29 replies to this topic

[Kuskah]

[WHAT IF] is going to be my series of sporadically added threads into General discussion forum, focusing on, well, discussions about various game changes, what would happen if they occurred and how to make them work.

Since the introduction of Makeover Kits, race change has been quite controversial topic. A lot of people claim that by introducing this to the game would severely affect, if not ruin your Personal Story. They also believe that it would go against the game logic, as in "how did the guy turn from Asura to Charr?". Well, it's quite a miracle that you can switch back and forth between the genders right now as long as you have the money (don't ask me how the kit "does" it), so switching a race wouldn't be so much over the top as people make it out to be.
As for the personal story, I believe that this could be handled in multiple ways. One of them being Full reset. Basically, your story would be wiped out and you'd get to do it all over again. ("But I've already killed the dragon!" "Yeah, so have millions of other people." Get my point?) The thing can be done in a couple of hours, so you wouldn't lose a significant portion of your time like you would if you decided that you didn't like the light armor look on Charr. This would obviously lead to stacking rewards from PS - this could be handled in two ways again - either the restart of PS wouldn't provide any rewards or simply leave it as it is. I can't think of any particular reward that is so significant it could be abused. Plus, they're all account- or soulbound anyway.
The lazy man's way out would be just putting a note at the end of PS like "I've used the Mystic Kit which turned me into ______". You would keep your home instance and all and just be considered to have done some crazy experiment.
There are surely many more ways this could be handled but I want to hear your opinion on this matter guys.

Discuss.

Edited by Kuskah, 11 March 2013 - 03:39 PM.

[matsif]

the only reason race change isn't in the game in my estimation is because there are achievements tied to it.  Which imo is a horrible excuse that barely even covers for a reason.  Tin foil hat theorists will turn that into anet fishing for gems for character slots for completionists, which is also a possibility.

Give us a "mystic makeover kit" or something that allows a full redo thru the character creation screens, including race, gender, physical features, and name.  And give us name change items as well.

[Xephyr]

matsif, on 11 March 2013 - 04:47 PM, said:

the only reason race change isn't in the game in my estimation is because there are achievements tied to it.  Which imo is a horrible excuse that barely even covers for a reason.  Tin foil hat theorists will turn that into anet fishing for gems for character slots for completionists, which is also a possibility.

Give us a "mystic makeover kit" or something that allows a full redo thru the character creation screens, including race, gender, physical features, and name.  And give us name change items as well.

^This. I think alot of people really would pay for this. Let's face it, if you've spent loads of time gearing up your character you don't want to reroll just to change race. I know I wouldn't.

[El Duderino]

I would make all my characters Asura, because they are small, and I like rooting for the underdog.

[Firer]

Firer, on 11 March 2013 - 05:00 PM, said:

I'd love to have this... I want all my characters to be human, because the look imo best, but i want to play the story of the other aces as well (and get the achievements) and dont want to level all my characters in queens dale... So that would be perfect and my solution to the story thing (if not already suggested) is that you can only use your race change when your at a certain point of your story (either done with it or the point where theyre the same for every race... 30 i think, when you join the order)

I'd love to have this... I want all my characters to be human, because the look imo best, but i want to play the story of the other aces as well (and get the achievements) and dont want to level all my characters in queens dale... So that would be perfect and my solution to the story thing (if not already suggested) is that you can only use your race change when your at a certain point of your story (either when you are done with it or the point where theyre the same for every race... 30 i think, when you join the order)

Edited by Firer, 11 March 2013 - 05:01 PM.

[BartenderMan]

Another issue with race change is cultural armor. While it can be argued that they can just have the armor switched to the other race's counterpart or even a full refund of the gold, there's many drawbacks and exploits that could be done with it.

I think ANet has given us enough with the fact you can change your looks and gender as in most other games you are stuck with your choice for the rest of your character's life.

[raspberry jam]

Kuskah, on 11 March 2013 - 03:37 PM, said:

Well, it's quite a miracle that you can switch back and forth between the genders right now as long as you have the money (don't ask me how the kit "does" it)

I think it has something to do with scissors

[Firer]

raspberry jam, on 11 March 2013 - 05:05 PM, said:

I think it has something to do with scissors

And girl to boy has to do something with glues????

Anywhay i think you could even go so far and say that the cultural armor is away then... If youre so dumb to buy and then change race its your fault

Edited by Firer, 11 March 2013 - 05:08 PM.

[ObscureThreat]

Cultural armor should automatically just unequip and become account bound or something. I would love a race change option since I really hate charr armor in general.

[Little Bird]

A profession change kit would make more sense.

[NerfHerder]

I would buy one or two. In hindsight, I feel I made too many humans. It would be nice to mix it up a little more.

And if done, I suppose a refund would be in order for cultural items or at least equivalent items. But no backsies on personal story/achievements. Thats where I would draw the line. If you want to experience that story, you must reroll.

Hmm...what about selling personal story experiences? You make a disposable or premade character to experience just the story line using the dynamic leveling system. Maybe even let you go back and choose different paths. I might buy one of those as well.

[Sans]

I'd make all my characters human.
After I got the achievements for the personal story for every race.

[Ritualist]

Make-over kits are really not something I am using - I prefer to simply make new characters instead. So with that in mind, race-bending is not something I'd use.
Having said that, I do consider it one of the best cash shop additions possible because it deals with looks only. So while I wouldn't be using it, I think they absolutely deserve a spot in the game.

[Ehragus]

I would buy a few.
Cultural armor - If you change race from norn to human, so would your cultural armor.
Personal Story - Who cares, just carry on where you are. People who think that doesnt make sense, maybe it doesnt. But does sex change?

[Fenice_86]

Making "race change" avaiable/usable only by lvl 80 chars who have completed the story line could partially solve the problem
( i.e. : there's an NPC selling them for X gems + 1 Pact Token) [pact tokens and race change become soul bound for obvious reasons]

About the achievement system i dont really see the problem... the moment you become of another race the previous one stops where it is and the other starts

Edited by Fenice_86, 12 March 2013 - 09:28 AM.

[FoxBat]

Ehragus, on 12 March 2013 - 07:49 AM, said:

Personal Story - Who cares, just carry on where you are. People who think that doesnt make sense, maybe it doesnt. But does sex change?

- Speech for other races in the 1-30 stories isn't recorded. So as long as you don't mind your skinny asura bellowing in charrspeak...

- Sex is extremely irrelevant in this game, hence why it's possible right now. There's a small handful of dialogs that can change, but there's absolutely no long-term choices.

[Lythis]

Just  do it for crying out loud

[Ehragus]

FoxBat, on 12 March 2013 - 09:59 AM, said:

- Speech for other races in the 1-30 stories isn't recorded. So as long as you don't mind your skinny asura bellowing in charrspeak...

- Sex is extremely irrelevant in this game, hence why it's possible right now. There's a small handful of dialogs that can change, but there's absolutely no long-term choices.

Actually i wouldnt mind at all. Since I only watched the cutscenes on my first char. Now I have five level 80's.

[Lunacy Polish]

I do not know why they cannot at last offer this for aneyone who has completed the Personal story or anyone willing to forego it.

[Firer]

Sans, on 12 March 2013 - 03:20 AM, said:

I'd make all my characters human.
After I got the achievements for the personal story for every race.

This! So much...

[Kuskah]

As for cultural armor, I guess it should stay there but you wouldn't be able to equip it. I mean, if you didn't really like your race, why would you get Cultural armor for it? And if you do it just for the achievements, the armor is there waiting for you.

I'd also be making quite some changes to my characters, since I don't really fancy my original preferences. I'd turn my engineer from Charr into Asura - the T3 medium Asuran armor just screams "ENGINEER" . I also want to change my female Charr necro into a male, but male light armors on Charr look terrible IMO, therefor I'd probably go either Asura or Sylvari with this one. The rest I don't really play enough to care.

Edited by Kuskah, 12 March 2013 - 06:12 PM.

[Craywulf]

Racial skills, cultural armor, and personal story is more than valid reasoning as to why there isn't a race change options. As for why gender-change is allowed? Because none of the above I mention has any effect on gender. Although armor does get effected depending on the race, but armor is to a degree a cosmetic thing.

Edited by Craywulf, 12 March 2013 - 06:21 PM.

[Kuskah]

Looks change, Sex Change, Name Change... I'm seriously hoping to see some Race/Profession Change in the coming months

[atreoo]

Proff change would be nice.Considering all the time I put into my main to have it nerfed into the ground time and time again and its already the weakest class by far. I hate alts btw and shouldnt be forced to reroll when the class was ok from the start and the patches have rendered it useless as time went on.

[zosek]

I think there is no option in GW1 that would allow you to change profession, so i guess there won't be any in GW2. I hate it, because i'd buy at least 1 in a heartbeat, but i guess we wont see prof/race change ( at least not for some time).

[Gerroh]

matsif, on 11 March 2013 - 04:47 PM, said:

the only reason race change isn't in the game in my estimation is because there are achievements tied to it.  Which imo is a horrible excuse that barely even covers for a reason.  Tin foil hat theorists will turn that into anet fishing for gems for character slots for completionists, which is also a possibility.

Give us a "mystic makeover kit" or something that allows a full redo thru the character creation screens, including race, gender, physical features, and name.  And give us name change items as well.

Are you out of your mind? Race change is completely lore-breaking, and while I'm no RPer or anything like that, I do prefer the virtual world to be somewhat consistent and believable.
The main problem comes with sylvari. Yeah, you could take an asura and give him some super magical hormones and he'd effectively be a charr, or some other excuse like that, but sylvari goes beyond the physiology. Sylvari are connected through the dream, and each sylvari's experiences are tied into the dream, just as the dream is tied into them. Sylvari are nothing short of magical plants who are sustained and given movement through what we can only assume is just magic(as no real world plants possess anywhere near such ability to move). On top of that

Spoiler

sylvari are supposedly dragon minions, for anyone who has looked into that, and there seems to be something very wrong with the ability for a dragon minion to turn into a non dragon minion which can then be corrupted into a dragon minion. Furthermore, if it were even possible, that'd mean all pact troops would have to be forced into being sylvari so they don't rise from the dead and give away valuable information to Zhaitan as well as reinforcements.

I know some of you don't care about lore, but the entire believability of the world of Tyria would completely explode if race change were made available, and because of that and how much effort it'd take to create functions to reset the story without opening up some kind of exploit I have to say a big whopping NO to race changes.

Edited by Gerroh, 29 March 2013 - 11:49 PM.

[mattthecat]

I personally would love a profession change, my main is a thief with map completion and everything that i have 500 hours on but i really dont like the class anymore. Even if you could only change within the same armor class youre in (ie, i could be ranger or engineer) i would still love it. Im overall done with the thief class and have leveled a mesmer to make up for it. But with a professions change i could go to ranger most likely.

And also if the profession change would allow you to switch professions to an entirely new armor class i would go guardian. Granted there are many more complications with armor, traiting, and skill points in profession change outside of the same armor class it would still be fun and very interesting.
No matter what the outcome is whether its armor class or outside i would really love to see this in the game. I would defiantly pay for this/

[Hika]

My most regretful decision in GW2 thus far is having created my Thief as a Sylvari.
I would buy a race change token asap from the gem store and change my Sylvari Thief to a Norn Thief.

[Kuskah]

Hika, on 30 March 2013 - 12:34 AM, said:

My most regretful decision in GW2 thus far is having created my Thief as a Sylvari.
I would buy a race change token asap from the gem store and change my Sylvari Thief to a Norn Thief.

I find Norn quite an odd choice for a Thief, especially if talking male. What leads you to this decision?

Also, another possible argument against the immersion problems - there are already various tonics that can turn you into all kinds of stuff for a period of time. Asuran scientists would maybe do some experement on those tonics, making an extremely empowered version allowing you to change into something else, specifically race, permanently.

Edited by Kuskah, 30 March 2013 - 06:49 PM.

[Matsy]

We Asura could easily develop this technology!

Edited by Matsy, 30 March 2013 - 09:00 PM.