72 replies to this topic

[Taelon Zero]

What about upto 4 buyable with Cbills, 1st for 1mill, 2nd for 2mill, 3rd for 3 mill, 4th for 4 mill. But with CW finaly running, it would be fair to let everyone have the option for 2 drop loadout, defence/offence or IS/clan

[IraqiWalker]

Taelon Zero, on 04 January 2015 - 08:50 PM, said:

What about upto 4 buyable with Cbills, 1st for 1mill, 2nd for 2mill, 3rd for 3 mill, 4th for 4 mill. But with CW finaly running, it would be fair to let everyone have the option for 2 drop loadout, defence/offence or IS/clan

2 buyable with C-Bills might be okay. Anymore is too big of a hit.

[Void2258]

IraqiWalker, on 04 January 2015 - 08:29 PM, said:

No other item in the game generates as much profit as mechbays do. Hands down. Not starter packs, not MC packs, not hero mechs on sale, and not cosmetics. The Mechbays generate the most profit ever, and the 5th mechbay has a 100% chance of being purchased by an overwhelming majority of the player base. The 6th too. Sometime around the 10th the percentages drop to something like 50% ... No other item guarantees profit like mechbays. Pure, and simple.

So you have DATA to cite to support your claim or are you making assumptions? Even if they do generate some level of profit, is the profit they generate in the short term worth the large losses of future profits from players who leave because of them and players who never play because they are warned off by the players who leave because of them?

I can personally vouch for 33 people who either left the game after I showed it to them over this or who have, in front of me, been warned not to play the game by people who have quit the game over this. These people are not excessively stingy people (several people who have played WoW since the beginning and have tons of skins in LoL), so all 33 were potential profit sources for camo patterns, paint, hero mechs, etc. who felt that the game was being excessively penny pinching over mechbays, and thus ALL FUTURE PROFITS FROM THESE PEOPLE WERE LOST. To quote (As closely as I can remember) my friend Steve, "If they want to charge me $5 to have the right to pay them more money for a mech, how long till they start charging me for paint cans, or for storage space for my extra medium lasers, or to have more than X friends on my friend list? Why should I play a game that has already shown more greed than candy crush?" I have heard similar stories from many other players.

No other item in the game generates player retention loss. None of my friends blinked an eye at paying to get mechs faster, at paying for cosmetics, or for bundles of items. Those are to be expected as the source of revenue. But mechbays inhibit the ability of people to play the game. If the game requires mechbays to be profitable, even with every other way it has to generate profits, then there is something very wrong and unsustainable about the design of the game.

[IraqiWalker]

Void2258, on 05 January 2015 - 04:36 AM, said:

So you have DATA to cite to support your claim or are you making assumptions? Even if they do generate some level of profit, is the profit they generate in the short term worth the large losses of future profits from players who leave because of them and players who never play because they are warned off by the players who leave because of them?

I can personally vouch for 33 people who either left the game after I showed it to them over this or who have, in front of me, been warned not to play the game by people who have quit the game over this. These people are not excessively stingy people (several people who have played WoW since the beginning and have tons of skins in LoL), so all 33 were potential profit sources for camo patterns, paint, hero mechs, etc. who felt that the game was being excessively penny pinching over mechbays, and thus ALL FUTURE PROFITS FROM THESE PEOPLE WERE LOST. To quote (As closely as I can remember) my friend Steve, "If they want to charge me $5 to have the right to pay them more money for a mech, how long till they start charging me for paint cans, or for storage space for my extra medium lasers, or to have more than X friends on my friend list? Why should I play a game that has already shown more greed than candy crush?" I have heard similar stories from many other players.

No other item in the game generates player retention loss. None of my friends blinked an eye at paying to get mechs faster, at paying for cosmetics, or for bundles of items. Those are to be expected as the source of revenue. But mechbays inhibit the ability of people to play the game. If the game requires mechbays to be profitable, even with every other way it has to generate profits, then there is something very wrong and unsustainable about the design of the game.

Yet somehow all of them balked at the unscalable mountain that is 1.6 dollars US? Not to mention that events happen every now and then where we get mechbays for free (Stocking stuffer had several thousand given away). Really, if they had no problem dropping 15 dollars to get a mech, how on earth did 1.6 dollars dissuade them?

I can understand it if they had a problem with ANY of the following:

1- Camo being unlocked for only ONE chassis
2- Hero mech prices
3- XP conversion rates
4- GXP slow pace generation
5- Champion mech prices

Yet, they were fine with those, but the one item that is reasonably priced, and extremely cheap at 1.6 dollars (12.5 bays for the price of a medium hero mech), is where they drew the line? It's literally the entry item. If you feel hesitant about spending a big chunk of money (more than 10$ US) on the game, you can just buy a mechbay for a buck 60. an expense that is negligible. if you decide to stop supporting the game, you lost less than 2 dollars.

Also, I don't have the link for it anymore, but I remember a statement mentioning that mechbays are the no.1 item in earnings, and sales.

Edited by IraqiWalker, 05 January 2015 - 06:41 AM.

[Void2258]

I happened to talk to Steve earlier and he had this to say:

"Ok so they want to charge me for the privilege of spending $10 to buy a mech. Fine. I do that. Now let's paint it... Oh wait, they want more money so I can pay for them "paintslots" to buy paint... ok [grumble]... now I have the paint... they want more money to have the right to use the paint I already bought and bought the slot for on the mech I bought and bought the bay for... so now I have paid to buy a space for the mech and the paint, the mech itself, the paint, and the ability to use the paint... now lets customize the mech loadout... oh I have to pay for the right to customize... fine lets remove that laser... I can't remove the laser to put something else on without paying to store the laser off my mech. And so on.

Now I know that what I just said isn't how it is right now, but how do I know they won't pull this **** in the future if they are already pulling it with mechbays? Once a company has shown me they are willing to start down the path of arbitrary bullshit, why should I trust that they won't continue if I give them money? That's how capitalism works: they will keep upping the bullshit until the market won't bear it. My only way to register my vote against the bullshit is to walk away until they stop, or someone else makes a game without it. I'd be perfectly willing to buy mechs, but I'm not giving them money if I don't trust them not to pull this ****."

It's not about the price. It's about what the very concept of charging people for the right to pay says about the trustworthiness of the company.

By the way, the only reason I am not in the same boat is because I have MC from founders. Once that's gone PGI won't be receiving a penny more from me so long as mechbays exist. Which is too bad because otherwise I probably would be getting the clan collections. So the mechbays are costing them, from me, $300+, because right now I don't trust PGI not to pull the same **** Steve posited.

Edited by Void2258, 05 January 2015 - 09:17 AM.

[Banditman]

With the inclusion of Mech Bays as rewards in CW, there is absolutely no need for changes to the current system. There are 45 Mech Bays up for grabs in CW faction rewards. Seems simple enough to me.

[Void2258]

Banditman, on 05 January 2015 - 09:57 AM, said:

With the inclusion of Mech Bays as rewards in CW, there is absolutely no need for changes to the current system. There are 45 Mech Bays up for grabs in CW faction rewards. Seems simple enough to me.

Do you honestly believe that players who don't already have a bunch of mechs (and thus mechbays) should be playing community warfare? Or that they will have a chance when they do?
Everyone is jumping to make excuses for why they are not 'that bad' because there are ways to get around the system if you get lucky or do X. I have not heard any reason why they are good.

Edited by Void2258, 05 January 2015 - 10:09 AM.

[Banditman]

Any player new to the game can purchase 4 mechs of the same chassis, master them and participate in CW. I do not feel that is an onerous task.

More, players who choose to participate can earn not only mech bays, but MC. In effect, PGI has given players the ability to earn nearly everything in the game through in game action. Yes, you can take the shortcut of spending cash, but there is absolutely no need to do so.

Yes, new players need better guidance as to what the requirements for CW are, I don't argue that. But the point is that they are in place, and there is no need to hand out anything more.

Edited by Banditman, 05 January 2015 - 11:18 AM.

[Demon Horde]

hell I've spent a good heap of cash on this game so far, and i'm jobless.
Elite Founders pack : 59 bucks
Timber wolf a la carte - 55
plus multiple MC purchases when I managed to make some dough.
but I don't mind freebies for noobs or total F2Pers.
I got like 12 mechs and still have 12 open bays. If good fortune lands me a job , I'm definitely going to buy more (eyeing clan wave 2 packs or maybe buy another clan wave 1 pack if they are still available then). but let the free players get a little more out of this game. I don't think it's too much to ask that they have room to where they can at least master out 4 mech chassis' (1 for each weight class).

[Banditman]

Demon Horde, on 06 January 2015 - 03:30 AM, said:

I don't think it's too much to ask that they have room to where they can at least master out 4 mech chassis' (1 for each weight class).

And they absolutely can do that, they simply have to go earn it in CW. With only 1600 LP for any faction, a free player earns a Mech Bay. In five weeks they can earn either 4 or 5 mech bays, depending on whether they choose to play clan (4) or IS (5).

A really hardcore player can probably do even better than that, since the second mech bay comes at 24000 LP.

Someone who learns, understands and works the contract system will probably do even better, bouncing around to where the greatest LP bonuses are on any given week.

The opportunities are there for those who wish to go get them. For those who wish to pay a (very) small amount of money, those mech bays can come very quickly.

[WintermuteOmega]

I pediton to maek ewry Mack free+MackBey!
Seriously. I sank hundreds of Dollars into this game. I like it, and it was more or less worth it. I know i sponsor players, that never pay a single dime, which is also ok. But could these people stop demanding things for free?

There were special events, where you could get a Mech and a Mechbay for free, isn't this enough? If you like this game enough, that you really would NEED another mechbay, why for heavens sake is 1,67$ too much to ask? You pay the double price for a F*in coffee.

And on a sidenote, you can still Master new Mechs even with the 4-Bay limit. All you have to do is sell your mechs, master and then buy the Mechs again. Thats the tradeoff, all you have to do is earn more C-bills / spend more time with the game. Thats the tradeoff for amlost all F2P games.

[Lily from animove]

yes, maybe ound it to an achievement, like master your first mech, and you get a mechbay.
then the next xomes when you master 3 chassis