142 replies to this topic

[akkelemvor]

Following the trend of everyone else and assuming that MWO is going to have a similar free to play model as world of tanks. In world of tanks you can convert gold (real money) into game money, buy exclusive tanks, buy exclusive ammo types, get more garage slots, and get experience. Using that 80 dollars and converting it to cbill to get mechs would be a major mistake. Gold in world of tanks is usually better off being spent on free experience for researching modules and new tanks.
Garage slots becomes very important in tanks, and I forsee that being no different here.
You should also be able to turn the ingame currency into more time of a premium account, which would generally be better than just buying cbills or experience.
God help us if they introduce gold ammo for SRMs or LRMs, ammo that does more damage or extends the range or some such nosense.

[OrangeKNight]

I think it really depends on how it all balances out. But I think a good thing worth watching in regards to MicroTransactions and how they (should) work.

Basically, the idea is to set the In Game Currency(IGC) so that you can still get all teh stuff you want with grinding, but at the same time setting the Real Money Transactions(RMTs) low enough that people will realize that their time is worth more than the cost of the RTMs, and once they make the first purchase, they'll be far more open to making further purchases,

A Good analagy is Steam, think back to your first Steam Purchase, then think back to how often you made the following purchases, ESPECIALLY during the fantastic Steam/Christmas/whatever Sales.

Frankly, this talk of 40-60 dollar mechs really scares me, because frankly, that reminds all too much of the "Make teh most money out of the fewest people" schemes, when really it's been proven(based on teh already mentioned Steam Sales) that teh Devs that take part in them still reap huge profits despite teh greatly reduced prices. It makes so much more sence to me to make RTMs as comforatble and open as possible, because once they start rolling then tend not to stop.

And Don't See the P2W thing being an issue, so long as everything regarding the actual game play(mechs, weapons ect ect) can also be purchased with IGC, they iut just has to back back to showing the player that their time is more valuable then the cost of the RMTs.

[ManDaisy]

Buying mechs is not so much a problem as you can only ever use one at a time. The main problem occurs when there exist an artificial barrier of price on a mech in C-bills vs Cash. If everything is kept true to scale of mech components vs C-bill cost, and no "premium" exist other then those justified by faction (non arbitrary markups, predefined in stone for not matching a house), then buying a mech is not an issue. If however its a question of available hardpoints and customization, with equipment cost being unjustified to mech cost, then this becomes pay to win.

Edited by ManDaisy, 31 May 2012 - 06:06 PM.

[Levi Porphyrogenitus]

I'd not assume that World of Tanks will be the inspirational model. League of Legends is super successful and (IMO) a far better business model, so I would most like to see MWO follow the LoL pattern. Thus, if a 'Mech costs, for instance, 10 million c-bills, it might cost 5 USD. 5 million c-bills would then be 2.50 USD. Since you would have weapon and ammo and other equipment costs, fully kitting out a more expensive 'Mech (say a 50 million c-bill price tag for the 'Mech plus whatever custom kit you want to throw on it) would be 25 USD, which is already pushing the bounds of reasonableness.

The real money-makers ought to be cosmetic (skins/paint jobs, cockpit enhancements, logos, etc.). This would work especially well if the cosmetic stuff cannot be acquired via c-bills and requires real money to get (like skins in LoL). Since each varient has its own differences as far as weapon mounts and such go, I'd imagine skins would be linked to variant rather than to chassis (take the Catapult as an example; the PPC variant might require quite a different skin for the arms than the prime would use). This would encourage the purchasing of more skins and help to drive the real-money market.

[Kanatta Jing]

Being able to use MC to buy Mechs would be pointless if you could use MC to buy C-bills to buy Mechs.

And oddly it has been suggested by the Devs that Mech Space will not be at a premium.

[Roland]

I think one aspect of WoT that seems to definitely not be implemented in MWO, is the notion that more expensive, upper tier tanks are simply better than lower tier tanks.

In WoT, if you were driving some high end tank, and went up against a little noob tank, you were invincible. There was absolutely no way for him to defeat you. It wasn't even the case that he'd have to hit you a hundred times to damage you.. he could hit you a million times, and do absolutely zero damage, because all of your shots would bounce off his armor.

In Mechwarrior, that's not the case. All weapons do equal damage to mechs, regardless of who is shooting them. You can take down the biggest mech with the smallest one, if you have the skill.

This, I believe, is one of the key aspects to MWO that prevents it from becoming Pay to Win.

[Gromkey Blackwind]

I would like a premium money making mecha bobecka...

[Paewen]

PANZERBUNNY, on 31 May 2012 - 05:38 PM, said:

P.S: They have already stated this will not be pay 2 win. Why do people think you can buy mechs with real money at all?

Buying mechs for cash isn't necessarily p2w. I'm sure real cash will be exchangable for c-bills, which can be used to purchase what everyone has access to. Everyone will start out with a standard mech. If i spend $$ and get c-bills and buy a second mech, then I'm just buying something everyone already has access to. It's not p2w, just increasing a mech stable. They have stated they will not have mechs that can only be bought for cash. I don't think they've stated the converse to that statement.

[ManDaisy]

Roland, on 31 May 2012 - 06:14 PM, said:

This, I believe, is one of the key aspects to MWO that prevents it from becoming Pay to Win.

That and the fact that most of us are bread winners who in the spirit of battletech want a fair fight and will withhold buying something potentially harmful to the franchise rather then to get a cheap advantage. This baby is running off hopes , dreams, and ideals, rather then cheap thrills that most games are right now.

Edited by ManDaisy, 31 May 2012 - 06:23 PM.

[TWolfWD]

I think $10 per mech is reasonable, roughly the same price you'd pay for a miniture. Allows you a lot of room to customize your bay, without allowing you to just max out. I too would like to see more skins available for purchase, but being that they're just skins, price for that can't be anything more than $2.50 or I'm going to be hesitant to make such a purchase.

[Juiced]

once i figure out what I like and how the game works, ill end up kitting out one mech, buying a bunch of "fluff" type of things, and more mech bay slots

[shameless]

If they want more than 5 bucks a mech, there better be unseen, all I'm gonna say on that.

non mech stuff, maybe

[ManDaisy]

Bay slots is iffy. Specially if they will restrict skill growth. I think battlemech purchase is better.

Edited by ManDaisy, 31 May 2012 - 06:37 PM.

[SJ Osiris]

I feel that $60 should buy the game as is and all its parts upon release. Future content would need purchase by c-bills or (Insert Currency Here).

[Ramien]

I'm looking at things from a resources perspective. How much would you expect to pay for, say, a medium laser? How much more is a 'Mech worth than that?

[Bullseye69]

Will buy the $60 dollar pack to get the founder mech for improved c-bill for life of mech. Being able to buy different chassis would be nice especially when clans introduced, Alot of people will jump to those mechs because they love clans and the tech on the clan mechs is better. I like the look and fill of inner sphere mech but i will retro fit with clan tech. Just have to make sure the games run on my hardware I currently have till I can afford better graphics card. Currently running 645 athlon 2, 3.1ghz quad core and a hd radeon 7770 1 gig graphics card,running 6 gig ram on vista. Want to run game on 1440 res with most all detail high if I can

[Fergle Fergleson]

A lot of folks have used WoT as a reference point, I think games like Star Trek Online might be a better one (or at least "as good"). Things you can use money for that might be applicable here:

- More mech slots
- Special versions of existing mechs
- Skill respecs
- temporary XP-gain boosters
- post-creation pilot changes (special uniforms, "looks", etc)

[Rodney28021]

Star Trek Online is into Pay to Win mode with the ships they sell for store points, they are priced like 1600 to 2000 point each and a pack of 3 for 4000 points. The ship stats and gear included are more powerfull than the ships / gear you can as free to play. Pretty much everything is for sale in the STO store.

[Thomas Hogarth]

I rather hope $80 worth of in-game currency is a LOT of C-bills. Okay, so maybe not enough to buy every 'Mech in the game, but at least enough to buy a couple lances. I mean... it's eighty dollars. If eighty dollars equals eight million, I won't know what to think about that.

[Bandicoot]

Still trying to wrap my head around this game being called "free to play" and others saying they're willing to blow $50 on a single mech that they'll only have access to as long as the MWO servers stay active. I'm not entirely comfortable with this brave new world of gaming we find ourselves in.