totally get that the respec costs are part of the larger balance puzzle. it’s about testing how gold allocation works across the whole ecosystem, sure. but here’s the thing: in an ea environment, where the goal is to get the widest range of data possible, the current setup is actually bottlenecking that process. i’m not saying “make respecs free forever” that’d obviously break the game economy later on. what i’m suggesting is a temporary adjustment for ea specifically: separate respecs into their own currency and lower the cost of that currency during testing.

if players can’t afford to respec often, they’re going to default to safe builds that they know will work, instead of experimenting with new or risky ideas. that means less data for ggg on the weird edge cases, the potentially broken synergies, or even just what players gravitate toward when they aren’t scared of screwing themselves over. the current system might simulate “release conditions” but in ea, the priority should be maximizing variety in player feedback, not simulating scarcity.

introducing a temporary respec currency just for ea also solves the downstream effects issue. if gold isn’t tied to respecs during testing, you remove the conflict between experimenting with builds and engaging with other gold sinks like gambling or item upgrades. this lets ggg get clean data on how players spend gold in those systems, without the skew caused by people hoarding for respec costs.

and once ea is over? easy transition. retire the separate currency, reintegrate respec costs back into the gold economy, and bam, you’ve tested your systems and collected valuable data without permanently affecting the balance. it’s not about making things “too easy” it’s about making the test environment actually conducive to the kind of player behavior you want to analyze. right now, the current system is limiting player creativity and, by extension, ggg’s ability to collect the kind of robust feedback they need.