Giving this a whirl for a bit.

[Maven]

Oof. It was not a pleasant discovery to find out about the 200k credit cap on F2P accounts, with only a Cartel Coin purchase to raise the cap.

[Evildrider]

You keep collecting money I believe, but only have access to 200k at a time.  You can buy an item that unlocks a portion of that money though so you can buy more expensive things.

[Maven]

Do you know the item? That one element was the straw on the camel's back. I could deal with other caps including Weekly play limits, but removing my ability to buy most Cartel items on the AH due to most items being over 200k hindered my long-term plans.

After 5 days of playing, I got my Imperial Agent up to Lv. 30, and was about to finish Nar Shadda. They have a good, solid core product. Whereas I felt WoW was getting increasingly stale because of its limited core content, this game has 8 separate alt storylines to go through, cross-character achievements, a Legacy system for persistent progress over all characters, interesting alternative gameplay mechanics, good party and dungeon system, and a tie-in to an IP that has large appeal. It says something that I'm looking at its positive design decisions and don't feel terribly compelled to point out flaws. Whatever this thing was at launch, the product as it is has staying power. I can foresee this game being worth trying for someone ten years from now due to the strength of the total package.

Though, I'm not sure obtaining Legacy Level 50 is something to be proud of. But hey, rewarding all types of players.

I have spent enough time with this where I feel like if I want to be serious about playing I'd have to get a subscription just to remove all the restrictions. As it stands, I've got college and other priorities.

[ajax34i]

Subscription removes the restrictions AND gives you 500 cartel coins per month (basically, $5 back to you), so not having the restrictions is worth the subscription cost to me, even if I'm playing casually a few hours each weekend.  Going through story line for character 6, two more to do after this.  Takes me about 3 months each, because, again, casual.

Not sure I could play with the restrictions, especially since 6 characters mean 300 total sell slots for the GTN, and selling gathered/crafting mats was lucrative enough to get me 1 million (plus gear) by level 30 on my first character, and by now 55 mil credits and all the mounts, armor sets, weapons, and crystals that I wanted.

EDIT:  The item is escrow transfer something something.

EDIT2:  Nar Shaddaa has orange modifiable off-hands (shields, shotguns, knives, etc) for sale for planet commendations.  It will be hard to find good off-hands on the GTN for you and your companions at higher levels.

[Maven]

Got'cha, I looked it up. Excess credits go into an inaccessible escrow account. So I could rack up 600k in excess -- but I'm still looking to pay a huge credit cost to be able to get that 600k. They do stack though, so I can live with that. They'll eventually get me with purchasing to access Lv. 55 content, if I were to keep going.

It seems there are ways to get past all the restrictions put in place, they only require a huge percentage of credits on top of whatever it is you're doing.

[Paelos]

I can say right now the Hutt Cartel stuff was straight awful. Like beyond what I expected awful.

You think you're going to get more of the same, but instead you get endless kill 50 of this quests that send you back and forth to the same shit with no real story point. It's a low point.

[Ingmar]

Do you mean Makeb? It's not especially different than any other planet quest. There's a main quest with some objectives and usually an instanced area and a conversation, and then little side quests with kill 50 type stuff that you pick up along the way. It's not as in depth as the personal storylines, but it's pretty much just like the planetary storylines.

[Paelos]

Yeah Makeb. My friend and I duoed it and it was so different to us it was horrible. YMMV, but I didn't care for it at all.

[Fordel]

Do you mean Makeb? It's not especially different than any other planet quest. There's a main quest with some objectives and usually an instanced area and a conversation, and then little side quests with kill 50 type stuff that you pick up along the way. It's not as in depth as the personal storylines, but it's pretty much just like the planetary storylines.

Makeb's problem is mob density. They forgot most classes don't have stealth to avoid the 5 billion trash packs in between everything.

[Ingmar]

It's really only the one giant mesa with the mining drill control platforms or whatever where that really wears on me, personally. But yeah it's quite bad there.

[Evildrider]

They are going to be boosting players for Makeb soon as well as lowering mob density.  I assume because of whatever is coming in 3.0.

[Maven]

Does a one-month subscription get you permanent access to Hutt Cartel? It seems doubtful given $14.99 vs. $19.99.

[Paelos]

Does a one-month subscription get you permanent access to Hutt Cartel? It seems doubtful given $14.99 vs. $19.99.

It gives you access while subbed. I don't believe it's available if not subbed.

[Sjofn]

Though, I'm not sure obtaining Legacy Level 50 is something to be proud of. But hey, rewarding all types of players.

If you do any amount of shit at level cap, the Legacy Levels come pretty fast. I hit Legacy 50 ages ago. 

[Ingmar]

I just finally hit that myself.

[Reg]

Has anyone checked out the housing yet? I was subscribed last month so I got the freebie stronghold. It's nice looking and maybe someday I'll have decorations for it but honestly I like it just for the easy transportation it provides. I can teleport to the house any time I like with no timeout and from there I can exit to my ship or the fleet. That alone makes it worth staying subscribed IMO.

The cartel has a bundle of utilities on sale right now as well that'll let me install a mailbox, a GTN terminal, and some storage.

[Ingmar]

It looks fairly awesome. Reminds me of DAOC housing, in a good way.

[Sjofn]

You can get a mailbox and legacy storage for free, by the way, by doing the intro-to-stronghold quest. You get it from a holostatue near the stronghold kiosks on the fleet, the reward is some basic decoration stuff plus the mailbox and legacy storage. Don't worry if you unlocked your stronghold already, you just need to visit your stronghold and walk two or three steps for it to complete. You can do it on alts, too, so you can have a billion of the basic rugs and stuff if you really want. :P

[Ginaz]

You can get a mailbox and legacy storage for free, by the way, by doing the intro-to-stronghold quest. You get it from a holostatue near the stronghold kiosks on the fleet, the reward is some basic decoration stuff plus the mailbox and legacy storage. Don't worry if you unlocked your stronghold already, you just need to visit your stronghold and walk two or three steps for it to complete. You can do it on alts, too, so you can have a billion of the basic rugs and stuff if you really want. :P

I bought a few things with my cartel coins to pimp out my stronghold and I've got everything except the balcony and solarium unlocked.  That shit's expensive.   Some how I'm the top 10 for prestige, whatever that means.  It's open to the public so check it out if you want (listed as Ginaz's Stronghold or something), not that I'm any better decorating a house in TOR than I was in swg.

[Maven]

Another major credit sink, looks like. Fun.

Is Galactic Starfighter a huge grind to get decent ships? It seems that way. I've started to get the hang of it, but I think I need like a tens of thousands of Fleet Points to get things unlocked.

Edit: OK, one benefit to this patch is that the market on Tier 6 Slicing Trade Goods were averaging 200 / unit prepatch, forcing me to stockpile -- and I'm now selling them for 3250.

[Ingmar]

The unlockable ships are not better than the ones you start out with, they're just different. The basic starfighter and scout are very good, versatile ships. One of the unlockable gunships is pretty bad compared to the others but otherwise what ship you use is more a matter of playstyle than when you get it.

[Maven]

I was pretty excited to get a Weekly Space Mission pass from finishing my Agent's story, but supposedly the item has been broken since launch? What's up with that?

[Ingmar]

I didn't know the space missions (rail shooter ones) were even restricted, so no idea.

[Paelos]

I didn't know the space missions (rail shooter ones) were even restricted, so no idea.

They are yes.

[Maven]

I unlocked the Top Tier and was pleased to find a new variety of missions but also slammed by their difficulty.

I've been having trouble with Galactic Starfighter. At certain times the number of people playing drops to below the numbers required for *one* match, indicating the server is interested in accomplishing other activities. Several Aces queue up, and decimate the opposing team who has underwhelming firepower (two starter ships).

It's frustrating. I thought they had something different + interesting, and it's being undermined by the power imbalance. One player said "So get better" as one brilliant solution to the problem.

Is Galactic Strongholds inspired by Wildstar? What they're doing is an excellent server-wide resource sink.

[Ingmar]

GS has been in the works since before Wildstar released so I doubt it. It's like any MMO housing system, really.

All I know is I have a fucking sweet cult church thing with giant torches started in my Dromund Kaas apartment, and it's awesome.

[Fordel]

Unlock the center piece square and I'll put down my giant Emperor Doom Statue for you too.


I spent way to much on boots.

[Ingmar]

I don't think you can share your decorations with me sadly.

[Ginaz]

GS has been in the works since before Wildstar released so I doubt it. It's like any MMO housing system, really.

All I know is I have a fucking sweet cult church thing with giant torches started in my Dromund Kaas apartment, and it's awesome.

I turned part of my Nar Shadda palace into a mini casino with two wet bars and two HK-51's as security.

[Ingmar]

ME TOO

Except instead of HKs, I have mini-probes running the Pazaak tables. And a jukebox I could have sold for 4 million credits but fuck it, I'm not having a cantina without music.

[Fordel]

I don't think you can share your decorations with me sadly.

Can't you give me the good key or whatever? I don't know how this works.


Whatever though, I'm going to have my balcony in another like 5-10 daily quests, it will be displayed gloriously at my apartment instead.

[Sjofn]

Gold keys are the decorate other places keys, and I believe they only work for guild strongholds. When I gave my sister a key to my private ones, I could only give her bronze or silver.

[Reg]

Is there an Empire guild you guys play in on Ebon Hawk? I've been playing for the last couple of months and just bought another 60 days. Any chance of getting an invitation?

It's a juggernaut named Viletek (formerly Reg). I actually got "Reg" back on my smuggler but I'm not bothering with him until I get Villy to 50.

[Ingmar]

Yes, although we're not super active on that side. Guild name is "Bot Country".

[Reg]

That's fine. All I'm looking for are people to chat with while I play. I don't need to be involved in 40 man raids every night.    Do I have to be signed on to get the invitation?