7.3.1 Credit Economy Initiative Update

[arunav]

On 8/28/2023 at 2:21 PM, JoeStramaglia said:

• The Galactic Trade Network Buyout Price Limit has been increased from 1,000,000,000 to 3,000,000,000.
  • This is to allow trade of higher value items.
  • Additional changes to the GTN will come in future patches.

 

@JoeStramaglia I thought the team's changes were all good until I came to this last one, quoted above.

Prices for expensive CM and other items have dropped by a large percentage, basically across the board, since the 'economy initiative' started. The only items I know of that aren't included are old CM items that haven't been available for multiple years, which sell for absurd sums like 25-50 billion or more. A few old in-game drops also make this list. 

Normal items that have become much more reasonable in price include, say, crafted staples like augments and augment kits, and rare CM items folks sell from packs or direct purchases made on the CM. 

Items that weren't found on the GTN at all earlier in the year on Star Forge have almost all come back under the 1 billion GTN cap.

This doesn't necessarily reflect the credit to CC cost ratio of all items on the server - some of these rare CM items are sold at 1 billion or near it only for convenience. 

With the cap being increased to 3 billion, prices will temporarily spike for many, many items, as players gamble on what 'markets' can be bought up and essentially monopolized, and slowly come down for the rest. 

With the game's population much smaller than it used to be, the 'market' for rare CM items or in-game drops isn't that large. 

What's to stop certain players from taking advantage of the higher cap and selling at an inflated price, after continually buying up certain CM items? 

And why increase the GTN cap when trading was already being taxed for those rarest of items that are actually worth more than 1 billion?

These are basically only a few platinum-rarity CM weapons or armor sets, brand new CM items in the first weeks after they are released, instant level 80 tokens, and those CM items which haven't been sold in years, referenced above, which still won't be on the GTN, even with the higher cap. 

Can you please drop into the thread again and explain the GTN price cap increase a bit more?

The GTN cap increase will effectively encourage monopolies on certain items, and they'll very likely be sold at prices well above what they are worth. 

Edited August 30, 2023 by arunav

[Darkestmonty]

1 hour ago, arunav said:

@JoeStramaglia I thought the team's changes were all good until I came to this last one, quoted above.

Prices for expensive CM and other items have dropped by a large percentage, basically across the board, since the 'economy initiative' started. The only items I know of that aren't included are old CM items that haven't been available for multiple years, which sell for absurd sums like 25-50 billion or more. A few old in-game drops also make this list. 

Normal items that have become much more reasonable in price include, say, crafted staples like augments and augment kits, and rare CM items folks sell from packs or direct purchases made on the CM. 

Items that weren't found on the GTN at all earlier in the year on Star Forge have almost all come back under the 1 billion GTN cap.

This doesn't necessarily reflect the credit to CC cost ratio of all items on the server - some of these rare CM items are sold at 1 billion or near it only for convenience. 

With the cap being increased to 3 billion, prices will temporarily spike for many, many items, as players gamble on what 'markets' can be bought up and essentially monopolized, and slowly come down for the rest. 

With the game's population much smaller than it used to be, the 'market' for rare CM items or in-game drops isn't that large. 

What's to stop certain players from taking advantage of the higher cap and selling at an inflated price, after continually buying up certain CM items? 

And why increase the GTN cap when trading was already being taxed for those rarest of items that are actually worth more than 1 billion?

These are basically only a few platinum-rarity CM weapons or armor sets, brand new CM items in the first weeks after they are released, instant level 80 tokens, and the those CM items which haven't been sold in years, referenced above, which still won't be on the GTN, even with the higher cap. 

Can you please drop into the thread again and explain the GTN price cap increase a bit more?

The GTN cap increase will effectively encourage monopolies on certain items, and they'll very likely be sold at prices well above what they are worth. 

Trading in SWTOR is not efficient or fun. Very few people enjoy standing around fleet for hours spamming /3 trying to buy or sell items. Trades are also double taxed which lowers the amount players can sell items for because now the buyer is also paying an additional 8% taxes .

The GTN is much better for buying and selling but is only viable for items around the credit cap and below. That means most of the items currently found on the GTN have a value of about 1 billion or less. With an increase to the credit cap, players will be able to buy and sell items with a value of about 3 billion or less.

Raising the credit cap will help the economy by removing more credits than trade, make it easier to buy and sell, and lower prices for items valued 2-3 billion credits by creating visible competition to sell.

Nothing is stopping players from buying up and monopolizing certain items now, why do you think it will be worse with a 3 billion credit cap?

Edited August 30, 2023 by Darkestmonty

[Chryptyk]

1 hour ago, arunav said:

Prices for expensive CM and other items have dropped by a large percentage, basically across the board, since the 'economy initiative' started. The only items I know of that aren't included are old CM items that haven't been available for multiple years, which sell for absurd sums like 25-50 billion or more. A few old in-game drops also make this list. 

Normal items that have become much more reasonable in price include, say, crafted staples like augments and augment kits, and rare CM items folks sell from packs or direct purchases made on the CM. 

Items that weren't found on the GTN at all earlier in the year on Star Forge have almost all come back under the 1 billion GTN cap.

This doesn't necessarily reflect the credit to CC cost ratio of all items on the server - some of these rare CM items are sold at 1 billion or near it only for convenience. 

With the cap being increased to 3 billion, prices will temporarily spike for many, many items, as players gamble on what 'markets' can be bought up and essentially monopolized, and slowly come down for the rest. 

With the game's population much smaller than it used to be, the 'market' for rare CM items or in-game drops isn't that large. 

What's to stop certain players from taking advantage of the higher cap and selling at an inflated price, after continually buying up certain CM items? 

And why increase the GTN cap when trading was already being taxed for those rarest of items that are actually worth more than 1 billion?

These are basically only a few platinum-rarity CM weapons or armor sets, brand new CM items in the first weeks after they are released, instant level 80 tokens, and the those CM items which haven't been sold in years, referenced above, which still won't be on the GTN, even with the higher cap. 

Can you please drop into the thread again and explain the GTN price cap increase a bit more?

The GTN cap increase will effectively encourage monopolies on certain items, and they'll very likely be sold at prices well above what they are worth. 

I agree with your assessment completely.  i don't believe increasing the cap is a good idea either.
 

[Chryptyk]

Before 7, you could buy just about everything on the GTN.  then hyperinflation happened and credits were redistributed amongst the general populace.

the initiative has had a great start in taking credits out of the system, resulting in lower price levels.

why can't we keep the cap at 1B and keep bleeding credits out of the system to drive prices down even further?  that would make more sense to me than increasing the cap.  those things that are just off the GTN right now will reappear once enough credits are bled out and people get tired of sitting on fleet trying to sell their wares.  we just have to be patient. 

[Darkestmonty]

45 minutes ago, Chryptyk said:

 we just have to be patient. 

Or you can accept that an increase to the GTN limit will remove more credits from the game faster than keeping the GTN limit at 1 billion credits and relying only on direct trades for anything above 1 billion.

The GTN limit increase will also lower the prices of items valued at around 2-3 billion because there will be visible competition to sell.

If you want to lower inflation, which will lower the prices of everything, we need to sell as much as we can as quickly as we can on the GTN. Trading is too slow and no one wants to spend all day on Fleet spamming trade.

Do you want to temporarily keep a few items at 1 billion credits until inflation pushes those items off the GTN, or do you want to increase the GTN limit and reduce inflation faster than relying on people to trade directly?

Edited August 30, 2023 by Darkestmonty

[DeannaVoyager]

14 hours ago, TrixxieTriss said:

The reason I said put a cap on how much they can sell things for on the GTN as opposed to their actual credit limits is to keep it restrictive on how fast easy credits can be accumulated by non sub players selling on the GTN. But it still allows them to buy higher priced items that have increased due to inflation from the GTN. 

Okay so I understood it correctly, I just disagree, or don't really see it beneficial at all. One thing that brings prices down is having enough supply. If F2P sit on their valuables, there is less supply on GTN. And if they sell their valuables lower than they are worth, someone else will buy it and relist it higher.

However I could see it possible if they can sell whatever price they want to, but they can only cash certain amount of credits from GTN sales (even when it's less than the credit cap). The rest would go to escrow and they would get access to it when they subscribe.

[Spikanor]

34 minutes ago, DeannaVoyager said:

If F2P sit on their valuables, there is less supply on GTN.

its not only F2P that keep there valuables also the pref status players keep there valuables on there own.

and if there is less supply on the GTN then the price's only go up and up more and thats something we not wane see.

we all know the price's are now to high so with that idea to give then a sell credit cap is only become more worse and you fix not the problem with it so that players spent there credits in the game.

 

@TrixxieTriss your idea has a lot off bad effect's what is worse for the game since it promote's the resellers only more to increase there price only up if you add any sell limit for the pref status players.

with your idea its more the rich become richer and the poor only become more poor.

that means most of the items not get sold at all or not getting sold at all.

and it is also not working to fix the inflation problem at all since its only increase the problem more.

sure there need to increase the credit limit a lot for both F2P and pref status players but not add then something stupid to curse then more problems.

like i told you before: the reason to become sub has chance a lot and it has chance a big time after the 7.0 mess since now there are not going to sub that easy anymore and the sub benefits have also been lowert a lot and most of the beneftis are not that usefull anymore for a lot of players.

[Chryptyk]

9 hours ago, Darkestmonty said:

Do you want to temporarily keep a few items at 1 billion credits until inflation pushes those items off the GTN, or do you want to increase the GTN limit and reduce inflation faster than relying on people to trade directly?

The thing is the initiative is already taking credits out of the system at a good rate.  We're not experiencing inflation.  We're experiencing the opposite.  Prices are continuing to fall already.

While increasing it to 3B would get some more things back onto the GTN.  it would still cause inflation, at least in the short term until those transactions bleed out even more and things start to deflate again.

Furthermore, once enough credits are bled out of the system, do they plan on changing the GTN cap back to 1B?  I don't think so.  That would look really, really bad to do so. 

So it makes more sense to just stay at 1B and keep bleeding us dry until prices bottom out again.

  

[Tarvv]

Has there been any thought to giving subscription time (say 1 month sub for 1B credits or whatever number is deemed fair) or legacy unlocks for credits?  The subscription time could be limited to 1 month every 90 days or something, but it might be a nice way to draw some people back to the game, sink credits, and improve player happiness.  Legacy unlocks is another potentially easy win-win.

[TrixxieTriss]

7 hours ago, Spikanor said:

 

@TrixxieTriss your idea has a lot off bad effect's what is worse for the game since it promote's the resellers only more to increase there price only up if you add any sell limit for the pref status players

I don’t agree because there is enough of a size buffer in my idea that it shouldn’t affect inflation or prices but on the GTN.

Consider this. The devs want to encourage people to subscribe. One way they do that is with QOL improvements for subscribers & restrictions for non Subs. 

Currently the non sub restrictions are very harsh in this high inflation environment. 1 million credit cap means they can’t buy items higher than 1 million & can’t sell things higher than 1 million. 

The game also makes money off selling escrow. But that still doesn’t allow non subs to buy or sell higher priced items on the GTN. And with the hyper inflation pushing regular item prices much higher than 1 million, non sub players stop buying items on the GTN & just accumulate credits in their legacy bank. So those credits stop being spent cause they can’t buy anything with them. 

I’m not sure how much money the game makes from selling escrow. I’m sure it makes some off players who don’t know any better. But most preferred players aren’t  buying them. They just transfer credits from the legacy bank or Alt characters as they need too. 

But the dev team will still want to milk the escrow system even if it’s only a few dollars, cause that’s what they do. My proposal would keep the escrow system in place for them to do that. There would still be restrictions on non subs accumulating easy credits off GTN trading. Which is by game design (don’t blame me, blame the devs).

What my system would do is ease some of the current harshness in the designed system & allow non sub players more access to everyday basic items on the GTN that they can’t buy now. Which means their credits get spent & don’t just sit their accumulating in their legacy storage. They would also have a little more freedom to make credits off of selling the GTN basic items. 

One thing I’ve been mulling over is the escrow system. Personally I think the devs could rework it with my system. So instead of it only working to open up credits that non subs have accumulated above the cap, it also increases the cap at which they can sell items on the GTN for. The devs could make it so each escrow will increases the credit cap by 10 million & GTN sales cap by 10 million. 

Edited August 30, 2023 by TrixxieTriss

[TrixxieTriss]

7 hours ago, Chryptyk said:

The thing is the initiative is already taking credits out of the system at a good rate.  We're not experiencing inflation.  We're experiencing the opposite.  Prices are continuing to fall already.

While increasing it to 3B would get some more things back onto the GTN.  it would still cause inflation, at least in the short term until those transactions bleed out even more and things start to deflate again.

Furthermore, once enough credits are bled out of the system, do they plan on changing the GTN cap back to 1B?  I don't think so.  That would look really, really bad to do so. 

So it makes more sense to just stay at 1B and keep bleeding us dry until prices bottom out again.

  

The problem is how many items arent being sold on the GTN because inflation pushed them much higher than the GTN cap.

And because they aren’t on the GTN, the devs don’t know what is a fair tax to apply to them in player to player trades. And you may have items that aren’t on the GTN because they’re rare or because they aren’t worth selling because they’re worthless.

So some items that should be taxed higher might end up with no tax under the announced new changes or the tax will be much higher than it should be. 

There are items that will never drop below 1 billion even if the game has massive deflation. Inflation was allowed to run rampant fir too long to put that genie back in the bottle & the Devs know this. 

From a development design perspective, it’s better if the GTN market adjusts those prices through trade because then the devs don’t have to constantly monitor the tax of items in direct player to player trades that are higher than the GTN cap or not being sold on the GTN because they’re not worth the effort. It’s less work for them in the long run if they just increase the GTN cap & then let the market sort it out. 

Edited August 30, 2023 by TrixxieTriss

[TrixxieTriss]

3 hours ago, Tarvv said:

Has there been any thought to giving subscription time (say 1 month sub for 1B credits or whatever number is deemed fair) or legacy unlocks for credits?  The subscription time could be limited to 1 month every 90 days or something, but it might be a nice way to draw some people back to the game, sink credits, and improve player happiness.  Legacy unlocks is another potentially easy win-win.

This is something other games do. But the exchange rate would need to be exceedingly high so it doesn’t affect paying subscriber numbers. 

I do think some of the current CC only legacy unlocks could also have a credit equivalent added to them too. It’s always great to have more credit sinks. Especially when most of us will never waste our CC on legacy unlocks. 

I would even take it further & allow collected gear & emotes, etc, to have a credit unlock option once you’ve collected it instead of using CC’s to open it for all characters. The prices would also need to be exceedingly high to encourage people to still use CC. But it would certainly be a great credit sink for people who will never use their CC’s to unlock gear.

Edited August 30, 2023 by TrixxieTriss

[OlBuzzard]

On 8/28/2023 at 2:21 PM, JoeStramaglia said:

Hello again everyone!

First off, I want to thank everyone who participated in our last thread! We still have much to iterate on and your feedback has been invaluable. Furthermore, it’s with great pleasure to report that our economy is healing. I know it's a bit of a bumpy road to get there, but if we keep driving down it we’ll have a much more sustainable economy and a more approachable game.

Some of our previously announced changes are still coming in a later patch, but we are making some additional changes in this update that we previously touched on.

When 7.3.1 is live you will see the following:

• Quick Travel costs will now take into account your player level. This is largely to help players at lower levels.
  • The maximum cost matches our current maximum around level 35.
  • The minimum cost matches our current minimum around level 17.
  • The cost per distance matches our current cost at level 80.
• Trade and Mail fees are now driven off of the Galactic Trade Network Median Sales Data
  • This means that these will be based on the server and the specific sales on that server, this data already exists within the game so it's not a clean slate.
  • Select items have their fees removed (the previously changed consumable gameplay items and a list of over 3000 lower value items that were traded regularly on the GTN since 7.3). We may make continued adjustments here in the future.
  • Items that have not been traded on the GTN may not have a fee until they have been traded for some time.  This enables the game to determine the appropriate fee value.
• The Galactic Trade Network Buyout Price Limit has been increased from 1,000,000,000 to 3,000,000,000.
  • This is to allow trade of higher value items.
  • Additional changes to the GTN will come in future patches.

As always, I look forward to your feedback and the data from these changes. We will have more changes in the future.

May the Force Serve You
Joe
 

Better!  As you have already pointed out .. still a ways to go.  But at least a step in the right direction.

[Urthal]

On 8/28/2023 at 3:21 PM, JoeStramaglia said:

• Quick Travel costs will now take into account your player level. This is largely to help players at lower levels.
  • The maximum cost matches our current maximum around level 35.
  • The minimum cost matches our current minimum around level 17.
  • The cost per distance matches our current cost at level 80.

Have you considered basing the Quick Travel cost on Legacy level instead of Character level? I think it's a much better metric of a player's potential wealth.

[Spikanor]

7 hours ago, TrixxieTriss said:

Consider this. The devs want to encourage people to subscribe. One way they do that is with QOL improvements for subscribers & restrictions for non Subs. 

you really think that is going to work that players sub so that there have no restrictions anymore.

the nummber 1 reason players sub is to get the last story contant thats the nummber 1 reason there going to sub.

and the nummber 2 reason players sub is for the gelactic season to get the sub rewards from it.

and since the big mess there have done with 7.0 by delay it with 2 month's 1 week before launch players think now twice before there sub since look is good to the full 7.0 mess.

a lot of players do not trust the devs from this game anymore since there have make a big mess from it and still not have clear things up.

if you wane make sure people are going to buy sub then you need to do things right and not make a mess first to destroy there trust or other stuff.

like i told before a lot of sub benefits it has left are not usefull anymore since its pointless to have.

crafting beneft is pointless if there destroy the crafting system with a new system.

exp boost or rest exp become's worthless when there have all a lot of max level chars.

quick travel has also been remove from the benefit since its not free anymore.

holding more credits is no use at all since its all overprice.

most of the things can be unlock with cartal market items also.

 

the mistake the devs have done was not add more items to craft and add the next level to it.

the renown was something good since the exp boost become's renown exp boost if you reach max level and got sub.

that are 2 things the devs have destory all in 7.0.

and now in 7.3 you can add more things to the list there have destory.

 

players wane help the game by buying sub or cartal coins but then the team most show good results first that there not going to waste it on stupid things and make a big mess from the game to earn only money thats the big reason why people are holding back now that broadsword now most show results there are going to chance and fix things the right way and also listing to the feedback we give and idea's and not ignore then what bioware has done for years.

you have also hear bioware is in big trouble thats karma for then to ignore there communety and players and only care about how to make more money from then and not give a damm about the stat of the game's at all.

 

7 hours ago, TrixxieTriss said:

The game also makes money off selling escrow. But that still doesn’t allow non subs to buy or sell higher priced items on the GTN. And with the hyper inflation pushing regular item prices much higher than 1 million, non sub players stop buying items on the GTN & just accumulate credits in their legacy bank. So those credits stop being spent cause they can’t buy anything with them. 

 

you know that people that play this game are much smarter then the devs are since the players are not that stupid at all.

if there new credit limit become's fair this time and there inplant your idea there going to bypass the GTN for sure a lot more.

and the escrow is something worthless since players bypass then now all and always find way's to bypass then.

if you give then a sell limit there are only going to sell less on the GTN and do more personal trade's and there let the other player pay for the trade tax what there maybe now all are doing.

or there keep the items in the legacy cargo bay's or on other toon.

since if a item cost 15mill on the gtn and if you trade then personal cost also a extra 10 mill then there are going to sell it for 25 mill since there let the other guy the buyer pay for the 10 mill tax it gets.

any credit limit or sell limit can be bypass easy to avoid the escrow.

 

so let me tell you this again: your idea is the same way bioware has been doing all for years that there only focus on the cartal coins and sub to make money for there own and give no damm about the full state of the game and its effect's you get from it.

and remember good broadsword and this team of devs cant make 1 singel mistake this time since there need to show there going to chance the game first in a good way by doing things right and starting with fixing the big mess of problems the same devs have creat at bioware.

or there are losing there job since a big group of players leave the game and the game is death this time since its there last chance there get from a lot of players.

and if there show us good results by showing there are not the same as bioware was that there only care about money then the sub will maybe increase more by a lot of players since there have show good results there going to fix the big mess in this game.

 

[TrixxieTriss]

40 minutes ago, Spikanor said:

you really think that is going to work that players sub so that there have no restrictions anymore.

the nummber 1 reason players sub is to get the last story contant thats the nummber 1 reason there going to sub.

and the nummber 2 reason players sub is for the gelactic season to get the sub rewards from it.

From my point of view, I only continued to subscribe after 4.x so I could PvP & have access to all the QOL features.
But since 7.0 was such a flop of an expansion & they removed the need to subscribe for PvP in 7.2, the only reason I need to subscribe now is for QOL features. 

[Spikanor]

1 hour ago, TrixxieTriss said:

From my point of view, I only continued to subscribe after 4.x so I could PvP & have access to all the QOL features.
But since 7.0 was such a flop of an expansion & they removed the need to subscribe for PvP in 7.2, the only reason I need to subscribe now is for QOL features. 

thats your reason to sub.

for a lot of players is it only about the new story contant, gelactic seasons sub rewards and max new level.

and since 7.0 was so big of a mess and a lot of people got screw up also with the 2 months extra delay it got that people are thinking twice first before there buy sub for that since if the contant is crap and super weak to call it a expension in the first place and there also got screw up first with the 2 month's extra delay 1 week before launch.

there give no damm about the preferred restrictions it has now that there have a 1 mill credit limit to hold.

since there is no good reason to sub anymore since the 7.0 mess there have done since there are not that trustfull anymore.

 

my reason why i sub is only for the new contant the last expension, i need to craft a lot of items like a lot of mods for a new char.

 

if there wane have that more players become sub or buy cartal coins there need to fix some big problems first like to clear up the 7.0 mess and explane things to us why there have done it.

then there need to show also there are going to chance things good from listing to feedback to fixing problems like the long bug list.

[Darkestmonty]

48 minutes ago, Spikanor said:

thats your reason to sub.

for a lot of players is it only about the new story contant, gelactic seasons sub rewards and max new level.

and since 7.0 was so big of a mess and a lot of people got screw up also with the 2 months extra delay it got that people are thinking twice first before there buy sub for that since if the contant is crap and super weak to call it a expension in the first place and there also got screw up first with the 2 month's extra delay 1 week before launch.

there give no damm about the preferred restrictions it has now that there have a 1 mill credit limit to hold.

since there is no good reason to sub anymore since the 7.0 mess there have done since there are not that trustfull anymore.

 

my reason why i sub is only for the new contant the last expension, i need to craft a lot of items like a lot of mods for a new char.

 

if there wane have that more players become sub or buy cartal coins there need to fix some big problems first like to clear up the 7.0 mess and explane things to us why there have done it.

then there need to show also there are going to chance things good from listing to feedback to fixing problems like the long bug list.

I only sub to access all my credits. If I was able to unlock my character limit permanently I would only sub once at the end of Galactic Season.

[_Miriya_]

All I want to say is that the "measure" of taxing a trade between friends is ABSURD and anti-friends. Like, wow, these devs don't have friends or never played a multiplayer with their friends. You never tried to lure a friend to play your game and to elp him stay gave him some stuff to help him out? Or somone comming back to game than needs new augments, and YOU CAN'T GIVE HIM ANYTHING now. 
Best anti friend game ever

[Mor-Kai-Denn]

All of the initiatives appear to me to be based on taxation. Make the rich pay more.

The game has equality of opportunity, what is being asked for is equality of outcome. I am hearing a lot of "It's not fair that someone that puts more time in than I do has more credits, they should be taxed." Trotsky would be doing cartwheels.

If you want more credits, put more time in.

Crafting needs restoring to where it once was, flood the GTN with cheap yet handy upgrades, that we have made ourselves from resources we have collected ourselves. Not expensive ones made from materials bought on the GTN for billions. This would also help bring back the vibrant individualism that is sorely missed.

 

[Vanechka]

The Galactic Trade Network Buyout Price Limit has been increased from 1,000,000,000 to 3,000,000,000.

• This is to allow trade of higher value items.

Are the Devs not playing the game or looking at the GTN? I was finally able to see and purchase every single weapon I had on my list (40+) half of them were platinum rate, it was not possible to see them at the GTN before the last update). plus the 2 armor sets released in the last patch, all were purchased with credits. I even have some screenshots of the purchases. 

Increasing the cap is gonna allow scalpers and credit farmers to continue what they were doing before. Good luck to the rest of us in finding anything at a reasonable price anymore. New players would probably quit the game just by looking at the price of some of the items at the GTN. How can they afford 3 Billion credits? 1 way, is by going to the credit farmer site they hear so much at the FLEET chat. 

Unless anything above 1 billion is heavily taxed (50%+) Scalpers are going to ABUSE the system the same way they did and ruin the GTN.

If the GTN cap is going to be raised, HEAVY tax it and also cut the person-to-person trade cap to HALF.

This is one of the many ways to fix the economy. 

[psikofunkster]

2 hours ago, Vanechka said:

The Galactic Trade Network Buyout Price Limit has been increased from 1,000,000,000 to 3,000,000,000.

• This is to allow trade of higher value items.

 

Increasing the cap is gonna allow scalpers and credit farmers to continue what they were doing before. Good luck to the rest of us in finding anything at a reasonable price anymore. New players would probably quit the game just by looking at the price of some of the items at the GTN. How can they afford 3 Billion credits? 1 way, is by going to the credit farmer site they hear so much at the FLEET chat.

This pretty much. I expect each of the next cartel items to cost 3 billion each piece on GTN.

Credit farmer site you say? lets see 3bill equals 78 bucks mmm... that price is not only prohibited also stupid and illegal on this game. 12bill = 312 bucks if you want the things below.....puff!!

Now if we use Cartel Coins:  Bashooka armor set 2600 + both sabers 7600 + Thrawn armor set 2600 = 12800cc = 60 bucks

Now its  way "cheaper" (less expensive) to pay with cartel coins unless you are already billionaire.

[Vanechka]

2 hours ago, psikofunkster said:

This pretty much. I expect each of the next cartel items to cost 3 billion each piece on GTN.

Credit farmer site you say? lets see 3bill equals 78 bucks mmm... that price is not only prohibited also stupid and illegal on this game. 12bill = 312 bucks if you want the things below.....puff!!

Now if we use Cartel Coins:  Bashooka armor set 2600 + both sabers 7600 + Thrawn armor set 2600 = 12800cc = 60 bucks

Now its  way "cheaper" (less expensive) to pay with cartel coins unless you are already billionaire.

Some people cannot use credit cards to purchase Cartel coins or credit cards valid to do so. There are other forms of payments credit card farmer websites are able to take that swtor/EA can't. Not all of us live in the USA. And this is what is making me mad, raising the cap will keep prices so high a lot of people who are new to the game/gaming will go to these illegal websites to purchase credits. Broadsword/EA need to do something about these spammers in the Fleet. I report yet, it seems like they never stop. 

[Darkestmonty]

6 hours ago, psikofunkster said:

This pretty much. I expect each of the next cartel items to cost 3 billion each piece on GTN.

Credit farmer site you say? lets see 3bill equals 78 bucks mmm... that price is not only prohibited also stupid and illegal on this game. 12bill = 312 bucks if you want the things below.....puff!!

Now if we use Cartel Coins:  Bashooka armor set 2600 + both sabers 7600 + Thrawn armor set 2600 = 12800cc = 60 bucks

Now its  way "cheaper" (less expensive) to pay with cartel coins unless you are already billionaire.

New CM items can be sold in /3 for 2-3 billion each. I was selling Darth Nol's Lightsaber for 5 billion the first week. Prices will eventually level off with demand, but new items are always super expensive when they first come out.

[TrixxieTriss]

8 hours ago, Vanechka said:

Some people cannot use credit cards to purchase Cartel coins or credit cards valid to do so. There are other forms of payments credit card farmer websites are able to take that swtor/EA can't. Not all of us live in the USA. And this is what is making me mad, raising the cap will keep prices so high a lot of people who are new to the game/gaming will go to these illegal websites to purchase credits. Broadsword/EA need to do something about these spammers in the Fleet. I report yet, it seems like they never stop. 

Third party websites offering different payment options than EA does not make inflation worse or make prices higher on the GTN

And while Credit sellers are a scourge & against the TOS, they don’t add inflation & are not the cause of it. They are a symptom of it. 

Increasing the GTN sales price won’t increase the prices for items already for sale on the GTN. Because those prices are mostly stable now since the new fees were added & the tax loopholes were closed in player to player trades.

What it will do is put more items back onto the GTN that are currently only being traded outside of it. Not only that, but it will actually reduce prices of some items over the long term as more items are sold & as more credits are removed from the game via the GTN tax on high priced items. 

You also need to realise that trades of credits between players is taxed now. So those credit sellers are removing more credits from the game every time they trade credits with buyers. They can’t even try & circumvent it via the GTN because they get taxed there too. That means it’s a lot less economical for them to do so & their business model has taken a big hit. And if the Devs really wanted to put them out of business, all they have to do is remove player to player credit trades entirely. Then no more credit sellers.