The subject line gotcha, didn't it?

Not really a gripe thread, just a helpful suggestion.

I would like to see that characters have an SP respec option that functions on a timer at the character selection, much like the "Terminate" option. Its so easy to get a case of buyers remorse, and having dug yourself into a hole that you would then a) spend a whole bunch of time, or b) buy Aurum to get out of is not fun.

At the end of the day, if players don't like their characters, well, they won't like the game.

Now I'm reasonably sure that CCP doesn't want people just respec-ing whenever the urge strikes them, fair enough. Thats why the option to respec should be on a timer you need to initiate.

I'm pretty sure this would be viewed positively by pretty much everyone.

Thoughts?

i would be against this. the skillpoints you spend should be well-researched and much discussed with people who already have those skillpoints.

What happens when you've researched a weapon or piece of equipment, and you just plain don't like it after you've tried it? This has happened to me twice, at least. You can only know so much about something until you use it, and the only way to use some things is to invest SP. A respec option would allow people to try new things, and not worry about having wasted points if they don't like it.

I've been able to learn more about this game knowing that there's a respec on the way than if there wasn't one. I've been free to experiment and try things I wouldn't normally want to commit SP to, since I know I'll be getting it back later.

Ok, let me run a hypothetical scenario:

CCP changes something, HMGs for example, and then the guys who built their characters for that build are stuck with something they researched and got advice for, but was changed without any input from them. This happened to the heavies.

Admittedly, the HMGs needed a little bit of a rebalance, but I have my doubts that those players would've gone down that route if the HMG behaved that way at the point in time when they were deciding on what to spend points on. Should those guys then be stuck without the option to respec?

Now, CCP can go to the trouble of allowing players to petition for a "One Time Respec", but doesn't this seem a little off? If players had a respec timer, they could fix the problem on their own without any trouble to the devs.

Now, say you don't like the idea of a total respec. how about having skill buy back? You can only buy back one skill at a time every so often. How does that sound?

what could have totally fixed this was
*During the first week, make it so that everything is completely free of SP and ISK, (the ISK/SP price still listed though) This way everyone can try out EVERYTHING and decide exactly what it is that they like, then when that testing phase is over. They know what they like and what they Can spec into, thus not needing another "one time" respec in the first place.

(I don't know this might be horrible, but it could have worked)

[...]One thing you have to remember is that games are always structured based off of the lowest common denominator. After all, this game is platformed on the PS3.[...}

That's you first and defeating slip. There's the NFS series and there's rFactor. There's COD and ArmA, There's WoW and there's EVE Online.

No, games are not always structured around the lowest common denominator. In fact, there's a variety of different games within a certain genre or theme exacly because different playergroups exist with varying expactations from a game and focusing on the one end of the spectrum leaves the other end uninterested.

Please excuse my ignorance but I am unfamillar with the acronym NFS. Anyways, I am an avid Arma player and am famillar with that community and it's player base. However, from a strictly financial and business perspective, none of these titles are free to play except for Dust 514. If this game is going to succeed it will have to bring players and bring in profit for CCP. I do agree games do not always tailor towards the lowest common denominator but games also have to have some play ability and a little forgiveness to new players. I believe the battle academy and militia equipment just doesn't cut it for a warm up for new players. That is a different argument, I think there should be the ability to refund SP, especially if you invest in the wrong skill tree.