In most MMOs, the first thing you do is create a character. People love doing this of course, picking name, gender, race, body shape, costume, hairstyle, facial features, etc. You also pick a class: a set of capabilities which unlocks over time as your character progresses through the game. Of all the choices a player makes when creating a character, class has by far the biggest effect on the gameplay experience.
The problem with choosing a class at character creation time is that it locks the player into a certain gameplay style for the remainder of the game. A new player may not enjoy the gameplay of a certain class, but she doesn't know that yet. What if she chose a warrior class expecting to slice up herds of enemies like Conan, but it turns out that warriors are just meat shields that can't really fight that well?
Even worse, being locked into a class can prevent you from playing with others: if you are a tank and the group already has a tank, you can't play with them. If you are a wizard but the group needs to fill its last slot with a healer, you can't play with them.
Another problem with permanently-chosen classes is that the MMO designer must constantly adjust and fine-tune the balance between classes, to make sure that all the classes are of equal power. Otherwise, a player who inadvertently chose an underpowered class would have a poor experience. But the buffing and nerfing of the balancing process also annoys players, who feel tossed about by the whims of game designers.
To address these issues, Steel Chaos allows players to change "class" anytime. In Steel Chaos, the players are hovertank pilots, and their in-game capabilities are determined by the kind of tank they're driving at the moment. To switch class, a player just chooses another tank; any player can drive any type of tank.
My intent is that no one will get locked out of a group because of class. If the group needs another repair tank or additional heavy-assault capability or more crowd control, anyone can perform the needed role by jumping into an appropriate vehicle.
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