15 replies to this topic

[Ragnahawk]

Just looked at the pre-builds in the store to find that all of the engines for the new mechs start with the worst possible engines in history. The hunchbacks all have STD 200, which render them to be complete crap. What does this mean for a new player? They will be overcome with boredom because they have to grind for an entire day just to get that engine. It was enough to buy endosteel, ferofiberous and double heatsinks now they have to start completely from scrap. This feels like a 3rd cousin of the 200$ gold mechs. So go ahead PGI see what this does to your profits. I'm sure my friends will love sitting behind a computer for endless grueling grinding in crap mechs because they couldn't afford to buy at least one good mech. Especially when I don't give them advice about their first choice. Oh yeah. Loving that one. JUST AN FYI! Just convinced one person to start playing and they immediately quit after realizing that the mech he bought was complete crap. Didn't pick it up again.

[Ironwithin]

Not a new problem.

While clan-mechs come half-decent right out of the box(at a high price), most IS-mechs when bought are utterly useless and need a lot of care but are cheap to buy.

That's why they made all those IS-champion-variants into trial 'mechs. They are somewhat effective (some more than others) and every new player can play them as long as he/she wants to to grind money.

You could advise your friend to just stick to the trial-mechs until he can afford upgrades to his newly bought toy, alot less headache than playing a shi**y stock-loadout.

Also: Gold 'mechs cost 500$ but all they get extra is that shiny gold skin and the same CBill boost every hero gets.

[Papapeshu]

Don't want to grind for cbills for that new upgrade?
Fine, throw some $ at the game and buy it with MC.

Any new player will get chewed up and spat out, regardless of the mech they pilot or it's upgrades.
It's part of what makes this game great. A veteran in a stock mech stands a better chance of victory than a newbie in a fully upgraded meta-mech.
Grinding for upgrades gives you something you can't buy.
Real experience. Read all the tutorials and watch all the video's you want but nothing will teach you better than doing it yourself.

[TWIAFU]

F8Sealed, on 12 June 2015 - 10:44 PM, said:

Just looked at the pre-builds in the store to find that all of the engines for the new mechs start with the worst possible engines in history. The hunchbacks all have STD 200, which render them to be complete crap. What does this mean for a new player? They will be overcome with boredom because they have to grind for an entire day just to get that engine. It was enough to buy endosteel, ferofiberous and double heatsinks now they have to start completely from scrap. This feels like a 3rd cousin of the 200$ gold mechs. So go ahead PGI see what this does to your profits. I'm sure my friends will love sitting behind a computer for endless grueling grinding in crap mechs because they couldn't afford to buy at least one good mech. Especially when I don't give them advice about their first choice. Oh yeah. Loving that one. JUST AN FYI! Just convinced one person to start playing and they immediately quit after realizing that the mech he bought was complete crap. Didn't pick it up again.

So, got a friend to join. Didn't advise on Mechs and he bought a crap one. Did he even make the 25 newbie matches? Did he just buy a mech that looked pretty and find out looks don't count?

Didn't you help your friend out at all?

Did he think he would be god of the battlefield?

Played, got crushed, and quit. Seems about normal for most.

[xWiredx]

These things are based on canon: http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Hunchback

You can also feel free to blame the lack of real economy on PGI. You will sometimes see the term 'paulconomy' used in the forums.

[Kishida Sato]

why does a hunchback look like a 3050 hunchback from the readout ? because the compendium says so.
*waves a copy of the 3rd edition battletech compendium and 3050 technical readout*

www.sarna.net

this is battletech based game, folks... dont blame them for stickting to canon. we`re not in solaris here...

F8Sealed, on 12 June 2015 - 10:44 PM, said:

I'm sure my friends will love sitting behind a computer for endless grueling grinding in crap mechs because they couldn't afford to buy at least one good mech. Especially when I don't give them advice about their first choice. Oh yeah. Loving that one. JUST AN FYI! Just convinced one person to start playing and they immediately quit after realizing that the mech he bought was complete crap. Didn't pick it up again.

well... options:
if he didnt spend cash - reroll an account.
if he did spend cash - farm money in game and buy a new mech. ravens and jenners are popular, seem to make good money with them. firestarters also. blackjacks are underrated.

or: be a friend, advise them on their first mech...

Edited by Kishida Sato, 13 June 2015 - 07:19 PM.

[Naduk]

F8Sealed, on 12 June 2015 - 10:44 PM, said:

Just looked at the pre-builds in the store to find that all of the engines for the new mechs start with the worst possible engines in history. The hunchbacks all have STD 200, which render them to be complete crap.

WRONG!
std 200 is absolutely perfect for a hunchback

[B0oN]

Pssst, Naduk ?

Watch it with your dosage of truths over here ^^

[warner2]

It's sometimes true that when buying a stock 'mech you get a bunch of junk you don't need (like a bad engine, single heat-sinks). Lights and mediums seem to be worse hit with small standard engines that you typically (not always) want to upgrade.

It's Battletech baggage that is not serving a purpose.

I think a simple way around it would be to allow people to buy a shell only. No engine, no weapons, no equipment, just the chassis.

[Mechteric]

The problem isn't the cost, it's that the CBill earnings are way wayyy too low. Unless you happen to game the system to bank roll all the bonuses, average "good" games just bring in hardly anything at all. This is especially true for light and medium mechs that can't dish out damage like the assault mechs, so I don't wanna hear how much bank you make in your Daishi or whatever, its just not representative.

[masCh]

CapperDeluxe, on 14 June 2015 - 06:33 AM, said:

The problem isn't the cost, it's that the CBill earnings are way wayyy too low. Unless you happen to game the system to bank roll all the bonuses, average "good" games just bring in hardly anything at all. This is especially true for light and medium mechs that can't dish out damage like the assault mechs, so I don't wanna hear how much bank you make in your Daishi or whatever, its just not representative.

$6.99 for 7 days premium time : https://mwomercs.com/gifts

[Crockdaddy]

Let's be honest. To new players this game is hard.

1. Very ineffective mechs to start.
2. Very low earnings. Even with premium time you have a big grind ahead of you.
3. Hit the ELO a bit too soon.


To fix this, I think for the first 250 games PGI needs to be very nice to new accounts. I am nearly 3 years in with close to 200 mechs and I play fairly often and I am still grinding for modules etc. However I know what I am doing and what to do. The economy for new players needs a big assist before any steam launch. We want to hook them into this F2P so they spend money on premium time, hero mechs, and packages.

My view of course and the 250 games was arbitrary ... mostly I figured if you could get someone hooked that long you likely get to keep them.

[Ironwithin]

Crockdaddy, on 14 June 2015 - 08:48 AM, said:

Let's be honest. To new players this game is hard.

1. Very ineffective mechs to start.
2. Very low earnings. Even with premium time you have a big grind ahead of you.
3. Hit the ELO a bit too soon.


To fix this, I think for the first 250 games PGI needs to be very nice to new accounts. I am nearly 3 years in with close to 200 mechs and I play fairly often and I am still grinding for modules etc. However I know what I am doing and what to do. The economy for new players needs a big assist before any steam launch. We want to hook them into this F2P so they spend money on premium time, hero mechs, and packages.

My view of course and the 250 games was arbitrary ... mostly I figured if you could get someone hooked that long you likely get to keep them.

New players get bonus CBills in their first 20 (25?) games wich amount to a pretty big sum that should be sufficient to buy and upgrade one medium or heavy 'mech.

But yes, if you don't already know somebody experienced in this game to show you the ropes I imagine it to be a very steep learning curve. Steep enough to throw a lot of people off.

Also: Elo, name, not an acronym.

[Exarch Levin]

masCh, on 14 June 2015 - 07:34 AM, said:

$6.99 for 7 days premium time : https://mwomercs.com/gifts

If only premium time could be paused once activated. Maybe that defeats the business model but I don't buy premium as a standalone item (ie:only when it comes with a package) because it can't be paused so, from me at least, it is "costing" PGI money.

Ironwithin, on 14 June 2015 - 10:28 AM, said:

New players get bonus CBills in their first 20 (25?) games wich amount to a pretty big sum that should be sufficient to buy and upgrade one medium or heavy 'mech.

Unfortunately, for any one mech to truly be upgraded its pilot needs to own 2 other fully upgraded mechs of the same mech type. Slingshotting newbies to one mech is great but it only gets them 33% of the way there.

warner2, on 14 June 2015 - 06:11 AM, said:

It's sometimes true that when buying a stock 'mech you get a bunch of junk you don't need (like a bad engine, single heat-sinks). Lights and mediums seem to be worse hit with small standard engines that you typically (not always) want to upgrade.

It's Battletech baggage that is not serving a purpose.

I think a simple way around it would be to allow people to buy a shell only. No engine, no weapons, no equipment, just the chassis.

There once was a flawed children's trading card game that was based on a TV show. The problem was that the game had to feature all of what was shown as being good in the show but in the "meta" of the actual game, what was good in the show was garbage in the game, and this was because players could easily acquire great stuff that the show's characters never could.

MWO does seem to be having that same problem: maybe that mech with a STD and SHS stock would be great, if everyone else weren't packing more firepower because they're running that mech with XL and DHS

[Ironwithin]

Exarch Levin, on 14 June 2015 - 09:25 PM, said:

...
Unfortunately, for any one mech to truly be upgraded its pilot needs to own 2 other fully upgraded mechs of the same mech type. Slingshotting newbies to one mech is great but it only gets them 33% of the way there.
...

They also need mech-xp to get those skills.
By the time they have the ~55000xp to possibly unlock all skills for that one 'mech they will also have enough money to buy and upgrade at least one more variant, so it is not really that big an issue.

[Modo44]

The entire business model is based on grind reduction. Get the **** over it already. A good player can be back in their Elo within a week on a new account. Noobies will not, boo ******* hoo. It is still miles better than obvious pay to win or pay to play models that lock big parts of content behind permanent paywalls.