Introducing Preferred Player Status: From the official forums

[SoulBender]

Source: STAR WARS: The Old Republic - [Updated] Introducing Preferred Player Status

Howdy Folks!

Update: We've been getting some questions about security keys and how they will work. For starters, Free-to-Play and Preferred players cannot use NEW digital security keys. However, if you had one on your account and you decided to go to Preferred Player Status, then you can still use your digital security key. Free-to-Play players may purchase a physical security key, which will give them Preferred Player Status and the ability to use the physical security key.

By now - from the comments here, on Reddit, and our community sites - y'all have gotten a good look at both our Cartel Market, and the Free-to-Play experience. I've seen a whole lot of back and forth discussions on what we are offering to our Free-to-Play Players, specifically when it comes to what features we have locked off or restricted when compared to Subscribers. Well, I wanted to jump into the discussions here to introduce our Preferred Player Status.

When we launch our Free-to-Play option this Fall, it will include three ways of playing The Old Republic: as a Subscriber, as a Free-to-Play Player, or with Preferred Status! We have previously mentioned Preferred Player Status on our website (http://www.swtor.com/free/features) but have not really gone into details, something I plan to address here.

Once our Free-to-Play option launches, Free-to-Play Players will gain Preferred Player Status by making a single purchase through our website. This purchase can simply be a quantity of Cartel Coins, or a Game Time Card, or even a month of a Subscription. Additionally, former Subscribers who are returning as Free-to-Play Players, will find they have Preferred Status!

As a Preferred Status Player, you will gain the following benefits compared to Free-to-Play Players:
• The Sprint ability at Level 1
• Access to your Cargo Hold (an 80 item Player Bank)
• Access to Secure Trade
• The ability to send Mail, including one (1) attachment
• Increased allowance for chat message frequencies in Public chat channels (such as /general)
• An increased Credits Cap
• Access to the Who List
• Three (3) additional Sale Slots on the Galactic Trade Network (for a total of 5)
• One (1) additional active Crew Skill Slot (for a total of 2)
• Reduced skill point respecialization costs
• Increased Server queue priority

In addition to the above benefits, Subscribers who return as Preferred Status Players will find that they retain any Cargo Hold and Inventory expansions they had unlocked, any Legacy Unlock or Perk they have gained (including Species) and can continue to use any Artifact equipment that was bound to them previously.

[Lucious]

Hmmm. I didn't know you would pay skill points to respec. if you respec too much your toon will be completely worthless. why would they do this? That's like the college you go to cutting off a limb for a major change. And secure trade? You can't do a face-to-face as F2P? I'm guessing that's what they mean.

[SoulBender]

Hmmm. I didn't know you would pay skill points to respec. if you respec too much your toon will be completely worthless. why would they do this? That's like the college you go to cutting off a limb for a major change. And secure trade? You can't do a face-to-face as F2P? I'm guessing that's what they mean.

Here is a good example of why you might want to respec ALOT... I would love to be able to do this on my Operative as I like to heal FPs, but it makes leveling a little slower. I could level as dps or a hybrid and then switch up to full heals for FPs.

Source:Smuggler Weekly:

The first change LITERALLY made me jump up and down with joy (and I never say “literally” when I mean “figuratively”). Respec costs will be COMPLETELY GONE for Subscribers. This is exactly what I have been wanting. Combine this with the 200k credit Legacy perk that puts a Respec button on my talent tree, and we are about as close to a dual-spec system as we’ve ever been. I really hope that Bioware goes ahead and does a dual-spec system as well, but this is definitely a good thing in the meantime.
Think of the ramifications of this now, though. As a Scoundrel leveling up and wanting to do Flashpoints, I can now queue as both heals and DPS, even though I don’t want to pay the cost to respec. I can now respec at any time to try different specs at will, and I can switch between DPS spec and heal spec in between phases in Voidstar. Even as a Gunslinger, I have a burst-DPS spec and a survival spec, so switching between those in Voidstar would be a good thing.

[Lucious]

No. I understand respeccing. i do it all the time. however, instead of money an F2P player spends SKILL points to respec. In other words, the 41 you have at level 50 may only amount to 35 if you respec 6 times during your leveling process. That's what I meant by "How could they do this?" They being BW requiring a skill payment to respec.

[Sutek]

I think it was poorly written. I believe he means reduced cost (credits) to respec your skill points. It makes less than zero sense to.have to spend skill points to reset them.

[SoulBender]

Not sure where you see that Lucious.

[Jetsu]

Hmmm. I didn't know you would pay skill points to respec. if you respec too much your toon will be completely worthless. why would they do this? That's like the college you go to cutting off a limb for a major change. And secure trade? You can't do a face-to-face as F2P? I'm guessing that's what they mean.

I believe you read this wrong. It's not a cost of skill points to respec. It's a reduction in the cost of respeccing your skill points.

Also, yes, if you've never paid a dime except to get an account they're not letting you trade until you spend something. It's just a gimick (like limiting mail and chat) to prevent accounts made for the purpose of gold selling from being able to do much of anything without spending money first.

[Lucious]

LOL i probably did. I just came off a session on the test server and it was quite an unpleasant experience. I understand restrictions, but these are so random and draconian that, IF i were a 1st time player, I would just delete this and never consider returning. I don't know what their money making goal is, but I think they will be sorely disappointed by this offering. I don't think the restrictions will get people to sub. just leave. they certainly failed to look at ANY successful model out there.

[Jetsu]

Depends on what you mean by first time player. The first time I played an MMO I didn't even know about the mail system, trading, general chat, etc... until I had been playing for almost a week. By then if I hadn't found a single thing to spend cash on I wouldn't mind dropping a couple dollars to lift most of the major restrictions and get something else I want in the process.

If I was a typical MMO gamer I may get a bit annoyed with the restrictions (since there are certain things we've come to expect), but then I wouldn't expect to get everything an MMO has to offer for a one time cost of $15 and would feel like it's not much to ask to spend a couple dollars once to achieve "preferred status".

Edit: For the original box price alone you could almost certainly have more than I'll have when I go free to play (including the coins I have and the automatic preferred status).

[Lucious]

The Preferred status does soften the blow a bit. I think a lot of the F2P players will be 1st time SWTOR players, but will have MMO experience. They will have a certaian level of ability to play in their mind. Returners at Preferred will see fewer restrictions, but they may not be enough, especially if the have F2P/Preferred/Sub MMO's games in their experience. other games are more generous in everyday gameplay and make a lot off of quest packs and experience boost sales. The biggest mistake is restricting the user interface. this is new to me and quite oppressive and senseless. I can see giving out the current UI but allowing expansion like EXTRA QB's beyond 4. That i am sure would be "enticing" and make them money. I certainly want 2 more bars.

[Jetsu]

The action bar limit is a bit low to me too. On my scoundrel I have 3/4 of my bars 100% filled with abilities I use during combat regularly (heals, damage, relics/consumables, and my CCs). The fourth is just mounts and things I use a lot, but not typically in high speed situations and I could probably do without. They have bumped it up to 2 for everyone (don't know if that means 3 for preferred or still 2) which is about what I used regularly for leveling probably (until I got close to 50 anyway), but that is one of the things I definitely could see myself spending the coins I will be granted on.

I still think the biggest mistake is the item level restriction. Sure, it's a one time cost and seems pretty cheap compared to other things, but they should be using loot as a reason to encourage players to pay for access to the content. It sort of loses it's potency when you tell them the rewards they could get are useless to them unless they shell out cash AGAIN to use them. It's a cost that isn't going to gain them much (sure, a lot will get it, but it's a one time cost) but I have a feeling it will turn casual players away from paying for additional content or this added cost.

[Lucious]

I think the ability to acquire CC's through gameplay would be a nice thing, too. If you, let's sat, gather up 50 cc's through gameplay but you find you really need that extra bar at 250, you may be more likely to purchase 200 cc's vs 500 (depending on the quantity tiers).

I still contend that they took no other sub to F2P model into consideration when putting this together. There is so much out there to look at and incorporate into the system for SWTOR. Some things are standard fare on F2P's like cosmetic items and xp boosts and such, but then they start screwing with the basic UI (never saw that before), title unlocks and hide headgear (and that is expensive). What is it they are after? There is no order, but chaos, i believe.

[Niccomi]

When the **** did they take the ability to send credits away? this is bull shit i dont get in game support either what the **** are they doing they are ****ing up big time!!!!!!

[Jetsu]

Non-subscribers have never been able to send credits. It's to prevent people "working around" the credit cap as well as gold-sellers using F2P accounts for credit transfers.

I still think the whole idea of making preferred accounts unavailable for gold sellers is silly. If gold sellers want to pay $5 to make an account available for play only until it's connected to gold selling (and then banned) they could make a fortune off banning those accounts and getting the $5 re-preferred fee every time.