SWNZ Forums

That's great news! Thanks for letting me know Matt - I'd been hanging out for the date. I'll most definitely be carrying on with my characters. Revuge and Dra-Kel have been roaming around their respective capital worlds for weeks awaiting the chance to explore the wider galaxy.

Have you kept up with the details? I'm not 100% sure how it'll play out for pure F2P players (I've been focusing my attention more on the implications for subscribers), but I do believe that the general philosophy is that you can get your characters all the way to level 50 (and/or end-of-story) without financial cost, albeit with some limitations on functionality and convenience. Thereafter, I believe you'd generally have to subscribe, or purchase various "unlocks" to play any interesting end-game content. But if you've only rolled two characters, you've got a lot more material to explore.

The restrictions don't seem all that bad. There will be a limit on warzones and space combat (three each per week I believe) and no access to operations. Fleet passes will be unavailable, quick travel will have a longer cooldown, and levelling will take slightly longer.

The biggest restriction I'm aware of is that only two character slots will be available for F2P players. Paying players who switch to F2P will retain their total number however (though if they delete a character, they will not be able to refill that slot).

I'm not sure what will happen to trial accounts with more than two characters - and for this reason I've been conflicted as to whether or not to roll more than two. I'm toying with the idea of quickly rolling a character of each class (though not yet putting any time into playing them) just in case they stay active past the F2P transfer. On the other hand I'm slightly paranoid that any characters over and above the second will be lost during the transfer and that one of these might be a character I have invested a lot of time in.

Any thoughts or suggestions on this?

I don't think they'll ever delete a character. MMOs know how valuable characters are to their creators, and would only ever limit access in order to get more $$ out of their user base

http://www.swtor.com/support/helpcenter/6546

Just in case you hadn't heard, there are actually 3 levels of player...F2P, Preferred, and Subscriber. Preferred players are those who have downgraded from subscriber, or F2Pers who have spent more than $4.99 in the Cartel Shop. I don't think it gives you more character slots, but you will be able to purchase character slots (not sure if straight away or a delayed introduction), which would get you to Preferred status level.

Here are more details if you haven't seen them: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=547729

Some of the other players here may have heard more useful info on the topic.

Update: I just found this from one of the developers...knew I'd seen something like this discussed.

Great question and we want to make sure we’re clear on this one. Subscribers will still have 12 character slots available on a single server. F2P players will have 2 (as will Preferred). At Launch, we are not enforcing the penalty on subscribers who convert to Free-to-Play, but we will in a subsequent patch. A further wrinkle is that if you have more than two and you delete characters at Launch, you will not get that slot back. Example: I have 10 characters as a subscriber this November, but in December I cancel my subscription. When I login, I can still use all 10 characters (for now), but I cannot create new ones and if I delete one, I will have 9 and not be able to create another until I go down to 1. Make sense?

Ah, that is helpful. I'd read about the Preferred Status Player option, but thought it was only open to previous subscribers. It would definitely be worth the $5 spend on the Cartel Market to receive those benefits (particularly, sprint, cargo hold, mail, and an increased credit cap).

Then I can use my Cartel Coins to buy that Kowakian monkey-lizard that Revuge has always wanted...

The F2P options for character species are limited to human, zabrak and cyborg - so if you're interested in others (like Chiss, twi'lek etc), I would suggest rolling them now (they will cost coins to unlock for F2P). They have confirmed that characters beyond the initial 2 slot allowance won't be deleted, but can unlock more slots with coins (and gain access to play your existing additional characters). Plus, the storylines are just amazing and different - so far I have finished the jedi knight, sith sorcerer, imperial agent and smuggler, and would love to play them again

Some details from Darth Hater's recent article -

The cheapest package for Cartel Coins: $4.99 for 450 Coins. (90 Cartel Coins per dollar.)

The most expensive package for Cartel Coins: $39.99 for 5500 Coins. (137 Cartel Coins per dollar.)

Several additional packages will be available in between those two prices. The more expensive the package, the better value the player receives.

New F2P players receive "Preferred" status upon buying anything from the SWTOR store. The $5 CC package and the security key fob being the cheapest items that will grant Preferred status.

Players will be able to purchase additional character slots with Cartel Coins shortly after F2P launches.

From the SWTOR.com FAQ -

What happens to my existing characters if I become a Free-to-Play member?

We will not be deleting any characters from player accounts. Any characters already existing on your account at the time of the Free-to-Play launch will still be available to you afterwards. The choice of which of your characters are active under the Free-to-Play system is entirely up to you, and you can choose from any of your existing characters with no restriction other than the number of active character slots available.

What happens if I decide to change from being a subscription player to a Free-to-Play player?

Once your subscription has ended and you no longer have paid game time remaining on your account, your account will be changed to Preferred Status.
As a Preferred Status player, access will be unlocked to the following features:

The ability to run faster (Sprint) starting at Level 1.
Cargo Hold access (Bank Slots) and higher login queue priority.
Increased access to Chat and Secure Trading.
Post more items for sale on the in-game Galactic Trade Network.

If you convert to Preferred Status, you will need to choose which two (2) of your characters will remain active, and play those characters within the limits of Free-to-Play access.
For more information on Free-to-Play features, please see http://www.StarWarsTheOldRepublic.com/free/features

Thanks for that information Kristy

Anaria wrote:The F2P options for character species are limited to human, zabrak and cyborg - so if you're interested in others (like Chiss, twi'lek etc), I would suggest rolling them now (they will cost coins to unlock for F2P).

I'm glad I've already rolled a Sith then!

So I'm curious, is anyone else on the boards thinking of signing up to SWTOR in light of the F2P release?

The Old Republic is now free to play to level 50! Anyone who's interested in checking it out, now's the time Most of us NZers play on The Harbinger server

The cartel market is now open, went on a shopping spree opening cartel packs with my subscriber coins last night, got some great items

According to a junk email (sorry, I binned it by accident and can't remember which NZ gaming website newsletter it was), freeplay for The Old Republic started yesterday.