First time powerhouse use respec

Archived Post

There was a feature available for the last few patches where you could retcon all of your powers the very first time you went to Powerhouse, now however that feature is gone and you're stuck with the limited power choices from character creation due to the high cost of retconning especially at low levels. The current cost to drop one power at level six after completing the tutorial is 4N 4L, while I only have 3N 94L and nothing to vendor. I can't go out and kill anything because I'm also close to level and the resource drops from mobs being so poor I'll level before I get enough to retcon.

The price for retconning is far too high when you consider the amount of resources you get from kills and vendoring items. Changing the character creation power interface to what we see at the powerhouse with all of the tabs and skills available would be a reasonable compromise if the cost is to be kept at what it is and the first respec is no longer free.

Archived Post

So... are you saying you -can't- respec unlimited at not cost while still in the Powerhouse?

I thought Live wasn't supposed to work like that-- you get to train up, test your powers in the Powerhouse, respec & retrain, rinse/repeat until you are happy with the combination you have, and then once you leave the Powerhouse they are locked in and it will cost you money to respec them after that....

Gawd if they changed it and it costs money no matter what I'll be a bit upset... that was the only saying grace to not having the ability to full respec. I never wanted to have my cake and eat it too, everything requires balance and moderation, but that night be a bit much if it's true and I'm understanding to OP right.

Archived Post

I am on board. In short I really don't ever want to Experimental Blaster for my guy but it automatically gives it to you on the Gadgeteer track. I was barely able to get rid of it and switch to chainsaw.

Basically, either make the initial respec of the first default tier items free or give us a choice upon initial creation.

Archived Post

No, you can still test and respec as much as you want as long as you don't leave the powerhouse. What I am talking about is when you get out of the tutorial and go to the powerhouse for the very first time you can respec all of your powers that you took during creation (innate characteristic, energy builder, tier 1 power) so you could essentially redo your creation skills as long as it was the first time you went to the powerhouse.

And I'm also trying to get rid of Experimental Blaster.

Archived Post

The problem is the insane scaling of retcon costs at low levels.

For example, I am playing a Might character, and at level 5 after completing the tutorial, I wanted to spec out of Beatdown, which becomes utterly useless once you get Haymaker or Uppercut. Couldn't afford to do it, so I grabbed a travel power, figuring I'd do some quests and get enough money built up that way. Instead, I gained levels, and the retcon cost scaled so much with level that I couldn't do anything at all, until at 9 or 10, I sold all my gear, and my friend gave me all of his money(Thank you, @Battlesnake!), and I was finally BARELY able to respec out of my travel power and my Tier 1 power.

I'm not saying we should be able to respec willy-nilly at no cost, but this was not a positive experience trying to get rid of a useless power I am FORCED to take at level 1.

A look at cost scaling per level would greatly be appreciated.

Archived Post

Yep when you can retcon even one power out of the tutail zone and retcon cost grows at ~300% per lvl theres something baddly wrong. (6: 6 to ~19 odd going from lvl 6 to lvl 7).

Archived Post

Optimator wrote:

The problem is the insane scaling of retcon costs at low levels.

For example, I am playing a Might character, and at level 5 after completing the tutorial, I wanted to spec out of Beatdown, which becomes utterly useless once you get Haymaker or Uppercut. Couldn't afford to do it, so I grabbed a travel power, figuring I'd do some quests and get enough money built up that way. Instead, I gained levels, and the retcon cost scaled so much with level that I couldn't do anything at all, until at 9 or 10, I sold all my gear, and my friend gave me all of his money(Thank you, @Battlesnake!), and I was finally BARELY able to respec out of my travel power and my Tier 1 power.

I'm not saying we should be able to respec willy-nilly at no cost, but this was not a positive experience trying to get rid of a useless power I am FORCED to take at level 1.

A look at cost scaling per level would greatly be appreciated.

Beeing forced out of a useless power isn't a respec problem, it's a useless power problem.

You'd get some other 2nd skill instead of beatdown you might've as well taken in the first place then. Since it hardly matters for the framework count of powers....

Archived Post

Oh indeed, but we are more likely to be able to fix the issue of a useless power ourselves if we could respec out of it well before the developers ever get around to changing whatever specific power is useless in a build.

I would like to be able to pick a differing power than what they give us at character creation and just avoid the whole need to respec right out of tutorial, but I don't see that happening anytime soon either.

The apparently most timely and efficient means of resolving the issue would be to ask the the cost of respecs not be so punitive at lower levels when one could not even access the power house at all anyways.

Would most of us like that none of the immediate non energy builder picks be useless or at least have a broader array to choose from right away? I assume yes in most cases.

But, we have to pick our battles.

Archived Post

I agree that the respec costs need to be toned down at low levels. But the real problem here is that for some reason we aren't able to choose the tier 1 powers from our starting framework at the beginning, after taking the energy builder. If we could do that, then most people wouldn't need to respec when first coming to the Powerhouse anyway.