ETA on Advanced Class change?

and....../thread

Some of us suggested that already but people answered with fire and brimstone, since if you take into account some comments, you'd actually think that this is NOT a game - hence, NOT an hobby - and people have established an agenda, concerning stuff they wanna do before the World ends.

no. advice to reroll doesn't wash precisely because its the game. aka it should be enjoyed. and not everyone enjoys rerolling.

games should be fun, not work. its people who are against advanced class change that try to make it more srs business then it really is

Well, I haven't seen any new suggestions or pros/cons yet...if someone noticed one I might have missed please point it out.

I will repost the list shortly.

I know these are collated and not necessarily your own opinions but I just thought I'd pin my observations to your format.

From my experience with the forums it seems 'many folks' will not react well to any proposed change. I think the human condition prefers a certain point of stasis and certainty and any discussion of altering this brings out a knee jerk response of 'leave it alone it's fine'. So this is a Con that could be applied to just about any suggestion present. That aside the use of the term 'Many' implies more folk are against this than for it and that is an unknown. I could just as easily say 'I would expect that many folks are going to react well to this change if implemented' judging by how many threads get started in the suggestions forum by people asking for the chance to change their AC.

I think the current environment has changed vastly between launch and the present, not least because the game has had to undergo the transition from a subscription based model to a hybrid model.I wasn't able to get into the beta so I didn't follow the discussions at the time. I did read that originally the ingame text was a little less obvious at AC selection as to the permanency of the choice. This I suspect led to many Beta testers asking for the option to swap from one AC to the other as they progressed into the game. The Devs fix was to put the word 'Permanent' in there, a fact that certain responders in this thread hang on as the end point to any further discussion.

Some classes are already underrepresented. But importantly this tends to only be a factor within some hardcore guilds with the harder difficulty settings of Operations and Ranked PvP. In more general content you can get by with all the classes.

I don't think a single Pro-AC swap has asked for it to be implemented without some degree of cost. The arguement here is that most of the Options listed and suggestions by the Anti-AC swap crowd are so prohibitive as to be pointless.

The importance of AC choice is a subjective one and one that seems of particular importance to players that have crossed over from earlier MMOs that had less ability to be flexible with a characters end skill set.
Other gamers don't care how much importance you place on your AC choice, they only care about how well you can play it.

How? FOTM issues arise from innate class balancing and players finding new ways to get the most out of a certain build. In some respect allowing AC swapping would smooth out any class balance transition phases. If the developers see a sudden mass transition from Sorcerer to Assassin they would be able to focus attention on why. Is it an actual imbalance or just one of perception.

This is only an issue for those gamers that, for whatever reason, refuse to join a guild or add decent players to their friends list. You can also place the worse offenders on an ignore list.
PUGs have always been a horrendous experience in every MMO I have played and while I feel you can get away with them for a Flashpoint or two I just don't have the patience to try an Operation.
Inmost respects the problem exists because the solo levelling experience is too easy, players can overlevel the content and with a healing companion at their side stumble through the quests without any real hardship. So they roll up at endgame content with poor gear and no idea how to use interrupts, move out of AOEs or co-ordinate with other players.

So the players who don't want to do level 1-54 content should be able to generate a level 55 character?
The players who have no fun doing PvP should be able to get PvP gear and items with credits rather than WZ commendations?
No fun in crew skills - so a "advance to 450 skill" option - possibly via the cartel market.

There are lots of things in the game that some people don't like doing. If you want the game to remain fun then you don't do them.
The only way to try a different class is to re-roll. If you don't enjoy re-rolling....then don't.
As with the above examples - you don't get to experience certain aspects unless you're willing to put the work in.

It maybe a "game" - but this isn't some console bash away at some keys type of game.
This is the problem with MMO's and the "console generation" - want anything and everything "right now".

FOR FREE!!!!!!!!!

No, that's fine. I created the list specifically for that purpose, so people could discuss the pitfalls and/or merits of each point.

I try to keep the list updated with any new suggestions or pro/con items as they appear.

It just makes it easier for folks to discuss the issues at hand without having the "I said this" or "that has already been argued and/or suggested" discussions.

No one has suggested anything like that. I'm not sure where you're pulling that analogy from. Did your world fall apart when they let characters in this game respec? What's the difference been changing specs and changing advanced class (outside of an arbitrary designation)? Wow has specs within classes that are far more fundamentally different than most of the advanced class distinctions in this game. How did being able to respec ruin this game or that one?

I'm not. Obviously I am fine with things as they are, or I would not be able to post here. But AC switching would improve the game for some (many?) without negatively impacting the game any (hyperbole to the contrary notwithstanding). The only issue is "Would it be worth it from a resource standpoint?"