Species Retrait

intrepidfox03

Q: (keeny75) Will / Can there be a way to change the species that we are? When I first joined STO I opted for human than later on you released playable Caitian faction in the c-store. I would love to be a Caitian but I don't want to start again from scratch to do it.

Dstahl: Now that we are working on a way to respec your traits, this is one option we are considering, but we haven?t made a final decision. We generally aren?t looking for players to be able to swap their species back and forth as easily as a respec, but we do appreciate that some players may have made a decision that they would like to change. Once we get the Trait respec in game, we will make a call on whether we will open up this option. If there are others that feel strongly about this, it would be good to see some of opinions in the forums.

First off, I know there might be a thread or two on this and if it gets merged so be it, but here's my feedback.

When I started, I had the Joined Trill species from a pre-order bonus, but if memory serves, it wasn't 100% ready/you weren't able to create one yet, so I went with a human. Not regretting that decision and I do have a Joined Trill, but the mere option is something I would like to see. There have been times I have thought about wanting to change a toon or too. Currently, I wouldn't mind changing my Lethean to a Klingon (or maybe a Gorn) since I only have one KDF toon.

I wouldn't mind if it had a larger price tag to it in order to discourage players from "swapping species" at whim because I tend to agree with it being something harder to do and much more consistent. For me, it would be a rare occurrence in using that option if it is implemented.

neoakiraii

Re trait yes, re species no

crusader2007

Seriously...dont think its gonna happen. Dstahl was just blowing off that answer. Dont take it literally...but even if you do...he did not shed any light on it...just made it darker

leviathan99

Here's my take:

Introduce rep-style projects, accessible at the Drozana transporter room at a special Ferengi NPC who is a transporter accident researcher:

Corrupted Pattern Buffer Log: Personal (Species) (Gender)

Corrupted Pattern Buffer Log: Bridge Officer (Species) (Gender)

These generate an item which is redeemable for a special bridge officer or species respec that is one quality level above the inputs.

The project requires something like: Two BOs, 25k dilithium, 50k in commodities.

Combine two purple Vulcan BOs? Get an Elite Quality Vulcan BO. Combine two blues for a purple. Combine two greens for a blue. Combine two whites for a green. Ala the DOff grinder.

The reverse also works to split BOs out, again like the DOff grinder.

A Corrupted Pattern Buffer Log: Personal project (aka species/gender respec) requires two Elite BOs of a species, 100k dilithium, and 500k in commodities.

What this does is mean that you can only respec to species you can get four purple BOs of. This is how you disqualify androids/Borg. Because you can only get one at a time of each. (You could get playable Fed/KDF Romulan this way. And BO/Marauding species respec options could open up if you added KDF Ferengi/Fed Gorn etc. BOs to other commendation categories, fleshing out their rewards. And if somebody wants a Jem'Hadar or Breen, you'd need to add three more places to get purple Jem'Hadar or Breen BOs.)

This creates a BOff sink as BOs are, generally, getting way too cheap relative to other items of similar value.

Additionally, you could add special Corrupted Pattern Buffers via DOff assignments, reputation, DOff packs, and lockboxes. For example: a Bynars ground grand prize lockbox awards a Corrupted Pattern Buffer: Personal (Bynars) which changes your character into a pair of Bynars. Meanwhile, you offer Bynars bridge officers as more common rewards which can be upgraded in quality to provide a Corrupted Pattern Buffer: Personal (Bynars).

Corrupted Pattern Buffers could also provide hybrid BOs and hybrid species respecs. For example, half-Romulan, half-human BOs with inputs requiring half of one and half of the other.

The whole thing is vaguely dark from a roleplay perspective but you could have the Ferengi and supporting text address this somewhat so that the Captain doesn't know the outcome even if the PLAYER does.

As for Joined Trill/Liberated Borg... Maybe the answer there is to allow people who have those unlocks to claim a token in place of the bridge officer requirement that can be used to respec over to those species.

erei1

neoakiraii wrote: »

Re trait yes, re species no

If they introduce Romulan or Cadassian ingame or any new species, I hope they'll introduce respecies. A lot of player are using the Alien template to be one of those species, and it would be unfair to tell them they have to redo the game and lost everything they have or stay alien.
I currently have 2 half romulian, and I wish I could respecies into Romulian if they become available.

neoakiraii

erei1 wrote: »

If they introduce Romulan or Cadassian ingame or any new species, I hope they'll introduce respecies. A lot of player are using the Alien template to be one of those species, and it would be unfair to tell them they have to redo the game and lost everything they have or stay alien.
I currently have 2 half romulian, and I wish I could respecies into Romulian if they become available.

It is perfectly fair for them to make you re roll a character I have an alien Romulan, and it would be fair for me to have to re roll a new Romulan....I don't know any mmo that lets you re species.

manfromearth82

As a new player to sto, and new to mmo's, I didn't have a clue which species to pick. I would love the chance to re-species now I'm more experienced. Maybe they could limit it to only once? That way people won't change at whim.

ravin

erei1 wrote: »

If they introduce Romulan or Cadassian ingame or any new species, I hope they'll introduce respecies. A lot of player are using the Alien template to be one of those species, and it would be unfair to tell them they have to redo the game and lost everything they have or stay alien.
I currently have 2 half romulian, and I wish I could respecies into Romulian if they become available.

Moot point, if they introduce Romulans or Cardassians, it will more than likely be as new factions in a paid expansion, then you'll have no choice but to re-roll.

No to re-species.

denizenvi

Re-species is a must if they introduce any more IP species that have been attempted in the alien generator. I have a Denobulan, and if they made it so I could upgrade to a 'real' one with something like the ability to placate by inflating his face, I'd buy it in a heartbeat. That's two transactions, if you include the re-species.


It just wouldn't be fair to have to throw away all your character's progress in order to become more authentic.

damec

neoakiraii wrote: »

I don't know any mmo that lets you re species.

The MMO with the highest reported population numbers does, so its not all that unheard of

age03

This will be nice when it comes it so I can retrait my Tac

freenos85

I'd like to re-species my captain. I started as a Trill without a symbiont and now after two years of play, i'd like to upgrade my captain. In a sense make him whole again.
Though i think this should be a one time thing only.

Unknown

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sekritagent

I agree that you should be able to completely retrait but respecies sounds like too much EXCEPT in the case mentioned on the previous page. However it'd be impossible to verify someone falls into that situation. A reroll should be the way to fix that.

Oh and those retrait tokens ABSOLUTELY MUST NOT cost more than a respec.

fovrel

Yes to retrait and yes to respecies, also yes to resex. I don't know what people can have against these features. We can already change a lot on our character.

I do not mind to reroll though. I don't even mind to buy an extra character slot. I wouldn't wait a second when my mind is set on something new. The big issue however is stuff like ships, doffs, extra slots etc. things that are bound to the character, that stays there as the old character goes sleeping.

So more character recustomisation or make, especially character bound Zen-store features, transferable between characters.

neoakiraii

I'm against it because I think it would be a lot easier for Cryptic to add a Re trait token in the game, then to have players change their species...there has to be some sort of major coding to do such a thing, and the time to do it could be put to use in other stuff...plus IMO it will add more bugs and issues that will cause more time wasted....Even the traits we have now are bugged soo yeah how can a re species go wrong. :rolleyes:

warpangel

Players who were lucky enough to pick Alien in the beginning can already change their "species" on a whim, as easily as changing a shirt, at any tailor. Ok so it isn't a species change on a game engine level, but the only differences between an Alien human and a Human human is one word on the player info screen and the fact that the Alien human could become an Alien klingon (or romulan, bajoran, jem'hadar, etc) whenever he wants.

Of course, if you're really dead-set on not allowing constant species changing, even for zen, just put a limit like once a month or once per season patch or something. I only need it once, period.

Fact is I couldn't care less about traits but would pay good zen to switch to Alien for the custom appearance.

voyagerfan9751

denizenvi wrote: »

Re-species is a must if they introduce any more IP species that have been attempted in the alien generator. I have a Denobulan, and if they made it so I could upgrade to a 'real' one with something like the ability to placate by inflating his face, I'd buy it in a heartbeat. That's two transactions, if you include the re-species.


It just wouldn't be fair to have to throw away all your character's progress in order to become more authentic.

This position I can understand, And I too have some "Aliens" that i would love to make their real canon species if they offered it (specifically an Ocampa and a Xindi Primate). As such, like a couple of others have said, I would not be against it being a one time thing, since my only desire would be to switch my "alien" to an ocampa.

Most of the other common "Aliens" that people want to change, Specifically Romulans, Cardassians, and Jem'hadar, are a moot point anyways. While, I admit i have all of those as well, They are essentially place holders for whenever Cryptic decides to get around to a RSE, CU, and Dominion faction. At which point if i wanted a Romulan in the RSE I would have to re-roll anyways.

gulberat

erei1 wrote: »

If they introduce Romulan or Cadassian ingame or any new species, I hope they'll introduce respecies. A lot of player are using the Alien template to be one of those species, and it would be unfair to tell them they have to redo the game and lost everything they have or stay alien.
I currently have 2 half romulian, and I wish I could respecies into Romulian if they become available.

This is the reason I want a species respec: I am using the Alien template for my Cardassian and would love to be able to make him a true Cardassian without losing all of the work I've put into him.

sekritagent

I wouldn't hold my breath for a third (Romulan) faction, let alone a fourth (Cardassian) one.

You'll see those playable factions on the same day you see full KDF 1-50 content and all the 700 Day Android options. :rolleyes:

sekritagent

freenos85 wrote: »

I'd like to re-species my captain. I started as a Trill without a symbiont and now after two years of play, i'd like to upgrade my captain. In a sense make him whole again.
Though i think this should be a one time thing only.

This is the one time a respecies makes sense under the current system.

voyagerfan9751

sekritagent wrote: »

I wouldn't hold my breath for a third (Romulan) faction, let alone a fourth (Cardassian) one.

You'll see those playable factions on the same day you see full KDF 1-50 content and all the 700 Day Android options. :rolleyes:

I wouldn't say I am holding my breath, as I don't see it happening any time soon, Realistically and this assumes they Start to start to seriously work on the KDF, And I mean dropping the starting level 5 points per season with apppliciable content, a la Level 15 at season 8, level 10 at Season 9 (and yes, I am admitted assuming a lot with all that), The earliest we will EVER see a Romulan Faction is probably 2 years.

That said, Cryptic has been pretty adamant that there will be no Romulan or Cardassian playable species until you get their respective factions. That said, if you are hoping to get a respecies token to role a Romulan instead of an "Alien" I am not sure you are going to get what you want.

erei1

So basically, some people say no respecies token. But if you are an alien, you have respecies for free whenever you want. It's another good reason to pick alien over anything else.

I think a single respecies per character would be good. Respecies once, and never do it again. Or add one when they release a new race, but you can only have one respecies available at any time (IE you can't keep the respecies token so you have several of them later).

About a third faction, I don't beleive it will come. I'm sure we will simply have the new races romulan, cadassian, whatever, and pick a faction sooner or later. New Romulus can be used as an excuse, since they are ally with both. People want to see Romulan and Cardassian as playable species, and cryptic is to busy to create a 3rd faction (and finish the 2nd faction), it seems the most logical choice to me.

cptskeeteruk

Re-species thing might work if its a winter wonderland thing as in Q could turn you into somit else permanently but you have to do something in return for it i.e 1000 autographs so cryptic could maybe next year have 2 prizes. 1000 autographs for a ship or 1000 for a re-species token?

voyagerfan9751

erei1 wrote: »

So basically, some people say no respecies token. But if you are an alien, you have respecies for free whenever you want. It's another good reason to pick alien over anything else.

I think a single respecies per character would be good. Respecies once, and never do it again. Or add one when they release a new race, but you can only have one respecies available at any time (IE you can't keep the respecies token so you have several of them later).

It isn't so much respec only for Alien. But that, that is the primary reason that people are using to want to respec a species. That you have an "alien" that you want to make a canon species when and if that particular species is ever added as a playable species, rather then just starting over.

This is a "logical" reason to want to respec a species. for example, you wanted to play as a Romulan, but there isn't a Romulan option, so you made an alien into a Romulan. If the species is ever offered, Then you want a real Romulan without having to re-roll and start over.

I can't speak for everyone, obviously, but I didn't mean to suggest that respecies token should only be open to alien races. I was just addressing the specific examples people mentioned.

That said, If you are going to have a respecies, and I agree it should be a one time only thing per character, it should be open across the board. whether you are an alien, trill or liberated borg (or of course anything in between)

warpangel

My position is that if people want to pay zen for multiple species changes, let them. It's an almost entirely cosmetic change, so there's no gameplay reason to limit it. I'm not opposed to putting time limits to how often you can change, since I only plan on using it once, but from a business point of view it makes sense to sell them if people are willing to buy.

And yes, framing it as a favor from Q or something would be a nice touch for those who are into such things, even if functionally it's a metagame service just like renaming or reskilling a toon.

gstamo01

Any new species will most likely be done via Joined Trill method. Basically, you buy the race on the zen store and they become part of the Fed or KDF.

Re-Species is stupid and won't happen.

Re-Trait is something that may happen one day in the future. If/When that does happen, I hope it is something you have to work for to unlock a re-trait and not just a zen store purchase. This game needs more things to work for. Not more things to deposit TRIBBLE into for an unlock or a zen store purchase.

abrookfield82

I'd like to see species retraits.

My current toon is human, but I'd prefer to run an alien so I can have 4 space passives. Like most people I originally choose by species without really knowing how the game worked or what would be best for my toon in end-game (as a newbie I didn't know about the stowiki or forums, so I didn't have much info to help make the choice).

Re-rolling a character is possible, and getting to level 50 isn't too much effort, but it's all the extra reputations/fleet credits/equipment/passives which I've earned on my current toon that I don't want to loose as it's all bound to my character. I must have 100's mil EC alone bound to my ship. Plus Borg/MACO/Omega/fleet equipment. That's months of gameplay.

I live cptskeeteruk's post above making it a winter-event reward or similar as it fits in with the game and stop people changing species too frequently.

chandlerashari

stoleviathan99 wrote: »

Here's my take:

Introduce rep-style projects, accessible at the Drozana transporter room at a special Ferengi NPC who is a transporter accident researcher:

Corrupted Pattern Buffer Log: Personal (Species) (Gender)

Corrupted Pattern Buffer Log: Bridge Officer (Species) (Gender)

These generate an item which is redeemable for a special bridge officer or species respec that is one quality level above the inputs.

The project requires something like: Two BOs, 25k dilithium, 50k in commodities.

Combine two purple Vulcan BOs? Get an Elite Quality Vulcan BO. Combine two blues for a purple. Combine two greens for a blue. Combine two whites for a green. Ala the DOff hgrinder.

The reverse also works to split BOs out, again like the DOff grinder.

A Corrupted Pattern Buffer Log: Personal project (aka species/gender respec) requires two Elite BOs of a species, 100k dilithium, and 500k in commodities.

What this does is mean that you can only respec to species you can get four purple BOs of. This is how you disqualify androids/Borg. Because you can only get one at a time of each. (You could get playable Fed/KDF Romulan this way. And BO/Marauding species respec options could open up if you added KDF Ferengi/Fed Gorn etc. BOs to other commendation categories, fleshing out their rewards. And if somebody wants a Jem'Hadar or Breen, you'd need to add three more places to get purple Jem'Hadar or Breen BOs.)

This creates a BOff sink as BOs are, generally, getting way too cheap relative to other items of similar value.

Additionally, you could add special Corrupted Pattern Buffers via DOff assignments, reputation, DOff packs, and lockboxes. For example: a Bynars ground grand prize lockbox awards a Corrupted Pattern Buffer: Personal (Bynars) which changes your character into a pair of Bynars. Meanwhile, you offer Bynars bridge officers as more common rewards which can be upgraded in quality to provide a Corrupted Pattern Buffer: Personal (Bynars).

Corrupted Pattern Buffers could also provide hybrid BOs and hybrid species respecs. For example, half-Romulan, half-human BOs with inputs requiring half of one and half of the other.

The whole thing is vaguely dark from a roleplay perspective but you could have the Ferengi and supporting text address this somewhat so that the Captain doesn't know the outcome even if the PLAYER does.

As for Joined Trill/Liberated Borg... Maybe the answer there is to allow people who have those unlocks to claim a token in place of the bridge officer requirement that can be used to respec over to those species.

This is something i can get behind. Not that i wanna change from a boring human lol but sounds like a good comprimise hahah

thyuberdude

I noticed that one of the Questions in this weeks "Ask Cryptic" involved the Possibility of changing Species. It went as follows.

Q: (keeny75) Will / Can there be a way to change the species that we are? When I first joined STO I opted for human than later on you released playable Caitian faction in the c-store. I would love to be a Caitian but I don't want to start again from scratch to do it.

Dstahl: Now that we are working on a way to respec your traits, this is one option we are considering, but we haven?t made a final decision. We generally aren?t looking for players to be able to swap their species back and forth as easily as a respec, but we do appreciate that some players may have made a decision that they would like to change. Once we get the Trait respec in game, we will make a call on whether we will open up this option. If there are others that feel strongly about this, it would be good to see some of opinions in the forums.

Well you can see in the Response that Dstahl wants feedback from us and Since I didn't find a recent threat about It I started one.

My thoughts are that I'm all for this idea.

Your thoughts?

picardtheiii

I really don't see the issue with changing species.

To me "we don't want this to be easy" is the precursor to introducing it as a very expensive item in the C-store, to... you know, make it so people can't switch back and forth (when really they understand the vast majority of players probably just want to make their original toons Aliens to pick up 4 space traits)

This sounds a lot like "Why are lock box ships so expensive?" The answer of oh... well they are supposed to be rare, we want to keep things as Federation/Klingon as possible. Of course now you have everyone and their Mom flying around in a Breen ship so I think that reason is pretty much debunked... :rolleyes:

I don't they should ever allow a class change (Engineer/Science/Tactical) because that is the driving factor behind encouraging players to go for an alt. Short of that, throw a respecies token in the c-store that allows you to pick a new species and new traits for 750 zen and call it a day..