Cartel Pack Changes Coming with Steadfast Champion Pack on 5/16

[Falkenlambedo]

I make it fast.... ********

[curulz]

Did we not have similar changes in the not so distant past?

You removed the bronze items in Jan 2016 with this post here

You then added them back again in June 2016 with this post here

Now you want to go back again to the Jan 2016 version?

 

its like deja vu all over again

[SebastianII]

I want to add my two cents about art and marketing.

 

The first rule is: know your audience.

 

The quality of the packs has been bad for well over a year. First you cut back on the items per pack roll. Then added grand chance cubes against the communities outcry. Then increased the items per pack, kept the cubes and started rolling out a poorer quality of items. There are things in these packs that look like a dev said, "Hey this pack needs a filler. Throw something together before lunch and make it a different color."

 

I feel these changes are being implemented because of sales. BUT YOU NEED TO GIVE THE AUDIENCE WHAT THEY WANT OR THE PRODUCT DOESN'T SELL.

 

You're holding items like vented lightsabers, weapon tunings, intractable decorations, saber pikes etc. hostage behind an arbitrary barrier of entry. You've let the economy get over inflated because the supply doesn't meet the demand.

 

These are digital items, no reason for a shortage. The drop rates need increased. There needs to be 2 items per pack. The filler needs to go. The quality designation bronze, silver, etc. needs to go. Finally, the artists have to try harder (seriously, from one artist to another: you have almost complete freedom here and only need to meet a star wars aesthetic and be unique).

[Andryah]

What is much more likely is the fat doesn't get trimmed at all, but restamped with a Silver icon and no chances change at all, just a different coloured symbol on trash and higher Collections unlock price per pixel.

 

^^ I agree with this assessment. Which means that the only thing really going on here is that unlocks will in general be more expensive to the players. Not monumentally more expensive, but more expensive to be sure... which does affect all players, not just players who buy packs.

[RaiderMid]

^^ I agree with this assessment. Which means that the only thing really going on here is that unlocks will in general be more expensive to the players. Not monumentally more expensive, but more expensive to be sure... which does affect all players, not just players who buy packs.

 

Sure, it would be unfortunate too. I'm still irriated it cost 400 CCs to unlock the Senya holotrainer we spent 1 credit on during the life day (I beleive it was) event. It may have been the anniversary event.

Edited May 14, 2017 by RaiderMid

[Edyn]

They're having to degrade the item size and quality in order to gain back the money they have lost through subscription cancellations due to poor design! This will only degrade the cartel market, and further detract from the game. They should be focusing on pumping out real new content instead of tweaking the screws down ever tighter to the remaining loyal players.

 

Not a fan of cash shops, I've only bought one Pack (I forget the flavor) just to see what the "pack opening experience" was like and It was a Vegas-style interaction with a few items I'd never use in game. There are so many items in this game that are out of my reach, gated behind a cash shop Pack or Cartel Certificates, etc. I can't obtain, or they are just too expensive to buy direct from the CM with just my subscription CC's (that decoration artwork bundle, for example) or too expensive to buy from other players... and I'm left with characters who don't look as good as they could and Strongholds with all the same generic decor... Why?

 

I'm not an instant gratification gamer, and while I have my vices, gambling (CM) isn't one of them. I'm not a farmer (credits to buy what I want from players off the GTN if it's even listed)... I'm an adventurer. I don't know if I'm just becoming that old MMORPG codger (at 35) but I long for the day I actually get real loot drops on planets and in instances. For example, killing a rare and difficult Champion mob and having it drop a Sith Recluse piece or a rare decoration would actually be the original Thrill of the Hunt™ that I'm used to in MMO's - and it's fun for me. Two-shotting almost every mob in the game and having them drop nothing but trash is not fun. What's wrong with trash having the chance to drop random common decorations and armor sets and give instance bosses the chance to drop more rare items and Ops bosses things like the unstable lightsaber?

 

What is wrong with obtaining all of these items while enjoying the game rather than just throwing RL money at it just to get bored and quit a month later because I simply bought what I wanted? What happened to questing for the items I want? Even if it takes awhile, if I want a particular item, I'll do it - throw in some lore, throw in some story, throw in some Companion interactions... I guess what I'm saying is, "throw in some effort" on something other than skins. I have money and I will pay for effort.

 

I may not be one who throws $50 a month at Packs for skins, but I'd throw that amount or more per month for expanded SWTOR adventures and the SWTOR experience I got teased with from levels 1 - 50. I'd gladly fork out $300 for a full expansion, similar to vanilla. Now, take all that times two: the husb would do the same - we have the means and we want to support SWTOR with it, but we're not dropping that kind of cash on "Add to Cart... if you're lucky" pixels with no SWTOR experience. As a matter of fact, my sub expires around the 27th due to the "meaningful" return of Elara and Quinn on 5.2.

 

I know I went off the rails there, but every time people start complaining about the CM, I guess I lament that we, the players, are the ones who keep enabling BW to get away with doing the very bare minimum for what could have been a spectacular MMORPG by continuing to purchase Cartel Packs.

Edited May 14, 2017 by Edyn

[grania]

Not a fan of cash shops, ...

 

I agree with everything you just said. It really hit home for me the moment I realized I was grinding money just to pay other players for nice things. Not having fun, not adventuring, or exploring or challenging myself, just slaving away for someone else's benefit.

[Lunafox]

You know, for the money, there should be 3 new items, a chance cube, and scraps, otherwise, it's not really worth it. It's not like they're cheap and it's so hard to get decent stuff anymore; I've given up on buying them since they got chintzy and this revelation isn't enough to motivate me to part with my cash. Edited May 14, 2017 by Lunafox

[berelinde]

This change is absolutely terrible for players. Might benefit EA, but not if players aren't buying the packs. It accomplishes 3 things:

 

1) You'll still have the same aesthetic quality, but CM unlocks will now be much more expensive.

 

2) The drop rate for chance cubes has just gone up by a dramatic amount. Previously, a hypercrate would contain 9 chance cubes, on average. Now it will contain 26. I don't need any more deep yellow/pale pink dyes, thanks.

 

3) Each pack will now only have one new item, so if you've been playing a while, the value per pack has just gone way down.

 

On the other hand, recent RL events have forced me to revise my spending habits. The new pack design effectively removes all temptation to buy Cartel Packs.

[Xina_LA]

Even the silver and gold decorations in the last several packs have been lower quality than in previous packs.

 

Some of them have animation problems. Most of them have few hook options, making them less useful.

Recently, we got a whole set of factory parts, many of which were boring, even though we don't have a factory style stronghold and the Coruscant/DK strongholds have rooms too small for it.

 

After all, who doesn't want a few of these in their stronghold? http://tord.mmo-fashion.com/iokath-minidome/

I'm sure that was high on everyone's wishlist.

 

Here's a good example of what's weak with decorations:

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=921318

 

What we needed was to have fewer, higher quality new decorations released in each pack.

What we absolutely do NOT need is to get fewer chances at a decoration in each pack!

 

TLDR: Do you really think you can drop quality and then increase price and expect me to spend money?

Edited May 15, 2017 by Xina_LA

[DarthSpuds]

Even the silver and gold decorations in the last several packs have been lower quality than in previous packs.

 

Some of them have animation problems. Most of them have few hook options, making them less useful.

Recently, we got a whole set of factory parts, many of which were boring, even though we don't have a factory style stronghold and the Coruscant/DK strongholds have rooms too small for it.

 

After all, who doesn't want a few of these in their stronghold? http://tord.mmo-fashion.com/iokath-minidome/

I'm sure that was high on everyone's wishlist.

 

Here's a good example of what's weak with decorations:

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=921318

 

What we needed was to have fewer, higher quality new decorations released in each pack.

What we absolutely do NOT need is to get fewer chances at a decoration in each pack!

 

TLDR: Do you really think you can drop quality and then increase price and expect me to spend money?

 

THis is one of my concerns with the Decorations we are getting of late.

 

There doesn't seem to be any coherency with them.

The Iokath Transport Tube for example.

Where is anyone going to put one of them where it would look like it "belonged" there and had a function, a purpose?

And you could see most players felt the same because barely a week after they were added they are down to less than 150k Credits on the GTN. That tells me they were perceived as "useless rubbish".

 

The Decorations team need to start looking at Decorations that serve a purpose, that do something useful.

How about some vertical dividers to split up the large rooms for example, especially the Main Hall on the Yavin 4 Temple. But more than that such functional Decorations need to be done in multiple styles, so they look appropriate to the room you are putting them in.

 

Let's have small items like Bottles, Vases etc that we can put ON the Tables we have already placed. When we put a Table in a Hook Slot that table should have 2 or 3 "Small Furnishing" Hooks on top of them.

 

Then add in Platforms, with Steps for example, so that We could divide up the larger spaces. Imagine a Metal Platform, with Steps that you could place in the Hooks for Carpets, but would then add a few more Hooks to the Platform area.

 

With some of the Rooms no matter how you mess about with the Hook Layouts there really isn't any way to make reasonable full use of the Space.

 

And why is there only one "environmental" Decoration that isn't in Pots etc. There's a lot of empty space on Yavin that could be decorated with "wild" environmental Decos.

 

Personally I'd love to see them go down the ESO Route and allow full free form placement of anything, with full 360 degree rotation on all three axes. Add in Wildstar's ability to scale assets up or down, and there would much more versatility - and so much more incentive for players to part with cash.

 

All The Best

[Xina_LA]

Wait, didn't they say that crafting is eventually going to increase Influence with companions?

Yes, yes they did... http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=9302353#edit9302353

Doesn't this make the companion gifts even less valuable and useful than before?

So we'll get even less chance of a new item and less valuable guaranteed items.

 

Unless the packs cost half of what they did before, they will feel like a rip-off.

Edited May 15, 2017 by Xina_LA

[RaiderMid]

Wait, didn't they say that crafting is eventually going to increase Influence with companions?

Yes, yes they did... http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=9302353#edit9302353

Doesn't this make the companion gifts even less valuable and useful than before?

So we'll get even less chance of a new item and less valuable guaranteed items.

 

Unless the packs cost half of what they did before, they will feel like a rip-off.

 

It depends, gold gifts (Rank 6) will probably still be the big net for increasing influence. I imagine crew skills won't give out much influence.

[jimmorrisson]

In regards to the Platinums status - the forums supported and received the tier after the Unstable sabers came out to differentiate Ultra Rare from Rare.

 

In terms of pack quality in there are still visual bugs present no matter what the quality (rarity). For example the KOTOR-influenced sabers as linked in my signature. Upon initial release the KOTOR swords were awesome particularly for Sentinels and Marauders.

 

Then a few months later, Bioware made all vibroswords backholsterd which created a huge visual bug for the Classic Offhand Vibrosword. Two months pass by - a partial fix was introduced where the offhand vibrosword is still visually bugged 6 months later.

[Saito_Hiraga]

In the way that the most common pack drops were bronze, yes that will now be silver. However, internally we view the rarity of an item to be a reflection of the art time and quality of each item (this can be subjective to the player though based on what they "like"). So although you will receive more silver than items than before (instead of bronze), those items should be of a higher quality.

 

 

 

What you are asking about sounds like the Bronze / Silver / Gold <type> packs, such as the Silver Decorations pack, etc. Those types of packs the team puts on and off at various points in the year. I will pass on your interest for the deco version.

 

-eric

 

Eric can't you guys just try to go back to that cool design you had with Stronghold packs where you get one new pack item and a decoration guaranteed per pack along with the mats(scrap) and the comp gift? That was really cool pack design IMO cuz people hunting just decors or just items will always get a chance at getting the kind of items they want. As for chance cubes those should be directly selled always at packs secction for about 100coins cuz they have some miserable odds of getting you the items u want on the huge pool of possible items.

And decorations pack should be always avalible, its sad I can't get pack to draw new decors everytime I want. A better idea would be allowing us to use CC to purchase copies of decorations we already unlocked for our personal strongholds the way we do with guilds.

[GolgoXIII]

A better idea would be allowing us to use CC to purchase copies of decorations we already unlocked for our personal strongholds the way we do with guilds.

 

I am not sure what deco's you are talking about you buy with CC as all I have ever seen are ones you can buy with credits for the guild.

Edited May 16, 2017 by GolgoXIII

[Xina_LA]

It depends, gold gifts (Rank 6) will probably still be the big net for increasing influence. I imagine crew skills won't give out much influence.

Just opened my hypercrate. Rank 5 companion gifts.

[Kagekeishu]

Just opened my hypercrate. Rank 5 companion gifts.

 

You'll only ever get Rank 5 comp gifts out of CM-Packs..! Rank 6 only drop from Alliance-Crate (I think) or can be bought from the vendor on Odessen...

 

 

Best regards

Kage

[Nuffmeister]

Edit: Nevermind. Edited May 17, 2017 by Nuffmeister

[Grindera]

First of all, I bought a Steadfast Champion hypercrate - shame on me.

 

Including only 2 armor sets into the pack was a slap in the face in the first place.

We talk about something that did not worked a year ago - eliminating bronze items and "now with more Grand Chance Cubes!" is offensive.

With the price cut down to 3000CC I could live with this solution.

 

What I got out of the crate was really disappointing:

- only 2 gold items: 1 decoration and the IO-8 Companion

- lot of crystals, 4 silver mounts and few blasters

- at least I could put the silver armor set together

 

Chance cubes were the usual bronze / silver quality items generally, best I got is a Pocket Sarlacc.

 

That's all folks. No gold armor or mount drop, no flair, never even thought about a platinum rarity drop...

Giving Rank 5 companion gifts is just insulting. At least these could be of Rank 6 quality since we have an awful lot of companions, but gifts became really scarce since the elimination of data crystals.

 

The direction is worrysome as same as it was a year ago.

Less new CM content in packs with awful drop-rates for even new items, more Chance Cubes.

 

Elimination of bronze items should not mean the reduction of both gold and silver items (armors) to 1 per rarity.

 

Why there aren't at least 2 gold and 2 silver armors per set?

Why are there no Cartel Certificates at least instead of Chance Cubes with a drop rate like 20-80% (more for Cubes of course)?

Companion customizations anyone?

 

As I did last year, I will stop buying Cartel Packs from the Cartel Market until the issue is resolved.

There are plenty of items I need to unlock with my monthly CC grant instead of buying coins to spend on hypercrates.

I had issues with RNG in the past, but at least there was a possiblity to get some nice items for my money.

Now I pay for less with even less chance.

 

TL;DR

Never understood this idea of going back to something which already failed once...

[Chaosetor]

I don't like the changes much. As numerous people have pointed out, not creating bronze quality items has exactly one effect: It makes silver the "new" bronze (you can say what you want about "higher quality items, but let's call a shovel a shovel, or in this case, let's call a generic blaster a generic blaster).

 

Furthermore, giving one guaranteed grand chance cube which can and frequently does give low quality bronze items is not a very good compensation scheme. You cannot really advertise that this is a "new" pack in which you get "new" items, when only 25% of the pack's contents are the aforementioned new items. Removing bronze items is all well and good, but the end result in guaranteeing a grand chance cube rather than a chance for an item just guarantees a terribly low chance of getting the item(s) you want (yay! RNG) followed by another RNG-bonanza when opening a grand chance cube which overwhelmingly result in such gems as: A makeshift fence, A generic trooper-style armour set, a generic lightsaber and of course, generic blasters.

 

Either throw popular decorations into the direct sale scheme together with an armour set or a weapon, split packs into decoration packs and gear packs (armour and weapons), implement a token system, or try something entirely different, but this is not the answer. These changes will not increase the chances of getting "rare" items, but it will decrease them significantly compared to the previous packs.

 

If you really want to give us a better value for our investment, stop dishing out blue and purple companion gifts in packs that are easily obtainable from heroics anyway and replace that slot with something else, for example, guarantee one vanity item (decorations, mounts and emotes) and one weapon/armour piece in each pack opened.

Edited May 17, 2017 by Chaosetor

[LeMage]

First of all, I bought a Steadfast Champion hypercrate - shame on me.

 

This ^

 

I am underwhelmed with the Steadfast Champion pack. but I got a whopping 3 pieces of armor. 1x Intrepid knight's Upper and 2x Mandalorian Trackers Lower and assorted dross. So I guess I should be happy, Grindera. It seems I've bought my last pack for a while. At least until 'they' come up with a better cunning plan than this.

Edited May 17, 2017 by LeMage
typo

[Xina_LA]

I was worried that the new pack "math" was going to be worse. It was far worse than I expected.

26 Grand Chance Cubes -- 1 gold, 25 bronze. That's insane. Other people have posted similar results.

7 new decorations in the latest pack; I opened a hypercrate and only unlocked 2.

I didn't get one complete set of armor. I did get tons of duplicate pets.

 

I have a strong feeling that the GTN prices on pack items are going to be insane tomorrow.

 

Eric Musco, please post and tell us that there's a bug in the pack?

[BattleAxMaeve]

I agree that this crate was most disappointing. Only two sets of armour available? Our characters have character. Variety is important because not all armour suits them. I don't mind if some outfits are reskins, especially if that reskin is constructed by removing some exaggerated feature such as a shoulder pad that looks like a giant hedgehog! Moderated OTT gear would probably be very welcome by many of us--maybe reinstate it as bronze?

 

If your designers can't come up with such, start a forum thread in which players ask for alterations.

 

Decorations should be in every pack. After all, there is no legacy unlock for them. If we want a set of chairs in our personal SHs, we must acquire each one individually. With only one or two decorations of any sort in a hypercrate (my experience this time), this is just not going to happen. The return of cartel certificates would also be welcome.

[masterceil]

If your designers can't come up with such, start a forum thread in which players ask for alterations.

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/forumdisplay.php?f=415