42 replies to this topic

[bashpr0mpt]

Hello, I'm a noob! Well, a noob to MWO. I recently bought myself a Raven, 500 MC, figured that's not too bad. Now I want to customize it. Apparently I have to pay 1,000 MC per color and 750 per camo pattern? That seems patently absurd to me, especially given that I can't buy it with credits, so basically I am going to be paying almost EIGHT TIMES THE PRICE OF MY MECH for ONE camo pattern (because the camo pattern is useless unless you buy colors to go with it), so I'm already destined to have almost The War Z level buyers remorse here; but I want to limit the damage that this will cause thus my question is ...

If I purchase three colors and a camo pattern that makes me happy in the pants, then next week I get sick of my Raven and replace it with that god awful pink thing or another mech in general, can I apply those colors and that camo to the new mech? Or am I locked in to raven only? This will be a good gauge as to how money hungry and greedy the developing company is, if it's locked to the mech then the games given away entirely and unconscionable levels of greed (I'm talking swimming in a money swimming pool greed while using starving children as stairs to climb in and out kinda greed!), if it isn't then we're talking idiotically inept at setting prices kind of greed and slow to fix bugs that are profitable greed whereby they just don't realize yet (INCIDENTALLY I'm sure!) that their customization options cost EIGHT TIMES THE PRICE OF MY BLOODY ROBOT.

So please, can someone enlighten me as to what goes on what and how to not get ripped off wasting more money than I need to? And is there any reason why they won't let me use cbills on it? Besides greed?

[bashpr0mpt]

I've decided there's no way I'm paying EIGHT TIMES THE PRICE OF MY ROBOT for camo and colors. Thank you folks for your lack of reply, it assisted in helping me make the right choice.

Sorry IGP and Piranha, I adore your game so far, but I am not going to spend EIGHT TIMES THE PRICE OF MY ROBOT for pointless fluff. If it was 500 for an entire camo and color mix that works on all robots sure. But your price point is ridiculous at present and you really need to reevaluate where you stand on it. You can make a few thousand sales at stupid prices, or a few million sales at realistic prices and make infinitely more in the medium to long term by being fair and conscionable in trading practices than being hit hard hit fast highway robbers like The War Z's developers charging $50 IRL for a hammer, and $80 for a camo hat because your default one is bright pink or something 'come at me bro' colored.

[Jock Blaine]

The short version:
You unlock colours. Once bought, you can use them on any mech (except for founders and hero mechs at the moment)
Camo patterns: You can either buy them once or unlock for the battlemech class. (in your Raven case, use it on any light)

Hope that helps.

Edit
Wow. If I had seen that second comment before I posted, giving us a whole 36 minutes to answer before you complain about lack of response, I wouldn't have bothered.

Edited by Jock Blaine, 05 May 2013 - 02:05 AM.

[Xenroth]

Hello bashp0mpt ,

generally i wouldnt buy mechs that only cost about 2-3 million C-Bills with MC points, its just not worth it.

But back to your question.
First of all, there are different kind of camo specs. There is the "One time usable" and the "keep this camo forever" purchasable. The one time usable as it says, can be used one time on a single mech and if you change the pattern of the camo, it will be lost! But its only the pattern not the colours which will make it lost, so you can change the colours as you please. With the second buy option you kind of unlock it for every mech of the same class ( so if you buy it on your raven, you can use it on every Raven, but only on Ravens and not on a Jenner for example)and you keep it, thats why it is much more expensive and you have to pay 750 MC.

Back to the colours. There are also different types of them, there are very few you can buy with C-Bills ( called Basic) and a wide range of colours that are purchasable for 500 (called Standard) and 1000 MC (called Premium) per colours. If you purchase a colours, you unlock it for your account, so you can use it whenever and wherever you want.

The difference between Standard and Premium colours is, the premium colours are more shiny and more coloursful.
In the premium colours are a bit expensive, yes, but so you have to make a decission about which colours you really need and which one you use very rarely. You should only buy those you know you will use a lot !

[Xenroth]

bashpr0mpt, on 05 May 2013 - 02:02 AM, said:

I've decided there's no way I'm paying EIGHT TIMES THE PRICE OF MY ROBOT for camo and colors. Thank you folks for your lack of reply, it assisted in helping me make the right choice.

Sorry IGP and Piranha, I adore your game so far, but I am not going to spend EIGHT TIMES THE PRICE OF MY ROBOT for pointless fluff. If it was 500 for an entire camo and color mix that works on all robots sure. But your price point is ridiculous at present and you really need to reevaluate where you stand on it. You can make a few thousand sales at stupid prices, or a few million sales at realistic prices and make infinitely more in the medium to long term by being fair and conscionable in trading practices than being hit hard hit fast highway robbers like The War Z's developers charging $50 IRL for a hammer, and $80 for a camo hat because your default one is bright pink or something 'come at me bro' colored.

You can't expect people to notice and answer your post in 30 minutes, especially in this forum section!

If you think the camo stuff is too expensive, wait for some weekend sales, from time to time you get camo patterns or colours cheaper, depending on the event

[Resyled]

I'm shocked you reposted in your own thread so quickly, you do know on (on the east coast) it's 6:30 am ? No one is awake, hell I don't even know why I am.

I think it's silly they're all so expensive, but then again I really don't care about making my mech multcolored.

I wish the Standard Colors were purchaseable with C-bills, you only get a resounding 5 or 6 including the basic Olive Drab green all mechs are painted in, and since I'd much rather spend MC on premium time, and MAYBE a mech, I see no point in even bothing with camo.

[mailin]

Sorry, but using MC for a non-Hero mech is a bad choice on your part. Never buy a mech for real money when you can save up C Bills instead. And, as commented earlier, once a color is purchased, it is available to be used on all of your mechs.

[loliza]

dont buy camo if you cant afford it or you think its too expensive use your money on mechbays instead, however for 1500 you could get titanium white and one of the darker blues ( looks alot like black) and give all your mechs white and black camo with the cbill versions of colours you will have a nice colour palet.

camo patterns is cool and all but wouldn´t spend on them now cool camos inc later this month...

And since your new ill give you a heads up this community does not respond well to negative sarcasm.

[BoPop]

nice mech collection loliza.

I approach the new model of video games with micro purchasing like burning money. i'm old and remember back in college I used to go to video rental stores on the weekends and rent *gasp* video casettes! it used to be a sort of hobby of mine, to rent every movie in the place so long as it was sci-fi or horror or action. (never been into comedies or obviously chick flicks) I cleaned this one place out, there was literally not one movie left that interested me in the least.

must've spent a lot of dough, didn't know, didn't keep track. I was looking to kill time, rented movies, and killed time. did I waste that money? perhaps, but I also enjoyed getting home and popping in the movies and watching them all, or falling asleep to them. then i'd return them. probably spent 10 to 15 bucks a week on just rented movies. if you look at your MWO experience in the same way it doesn't burn so much.

Just think, "What do I want to do tonight? I'm willing to spend 10 bucks doing something." Well, if you decide you don't want to rent a movie, or go to a movie, or go out to eat or whatever, then spend it on some MWO or whatever flavor of the month you're in to.

Don't look at video games like an investment... it's all entertainment. you should only spend disposable money on video games anyways. if you are angry at PGI or whatever hey, they put the game out there free to play, it was and is your choice to spend cash. if you regret it, you regret it, don't buy anymore MC. Sure we've all come to the forums to spout off something like "Not spending anymore cash until these bugs are fixed!" but in the end, those of us that approach these games as just an entertainment get away, and not some investment keep on throwing our money on the fire. it's ok. it's just cash.

I rather dig the new micro purchasing format of games. back in my day you'd have to go shell out 60 bucks PERIOD only to find the game blows. And biggest let down of all? SPORE. they hyped that game up so much I bought the $80 version and it sss uuuuu cccc kkk eee ddddd. I'm only 20 bucks away from that with MWO and have had a lot more fun playing it too.

having said that, I will never buy a hero mech. wayyyyy too overpriced imo. so are the camos and dashboard uselessness.

everyone looks at spending money different, and a large part of that has to do with how much money you have to spend in the first place. my boss is filthy rich, one day she handed me her credit card and said "Go to (furniture store) and pick up my tables." I said, "Sure boss." When I got there, they were $16,000. So you can see how silly you look when you come to the forums and whine about 15 bucks heheh.

[B0oN]

Welcome to MW:O
Keep your friends tight
Keep your wallet even tighter

[Orbit Rain]

Welcome to the real world, take the word greed and replace it with a adolescent understanding of how free markets work, then point it at yourself...

[Gremlich Johns]

Dude, you gave 32 minutes for a response. Chill.

and listen to Rad Hanzo

[Koniving]

bashpr0mpt, on 05 May 2013 - 01:26 AM, said:

Hello, I'm a noob! Well, a noob to MWO. I recently bought myself a Raven, 500 MC, figured that's not too bad. Now I want to customize it. Apparently I have to pay 1,000 MC per color and 750 per camo pattern? That seems patently absurd to me, especially given that I can't buy it with credits, so basically I am going to be paying almost EIGHT TIMES THE PRICE OF MY MECH for ONE camo pattern (because the camo pattern is useless unless you buy colors to go with it), so I'm already destined to have almost The War Z level buyers remorse here; but I want to limit the damage that this will cause thus my question is ...

If I purchase three colors and a camo pattern that makes me happy in the pants, then next week I get sick of my Raven and replace it with that god awful pink thing or another mech in general, can I apply those colors and that camo to the new mech? Or am I locked in to raven only?

Your specific question: If you spend 750 MC for a pattern for the Raven, you can use it on any Raven, even if you sell the Raven later. The paints you can use on any mech.

Here's how the paint system works.

If you buy a paint

• it is permanent.
  
• You can use it on any mech, every mech, for as long as the game runs.

If you buy a camo it depends on whether you use the 75 or the 750 version.

• If you buy the single use 75 one, you get it and have it until you sell the mech or change the camo. It only stays on the mech you gave it to.
  
• The higher priced 750 version is permanent, but chassis specific. Tiger stripe for example will be available for every Raven you ever get. You can put it on and take it off as often as you please. However, it will only be for the Raven. You have to buy it for another chassis to use it on that other chassis.

That said, paints are good purchases at any time you see fit. The more expensive ones if you want them that bad, wait for a sale? Remember to check the camo versions, as an identical but slightly duller or not so shiny version of it can be found. For example Titanium White is 1,000 MC. For 500 (or 250 on sale), you can find the whitest of the Camo Greys, which is almost identical except it doesn't "shine" with a crisp metallic shine.


The difference between Obsidian Black, PC Gamer Black, and Camo Black is also pretty subtle.

• Obsidian shines with a bluish hue, like Obsidian.
  
• PC Gamer Black shines with a whitish, metallic hue.
  
• Camo Black does not shine.

There's based colors available (I bought them all within minutes of the changed paint scheme system because perm colors are awesome). The "1,000 " colors are the premiums. Take a peek at the camos colors, and cycle around regular color threads to the 500 colors. Keep in mind the colors are one time purchases. Most people wait for the sales, when color gets cheaper, where the they usually go half off. They happens on and off about every week.


They just recently did a 35% off of everything paint, camo and decoration related, so wait until a week after the 7th for the next sale. It's best to hold onto cash that's left over just in case.

Camos and paints are one of the three main ways they make money. Hero mechs and Premium time are the others.

These are some examples of recent paints I gathered during the sale.

Spoiler

Pattern: full price 750. Paints PC Gamer red - free. Camo Tan, 250, Camo light brown, 250 during camo sale.


Raven 2x pattern and paint. 575 for the pattern. 250, 250, 250 for the paint during the cyan sale.


Dragon paint cost: 250 + 250 + free. 575 for the pattern.

You can run with the 75 versions of the paints if you plan on keeping the mech itself. I get perm versions because in the long run it's cheaper for me given that I have over 50 mechs and frequently sell and rebuy them on whims. On sale the 750 camo patterns drop down to 375 per pattern.

During sales 1,000 paint drops down to 500, 500 paints drop to 250. Just keep your eyes peeled around the weekends. Remember the Raven you got is on sale right now. Normally it'd be about 1,000 or so. Though you could have bought it with .

To start on your paint collection, google PC Gamer and MWO. Up to you whether you get that copy of PC Gamer (October 2012), ask someone who did, or go the less than honest approach. But that will help your paint collection with a Comstar-style tannish grey, a blood red, and a shiny black.

Down below was a number of group paint concepts using mostly free (cbill) colors, so that can give you an idea of how they might look if you want to stick with the cbill paints. Since I tried to show how it looked on the different mechs I had, feel free to skip ahead. There's a total of 4 paintjobs.

Spoiler

Has that helped?

Edited by Koniving, 06 May 2013 - 10:29 AM.

[Uncle Ted]

The PC Gamer promo was taken offline, probably due to cheaters using forum threads to get the answers without paying.

If I'm wrong and it's back up, please provide a link.

[LapsedPacifist79]

Yeah, I'd been holding off buying MC but I've been playing for 3-4 weeks and my need for more mechbays coincided with the paint/camo sale so I bought a few. Very pricey (like everything MC based in this game), even at discount rates, so "Caveat Emptor" should be your mantra mate!

You're far more likely to get your limbs blown off by an olive green grinder than by a hot pink £20 mech that plays a brief and unsatisfying guitar riff.

[Koniving]

Uncle Ted, on 05 May 2013 - 05:37 PM, said:

The PC Gamer promo was taken offline, probably due to cheaters using forum threads to get the answers without paying.

If I'm wrong and it's back up, please provide a link.

I had it since paint was pay per application. But they did say they'd eventually take the offer offline.

The cbill versions are his early bet then.

[Uncle Ted]

They weren't supposed to take it down until late this year, like October *(citation needed)* it disappeared a couple of weeks ago.

[Koniving]

Yep. It's closed. Sad face. However, the MWO website is still accepting codes. So if you get your hands on a genuine, unopened issue of the October 2012 PC Gamer, then you can still get your PC Gamer skins and paints.

Or get it from someone who has it but hasn't given away the code and won't be using it.

Edited by Koniving, 05 May 2013 - 06:04 PM.

[BoPop]

very nice paintjobs kon, hey how do you get those screenshots with no hud? I looked for a hud toggle in my keybindings and didn't find it. only time I have no hud is when I get the no hud bug hehe.

[LapsedPacifist79]

LOL, Kon's like a model. Got his very own photographer!

Edit: With an effing nice rig by the looks of it.

Edited by LapsedPacifist79, 05 May 2013 - 06:26 PM.