SWTOR questions.

[Hoot]

To keep a previous topic on track I have started this topic.

Hi Hoot!

This link has a breakdown comparing their subscription tiers: paid, preferred and free. -- http://www.swtor.com/free/features
I am in the middle "preferred status", because I bought a physical copy of the game at launch.  You can download for free, and then spend $5 once in their shop to get to the same level, so I wouldn't bother chasing after any boxes.   The top tier is a monthly fee.

Warcraft is still my "main MMO", but I actually just started playing through the missions in SWTOR with my neglected trooper last week after seeing someone's awesome havoc squad armor build on one of the 501st forums (it's a rebel costume however).   The servers I was playing on got merged in my absence over to the Harbinger and I lost all of my character names with that... but I never played the game very deeply.


Edit: http://www.torstatus.net/shards/us/stats server population by location and server type

Cob,
Thank you for the help. So I go download the game, install it, and pay the $4.99; does this mean I get to play the game to a certain level? I ask because here, toward the bottom of the page is an area called Subscription Plans… is that worth the credits?


Cob,

[Cob]

I would just recommend trying it out for free and see if you enjoy it as-is.  I don't have a subscription as I am very casual/don't ever finish anything.  If you are playing it every day, then getting a paid subscription is probably not a bad idea.  It used to be the only way to play (box cost plus monthly fee) when it switched to 'free to play' they moved a lot of the basic quality-of-life perks to subscriber only.

Their business model is to let folks play for free, get hooked and hopefully convert to paid subscriptions.   You are sort of punished for being a free player -- can't amass as much wealth, can't run fast, can't have a title, etc.  But the best part of the game in my opinion is the audio dialog.. you can go all the way to the end of the campaign as a free player so try that out before you start soaking them with credits.

[Blue Leader]

You can play SWTOR for free as it's now free-to-play but you will be restricted with things... You wont be able to carry as many credits, you'll have fewer character slots, limited in raids and things like that, you wont be able to send items, and there are various other things you wont have access to. Basically, with free you play the story missions and that's it. You're so restricted here that it's not much fun in the game.

With preferred status, which is after you spend a certain amount in the cash shop (with real money) you get access to a few more things for the lifetime of your account. You don't need an active subscription, you just need to have made a purchase in the shop ($4.99). You get slightly higher priority in the login queue, your bank can hold a little more credits, you can run a few more raids per week, and you get access to a few more things. But you're still pretty limited as to what you can do, you still have quite a few restrictions but not as many as a completely free player.

With a monthly subscription, of course, you get access to everything with no restrictions. You also get Cartel Coins every month to spend in the cash shop. If you really enjoy the game a subscription is probably worth it.

If you've never played the game before I would just start out with a free account and see what you think of it. SWTOR is a game where you either really like it or you really don't, there's not much of a middle ground. I was a head-start veteran and played for about a year before I got so bored with it that I couldn't take it anymore. But that's just me, I'm not really into PVP or raiding and that's pretty much all there is to do as max level. Well, those and extremely tedious daily quests. I hop in every once in a great while as a preferred player (I'm preferred because I used to be a subscriber) and poke around a little bit but not too often anymore...

That said, I have a level 55 Scoundrel, a level 50 Jedi Sentinel and a level 35-ish Sith Assassin on Begeren Colony. Heh.

By the way, on that page of the status breakdowns, if you scroll over the little circle icons it will display an explanation of what each benefit/restriction is.

[Hoot]

Cob & Blue Leader,

Thank you for your help.

[Hoot]

Okay...

I have been playing for sometime, as you can see from my signature, and I was wondering.  My character is carrying around so much stuff with him that I have thought about putting most of it in a cargo hold. Here is the clincher I don't have a ship yet. Can I store some of the items in a cargo hold, key-osk, or do I have to wait to get an actual ship?

[Blue Leader]

The item storage is global for each character so if you stick the items in a planetary storage or in the cargo hold on your ship it will be the same. You don't need to wait to have your ship to store your items, though I can't remember where the earliest storage location is, though if you open your map there should be an icon showing where they're located.

[Hoot]

Blue Leader,

Thank you for the help and sorry for the lateness of this reply.  By the time you had responded I had earned the right to have a ship. 

[Hoot]

Does anyone use the security key? If so, how does that work? Is it worth the time; to use?

[Hoot]

Addition to my previous post.

[Blue Leader]

I've never used the digital security key, I used the physical key generator stick that came with the collector's edition (and I think you can buy them separately, too). It does add another level of security to your log in, though I can't say that I've ever had any problems with someone hacking my account in an MMO before, and I've played a lot of MMOs... It adds another step to log in where you have to type in the security key as well as your password, but that's about it.

I don't know how the digital generator works, but the physical stick version (after turning on the security key through your account settings) you just press a button on the front of the stick, it generates a set of random numbers, and you enter them into the log in screen security key box. If the digital version works anything like the WildStar digital security key, you just run a program, it generates a set of random numbers, and you enter them in on the log in screen.

Activating the security key does grant you access to a special vendor in-game, though if I remember right the vendor never had much, and hadn't been updated in years. (Along with all of the other special vendors, like the vendors CE players had access to that were supposed to be "updated regularly" but only actually got one tiny update since the game launched, two years after the game launched, and that was just an ugly set of dye an a recolored suit of simple armor).

[Hoot]

BlueLeader,

Thank you for the information. I was "on the fence" about the security key option.