3 replies to this topic

[Aoreias]

So from my (admittedly limited) experience, there's a nasty mix of problems with the economy that lead to poor matchmaking. When you buy a mech, in almost all cases you're buying a substandard mech that needs at LEAST double heat sinks and possibly endo-steel.

Now, if this is a mech you actually want to use, not a problem. Just play other mechs until you have enough cbills to buy everything on the loadout that you want. If you bought a mech just to buy Elite Skills or a new Module Slot though, this is where it gets tricky. Many players tight on cbills will just play a crappy mech and expect for the rest of their teammates to carry them through while they farm XP. I'm not proud of it, but I do it because rationally it makes the most sense for me in the long run.

What does this do? Basically ruins matchmaking. When I'm playing a mech that I'm farming just for cbills, I tend to get only 1/2 to 1/4th the damage that I normally do on a well geared mech. My ELO is either too high for where I should be in my crappy mech, letting my team down, or after running the crappy mech for awhile I'm at too low an ELO and stomp on the opponents way more than I should.

There's a three seperate ways that you can fix this:

1) Make it so you only need to master 1 or 2 mechs basic skills for elite skills. I highly doubt that PGI would even consider going this way because it adds to the grind, but there's would be of a reason to play mechs with crappy loadouts because you don't want to spend money on them. However, as stated because this necessarily decreases grind is something that probably isn't in the best interests of PGI.

2) Increase mech cost but make equipment changes free. Potentially reduces some grind cost associated with changing loadouts, but because loadout changes are free there's no reason to run around with a gimpy mech (assuming all mechs are reasonably balanced.) If done well, this DOES NOT affect the total CBill that players spend on average.

3) Reasonably balance double heat sinks and default loadouts. Default loadouts probably aren't going to change until PGI really starts to give up the pretense of sticking to canon, but seriously, WTF is with default loadouts? (Except for the HBK-4p©) All the trial mechs have obvious places for improvement when it comes to adding endo-steel armor and double heat sinks. Hell, the SDR-5D is ECM capable and doesn't come with one installed? Who in their right mind would build that thing? Most other default loadouts on mechs are just as bad.

Option 3 s is basically the compromise solution between status quo and option 2. It would increase mech cost, and reduce the cost to get to a good loadout. I'm willing to pony up some amount of MC to get a temporary mech right where I want it, but certainly not double or more the cost of a new mech like the current system.

TL;DR: Current XP system and economy incentivizes players to play ****** mechs. When players make the decision to not buy an upgrade for their mech, everybody loses. PGI doesn't get the grind time from the increased MC expenditure. Players are upset because they're playing a crappy mech, and teammates are upset because they're playing with someone who's potentially drastically underperforming. Making equipment free but increasing mech cost to not change overall cost would fix this.

Edited by Aoreias, 30 June 2013 - 04:32 PM.

[LauLiao]

Aoreias, on 30 June 2013 - 03:21 PM, said:

Many players tight on cbills will just play a crappy mech and expect for the rest of their teammates to carry them through while they farm XP. I'm not proud of it, but I do it because rationally it makes the most sense for me in the long run.

Fixed your TLDR

TLDR: I'm lazy and afk farm for money because I have no idea how to handle my finances, and I assume that since I'm doing it, it must be rampant and ruining the game so PGI needs to change things so nobody can do this thing I've been doing.

[Wintersdark]

Aoreias, on 30 June 2013 - 03:21 PM, said:

There's a few ways that you can fix this:

1) Make it so you only need to master 1 or 2 mechs basic skills for elite skills. I doubt that PGI would even consider going this way because it adds to the grind that they feel necessary to entice people to buying MC, but there's less of a reason to play mechs with crappy loadouts because you don't want to spend money on them.

It won't happen, but you're wrong on why.

While MC purchases are a part of the reason, the larger reason is the fundamental reason why we have the system we have.

See, the base reason is that it provides content. It takes time playing to earn the cbills to buy those mechs. Now, the "grind" isn't the content - if you thought that, sit back down and listen carefully.

You are the content.

Grind requirements get you playing the game. In this case, in three separate mechs. F2P games make money off of people who pay. People who pay aren't going to enjoy the game without content, and all the players are the content. So, for PGI to make money, they want YOU to be playing the game as much as possible. If you buy stuff, that's great, but if you buy stuff instead of playing that's less helpful.

Comparably few people spend money, so it's critical to get the free players playing as much as they can.

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2) Increase mech cost but make equipment changes free. Potentially reduces some grind cost associated with changing loadouts, but because loadout changes are free there's no reason to run around with a gimpy mech (assuming all mechs are reasonably balanced.) If done well, this DOES NOT affect the total MC that players spend on average.

And your first misunderstanding leads to terrible suggestions. Even if this doesn't (directly) impact MC expenditures, it does decrease both the amount (# of games people are playing) and variety (look at all those different mechs!) people are playing. This is much cooler than everyone jumping into a specific variant for it's cheese build.

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3) Reasonably balance double heat sinks and default loadouts. Default loadouts probably aren't going to change until PGI really starts to give up the pretense of sticking to canon, but seriously, WTF is with default loadouts? (Except for the HBK-4p©) All the trial mechs have obvious places for improvement when it comes to adding endo-steel armor and double heat sinks. Hell, the SDR-5D is ECM capable and doesn't come with one installed? Who in their right mind would build that thing? Most other default loadouts on mechs are just as bad.

Default loadouts won't change and will remain terribad, but there ARE the Champion builds which generally speaking don't suck. However, none of the above will happen except hopefully heat changes that make DHS not a flat-out upgrade.

[Aoreias]

Sorry if it wasn't clear, option 1 wasn't intended to be a serious change, that's the reason the topic header is about equipment loadouts, namely option 2.

You're absolutely right that players who don't spend money are the content, but that's only half of the equation. Players who don't spend money also talk their friends into playing, friends who might very well spend money. They don't get those network effects from free players who are upset with the game, even if they occasionally play.

Point 2 was also misstated when I said that overall MC expenditures wouldn't be changed. I meant to state CBill. Increasing CBill cost to purchase mech should keep overall CBill cost the same, and result in no fewer games being played.

Variety *may* be an issue, but one that should be offset by players having more luxury in changing their mech loadouts more, creating interesting builds.