its very common in almost all RPGs i played that u can not respec at all, or you have to craft super expensive potions which mostly require endgame ingredients, and still u can vary builds, test new weapons etc. so if u want to play a mage in dark souls for example u need a new char or new game +, which also strongly promotes replayability. In skilltree based games you learned skills are oftentimes final or you need aforementioned potion.
Having a robust stat system - and if they are planning on removing character stats to begin with, they are probably already thinking like this - encourages players to choose and learn different weapons, runes, armour stats instead of staying with 1-2 weapons the entire game. I’m not sure that trying to pigeon-hole players into replaying the game just to freely try out new builds is the most effective way to encourage replayability; I think it actually makes it worse.
An easily accessible, low/free cost respeccing system for character stats will encourages replayability - replayability is not just about making new characters and progressing through the story again, it’s also about desiring to do so in the first place. Respeccing is already in the game as well - not only in terms of character stats but also in terms of weapons & armour stats/runes and utility runes. The game does value giving players the ability to customise their builds to their playstyle, so I’m not sure why this would be an issue. Giving the choice once the crucible is unlocked or something AND either allowing players to spend a modest amt of coins or just respeccing freely would encourage players to play the game more, not less. This is a single player/co-op game, I just don’t understand why it’s a concern here.
should not be a “try out new build” thing in the sense of today i pump everything in STR and tomorrow i change everything again to DEX. for that you have multiple realms and characters.
Why shouldn’t it? I get that in Dark Souls, stats work that way, but there are plenty of other games that don’t, and I think they are better for it. I play games like Guildwars 2 and V Rising which have very flexible character build mechanics - I love playing my own builds in these games & looking at videos of other peoples builds. I’ve replayed the main storyline of V Rising probably 5-6 times at this point with several different characters in several different servers, and I have almost 1000 hours in that game, partially because it’s an online multiplayer and majorly because I can switch between skills, weapons, etc. and respec my build to try out against PVP & PVE content. In Guildwars 2, I’ve played it for almost 2k hours with 9 different characters, all with several different classes/stories … being given the ability to freely respec my build has only encouraged replayability in these games.
A friendly respec system would champion replayability through design, not hinder or prevent it. Nothing would be taken away from players that wish to only make 1 choice for their stats and that’s it. Respeccing system already exists in the game, so they do value it and want to give players that option, my suggestion is to remove more of the gating around it.
the benefits lie in immersion and the weight of a players choices. its just immersion breaking that you feed some statue with resources and magically turn from harry potter into hulk.
I don’t understand this - you can cook/build things in a 3 second animation, store sawmills and furnaces in your inventory, and be a highly nimble dexterous character that has the muscle mass of a gorilla, but having the option to respe your stats breaks your immersion? If you only want to be Harry Potter or The Hulk exclusively, you can still do that. I don’t see how other people respeccing or just having the option in the first place breaks immersion for you.
and it should matter lore wise and roleplay wise what u choose to level. when u can respec anytime, why would you even think about how to invest points or what weapon to chose in this realm and with that char? whatever u do does not matter at all once u can respec from lvl 1 forward.
It’s up to the player to decide that. Giving players more options to control their experience is a good thing.