Darth Hater

* More companion comments. Not something we will see for a while at best, considering the amount of extra lines (8 stories times 1-5 companions times dialogue options) vs the visibility of the change, but the thing that makes me like on companion over another is precisely when they join the conversation now and again, to offer their views in a more direct manner than +15 affection. VA can chew through lines pretty quick, so I could see them retrofitting some of the older class quests with more chatter in an expansion, where they have to extend the personal story anyway and have most everyone in the booth already. 

* The ability to invite someone to a guild by Legacy rather than character. Optional in case people want to multiguild, but for most you only ever have one guild, and it would be nice that you don't have to go through the invite hoop for every alt you make.

* Get rid of mob tagging. Wishful thinking probably, but if the engine and code allows it, I would really like them to take a leaf out of GW2s playbook and just give full XP + loot to all who help kill a mob even if not grouped. Competing for spawns or forced grouping with strangers does not build community, it just annoys and makes everything take longer.

* New Legacy unlock track: Increased XP from sidequests. Same as the one for Class quests, just for the other quests. Though I daresay with the arrival of XP boosters, this is also probably one of those we won't see.  

* Animation timing tweaks. Especially noticeable playing a tank. The deflect/parry animation (which is nice and should stay in) tend to get in the way of trigger abilities with somewhat long animation (Force Scream on the warrior is where I see it most). Not sure if it is just a visual thing, or it actually delays my casting, but it makes stuff feel sluggish. Maybe just a priority tweak, such that active ability use animations superseed passive animations.

I've returned as a subscriber, though F2P was the reason swtor returned to my personal radar. I decided that on balance I prefer a lot of the quality of life features that a sub gives, specifically in terms of playing alts, so it would be rather pricy to unlock stuff for all 9 of my old characters to play (not to mention just the ability to play them, once those limits get enforced). My point in returning is to see the stories of the various classes. 

I had 1050 CC due to old subscriptions. All have gone into legacy unlocks (Human race for the +100 Presence boost and a few class XP bonuses). I plan to unlock the Ratataki as well, and after that, if I'm still playing, more of the account wide legacy stuff. I may get a few extra CCs for money at some point, but not this side of christmas. 

My experience has generally been positive. The game feels alive in a way it didn't when I stopped playing back in april, and even though a few trolls have crawled back in, the community is quick to step up to the defense of the F2Pers when some jerk decides they are the root of all evil. 

You are essentially asking them to be precognitive about pricing. Something was expensive before F2P was even a thing, and some people bought that. Now some of the expensive things can be bought in the Cartel Market. You seem to argue that this is insulting (even dragging out the old "slap in the face" cliche) to those that bought the expensive thing at some point, and indeed a mistake. 

And to correct that mistake and by way of apologizing for this percieved slight, they should commit the mistake again with more of the expensive stuff? How is that logic? And how is "do the same for other end-game items" not "allow(ing) for real money in the market)? What are these other items, besides the ship GTN, that should be unlockable with CC? Surely not Operation gear.

Hey DarthHater

Good work on the site and keeping up the effort. On to my question: SWTOR has recieved a lot of flak, in many cases rightfully so, in others less so. The launch of F2P has been getting mixed responses as well. I fully expect the results of F2P to be similar to other games converting to the model: An upturn in new players and increased profitability for Bioware. In other words, a success.

(TL;DR version, so you don't have to dig through it all if you use it on the show): With launch of F2P I think all players should take a step back from old grudges and things that are (or are thought to be) wrong with the game, in order that they not sour the new playerbase with complaints before they have had a chance to become invested. Would you say that is worthwhile, or would it be better to keep the pressure up on Bioware to make good on their promises?

Longer version follows:

If that success comes to pass, would you say all the player base, the old guard included, owes it to the new players, and to some extent the idea of a revitalized game, to take a step back from the old complaints and wipe the slate clean in terms of grudges? I realise that F2P will not magically fix some of the more common issues, like people looking for more complex (or simply more) raid content. Bioware should not be exempt from making good on those promises, but in fairness converting to F2P was necessary and has likely taken considerable resources; Resources that are now free to do these other things. Is it worth an attempt to encourage patience here, or would the game be better served by those familiar with it to keep the focus on their issues (chiefly end-game related), in the hope that something is done by the time the new players catch up?  

My stance is that it is worth it to make this a fresh start. I think it would be doing the game a disservice, if the old guard stays stuck in their trenches of what could or should be better, and in turn pass this attitude on to the new players before they even get a chance to become invested in the game, and thus stick around. A F2P player has a much easier time walking away from a game, and it is in the subscribers own interest to let the new players become fond of playing the game, rather than scaring them away by constant reminders of all that is (at least percieved to be) wrong with the game. A succesful F2P conversion will both improve the grouping side of the game from the start, and give Bioware the inspiration (and possibly corporate political leverage) to get some quality content going through the pipeline towards us. 

I'm a previous subscriber who is seriously considering coming back to the game. I play mostly solo, have zero interest in raids and only do PvP once in a blue moon or perhaps to get past an XP hump before moving on to a new planet. As such F2P Preferred should be perfect for me, and largely it is. I get the story, I have access to the things I need to not make everyday life a bother. Planets are still way too big, but you can't win them all. :) 

That said, I'm still going to resub. A) Because I can afford it and B) because some of the restrictions is things I'd rather do without, notably the crew skill limit, the customizations (like unify and show headslot) and having a few more quickbars. On the assumption that pricing of Coins will be comparable to other places, my bet is somewhere around 800 coins pr 10 eur. I can get a few months subscription for the amount I have to spend to unlock all those nice-to-haves (and they are only that, not need-to-have), and that is probably for how long it will take me to see the rest of the stories I want. Were I to play longer, I could see myself sticking with Preferred and enjoying not having recurring costs after a while. 

Besides a few iffy items, I think their F2P model is pretty standard for what you see these days. One-time, Account-wide unlocks for practically all the mechanical restrictions is not something they had to do, and is something I think many F2Pers will be happy to see. Most F2P realise they will eventually spend sme money, and will, beyond the game itself, look at where they can get best value for their cash. Unlocks like these are a very good selling point.

The match color feature wasn't scrapped, just disabled to avoid the use of it to obfuscate problems with default appearances and missing textures. 

The JK/SW's is not so much unbalanced as it is handicapped byb the need to use the default attack quite a bit to build resource, whereas the other classes can rely on their more interesting abilities ot a greater extent. Gear modding seems fairly extensive, striding a middle path between "everything is mods" and "only very special gear use mods". Generally you start seeing modslots for blue or better gear. Personally I consider that sufficient, allowing the feature without making mods-crafting the only crafting of worth.