53 replies to this topic

[Audlyn]

I understand peoples frustration with the drop in c-bill earnings...but at the same time, I can't help but feel that it was eventually going to happen.
Everybody says they should bring back R&R and up the boosts again, but to me, that would only make energy weapons reign supreme again.
For a game that you can get almost EVERYTHING for free...I don't see why this is such a big deal. Sure you have to play more...oh well. I play for fun, not to "grind"...but I guess not everyone can be like that.

[Boyinleaves]

The problem people have?

Premium Time; they paid (probably) for it, and it is now less effective than previously.

Other than that, yes, it was probably going to happen sooner or later, and hopefully PGI will eventually implement something to balance income and expense out.

[Smitti]

Boyinleaves, on 14 August 2013 - 11:50 PM, said:

The problem people have?

Premium Time; they paid (probably) for it, and it is now less effective than previously.

Other than that, yes, it was probably going to happen sooner or later, and hopefully PGI will eventually implement something to balance income and expense out.

I use premium time and couldn't give a rodent's posterior about the c-bill drop... I haven't really noticed much of an income drop anyway, but then I never really paid much attention to the c-bills I earn.

[Johnny Reb]

Well, I picked a bad time for premium to work. Still, the current way things work xp is easy to get. C-bills not so. New players get a bonus then get this current slow grind. So, this is bad for new players in my opinion. I am sitting on 75 mill c-bills so not an issue for me.

[Angel of Annihilation]

Audlyn, on 14 August 2013 - 07:07 PM, said:

I understand peoples frustration with the drop in c-bill earnings...but at the same time, I can't help but feel that it was eventually going to happen.
Everybody says they should bring back R&R and up the boosts again, but to me, that would only make energy weapons reign supreme again.
For a game that you can get almost EVERYTHING for free...I don't see why this is such a big deal. Sure you have to play more...oh well. I play for fun, not to "grind"...but I guess not everyone can be like that.

I guess this depends on your definition of fun. For me it is trying out new mechs and builds and that requires alot fo c-bills. To be perfectly honestly, after you play 50-100 matches on any single mech chassis, the game gets boring to me. Therefore being able to buy new mechs and/or change up the builds on my old mechs is essential to my enjoyment.

Also the only progression in this game is being able to own new mechs. Nerfing the C-bill earnings, nerfs progession and if progression ceases to be fun due to the fact it is now a straight up grind, then the game becomes less fun.

[Thirdstar]

OP doesn't seem to understand how in-game economies work.

To elite a certain mech chassis you need a minimum of 3 of those mechs. You absolutely need DHS and many many builds also require some form of XL to run. This makes Mediums prohibitivly expensive with the new earnings per time period values, let alone Assaults.

Mech chassis resale value is a fraction of the original cost. You will also completely lose whatever money you sink into Dubs or Endo.

Tell me again how this is fun unless you're a Founder with Heroes, banked MCs and C-bills.

Tell me how it's fun for a new player.

[Thirdstar]

I really good round will net you about 120k for 10 minutes of play.
A bad round will see you leave the match with 50k.

Over an hour of play you will make about 500k.

A Hunchback is 4 mil
A Jaeger is 5 mil
A Victor is 7 mil
An Atlas is 10 mil

Dubs cost 1.5 mil
Endo costs 1 mil
A single ERPPC is 600k
An XL 250 is 4 mil
An XL 300 is 4.9 mil

Modules are more expensive than some mechs, between 4 and 6 mil.

Edit: all mechs costs are approximates due to large variation.

Edited by Thirdstar, 15 August 2013 - 02:29 AM.

[DemonRaziel]

And to expand on Thirdstars post, you must triple all the 'Mech prices, as you need 3 chassi to unlock elites. It might not seem so at first glance but mastering every single 'Mech is quite a CB drain, even when it comes to Lights, since an XL engine is pretty much a must have for all of them.

Come to think of it, a zombie Cent is probably the best cheap 'Mech, but then you need to buy a -D to unlock the elites and that alone will cost you 8 mils.

[DarkDevilDancer]

Lets not forget after you buy your mech you'll want non standard weapons and 600k for a single ERPPC will take between 6-12 games depending on skill level of player.

So to equip the current meta of 2 ERPPC and a Gauss Rifle is 1.8 million taking 18 games minimum but potentially 36 for people who dont have our level of experience.

Thats a staggering amount of time to put in just for weapons, you need the same again for double heat sink upgrade.

Thats gonna put alot of new players off, bad enough vets pick them apart in game the knowledge that they will never catch up in an arms race will see them playing other mmo's easier to get into.

[Agent 0 Fortune]

Audlyn, on 14 August 2013 - 07:07 PM, said:

I understand peoples frustration with the drop in c-bill earnings...but at the same time, I can't help but feel that it was eventually going to happen.
Everybody says they should bring back R&R and up the boosts again, but to me, that would only make energy weapons reign supreme again.
For a game that you can get almost EVERYTHING for free...I don't see why this is such a big deal. Sure you have to play more...oh well. I play for fun, not to "grind"...but I guess not everyone can be like that.

Are you suggesting that you pay more, less, or the same MC (real money) due to the earnings decrease?

Personally I will spend far less MC.
I wont spend MC on standard variant mechs, but do spend MC on incidental items like Mech Bays, GXP, Paint, Camo, and the occassional Hero. Wich means the fewer C-Bills I earn the less MC I spend.
The problem is compounded because I refuse to buy Premium time now since it is worth so much less than it used to be.

Perhaps I am in the minoroity but I think the best way for PGI to increase MC sales is to increase C-Bill rewards. But I guess it depends on how successfully standard variant mech sales are.

[gritsNgreens]

Op! You bet it was going to happen, PGI wants to generate more income so what do you do? Decrease c-bills increase xp so that now players will buy mc to convert xp to gxp for module slots which can not be obtained any other way, this was supposed to be F2P and is more and more turning into a P2P game. Want proof? Go create a new account and see how fast you can earn c-bills till you buy your first mech then it is down hill from there!

[MrJolly]

Audlyn, on 14 August 2013 - 07:07 PM, said:

For a game that you can get almost EVERYTHING for free...I don't see why this is such a big deal. Sure you have to play more...oh well. I play for fun, not to "grind"...but I guess not everyone can be like that.

Mostly because of the "need basic on three variants" rule. Buying a mostly useless JM6-DD to be able to use the XP on the JM6-S is less fun if it takes a month of playing to buy that extra variant.

Fortunately for me, I already have a favourite mech I can return to when it's C-Bills limiting my mech purchases.

Agent 0 Fortune, on 15 August 2013 - 12:20 PM, said:

Intelligent stuff

Same for me. I use less MC as I buy less mech bays.

gritsNgreens, on 15 August 2013 - 12:43 PM, said:

Op! You bet it was going to happen, PGI wants to generate more income so what do you do? Decrease c-bills increase xp so that now players will buy mc to convert xp to gxp for module slots which can not be obtained any other way, this was supposed to be F2P and is more and more turning into a P2P game. Want proof? Go create a new account and see how fast you can earn c-bills till you buy your first mech then it is down hill from there!

This change won't cause more people to convert xp to get modules. As modules have to be bought with C-Bills afterwards, you probably will earn gxp at a rate fast enough to get the modules unlocked the hard way before you have the surplus cash to buy the actual module.

And since you can't unlock efficiencies unless you own the variant, that too is mostly C-Bill limited. Then you have XPx2 first win each day, which will make XP go up faster. So converting to GXP just to skip leveling won't happen unless someone has ultradeep pockets and pays MC for the non-hero variants.

[Scromboid]

OP is why we have 40-50% tax rates in US.

"I know it's wrong, but I expected it."

That's like saying girls that wear 'seductive' clothes aught to expect to be *****.

[M0rpHeu5]

So if you expect something bad to happen then it's not so bad?

[Bishop Steiner]

Well, to each their own, and I know TBH, most people abhor having to work for ANYTHING. Though playing a video game seems silly to consider as work.'

My perspective?



"OK, I've ground everything in the Pilot Tree and unlocked all the modules, so now what?"

See, getting to the end of the race too soon is even MORE boring than grinding, at least to me. Sure, there are times I want to mod that mech NOW, but I have yet to have one take me more than a day or two to tune to where I want since the nerf, though admittedly, I play a few hours nightly. Also ran out of premium time about a week before the nerf and don't plan on activating my Early Bird Project Phoenix time til there is a new mech I want in game.

Instead, I have been revisiting and dusting off mechs I haven't played in months, tweaking them in Smurfy, then in game and having quite a bit of fun using "non-optimal" builds to punch quite a few pro-gamers in the mouth. Kinda funny that my non optimal builds on some mechs have brought the only 2 1000+ pt matches I have had since the glory cheeze days of the Raven-3L (hey, yeah, I ran it, after getting wolfpacked by them all night, sometimes you decide to fight fire with fire. Always felt dirty after though. Shame most Spider Jocks don't feel the same) and have been on a regular rampage bringing several mechs with sub 1.0 KDrs to over 2 in the last 2 weeks.

Gotta admit, when I got nothing left to buy, the grind is kinda hard to notice. Maybe I should buy one of each engine just to feel like a Pokemon?

Without repairs and refit, or something, it's too easy, even now, to find myself "grinding" for nothing. Guess I can start saving for upgrading all my Phoenix Mechs. That's gonna be close to 20 million just for DHS.

[Greyrook]

The problem that I have with it is more of a prediction about the future than anything. While the large amount a player earns at first is an excellent move, once that is gone there needs to be something to keep players in the game. The centric way to do that is to keep players buying and trying out mechs, and while there should and will be a grind to do that, if the player must endure scores--if not hundreds--of games just to outfit a single new mech, they are going to be lost to natural attrition. While the inclination is to say "good riddance! this is a game for serious gamers!" any large-scale game depends on a large community, and that requires new blood consistently coming in. I know I stopped playing Planetside 2 because there appeared to be no progression, I can only imagine how a player coming in to the enormous difficulty curve of this game would feel.

So while I can understand wanting to make more of an incentive for purchasing Premium Time, folks are only going to invest in a game that they feel provides good value. With how limited the gameplay is by only having a handful of maps and a measley 2 game modes, cutting out the only other source of variety (i.e. trying new mechs) is quite damaging.

This all goes without saying the obvious: "WHY are people outright defending this cut in C-Bills?" I am seriously perplexed. I can appreciate not wanting to become vehement over such things, I certainly don't, but who says to themselves, "I want it to take longer to do things in this game." ?

[Accursed Richards]

Also, who exactly was complaining about earning too much before the nerf? Who wanted this?

[Balsover]

The only thing I spend money on is mech bays ($20-30 for a hero is too much). They should be throwing c-bills at me! if I could earn and outfit a new mech every week or two, I would have spent far more money on mech bays by now.

[Randalf Yorgen]

I pulled 2.5 million in 3 hours lastnight with a few more losses than wins and no premium time in use. How? by dropping with three friends and co-ordinating our efforts. We also screwed around a lot as well, I know there is a Catafract out there who is having nightmares of a AC20 Raven in rivercity today. I went into about 8 different mechs as well and was just messing around. If you are getting bent over CB (video game fake money) and haven't bought any MC (video game money) then maybe you need to take a break from the game. Once it starts to feel like work you have lost sight on the main goal of any Gamer, be the best at having fun. If you're sweating a fake economy drop you aren't having fun. Pull your heads up and take a breather for a week

[KingJono]

Viktor Drake, on 15 August 2013 - 01:59 AM, said:

I guess this depends on your definition of fun. For me it is trying out new mechs and builds and that requires alot fo c-bills. To be perfectly honestly, after you play 50-100 matches on any single mech chassis, the game gets boring to me. Therefore being able to buy new mechs and/or change up the builds on my old mechs is essential to my enjoyment.

Also the only progression in this game is being able to own new mechs. Nerfing the C-bill earnings, nerfs progession and if progression ceases to be fun due to the fact it is now a straight up grind, then the game becomes less fun.

This. Those who have been playing for a long time under old earnings and have millions of c-bills need to stop replying to these threads... The problem is for those with no money. Fewer earnings = fewer mechs, weapons, options = less fun. When the game becomes less fun, it loses fans.

C-bill drop will hurt this company, though I will remain. Game is too fun for me to quit.