For any heading to SW:TOR

Ironically, and a little sadly, only CoH has really done F2P right.

Personally I would give that edge to LOTRO or DDO, where you can also earn the market currency ingame....

I don't think DDO had that when I played it. I'm always willing to be corrected.

I suppose I should amend it to say that CoH has done it the best of the games I've played at the time I played them, acknowledging things change over time.

Doesn't really fit on a bumpersticker though.

Ugh...

Do you have to be subbed or pay to unlock mount usage? I wanted to finish up the Imperial Agent story but traveling through Alderaan was torture (and that was with a mount)

Like hell I'm running through that place at default speed on foot.

CO has that... sort of. You had to take surveys to earn zen but more often than not you'd hit the end of the survey and be told you're ineligible for the survey or zen reward.

Looking at the market (I just loaded the game up now), it is just to unlock the "legacy perk", so that you can use them *earlier* on, but there is no actual mount ability to unlock (nor sprint ability either).

Just wondering, but i am assuming that for the skill bar unlock, you still have your default 2 to begin with?

Side note: Looking at the prices overall, they are *not* all that bad... especially as 450 Cartel points is £2.99 and most stuff comes in under that price. And as you can use stuff directly from your power window/inventory window anyways, the quick bar is a "bonus" in a fashion (I have often used consumables from my inventory window directly). I do feel a bit gipped over it, as I actually dont have enough room for all my mini pets and vehicles...

So? No one used to start with Sprint. It had to be unlocked at a higher level. At least now you can buy it right off the bat.

There are three skills you can buy on the store. The first starts at level 10 Speeder Piloting I. at 25 you can buy/use Speeder Piloting II, I forget what level Speeder Piloting III is usable at.

Each skill level increases the speed you travel when using a mount, And I think a speeder bike is available for sale on the store as well.

Wait. You filled your pet and vehicle trays already and have extras/duplicates in your inventory?

In STO you can trade in Dilithium for store credit. Or at lleast you used to be able to do that. Not sure if it's changed.

It does not matter who had what when. The basics aren't there, GUI and sprint.

<edit>
The pets window/vehicle window are seperate to the "tool bars" that you can pay to unlock. Some people like having htem on the trays, others like having them just in the powers window.
</edit>

Returning player here, and yes, I have quite a few pets... 10 or so. And then there are the 6 speeders that I have (although I can and will buy more).

Abilities wise, I actually have no problem with, it is just that with clickables, "dueling" powers (kick/punch etc), relic clickables and consumables, you can quite easily start running out of space.

It is just bar management in the end, one that I have no problems with overall, especially as I have clicked med packs/stims etc from my inventory before. I do the same in WoW... keep one sort on the bar, and the rest in the inventory before I can use it.

Which is slightly different to CoX though, in that you cannot activate powers from your "powers window" and it has to be from the tray (or at least I have never managed to activate it via a click in the powers window)

I guess I never realized how many different pets and speeders were in the game. I only started noticing when I was looking at some fthe items that were listed in the Cartel Packs.

I also forgot to mention the "Legacy powers" that you can get and those will take up room on your bars as well (if you choose to have them there).

I hadn't yet unlocked my Legacy name before yesterday. I was prompted to pick a name when I logged in yesterday. Don't know if that's a bug or not. I sure wasn't high enough level only 26.

Not so sure... when I unlocked mine it was after completing Act 1, which is *around* level 30ish. I think I was actually level 32 or something when i got round to completing Act 1.

You can cash in Questionite for Zen and vice versa. Last I checked the going rate was something like 175 Q per.

Blood Widow Ricki * Tide Shifter * T-34 * Opposite Reaction * Shaolin Midnight * ChernobylCheerleader

Entropy Legion * Hyperion Force * Hero Heights

The F2P patch changed the legacy system unlock level.

Well first, it does matter. Sprinting in TOR is not one of the "basics" really as it is in some games. Not like you were moving at walking speed without it. For a long time people got along in the game just fine jogging around, using fast travel, public transport, and eventually Sprint and Speeders. Not that I don't appreciate it being available at level 1 now. I think that was the right decision too. But... and I think not everyone realizes this...

Spend $5 on ANYTHING in the market and you'll have Sprint unlocked at level 1.

Just like CoH distinguished free and premium, the raw F2P restrictions in TOR are harsher than the "preferred" F2P restrictions to separate the customers supporting the game from the true free-loaders. People were complaining about only being able to chat once a minute or something like that. Sounds harsh, but again that's lifted (as far as I know) once you spend that minimum amount in the market.

Not trying to be a fanboy here, but if you're not going to spend even $5 on the market, then you're not a customer and nobody should care if you aren't playing.

Regardless, of course, even with Sprint at level 1 if you're coming from here or CO you're not going to be happy about travel speed. It just won't compare. But that's true of most MMOs as compared to here.

It was ~190 earlier in the week and the cheapest displayed (is that display like the "best 5" or is there a volume threshold?) was 195 last night (total CO noob here so I may not have been getting all the prices).

I'm starting to think the surveys are all for alcoholic CEOs with expensive sports cars that live in a penthouse apartment in a major city. I've never gotten to a point where I got Zen instead of "we're sorry...". It is a good system (for PWE) since after spending a half hour of getting "we're sorry" half way into surveys I decide that spending real money is a better use of my time.

CO's tutorial for this long time CoHer first time COer was painful for many reasons and one of them was wondering where the sprint button was. Rocket Board spoiled me. Flight at level 2? Yes, please.

To go further from SWtOR, is the Questionite refining daily limit per account or per character?

I'm still a n00b at it too, but that's not too surprising now with Reloaded out and more goodies coming to the Z-Store.

Blood Widow Ricki * Tide Shifter * T-34 * Opposite Reaction * Shaolin Midnight * ChernobylCheerleader

Entropy Legion * Hyperion Force * Hero Heights

Heh... you're not kidding about being spoiled now. CO's tutorial took me BACK actually. Sprinting in CoH, before the Sprint speed increases, before temp travel powers. I think it was perhaps one of the worst mistakes they made when they introduced this game. I suppose this is 20/20 hindsight, but what you really want to do, especially in a superhero game, is make people feel super-heroic. Sprinting from one end of Atlas to the other or, worse, to the train, and then across another zone or two to get to some random mission door? And then all the way back only to be told to go to another zone again for the next mission? I wonder how many people we lost to that nonsense, never to return.

But to be fair to most other MMOs, these days even if you don't have some kind of travel speed ability in the early levels at least they don't make you run very far. CO's tutorial wasn't that big and you generally progressed through it rather than having to run from one end to the other and back. When you finish, you have your travel power of choice. In SWTOR, you also progress from one area to the next generally, at least early on, with those areas being connected by public transport.

Just between us n00bs then, do I understand correctly that the Q-exchange is strictly between players? i.e. It's not the game that is exchanging Q for Zen. It is other players buying my Q with their Zen (which they presumably purchased with real money)? In other words, it is an RMT farming operation run by the publisher rather than an outside company?

There are unverified rumors that Cryptic keeps a finger on the market to make sure it doesn't go too out of whack, but it sort of is. Questionite never got you much in-game, however, not until they recently released the eight-slot vehicles to the Q-Store.

Now, for a true publisher-run RMT operation, see GW2's gems-to-gold.

Blood Widow Ricki * Tide Shifter * T-34 * Opposite Reaction * Shaolin Midnight * ChernobylCheerleader

Entropy Legion * Hyperion Force * Hero Heights

GW2 has a good thing going, no doubt, but no one beats EVE's PLEX system.