85 replies to this topic

[Galil Nain]

kuangmk11, on 17 October 2013 - 07:26 PM, said:

All MC mechs should come with a bay however.

I agree with most of what you said. The above, however, I do not entirely agree with, and here's why...

You say yourself that MechBays are reasonably priced, but there are quite a few MC-purchasable mechs which cost barely twice the MC of a MechBay...

Either you're saying those mechs are waaay too cheap or Mechbays are waaay too expensive (if they should, as you say, come with a free MechBay).

[kuangmk11]

Galil Nain, on 19 October 2013 - 05:18 PM, said:

I agree with most of what you said. The above, however, I do not entirely agree with, and here's why...

You say yourself that MechBays are reasonably priced, but there are quite a few MC-purchasable mechs which cost barely twice the MC of a MechBay...

Either you're saying those mechs are waaay too cheap or Mechbays are waaay too expensive (if they should, as you say, come with a free MechBay).

I actually meant to say MC only mechs; Heros, champions and such

Edited by kuangmk11, 19 October 2013 - 05:21 PM.

[The Black Knight]

If you have four full mechbays that is a good indication you like the game. If you like the game PAY TO SUPPORT IT. If everyone played this game for free and didn't buy anything the game would have already run out of money and ended. If you enjoy the game pay for it, just like you would for an xbox or playstation game. The advantage of a F2P is that it works like a free trial, we don't get those for console games. I don't think it is unreasonable for PGI to want and expect players to pay SOMETING to play the game long term. 300mc is super cheap, so stop complaining. It is 4 bays for a reason, the first three to master one chassis and the fourth bay is for a player to buy an new chassis and then have incentive to PAY for mech bays to master a second chassis. I don't care if you are a 12 year old paying with allowance 300mc is not expensive.

[Steel Talon]

True question is why to buy mechbay for mech im FORCED to play just to elite my favs?
More mechbays is just fixing symptoms, not the cause!
There is progression system, that is terribly designed from roots, it is some horribad try to copy WOTs tier progression that only inherits cons of it.

Fix cause! symptoms disappear, so will those threads.
4 different mechs free are fine, word different is the problem ATM.

Edited by Steel Talon, 21 October 2013 - 03:00 PM.

[Tyrnea Smurf]

Shockwave144, on 18 October 2013 - 02:59 AM, said:

You're saying there are so many people that are going to buy every single mech in the game? There's also over 90 slots they'd have to buy in order to elite or master them. You buy a new mech, they give you one free bay. I'm pretty sure for what they are charging for paint, this won't put them out of business.

Again bad idea. All you would have to do is buy a mech chassis. Any chassis, and under your idea as long as that mech is the first one you have bought of that chassis, then presto your bay number has just increased by one. You never tied that new mechbay to any other criteria other than buying a first of a new chassis. There are over 30 chassis in game now, meaning you could under your idea buy 30+ free mech bays via buying one of each chassis. No where is that free bay tied to a requirement of driving that mech once, let alone driving it enough to get its skill tree unlocked.

Your idea is once you buy a first of a chassis you get that mechs bay free. Nothing in your original idea would prevent the obvious exploit of buying chassis you don't plan on playing to just get the bay, then selling that mech, (getting half your c-bills back from the purchase, lessing the cost of those bays further) to refill the bay for another mech you want in the first place.

Quote

Have the bay tied to that mech. You sell the mech, the bay goes with it. That was easy.

Or even easier, don't do the bad idea in the first place.

[Lyrik]

BabooTheBeast, on 14 October 2013 - 05:48 PM, said:

If you play the game long enough to buy more than four mechs then it's only fair that you give the devs some money.

Plus mechbays are the only reasonably priced thing in the game.

Exactly this.

With 4 bays you can have one favorite mech and still grind through lights/mediums/heavies/assaults classes.

BUT Hero mechs really should come with a mechbay !!!

[Modo44]

No. 4 mechbays are just enough to let you check the game out in-depth, and intice you to buy more. You get to easily master 2 chassis, keeping 2 mechs each. (So many mechs overlap in their roles/loadouts that there is no reason to keep the underused variants after getting enough XP.) You can even fully kit out and master 4 mechs you really like, still without paying anything. By that time you will surely be done with MWO, or ready to spend some cash.

[BSK]

4 is fine, we might get some bays added when the Clans arrive ..

[Steel Talon]

Atm there are no mechanics to prevent smurfing. I dubt the loyality rewards will be enough to discourage it with all greed PGI shown so far.
PPL got multiple accounts in LoL, where they generaly gives u nothing!

[Shockwave144]

Tyrnea Smurf, on 22 October 2013 - 01:24 AM, said:

Again bad idea. All you would have to do is buy a mech chassis. Any chassis, and under your idea as long as that mech is the first one you have bought of that chassis, then presto your bay number has just increased by one.

Congratulations, you figured it out.

Tyrnea Smurf, on 22 October 2013 - 01:24 AM, said:

You never tied that new mechbay to any other criteria other than buying a first of a new chassis.

What other criteria?

By purchasing a new mech, you're showing PGI that you like the game and would like to keep playing. By giving you one free bay for every new chassis, they are showing their appreciation for you sticking around. The door swings both ways. You keep playing their game, they give you little rewards. Simple.

You're thinking PGI should act like, well 4 is enough and if they like our game so much they should buy every slot for every new mech afterwards. Makes them look cheap if you ask me.

Just because someone is playing your game, doesn't mean they will continue to do so. It's like leasing a car and the salesman is practically humping your leg. The second you drive off the lot after signing the papers, he could care less what happens to you. You'll most likely never hear from him again. Sure you'll make the payments but his lack of caring will probably make you think twice about leasing a car from them ever again.

It's called customer appreciation.

Tyrnea Smurf, on 22 October 2013 - 01:24 AM, said:

There are over 30 chassis in game now, meaning you could under your idea buy 30+ free mech bays via buying one of each chassis. No where is that free bay tied to a requirement of driving that mech once, let alone driving it enough to get its skill tree unlocked.

Right and do you know how long that would take? Most normal people would elite a few because not all mechs fit everyones' playstyle. Besides, there would still be 90+ bays needed to elite them all. Give a little, get a lot.

If they are so hard pressed to make money off of digital mech bays then they aren't charging enough for paint and camo. Oh wait...

Tyrnea Smurf, on 22 October 2013 - 01:24 AM, said:

Your idea is once you buy a first of a chassis you get that mechs bay free. Nothing in your original idea would prevent the obvious exploit of buying chassis you don't plan on playing to just get the bay, then selling that mech, (getting half your c-bills back from the purchase, lessing the cost of those bays further) to refill the bay for another mech you want in the first place.

You already know why that wouldn't be possible. It's not a bad idea, you just can't wrap your head around it.

[Phromethius]

Coming from a new player who has purchased ONE extra mech bay, It would be beneficial to provide about 6 starting. This is because just starting into the game I ran the trail mechs obviously. At the time I ran a Jenner F. Naturally I grew to like it. I bought a Jenner F with my start up capital. That is when I "found out" about the pilot tree and the need for two other variant purchases to further develop the F. So that left me with just one free Mech bay to experience three other mech classes. With 6 total I could have elited one class, experienced one chassis of each remaining weight classes other than what was offered in the trial mechs.

I agree with the notion that even though it is free to play, I enjoy this game very much and have purchased a few colors and a champion mech with MC. Although on the same hand I love the fact that I don't have to pay this month when even the cost of burger and fries needs to be budgeted into my finances. I think 6 mech bays would give a very large ease in window into the game and still leave plenty of room for the micro transactions needed to them to make their money.

[Noonan]

It seems to me that a simple reward system for playing games would help the player and encourage new mech ownership over time.

Play X games, you get an additional mech bay. Play X + Y games and get a second mech bay. Allowing the player to build up to 12 gives the player the room to master one mech of each class without selling off mechs.

[Steel Talon]

Noonan, on 22 October 2013 - 08:13 AM, said:

It seems to me that a simple reward system for playing games would help the player and encourage new mech ownership over time.

Play X games, you get an additional mech bay. Play X + Y games and get a second mech bay. Allowing the player to build up to 12 gives the player the room to master one mech of each class without selling off mechs.

Would help prevent smurfs.
+1

[Hop per]

Reading through this post I am thinking I would even drop the initial number of starting bays to 2 or 3. Set up a tutorial/walk through experience. This would include some sort of time in training grounds on each map, as well as lessons on different weapons, range management, and Ghost heat. In the end you could add bays up to a total of 5 or 6 free bays. You could even tease folks with unlocking all pilot skills (in the training grounds) to see what it is like to have it all maxed out. Once CW is going, I think tying in a free mech (scout or medium) that is faction appropriate would also give incentive to get people to join factions, if that doesn’t feel right, then maybe a piece of higher end equipment like an XL engine or module, just to help that next hump of getting in.

12 is to many. I honestly cant say if 4 is enough or not, but I would support a move to increase it if helped players ease into the game and stick around.

Using some sort of reasonable experience timeline to get to 4 – 6 seems like a great idea. Heck I would go through the walk through scenarios even now to get an extra bay or two (I have ~35). And who knows, maybe we all might learn a thing or two about a map or weapon we did not know before.

In the end, if you enjoy it, support it, so you can keep at it.

[GalaxyBluestar]

Noonan, on 22 October 2013 - 08:13 AM, said:

It seems to me that a simple reward system for playing games would help the player and encourage new mech ownership over time.

Play X games, you get an additional mech bay. Play X + Y games and get a second mech bay. Allowing the player to build up to 12 gives the player the room to master one mech of each class without selling off mechs.

Steel Talon, on 22 October 2013 - 01:17 PM, said:

Would help prevent smurfs.
+1

it wouldn't. the suggestion is basically want more mech bays? grind for them. in truth you could sell and rebuy stuff for mastering quicker than long service vetting for an extra bay. smurfs bypass grind mechanics that's the main point. really a grind for mechbays lowers the incentive down to the premium time purchase level. it's neither here or there the impact that would have because if the grind is too long then replace:

Petition To Increase Free Mech Bays From 4 To 12

with:

Petition To Decrease Free Mech Bay Grind From 1000 matches To 500 matches


and if it's too low a grind then players won't waste mc on them. now if you want more out of your free game then start investing in it becauss PGI aren't giving it all for free, you're lucky you can participate and have access to as much as you can. in demo's of old you'd only be alowed to sample around 30% of the content. MW3's free demo was a sample of like 4 mechs and a third of the weapon systems on one skirmish map. in this you can sample closer tom 90%. all the maps and modes. all the mechs {bar heros} and all the weapons, free players can even gain acess to all modules eventually if you keep making cbills and pay up to swap stuff around, all while your playing a game!

you don't know how good you got it.

Edited by GalaxyBluestar, 22 October 2013 - 05:47 PM.

[Steel Talon]

There is literally no defense against smurfs in f2p title, except giving them some goal that cant be simplified by smurfing.
That is the reason titles like WT dropped garage system altogether.
In WoT they are limited by linear tier progression, having smurf for each nation still bypasses shop.
MWO as it stands, smurf acc = free mechbay + starter c-bills as a bonus!

[John MatriX82]

Mechbays are the cheapest thing necessary to enjoy the game; you can avoid everything else from heroes to consumables to premium time.. they ask very little for them and they need some money to keep the game running.

You can tell PGI that their prices are off the record for heroes, for vanity stuff like camo/colors and such, but not for mechbays, really (this is imho of course).

I say 4 is fine. I have fully f2p players in my corp that have several mastered variants and do fine without paying, although sooner or later they tend to drop some cash to buy the company colors and so they enlarge their hangar as well.

Finally I'm pretty sure that sooner or later we'll get some achievements, so that even the pure freeplayers will have the chance to increase the number of mechbays of a few unit as well without paying nothing.

[Tyrnea Smurf]

Shockwave144, on 22 October 2013 - 07:20 AM, said:

By purchasing a new mech, you're showing PGI that you like the game and would like to keep playing. By giving you one free bay for every new chassis, they are showing their appreciation for you sticking around. The door swings both ways. You keep playing their game, they give you little rewards. Simple.

You're thinking PGI should act like, well 4 is enough and if they like our game so much they should buy every slot for every new mech afterwards. Makes them look cheap if you ask me.

Just because someone is playing your game, doesn't mean they will continue to do so. It's like leasing a car and the salesman is practically humping your leg. The second you drive off the lot after signing the papers, he could care less what happens to you. You'll most likely never hear from him again. Sure you'll make the payments but his lack of caring will probably make you think twice about leasing a car from them ever again.

It's called customer appreciation.

If you never actually buy the product are you a customer?

Your way allows a player to totally avoid ever paying real money in MWO. Right now the requirement of buying mechbays after the first 4 separates the real customers from the freeloaders. Once UI2.0, CW and a robust tutorial system is in place, I think PGI should think about adding at most 3 free ingame unlockable bays to add to the 4 starting free bays.

Quote

It's not a bad idea, you just can't wrap your head around it.

I understand your idea entirely. Its both unworkable and counterproductive to MWO long term goals of staying in business.

Currently you don't need to purchase premium time to play.

You can totally ignore Hero/Champion mechs and buy standard variants with in game earnable c-bills.

Right now the current design of MWO, the paywall is the mechbay limitation. (which currently is also avoidable via secondary accounts if you really want to avoid spending money for your MWO fun)

Your idea smashes it to smithereens.

That's why its a bad idea.

[Thejuggla]

Current amount is more than fine. If you play more than 4 mechs you should be supporting the game you enjoy anyways.

[Pjwned]

I'm willing to bet a large sum that anybody who voted no already bought 8 or more additional mech bays.

Anyways, increasing it from 4 to 12 really isn't necessary and is a pretty unrealistic expectation. If we just had 8 mech bays that would be plenty for any free player that's trying to get elite effiencies unlocked in addition to any other mechs they might have around, which is really all that's needed and anything beyond that being easily covered by buying additional bays for MC, which admittedly are rather cheap.

The problem with having only 4 mech bays is that it really is a giant pain in the *** to have a few different mechs you like running while still being able to have enough room for variants just to unlock elites, and this is the sort of thing that makes me stop playing rather than dig out my shekels just so PGI can sniff them up. As far as actually unlocking them, maybe an acceptable compromise would be to make mech bays cost a significant amount of c-bills up to 8 total, at which point you can buy more with MC.

Thejuggla, on 23 October 2013 - 06:15 AM, said:

Current amount is more than fine. If you play more than 4 mechs you should be supporting the game you enjoy anyways.

The main problem is trying to get anything beyond basic efficencies without trashing at least 1 mech that you like to use frequently, and I really don't see why I should support any company intentionally making it a huge hassle to get an objective upgrade unless you want to get shekel & dimed.

Edited by Pjwned, 23 October 2013 - 06:47 AM.