Ok all. I've been playing the game a fair bit over the last two days, and played the beta as well. I've also been following this stuff pretty closely on Reddit and posted a bit in the AMA the other day. I'll do my best to offer what info I can.
The 40 hours unlock thingy wasn't accurate at all. I know someone who unlocked all the heroes within 12 hours from release.
As for the 'full game'. Well. There will be regular updates with new additions such as Crait and D'Qar from TLJ in December, Utapau (including Grievous as a hero) early in 2018, and later Saleucami, Felucia, Coruscant and others. The game itself without any updates has quite a lot of features, so it's not really a problem.
So, this is sort of a misnomer.
First, you have to consider when this happened. Was it after or before the cut in prices from 60000c to 15000c? Also, was it after or before your friend completed the campaign? Here's what could've happened. Originally, the campaign awarded 20,000 credits, which was the same price required to buy the Iden character for multiplayer. After the 75% cut in hero prices, they also cut the rewards from the campaign down to 5000 (still the same amount to buy Iden). In addition, you have a bunch of other milestones in the game that award credits, crafting parts, and star cards.
So, it's possible that this is what happened: your friend played through the campaign early and earned the 20000 credits. then the rates got cut to 15000 per high-end hero. Your friend then bought the hero. Alternatively, your friend played a bunch and earned a bunch of credits through milestones and the campaign, and wound up buying that way. The thing is, the original data -- the calculation of, like 4800 hours -- was based on play AFTER all of your milestones are done. It's looking strictly at what you can get from arcade matches, and what you can get from playing online. The average match is putting out between 150-380 credits or so. And you can earn a flat 500 credits per day from the arcade. So, it averages out to the numbers the guy posted. AFTER the milestones, that is.
The milestones are classic Skinner box/operant conditioning design. Make rewards come quickly early on, and then taper them off over time, at which point the person will just keep doing the task even though they're getting less frequent rewards because they've been conditioned to do so.
Guys I am not a gamer. So I’m not too familiar with “pay to win”
So I’m understanding this correctly, u can basically pay to unlock these characters? And if so how much does it cost to unlock the key characters like Luke and Vader?
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The pay-to-win aspect comes from the fact that the star cards are all upgrades from your base abilities. And the higher the level of card, the greater the upgrade. so, you have a thermal detonator for the assault class. It starts at a base level of damage, and the first level star card upgrades the blast radius and damage by, I think, 10%. The highest level card ups it by 30%. People were able to buy crystals to unlock crates, which would give them more star cards or materials to upgrade or both, and therefore were better positioned to win.
I think I read that your Star Card level is based on how many cards you have in general as a player, not what you have fitted to your individual character classes. It seems like the more cards you have, and what they are worth, the higher your level? But I can't seem to find any chart that says exactly what the numbers would be.
WHY did they think people would like this?
I'm not sure if the star card level is the same from class to class, but there's definitely differences between classes. Like, I did the preorder and got some Kylo Ren cards, and he's at level 8, but I only got one card for my assault trooper who is at level 2. I haven't tried crafting anything or upgrading anything yet, though.
so now the people who have already bought the upgrades, still have them correct?
They do, yes. Technically, they bought "crystals" which is just in-game currency that you can spend on the loot boxes. But they get to keep the crystals they bought and the loot box stuff they got.
They'll reinstate the loot boxes later. This will give people a chance to grind for a while before people can buy their stuff. Meanwhile, they'll change the boxes up so its not quite a blind buy to reduce the gambling charges.
They're still committed to a micro transaction game model, they're just trying to figure out to quiet the marks....er....suckers....er...consumers.
This is mostly accurate. I think what will happen is a couple of things. They may add a bunch of cosmetic stuff to the crates to make them
less "pay to win" because you'll get fewer actual payouts. Alternatively, they may tell you what's in each crate. So, you'll pay to open the "Han Solo Crate" which comes with one star card that upgrades his blaster, and two cosmetic things like emotes and victory poses. Alternatively, they might just create a kind of online store where you can buy specific items, instead of crates. They still will have microtransactions, though. That's built into the business model of the game. They aren't going to dump that altogether.
My hope is taht they make purchasable content strictly cosmetic. Not performance-altering.
I think the crates are still there-- it's the crystals, aka real-world money that they've removed. The crates are the source of all cards, I don't think they can take them out.
This. The crystals can no longer be purchased. You can still get the crates using in-game credits that you earn through playing.
I have to say that, given all the crap that's been happening with this, I've been pretty reluctant to spend any
credits in-game on anything. I don't want to, for example, spend credits on crates that then get slashed in price or something, ya know? So I've been unlocking stuff at a snail's pace, using only the daily crate and only the crate rewards you get for milestones. Which means I get my ass kicked A LOT.
- - - Updated - - -
https://kotaku.com/ea-temporarily-removes-microtransactions-from-star-wars-1820528445https://kotaku.com/ea-temporarily-removes-microtransactions-from-star-wars-1820528445
Just additional info regarding the temp removal.
it's frustrating as I know they'll eventually be back in the game, but hopefully they'll understand that putting character advancement items into something like this does not make the very people they're trying to have purchase their game happy.
You know, it's almost like they don't understand that OUR time is worth money too... If they want us to spend our valuable time playing their game then it needs to be on a level playing field (game dynamics-wise... the differences in player skills is something completely different).
The only way to ensure a truly level playing field where player skill is all that matters is to eliminate progression altogether. That means everything that can affect gameplay is unlocked for everyone from the start.