Let’s Chat – Cartel Market and You: New pack design (Underworld Alliance)

[NaranekKosh]

- I really miss the green/blue/purple crafting material turn in's (as exotic crafing mats from the jawa trader)

- The new boxes reward significantly less than the old boxes in amount and rarity, i opened a hypercrate, the result was very... overseeable, with only 3 gold drops from 30 packs! And one Pack for a single blasterhole or just another meirm reskin is, lets call it: unecxiting.

- The removel of Cartel Certificates: ouch, there are a lot of decorations only obtaineable with certificates, so currently our only option to get them is the gambling machine, with a extremely meager droprate.

- The removal of cartel reputation, combined with the cartel certificate the reputation was a welcome (at least for me) option to get some selected items without having to depend on random droprates, removing them from the packs takes away a significant "consolation price factor" from the new boxes, making them unappealing for me.

 

Edit: The only Pro for me so far: I totally do not miss the XP-Buffs.

Edited October 28, 2015 by NaranekKosh

[micnevv]

Secondly, you feel the companion gift item isn’t as valuable as XP boosts, Jawa Crafting Materials and Reputation Certifications. So, if we add more items to the pack, you feel these items should be included.

 

The XP boosts are definately more valuable to your average new player, but most people I know (Me included) just throw them in our banks because they are not worth the effort of even trying to sell.

 

I think that if you're purchasing a pack your "worst" item should be at least some Jawa Scraps/Reputation Tokens.

 

Example Of Boost Prices ;

Minor Flashpoint Experience - 4,000 Credits

Major Flashpoint Experience - 4,500 Credits

Minor Social Boost - 700 Credits

Minor Exploration Boost - 30 Credits

 

Currently I have over 650 various boosts sitting around on my characters.

Edited October 28, 2015 by micnevv

[HomerMorisson]

Hi there Toby, I'd like to add my impressions to your questions, but I'd like to put them in context by talking about my Cartel Market interest in general first:

 

I've been around actually since (I believe even closed) beta time, have been an on and off subscriber both via payment plans and GTCs over all those years, have picked up both Pay2Play addons and have been a constant subscriber for the past nearly 4 months to pick up all the early access goodies for this new addon.

I usually spend between 20-50€ / month on Cartel Coins on top of my subscription currently, mainly to buy packs.

 

I don't expect any special treatment for stating these facts, nor do I feel entitled for investing way more money than I'd need to, I just wanted to get across the fact that I believe that I know quite well what I'm talking about on this subject.

 

How does the new Underworld Alliance pack structure feel? What are your thoughts on the pack consolidation?

 

- First impression was that I don't like the 5400 CC price tag for the hypercrate; I am perfectly willing to spend money on cartel coins on top of my subscription, because I think that SWTOR is well worth it - especially with this awesome new addon!

But 5400 CC is an annoying price tag since you have to buy 3x 2400 cartel coins to be able to afford it and then end up with a few coins left that aren't all that useful... while I get that this is a pretty nice deal on your end, as business models go, I really feel that there should be an option in the 4800 CC range to buy more than just multiple 5-packs.

 

- Secondly, I really miss the additional bonus from buying a Hypercrate that we saw with earlier packages... they offered 24 regular packs and 1 special pack, which felt like a nice "Thank you for buying the big one!"-gesture.

While I of course conceed that now we get 30 packs in one Hypercrate, this still doesn't feel as special (to me) as the old version did.

 

- Thirdly, I have to agree with the point that has already been made about how the new packages feel less valuable since they have so little content compared to old packages.

The Jawa Junk is actually something I do miss, now that those little brats started selling companion gifts in all three quality tiers as well.

I already bumped my Lady of Sorrows (to keep this as spoiler-free as possible) to influence level 50 two days after early access started via these gifts, and now my blue junk's all gone... currently the only way to get more seem to be personal conquest rewards, which is only once per week and then still quite low as rewards go.

 

What suggestions do you have?

 

- Add some more content to the packages to make them feel more valuable, even if it's just Jawa Junk.

 

- On the topic of companion gifts, please do not give us tier 5 gifts in packages!

Those are basically useless once companions have reached an influence level of 30 or higher, and I for one would expect the packages to always drop tier 6 gifts for those hard to reach final influence levels.

 

- I disagree most strongly with the wish of adding more xp or otherwise boost items to the packs... those things, to me, were annoying to no end... they aren't worth jack, my cargo holds are full to bursting with 3 hour XP boost, Major Social boosts and so on... especially the small boosts are a waste of space, both crate-space as well as inventory space.

To be quite blunt, whenever I would get for instance a flashpoint XP booster in one of those crates, I would drag them out of my inventory and destroy them instantly. I have no need for them, and to me they always felt like crate-trash.

Please get rid of those, or put them in a separate "Booster Crate" for small change for those of us who actually want those from a crate instead of just picking them up from the GTN for like 10 credits.

 

- A list of items we can expect, sorted by rarity/chance of drop would be greatly appreciated.

Due to screenspace restrictions, it wouldn't necessarily have to be right there in the description, as scrolling a tiny frame for hours on end isn't really all that cool - but you could just put in a button or even just a hyperlink in the ingame Market UI that takes us to the appropriate website section that has all this information.

 

I imagine it to look something like:

[Name of Package]

 

i.e.

Underworld Alliance Crate

Armor Sets

Sith Recluse Armor Set - Very Rare (I would imagine for obvious reasons you guys would prefer not to give out actual percentages, so a classification like this would do fine for me)

 

Special Items

Akk Dog Handler License - Extremely Rare

 

Something like that would do me just fine... especially when deciding between different packages/offers.

 

What are your thoughts on the changes to Hypercrates and the addition of Supercrates? Do you feel they are worth their cost?

 

As stated above, I still don't really like the 5400 CC price tag on the hypercrate,and I miss the little "Thank you for buying the big'un"-extra crate we used to get with some hypercrates - that should definitely be a thing!

 

Do you enjoy opening them?

 

As with all crates, in general I do, sure... wouldn't be buying them otherwise.

 

If so, what do you enjoy most?

 

The suspense of course, waiting to see if something very special drops - either special in the sense that I really want to use it for one of my characters, or in the sense that I can sell it off for a ton of credits because of its rarity.

 

If not, what do you like least?

 

While I do in general like the new package, I cannot overstate my disappointment from the few number of items each package contains... and I also was a bit disappointed that I almost exclusively got decoration items from 15 packages; two mounts, the rest was all decoration, sometimes even five times the same one.

This was a letdown, especially as I don't really like those new decorations... why would I want to make my beautiful, lovingly decorated Yavin Temple look like it had just been bombed to hell and shot up completely?

But that is a matter for another topic, granted.

 

Are you more or less likely to purchase packs from the Market and why?

 

As things currently stand, I am somewhat less likely to buy additional packages - having bought 15 crates of the current package, i.e. 3 supercrates, left me disappointed at the loot and I somehow did not feel like getting my full money's worth out of those.

 

These are definitely packages I will only pick up again through the GTN via ingame currency, if at all.

 

Can you share any experiences or first impressions you’ve had with the new pack structure?

 

The new pack structure in general is a step in the right direction; it adds a mid-tier buying option and the new rarity grading system is more easily understandable... although that being said, knowing that Gold items are the most rare still doesn't mean knowing which items actually are considered to be gold tier items and would likely be included in such a package.

 

Should you or the team have any more specific questions, I'd be happy to provide feedback.

Edited October 28, 2015 by HomerMorisson

[Bachannal]

Hi everyone,

 

I’m Toby McCall, a designer on Star Wars: The Old Republic and a member of the Cartel Market Design Team. I’ve asked community to set up this thread so we can discuss the changes that the 4.0 expansion brings to the Cartel Market. My hope for this post is to create a place where we can answer some of your questions and clear up any confusion surrounding the new pack design in Fallen Empire. We would like to focus this thread specifically around the recent structural changes that took effect with the Underworld Alliance Packs, Hypercrates, and Supercrates. If you have thoughts on the new Bronze, Silver, Gold and Category Packs, I invite you to join the discussion in a separate thread, found here.

 

Here’s a few prompts to start the conversation:

 

• How does the new Underworld Alliance pack structure feel? What are your thoughts on the pack consolidation? What suggestions do you have?
  
• What are your thoughts on the changes to Hypercrates and the addition of Supercrates? Do you feel they are worth their cost? Do you enjoy opening them? If so, what do you enjoy most? If not, what do you like least?
  
• Are you more or less likely to purchase packs from the Market and why?
  
• Can you share any experiences or first impressions you’ve had with the new pack structure?
  

 

As always, let’s try to keep the posts constructive and on point. If you haven’t had a chance to read the blog post about the 4.0 changes to the Cartel Market, you can find that here.

 

Quite simply, even though now it feels like out of two items you get less crap, what it actually means is - as a consumer, you just GET LESS. I could flip XP boosts on the GTN. I could flip Companion gifts on the GTN. I could convert Scrap to mats and sell them on the GTN. Essentially, if I bought packs, even if I won stuff I wasn't interested in, I could still at least turn that into in-game creds and then re-invest those creds to purchases on the GTN. Sure, you sort of lowered the cost, but you also removed more than half of the items.

 

Some balance here would be nice.

[Deyjarl]

Results are seriously lacking in some cases.

 

Not all, but half the packs I've opened have been just a companion gift and a really bad decoration that doesn't even come close to the cost of the pack (last one was broken ceiling light and companion gift).

 

It is really hit or miss it seems. As the other half of the packs were decent.

 

But when it goes bad... it goes really bad with the results and it does so quite a bit of the time.

[wolfyde]

The only positive point about the new packs is the removal of the pointless filler like the xp-boosts for warzones etc.

 

But as far as value is concerned, the new system has left me pretty much disgusted, for the same reasons many of the above posters have pointed out. With the yield having been nuked like this, and the price having remained the same, you have effectively slashed the value by more than half.

 

I used to spend the money on CC for 1-2 Hypercrates per shipment, sometimes more if there was an item I really wanted, but as it stands now, I will not buy any more CC for crates in their current form, simple as that.

The only single packs I will maybe be getting are the ones I can buy with my monthly coin grant.

[DOHboy]

Thank you all for your responses. This is exactly the kind of dialogue I hoped for. Let me try to reiterate some of the issues you’re bringing up.

 

Firstly, I understand you feel that fewer items in the pack makes the pack feel less valuable. One of our goals in the 4.0 restructure was to consolidate the packs by removing some of the items that player feedback showed felt like clutter. I think it’s clear we may have over-tuned that and we will make changes based on the valuable feedback this thread is already providing.

 

Secondly, you feel the companion gift item isn’t as valuable as XP boosts, Jawa Crafting Materials and Reputation Certifications. So, if we add more items to the pack, you feel these items should be included.

 

Additionally, you feel that fewer chances, or “rolls”, on a Gold item feels like the pack has less value. The pre 4.0 pack structure provided two chances at a SuperRare (Gold) items. The post 4.0 structure combined those two chances into one. Mathematically, this one chance to drop a Gold item has more than the combined percent chance of both the pre 4.0 pack structure chances, effectively making it better for the buyer. However, no matter what the math is, if opening a pack feels less valuable, then we missed our mark and we will work to correct that.

 

I want to thank you guys for taking time to make your posts. They are well thought-out and constructive. I’ll continue to monitor them and communicate your feedback to the team, so keep it up. I also want to assure you that it is always our goal to make your Cartel Market experience a fun and exciting addition to Star Wars: The Old Republic. I truly believe achieving that goal is an iterative process that requires great communication like we’re having now.

 

Posted in your other thread but wanted to cross into this one as well and just toss in my "overwhelmingly biased opinion". And caveat I buy LOTS of packs, but don't think my opinion holds any more water than someone else. I will buy what i want regardless probably as long as the quality is there (thank you by the way for adding in my suggestion for the regen log!!!).

 

Companion gifts are nice, but upto this point held very little value (most companions were maxed affection, and those that were not was special cases because gifts were hard to gather for them anyway). but with multiple gathering skills that gave gifts, it was easy to farm them and CM just drove down prices further lowering their value.

 

XP boosts are limited only to the general 1hr boost or the 3hour boost, the exploration, war zone, space combat, and social boost, were rather pointless and very nearly worthless for most. jawa junk is great, I loath thinking that adding in the "rare' mats (those from conquest and or flashpoin/operations) would be a possibility but worry it boarders on pay to play/win.

 

in general do think they were over tuned, adding say a decoration option, a general item, and an other is a nice mix. With rare/gold options for decoration and general items with the other relegated to jawa junk, mats (credit boons not so much when you are sitting on multi millions already) rep/certificates, etc. the bronze items probably can be consolidated into fewer (say 2 crates upper/lower rather than upper/lower/sup). maybe add stacks of items rather than single items for decos/gifts/etc.

 

But hey, appreciate the chance for giving feedback and hope you at least get a feeling for what people are looking for.

[EvilMark]

Are you more or less likely to purchase packs from the Market and why?

 

I am currently significantly less likely, though it has nothing to do with the market itself. A very large portion of my CM purchases were made with my companions in mind, with the remainder being the seemingly endless search for a set of armor I actually liked on my jedi knight. The free 60 came with the solution to my jedi armor problem (off topic, that set is amazing), and, most importantly, KotFE companions are unable to wear any armor, which completely negates my main reason for making CM purchases in the first place.

 

I know you are not in any way involved in companion stuff, but if you could maybe shoot an email to someone who is it would be awesome. I am not over stating this in the least, the inability to change the armor on KotFE companions has had a HUGE impact on my desire to buy CM items, and I know many players feel the same way.

[Nuffmeister]

I bought 3 hypercrates, 1 super pack and about 8 single packs. I got 4 golds in total, with one hypercrate containing no golds, 5 silvers and the rest bronze filler. I saw no pieces from the Zildrog or Sith Recluse set.

 

I'm glad the xp tokens are gone. Bar the 1 hour and 3 hour tokens I would automatically delete any of the others (social, warzone etc) as I saw no value nor resale value in them at all.

 

1 item plus companion gift. The packs are way way too overpriced to just contain 1 item and a companion gift. I get that rng is rng, but I'm not going to buy anymore hypercrates at these prices with far far less chance to get anything I want / not useless ugly filler.

 

I am more likely to continue buying hypercrates if I feel each hypercrate I open at least had something that to me made it worth it. No it doesn't need to rain golds, but opening an entire hypercrate, at those prices, with the greatly reduced quantity of items, with only your word that drops have been increased, and getting 5 silvers and 25 bronzes does not leave me feeling justified in the purchase. Maybe a guarantee of at least one random gold per hypercrate might help.

 

At the end of the day I feel we are being charged the same price for way less bang for our buck. Once again I know the tired old mantra of "rng is rng" but when I open a hypercrate and get complete filler rubbish only and think to myself "what a complete waste of money that was", I don't have customer satisfaction, nor do I feel tempted to gamble on any more packs.

[Tatanka]

• How does the new Underworld Alliance pack structure feel? What are your thoughts on the pack consolidation? What suggestions do you have?
  

No weapons, no titles, no emotes, no crystals, no companion customization, no faction, no faction vendor. This first pack feels like a mere shadow of previous packs and a large step backwards.

 

 

• Are you more or less likely to purchase packs from the Market and why?
  

At this time, much less likely. Lack of ability to customize the dozens of companions we now have means I don't really have a desire to bother collecting outfits. I also really like collecting weapons, so this pack really held virtually no interest to me.

[DanNV]

I purchased this, but I won't be buying more. You don't get enough decent stuff, mostly over rated junk. I had saved enough coins for 2 hyper crates, but won't be spending those coins on any of the packs or crates. They simply aren't worth spending my money on. Sorry, but that's how it is.

[Transairion]

Thank you all for your responses. This is exactly the kind of dialogue I hoped for. Let me try to reiterate some of the issues you’re bringing up.

 

Firstly, I understand you feel that fewer items in the pack makes the pack feel less valuable. One of our goals in the 4.0 restructure was to consolidate the packs by removing some of the items that player feedback showed felt like clutter. I think it’s clear we may have over-tuned that and we will make changes based on the valuable feedback this thread is already providing.

 

Secondly, you feel the companion gift item isn’t as valuable as XP boosts, Jawa Crafting Materials and Reputation Certifications. So, if we add more items to the pack, you feel these items should be included.

 

Additionally, you feel that fewer chances, or “rolls”, on a Gold item feels like the pack has less value. The pre 4.0 pack structure provided two chances at a SuperRare (Gold) items. The post 4.0 structure combined those two chances into one. Mathematically, this one chance to drop a Gold item has more than the combined percent chance of both the pre 4.0 pack structure chances, effectively making it better for the buyer. However, no matter what the math is, if opening a pack feels less valuable, then we missed our mark and we will work to correct that.

 

I want to thank you guys for taking time to make your posts. They are well thought-out and constructive. I’ll continue to monitor them and communicate your feedback to the team, so keep it up. I also want to assure you that it is always our goal to make your Cartel Market experience a fun and exciting addition to Star Wars: The Old Republic. I truly believe achieving that goal is an iterative process that requires great communication like we’re having now.

 

 

No response to:

 

Greetings,

 

I am Protocol Droid M0-T0, Human-Cyborg Relations.

 

Thank you for contacting us about the issue you encountered. This particular case appears to have been caused by a bug within the game that will need to be corrected in a future game update and as such, cannot be corrected by Customer Service.

 

To allow us to identify and correct these issues, we would request that you submit a Bug Report on this issue. Bug Reports submitted though the In-Game Help Center go directly to our development QA team and not to Customer Service. To submit a bug, you can type /bug in your chat window or select Bug Report from the drop down when creating a new ticket in the In-Game Help Center.

 

We also recommend checking the latest patch notes at http://www.swtor.com/patchnotes for information on any fixes or changes in our game updates or our Known Bugs list, located at the top of our Bug Forums which can be found here: http://www.swtor.com/community....

 

We would like to apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused, and to thank you again for the valuable feedback you have provided. Please do not hesitate to report any other issues you may encounter while playing.

 

Galactic support is our specialty…

 

Sincerely,

 

Protocol Droid M0-T0

 

 

 

 

 

Additionally, you feel that fewer chances, or “rolls”, on a Gold item feels like the pack has less value. The pre 4.0 pack structure provided two chances at a SuperRare (Gold) items. The post 4.0 structure combined those two chances into one. Mathematically, this one chance to drop a Gold item has more than the combined percent chance of both the pre 4.0 pack structure chances, effectively making it better for the buyer. However, no matter what the math is, if opening a pack feels less valuable, then we missed our mark and we will work to correct that.

 

 

 

I don't think this is true at all, or at least not working as you want right now.

 

 

I checked my number again and I got 1 gold, 8 Silvers and 21 Bronze items. Of those Silvers, most were repeat items as well as items that were so common on the GTN they were selling for under 50k with pages and pages of them.

 

My 21 Bronze items? More than half were selling for UNDER the recommended vendor price, many around the 4500 credit mark. They're THAT common.

 

 

More likely to get Golds than ever before, gets 1 out of 30? People are saying they're opening Hypercrates and getting none at all? I don't think that's an increased chance working as intended. Not unless you converted every single gold into a silver trash drop.

[Staavis_SC]

I would have to say that I'm not impressed by the restructuring of the packs, nor any adjustments that were made to drop rates. Additionally, I feel like recent design decisions are bound to eliminate the need for the Cartel Market altogether.

 

The drop rates on Gold is...horrendous. Really, truly, horrendous. Obviously, you guys need to make money, I get that. But at the same time, we're talking digital fashion here, and while I can understand named sets being rare (Bastila Shan, Satele Shan, Shae Vizla, etc) why make it nearly impossible to obtain generic, yet nicely crafted sets like Sith Recluse?

 

So, obviously I am advocating a slight bump to Gold level drop rates.

 

But, this for me is key:

 

The recent decision to head down the path of un-customizable companions (KOTFE) will DOOM your Cartel Market money making plans Bioware. When people establish a look for their character, they aren't often going to change that. It becomes their digital identity. So, at some point, when people have decided they are happy with their look, and have no more need for new armor looks, they will stop buying them. I can speak from experience on this. Before the expansion, I bought many of the Cartel Market sets on the GTN, then bought coins to unlock them in Collections, for the purposes of outfitting my new crew.

 

Imagine how disappointed I was to find that you can't change their look. Basically, I have no more need for Cartel Market packs. Each of my characters have their look set. I don't plan for any more new characters. And you guys are phasing out customization for companions. Therefore, I have no need for anything new that might come out, because I have nothing to use it on, even for cosmetic purposes.

 

Perhaps the Cartel Market group needs to have a big pow-wow with the other design groups in Bioware working on this game, and find out why they want to make your jobs virtually impossible, and to put the game out of business?

 

Just a suggestion.

[Shenando]

In general I feel that this new pack structure is a large step backward, and if it continues, will likely lead to me cutting back on purchases in the future.

 

I do like that all armor now comes in crates - it at least gives me the illusion that I might win a complete gold set, instead of just getting 1 or 2 pieces. And I do like the removal of the XP boosts.

 

But the companion gifts being guaranteed in every crate? They are NOT that valuable to me, and I certainly would not pay half the cost of a hypercrate to get 30 companion gifts of unknown quality and usefulness on their own (I now have companion gifts cluttering up a cargo bay instead of XP boosts). Opening this hypercrate just wasn't that much fun. I agree with several other posters that suggested going to 3-4 items in a pack (bring back the jawa junk!); at the very least do not make companion gifts a guaranteed half of the pack (or guaranteed at all).

 

But I would also offer a suggestion - bring back the platinum pack, but with a twist. The platinum pack I would love would hold a certificate that could be exchanged for one gold item from that shipment of the players choice, make that item bound to legacy if you want, but let the player chose! They could trade the platinum pack certificate for the Akk Dog Training License if they wanted, whether or not they won the Training License in the hypercrate. The player would be guaranteed to get at least one gold item that they want per hypercrate.

[Soultranna]

How does the new Underworld Alliance pack structure feel? What are your thoughts on the pack consolidation? What suggestions do you have?

 

Going from the large payload of previous packs to the two-item payload of these new ones, it feels... cheap. Even though the items themselves are likely worth more in aggregate than all the old stuff, it still doesn't seem worth the CC price to get them. Granted, I won't miss all of the boosts I never used (Warzone and Space) and the ones I only used rarely, but the general XP and the social boosts were useful and I do miss them. The Jawa scrap was also useful, but actually a bit TOO plentiful as filler, so that's a mixed bag. The rep items? those seemed to be a way to simply earn the ability to buy things outright, and as such, seperated the haves from the have-nots. I would expect missions, mats, crafting or comms would be better in terms of trading for these cartel-only items. Once you'd maxed rep... they were placeholders. Dye packs in crates were usually good, as opposed to the dye pack crate itself, which nearly always is a disappointment payload-wise, and frankly can be done away with.

 

What are your thoughts on the changes to Hypercrates and the addition of Supercrates? Do you feel they are worth their cost? Do you enjoy opening them? If so, what do you enjoy most? If not, what do you like least?

 

With the smaller payload, I don't feel like I have to have a completely empty inventory to get thru a hypercrate anymore. But at the same time, with only two items per crate, the odds of getting stuff is still pretty bad. As above, quite a few filler items, not much in the way of worthwhile things. The supercrates are to me just a middle-of-the-road compromise to get people to spend CC's on crates when they haven't the real-world pull to spend $50 to $100 on cc's to snag hypercrates.

 

Are you more or less likely to purchase packs from the Market and why?

 

I'll likely still buy them, just not nearly as many, doubly so now that all of the old crates have been embargoed. There's MUCH less variety when you only have one crate type on the market, as opposed to six. So I'll likely save my cc's for something else that I want, or, blow some on the NEXT hypercrate that gets released... open that, hold off on more until the next series, etc etc.

 

Can you share any experiences or first impressions you’ve had with the new pack structure?

 

They look fun. Animation and FX departments earned their kudos. Just see above.

[DakhathKilrathi]

No response to:

 

[Long PM implying drop rates are bugged]

 

I don't think this is true at all, or at least not working as you want right now.

 

 

I checked my number again and I got 1 gold, 8 Silvers and 21 Bronze items. Of those Silvers, most were repeat items as well as items that were so common on the GTN they were selling for under 50k with pages and pages of them.

 

My 21 Bronze items? More than half were selling for UNDER the recommended vendor price, many around the 4500 credit mark. They're THAT common.

 

 

More likely to get Golds than ever before, gets 1 out of 30? People are saying they're opening Hypercrates and getting none at all? I don't think that's an increased chance working as intended. Not unless you converted every single gold into a silver trash drop.

 

 

Try checking your own thread; this was answered:

 

Hey folks,

 

We wanted to make sure to jump in the thread and clarify, the drop rates that you experienced in that Hypercrate are not a bug. Unfortunately the information provided by CS from that in-game ticket was in error, and we are working with them to adjust any miscommunication. Keep in mind that with 4.0 there were changes to the items that are found in each pack, with the goal of getting you better quality items overall. This morning one of our Cartel Market Designers, Toby McCall, posted two threads looking for feedback on these very changes. If you feel unhappy with the results of buying packs, or a Hypercrates, definitely head on over to those threads and give your feedback.

 

Apologies for any confusion, thanks!

 

-eric

 

Working as intended. The message you shared is a just another example of a lazy CSR who clicks the canned response rather than trying to actually provide the service being paid for. Nothing new, happens all the time. I'm sure some of the CSRs are very good at their jobs and actually care, but this happens far too often.

 

 

Edit: I should probably include my opinion of the drop rates, but everything I have to say about it has already been said in this thread. One item per pack is just too few, and I won't be spending coins on them until that changes. I don't mind at all when one item in a pack is an armor piece and the other is a decoration or something like that. At least the decoration is probably worth a little bit even if the armor piece is junk. Also, please bring back emotes/pets/stuff like that.

Edited October 29, 2015 by DakhathKilrathi

[Kulyok]

I'd just like to add that I used to buy more than a few hypercrates of Stronghold Packs, and it was a really fun experience, and I missed it. Why did I like it?

 

- there were two decorations in EVERY pack;

- decorations were good (i.e. not the "broken droid/sand bags/burning walls", but pretty holographic trees and plants and oriconian stuff and an underworld bar);

- reputation vendor had a brilliant mount (a throne without a hologram on top) for Legend reputation, and there was a generous offering of reputation items in every pack, i.e. almost every second pack had a purple rep item;

- the same happened with all packs in stronghold shipment, which meant I could buy two hypercrates of each at the very least, get to Legend reputation status, get many new decorations, and if I wanted to sell, I could get rich on GTN.

- there were plenty of new decorations purchased for Cartel Certificates which I could find in the packs.

 

I would like one of the next shipments to be a-la Stronghold packs again.

Edited October 29, 2015 by Kulyok

[djmtott]

For the most part, I've dropped $40 or so every time a new Hypercrate was released. My legacy has Legend status for all of the CM Reputations.

 

I will not be spending any more money on packs of any sort until changes are made. It's not a whine or a threat, just a declaration that the system as it is now set up is not worth spending money on. My CCs are now waiting on the possibility of a holiday sale on collection unlocks.

 

I enjoyed receiving a handful of items. A bunch of them were junk, but at least I got little things like emotes or regeneration items that were nice.

 

As it stands now, you keep adding armor sets to the BSG packs, which dilutes your chances of getting what you want. I'd rather have a different amount of chance in a more focused pool of options.

 

What would make the Shipment packs more valuable? Ditch the companion rewards. Consumables should never be tied to those packs. It means we're really only getting one item we might care abut. Guarantee an armor lootbox for each pack, then the mount, decorations, companions and R&Rs can be in a pool for the second item. Or switch it up any other way, but don't try to sell us on meaningless and consumable items like companion rewards.

 

Supercrates are a joke. 5% reduction? Make it 10% like the Hypercrate. 5% isn't going to sway my purchasing decisions in any way, form or fashion.

 

I'd also prefer armors to be sold through the Cartel Market more often. Sell me the most desired armors at a greater cost and make them BoP.

[DarthVengeant]

The drop rates in the new pack was utterly garbage, because that is all I got, garbage. I opened and entire crate and got essentially nothing but a pile of companion gifts to use. The armor and other stuff I got was just garbage I sold on GTN. Not a single thing from the pack have I used other than a few deco's I got that I actually liked. At least I made 5mill of it all together on the GTN. I feel like I am paying the same price for a pack that used to give more, but now gives less. I don't think I will be doing it again now. Honestly, there is maybe 5% of each new pack that is of interest to me. Sabers/Guns aren't because they aren't Legacy bound, so cannot be used. Some great looking sabers I can't use because they aren't Legacy Bound. You REALLY need to expand your arsenal of Legacy weapons, by a huge amount. Please.

 

I would like to suggest, for the 10 millionth time, that there be a way to make any Cartel Market Weapon be Legacy Bound. Sell a normal and a Legacy version of each of them. This way I can make my toon's weapon fit there look and not be stuck with the same few ugly Legacy weapons I dislike. Because, honestly, not a single one of the Legacy Bound weapons I like the looks of, but there is quite a few Cartel/Pack ones I like.

 

Then again, maybe it is just because I am sick to death of flaps hanging down the front of and ATTACHED to chest pieces, or the bulky garbage sticking out of chest pieces. I just wish your armor had more variety and was more form fitting with NO FLAPS AND GARBAGE attached to chest piece that goes below the belt line. PLEASE, STOP with that on all your armor sets!!! There are piles of armor sets I would LOVE< but they have some stupid flap covering the crotch area or other junk hanging below the belt line in the front, ruining my chance of wearing it with whatever leg/skirt I want. That stuff should be attached to the belt, NOT the chest piece. I have said that countless times in these forums and will repeat it forever if need be. It is one of my main gripes about this game and I will never understand what your armor modelers are/were thinking when they decided to do it, and still do.

Edited October 29, 2015 by DarthVengeant

[Staavis_SC]

The drop rates in the new pack was utterly garbage, because that is all I got, garbage. I opened and entire crate and got essentially nothing but a pile of companion gifts to use. The armor and other stuff I got was just garbage I sold on GTN. Not a single thing from the pack have I used other than a few deco's I got that I actually liked. At least I made 5mill of it all together on the GTN. I feel like I am paying the same price for a pack that used to give more, but now gives less. I don't think I will be doing it again now. Honestly, there is maybe 5% of each new pack that is of interest to me. Sabers/Guns aren't because they aren't Legacy bound, so cannot be used. Some great looking sabers I can't use because they aren't Legacy Bound. You REALLY need to expand your arsenal of Legacy weapons, by a huge amount. Please.

 

I would like to suggest, for the 10 millionth time, that there be a way to make any Cartel Market Weapon be Legacy Bound. Sell a normal and a Legacy version of each of them. This way I can make my toon's weapon fit there look and not be stuck with the same few ugly Legacy weapons I dislike. Because, honestly, not a single one of the Legacy Bound weapons I like the looks of, but there is quite a few Cartel/Pack ones I like.

 

Then again, maybe it is just because I am sick to death of flaps hanging down the front of and ATTACHED to chest pieces, or the bulky garbage sticking out of chest pieces. I just wish your armor had more variety and was more form fitting with NO FLAPS AND GARBAGE attached to chest piece that goes below the belt line. PLEASE, STOP with that on all your armor sets!!! There are piles of armor sets I would LOVE< but they have some stupid flap covering the crotch area or other junk hanging below the belt line in the front, ruining my chance of wearing it with whatever leg/skirt I want. That stuff should be attached to the belt, NOT the chest piece. I have said that countless times in these forums and will repeat it forever if need be. It is one of my main gripes about this game and I will never understand what your armor modelers are/were thinking when they decided to do it, and still do.

 

Oh don't even get me started on their affinity for shoulder plates, spikes and overabundance of "flare".

 

Sometimes I have to stop and remind myself this is Star Wars, and not World of GenericfantasyMMOcraft.

 

Apparently the armor designers never actually watched any Star Wars, or the were all stolen from Blizzard, Circa 2005.

[MSpectre]

Are you more or less likely to purchase packs from the Market and why?

 

I am currently significantly less likely, though it has nothing to do with the market itself. A very large portion of my CM purchases were made with my companions in mind, with the remainder being the seemingly endless search for a set of armor I actually liked on my jedi knight. The free 60 came with the solution to my jedi armor problem (off topic, that set is amazing), and, most importantly, KotFE companions are unable to wear any armor, which completely negates my main reason for making CM purchases in the first place.

 

I know you are not in any way involved in companion stuff, but if you could maybe shoot an email to someone who is it would be awesome. I am not over stating this in the least, the inability to change the armor on KotFE companions has had a HUGE impact on my desire to buy CM items, and I know many players feel the same way.

 

 

This a million times over.

 

I find it funny that EA wants to get our feed back when it doesn't take a genius to figure what will have a negative impact on their sales via CM.

 

1) Your $ht is overpriced

2) You put mediocre $ht in high dollar packs.(Don't bullsht us, you know what sells and why)

3) No gear on new companions?!(dum>areses) I'm sure even your CEO would agree with me.

 

I realize the CM is keeping you afloat for the time being so don't fk with your customers by feeding them lies and garbage.

 

Have a nice day!

Edited October 29, 2015 by MSpectre

[Blood_Loss]

I bought five of these as a test and wasn't impressed. Mostly received companion gifts. The rest was pretty much junk as far as my characters are concerned although I did get a few decorations for my strongholds. Since I didn't see any Reputation or Coin Bonanzas, I don't see a reason to waste Cartel coins on these. With the changes in the game, I don't see much reason to spend any Cartel Coins. By Cargo Hold and Legacy Hold are both filled with crafting supplies, Experience Boosts, and Companion Gifts which are about the only things useful anymore.

 

I've got bays of armor that frankly no longer serve a purpose since none of it can be used by Companions....same goes for all those extra weapons. The new update pretty much killed the need or desire for any of it. Worst yet, you can't sell Cartel items to vendors. You can only sell to other players through the Galactic Market or destroy it. I've been doing a lot of destroying of items that are a waste of space.

[TheSeer]

To me the packs don't seem worth it anymore. One of the large reason is the horrible drop rate on gold items, which actually turned me and my sister off getting any of the packs all together this round. We were planning on trying for dog, but after reading about rate decided against it. Was hopping it was bug, but now we know that it wasn't.

 

The next reason that turned me off is that we are getting less items. Yes, you say it more quality, but I don't buy that at all. I did like getting the companion gifts and jawa junk, as at least they were somewhat useful. So even though I may have not gotten a good item in the pack, at least I got something useful out of it. In truth my favorite packs where the ones when you got a decoration along with all other items, as I felt it add valuable to them. I won't be getting any more packs, if things say as they are. It just isn't worth it.

[Transairion]

Try checking your own thread; this was answered:

 

 

 

Working as intended. The message you shared is a just another example of a lazy CSR who clicks the canned response rather than trying to actually provide the service being paid for. Nothing new, happens all the time. I'm sure some of the CSRs are very good at their jobs and actually care, but this happens far too often.

 

 

Edit: I should probably include my opinion of the drop rates, but everything I have to say about it has already been said in this thread. One item per pack is just too few, and I won't be spending coins on them until that changes. I don't mind at all when one item in a pack is an armor piece and the other is a decoration or something like that. At least the decoration is probably worth a little bit even if the armor piece is junk. Also, please bring back emotes/pets/stuff like that.

 

 

My mistake then, as far as I knew that topic got buried immediately since I couldn't find it in the first few pages as I usually do. That just tells me to never buy Packs again if getting that many worthless items is considered "working as intended".

 

Especially so many repeat items. Of all the items available in the Pack, I didn't see half of them, but got repeats of the same Bronzes a lot. In all the other Hypercrates I've bought under the old system, I at least got some variation with my "rubbish" drops.

Edited October 29, 2015 by Transairion

[LordMordeth]

I've bought packs in the past, not a whole lot, but some here and there but when it comes to these new ones, i refuse to get them, as they are not worth the money, at all.

 

As why would i pay 200cc for one random item + one companion gift (talk about waste of cc there!) when i can buy a bronze armor crate for the same prize and get a full set from there!

 

Granted, it won't be the newest shiny nor will it likely be anything that great, but it will still be a FULL set vs single piece that might or might not be part of the desired set in the new pack.

 

I'll echo some of the others, as while it kinda nice you removed the useless junk boosts from the packs, going from 4 + 2 (4 fillers, 2 rares) to 1 + 1 (1 rare, 1 filler) doesn't exactly scream better bang for your buck so as a result, as said, i'll be skipping these alliance packs and any other packs till the time i feel the value gets added back in.

Edited October 29, 2015 by LordMordeth