Bioware has announced that it will slightly loosen the restrictions facing free-to-play accounts due to "community and internal feedback".
In a post on the game's forums, lead designer Damion Schubert explained that changes would be made to the originally announced restrictions after they generated a mixed reaction.
It is important conversely that the subscription offers subscribers strong, tangible benefits over the Free-to-Play experience. We value our subscribers greatly, and they are crucial to the success of Star Wars: the Old Republic.
As a result, free-to-play players will now get a second quickslot bar, as well as the ability to run five Warzones each week. Under the original restrictions, there was no second bar for free-to-play accounts and only three Warzone battles could be played every seven days.
Schubert went on to address the worry that the limitations on Warzones will make queues longer, saying that if anything they should get shorter. He explained, "Our subscriber base likely will not shrink much, and for some of our competitors, converting to Free-to-Play has resulted in a subscriber increase! Which means that Warzone queues should likely see improvement from what you experience in game, and at minimum be relatively unchanged in experience.
"That being said, one of our golden rules is that the Free-to-Play experience should not cheapen the experience for paying subscribers. If it turns out that the Free-to-Play conversion results in a degraded Warzone experience once we go live for subscribers, you can rest assured that we will quickly make adjustments to the system to ensure that subscribers have an optimal experience.
"It is important conversely that the subscription offers subscribers strong, tangible benefits over the Free-to-Play experience. We value our subscribers greatly, and they are crucial to the success of Star Wars: the Old Republic."
Also addressed in the post is the potential for accounts to receive preferred status. Any former subscriber whose account has locked will automatically get preferred status, otherwise any F2P player who makes a single purchase through the game's official site will also have their account upgraded to preferred status.
Preferred status offers a range of benefits, ranging from increased server queue priority and an extra crew skill slot to obtaining the sprint ability at level 1 alongside access to your cargo hold.
No official launch date has been unveiled for the free-to-play option for Star Wars: The Old Republic, but it's expected to be available before the year is out.
Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant and former SWTOR player. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.
Source : ign[dot]com
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