200k Credit Cap For Freepers! Will it Force the Price of Items?

Free to play players (Freepers) will have a credit cap of 200k. Any extra credits made go into an Escrow account that you can see in your inventory. Once the credits have gone into that Escrow account the only way to get them back is to subscribe! If you earn 300K, for example, you can spend 200 of it but 100 of it will be stuck in escrow forever and the only way to retrieve it is to subscribe. It doesn't matter if you spend 200 of your 300, the 100 that was over the cap doesn't then become available; it stays in escrow. Free to play players are going to have to be careful when they are approaching the 200k cap. 

What will this mean for the Galactic Trade Market?  

Free to play players, using Cartel Coins to purchase Black Market Packs for example, are not going to want to sell items for over 200k. Subscribers will have a bigger audience for things like mats, if their prices are under 200k. Will we see an influx of items priced between 150-199k? Will we also see epic items that freepers can't equip priced really cheap to avoid the freepers hitting their  credit cap? I was actually quite surprised to see such a low credit cap for freepers.

Do you think 200k is a high enough cap? I'd personally like to see it closer to the 500k mark. Keep in mind that freepers can move credits to other characters if they have unlocked their mail box.

Bots Farming SWTOR get Arms Ripped Off

... well they got their accounts disabled anyway! Farmers, and some players, thought it was a good idea to venture into high level zones and camp high level reward chests for hours on end. On some servers, it got to the stage where there were four or five level 15 toons camped around one level 50 reward spawn. The clever little farmers thought they had outsmarted BioWare by venturing into zones that were neutral to their faction; so Republic toons would go into the Sith Heroic area and stand and farm among all the Republic NPCs that would not attacked them. The perfect spot for the farmer was in a safe place away from aggressive mobs, but close enough to be able to collect the respawn of the high level chest or crystal.

BioWare have taken the Wookie approach and have figuratively ripped the appendages off these farmers by first suspending and then banning any accounts that have been involved in credit trading.


To be honest, I am surprised at how little spam I'm getting in the game. I think I have had just two whispers offering me credits over the last three weeks. Unless the farmers find another loop hole that's hard for BioWare to track, it looks like BioWare have gotten it under control pretty quickly.

Some players have kicked up a fuss on Reddit and other social networking sites, complaining that they should be allowed to stand there all day and farm the chests, because the game allows them to and they're just collecting credits for their own use. What these players don't realize is that BioWare are not just cracking down on this because of farmers, they are also protecting the economy balance in the game. Anybody who believes their account has been unjustly banned can submit a petition to BioWare. Stephen Reid has replied, in detail, in the forums about this issue (see below).

If something in the game seems too good to be true, for example, being able to farm a level 50 chest every 10 minutes for 4000-5000 credits a pop, when you are only a level 14 character, I would suggest that you just don't do it, or you might get your arms ripped off ... ask any bot who has played against a Wookie :)




Stephen Reid said:

Our Terms of Service team recently took action against some accounts playing Star Wars: The Old Republic, and we wanted to give you some insight into what happened and why.


First, action was taken against a number of accounts for what's commonly known as 'gold farming' - or in our case, credit farming. These accounts were found to be exploiting the game in a variety of ways to maximize their credits in order to sell them to other players. Our Terms of Service team took action against these accounts and removed them permanently from the game.


Second, a smaller number of accounts were warned or temporarily suspended for exploiting loot containers on Ilum. To be completely clear, while players may choose to travel to Ilum earlier than the recommended level (40+) and may loot containers if they can get to them, in the cases of those customers that were warned or temporarily suspended, they were systematically and repeatedly looting containers in very high numbers resulting in the game economy becoming unbalanced. 


None of these accounts were banned for their actions and no accounts have been banned for travelling to Ilum while still relatively low level. By comparison, the number of accounts that were warned or temporarily suspended was considerably lower than the number of accounts banned for 'credit farming'.


It's important to remember that our Terms of Service team is extremely careful and thorough in their investigation of any potential exploit or unusual activity in-game. Working closely with the development team and using extensive metrics based on player activity, they are able to determine what is normal player activity, what is unusual and what is exploiting. Our goal is always to ensure a fair game experience for all players while also protecting the rights of individuals, and if people are disrupting the play experience for others action will be taken.


While we will not discuss the details of any individual action, whenever we take action against an account we believe they have clearly broken our Terms of Service. Any action taken against an account can be appealed and in some cases actions have been rescinded. 


While we understand people's concern about actions taken against accounts, please remember the Terms of Service team exists to help ensure a balanced and fair game experience for all. When you see reports of actions taken against someone's account, remember they are choosing to tell their version of the story - and there are two sides to every story.


In summary, our Terms of Service team took action against a number of accounts that were 'credit farming' to remove them permanently from the game. They also warned and temporarily suspended - but did not ban - a smaller number of accounts for activities on Ilum that were decided to be game exploits.


Some adjustments will be made to Ilum in the near future to discourage future exploits. However, the planet is still open to anyone who wishes to travel there.


The goal of the Star Wars: The Old Republic team is to maintain a service for our customers that is fun to play and equitable for everyone. Critical to this goal is making sure that gameplay is fair and reasonable and we are constantly on the lookout for anything that would prove to be a detriment to your gameplay experiences.


Thanks for reading, and we hope this gave you some insights.

Gaming in SWTOR Beta, Three Weeks In

This is the big weekend for most people, when they will get their first look at SWTOR, but I've been lucky enough to have been invited to the full time Beta. I've been playing the Beta for over three weeks now and my Jedi Consular is level 43, tough as nails, broke, but has lots of friends.

Last Companion (Jedi)
I just managed to finally get the last companion and the change in gameplay was dramatic. I completed the story arc, which gave me access to my final companion three levels under the recommended level. But once I had access to her it made leveling and the other side quests a lot easier. I went from cruising around with my healer companion, slowly killing one mob at a time in a tanking stance, to being able to slice through four mobs in seconds. Having two Jedi DPS (myself and my Jedi companion) is amazing. I refer to it as lawn mower mode, the way the lightsabers are spinning, you just plow through anything that gets in your way.

Shadow Specs
The Shadow spec that I picked up has a stealth mode that's helped me complete quest lines much faster than I should have. Sneaking around can complete quests faster but it seems to result in less Experience and Loot, as you're sneaking past mobs rather than killing them.

Space Combat
I have found space combat to be a good way to assist in leveling up. You get a variety of daily quests you can do and I've found them fairly easy, up to about level 40. Ship upgrades are another major expense if you want any chance of being able to complete the level 40 combat missions, you're going to have to sink about 100 000 credits into upgrading your vessel.

Credits
The biggest issue I am finding at this stage is credits. I'm just scrapping by level by level with my skill upgrades. I have nowhere near enough credits for my next speeder training and at some levels I found I didn't even have enough credits to get the level up skills required. Using the standard speeder you get at level 25 is not that bad, but having the upgrade training blinking at you every time you walk past a Jedi Consular trainer, and not having the credits to get it, is frustrating. This is the same for my crafting and other bonus items, all available everywhere but out of my budget. I have to save all my credits just to be able to upgrade my combat skills. I am concerned that if the costs stay as they are, the credit farmers are going to have a field day.