ETA on Advanced Class change?

incidentally, I and others have stated multiple times the benefits of AC for some people and for the game in general.

1. breathing life into characters that may have been abandoned and thus extending someone's stay in game, their enjoyment in game.
2. allowing people who only have fun playing through a story once - experiment with their character without having to suffer through the story they already know and aren't having fun replaying.
3. allowing people to keep using unique, no longer acquirable items, that include pets, speeders, crystals, armor shells, as well as legacy perk unlocks on a character they have grown attached to, while enjoying the game play style that works better for them, within the same archetype, rather than having to reroll from scratch and lose all the investment they made into a character.
4. making extra money for bioware by making ac switch purchasable with cartel coins.

naturally - this is not for everyone. some people like their current AC. some people have characters already in each AC. some people like playing through the same story more than once.

flash of the month concerns can be addressed by putting limitations on this option, other then make it cost so much that most will just scoff in disgust and walk away from it. its not in bioware's interest to add something people won't want to buy.

its an options that bioware left open through their character and story design as well as through their more recent statements. option, not a requirement, just another choice people can chose to take? or ignore.

I'd like to post what I feel would be some detriments. That doesn't mean what I post is more or less important than your pros, not does this post invalidate yours. I would just like to lend my opinion on what I see could be some pitfalls.

1) I would expect that many folks are not going to react well to this change if implemented.
2) They flirted with the idea before launch, even talked about it publicly, but in the end decided not to allow it. At the time folks were pretty dead set against it. I don't think it's likely the current environment has changed much since then.
3) Some classes could end up underrepresented due to bad design. Right now some folks stick with an AC they choose because they would have to reroll and do not wish to do so I would guess.
4) If restrictions are not in place this could end up being abused or exploited.
5) This will likely further demean AC choice.
6) Could cause FOTM issues.
7) If late game AC change is allowed it could end up causing folks that have an AC but do not know how to properly play it running Raids and Operations, making an existing problem worse.

There may be more, if others want to add pros and cons I can compile lists for both and add it to the post block for the proposals. Only serious, logical, non-insulting pros and cons please. I will not cater to trolls.

fair points, here's my rebbutals.

1. there are always people who resist change at first. most eventually adopt. those that don't tend to balance out by people who come back/start playing because of the changes

2. things, including opinions change. people tend to be against shaking up status quo, because it means different and unfamiliar. but change is not necessarily a bad thing. some people vocally being against something doesn't mean its not worth considering or trying.

3. classes are already underrepresented. people talk about shelving their assassins/shadows due to how spikily they take damage nowadays (and as a healer, assassin tanks are my least favorite to heal - good sins can compensate, but even they cannot fix the issue of them being super squishy against physical damage). the main difference is - without change characters just get abandoned and non altoholics often stop playing all together. with AC change- they have an option. and honestly, solution would be balances AC's so that they are all roughly equal in their viability and the main difference is specifics of playstyle.

4. so there should be restrictions. everything has potential to be abused and exploited, so the key is - before implementing anything, test it thoroughly. its possible, that's exactly what they are doing right now, they are just not at the point where they can conclusively say yes or no yet.

5. possibly. unless done with certain limitations. now, this is my personal opinion, but I never felt like AC choice was significant to begin with. you just picked out playstyle, nothing more. not like light or dark decisions, which companions to bring with you or which role to play. but I have stated that I view class as tied to individual class story, not specializations within that story - this being a somewhat unique SWTOR feature. so to me at least flexibility in playstyle is more important. (I was VERY happy when they implemented field respec - the only alts of mine that don't have it are pure dps characters and even they may end up with it eventually)

6. could.. unless restrictions are implemented in addition to working on balancing AC's and specs to be roughly equal in general effectiveness (anything from limiting the number of times the change can be made, to how often it can be made, to raising the cost with each subsequent change)

7. again, could, though I'm not sure how it can get any worse than it already is. however- as a safeguard, adding a short unskippable tutorial to the change - anything from conversation with an npc (something like original conversation you have when choosing it the first time, only more involved) to a quest that needs to be completed, before change is finalized - quest that would require you to use specific abilities in a specific way (as an added bonus, that quest could be used as testing ground for someone who might be considering the change, but not entirely sure about it - provided quest comes with yes, I want to change, no I want to stay with my old AC - options).

there are pro's and cons to everything. IMO the key is to see which column has more stuff in it, and go from there.

heck one of the solutions to the problem of unique no longer available items rather than allowing them to change AC, could be giving people an opportunity to reclaim them through collections. (and I personally would pay cartel coins to unlock my black/green crystal for my entire account - in a heartbeat). that still doesn't solve the issue of not enjoying the story more than once though.

if you do not understand the difference in a cosmetic change and the changing of a class then you do not belong in any kind of discussion.

Race changes are COSMETIC only, not a change of fundamental mechanics. That is the difference.

what reason is there to give someone a max level class for no reason other then childish want?

it is pay to win and pay to win is how you kill an MMO

You missed the entire point. They both require legwork.

Good lord, re-read before you decide to post misinformation.

What reason is there to want to dictate to others how they spend their money in a game when it does not affect you?


AC swap is not P2W, no matter how many times you call it that. The player still had to level the original AC to X. He or she is not getting a second, brand new character of level X right out of the gate. That would be P2W.