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Topic: Not so good news about F2P (Read 153544 times)
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Amaron
Terracotta Army
Posts: 2020
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I tried to get access to my account, but because I used a mobile authenticator I need some security key to log into my account. I gave up after about five minutes trying to access it again; they told me I have to call them to get it restored. Fuck a phone call; we're in 2012 now. Only people that should be using the phone are government employees, who will start using email about the same time we develop telepathy.
If you lost your authenticator they sure as hell shouldn't let you remove it via email. You're going to have to get used to taking better care of those keys. Moving forward you're going to need them for everything.
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Ingmar
Terracotta Army
Posts: 19280
Auto Assault Affectionado
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EA did do a poor job with the mobile authenticators, though - the Blizzard ones are handled better.
Physical authenticators for life for me though.
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The Transcendent One: AH... THE ROGUE CONSTRUCT. Nordom: Sense of closure: imminent.
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Evildrider
Terracotta Army
Posts: 5521
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EA did do a poor job with the mobile authenticators, though - the Blizzard ones are handled better.
Physical authenticators for life for me though.
Well, at least EA hasn't had their authenticators hacked.
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Tannhauser
Terracotta Army
Posts: 4436
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Started back up this morning to check out f2p. Somehow I was upgraded to a preferred customer but with no cartel coins. Got bank and AH access as well as my hotbars. So that made playing a lot less confining than I was expecting. Overall, I could see myself playing this for free. The game still looks good and my Mercenary performs as before. I did have some negatives though.
1. XP gain as f2p is really low. Or maybe it's always been pretty low? Anyway, they make those xp boost items very tempting. 2. No 'Sell All Junk' button? How long has this game been out? What have the devs been doing, I don't see a lot of new content. 3. I got an amazing purple helmet, but need to spend cartel coins to wear it. I bet lots of folks got a sweet purp to tempt them. /tinfoil 4. The daily to unlock HK costs, you guessed it, cartel coins. In fact they really really monetized the nooks and crannies of this game.
No cartel coins were spent and I had a fun time. Felt a lot like LOTRO's f2p model. Now I've got two MMO's that are free and I don't have to buy the WoW or Rift xpacs.
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Ingmar
Terracotta Army
Posts: 19280
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Sell all junk in SWTOR is done with right click companion picture and send them off to do it a la Torchlight.
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The Transcendent One: AH... THE ROGUE CONSTRUCT. Nordom: Sense of closure: imminent.
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Amaron
Terracotta Army
Posts: 2020
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Well, at least EA hasn't had their authenticators hacked. The authenticators themselves weren't hacked. Blizzard's servers got hacked. Thus any keys Blizzard was storing were compromised. I'd guess the physical authenticator keys are stored by vasco.
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koro
Terracotta Army
Posts: 2307
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I hope none of you have more than 12 characters on a server due to server merges: 11. For subscribers with more than 12 characters due to the server consolidation, will they have to purchase character slots to unlock them once the character slot restrictions are put in place?
That is the current plan, yes. We don’t think it’s fair to everyone else who wasn’t lucky enough to get this accidental side benefit from server merges. However, those additional characters aren’t lost, and players will easily be able to unlock those characters. The timeline for this is TBD. So Bioware fucked up and launched with far more servers than they needed, so people who had presences on multiple servers get to pay for it.
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ajax34i
Terracotta Army
Posts: 2527
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I wonder what percentage of the playerbase that is, though. I may be wrong but I don't think a significant amount of people played more than 12 characters to a level where they need to keep the characters. There are only 8 storylines.
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Sky
Terracotta Army
Posts: 32117
I love my TV an' hug my TV an' call it 'George'.
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Yeah, I had some name placeholders. Which leads to fun things like now I have a placeholder character with my SW's name Screwing over the day 1 CE people for names is still my main issue with the game. It just ain't the same playing my Trooper Bârt or my Shadow Skÿ.
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Ingmar
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Posts: 19280
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I hope none of you have more than 12 characters on a server due to server merges: 11. For subscribers with more than 12 characters due to the server consolidation, will they have to purchase character slots to unlock them once the character slot restrictions are put in place?
That is the current plan, yes. We don’t think it’s fair to everyone else who wasn’t lucky enough to get this accidental side benefit from server merges. However, those additional characters aren’t lost, and players will easily be able to unlock those characters. The timeline for this is TBD. So Bioware fucked up and launched with far more servers than they needed, so people who had presences on multiple servers get to pay for it. Nobody should be surprised by this, and it really isn't going to be a big deal. Nobody is 'paying' for it; everyone who wants more than 12 slots (on the same server type, you can still make 12 dudes on each server if you really want) is paying the same thing.
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The Transcendent One: AH... THE ROGUE CONSTRUCT. Nordom: Sense of closure: imminent.
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Amaron
Terracotta Army
Posts: 2020
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« Last Edit: November 20, 2012, 01:05:28 PM by Amaron »
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Sjofn
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Posts: 8286
Truckasaurus Hands
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I have 12 characters on Ebon Hawk, down from the 16 I had once they did the mandatory merge. I had to delete down to 11 so I could redo my dude sith warrior as a twi'lek (he was just squatting on the name, more so I wouldn't forget what I had thought of than anything), and it ... wasn't hard, as all the ones I deleted were levels 1-10. :P I kinda figure if I could painlessly cull down to 12 when I didn't even really need to yet, most people can. In case you were wondering what my insanity breakdown is: Level 50 scoundrel, level 50 commando, level 50 assassin, level 50 sage, level 50 guardian, level 50 operative, level 49 gunslinger, level 47 juggernaut (paired with Ingmar), level 32 marauder, level 19 sentinel (paired with Ingmar), level 12 powertech (paired with Ingmar) and level 12 shadow (in a FOURSOME). I have issues. EDIT: Oh, and I have a level 28 BH (mercenary?) on the other RP server, but I forget he exists half the time. He exists mostly in case I get bored and want to see the BH storyline before Ingmar is ready to level his IA with my Proper Bounty Hunter.
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« Last Edit: November 20, 2012, 02:03:15 PM by Sjofn »
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God Save the Horn Players
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Tannhauser
Terracotta Army
Posts: 4436
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So I did some f2p and got back into the game. But the draconian limitations of f2p annoyed me so I re-subbed. Which I think was their plan all along. After GW2, it's fun to go back into a more stately, story heavy game. I'm interested in this 'epic' space battle patch coming, that's something I was clamoring for during my original tenure.
What's most annoying about f2p was I seemed to be capped on three characters and there wasn't a cartel coin unlock for more slots. Or did I miss it?
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eldaec
Terracotta Army
Posts: 11843
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Black hole commendations from space missions?
Its like they want us to forget that the godawful tionese/columni/rakata outfits even exist!
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"People will not assume that what they read on the internet is trustworthy or that it carries any particular assurance or accuracy" - Lord Leveson "Hyperbole is a cancer" - Lakov Sanite
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Fabricated
Moderator
Posts: 8978
~Living the Dream~
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My ship was an avatar of death with all the best parts equipped and you still couldn't fuck around too much on some of the hardest missions, so that'll be interesting.
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"The world is populated in the main by people who should not exist." - George Bernard Shaw
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eldaec
Terracotta Army
Posts: 11843
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They've invented 'even better spaceship bits'.
Hopefully at the same they fixed the photon torpedo interface so you can bind it to a different key.
Also afaik the original game has zero thermal exhaust ports to shoot them at. This must change.
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"People will not assume that what they read on the internet is trustworthy or that it carries any particular assurance or accuracy" - Lord Leveson "Hyperbole is a cancer" - Lakov Sanite
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Lantyssa
Terracotta Army
Posts: 20848
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All torpedoes ever did were to mess up my missile lock-ons. Hope they change them entirely.
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Hahahaha! I'm really good at this!
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Ingmar
Terracotta Army
Posts: 19280
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There's really only one mission where that is annoying, but yeah it is pretty annoying in that mission. I just shoot the torpedoes at the shield generators and forego the little credit bonus for shooting the bridge on that one.
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The Transcendent One: AH... THE ROGUE CONSTRUCT. Nordom: Sense of closure: imminent.
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Montague
Terracotta Army
Posts: 1297
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So apparently EA fucked up the Cartel Coins already. I got an email saying I was "accidentally" given my month's supply of cartel coins early, so I wouldnt get any next month. Ok, cool with me I dont plan on being subbed next month. I log in and instead of 600 or so more coins being in my account, it says zero, and the Customer service forums are exploding with people that spent Cartel coins, got their stuff, then had everything rolled back with NO REFUNDS. Shitstorm incoming.
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When Fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross - Sinclair Lewis.
I can tell more than 1 fucktard at a time to stfu, have no fears. - WayAbvPar
We all have the God-given right to go to hell our own way. Don't fuck with God's plan. - MahrinSkel
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koro
Terracotta Army
Posts: 2307
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Also bear in mind that the rollback where people lost thousands of coins happened five days ago, and Bioware has not addressed the issue beyond the standard "no refunds" form letters they send out to people who open tickets, which only started filtering out to players days after the incident.
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eldaec
Terracotta Army
Posts: 11843
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Actually quite enjoying this again.
Sprint at level 1 and speeders at level 10 is huge. As others have pointed out, knowing how to not give a shit about the planet stories helps as well.
But for a game aiming to take in ultra casuals, it still does a terrible job of helping new players find stuff. And I still can't imagine how terrible the game would look to someone coming in new as f2p.
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"People will not assume that what they read on the internet is trustworthy or that it carries any particular assurance or accuracy" - Lord Leveson "Hyperbole is a cancer" - Lakov Sanite
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Amaron
Terracotta Army
Posts: 2020
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And I still can't imagine how terrible the game would look to someone coming in new as f2p.
Most of the new player comments for the game have been good. The worst parts of F2P seem to annoy them far less. The two bar limit is seen as just another aspect of character building for instance. I expect tunes will change at 50 of course.
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Nebu
Terracotta Army
Posts: 17613
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The first and second trip to 50 in this game is wonderful. The game falls flat after that.
I think that the F2P people will enjoy the entry level game and may even spend a bit on the game. That's not the problem. Where the game suffers is in its ability to retain people longer than a couple of months.
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"Always do what is right. It will gratify half of mankind and astound the other."
- Mark Twain
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Sjofn
Terracotta Army
Posts: 8286
Truckasaurus Hands
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And I still can't imagine how terrible the game would look to someone coming in new as f2p.
Most of the new player comments for the game have been good. The worst parts of F2P seem to annoy them far less. The two bar limit is seen as just another aspect of character building for instance. I expect tunes will change at 50 of course. Really depends on the class/spec, too. My healy-sage could easily, EASILY be played with two quickbars.
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God Save the Horn Players
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Zetor
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3269
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And I still can't imagine how terrible the game would look to someone coming in new as f2p.
Most of the new player comments for the game have been good. The worst parts of F2P seem to annoy them far less. The two bar limit is seen as just another aspect of character building for instance. I expect tunes will change at 50 of course. Really depends on the class/spec, too. My healy-sage could easily, EASILY be played with two quickbars. Hasn't been my experience at all (talking about level 50). I'll log into my healing sage to check, but I seem to remember I was using 3 full hotbars when I quit in Jan. I do agree that some classes have it far worse, I have no idea how my tanking vanguard's skills could be fit into 3 hotbars, never mind 2... e: just checked, it looks like this: first hotbar (mostly healing) - healing trance, force armor, deliverance, rejuvenate, mind snap, throw huttball, force potency, restoration, force stun, medpack, force slow, mount second hotbar (mostly damage and cooldowns) - tk throw, disturbance (of all skills, this MAY be the only not strictly necessary one), mind crush, weaken mind, forcequake, noble sacrifice, force mend, salvation, revival, cloud mind, meditation, force of will third hotbar (pvp / cc stuff) - force lift, force speed, force wave, project, [force valor, heroic moment, heroic legacy skill 1, heroic legacy skill 2, heroic legacy skill 3 - I guess you could use these from the spellbook], double strike (again, insanely situational, but it has helped me defend a node once when all my instant nukes were on cooldown), warzone healing item, warzone adrenal.
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« Last Edit: November 22, 2012, 10:48:15 PM by Zetor »
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koro
Terracotta Army
Posts: 2307
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If I cut out the stuff I don't use or only use during solo play, my healing Sorc's abilities could pretty easily fit onto two bars.
My tanking Juggernaut, on the other hand...
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Ingmar
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Posts: 19280
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I can fit my dps smuggler and healing trooper on 2 bars no problem (cover bar helps though) and my madness inquisitor is on 2 *easily*. The only caveat with those is I have my interrupt bound to a key sitting over on another bar somewhere. And that's assuming you can stand to hit stuff like your buffs and fast travel from the menu instead of a bar.
Tank JK is definitely another matter, and of course if you have items from your craft like grenades or adrenals or whatever you are going to be going over 2 on anyone. (Also legacy abilities take up a shitload of space eventually but if you're F2P you're carrying what, 2 of those at most?)
It's hard to imagine ever really needing to go over 2 bars while leveling.
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« Last Edit: November 22, 2012, 11:04:56 PM by Ingmar »
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The Transcendent One: AH... THE ROGUE CONSTRUCT. Nordom: Sense of closure: imminent.
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Sjofn
Terracotta Army
Posts: 8286
Truckasaurus Hands
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And I still can't imagine how terrible the game would look to someone coming in new as f2p.
Most of the new player comments for the game have been good. The worst parts of F2P seem to annoy them far less. The two bar limit is seen as just another aspect of character building for instance. I expect tunes will change at 50 of course. Really depends on the class/spec, too. My healy-sage could easily, EASILY be played with two quickbars. Hasn't been my experience at all (talking about level 50). I'll log into my healing sage to check, but I seem to remember I was using 3 full hotbars when I quit in Jan. I do agree that some classes have it far worse, I have no idea how my tanking vanguard's skills could be fit into 3 hotbars, never mind 2... e: just checked, it looks like this: first hotbar (mostly healing) - healing trance, force armor, deliverance, rejuvenate, mind snap, throw huttball, force potency, restoration, force stun, medpack, force slow, mount second hotbar (mostly damage and cooldowns) - tk throw, disturbance (of all skills, this MAY be the only not strictly necessary one), mind crush, weaken mind, forcequake, noble sacrifice, force mend, salvation, revival, cloud mind, meditation, force of will third hotbar (pvp / cc stuff) - force lift, force speed, force wave, project, [force valor, heroic moment, heroic legacy skill 1, heroic legacy skill 2, heroic legacy skill 3 - I guess you could use these from the spellbook], double strike (again, insanely situational, but it has helped me defend a node once when all my instant nukes were on cooldown), warzone healing item, warzone adrenal. Off the top of my head, my sage's first quick bar goes like this: autoattack, heal 1, heal 2, heal 3, bubble, project, pebble swarm, stun, force lift, knock back second quickbar I don't know nearly as well: legacy lightning storm, moment of glory, a bunch of other shit I don't use, like my DoTs, and my interrupt And honestly? 99.9% of the time, I need absolutely nothing else. My rezzes and shit are off on my side bar, mostly to remind me they even exist, but I don't NEED them on an easily accessable quickbar. My medpacs are over there too, but I literally cannot remember the last time I needed to use one. Now grant you, I do not PvP on my sage. If I was a f2p person, I wouldn't be PvPing at all (I PvP on my scoundrel, who I think I'd need three bars to feel happy about, but I could probably cut him down to two if I had to). But for the shit I do? Two bars is more than enough. If I HAD to, I could probably play her with one. :P Sages are boring.
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God Save the Horn Players
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Zetor
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3269
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Well yea, I did pvp with my sage pretty extensively (see also my various bitching posts about the state of pvp at 50 for an undergeared healer ). I also haven't soloed after hitting 50 because daily quests can die in a fire, so I don't have things like Unity on my hotbar (and probably could move all the Heroic Moment stuff off, too). I can fit my dps smuggler and healing trooper on 2 bars no problem (cover bar helps though)... Hmm, good call on the cover bar. I played around a bit on my level 20 operative this weekend and was really annoyed that I was out of space already (ended up moving the heroic moment/legacy stuff, my self-buff and most of my heals off my bars). On the bright side, since quick travel has a ridonkolous cooldown as f2p, I don't feel obligated to keep it on my hotbar anymore!
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eldaec
Terracotta Army
Posts: 11843
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I have 6 bars on my level 50 assassin, damage, buffs, and cc+random shit adorn a block of 3 on the bottom. Travel and out of combat buffs/stances on the left, on the right go mission items plus emotes, stims, medpacks, pets. Then finally bar 6 is the companion bar.
I honestly could cope with 2 bars until level 50, but it would make me sad as I wouldn't have so many lovely buttons to choose from, and they'd be all cramped together.
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"People will not assume that what they read on the internet is trustworthy or that it carries any particular assurance or accuracy" - Lord Leveson "Hyperbole is a cancer" - Lakov Sanite
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Zetor
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3269
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Oh yeah, mission items, I forgot all about those. Have they added a WOW/RIFT-like way to use mission items directly from the mission tracker yet?
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Evildrider
Terracotta Army
Posts: 5521
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Oh yeah, mission items, I forgot all about those. Have they added a WOW/RIFT-like way to use mission items directly from the mission tracker yet?
That has been in for awhile now.
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Amaron
Terracotta Army
Posts: 2020
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Can you still page through other hotbars on F2P? I can't fathom being forced to open the power window constantly.
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Fordel
Terracotta Army
Posts: 8306
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If you can page through bars, then 2 bars is more then enough for most of the classes.
Any Warriors or Operatives are still fucked with just 2 though.
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and the gate is like I TOO AM CAPABLE OF SPEECH
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koro
Terracotta Army
Posts: 2307
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Can you still page through other hotbars on F2P? I can't fathom being forced to open the power window constantly. You can page to the second bar if you don't have it activated, but that's it.
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