Star Wars: The Old Republic Getting a More Player-driven Economy

In a new blog entry on the game's official website, Star Wars: The Old Republic principal lead combat designer Georg Zoeller describes some of the changes they're making to the MMORPG's economy in the forthcoming v1.2 milestone patch. Cheap speeders incoming:
As we work to create a more player-driven economy, you can expect significant improvements to Crew skills, and an extension of Crew skill gameplay, such as item creation and research, into the Elder-Game content. You'll also see new items brought into the game, including new schematics, Legacy items, a new tier of Player vs Player and Player vs Environment weapons and armor, Legacy items, new schematics, and the ability to extract base-mods from purple items, as well as many other changes and improvements.

Weekly patch 1.1.5 (which is now on the Public Test Server) implements a number of changes in preparation of the upcoming Game Update, including the much requested removal of Light Side / Dark Side requirements on color crystals.

As it is expected when large scale changes are made to an economic system, enterprising players often find interesting opportunities to benefit from their knowledge about the changes beforehand (for example by studying test server patch notes).

With patch 1.1.5, we've decided to embrace these economic entrepreneurs and even go a step further:

By publishing a series of rumors and stories that are coming in across both the Imperial and Republic news wires, we are providing all of you with advance knowledge about some of the things to come in the near future.

Korrealis Corporation, a family-owned personal transportation company based out of Balmorra, has announced that, in response to a sharp increase in customer complaints, all production of the '˜Sovereign', '˜Prince', 'Baron' and 'Commander' speeder lines has been halted indefinitely. This announcement comes on the heels of the rumor that Tirsa Industrial Consortium has quietly ceased production of their less than successful 'Prime' model, which faced similar blowback.

Vehicle Vendors across the galaxy have been advised to clear out any remaining stock of these models, and many Vendors have begun offering steep discounts to entice potential customers. Collectors and investors may want to take note that the previous limitations governing the resale of some vehicles seem to have been lifted and are encouraged to use the opportunity to purchase these legacy vehicles while they are still available.