The Contraband Slot Machine

[ludoviccb]

The Contraband Slot Machine was an excellent credit sink. In just 1 week, it drained billions of credits on every server. The only crafting material which was more costly to do the mission than to use the Slot Machine was the Purple Tier 5 and higher. A tune up with the drop rate of purple jawa scrap and Cartel Certificate would have been enough.

 

 

With the current cost for mission, even with the way the Slot Machine was before the Nerf, crafting skill missions would be cheaper for all types of materials.

 

The only things that would be cheaper with the Slot Machine are the Grade 6 Gift that you can get from jawa junk and getting those and selling them on the GTN would drain billions of credits per week from the economy.

[TX_Angel]

No offense but you'd have to be completely naïve to think that machine was going to stay as it was with those drop rates ... they were crazily over the top, as much as it was over the top nerfed.

 

Also anyone who got their hands on this prior to the first post of this thread ( let alone the nerf itself ) would have come out immensely on top unless they bought them and decided to just not use them for a couple of weeks I believe it was from launch to nerf ( if not longer ).

 

Do you read my posts? Just curious, because I've said like 5 times in the past week that I was fully aware that a nerf was incoming. I've also said that a 50% across the board cut would have been fine.

 

Not a 98% cut! They went from being too powerful to worthless.

 

As for coming out ahead, oh rest assured I did, very much so. It doesn't matter because it is the principle of it, not how wealthy in game I am. I have not purchased a single CC since the CSM, and I never will. Bioware broke a "real money" item and didn't make it right, so I'll never buy another CC again.

 

The CSM cost Bioware at least a thousand real dollars in the past year from me. I have no way of knowing how much from other people of course, but I suspect it is a lot.

[TX_Angel]

Interestingly it was quite a heated discussion thread so there were many people in favour of a nerf as there were opposed to one.

 

I however believe most agree that a nerf was required, it shouldn't have been this harsh and communication should have been much better.

 

All true... but a lot of the pro-nerf crowd turned right around after the nerf and said "what the heck?".

 

Just like the companion nerf recently, lots of people were asking for a nerf to companions post 4.0, they were too powerful. So Bioware did it and nerfed them to nothing. Healing was reduced as much as 75%!.

 

That isn't a nerf, that is a nuke. A week later, Bioware undid a lot of the change and while they aren't quite as possible as 4.0, they are closer to 4.0 than to the companion nerf.

 

Had Bioware, a week later, rolled back part of the CSM, that would have quieted most of it.

[Jamtas]

The CSM cost Bioware at least a thousand real dollars in the past year from me. I have no way of knowing how much from other people of course, but I suspect it is a lot.

 

Dang it, I bet they took at look at your metrics and decided that not enough story was the reason you stopped spending money on CC.

 

is CSM the real reason we have no new group content now?

[MeNaCe-NZ]

Do you read my posts? Just curious, because I've said like 5 times in the past week that I was fully aware that a nerf was incoming. I've also said that a 50% across the board cut would have been fine.

 

I could pose you the same question because you keep seem to replying as though I'm making a stand or post that I'm clearly not.

 

Not a 98% cut! They went from being too powerful to worthless.

 

Yup it was over the top, I've said that numerous times. However if you go back up you'll find I was debating the point of "working as intended" - the old rates were as absurd as the new rates just in reverse.

 

 

As for coming out ahead, oh rest assured I did, very much so. It doesn't matter because it is the principle of it, not how wealthy in game I am. I have not purchased a single CC since the CSM, and I never will. Bioware broke a "real money" item and didn't make it right, so I'll never buy another CC again.

 

Which is fine and your choice, point is you feel aggrived and acted with your wallet. Kudos to you and no one is taking that away from you. The only points I tend to argue are the ones by people who imply that any nerf at all was out of the blue and thus it was a bait and switch ... oh and those who thought it wasn't having a negative affect of the games economy pre nerf though those died off long ago.

[MeNaCe-NZ]

All true... but a lot of the pro-nerf crowd turned right around after the nerf and said "what the heck?".

 

Just like the companion nerf recently, lots of people were asking for a nerf to companions post 4.0, they were too powerful. So Bioware did it and nerfed them to nothing. Healing was reduced as much as 75%!.

 

That isn't a nerf, that is a nuke. A week later, Bioware undid a lot of the change and while they aren't quite as possible as 4.0, they are closer to 4.0 than to the companion nerf.

 

Had Bioware, a week later, rolled back part of the CSM, that would have quieted most of it.

 

Yup and I don't think there are many that would have agreed the nerf was warranted to this degree.

 

Funnily enough as we speak day by day the value of the CSM increases due to it now being the only source of certs in the game. This of course has nothing to do with supporting the nerf just an interesting aside to the original issue.

[Friend-Referral]

Yup and I don't think there are many that would have agreed the nerf was warranted to this degree.

 

Funnily enough as we speak day by day the value of the CSM increases due to it now being the only source of certs in the game. This of course has nothing to do with supporting the nerf just an interesting aside to the original issue.

I haven't been in the game for a modest length of time. Took a break. What's the general cost of a CSM?

[MeNaCe-NZ]

I haven't been in the game for a modest length of time. Took a break. What's the general cost of a CSM?

 

You could easily get 5 mill+ for one now ... gold rarity and it's one of the few decorations than can be used for something.

 

Currently on harb there is only 1 for over 11 mill but not sure if it'll sell that high ... that's a bit too steep for a deco.

 

If wanting to use one to chance the hand at getting some certs ( they're worth about 500K a piece on harb right now once you a buy deco or npc like jawa vendors to sell ) better off using someone else's in a SH or guildship.

 

Edit: so if we assume a drop rate of 0.05% for the certs and 500 credits per spin ( if that's still correct ) then ideally it would cost 1,000,000 to win a 500k cert currently of course that doesn't take into consideration the credit you make back selling rep, free spins and any jawa scrap you can sell too.

It's not quite to the break even part but it's getting close.

 

All BW are doing by not having certs in packs is getting the CSM to a point where it may be come financially viable for gold sellers to bot it to sell the certifcate deco's on the GTN.

Edited February 9, 2016 by MeNaCe-NZ

[Friend-Referral]

You could easily get 5 mill+ for one now ... gold rarity and it's one of the few decorations than can be used for something.

 

Currently on harb there is only 1 for over 11 mill but not sure if it'll sell that high ... that's a bit too steep for a deco.

 

If wanting to use one to chance the hand at getting some certs ( they're worth about 500K a piece on harb right now once you a buy deco or npc like jawa vendors to sell ) better off using someone else's in a SH or guildship.

 

Edit: so if we assume a drop rate of 0.05% for the certs and 500 credits per spin ( if that's still correct ) then ideally it would cost 1,000,000 to win a 500k cert currently of course that doesn't take into consideration the credit you make back selling rep, free spins and any jawa scrap you can sell too.

It's not quite to the break even part but it's getting close.

 

All BW are doing by not having certs in packs is getting the CSM to a point where it may be come financially viable for gold sellers to bot it to sell the certifcate deco's on the GTN.

Oh, so not that much, well for me at least. I paid roughly 5mil for the really rare Revan's pieces back in 2013, but from what you're telling me I'm not really sure if I want to buy one since they nerfed the hell out of this machine. I wasn't playing the game during this fiasco.

 

I have a quarter of a million Cartel Coins and I want to buy a lot of high quality shinies but I also want to invest in this because I really only PvP in this game and I used be poor before I started referring players and farming Makeb chests.

Edited February 9, 2016 by ColorfulCaiques

[DawnAskham]

All true... but a lot of the pro-nerf crowd turned right around after the nerf and said "what the heck?".

 

Just like the companion nerf recently, lots of people were asking for a nerf to companions post 4.0, they were too powerful. So Bioware did it and nerfed them to nothing. Healing was reduced as much as 75%!.

 

That isn't a nerf, that is a nuke. A week later, Bioware undid a lot of the change and while they aren't quite as possible as 4.0, they are closer to 4.0 than to the companion nerf.

 

Had Bioware, a week later, rolled back part of the CSM, that would have quieted most of it.

 

Wow this thread is back from the dead (or did it ever actually die for any period of time?).

 

Anyways - I agree the nerf was overdone and at the time I was very vocal that a nerf was needed (as well as bet that regardless of how people tried to read Eric's original comment, a nerf was incoming).

 

IMO, the slots should have worked more like the summer event slots with rare CM items filling in for the rancor and speeder (very rare), and rep tokens (with little or no cash value) and certificates filling in for the event tickets.

 

Instead we got a credit making machine that also created massive quantities of crafting materials.

 

After realizing the stupidity of having such a machine in-game, Bioware decided to basically turn them into static non-interactive decorations, instead of trying to find a balance or reworking them to be something fun and interesting that didn't destroy the economy or the CM.

Edited February 9, 2016 by DawnAskham

[MeNaCe-NZ]

Oh, so not that much, well for me at least. I paid roughly 5mil for the really rare Revan's pieces back in 2013, but from what you're telling me I'm not really sure if I want to buy one since they nerfed the hell out of this machine. I wasn't playing the game during this fiasco.

 

I have a quarter of a million Cartel Coins and I want to buy a lot of high quality shinies but I also want to invest in this because I really only PvP in this game and I used be poor before I started referring players and farming Makeb chests.

 

If you could pick one up for under 2 mill it would be a nice investment ( even if just to resell ) but I wouldn't bank on being able to make a profit from using it in the future, more likely certs will be added back in some other way.

 

As to shinies depends if they are for you or to make credits from? They've had some decent 1 week only items lately that could make some nice credits and the new pack tomorrow looks very promising for long term investment with the items in it ( as well as the cubes said to be in it dropping old items that can be instantly valuable ).

 

The best investment imo is the grand packs when they come out, for under 100CC you can resell them for 700K+ each easily once they embargo. Quite decent drop rates in them too if you buy en masse so even when I was paying the above price I still come out ahead in terms of item resell value.

[Friend-Referral]

If you could pick one up for under 2 mill it would be a nice investment ( even if just to resell ) but I wouldn't bank on being able to make a profit from using it in the future, more likely certs will be added back in some other way.

 

As to shinies depends if they are for you or to make credits from? They've had some decent 1 week only items lately that could make some nice credits and the new pack tomorrow looks very promising for long term investment with the items in it ( as well as the cubes said to be in it dropping old items that can be instantly valuable ).

 

The best investment imo is the grand packs when they come out, for under 100CC you can resell them for 700K+ each easily once they embargo. Quite decent drop rates in them too if you buy en masse so even when I was paying the above price I still come out ahead in terms of item resell value.

The shinies are belong to me!

 

I never actually thought of that. Although I guess it's because I'm confused as to whether I should buy packs and open them and hope I get all the shinies I want and sell the rest I consider trash, or sell packs and buy everything individually on the GTN or trade channel, a mixutre of those options, or something else entirely, like you mentioned; wait until embargo then sell en masse. Decisions, decisions.

 

[MeNaCe-NZ]

The shinies are belong to me!

 

I never actually thought of that. Although I guess it's because I'm confused as to whether I should buy packs and open them and hope I get all the shinies I want and sell the rest I consider trash, or sell packs and buy everything individually on the GTN or trade channel, a mixutre of those options, or something else entirely, like you mentioned; wait until embargo then sell en masse. Decisions, decisions.

 

 

If you want set items definitely sell and buy on GTN. Especially now if it's from a current shipment where they only put 1 pack up for sale at a time it means the items in that pack get seriously devalued and are super cheap to pick up ( compared to say the old way where you had 6+ different packs to choose from ).

 

As for older items ... give it a couple of weeks or so after this pack drops, old item prices will come down if this new grand cube has a decent drop rate. This will lead to there being more older items available and thus cheaper.

 

What's best to sell from CC for credits? I personally don't know for sure because I buy/sell GTN items with credits to make money but I believe the best ratio is in unlocks. By ratio I mean how many credits you get per CC ... things like cargo bay unlocks for example can be used at any level to get maximum bays ( only other way is to use CC if you are low level as it won't let you unlock them with credits until you reach X level per extra bay ).

 

Also at 1000CC I'd probably buy up a couple of those eliminator vibroswords ... should get 5 mill each easily in a few weeks time. I wouldn't buy too many though as they never seemed super popular but very niche to the right buyer to pay a lot for.

[TX_Angel]

Edit: so if we assume a drop rate of 0.05% for the certs and 500 credits per spin ( if that's still correct ) then ideally it would cost 1,000,000 to win a 500k cert currently of course that doesn't take into consideration the credit you make back selling rep, free spins and any jawa scrap you can sell too.

It's not quite to the break even part but it's getting close.

 

The credit cost per spin is 750 now, that was changed with the nerf.

 

So that raises it to 1.5 million credits per cert, on average. But keep in mind that thanks to RNG, that number could be higher or lower. You'd have to spend 15 million credits to average 10 certs, but you might get 7, or you might get 13.

 

Another factor to consider is the time. If you want 10 certs to get the Revan mask, for example, you'll need to pump an average of 20,000 tokens into the machine. At 4 seconds each (accounting for not being perfect), that is 22.2 hours of clicking.

 

What do you think are the odds that very many people are going to spend 22 hours clicking on a slot machine in their stronghold?

 

Does that strike you as reasonable?

[Friend-Referral]

If you want set items definitely sell and buy on GTN. Especially now if it's from a current shipment where they only put 1 pack up for sale at a time it means the items in that pack get seriously devalued and are super cheap to pick up ( compared to say the old way where you had 6+ different packs to choose from ).

 

As for older items ... give it a couple of weeks or so after this pack drops, old item prices will come down if this new grand cube has a decent drop rate. This will lead to there being more older items available and thus cheaper.

 

What's best to sell from CC for credits? I personally don't know for sure because I buy/sell GTN items with credits to make money but I believe the best ratio is in unlocks. By ratio I mean how many credits you get per CC ... things like cargo bay unlocks for example can be used at any level to get maximum bays ( only other way is to use CC if you are low level as it won't let you unlock them with credits until you reach X level per extra bay ).

 

Also at 1000CC I'd probably buy up a couple of those eliminator vibroswords ... should get 5 mill each easily in a few weeks time. I wouldn't buy too many though as they never seemed super popular but very niche to the right buyer to pay a lot for.

Thanks for the info! I never knew the CM unlocks ever had any modest value either. I usually used the ones I needed on myself when I started farming and then that was it because I wanted to get my shinies before the GTN would never see them again.

 

I'm going to bed so if there's anything else you might have that could help me, you can post in my recent thread or PM it to me. Thanks again a lot! It's gonna feel nice playing the game PvP-only without ever having to look at an inventory that never reaches a million.

[EnkiduNineEight]

Never Forget! (heh)

[DarkSaberMaster]

Never Forget! (heh)

 

Dug up these old bones again, huh? Lol. Let her rest in peace.

[Johnycat]

I was partially on the bandwagon when this dropped too... I was really hoping more than anything, and specifically so I could access some of the unique items from the Rep Vendors... because I simply do not purchase packs - so there was NO way to get the cartel certs.

 

Now that there are cartel versions of all of those items... for me anyway, this is a non-issue. In fact, it's even better because the items can be unlocked account wide in Collections, vs the 1 time use rep vendor items.

 

Enjoyed a walk down memory lane though. hehe.

J

[SebastiaanZ]

More then a year ago and this fiasco still hasn't been fixed. Come on Bioware give up your mistake and fix the Slot Machine to satisfy both the sides of the slot machine. I agree the drop rates were ridiculously high, but nerf them to the ground made a fun mini game no longer fun. Thought that was what the game was about too.

 

As I said a year ago, I will never let this go.

[Focusangel]

The question is.. are they still OP?

Which every other source for Cartel Certificates gone, the drop chance should be a bit higher.

[Andryah]

More then a year ago and this fiasco still hasn't been fixed. Come on Bioware give up your mistake and fix the Slot Machine to satisfy both the sides of the slot machine. I agree the drop rates were ridiculously high, but nerf them to the ground made a fun mini game no longer fun. Thought that was what the game was about too.

 

As I said a year ago, I will never let this go.

 

Well, I've long since let it go. I quit for a while partly because of this... not because I had any particular desire for the slot and it's drops, but because they were on an atrocious series of blunders after they released 3.0. It was so ludicrous how they handled this.... that it was kind of the cherry on top of all the other bad choices and lack of attention to detail when 3.0 dropped.

 

Anyway.... I don't expect them to ever revisit this.. and that's probably a good thing.. because no matter what they do.. it will just inflame the masses again I think. Besides.. players have plenty to piss and moan about right now, judging from the general tone in the forum of late.

Edited May 10, 2016 by Andryah

[MadDutchman]

More then a year ago and this fiasco still hasn't been fixed. Come on Bioware give up your mistake and fix the Slot Machine to satisfy both the sides of the slot machine. I agree the drop rates were ridiculously high, but nerf them to the ground made a fun mini game no longer fun. Thought that was what the game was about too.

 

As I said a year ago, I will never let this go.

 

Ok this has gone from kicking a dead horse to just kicking a pile of horse bones.

[MeNaCe-NZ]

The question is.. are they still OP?

Which every other source for Cartel Certificates gone, the drop chance should be a bit higher.

 

Correct ... they are now actually worth using since the minimum price range I've noted lately of a deco you can sell that is bought with certs is 1 mill and also green/blue/purple junk buys comp gifts that easily sell for minimum 4K/9K/50K per piece.

 

The maths now say you can actually make a profit from this if you want to persevere long enough at it.

[LAFarmers]

The question is.. are they still OP?

Which every other source for Cartel Certificates gone, the drop chance should be a bit higher.

 

Agreed, I give access to my SH for anyone to try, and I play it semi-regularly but haven't seen a Cert drop from it since the Admins Nerfed the Jawa Junk. I get it on the JJ nerf but to kill everything else too? How about an update so it would drop other REP that you can no longer get? Put a machine in the SUB Cartel area for those that don't have one.

[sinnaman]

Agreed, I give access to my SH for anyone to try, and I play it semi-regularly but haven't seen a Cert drop from it since the Admins Nerfed the Jawa Junk. I get it on the JJ nerf but to kill everything else too? How about an update so it would drop other REP that you can no longer get? Put a machine in the SUB Cartel area for those that don't have one.

 

I've dropped about 3 mil into this machine since the big nerf still trying to get the mount. No mount yet, and i've gotten 3 certificates. I'm wondering if the mount even drops anymore.