You eagerly awaited the release of the game. You pre-ordered it. You logged on as soon as the servers came up. You eagerly played though your character’s story. And, somewhere along the way, for whatever reason, you stopped playing Star Wars: The Old Republic.
Maybe it was a lack of endgame content, balance changes, or the collapse of world PVP. Whatever the reason, you stopped playing, and now you’re wondering what coming back to the game without subscribing would be like.
The intent of this series of articles is to talk about what will be different for returning players who haven’t played since the changeover to Free-to-play. As part of this series, I’ll level a character on a Preferred Status account.
The Background
When SWTOR came out, I leveled a Sith Juggernaut on the server formerly known as The Fatman. I leveled fairly quickly, playing a predominantly dark-sided character.
I’ll be leveling the same Advanced Class, but this time on the friendlier side of the Force. At least this way, I’ll get to see the story elements I missed the first time in the Sith Warrior storyline.
The Rules
I’ll be leveling a character personally on a server where I have no assets: no other characters or funds to rely on.
I am part of a guild (the TORWars guild, in fact), but I won’t be accepting any sort of aid beyond basic stuff (similar-level characters working on Heroic missions together, for example).
I’m going to try to do a bit of everything (warzones, flashpoints, PVP), to give you a good idea of what to expect.
Along the way, I’ll focus on the restrictions that impact a preferred-level account. I’ll also try to contrast the experience to my first playthrough, which was when the game launched.
The Restrictions
For a full list of the restrictions that apply to Preferred Status accounts, you can refer to the official SWTOR guide. As for this series of articles, I’ll bring them up as they become relevant to my play experience.
Initial Thoughts
What better place to start than at the beginning? When you login to SWTOR again, there will be a number of things which will be immediately noticeable. I think it makes sense for us to address these first.
Hmmm…a rename….
Character Names
The first restriction you’ll probably notice is that, depending on the amount of time since you’ve played SWTOR, your characters may have been transferred to a new server. This was due to server amalgamations that happened in your absence. While this is not technically a “restriction”, it may be something you’ll have to contend with before you can start playing. These characters’ names appear in red, and you’ll need to rename them before they can be logged in.
Character Slots
In addition to this, there is another important restriction you’ll see on the login page. As a preferred status account, you have access to only six character slots. You can technically have more characters than six if you had them created before the conversion to Free-to-Play. but only six of your slots can be “active” at any one time. You get to choose which slots will become active, so choose wisely.
Right now, as it stands on the live servers, you have access to six character slots. As evidenced by this thread on the official SWTOR forums, it is still unclear as to whether this should be the case for Preferred Status accounts. Prior versions of the patch notes indicated that Preferred Status accounts should be able to access and play all characters which were on the account prior to the conversion to Free-to-Play, but it looks like the patch notes have since been changed to clarify this.
This number can be expanded through the use of character slot unlock items. You may be able to find them on your server’s galactic trade network (GTN) instead of spending cartel coins, if that is your preference. They can be found under Cartel Market Items > Unlocks.
Character Races
Speaking of character slots, you should know that you will only have access to basic character race options now that you are a preferred status account. Legacy-wide race unlocks that you would have had previously, from getting a character of a specific race to max level, will no longer be available. Think about this before you choose which character slots to activate, especially if your character’s race is very important to you.
Credit Limitations
Credit cap and escrow….
Preferred accounts are capped at a maximum of 350,000 credits. If you earn more than this, it is placed in an “escrow account” that holds it until you subscribe. If you had more than 350,000 credits when the game converted to Free-to-Play, then those excess credits will already be in the account.
Next Week
We’ll look at the things that you’ll encounter throughout your leveling experiences. Hope you’ve enjoyed the first installment of Return of the Veteran! Let me know your thoughts and ideas in the comments section below.
SWTOR Community Cantina Audio: Q&A Live With Musco, Hickman, And Schubert
A few weeks before SWTOR went F2P, my account was up for re-sub. I decided to let it expire and start fresh on what ever server the TORWars community voted as the one for the guild home. I wanted to test out the Preferred experience starting from level 1.
I joined the TORWars guild with a fresh Sith Inquisitor named Kor’Viz and started my journey. Now, when I play I don’t do space missions, I don’t do Flashpoints, I don’t PvP, I don’t do Heroics. I just do all available quests and class story quests while grabbing all the easily obtained Holocrons on the way for the XP boost. As this was a new server I had zero legacy perks as well.
I am a classic solo game player.
While playing I found the reduced XP really hit me hard. I was behind the suggested curve for each level. By the end of chapter one, I had just dinged 30 before I had to do my final boss battle (No spoilers here..). By about the half way point in the Taris missions, I found myself too far behind to continue. My opponents were in the red at level 36, and I was only 31. It became obvious to me that without grinding several levels, I couldn’t solo play the toon like I usually do. I deleted Kor’Viz, started him over as an Imperial Agent, paid my sub, and am currently at 47.
Its clear to me that to successfully play Preferred, you need to do some flashpoints, get those heroics completed, and possibly group up with other players as often as you can for the XP bonus. Purchased XP boosts would also go a long way.
I’m curious as to find out how your experience goes. Best of luck to you.
Were you doing every mission or only some of them? I know that doing a “completionist run” before F2P, I was usually around eight levels *above* all the content, so I’m interested to see how that translates to someone doing the same thing but earning 37.5% the XP that I was (reduction + no rested bonus).
I also did my space dailies each day, so that’s another factor.
It was the 5 medical probes that killed me. I was leveling a Jedi Knight (my first knight, third toon) and was just near the end of chapter 1. I did my weekly allowance of pvp, space and a flashpoint or two a week and was the same level as my quests (31). Also did a couple bonus series. I ran out of my 5 probes and had to respawn 1.1kms from where i was questing and then died again. Also, if you are doing a heroic mission and need to travel back people get annoyed . . . I also needed artifact equipment for my vanguard to compete in level 50 pvp (i leveled him as a subscriber) so i subscribed again yesterday.
That is precisely the reason I’m very hesitant to do Heroics or team up with others, because of the 5 probe for the whole story limit – i’d end up being more of a hindrance to them in the middle of a fight if i die, and same goes for Flash-points.
Honestly, that restriction makes no sense at all. They could have done it like 5 probes per planet.
I’m plodding along, at lvl 30 as a Jedi Guardian on Alderaan
Though i’m grateful for the F2P option, its a total pain in the backside, but since i cannot afford to pay atm – not much i can really do.
Thanks for the feedback and for wishing me luck, Kor’viz.
It’s starting to look a lot like I will fall behind the XP curve already (just finished Balmorra). I’m hoping this won’t be the case, though. We’ll see how it goes.
Honestly, forcing players to either subscribe or wait for repeatable heroic missions to be able to level is pretty clumsy design, but I’m going to do everything I can to avoid this. We’ll see what happens.
Mmm nice warning Kor , Im already behind the ball on xp . I have done one flash point !
I really wanted the level 10 speeder bike , I grinded the credits by about level 14 or 15 but no my legacy level wont wont ding level 2 till Im almost or past 25
James I’m leveling a healer so I dont die that much , ran out of probes yesterday
. No Idea when they come back .
The two crafting abilities only is a bugger , you cant really craft with only one toon . I went slicing and scavaging and am making ok money.
Oh I’m in the TORwars guild . Its good there is always some pvp starting up and a fair bit of Opps as well .
I have a toon on another sever that has all denova gear , if I log onto her will she be standing there in the nude
The main problem I have seen is people behind on levels. The second is the rez/probes. I will usually group with just about anybody for heroics but after a couple fails the probes for subscribers is 15 minutes. I don’t think the f2p’ers all have that memo. As there is nothing like someone screaming obscenities at you because they believe you are holding out.
I have befriended a few people and I can see almost all of us on at the same times here and there. I can tell who is a subscriber (just a gut feeling) because of this. I see the subscribers around the same levels and I see the free players about 10 levels back within a week or so.
I only really play on the weekends for any extended amount of time. On weeknights it is usually only a couple of hours if that. Some people I see stuck on the last planet at the same levels for a week plus. I have to figure they have run out of quests but can’t go to the next as they did not hit that threshold. In the same amount of time I have over leveled and the next planet quests are already green to me.
Just a quick question is it rest bonus causing this ?
Or just flat out less XP for the underclasses
It could be that. Are f2p denied the rest bonus on top of the -25% xp reduction? I always make sure to camp out in cantinas or on my ships. So I always have a little bonus to start the night off.
Honestly they should drop the subscription plan and offer all unlocks for $10 a month. People will still spend that extra $5 on the Cartel store most likely.
For myself I can’t go f2p. If it comes to that I am most likely just going to walk away. I have seen too many forums posts (non-official) from people trying to get in touch with customer support. I don’t know how they are getting away with selling digital items and not providing anything outside of a toll number. Even on the official forums I have seen people with missing toons and cash shop issues posting the same things for weeks at a time.
I do understand they are short staffed and pray none of these issues land on my doorstep.
“Are f2p denied the rest bonus on top of the -25% xp reduction?”
Yep. So -125%. Someone subbing will level more than twice as fast with rested. This is less of an issue if the person on F2P plays more than the subscriber though.
To my knowledge they don’t come back, only 5 and your done.
Nice article, I am interested on how this turns out. I look forward to the next installments.
I did every mission available on planet, not counting heroics. Also, when it came to the Balmorra bonus series, I used my minor xp boost that you get as an early mission reward, before I handed all the quests in (you can hoard the missions as none of them are chains). I used the other xp boost on the Tatooine bonus series as well. With the reduced XP and no rested, its just too much of a blow for solo levelers IMO.
When I found out the game was going F2P I resubbed a few weeks before it went live, I had a few millions saved up so I started buying unlocks for my account such as extra quickbars, hide helmet, unify colors, everything I needed in order to continue playing as a Prefered Status.
The result? I can play for free with almost no restrictions except the ammount of Warzones/Space Missions/Ops I can run per week, but I even arranged for a friend to sell me weekly passes for credits.
I think this F2P model is great for returning players, you keep all your gear, your inventory slots, your bank slots, throw in some extra unlocks and you’re almost like a subscriber
[...] case you missed last week’s post, the intent of this series of articles is to explain the limitations of the Preferred Status [...]