21 replies to this topic

[dangerzone]

How many here have thought of possibly buying a Hero 'Mech or a Champion 'Mech or just any 'Mech in general and are too afraid that they won't like it and end up wasting C-Bills and/or MC?

I have your solution!

A 24-hour "Test Drive" option for ALL 'Mechs and ALL 'Mech variants INCLUDING Hero's! (Note: Champion 'Mechs you can already do this, albeit only 4 at a time, which means all Champion 'Mechs should be usable for this feature).

However, there IS a catch, You can not edit ANYTHING on the 'Mech during the 24-hour test drive. You can not earn ANY C-Bills or ANY XP for the 'Mech or its variants. And yes, that means that a Hero 'Mech's 30% C-Bill bonus does not count since you are not earning any XP or C-Bills during the test drive.

You can however, drop with it into private AND public matches as many times as you like within the 24-hour timeframe.

Now, you may be thinking, "But "X" 'Mech has ****** stock armor!", or "But Y 'Mech's stock loadout is terribad!" Yes, that may be true, but remember you are trying out the 'Mech itself to see if it fits your playstyle. We all know how an AC/10, SRM6, Medium Laser, etc works/fires. We want to know if an Atlas is something we could see ourselves piloting, does this Hero 'Mech seem worth it to me, would I like it enough to buy two C-Bill variants to master it, which light 'Mech is best for me, etc...

I honestly feel that if such a feature was implemented, there would be a lot less apprehension with buying Hero and Champion 'Mechs as well as C-Bill 'Mechs and could result in more revenue for PGI, and we as the players do not have to worry about regretting a purchase. It's win-win for everyone!

What say you, fellow 'Mechwarrios?

Edited by dangerzone, 21 May 2014 - 04:11 PM.

[oldradagast]

I'm not sure how well the proposed idea specifically would work since people could just, in theory, keep checking that "try for 24 hours" box and never actually buy the mech. Admittedly, they wouldn't be able to customize it, so maybe it wouldn't matter.

At bare minimum, I think people should be allowed to take mechs out for a test drive in the Testing Grounds before buying them. Again, stock configuration only, but it would let folks get a feel for a mech's size, mobility, and weapon hardpoints before buying it.

[Big Tin Man]

Totally agree that all mechs should be available for the testing grounds in stock loadouts.

[Bigbacon]

I think having the ability to try mechs and even build them up for testing in the testing grounds would be a plus for all players, especially new ones.

ONLY in the testing grounds though, no option to use them in the real game, that is plenty fair to me.

Edited by Bigbacon, 30 May 2014 - 04:29 PM.

[OzViper]

The thing is, often you don't get a good feel for a mech until you unlock at least the basic skills (and speed tweak)..

But yeh, in the training ground ground you should be able to use any mech

[Kodiak Jorgensson]

imo this would be a great idea for testing grounds or even an upcoming weekend event, add hero mechs to the trial list and put a discount on them. or possibly something along the lines of what TF2 dose. purchase an item on 5 day test period, purchase within those 5 days for a small discount.

[Modo44]

The general idea is painfully obvious: Testing before buying means less refunds to deal with, and more players excited about the stuff they grind for.

To make it simple, you could add a big "Try it out" button for any mech selected in the shop or purchasable in the mechlab. That button would directly launch the testing grounds map selection with that mech's stock loadout selected. Not having to worry about time limits or putting a mech in someone's owned list could remove the need for too many database operations and squash any abuse potential.

[Myke Pantera]

I agree this would be nice, but i think there are some things important to that:

1) Need to be able to try MC and CBills mechs
2) Need to be able to test equipment on them even if it is too expensive for you now

So the easiest solution to this would be to have the public testing server up for 24h about twice a month, with additional and free CBills/MCs for everyone. I tested the Arrow during the Clan Public Test, liked it, and bought it (once on sale).

You can try this out today in fact. Enter the testing server and try out new mechs and builds, but don't forget to also test the things mentioned in http://mwomercs.com/...ass-production.

[Modo44]

The idea with stock loadouts in testing grounds is designed to make the feature easy to implement. Any kind of modification or play outside of that would involve a big feature with considerable UI and database work. It would be great, but not realistic to expect any time soon. "Just" opening up everything stock for a quick look is much more important from a player's perspectice, and easily doable from a development perspective. This is how other games, e.g. War Thunder, do it, by the way.

This is assuming that test server costs really are prohibitive. If not, I could very well see PGI opening it up once a month for a day of dicking around as a scheduled event. The problem with that is, it leaves all the other days in the month without an easy way to check things out. My point is, you want to entice new players, not just people who will learn about a test server anyway.

Edited by Modo44, 21 August 2014 - 04:18 AM.

[Koniving]

dangerzone, on 21 May 2014 - 01:01 PM, said:

How many here have thought of possibly buying a Hero 'Mech or a Champion 'Mech or just any 'Mech in general and are too afraid that they won't like it and end up wasting C-Bills and/or MC?

Just so you know, on the public test servers today, you will have 25,000
50,000,000 cbills.
500,000 GXP.

So today, we can try out the 'testing any mech' idea for...24 hours. O.o; Get to downloading!

[Beaching Betty]

YES!!

[Grayson Sortek]

I would agree with being able to test out any Battle'Mech in testing grounds before you buy... I also kind of wish there was a way to test out different builds before I commit to a save and end up spending c-bills on something that might not really be that great.

But the players definitely should be able to test out a 'mech, hero or otherwise, before they spend the c-bills.

Keep up the feedback and ideas MWO community!

[Merciless531]

They should REALLY update the store menu so that you can see the mechs armaments before you buy in-game. I'm in the process of bringing in two friends who have never played a MW title and have no clue about the mechs, I have no doubt they would even spend money to get a mech or two, but how can they? there is no way to preview or try the mech first. So more than just a try-b4-u-buy but a store interface update would be nice.

[SICk Nick]

I didn't read any on the posts on here...so sorry if I'm causing a repeat...but...I like this idea...a lot.

How about an option to try ANY mech ANY time with ANY modification in te testing grounds?

And how about making the testing grounds to be 2-person capable as well??
Friendly or enemy options.

That way you can test whatever you want whenever you want and have a live target or spotter ect for feedback/tests.

Boom.
Kick-ass...engaged.

[masCh]

"They should REALLY update the store menu so that you can see the mechs armaments before you buy in-game. I'm in the process of bringing in two friends who have never played a MW title and have no clue about the mechs, I have no doubt they would even spend money to get a mech or two, but how can they? there is no way to preview or try the mech first."

There is a workaround.

Go to Mechlab, and at the top you will see a filter saying "Owned Mechs".

Change that to Purchasable Mechs.

Select a mech you're interested in, and hover your mouse over it. The armaments and details of the mech selected will appear to the right of the screen.

I don't know why this feature isn't on the Store section.
And I don't know why there is a Purchasable filter list in the Mechlab when there's also a Store->Battlemechs section. They both don't even point to the same mech purchase subroutine in the code. Weird.

[JadeTimberwolf]

I like the idea however I would not want it to include the Champion, or Hero Mechs, or any Mech not available for C-Bills, just the different variants of all the Mechs being added to the list of trial Mechs. This would allow new players to get an idea how the different variants filled their roles and allow them to practice with that stock variant before they dedicate themselves to it.

[Krysic]

I think it's a great idea if limited to the testing grounds. The mech should be fully editable with a toggle for the tweaks as well. I bet they'd sell a ton more hero's. Anyone who hasn't run the 4 SRM 4 oxide with SRM4 cool down module reaaally needs to try it. Or the Huginn with that same module, whew. So. Much. Fun.

[Insects]

Yes, only in training grounds.

[Idealsuspect]

Big Tin Man, on 30 May 2014 - 10:46 AM, said:

Totally agree that all mechs should be available for the testing grounds in stock loadouts.

héhé in testing ground all loadouts ( even bad or average ) look like effective or awesome but in middle of battle they aren't also by this way PGI should increase theirs sales ....

But it's anyway a smart and legitimate suggestion specially about MCs champion and heros mech.

Edited by Idealsuspect, 01 February 2015 - 12:19 PM.

[Vellron2005]

I really don't see a need for a 24h test drive period...

A much better method would be that when you select a mech in the store, you have two buttons - Edit in MechLab and Test Drive (which takes you into classic testing grounds). Test Drive should then also appear after editing the mech in the mech lab.

Also, you should be able to buy the edited mech in the mech lab, after you testdrive it.