ETA on Advanced Class change?

How exactly is it less choices? What is stopping you from rolling a new Mercenary after you play a Pwertech for awhile? I'm all for choices, but come on, let's be real here. There's nothing stopping you from levelling the opposite AC, and with Legacy Gear, it's easy as hell to move gear between the two. The game tells you that your selection is permanent, if you chose not to pay attention to that, then that's on you. Now, if the game locked you out of the other AC (like, once you made a marauder you could never make a Juggernaut), you might have a valid argument. But it doesn't. So you don't.

Picking your AC is one of the only decisions you make in the game that actually means something. Let it stay that way.

But choosing appearance and species were also like that why only leave AC locked ?

Just because they made a mistake in letting people change their species (appearance I'm fine with, but species? come on) doesn't mean they should continue to keep making those mistakes.

The Advanced Classes function as the true classes seen in other RPGs. Other games don't allow class changing because it wouldn't be desirable to have players hoping back and forth to whatever is considered to the flavor of the month. In this game, though, its structure would mean that permitting AC changes only lets for switching between one of two possible flavors in a given month. I guess it would still be pretty bad if all operatives were swapping to sniper anytime they wanted to DPS in PVE.

The yellow post does say that the introduction of disciplines will NOT allow players to change their class (AC). It does not, as you point out, say that class (AC) changes will never happen. That does not mean that they will happen, though.

Unless I am mistaken, the devs did re-iterate and confirm that your choice of class (AC) is PERMANENT and cannot be undone.

It is possible that the gear bag was shifted from the quest to the inventory simply to reduce confusion and the possibility that some players would miss the gear bag.

The latest statements from the devs that your choice of class (AC) is permanent and that disciplines will not allow players to change their class (AC) do not mean that they cannot change their minds later. Those statements do, however, make it pretty clear that at this time they have no intentions of allowing players to change class (AC) and they are not really considering allowing players to do so.

As has been pointed out MANY times, appearance and species are strictly COSMETIC changes, and do not affect fundamental game play mechanics.

Allowing players to change their class WOULD affect fundamental game play mechanics.

I don't understand what you mean by this.
They removed gear-bag from being supplied by the quest (which is automatic) to the AC select window (which is automatic). Why would they do that unless:
Doing away with quest.
or
Plan to give chance to use AC window more than once.

can we change our AC yet?

Not yet, just a bit longer i promise.

I know I have heard, and even seen more then one post, about people who don't open the gear bag and never see that second lightsaber, double bladed lightsaber, autocannon, etc. It seems that at least some people don't know about the gear bag and its contents. By moving it to the AC selection window, BW may be trying to make it less likely that a new player will miss this gear bag and its contents.

They may also be planning to change the AC selection from a "quest" to just a "choice". This would not necessarily make that choice any less permanent, though.

I've said it before, but we may very well see class (AC) changes implemented at some point in the distant future. From everything I have seen and heard, including the latest dev statements, I do not expect to see them implemented in the foreseeable future, though.

You made one comment that I think may be more accurate than you think. You said the devs were too smart to say never.

First, I think the devs realize that anything is subject to change.

Second, and more importantly, IMO, they likely realize that they have both sides of this debate playing and paying right now. I think if they were come out and say that class (AC) changes will never be implemented, they risk losing players who are continuing to play and pay in the hopes that some day they can change their class (AC). I also think that if they implement class (AC) changes, they risk losing players who oppose class (AC) changes.

I've also said that in the time this thread, and others of its kind, have existed, many of those players who wish to play that other class (AC) could have leveled and geared that new class. The leveling process is even easier and quicker now, with the 12x XP boost for class story quests if a player pre-orders the expansion. While the player will still need to upgrade their gear from time to time, the time and effort required to reach max level has been drastically reduced.