You only have to play a couple of games to unlock one custom class. It's an effort-reward thing; gives some incentive to play (other than MNC being fun ). Imo, it doesn't need to be changed.
i have 3 or 4 unlocked it gets a bit daunting when they cost more than 100k especially when you want to try out different classes and cant dedicate endorsement set ups to more classes. I prefer to pick a class even if i dont know much about it and balancing out teams but limited slots for endorsements setups doesnt help(mostly a pub problem) I would prefer if something else was used as a money sink.
I have one custom class unlocked and I just respec it to change classes and endorsements, not much point in unlocking them all.
I'd rather have more of them, so I can be more flexible in my class choice. Though the reason I'd rather have more, is because I don't want to migrate to other servers >> And the waiting time isn't all that much, either.
Not that it stands any chance of happening (given the currently level-centric climate of idiocy in gaming), but I totally support the idea of removing unlock requirements for custom classes. Forcing newbies to be more 1 dimensional is not a good thing. You could make the argument that giving newbies more choices would allow them to make more bad choices, but two of our default classes already have some pretty darn bad endorsement choices (assassin with gold speed when she's a bot-killer that will pickup speed endorsements anyway and sniper with silver accuracy - no explanation required on that one).
I'm in agreement with whitehawk on sub-optimal default specs (particularly assassin). In my eyes the purpose of the unlock system is to give players options, without overwhelming newbies with a barrage of possibilities. (And the classes can be unlocked pretty darn quickly, I had 4 by day 2 of the beta, and thats with buying a bunch of tags on the side). My only suggestion would be to improve a couple of the basic specs to be more newbie friendly, which typically boils down to making them more survivable and a little more forgiving. Just for example: Assasins -Gold health (Absalute must really, the assasin is pitifully easy to kill without it). -Silver speed (being harder to hit is always a big bonus over random the random power of crits, which is rarly used (since most assasins will be going for the grapple, which as far as I know doesn't have critical hits). -Bronze health regeneration (plays well into the typical hit and run tactics of the newby assasin). On gunners I suggest: -Gold health (survivability will be a must when newbies are playing such an easy to hit class). -Silver ammo (Gold is a little exessive, but without at least silver tey will run out very easily in the middle of a firefight). -Bronze accuracy (IT's quite absurd how much of a difference this little endoresement makes at mid range, making things a little safer for newbies since they won't be required to commit themselves so dangerously close to the enemy). On snipers I would suggest: - Gold rate of fire to allow for a more forgiving, spamable aiming experience. -Silver clip Size (Allowing consistant spamming). - Bronze health to hopefully give them a moment to realise that a tank is peppering them with his railgun and thus enter cover. Support, assult and tank actually felt pretty well specced by default to me, but if anyone has a convincing argument otherwise please say.
I appreciate the support, but I have to respectfully disagree with the silver and bronze here on the assassin (I think the others sound good). Like I said in my post, assassins are bot killers and bots drop lots of speed enhancements which will increase your endorsement level for speed once per pickup per life. This means that if you pick up three of the little Hermes feet you have a gold speed assassin without having to choose the endorsement. Its very easy and common to get gold speed for each life as assassin without the endorsement. On the bronze front, I'm not sure if you are aware, but Light (assassin/sniper), medium (support/assault), and heavy (tank/gunner) all regen health at different rates. The light classes regen health the fastest of all (5 seconds), and the regen endorsements reduce the amount of time it takes for the regen to kick in by a percentage (also the regen rate once regen begins). In this case it would cause the assassin to start the regen 1 second faster. Giving a health regen endorsement to a light class is the least effective use of that endorsement and I'd say there are better choices, especially with the assassin being as skill focused as she is. Not saying that your choices are bad, but just mathematically sub-optimal here.
Ahh I was not aware. of The regeneration issue. Thankyou for clearing that up. However I base my speed boost placement due to how newby assasins do play, not how they should play, I quite rarly see assasins farm bots, as such I catered the loadout to them rather than to how a more experienced assasin (who by that point should have unlocked custom classes) Would play.
Point taken. I can understand your reasoning then, but I'm still not sure if that style of play should be encouraged. Perhaps something like what I'm saying could be in the playbook for the assassin and the speed endorsement could stay at silver.