Credit Economy Initiative beginning with 7.2.1

[Estelindis]

1 hour ago, casirabit said:

Copying my reply from the other forum since they only want people that go to the test server to respond, even though everyone knows how this could or would affect them without testing it.

Exactly.  I saw Jackie's clarification that only PTS-based feedback is desired in the other thread after I already posted my answer...  But, like you said, we don't need to experience any of this directly to know exactly how it would affect us and the game!  The numbers speak for themselves.  For someone with billions of credits, it's completely meaningless to add a 100 credit cost here or a 5,000 credit cost there.  As Sir-steve said...

1 hour ago, Sir-steve said:

Consider, a billion credits isn't considered much these days but lets say we want to remove 1B on average per player.  Even at the maximum amount of 5k per trip, taking 100 trips per day, playing 365 days a year, it would take over 5 and a half years to get to the 1B mark.  And what would the player get in return for that 1B?  Nothing.  Zip, zero.....something they already have for free.  Wait, maybe they have resentment which is not what you're shooting for.

This game needs to stop inventing new event currencies and let them spend CREDITS on in-game items so those credits are pulled out of the economy.  I'm not suggesting credits be tradeable for Cartel Coins, or used to purchase things on the CM (since that's a sacred cash cow).....nor am I suggesting we gate content behind credits because that just leads to more credit farming. 

We need fun/shiny/desirable/cosmetic things (new or old) to SPEND our credits on so we get something in return.....not have them 'taxed' away to use something we already paid for.

Even with such an extreme example as 100 trips a day, it would take an absurd amount of time to have a significant credit impact on a rich legacy - but it'll have a drastic impact on beginners with few-to-no credits.  This isn't the way to do it. 

Anti-inflation measures need to leave low-to-mid-wealth players alone and go for the high-credit players.  BW need to add fun things to the game that cost tens of millions, hundreds of millions, and yes even billions or tens of billions of credits.  To ensure a continuing impact, these would include highly repeatable purchases like decorations and dyes (as well as less-likely-to-be-repeated purchases like weapons, titles, outfits, flairs, mounts, tunings, etc.).  Some could be new, while others could be old items that haven't been on the cartel market for some time.

Since my post in the PTS thread will probably be deleted due to not directly referencing PTS play, I'm going to replicate it here.

21 minutes ago, Estelindis said:

The proposed changes seem like they will negatively impact players with few credits, especially complete beginners to the game, while having zero impact on players that have built up a big credits stockpile.  Considering that ideally SWTOR would like to attract new players, these changes will not, in my opinion, have the positive impact that you intend, but rather a negative one.

I am a player with plenty of credits: sufficiently comfortable that these changes will not impact me, but not one of the super-mega-rich.  However, I have occasionally tried playing on a different server, where my legacy has only a few credits, or with an alt F2P account (just to see what the F2P experience is like these days).  It is extraordinary how much of a difference there is, in terms of quality of life, between a mature legacy with lots of credits and one just starting out.  With zero credits to start, and new credits coming in very slowly while levelling one's first character, it can be a genuinely punishing experience trying to afford some basics.  The proposed changes seem like they would only be more punishing to beginners.

Instead, please add a range of cool and desirable cosmetic items that can only be purchased for extremely large amounts of credits.  These would function as genuine credit sinks targeting the upper echelons in the SWTOR economy.  I appreciate that it may upset some people to have some content dangled out of their reach.  Personally, I am imagining things sufficiently expensive that I probably wouldn't be able to afford many, if any, with all the credits in my legacy, so I expect to be among those missing out.  However, I think that the overall effect on the in-game economy of this step would be much more positive for the whole game.  If large amounts of credits leave circulation, prices on lots of things on the GTN will go down, and this will actually make many things more affordable for beginners (vs. the opposite effect, which I expect to happen based on what you're currently planning).

Why ever did SWTOR get rid of amplifiers, by the way?  Those seemed precisely like helpful credit sinks.

[Falensawino]

5 hours ago, JackieKo said:

We have been identifying key areas where improvements and changes can be made, and weighing how these will impact both the player experience and the economy. Our general economic balancing goals are as follows: 

• Reduce tax/credit cost avoidance
• Reintroduce credit sinks as some were removed in the past
• Adjust inflow in certain repeatable content
• Use these changes as opportunities to improve the experience while also reducing credits
• Monitor how these changes impact the economy over time and adjust accordingly if needed

With the 7.2.1 PTS opening soon, players will be able to see the following adjustments:

• Quick Travel now has a credit cost associated, with a minimum cost of 100 credits and a maximum cost of 5000. The cost to travel is dependent on the distance traveled.
• Priority Transport Terminal now costs the original planet travel costs to transfer between daily areas.
• Travel to Strongholds now costs the original planet travel costs to transfer between planets.
• Repair cost formulas have been adjusted across the entirety of the game so that repair costs increase in relation to item level.
• Durability of equipment should now be lost at a LOWER rate on death, but a slightly HIGHER rate in normal gameplay. 

 

Sounds like you're punishing the players who still enjoy your game's gameplay 

but leaving the fat cats who sit on fleet in front of a gtn terminal and mailbox all day unaffected.

 

These changes just seem like we're going to have more gameplay retirees, people are going to weather the credit sink storm by retiring their gameplay habit with a gtn/mailbox habit. The game will be pure wealth accumulation. In the End, To have something to sit on when the economy starts reversing and prices start coming down. similar to the OEM/RPM market right now on all servers. It seems like all the people that really wanted an OEM/RPM already have gold augs and prices of those gold augment recipe materials are going down. from a high of 250million(?) to now 150million on most english speaking servers, and that value only seems to be going down.

When these changes takes effect, I'm giving all my toons a purse of 1,000,000 credits. and I'm going to monitor if credit increases or decreases in each toon, then I'll decide whether I want to keep playing. Maybe decide whether this duel of fate against the gameplay player spells my gameplay retirement and I retire as a gtn/mailbox player instead (hopefully just for a few numbered game versions)

If New players catching whiff of these sinks become cognizant of them, I expect them to find another game. In my post, I didn't even mention direct commission direct trade window players. 100% getting around the GTN tax selling things at up to 4 billion in credits moved each trade.

 

Marker 1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

18 minutes ago, xordevoreaux said:

Consider not harming people starting out with these fees. Then the question becomes when does "starting out" end?

I'd say after 50 hours of game play for a single account across all toons on that account. That's plenty of time to get acclimated and some money in one's pocket before travel mechanics yank it out again.

When you made enough tech frags to sell your first OEM or RPM on the gtn is the first marker of "on the way to wealth" in this game. Selling that first OEM/RPM means you're able to fully unlock enough strongholds for the 150% conquest point bonus

 

Marker 2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1 hour ago, ChrisKazugal said:

Increasing Repair costs is completely fair, for higher level things, but punishing me for playing better and staying alive with extra durability damage? Hmm.

Set companion to Tank spec have him pull aggro over mine. (*cross fingers* hope the companions repair cost isn't transferred to my gear)

durability/repair bill is the original O.G. credit sink invented by game designers (as far as I know)

[tcanty]

Do what real economies do: introduce tariffs or taxes on commerce. Nothing on the GTN should ever generate >100 million credits in one shot, so tax the heck out of them. Anything under 1 million shouldn't have a tax, but then make it progressively less profitable as prices go up (10% at 1 million, 30% at 10 million, 50% at $100 million, etc.). That will take large chunks of money out of circulation, but only affect the luxury end of the market, bringing prices and inflation down together.

[Diamaht]

5 minutes ago, microstyles said:

19 minutes ago, Diamaht said:

This will not effect newer players as much as claimed by some.

This is probably true. But it will affect them more than established players.

It will affect them less, they are using the service less.  They have cooldowns and they travel shorter distances.  Also the questing gives them all the credits they need for travel, so they can use the service freely.  I just did a zero to 80 run on a new Guardian for Starforge.  I have not started the expansions yet, I'm 80 now and I've not taken anything from other characters, and I had around 7 or 8 million in my wallet this week before I splurged on the market a bit and I still have 5 mil.  Plenty for a new character.

 

11 minutes ago, microstyles said:

26 minutes ago, Diamaht said:

In this way it's not a new player sink, it's an old player sink.

It is, but not in any way that will meaningfully affect established players' funds or the overall economy.

26 minutes ago, Diamaht said:

You won't notice one transaction but you will notice how 1000 transactions slows down the growth of your coffers thereby slowing down the rise of prices.

The most expensive thing proposed that has a number attached to it is the 5k charge for max distance fast travel. I can pretty much promise I won't notice 5m gone over the course of 1000 max distance fast travels.

The issue is that you are thinking about this as a way to make you poor, it's not.  It's a way to slow you down.  You don't want to stop an economy when there is inflation, you want to slow it down.  You won't notice the 5 million gone but you will as a result gain 60 mil instead of 65 mil over that time.  That multiplied over tens of thousands of players will for sure begin to affect the in game economy.

[ThanderSnB]

I think there needs to be more credit sinks. Ongoing demand is the key idea here. I have some ideas below. (Credits costs can be adjusted as needed.)

Cartel Coins - This probably won't happen, but it would be pretty high demand

• 400 million credits = 100 Cartel Coins
• 4 billion credits = 1000 Cartel Coins

Cartel Market Direct Buy Token - consumed on use/one item per token

• 1 billion credits = After consuming the token, the Cartel Market lists every item in its various categories. After buying any single item, it returns to its normal limited selection.

XP Boost Tokens - consumed on use/one character per token, stacks additively with all other XP bonuses, all last 1 week each

• 10 million credits = +100% XP Token
• 100 million credits = +1000% XP Token

Level Boost Token - consumed on use/one character per token

• 500 million credits - add 10 levels to any character (does not complete story), can be used after a Master's Datacron to get to level 80 instantly.

Endgame Gearing Tokens - consumed on use, all last 1 week each

• 100 million credits = Currency Cap Token (Effect: Remove endgame currency caps legacy wide)
• 100 million credits = Endgame Currency Token (Effect: Earn 2x endgame currency (including tech fragments) from all sources legacy wide)
• 200 million credits = Endgame Gear Token (Effect: Endgame gear crates give 2 items instead of 1 item, 1 character per token)

All tokens are bind on legacy so they can't be resold.

Edited February 9, 2023 by ThanderSnB

[ShadowyKai]

I still don't understand why they removed Amplifiers if credit sinks are so important ... 

[Hexylic]

38 minutes ago, Diamaht said:

Its not meant to make you poor its meant as a luxury tax on the rich, you will still be wealthy but your wealth accumulation will happen at a slower pace allowing others to catch up to you faster.

I find it amusing that you think it will actually have any effect whatsoever when people literally trade single items for billions of credits every day. There's another post in here that worked out how long it'd take to reach a billion credits in quick travel costs. It won't help. It will only worsen the experience for new players.

Most of the posts and suggestions in this thread are very on-point, however. These changes just don't make any sense as an attempt to improve the economy. They're completely detached from the reality of the game and the reason the economy is the way it is right now. Developers should actually read the suggestions in this thread.

These changes feel extremely misguided and just show how out of touch the development team is with what actually happens in the economy of their game.

Edited February 9, 2023 by Hexylic

[TrixxieTriss]

8 hours ago, JackieKo said:

Hi everyone, 

This is a follow up to the information we released in the Game Update 7.2.1 PTS blog post. ICYMI, 7.2.1 will be introducing initiatives to combat the inflation that is present in the game. We’ve seen conversations surrounding this topic, and we share similar sentiment to the concerns about the game’s economy. This will be an ongoing initiative that will be rolled out over several updates as we want to slowly introduce these new changes and give players time to adjust and also provide opportunities to give us feedback. 

We understand that there is demand to fix things now, but we are taking special care to introduce these measures over time as correcting the economy is not something that can be done overnight. Immediate implementation can have the opposite effect and potentially crash the economy instead. 

We have been identifying key areas where improvements and changes can be made, and weighing how these will impact both the player experience and the economy. Our general economic balancing goals are as follows: 

• Reduce tax/credit cost avoidance
• Reintroduce credit sinks as some were removed in the past
• Adjust inflow in certain repeatable content
• Use these changes as opportunities to improve the experience while also reducing credits
• Monitor how these changes impact the economy over time and adjust accordingly if needed

With the 7.2.1 PTS opening soon, players will be able to see the following adjustments:

• Quick Travel now has a credit cost associated, with a minimum cost of 100 credits and a maximum cost of 5000. The cost to travel is dependent on the distance traveled.
• Priority Transport Terminal now costs the original planet travel costs to transfer between daily areas.
• Travel to Strongholds now costs the original planet travel costs to transfer between planets.
• Repair cost formulas have been adjusted across the entirety of the game so that repair costs increase in relation to item level.
• Durability of equipment should now be lost at a LOWER rate on death, but a slightly HIGHER rate in normal gameplay. 

We ask that players submit their feedback here. 

While we cannot give a definitive timeline on when the future changes will be deployed, you should expect to continue seeing more changes in future game updates. As always, we will communicate the finer details, the timeline in which these changes can be tested, and when they will go live. 

Thanks all! 

If you really want to stop people avoiding taxes, then you need to put a cap on trading credits & items between players outside of the GTN because people are circumventing the games biggest credit sink (GTN) that way.

Youve let inflation get so bad that people don’t even sell stuff on the GTN because it’s got a 1 billion credit cap on it. So they sell things for 4.5 billion credits or higher by trading outside of the GTN. 

If you do the maths, they are avoiding paying 360,000,000 credits at 8% tax on a 4.5 Billion credit trade.

That’s obviously a massive amount of credits that would have a much bigger impact than taking 100-5000 credits from players each time they travel between planets.

Until you close the biggest tax avoidance loophole in the game, everything else is pointless. It’s like sticking your fingers in the tiny holes in the Dam to slow the flow while you’ve got the spillway open to full. 

Honestly, if you don’t close the GTN tax loop hole first, it only shows BioWare have zero understanding of your own game’s economy or systems. And every player will laugh at you like they’re already doing with their responses to this backwards announcement.

[Achnaattwo]

Budget Analyst, Now every one believes they are a Budget Analyst 🤣

okay, now where does all this extra spending Go ?!? Will it fix the roads and bridges ?

you really believe spending more is going to fix the economy ?  why not include a cost break  for hauling water to Tatooine while your at it, hey that could be a new side mission 😉

yes, Hutt's Cartel  have taken over the Game

[Tropik]

nevermind the fact that the GTN credit limit is about 1/100th of what it should be for a market with so many items > 1B credits...

"show me the incentives and i will show you the outcomes", charlie munger

1. my first objective is to increase the supply of the most expensive items in the game.  make these easier for more people to obtain.  or make some of them bind on pickup so that they cannot be sold/traded.  personally, i'd rather see more people doing things in the game, rather than trying to create exclusivity and rarity. 
2. the problem with the inflation is that there are enough players with such high net worths that they can practically corner the market on any item they want.  that means those people (not the broader player base) control the prices.  so, we (you) have to incentivize HNW people to part with their credits. that's my other objective.

• this objective involves 2 main tactics: time-targeted credit sinks and cartel coin conversions.

I would analyze your data and come up with credit ranges... you could implement a whole new page/tab on the legacy window for these things.

time-targeted credit sinks

• frequent credit sinks.  these are things that people would purchase on a daily and/or weekly basis. say, about 25-100 million credits. newly created convenience things mainly.
• occasional credit sinks. these are things that people would purchase on an interval similar to your events calendar. say, 500 million to 1 billion credits. newly created unlocks, titles, armors, weapons, decos...
• rare credit sinks.  these are the once are year+ purchases. call it, 50-100 billion credits.  the most coveted/special/precious things. final boss nim ops drops kinds of stuff

cartel coin conversion

• allow players to use in-game credits to make purchases on the cartel market.  AND, anything purchased on the CM with in-game credits would also need to become bind on pickup.  that would ensure the credits are removed from the game, and the item is not sold back into the economy.  these cm conversions should be commensurate with the credit sinks implemented in the hypothetical new legacy page mentioned above.

[ShadowyKai]

8 hours ago, JackieKo said:

With the 7.2.1 PTS opening soon, players will be able to see the following adjustments:

• Quick Travel now has a credit cost associated, with a minimum cost of 100 credits and a maximum cost of 5000. The cost to travel is dependent on the distance traveled.
• Priority Transport Terminal now costs the original planet travel costs to transfer between daily areas.
• Travel to Strongholds now costs the original planet travel costs to transfer between planets.

 

I honestly think that this is a bad approach.

With Amplifiers, we were paying to get something new that we didn't have before. With this, we're paying to keep something that we already have.

I believe that it would be better to add a new feature to the game that players have to pay for, rather than making players pay to use the features that already exist. The suggestion that other players have made of high-level Decorations or items that cost large amounts of Credits makes more sense to me.

It would also have the advantage of only affecting established players with billions of Credits rather than making the game more tedious and less enjoyable for new or mid-level players. As many others have pointed out, charging for Quick Travel or Travel to Strongholds isn't going to make a dent for super-rich players. But I can guarantee you that we will be seeing a lot more players who aren't quite so wealthy making a lot more trips on foot rather than pay for a Quick Travel.

[felleto]

3 hours ago, Traceguy said:

If you want to address inflation, here is 1 easy solution. Allow Subscribers to change their appearance using credits in stead of CCs. Want to change your hair color? 100,000,000 credits. BAM. That is how you do it.

You tell them Traceguy!

[OlBuzzard]

I can't give out the likes / dislikes due to the CAP in place!  Yet another restriction!

[/takes deep breath]
** I can appreciate the fact that some attempt was made to soak up the excess credits.
** This will not fix the problem.  (sorry ... it just won't).
** This WILL be a penalty of sorts to the majority of players who have simply tried to play the game with integrity!
** There is little point in my saying anything else.  It will fall on deaf ears!
** One of the biggest available credit sinks is being avoided with regularity / daily and nothing is there to address it!

Fool me once ... shame on me!  Fool me twice ... shame on you!

[/shakes head negatively] 
(What a mess....  I'll say nothing more... Which is EXACTLY what a number of folks prefer)

EDIT:  ...  I don't think I'll even mess with logging in for a few days either.  No skin off my nose either way!

Edited February 10, 2023 by OlBuzzard

[TrixxieTriss]

Posting this here too because it seems any feedback not provided from actual PTS testing is going to be deleted from the feedback thread 🤦‍♀️

@JackieKo, seeing as I’ve already unsubbed because you guys won’t even discuss the pvp premade issues with players 😞, I’m not going to have time to download the PTS.

But even if I did, you’ll be taking away my forum posting rights as soon as my sub expires & I won’t be able to post the feedback in time.

So I’m leaving my valuable feedback (in my previous post) because Im a long term player with Billions of credits, who has been campaigning for inflation control for 2-3 years. I feel I’ve earned the right to provide said feedback & the Devs should read it.

Ive made many thread & posts on this topic & been discussing & debating it with other experienced players longer than BioWare has.

You can choose to ignore my feedback because I’ve not downloaded the PTS or because my feedback isn’t focused on these changes Or you can actually listen to an experienced player whose been providing ideas & feedback on this issue for several years.

Trust me, we don’t need to test this on the PTS to tell you what will work & what won’t. 

So I will end this by asking you to please pass on my feedback from my previous post regarding the player to player trades that are circumventing the GTN tax. Because in my opinion, fixing that is the first thing you guys should do. The rest of this will have zero affect on rich players & will only affect your newer players negatively.

[AletheaDusk]

As a poor player (I feel rich if one of my characters gets up to 2 million credits), changes such as introducing quick travel fees and stronghold travel fees seem annoying. I would much prefer, as some people have stated, spending any extra credits I get on "shinies" rather than taxes. What will keep me interested in playing the game for years to come will be decorating my strongholds and obtaining nice looking outfits and pets that no longer seem available via cartel credits.

My vote, therefore, is to make available more stuff that parts of the player base would want to spend huge credits on.

[Del_Bergerac]

First, thanks for maintaining this game and putting effort into communicating with the playerbase. Please, whatever you do, don't jeopardise the new player experience and don't annoy the playerbase. Be fair; if you're going to charge for something you weren't charging for before, there needs to be something reasonable given in return (even if the charge may make in-character sense).

Better still, as many have said, introduce things that players will want to pay credits for. Speaking for myself, and just off the top of my head:

1. Make dyes reusable rather than one-off, and introduce a credit cost for each reuse. (Simultaneously, cut down on the number of dyes given out as rewards.) Maybe the reuse cost could scale with the original cost of the dye, so reusing a Cartel Market black-black dye would be really expensive, but reusing a low-level crafted dye would be really cheap.

2. Make Daily Resource Matrices purchasable using credits. This is the number 1 'bottleneck' currency I've been facing, and I'm guessing others are in a similar situation. This idea could also apply to other end-game currencies, too, of course.

3. Allow more cargo bay slots than currently allowed (across all categories: character, legacy, guild), with accompanying credit or CC costs.

4. Allow players to buy specific crafting schematics (rather than having to rely on random drops and the GTN), with cost scaling according to crafting level. To extend this idea a bit, think about other things that involve randomness (e.g., types of armour dropped from Alliance Crates) and make it possible for players to choose what they get, at a cost.

5. Allow some items to be stacked (that currently can't be stacked; e.g., various certificates/grants/tokens), with a credit cost for stacking and unstacking those items.

On a different note, I didn't realise there is a limit to how many reactions you can add per day in this forum. I didn't even get past page 1 of this thread, and already ran out. Would it be possible to increase that number? Thanks.

[TalLura]

5 hours ago, Fenrir__ said:

People need things to spend their credit's on right now that seems to be cool Cartel Market Items which people have to pay real money for and doesn't take anything out of circulation. What's needed is to have some of these cool items purchasable in game with credits to start readjusting the market and giving players ways to spend their credits. Add some awesome blasters, color crystals, sabers and more that people can spend credits on you will see a large amount of credits come out of the economy. The QT costs is just going to be obnoxious.

im all for a character bound copies of cc items, even if they do cost 700k per item in set

 

 

[felleto]

#TAX THE RICH!!!

[TrixxieTriss]

50 minutes ago, OlBuzzard said:

I can't give out the likes / dislikes due to the CAP in place!  Yet another restriction!

[/takes deep breath]
** I can appreciate the fact that some attempt was made to soak up the excess credits.
** This will not fix the problem.  (sorry ... it just won't).
** This WILL be a penalty of sorts to the majority of players who have simply tried to play the game with integrity!
** There is little point in my saying anything else.  It will fall on deaf ears!
** One of the biggest available credit sinks is being avoided with regularity / daily and nothing is there to address it!

Fool me once ... shame on me!  Fool me twice ... shame on you!

[/shakes head negatively] 
(What a mess....  I'll say nothing more... Which is EXACTLY what a number of folks prefer)

Until they address the Blue Whale sized Elephant in the room, nothing BioWare does will have any impact on inflation.

And we all know that elephant is people avoiding the GTN tax when doing player to player trades. I can’t understand how BioWare doesn’t recognise this from their own data.

There are 3 ways to address that problem. I will list them from the easiest to implement to the hardest (more time consuming). 

1. Put a cap on player to player trades that limit how many credits can be passed between players. At the same time limit the type of CM items & how many can be traded in an hour/day/week/month.

2. Add a credit trading tax for player to player trades that is the same as the GTN tax (8%). But also add a cap on the type & number of CM items being traded between players outside of the GTN.

3. Ban or severely limit all CM trades outside of the GTN. But at the same time increase the GTN price cap up much higher & make the character credit cap = 2x the GTN price cap & make the Legacy & Guild credit cap = 20x the GTN price cap (** Please note, these increase numbers are examples only to explain the setup). 

*** Please note, player to player trades on non CM items should have no limits imposed beyond what is already in the game now ***

Edit: just wanted to add, that I’d personally prefer option 2 as I think it would be less invasive & more fair to everyone. It’s certainly not perfect, but at this point, what is 🤷🏻‍♀️

Edited February 10, 2023 by TrixxieTriss

[RuneJS]

9 hours ago, JackieKo said:

Hi everyone, 

This is a follow up to the information we released in the Game Update 7.2.1 PTS blog post. ICYMI, 7.2.1 will be introducing initiatives to combat the inflation that is present in the game. We’ve seen conversations surrounding this topic, and we share similar sentiment to the concerns about the game’s economy. This will be an ongoing initiative that will be rolled out over several updates as we want to slowly introduce these new changes and give players time to adjust and also provide opportunities to give us feedback. 

We understand that there is demand to fix things now, but we are taking special care to introduce these measures over time as correcting the economy is not something that can be done overnight. Immediate implementation can have the opposite effect and potentially crash the economy instead. 

We have been identifying key areas where improvements and changes can be made, and weighing how these will impact both the player experience and the economy. Our general economic balancing goals are as follows: 

• Reduce tax/credit cost avoidance
• Reintroduce credit sinks as some were removed in the past
• Adjust inflow in certain repeatable content
• Use these changes as opportunities to improve the experience while also reducing credits
• Monitor how these changes impact the economy over time and adjust accordingly if needed

With the 7.2.1 PTS opening soon, players will be able to see the following adjustments:

• Quick Travel now has a credit cost associated, with a minimum cost of 100 credits and a maximum cost of 5000. The cost to travel is dependent on the distance traveled.
• Priority Transport Terminal now costs the original planet travel costs to transfer between daily areas.
• Travel to Strongholds now costs the original planet travel costs to transfer between planets.
• Repair cost formulas have been adjusted across the entirety of the game so that repair costs increase in relation to item level.
• Durability of equipment should now be lost at a LOWER rate on death, but a slightly HIGHER rate in normal gameplay. 

We ask that players submit their feedback here. 

While we cannot give a definitive timeline on when the future changes will be deployed, you should expect to continue seeing more changes in future game updates. As always, we will communicate the finer details, the timeline in which these changes can be tested, and when they will go live. 

Thanks all! 

This is an interesting concept but I believe it should be executed in a different way, if possible. 

Would it be possible to assess a total wealth value of a specific legacy and have Quick Travel, Priority Transport and Travel to Stronghold holds hit with a progressive tax at certain thresholds? Players below a certain level of wealth would be able to travel credit free where as players with over 100M, 200M, 1B etc would slowly see a small creep up in their respective taxes. 

[TrixxieTriss]

57 minutes ago, Tropik said:

cartel coin conversion

• allow players to use in-game credits to make purchases on the cartel market.  AND, anything purchased on the CM with in-game credits would also need to become bind on pickup.  that would ensure the credits are removed from the game, and the item is not sold back into the economy.

This is an excellent idea to be added to a string of other great player ideas to be implement over time.
But they do need to close the GTN tax avoidance loophole first. Because people are circumventing the best credit sink in the game with legitimate player to player trades & would still be able to do this with CC purchased items if it’s not fixed.
Then they can add other great credit sink ideas like this one.

[Achnaattwo]

7 minutes ago, RuneJS said:

This is an interesting concept but I believe it should be executed in a different way, if possible. 

Would it be possible to assess a total wealth value of a specific legacy and have Quick Travel, Priority Transport and Travel to Stronghold holds hit with a progressive tax at certain thresholds? Players below a certain level of wealth would be able to travel credit free where as players with over 100M, 200M, 1B etc would slowly see a small creep up in their respective taxes. 

I was just about to say/suggest something like that

[OlBuzzard]

5 minutes ago, TrixxieTriss said:

Until they address the Blue Whale sized Elephant in the room, nothing BioWare does will have any impact on inflation.

And we all know that elephant is people avoiding the GTN tax when doing player to player trades.

There are 3 ways to address that problem. I will list them from the easiest to implement to the hardest (more time consuming). 

1. Put a cap on player to player trades that limit how many credits can be passed between players. At the same time limit the type of CM items & how many can be traded in an hour/day/week/month.

2. Add a credit trading tax for player to player trades that is the same as the GTN tax (8%). But also add a cap on the type & number of CM items being traded between players outside of the GTN.

3. Ban or severely limit all CM trades outside of the GTN. But at the same time increase the GTN price cap up much higher & make the character credit cap = 2x the GTN price cap & make the Legacy & Guild credit cap = 20x the GTN price cap (** Please note, these increase numbers are examples only to explain the setup). 

*** Please note, player to player trades on non CM items should have no limits imposed beyond what is already in the game now ***

I've already said more than I should.  IMO ..  not that many are willing to listen.  Too many want ALL players to be broke (like they are) ... or demand everything just because they log in and play.

(sad really)

The economy is out of control.  Where were the credits generated from in the first place.  I'm not talking about how many credits players exchange back and forth!  Where did those credits come from?  Someone who has earned them with integrity is now being punished!  Not that many believe that ...  but frankly I really don't give a ... care what people think.

IN the in the PTS will reflect that the game will not crash and will be released as it stands.

The problems will not be fixed.

OK .. that's enough.  (let me clean up the last sentence I just typed .. I could get banned if I left it ...)  This will upset a lot of people.  And the ones that really matter will not care what I post.

Done and Done!

BTW ... I'm just going to let this stuff go now!  I'll log in if and when I feel like it!  I'll play if and when I feel like it!  

Those that cannot learn from history are condemned to repeat it!

 

[TrixxieTriss]

29 minutes ago, TalLura said:

im all for a character bound copies of cc items, even if they do cost 700k per item in set

 

 

Sadly, 700k would be too low a price for BioWare because it would eat into their CM money making systems to keep the game running.

For it to work as a credit sink & not affect BioWares actual $$ income, the prices would have to be much higher. 

Probably closer to 100 million+. But they could start a lot lower for older sets & scale them up to 1 billion+ credits for brand new sets.

[DawnAskham]

Nickle and dimming casual players on travel and repair is laughable. That's like wasting time rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

A basic augment kit is over 10 million, a basic augment close to 100 million, and a gold augment over a billion.

Anything from the CM for 500CC or more (or rare CM items) can't even be sold on the GTN anymore as the CC to credit conversion puts it over the 1 billion GTN limit.

Charge me 1 million every time I travel and I won't notice, the economy is so far gone it just won't matter to me.

Want to fix the economy?

Stop letting exploits slide, find and ban bots / credit sellers, increase the amounts on the GTN to collect tax on all the high credit value sales happening in chat, and start adding ridiculously expensive but desirable items that can only be purchased in-game with credits.

 

Edited February 10, 2023 by DawnAskham