I don't know about anyone else but yesterday I played pretty much all day and put in a lot of time in Brink. I got to level 13 and wanted to play with some friends that night. Turns out even with my rank or higher I could not join my friends games. I was rank 3 and they were 2. As I was waiting around fiddling with my appearance, guns, and abilities I noticed that some rank 3 abilities that I use to have were now locked and that my level was now 8. I really don't know how my levels/rank could be removed (could it be from not succeeding in missions?), but I would rather have kept my level then down rank/level to be able to play with them. Now going along with the lag in general when playing with more than 2-3 people and the campaign being fun but short and the matchmaking system lacking a lobby system and better overall not being able to play with lower rank friends, this game seems unfinished. It was pushed back from Fall 2010 to Late Spring 2011, perhaps they needed to push back again. Also they need more customizations with clothing and color choice. Twelve presets just isnt enough, perhaps a color wheel for a primary and secondary color would work wonders! I wish they waited and got these things sorted out because the idea of the game is nice but it seems the servers can't handle multiplayer. Overall I like the game and believe that SD needs to get on all of these issues asap.

did you do a bunch of respecs?

Respecs are the only thing I can think of that would drop your level.

As for playing with lower rank friends. You either A.) make a new character or B.) Start a game yourself and have them join. Lower rank players can join higher rank games, just not the other way around.

Wraith said a while ago that you were supposed to be able to join lower-ranked players, but it would lock your character at the maximum level allowed for the match, and prevent you from using your higher-level abilities.

Don't know if it made release, and I'm sure it isn't meant to permanently drop your level, so respecs are a more likely explanation, but I think that's worth mentioning in case it is the cause.

As far as I can tell, at least on 360, the ability to join lower level players is not in the game. If its there, its hidden deep in some menu.

Like I said, it was ages ago, and as far as I saw, only posted here, and only by Wraith. Although Wraith was generally a pretty reliable source, so it could have been up-to-date info at the time.

Wait a minute....respeccing can actually lower your level? WTF is that?! Please say it isn't so.......

every respec causes you to lose one level. you keep all the apperance unlocks, though they color sceme is locked to whatever you had it set to before you respecced.

They said that before release.

When you respec, you drop a level.

Wow, that is so asinine. I missed that tidbit before release. What the hell is the point of that penalty?

Yeah, I did a couple of respecs, now it makes sense. Funny that I pretty much read everything and watched all the videos and never saw this once. Oh well.

LOL, neither did I. Just seems like an unnecessary penalty imo.

It actually says it when you chose to respec. It's in the acceptance pop-up.

And you just need to put in a little more experience to get the level again. It's not like you can only get to max level - 1. I remember there was talk of a "buy back" period on skills for a couple games, or hours or whatever, but I think this system is a lot cleaner.

im gonna respec 20 times just to be level 1 and start playing again thats how great this game is......