27 replies to this topic

[GODzillaGSPB]

Because when I finally did, it dampened my initial hype pretty much, down to zero. I'm not planning to buy the pack anymore.

My reasons where as follows:


1.) Something to breathe fresh air into the game. I've found and mastered all my favorit mechs and it's a bit empty in my mech bay.

--> the Project Phoenix mechs will come in October! Until then, three more regular mechs will be released (Flea, Orion, Victor). Buying the pack now will do nothing positive to my motivation of playing the game in the months to come.


2.) Special-mechs, unseen, wow!

--> Remember that these are not hero mechs! They come with a special paintjob und c-bill plus loyalty-point-bonus, but they are STANDARD-variants. You can get these mechs with the same hardpoints via CBills.


3.) What initially sparked my wish to buy the pack even more was the wish to play these new mechs much earlier because it'd be months before the regular versions would arrive.

--> The release-dates of the mechs is as follows: Oct 15, 2013: Locust, Nov 20, 2013: Shadowhawk, Dec 18, 2013: Thunderbolt, Jan 22, 2014: Battlemaster. So it's a steady rythm. If you crave the Battlemaster for instance, the Phoenix programm allows early access for sure. But is it worth it?


4.) I bet I can make viable mechs out of all these unseen chassis, why else would they be part of that special pack.

--> Test it: http://mwomercs.com/...w-with-pheonix/ . I found that the Locust is a joke (powered by imho®) and the Shadow Hawk to be a difficult mech to get right. The Thunderbolt and Battlemaster are definitely strong...


5.) After I played around with the announced chassis (see above), I really like x mech but don't like the others. I'd like to chose my mech(s) and want to get the pack just for them.

--> That was a major disappointment. Like I said, I'd like to get the Thunderbolt and Battlemaster but don't care for the Locust or Shadow Hawk...so that means I have to buy the big, expensive pack. Damn! I really wonder why PGI made it like this...


Finally, ask yourself this question:

"What is more satisfactory: To get these mechs all together, at once or to actually play the game and earn them?"

For me, it's the latter. You can spend only a fraction of these 80$ and invest them into premium time, play the game, earn CBills and get the mechs one after the other.

I believe that this will drive the fun to play the game much longer than simply buying your way to the top.


PS: Feel free to add your own pros and cons. I don't want to influence your opinion of the Phoenix programm in one direction or the other. I just wanted to share what I think, give my reasons to think twice and maybe highlight some things that were not known to you before.

Edited by GODzillaGSPB, 30 June 2013 - 09:15 AM.

[Druidika]

GODzillaGSPB, on 30 June 2013 - 08:45 AM, said:

3.) What initially sparked my wish to buy the pack even more was the wish to play these new mechs much earlier because it'd be months before the regular versions would arrive.

--> It may be news to you, but PGI plans to switch to a "2 chassis per months" pattern. So right in November, the Shadow Hawk AND Thunderbolt will arrive!

Yeah, that's not true at all. The Phoenix chassis release dates are listed here: http://mwomercs.com/...sked-questions/

Quote

Q: When will the Standard Variants be purchasable with C-bills or MC?

A: For those who do not Buy a Project Phoenix Package - The Standard Variants release schedule is currently set as:
Oct 15, 2013: Locust
Nov 20, 2013: Shadowhawk
Dec 18, 2013: Thunderbolt
Jan 22, 2014: Battlemaster

[tommilator]

I'm passing on the Phoenix program. October is some time away and waiting for new content is part of the Free in MWO F2P.

If PGI is in need of a cash infusion to keep the wheels on this project they should come out and say so. I'm sure many oldtimer founders would find the pocket change to protect their investment, even if they already collected hundreds of hours of entertainment.

Monetizing the game is of course what drives the company, but for now I feel they should focus on getting it "out of the gate" before thinking up new marketing ploys to dazzle the moneymen.

My mech hangar have more mechs standing by waiting to be mastered than I have time to play, so getting new mechs with c-bills in the fall is my plan.

[GODzillaGSPB]

Druidika, on 30 June 2013 - 08:59 AM, said:

Yeah, that's not true at all. The Phoenix chassis release dates are listed here: http://mwomercs.com/...sked-questions/

My "source" was the "Hot News" list in the upcoming content tracker. If it's not true I'll change it. Thanks.

[ryoma]

Nice read. It's great to see people independently reaching the conclusions I had.

[Volume]

ryoma, on 30 June 2013 - 09:30 AM, said:

Nice read. It's great to see people independently reaching the conclusions I had.

Likewise.

I find it difficult to justify a purchase like this considering the state of the game.
For the record my Founder's purchase was a bit different, since I was already in closed beta and things were very promising. Besides that, I wanted to support the game and make it successful. At this point, I've had enough reason to feel like even if it was a good deal, I shouldn't spend money on it.

I'll probably just do other stuff for half a year, then maybe buy the standard variant of the Battlemaster. In all honesty, if I could spend $30 and just get that, I would be a bit more on the fence about it, but still lean towards no.

People were saying that adding a $30 option will cannibalaize sales of higher tiers. I think it's the opposite. I think you'll have a lot of people who would like just one 'mech, and would much prefer to pay $30 for that one 'mech than $80 for three that they don't really care about. Don't get me wrong, I personally wouldn't mind having a Shadow Hawk or Thunder Bolt but I'm not going to spend real money on them when I still have a ton of MC from the Founder's purchase, and will probably have enough to get these standard variants with C-Bills later, if I even care by then.

I feel like the barrier of entry is too high. If you gave people options to spend ~$5, they would. But we've talked about this in other threads, and I'm not going to digress here.

My point is that yes, obviously I'm not buying this, considering the track record that we have so far.

[LauLiao]

My reasons FOR buying:

1) It's only $80 for the top tier

2) $80 is a pretty trivial transaction for me

3) The end

[Xeno Phalcon]

I want a hero-esque mech that I like the look of, the Tbolt fits that bill pretty good though I would prefer a Hero Orion. Either way though it dosnt change the game for me for freaking months which puts me in a difficult possition, finish mastering the QKD-5K and 4H while grinding up cash for later mechs (im back down to less then 2M due to picking up a XL and red paint, ******** paints expensive in the future).

For now its pretty much a giant tease all around and just annoys me, as everytime they do this it sucks my interest in the current state of the game right on out (When they announced the Orion I pretty much couldnt play for a solid month or more) because the grass is always greener on the other side and all that jazz.

That being said Even if you just play one mech the ProPho's are a superior deal to a hero mech, Not only do you get the Cbill boost but your getting the Loyalty boost (whatever that will do, I assume its important for like buying faction decals and stuff later on) but you get enough of the other variants of that mech to help you on the road to mastering said mech. Folks that are going to splurg for the Dragon Slayer will still need to wait for the normal victor to come out, then purchase and upgrade two of them to finish improving their dragon slayer.

Whatever you (or even I) choose months down the road, the bigger question is what the hell are we doing in the meantime?? And oh god I feel sorry for our younger players, spend their summer mowing lawns so they can get a propho pack in time for school to start.

[Eximar]

On the Pro side:

KitK, on 26 June 2013 - 01:11 PM, said:

Project Phoenix Overlord Purchasing Guide

Below is a cost breakdown, as best as I could figure it, and some comments on intangibles that you might find helpful in deciding whether or not you want to buy this promotion. Individual evaluation of the merits of this promotion will differ on an individual basis and can be viewd in various related feedback forum threads.

Scenario 1: “Premium time, badges and medallions are bonuses and fluff – all I care about are the mechs!”
Cost per mech in all 4 packages: $6.67 USD (That’s likely a deal on everything but the locust since the COM-1B is roughly half that price.)

Scenario 2: “Itemize it for me. I want to know what I’m buying.”
Three things, at this point, can be itemized – the premium time, the mech bays and the medallions. 30 days of premium time are 2,500 MC, mech bays are 300 MC, and medallions are 500 MC. First calculate what this would cost to buy with MC. Then subtract that from the package to see what the mechs cost.
--4 Months Premium Time = 10,000 MC
--12 Mech Bays = 3,600 MC
--4 Medallions = 2,000
--Total MC = 15,600

Cheapest way to obtain said MC is 1 $49.95 USD package and 1 $29.95 USD package totaling $79.90 USD.

Actual value of premium time, mech bays and medallions: $67.37 USD
(79.90/18500*15600)

Remaining value of mechs: $12.62 USD
Cost per mech $1.05 USD

[GODzillaGSPB]

Eximar, on 30 June 2013 - 11:52 AM, said:

On the Pro side:

Pretty good summary and a good pro-argument for sure.

Only for those though who generally buy their mechs / content via MC aka real money.

[LauLiao]

GODzillaGSPB, on 30 June 2013 - 11:56 AM, said:

Pretty good summary and a good pro-argument for sure.

Only for those though who generally buy their mechs / content via MC aka real money.

I'd argue differently. I am usually loathe to spend money on Mechs because, hey, why bother when I will eventually be able to get them for free by merely playing the game long enough.

But the whole package of goodies is just too good a deal to pass up.

[MoonUnitBeta]

Bought overlord for the same reason I bought Legendary Founders. Help support MWO, I get a wicked awesome deal, and I'm still having fun.
Like the founders, I'm not looking at what the game is right now. I'm looking forward at the huge list of upcoming things. Things like clan invasion, MASC, 12v12, more mechs, new UI, Community Warfare, HUD refreshment after launch, etc etc. Big changes, and all very good things. Because they haven't sorted out PPC's yet, or the seismic sensor is OP, they've said they know about the problems, they said they're fixing the seismic sensor. They're a competent company, just small. And it's a big game, and very complex. There's lot's of customization which has kept me and my friend neck deep in the game.

The biggest deciding factor for me is "Am I having fun?" Yes I am. And that's why I spent $80.

Like I said in a previous thread, I've spent $420 on other games, like skyrim, batman arkham city, Hitman absolution, starcraft 2, diablo 3, etc. at $60 a pop. And at most I've got a month's worth of playtime from each of them. The shortest was 1 week with hitman and 1.5 week with starcraft 2. So, there's two things OP doesn't cover: Fun-o-meter, and what $80 is worth to YOU.

Edited by MoonUnitBeta, 30 June 2013 - 12:33 PM.

[GODzillaGSPB]

Sorry guys, but this is not okay. Instead of me holding the line, you conquer my opinion bit by bit...damn stop it!

[Jetfire]

I like how they look.

Overlord is almost worth it just based on premium time alone.

I love paint and Camo.

I love this game.

(Yes, I am concerned about CW, collisions and balance... just not distraught or bitter)

Is it worth it? Well what is "worth it" in a F2P game? I looks cool, I like it, so I got it. Way more economical than Founders and I bought that.

[GODzillaGSPB]

Well let's not exaggerate. 120 days of premium are currently worth 50$ and you even have 2000 mc left. Just imagine, with the 30$ you save you could buy the upcoming Victor heromech, or the Sarah heromech, or even more premium. And later, when you're patient enough, you can get the standard variants of the Phoenix mechs which have the very same hardpoints for Cbills and paint them in an equally cool sheme, or even spend some of the money you saved on custom paintjobs.

Just saying...

[ryoma]

Yep, MC can always be spent as you see fit.

Phoenix packs attempt to fit us all into one glove and the glove doesn't fit a lot of people.

[Nauht]

My reasons for overlord -

• I don't like grinding for CB just for equipment, mechs. Been through the MMO stages of grinding and can't really stand it anymore. Battlemaster + upgrades you're probably looking at 11-12 mil CB for each mech. That's a lot of grinding without premium. Of course I also want the SH and TB as well. That's ALOT of grinding.

• I try not to spend MC on normal variants (and so far the game's been enjoyable enough that I've got more CB than needed to buy normal variants), only on heroes however the package gives you two normal variants of each mech anyway - I'll take that and add it to the MC value as I'm disliking grinding just for the sake of earning a mech and equipment.

• Early access to the SH, TB and BM. I argued with myself about that as well. I could just wait for the normal variants but I knew that as soon as I saw one of the Phoenix mechs fielded, I'd want to try it there and then, not wait months extra. I could have waited but a part of me would regret not getting overlord.

• I can afford it. This is peanuts as a hobby - and it ties in with all the above. I can grind somewhat and will not spend MC if I have the CB to keep my enjoyment levels up i.e. buying things I want and not feel like working for it. Learnt long ago that gaming should be for fun, not log in just to work for virtual money. I will grind CB for normal variants when I'm having fun playing the game and the CB earnings is incidental to that.

So yeah I reasoned pretty much what you did OP and could have waited but I knew that as soon as I saw someone else playing a SH, TB or BM I knew I'd want to try one... and when you can afford it, why not?

[ryoma]

That is a perfectly valid thought process Naught.

I only wish the 20-40$ packs were good enough for me to come to the same conclusion about them that you came to for the 80$ pack.

[Sybreed]

I'm waiting for balance changes myself. If PGI keeps the same route, I'm not getting the pack. If they bring deep changes to core designs like hardpoint sizes, I'll buy one for sure as a token of gratitude.

[Narcissistic Martyr]

I only play lights, mediums, and fast heavies so I'm only considering the level 2 tier. Because it's my birthday soon and the Shadowhawk is my favorite mech I'll probably buy the pack. The only thing that gives me pause is the fact that they heroed the worst possible locust variant and they still haven't fixed the speed limit so there isn't really a point to the locust yet. So... I'll probably end up making my decision on the 24th between the storm tier which has the loyalty medal and the shadowhawk and some MC.