The Contraband Slot Machine

[Infernixx]

It doesn't have to be contraband rep again in the next slot. It can be binary starts or the bounty rep.

 

I'm sure each of the CM reps will get their own machines eventually. It's the perfect solution for people who can't/won't spend real money on CCs and don't have millions of credits to buy Hypercrates off the GTN.

[MisterBlackJack]

Here's a clue that you don't even have to buy: You always could have crafted your own decorations for less than it would have cost you to buy them. (You just didn't want to be troubled with all that crafting stuff, right?)

 

If the drop rate for the purple mats was worth it but the drop rate is so low that it doesn't give many ppl options to use it. And ppl that get the mission scheme jack the 500s up. This gives an even playing field for all. And again we are talking basic gear not 192s or 198s

[DarthTHC]

If the drop rate for the purple mats was worth it but the drop rate is so low that it doesn't give many ppl options to use it. And ppl that get the mission scheme jack the 500s up. This gives an even playing field for all. And again we are talking basic gear not 192s or 198s

 

Could you please try that again but using proper sentence structure and real words? I can't figure out what you're trying to say.

[MisterBlackJack]

Here's a free clue. You don't even have to buy it.

 

The "rich" in this game aren't privileged. They start at the same point as everyone else. There are no silver spoons. There's no daddy getting you into Yale because of his money, then you getting an awesome job because of that.

 

Every single player can make (could have made) all the credits they wanted.

 

They just chose not to.

 

Second free clue inbound.

 

There's no monopoly. Nobody has a death-grip on the market. Because of what I wrote in the first clue, anyone can come on in, start posting their stuff for sale, and that brings the overall cost of everything down yet again.

 

You lil soliloquies forgets to mention one thing. Sure ANYONE can do it. But can EVERYONE? Every business starts from somewhere what we are talking about is an having more options for access instead being forced to go to those who would inflate prices for themselves leaving little to move in the market

[khankar]

pardon my ignorance but where do you get the slot machine from?

[Djiini]

pardon my ignorance but where do you get the slot machine from?

 

Other people's strongholds.

 

Wubwubwubwubwub.

[MisterBlackJack]

Could you please try that again but using proper sentence structure and real words? I can't figure out what you're trying to say.

 

If you can't understand then maybe you be in another language forum. But I digress and you clearly don't have an argument if you are resorting to insults for tactics.

[khankar]

Other people's strongholds.

 

Wubwubwubwubwub.

 

ah, ok. thanks.

[DarthTHC]

If you can't understand then maybe you be in another language forum. But I digress and you clearly don't have an argument if you are resorting to insults for tactics.

 

No, dude, seriously, I couldn't figure out what you were trying to communicate there. Call it my deficiency if you want, but please do reword it to give me a chance to respond.

[Infernixx]

pardon my ignorance but where do you get the slot machine from?

 

acolyte's shadow pack.

 

The slot machines are selling for about 5mil each on the GTN on JC at the moment. Or you can buy some packs and cross your fingers.

 

A friend of mine got a Hypercrate and got 8 slot machines. She now regrets using all 8.

[Brewski]

If the drop rate for the purple mats was worth it but the drop rate is so low that it doesn't give many ppl options to use it. And ppl that get the mission scheme jack the 500s up. This gives an even playing field for all. And again we are talking basic gear not 192s or 198s

 

I hate to tell you this, but with the exception of a very small minority of GTN sellers who are just trying to dump goods, if you can buy it on the GTN you can craft it for cheaper. Speaking from experience, crafters don't sell items at a loss. We don't need to.

 

The only real reason to buy craftable items off the GTN is to save yourself the inconvenience of crafting it yourself.

[branmakmuffin]

Settled.

You really think so?

[Imasithbanana]

Could you please try that again but using proper sentence structure and real words? I can't figure out what you're trying to say.

 

Drop rates for purple mats is too low from missions. Out of the 10 I ran yesterday(rich with + to crit) I got 5 purple mats. From the slot machine I got around 50 jawa junk which I believe equals 50 purple items. Now I spent more credits to get that. Like 5-6 99 stacks of coins @ 500 a pop. However that's me sitting in my stronghold pressing a button not really playing the game. The missions to get higher drop rates are also to high.

 

Now that's taking away money form the gathers or the item makers. From everything I've read it's all for 186 level stuff. Correct? The only other thing would be for augments.

[lironBD]

With that being said, we do hear the concern from many of you around the effects of the Jawa Junk’s drop rate on the economy. We are going to take a look at it and make changes accordingly. I will let you know once I know more. In the meantime, have fun!

 

-eric

 

Thank You!

[branmakmuffin]

You are using the machine slot exactly the way it was designed and intended to be used. The drop rates are entirely on BWs end and no way for you to temper with them.

 

Yeah, calling it "exploit" (whatever the reason was to do it ) was really silly.

Those calling it an exploit are Ravager exploiters trying to widen to guilt pool so they can say "Look, there are many exploiters, too many to reasonably be able to sanction. So just give us all a pass."

[DarthTHC]

Drop rates for purple mats is too low from missions. Out of the 10 I ran yesterday(rich with + to crit) I got 5 purple mats. From the slot machine I got around 50 jawa junk which I believe equals 50 purple items. Now I spent more credits to get that. Like 5-6 99 stacks of coins @ 500 a pop. However that's me sitting in my stronghold pressing a button not really playing the game. The missions to get higher drop rates are also to high.

 

Now that's taking away money form the gathers or the item makers. From everything I've read it's all for 186 level stuff. Correct? The only other thing would be for augments.

 

Crit rate on missions is ~15%. By using a companion with +Crit and 10k affection, you can get that over 20%.

 

Jawa Junk was obtainable prior to the slot machines via gambling packs and placing top 10 in conquest (and maybe other ways I'm unaware of). Jawa Junk completely removes the RNG from the purple mat equation. (We're talking decoration crafting here, which uses mats that have always been available on the Jawa vendor.)

 

Using either method of acquisition, crafting one's own decoration items has always been less expensive than buying them crafted from GTN. The only variable in play is whether or not the player chooses to spend the time crafting, or would rather choose to spend the time doing something else, thus choosing to pay a bit more for someone else to craft the item.

[BoboHut]

INCREASE NUMBER OF ITEMS

 

RETURNED FROM COMPANION

 

MISSIONS!

 

 

All will be well:rak_04:

[LordArtemis]

Hey folks,

 

We know that there have been many questions about the Contraband Slot Machine and its intent. Here are a few notes on it:

• The Contraband Slot Machine is not bugged.
  
• It is 100% not an exploit to use the Slot Machine.
  
• If you feel the desire to sell access to your Stronghold, that’s totally up to you. As a reminder, do not scam people as that is against ToS.
  
• We added the Slot Machine as a fun idea based on the positive feedback from the Nightlife event, so spend those credits to your heart’s content!
  

With that being said, we do hear the concern from many of you around the effects of the Jawa Junk’s drop rate on the economy. We are going to take a look at it and make changes accordingly. I will let you know once I know more. In the meantime, have fun!

 

-eric

 

Fantastic!!!!

 

Best addition to the game since the Stronghold QoL change.

 

Please, PLEASE if you make any changes......

1) Consider raising the coin price. I think that would be reasonable, even if they were up to 4 times the current cost.

2) Consider reducing the junk drop rate. That would be fine, but please do not go overboard. A 5 percent reduction in the chances for the jawa junk would probably be sufficient.

3) Leave the rep and cert chances as they are. This is the best part of the feature for most IMO.

 

I would actually support two changes to the game that I think would make sense at this present time.

1) Increase the coin cost to 2000 credits each.

2) Increase the payout from all crew missions by 50 percent, increase the odds of a critical return by 10 percent across the board, and give us a "reshuffle" button to refresh the display of crew missions.

 

IMO both changes would ensure that crew missions retain the kind of appeal they should have and remain an effective credit sink.

 

IMO you MUST raise the coin price substantially if you are going to keep the material drops on the slot machine. The mats should have been added to crew missions and scavenging, but you chose this route instead. I don't think putting them on the machine was a wise move, but what do I know...at least we are finally getting the mats we need.

Edited February 10, 2015 by LordArtemis

[Infernixx]

If they do intend on nerfing the JJ drop rate, then it might be smart to start buying up all the cheap mats that are flooding the market right now.

 

or at least get a solid stockpile.

 

This is assuming that the drop rate will return the mats to their previous spot of high-profit for the farmers.

 

But, I seriously doubt that'll happen. I suspect the days of 100k+ per augment are gone.

[MisterBlackJack]

Drop rates for purple mats is too low from missions. Out of the 10 I ran yesterday(rich with + to crit) I got 5 purple mats. From the slot machine I got around 50 jawa junk which I believe equals 50 purple items. Now I spent more credits to get that. Like 5-6 99 stacks of coins @ 500 a pop. However that's me sitting in my stronghold pressing a button not really playing the game. The missions to get higher drop rates are also to high.

 

Now that's taking away money form the gathers or the item makers. From everything I've read it's all for 186 level stuff. Correct? The only other thing would be for augments.

 

This. This is all for 186. If it was 192 or higher mats we would be having a different discussion. I like the slot machines because it gives access for ppl the ability to be self sustaining easily for entry level endgame content. Meaning more ppl will be able to handle the content more easily and more ppl pugging.

[DawnAskham]

You lil soliloquies forgets to mention one thing. Sure ANYONE can do it. But can EVERYONE? Every business starts from somewhere what we are talking about is an having more options for access instead being forced to go to those who would inflate prices for themselves leaving little to move in the market

 

I keep hearing these claims of inflated prices and greedy players, but have yet to see any facts on which to base these claims.

 

The fact is that Bioware's design and implementation of crew skills, and specifically mission gathering skills, from day one of launch through the release of the slot has been to artificially restrict the supply of mission materials, especially purple mission materials, through the use of mechanics which gate the supply including...

 

Limited number of missions to run - 2 per mission skill for G11 purple mats.

Require a player have the mission crew skill.

For G11 require the crew skill to be leveled above 450, which requires purchase of the expansion.

Have both a cost and time component to run.

Have low yields and low chance of returning purple materials.

 

Demand for new crafted items using these materials coupled with the limited availability due to the above is what has kept the price of purple materials high, not greedy players.

 

Even players who craft have whined, begged, screamed, pleaded and everything else in between for Bioware to change mission skills to increase the chances and yields for purple materials while decreasing their costs every week since launch, which until the slot machine, Bioware has never done.

 

Anyways, true crafting - that is turning raw materials into something more valuable than the materials - is still alive and well, though this change could negatively impact crafting.

 

What has been impacted by this is crew skills, specifically mission crew skills. It is no longer worthwhile to run missions (credit sink and materials limiter) when one can buy the materials from slot clickers for not much more than the mission cost, or click the slots themselves and acquire the materials for less time and cost as missions.

 

And that is where I shake my head as I doubt the intention was to make mission crew skills useless, so changes to the drop rates of jawa junk and / or changes to the conversion rates on the jawa vendors and / or changes to mission skills themselves will be needed to keep mission skills from being useless.

Edited January 16, 2015 by DawnAskham

[BoboHut]

Fantastic!!!!

Please, PLEASE if you make any changes......

1) Consider raising the coin price. I think that would be reasonable, even if they were up to 4 times the current cost.

2) Consider reducing the junk drop rate. That would be fine, but please do not go overboard. A 5 percent reduction in the chances for the jawa junk would probably be sufficient.

3) Leave the rep and cert chances as they are. This is the best part of the feature for most IMO.

 

I'm all for number 1 and 3 but I do not want to see number 2 happen. Mostly because of the level 1-10 mats. I think those are reasonable to leave at costing 1 coin with the rate of getting a jawa junk where it currently is. I think the one aspect that many people have been not including into this whole profit machine that the slots have become is the cost of the machine in the first place. I haven't seen less than 3m yet so I hope they keep that in mind before they straight up make them not profitable at all.

[Glower]

Well, GG Bioware, even gold spammers can't harm to your game at this scale...

[Mariojediwookie]

They were mostly concerned with the drop rate of the Jawa Junk.

 

With the addition of Grade 11 mats to the jawa vendors, the floor for stuff like Advanced Augments, purple-quality stims and crafted 186 artifice stuff collapsed due to the sudden flood mats gathered from the jawa vendors. And the slot machines added in a new way to get Jawa Junk quick and relatively easy and cheap.

 

Combine all of that and we're seeing a complete collapse of a lot of the crafting market. With the 'rare' mats suddenly not at all rare, no one's going to pay 125k for an augment anymore.

 

In short, the game just got a lot better for the people without a huge pile of credits, and simultaneously got a lot harder for crafters who have been reaping millions per day since SoR launched.

I don't know about getting harder, actually it got easier. I'm making just as much if not more than I was before the slot machine. I just have to make more items, which is now possible when I can get 100 mats in a couple hours while I'm watching TV lol.

 

Long term however I'm not sure where we end up but the devs response seems to point to them lowering the drop rate of jawajunk which is good. I've probably made over 50 million since Revan went live but the last two days alone I've made 3 million in sales.

[LordArtemis]

I'm all for number 1 and 3 but I do not want to see number 2 happen. Mostly because of the level 1-10 mats. I think those are reasonable to leave at costing 1 coin with the rate of getting a jawa junk where it currently is. I think the one aspect that many people have been not including into this whole profit machine that the slots have become is the cost of the machine in the first place. I haven't seen less than 3m yet so I hope they keep that in mind before they straight up make them not profitable at all.

 

Fair enough. I simply wanted to state what I would find acceptable, but my second list points out what I feel would be best in this situation.

1) Coins at 2k per.

2) Chance of critical return in crew missions increased by 10 percent across the board.

3) Payout of mats in crew missions increased by 50 percent across the board.

4) Reshuffle button for mission display.

 

IMO this would be the best course of action for everyone. It would make the slot machine a more effective credit sink, and would keep the appeal of crew missions intact.