Slot machines games for fun

When I came home, Conrad was bouncing with excitement: "Rav, you need to login and get one of these for your stronghold. Now!"

I must admit I was curious about this so called 'slot machine'. If it had managed to get stronghold-hater and self-proclaimed vagrant Conrad enthusiastic, it surely must be a special thing.

A quick search on the GTN taught me the decoration was worth over 3 million. I did not have that kind of money on me. Conrad had already fruitlessly spent 4 cartel packs in order to get one and was getting ready to buy one from the GTN and install it in my stronghold. But then I got lucky and got one in my second cartel pack. The clicking could begin.

While Conrad was practically glued to my slot machine, general chat was buzzing with fellow slot machine addicts. This excerpt comes from Nar Shaddaa:

Apartment owners talking in Nar Shaddaa general chat

This teaches us several things:

1) "Playing it is exploiting it"

The truth is obviously a bit more complicated. Just using a slot machine definitely is not an exploit: you are using the decoration in the manner it was intended by the developers. These even gave out an official statement saying so. It is possible the player quoted meant the word 'exploit' in its non-gaming meaning: to take advantage of the high rewards that can be gained by playing the slot machine now, implying that this lavish amount is not intended by the developers and may be decreased in the future.

There is, however, an opportunity to use the machines in a manner certainly not intended by the developers: due to their repetitive nature, slot machines are especially suitable for the use of macros. With a simple text script deployed, a character with some stacks of coins in their inventory can simply keep clicking the slot machine and reap its rewards while the player is away from their keyboard.

disco ball = cartel certificate

2) "I got from it"

The slot machines offer the following rewards:

- Reputation items for the Contraband Resale Corporation (green, blue, purple);

- Scrap metal to exchange for crafting mats at jawas (green, blue, purple);

- Cartel certificates to exchange for rare items.

It's noteworthy that reputation with this faction could previously only be gained by spending (real) money on cartel packs. Making this reputation available through slot machines actually opens it up to a broader market. A remarkable development, because it in practice removes incentive to spend money on the cartel market to get that one special thing. Not that I'm complaining, of course.

It is not hard to get reputation through the slot machine, in fact, I quickly had reached my weekly reputation cap. It is also not hard to get any of the other items. The cartel certificates are the most rare, but even they are not all that hard to get. I soon had collected enough for a meditation chair or a sith throne - now I just need to wait until Tuesday to get the reputation sorted.

For only 500 credits per coin (which you can even 'win back' at the machine as well), the rewards are indeed lavish.

3) "WTS [purple crafting mat] 11k each"

And this is where the problem starts. If my memory servers me correctly, midlithe crystals were worth around 50k or more. Purple M was selling them for 11k. Checking the GTN at the moment of writing, they are worth 5k. Crafting materials are depreciating rapidly due to the influx of crafting materials gained through slot machines. This is great news if you need to craft yourself some stuff. But if you make money through gathering or crafting and you don't like spam-clicking machines, you're out of luck.

And if you're as unlucky as Green M, it doesn't even give out anything else.