Guild Wars 2

Will we ever get them? I personally have a level 80 charr guardian and would really like to change to human or norn. I wouldn’t mind having my personal story reset and I think that the cultural armor issue could be worked around by converting the armor to the race that your changing to. So what do you guys think? Should we get race changes?

Anet has said that they’ve considered profession changes (although extremely unlikely) and that they’re not going to do race changes at all. I don’t have the source on me though.

Not trying to be funny or anything but, they do have total body makeover kits where you’re allowed to change your race. I’ve come across two of them doing dragon events.

I’ve never changed my race although I’ve seen the option to do so and was warned, once done it’s permanent, so I don’t know when you change your race if it resets your personal story or not.

Once again, this is not an insult or jab just a statement.

The info of the Makeover Kit is “A single character may modify their appearance settings for height, physique, skin color, markings, face, hair, even gender. Race and profession will remain the same. The kit is consumed on accepting a new appearance.”

So I dunno where you’re seeing the race option.

There currently is not and likely never will be an option to change race. This stems from the personal story. While people suggest reseting it, that is both harder than it sounds and would open up people to the ability to just constantly change race to reset the story an get the 1 time rewards for completing certain story pieces.

If you really want a different race, make a new character its not that hard or time consuming to get to level 80.

gaspara.4079:

There currently is not and likely never will be an option to change race. This stems from the personal story. While people suggest reseting it, that is both harder than it sounds and would open up people to the ability to just constantly change race to reset the story an get the 1 time rewards for completing certain story pieces.

If you really want a different race, make a new character its not that hard or time consuming to get to level 80.

Not only that, but it’s easy to get a character up to 40 and then craft your way up to 80. And the cost to craft 30 levels is cheaper than what it would cost to buy a race change kit!

Resetting the story might be complicated under the hood, but it’s not impossible. Implications include:

- Getting the loot rewards again, which is a non-issue imo because the loot is junk overall and isn’t worth any more or less (for the time investment) than any other loot in the game.

- Getting the exp all over again, which is also a non-issue imo because people can already craft their way to 80, not to mention the race change option would probably cost around $25-30 worth of gems.

So really, the only issue is the programming Anet would have to do to implement it, which is simply a matter of whether they feel like the time and resources put into implementing it would turn a profit in gems sales. That said, they do already have plenty of issues on their plate, and this is far from a priority.

I would like to see it happen. I agree the story should reset and as for the armor well it seems like to much work for them to make a convenience to us. So I would say all cultural stuff would be at a loss. Because if you look at it from a new characters point of view it would be at a loss if you decided to make a new character with the race of choice.

Excursion.9752:

I would like to see it happen. I agree the story should reset and as for the armor well it seems like to much work for them to make a convenience to us. So I would say all cultural stuff would be at a loss. Because if you look at it from a new characters point of view it would be at a loss if you decided to make a new character with the race of choice.

Why would it be a loss? Every race has X, Y, and Z armor pieces that are equivalent. If I changed my Charr to an Asura, My Charr T3 helm would become an Asura T3 helm. It’s logically simple, the only issue is the code behind the scenes.

Xenon.4537:

Excursion.9752:

I would like to see it happen. I agree the story should reset and as for the armor well it seems like to much work for them to make a convenience to us. So I would say all cultural stuff would be at a loss. Because if you look at it from a new characters point of view it would be at a loss if you decided to make a new character with the race of choice.

Why would it be a loss? Every race has X, Y, and Z armor pieces that are equivalent. If I changed my Charr to an Asura, My Charr T3 helm would become an Asura T3 helm. It’s logically simple, the only issue is the code behind the scenes.

and what of the personal story? just convert too? you make it sound so easy.

If they’re worried about how the race change will affect the personal story, couldn’t they just have that be a prerequisite? “Change your race – provided you finished the whole PS”?

Aside from that it’s probably just a lot of work at the moment, what with the personal story, cultural armor transfers, and not messing with the Emperor title. I wouldn’t be too surprised if we saw it at some point in the future, what with all the craziness the Consortium’s capable of.

Happyfool.8951:

Xenon.4537:

Excursion.9752:

I would like to see it happen. I agree the story should reset and as for the armor well it seems like to much work for them to make a convenience to us. So I would say all cultural stuff would be at a loss. Because if you look at it from a new characters point of view it would be at a loss if you decided to make a new character with the race of choice.

Why would it be a loss? Every race has X, Y, and Z armor pieces that are equivalent. If I changed my Charr to an Asura, My Charr T3 helm would become an Asura T3 helm. It’s logically simple, the only issue is the code behind the scenes.

and what of the personal story? just convert too? you make it sound so easy.

See my other post.

Smith.1826:

If they’re worried about how the race change will affect the personal story, couldn’t they just have that be a prerequisite? “Change your race – provided you finished the whole PS”?

Aside from that it’s probably just a lot of work at the moment, what with the personal story, cultural armor transfers, and not messing with the Emperor title. I wouldn’t be too surprised if we saw it at some point in the future, what with all the craziness the Consortium’s capable of.

This is a good idea for a simple solution, however I think Anet would dislike this approach because it would limit their possible customers to a smaller demographic of PvE completionists. Not everyone completes their personal story. Heck I’ve been playing since pre-launch and I haven’t done mine 100% yet. Their gem store philosophy tends to be items that literally anyone can use at any time regardless of how much content they have completed.

Happyfool.8951:

Xenon.4537:

Excursion.9752:

I would like to see it happen. I agree the story should reset and as for the armor well it seems like to much work for them to make a convenience to us. So I would say all cultural stuff would be at a loss. Because if you look at it from a new characters point of view it would be at a loss if you decided to make a new character with the race of choice.

Why would it be a loss? Every race has X, Y, and Z armor pieces that are equivalent. If I changed my Charr to an Asura, My Charr T3 helm would become an Asura T3 helm. It’s logically simple, the only issue is the code behind the scenes.

and what of the personal story? just convert too? you make it sound so easy.

A possible solution is to give us the freedom to make the choices we would have made in story mode in an interactive comic book form ala Mass Effect Genesis. Since the rewards aren’t affected the only real impact would be the panes in your hero story panel-of course this would be voice acted in the voice of the new race for a nice touch and one can only change race after completing the personal story in the first place.

However changing race would automatically mean recreating your character so I’d be for renaming the total makeover kit to ‘scroll of reincarnation’ and have it give both the option to change your race (changing of personal story would only be available to race change) and change your appearance. Unfortunately there are achievements in the game for completing story plot points for each race-this suggestion would essentially allow you to bypass that and kinda make the achievement pointless. Then again ‘cooperative-competitive strategies’ in minigames to get achievements as well as ‘clever manipulation of game mechanics’ to make dungeons and meta events more ‘efficient’ also result in said activities/achievements being pointless and that seems to be acceptable so idk.

As I recall, Anet stated not long after launch that they would not be doing ‘race’ changes. It was part the response to the questions about make over kits, name changes etc (as we didn’t have them yet, and people wanted them.) We were told makeover kits and name changes eventually, but never race changes.

Happyfool.8951:

and what of the personal story? just convert too? you make it sound so easy.

But it is easy? KISS.

What of the personal story? Dont touch it!

Completing the personal story (ie murdering the poor defenseless Zhaitan) should be a pre-requisite to race change, period. No level 15 characters swapping races back and forth. Only 80’s that are fully finished. No new story missions can be done, no new loot, no new XP, no nothing.

When the race change take place, the system make cosmetic changes to the very first story “mission” listed. The one that say “I am [CharacterName]”. Change the story to say something like “I was born [NewRace] but raised by [RaceDecidedByCompletedStory]”.

Yes. Its as simple as that.

Dawdler.8521:

Happyfool.8951:

and what of the personal story? just convert too? you make it sound so easy.

But it is easy? KISS.

What of the personal story? Dont touch it!

Completing the personal story (ie murdering the poor defenseless Zhaitan) should be a pre-requisite to race change, period. No level 15 characters swapping races back and forth. Only 80’s that are fully finished. No new story missions can be done, no new loot, no new XP, no nothing.

When the race change take place, the system make cosmetic changes to the very first story “mission” listed. The one that say “I am [CharacterName]”. Change the story to say something like “I was born [NewRace] but raised by [RaceDecidedByCompletedStory]”.

Yes. Its as simple as that.

You make it sound like 80 is some kind of end. All indications are that at some point there will be a level cap increase and I would expect personal story additions with that.

Race change is only simple if you ignore all the implications of it and assume that race doesn’t matter. But, then that assumption kind of ruins any call for a race change also.

I would love to race change my guardian.

I would also like to have a race change feature, I’m so sick of being a Norn I’m at the point of considering of just making a 2nd Warrior, and leveling that up, but I would also have to do world complete again :/ (Can’t stand seeing for example 78% done!)

So Anet would rather me level up another char, which they get absolutely no profit from, than getting a quick £20 (Or what ever the cost will be) out of me.

Seems kinda silly imo that it hasn’t already been implemented, seeming name and total make over changes have been added.

Xenon.4537:

Resetting the story might be complicated under the hood, but it’s not impossible. Implications include:

- Getting the loot rewards again, which is a non-issue imo because the loot is junk overall and isn’t worth any more or less (for the time investment) than any other loot in the game.

- Getting the exp all over again, which is also a non-issue imo because people can already craft their way to 80, not to mention the race change option would probably cost around $25-30 worth of gems.

So really, the only issue is the programming Anet would have to do to implement it, which is simply a matter of whether they feel like the time and resources put into implementing it would turn a profit in gems sales. That said, they do already have plenty of issues on their plate, and this is far from a priority.

That may be suitable for me or you, but poor old Joe over there does not want to have to start al lover with leveling, and he doesn’t have the money to craft up. Anet needs to consider all affected players, not the select few.

Vol.5241:

Xenon.4537:

Resetting the story might be complicated under the hood, but it’s not impossible. Implications include:

- Getting the loot rewards again, which is a non-issue imo because the loot is junk overall and isn’t worth any more or less (for the time investment) than any other loot in the game.

- Getting the exp all over again, which is also a non-issue imo because people can already craft their way to 80, not to mention the race change option would probably cost around $25-30 worth of gems.

So really, the only issue is the programming Anet would have to do to implement it, which is simply a matter of whether they feel like the time and resources put into implementing it would turn a profit in gems sales. That said, they do already have plenty of issues on their plate, and this is far from a priority.

That may be suitable for me or you, but poor old Joe over there does not want to have to start al lover with leveling, and he doesn’t have the money to craft up. Anet needs to consider all affected players, not the select few.

What do you mean start leveling again? My post meant to imply that it would be no big deal if, for example, you leveled to 10 doing your personal story, used a race change, and then did those 1-10 personal story quests again (and got the exp from them). Whether you spend gold to craft-level, or spend $30 on a race change at 50 and cash in on 1-50 personal stories exp, it’s all the same in my eyes. I’m just saying the possible “exploitative” implications aren’t really an exploit, at least not an adverse one.

Considering there are achievements for experiencing each race’s story and their various ‘steps’, being able to change races at will could potentially invalidate this.

I don’t care about the personal story that much that I wouldn’t take the race change option for at least a few of my characters. I’d happily do the story again if needed, without rewards, or just skip it altogether. I would imagine they use the personal story a a reason why they won’t give us race changes, but they assume everyone cares for the story as much as them (for all I care you can reset the achievement points as well).

gaspara.4079:

There currently is not and likely never will be an option to change race. This stems from the personal story. While people suggest reseting it, that is both harder than it sounds and would open up people to the ability to just constantly change race to reset the story an get the 1 time rewards for completing certain story pieces.

If you really want a different race, make a new character its not that hard or time consuming to get to level 80.

I ’m playing my lvl 80 Norn Guardian for 3-4 months. I have spent a lot of gold and laurels on this char (Laurels for amulets, lvled up to 4 disciplines, purchased 2 different armor sets and some skins, bought full bag slot expansion). Why should i “delete” this guardian and do all this again with a new character? As someone said above, what Anet prefer? Delete this char and create a new one or add the Race change feature and receive 20 hot euros from me?

Actually I think they would prefer you buy a new char slot, and then make another one. You’re more inclined to purchase boosts at that point to speed up the process, which nets them more than just a simple race change alone. Standard business practice really.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

As I recall, Anet stated not long after launch that they would not be doing ‘race’ changes. It was part the response to the questions about make over kits, name changes etc (as we didn’t have them yet, and people wanted them.) We were told makeover kits and name changes eventually, but never race changes.

A moderator said 1 month ago in a smilar topic that they have told the devs about players keep asking for this feature. (Too sad the search fuction is broken, i’d like to give you the link about it.)
Devs are listening to what the players want, so this might come in the future.
Personally I’d love to see this feature coming with possible new races.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Actually I think they would prefer you buy a new char slot, and then make another one. You’re more inclined to purchase boosts at that point to speed up the process, which nets them more than just a simple race change alone. Standard business practice really.

I would do that but I’m the kind of person who doesn’t enjoy repeating things and after leveling two characters to 80 one with world completion leveling is quite boring. I also already have decent gear on my guardian several of the story mode dungeons on him. Honestly unless a race change of some sort comes along ill probably just grit my teeth and try to ignore how bad most armor looks on charr.

Emopandagurke.3497:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

As I recall, Anet stated not long after launch that they would not be doing ‘race’ changes. It was part the response to the questions about make over kits, name changes etc (as we didn’t have them yet, and people wanted them.) We were told makeover kits and name changes eventually, but never race changes.

A moderator said 1 month ago in a smilar topic that they have told the devs about players keep asking for this feature. (Too sad the search fuction is broken, i’d like to give you the link about it.)
Devs are listening to what the players want, so this might come in the future.
Personally I’d love to see this feature coming with possible new races.

Personally, I don’t want to see this feature. It sort of takes thought right out of selecting your race if you can just up and change anytime you want to at a later date. I know people have been requesting it, and I’ve thrown my view in each time. The mods may have relayed the requests to the devs, but I am hoping they stick by their original decision and not give us this option. Players should have to think long and hard about the pros and cons regarding race, and accept the responsibilities of selecting one that they turned out to not like.

As for new playable races, Colin stated in the relatively recent Twitch interview (discussing LS) that those are in the pipeline, but he wasn’t giving us any spoilers as to which we would see ‘first.’

Melineth.2859:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Actually I think they would prefer you buy a new char slot, and then make another one. You’re more inclined to purchase boosts at that point to speed up the process, which nets them more than just a simple race change alone. Standard business practice really.

I would do that but I’m the kind of person who doesn’t enjoy repeating things and after leveling two characters to 80 one with world completion leveling is quite boring. I also already have decent gear on my guardian several of the story mode dungeons on him. Honestly unless a race change of some sort comes along ill probably just grit my teeth and try to ignore how bad most armor looks on charr.

This is always an option too. It really just boils down to how badly you want a different race.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Emopandagurke.3497:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

As I recall, Anet stated not long after launch that they would not be doing ‘race’ changes. It was part the response to the questions about make over kits, name changes etc (as we didn’t have them yet, and people wanted them.) We were told makeover kits and name changes eventually, but never race changes.

A moderator said 1 month ago in a smilar topic that they have told the devs about players keep asking for this feature. (Too sad the search fuction is broken, i’d like to give you the link about it.)
Devs are listening to what the players want, so this might come in the future.
Personally I’d love to see this feature coming with possible new races.

Personally, I don’t want to see this feature. It sort of takes thought right out of selecting your race if you can just up and change anytime you want to at a later date. I know people have been requesting it, and I’ve thrown my view in each time. The mods may have relayed the requests to the devs, but I am hoping they stick by their original decision and not give us this option. Players should have to think long and hard about the pros and cons regarding race, and accept the responsibilities of selecting one that they turned out to not like.

As for new playable races, Colin stated in the relatively recent Twitch interview (discussing LS) that those are in the pipeline, but he wasn’t giving us any spoilers as to which we would see ‘first.’

Problem is how did I know at launch that armor was going to look terrible for charr?

If this ever happens, it would be at the very tail end of the game’s lifespan, when they feel they’ve already squeezed all possible revenue out of New Character Slots. Many ancient and venerable MMORPGs have never offered this service. WoW does it now apparently, but the things that are possible with their absurd bloated development budget may not scale to a more modest-sized team like ANet.

It would also be prohibitively expensive, like Name and Sever Changes are right now. These sorts of things aren’t priced as Products, which they want you to buy, but as Penalties which they offer to quiet demand but don’t particularly want you to use.

Melineth.2859:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Emopandagurke.3497:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

As I recall, Anet stated not long after launch that they would not be doing ‘race’ changes. It was part the response to the questions about make over kits, name changes etc (as we didn’t have them yet, and people wanted them.) We were told makeover kits and name changes eventually, but never race changes.

A moderator said 1 month ago in a smilar topic that they have told the devs about players keep asking for this feature. (Too sad the search fuction is broken, i’d like to give you the link about it.)
Devs are listening to what the players want, so this might come in the future.
Personally I’d love to see this feature coming with possible new races.

Personally, I don’t want to see this feature. It sort of takes thought right out of selecting your race if you can just up and change anytime you want to at a later date. I know people have been requesting it, and I’ve thrown my view in each time. The mods may have relayed the requests to the devs, but I am hoping they stick by their original decision and not give us this option. Players should have to think long and hard about the pros and cons regarding race, and accept the responsibilities of selecting one that they turned out to not like.

As for new playable races, Colin stated in the relatively recent Twitch interview (discussing LS) that those are in the pipeline, but he wasn’t giving us any spoilers as to which we would see ‘first.’

Problem is how did I know at launch that armor was going to look terrible for charr?

The billion and one sites that had them up for preview? (at beta!)

The fact that anet has always, always had issues with clipping and that tail just screams ‘I have issues’?

Oh I could go on, but I won’t. Cause now I’m just been a PITA, hehe.

The price doesn’t matter to me at all.
Even 2000 gems would be worth it.

And it would be a good way to support ArenaNet with our money =)

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Emopandagurke.3497:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

As I recall, Anet stated not long after launch that they would not be doing ‘race’ changes. It was part the response to the questions about make over kits, name changes etc (as we didn’t have them yet, and people wanted them.) We were told makeover kits and name changes eventually, but never race changes.

A moderator said 1 month ago in a smilar topic that they have told the devs about players keep asking for this feature. (Too sad the search fuction is broken, i’d like to give you the link about it.)
Devs are listening to what the players want, so this might come in the future.
Personally I’d love to see this feature coming with possible new races.

Personally, I don’t want to see this feature. It sort of takes thought right out of selecting your race if you can just up and change anytime you want to at a later date. I know people have been requesting it, and I’ve thrown my view in each time. The mods may have relayed the requests to the devs, but I am hoping they stick by their original decision and not give us this option. Players should have to think long and hard about the pros and cons regarding race, and accept the responsibilities of selecting one that they turned out to not like.

As for new playable races, Colin stated in the relatively recent Twitch interview (discussing LS) that those are in the pipeline, but he wasn’t giving us any spoilers as to which we would see ‘first.’

Melineth.2859:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Actually I think they would prefer you buy a new char slot, and then make another one. You’re more inclined to purchase boosts at that point to speed up the process, which nets them more than just a simple race change alone. Standard business practice really.

I would do that but I’m the kind of person who doesn’t enjoy repeating things and after leveling two characters to 80 one with world completion leveling is quite boring. I also already have decent gear on my guardian several of the story mode dungeons on him. Honestly unless a race change of some sort comes along ill probably just grit my teeth and try to ignore how bad most armor looks on charr.

This is always an option too. It really just boils down to how badly you want a different race.

I agree 100%. I, too, think that the race you decide on at the beginning of character creation should have some impact on the rest of the “story” with your character. And that will be taken away entirely if you can just swap it up at will. I know I can spend hours in character creation over stuff like this.

It’s not so much a complaint I have, as a general feeling that it’s quite a shame for people to have stuck with a character so long only to feel that they have no connection to it. Any char I get beyond level 30 will NEVER be deleted. I know within about 10-15 levels whether or not I got it right in character creation, and I’m very surprised others didn’t.

I also agree with you re your comments to people who say “I didn’t realise X armor would look like this”, because there are so many ways to view armor, both outside and inside the game, that you can very easily take a level 2 character to its main city and view the cultural armor (it seems it’s mostly cultural armor people are concerned about). Also, I have the general view that why on earth, if you are at 80 and hate your character, would you EVER buy cultural armor?? It’s hugely expensive and by no means the best available armor, so if you already don’t like the character, why spend so much money on it? Not knowing what it looks like in this particular situation isn’t an excuse because the preview button is right there in front of you.

Still, if enough people want it, I can seen ANet implementing it somewhere down the line if they feel they need to. I won’t be buying it, and I won’t mind if others do since it won’t affect my game at all. But I do, and always will, think it’s a shame.