Class Changes

Khizan

So. Keeping classes between circles is nice, but it really didn't solve the problem, imo. That's because, when you get down to it, it's really only nice for the people like me and Septus and such, the serial circle-changers who know they're going to switch back eventually and who have enough resources to afford a circle change despite missing out on refunded profession lessons. Me, Septus, Eldreth, etc. Most of the other people either don't have the resources to switch circles without dropping professions, or they don't change circles often enough to justify keeping a profession.

The big problem with class changes, imo, is that by the time that people have enough levels and skills to really understand how their class actually works, they're already locked into it. L51 and mid-Mythical and you're eating a 50% lesson loss if you decide you dislike it. This is a huge problem, because most classes don't actually get rolling until you're dual-trans at the least. An Outrider needs to trans Wyrmriding and Hunting to fight; until they have those skills, how can they know whether or not they want to stick with the class? New player picks assassin and by the time they've realized "oh crap, this class needs affliction tracking and all this stuff I don't understand" they're already locked in. Player picks a magick circle profession and later decides they'd rather be in AM/demonic because of a better combat environment? Too late, you're locked into Mage.

And what happens if they don't like the class? Well. They can quit the class, lose 50% of their lessons, and then have no easy way to regain them because they've burned all their easy leveling lessons/credits already. They can make a new character and throw away all the bashing time and gold and other gains they've made in order to put the easy leveling credits towards another profession. Or they can quit. The problem here is that all three of those options suck.

I think the player experience would really be improved by moving the requirements for Master up a bit higher. Let people hit dualtrans without necessarily automatically mastering the profession, so that they can actually use the class skills before they get locked into it. Maybe change it so that you don't Master a profession until you have a certain amount of hours logged as that profession? A one-time use free/90% class change, like we have reincarnations?  Something to keep people's choices from being locked in so early.

Claudius

The one time free profession switch, like the reincarnate, is an awesome idea. Upvote.

Kabaal

Add one free profession skill refund every X amount of time (A couple weeks?), and then they can add one token ware that gives you a new one if you get bored or hate the new one even more.

Giving people a chance to try out new shtuff every once in a while can entice them to play more, and anyone who seriously plays multiple classes will likely still invest the credits to learn them anyhow to be able to swap at will. It's a cheap way to boost activity by minimizing (not even entirely removing!) one of the most ancient IRE moneygrubbing techniques.

Either way, I agree with the sentiment of the opee.

Dicene

Love the above suggestions. I'd go one further though so that it has an impact on midbie players too. Maybe add an additional bonus for when you've been in a circle for 90 days(which is the point where you no longer lose lessons when leaving a circle without forgetting classes). Add 1 free class-reincarnation, so that if you decide to change circle after having spent 90+ days in your current one(which isn't a small amount of time, really), you at least start out with a class without having to eat a 900c loss(whether from forgetting two classes at 50% lesson loss, or for just buying a new class altogether).

When I left Magick on Baasche, I kept Druid and Hunter, as I absolutely adore the classes and would like to have them as backups in case I didn't enjoy Demonic, but I had to forget two of my other classes(Runeguard and Renegade) to afford even a single class in Demonic(Summoner). This 870c loss is huge for someone like me that mainly subsists on Elite credits, and it made me pretty reluctant to change in the first place. Had something like this been in place, I could have just dropped Renegade and kept the other three, with the option to forget more classes to learn more in Demonic if I decided I was absolutely not going to go back to Magick. It would have a pretty huge impact on those of us that can't afford to just shell out another $300 immediately for a class when changing circle, while not really having an impact on the people that can afford to keep classes when jumping circle, as they'll likely be just as willing to continue buying new classes anyway.

Khizan

Your problem was that you had ample resources to pay the price of moving but didn't want to pay the price. That's not a big problem, honestly, and it can't really be solved because solutions like "Let me change circles every 3 months without a cost" are never going to fly. A better solution to your problem would be a once-a-month lesson package or something similar.

The problem I want to address is things like "Trans-and-change Bard gets into the game and goes "Wow, I really wish I'd joined AM or Demonic, because they have a combat presence, but if I want to do that now I have to restart completely or throw away half of my available bashing credits".

Oystir

Compared to the inability to even get Virtuoso prior to the (relatively new) changes to levels, even hitting trans without credit investment is still impressive and massively generous to me. This as a 'free sample' as far as IRE goes.

I assume if somebody is Trans-and-change X, they'll be at a point to actually consider an actual investment OR alting OR keeping their active character, all of which will benefit Imperian. I doubt many people have QQ'd forever over picking an organization they do not like very much after getting to that point. I believe, the goal of the increase in lesson access -- It turns the problem into "I have to invest credits to get further/get a new class after all this time I've put in!" instead of "I have to invest credits to trans my main guild skill."

I think as far as a pay-for-perks game, that is actually the ideal problem to give your casual playerbase.

Edit: That said, I'll never complain about any generous blessing to the Playerbase =D
Edit Edit: Unless it's RNG credit prizes and I don't get any. Then I'll complain. A lot.

When is the Wheel coming back?

Khizan

People quit games all the time because they run into the "Ugh, I want to restart but then I'd have to redo the intro... screw it I'll just play something else" situation.