the game but another money sink, which is decent, but could be applied to purchasing a whole new "set" of outfit tabs via in game money instead of constantly removing mods.

Edited October 4, 2013 by illgot

[Thorkir]

Hm. I really hadn't even noticed the cost of swapping mods, barring the mods at 55. Even those are easy enough to recoup; a few hours in dailies will easily cover that.

 

What I DID notice is that it costs roughly 100k PER ITEM to Augment at MK-9 level on my server...and that's a bit much to throw around.

 

Don't get me wrong; I support more customization, I just hadn't really seen a huge issue with the cost of mods.

Edited October 4, 2013 by Thorkir

[Xienive]

Who is being hurt by restricting customization?

 

Free to play players: These guys are being hurt because less money is being invested into the game. With high costs in changing gear, people are not willing to spend as much real money in the Cartel Market purchasing outfits. Why spend a lot of money in real life and then turn around and do the same thing in game just to change your look if you are satisfied with your current look.

 

People that enjoy customizing: I left this game after the original Rakgoul event because I was sick and tired of how all my characters looked. I just came back because of all the customization changes. I still find it extremely lacking and have not had to spend a single dime in Cartel Points because the few outfits I purchased with my accrued points (security key) are all I am willing to afford due to the cost in changing out mods.

 

Bioware: Bioware is making less revenue because players have restrictions which stop player from spending money. The restrictions offer nothing to the game but another money sink, which is decent, but could be applied to purchasing a whole new "set" of outfit tabs via in game money instead of constantly removing mods.

 

Agreed

 

Who is being helped by the restricting customization:

 

 

 

 

 

 

.

[Icestar]

It used to be alot worse.

 

I remember trying to get ONE crystal out of a weapon and watch the screen say "sure, if you got 100K+"

[Lundorff]

You simply add cosmetic slots to the character; dear old FlyFF had this in place is time time immemorial.

 

With cosmetic slots you leave your armor pieces in the regular armor slots and equip cosmetic pieces in, surprise surprise, your cosmetic slots. A cosmetic piece will simply overrule (visually) the respective armor piece. Done and done.

 

Psst...BW.... It would add diversity and promote Cartel Market sales.

[Hambunctious]

I've already passed the limit to the number of styles my characters can wear. I can't see purchasing anymore items, because there's only so much my characters can wear. I have complete sets that are unbound, and will likely never be used. I already have sets ready to go on the rest of my characters once I get rep up at certain places, and have the right dyes.

 

It's too cost prohibitive to even change outfits once a week, and I am pretty happy with what i have done on each of them.

Edited October 4, 2013 by Hambunctious

[Lunafox]

Indeed, repair costs and ripping out the mods, just so you can change clothes is too blasted expensive. That's been my thinking for a long time, and like the OP I change my and my pals clothes only when I see something amazing.

[Count_Haake]

 

Psst...BW.... It would add diversity and promote Cartel Market sales.

 

Well, in fact it would hurt the sale of all those adaptive armor fluff sets.

[Corsiero]

It only costs alot of credits to change your look if you do it with end game mods and had augmented all your items. Otherwise this is only a problem for casuals that don't run dailies. If you cared enough about your character, you'd earn the money to get it to look how you want to look and that is the reward you get for your effort. The cost is high to limit inflation in the economy. That's why there are so many credit sinks in the game.

[illgot]

It only costs alot of credits to change your look if you do it with end game mods and had augmented all your items. Otherwise this is only a problem for casuals that don't run dailies. If you cared enough about your character, you'd earn the money to get it to look how you want to look and that is the reward you get for your effort. The cost is high to limit inflation in the economy. That's why there are so many credit sinks in the game.

 

That's just it, I will take the mods out of ugly gear once and put them in my one outfit. I won't do it again and I no longer purchase any armor sets from Cartel because it is expensive to constantly move mods and repurchase dyes.

 

It is not much of a money sink if I only do it once.

 

So not only effective, it stops me from spending real money on the game. As for dailies, I have a job, I pop in play some PvP and that's it. I just came back, once I am completely bored with how my characters look I'll be gone again.

Edited October 4, 2013 by illgot

[Tsillah]

Who is being hurt by restricting customization?

 

Free to play players: These guys are being hurt because less money is being invested into the game. With high costs in changing gear, people are not willing to spend as much real money in the Cartel Market purchasing outfits. Why spend a lot of money in real life and then turn around and do the same thing in game just to change your look if you are satisfied with your current look.

 

I don't think that's a correct assessment. Most F2P players don't do endgame as they would have to buy weekly passes for that. That means they don't have as much in cost to add mods. What they can craft is sufficient so there is no need for them to get expensive mods. Also the CM items are a way of making in game gold. Even if they don't need or want the items themselves, they can sell really well on the GTN.

 

People that enjoy customizing: I left this game after the original Rakgoul event because I was sick and tired of how all my characters looked. I just came back because of all the customization changes. I still find it extremely lacking and have not had to spend a single dime in Cartel Points because the few outfits I purchased with my accrued points (security key) are all I am willing to afford due to the cost in changing out mods.

 

This is partially true but customisation is 10 times better than it was. Where I think you are wrong is that you seem to assume that just because you don't spend much on the CM others don't either. A lot of peopel do spend a lot in the CM as far as I can tell. Why do I think that? First of all because of my guildies and friends. I know people who buy 2 or 3 crates with each shipment but also the amount of CM stuff on the GTN shows that a lot of people are buying them.

 

Bioware: Bioware is making less revenue because players have restrictions which stop player from spending money. The restrictions offer nothing to the game but another money sink, which is decent, but could be applied to purchasing a whole new "set" of outfit tabs via in game money instead of constantly removing mods.

 

This is completely false. Obviously the CM sales are doing quite well. So BW seems to be doing quite well. There are more and more restrictions being lifted, specifically for subs. You see I remember times very well when there were very few armour looks to choose from and that removing mods from gear was at least 3 times as expensive as it is now and there was no way to send bound mods to alts.

 

Now, don't get me wrong. I would like there to be more freedom in being able to change the look of your character without spending a ton on it. You see when you do endgame you have augments. I don't even care so much about the mods swapping on the 7 armour items which costs around 200-300K max. But to swap augmentations you need to augment each gear set and for 7 armour items that costs about 700k. That's where it gets silly.

 

So yeh I agree that it would be a great idea to have outfits that could skin "over" your armour so you could keep your armour where it is but change your look with a few clicks only. I also find that once I've foind the sort of best look for my character that's what it is and stays. Especially after augmenting the gear.

[illgot]

I don't think that's a correct assessment. Most F2P players don't do endgame as they would have to buy weekly passes for that. That means they don't have as much in cost to add mods. What they can craft is sufficient so there is no need for them to get expensive mods. Also the CM items are a way of making in game gold. Even if they don't need or want the items themselves, they can sell really well on the GTN.

 

 

 

This is partially true but customisation is 10 times better than it was. Where I think you are wrong is that you seem to assume that just because you don't spend much on the CM others don't either. A lot of peopel do spend a lot in the CM as far as I can tell. Why do I think that? First of all because of my guildies and friends. I know people who buy 2 or 3 crates with each shipment but also the amount of CM stuff on the GTN shows that a lot of people are buying them.

 

 

 

This is completely false. Obviously the CM sales are doing quite well. So BW seems to be doing quite well. There are more and more restrictions being lifted, specifically for subs. You see I remember times very well when there were very few armour looks to choose from and that removing mods from gear was at least 3 times as expensive as it is now and there was no way to send bound mods to alts.

 

Now, don't get me wrong. I would like there to be more freedom in being able to change the look of your character without spending a ton on it. You see when you do endgame you have augments. I don't even care so much about the mods swapping on the 7 armour items which costs around 200-300K max. But to swap augmentations you need to augment each gear set and for 7 armour items that costs about 700k. That's where it gets silly.

 

So yeh I agree that it would be a great idea to have outfits that could skin "over" your armour so you could keep your armour where it is but change your look with a few clicks only. I also find that once I've foind the sort of best look for my character that's what it is and stays. Especially after augmenting the gear.

 

over the last 2.5 years of ABP I spent around 3,000 dollars. Mostly on customization items such as vehicles and clothing. Some on modifiable weapons which I can place my choice of mods in.

 

I drop money when I can customize freely. When I find that the cost in game over rides the cost in real life, I spend a lot less money, in the case of SWTOR no money but one month of subscription in the last year.

 

I could purchase a lot of cartel boxes and sell them on the GTN, then use that money to keep transferring my mods around, but for me that is a waste of resources. If I purchase a number of outfits off the Cartel Market, then pay more to unlock them account wide, the idea of constantly paying in game just turns me off. So I do not bother wasting my money.

 

You may have a lot of friends that switch out their mods almost daily for a new outfit, but I have not met a single person that does this, especially not end game.

Edited October 4, 2013 by illgot

[DKNS]

You simply add cosmetic slots to the character; dear old FlyFF had this in place is time time immemorial.

 

With cosmetic slots you leave your armor pieces in the regular armor slots and equip cosmetic pieces in, surprise surprise, your cosmetic slots. A cosmetic piece will simply overrule (visually) the respective armor piece. Done and done.

 

Psst...BW.... It would add diversity and promote Cartel Market sales.

 

They have this feature in Rift and it's amazing. I was also buying a ton of items from their store because of this, it really would promote Cartel Market sales Bioware

[Iamrock]

The credit sink that is forced upon us is quite the bonerkill and frankly is what stops me from buying anything different from what I currently have. The augmentation system also prevents people from augmenting the 1st tier pvp set because they know they will lose the item buying the 2nd tier (obroan requires conqueror)

 

A small solution to the outfit problem is to make a 2nd set of slots for vanity items that override the items you wear as your set without reducing stats, making it extremely easy to change looks.

This however does not solve the problem with the previously stated augments and pvpers will still suffer.

 

Another solution is to make adding and removing of mods and adding augment slots A LOT cheaper and removing the credit sink from this and adding it to something else that won't mess up the items.

 

I am aware that credit sinks are a must for a game like this and I fully support them but this feels like the wrong place to charge credits.

[Rafaman]

What? Mod swapping costs are not a hinderance for me. I have 10 toons and I use legacy gear freely to pass mods, armorings etc. around. I do a lot of mod swapping, I mean a lot. But I guess it depends on how and if you make creds. I make a bunch in lots of different ways. But ... that's me. The reduced the costs of mod swaps significantly so now, I don't really notice. One thing though, on many occasions, I don't really swap. I replace the mod with a better one which means I destroy the previous mod. Since I'm always upgrading it makes sense not to swap and carry superfluous mods in my bag. Edited October 4, 2013 by Rafaman

[Nomaad]

If it wasn't for the GTN, i'd be a rich rich player. But, it's fun to blow thousands upon thousands of credits to make Da't A s s look good!

[Rafaman]

If it wasn't for the GTN, i'd be a rich rich player. But, it's fun to blow thousands upon thousands of credits to make Da't A s s look good!

 

Yeah, me too. I make a lot but I spend A LOT. Hope there isn't a way to see how many credits I've spent account wide... I'd look, but then I'd hate myself for it.

[AlexDougherty]

I love mixing and matching outfits, I also love to constantly change my characters look.

 

But I can't do that in SWTOR, it costs too much money to constantly pop in new mods so I am left with only one choice. I pick the best outfit and stick with it. Each of my 8 characters has one main outfit. I never deviate from this unless something new an exciting comes out (rarely happens) so I never bother purchasing new outfits or trying to gather any for account wide unlocks.

 

It is sad, but the current customization system is restricting fun and keeping my money in my wallet instead of spending it on items in the cartel market.

 

Best system in place is the LoTRO system if you need a reference to a good system which allows for flexible appearance changes.

 

I hear you, the best you can do really, is have two or three sets after you reach level 55, and even that isn't ideal.

 

Thank god I found decent outfits for most of my characters, several for a couple, oh choices choices!!

[veevito]

The orange gear/mod system is interesting and I do like it. Being able to keep one look as you increase in power is great. It's a bit convoluted though in that there is alot of non orange gear floating around that you may like the look of.

 

However, I think that the cost is only part of the issue. I think that the larger point lies with the system itself from an appearance swappers' standpoint. Even if it were free to move mods around from gear to gear, the system itself is just more tedious than it needs to be.

[Icebergy]

This game definitely has its issues, but I just can't see how this is one of them. All of my characters wear different custom sets that are pretty much exactly how I want them to look, and every time they get new gear, it just goes right into the custom look.

 

I've never been able to do anything like that in any other game before and I think its awesome.

[SpoeMeister]

The ability to add augments for free would help a lot. I have no problems with changing appearances and pulling out mods. But on my server, it's 80K for an augment kit and then 30K to add it to a new piece of gear.

 

Ditch that 30K and I will be augmenting a lot more gear and thus adding more sets to the collection.