BioWare tweaks Star Wars: The Old Republic's free-to-play version based on community feedback

BioWare will be making changes to its free-to-play restrictions for Star Wars: The Old Republic based on feedback it has received internally and from the community, the developer announced on its official forums.

The three main changes that will be made include:

Free-to-Play players will now get a second quickslot bar.

Free-to-Play players will now be able to do 5 Warzones per week instead of 3.

The Cartel Coin item lock (i.e. temporary bind) will be reduced to 3 days for Free-to-Play players, and 2 days for subscribers.

Star Wars: The Old Republic's lead designer, Damion Schubert, said in the post that these changes will be implemented sometime this week. He emphasized in his post that the game's free-to-play elements will not diminish the subscription experience and subscribers need not worry that they are paying more for less.

"... One of our golden rules is that the Free-to-Play experience should not cheapen the experience for paying subscribers," Schubert said. "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.

"That being said, 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."

Free-to-play is currently being tested and will be made available to everyone sometime this Fall.