29 replies to this topic

[Shae Starfyre]

Greetings,

As some may have noticed on the forum, c-bills earned has been modified with the addition of the 12 vs. 12 matches to bring earnings more in line with PGI's goals for the game.

There are a couple of things to consider when dealing with the "grind"

The following are tips I use as a casual gamer.

1.) If you quit a match because you died, you might lose out on additional c-bills from assists. It is always a good idea to stick around (you get to spectate, learning from others, and check out their weapon load outs, as well as learning more about the maps and tactics others use). edited: this may be untrue as far as the extra assists....but if you are new, there is much to learn.

2.) If you adhere to number 1 above, then you really only have one active mech at a time. So why keep those engines that pile up? If you have more than 1, sell it. All of my mechs are fully loaded save the engine; when I want to play it, I pop in the engine, and any heat sinks that go in it, and I am off.

3.) Weapons can be done very similarly as engines; with the new heat rules, you don't really need 30 medium lasers, or whatever. Sell them keeping only what you really need.

4.) Sometimes, when mastering 3 variants, you end up with two mechs you really don't need. Sell them. Although this might seem like diminishing returns, if you don't use it, it is taking up space....sell it.

5.) Game play - depending on your role, try to maximize on your earnings whether it is spot assists as a scout, or trying the get as many assists as possible (which helps the team over-all). Remember, this is a team game, and the rewards tend to be based on this motive. If you are only concerned with killing another Mech, you may earn less as you put everything into that moment, often times dieing too soon to help the team over-all.

6.) Use sites like Smurphy's to test load outs before you buy (can someone post the link to the site please; probably already in another section of this forum).

Anyways, I hope this helps some.

I found that for new players, the earnings up front are great for the first 25 games; but if you spend without research, it can set you back, and without a little prudence, you can be too poor to have as much fun as you could.

Enjoy!

Edited by Aphoticus, 12 August 2013 - 07:47 AM.

[RF Greywolf]

Solid advice. I am kinda on the fence on the selling of variants after you get the three done. Even if you didn't like them then, it doesn't mean that you won't think up or see a build that looks interesting for that variant. Still very solid advice for people to pinch pennies.

Requested Link:Smurfy

[Shae Starfyre]

RF Greywolf, on 12 August 2013 - 06:20 AM, said:

Solid advice. I am kinda on the fence on the selling of variants after you get the three done. Even if you didn't like them then, it doesn't mean that you won't think up or see a build that looks interesting for that variant. Still very solid advice for people to pinch pennies.

Requested Link:Smurfy

True that on the selling of the variants. Take the Jump Jet capable Cataphract; I bought and sold and re-bought it; still kicking myself on that one.

Anyways, I would agree. Think before you sell.

P.S. Thanks for the link.

Edited by Aphoticus, 12 August 2013 - 07:04 AM.

[arghmace]

Aphoticus, on 12 August 2013 - 06:01 AM, said:

1.) If you quit a match because you died, you might lose out on additional c-bills from assists.

Really? If true, then this sucks. Never heard this before - on the contrary every source so far has told me that you don't lose anything by going to a new match. After all, you don't get the xp and credits when you quit the battle, you only get them after the battle is over on the server.

[scJazz]

arghmace, on 12 August 2013 - 07:17 AM, said:

Really? If true, then this sucks. Never heard this before - on the contrary every source so far has told me that you don't lose anything by going to a new match. After all, you don't get the xp and credits when you quit the battle, you only get them after the battle is over on the server.

Was true... is no longer true. Actually more correctly it was never true but people thought it was because the statement from the Devs wasn't very clear and the Mods misunderstood, along with everyone else.

[arghmace]

Okay, well that demolishes OP's points 1, 2 and 3 then. Best just leave the battle for the next if you wanna get money fast. This means you have to have some extra engines and weapons in your garage. Unless of course you ready 2-3 mechs that have absolutely nothing in common between them.

Edited by arghmace, 12 August 2013 - 09:04 AM.

[Darwins Dog]

scJazz, on 12 August 2013 - 07:26 AM, said:

Was true... is no longer true. Actually more correctly it was never true but people thought it was because the statement from the Devs wasn't very clear and the Mods misunderstood, along with everyone else.

It is true, in a way. If you shoot a guy, then die, and then leave, you will not get an assist if that player gets killed after you left. This was added to prevent players from farming assists by entering a match, shooting everyone, dying, quitting, and then doing it again with a new mech.

Aphoticus, on 12 August 2013 - 06:01 AM, said:

2.) If you adhere to number 1 above, then you really only have one active mech at a time. So why keep those engines that pile up? If you have more than 1, sell it. All of my mechs are fully loaded save the engine; when I want to play it, I pop in the engine, and any heat sinks that go in it, and I am off.

The important thing to remember is to keep AT LEAST one of each engine, even if it has no immediate use. You never know what you will want to try in the future. I say at least one because some engines are just that useful (I have 5 builds right now that use a 300XL for instance), and you will make your life easier if you have several to work with.

[scJazz]

Darwins Dog, on 12 August 2013 - 09:14 AM, said:

It is true, in a way. If you shoot a guy, then die, and then leave, you will not get an assist if that player gets killed after you left. This was added to prevent players from farming assists by entering a match, shooting everyone, dying, quitting, and then doing it again with a new mech.

Sorry Dog... wrong. Trust me on this... about 10 weeks ago this question came up and Koniving got into along with like well lots of people. The answer came back untrue.

[RF Greywolf]

I do remember the question coming up but couldn't remember the findings. Tried looking for the thread but couldn't find it. Thanks Jazz for the clarification.

I still stand by the fact that if you stay in the match and watch your allies you will learn something from them. I don't think this point can be stressed enough to newer pilots. Spectating your allies is the BEST way to learn new tactics and skills IMHO. Just don't spectate me and expect to learn anything.

[Roughneck45]

Good advice except #4

Only sell the mech if you have to have the mechbay slot and refuse to buy another one. New mechbays only cost a dollar or two, and the c-bill return for mechs is pretty awful when compared to what you paid for it.

[scJazz]

Yeah I thought about going and finding the post in question but then I realized that Koniving is a prolific poster and searching "Koniving Assist Spectate" was going to give me a field of about 1000 posts to go through.

SCREW THAT!

[Koniving]

arghmace, on 12 August 2013 - 07:17 AM, said:

Never heard this before - on the contrary every source so far has told me that you don't lose anything by going to a new match.

You "earn up until that point" + the victory or loss money at the end. But if something you shot dies, the savior kill assist and the assist you got toward that kill -- which you'd only get after you died -- won't be given because you're no longer there. You didn't lose it, you weren't there to get it as it happens after you died and left.

----------------------

On the topics of the first post. I agree with this. When it comes to engines, keep at least one of each interval as you collect them, and do not sell the XL engines. You don't get nearly enough for them considering what you paid.

Only sell weapons if you feel you will not put them into use. For example in my case I have 72 mechs. Each of them has most of their equipment. In my stash I have around 8 of each type set aside. But I find I have 106 LRM-5s after changing a bunch of loadouts. Most I can ever put onto one mech is 6. So I keep 12, and sell the rest. When you go to get them back, however, you will have lost extra money as you only got half your money back. It's like selling stuff to the pawn shop, and then buying it back. You screwed yourself, but that's okay if doing so helped you in a bind.

When the resets stopped, I waited 3 months before I sold anything. It's a solid compromise. There were no regrets. But if you sell too soon, you might wish you hadn't.

Selling variants, honestly here's what I have to say to that. Sell the ones you don't like, keep the ones you do.

That said I bet you can't tell what I like.

Edited by Koniving, 12 August 2013 - 10:48 AM.

[MoonUnitBeta]

NO! DO NOT SELL ANYTHING!

It costs you nothing to keep items in your inventory. And you will need them, especially if you start to expand your mech hangar.

When you first start out the game, a large portion of your c-bills is spent on configuring different load outs, like weapons, heat sinks, a bigger engine. Why would you undo all of that work by selling your items? You only get 50% back when you sell, effectively making you 50% less efficient and you’re down a weapon. If you keep all your items, engines, etc. Soon your costs go down to 0 c-bills if all you do is just strip your mechs down (to clarify, STRIP THEM. PUT ALL ITEMS BACK INTO YOUR INVENTORY and KEEP YOUR MECH.) Splurg on an MC pack here and there, and buy mech bays, they’re not expensive at all.


In the long run, if you keep buying, selling, and rebuying weapons just to keep your inventory numbers low, you could very well be wasting a lot of your hard earned money.
Sure, you clear out some space and get some extra cash, but keep in mind that these are short term goals. You aren’t losing money by keeping them in your inventory. And if you’re seeking to expand your mech hangar, you miss out on a lot of customization possibilities if you start selling weapons and engines, or you start making things very expensive.

I’d never suggest people to sell anything. The one thing I would suggest is to strip down the mechs that you don’t use anymore so that those items go back into your inventory, and maybe work their way back into some newer mechs.
I’ve never sold a single engine. Not all my builds use the same engine so I can’t just have one engine that I switch out between all of my mechs. I got loads of weapons in my inventory too, but that means when I customize my mechs I don’t have any weapon costs. It doesn’t cost you anything to have a warehouse of items that you don’t use. However, it costs you a lot when you sell everything and end up having to buy all of them back.

True story:
Shortly after a friend of mine started, he sold a mech, sold some engines and some weapons so he could by the mech he wanted and the weapons he wanted. He quickly found that he pigeon holed himself into a corner. Was strapped for cash and couldn’t customize anymore and had to grind in a half-finished mech, which wasn’t much fun. He was kicking himself for selling anything. I told him not to sell anything when he first started, but he had to learn the hard way.

Edited by MoonUnitBeta, 12 August 2013 - 10:25 AM.

[scJazz]

Somewhere between MoonUnit's Save Everything and Aphoticus's Sell Everything lies the truth is my humble opinion.

In a way it might even be said... be careful what you buy! I've got a stripped Quickdraw in my Hanger, I have free bays so there is no point in selling it. I needed it to Master the 4H but I didn't upgrade it at all! No DSHS, Endo, nuthin'! I bought a CN9-D yesterday for the sole reason that it contains an XL300 and I had a free bay. Now I have a Centurion! I bought an XL280 during my first week of play. That engine has literally been in every single mech I've purchased at some point. This was intentional because before I started buying anything at all I sat down and considered carefully my Mech path. After of course I bought a SDR-5D, sold it, bought a Dragon, bought the SDR again, sold both the Dragon and the Spider again, and bought a Trebuchet.

When it comes right down to it carefully considering what to buy is more important. After that though as the OP points out... exactly how many Medium Lasers do you really need? My answer is 10. How about LBX10s? The most useless and also most expensive weapon in the game right now... I have 3. How about SRM2s? ZERO!

For Engines... they can be moved from mech to mech. They are expensive. Some sizes are totally useless or cheap enough to ignore the few cases where they might be useful to you like the STD200.

Yeah rather than selling everything or saving everything... think it through! Don't buy what you don't need, sell the garbage, re-use everything, and plan ahead!

[Koniving]

All 3 sides are valid on selling versus hoarding things. I personally say middle ground is best.

On a side note: More ways to make more money.

Do not kill by torso if you can avoid it. Doing so significantly reduces the salvage value the winning side receives when you win.

Leg kills and headshots pay the most in salvage.

The salvage is divided evenly-ish among 12 players. That's one of a few reasons for the huge cbill loss. Cbill awards now stack more frequently too. Instead of just once, some bonuses will repeat every so often so long as you continue to perform them. Keep your eyes out for these, as these bonuses get posted on the far left of the screen.

Use more machine guns! Seriously I've had battles lately where a few pepperings of MGs will completely disarm an enemy, allowing me to kill them however I please. Watch the Blackjack I engage, the poor guy. Yellow internals. Split second MG spray. Few seconds later he dies by me, long after I stopped shooting him.

Expensive mechs are expensive. If the mech is too pricey to build up, reconsider. PGI's trying to stray us away from the assaults only meta. Consider a 5 PPC Hunchback!

But seriously. Watch your cash. Manage your money. MWO has its own economy and what you earn rises and falls over time. Enjoy a little immersion. It's not quite going to the bar in battletech, in 1989 but it helps!

Edited by Koniving, 12 August 2013 - 10:59 AM.

[John MatriX82]

All solid advices, besides this one that should be clarified imho:

Aphoticus, on 12 August 2013 - 06:01 AM, said:

2.) If you adhere to number 1 above, then you really only have one active mech at a time. So why keep those engines that pile up? If you have more than 1, sell it. All of my mechs are fully loaded save the engine; when I want to play it, I pop in the engine, and any heat sinks that go in it, and I am off.

I won't tell people to sell engines, unless we're speaking of "clones". I mean, you buy 3 HBKs to exp them, then you have three 200 stds lying around unused, then sell two and keep one.

But the above example brings me to another thought about that advice: not every extra engine isn't useful, it could be really good for a particular build in another chassis, and since you sold it, then you're screwed because you'll have to re-buy a brand new engine for it. This without accounting XL engines; if you'll enjoy the game, every 300xl or 280x or any other XL that you find in stock variants is going to be your friend, and doubles will be welcomed once your hangar fills out time by time.. because you will not want to keep remembering where you mounted that engine, search for it, dismount it, save, mount it in the desired mech, save.. awful.

My general rule is: every engine on par or bigger than a 250 rating, well, it's useful to be kept. Think of the 255xl of a Stalker 5M: it's basically useless to be used in that mech (unless you want to run uber missile boats) but it can be used successfully in the Spiders, or ballistic heavy mechs (Cataphracts, Jagers). 250 or more because of course there are 10 DHS in it that work at 2.0. Uh by the way, time to get rid of those useless 245s that came with the Jenners..

Edited by John MatriX82, 12 August 2013 - 11:40 AM.

[scJazz]

Koniving, on 12 August 2013 - 10:57 AM, said:

All 3 sides are valid on selling versus hoarding things. I personally say middle ground is best.

On a side note: More ways to make more money.

Do not kill by torso if you can avoid it. Doing so significantly reduces the salvage value the winning side receives when you win.

Leg kills and headshots pay the most in salvage.

The salvage is divided evenly-ish among 12 players. That's one of a few reasons for the huge cbill loss. Cbill awards now stack more frequently too. Instead of just once, some bonuses will repeat every so often so long as you continue to perform them. Keep your eyes out for these, as these bonuses get posted on the far left of the screen.

Use more machine guns! Seriously I've had battles lately where a few pepperings of MGs will completely disarm an enemy, allowing me to kill them however I please. Watch the Blackjack I engage, the poor guy. Yellow internals. Split second MG spray. Few seconds later he dies by me, long after I stopped shooting him.

Expensive mechs are expensive. If the mech is too pricey to build up, reconsider. PGI's trying to stray us away from the assaults only meta. Consider a 5 PPC Hunchback!

Holy Carp! Having just done the happy dance where I pointed out Koniving was wrong about something, and I got it right for the first time I must again state... I m r teh newb! MGs for crit seeking bonus!

BTW: Since it is topical... PGI introduced the CPLT-A1 (C) as a Trial for the month. It doesn't have any JJ and not nearly enough ammo. I know this since...

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...48c0ac5f68149a6

and

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...8f2da2e67c49433

are not only my favorite configs for a Catapult but represent 500 of 1600 matches. It is a bullet magnet that needs moar bullets

[El Death Smurf]

I usually look at the practicality of engines. I have a 260XL from a Stock Jagermech-DD that I just sold because I would rather use a 265XL for the same tonnage, or 255XL for .5 less tonnage. I will never use a XL260. even on that note, I sold all my STD260 engines (1 from each catapult and Jagermech) because I would rather use a STD250 for one less ton, or 275 for 2 more tons. ALSO sell single heatsinks. I save up my money to buy DHS along with my mech, and that is the first upgrade I always do, HOWEVER you can only sell single heat sinks on a mech that has Single heat sinks. So, before you upgrade your next mech to DHS, sell all of your single heatsinks.

[arghmace]

Koniving, on 12 August 2013 - 09:43 AM, said:

You "earn up until that point" + the victory or loss money at the end.  But if something you shot dies, the savior kill assist and the assist you got toward that kill -- which you'd only get after you died -- won't be given because you're no longer there.  You didn't lose it, you weren't there to get it as it happens after you died and left.

I won't be there to get anything anyway since I'm dead. Anyway what makes the difference between kill assist bonus and bonus for winning. Why do I get the latter if I left and am no longer there? Anyway, if indeed this lunacy is true that you lose kill assist bonuses after quitting the game, do you even get salvage bonus for victory?

Once again, I see no difference between salvage bonus and the regular win/lose bonus and kill assists - no matter if you stay in battle or not. The server should just calculate them all the same. You don't get anything after the battle is over anyway so it's all up to server and client status should have nothing to do with it.

Edited by arghmace, 12 August 2013 - 01:57 PM.

[Deathlike]

The most expensive things that you can horde (engines, generally) you shouldn't be selling unless you believe you don't need it (like a stock 250XL engine, which you probably have no need for over a 255XL).

The stuff you get like candy (med lasers are #1 on that list) probably is worth selling like 90% of it.

I'll cash in the FF and Standard armor on a rainy day (whenever they are sellable).

Hording non-mechs is easy.

Edited by Deathlike, 12 August 2013 - 02:23 PM.