The skillsystem is supposed to give weight to your decisions concerning role and gear. Increasing Specialization goes along with increasing effort and time required, increasing the cost of changes the further one goes. Bearing the consequences of ones decision is a central aspect of the new eden philosophy and is a worthwhile aspect for this reason alone but not exclusively.

The skilltree differs from many other progression systems in that it is not just a strife to power but rather a strife to flexibility. Once you max all relevant skills of one progression you can choose to invest into a second one, and then another and so on. This means that while the amount of SP to be had is in practical terms unlimited (there is a set amount but i don't expect it to be reached, possibly even through the game's lifespan) there is a limit of power any given combination of suit/gear can have. That allows (relatively) new players to compete with year old veterans if they full on specialize. The vet can still use his excess SP to change his role in a whimp, giving him the deserved advantage over the newer player but the total possible gap is limited.

A system without respecs can also dramatically shift the power between new and old blood, whenever new gear is released. New situations and fits emerge that veterans first have to spec into just as new players, giving the latter the chance to compete even early on if they're smart. That gives Vets a changing enviroment where staying on top is an ongoing cognitive effort to adapt to the changes.

If CCP were to introduce respecs, both concepts would break down.

Everyone could become everything without any time effort invested, giving flexibilty as a default and rendering excess SP near worthless, thus lowering replay value and, of course profitability (boosters, anyone?). It would reduce the skillsystem to a comparatively short powergrind and nothing else. No one likes grinding (i guess).

More dramatic even is the effect that Vets with enough SP can switch to whatever is new, OP or just interesting, depriving new blood of the chance to jump into the game and compet on the new content. This leads to a "why bother" effect where players avoid the game because they could never become relevant without millions of SP and leaves the high SP chars with an unchallengeable superiority and ultimately with boredom due to lack of competition.

TL;DR: NO

As a vet who knows that new equipment is coming down the pipeline, I am one of the many that believe optional respecs should be available. My personal preference is that as new gear is introduced or major changes to how the equipment is being "balanced" occurs that the option becomes available to do a respec.

Many people use the TAC ARs at this point in time because it allows them to be competitive with heavies, mcc snipers and the other medium suited mercs who are using the weapon and we all know that when the other rifles are introduced the TAC is going to be nerfed (as stated by ccp: range and damage). I would like to use one of the new weapons when they come out and hope that the respec option will be available again, unfortunately due to needing a weapon now, I used my SP as I saw fit and would do so again under the same situation.

As If respecs were allowed once per year (like attribute changes in eve online) I believe it would be fair and would limit people from constantly changing their skills to the flavor of the month. Whether this is a paid service or not, I believe the option should be available. Personally I would rather just be able to select an option in the UI to respec character when I have a respec available rather than the need to contact customer support for this service.

In Eve the client software handles attribute adjustments, this would be the Dust equivalent. I realize this is more programming that would need to be done but I imagine that it would save devs and customer support staff a great deal of time were this feature to be offered through the game client itself rather than make it a customer support issue. Then, when a player has earned a respec, they could wait and save it until something new comes out or use it to correct a mistake they made when choosing a skill last week or a year ago.

As I stated in my earlier post here I am for a limited, non ISK/money based respec option.

I say this because despite a few elitists, purists, diehards, stubborn gamers, whatever you want to call them, believe that dust should function the same as eve on the timeline and skill investment level. I do not agree.

It shouldn't because it is a different game. It is a shooter. This is a FTP game at the core, and I'm of the opinion that bringing so much eve obsession. Forcing this kind of time sink and commitment on everyone will make them leave. Some of these people say GTFO to everyone that even suggest the idea! Even in eve (which I play) hearing other people's demands on what they consider "commitment" and "dedication" the the universe means very little to me. It is a game!

I am for finding a balance of options here, a respec that is limited, has a penalty, and doesn't cost real money or isk.
Seriously, the number of people who are going to commit to a 5 year training plan with no leniency in a shooter is few and far between. Seriously, who cares enough to pledge their time and long term interests to the ideals of a few misguided game nuts.
If anything just allowing a respec a couple times a year would let people try new stuff, which would probably keep them playing longer.

There is no hostility. It's my guess that the majority of people who share my opinion will not "kiss the ring" and do something else that isn't so time consuming as keeping an edge in new eden.

I just want to see the battle fields well populated for a long time by fps players, not just those who swear by EVE, also you kind of prove one point I was stating. Some people take these games way too seriously.
"Attacked the foundation" what is this a religion?

@ Cross Atu
In post 8 I had a quite simple balanced proposal for adding a respec feature that would allow people to occasionally change battlefield roles. My goal here is simple, balance the requests for a respec while keeping the bonus of persistent choice.

Maybe you're lacking something to bring such a quantified and over complicated, beaurocratic, analysis system to figuring out something as plain as giving people the chance to play a game, not live by it.

You are totally missing my point, the quest for the submission to the value of persistent meaning might not mean as much to other people as it does you. When you turn on your PS3 and play some dust does it fulfill your quest for meaning of choice???
Some people who are good at the game and have put considerable time into just want to play differently every now and then. Why is that such a camplicated idea?

Thank you for listening.

I can understand the adherence to eve, but it's got to be obvious that if that is the only group that picks up DUST and continues to play it there aren't going to be the large scale battles happening all over planets like people want to imagine. More likely it'll become a bunch of skirmishes between a few bad ass corps with a few pubbers here and there.

My intention here isn't all that bad...

Ok at least you're looking at this for what it is.
The great part about the SP penalty is since it is a % obviously the less SP you have the more this would affect you. Basically a young character who switches around often will find it is difficult to advance in ability overall, but the respec would allow them to switch roles non the less. Where as a vet character with many SP will find little value to even doing it in the first place since there will be a point you will have crosstrained anyhow.
Also to further balance it out we're talking a couple times a year. A YEAR

By completely removing the option who is losing out? The person who is bored, unsatisfied with their current setup, wants to take on a new squad role, or the person who says "No, that was your choice" ???

I'm curious if most of the people who are against respecs are either.

A. EVE players who are "elitist a" and swear by a gaming culture that is almost a religion.

Or

B. Those who have 10+ million SP already and don't want to even the playing field.

Malkai,

I actually agree with you, I'm not trying to change your culture, religion or whatever Internet cult you follow. I would just like to see Greater access to in game references regarding each individual skill treed and the consequences of making a impulsive decision on DUST. My argument is that not every player is informed if the unforgiving nature of this game.

Good things respecs could do?

How about providing longevity to the game without requiring the torture of the players?

Without respecs and because of how this game is designed you're forced to specialize into one role if you don't want to get your *** handed to you over and over again. So what happens when you get tired of that role or a core mechanic of your role gets nerfed destroying your play style?

Without respecs you're forced to reinvest weeks and months into starting over from scratch investing in a new line of dropsuits and weapons and modules to outfit yourself in a manner that you can actually enjoy again. How many people do you think are going to just say "**** that" and quit when they're told all the work they put into their initial setup is now a pile of fetid ****?

Respecs allow people to experiment, to try something new, to grow bored with the game and have a multitude of new setups available to try out and enjoy all over again.

How many people do you really believe are going to be playing this game for 7.5 years? This isn't an mmo where you have a varied and rich game where people can lose themselves in various aspects and enjoy themselves over long periods.

Dust is not an mmo, it's not the new EVE where people will spend years and years and years playing it. Dust is an FPS, it's complexity boils down to shooting stuff. If suddenly you're nerfed to hell and your ability to shoot stuff suddenly screeches to a halt you don't have many alternatives to fall back on outside starting over from scratch with a new setup. There's no "well I can always fall back on X" or "well I still enjoy the Y aspect of the game" or "well I'll just have fun with Z until they fix this"

Even then an artificial longevity propagated purely by arbitrarily selected point value goals is not a true longevity. If someone really enjoys a game they don't play it for a year because that's how long it takes to unlock their next skill, they do it because over that year they enjoyed it enough to come back over and over again.

How about a partial respec? every 6 months, you get to reset 25% of your SP. they would have to add a menu where you can choose the skills that you want to back out of however, up to 25% of course