I have been playing a lot of late (helped by the fact that I got my girlfriend hooked on it too!). It is indeed Free To Play, allowing you to get all the way to level 50 and play all of the storyline content. Despite some revision, I believe that the level 51-55 planet, Makeb, is still restricted to Subscribers though.
For those unsure of the difference between F2P (Free to Play) and Sub (Subscription), the chart is
here. There is, you will observe, a 'Preferred' player status. That is simply a F2P who has used real life money to purchase in-game items and perks (the Cartel Coin system). One purchase and you are 'Preferred' F2P forever so maybe worth a glance.
As for me? I have the following:
In our Guild (The Order of Kadann)Sith Marauder, Joratz, level 55
Sith Sorcerer, Serpentor, level 52
Bounty Hunter, Ciryc'ad, level 53
Imperial Agent, Tarith, level 55
Not in our Guild:Jedi Knight, Gahedris, level 55
Smuggler, Zayleema, level 55
Raovala, Trooper, level 32
Cserasha, Jedi Sage, level 33
I am working very hard on getting the Achievement for a level 55 for each of the eight classes. Slowly but surely getting there!
Issues and suggested resolutions for restarting the VE SWTOR Guild:
1) TimingSimply put, I play some evenings, but the time difference between here and Japan plays havoc with my ability to team up with others. Recently I have managed to catch Japheth online, but that was because it was the summer holidays and I was able to play weekday mornings. Currently not an option I'm afraid.
What if we put together a little weekend time slot for VE play? Just a couple of hours, maybe, and posted it here in the Marine Corps thread? List the time as 'VE Time', as in the time at the bottom of the ComNet, so everyone knows thats the right one. Best if we pick two different time slots. One that's easier for the European/American VE members, and one that's better for the Australia and Japan players. If you happen to be online when either slot is live, hop on SWTOR for a bit!
2) A Second GuildWe have an Imperial side guild on the Ebon Hawk server, called the Order of Kadann. All of my Imp characters above are in it. If yours arent't then don't hesitate to send me a tell in game and I'll add them!
We also need, and Japheth and I discussed this, a Republic side guild for our democracy-loving alts. I would favour some other name Kadann-related, like the
League of Kadann or
Alliance of Kadann. Regardless, we should form this as soon as possible. That way if we are playing with our alts we can be aware of other VE players logging in and can play with them too.
We need four players to form a Guild. My girlfriend is Republic side, and I play when she does, so that's two of the four people we need. F2P players cannot take the lead in forming a Guild, but they
can be one of the four original signatories. Just two more VE Republic volunteer players and we are sorted!
Just my suggestions.