42 replies to this topic

[Rofl]

Mech bays are anywhere from $1.20 at best to $1.67 at worst. That doesn't seem too expensive to me.

It's barely more than the cheapest burger a fast food joint makes, and cheaper by far than a pack of cigarettes.

You could get 2 mech bays for the same cost as the smallest of starbucks fancy coffees.

For the same cost as the lego minecraft village, you could get about 20-30 mech bays.

That's about 4 mechs bays per beer at a bar, depending on the beer and bar of course.

A mech bay is about the same cost as renting a DVD from Redbox for 1 day.

Filling up my 10 gallon car here in California would set me back 23 to 33 mech bays.

Gotta think about these things relative to others. People have often looked at a 99 cent app and thought "No way!" and then turn around and by a dollar soda at their local convenience store every day of the week. If you think a mech bay will, in the long run, offer more than something else you can get for a buck and a half, why not just buy it?

Edited by Rofl, 13 May 2014 - 07:53 AM.

[AlmightyAeng]

Bulvar Jorgensson, on 13 May 2014 - 02:39 AM, said:

Where as allowing mechs to be bought with the mech bay included for C-bills, would have numerous advantages to all.

Not to PGI. It's the one, consistent reason to buy MC...if you want more than just your 4 mechs.

[Creovex]

Mech bays cost MCs for the simple fact it is the industry standard for F2P games like this. World of Tank does it, SWOTOR sells character slots and so forth. I can't complain as the pricing is not that bad in this game for "slots".

[Bulvar Jorgensson]

Look at this game as a whole.................

I enjoy playing MWO.....am I happy where it is at NO..........

To say the mech bays are fine at were they are it is okay, but it would be wrong.

If I can purchase a single mech bay for 50 pence or whatever the dollar to pound exchange is at, I am guessing PGI would be upset as most players would spend say £3 per month just on mech bays, who needs all the other fluff like cockpit items for MC???

Using the comparisons to those other online FtP MMO's will not work...as they were complete games when launched not 70% complete.

Let us have a proper look at what costs RL cash and what does not, PGI are trying to stop people from complaining that it is PLAY to WIN, well in that regard I say heck if some person pays £22 for a Mech it had better be alot better than a stock mech i can get for 13 million or so C-bills.

My brother and I had interesting conversation about MWO, he asked why be a Ftp model if it costs more to unlock the other 70% of a game than it would cost to purchase an Xbox 0ne starter pack with Titan-fall.

You can not have things all your own way, and if PGI are struggling to make monies while keeping this game going I would ask questions of how much are they paying their development team and where is the cash going???

No one on these forums would want this game to fail (I for one am Glad MWO was developed) but sometimes you have to ask hard questions of who is running things, and are they running for the good of everyone or a select few.

[Simbacca]

El Bandito, on 13 May 2014 - 04:56 AM, said:

In MWO, your mech selection is severely limited by the 4 mech bays you start with. Mech bays are relatively inexpensive, but just the fact one must spend money for a F2P game to even have a decent variety is a major turnoff for many many players. There are other F2P games that are much less limiting, yet are more successful at getting cash from players.

Bottom line is, a limiting F2P game such as MWO cannot attract and keep big player base, no matter what. That has direct negative effect on matchmaking, which further lowers newbie experience. Make mech bays purchasable with C-Bills, if you know what's good for ya, PGI.

Or the easier route while still permitting PGI to make a profit is to increase the starting mech bays from its current 4. Say, 6 starting mech bays - which permits the new player to have such variety. If PGI goes this route - they would also have to gift those 2 extra mech bays to the existing player base as well to be fair.

[El Bandito]

Rofl, on 13 May 2014 - 07:48 AM, said:

Mech bays are anywhere from $1.20 at best to $1.67 at worst. That doesn't seem too expensive to me. It's barely more than the cheapest burger a fast food joint makes, and cheaper by far than a pack of cigarettes. You could get 2 mech bays for the same cost as the smallest of starbucks fancy coffees. For the same cost as the lego minecraft village, you could get about 20-30 mech bays. That's about 4 mechs bays per beer at a bar, depending on the beer and bar of course. A mech bay is about the same cost as renting a DVD from Redbox for 1 day. Filling up my 10 gallon car here in California would set me back 23 to 33 mech bays. Gotta think about these things relative to others. People have often looked at a 99 cent app and thought "No way!" and then turn around and by a dollar soda at their local convenience store every day of the week. If you think a mech bay will, in the long run, offer more than something else you can get for a buck and a half, why not just buy it?

It is just mentality of many F2P players. They just want to play the game without spending anything--and they have the right to do that in a F2P game. Ultimately PGI needs to keep such players to maintain healthy amount of population. It does not matter if many of those players will never buy MC. What matters is keeping the game populated enough for the paying members to enjoy it.

4 mech bay limitation in this case is detrimental to player retention.

Edited by El Bandito, 13 May 2014 - 08:40 AM.

[Pale Jackal]

Mechbay costs are fine. It's possible that PGI should maybe give each new account 6 mechbays though. Maybe.

[GreyGriffin]

I personally think C-Bill 'mechbays would garner way more money in the long run if it was implemented intelligently. A gradually increasing cost (think from 500,000 C-Bills for the first one up to 2 Million for the 4th) for up to 4 c-Bill mechbays would gradually increase the grind expense, encouraging without forcing an expenditure, gradually flexing the consumer into opening their wallet rather than stonewalling them with a credit card barrier.

Even if you capped it at 4 C-Bill 'Mechbays, you'd have better free-only retention, which is just more opportunities to turn that guy who grinds 8 'mechs without paying a cent into a paying customer.

[n r g]

Bulvar Jorgensson, on 13 May 2014 - 02:39 AM, said:

Why do we only have the MC cost of mech bays.

Where as allowing mechs to be bought with the mech bay included for C-bills, would have numerous advantages to all.

If you buy a mech (with the bay) then decide to upgrade the mech-bay to an MC one it then gives you another c-bill bonus or Exp/Gxp of 30% on top of any bonuses that mech already has.

this will allow the community to grow as I know my nephew loves this game but my brother will not buy him a single MC for this game as he see's it as throwing monies away, on a game that has not evolved much since my brother played in Beta.

If however he saw that my nephew could purchase his army of mechs for time played and upgrade his mech bays to C-bill/Exp bonus then he would be persuaded to part with some real cash.

PGI you need to do things to increase the exposure and long term prospects of this game, or you are in danger of losing out to easier/more user friendly games that are FTP and offer alot more to more players.

Heck why havent we seen sponsorship of skins...why have we not seen a Monster skin Mech, or Coca-cola skin, I know they are not cannon, but they could bring in much needed revenue that you could use to do more for this game.

Also be more forthcoming with future plans, keep people involved, give feed back on suggestions more, no one is asking for intricate details, just keep us in mind more.

Another way for PGI to force players into using real money....

$500 gold mechs..... wow.. lol

[Deathlike]

Nikolai Lubkiewicz, on 13 May 2014 - 10:52 AM, said:

Hi there!

I understand that some players want to collect more Mechs. It's worth noting that only 3 Mech Bays are needed to Master any particular chassis. This leaves a free player room to hold onto their favorite Mech while they continue to try out and complete any others chassis which interest them with the 4 Free Mech bays, as well as 4 additional Champion Trial mechs to play with. The current system does not otherwise prevent completion of any chassis. The ability to retain an additional Mech is one of our starting price points: Designed to be roughly equivalent in price to a cup of coffee. Despite the workaround, it remains a bestseller, and we're grateful for those who love to collect and keep their Mechs. Don't fret if your gaming budget is limited though. We also may occasionally give them away in challenges or such, so keep your eyes peeled!

Do you realize that it doesn't help the 3/3/3/3 MM situation? Keeping one favorite chassis does NOT help the matchmaker do its job, if anything it lends to exacerbating the situation further by design.

[bar10jim]

How about this: It costs 1 MC to convert 25 XP to GXP. At this rate, 150 MC = 7500 GXP. Allow users to buy (up to, say 4 Mechbays at 7500 GXP each. Or maybe 7500 for the first, 10,000 for the second, 12,500 for the third, etc. That's a lot of grind for the free player. And lest we forget, we need the free players as well as the paying players. More players = better game experience.

[Creovex]

Bulvar Jorgensson, on 13 May 2014 - 08:26 AM, said:

Look at this game as a whole.................

I enjoy playing MWO.....am I happy where it is at NO..........

To say the mech bays are fine at were they are it is okay, but it would be wrong.

If I can purchase a single mech bay for 50 pence or whatever the dollar to pound exchange is at, I am guessing PGI would be upset as most players would spend say £3 per month just on mech bays, who needs all the other fluff like cockpit items for MC???

Using the comparisons to those other online FtP MMO's will not work...as they were complete games when launched not 70% complete.

Let us have a proper look at what costs RL cash and what does not, PGI are trying to stop people from complaining that it is PLAY to WIN, well in that regard I say heck if some person pays £22 for a Mech it had better be alot better than a stock mech i can get for 13 million or so C-bills.

My brother and I had interesting conversation about MWO, he asked why be a Ftp model if it costs more to unlock the other 70% of a game than it would cost to purchase an Xbox 0ne starter pack with Titan-fall.

You can not have things all your own way, and if PGI are struggling to make monies while keeping this game going I would ask questions of how much are they paying their development team and where is the cash going???

No one on these forums would want this game to fail (I for one am Glad MWO was developed) but sometimes you have to ask hard questions of who is running things, and are they running for the good of everyone or a select few.

Sorry to break this to you but World of Tanks and this game both were at the same level at launch. You can't honestly believe that it was better than this unless you didn't really play it. SWOTOR wasn't even F2P at launch but adopted it to save the game. All games launch before they are ready. Look at STO.. only after perfect world bought it did the game get good... that was 2 years after release.

Edited by Creovex, 13 May 2014 - 03:43 PM.

[Creovex]

Nikolai Lubkiewicz, on 13 May 2014 - 10:52 AM, said:

Hi there!

I understand that some players want to collect more Mechs. It's worth noting that only 3 Mech Bays are needed to Master any particular chassis. This leaves a free player room to hold onto their favorite Mech while they continue to try out and complete any others chassis which interest them with the 4 Free Mech bays, as well as 4 additional Champion Trial mechs to play with. The current system does not otherwise prevent completion of any chassis. The ability to retain an additional Mech is one of our starting price points: Designed to be roughly equivalent in price to a cup of coffee. Despite the workaround, it remains a bestseller, and we're grateful for those who love to collect and keep their Mechs. Don't fret if your gaming budget is limited though. We also may occasionally give them away in challenges or such, so keep your eyes peeled!

Originally I planned to keep a low number of mech bays but 26 more added and I keep buying. Unlike games like World of Tanks, classes CAN compete... just today my Spider-5K took down a Stalker and Cataphract solo in the same match and my Hunch took down 2 Atlases and so forth. I think you get the point and why I never sell a Mastered mech.

[KAT Ayanami]

Nah OP. You just want more mechs for free.

Do not come here with lame excuses of what could work for PGI.

Even I, who have not purchased a single thing (other than bays) because I feel like they are HEAVILY overpriced, think that buying MechBays is the least you can do to play this game.


You can have all weapons and all mechs (other than hero variants) in this game for free, the minimum you can do is buy bays.




* I still think the bays are kind of overpriced for what they are IMO. I could only buy a couple. But again, PGI is giving some free with challenges. So, yay!

[Ultimax]

Bulvar Jorgensson, on 13 May 2014 - 05:15 AM, said:

Why can not someone who puts in 200 hours of free play have the ability to get mech bays without paying real life cash

Other posters have already answered your question.

Mechbays are one of the few things that basically guarantee some people will spend money on this game.

It's a gateway to other purchases.




On top of that, your nephew can occasionally earn free mechbays as 3 have been given away so far as part of weekend events.


I think your brother needs a little perspective really, mechbays are dirt cheap - cup of coffee cheap.

He could use the mechbays as a reward for performance in school, or as leverage motivation for something positive.

Edited by Ultimatum X, 13 May 2014 - 08:13 PM.

[Bulvar Jorgensson]

Okay I take note of some of the posters on this thread.

Here is one if PGI were so safe and secure in their pricing model, then why not let me purchase single mech bays or blocks of mech bays as gifts for my nephew.....if 1 mech bay costs the price of a soda then let me buy him that instead of a soda

No instead I have to purchase MC's in blocks and even then during the weekend were it had an extra 20% I could not as some security system kicked in that stopped me. However this had not stopped me buying a full clan pack nor the previous £100 I have spent on MC's.

A few of the posters on this forum rely on the ability to make offensive comments about my reasons for posting this thread and that they can hide behind their online anonymity to deride and ridicule posts made with the intention of seeking to promote a proper debate on issues that I have see and others have seen that do not promote growth in a game that I hope we all love and wish with all our hearts to succeed.

Let the flames commence.................................

[Ovion]

I do think you should be able to gift people MC, or items bought with MC.

This would allow parents to purchase stuff for their kids, or even a few people to go in together to purchase a $100/£60 pack, spreading the cost a bit.

[Ursh]

With the amount of money I've personally seen unemployed/underemployed friends pay for random junk like cola, cigarettes, etc., I find it difficult to believe someone who really enjoys this game can't find $10 somewhere to buy some mech bays.

For the price of a one-way ticket going three stops on the London underground, you could buy 3 mech bays.

People do know that if they're truly broke, they can actually build up a faster mech collection by making a new account for each chassis they want, right? That cadet bonus is way more money than you'll get from grinding 25 matches with your 3rd or 4th mech.

Edited by Ursh, 14 May 2014 - 05:18 AM.

[Redshift2k5]

GreyGriffin, on 13 May 2014 - 08:58 AM, said:

I personally think C-Bill 'mechbays would garner way more money in the long run if it was implemented intelligently. A gradually increasing cost (think from 500,000 C-Bills for the first one up to 2 Million for the 4th) for up to 4 c-Bill mechbays would gradually increase the grind expense, encouraging without forcing an expenditure, gradually flexing the consumer into opening their wallet rather than stonewalling them with a credit card barrier.

Even if you capped it at 4 C-Bill 'Mechbays, you'd have better free-only retention, which is just more opportunities to turn that guy who grinds 8 'mechs without paying a cent into a paying customer.

Scaling cost AND a hard limit on the number of mech bays are both great ideas. Limited mechbays for c-bills is a nice compromise for both sides.

Ovion, on 14 May 2014 - 05:04 AM, said:

I do think you should be able to gift people MC, or items bought with MC.

This would allow parents to purchase stuff for their kids, or even a few people to go in together to purchase a $100/£60 pack, spreading the cost a bit.

Great idea, up until someone hacks your account and "gifts" all your stuff away. and I doubt they would want anyone "sharing" a larger MC package.

[Flaming oblivion]

bar10jim, on 13 May 2014 - 11:25 AM, said:

How about this: It costs 1 MC to convert 25 XP to GXP. At this rate, 150 MC = 7500 GXP. Allow users to buy (up to, say 4 Mechbays at 7500 GXP each. Or maybe 7500 for the first, 10,000 for the second, 12,500 for the third, etc. That's a lot of grind for the free player. And lest we forget, we need the free players as well as the paying players. More players = better game experience.

I like the idea I really do however its not going to fly a mech bay less gxp then some of the pilot skills? , the gxp prices would have to be higher, Honestly I completely agree with you suggestion I just cant see it being implemented priced so low.