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Anaria and I have been full subscribers since the launch (after having participated in the beta-testing). Have spent a fair amount on cartel coins along the way, to be honest, but if you are a subscriber you do get a monthly allotment (plus we get an extra monthly amount for using the security key system).

If you find yourself tempted by any of the paid feature unlocks, it can very easily escalate to the point where you would have been better off subscribing in the first place...it would cost far less to get all the features via subscription than by purchasing them piecemeal via the cartel market...the cost/value balance is all going to come down to how much time you'll be playing per month.

We're on the 6 month plan, which equates to a cost of US$12.99 per month, and which gives the largest monthly cartel coin allotment.

If you want to try a subscription plan, US$14.99 for a single month isn't too bad an investment for the sake of testing it out (all your characters etc will remain when the subscription runs out, but various restrictions will come back in to play).

Thanks Matt. Appreciate the advice.

By the way, is there a way to change the appearance and name of my character even at level 10?

What bundle do you recommend getting at level 10?

I'm on a mission with the T7 droid as a companion. Will this droid be my companion for sometime? I see a lot of other players with a sidekick. How do I get one?

Thanks.

Fairtex wrote:...
I'm on a mission with the T7 droid as a companion. Will this droid be my companion for sometime? I see a lot of other players with a sidekick. How do I get one?...

You ultimately end up with 6-8 companions (that you can switch in and out to fight/quest with, and that you can send away on crew skill missions)...some of them, including T7, start of as a "guest" before changing to full "companions".

Fairtex wrote: By the way, is there a way to change the appearance and name of my character even at level 10?

Do you mean your face and body type etc? Once you have access to the Fleet, there is a customisation kiosk there ...I think it costs cartel coins to modify your appearance post character creation. Similarly, name changes can be purchased from the cartel market (subscribers get a one-time/single re-name option).

Fairtex wrote: What bundle do you recommend getting at level 10?

Look for the content in the bundles such as "Newcomer's bundle", "Preferred access bundle" (from memory), as they are more cost-efficient...but like I said, it wouldn't be long before you've spent as much as a month-long or ongoing subscription, so do check the accounting a bit in advance so you don't suddenly find that the latter would have been cheaper.

MattG wrote:

Fairtex wrote: What bundle do you recommend getting at level 10?

Look for the content in the bundles such as "Newcomer's bundle", "Preferred access bundle" (from memory), as they are more cost-efficient...but like I said, it wouldn't be long before you've spent as much as a month-long or ongoing subscription, so do check the accounting a bit in advance so you don't suddenly find that the latter would have been cheaper.

So if I subscribe, I can buy bundles or any other item from the store with in game credits instead of cartel coins?

If you subscribe, the features provided in those sorts of bundles all come included, so you don't need to buy them.

There are some things available that can only be purchased with cartel coins, but they are all cosmetic or convenience items (none manifestly affect your ability to compete/win) and they can generally be purchased/traded from other players via the GTN (Galactic Trade Network/Market). And, don't forget, you do get cartel coins each month as a subscriber (I get 600 for my subscription, + 100 for using a security key).

Bit of a ramble here, but some of these may help you decide if it's worth subscribing -

Other players list cartel market items on the in-game GTN which you can buy for credits instead (something I do when I can earn in game credits instead of spending real money - so much great stuff in the cartel market).

Free to play/preferred don't have 'colour matching' for gear (so it will be a bit mismatched), no ability to equip companion customizations, not able to equip 'purple/artifact' level gear (the highest) or event items (like Gree/Rakghoul/Bounty Event etc), not able to hide head pieces (to see your face/your companions face), no med droid (so have to go back to nearest base when your character dies instead of being revived where you died), a credit level cap (preferred is 350k, so limits what you can afford to buy - a level 55 can easily earn 10 million with a little effort).

Subscribers also get more character slots (preferred gets 6 slots, subscribers have 12 - you can buy additional slots with cartel coins, up to a max of 22). As there are 8 classes f2p does not have enough to play all the available stories without unlocking more slots with cartel coins. You are also restricted on the playable species available (f2p/preferred only have human/cyborg/zabrak), having to purchase unlocks for the others.

Crafting skills are restricted to 1 for f2p, 2 for preferred, subs get the full 3 (1 is crafting, 2 are gathering).

Cargo holds are not available to f2p unless purchased with cartel coins, preferred get 1, subs can unlock up to 5 (really useful to storing all your stuff). The same goes for your inventory - subs can unlock with credits instead of cartel coins.

F2P/preferred cannot send credits to other players (including your own legacy characters), and only 1 item at a time. Subs can send as many credits as you have, and up to 8 items in one mail.

There is a weekly limit on flashpoints (4-man), warzones (player vs player), raids (8/16-man) and starfighter games for f2p/preferred.

Higher costs at vendors and reduced rewards for quests. You also have to wait until level 10 to 'run' instead of walk - subs can run at level 1.

If you don't care about end game or character cosmetics, then f2p is fine. Me, I need my pretty gear I also have 18 toons, as I really enjoy the stories and want to replay them (so many dialogue options, the ending can vary greatly depending on your choices).

You are restricted to 4 quick bars - subs get the full 6 (which I find I really need to fit all my endgame abilities).

Subscribers get free access to Makeb, the level 50-55 planet and a level 50-55 daily quest areas (Section X).

The other thing is that a lot of unlocks cost 600 cartel coins - like character slots or playable species. A 1050 cartel coin pack costs USD$9.99, not far off 1 months subscription. You can buy a pack of 5500 coins for USD$39.99 so it's a slightly better deal, but that's a few months worth of subscription that includes all the features (if you enable the ability to purchase cartel coins in-game, you can purchase 14,500 coins for USD$99.99).

I'm a bit bias, as I adore this game, play it constantly and need all the available features. It does depend on whether you're able to play it regularly. A 6 month sub is less than a brand new game in store, and you have access to 8 stories to play (well, kinda like 16 if you play once through light side, and again dark side, as it can give quite different choices). Plus there are 16 advanced classes, so I'm going to try them all, they are all quite different attack styles.

Wow thanks for that Anaria. Very helpful.

I am leaning towards subscribing now. Might try the 1 month first and go from there.

Just arrived at Fleet. About to make a decision on Jedi Guardian or Sentinal. I like to head into battle head first type of player and the Guardian seems to appeal to me but after reading some forums, the Sentinals is also good because I like the high DPS abilities.

Are Guardians like a Warrior and Sentinal like a Rogue in most RPG games? I usually play warrior in RPG games like Diablo, Dragon Age etc.

What are your thoughts? Want to make the right choice before I make the choice.

Anaria wrote:A 6 month sub is less than a brand new game in store, and you have access to 8 stories to play (well, kinda like 16 if you play once through light side, and again dark side, as it can give quite different choices). Plus there are 16 advanced classes, so I'm going to try them all, they are all quite different attack styles.

Do you mean each different species character gets a different story/missions?

16 advanced classes meaning each character eg Human Jedi gets Guardian/Sentinal?

8 stories - jedi knight, jedi consular, republic trooper, smuggler, sith warrior, sith inquisitor, bounty hunter & agent - all different stories. You can play each light side or dark side - and the ending will change depending on your choices, so technically 16 different endings/stories. The species doesn't affect the story (except in some conversations you'll get remarks about being an alien if you're not human, but it doesn't change the story). As there are 16 advanced classes (2 options for each class), you can play each story twice (eg - jedi knight story - first as a light side sentinel, then again as a dark side guardian - play styles and story ending will be different).

Guardians can tank or dps, sentinel is only dps - my main is a sentinel and I love her, great dps (damage) - she's using the 'watchman' skill tree. With a healer companion she's hard to take down - and I love having 2 sabers I haven't played a guardian yet (I enjoy dps so I haven't played any of my tank toons yet).

I'm afraid I don't know much about other rpg games, so I'm not sure which classes would translate to in other games. http://swtor.wikia.com/wiki/Advanced_Classes has a bit more info on the advanced classes that may help.

Went ahead and subscribed. Decided to start over and bought the new comer bundle to do everything properly. So much better as a subscriber. Levelling up much faster with that bundle.