Even if just temporarily it's desperately needed in a game as incomplete and imbalanced as this.

Slap a price tag on it, hell make it cost aurum if you want to be a **** about it. Even toss on a time limit so someone can only do it once a week or month or something so it isn't abused.

Even at this "release" stage of the game there are too many missing pieces of critical equipment and items that may be nerfed into oblivion one day or buffed out of it.

Forcing your players to either gimp themselves waiting for an addition/update that may never come or punishing those that invest just to find that next week they've wasted everything is just a **** move. There's enough grinding in this game as it is, people shouldn't be needing to grind even more to make up for trying to enjoy the game before a new addition takes a crap on all they've done so far.

Someone wants to try playing as a logi or a heavy? Well they're going to have to invest a load of sp into it just to get to a point where they are actually built like one just to find out that they're horrible at it and now get to either quit the game in rage or play a game they hate until they can dump more sp into the next specialty just to toss the dice again.

Quit dicking around and playing with these partial respecs already and just add a self respecing system.

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

No No No No No No, I'm tired of people not making a commitment "Oh, this didn't work out as well as i thought it would, i'm gonna respec" the "**** move" would be to offer a respect AT ALL, it would be a slap in the face to the vets that play this game



Oh and HTFU

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.

See posts 2, 3, 4, 5, & 7.

There are already cries that Dust is P2W. CCP has narrowly avoided crossing the line on this and I commend them all in all for how well they've done (tho the "better than Proto" AUR gear needs a touch of the nerf bat or needs an ISK equivalent.) but allow players to buy respecs and D514 is P2W no ifs ands or buts about it.

Beyond that Dust and EVE are not "separate games" happening in isolated worlds they are both aspects of the events taking place in one domain New Eden. The link between games is rudimentary at this point sure but the roadmap calls for completely integration and that disbars the use of "your choices don't really matter you can always just undo" modes of game development.

Even if Dust and EVE weren't part of a single world the idea of respecs in Dust as a common thing (payed or otherwise) is awful because of its totally devaluing effect on the secondary market. There will be no sandbox if the economics are dismissed so cavalier a fashion. The sandbox thrives on player driven effects, on choices with meaning. When changes as fundamental as what gear (and how well) every merc can run become as mutable as whim then larger things like long term tactical planning, market trend analysis (or tend setting), out of the box innovation, et al become devalued. Why plan long term when everything can be changed within minutes? Why try to understand or care about the economics when tomorrow everyone may be running max gear of a totally different type? Why innovate when everyone else can clone everything you've done after a single match?

You know what else respecs do? They kill the longevity of the game. CCP stated out of the gate (or before the gate even opened if you're counting closed beta) that they were building Dust to take around 7.5 years to max all skills (assuming there weren't new skills added along the way... ) add limitless respecs and what used to require mufti-millions of SP involving years of game play to earn will now be reduced to a matter of months as everyone who's earned to the SP for a single proto build is now proto in everything since they can swap at will.

Put bluntly, unlimited respecs (yes even those you have to P2W for) sell the future of the game to appease a lack of patience or dedication among some players... and frankly players who aren't interested in being here for the long haul aren't going to stick around either way so shortening the lifespan of the game to hold on to their attention for a few weeks (or possibly months) more is not only poor game development but bad business as well.

0.02 ISK
Cross

ps ~ For those who want to talk about the EVE remap remember the following.
Being able to focus your future SP gain =/= altering your previously assigned SP.

EDIT: Also this idea has been brought up and shot down several times already, one recent example and my first post from it

and a bonus

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?

Other than your final remark i feel you, but Dust is not going to die just because part of the potential consumer base disagrees with one aspect of the game. Dust is trying to catch all those folks who like FPS but don't like the simplicity of many FPS and i believe they are legion. Ok not quite, but a game doesn't need to beat COD to be successfull.

A weapons lab is on the way, new militia stuff is likely to be added, trying stuff will become easier in the future so we don't need respecs to fix this anymore.

I have explained on the first page why i think that a "no respec" policy is an important and enriching aspect of the game and why i think that allowing respecs could damage the skillsystem to a point where it's very existence is called into question.

No respecs have their own downsides an some people might leave the game because of them. Others, like me, are here partly because of this aspect and it's implications. There are people that wouldn't play COD or BF but play Dust just as there are people that don't care for WoW or Guildwars but love EVE Online. These are the ones whom this game is made for.

@ 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?