lightsabers & shotos in CM

[yca_mtl]

as a new player i would like to see all existing in game reward/drop lightsaber and shoto hilts added to the cartel market as mod-able / adaptive lightsabers (like the blademaster ones for example).

 

there should be a whole section in the store devoted to lightsabers so players can click, preview and choose what saber they want to use when they play. the advantage of this is not having to use an inferior saber because you like how i looks from leveling. or having to buy/use an ugly saber just because it's one of the only 3 models avail on the market.

 

[edit for clarity]

 

1) a clear section for sabers.

- click it and many many options should pop up with art showing me what it looks like. (just like how it does now)

- i can then click preview on each one to see how it looks in game and then purchase.

 

currently it is setup with art thumbnail and preview -- but there is no devoted section and no significant selection/library to choose from. only a handful of choices.

 

2) more selection.

- more than the 3 options or whatever there is in there currently.

- all past released sabers from the CM should always be available to purchase quickly and easily.

 

there appears to be 3 with 3 variations each available currently. there should be every saber that has been released on the CM in one central place to purchase from. all past options should be there. having some options not be avail any longer as exclusives is fine, but all past lightsabers should not be exclusives. there's a large library of releases that should be available ongoing for direct purchase. this is a missed opportunity.

 

3) all existing lightsaber choices from leveling should be available on the market.

- all sabers from the ingame leveling experience should be available on the CM.

- all of these sabers should be avail as mod-able just like the Blademaster and Vindicator sets.

 

the existing lightsaber art should be monetized and translated to mod-able versions like blademaster and vindicator sets. this is an entirely cosmetic vanity item that allows a player to determine what they want their saber to look like and pay for it. it doesn't affect game progress, grind or balance.

[/edit]

Edited April 9, 2016 by yca_mtl

[dr_mike]

I'm a little lost on this.

 

You should be able to preview any item listed on the Cartel Market. If you click on the item in the main panel in the center of the screen, you get the details over on the right hand side. if you shift click on the icon over there on the right, you should get a pop up panel with you holding the weapon.

 

For items listed on the gtn, just the shift click should work fine.

 

There are a number of websites on the net that index and demo the weapons. Some of them are no longer being updated but they're still online.

 

Examples:

 

http://tor-fashion.com/

http://dulfy.net (She breaks them down by packs.)

http://swtorista.com/ (no longer updates)

 

Hope this helps

Edited April 7, 2016 by dr_mike

[HeatRacer]

I'm a little lost on this.

 

You should be able to preview any item listed on the Cartel Market. If you click on the item in the main panel in the center of the screen, you get the details over on the right hand side. if you shift click on the icon over there on the right, you should get a pop up panel with you holding the weapon.

 

For items listed on the gtn, just the shift click should work fine.

 

There are a number of websites on the net that index and demo the weapons. Some of them are no longer being updated but they're still online.

 

Examples:

 

http://tor-fashion.com/

http://dulfy.net (She breaks them down by packs.)

http://swtorista.com/ (no longer updates)

 

Hope this helps

 

I think he's trying to say he wants every lightsaber in the game to be available on the CM so he can buy directly. I am totally sure that will happen. They seem unaware that there's a hell of a lot more than 3 lightsabers available for purchase, both via CM, and cheaply on the GTN, that are moddable.

Edited April 7, 2016 by HeatRacer

[yca_mtl]

I'm a little lost on this.

 

You should be able to preview any item listed on the Cartel Market. If you click on the item in the main panel in the center of the screen, you get the details over on the right hand side. if you shift click on the icon over there on the right, you should get a pop up panel with you holding the weapon.

 

For items listed on the gtn, just the shift click should work fine.

 

There are a number of websites on the net that index and demo the weapons. Some of them are no longer being updated but they're still online.

 

Examples:

 

http://tor-fashion.com/

http://dulfy.net (She breaks them down by packs.)

http://swtorista.com/ (no longer updates)

 

Hope this helps

 

I'm asking for a couple things.

 

1 a clear section for sabers. i click it and 50 options should pop up with art showing me what it looks like. i can then click preview on each one to see how it looks in game and then purchase. currently it is setup with art thumbnail and preview -- but there is no devoted section and no significant selection/library to choose from.

 

2 more than the 3 options or whatever there is in there currently. there appears to be 3 with 3 variations each currently. there should be every saber that has been released on the CM in one central place to purchase from. all past options should be there. having some options not be avail any longer as exclusives is fine, but all past lightsabers should not be exclusives. there's a large library of releases that should be available ongoing for direct purchase. this is a missed opportunity.

 

3 all existing available lightsaber choices from ingame/leveling should be translated to mod-able versions like blademaster and vindicator sets.

Edited April 9, 2016 by yca_mtl

[yca_mtl]

I think he's trying to say he wants every lightsaber in the game to be available on the CM so he can buy directly. I am totally sure that will happen.

 

that's correct. the attitude is unnecessary though.

 

They seem unaware that there's a hell of a lot more than 3 lightsabers available for purchase, both via CM, and cheaply on the GTN, that are modable.

 

there is not. while there may have been at one time or there may be options in random packs, there is not a quick direct selection that a player can look through and choose from.

 

furthermore, there are options in game and via GTN but they are not exposed to a player directly for direct purchase. especially not to a new player. if i want to simply buy a saber look instead of waste time looking for something in game, those options don't really suit the purchaser's needs. it's a convenience and vanity purchase and should be very straightforward and fast/easy to accomplish. do you understand?

[CrazyCT]

When you are looking through the GTN or CM at lightsabers, hold down CTRL and left-click on them and a preview will come up with you holding it. If you click again, it shows you with 2 sabers. You can also click on the little button at the bottom of that screen to 'holster' it and see what that looks like too. Edited April 8, 2016 by CrazyCT

[HeatRacer]

that's correct. the attitude is unnecessary though.

 

 

 

there is not. while there may have been at one time or there may be options in random packs, there is not a quick direct selection that a player can look through and choose from.

 

furthermore, there are options in game and via GTN but they are not exposed to a player directly for direct purchase. especially not to a new player. if i want to simply buy a saber look instead of waste time looking for something in game, those options don't really suit the purchaser's needs. it's a convenience and vanity purchase and should be very straightforward and fast/easy to accomplish. do you understand?

 

Sorry, I just have little patience for when people ask for everything to be made available to them upfront or can't be bothered to use the resources they have at their disposal.

[yca_mtl]

@crazyct the marketplace preview function is not the topic of the discussion. it was acknowledged at the beginning of the thread that is currently how it works. what is lacking is a devoted section and a large library of options.

 

@heatracer "made available upfront" what are you going on about? there is no amount of work that makes them available. your attitude implies that you think being able to choose what your character's saber looks like is somehow an entitlement. and you don't like entitled players asking for everything handed to them--but what is being discussed is vanity options that aren't available at all. this is a cosmetic choice. it has nothing to do with working for anything, progress or grind.

 

part of customizing your character appearance is deciding what a saber looks like and providing access to the large library of options made over the years and monetizing that library is intelligent business and has no impact on gameplay or progress at all. it's no different than a player choosing a character costume.

 

if a player wants to pay for how their character looks in game, that's their business. when you start paying for everyone else's playtime you can start dictating what options those players shouldn't have access to. move along now.

[CrazyCT]

@crazyct the marketplace preview function is not the topic of the discussion. it was acknowledged at the beginning of the thread that is currently how it works. what is lacking is a devoted section and a large library of options.

 

You're asking for them to create a way of previewing the item, but you know this is already in-game?

 

Also, if you want to see all the lightsabers in game, just open your collections, go to the 'Weapons' section, and in the search bar at the top type "saber". 7 pages of sabers, all in one handy section. (If you only want to see the ones available on the Cartel Market, just click on the "Cartel Market" sub-section. Simples )

 

As for them releasing all of them individually on the CM, I doubt they are going to do that. Pretty much every lightsaber is already in game, and more are coming back thanks to the new Grand Chance Cubes. Why would they sell the sabers singly, and only get maybe 1000cc for it, when they can sell the Hypercrates for 5x as much?

Edited April 9, 2016 by CrazyCT

[CrazyCT]

Ah, you edited your original post, sorry.

 

lol. most players aren't going to buy a hypercrate for $50ish to purchase a specific saber that they aren't guaranteed they'll get as a random drop from a crate or pack, when they could pay $10 and get exactly what they want. because math.

 

No, but they are going to buy the crates to get something they DO want, even if that is only to sell the items for in-game currency. If all the gear was available for direct purchase, Bioware would only sell that stuff instead of "Lucky Bags" that contain a lot of fluff. You'd buy that one saber that you want, and not buy anything else. Making people buy the Hypercrates, brings in a lot more money, and making money is what keeps this game going. Because economics.

[CrazyCT]

Yeah, Christmas must be a hoot at your house - do you send out your demands in plenty of time for people to get you exactly what you want?

 

I loved that you took what I called a good business plan for meaningless cosmetic gear, what we used to call "impulse buys", and imagined me thinking it was a good strategy for everything, like selling cars. Obviously it doesn't work if you want something like that. Try to imagine it more like a box of chocolates - You buy the box hoping for a caramel, you'll still eat the nougats and truffles. Maybe next time you'll get that caramel you're looking for, but you'll still be happy with what you got. If you don't like the nougats, trade with someone who did get a caramel in their box.

 

Aren't analogies fun?

[yca_mtl]

Yeah, Christmas must be a hoot at your house - do you send out your demands in plenty of time for people to get you exactly what you want?

 

I loved that you took what I called a good business plan for meaningless cosmetic gear, what we used to call "impulse buys", and imagined me thinking it was a good strategy for everything, like selling cars. Obviously it doesn't work if you want something like that. Try to imagine it more like a box of chocolates - You buy the box hoping for a caramel, you'll still eat the nougats and truffles. Maybe next time you'll get that caramel you're looking for, but you'll still be happy with what you got. If you don't like the nougats, trade with someone who did get a caramel in their box.

 

Aren't analogies fun?

 

you essentially posted saying you like not knowing what you're getting and paying 5x more for that pleasure. and that you don't see why anyone would want to be able to specifically choose what lightsabers they want to purchase.

 

i pointed out most buyers don't fall for that and just don't buy at all. they want to choose. and you attack me with this christmas stuff. no one said the items couldn't also be in the mystery packs. it's not a this or that proposition.

 

thanks for your input.

[CrazyCT]

you essentially posted saying you like not knowing what you're getting and paying 5x more for that pleasure. and that you don't see why anyone would want to be able to specifically choose what lightsabers they want to purchase.

 

i pointed out most buyers don't fall for that and just don't buy at all. they want to choose. and you attack me with this christmas stuff. no one said the items couldn't also be in the mystery packs. it's not a this or that proposition.

 

thanks for your input.

I essentially posted that it doesn't make sense to give people what they want when you can milk them dry for it.

Who would buy the mystery packs if they could just buy what they wanted direct? For example, take the recent Unstable Lightsaber that's caused such a commotion. If that had went for direct buy at 1000cc, and 500 bought it, they'd have made 500,000cc (I'm not converting it into real money, let's just leave it as cc). If the same 500 people had bought a hypercrate to get one, they'd have made ...... gimme a sec, apparently I'm not good with maths......2,700,000cc. And here's the kicker, with the low drop rate, only about 5 people out of those 500 got the saber they wanted. So half of them accepted their fate, and the other half were dumb enough to buy another pack to try again. So that's .......wait.......I can do this.......carry the 1........about 4,000,000cc. You see where this goes? At the fourth level, they've made something like 10,000,000cc instead of the 500,000cc your plan would have netted them.

Edited April 9, 2016 by CrazyCT

[yca_mtl]

you already answered your own question. "who would buy..." they're not buying them for specific items. because they're not guaranteed. they're buying them to use as ingame currency/collateral. so that would not change.

 

it looks like you replied because you just wanted to argue and really didn't understand what you were reading. honestly, i'm really not interested in explaining what was clear from the OP. in the future consider your replies more thoroughly.

 

again, thanks for your input.

[CrazyCT]

No, I totally understood it. Simply put, you don't want to pay the GTN prices and are begging for Bioware to release every single weapon in the game (if you put on the sabers, you'd have to put on the guns too or there would be a huge outcry) which would lead to them to taking in about 20 times less money, just so you can get that one saber you want.

[yca_mtl]

No, I totally understood it. Simply put, you don't want to pay the GTN prices and are begging for Bioware to release every single weapon in the game (if you put on the sabers, you'd have to put on the guns too or there would be a huge outcry) which would lead to them to taking in about 20 times less money, just so you can get that one saber you want.

 

simply put, i'm giving bw an easy roadmap to make more money from a group of people who they aren't reaching, and at the same time provide more options for players. which is how an MMO thrives.

 

like i said, you don't understand what you're talking about or reading. i can see from your forum signature that you're a professional troll, but i'm not interested in feedback from inferior sources. your input isn't solicited and doesn't have value. move along.

[CrazyCT]

As I said in my post, they won't make more money. My figures are admittedly a little rough, but they definitely stand to make several times less money. A 1-time purchase of 1000cc against several purchases of 5400cc? It's a no-brainer.

 

And with the stuff being sold on the GTN, everyone does have access to it. In fact, there's probably more people willing to buy it on the GTN than want to pay real money to buy the CC required. It's easy enough to earn credits in-game (you know, the game you're already paying to play anyway), and with the introduction of the Grand Chance Cubes, the variety on the GTN is increasing. If they don't want to put the time in to grind for the credits, they obviously don't want it enough. Or maybe they are just used to having things handed to them.

[Jedi_riches]

For your idea to work Bioware would have to triple or even quadruple the cost of all items just so they can get their money in.

 

Bioware have to implement the gamble pack idea as if you could just pick or choose what you want they simply would not get their moneys worth. The whole point is so that people have to buy 'just 1 more hypercrate/pack' to get what they want, simply means more money for Bioware.

[yca_mtl]

For your idea to work Bioware would have to triple or even quadruple the cost of all items just so they can get their money in.

 

Bioware have to implement the gamble pack idea as if you could just pick or choose what you want they simply would not get their moneys worth. The whole point is so that people have to buy 'just 1 more hypercrate/pack' to get what they want, simply means more money for Bioware.

 

sorry, this is not correct. this is not how sales, marketing or ecommerce work.

 

the people who want to gamble will always gamble. and they still have that chance. but the people who don't buy anything at all right now because they're intelligent enough to not want to waste money gambling, would now be able to buy the items they want. it's a win/win. it's a choice between serving 1 market or 2 markets.

[HeatRacer]

As I said in my post, they won't make more money. My figures are admittedly a little rough, but they definitely stand to make several times less money. A 1-time purchase of 1000cc against several purchases of 5400cc? It's a no-brainer.

 

And with the stuff being sold on the GTN, everyone does have access to it. In fact, there's probably more people willing to buy it on the GTN than want to pay real money to buy the CC required. It's easy enough to earn credits in-game (you know, the game you're already paying to play anyway), and with the introduction of the Grand Chance Cubes, the variety on the GTN is increasing. If they don't want to put the time in to grind for the credits, they obviously don't want it enough. Or maybe they are just used to having things handed to them.

 

^ This. Isn't it great when a newbie comes along and has the game and business allll figured out. I totally agree, it would be nice if everything were direct-sale, but I also recognize what a huge hit to revenue it would be. He seems to think that revenue wouldn't be affected because "gamblers will gamble", without realizing they wouldn't gamble at all if they could just directly buy what they want.

[EazyWin]

sorry, this is not correct. this is not how sales, marketing or ecommerce work.

 

the people who want to gamble will always gamble. and they still have that chance. but the people who don't buy anything at all right now because they're intelligent enough to not want to waste money gambling, would now be able to buy the items they want. it's a win/win. it's a choice between serving 1 market or 2 markets.

 

I too would like to see more variety in lightsabers and shotos especially on the CM. The problem is that BW would be unlikely to do it the way you described, for reasons that have mostly been put forth already.

 

2 markets vs 1 market oversimplifies the problem. The 2nd market (direct sales) would be so much of a more efficient gain for the players (in terms of money spent to get what they really want) that BW would lose almost everything from market 1, for a significant net loss.

[Darth-Rion]

sorry, this is not correct. this is not how sales, marketing or ecommerce work.

 

the people who want to gamble will always gamble. and they still have that chance. but the people who don't buy anything at all right now because they're intelligent enough to not want to waste money gambling, would now be able to buy the items they want. it's a win/win. it's a choice between serving 1 market or 2 markets.

 

You really don't know how business works, do you?

[Jedi_riches]

You really don't know how business works, do you?

 

I know, Bioware would have to make each item 1.5x of a normal hypercrate price just to keep their CM profits the same, baring in mind how many people seem to think its only the CM keeping the game going it would be crackers to do this.

 

Would I like to be able to purchase direct - of course I would but I know its not going to happen for the reasons I have already stated.

[force_fortytwo]

I think one should always keep in mind that DESCRIBING how a certain mechanic has worked out so far does not equal PARTICIPATING in or APPROVING of that procedure (i.e. buying Hypercrates, cf. OP vs. one or two repliants). I think we can agree that the Unstable Arbiter's Lightsaber is so incredibly attractive (due to Kylo Ren issues ) that a whole lot of players want one of those; yet the drop rate is so ridiculously low that it likely takes more than just one Hypercrate to obtain one (and once it drops, it's so valuable that some rather put it on the GTN, lol).

And although I am neither one of the brightest nor the dumbest players on here (I'd say I'm totally average), I have already felt the urge to buy more than one of those hypercrates just because I wanted a certain good-looking item so badly. That was a long time ago, I've taken quite some time off this game and am now cured of the addiction factor which quite a number of players definitely have succumbed to.

 

However, putting every single item (armor/weapons) existing in game on the CM would a.) create a list of thousands of items, of which some are quite similar to each other, and b.) would definitely get the aforementioned "cosmetic gear addicts" (such as my former self) away from those Hypercrates. I totally second the calculation example presented before. A single 2400CC purchase is way less lucrative for BW than multiple 5400CC purchases and a lot of fluff on the GTN.

 

Besides, quite some people I know tend to feel privileged on here because they obtained a certain gold item when it was available via the crates or was still rare in-game, and offering it to everyone now would just greatly annoy those people. (I was one of those concerning the non-CM, craftable +41 stat purple color crystals, but I've made my peace with the fact that they are now being sold on the GTN for less than 200k.)

 

However, since I do not entirely oppose the OPs intention (and since I hate some of the ridiculously high prices on the GTN), I could very much imagine a possibility on the CM (e.g. Collections???) to buy certain single items from old packs for a suitable CC price which then bind on pickup, i.e. cannot be resold on the GTN. A gold CM mainhand item in that section could sell for 1500CC, a silver one for 800CC and a bronze one for 500CC, for example. The new stuff would still have to be obtained via the Crates, ensuring revenue for BW by milking those willing to spend their entire monthly salary on these things, and the old stuff would really become a cosmetic bonus for players who want to look nice. A side effect of this would consist in normalizing the insane prices on the GTN for some of the old gear which was obtained cheaply and then stashed by some guys in order to gain bazillions of credits later on. If that should happen, I can hear the outrage - but these people definitely get no sympathies from me.

 

But I am very convinced that we do not need another possibility to preview items. If you know how to use the tools already available to you, you can see very well how items look. Apart from that, in the similarity section on TORFashion you can see all the different Mainhand designs and similarities and get an impression what you'd prefer. All you'd have to do is remember the names and look them up on the GTN, some of the items on there are not that expensive really.

Edited April 14, 2016 by force_fortytwo

[yca_mtl]

I think one should always keep in mind that DESCRIBING how a certain mechanic has worked out so far does not equal PARTICIPATING in or APPROVING of that procedure (i.e. buying Hypercrates, cf. OP vs. one or two repliants).

 

yes. hypothetically assuming failure for something that doesn't exist yet is nuts. obviously how something is implemented is important to the success of it. so hypothesizing that it will be implemented in a way that would fail is not productive to any discussion and a waste of time. what is being discussed is implementing something in a way that would be successful and financially beneficial. so far the logic demonstrated here is anything new and not in a crate would cut into crates. it's simply not true.

 

anything players are spending on crates, they would spend double on direct item purchases they were interested in. that's just how it works. marketing. sales.

 

there's a sort of assumption here that the avg player is stupid and more likely to gamble to get what they want, when the opposite is true. people will always spend more when they can get exactly what they want. and because of the item variety in the crates they would still sell because players would buy them with the hope of getting multiple items they wanted at half the price of the direct purchase item's list price. for those people who just want a specific item though, they can just purchase directly.

 

also bypassing the GTN due to price is not an issue for me even as a new player i have more than enough credits to purchase anything i want already from flipping items from crates etc. the problem is the inconsistency. if a player wants to spend money to get a look they want... they then have to wait for someone to list it on the GTN. it may have nothing at all to do with price and be about availability and convenience. i'm looking for a specific item right now and it's simply not being sold on the GTN at any price at all. who knows how long i'll wait until it shows up -- i'm more likely to move onto another game in the time i'm waiting if i can't make my character into what i want them to be. this is not effective sales and marketing.

 

some of the replies here are very juvenile and poorly considered.