SWTOR F2P, I don't have a bad feeling about this

After I post about the f2p system in SWTOR, about it's up and low, I still went and give it go (I would anyways). So what is my final verdict?

Well, although it's far from perfect, I would say it's good enough (and I did said this before) for a player to try the game, and play the class stories. I've been playing a while over at my level 40 Sith Inquisitor and I couldn't find anything that would hinder my progress. The only limitation I could find was that, you couldn't pick some rewards (locked boxes) and the experience and gold would be lower then the normal. Also you wouldn't gain rested experience. For the experience, I would just buy a minor experience boost over the Auction House, which would give me an extra bonus of 25% for an hour. For the rest not much can be done, I guess.

Playing it, didn't prove anything different from what I did when I was a subscriber. Better yet, back at the time there wasn't any flash point finder, and even if as a f2p player we are only entitled to 3 flash points, it's better. I bet many will do more flash points while leveling as f2p then me when I first leveled my Bounty Hunter as a subscriber. No quests have access locked, every planet is 100% open to anyone who plays it and so are class quests. 

PVP. Well, if you plan doing much PVP while leveling, unless you do it on any of the planets, you will only be able to join 5 war zones a week. For me it's enough, I only plan doing the daily quest for the war zones, which requires to do 2 war zones a day. If you happen to get lucky and win the war zone, then you get a credit of 2 towards the quest. So in a perfect week you could do that quest 5 times. For me it's enough, but then again I'm not a PVP player. Also you gain decent amount of experience and credits from war zones.

The space missions, is also another way of leveling and do a few credits. It's just not that great in my opinion. I still hope that one day Bioware scraps this and gets a proper space content to the game. Star Wars Galaxies space was far far superior to what SWTOR offers us. But, as I said, it's another form of experience players can use. The problem is that, like the flash points and the war zones, you are only limited to 3 a week, which compared to the other two is really short. But then again, I doubt many people well bother with this side content of the game. I for once barely do these. I rather be doing quests and following my class questline.

Also, a small note for crafting or crew skills. While it's not the most exciting system in most of the MMORPG I played, its functional. The only issue, is that as a subscriber, the player is entitled to 3 crew skills while a f2p can only have 2. Can be a bit of a hinder, if you really plan on leveling a crew skill for the intent of crafting gear, because most of them are dependent on 2 material gathering crew skill. Maybe with an alt players can work around the problem. But again, if a player wants to just check stories and such, crafting wont be much of a concern. In any case, this small picture will show you the crew skills dependencies.

All these activities, are available to the f2p, besides the obvious limitations. I could at any moment buy from the shop a week pass, to either PVP or flash points, but I don't think it's worth the money for it. Playing as it is, is good enough. There are some options on shop to unlock some stuff, depends really on how much anyone want to invest. I do have a level 50 in game, and so far the only thing I bought, was the unlock for the recent content they had, Section X. And I bought it using game credits, because most of the store items can be sold in the Auction House. Again this is not mandatory, because this is past over the class stories. By the time someone finishes the class story, he is level 50 and should have made a decision on either subscribe the game or move on.

Undoubtedly, if anyone wants to play this game just to go through the main story line for each class or check every planet, f2p is more than enough. I don't agree with most naysayers saying the f2p is unplayable. It's not. Might be at cap level, when someone wants to do a few flash points or join operations, or even go PVP which is one of the main activities in the game. Otherwise, for enjoying a Star Wars adventure, the f2p option is good enough. I still think if Bioware/EA, when first released the game would have made something like, making the class stories into some single player portion of the game, without the need for subscription, the game would have been far better received. Players that would subscribe, would be entitled to the full online activities of the game, while others would just enjoy the single player side of it. Could have been interesting.

Is Asheron's Call 2 coming back?

I never expected to see a come back from any dead MMORPG, specially some that been gone for quite long, like the case of Asheron's Call 2. But in some unexpected way, I found out today that Turbine opened some Beta server to people go back and try it (?) or is there a second intention to re-release this game.

There is however a small issue. Apparently, only a person with a current or previous active account with Asheron's Call will be allowed access to this new beta server. But if this means that on the future there will be a chance of playing this game, well I wont say no to the chance. I never tried this game, and would be an interesting opportunity.

This post here is where I found more info. Also I found this other article at Massively about it.

The Secret World goes B2P!

Like Buy to Play, same as Guild Wars 2. This came to my attention thanks to a friend.

I always had my high hopes that I would see The Secret World as free to play, guess this is a second close by. By Buy to Play it means that any who buys the game, is entitled to play it without having to pay a subscription. Subscription will still be there as an optional and those that opt for it will be entitled for a few perks like experience booster, bonus of equivalent value to 10$ to be used on the in-game shop and discounts on the shop. There should be other bonuses but so far this what I've read here.

 Me and a friend of mine been wanting to give this game a go, but since it was subscription based, it became a no go. Also because I am already paying for Rift, wouldn't be a good idea to pay a second one. This change is really welcome for both of us, and maybe soon we will give it a go.

Last note: apparently future content will be available only if you buy it through the shop as a free to play player.

Final Fantasy XIV Alpha testing Application

Hey wanna try the forthcoming Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn? Well Square-Enix opened alpha testing applications. I assume you will need at least an account, but I'm not sure if they demand that the person who registered to have a previous FF XIV account. In any case here is the link for the alpha registration:

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn Alpha testing Application

Let's see how this one goes.

Planetside 2, first impressions

First and foremost, I haven't played as much as I would like of this game. Still I was able to get a few short impressions of it. And yes, I plan on delve deeper on it. And hopefully improve, because I'm awful bad at this game!

So from what I've seen of the game, what can I say? Well, and as usually the first impact are the graphics. And this game is actually gorgeous. Mind that I don't play at full detail, nor near it, but still this game manages to bring graphics to an high level. And since this is a first person shooter game, it's even greater. And the game actually runs smooth. Plus for graphics and performance.

Gameplay is also good and expected from these sort of games. If you like first person shooter games, and like the Battlefield series or others of the same sort, then you will probably love Planetside 2. The biggest difference between this one and those other titles, of the same sort, is the persistent aspect of the game, since being an MMO everything is ongoing with no end of match from score or time.

The world is set on 3 huge continents, and players can pick from 3 different factions, and each faction will fight for dominance over sectors on each continent. Getting to action is really done fast with a few clicks on map and players are placed in the middle of the heat. Otherwise, players can always opt to trace a little back, and bring up some heavy guns like a tank or a aircraft. Yeah, you can roam around the game shooting things up on air. It's a nice touch and I enjoyed watching some fighters going on skirmishes sometimes. 

The game is all around what the players do, what they capture, what they defend. So anything that happens on the game, is human made. There are no NPC's (at least I haven't seen any) nor mobs to kill nor quests. Just action, endless action, and lots of players to kill or be killed by.

It's a very good thing SOE made this game free to play. And the way I see it's made, it really is free to play. I don't see any limitation imposed to non-subscribers. At least from what I've played. Anything that was on store could be purchased either by getting some station cash (the games currency for shop) or eventually unlocked while playing. There are some sort of currency that can be either used to unlock new abilities for character or saved to buy later a better gun. I also don't know how the store weapons affect the game, if they unbalance it or not.

But there were some flaws on this game, at least some stuff I didn't like. First and foremost, there is a very short and brief tutorial, and most of the information on each screen is a bit sparse. I know that there isn't much to know, it's just aim and shoot, but for instance I was having serious issues trying to distinguish foe from friends. The UI rarely would point me to what was enemy to me, so I would have to rely on what I saw on screen and make a quick judgement on the armor the other player was using. So sometimes friendly fire would happen.

Another issue, was the awful aircraft control. I can't recall the keys, all I can say is that the first time I got one, 10 seconds later I crashed it on the ground. Why? The E key, which is the use key, if you by mistake use it while on aircraft, you get kicked out. And if that wasn't bad, steering of the aircraft was far from perfect. I guess I'm used to control aircraft with the mouse for direction, and there well all I can say it was nigh on impossible to steer. The second time I tried the ship, most of the time I was upside down... It was a really bad control system. I think it used A and D for spinning the ship or something, can't recall, it was just bad... But I assume we can can reprogram keys. So I have to check that option out.

On the other hand, tank control is great and it's great fun to be on the turret side and shoot everything that moves.

Finally, I'm horrible bad at it, so bad I'm thinking on deleting my toon and start it over again, since my kill/death ratio is just plain horrible.

This post is just a short fast first impressions of what I've seen in the game. First person shooter, persistent world, plenty of vehicles to use, lots of action, and free to play. First person shooters will probably like it. And since it's free to play, why not give it a go?

Hit 60 last night on my mage!

Yay! Took me like almost 2 weeks to get there but I got it. Now follows the next plan of work:

- Keep clearing the quests for achievements and possible decent rewards;

- Start working on those factions reputation up to get better gear and recipes;

- Doing zone events for currency and Hunt Rifts for rewards and reputation;

- Keep working on those achievements and the backlog achievements from Rift classic;

- Work the last of my professions out, and start making some platinum out of it;

- Rise fishing (-.-) and survival, which are low;

- Start doing instances, to gear up for expert version of them;

- Raids? Well dunno, maybe;

- PVP? I enjoyed doing PVP from 50 to 59, but I think I will have some issues now at 60. Will see;

- Dimensions whenever I feel I need a different change;

- And many other stuff to do...

There is enough to keep me busy for a while now that I'm 60.

By the way, as soon as you ding 60, be sure to do the quest you receive through the mail. It's really fast to be done and you end up with a nice epic necklace.

How does SWTOR Free to Play fare

Released more then two weeks ago, I think there is already far enough of time to get a first perception of how is Free to Play implemented on Star Wars: The Old Republic.

First of all, I think it's honorable that Bioware and EA, decided to open the f2p possibility to the game. Many would deem that it's the only option possible besides shutting down the game since it was faring pretty bad before. I wouldn't agree, but sure it wasn't that great either. The game failed in many aspects and with a market flooded with MMORPG titles, most with f2p option, SWTOR would not be a first option. So they decided to implement f2p allowing players to try the game (and I emphasize the word try) without spending any or much on it. But if you don't want to spend any of it, the ride wont be as great...

So, how is the f2p model in SWTOR? Well it feels somewhat similar with the model of Everquest 1 and 2 (or even Vanguard) from SOE or Age of Conan but this one is even more limited. These titles sprung to my mind when I first saw the model working. Why? 

Well from SOE they took the idea of limiting access to gear, by locking the best quality gear away from f2p players. Only way, and this is slightly different from SOE, you buy an unlocker to either your char or your account and the problem is fixed. SOE you buy individual unlockers (forever) for each piece of gear.

Also the more recent content, in which this case is Section X where players get the new companion, HK-47, is locked away from f2p. Again buy either an unlock for character or account and you can use it.

From Age of Conan, but not as limited, they locked the amount of times a f2p player can use either the flashpoints (instances for SWTOR) to 3 a week and warzones (battlegrounds) for 5 a week. Operations (or raids) are off the chart for the f2p player. Only way to fix it, is to buy a week pass that allows full access to one of the three. Each week pass is just for one type, not the three.

And, to spice things up, Bioware and EA decided to add their own vision for f2p... And this is what stirred the community. Why not lock parts of the UI to the f2p player? That's a nice idea no? No! I mean really? You want to cripple the experience to players that could very well be the future subscribers of your game? I think this is the most silly concept I have ever seen for an f2p game... The idea was to limit the use of the game bars to just 2 for any of the f2p player. And can you imagine yourself playing a game where you don't have enough space on your UI to put your skills? Every time I need to grab my speeder I need to open the skill windows, go to mounts tab and pick the speeder. Tedious process...

But somehow they are going to redeem it. For all players with preferred status, which means older subscribed players or any who spent at least 5 euros/dollars in the shop, will be entitled to 4 UI bars. This change is to happen soon.

Also other limitations are appearance, like helm, f2p can't turn it off... Or titles which can't be used by a f2p player. Or there currency limitation for tokens and in-game credits (I still have doubts if I can buy any pvp gear with this token limitation).

The good thing I can see on all of this, is the fact that most of the items sold in shop can be also sold in Auction House (although there is a cool down to actually place the item at the AH, think it's 1 day and a half)  The biggest problem of it? The limitation of credits to 350k... Can't buy much.

Overall, this model, is on the lowest side of f2p models available at the market. No where near the likes of Star Trek Online or Aion or even Dungeons and Dragons Online and Lord of the Rings Online. If you want to check the game, try the class stories, which are really good, then I think you can do well in the game, and enjoy yet another Star Wars experience. Otherwise, if you want something more of the game, I would probably say subscribe, or get a friend you trust and has the game active, farm those credits, and let him keep them so he buys to you what you need from the AH whenever you need. The system could work, I'm trying it with my brother!