Oh behalf of Preferred Players - Issue with Companion Gear Box 192

[Yespa]

Dear friends at SWTOR,

 

It has been brought to the attention of the SWTOR community via external forums that players who are free - to - play (primarily preferred) CANNOT open nor receive the companion 192 gear box implemented recently. As it stands, it is hard for them to post on the official forums, and thus this topic may get looked over since those who can post here are subd. Please look into this, as it is something that is likely automatically tied into the credit chest rewards from old quests that were subscriber only!

 

Thanks,

 

Yespa

[Kourage]

I don't see a problem. Subscribe if you want it..

[Exosasa]

Coming from someone who has spent 99.9% of his two years of the game as a preferred,

 

 

You want it, you sub it.

[XiamaraSimi]

The whole point with the boxes being withheld is to get people to go from f2p/pref to being a sub, so I see this getting even less attention then any other f2p/pref wants more for less concern.

[Jeweledleah]

I agree with OP. there are already a ton of restrictions on F2P/preffered accounts to "encourage" them to subscribe.

 

restricting boxes from quest rewards is just petty and offputting.

[Tsillah]

It's artifact level. Get the artifact authorization or sub.

 

If either of those two options wouldn't work then they have a reason to complain...only then.

 

Beyond that I am so sick of people who don't pay complaining because they want more for free. Bunch of freeloaders is what they are. Shame on you OP to enable freeloaders.

[Jeweledleah]

It's artifact level. Get the artifact authorization or sub.

 

If either of those two options wouldn't work then they have a reason to complain...only then.

 

Beyond that I am so sick of people who don't pay complaining because they want more for free. Bunch of freeloaders is what they are. Shame on you OP to enable freeloaders.

 

1. Revan expansion is not free. neither is being preferred. at a minimum, these people payed $20 dollars (we are assuming preffered players that are playing Revan expansion here).

2. artifact authorization has NOTHING to do with it. restriction is on all boxed quest rewards. and I do mean ALL of them. you know that box you get with companion armor, when you get off starter planet? it is ALSO restricted. Treek's gear box you are supposed to get when unlocking her on a new character? yep - restricted. boxes of basic coms you are supposed to get for finishing Forged alliances? indeed - restricted

 

you want to ENCOURAGE people to spend money instead of pushing them away becasue you are imposing restrictions on them that are down right petty.

 

SWTOR is still my preffered MMO to play, even with all the recent odd decisions developers have been making, but I would have to be willfully blind not to notice that our f2p model is one of the absolute worst on the MMO market. right now

Edited January 24, 2015 by Jeweledleah

[Tsillah]

1. Revan expansion is not free. neither is being preferred. at a minimum, these people payed $20 dollars (we are assuming preffered players that are playing Revan expansion here).

2. artifact authorization has NOTHING to do with it. restriction is on all boxed quest rewards. and I do mean ALL of them. you know that box you get with companion armor, when you get off starter planet? it is ALSO restricted. Treek's gear box you are supposed to get when unlocking her on a new character? yep - restricted.

 

you want to ENCOURAGE people to spend money instead of pushing them away becasue you are imposing restrictions on them that are down right petty.

 

SWTOR is still my preffered MMO to play, even with all the recent odd decisions developers have been making, but I would have to be willfully blind not to notice that our f2p model is one of the absolute worst on the MMO market. right now

 

People always focus on the restrictions but you play for free. The only reason we have F2P is because the devs screwed up so badly at the start of the game. I would've preferred this game would've remained sub only if it had been possible.

 

That aside people need to look and think before they cry out. This "192" gear is utter crap and as others mentioned already it's not really better than 178 blues as a consequence. I am subbed obviously and I haven't even bothered to get a set of it because it's a crap reward.

 

I simply don't agree that this is something F2P should get. When I got the expansion, for which I also paid as a sub, these armours weren't there anyway. It was added later. Even when you buy the expansion as F2P you still don't get to do the new ops either and you don't get to use artifact level items in it either unless you have unlocked that.

 

So I see no foul here. I feel for the people who truly cannot afford 12 bucks a month but for the rest I really think a lot of people are just entitled greedy bastards when they complain about free stuff. There is this saying about a gift horse and all that.

 

by the way, I said a lot of people, not everybody and also not all F2P players and for that matter subbed players can also be entitled arseholes. Just so you don't misunderstand me here.

[Jeweledleah]

I see a problem, in that this game advertises itself as f2p with optional subscription.

 

it should encourage people to want to spend money on it, instead of punishing them, unless they spend money in a very specific way. (and this particular restriction is especially in your face, and unlike other restrictions - this is not just quality of life item that needs to be unlocked)

 

way way way back, they seemed to have been saying that idea behind f2p/preferred/subscribers was chose HOW you pay. do you want to just pay one flat sum, or buy things individually as you go.

 

selling weekly acess to ops/flashpoints? right idea. selling quality of life one time unlocks? right idea.

even giving subscribers more companion slots to send out on crew skills missions/allowing them to queue up up to 5 items at a time, while preferred can only do one per companion - still ok. selling acess to section x and HK separately (which subscribers get it as part of subscription) again - right idea. higher vendor prices? right idea

 

restricting quest rewards though? I'm really sad that you don't see it as a problem. because it IS a problem and it is PETTY

Edited January 24, 2015 by Jeweledleah

[DurdensWrath]

People always focus on the restrictions but you play for free. The only reason we have F2P is because the devs screwed up so badly at the start of the game. I would've preferred this game would've remained sub only if it had been possible.

 

That aside people need to look and think before they cry out. This "192" gear is utter crap and as others mentioned already it's not really better than 178 blues as a consequence. I am subbed obviously and I haven't even bothered to get a set of it because it's a crap reward.

 

I simply don't agree that this is something F2P should get. When I got the expansion, for which I also paid as a sub, these armours weren't there anyway. It was added later. Even when you buy the expansion as F2P you still don't get to do the new ops either and you don't get to use artifact level items in it either unless you have unlocked that.

 

So I see no foul here. I feel for the people who truly cannot afford 12 bucks a month but for the rest I really think a lot of people are just entitled greedy bastards when they complain about free stuff. There is this saying about a gift horse and all that.

 

by the way, I said a lot of people, not everybody and also not all F2P players and for that matter subbed players can also be entitled arseholes. Just so you don't misunderstand me here.

 

This is the most restrictive F2P ever invented. I've played many many F2P, and this is the most nickle and diming I've ever seen.

[Tsillah]

I see a problem, in that this game advertises itself as f2p with optional subscription.

 

That I do agree with.

 

it should encourage people to want to spend money on it, instead of punishing them, unless they spend money in a very specific way. (and this particular restriction is especially in your face, and unlike other restrictions - this is not just quality of life item that needs to be unlocked)

 

It is a completely optional and crap item. As I said the stats on it suck and you'd be better off giving your companions orange gear with blue 178 mods. You don't even need better because there is no content for companions that requires more. What you don't get is that you are upset about items that are utter crap to begin with.

 

way way way back, they seemed to have been saying that idea behind f2p/preferred/subscribers was chose HOW you pay. do you want to just pay one flat sum, or buy things individually as you go.

 

Clearly that is a wrong interpretation. First of all don't believe the marketing spin. That's just never going to tell you the whole story. You cannot buy everything that subs get. You just can't. So no matter how they spun it or you think they did, this never was the case and still isn't. You still cannot buy everythin individually. Some things are simply sub only.

 

selling weekly acess to ops/flashpoints? right idea. selling quality of life one time unlocks? right idea.

 

even giving subscribers more companion slots to send out on crew skills missions/allowing them to queue up up to 5 items at a time, while preferred can only do one per companion - still ok. selling acess to section x and HK separately (which subscribers get it as part of subscription) again - right idea. higher vendor prices? right idea

 

Maybe, maybe not. I am sure some people disagree with you on this. I hope you realise that you are in no way the ambassador for all F2P players. You cannot know what F2P players like or dislike. You can only know what the handful of F2P peoply you know want. Clearly though they've had a lot of good ideas from your point of view but you choose to focus on the one thing you don't like. What can I say?

 

restricting quest rewards though? I'm really sad that you don't see it as a problem. because it IS a problem and it is PETTY

 

It's clear that you see it as a problem but that doesn't mean it is.

 

I can only give my opinion because I do not claim to speak for anyone else and my opinion is that if people get so upset over these quest rewards when they don't actually pay for this game, then they are a bunch of self entitled whinos. Again just my opinion. I do not require you to agree with me but I find it rather sad that people can get so entitled over a game they haven't actually paid for.

[Icebergy]

I don't see a problem. Subscribe if you want it..

 

This^

[DurdensWrath]

I can only give my opinion because I do not claim to speak for anyone else and my opinion is that if people get so upset over these quest rewards when they don't actually pay for this game, then they are a bunch of self entitled whinos. Again just my opinion. I do not require you to agree with me but I find it rather sad that people can get so entitled over a game they haven't actually paid for.

Child, please. The CM more than pays for any "leechers".

 

DC Universe, Warframe, and Marvel Heroes are all better examples of F2P

[Jeweledleah]

preferred players put some money into the game. clearly they have PAID at least some money into it, or they wouldn't have been preferred.

 

I focus on the bad because... guess what? its that bad that needs to be fixed! imagine that. just becasue some things are not awful, doesn't mean awful things can be tollerated and are ok. they are not ok. becasue they are STILL bad.

 

it doesn't matter that some of those boxes are at the moment not very good. that is NOT the point. the point is that they are restricted.. just because? its quest rewards.

 

by your reasoning - everything is optional in this game. including playing this game.

 

last but not least. this is not the only f2p MMO on the market. just saying. and while yes, there are some things you cannot get unless you subscribe (like being able to mail credits and do rated pvp) which btw, I also think was bad design - they should have been selling acess tokens for that as well. the idea is - you pick and chose which parts of the game interest you and whether you want to pay for full acess, or acess only to the parts of the game that interest you.

 

quest rewards? do not qualify there. quest rewards are BASELINE. or should be anyways.

 

oh and... no, I don't speak for every f2p. but do you think a single one of them would not appreciate it if their quest rewards are no longer restricted in this petty fashion? do you think a single one of the f2p players will say... nyah, I'd rather keep my quest rewards restricted.

Edited January 24, 2015 by Jeweledleah

[Jeweledleah]

Child, please. The CM more than pays for any "leechers".

 

DC Universe, Warframe, and Marvel Heroes are all better examples of F2P

 

secret world. my favorite system. (yes I know its buy to play, but at this point? I actualy prefer buy to play to f2p, especially if we end up with something like TOR's f2p system)

 

Rift seems to be pretty decent as well.

 

even LOTRO/DDO have far superior system... IMO.

[Devrius]

I see no problem with preferred players getting the locked boxes, they at least payed 20$ to have the expansions.

 

Let them have access to all it has to offer, Hell remove the OPs limitation while you're at it.

 

As long as the credit limit is in place subs will have the upper hand anyway.

[wolfyde]

I do not require you to agree with me but I find it rather sad that people can get so entitled over a game they haven't actually paid for.

 

Not voicing an opinion on the companion gear, but on a sidenote; someone who has always been f2p or Preferred and plays only sporadically, but buys a single hypercrate every shipment, contributes to the game at double the rate of a loyal sub who spends 20hrs a day in the game but never buys cartel coins.

Don't automatically assume a sub contributes more.

Edited January 24, 2015 by wolfyde

[XORDYH]

The "freeloader" argument doesn't fly here. They bought the expansion at full price. They should have access to all of the quest rewards for all of the quests that are part of the expansion.

[fushnchips]

The "freeloader" argument doesn't fly here. They bought the expansion at full price. They should have access to all of the quest rewards for all of the quests that are part of the expansion.

 

This post is the only one I will agree on for the preferred players but other than that I say subscribe to get the benefits.

[Tsillah]

Not voicing an opinion on the companion gear, but on a sidenote; someone who has always been f2p or Preferred and plays only sporadically, but buys a single hypercrate every shipment, contributes to the game at double the rate of a loyal sub who spends 20hrs a day in the game but never buys cartel coins.

Don't automatically assume a sub contributes more.

 

Oh I don't assume that and there are exceptions to every generalisation but from my experience most of the cartel packs are bought by subs on top of their sub payment. That;s just my experience though.

 

The thing is though, the cartel packs are a purchase that give you what's in the cartel packs. You get what you pay for there. Subs also pay for something and you get that when you pay for it. I don't go to a supermarket and ask for free bread because I just bought 10 bottles of soda. Different purchases give you different things and the one doesn't entitle you to get the other. Especially because the more you give to f2p from what subs pay for, the less value the sub has and that's not fair either.

 

But am pretty sure that you don't have any numbers either so we still don't know the full scope, which is what BW sees. And that means that our opinions are nothing more than that but even if a lot of F2P players buy crates of packs, so do subs and they both get what they paid for.

Edited January 24, 2015 by Tsillah

[wolfyde]

Oh I don't assume that and there are... *snip*

 

Don't disagree with that, I simply commented on the lines "they don't actually pay for this game" and "over a game they haven't actually paid for", which are only true for people who don't spend either way.

[DurdensWrath]

Oh I don't assume that and there are exceptions to every generalisation but from my experience most of the cartel packs are bought by subs on top of their sub payment. That;s just my experience though.

 

The thing is though, the cartel packs are a purchase that give you what's in the cartel packs. You get what you pay for there. Subs also pay for something and you get that when you pay for it. I don't go to a supermarket and ask for free bread because I just bought 10 bottles of soda. Different purchases give you different things and the one doesn't entitle you to get the other. Especially because the more you give to f2p from what subs pay for, the less value the sub has and that's not fair either.

 

But am pretty sure that you don't have any numbers either so we still don't know the full scope, which is what BW sees. And that means that our opinions are nothing more than that but even if a lot of F2P players buy crates of packs, so do subs and they both get what they paid for.

 

There isn't even close to this level of elitism between subs and non-subs on other F2P. Bioware has fostered that here with this greed model.

[LyraineAlei]

I'm an ex-Freep.

 

When I was free to play, I understood that as a glorified demo-player, I would have a lot of restrictions. Reasonable ones, In My Opinion. Three flashpoints a week was enough for a player to decide if they want to do the group activities or not. Level 1-50 is enough to get the base storyline of each class. The Two Character per Server limit for the lowest teir was enough to sample the community across four servers (to have at lease one of each class), six for Prefs allows for more flexibility in the Legacy System, or to sample only a minimum of two servers (again, having a minimum of only one of each class for the example purpose). The few space missions a week was enough to decide if it is worth the money to play more.

 

Let's really look at the differences:

 

F2P:

• Two Characters a server limit
  
• Human, Cyborg, Zabrak races
  
• 300k credit cap, all else goes to escrow
  
• No rest EXP
  
• One Crew Skill
  
• Lower GTN Selling Slot number
  
• No Companion Customization unless purchased
  
• Original Vendor, Ability Training, Crew Skill Training prices from Launch
  
• Original Level limits from Launch for Speeder/Sprint training.
  
• Artifact Authorization denied unless purchased
  
• Unified Colors/Hide Headslot not available unless purchased
  
• No RotHC, No SoR
  
• Black Hole/Section X/Oricon unavailable unless Authorization purchased
  
• No Credit Chest/Lockbox mission rewards
  

 

Prefs:

• Six Characters a server limit
  
• A higher credit limit (exact number not onhand)
  

Okay, not much really different, but Prefs who drop from Subs can still play their 50+ characters. And build up rest Exp, but not use it.

 

Subs:

• Twelve characters per server limit.
  
• Everything that doesn't require extra purchase like SoR.

 

Now, let's really, really, really look at those restrictions. What does an MMO player need?

Yes, armor looking good is nice, but not required.

Sure, being Twi'lek/Miraluka/Mirialan/Chiss/Ratataki/Cathar is fun, but other than a couple of throw away dialogue lines, the story doesn't change in anyway.

Having lots of credits buys you a lot of stuff, but do you need it for the game? (Ops gear? Make or grind it. It's what people who don't buy the gear do)

Those post 50-zones? Daily mission places, and the stories don't change much even from faction to faction.

Flashpoints, Ops, Space Missions, WZs, those are all things that have gotte repetitive into nothing but a grind now. Now, the restrictions on those could be lifted a bit IMO, because a lot of people like to grind those out and the more bodies filling the queues, the less yelling and screaming for PUGs in chat. Most of the games I know of allow five of those kinds of things a week, not three.

Crafting? A lot of people are all over the place on this, but in my F2P days, I just did slicing, or the other gathering missions to sell to vendors or on the GTN out of boredom. Comms paid for my gear and I did fine.

 

 

But the rest? Cosmetic things, or things added after Launch as rewards for subscribing. But still mostly cosmetic. A lot of things can be purchased for a near-sub-like experience, but those are still cosmetic.

[Yespa]

Wow thanks for the responses all. Its sad to see that they neglected this opportunity to address the lockboxes. It is what it is we guess. Honestly, sub is only worthwhile for a couple of things, that mainly being max credit cap. They should offer a purchasable option to increase the softcap permanently. Alot of us would buy that...

[Newyankalt]

Well when the CM first came out I purchased every account unlock so now when ever I play preferred I pretty much have the same benefits as a sub. And I don't really care for OPs much and five PVP matches a week is enough for me, I don't do them that often. The only thing really is the escrow, but every time I cap it I just purchase a decoration really from the recent packs.