I understand that, but considering this isn't an MMO, I can't really consider this a "good point" to make. In fact already addressed this fact in the OP. This game is more like battlefield, where, you unlock things for Classes. And even though there are multiple factions (Chinese, Russian, and American to use BF4 as an example) The solider, and vehicle classes essentially have parity with each other, because they are functionally identical. That's the way EC is. As I suspected. This is a by-product of their lofty pre-release promises not coming to fruition. Chalk up another point for changing the system.
Well you can't fault them for them wanting you to play the game. They do not force you to play a second marine and especially on LSM it is actually directly opposing "what is good" for the game if you do so. You might not wish to hear that but anything making it easier to stay LSM forever is deadly to the game since this is where most people start with. To incentify you to just play 1 char to 6 and then to transfer all your lootboxes and advancements to the other 3 character slots would be a very bad move. It would tell everyone "playing eldar or ork or chaos is silly you have to grind everything again". I mean you could play a blue red yellow or green marine with no extra work in your scenario, why grind for the drum mag or heavy barrel on an ork for the second time? This game needs lesser LSM and more other faction chars. Last but not least, if you are just in for the cosmetics, a rank 1 dark angel with 50k rtc gear can still look badass even if he does not have a the mastercrafted lascannon or last 30k box unlocked. Vets are unlockable after rank 4 or 5 which is XP wise about 100 games (30-40h) invested.
Strangely ,the only point in his post that you don't quote is that you can ACTUALLY change your colour, without having to create a second character from scratchs, so why are you not actually trying this ? There is no reason that the game actually include a faction wide progression, not only because the grinding is not that hard to come back too if you didn't decided to suddendly change once you almost reach rank 6, but also it's clearly not a game like Battlefield where it's your account that grind XP, you are playing a character and it's your character that is hardened with battles. By the way the "muh lore" about the blood angels blue helmet for devastator might not please you despite you claiming to be a blood angel fan at first and I can understand you don't like this aspect of the blood angels designation, but you cannot blame either the game for trying to be a bit lore wise on those cases and distinction, it's stupid it's just a detail. Without wanting to be disrespectful, I only see someone here who just decided in the heat of the moment to change of characters, but is too lazy to begin a new one and so decide to complain in hope to not have to do it. And don't get me the "It's not a MMO" excuses, this not the first non-MMO multiplayer games that got a progression based on character and not on account or faction.
What games that play like Battlefield have a per character progression system? I hope you weren't thinking of comparing this to a game like Overwatch or Paladins. I could understand this system if there was even a single distance outside of visualization between the chapters in this game, but there aren't. The fact remains that it's a by-product of mechanics that aren't in the game. There's noting unique about the characters. A better question, why SHOULDN'T progression be faction wide? (pro-tip: "It doesn't take that long" isn't an answer)
This game is not Battlefield so its moot to compare those two. As i pointed out you can change subfactions something you ignored. You ignored aswell the simple reason i provided why factionwide progression should not be a thing. It discourages swapping to the lesser populated factions and that is unhealthy for the game, especially since the xenos do not really have any subfaction relevant issues. This is the same reason why they dont keep adding additional stuff beyond rank 6. You are supposed to be encouraged to try something new. Last but not least there might be a simple technical reason for it. Requisition is character bound and not accountbound same with the lootcrates. If you delete a char and rebuild it for the very same faction all previously opened crates will be lost unlike RTC purchases. It probably messes up their system if they would tie supplyboxes to the account since those who play Xenos and Marines on the same account will get alot of issues opening boxes with crossfaction requisition. Sounds like alot of work just to enable the far few who need to have multiple spacemarines to save a few hours grind.
I guess I was thrown off by the two games playing exactly the same, save for extremely minor mechanical differences and the wargear system. Though to be fair it's much more similar to Battlefront than Battlefield. But either way, point stands. Because it's not really a solution when you're still talking about losing progress on a character you have. And no YOU i.e the player cannot change your sub-faction. YOU have to attempt to contact support, hope you get through after invariably being put on hold, and then you have to convince a customer support member to change your things around. And the best case scenario after this arduous process if you still lose all your progress on another character. So, no, not a solution. I don't see how it does that at all. I'm not going to start playing Eldar because I have a maxed out LSM. And anyone who does want to play other factions could just buy more character slots if they chose to fill all of their initial ones up with different colored LSM. Source? I mean, you admitted just a page ago that the character system was not in fact designed with the goal of arbitrarily prolonging play in mind. Now you're changing your tune, and making other things up. Empty speculation. Though perhaps well founded concern based on how much they've struggled with other aspects of the game. Who knows. And I'm not talking about cross faction progression, I want cross character progression within said faction. I seriously doubt this would be a hard thing to do. The fact that you can contact support and get things switched in the first place is proof positive that it can already be done. 4 pages in and still no valid defense for why the character system is the way that it is. Though I must commend your efforts LordSloth, at least you put some thought into your responses. Basically everyone else has gone the path of the Tu quoque fallacy. That is to say, answering criticism with criticism instead of addressing my point.
Your point does not stand. This is one game and to compare it to any other is moot because there is no godly rule dictating the only single right way. I told you there is multiple games out there who have different approaches, the majority even. That there are others is fine too! By changing a subfaction you lose no progress on said character. Customer support usually comes back within less then 48h. Everything i can complain about in EC, Support is not one of the problems. That you have an issue to comprehend this logic seems to be a personal problem and nothing i can fix for you. Someone who will like you said play whatever he wants anyways is not the concern. It is the undecided mass which would have an obvious discouragement. The grind as needed it is to keep people playing is generally not fun. They said in their twitch streams multiple times they want to work on characterslots beeing more unique. That vision might have changed, i would recommend a thread in "ask the team" but they definately said they do not want to go with a progressionless approach. By adding more boxes and reshuffeling items it should be a clear indicator that the system is working as intended (for now). I get it that you feel entitled that everything is supposed to run the way you wish but there does not need to be a "defence". Utimately it is their game and their call, i can only explain the obvious reasons for it and i do not need to like it either. So do not get me wrong, i personally loath the supplybox system especially since it is wildly imbalanced and "empty" for some factions. However i do not see the same huge issues you have with changing subfactions and like i said above i do not think that this game needs any more QoL changes to stay and stick with LSM, as much as i like my own LSM toon.
It's not a moot point because the two games share more similarities than not. Just saying it's a moot point doesn't make it so. There are multiple games out there with different approaches....Soooo? That's an ambiguous, meaningless statement that doesn't further your point at all. You lose your sub-faction that you are changing from. The goal is to be able to have parity between factions. If I switch my ultra marine to a blood angel, I LOSE my level 5 UM. Are you following now? If someone is undecided, they aren't going to make 4 LSM characters. This doesn't help your point at all. Not sure how this relates at all. I never advocated for the removal of the progression system. I only feel that way because my idea makes more sense than the current system. And nobody has been able to argue it down yet. And for the record, you haven't explained any "obvious reasons" you're just speculating at best.
Because (correct me if I am wrong vets) but the original plan was sub factions were going to have differences other than color, a few voice lines and some cosmetics (mostly marines). The Space Wolves kind of still do but the line has been blurred since WP's now get bolters (which was reason enough to roll off my original SW along with the no PC mastery) and have the reskinned power maul instead of a chainsword.
