Following what was announced in yesterday's livestream (the full summary of which can be found here), the Cartel Market will undergo some changes. An article from the developers' blog provides us with more information.
The main objective of Bioware is to facilitate the understanding of the Cartel Market and the accessibility of the items sold there. For this, they acted on 3 points:
- Browsing the collections
- The scarcity system
- Accessibility to old and new packs
Update October 2 at the end of the article.
Updating collections
Bioware has made many changes to the collections. Here are the main changes:
- Search and filter collections.
- Automatically collapsed categories.
- Display of the number of unlocked outfits.
- Unlocking items for another character directly with the one who owns the item.
Changed item rarity
Currently, the Cartel's rarity levels are "rare", "super rare" and "ultra rare". With Knights of the Fallen Empire, the rarity levels will change to "bronze", "silver" and "gold" to make it easier to understand the rarity of an item. Indeed, currently the silver symbol is reserved for rare objects while the gold symbol goes just as well to super rare objects as to ultra rare objects. As for the bronze symbol, it exists but is not currently used for items in packs (note: it is found in particular on the experience boosts offered after certain quests, class quests among others).
The update affects all items and an item's rarity will be re-evaluated based on its popularity with players. So, for example, rare can correspond to bronze but also to silver if the object was a great success.
Modifying the content of the monthly packs
In addition to the changes mentioned above, regular pack shipments will also be changed. Here's how :
- Better quality items in every pack : Now the basic items in the packs will be mostly armor, mounts / vehicles, decorations and toys. Other types of items can be added, but only when they are items in high demand.
- Two items per pack : Now each pack will only have two items. The first will be one of the items mentioned above (a mount or other "bigger" item) and the second will be a Rare or Artifact Tier 5 Partner Gift.
- New superpack : The new superpack contains 5 packs, another way to buy packs, in case you want to buy more than one pack, without going all the way to the hyperbox. Talking about that...
- Hypercaisse : Hyper-Crates still exist, but they now contain 30 packs, giving you even more chances to get that rare item you are looking for!
- Pack embargo : When a Monthly Pack is removed from the Cartel Market, it is unlikely to return to the market in this form. However, the items offered in this pack are all automatically placed in their corresponding bronze, silver or gold pack. Ex: a pack comes out on September 1st with a mount. Starting September 1, you can also purchase the mount through the Silver and Gold Mount Packs. Starting October 1, the Example Pack is embargoed, but the Example Mount will still be available in the Silver and Gold Packs, indefinitely. See just below for more information.
Bronze, silver and gold packs
New packs will be offered and updated with each new addition of an item, which will allow you to recover items from embargoed packs. You will find inside items selected from those of the Cartel Market, old or new, whether in Packs or direct sale.
- armor
- Decorations
- Mounts
Each pack will contain items of different quality:
- Bronze pack: bronze, silver or gold object
- Silver pack: silver or gold item
- Pack or : objet or
In addition to these permanent Packs, other large Packs will be created and containing only the type of object indicated (non-exhaustive list):
- Arms
- crystals
- Galactic hunter
- Emotes
- Pets
- Partner customizations
- Securities
- Dyes
- Toys
As with the Bronze, Silver and Gold Packs, they will contain items from the Cartel Market, whether in the Packs or for direct sale, having been embargoed or not.
Other modifications
- The list of items available for direct sale will be reduced slightly.
- Short-term direct sale, for highly sought-after items (e.g. Temple Guardian armor)
- Categories changed to better match the changes
- 1 credit items from reputation vendors removed, but available in new large packs
- Items offered by vendors with a reputation not specific to that reputation removed, but offered in the respective large packs
The objective of all these changes is therefore to facilitate access to items in the Cartel Market, whether by direct purchase or by trading and trading with other players.
Update 02/10: Dan Bunten, Cartel Market Producer, provided some clarification on some points based on player feedback:
- Packs already in your hold will not be affected by these changes.
- The armor of the Monthly Packs will be present in 3 boxes (Top, Bottom, Complementary)
- The Bronze, Silver, Gold Packs will contain full armor.
- The new cargo will not have an associated reputation.
- Any reputation-specific item (that is, not available in a pack) will continue to be available for purchase from reputation vendors.
- Reputation items from previous Shipments will still be available in the Galactic Market and in the Grand Shipment Packs that will appear in the Cartel Market from time to time.
Update 02/10 # 2: With player feedback visibly disagreeing with this, Dan warns us that eventually, they will leave current items available at Reputation Vendors. They will therefore not be deleted.
Personally, I hope for a small drop in the prices of the Packs, but other than that, I find these changes quite nice. And you ?
