Faction Character Transfers.

[EVILPIG]

Factions are purely based on political and philosophical views. They are not races. this being said, it is possible for a person to change their views. Given the time it will take to level or advance a character, how would players feel about the ability to switch factions? This of course would take Station Cash.

I expect some pretty loyalist reactions to this, but, not everyone remains loyal.

[Zhane]

I'm sure it'll be available eventually, for cash.

[Xaine]

I'm sure it'll be available eventually, for cash.

Pretty much that.

I don't really mind either way. Its fairly inevitable.

[ringring]

Aye.

Also what about respec's.

you have certed down one 'tree' can you retrieve your cert points and apply them to a different tree? e.g. move them from ground assault to air assault.

[Bags]

I don't mind it and would be highly surprised if they didn't sell it somewhere down the line.

[Duddy]

I'd accept a transfer service, certainly makes sense not wanting to lose your progression but I wonder about how cosmetic stuff works (buy once per character or does it carry across all of them?).

I was going to suggest a cooldown on such a service, but it seems silly when I thought about it further.

Though I imagine there would be a set of restrictions on its use though.

[Shogun]

see no problem with that, as long as the certs and bought storestuff all have counterparts in every faction and translate to that.

and it´s another way to make some money for soe. the faction choice is the only permanent choice in the game, so putting this in the cash shop for 5 bucks would keep the players from switching randomly, but it would not force a longtimeplayer to stick with his faction if he really wants to change.

[FastAndFree]

I'd accept a transfer service, certainly makes sense not wanting to lose your progression but I wonder about how cosmetic stuff works (buy once per character or does it carry across all of them?).

I was going to suggest a cooldown on such a service, but it seems silly when I thought about it further.

Though I imagine there would be a set of restrictions on its use though.

Thinking back how I had to throw away my ~5 years old char I support this idea

[TheRagingGerbil]

If it cost real cash and takes more then 24 hours to happen...

You know, the more I think about it I kinda like the devotion it force the player to have to their empire. I suspect those that are most attached to their empire are the ones who were around when you had to delete your character to change.

Hmmm, going to have to give more thought...

[Death2All]

I'm not really against it. You could always make a new character, but if you're willing to fork out a few bucks to transfer that's fine by me.

[DaddyTickles]

How would you transfer your toon? Will the xp be directly translated? Or are we talking about the name and some badges to show you are a vet?

Seems unlikely to me.

[EVILPIG]

How would you transfer your toon? Will the xp be directly translated? Or are we talking about the name and some badges to show you are a vet?

Seems unlikely to me.

Yes, same name all progression.

[Graywolves]

Factions are purely based on political and philosophical views. They are not races. this being said, it is possible for a person to change their views. Given the time it will take to level or advance a character, how would players feel about the ability to switch factions? This of course would take Station Cash.

I expect some pretty loyalist reactions to this, but, not everyone remains loyal.

Actually, you are Matrixed into the system of your empire (this is how you respawn at their facilities) A traitor would be 'Dematrixed' and executed.

It would be very difficult to get yourself Matrixed into another empire's system and spawn solely at their locations. Chances are you would eventually spawn back into your original empire's hands and be detained indefinately.

[EVILPIG]

Actually, you are Matrixed into the system of your empire (this is how you respawn at their facilities) A traitor would be 'Dematrixed' and executed.

It would be very difficult to get yourself Matrixed into another empire's system and spawn solely at their locations. Chances are you would eventually spawn back into your original empire's hands and be detained indefinately.

If you want to get fluffy about it, it would be even more simple to have it transferred. Hell, a faction could hack in and steal or erase soldiers permanently. So let's not go there.

[VanuMAXGuy]

If someone wants to leave the Vanu, I will gladly honor their wishes with bullets in their faces.

If someone wants to come to the Vanu, I will gladly honor their wishes with no bullets in their faces.

[Malorn]

Seems like another good thing for station cash.

[Tcakes]

not that I'm a hardcore loyalist, but there should be something in place to give you pause for switching. ya you can transfer but all the "store stuff" you bought is gone. maybe a small exp loss, like a battle rank. Also no switching again for at least 24 hrs. It should be something not done lightly.

[VanuMAXGuy]

not that I'm a hardcore loyalist, but there should be something in place to give you pause for switching. ya you can transfer but all the "store stuff" you bought is gone. maybe a small exp loss, like a battle rank. Also no switching again for at least 24 hrs. It should be something not done lightly.

Just highlight them as a traitor for a day, and anyone from the faction they left gets huge bonus EXP for killing them.

[EVILoHOMER]

I really don't think it will be worth putting the time in with Planetside 2.

End of the day it'll be a fast paced online FPS that your character wont matter to you as much as an RPG. Sure you'll be able to customise your weapons and your look but you can in many FPS games and you don't get attached to your character. The level of progression wont be linear like WoW so you'll easily be able to make ALTS and level them up to do different rolls and switch between them. Also as it's an FPS it comes down to skill and not your level, so you'll be able to roll new characters easily and play with your friends straight away unlike a linear level based MMORPG.

I really don't think you'll be wanting to switch your faction for any story based reason, Planetside lore was so bad the only reason you stuck with a faction was for the colour, style, weapons and vehicles they had. I really doubt we'll be saying "I've changed my views on this Republic, I want to join the NC to fight for Freedom". Most likely you'll be like "I really want that JH so I'll roll NC" lol....

We'll have to wait and see but I really don't see any reason to waste time on this feature with the type of game Planetside 2 will be. In SWTOR it would make sense if you were a Dark Jedi to turn to Sith, but for Planetside 2?

[Bags]

Just highlight them as a traitor for a day, and anyone from the faction they left gets huge bonus EXP for killing them.

Heh, that'd be amusing.

[Tcakes]

thats pretty damn funny, I like that idea a lot

[Graywolves]

If you want to get fluffy about it, it would be even more simply to have it transferred. Hell, a faction could hack in and steal or erase soldiers permanently. So let's not go there.

Obviously each empire has their servers kept in the heart of their respective capitols in a room completely void of nanites and guarded by the scariest things imaginable.

[EVILoHOMER]

not that I'm a hardcore loyalist, but there should be something in place to give you pause for switching. ya you can transfer but all the "store stuff" you bought is gone. maybe a small exp loss, like a battle rank. Also no switching again for at least 24 hrs. It should be something not done lightly.

I think it is a bad idea to punish a player for playing the way they want to and you'll probably see more people leave over being frustrated. Say your friends play another faction but in your time when they aren't on you want to play the faction you prefer, then you're punished for it.... that would just be bad and not a good feature. If people really want to spy and tell the other faction what is going on then they'll make ALT accounts and do it.

What Planetside 2 needs to do is figure a way to stop this from happening without punishing the innocent players.

[EightEightEight]

TR for life but I can see the appeal to this so why not have it

Although I wonder if they will faction lock you on a server meaning you can only make NC or TR or VS chars and if you do pay it switches all your chars over to the other faction

[Graywolves]

I think it is a bad idea to punish a player for playing the way they want to and you'll probably see more people leave over being frustrated. Say your friends play another faction but in your time when they aren't on you want to play the faction you prefer, then you're punished for it.... that would just be bad and not a good feature. If people really want to spy and tell the other faction what is going on then they'll make ALT accounts and do it.

What Planetside 2 needs to do is figure a way to stop this from happening without punishing the innocent players.

With free accounts you should be able to avoid penalization no problem so there isn't a reason it would likely be enforced anyways.

It'd be like making farting illegal. You can't possibly enforce that so there's no point trying.

[Duddy]

I really don't think it will be worth putting the time in with Planetside 2.

End of the day it'll be a fast paced online FPS that your character wont matter to you as much as an RPG. Sure you'll be able to customise your weapons and your look but you can in many FPS games and you don't get attached to your character. The level of progression wont be linear like WoW so you'll easily be able to make ALTS and level them up to do different rolls and switch between them. Also as it's an FPS it comes down to skill and not your level, so you'll be able to roll new characters easily and play with your friends straight away unlike a linear level based MMORPG.

The fact that progression isn't linear is probably the reason someone would want the service though.

Unlike in WoW where you can now (very easily may I add) hit the end game pretty quickly and get all the stuff you need to be proficient in a short space of time, in PS2 if you were to "roll an alt" you lose the (potentially) hundreds of hours worth of progression on the character.

"But new players and old players have about the same odds, right?"

Yep, but the that's not the issue. Over the length of the play time you'll of unlocked a huge amount of certs (based on the assertion that you can get all the certs through time), and starting again means you lose all that. And again, as it is time based, you cannot replace that quickly like you could in WoW.

"Well then that's a great deterrent to empire hopping."

I totally agree with that, but, this isn't just about empire hopping. There could be extenuating circumstances that would, for whatever reason, mean you didn't want to remain playing a particular empire. So if a player put into a bad position, not just wanting to be on the winning team, wanted to swap? Should they lose everything?

Heck, if people wanted to swap just to be on the winning team, I'd think they'd probably do it by making a new account which is free, rather than paying for such a service.

In summary; I don't think it's so simple as you believe, I think people will get MORE attached to characters simply due to the potential amount of man-hours you can invest (with payoff) into a character via the cert system. And this is before we even know how the cosmetics work.

[sylphaen]

I think it was useful to balance the factions. Maybe balancing will not be necessary with a large amount of players PS2 is expected to have but being able to switch empire should be available imo.

There could be a default faction (pay station cash to switch default faction would be ok) but you should be able to switch for free TEMPORARILY if it is to correct an imbalance.

Just my thoughts...

[Sirisian]

I've said this before. The membership feature should just allow you to play any faction using your character on the server. You could make it a 30 minute delay to switch, but basically just design it so you can switch between 3 characters with the same name. I don't think this would hurt faction loyalty. I mean I'll always play as VS, but at the same time I also want to play with/against my friends. Some of which play NC and TR. We had this problem in the original with the counters. I'm sure others experienced this also. Basically it's either that or you create 3 accounts and can do the same thing. The membership would just offer this convenience. That an experiencing all the empires without deleting your character on the server would be a big plus.

[EVILoHOMER]

The fact that progression isn't linear is probably the reason someone would want the service though.

Unlike in WoW where you can now (very easily may I add) hit the end game pretty quickly and get all the stuff you need to be proficient in a short space of time, in PS2 if you were to "roll an alt" you lose the (potentially) hundreds of hours worth of progression on the character.

"But new players and old players have about the same odds, right?"

Yep, but the that's not the issue. Over the length of the play time you'll of unlocked a huge amount of certs (based on the assertion that you can get all the certs through time), and starting again means you lose all that. And again, as it is time based, you cannot replace that quickly like you could in WoW.

"Well then that's a great deterrent to empire hopping."

I totally agree with that, but, this isn't just about empire hopping. There could be extenuating circumstances that would, for whatever reason, mean you didn't want to remain playing a particular empire. So if a player put into a bad position, not just wanting to be on the winning team, wanted to swap? Should they lose everything?

Heck, if people wanted to swap just to be on the winning team, I'd think they'd probably do it by making a new account which is free, rather than paying for such a service.

In summary; I don't think it's so simple as you believe, I think people will get MORE attached to characters simply due to the potential amount of man-hours you can invest (with payoff) into a character via the cert system. And this is before we even know how the cosmetics work.


It's something that is perfect for the cash shop and with a high fee it wouldn't be used too much either so it would balance out. I just think it is a feature like a few months after launch when the effort has been put into more important things and the game has settled down a bit.

Where it would make perfect sense to build it into a gameplay story feature in SWTOR, I cannot see it being anything other than a cash shop feature in Planetside 2. I just don't think the lore will be as important..

[Duddy]

It's something that is perfect for the cash shop and with a high fee it wouldn't be used too much either so it would balance out. I just think it is a feature like a few months after launch when the effort has been put into more important things and the game has settled down a bit.

Where it would make perfect sense to build it into a gameplay story feature in SWTOR, I cannot see it being anything other than a cash shop feature in Planetside 2. I just don't think the lore will be as important..

Oh certainly, I don't think anyone meant to suggest it as a free service.

I also, to some extent, agree that it wouldn't make a huge amount of sense very early in the games life cycle.

As for story/lore, I agree. I don't understand how (or for that matter why) such a service would be linked to that.

[Tcakes]

I dont want the cost to be looked at as a punishment, but it should be costly. As for the attachment to the toon. probably not a big deal, but PS was the first game I played where I remembered really hating another empire. I know im not alone in this, its part of what made PS a great game. In the end though people are going to do what they want.

[Dreamcast]

Their should be like a limit IMO....Not like somebody switching each day...


It should also show up in your record that you were previously other faction so we can know that you have no honor and have no loyalty...Typical NC and VS BTW.

[sylphaen]

I've said this before. The membership feature should just allow you to play any faction using your character on the server. You could make it a 30 minute delay to switch, but basically just design it so you can switch between 3 characters with the same name. I don't think this would hurt faction loyalty. I mean I'll always play as VS, but at the same time I also want to play with/against my friends. Some of which play NC and TR. We had this problem in the original with the counters. I'm sure others experienced this also. Basically it's either that or you create 3 accounts and can do the same thing. The membership would just offer this convenience. That an experiencing all the empires without deleting your character on the server would be a big plus.

This is a good idea for memberships, imo.

[EVILPIG]

I don't intend for this to be a means of "empire hopping", but a way for someone to switch teams for deeper reasons. They may have become disenfranchised with their empire on their server, or may be struggling to fit in with their community. They may have had a falling out and wish to switch. They may have encountered an enemy outfit which impressed them so much, they desert to join them. Either way, I'm talking more permanent than on the fly. Like $20.

[Furber]

yeah i would expect this to cost station cash