I want to change the race of some of my characters!

[Endhle.5896]

I am aware that changing the race of a character is difficult, as the personal story has some chapters that are race specific, this is probably why the total makeover does not allow that option. I've been suggested to create a new character and problem solved, but then what about the investment in build templates, equipment templates and inventory slots, etc?

Some ideas I've been thinking about:
1. Allow to change race with total makeover, and reset core game personal story upon race change, this sounds like a fair compromise, without the knowledge of how this is implemented internally, I would assume this could reduce the development efforts to have to figure out a system for it instead.

2. Workaround: make gem upgrades transferable from one character to another (inventory slots, build and equipment templates), this sounds like an alternative that would still allow me to get me what I want, without sacrificing all the gem upgrades. A first iteration like this would be, to make it limited only to a character that has no upgrades at all, as an all or nothing option, and later on, to expand and offer more flexibility incrementally.

There are probably other details that might be coupled to the race that I didn't think of, and probably there are other alternatives that could enable this goal, but after 10 years playing the game, its a bit frustrating to have so many options to change, fashion, appearance, wvw servers, but not the race of a character
 

[kharmin.7683]

Please use the forums search feature.  ANet has already said no to race changes for the personal story reason that you've already mentioned.  The answer is to create a new character.

As for suggestion #1, I would rather see Anet use their resources elsewhere. Besides, why wouldn't they want players to purchase a new character slot and purchase templates for that character?  Not sure it's a fair compromise when the company would lose money.

Suggestion #2 -- same reasoning.   Anet would lose money on this as well.

But a lot of this has already been discussed over and over and over an over and over again. 

[Randulf.7614]

It would not reduce development costs. Resetting the personal story is on record as being a technical nightmare and risks severe game breaking bugs for the character.

I have no objection to this suggestion, but all the statements so far have leaned towards this never happening because it’s not worth it for the work involved on the spaghetti mess of the core code. Neither of 5he above suggestions mitigate the large amount of work, QA and bug testing required.
 

Even if Anet were to find a way round, chances are it would’ve been quicker just to remake and level a new character

[solemace.8427]

an unfortunate aspect of having story lines tied to the characters race and an multi character dependent design is that these changes are very unlikely due to the amount of resources anet would have to pour in to make them happen. It would be nice if  I could race, or class swap a few but I'm not exactly holding my breath for it.

 

[Arnox.5128]

3 hours ago, kharmin.7683 said:

I would rather see Anet use their resources elsewhere.

No.

[Doggie.3184]

You'll have to reroll, unfortunatly, and rebuy everything. This is the monetization route they've chosen.

I'd personally probably have 2-3 more legendary weapons if I didn't reroll so many characters.

Edit: Since someone's confused; reroll = make a new character in this case and reobtain everything your old one had like bag slots, map/story completion, etc. It's the only option we ever had the past 10 years despite the nonstop request.

Edited October 17, 2022 by Doggie.3184

[The Greyhawk.9107]

3 hours ago, Arnox.5128 said:

No.

Tough kitten, they aren't going to do this.

[Mortime.1359]

I have no doubt that it would be hard for them to implement if they said so nevertheless the insane amount of money left lying on the floor here is pretty amazing. In both WoW and FF14 people spend absurd amounts of money to race change their characters, constantly. I mean some people in FF14 race change their characters almost daily. That is some nice cash padding that they've left our of their equation.

Edit: Yes I know that they've said that it could break everything and all that but both WoW and FF14 are also coded in spaghetti and that has never stopped them from adding more features or revenue streams to their games.

Edited October 17, 2022 by Mortime.1359

[firedragon.8953]

Changing your "race" is very similar to a cosmetic change and thus generally will cost money, either in terms of a character slot or repurchasing gem store character-bound items. Anet is probably more than happy for you to repurchase your bag slots, etc., although you are very unhappy about it.

Monetarization models like which Anet uses with GW2 are more punishing to indecisive and finicky players. That being said, since you've mentioned you've played for 10 years, I'm sure you know how to farm gold T4 fractals, raids, fishing, drizzlewood, etc. that you can farm for your account upgrades. The current characters you "retire" won't go to waste either since they can be extra account inventory space.

Generally, when it comes to these types of things you'd be better off learning how to work your way around them and just accept them as "rules of the game" than sitting on your hands and waiting for dev intervention. I'm sure it can feel crappy, but honestly, it is hardly game breaking.

[AgentMoore.9453]

People have requested this many times for many years, and I hope one day it becomes a thing.

[Antycypator.9874]

Delete and create new character. This is your race change.

[Astralporing.1957]

1 hour ago, Mortime.1359 said:

I have no doubt that it would be hard for them to implement if they said so nevertheless the insane amount of money left lying on the floor here is pretty amazing. In both WoW and FF14 people spend absurd amounts of money to race change their characters, constantly. I mean some people in FF14 race change their characters almost daily. That is some nice cash padding that they've left our of their equation.

Edit: Yes I know that they've said that it could break everything and all that but both WoW and FF14 are also coded in spaghetti and that has never stopped them from adding more features or revenue streams to their games.

I don't know about WoW, but changing race in FF XIV is easy from the developers' side. It's just a look, that is nto tied to anything else in the game. The story pretty much ignores your race even when it makes sense, and all "racial" checks (i remember exactly two in the whole storyline so far) are just for "here and now" dialog options, with no consequences to them whatsoever. In short, you can change race there, because your race does not matter.

[Arnox.5128]

1 hour ago, The Greyhawk.9107 said:

Tough kitten, they aren't going to do this.

In all seriousness, it would at least be very cool to change your class. Hell, even if it was restricted to only classes in your armor type, that would be neat as well.

[Labjax.2465]

1 hour ago, Antycypator.9874 said:

Delete and create new character. This is your race change.

And lose all birthday year progress on that character. And if you are the type to buy them, all character specific unlocks like bags and templates.

Until/unless they address those type of things, deleting is not even remotely a solution for people who want a race change.

[kharmin.7683]

3 minutes ago, Labjax.2465 said:

And lose all birthday year progress on that character. And if you are the type to buy them, all character specific unlocks like bags and templates.

Until/unless they address those type of things, deleting is not even remotely a solution for people who want a race change.

So, don't delete.  Buy a new character slot.

[Dawdler.8521]

1 minute ago, Labjax.2465 said:

And lose all birthday year progress on that character. And if you are the type to buy them, all character specific unlocks like bags and templates.

Until/unless they address those type of things, deleting is not even remotely a solution for people who want a race change.

Alas the problems of a game literally built around having alts.

You dont loose your progress if you just buy a new slot and start playing that character. Bonus for getting free leveling loot and BL keys.

[Danikat.8537]

I can't find the quote now but someone from Anet did explain this a few years ago. It's not that they don't want to do it because the personal story would look wrong or whatever, it's that because of the way the game is programmed it can literally break the character. They tried and it could lock you out of all storylines, including new ones, or make it impossible to log into that character at all. They couldn't fix that because the game is programmed around the assumption that a characters race and profession will never change.

If it was just that what's in the story journal wouldn't match the new race I suspect they'd just put a line in the gem store description (this would obviously be a paid service) to tell you that's going to happen.

They might find a way to do it one day, until recently it was impossible to change your display name for similar reasons and apparently someone figured that out. But I wouldn't expect it any time soon and I'm certain it's not because they don't realise players want it and would be ok with their story journal not changing.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

You could always change your Display Name, it just could cause hiccups in the game, just as those listed now when changing your Display Name. From the Knowledge Base:

These side effects include some issues with:

• Guild Lists
• Guild Rosters
• Inability to chat
• Broken friend/block/social lists
• The old and new name showing intermittently

[Robert Calais.8425]

14 hours ago, kharmin.7683 said:

Besides, why wouldn't they want players to purchase a new character slot and purchase templates for that character?

Because, at some point, you can no longer purchase new character slots. And if you're like me, having played your characters for thousands of hours, you'd rather not give ArenaNet your money at all instead of starting over.
I've been begging ArenaNet to raise the character slot limit to 100 for over eight years, but they just won't listen. In response, I simply won't buy their [thanks for censoring the s*** word] anymore.

 

6 hours ago, Antycypator.9874 said:

Delete and create new character. This is your race change.

Delete what, the game? Because I'd rather do that.

Edited October 17, 2022 by Calais.6348
Minor typo.

[kharmin.7683]

38 minutes ago, Calais.6348 said:

Because, at some point, you can no longer purchase new character slots. And if you're like me, having played your characters for thousands of hours, you'd rather not give ArenaNet your money at all instead of starting over.
I've been begging ArenaNet to raise the character slot limit to 100 for over eight years, but they just won't listen. In response, I simply won't buy their [thanks for censoring the s*** word] anymore.

 

 

Then you're out of luck.  If you have maxed out your slots, it amazes me that you wouldn't already have the profession/race combo that you want.

[CrashTestAuto.9108]

15 hours ago, kharmin.7683 said:

 

Suggestion #2 -- same reasoning.   Anet would lose money on this as well.

 

I would be fascinated to know if this is true.  I specifically don't buy bag slots/build templates/equipment templates because of the per character approach.  If these were account unlocks, even at a higher cost, I'd likely have bought several of each.

 

Obviously we don't have data, but I'd be really surprised if the number of people who buy lots and lots of these slots for multiple characters outweighs the number of people who avoid them entirely because they're character specific.

[robertthebard.8150]

1 minute ago, CrashTestAuto.9108 said:

I would be fascinated to know if this is true.  I specifically don't buy bag slots/build templates/equipment templates because of the per character approach.  If these were account unlocks, even at a higher cost, I'd likely have bought several of each.

 

Obviously we don't have data, but I'd be really surprised if the number of people who buy lots and lots of these slots for multiple characters outweighs the number of people who avoid them entirely because they're character specific.

I don't buy build templates/equipment templates, but if I'm planning on actually playing a character, I'll get the inventory expansions.  I wouldn't buy a race change though, because I don't see the point to it.

[Robert Calais.8425]

18 minutes ago, kharmin.7683 said:

Then you're out of luck.  If you have maxed out your slots, it amazes me that you wouldn't already have the profession/race combo that you want.

I do, but I'm a fashion warrior and costume player.

Edit: Just in case that wasn't clear; this means that I frequently come up with new character designs that I would love to bring to life.

Edited October 17, 2022 by Calais.6348

[Bollocks.4078]

What if instead of an actual race change it was just cosmetic?  That is, your actual race would be unchanged but you would have the appearance of a different race.  Would that satisfy people who want race change?

[Danikat.8537]

I don't think I'd buy a race change token if it was available.  I did once delete a norn revenant and asuran necromancer to replace them with a charr revenant, norn necromancer and added an asuran engineer and I suppose I could have done 2 of those with a race change. But when I remade them the norn and asura had the same name and appearance, so it was more of a profession change. Also they were both low level and doing it this way only cost me the price of a character slot (and technically a hair style kit, but I got that free from somewhere) whereas I'm sure a race change (or profession change) would be a paid service.

Other than that I've never wanted to change any of my permanent characters. I do have a few temporary ones who have gone through a few different professions, but that's one of the reasons they're temporary - I can't find a good fit for them that also fits what I want to play.

I'm not opposed to it existing, but I think I'd always choose to delete and remake a character instead, or make a new one and retire the old one.

 

1 minute ago, CrashTestAuto.9108 said:

I would be fascinated to know if this is true.  I specifically don't buy bag slots/build templates/equipment templates because of the per character approach.  If these were account unlocks, even at a higher cost, I'd likely have bought several of each.

 

Obviously we don't have data, but I'd be really surprised if the number of people who buy lots and lots of these slots for multiple characters outweighs the number of people who avoid them entirely because they're character specific.

I don't buy them either but every time bag slots go on sale I see people announcing it and urging others to buy them while they're cheap so it seems like something a lot of players do buy. It's also one of the things commonly recommended for new players.

I'm less sure about equipment and build tabs because those are more expensive and I know a lot of people are annoyed about the cost and/or implementation, so I suspect there's fewer sales overall.