Back on-topic though, there will ALWAYS be a measure of FOTM play in DUST as long as there is even the slightest hint of imbalance anywhere in the game. As long as there is that sense of advantage, AUR respecs will always - A-L-W-A-Y-S - be pay to win. And pay to win is not what DUST should be, so no. Keep arguing that you see logic behind it. I see NOPE.

No. No respecs outside of skill/suit/vehicle overhauls. That's final.

NOPE this is just a money pool for nothing, if CCP would listen we would get a respec every 3 months. I WANT MY MONEY BACK!

I'm leaning towards the direction of respecs just costing ISK and AUR. But whether we ever get them or not, new players should be allowed to respec any time they want in the academy and a mandatory one upon graduation.

I like your ideas. I don't necessarily agree with an ISK version, but I also realize that it would be just as easy for a buddy to pay me ISK in game and for me to buy him aurum in return (AUR cannot be traded) and thus ISK for respec would become possible the second that AUR for respec is implemented.

I made a new character and lasted like 30 min. In the academy. You need much longer for a respec to even be needed.

An EVE stat respec is nothing like a skill respec, that's a hugely different thing.

I'd actually be in support of skill respecs for AUR. I'd put them more in the 60,000+ AUR range though (with a few month cooldown between uses) to discourage abuse. $20 a month is actually in the range you may see FOTM users abuse it regularly.

I think, to some degree, CCP has already fouled up the no-respecs bit, it already seems likely to me, that they'll never finally have a last respec, so they might as well cash in, because I want more maps.

Perhaps inventing statistics is hurting your brain. Your arguments are becoming less and less thought out. A break from the forums might be in order.

Again, I've been stating that this is more of an advantage for new players. Older vets will have already decided that they want their character to be a tank driver or a dropship pilot or a heavy suit user and accrue and spend points appropriately. Once they have those things, they will just keep skilling into other things and expanding their capabilities. Boosters makes the accumulation go faster. But that is more towards what vets would do.

Did CCP change the mechanics for something that you didn't want? Was an option never there for something CCP always promised but didn't deliver until later?

In the long run respecs don't matter to most vets as they will already know what they want and how to get to it. So this "fear" that somehow respecs make vets even more OP are just unfounded and dumb.

In the end respecs would only benefit the community and not harm it.

I do not deny that some players will think that they are doing the FOTM thing and that is honestly a valid tactic in both EVE and this game. However i would also argue that someone that already has a solid base in something that he likes (tanks for instance) won't be re-spending those skill points anytime soon. The only people that will be doing this are those that skilled into lets say rail rifles because they are so good now, but later on if the rail rifles get nerfed, then they will want to go back to scrambler rifles or something else. This only lasts until such time as they have maxed out one weapon type and are working on a second or third or fourth one... Then they no longer have a reason to PAY for a respec anymore.

You have to remember there is a COST to the respec and that it isn't free. So a vet player isn't likely to do it because they have the core stuff they needed already. Anything else is kinda fluff to them.

I understand your argument for it being a possible pay to win option, but assuming that CCP ever finishes the verisimilitude of the game, then they will be able to finally do a final balance pass and there will no longer be the imbalance that would make a respec pay to win.

So if your argument is that aurum for respecs is pay to win because the game is broken, then duh the game is broken and that is the real reason for the imbalance, not the respecs in and of themselves.

Ok, you are entitled to your opinion. Can you please enlighten me as to how you got to that opinion?

Just for you dark

I think CCP needs to make up it's mind after this release. They need to either say "This is the final respec. Period. Done." and stick with it. Or they need to release AUR respec tokens, an do it that way.

one of the worst ideas on the forums. you cannot let people pay for respecs.

why not?

1. It reinforces the negative stigma that pay-to-win carries. CCP said that Dust 514 is not going to be pay-to-win mainly because they want to avoid that stigma. Flashing pay-to-win in a video game is like flashing a copy of Playboy Magazine in the middle of an evangelical church. The reaction will definitely not be positive.

2. Welcome to New Eden. We have only three rules here. These rules have been around for 10 years. Get use to it.
1) Adapt or Die.
2) Don't use what you can't afford to lose.
3) Accept the permanent consequences of your choices.

3. CCP has already been generous enough to hand out partial SP refunds for overhauling vehicles in this current build as you have seen. They will likely be kind enough to hand out another set of partial SP refunds for overhauling the dropsuits and finally bringing in racial parity for weapons and suits.

4. To reinforce point #3, this allows you to finally spec into that one racial suit you have been waiting for after getting tired of wearing that suit from that dreaded race you always hated. Not every heavy suit in the game is a fan of the Amarr, BTW. That said, not every scout likes the Gallente or Minmatar. But we didn't have much a choice back then, did we? No. We scouts were only given two races (Gallente or Minmatar) while the heavies practically had no choice at all (Amarr only). So once the remaining suits come in, we are likely going to get only a limited SP refund for suits so we can finally pick the race we were waiting for. That's the only exception I can make for respecs.

5. Beyond overhauls and racial parity, I'm going to reinforce the third rule stated in point #2. General respecs on demand (whether free or paid) will undermine the point of the game in which your choices matter. In order for your choices to have meaning, you need to have permanent consequences. If you can just undo those consequences, than your choices had no meaning.

6. Respecs on demand will negatively affect CCP's income source (Boosters) since anyone with 10 million SP or more will simply swap to another specialty without further investment into cross training. Eve Online subscriptions can only cover Dust development for so long. By the way, Eve players wouldn't like it at all to see their subscription money being used to fund a pay-to-win game when they themselves don't like pay-to-win.

7. To reinforce point #6, this will also cheapen the value of skill points. Having any more than 10 million SP will just become pointless since 10 million is usually all it takes to max out one specialty.

Nice to hear, but may I ask you why you feel this way?

there have been so many reasons listed. you could use the search function if you really wanted to know. someone on THIS PAGE gave you 7 reasons why this is a terrible idea. what's wrong with those reasons?

So respec's help new players because they might waste 100k SP? or say even a million?
Older Vet''s in DUST are the main users of Boosters you say?
Insinuations that respec's don't alter a veterans ability to max out their gameplay?

Changing part of the game and adding things has been part of every major persistent title out there? and that's a bad thing for you?
CCP promised and then delivered later? and therefore what exactly?
Name one developing company who hasn't had delays in releases? even the wealthiest companies with the biggest developing teams? are they perfect? no way... but if they promised and are delivering or working on it then what? not fast enough? new content is new content.

We have done this respec dance three times now in DUST 514. Everytime there was massive vet to new player imbalance issues.. Massive FOTM cycles happened.
And the main reason people have asked for a respec on these forums is that they skilled into what was strong at the time and it got changed. Mostly because of the FOTM cycle we have gone from starting with the Caldari Logistics spam in Uprising launch and Respec.
At some point it isn't an argument about me? its about a massive game imbalance that has and will happen again.

When you have a game where each character varies slightly from the next, based on the choices and decisions made throughout their history in DUST 514... Why would you think getting rid of that is ok? or would make the game itself better.
Why would someone(A Vet) that has been part of this game for potentially longer have less mistakes then someone coming into DUST with all the changes being current?.
So much of this just doesn't make sense for any legitimate argument for Respecializations as a store bought item for DUST 514.

I am against respecs in a game that doesn't have a skill limit!

The exceptions are for skills that are fundamentally changed. Or as a one time only deal to allow people a refund for their skills in their dropsuits for those who have been using a non racially aligned suit to go into the suit they want. After this however, I don't think any respecs should be given for any reason other than a major change to skills.

I think CCP needs to make up it's mind after this release. They need to either say "This is the final respec. Period. Done." and stick with it. Or they need to release AUR respec tokens, an do it that way.

{said lots of good things}

1. It reinforces the negative stigma that pay-to-win carries. CCP said that Dust 514 is not going to be pay-to-win mainly because they want to avoid that stigma. Flashing pay-to-win in a video game is like flashing a copy of Playboy Magazine in the middle of an evangelical church. The reaction will definitely not be positive.

2. Welcome to New Eden. We have only three rules here. These rules have been around for 10 years. Get use to it.
1) Adapt or Die.
2) Don't use what you can't afford to lose.
3) Accept the permanent consequences of your choices.

3. CCP has already been generous enough to hand out partial SP refunds for overhauling vehicles in this current build as you have seen. They will likely be kind enough to hand out another set of partial SP refunds for overhauling the dropsuits and finally bringing in racial parity for weapons and suits.

4. To reinforce point #3, this allows you to finally spec into that one racial suit you have been waiting for after getting tired of wearing that suit from that dreaded race you always hated. Not every heavy suit in the game is a fan of the Amarr, BTW. That said, not every scout likes the Gallente or Minmatar. But we didn't have much a choice back then, did we? No. We scouts were only given two races (Gallente or Minmatar) while the heavies practically had no choice at all (Amarr only). So once the remaining suits come in, we are likely going to get only a limited SP refund for suits so we can finally pick the race we were waiting for. That's the only exception I can make for respecs.

5. Beyond overhauls and racial parity, I'm going to reinforce the third rule stated in point #2. General respecs on demand (whether free or paid) will undermine the point of the game in which your choices matter. In order for your choices to have meaning, you need to have permanent consequences. If you can just undo those consequences, than your choices had no meaning.

6. Respecs on demand will negatively affect CCP's income source (Boosters) since anyone with 10 million SP or more will simply swap to another specialty without further investment into cross training. Eve Online subscriptions can only cover Dust development for so long. By the way, Eve players wouldn't like it at all to see their subscription money being used to fund a pay-to-win game when they themselves don't like pay-to-win.

7. To reinforce point #6, this will also cheapen the value of skill points. Having any more than 10 million SP will just become pointless since 10 million is usually all it takes to max out one specialty.

yea, sure.

this is new eden you choices should have consequences. however the consequences should be the result of your actions, not role redifinement by CCP.

1 - How much should an Aurum respec cost?
- $100, whatever that works out to in AURUM.

2 - How often should they be allowed to happen per character?
- @ $100, as often as you want. (Might help CCP hire a few more Devs.)

3 - Should free respecs ever be allowed again?
- Only for Dropsuit Command, when all racial variant suits are added.

4 - Should a respec be "bankable?"
- Maybe?

5 - How might this affect the fiction or back story of the game (if we care)?
- Cybernetic reprogramming?

I would support an aurum respec. Conditions would have to apply. Like an isk variant. I do not support pay to win.

If they are going to use the marketing angle they should do it well.

Weapon respec x amount of aurum or y amount of isk.

Rinse and repeat for dropsuits, vehicles, and skills.

One further condition would be no skill book refund or assets refund. Another would be a 50% increase in cost for successive refunds.