I know that I and a great many others would be willing to hand over a sizable pile of cartel coins to "revert" one character out of their advanced class so they could choose again. Even a one-time, one-character reversion could probably sell for 500-600 coins. Easy money for BW and enough of a throttle that it would not mess with game balance at all.

 

Leave the burden of dealing with the issues (such as retraining all the skills for the new advanced class) up to the player to deal with. That way you get a credit sink along with the revenue production and an incentive to use the option earlier in a character's progression rather than later.

I know that I and a great many others would be willing to hand over a sizable pile of cartel coins to "revert" one character out of their advanced class so they could choose again. Even a one-time, one-character reversion could probably sell for 500-600 coins. Easy money for BW and enough of a throttle that it would not mess with game balance at all.

 

Leave the burden of dealing with the issues (such as retraining all the skills for the new advanced class) up to the player to deal with. That way you get a credit sink along with the revenue production and an incentive to use the option earlier in a character's progression rather than later.

 

A mount goes for 1800cc.. A set of gear goes for 1440cc.. Anything less than 3600cc is an insult in my opinion.. For something like an AC swap.. Yeah.. You should be looking upwards of 3600cc or more.. Closer to 6k if you ask me..

 

Most people are against an AC swap of anykind.. One of the biggest issues, that I see is that, if they allow it once, then if we bug them enough, they will allow it again or make it a permenant.. Which is why I hope they never add it in any way shape or form.. Bioware was very strict about saying that they wanted no class to be able to both tank and heal.. AC swapping even once breaks that rule.. It also does no good for the sub classes that have DPS only AC.. Such as Jedi Knight and Smuggler..

 

So there really is no point in adding it..

Edited February 13, 2013 by MajikMyst

A few counterpoints:

 

1) Your use of "most" is as anecdotal as mine, and my experiences have been markedly different from yours. Almost everyone I've spoken to has been all for something like this, so long as it wasn't easy/cheap/common. I would guess that in reality the split is roughly 30/30/40 (want/don't want/don't care).

 

2) My price suggestion was more or less thrown out there, I'd benchmark it to whatever the most expensive unlocks run, which from my (brief) look over the list was about 600. Obviously, however, they should charge whatever their data says is the ideal market price.

 

3) Every MMO has started with "We will never..." and rarely ends up holding to it after a year or four. There's lots of things I bet they would have said they'd never do that has become commonplace now that they are F2P.

 

4) Reasons? There are people that want it and it is a source of revenue with a low cost to produce and high ROI. That's all the reason they need.

 

5) As to this feature "breaking" anything, I'm sorry but no. If people want to pay $5-$15 10 times a week to switch back and forth that is A) An edge case that isn't relevant to the larger community and B) Awesome from an MTX perspective.

Edited February 13, 2013 by AureusVidere
clarity

3) Every MMO has started with "We will never..." and rarely ends up holding to it after a year or four. There's lots of things I bet they would have said they'd never do that has become commonplace now that they are F2P.

 

People wanted class changes in WoW too.

 

Still not there either.

 

AC = class.

I'm going to disagree with you on that, the advanced classes are much more like the specs of early WoW: Immutable and Role defining. They finally introduced respec and later even dual spec because people wanted/needed more flexibility.

 

Advanced classes are a bit more than that, true. From a functional standpoint though, the differences in the structure between advanced classes is relatively minor: They both use the same base stats, and nothing in their quest progression is different. There's nothing disruptive about adding this as a pay-only option. Requiring Cartel Coins is a natural throttle on its use, and ensures that it would mostly be used only for those people that discovered late in their progression that they chose poorly (and for those that do decide to swap like crazy for some reason, that's just more money in BW pocket, which is good for everyone, believe it or not).

Yes! And people who say "Advanced Classes are Classes" that isn't how the game system works. I couldn't care less how WOW has classes, we have them differently.

I'm going to disagree with you on that, the advanced classes are much more like the specs of early WoW: Immutable and Role defining. They finally introduced respec and later even dual spec because people wanted/needed more flexibility.

 

 

nope thats just wrong. you could respec from the beginning of wow. the wow talents are the swtor talentes. the wow classes are the swtor (advanced)classes. easy as that. the only difference is that in swtor you pick your class at 10 not at 1 because 16 class stories where too much work.

 

i hope it never comes, its just the next step into more casual and that equals less players in the ending for swtor.

 

if it comes the price should be around 5000 coins. bioware loses 1-2 month of fees and the service itself should take a extra fee.

Edited February 14, 2013 by Neglience

Yes! And people who say "Advanced Classes are Classes" that isn't how the game system works.

Except that it's exactly the way this game works. You're even warned repeatedly before choosing that you can't switch.

Except that it's exactly the way this game works. You're even warned repeatedly before choosing that you can't switch.

 

He's talking about the underlying design, and he's completely correct. The classes may by "locked in" from a gameplay perspective, but from an actual design perspective it's just unlocking one subset of abilities or another. Given the lack of differences in any other aspect of gameplay (all differences are in abilities, talents, and some gear options), implementing the change is technically trivial.

 

Allowing actual class changes, by contrast, would be technically prohibitive, even insane, when you consider the way story, companions, quests, etc work. Similarly this is why allowing a race change would be simple but a gender change could be a bit more tricky (not that I'm advocating either, it's just a convenient comparison).

 

As to WoW and respecs, not that it's hugely relevant, but I'm fairly certain you're wrong. The initial respec option was added fairly early (IIRC it was well before Burning Crusade), but it was not an option at release.

 

Finally, despite what all the hardcore players like to think, a more casual environment (not necessarily gameplay) has universally resulted in more players and higher revenues. The best result (efficient threshold) is when you strike that ideal balance, but more casual is more profitable than more hardcore.

Edited February 14, 2013 by AureusVidere
more posts to respond to

I'd drop some cash to switch from Sage to Shadow. I played a Shadow exclusively throughout closed beta, open beta, but at launch chose a sage for my main character to better balance groups of RL friends and guild mates while leveling and PvPing.

 

The first thing that happened is the PvP sage build I enjoyed was nerfed into oblivion so now I'm a dedicated healer. After playing this game for almost a year before it "released" doing the Sage story line it is pretty hard for me to get motivated to sit through the same class story all over for the umpteenth time just to switch the AC. The reason I rolled Sage doesn't exist as I'm playing with a smaller and different group of players now a year plus down the road.

 

AC changes would be a HUGE revenue source to Bioware and would not be game breaking. I fail to see any negatives and I'd spend money to back this claim up.

 

Do it. Please don't make do Balmorra again. Please. I already did Taris.... god I hate that planet.

i agree with the idea of a Advance class change, and it should be limited to a one time use that way you don't see characters changing every day "cause they want too" but having it has a Cartel Market item to buy, i think is a awsome idea or even have it has a gift idea, if you spend enough $ in/on the game... a thanks for the support idea

People wanted class changes in WoW too.

 

Still not there either.

 

AC = class.

 

This. Let this idea rest already. It would be awful for the health of the game.

Commandos and Mercs would be extinct within 20 minutes

I'd even be willing to start at level one. Long as I could keep my Stuff.... Drop it in your storage bin and regrind from one. I'd prefer to keep my companions affections to. Even though I'd need to play threw and re-earn them. Im sure if this route was taken all affections would end up wiped aswell.

Except the Advanced Classes are essentially Different Classes [bioWare even said that they were towards the beginning of this Game's creation]. Easiest way to tell: Imperial Agent Snipers play differently then that of Imperial Agent Operatives, Sith Inquisitor Sorcerers play differently then that of Sith Inquisitor Assassins.

 

Sith Warrior Juggernauts have 1 Lightsaber & Generator/Shield/Whatever + Heavy Armor whereas Sith Warrior Marauders have 2 Lightsabers and Medium Armor and their Abilities are more geared towards 2 Lightsabers. So if a Juggernaut were to go from being a Juggernaut to a Marauder then any Armor that isn't Adaptive would have to automatically become Unequipped and unusable by the Sith Warrior same with the other way around, sure the newly turned Juggernaut could still wear the Medium Armor but they will only be using 1 Lightsaber.

 

The Sith Sorcerer who became an Assassin would be out of luck with Weapons, unless they planned ahead and grabbed a Doublebladed Lightsaber as Assassins wield Doublebladed Lightsabers as opposed to the Singlebladed Lightsaber of the Sorcerer. Not to mention, the newly turned Assassin will have to be more up close dealing Damage at closer range versus the sit back and send out wave after wave of Lightning that they use to do as a Sorcerer.

I say that advanced classes are actual classes. They are too different from each other to say that they are not. That said, I would say let there be a advanced class change allowed in the Cartel Market but make it expensive as hell. Like 6000 Cartel Points at the minimum. You have to make it expensive so people don't just switch Advanced classes a lot unless they want to give Bioware a lot of money.