34 replies to this topic

[Duncan Longwood]

Is it different if my advice is to get two hero mechs and premium time? Anyways...

Don't spectate, get into the next match as soon as you die. It sounds like you may still be piloting only trial mechs, so figure out which 2 you like and start a drop-rotation. Don't mistake this as advice to go suicide farming; just give it your best, but don't stick around.

Beagle Active Probe and TAG laser are great ways for you to get spotting and tag/narc bonuses. BAP also helps you with 25% faster target info, making it easier to get bonus cbills for component destruction. These are inexpensive to put on any mech you own. Target Info module also helps in this role as does the Sensor Range module, but at a combined price of 6 million cbills it sounds like modules may be beyond what you are willing to grind for.

Have you redeemed the 7 days of free premium time from using the 'HAPPYHOLIDAYS" code? (pretty sure that's how it's spelled) The time you get with this code gets banked so you can wait to activate it for when you have a 3 day weekend or whatnot to maximize your perceived value.

Figure out the best way for your playstyle to get quick assists off of blobs of enemies, whether that is sweeping a large laser across a group of mechs or tabbing though targets with an lrm10. If you don't have any other target at the moment, you can sometimes pick up easy spotting assists by targeting an enemy mech that is taking missile fire from your allies.

My best cbill grinding mechs are not necessarily the mechs I do the best in.

My strategy it to use premium time and two hero mechs. Try to find out which mech makes you the most money, win or lose, then get two of them. Build them identically and set them aside for whenever you want to grind out a new mech or whatever.

[Bhelogan]

Ok, some advice I am surprised I haven't' seen here.

When your C-Bill grinding, your mech build should not be for efficiency (in the quick kill sense). Those high alpha damage builds? They kill fast, but don't get you as much $$$ as you could earn. A good C-Bill grinder will strip every component down as much as possible on a target before killing it.

My favorite C-Bill grinding mechs use a lot of streaks and MGs, such as this guy: SHD-2H Why? Because they do not do pinpoint damage, you can strip and crit several areas of the mech at once, which effectively increases your overall damage, thus your C-Bill earnings. Your going to get the same kill reward for an Atlas wither you do 100 damage, or 500 damage. But your overall C-Bill reward will be much higher for the 500 damage option. Key to this also is that they deal out that damage fairly quickly, so your overall kill time isn't THAT much longer.

Edited by Bhelogan, 18 February 2014 - 11:09 AM.

[JC Daxion]

Rafael Velazquez, on 18 February 2014 - 07:51 AM, said:

Any tips how to increase an income? Except those "Go buy a premium and hero mech, and evetually go buy it for MC".

well To be serious... If you wan't to make a lotta cash, you really should buy a hero mech of the heavier rarity, medium+ i would say. I know some people are broke, But even if you just spend 15 bucks, you can buy a Hero on sale, and then pick up a day pass for 250 MC here and their.. You grind for 8 hours with the hero+day pass, you are going to over double your earnings.. and if you have a day were you can play all day, you can pull down 10-15m as long as the caffeine holds out.

spending a few bucks here and there is a good thing.. It will help make sure the game grows stronger, and sticks around for a long time. Even if it is just a 15 dollar package all year, everyone should spend a few bucks to enjoy the game..



that said, teamwork is your best bet.. Stay with lance mates, Kill people attacking them, Group attacking to pull down assists.. spotting players by locking on targets, helping un-cap a cap, or capping one.. That is how you make the most money..

How you make very little money, Not being a team player, and only caring about your self... Being dead in a 12v0 slaughter will not net you near as much money as a well played 8-12 loss, or a 12-10 win where you helped your team.

[JC Daxion]

Duncan Longwood, on 18 February 2014 - 11:00 AM, said:

Don't spectate, get into the next match as soon as you die. It sounds like you may still be piloting only trial mechs, so figure out which 2 you like and start a drop-rotation. Don't mistake this as advice to go suicide farming; just give it your best, but don't stick around.

Honestly this is the worst advice ever... If you are having issues earning money, the best thing you can do if you die, is "learn to play" for 5 mins, and then start your next match... Learning how to play, so you can get 150-200k per match, verse not knowing, and getting 40-80.. If you are dying a few mins in, outside of the rare instance, the last thing you should be doing is dropping out of the match to hurry to the next one.






(to the people talking about stripping mechs..)

If you are doing that in the early part of the mission that is just not cool...(unless of course it is something like, Stripping an AC-20 or Gauss arm off a mech, that is highly recommended as a good first move) If you guys are up 8-0 strip away.. But the last thing you should be doing is worring about your c-bills in a team game, Because if you play as a well played team player, you will get lots of cash.. All those other things you can do to earn C-bills is worth way more cash than just doing damage and stripping opponents. Try getting savior kills instead if you want real money..

Edited by JC Daxion, 18 February 2014 - 12:27 PM.

[mack sabbath]

Cbill generation got nerfed when Paul (or was it Russ?) stated they intend that going forward, players should be spending real money on new Mechs and using cbills for the DHS taxes and other upgrades.

While the other reasons mentioned look good on paper, that was all smoke & mirrors in regards to the actual reason we got our income reduction. A multiple kill win can still net as little as 70k cbills at times.

This being a free to play game, a business decision like this makes good fiscal sense, I suppose. At least they eventually told us this reason honestly, albeit after the other excuses were blown out of the water by actual empirical fact.

[Mott]

JC Daxion, on 18 February 2014 - 12:26 PM, said:

Honestly this is the worst advice ever... If you are having issues earning money, the best thing you can do if you die, is "learn to play" for 5 mins, and then start your next match...

Also, if the generally accepted strategy for maximizing $ earned is "getting assists", dropping out early to start another match means you're not getting the assists on those mechs you shot, but end up dying after you've disconnected.

[Rafael Velazquez]

Good advices all over the thread, thank you guys. In few hours of playing I've finally adapted to current meta, grabbed black painted good ol' Yen-Lo and... earned 147k+201k for 2 matches (lots of kills, assists, saviors, component destruction, blablabl). Again, thank you guys.

Edit: still no premium and with the priority just to win.

Edited by Rafael Velazquez, 19 February 2014 - 02:58 AM.

[RiotHero]

Rafael Velazquez, on 19 February 2014 - 02:57 AM, said:

Good advices all over the thread, thank you guys. In few hours of playing I've finally adapted to current meta, grabbed black painted good ol' Yen-Lo and... earned 147k+201k for 2 matches (lots of kills, assists, saviors, component destruction, blablabl). Again, thank you guys.

Edit: still no premium and with the priority just to win.

Yep, I grabbed my first Hero mech only a week ago on the 50% off sale. I was like most and had no intention at all of paying the normal prices. I can buy multiple AAA titles from steam for that money. When they got down to 50% off I thought well it's almost like infinite premium time. After getting it elited I'm now getting 90-100k for a loss and yesterday I even had a single game net me 252k.

[wanderer]

If you're new, I actually suggest a few things.

Prioritize slower targets unless you can keep up with/hunt scouts. Nothing makes me facepalm harder than watching some yutz swat ineffectively at a scout while the heavy 200m away dismantles them like a tinker toy. Shoot what you can hit easiest, that's damage delivered and more odds for more money.

Build around a big ballistic. AC/10 or 20. You're new at this, you're only going to get a limited number of shots in many engagements. Make them count. LRMs are temperamental, SRMs have hit registration issues, energy weapons as main guns tend to overheat you in a hurry. Big ballistic hits also have very good odds of breaking things on a critical hit to internals, getting you more money per shot. Multiple smaller AC's are also good, but can take more time on-target to chew something up.

Pack TAG on a spare energy hardpoint. It negates ECM when it's on a target and paints a big ol' crosshair symbol on what you're targeting, meaning it tends to attract LRM fire- which gets you both counter-ECM and spotting bonuses. If you happen to have LRMs as a backup weapon, it's a targeting bonus to boot! Does it deal damage? Nope. Does it get you money? Yep. Just have it on every weapon group and hold down it's trigger. If you spot an ECM-covered group at range, TAGing will reveal what you've got painted to everyone else- a warning that will often keep a team from ignoring the invisible man while his buddies blast you into tinfoil, ending your C-bill farming reign.

Focus fire. Shoot at what others are shooting. You'll get assist money. You'll blow parts off/kill targets more often, and if someone on your side is hurting bad enough from that target, sweet sweet savior kill money/exp. Nothing swings a fight faster than a smart guy with a big gun that can read a target and rip pieces off with ease. -Always use R to lock on a target immediately-. The sooner you see that target's damage, the sooner you know what to aim for to get the best results.

Sweep the leg. At the end, winners get a salvage bonus based on how much was left of the target- and the CT is worth the most. Plus, legs are generally easy to aim at and hard to protect...and often underarmored or store ammo, or both. Plus, nothing makes more people nervous than suddenly being a mobility kill and even serious leg damage is enough to deter many people from wanting more of what you're delivering- whereupon you can chase them and do it anyway. Blowing a leg off leaves you with a gimpy target that attracts fire and goes down fast, too. Sure, a CT kill seems faster in theory,but many times you don't get a clean CT shot. Shoot CT if it's a hill-humper, blast the leg otherwise.

Edited by wanderer, 19 February 2014 - 05:46 AM.

[Psykikk]

JC Daxion, on 18 February 2014 - 12:26 PM, said:

Honestly this is the worst advice ever... If you are having issues earning money, the best thing you can do if you die, is "learn to play" for 5 mins, and then start your next match... Learning how to play, so you can get 150-200k per match, verse not knowing, and getting 40-80.. If you are dying a few mins in, outside of the rare instance, the last thing you should be doing is dropping out of the match to hurry to the next one.






(to the people talking about stripping mechs..)

If you are doing that in the early part of the mission that is just not cool...(unless of course it is something like, Stripping an AC-20 or Gauss arm off a mech, that is highly recommended as a good first move) If you guys are up 8-0 strip away.. But the last thing you should be doing is worring about your c-bills in a team game, Because if you play as a well played team player, you will get lots of cash.. All those other things you can do to earn C-bills is worth way more cash than just doing damage and stripping opponents. Try getting savior kills instead if you want real money..

I ttotally agree. I am new, I suck and I got killed a lot during the first minutes. Yet I still stayed to maybe learn a thing or two, but also because...well I wanted to see how the team fared. The only times I ever left early was when profanity and stupidity in chat took over. I just can´t stand when people get personal in a game.
I am nowhere close to where I want to be C-Bill wise, but if I make 200k or 125k permach doesnt really make so mch of a difference... at least to me it doesn´t. Not if it takes away the fun

[Nick Makiaveli]

Mycrus, on 18 February 2014 - 07:58 AM, said:

that kinda is the idea when they nerfed the reward system during 12v12 release...

they WANT you to hero mech...

they WANT you to premium time...

As usual, zero actual helpful content, and completely obvious facts stated in a way to imply there is something wrong with said facts. Are you Marx's ******* child or something? Of course they want people to buy MC etc. How else will the game survice?


@OP Have fun playing. That's it. If you aren't having fun playing the game, then why play at all? Sure some mechs are more fun than others (I hate the Tbolts) so I only play them in groups so I can chat and joke around while leveling them.

Also, if you have multiple accounts, that makes it worse, as you are spreading your time and money around. Sure you could create a new account and use the Cadet bonus to try a new mech out, but unless you stayed with that account, you would have to then put in the time to earn the money to buy that mech on your main account.

My recommendation? Find a group that you can have fun with. Then it's not a grind. Otherwise, tinker with your budget and buy a mech for MC and use it to boost your C-bills.

[JC Daxion]

wanderer, on 19 February 2014 - 05:44 AM, said:

Pack TAG on a spare energy hardpoint. It negates ECM when it's on a target and paints a big ol' crosshair symbol on what you're targeting, meaning it tends to attract LRM fire- which gets you both counter-ECM and spotting bonuses.

I had no idea TAG disabled ECM when painted... this will make me rethink a few mechs! thanks man!

Rafael Velazquez, on 18 February 2014 - 08:42 AM, said:

Yeah yeah I know it but I don't want to spend loads of time for this game just try on new stuff. 20 hours of gameplay just to play BLR? Omg no way. I guess I'd just wait 'till some mechs will get into trial's list.

that is another reason to watch after you die... You can watch how other mechs are loaded out, How people play them, different tactics. Watching how one mech plays, may not fit your style, but sometimes you see something that you really like the style, and then down the road that could be something to try under trial, or just spend some MC or c-bills and try.

[Mycrus]

Nick Makiaveli, on 19 February 2014 - 11:10 AM, said:

As usual, zero actual helpful content, and completely obvious facts stated in a way to imply there is something wrong with said facts. Are you Marx's ******* child or something? Of course they want people to buy MC etc. How else will the game survice?


@OP Have fun playing. That's it. If you aren't having fun playing the game, then why play at all? Sure some mechs are more fun than others (I hate the Tbolts) so I only play them in groups so I can chat and joke around while leveling them.

Also, if you have multiple accounts, that makes it worse, as you are spreading your time and money around. Sure you could create a new account and use the Cadet bonus to try a new mech out, but unless you stayed with that account, you would have to then put in the time to earn the money to buy that mech on your main account.

My recommendation? Find a group that you can have fun with. Then it's not a grind. Otherwise, tinker with your budget and buy a mech for MC and use it to boost your C-bills.

Yawn... Gg tldr

[TB Freelancer]

Redshift2k5, on 18 February 2014 - 08:36 AM, said:

Making sure you collect as many Assists as possible is key. Assists pay very well, and you can go and get 8, 10, 12 assists per match (presumably you are not getting 8 kills per match or you wouldn't be complaining about your )

Without using premium time or a hero mech, yes, you should take a lot of time invested to earn new mechs and their upgrades (My 3 shadowhawks, plus upgrades, cost me 25 million). You can pay either time or money, and for a free game, it will take longer to earn a new mech than you would otherwise see in a paid box title game or a subscription game.

The earnings were nerfed when we went to 12 vs 12 because you can easily collect more kills, assists, components, damage done, etc with 50% more targets on the field. I still easily make 100-120k per match without premium or a Hero.

Depending on your mech(s) you own, you should either focus on spotting and locking (try a TAG for spotting bonuses!) or racking up assists. Make getting as many assists per matcxh as possible part of your priority, which means sticking to your teammates.

That's all true, but what really sucks is that before you could just play the damned game without worrying about intentionally gaming the reward system to maintain those earnings...

...what PGI has done to rewards on the release of 12vs12 is just obnoxious.

[RiotHero]

TB Freelancer, on 19 February 2014 - 04:30 PM, said:

That's all true, but what really sucks is that before you could just play the damned game without worrying about intentionally gaming the reward system to maintain those earnings...

...what PGI has done to rewards on the release of 12vs12 is just obnoxious.

I'm pretty much a newb compared to a lot of people around here and I'm at a point where I can't think of a single mech I need to have. If you make wise decisions then you should have no problems. Buy a Shadowhawk and you can do anything with it.

My focus now is on XL engines and modules. The one mech that has my attention is the Blackjack. This is coming from someone with only 7 chassis and only the newest ones meta. 6 kills with an all energy Orion might not be be meta but guess what? It's fun.