21 replies to this topic

[SgtMac]

I cant ask questions on any of the guides(they are all locked), and none of them answer my basic question. I havea founders Atlas. On the lil pilot skill chart there I have unlocked the first 8 skills in the light blue basic box. Do I have to buy another Atlas, grind up that one, and its basic skills, then do that to yet a 3rd one to go to the next skill level? this isn't coverd and if it was, I didn't read far enough to find it before I got grumpy and posted here. I greatly appreciate friendly advice on this issue. Im not looking forward to wasting real money or grinding for a month to make enough to work the other mechs over. Thanks for your time.

Edited by SgtMac, 14 September 2013 - 07:50 PM.

[scJazz]

Yes... and to get Master you need 3 mechs of the same weight class... 3 assault in this case to unlock Master.

[Kurkotain]

Well, to be more specific, you need 3 variants of the same mech and grind the efficiencies in all of them to advance.

In the atlas case, you would need:

Altas D
Atlas D-DC
Atlas K
Atlas RS

pick three. grind away

[SgtMac]

OK, thank you. Just decided to try and sell my other 2 assault mechs then, and this is a bigger rip off the WOT. an 8mill Highlander is worth 1.6 to resell... Gonna have to give serious thought to staying in this game. Again thanks for clearing up a foolish rookie question.

[Kurkotain]

Don't ever sell your mechs, purchase mc and buy mechbays so that you can keep them. if you purchase the 15 dollars package, each mechbay ends up costing about a buck fifty, no bad considering you are supporting the game.

Yes, reselling mechs is supposed to be a ripoff so you instead purchase mechbays and keep them, guess that's the system.

That said, even with the game being FTP, you must enjoy it, if you want to keep playing it. if you enjoy the game, are having fun and want to keep playing even more, everything else just comes with time. the game has a steep learning curve, and is definitely not 'noob friendly' but is immensely satisfying when you play it right, not to mention ******* fun.

[SgtMac]

I loved the old MW series, were easier to drive machines, worse graphics, but everything a Mech sim should be. Fun. I like this game, but time for the sob story. Im a disabled veteran, I cant work and live off my disability. between me and the wife I make just enough to pay all the bills with nothing left over. I got my founders with money I saved by riding my motorcycle all summer and leaving the truck parked. With Winter coming that wont happen again. But the grind out cost for an atlas is nuts, take over a week to do it. And the limited MCs I have I don't know what I want to use on. Sure wasn't the Highlander. had I known the 3 atlas thing, I would have gotten another atlas. I haven't activated my premium account as I don't know if it will restart once the game goes alpha. the multiple patches have me somewhat leery. I appreciate ya all taking time out to talk to the rookie here. it helps prove the game has a better core group then WOT or BSG.

Edited by SgtMac, 15 September 2013 - 02:52 AM.

[Redshift2k5]

As a new recruit, this post explains you posting priviledges http://mwomercs.com/...35289-recruits/

Asking here in the new player help is exactly what you should do if you have a question and the guides aren't clear/detailed enough.

SgtMac, on 15 September 2013 - 02:36 AM, said:

But the grind out cost for an atlas is nuts, take over a week to do it.

All good things to those who wait. You should expect to put time and effort into acquiring a new battlemech, they're not supposed to be cheap or easy to get. Finishing the pilot lab, and saving up C-bills and GXP for modules will also require a lot of time. Think of these as not just grinding, but goals and milestones to reach for; unlocking that next skill you need can be rewarding in and of itself. I'm sorry that you bought other Assault mechs before you found out you needed three Atlases, but in the future, you'e welcome to come here to look for advice before making any big decisions.

[scJazz]

SgtMac, on 14 September 2013 - 07:59 PM, said:

OK, thank you. Just decided to try and sell my other 2 assault mechs then, and this is a bigger rip off the WOT. an 8mill Highlander is worth 1.6 to resell... Gonna have to give serious thought to staying in this game. Again thanks for clearing up a foolish rookie question.

Thank you for your service. The resell price of everything is 50%. You sold the Highlander's stripped chassis. The value of the internal components is what made the Highlander 8m, most notably the engine. The MWO contains only one unrecoverable CB sink, upgrades like Artemis, EndoSteel and Double Strength heat sink. The resale value of these upgrades is zero. Other than Upgrades everything in the game will recover 50%.

Every match played adds to your overall CB and nothing will cause CB to be negative. The Upgrades and 50% resale are the only 2 brakes on an otherwise ever expanding CB total.

Technically consumables like UAV and CoolShot are a third but since I never use them... whelp.

[Bront]

Kurkotain, on 14 September 2013 - 08:20 PM, said:

Don't ever sell your mechs, purchase mc and buy mechbays so that you can keep them. if you purchase the 15 dollars package, each mechbay ends up costing about a buck fifty, no bad considering you are supporting the game.

Not only does everyone not want to do that, but is there really a point in keeping a Jenner D AND a Jenner K? Or a Quickdraw 4H and 4G?

Some variants are so similar to each other, you can build the load out across multiple variants, and when that's the case, there's little reason to keep the extra Chassis.

That said, I would avoid selling them if you can. I've sold a few (Didn't need 2 of the 3 Commando chassis, 1 of the Catapult chassis, 1 of the Victor chassis or 2 of the Cent chassis for example), but mostly because I could either replicate the builds I wanted in another mech, or I simply enjoyed the other variants better and wasn't going to touch them.

[Mao of DC]

It is also worth mentioning that once you get 1 mech variant mastered. Yes I mean get the extra slot. Any mechs of the same weight class you can master even if you only own one mech. You will still need the all the basic skills with 3 variants. But you can sell any unwanted or unneeded mechs after that. At least that's the way it used to work maybe someone can confirm this. I personally elite all 3 of my variants mostly for the x2 bonus to basic skills. The C-Bills I grind up are also handy. But I only master the one variant I intend to keep.

Edited by Mao of DC, 15 September 2013 - 08:34 AM.

[Sug]

scJazz, on 14 September 2013 - 07:52 PM, said:

Yes... and to get Master you need 3 mechs of the same weight class... 3 assault in this case to unlock Master.

What do you mean? All you need for Master is 3 variants of that mech. I have one DDC mastered, 2 other Atlas variants Elited, and almost no xp in any other assault chassis.

Edited by Sug, 15 September 2013 - 08:24 AM.

[Mao of DC]

Sug, on 15 September 2013 - 08:23 AM, said:

What do you mean? All you need for Master is 3 variants of that mech. I have one DDC mastered, 2 other Atlas variants Elited, and almost no xp in any other assault chassis.

What I mean is if you want to master oh let's say Highlanders. You will still need to buy three of them. But after you have all the basic skills in ALL three you can sell two of them, and still master the one you want to keep. What you will not get is the x2 bonus to basic skills when you get all the elite skills with three variants.

[Nik Reaper]

Also at some point in the distant distant.... distant future it looks like there will be a drop ship mode that will require you to preselect 4 ( or possibly more ) mechs , vote on a map and then select one of the 4 to play with... witch means you might need several variants of a mech with a similar/diverse load outs for a weight class.

And even further in to the future there might be a mode where you will select several mechs witch you will preselect and than as you die you will respown in the next one you selected till you go through all of them, or lose the objective, so you might want even more than one of a certain variant .

[Nick Makiaveli]

Mao of DC, on 15 September 2013 - 08:31 AM, said:

What I mean is if you want to master oh let's say Highlanders. You will still need to buy three of them. But after you have all the basic skills in ALL three you can sell two of them, and still master the one you want to keep. What you will not get is the x2 bonus to basic skills when you get all the elite skills with three variants.

Not sure you are right on this. I have two of three Ravens with Elites fully unlocked and they have the X2 on the Basic skill. I only have 2 Elites skills unlocked on the 3rd Raven.

As I understand it, you need to unlock the Basics on 3 variants of a given Mech chassis in order to open up the Elites skills for that chassis. Then you need to unlock all the Elite skills on 3 mechs in a given weight class to unlock Master for that class.

Example: Basic on three Ravens, thus unlocking Elite for Ravens. Complete Elite two of them, then get all the Basic skills on 3 Commandoes. Finally all Elite skills on one Commando and you will then have Master unlocked on all Lights. If you wanted to move on to a Jenner, you would have to Basic all 3, then Elite one, and the Master would be open and ready for you to amass the 21K xp.

In the above example, you could skip the Commando portion by getting all Elite skills on the 3rd Raven.

[StarGeezer]

Nick Makiaveli, on 15 September 2013 - 10:10 AM, said:

Not sure you are right on this. I have two of three Ravens with Elites fully unlocked and they have the X2 on the Basic skill. I only have 2 Elites skills unlocked on the 3rd Raven.

As I understand it, you need to unlock the Basics on 3 variants of a given Mech chassis in order to open up the Elites skills for that chassis. Then you need to unlock all the Elite skills on 3 mechs in a given weight class to unlock Master for that class.

Example: Basic on three Ravens, thus unlocking Elite for Ravens. Complete Elite two of them, then get all the Basic skills on 3 Commandoes. Finally all Elite skills on one Commando and you will then have Master unlocked on all Lights. If you wanted to move on to a Jenner, you would have to Basic all 3, then Elite one, and the Master would be open and ready for you to amass the 21K xp.

In the above example, you could skip the Commando portion by getting all Elite skills on the 3rd Raven.

I also believe this is correct. In summary:

• BASICS on 3 variants to open Elite on a particular chassis (i.e., 3 Jenners)
  
• ELITES on 3 mechs within a weight category to open Master for that category (i.e., a Jenner, a Spider, and a Commando; or 3 Jenners, or any combination of 3 in the Light Weight Class category)

[Bront]

What he means is this:
I have 3 Jenners that I have all the Elites on, which unlocked the master skill. Now that I have that, I can pick up Ravens, and once I have all 3 mechs basic skills, I can Elite and Master 1 without eliting the others. This only works in the same chassis class, so I can't do it with, say, Stalkers (Unless I've unlocked it though other chassis).

Basically, 3 basics finished in a variant allows elites on that mech type (Jenner F, K, and D for example). 3 Elites finished in that chassis class (Light, medium, heavy, assault), and master slot is unlocked for all mechs (once you finish the elites) of that class.

Me, I did the basics and elites in the same chasis for my first mechs in each class, though the only class I have 2 chassis opened up is Lights at the moment.

[Mao of DC]

Bront, on 15 September 2013 - 10:26 AM, said:

What he means is this:
I have 3 Jenners that I have all the Elites on, which unlocked the master skill. Now that I have that, I can pick up Ravens, and once I have all 3 mechs basic skills, I can Elite and Master 1 without eliting the others. This only works in the same chassis class, so I can't do it with, say, Stalkers (Unless I've unlocked it though other chassis).

Basically, 3 basics finished in a variant allows elites on that mech type (Jenner F, K, and D for example). 3 Elites finished in that chassis class (Light, medium, heavy, assault), and master slot is unlocked for all mechs (once you finish the elites) of that class.

Me, I did the basics and elites in the same chasis for my first mechs in each class, though the only class I have 2 chassis opened up is Lights at the moment.

Exactly.

[Project Chaos]

SgtMac, on 15 September 2013 - 02:36 AM, said:

I loved the old MW series, were easier to drive machines, worse graphics, but everything a Mech sim should be. Fun. I like this game, but time for the sob story. Im a disabled veteran, I cant work and live off my disability. between me and the wife I make just enough to pay all the bills with nothing left over. I got my founders with money I saved by riding my motorcycle all summer and leaving the truck parked. With Winter coming that wont happen again. But the grind out cost for an atlas is nuts, take over a week to do it. And the limited MCs I have I don't know what I want to use on. Sure wasn't the Highlander. had I known the 3 atlas thing, I would have gotten another atlas. I haven't activated my premium account as I don't know if it will restart once the game goes alpha. the multiple patches have me somewhat leery. I appreciate ya all taking time out to talk to the rookie here. it helps prove the game has a better core group then WOT or BSG.

I just wanna say I feel for you. I myself live in a small town, and have health issues. I can work, but no one in town will hire me. I have tried for a year now to get hired, still nothing.

So, I basically live off of no income, and cherish every penny I get my hands on. I am a massive, super huge fan of battletech and MWO, I just cannot stand that certain aspects of the game require MC. For example paint jobs, I feel it's so unfair, that if I want my mech to be unique, and make me happy, I have to pay money for it.

I don't mind the grinding part, but they just make it so hard to enjoy for free. I want a hero mech, I want to store {Scrap} tons of mechs, and I want my mech to look friggin cool, but I have to pay to get any of that. I understand they need money to keep their business going, but I can't afford to pay for pixels when I can use the tiny amount of money I have to buy food & such.

[SgtMac]

So short version is, im gonna have to shell out a lot of cash to buy garage slots just to work 2 lines of mechs (Atlas 3, Cataphract 3) 6 slots, Just checked never mind I only have to buy one slot. and that's if I don't dump the other 2 mechs im working on. But every time I try out a new mech, I have to get through 3 of the same mech, just to eventually be able to upgrade one? so say, 3 shadowhawks, and then later if I want the Wolverine, I have to do 3 of those just to get one topped out. And anything extra in this game, garage, paints, cockpit stuff, I am constantly shelling out hard cash for. I wonder if the Devs realized just how bad they are marginalizing some people. Most players will be ok with it, as they probably work solid jobs, or are kids whos parents will pay for it. As it stands, Im going to be driving 3 different make assault mechs and probably never upgrade anything on them. Cant afford it. And to be honest, for me its just not worth it. Because at some point it will stop being fun having to do 3s of everything, and cost too much real money I don't have. I thank you all for your input here, I now understand things much better, its a tad discouraging but not impossible. The game needs to follow the track certain others have already made, make some stuff grindable credit accessible(paints, items, maybe even mech bays), lower mech costs, leave gear and weapons alone cost wise(to me those are totally balanced). Players will still shell out real money to get this stuff as it will be much faster then grinding but it does then lever the field a bit for some of us who cant or wont go that route. I will wait and see how this all plays out though. Again thanks to all, and someone should sticky up the 3 mech grind out parts so other rookies as they come in will catch it. No rude surprises.

[Durant Carlyle]

What people haven't mentioned yet (possibly because they don't know about it) is that the devs have mentioned an achievements system when Community Warfare comes fully online. You earn certain achievements, you get paints or camo patterns or maybe cockpit cosmetics free. Who knows ... you might even be able to earn a Mech Bay or two for free.