Are you Goofy For SWTOR? New on GamingFace

We get some real cool items in this pack! And I am dieing to get my hands on some of them!  

Vice Commandant’s Contraband Pack The Vice Commandant’s Contraband Pack features ten new gear sets worn by iconic figures from The Old Republic™ universe, including those of Bastila Shan, Thana Vesh, Jolee Bindo, House Thul, and The Red Blade. Four newly introduced mounts include the holo-canopied Cartel Decadent Skiff and the holo-stabilized Gurian Lightning. However, the gems of the pack are two new toys, each with abilities not found anywhere else in the game! The first is the Revan Holostatue, which acts as a summonable Commendations vendor. The second is the Music Therapy Probe, which triggers a fantastic group rest ability. Put on your Relaxed Uniform and get your move on with surrounding characters! You’ll also find all the other types of rare goods you’d expect: weapons, minipets, emotes, color crystals, and, for the very lucky, a return of the Rascal’s Toothpick. Sold individually or at a bulk discount in convenient Hypercrate packaging.

Read on

Gree: Will you sing for your Galactic Reputation?

With Patch 1.7 bringing Galactic Reputation into SWTOR, how will it change our play styles? 

If you have played any MMO you will know that reputation grinds can be both rewarding and monotonous  SWTOR has survived over a year of popular existence without it but now it's coming to the game. Could this be the missing elements for end game players? Have you found the daily quest rewards to be lackluster? How will this reputation grind change how we perceive end game?

From the screenshots of the preview of this new feature, it looks like we'll be provided with four unique reputations:
The Gree Enclave
Imperial First Mobile Fleet
Imperial Guard on Belsavis
The Voss

Now these may branch out to be six across your legacy because the Imperial and Republic are separate. It has not been made clear yet whether you will have separate reputation for your character's faction, even though reputation will be shared across your legacy.

Reputation has six unique levels which will (obviously) unlock new rewards as you level up. This will provide a unique way for subscribers to acquire cool new gear to brag about. But will Bioware make us sing for our rewards? How many months will it take to become a Legend and how awesome will the rewards actually be for our efforts?

I actually enjoyed reputation leveling in other games like WoW. It provided an extra level of achievement that you were rewarded with, apart from credits.BUT - the rewards can make or break the reputation grind. I can see reputation bonuses being a hot seller on the Cartel Market for people who prefer to hand over cash to speed up the grind.

What type of things do you want to see from your reputation and how long do you think it should take?

Additional Character Slot for 600 Cartel Coins

Are you and Altoholic? If so today is a good day for you! all so  Republic players can now get Imperial officers uniforms and Sith can look like smugglers if they are crazy that is.. we all know Sith outfits look way cooler than Republic street gear. check it all out on the market now!


Cartel Market Update: January 10th, 2013
Hi everyone! This week, the Cartel Market is being updated with all of the new items that you’ll find below.

Newcomer Bundle (on sale for 405 Cartel Coins)
The Newcomer Bundle offers a wide range of items to help new players expedite their adventures. This bundle offers a free speeder and other items at a discounted cost.

Skip Tracer's Cartel Pack (360 Cartel Coins)
A unique assortment of items from across the galaxy. Each Pack contains rare bonus items found nowhere else!

Interstellar Privateer Armor Set (1,440 Cartel Coins)


The Interstellar Privateer Armor Set is a collection of adaptive gear with no modifications. This armor set is available to any class.

Clandestine Officer Armor Set (1,440 Cartel Coins)

The Clandestine Officer Armor Set is a collection of adaptive gear with no modifications. This armor set is available to any class.

Additional Character Slot (600 Cartel Coins)

This will unlock an additional Character Slot on all servers.

Discounts
Additionally, this week’s discounts include:

30% Discount on Gamorrean Axe: 245cc
33% Discount on Fleet Pass (Single Use): 60cc
35% Discount on Life Day Bundle (Limited Time Offer): 2,400cc
50% Discount on Newcomer Bundle
Expiring Discounts & Items
Finally, don’t miss out on the following items and discounts that will be expiring or removed with our next Cartel Market update!

30% Discount on Gamorrean Axe
33% Discount on Fleet Pass (Single Use)
35% Discount on Life Day Bundle
Czerka LD-1 Celebrator
Life Day Robes
Life Day Holo-Tree
Life Day Orb
Life Day Tinsel Bomb
Life Day Bundle
Imperial Fireworks x10
Republic Fireworks x10
Fountain Fireworks x10
Finale Fireworks x10
Fireworks Bundle x12

90 Cartel Packs Opened at a cost of $240!

Remamian from the Swtor Forums shows us why it not a good Idea to get Cartel Packs:


So its getting that time of year when i normally have an extra flow of cash laying around, just so happens i have something to spend them on now. So i figured hey! I had nearly 3000 cartel coins from my sub and collectors i figured i'd buy a few extra. There were really just a few things i was looking for that i saw people had gotten from the packs. The Throne, which is the ultra rare, which i wanted just so can sell it. The only thing honestly that i wanted for myself was a Covert Belt, i really wanted this to complete a look on one of my characters.

Well i bought an extra 5500 cartel coins so i can get enough packs to pretty much guarantee that i can at least get my belt. 

Well it just soo happens that after opening ALL those cartels packs, i still had nothing i wanted.......

I've now purchased 33,000 cartel coins (6x the 5500 39.99 group = 240$) and here are my findings

XP BOOSTS (Major)
Class Mission x2
Experience x5
Flashpoint x6
Exploration x2
Warzone x4
Social x1
Space Mission x1

How to get the most value out of your Cartel Coins

With the Cartel Market embedded in our game, I thought I'd better work out what is the best value for your coins. Read on, because I can save you 5 million credits worth! The first thing I did, like everybody else, was to blow all the coins I earned via my subscription on Cartel bags. I ended up with a whole heap of crap that nobody wants. Unlike the bags I opened on the test server, the frequency of good stuff in the bags was low. I ended up with lots of very similar mounts and lots of worthless titles.

The value for almost all of these items - that were meant be rare items from Cartel packs - have dropped to about 10k each because SWTOR is flooded with them now. You can see here from the screenshot of the Galactic Trade Market from my server the mounts are desperately being sold for as little as 10k.

So, what do you spend your 500 coins on each month if you're a subscriber? Well, if you have multiple alts, I found that the best value is in Unlocks. The Cartel Market gives you the option to use credits or Cartel Coins to unlock things like extra bank slots. If you purchase the low level bank slots using credits you can save millions of credits by using Cartel Coins to unlock the extra bank slots on all your characters on your account!

Another thing I did was to use all my Cartel coins like the target dummies, mail box and Galactic Trade Market on my ships. These unlocks, paid for by Cartel Coins, are account wide and extremely good value for money when compared to paying for it in credits. For less than the cost of a set of armor you get to unlock the Galactic Trade Market on your ship. If you were to use credits it would cost 5 million! For 5 million credits you could purchase almost every item available in Cartel packs off the Galactic Market including exclusive mounts like the Emporer's chair.

So at this stage I would highly recommend that you don't spend your Cartel Coins on the random packs - especially  if you're looking for individual items. Due to the massive volume of initial packs that were sold it is far cheaper to get this stuff from the Galactic Trade Market now.

A Closer Look at the Crime Lord's Cartel and Black Market Packs

Players on the test Server received 2400 Cartel Coins today to test new goodies and I decided to use the coins to compare loot in the two different Cartel Packs (the Crime Lord's Cartel and the Black Market). 

I'm still really impressed with the randomness of the loot in these packs. Out of the nine packs I opened today, I received only one duplicate item and if I include the four other packs I purchased yesterday, I have received a total of 3 duplicate items over 13 packs-1 mount and 2 transparent chess pieces. 

But which of the two packs is better value for money and which has the better loot? Let's break down ...

Crime Lord's Cartel Pack

The Crime Lord's Cartel packs cost 360 Cartel Coins. You get two special items and three non-special items (like XP boosts, hand crafting mats, etc.) The Crime Lord's pack also has the chance of a super-rare item. Out of the four packs I opened I got two chest pieces (one in an upper body kit containing a chest piece and gloves), one mount, one pet, one relic, one crystal, one emote and one banner. Details are in the screenshot compilation below.

Black Market Pack

Out of the five Black Market Packs I bought I got two chest pieces, one pet, a lightsaber, and a banner. Details are in the compiled screenshot below.

So which type of  pack is best?

200k Credit Cap For Freepers! Will it Force the Price of Items?

Free to play players (Freepers) will have a credit cap of 200k. Any extra credits made go into an Escrow account that you can see in your inventory. Once the credits have gone into that Escrow account the only way to get them back is to subscribe! If you earn 300K, for example, you can spend 200 of it but 100 of it will be stuck in escrow forever and the only way to retrieve it is to subscribe. It doesn't matter if you spend 200 of your 300, the 100 that was over the cap doesn't then become available; it stays in escrow. Free to play players are going to have to be careful when they are approaching the 200k cap. 

What will this mean for the Galactic Trade Market?  

Cartel Market Tour

Patch 1.5 introduces Free to Play for Star Wars The Old Republic and a big part of the Free to Play system is the Cartel Market. When you first log into the game after patch 1.5 hits the servers, you will get this welcome message:

Although the game will be Free to Play there will be lots of features and benefits that only the paid subscribers will get and these will be flaunted to the Free to Play players, enticing them to join the fold. The features include unlimited access to warzones, operations and flashpoints, as well as unlimited access to end game purple gear.

Free to Play players will use the Cartel Market to pay for weekly passes to things like flashpoints or operations. Subscriber players earn 500 Cartel Coins per month, just for being a subscriber and they can then use these credits in the Cartel Market to purchase all sorts of neat upgrades and trinkets. 

Character Preview Update in Patch 1.5

Along with the launch of the Cartel Market, coming out in Patch 1.5, Bioware have introduced some new features to the character preview screen. The first change is the ability to turn your weapon on and off. Using the center button highlighted in the image below will enable your character preview interface to equip or unequip a weapon. (Note: There seems to be a brightness issue with the preview screens that are on the test server at the moment. I'm sure this will be fixed before Patch 1.5 is released.)

Using your mouse wheel while your preview screen is open will zoom in and out on your character, giving you a high res look at all your equipment.

If you're fussy like me, the look of your lightsaber hilt is important, and so this new feature will be a pleasant distraction of your first visit to SWTOR once the patch comes out (in the next couple of weeks).