ETA on Advanced Class change?

It's worse than that, the first time you swap over to the other AC you'd have to front up the cost of raising the abilities. If you were level 55 that could be a significant cost in and of itself.
One of the primary arguments against allowing AC swapping is that it is an 'easy option' and encourages laziness and yet you are arguing against it because it requires too much effort
And again, at level 55 the effort required to get a set of gear acceptable to start group content is not so time consuming.

Wow, Intense! Players should be punished for not knowing at level 10 whether they will like an AC at level 46.

Yet, the devs have said that the AC's are different classes. The four base classes define your story line. The same holonet also lets you know what advanced classes each class has available. There are 8 base classes (story lines), 8 groups of companions, and 16 classes in this game.

The next time you are in game, check out any character over level 10 with a base class of bounty hunter. Their class will likely NOT be listed as "bounty hunter-mercenary" or "bounty hunter-powertech". Their class likely will be listed as MERCENARY or POWERTECH. Check you guild roster. Do you see any chracaters listed as "Imperial agent-operative", "imperial agent-sniper", "smuggler-gunslinger" or "smuggler-scoundrel"? NO. You WILL, however, see "scoundrel", "gunslinger", "operative" or "sniper". Which ones you see will depend on your faction, of course.


If you want to think you know better then the devs, go right ahead.

There you go again. You insist on ignoring the devs statements, thinking you know more than the devs.

You may not see the AC's as different classes, but the devs DO see them as different classes. That makes them different classes, despite people's wishes that they were not different classes. The devs can change their minds at any time and recant their statements, but so far, they have not.

well maybe 3 or 6 months into it. But 2 years into it, and the plethora of information about classes/ builds/rotations etc kind of make hard to believe "i didn't know what i was getting into". That and the plethora of changes ahead kind of who's to say you WONT like it soon.

Kind of like expecting AC's not to be different classes, but the reality is that they ARE different classes?

Kind of like expecting to be able to change your class to the other AC, but the reality is that you cannot undo that permanent decision?

1. I suggest you go back and reread this thread and others regarding the same hot topic. At least two separate people have asked to be able to change at will for free, with no limits.

2. "Grind" is still an important part of any MMO. The "entitled, have to have it now and for as little effort or cost as possible" mindset is relatively new, however.

Since people refuse to re read 300+ pages of debate, and honestly hardly ever input things of value that havent been covered already....

Ill be copy pasteing relevant responses from this point forward. You people keep going in circles.

The history of this game proves without a doubt that what the original dev staff said in the past is not set in stone. The original design intent is pretty much gone IMO. To keep saying that the "devs clearly said this" is silly and pointless. Far too many changes have been made to the game that the original devs said would NEVER happen (for one reason or another) to give that kind of statement any legitimacy.....

Case in point...most recent statement says they believe AC will happen eventually. That lends some credence to the idea that the current staff does not view ACs the same way as the original staff.

Example? Visual progression. Devs very CLEARLY stated that they designed armor with visual progression in mind, this was the design intent and this would not change. They believed that players should be able to visually identify classes, and that this was a fundamental design core feature. They also believed that allowing a violation of visual progression would harm the game. They were very VERY clear on this point. It wasn't going to happen, ever.

Visual progression is gone.

I hold out hope that will decide against AC change, or if they do implement it it will be very restrictive...but that is just a personal desire. As I have said before, if this is something that the majority of the playerbase wants I will not stand in the way.

Just my slant.

I'll take your word on that, are you sure they weren't being sarcastic or using hyperbole? I can't recall any posts of such ilk in this thread. Please feel free to link me to them

Grind is a poor excuse for game design. Full stop. It is probably one of the bigger causes of game abandonment... that brain numbing fatigue of knowing that the task at hand has no relevance to skill or ability just the amount of time you care to sit in front of a screen. With a pure subscription model that may be applicable after all the longer you can keep the players playing the same content the better. But if you want a larger and more important happy willing to pay for stuff player base you need to keep the content fresh and fun for the players.
There is nothing 'entitled' about wanting to have an AC swap ability to be able to explore your class to its full potential.

Maybe should explain why you have such a punitive mindset with regards to the choices of other players that have no impact on your experience.

Option 5

Level 10 to 46 - Allow AC Change - no maximum changes, can change at will up to 46 - no reduction in level - no cooldown - once you reach level 47 AC is permanent - everything is unaffected - armor/earpieces/weapons for character and companions are removed and must be reequipped.

Option 6

Level 10 to 55 - Allow AC Change - no maximum changes, can change at will - no reduction in level - no cooldown - no level gate for permanent AC choice - everything is unaffected - armor/earpieces/weapons for character and companions are removed and must be reequipped.

Option 7

Level 10 to 55 - Allow AC Change - no maximum changes, can change at will - no reduction in level - no cooldown - no level gate for permanent AC choice - Must level one character to max level in an AC to unlock legacy ability to switch AC for that class - everything is unaffected - armor/earpieces/weapons for character and companions are removed and must be reequipped.

Option 8

Level 10 to 55 - Allow AC Change - maximum 8 changes per account, can change at will - no reduction in level - no cooldown - no level gate for permanent AC choice - everything is unaffected - armor/earpieces/weapons for character and companions are removed and must be reequipped.

Option 9

Level 10 to 55 - Allow AC Change - no maximum number of changes - must change at AC trainers on fleet - 1 Week cooldown - Option for AC change unlocked as Character Perk for 600 cartel Coins (or 1.5 million credits) - Each subsequent AC change costs 40 cartel coins (or 100,000 credits).

There are the five specific requests from the thread that asked for "at will" change of some type.