23 replies to this topic

[Anjian]

It is not a P2W situation, but if PGI sticks to the canon CBill costs of mechs as per Battletech lore, the costs of certain mechs will hit the ceiling in such a way the cost of an Atlas looks like a Walmart sale. So far, PGI has been following the Cbill costs of mechs faithfully as per canon lore and recreating them in the game. The problem arises, when certain mechs start costing astronomically high, like Clan Mechs.

Would you be willing to pay for mechs that range from 20 million to 30 million CBills? Because that's what the range of many Clan heavy and Assault mechs could cost, such as the iconic Mad Cat. Not only that, but certain IS assaults also foot a high bill, such as the Mauler and the Devastator.

http://www.sarna.net..._Wolf_(Mad_Cat)

24 million CBills for the Mad Cat

This IS mech costs nearly 23 million C Bills.

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Devastator

The king of Mechwarrior 4, the Daishi, costs nearly 30 million CBills.

http://www.sarna.net...e_Wolf_(Daishi)

If is not likely though that MC costs are going to rocket as well, since MC costs are non canon and are directly based on tonnage. Which means in terms of MC, a Mad Cat is going to cost somewhere between an Cataphract and an Awesome.

Will players be willing to fork their costs in Cbills? Or go with MC and the risk the perception the game is trying to be P2W?

This is a problem we might encounter a year from now though. But give it some thought.

[TheCaptainJZ]

I'm guessing PGI has a different plan for clan mechs than our current structure. Maybe we can salvage them? Maybe we can get them some other way?

Also, there is the problem of clan tech being better in every way to IS tech.

In the end, if there isn't a different kind of structure in place, then the only people with clan tech will be those who play a ton or have premium time. And those are the ones that will be winning matches and making even more Cbills compared to the other players. I don't have a problem with clan tech being better or more expensive or rarer, but the gulf in cost seems rather extreme as you pointed out.

I would love to see salvage opportunities perhaps tied to winning certain matches or planets in CW. It felt like a true prize in MechCommander or MechWarrior to get that clan tech. But we will just have to see what PGI has up their sleeves...

[Onmyoudo]

Clan mechs is a very difficult issue. I wouldn't be surprised if they were ignoring it until they've sorted everything else they need to (CW, release, etc) and praying some miracle solution arrived by the time they needed to work on the clans. As for C-Bills, either the clan mechs will be a bit cheaper than canon, or we'll "salvage" the chassis as part of CW and just have to buy equipment or something.

[Adridos]

You can't cimply go and buy Clan mechs.

The price associated with them is simply a relative deduction of how much would equivalent equipment cost in the IS.

[Blaike]

If you average 100.000 cb a match ( I do and I'm an average pilot.) thats 240 games to get 24.000.000.
If you play 10 games a day 4 days a week thats 4.000.000 in just 1 week then it just takes 6 weeks to save the amount.
I currentley have 103 million I havent spent yet but I admit I dont buy Assaults
I'm sure its going to be a while before we can buy clan mechs. So shouldnt be a problem.

[Panimu]

In my 4 man last night my 3 colleagues had 130, 135 and 170 million cbills.

(I had 3...)

[Adridos]

Blaike, on 05 July 2013 - 02:12 AM, said:

I'm sure its going to be a while before we can buy clan mechs. So shouldnt be a problem.

For the sake of all involved, I hope Clan mechs stay Clan mechs and the only way to get them will be through playing as the Clans.

[Onmyoudo]

Blaike, on 05 July 2013 - 02:12 AM, said:

If you average 100.000 cb a match ( I do and I'm an average pilot.) thats 240 games to get 24.000.000.
If you play 10 games a day 4 days a week thats 4.000.000 in just 1 week then it just takes 6 weeks to save the amount.
I currentley have 103 million I havent spent yet but I admit I dont buy Assaults
I'm sure its going to be a while before we can buy clan mechs. So shouldnt be a problem.

10 games a day (approx. 1.5 hours)? Just 6 weeks? A lot of people like buying a lot of mechs and don't have your kind of space money saved. Maybe it'll be different with an actual game to play, but 6 weeks of dropping in the current game just to save up enough to buy a single mech variant - basic only, no upgrades or customisation - is far, far too long. I don't think CW will add enough value on its own to not make 6 weeks less of an off-putting grind.

There needs to be a more gradual progression available than "bore yourself with the exact same thing every day for weeks in order to get a new way to do the same old thing". It remains to be seen how they'll do it, but it would be massively flawed design to assume people will stick around to play and put money into such a dull grindfest.

Note: I am assuming that by the time clans are going to arrive there will be more substance to the game and we will no longer be hoping for something to arrive in the future to change the current dull grindfest, because that thing will have already arrived.

[Jae Hyun Nakamura]

I don't want to ruin your dreams, but the most real thought on this is PGI making a Clan Package with four Mechs around 100$ + smaller and cheaper Tiers. For those who don't want to/can't spend the amount of Money, this Mechs will be available around Summer 3051. And yes...i think it will be possible to buy the mechs with C-Bill...and yes....Sarna/TR's are the source for pricing. So if you want a Clan Mech...you better gring like Tony Hawk But I also think that CW, Daily Achievments and Faction Achievments will bring some more Money to the Player and we wont Need to grind for 6 to 12 weeks for C-Bills.

[XFactor777]

the clans don't use c-bills the cost you see is the converted cost of the clan currency converted to c-bills, roughly 5:1 I think might be 3:1, either way that lowers the cost of the dire wolf down to 6 to 10 million in Kerensky's.

[TheCaptainJZ]

That's another and more reasonable way to go: different currencies.

[Tennex]

I thought PGI did cost by equipment. a combined cost of equipment + chassis. Cuz prices don't match up Exactly with sarna

[Spheroid]

Mechs are not going "sky high". Have you seen how much the Atlas-K is discounted? The actual price would be over twenty-two million if they stuck to tabletop. XL engines are vastly discounted in game. Money is easy to come by. I am already over 14 million c-bills after purchasing three of the lackluster Quickdraws. Content is being released much slower than the rate at which I earn C-bills.

Edited by Spheroid, 07 July 2013 - 07:40 PM.

[IceCase88]

Cbills are easy to come by so no one should worry about it. I can usually get 1 million cbills in 1 hour using my standard mechs. If I use my hero mechs I can do it in 45 minutes. Add premium time and I can get it done in about 30 minutes using hero mechs. I have had a high of 138 million cbills but I am currently sitting on 93 million. I am no stellar player by any stretch of the imagination. It just takes some time.

PGI is sitting in a good spot. So many players have so many cbills and the players have a desire to own more mechs. Mech bays only cost 300 MC. At some point players are going to want to spend some money. Especially when the clans come.

[627]

Do clans use currency? From the books/lore, there was no money for them (ok, for the warriors, don't know about merchants).

I think they will take some kind of loyality points, just like we will get them for CW and house standings. Maybe they go deep into the clans and you have to compete in a trial for a new mech, who knows? But i doubt we'll see such creativity, at the end you'll need to get those 30 million c-bills...

[Waking One]

pretty sure there will be a different system for clans, that cost doesn't really apply to them as such

maybe the whole loyalty points thing yeah

[Devil Fox]

The question is how well/easy is it to obtain clan technology come release... I wouldn't mind a few of them but not have to lose my IS mechs or allegiance.

[Clit Beastwood]

well it'd make sense that better tech = more money. start with a clan light and work your way up to a clan assault, that doesn't seem so strange.

[Roughneck45]

Looks like you just found PGI's cash cow.

The clan tech is going to be expensive as f*ck, and people will give them money to cut the grind.

The P2W arguments will crop up, and have more fervor than ever, but their basis will still be questionable. If PGI allows us to put clan tech in the IS mechs, they wont have a leg to stand on, just tears that they cant grind out a Timberwolf in 2 hours and don't want to pay for it.

[Spheroid]

Why does everyone think Clan mechs will be unaffordable? Where components and weapons are comparable they will have identical costs. The only thing you would be paying more for is the Omni-mech cost multiplier.