Star Wars: The Old Republic free-to-play is now live on the test servers for subscribers to play, wha?

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Star Wars: The Old Republic is now free-to-play for subscribers, no wait, that’s not it. Subscribers can play for free. No, again, not quite right. The free-to-play version of Star Wars: The Old Republic can be tested by subscribers. That’s closer to the mark.

Live on the Bioware’s public test server is a stripped down version of the free version, which itself is a stripped down version of the subscriber version. If you’re a subscriber of the game you can start playing around with the new currency, Cartel Coins, and see something of how the other half will live.

Spotted by RPS (though I looked at the damn notes earlier this evening and didn’t scroll down far enough to spot the relevant news), in the latest patch notes for the public test server you’ll see:

“The Cartel Market is now accessible! All characters on the PTS will be set to Free-to-Play status soon for a limited time in order to assist testing the Cartel Market and Free-to-Play options. This has no effect on characters on live servers.”

Players aren’t being asked to pony up any real cash, instead “testers will be periodically granted a small amount of Cartel Coins for the purpose of testing the Cartel Market.” And don’t go spending all your time on the test server because “No Cartel Coins or purchases on the PTS will be transferred to your account on normal servers.” None. So don’t go wasting too much ime.

Steve recently laid down all that will be available to free-to-play players once the shift goes live and you can see which of them is being implemented already in the test server patch notes:

Highlights

  • The Cartel Market is now accessible! All characters on the PTS will be set to Free-to-Play status soon for a limited time in order to assist testing the Cartel Market and Free-to-Play options. This has no effect on characters on live servers.

Cartel Market and Free-to-Play Testing Details

  • The Cartel Market is accessible via the gold Cartel Coin button near the top of the screen.
  • All PTS testers will be periodically granted a small amount of Cartel Coins for the purpose of testing the Cartel Market. Cartel Coins are displayed in the currency pane.No Cartel Coins or purchases on the PTS will be transferred to your account on normal servers.
  • Players will notice that several unlocks, boosts, and Legacy perks can be purchased for Cartel Coins. In many cases, these can be unlocked by clicking the Cartel Coin button near the appropriate UI element. They can often be unlocked for one character or for an entire account.

Classes and Combat

  • Subscribers are no longer charged credits for skill point re-specializations.

Items

  • The cost to remove mods from items has been reduced for subscribers.
  • The Collector’s Edition vehicle and all vehicles available in the Cartel Market can now be used with the lowest level license. Their speed now scales based on the license unlocked by characters.
  • Subscribers may now access speeders at level 15.

Legacy

  • The Legacy panel now accommodates much larger Legacies.

UI

  • Subscribers have access to 2 additional quickslot bars.
  • The deposit for items placed on the GTN is now a percentage of the item’s value (instead of being based on the player’s set price).
  • Vehicles, mini-pets, weapons, and color crystals can now be previewed in the in-game item preview window.
  • An additional bank tab can now be purchased.
  • The title selection window is now scrollable. Players can now choose their Legacy name display from this window.
  • A progress bar has been added to the currency pane to indicate player proximity to currency caps.

Cartel Market and Free-to-Play

  • The Cartel Market tutorial currently incorrectly informs players that there is a “Refund All” button.
  • When players have the Social Boost from the Cartel Market activated, the UI will display the default number of Social Points during conversations. Player will still receive boosted social points from conversation rolls.
  • When viewing travel perks in the Legacy pane, no level requirements are currently displayed.
  • The Major Warzone Experience Boost and Minor Warzone Experience Boost do not display a buff on characters when active.
  • The tooltips for the Major and Minor Exploration Experience Boosts in the Cartel Market incorrectly state that the player will receive increased Class mission experience.
  • With the exception of items purchased from the Equipment Tab of the Cartel Market, Cartel Items do not display properly when searched for on the GTN.
  • The Cartel Market images improperly display some English text in the French and English versions.
  • The Cartel Market Coin button pop-up lacks text if it is placed on the right edge of the screen.
  • The new welcome screen has text that is not final and may contain errors.
  • There is currently no text that indicates that Access Authorization: Section X (in the Cartel Market) is free to subscribers.
  • The Gauntlet of Tulak Hord, Revan’s Cowl, and Bastila’s Sash activate, but the apparitions currently do not attack.

Crew Skills

  • Some Crew Skill missions may not grant proper rewards.

HK-51

  • HK-51 currently joins players without gear.
  • While completing the missions to obtain HK-51, the Mission Log may display progress incorrectly.

Flashpoints and Operations

  • In Explosive Conflict, nameplates currently display for Kephess’ Saturation Fire ability. These nameplates should not be visible.

Miscellaneous

  • Dark Side Eyes and Light Side Eyes do not display as brightly as intended when the camera is zoomed in on the character’s face.
  • Players who attempt to preview vehicles while mounted may crash to desktop.
  • Vehicles currently use incorrect low-resoltion textures in the preview window.