You asked, they answered. In an announcement made on the official Champions Online website it has been revealed that indeed, Early Start players will be issued a free respec. The timeframe for when this free respec will be given out wasn't provided however, as the developers say they still need time to get the tech set up so that they can issue free respecs to only characters created during Early Start.

Keep in mind that these respecs will only be issued to characters created during the Early Start period, and that it is not a free respec for all characters created on accounts that simply had early start access. This respec is being issued in light of the recent major changes made to powers.

The original announcement can be viewed here.

Their blowing smoke, in Closed beta they had the power to selectivly gives freet-cons to characters. I know cause i had 3 characters in CB and only one of them (my oldest) got a freet-con.

Sounds good.  I know on my main I wouldn't take Laser Vision pump ups as much as I did.  =)  Everything else I don't need a Respec for.  Its all good.

Originally posted by nekollx

Their blowing smoke, in Closed beta they had the power to selectivly gives freet-cons to characters. I know cause i had 3 characters in CB and only one of them (my oldest) got a freet-con.

Yes, because being able to go in and manually give specific characters respecs is the same as sending out game-wide respec tokens to ALL the characters that were created before the official launch date...you dolt.

Originally posted by nekollx

Their blowing smoke, in Closed beta they had the power to selectivly gives freet-cons to characters. I know cause i had 3 characters in CB and only one of them (my oldest) got a freet-con.

Right...you got a personal respec.  They are trying to set up an automated system to hand out respecs to characters that were created before Sept 1st, and not just any that had pre launch access.  A wee bit different.

Originally posted by AtPlay

Originally posted by nekollx

Their blowing smoke, in Closed beta they had the power to selectivly gives freet-cons to characters. I know cause i had 3 characters in CB and only one of them (my oldest) got a freet-con.

 

Right...you got a personal respec.  They are trying to set up an automated system to hand out respecs to characters that were created before Sept 1st, and not just any that had pre launch access.  A wee bit different.

no it was a global Freet-con given in CB giving to every character mad before a specific patch (the addition of the Power House)

Not all that different.

Originally posted by nekollx

Originally posted by AtPlay

Originally posted by nekollx

Their blowing smoke, in Closed beta they had the power to selectivly gives freet-cons to characters. I know cause i had 3 characters in CB and only one of them (my oldest) got a freet-con.

 

Right...you got a personal respec.  They are trying to set up an automated system to hand out respecs to characters that were created before Sept 1st, and not just any that had pre launch access.  A wee bit different.

 

no it was a global Freet-con given in CB giving to every character mad before a specific patch (the addition of the Power House)

Not all that different.

Yes actually it is.  They can't go by 'before patch' they have to go by early start timing, there was if I remember correctly no down time between Early start and Launch people could of logged on from just about anywhere in the world before the patch but AFTER early start and created a character.  Those people will not be getting a free retcon.   Plus the system is now completely different then what it was in Beta so they can't just fall back on some Closed Beta test code to allow respecs.  Since we're getting free respecs there's no reason to bitch even if it might take a few days to a week.  We can play our chars think on what we want to change and when it comes be ready and raring to go.  

how is "any character before this date (power house patch)" any different from "any player before this date (live patch)"

Well as upset as I was about the patch at least this shows their starting to listen to the players.

I'll be sticking with the game because it is a lot of fun and I have had a blast with character creation, you can literally get caught up creating your toon and then notice that you've just spent 45 minutes creating him /her.

Have to to say this is such a breath of fresh air from fantasy games.

Champions Online get a 8/10 from me.

Yes, it's a good move to announce  their intentions, even if the infrastructure for implementing them isn't in place yet.  This way, the players know what's coming and aren't stalling their head start characters in fear of increasing the already-expensive respec costs.

Yep, they didn't really have much choice when the waves of refunds started coming in.

They don't listen to the players, they listen to their wallets. Whenever a huge outcry comes that clearly shows it will effect their revenue (lots of players very unhappy and cancelling orders/pre-orders etc) they will listen like a psychologist.

Originally posted by Tylon

Yep, they didn't really have much choice when the waves of refunds started coming in.

They don't listen to the players, they listen to their wallets. Whenever a huge outcry comes that clearly shows it will effect their revenue (lots of players very unhappy and cancelling orders/pre-orders etc) they will listen like a psychologist.

hell they got so many complaints people were getting their lifetime and 6 month subs cancled...

this is the second weak in a row this has happened...

really at this rate how long can they survive?

Originally posted by nekollx

Their blowing smoke, in Closed beta they had the power to selectivly gives freet-cons to characters. I know cause i had 3 characters in CB and only one of them (my oldest) got a freet-con.

That respec was accross the board to everyone.  Why only your oldest got one is weird.  All mine did and I built them all over the time frame so obviousley they didnt seperate them out for everyone.   This being said its aparant its not perfected.  They will perfect the procedure and issue the respecs.   They are not lying.  Gheeez.

There has been a lot of talk about people who can't respec. I had some ideas and put them in the champions forums here.

While I know it's not necessarily great to respec, and I love the fact that you can in this game. The big hassle everyone has been having is that it costs too much in relation to the amount of money that's made in the game. This causes people to be unable to respec due to the lack of resources.

I thought about it for a little bit and came up with this two part solution:

1. Currently you employ a stack technology, to respec you have to go through each item and pop it off one at a time. For the users sake, I'd recommend building the ability to select the power you want to respec (however far down the stack it may be) and allow them to click one button to go through the stack until you get to that item (assuming they have the money).

2. Now, everyone has been complaining that it's too expensive to respec. It's understandable why you would make it expensive; to discourage constant respecing. With the system that is currently in place you can, instead of lowering the prices more, change the pricing scheme to the price it takes TO GET TO that item.

To clarify here is an example, I want to respec 4 items down the stack. Next to that item is the price listing of how much it would cost me to remove down to that item.

So, to sum up. First, make the system a one click wonder option for respecing down multiple items (with a confirm box so people don't get all click happy and accidentally do something stupid). Second, change the pricing scheme to where it's a bit more expensive (very small amount) and where instead of the price at each level, the cost next to the item is the price it takes to GET TO that level.