Profession reset with the IP reset?

[________Dealingdeath]

FC can you consider a profession reset for the following reasons:

1) I would like to keep playing this game.

2) I am an agent and we have been nerfed quite hard and although I can live with the current nerfs it seems even more are on the horizon. i.e pet nerf

3) The way you described agents in your official Sybex Guide is not applicable anymore so its only fair to have the ability to opt out.

My main reason for being an agent was that I would always be versatile enough to fill a void in any team albeit at a lower level of proficiency. However, there are only a few viable fp's that groups value remaining such as MA, MP and Trader occasionally. None of the other fp professions are useful in a group due to penalties which make offensive/healing nanos unrealistic.

Currently MP pets are being considered for removal and it appears none of the new nanos will be allowed under fp. I do believe at the highest levels their should be nanos unique to each profession but at all other levels agents should be able to function as viable alternative for any profession while in fp i.e. At L120 I should be able to function as a viable Doc in fp etc..

I don't have a GOD complex and only wanted to be a valuable addition to a team. It seems that agents will soon be beggars that are allowed into a group because of kindhearted people.

In summary I would just like to have the option to opt out of a profession that probably should be removed from the game completely. The concept of the agent 'jack of all trades but master of none' was a great idea but should be reserved for a game that is for adults only.

Please consider a one time profession switch along with an IP reset.

[Miriandel]

In the envisioned section or somewhere, but not before 2nd or 3rd quarter.

I think they said "It's something we'dlike to do".

[__________WGMelchior]

I REALLY think it's stupid to let some NFs out. I'd much rather have pets terminate after the FP runs out. I mean, why use FP engineer? For the AC buffs? Yeah, sure.


A profession switch is already hinted ingame... On the nano side, it's already possible. The main problem is what to do with your skills. Maybe an IP wipe along with a loss of 10% of your levels?


No, agents aren't that overpowered... Some aspects of them doesn't work at all. I would compare the concealment 'benefit' for agents to the tradeskill 'benefit' of engineers. Sure, things happens when you do some things, but when you get down to it, it's totally useless.

[___________Atrocious]

Originally posted by WGMelchior
I REALLY think it's stupid to let some NFs out. I'd much rather have pets terminate after the FP runs out. I mean, why use FP engineer? For the AC buffs? Yeah, sure.

I thought that this was the point of FP, until I found out that FP becomes a hostile nano, and lasts for a certain period(or did the agent who told me this lie?)

I always envisioned FP to be the way to give Agents a boost. They could buff up using most classes buffs, and then terminate FP program and be an agent again.

Sure it would take a lot of time, but I think an agent with the AC buffs of a Engy, the damage shield of an adventurer, damage buff of a soldier(+10 is max right?), hp buff of a enforcer would stand a chance in most situations. Or would this be too uber?

Then again I don't play an agent so I don't know.

[____________Pacifica]

I have to say I disagree with the one time profession, for a few reasons, like if you have a lvl 120 agent, then you can switch to a lvl 120 ANYTHING, without 'growing up' as that profession. Just because the profession you initially picked doesnt fit your bill, oh don't worry, because you can always get all your IP back and pick another prof, just like that. There are advantages and disadvantages to every professions, and it just doesn't seem fair that if you decide the profession you picked isnt for you, that there is no concequences, you can just switch.

I play a lvl 81 agent, and am very happy with it, so what if some of the fp nanos are useless, I still have some very viable ones, and yes it is posible to fp a doc or nt and use thier nanos, try increasing your nano init. skill, and get a nano init. upgrade for your ncu, with the assume or mimic nanos, your nano init is only reduced -1500 and -750 and you can easily get it to 0 or more. But therein lies a problem, your nano skills are reduced FAR too much with those fp nanos. But this thread isnt a thread about agents, its about the IP reset, which I agree with.

Just my 2 cents

[Downsizr]

Originally posted by Pacifica
I have to say I disagree with the one time profession, for a few reasons, like if you have a lvl 120 agent, then you can switch to a lvl 120 ANYTHING, without 'growing up' as that profession.

This is a very valid point. The Ip reset is already something really tricky to do in such an online game. I don't see coming along a change in profession.

Next step is asking to have a refund of the value of all your items because they were profession specific ?

[_____________Alexion]

Originally posted by Plasmatiq


I thought that this was the point of FP, until I found out that FP becomes a hostile nano, and lasts for a certain period(or did the agent who told me this lie?)

I always envisioned FP to be the way to give Agents a boost. They could buff up using most classes buffs, and then terminate and be agent.

Sure it would take a lot of time, but I think an agent with the AC buffs of a Engy, the damage shield of an adventurer, damage buff of a soldier(+10 is max right?), hp buff of a enforcer would stand a chance in most situations. Or would this be too uber?

Then again I don't play an agent so I don't know.

No, when you terminate all programs in you ncu terminate, hostile or not. You can do things like this sometimes, such as going fp :enforcer at the beginning of a hunt, casting an essense on yourself, then when it ends go soldier, cast damage shield etc. But doing what your talking about would take at least 1 1/2 hours and I'm not sure if the durations for those nanos are long enough. I've never seen an agent go engy, and adv is only useful for sneaking missions (or travel at low lvl).

Oh and termination is so dull. I usually see how many guards I can kill in a row w/o healing. My best streak is still at 0, but I'm hoping to get better at that.

[___________Atrocious]

Originally posted by Alexion


No, when you terminate all programs in you ncu terminate, hostile or not. You can do things like this sometimes, such as going fp :enforcer at the beginning of a hunt, casting an essense on yourself, then when it ends go soldier, cast damage shield etc. But doing what your talking about would take at least 1 1/2 hours and I'm not sure if the durations for those nanos are long enough. I've never seen an agent go engy, and adv is only useful for sneaking missions (or travel at low lvl).

I didn't mean terminate in terminate self, but terminate FP. Sorry, should have made that clear. Will go back and edit my post again. :-)

[________Dealingdeath]

Originally posted by Plasmatiq


I didn't mean terminate in terminate self, but terminate FP. Sorry, should have made that clear. Will go back and edit my post again. :-)

FP runs as a hostile nano and thus cannot be terminated. Thanks for the feedback though

[________Dealingdeath]

Originally posted by Pacifica
I have to say I disagree with the one time profession, for a few reasons, like if you have a lvl 120 agent, then you can switch to a lvl 120 ANYTHING, without 'growing up' as that profession. Just because the profession you initially picked doesnt fit your bill, oh don't worry, because you can always get all your IP back and pick another prof, just like that. There are advantages and disadvantages to every professions, and it just doesn't seem fair that if you decide the profession you picked isnt for you, that there is no concequences, you can just switch.

I play a lvl 81 agent, and am very happy with it, so what if some of the fp nanos are useless, I still have some very viable ones, and yes it is posible to fp a doc or nt and use thier nanos, try increasing your nano init. skill, and get a nano init. upgrade for your ncu, with the assume or mimic nanos, your nano init is only reduced -1500 and -750 and you can easily get it to 0 or more. But therein lies a problem, your nano skills are reduced FAR too much with those fp nanos. But this thread isnt a thread about agents, its about the IP reset, which I agree with.

Just my 2 cents

Like I said you can only do this once so no you cannot just switch professions anytime.

The reasoning is not that it don't like agent but rather because the profession has been nerfed hard and I don't see the nerfs stopping. Right now FC is considering nerfing MP pets and their is talk of removing FPs altogether. The main point, however, is that this profession is nothing like it was when I originally rolled the character in June and it appears it will only get worse.

As far as your 'growing up' rationalization I don't see where tahts really relevant as this is a game for entertainment and not a professional sporting contest or something of that nature.

I don't want to be stuck with a gimped character that isn't valuable to a team. As you indicated the higher FPs like MIMIC reduce the Nano Init penalties but then up the NANO skill penalties so severely that this is not viable either.

I really don't see the problem with a ONE TIME reset to profession at the same time the IP is reset. The reset profession option must be chosen before reallocating IP to prevent exploiting.

[___________Atrocious]

Originally posted by Dealingdeath


FP runs as a hostile nano and thus cannot be terminated. Thanks for the feedback though

Which is the opposite of what I thought was the point of FP. I thought the point of FP was to get the buffs, or sometimes use other abilities, but I guess that would be too much uber power for the Agent?

I don't play an agent so I have no idea how powerful an agent with the buffs from all professions would be.

[________Dealingdeath]

Originally posted by Plasmatiq


Which is the opposite of what I thought was the point of FP. I thought the point of FP was to get the buffs, or sometimes use other abilities, but I guess that would be too much uber power for the Agent?

I don't play an agent so I have no idea how powerful an agent with the buffs from all professions would be.

Ah I see what your saying now ....and yeah unfortunately this would be abused and result in agents being to overpowered.

[_____________arsiine]

Originally posted by Dealingdeath



Right now FC is considering nerfing MP pets and their is talk of removing FPs altogether.

Sorry to interupt but where is this discussion taking place?

[______MuscularBeaver]

IMO FP is totally uselses in part because it's considered a hostile program.

When I do an fp, my nano skills plummet, which means I can't use the good nanos for the false profession that I hoped to use by casting the fp in the first place.

I could level up a few more times and beef up those nano skills so that when they drop, they won't drop below the requirements for the fp nanos. But IMO it's not worth the trouble, for two reasons: 1. Just trying to see if I've got the nano skills high enough means I'm stuck as a MA or whatever for half an hour (or whatever) unless I kill myself to cancel the fp. And 2. Forget the penalty on time to cast. As a level 77 agent, I can't cast nanos that a normal level 77 (whatever false profession) would cast. So what are my chances of surviving a mission using fp? I haven't tried it, but it seems like it would be slim to none.

[________Dealingdeath]

Originally posted by arsine


Sorry to interupt but where is this discussion taking place?

Oh its all over the place but mostly in the MP section and is lead by Satherial who is an ardent hater of agents.

You can also find an official comment by Cz over at the agent sector found at http://www.agentsector.com/agentsector/forums.html

I will try to find a link to the actual article but you can find it yourself by searching for posts authored by Cz.

[cellestron]

Ok, I have finally come up with an idea that should make many people happy.

Remove the fixer skillset, rename agents as fixers. Change the rest of the "new" fixer spying skills to lt blue or green. Change the shotgun skill to lt blue. Then allow all previous fixers and agents to choose a new profession.

This will make other players happy, because False Profession will be canned, so they can no longer whine about other people using their nanos.

This will make the fixers happy, because they will now have med to lt blue nano skills and pick up the aimed shot/rifle ability.

This will make the ex-agents happy, as they can choose a new profession.

let's face it. The concept behind the "agent", or spy, was a good one. it just isn't working out in practice. The game does not seem to be built to handle any skill or ability involving hiding/changing identity/allegiance or truly concealing your presense. The "assasination" concept is gone. There are no tradeskills involving poisons or really "nasty" weapons. False Profession turned out to be something that many players playing other professions, and admittedly some agents themselves, proved too immature to handle. Cloaking with a name tag above you is a joke. Well, I could go on but I am too tired to think anymore. This is not a rant about agents being too weak, or being too "nerfed". Too weak, too strong, it doesn't matter. The bottom line is that the profession can no longer be properly described by the word "agent".

Perhaps it is just time to cut your losses and work on improving the other professions that can actually be improved.

signed,
an (ex) "agent"