We need one last respec once CCP gets all of the basic racial suits in there, and the weapons sorted and their skills more-or less finalized. That's it though. Never again after, not for ISK, AUR, X amount of time, nothing. The game will never be done, but let's face facts, the game is basically a late-stage beta lacking major chunks of core content. To draw a parallel with EVE, it'd be like the Amarr and Caldari having no frigates available, and the only battleships are Amarr. CCP has to try to balance as they go since they ended the beta way too early, and one final respec once the core skills, suits and weapons are in place is reasonable, and will create more diversity and specialization, not before and never again.

The problem is there is no "everything" in terms of content in an evolving game and the definition of "core" is equally vague. More content will be added throughout the game's lifespan. We will get new suits, vehicles and weapons, each with their own skillsets not just in the next 6-12 months but in five years aswell (for as long as dust exists, really) so "everything" will mean something different every 6 months and some of these additions will become such a fundamental part of the battlefield once they arrive so that we would consider them "core" today if only we knew about them already.

The only possible justification for limited respecs after adding new content that i find actually usefull is "respec for racial symmetry" i.e the notion that any type of gear or niche should be represented in all four races and people should not be penalized for preferring a racial variant that is not yet available. For example, heavy users can opt in to relocate their heavy suit skills to another racial equivalent once it's released.

This should not apply to the release of completely new roles as all players can choose to specialize into that role at the same time, even if it's not their preferred racial variant. It does however apply to any role that gets a racial variant added so once you specced into amarr commando just as everyone else who wanted to play a commando you can have your amarr commando skills changed to your preferred racial variant once. This means that no one is excluded from playing that role from the second it's released and everyone can switch their SP into the preferred race after release so that in effect no one is really penalized in the long run.

The difference to saying "core" stuff is that this always only applies to partially existing roles where some players are able to specialize into their preferred race sooner than others and don't have to to invest the same SP for the same playstile twice.

I'm highly anti-respec, I'll spare the wall-o-text here but I could support a suit only point refund in the interests of racial distribution and game diversity. Once the initial line of suits is out however, as it is for medium frames now then no more respecs regardless of future new additions to that frame size. Also no respecs for points outside of the suit specifically..

0.02 ISK
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