I’m honestly surprised at how adamantly anyone weighs in on this, as well as stating that the game would for a fact bet better or worse if this was implemented.
That out of the way, I believe that it would help the flow of play to be able to at least switch body types during the game.
The explanation is pretty simple… There’s no cost for changing your body type now. If we’re going to give the credit to SD for considering the choice to not allow swapping characters to begin with during a game, or that respeccing abilities costs money, then they obviously considered body type. Yet, it really doesn’t make any logical sense. (LOL GUYS WORKED OUT GOT RIPPED YESTERDAY. THIS TAT IS FOREVER THO)
So, sense is out of the window. What are we left with? Game mechanics.
Ok, so we’re coming from a base of other games. I haven’t played the original ET series, just Quake Wars, so I’ll take from that one:
There was no persistent advancement at all, beyond rank. Unlocks were on a per-campaign basis. Were they per class or just overall score? Can’t remember that part. Regardless, though. You could change midway through the game.
So, I’m not sure where any of the arguments for “The other games were like that” come from.
That leaves us with “They meant it that way! It nullifies choice!”
The answer to this is pretty much opinion, because it relies on how you believe specialization choices should impact your gameplay.
To pick a opinion from another post, let’s take the one above this one. “Bland”.
EDIT: Tokamak’s post. A couple posted before me.
Alright, so the hypothesis is… letting players switch specializations mid-game, and (more or less, based on how much they’ve played, how many characters they have leveled, and how many characters you can possibly have) access different specializations, makes the game incredibly bland.
Well, alright, I don’t agree, but this is opinion after all.
My opinion, as stated above, is different.
While I agree, it would in part (Again, you must have leveled these characters and/or have room for ones of the given, relevant specialization) remove the penalty for specializing, it would improve the ability to work as a team.
To support my hypothesis, I’ll look to Quake Wars again. Everyone started out with the same things, then gained access to specialized gear as the game progressed… But they gained access to all the specialized gear (Again, I remember it being based on the score, not the per-class score, if this is wrong this point is void)
It worked quite well, and wasn’t dull for it. At least, in my opinion. Tokamak may well disagree with that.
The common alternate suggestion is to allow body type switching. I already explained why it makes sense to allow above, but I’ll further support the hypothesis with gameplay examples.
Here’s a big one: Map changes. You picked a heavy body type for this game (Remember, body type changes are free, just like weapons), and you joined on a specific map that heavies aren’t at a severe disadvantage on. The map changes, and suddenly, heavy is a really bad body type to be. Well, you can already disconnect, change, and reconnect as a medium or light for free, not counting a few seconds. Why not in game, or between maps?
Here’s another: Objective changes with the map. Hacking objectives need to be accessed quickly, whereas a escort mission can usually use more durability. Same supporting points as above, yet different scenario.
There is obviously a counterpoint to this, “It trivializes specialization and choices”.
Well, that’s more or less true, but as pointed out above for body types, it is already trivialized to a slightly lesser degree. Why loose out on usability if you’re already loosing out on standards? (There’s a better word, but I’m tired)
Anyway, my TL;DR point is that no one can say what the changes would result in with certainty, and this discussion should be bases on hypotheses and supporting evidence. Not to mention the title isn’t … right if the OP actually wants feedback instead of only affirmation of his opinion by like-opinioned individuals.
My TL;DR opinion is that body type changes should definitely be allowed in games, and class changes should be considered.
EDIT: After thinking about this, the PC-way would be to have server vars to control if and when switching character/body type is allowed. Free choice and all.
