Guild Wars 2

Hiya, as we all know each race has its own unique racial bonuses however marginal they affect the endgame, still its nice to have this option either acquired via Gem store or unlock it by achivement etc.

I admit it’s not impossible re-roll from scratch and it means more play time stats for the game, but I believe not everyone is thrilled about the idea to have to start over yet again, considering the tidious map completion and the population unbalances in eotm, but thats an other issue.

It just occured to me that this wld be a win-win situation: nice cash boost for ArenaNet and players are more encouraged to discover the aspects of other races. It’s definately something worth considering as an expansion feature IMO. I wonder if u think the same or not a big fan of it?

Sorry if this has been raised before, and thanks for reading!

Race is one of the character creation options that are hard-coded into the game making it impossible to change outside of character creation.

Even not considering that, the choices made in the personal story are also hard coded, so how do you handle that? Or racial armor or racial skills, etc?

Like Seera said, a race change is quite a huge logistical undertaking from a coding point of view. It may not even be possible at all, or if it is it would take significant work to implement and test for any bugs. There’s a lot of things that could go seriously wrong if bugs slipped through.

Rerolling is very easy in the game already (account bound ascended gear, shared skins, titles, AP… plenty of level up tomes and XP wrist and boosters are available, only lock are traits and waypoints/map completion) so I’m personally happy just creating a new character. I understand it’d be convenient to have a race change option, but at least the alternative isn’t so bad.

Phex.8423:

Like Seera said, a race change is quite a huge logistical undertaking from a coding point of view. It may not even be possible at all, or if it is it would take significant work to implement and test for any bugs. There’s a lot of things that could go seriously wrong if bugs slipped through.

Rerolling is very easy in the game already (account bound ascended gear, shared skins, titles, AP… plenty of level up tomes and XP wrist and boosters are available, only lock are traits and waypoints/map completion) so I’m personally happy just creating a new character. I understand it’d be convenient to have a race change option, but at least the alternative isn’t so bad.

Sorry, locked traits, map completion and character specific unlocks along with possible professions make rerolling painful.

ANet already said they’re looking into reverting or changing the current trait system. People are suspecting it will be reverted to what it used to be, which would make traits a non-issue for new characters.

I don’t know what to say about the other arguments, they don’t really seem like an issue to me. I used to play MMOs where rerolling meant starting from level 1 with no gear or achievements so I guess I’m just used to having it tough. :P

Sorry, but when you can spend gems/money on things like bag slot unlocks that only work for one character, things like race changes need to happen. And I have been playing mmorpgs for a long time as well. While I didn’t go through the “fun” of EQ or DAoC, the early leveling of WoW was pretty atrocious.

But for example, I got an elementalist and ranger that I would love to have as a sylvari or norn. But they both have professions over 400 with my ele having both at 500. I’m not going to level those again and I would rather not have to buy yet another character slot when a race change would be better.

Seera.5916:

Even not considering that, the choices made in the personal story are also hard coded, so how do you handle that? Or racial armor or racial skills, etc?

I dont think I have said it enough in other such topics, so here we go again:

- Character has to be 80
- Character has to have completed the story missions

Race change →

- Character is stripped of race specific gear which is put in inventory and become accountbound, soulbound on equip (still race specific). That way you can use it on other characters of the old race.
- Personal story is replaced with a single arc stating “your past is a mystery only know to you” or whatever. You do not get to replay anything.

Boom done, no conflicts, no issues. Race has successfully been changed. Sure you may need some new gear but that is a loss you have to take.

race used to be hard coded into WoW aswell. so was players faction.

now ofc u can change your race / faction with 1 click of a button.

nothing is “truly hard coded” its just a matter of how hard it is to change it.

but don’t expect any race change in the game. atleast now u have the option to lvl up the same class with a different race and just move your ascended gear over to it, and now u don’t need WvW for world map u can get your little star back in no time aswell.

now if only they made the birthday blaster 2 year gift account wide. then it would be perfect.

Things do not “need to happen” just because someone wants them. At the end of the day, any decision that is made has to be somewhat profitable, and weighing the huge effort it takes to make a race change possible in a game where your race determines the story you’re playing (to a point, but still) against the possible monetary gain will probably get one result: It’s not worth it.

Some decisions should be made carefully, like race and profession. You can’t change either, that is a known fact, and so one should consider their options and pick something they are likely to stick with. Or make throwaway characters, for keyfarming or story achievements, but then don’t spend tons of gold to level crafting or gear them up.
It can always happen that one gets tired of a character, but I doubt that those cases warrant the effort it would take to make it possible to change something as fundamental as your characters race.

Red Queen.7915:

Things do not “need to happen” just because someone wants them. At the end of the day, any decision that is made has to be somewhat profitable, and weighing the huge effort it takes to make a race change possible in a game where your race determines the story you’re playing (to a point, but still) against the possible monetary gain will probably get one result: It’s not worth it.

Some decisions should be made carefully, like race and profession. You can’t change either, that is a known fact, and so one should consider their options and pick something they are likely to stick with. Or make throwaway characters, for keyfarming or story achievements, but then don’t spend tons of gold to level crafting or gear them up.
It can always happen that one gets tired of a character, but I doubt that those cases warrant the effort it would take to make it possible to change something as fundamental as your characters race.

Sorry, I didn’t know when making an asura or charr that Anet gave a kitten about how armor looks on them. If I had known I never would have made any of my characters anything other than human/norn/sylvari.

I read somewhere on a red-post that A-net doesn’t have any plans to implement such a thing.

As has already been said, Race is hard-coded into the game and so many aspects of a character (Skills, Story, Armour etc). It would be a massive undertaking to change such a thing for very little return comparatively. There would be a huge amount of “what-ifs” regarding all items and aspects affected by an item, and that would result in a ridiculous amount of fine-print for a gem-store item.

All I can recommend is to buy an extra character slot on Gem Store and make a new character. If you want to level fast, horde Experience Tomes and Writs of Experience (20 = 1 level).

I can assure you that you’ll hit level 80 on your rerolled/new char before they introduce a “Race Changer” item.

Ralanost.8913:

Red Queen.7915:

Things do not “need to happen” just because someone wants them. At the end of the day, any decision that is made has to be somewhat profitable, and weighing the huge effort it takes to make a race change possible in a game where your race determines the story you’re playing (to a point, but still) against the possible monetary gain will probably get one result: It’s not worth it.

Some decisions should be made carefully, like race and profession. You can’t change either, that is a known fact, and so one should consider their options and pick something they are likely to stick with. Or make throwaway characters, for keyfarming or story achievements, but then don’t spend tons of gold to level crafting or gear them up.
It can always happen that one gets tired of a character, but I doubt that those cases warrant the effort it would take to make it possible to change something as fundamental as your characters race.

Sorry, I didn’t know when making an asura or charr that Anet gave a kitten about how armor looks on them. If I had known I never would have made any of my characters anything other than human/norn/sylvari.

If I were that concerned about how my character will look at level 80, I would go look at some armour on the wiki, or google some images, or make use of the preview function right after my tutorial mission.
It is certainly possible to see whether or not one finds a certain race appealing, style-wise, before leveling the character to 80, if looks are such an important factor in one’s decision whether or not to level a character to max level. Going through the trouble to implement a race change item solely for those who didn’t take a minute to do this strikes me as even more unnecessary, and I’d rather they don’t devote resources to this that could be better used elsewhere.

Like Crimson Clouds said, it’s really easy (not to mention fast) to level a new character, and as soon as they have the “new” trait system ready, those restrictions won’t apply any longer and it’ll be even easier. As for the crafting professions, just keep the character as an alt. And no, this does not “force” you to pay any extra cash, since you would’ve bought the race changer anyway, and that item would likely be as expensive as a character slot, anyway.

I wouldn’t say its impossible to do, but certainly a hassle.
I agree with this being an achievement or personal story reward, maybe every 15k achievements or for finishing Victory or Death, and it’s soul bound.
I personally think making an alt character is all the same.

You don’t even have to wiki what armor looks like anymore. Depending on when you made your toon (if this doesn’t apply to OP it would still apply to future players) you could have used the wardrobe system in game to see what armors will look like.

Ralanost.8913:

Sorry, locked traits, map completion and character specific unlocks along with possible professions make rerolling painful.

I have leveled a few extra mesmers and elementalists simply for variety, and found the experience not painful at all.

The crucial waypoints for dungeons, guild missions, world boss farming and material farming can be unlocked in an hour just running across the maps on a level 80 if you know where you’re going (and if you don’t, it’s probably for the best you spend the time re-exploring the world ). The pretty yellow star is not as easy to come by, but that’s a character bound achievement, and changing race effectively changes your character to somebody completely different, so I’d say it’s a fair bargain that you can’t transfer the star.

Traits can take a bit longer, but as long as you know the game and the events involved, I’d say it’s still fairly quick (as the opinion of someone who has unlocked a good amount of traits on four lvl 80 characters created past April ‘14 through gameplay alone). I understand playing for character progression is no everyone’s cup of tea, but there’s the possibility to buy the traits with skillpoints and gold farmed by older characters, too, to buypass those trait unlocks that you find too annoying.

I’m not sure what you mean by character specific unlocks, other than plain level and traits. If you already have characters at 80, you should be able to gather enough skillpoints and gold to mostly bypass all of this anyway. If it’s about crafting levels, just keep the crafter on the sideline. My own weaponsmith and huntsman (500 in both crafts) was one of the original four characters I created back when I started playing. 2+ years later, she’s still in her 50s, because I simply didn’t enjoy the race/class combination (norn engineer). I’ve since leveled a norn of another class and an engineer of another race to 80 and thoroughly enjoy both. My crafter will probably stay glued to the crafting station in Hoelbrack for the rest of my game time, but I see no reason to remove her since she’s perfectly able to do her job (crafting weapons form my gang) fine the way she is.

As I posted in the other (virtually identical) thread:

• There are existing ways to accommodate people who are tired of their character, by spending the same gems you would otherwise use for this purpose: new toon slot, name change contract, etc.
• Adding this feature means taking planning, development, and testing resources away from some other new feature.
• As noted by others, this change wouldn’t be easy to implement.

So I see this ‘token’ as something with a really high cost, but only appeals to a tiny subset of the community. Even though the specific appeal is really high (as shown by the multiple, passionate posts), that’s not enough to make it a priority.

I just came back to the game a few weeks ago and I looked over my Characters only to think to myself why did I role Race’s I really do NOT want, now im stuck with 2 80’s, with max crafting that id rather be a different race! Yes I know I could do it all over again, but sorry, farming in this game is a pita especially the mats you need from 400-500 crafting… RNG is the worst RNG I have ever seen an any game.

I would love to pay for a race change, yeah I could buy more slots and just make another, but im one of those people that hate looking at a character ill never play again and is taking up much needed space on my account. For people who have a busy life and gets to play a few times a week , this is perfect, we do not have time to reroll characters on the fly. I seriously hope this is thought about.

Ralanost.8913:

Red Queen.7915:

Things do not “need to happen” just because someone wants them. At the end of the day, any decision that is made has to be somewhat profitable, and weighing the huge effort it takes to make a race change possible in a game where your race determines the story you’re playing (to a point, but still) against the possible monetary gain will probably get one result: It’s not worth it.

Some decisions should be made carefully, like race and profession. You can’t change either, that is a known fact, and so one should consider their options and pick something they are likely to stick with. Or make throwaway characters, for keyfarming or story achievements, but then don’t spend tons of gold to level crafting or gear them up.
It can always happen that one gets tired of a character, but I doubt that those cases warrant the effort it would take to make it possible to change something as fundamental as your characters race.

Sorry, I didn’t know when making an asura or charr that Anet gave a kitten about how armor looks on them. If I had known I never would have made any of my characters anything other than human/norn/sylvari.

Just don’t make that sylvari a medium armor class, ’cause everything is pillowcases.

Dawdler.8521:

- Personal story is replaced with a single arc stating “your past is a mystery only know to you” or whatever. You do not get to replay anything.

Which is a phenomenal kick in the face to everything you did in the early segments of the story.

First off, look at the very, VERY first page of the story journal. It has icons representing the choices you made in character generation, and all but two of them are race-specific.

Second, several NPCs met in those early stages of the story will reappear as you progress farther in; it’s part of tailoring the game experience to show that you choices mattered.

Third, some of those choices even affect the development of your home instance.

Fourth, back to story impact – even after choosing an Order, race has a certain degree of impact, especially on the first Order arc – the choices of minor races to help is dependent on your own race. As such, that means at LEAST four chapters of an eight-chapter story get scrapped. (Refer to earlier comment on faces and the kicking thereof.) If you change your race, half your story doesn’t matter.

Personal Story is one of this game’s core features. It was one of the selling points before the game even released. They ARE NOT going to do something that blatantly goes against it.

As for other logistical problems: Racial armor isn’t the only thing in gameplay that is inextricably tied to one’s race. Racial skills are, as well – can you imagine a Sylvari with Bear Form? A Charr with Hounds of Balthazar? It wouldn’t work.

Also, at the end of lots of those story quests, there are rewards that differ based on what quests you do, meaning that your choice of race indirectly affects them.

At the end of the day, race is as immutable as class. It is NOT an “aesthetic choice”, it is part of defining the character. It carries ramifications on both story and gameplay. Your personal appearance, even including gender, does NOT. Which is why that can be changed, but race cannot.

People actually go back and read about their personal story? If they made the token usable only after you finished the race specific section of the story or after the story is completely finished I don’t see why they couldn’t add the ability to change race. I think this item would sell quite a few gems and wouldn’t be surprised to see this feature in the future.

Basket of Boxes.1976:

People actually go back and read about their personal story? If they made the token usable only after you finished the race specific section of the story or after the story is completely finished I don’t see why they couldn’t add the ability to change race. I think this item would sell quite a few gems and wouldn’t be surprised to see this feature in the future.

Yes, they do^^
I like that I have a story that’s not entirely generic. Having the option to change it by changing my race would somewhat cheapen this aspect of the game for me.

Just wipe your personal story progress if you race change.

People have been asking for this since release.
Yes this would be a great idea, but it most likely will not be implemented because “hurr personal story continuity durr” even while we have hundreds of thousands of “heroes of shaemoor” and “slayers of zhaitan” running around.

Red Queen.7915:

Basket of Boxes.1976:

People actually go back and read about their personal story? If they made the token usable only after you finished the race specific section of the story or after the story is completely finished I don’t see why they couldn’t add the ability to change race. I think this item would sell quite a few gems and wouldn’t be surprised to see this feature in the future.

Yes, they do^^
I like that I have a story that’s not entirely generic. Having the option to change it by changing my race would somewhat cheapen this aspect of the game for me.

Then don’t do it. Why should other people not have the option because certain people who would never use the feature don’t want to have their personal story changed? I don’t really have any need for a race change personally but why some people are so against it I don’t understand, nobody is forcing you to do so.

Can someone provide a link to an official statement that race is “hard coded” into the game (what exactly is the threshold between “hard” and “soft” coding?) and therefore creating a race change contract would be inordinately difficult?

Basket of Boxes.1976:

Red Queen.7915:

Basket of Boxes.1976:

People actually go back and read about their personal story? If they made the token usable only after you finished the race specific section of the story or after the story is completely finished I don’t see why they couldn’t add the ability to change race. I think this item would sell quite a few gems and wouldn’t be surprised to see this feature in the future.

Yes, they do^^
I like that I have a story that’s not entirely generic. Having the option to change it by changing my race would somewhat cheapen this aspect of the game for me.

Then don’t do it. Why should other people not have the option because certain people who would never use the feature don’t want to have their personal story changed? I don’t really have any need for a race change personally but why some people are so against it I don’t understand, nobody is forcing you to do so.

But it would take a of hours to recode the game to accept a race change. It would take countless hours of going through the code to make sure that nothing related to the old race remains. And the personal story.

For how many players in real life?

ANet may not feel the players who would use it would offset the costs to make it changeable.

Roda.7468:

Just don’t make that sylvari a medium armor class, ’cause everything is pillowcases.

I know what you mean, but if you can handle PvP at all, I recommend doing the Glorious Reward Track for the Glorious Brigandine. It stays trim on Sylvari, and has no trenchcoat, skirt, or other butt-cape so you can choose a nice-fitting pair of pants to pair with it and still be able to see them.

Seera.5916:

Basket of Boxes.1976:

Red Queen.7915:

Basket of Boxes.1976:

People actually go back and read about their personal story? If they made the token usable only after you finished the race specific section of the story or after the story is completely finished I don’t see why they couldn’t add the ability to change race. I think this item would sell quite a few gems and wouldn’t be surprised to see this feature in the future.

Yes, they do^^
I like that I have a story that’s not entirely generic. Having the option to change it by changing my race would somewhat cheapen this aspect of the game for me.

Then don’t do it. Why should other people not have the option because certain people who would never use the feature don’t want to have their personal story changed? I don’t really have any need for a race change personally but why some people are so against it I don’t understand, nobody is forcing you to do so.

But it would take a of hours to recode the game to accept a race change. It would take countless hours of going through the code to make sure that nothing related to the old race remains. And the personal story.

For how many players in real life?

ANet may not feel the players who would use it would offset the costs to make it changeable.

Lot’s of assuming with no actual knowledge. The number of hours and number of people interested is not something Anet can tell us and it’s definitely not something you are privy to. As a customer I would pay cash to race change 2 of my characters. So I’m telling Anet that and my desire for this function. If you don’t like it, then don’t use it or ask for it. Very simple. No need to poo poo on other people’s desires.

The assumption that many people want it is as unfounded as the assumption that nobody wants it. What we do here is discuss it and state our opinions on the matter. The desired outcome is a decision on Anet’s part which path to pursue – race change or no race change. Since making it happen would mean that something else would not happen, possibly something those against a race change really want to see, it’s less “poo poo-ing” on other people’s wishes, but a signal that there are also people who do not want resources devoted to this particular feature.
Simple as that.

Ralanost.8913:

Seera.5916:

Basket of Boxes.1976:

Red Queen.7915:

Basket of Boxes.1976:

People actually go back and read about their personal story? If they made the token usable only after you finished the race specific section of the story or after the story is completely finished I don’t see why they couldn’t add the ability to change race. I think this item would sell quite a few gems and wouldn’t be surprised to see this feature in the future.

Yes, they do^^
I like that I have a story that’s not entirely generic. Having the option to change it by changing my race would somewhat cheapen this aspect of the game for me.

Then don’t do it. Why should other people not have the option because certain people who would never use the feature don’t want to have their personal story changed? I don’t really have any need for a race change personally but why some people are so against it I don’t understand, nobody is forcing you to do so.

But it would take a of hours to recode the game to accept a race change. It would take countless hours of going through the code to make sure that nothing related to the old race remains. And the personal story.

For how many players in real life?

ANet may not feel the players who would use it would offset the costs to make it changeable.

Lot’s of assuming with no actual knowledge. The number of hours and number of people interested is not something Anet can tell us and it’s definitely not something you are privy to. As a customer I would pay cash to race change 2 of my characters. So I’m telling Anet that and my desire for this function. If you don’t like it, then don’t use it or ask for it. Very simple. No need to poo poo on other people’s desires.

Where have I said I would get kittened at ANet if they added it? Or said that they shouldn’t?

I just said it was something they couldn’t do at this time and the reason for it.

And all business decisions get run by the test of: will I be able to recoup the costs to implement it. Direct sales get looked at definitely, but so do sales that might happen because of it. Or sales they might lose out on.

Like how precursor collections will likely reduce the number of players who spend money on gems to turn to gold. But it gives good PR to ANet which in turn they hope will lead more people to buy gems for the other things they offer in the gem store or to convert to gold for other purposes.

And the opportunity cost of spending those work hours on other things to add to the game. That may be more successful at getting more people to buy gems.

If ANet felt it would likely be profitable for them to allow for a race change, they’d likely make it happen.

Quoting Astral Projections here (an excellent post made a couple of months back):

Astral Projections.7320:

ANet so far has said no.

Race changes:
1) I am afraid that the team does contemplate different possibilities and new features for the future but this one is not among those. Source
2) There are a lot of far-reaching consequences of allowing one character to play through every race’s personal story or equip any cultural armor/weapons. For now, we feel that it would take away from the experience of Guild Wars 2 for the majority of players. Source
3) Thanks for asking. To change the race in the Gem store will not be an option in Guild Wars 2. Source

Check the links out. I’d say there’s enough of a message in the Dev posts to suggest that Race Change is either never going to happen or has a very slim chance of happening in the very distant future. (Once again, if you’re so desperate to re-roll your race, just create a new character) :P

What’s the point of waiting on tenterhooks for something that probably won’t happen? You’ll surely be much happier if you start the journey now and achieve your re-rolled character fairly soon.

I think the simpler solution would be an 80-level tome, which could be acquired only by deleting a level 80 character. You would still lose skill points, soulbound equipment, and story progress, but I feel that is an appropriate price to pay for something drastic like this.