2 replies to this topic

[Jaynestown]

These mechs are not for old players who want to pilot the king of the battlefield, they are for new players who want to "shortcut" the xp and c-bill grind. They should be labeled as such, and instead of coming with a permanent xp boost they should just come with a block of premium time.

Example, the DRG-5N(C) costs about 500MC more than the DRG-5N. The 5N(C) comes with about 13.7M Cbills in equipment and upgrades, while the 5N costs about 5.1M.

The XP boost means that you'll elite out your mech 10% faster.

The result? You've bought about 8.6M Cbills for about 500MC, and cut out a little of your grind to master this chassis. The Dragon is one of the more pronounced because of the XL engine, but you can see the same thing with the other variants.

Suggestion? Change the "Champions" to something more similar to a cheaper hero mech (give it a small CBill boost or loyalty bonus) and change these existing champions to something like "Purchase a Dragon Starter Pack." Maybe it comes with one mech and three mech bays too (added into the MC cost). I don't know. But make it easier for new players to capitalize on the real benefit that the champions confer.

[Bendak]

No real problem calling them an arbitrary bit of marketing slang. Beats calling them MMTS(more money than sense) variant.

[Jaynestown]

I don't know. Given how small the price difference is and how much of a drastic improvement the equipment and upgrades are... it seems like it just makes sense to buy the Champion as opposed to the standard variant, provided you were going to use MC for your purchase anyway. Yeah, if you're comparing the C-bill price of a stock mech compared to 2,500 MC it doesn't make sense (you could buy a whole month of premium time instead). But I think the whole point of spending MC on mechs is to shortcut the "grinding" process. And that's where the Champions are really great.

I think a new player who wants to buy a mech with MC just to have something in their mech bay to start... those people should probably buy a -(C) variant. However, the way they're currently marketed doesn't imply that. If I just started, I would think "I don't need a 'champion'" and I would grind out my cadet bonus and pick up whatever mechs. I think they should set up a package deal instead. Like "you like the Dragon? Buy the Dragon Starter Pack" which would give you at least one mech, the three mech bays you'll need to eventually master it, and some kind of bonus towards XP and C-bills (like a month of premium time). Something like that is probably worth 5,000 MC, especially if it comes with an equipment package with stuff that you'll probably be using to upgrade with (some smattering of c-bill gear like weapons and engines). If it is for new players, you can afford to gift them so bonus items this way, since they're making a flash judgement on whether they like the game enough to spend money before spending more time.