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Forums > Home› Star Trek Online General Discussion

Species reselct token.

wilvwilv Member Posts: 390 Arc User
edited March 2013 in Star Trek Online General Discussion
In the recent "Ask Cryptic" the subject of species reselect was brought up again.

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.

My question is. How much more feedback is required? This is something that's been requested since beta. There have been many posts and threads over the years asking for this. A brief search through the forums turned up SEVEN of these threads and posts.

http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=3458909&postcount=2363

http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=209295

http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=208800

http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=256511

http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=195387

http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=175843

http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=208631

The topic also gets covered in this episode of TIE

It's a feature that other MMOs have and this one could benefit from. From a commercial standpoint alone it has the potential for a lot of revenue. There are people who want to be Caitians but don't want to start from scratch, so they've chosen against buying the species. The same thing goes for the other C-store species. There are even people who have opted out of buying lifetime subs because their motivation would be to make a Liberated Borg but they don't want to level from scratch. If these tokens became available not only would these people buy the tokens but they would also buy the species they've been wanting to be. There are also the obvious players who have had a character for ages and have grown tired of the species they chose or disillusioned w/ the racial traits it provided.

WoW was also reluctant to allow this option. Eventually they added the option as a $25 transaction. Every 3 days a player can pay their $25 and change their species and BELIEVE me, there ARE people who change races at the drop of a hat. Again, this is something that has been pointed out in the past in other threads about the same topic.
Post edited by wilv on

Comments

  • drake122svkdrake122svk Member Posts: 731 Arc User
    edited January 2013
    When will the trait respec be available? I don't suppose it's coming during S7?
    https://www.youtube.com/Drake122
  • saiwotsaiwot Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited January 2013
    Well if it is going to go so far as to have a trait respect and maybe then a species change why not a profession change as well. I am sure someone will come up with a convoluted excuse as for why a trait respect or species change is ok, but a profession change is not.

    There are many things that are bound to characters like certain ships and items. A new character would solve the profession problem just as it would the trait or species problem, but not replace all that time invested in my original character. Maybe I would like to send him back to the academy for a career change. It is not anymore game breaking than a trait respect, species change, or starting a new character.

    Why not have all options available for purchase? I know I would really like to have the option to do all 3. ;)
  • broodwynbroodwyn Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited January 2013
    Getting back on topic here

    I'd love to change a few of my characters around, having leveled up as human, I'd of liked to of been maybe an Andorian instead
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  • saiwotsaiwot Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited January 2013
    broodwyn wrote: »
    Getting back on topic here

    So because I did not cut and paste points from the original post that were in total support of the original post only I was off topic? Getting back on topic ?especially here? mostly means ignore opinions and suggestions you are not concerned with or care about and keep going.

    Everyone has his or her priorities I guess. thx :rolleyes:
  • phyrexianherophyrexianhero Member Posts: 768 Arc User
    edited January 2013
    Sure, re-trait, re-species, re-career. People want it, it's no more game-breaking than making a new character, and it'd generate more revenue. Seems like an easy win-win-win-win.

    Just please don't be upset if they make it 1000 zen.
    Playing since January 2010. STOwiki administrator. Accolade hunter.
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  • mirrorseacatmirrorseacat Member Posts: 170 Arc User
    edited January 2013
    I know for sure that when Ferasans came out I probably would have paid to change my KDF Orion (my lonely male seducing orion v.v) into a Ferasan, atleast then I would have had hair.

    Now all I have is a hairless Orion and another doff-grinder alt that i do not play. Am I wrong that people have been asking for a Re-Species token since beta or headstart? I was pretty sure I heard alot of it back then and pretty steady since.

    Seacat
  • evendzharevendzhar Member Posts: 209 Arc User
    edited January 2013
    Aside from getting a few roleplayers up in arms, I don't see what could possibly be against it (and Cryptic generally doesn't take roleplayers very serious anyway).
  • tcostiktcostik Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited January 2013
    I'd love to see a re-trait token put in the C-Store. I'd buy one in a heartbeat. When I first started, I had no idea what traits were actually good, so I just went with what sounded cool. A token to let a captain pick a new species, or a new profession would be welcome as well, though I probably wouldn't use the species token unless they come out with some new species (Liberated Borg in the C-Store perhaps?) and I definitely wouldn't change my profession.
  • wilvwilv Member Posts: 390 Arc User
    edited January 2013
    evendzhar wrote: »
    Aside from getting a few roleplayers up in arms, I don't see what could possibly be against it (and Cryptic generally doesn't take roleplayers very serious anyway).


    There's always going to be someone saying, If you do x you'll ruin Y! Happens with almost every new addition in almost every MMO I've played. Goodness knows it's happened in this game. I remember a while back when they added animation to the BOP wings, some RPer was going on about how the team had ruined the game by making BOP wings move :rolleyes:
  • warpangelwarpangel Member Posts: 9,427 Arc User
    edited January 2013
    wilv wrote: »
    There's always going to be someone saying, If you do x you'll ruin Y! Happens with almost every new addition in almost every MMO I've played. Goodness knows it's happened in this game. I remember a while back when they added animation to the BOP wings, some RPer was going on about how the team had ruined the game by making BOP wings move :rolleyes:
    Naturally. It's the first rule of MMO patches: "Someone will complain about anything you change, including nothing."
  • wilvwilv Member Posts: 390 Arc User
    edited February 2013
    I for one hope this comes along sooner rather than later. I'm so over my Tellarite and makeshift "Romulan"...
  • maakurmaakur Member Posts: 15 Arc User
    edited March 2013
    I would definitely buy a species respec, and long before I'll be dumping cash/Zen into things like lockboxes & costumes.

    I'm glad to know it's in the works, and hopefully someone will realize that - as the original poster pointed out - people have been "feeling strongly" about this for a long time and will "make the call" to implement it finally.

    Please offer one, Cryptic. It will sell.
  • mikeflmikefl Member Posts: 861 Arc User
    edited March 2013
    I don't know that this would really make more money this way. Re-trait -Yes... species or profession change -No. Why? Lets say you have all your character slots filled (1 for F2P and 3 for sub) then it forces you to either delete you character or buy more slots. If you delete you character or have to buy more slots all of your character bound gear and ships will not be useful on the new character. So people would not only buy slots possibly but then also buy new weapons from fleet stores, gear from embassies, lock boxes, ship modules, etc. We already know that the biggest revenue generator for STO is ship sales either through lock box keys or via c-store as Gecko stated in a recent interview.

    So as I see it there is far more money to be made by a person creating a new character than by changing an existing one. Re-traiting doesn't change what the character is already capable of doing or affect any of the above mentioned profit motives. The other two choices can significantly reduce the profit opportunities by making the change. Not everyone would necessarily repurchase all the items or even buy more keys but even if one person did, it would increase the profit considerably. ($10 zen purchase to re-species vs. $200 in lock box keys on avg to get a ship... just one hypothetical example)
    Gold Sub since March 2010
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  • maakurmaakur Member Posts: 15 Arc User
    edited March 2013
    mikefl wrote: »
    I don't know that this would really make more money this way. Re-trait -Yes... species or profession change -No. Why? Lets say you have all your character slots filled (1 for F2P and 3 for sub) then it forces you to either delete you character or buy more slots. If you delete you character or have to buy more slots all of your character bound gear and ships will not be useful on the new character. So people would not only buy slots possibly but then also buy new weapons from fleet stores, gear from embassies, lock boxes, ship modules, etc. We already know that the biggest revenue generator for STO is ship sales either through lock box keys or via c-store as Gecko stated in a recent interview.

    So as I see it there is far more money to be made by a person creating a new character than by changing an existing one. Re-traiting doesn't change what the character is already capable of doing or affect any of the above mentioned profit motives. The other two choices can significantly reduce the profit opportunities by making the change. Not everyone would necessarily repurchase all the items or even buy more keys but even if one person did, it would increase the profit considerably. ($10 zen purchase to re-species vs. $200 in lock box keys on avg to get a ship... just one hypothetical example)

    You could make the same argument about skill respecs, yet they're being sold.

    Cryptic will make money through a species respec from at least two kinds of players:

    1. those who, like the initial questioner, want to play another species that has become newly available or have simply changed their mind
    2. those who want to play another species as part of a perfectionist urge to make the most out of their character's setup, new or old

    Either kind of player may very well be driven away from the game entirely if they realize that what they want is impossible without creating a brand new character, starting from the ground up and "wasting" all the time and resources (including potentially cash/Zen) spent on their existing character. Faced with the option of starting over or quitting, many may choose the latter. And a lost player is a lost potential customer - drive them away now and you'll never know what they might have bought later on down the line.
  • maakurmaakur Member Posts: 15 Arc User
    edited March 2013
    Great to see the announced trait respecs in the Romulan update today :) Any update on the also-mentioned species respec from the Q&A?
  • marshalericdavidmarshalericdavid Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited March 2013
    The game is unfriendly for new characters with all the grind for gear and reputation so having profession retraining and species changing in addition to the trait and skill changing would be welcomed by many. Some people refuse to start new characters and go through the grind but with new respec they might spend money to make the change rather then not spend money and just settling for what they have. I am sure people will still buy some character slots and use them for storage either way.
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