Credit Economy Initiative beginning with 7.2.1

[Traceguy]

17 minutes ago, Eyvaera said:

Want to grab something from your storage? Tough luck. Want to change your outfit before your (first, especially) cutscene but you need credits to apply it?

I've seen people say this a lot in this thread and the PTS thread. It's just completely unnecessary. You can open your collections and add that armor to your gear slots for 0 credits. All the empty shells have more stats and armor rating than the level 1 stuff too. So why are people failing to realize, that for the first ever cutscene, you can just wear the outfit as gear.

The only thing you lose is color matching, incase you have mismatching sets.

Edited February 10, 2023 by Traceguy

[DWho]

23 minutes ago, Eyvaera said:

Want to fight a boss but you keep dying? Oh, you can no longer afford to repair your gear and now you can't travel anywhere either. What even happens when people run out of credits, huh? Are they stuck there??

This is a very concerning scenario. Back in the "olden" days, this was an issue. You would have to fight mobs to get the credits to repair your gear all the while taking more damage to it. This was the least fun part of the game (right alongside having to complete every mission on the planet and then having to farm mobs to get to be high enough level to advance to the next planet).

As I said in a previous post, this feels more like a means to slow people down in progressing through content than any serious attempt at "fixing" the economy.

[Eyvaera]

18 minutes ago, Traceguy said:

I've seen people say this a lot in this thread and the PTS thread. It's just completely unnecessary. You can open your collections and add that armor to your gear slots for 0 credits. All the empty shells have more stats and armor rating than the level 1 stuff too. So why are people failing to realize, that for the first ever cutscene, you can just wear the outfit as gear.

The only thing you lose is color matching, incase you have mismatching sets.

Sure, but when I start a new character I end up with an inventory full of assorted mail items that I want to dump in storage, no credits to apply an outfit (yes, I do want to do that when I pick up new gear, else it'll all be mismatched), no dyes, and sometimes I want to mix-match outfit pieces or use an item I got from, say, Galactic Seasons or the Feast that's sitting in my Legacy storage instead. This is even assuming the player in question HAS an outfit in collections (unlocked!) to redeem, and not something they left in storage for themselves.

It may not be impossible to fashion a passable outfit on the starter planets (or elsewhere) with few or zero credits and with only what they have on hand, but we're talking about having options here. Options we currently have that these proposed changes would either take away or unnecessarily restrict.

[EricMusco]

Hey folks,

First off, thank you all for the feedback here in the thread and especially for those who have jumped on PTS and played around with the changes. There are some great points of feedback and questions in the thread and I want to respond to some of the themes we are seeing.

These changes are not enough!
You are correct, and we know that, but it is a starting point. It is very important that we make these changes slowly and that we monitor their impacts closely. There are some excellent suggestions in this thread for further changes that are already in the works. As we said up front, you should expect to see changes that focus on the economy throughout the next few updates.

We want to start small and in targeted ways. More changes are coming in future updates.

Let me give you some specifics based on suggestions I am seeing in the thread. We know that players exchanging high value items will often trade outside of the GTN. Either because of its sale cap, or to avoid getting taxed at all on the transaction. This is likely the place you will see a number of changes coming after 7.2.1 to stop the loophole, and to start properly taxing high value trades. 

You're Not Hurting the Rich!
Well, we aren't trying to, not specifically. Inflation in its simplest form is about the amount of credits entering the economy against the amount coming out of it. Over time we have shot ourselves in the foot a bit as we have removed or minimized most regular credit sinks (removing training costs, etc).

The goal of these changes is to introduce passive, small credit removal to the game. This way we have credit removal a bit more in line with our credit generation. Removing singular batches of credits from a subset of players would not lower credit inflation (although it is an important component of it), and could not replace this type of passive removal.

We Need Credit Sinks

We hear you that it would also be great to have some more "spend a LOT of credits to get something specific" but one consideration is that many of the suggestions being made are one time purchases which do not continually reduce credits. As we have many systems that continually introduce credits, we need more things that reduce credits often and not on a one time basis. 

To help balance this, we have been steadily adding credit sinks over the past year or so. Most prominently would be the catch-up mechanic in both Galactic and PvP Seasons. The credit costs in those catch-ups can become quite substantial.

Could You Bring Back Amplifiers?
In short order, no. Our items are not built to have Amplifiers on them since we removed the system. However, the sentiment of this question is solid and is in alignment with what I said earlier, this is another example where we have removed some credit sinks.

The Stronghold Change Particularly Sucks
Yeah, let's talk about this one and our goal. As we are introducing a variety of passive costs to travel, players will inevitably look to find a way to subvert it, even if it is a small cost.

One way players could do this is to use the SH travel to a planet and then Exit Area. Our concern here isn't actually for traveling to the SH, it would be a player trying to use that as a stepping stone onto the planet itself.

With that said, we hear you on the sentiment of this one feeling especially punitive, paying to travel to something you paid for. So here is what we are going to try to change it to. We will not charge you to travel to a SH. Instead we would simply apply a travel cost to using Exit Area.

Note that this is not how it is implemented currently so it will require a bit of time to switch. If we can't make this change in time for launch we will likely do NO charges for SH travel in 7.2.1 and implement the proposed credit cost as noted above in the future.

Thanks all! Keep the feedback coming.

-eric
 

[RikuvonDrake]

22 minutes ago, EricMusco said:

 Inflation in its simplest form is about the amount of credits entering the economy against the amount coming out of it. Over time we have shot ourselves in the foot a bit as we have removed or minimized most regular credit sinks (removing training costs, etc).

The goal of these changes is to introduce passive, small credit removal to the game. This way we have credit removal a bit more in line with our credit generation.
 

the best part, thanks. hopefully people read this, seems most posters missed how inflation actually works

Edit: speaking of currencies, outside of just regular credits and cartel coins we have a couple more, 33 (or more) additional currencies in fact, could we look into handling the "inflation" of those as well?

Currencies: [Tech Fragments][Conquest Commendations][Daily Resource Matrix][FP-1 Stabilizer][OP-1 Catalyst][WZ-1 Accelerant][Underworld Syndicate Plans][Underworld Syndicate Plans][G.A.M.E. Analysis Module][Prosperity Token][Smuggler's Casino Chip][Kingpin's Casino Chip][Emperor's Casino Chip][Golden Certificate][Cartel Market Certificate][Snow-Covered Parcel][Max Bet Emperor's Casino Chip][Max Bet Kingpin's Casino Chip][Max Bet Smuggler's Casino Chip][Dantooine Surveyor's Notes][Completed Bounty Contract][Gray Helix Components][Rakghoul DNA Canister][Relics of Ossus][Masterwork Data Crystal][Monumental Data Crystal][Iokath Power Shards][Eternal Championship Trophy][Ziost Memory Holograph][Fleet Commendation][Dark Side Token][LIght Side Token][Ranked PvP Reward Token]

Edited February 10, 2023 by RikuvonDrake

[RebelJedaii]

12 minutes ago, EricMusco said:

Hey folks,

First off, thank you all for the feedback here in the thread and especially for those who have jumped on PTS and played around with the changes. There are some great points of feedback and questions in the thread and I want to respond to some of the themes we are seeing.

These changes are not enough!
You are correct, and we know that, but it is a starting point. It is very important that we make these changes slowly and that we monitor their impacts closely. There are some excellent suggestions in this thread for further changes that are already in the works. As we said up front, you should expect to see changes that focus on the economy throughout the next few updates.

We want to start small and in targeted ways. More changes are coming in future updates.

Let me give you some specifics based on suggestions I am seeing in the thread. We know that players exchanging high value items will often trade outside of the GTN. Either because of its sale cap, or to avoid getting taxed at all on the transaction. This is likely the place you will see a number of changes coming after 7.2.1 to stop the loophole, and to start properly taxing high value trades. 

You're Not Hurting the Rich!
Well, we aren't trying to, not specifically. Inflation in its simplest form is about the amount of credits entering the economy against the amount coming out of it. Over time we have shot ourselves in the foot a bit as we have removed or minimized most regular credit sinks (removing training costs, etc).

The goal of these changes is to introduce passive, small credit removal to the game. This way we have credit removal a bit more in line with our credit generation. Removing singular batches of credits from a subset of players would not lower credit inflation (although it is an important component of it), and could not replace this type of passive removal.

We Need Credit Sinks

We hear you that it would also be great to have some more "spend a LOT of credits to get something specific" but one consideration is that many of the suggestions being made are one time purchases which do not continually reduce credits. As we have many systems that continually introduce credits, we need more things that reduce credits often and not on a one time basis. 

To help balance this, we have been steadily adding credit sinks over the past year or so. Most prominently would be the catch-up mechanic in both Galactic and PvP Seasons. The credit costs in those catch-ups can become quite substantial.

Could You Bring Back Amplifiers?
In short order, no. Our items are not built to have Amplifiers on them since we removed the system. However, the sentiment of this question is solid and is in alignment with what I said earlier, this is another example where we have removed some credit sinks.

The Stronghold Change Particularly Sucks
Yeah, let's talk about this one and our goal. As we are introducing a variety of passive costs to travel, players will inevitably look to find a way to subvert it, even if it is a small cost.

One way players could do this is to use the SH travel to a planet and then Exit Area. Our concern here isn't actually for traveling to the SH, it would be a player trying to use that as a stepping stone onto the planet itself.

With that said, we hear you on the sentiment of this one feeling especially punitive, paying to travel to something you paid for. So here is what we are going to try to change it to. We will not charge you to travel to a SH. Instead we would simply apply a travel cost to using Exit Area.

Note that this is not how it is implemented currently so it will require a bit of time to switch. If we can't make this change in time for launch we will likely do NO charges for SH travel in 7.2.1 and implement the proposed credit cost as noted above in the future.

Thanks all! Keep the feedback coming.

-eric
 

That stronghold bit makes more sense.  I do shortcut to exit area from stronghold but that is for convenience rather than escape from credits.  Saves me going to map or the ship, & gives me a quick 'sell loot, check mail & hit cargo bay' all on the way.  This would ensure we can use get our new toon all nicely outfitted for their starter adventure.

Still:  I do think we  have a ridiculous number of currencies.  I think it would be better to have mainly credits. 

Edited February 10, 2023 by RebelJedaii

[Aethyriel]

You just make the game less accessible to casual players (especially F2P and pref. status) while the players with a credit abundancy will not just lower the prices of CM items or the like because fewer people can afford them. They'll just sell it to those who earn money through the GTN because that is where the credits are and get shared. You simply missed all opportunities to combat inflation and as long as you don't fight bots and the super cheap credit sellers, the credits will still be generated and bought. You just pump real money into the black market. 

If you want constant credit sinks then maybe let players trade credits for CM items (like a separate market / vendor with a changing selection asking high prices). This way, the credits leave the economy instead of getting shuffled around between players who sell a style set for billions on the fleet. Or allow players to buy weekly EXP boni (like double EXP) - I know I would gladly pay a billion or so to have that when deciding to level another toon.

just sell playing comfort that doesn't really impact anything important - it's just fluff anyway.

[Eyvaera]

16 minutes ago, DWho said:

This is a very concerning scenario. Back in the "olden" days, this was an issue. You would have to fight mobs to get the credits to repair your gear all the while taking more damage to it. This was the least fun part of the game (right alongside having to complete every mission on the planet and then having to farm mobs to get to be high enough level to advance to the next planet).

As I said in a previous post, this feels more like a means to slow people down in progressing through content than any serious attempt at "fixing" the economy.

Oh yes, I remember this well. More than once I (if briefly) abandoned the game and/or character due to getting stuck--underlevelled/copious level grinding; broken gear meant more dying; running out of creds to repair it; boss difficulty spikes etc etc. Travel was difficult then too, but it was still better than what this implementation would provide. Story aside, playing wasn't as fun as it later became. It often felt like a slog. 

What's funny to me is that they'd do that after making more (fairly recent?) changes for the gameplay to be easier for newer players. But certainly, yes, this won't do anything to fix the game economy. To revert back to that prior form of comparatively restrictive gameplay--deliberately!--after subsequent (well-received) improvements is just a step backwards nobody asked for and one the game certainly does not need.

[Eyvaera]

16 minutes ago, EricMusco said:

If we can't make this change in time for launch we will likely do NO charges for SH travel in 7.2.1 and implement the proposed credit cost as noted above in the future.

Genuine question: why not drop the entirety of the proposed changes for 7.2.1 seeing as it's so obviously divisive and needs, at the least, much more feedback and refinement before forcing it onto the entire playerbase?

[codydmaan]

No one looks at the credits they spend on travel except NEW players. 

I dont see a fix here unfortunately yet 😕 

[BenKatarn]

25 minutes ago, EricMusco said:

We hear you that it would also be great to have some more "spend a LOT of credits to get something specific" but one consideration is that many of the suggestions being made are one time purchases which do not continually reduce credits. As we have many systems that continually introduce credits, we need more things that reduce credits often and not on a one time basis. 

I can understand this, but this should still not hinder you from making more things available for purchase with credits. There is still so much in terms of assets you haven't released yet (decoration assets, old armor sets, etc) that could be utilized as an additional source to speond credits on. Please keep this in mind. There need to be multiple types of credit sinks, and one of these has to be items that players actually want to buy. It can't all just be nickling and diming players for small convenience features, particularly if those have been without cost for 11 years.

[DWho]

28 minutes ago, EricMusco said:

Inflation in its simplest form is about the amount of credits entering the economy against the amount coming out of it.

While this is true, reducing the influx of credits only prevents the prices from going higher. It does absolutely nothing to bring them down into a range an average player can afford. The cause of the high prices (which is what almost everyone complaining has complained about) is separate from "inflation". High prices are caused entirely by the vast majority of credits (whether gained legitimately or illegitimately) being in a few players hands allowing them to buy out "rare" items on the GTN to resell them at a much higher price. What is needed is a way to make these items more available or a way to make it less desirable to buy them out and stockpile them.

[Nee-Elder]

1 hour ago, EricMusco said:

First off, thank you all for the feedback here in the thread 

Over time we have shot ourselves in the foot a bit

First off, thank YOU for at least coming in here to post a rather extensive behind-the-scenes  reply.  Most appreciated and i only wish you (and other official BioWare Dev/Coders) were authorized to make such posts more regularly more often. ( perhaps even a planned once-per-month 'Dev Update Session' thread? )

Secondly, let's be real for a moment please:  U guys ( BioWare, EA, whomever ) shot yourselves in the foot the shin the knee the thigh the gut the heart the nearly everything  once "you" decided to make the 'Cartel Market-->F2P-->Microtransactions'  ( legal credit/cash swap system for faster profit ) business model as the main focus of SWTOR. 

Instead of going to a more balanced incentivized $ubscription model, whereby credits (not coins) actually earned by PLAYERS thru IN-GAME means (quests, grinds, achievements, etc. ) would've governed & generated the bulk of economy as the years passed by.

Consequently, now in 2023, u guys are sorta stuck between a CM rock & an inflation hard-place.  And, as much as i really do respect your efforts, in my opinion it is too little too late.

p.s. Please @EricMusco remember this awesomely STAR WARSy type thing called  Galactic Starfighter sometime this year.  Heck, i'd even consider spending oh i dunno  1 billion credits to unlock  PvE  GSF missions/maps, ya know sorta as like a credit-sink.

Edited February 10, 2023 by Nee-Elder
Reason: 2023 should = the year to put the STAR back into 'Star Wars' !

[DraonaiMimnov]

35 minutes ago, EricMusco said:

Hey folks,

First off, thank you all for the feedback here in the thread and especially for those who have jumped on PTS and played around with the changes. There are some great points of feedback and questions in the thread and I want to respond to some of the themes we are seeing.

These changes are not enough!
You are correct, and we know that, but it is a starting point. It is very important that we make these changes slowly and that we monitor their impacts closely. There are some excellent suggestions in this thread for further changes that are already in the works. As we said up front, you should expect to see changes that focus on the economy throughout the next few updates.

We want to start small and in targeted ways. More changes are coming in future updates.

Let me give you some specifics based on suggestions I am seeing in the thread. We know that players exchanging high value items will often trade outside of the GTN. Either because of its sale cap, or to avoid getting taxed at all on the transaction. This is likely the place you will see a number of changes coming after 7.2.1 to stop the loophole, and to start properly taxing high value trades. 

You're Not Hurting the Rich!
Well, we aren't trying to, not specifically. Inflation in its simplest form is about the amount of credits entering the economy against the amount coming out of it. Over time we have shot ourselves in the foot a bit as we have removed or minimized most regular credit sinks (removing training costs, etc).

The goal of these changes is to introduce passive, small credit removal to the game. This way we have credit removal a bit more in line with our credit generation. Removing singular batches of credits from a subset of players would not lower credit inflation (although it is an important component of it), and could not replace this type of passive removal.

We Need Credit Sinks

We hear you that it would also be great to have some more "spend a LOT of credits to get something specific" but one consideration is that many of the suggestions being made are one time purchases which do not continually reduce credits. As we have many systems that continually introduce credits, we need more things that reduce credits often and not on a one time basis. 

To help balance this, we have been steadily adding credit sinks over the past year or so. Most prominently would be the catch-up mechanic in both Galactic and PvP Seasons. The credit costs in those catch-ups can become quite substantial.

Could You Bring Back Amplifiers?
In short order, no. Our items are not built to have Amplifiers on them since we removed the system. However, the sentiment of this question is solid and is in alignment with what I said earlier, this is another example where we have removed some credit sinks.

The Stronghold Change Particularly Sucks
Yeah, let's talk about this one and our goal. As we are introducing a variety of passive costs to travel, players will inevitably look to find a way to subvert it, even if it is a small cost.

One way players could do this is to use the SH travel to a planet and then Exit Area. Our concern here isn't actually for traveling to the SH, it would be a player trying to use that as a stepping stone onto the planet itself.

With that said, we hear you on the sentiment of this one feeling especially punitive, paying to travel to something you paid for. So here is what we are going to try to change it to. We will not charge you to travel to a SH. Instead we would simply apply a travel cost to using Exit Area.

Note that this is not how it is implemented currently so it will require a bit of time to switch. If we can't make this change in time for launch we will likely do NO charges for SH travel in 7.2.1 and implement the proposed credit cost as noted above in the future.

Thanks all! Keep the feedback coming.

-eric
 

Musco,

You always have this option as it is not a one time purchase. 

Quote

 

I think the team should just implement a system in which you can buy cartel coins for credits, and base the currency conversion rate on big ticket items being sold, like character slots, renames, or hypercrates.

If a hypercrate is worth 5500 and they sell for 4 billion, it would be about 727,000 credits per cartel coin. If you really want to reduce inflation you'll want to drain the economy and reduce credit rewards significantly to keep inflation from rising back up. 

I think taxing these travel costs will only hurt new players and it will do nothing to reduce the amount of credits in the system from the people with billions.

 

Purchasing Cartel Coins with credits would be something many people would make repeat purchases of. The credits only have one way to go if they are going into the system and exiting the game rather than into the hands of another player.

[LOWTHOR]

34 minutes ago, EricMusco said:

You're Not Hurting the Rich!
Well, we aren't trying to, not specifically. Inflation in its simplest form is about the amount of credits entering the economy against the amount coming out of it. Over time we have shot ourselves in the foot a bit as we have removed or minimized most regular credit sinks (removing training costs, etc).

The goal of these changes is to introduce passive, small credit removal to the game. This way we have credit removal a bit more in line with our credit generation. Removing singular batches of credits from a subset of players would not lower credit inflation (although it is an important component of it), and could not replace this type of passive removal.

You are not hearing the feedback here.  The feedback is that to a new player or casual who has 1,000 credits you basically do not allow them to quick travel or visit a stronghold because it costs way too much.   Where as the people who have billions of credits do not care.  You are better finding a way to leave necessities like quick travel alone and making credit sinks elsewhere.

Unless it is your desire to gate quick travel behind a new player credit grind.  Or worse, some purchased credits.

[DWho]

52 minutes ago, EricMusco said:

First off, thank you all for the feedback here in the thread and especially for those who have jumped on PTS and played around with the changes. There are some great points of feedback and questions in the thread and I want to respond to some of the themes we are seeing.

On this note, some of us can't even get on the PTS because we get a blank server select screen. This issue has persisted since the onset of the 64-bit PTS rollout and has had almost no comment from Bioware. Please fix this issue so we can actually see how the new taxes work

[supercometl]

53 minutes ago, EricMusco said:

You're Not Hurting the Rich!
Well, we aren't trying to, not specifically. Inflation in its simplest form is about the amount of credits entering the economy against the amount coming out of it. Over time we have shot ourselves in the foot a bit as we have removed or minimized most regular credit sinks (removing training costs, etc).

The goal of these changes is to introduce passive, small credit removal to the game. This way we have credit removal a bit more in line with our credit generation. Removing singular batches of credits from a subset of players would not lower credit inflation (although it is an important component of it), and could not replace this type of passive removal.

 

 

In regards to this section. The main area I think a lot of players take small issue to is around the main "rich tax" of swtor being GTN tax. In recent time though, a lot of items are just not purchasable from the gtn as the credit limit on the gtn is too low, the main player created top items of gold augs fall under this group.

Also the credit catch up system is a good example of "lump sum" credit dumps, more repeatable purchases like this would help, but the current amount of passes is probably the max for players to be able to realistically earn everything without major fatigue. Maybe add a credit option on small level of appearance changes, such as hair style, color, cosmetics.

[DarthNillard]

All of these ideas are idiotic.  There is only 1 solution that can fix the economy and it should be implemented: item level sales caps.  Some version of Greens can only be sold for 100k, blues for 500k, purple for 1m, gold for 5m, and exotic for 10m across the board (with scales for lesser level stuff). This would fix literally everything with $$$ in this game.

But that would significantly kill you microtransactioning us to death, which is budget line 1.0 on the EA income sheets, so it will never happen.

Edited February 10, 2023 by DarthNillard

[Stradlin]

It is odd to me BW isn't really talking about giving players tools for dealing with the inflation.  It is super slow and difficult to heal this sick economy. Giving people ways to cope with it would be more simple. I assume almost nobody here expects things to " get better" , it'd take incredibly drastic money sinks. Stuff that used to be, say, 800 mils a year back and costs 8 bils today will never again cost 4 bils or something. I think this a safe bet.  Current caps on  GTN price tags,  legacy banks and so on simply can't deal with this inflation. I assume increasing these caps is somehow difficult due to how code was build?

If it is an issue about TOR's engine/code, then why not give players access to new currency: platinium token(or w/e) Have a vendor selling plat tokens for one bil each. Same vendor also buys them back for one bil each. Open a new GTN that runs exclusvely on plat tokens.

 

 

Edited February 10, 2023 by Stradlin

[microstyles]

1 hour ago, EricMusco said:

We know that players exchanging high value items will often trade outside of the GTN. Either because of its sale cap, or to avoid getting taxed at all on the transaction. This is likely the place you will see a number of changes coming after 7.2.1 to stop the loophole, and to start properly taxing high value trades. 

Good to hear. Thanks for the update. If done well I think this type of change will help the situation a lot.

[Dothwaa]

1 hour ago, EricMusco said:

The Stronghold Change Particularly Sucks
Yeah, let's talk about this one and our goal. As we are introducing a variety of passive costs to travel, players will inevitably look to find a way to subvert it, even if it is a small cost.

One way players could do this is to use the SH travel to a planet and then Exit Area. Our concern here isn't actually for traveling to the SH, it would be a player trying to use that as a stepping stone onto the planet itself.

With that said, we hear you on the sentiment of this one feeling especially punitive, paying to travel to something you paid for. So here is what we are going to try to change it to. We will not charge you to travel to a SH. Instead we would simply apply a travel cost to using Exit Area.

Note that this is not how it is implemented currently so it will require a bit of time to switch. If we can't make this change in time for launch we will likely do NO charges for SH travel in 7.2.1 and implement the proposed credit cost as noted above in the future.

Until you fix the bugs in game that force you to leave areas and return to complete quest maybe don't charge us to work around it. Many times you have to jump to stronghold, return to planet just to complete a mission because some cliky item isn't working or  some cut scene wont play. 

[AMAirlines]

1 hour ago, EricMusco said:

Hey folks,

First off, thank you all for the feedback here in the thread and especially for those who have jumped on PTS and played around with the changes. There are some great points of feedback and questions in the thread and I want to respond to some of the themes we are seeing.

These changes are not enough!
You are correct, and we know that, but it is a starting point. It is very important that we make these changes slowly and that we monitor their impacts closely. There are some excellent suggestions in this thread for further changes that are already in the works. As we said up front, you should expect to see changes that focus on the economy throughout the next few updates.

We want to start small and in targeted ways. More changes are coming in future updates.

Let me give you some specifics based on suggestions I am seeing in the thread. We know that players exchanging high value items will often trade outside of the GTN. Either because of its sale cap, or to avoid getting taxed at all on the transaction. This is likely the place you will see a number of changes coming after 7.2.1 to stop the loophole, and to start properly taxing high value trades. 

You're Not Hurting the Rich!
Well, we aren't trying to, not specifically. Inflation in its simplest form is about the amount of credits entering the economy against the amount coming out of it. Over time we have shot ourselves in the foot a bit as we have removed or minimized most regular credit sinks (removing training costs, etc).

The goal of these changes is to introduce passive, small credit removal to the game. This way we have credit removal a bit more in line with our credit generation. Removing singular batches of credits from a subset of players would not lower credit inflation (although it is an important component of it), and could not replace this type of passive removal.

We Need Credit Sinks

We hear you that it would also be great to have some more "spend a LOT of credits to get something specific" but one consideration is that many of the suggestions being made are one time purchases which do not continually reduce credits. As we have many systems that continually introduce credits, we need more things that reduce credits often and not on a one time basis. 

To help balance this, we have been steadily adding credit sinks over the past year or so. Most prominently would be the catch-up mechanic in both Galactic and PvP Seasons. The credit costs in those catch-ups can become quite substantial.

Could You Bring Back Amplifiers?
In short order, no. Our items are not built to have Amplifiers on them since we removed the system. However, the sentiment of this question is solid and is in alignment with what I said earlier, this is another example where we have removed some credit sinks.

The Stronghold Change Particularly Sucks
Yeah, let's talk about this one and our goal. As we are introducing a variety of passive costs to travel, players will inevitably look to find a way to subvert it, even if it is a small cost.

One way players could do this is to use the SH travel to a planet and then Exit Area. Our concern here isn't actually for traveling to the SH, it would be a player trying to use that as a stepping stone onto the planet itself.

With that said, we hear you on the sentiment of this one feeling especially punitive, paying to travel to something you paid for. So here is what we are going to try to change it to. We will not charge you to travel to a SH. Instead we would simply apply a travel cost to using Exit Area.

Note that this is not how it is implemented currently so it will require a bit of time to switch. If we can't make this change in time for launch we will likely do NO charges for SH travel in 7.2.1 and implement the proposed credit cost as noted above in the future.

Thanks all! Keep the feedback coming.

-eric
 

Hey gamers. I wanted to make this show on the dev tracker as well, because myself and a couple others came up with a LOT of great ways to create credit sinks in the game without taking away from other undeserving people. I have them categorically listed below.

 

Ideas for reducing credit inflation

Increase Taxes
- Increase GTN cap so people use it
- Increase the GTN tax
- Add a tax for players when they trade credits

Better Rewards
- Add item to double tech fragment/catalyst gain from all content
- Add item to increase drop chance on rare items in flashpoints/operations (consumable, used 1 per instance)

Reputation
- Add vendors to the game that sell reputation items for large sums of credits
- Add items to allow players to bypass the weekly reputation limit
- Alternatively, add option to allow players to directly buy reputation for credits

Gathering Nodes
- Add credit cost to use one. (Also would help inhibit gold farmers)

Cartel Market/Collections/Item Related
- Add the option to buy cartel market certificates for credits
- Add a tax for taking an item out from collections
- Increase prices of items in the cartel bazaar
- Add all cartel market items to the market to decrease rarity
- Allow for the purchase of RPM/OEMs for credits

Galactic Seasons/PVP Seasons
- Allow for the purchase of PVP Tokens/Seasons tokens with credits
- Allow players to skip to level 25 of pvp seasons for higher amounts of credits
- Allow players to skip to level 100 of galactic seasons for higher amounts of credits

Story
- Allow for players to purchase titles for credits if they skipped those points in the story
- Have all story skips cost credits, and add one to start in the Manaan storyline

Character Customization
- Ability to change gender

Operations
- If you have a mount/title that drops from an operation on one character, you can pay to have the item unlocked on one other character.

[A_Guy_Called_Bob]

Multiple ideas have been suggested by the community which would be more effective. You could:

 

A) Add a credits option to unlocking things in collections, or

B) Enable appearance modification for credits, 

 

[kekrot]

Suggestion: you should increase the max GTN cap. Every time a player sells a Hypercrate for 8 billion in trade chat (normal price right now across servers is 8-10b), 640 million credits are not removed from the economy (which would happen at GTN, slightly less with Tax Evasion but not much)... Then, put a higher-than-GTN tax on player trades (I do not see how this would work out, two credits "text boxes" where one shows you how much is given and another shows you how much to be received?), or just lower the tradable credits amount to 10 million. That amount is laughably low in the current item trading environment, but enough to buy almost everything in-game (except Dantooine heroic item).

If a hypercrate went for 8 billion on GTN, it would remove 640 million credits (or 448 million with the current Tax Evasion III, making it still good), and maybe this would spiral into lower prices across the board? Of course, with a increased GTN cap beyond the current character credit amount, you would need to increase the max character credit cap, or have GTN use legacy cargo bay funds.

[go_rogue]

1 hour ago, EricMusco said:

 

With that said, we hear you on the sentiment of this one feeling especially punitive, paying to travel to something you paid for. So here is what we are going to try to change it to. We will not charge you to travel to a SH. Instead we would simply apply a travel cost to using Exit Area.

Eric, a quick question on this. Is it for exiting to it's destination location, e.g. Alderaan stronghold exiting to Alderaan? What about Return to location from stronghold since one technically isn't travelling to a new location? E.g. I'm on Alderaan, I go to my Nar Shaddaa stronghold, then return to Alderaan?