Star Wars: The Old Republic Free to Play Guide

Although we still don't know when the free-to-play option for Star Wars: The Old Republic will be going live, this week, Bioware revealed some new details regarding the restrictions that will be placed on free players.

I could just list those restrictions here and let it go, but I'm a helpful sort of person and want to give those of you who don't play the game some context so you will have a better idea of whether the free option will be for you when it finally arrives later this year.

First off, I should remind you that all class quests will be free to all players. You will be able to level to 50 without paying a dime. That's the baseline. Here are the rest of the facts.

The restrictions:

-Operations. These level 50 dungeons, which require at least eight players and will take more if you're playing higher difficulty modes, will be off limits to those who don't want to pay money for them. However, you will be able to purchase a weekly pass if you want to try them out.

-Flashpoints. Free players can earn rewards in three of these four-person dungeons per week, and if they want to do more of them, a weekly pass will be available for purchase. If you just want to experience more than three without worrying about loot, you can do so.

-Warzones. Free players are limited to participating in three of these PvP arena battles per week, unless you purchase a weekly pass that unlocks the restriction.

-Space battles. Free players will be limited to three of these per week, unless you buy a weekly pass, but you probably won't miss them. They're good sources of XP early in the leveling process and great for making cheap cash later on, but these are not even remotely a major part of the SWTOR experience.

-Cargo hold access. In your starship, you have a cargo hold where you can store the items you don't immediately need. Players have always been able to expand their hold space with in-game credits, but free players will only be able add space with real money.

-Inventory. Same as the cargo hold. In order for free players to expand their inventory space, they will need to pay real money. Inventory space is very limited when you start out, so you will probably need to make this purchase.

-Crew skills. Free players will be granted one crew skill slot instead of the usual three, and you can add more slots with a purchase. If you are at all interested in crafting in SWTOR, you will need to buy at least one more skill slot, as you can't craft without both a crafting and gathering skill. If you don't want to craft, there are a couple individual skills that will help you progress. Slicing will earn you credits, diplomacy will add to your light or dark side points and treasure hunting or underworld trading can net of companion gifts. You can make use of those skills without any others.

-Quick travel. In the base game as it stands now, you can quick travel to bind into that you unlock every thirty minutes. According the free-to-play comparison chart, subscribers will have unlimited access to quick travel with a reduced cooldown, while free players will have a longer cooldown. I don't know if that means that subscribers will have a shorter-than-usual cooldown while free players get the standard thirty minutes or if subscribers get the standard while free players get something longer. They are unclear on this point. Free players can buy a pass to permanently reduce the quick travel cooldown.

-Emergency Fleet Pass. Free players will not have one these, which allows you to instantly travel to your faction's base of operations and the hub for Flashpoints and Operations. They will be able to buy one, though, and subscribers will have the ability to buy a pass that bypasses the usual cooldown on the fleet pass.

-Resurrection. Free players will only be able to revive in the field a total of five times, and if you want to revive more than that without going back to the nearest medical droid, you'll have to pay. This is a big one, because you will die in this game more than five times, and the field rez (which carries a cooldown that increases each time you die without speaking to someone) is a very necessary part of the game. I don't know if this limit applies to times other players rez you.

-Purple-quality items. These are the best items in the game, and free players will not be able to equip them without purchasing a license. This isn't a big deal if you're just playing for the story, as they don't pop up often during leveling, but if you play a lot of PvP or Operations, you will be quite irritated that you can't use them.

-Login queues. Subscribers will receive preferred spots in login queues. I don't know if this is a big deal, as it's been a really long time since we have had to deal with login queues in SWTOR. In fact, in my ten months with the game, I have never been in a login queue, though I remember folks on different servers talking about them around launch time last December.

-Character creation. There will be some sort of restriction on character creation options, but they haven't yet been specific about what they are.

On top of all that, if you don't ever make any purchase, you will be further restricted. Here's what you get for buying anything at all with real money: the sprint ability at level 1,  cargo hold access, higher login priority than other free players and “Increased access to Chat and Secure Trading. “ That's right, you don't even get to use your dang cargo hold without spending money.

If you're planning on becoming an obsessive player, you might as well just subscribe, based on the above knowledge bomb. But, then again, if that's you then you would probably already be playing. The free option is clearly for those folks who would like to take the game at their own pace, without feeling like they wasted $15 by not playing that month. The free option turns the game into more of an on-demand experience.

It's important to note that we still don't know how much real money any of the purchases I mentioned will cost, and so it's difficult to say how much cheap the free option is than subscribing. Again, though, what will take priority is your pace. If you are one to take it slow while you spread your gaming love to other titles, the free option will quite likely work out well for you, even if you have to spend some cash every now and then. If that describes you, then you are the target for this option. Just FYI.