24 replies to this topic

[Vodage]

Quote

Hello _____ ____,
I'm afraid I cannot give you back your GXP or replace the GXP used with your gained Mech XP.
When you have enough XP to purchase an efficiency, you are given a clear choice between using Mech XP/GXP to unlock an efficiency. So I'm afraid this can't be put on the account of a bad UI.
I'm going to close the ticket now. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any issues or feedback.

But what about when you DON'T have enough XP to unlock an effeciency?

http://imgur.com/6BPRzxN

^That is what I saw on my Blackjack, as a new player, before I had ANY idea that GXP is gained slowly, and mech XP is gained quickly.

I don't have the original screenshot, but this one (showing the K2 I just purchased with C-Bills) gives the general idea.

I unlocked 5 basic effeciencies for the Blackjack using GXP. This was obviously unintentional.

Had I known how XP works, I would never had made this mistake.

Had the UI told me that I had 2 seperate XP's, and that one was about to skyrocket past the other, I would never had made this mistake.

As it were, the option to use 'mech XP only showed after I had been running around on my Blackjack with most of the basic effeciencies unlocked through GXP.

Now, with not enough GXP left to unlock something so simple as sensor range, I ask you, should my ticket be closed? Should I be forced to spend MC to exchange my Mech XP for GXP?

Or is this UI inferior to something I could freehand in MSPaint?

[Rhaythe]

You could just chalk it up to an honest mistake and just keep playing the game. You're not required to spend any MC on XP conversions whatsoever.

[Koniving]

It is a problem. It should, like the original interface, show both GXP and XP options and let you know if one of the two has an insufficient amount.

This is one of many issues that players have pointed out.

What makes this worse is what it does for purchases of mechs; it will only show the option you can afford and if you cannot afford it, the last time I tried it wanted me to buy . A player doing that for the first time is gonna drop his jaw and probably be turned off by the idea by feeling of extortion. (It is not. But it does come across that way. It is the fault of either flawed or hurried design or potentially a bad design choice.)

If it hides the option you can't afford, then it'd be hard to believe you can get it using the hidden option because you can't see it. This leads to confusion.

Now that you know, however, I'm certain you won't make the mistake again. I'm glad you pointed it out, we try to keep new players informed but it gets buried and lost frequently.

Fixes to it and the in-game store, however, are on the backburner. Improvements to the UI would be great, but for too long players have been craving some longterm gameplay depth and team balancing. PGI is hard at work on that. Meanwhile, IGP is hard at work with the monetizing schemes (so PGI isn't behind those contrary to popular belief).

For a personal opinion; I don't care about GXP. I spend it liberally on mechs to help ease the pain of leveling them. But then again I have an excess of 100 mechs. My first unlocks are always Cool Run and Heat Containment. I won't even put a mech in the field without those.

Edited by Koniving, 29 May 2014 - 01:00 PM.

[Kain]

Yeah I can imagine, that it is a bad start.
But I agree that it ain't clear for new players how the XP and GXP works and it is somewhat understandable your mistake.

Nevertheless I concur that the ticket should be closed, it is an error from the player not from the system, (doesn't matter if the ui is not userfriendly, the interface is just working as intended, but you, the player didn't knew the consequences)

That being said, you can just go play matches and grind your Mech XP to unlock the mech efficiencies the normal way.

[Modo44]

Bad UI is bad. Choosing GXP and MC over mech XP and Cbills is inviting bad accidents. No, giving an "Are you sure" dialog does not fix the issue, it is just weak ass covering.

[Malcolm Vordermark]

I must agree, that image doesn't show a clear choice between the two types of experience. And like many things it is not really explained anywhere.

On the bright side, 750 isn't that much and as it turns out the consumables are really the modules worth having. I have something like 65 mechs and 0 modules.

[Flaming oblivion]

The sad fact is things like this are tiny issues they're many much larger issues in fundamental game play keeping the mwo uninstalls at record highs, While I agree this is a issue its to small the big issues need prioritising if MWO is to be saved.

[Xoxim SC]

Hell I did this myself on accident during the double xp weekend, and I've been playing forever. Honest mistake is honest, but PGI doesn't have the greatest support in the world. Actually EAs support is better than PGIs, and that's just damn shameful :\

[Felio]

It's pretty common in the industry to reverse transactions in cases like these as a one-time courtesy. I am surprised they rejected your request.

It makes good business sense, too, for obvious reasons. A few minutes of an employee's time could translate to hundreds of dollars down the line. Maybe that player even gets a friend playing.

I say you should respond and ask that your request be escalated to the next level of support.

[Redshift2k5]

I accidentally bought a Master unlock with GXP. It happens, but the UI is technically very clear that you are spending GXP.

Kain, on 29 May 2014 - 12:55 PM, said:

Yeah I can imagine, that it is a bad start.
But I agree that it ain't clear for new players how the XP and GXP works and it is somewhat understandable your mistake.

Nevertheless I concur that the ticket should be closed, it is an error from the player not from the system, (doesn't matter if the ui is not userfriendly, the interface is just working as intended, but you, the player didn't knew the consequences)

That being said, you can just go play matches and grind your Mech XP to unlock the mech efficiencies the normal way.

The XP and GXP does not seem to be tracked as clearly as MC, unfortunately. They DO refund erroneous MC transactions as a one-time courtesy but I've never seen an XP or GXP transaction (both being free currencies) refunded.

[Felio]

Well, if you are really out of luck, I suggest you try not to let it get you down. You will get the XP back. More than you know what to do with, someday.

I also get the feeling they are going to be moving in the direction of letting us use several modules at once that cost a lot less GXP and Cbills.

[Vodage]

Wow, thanks for the replies. Yeah-- I thought I'd check this game out, because I was getting frustrated with Mech2 crashing constantly, and I had upgraded my rig to run Path of Exile.

I had tried to stream Mech2 on Twitch, but game capture reduced the stability of Mech2.exe to a breaking point. I streamed a bit of MWO - can only use window capture though. No excuse there; this ain't a DOS game.

It's really cool that there's a current BT game, and in an almost-playable state.
I could probably make a couple of joke streams for my highlight reel, showing off some of the more ridiculous mechanics.
One thing I couldn't do is have my viewers watch me stop playing so I can type emails out to support.

By the look of it, I think the only thing I'll be doing "before I know it" is Start-->Control Panel-->Add/Remove Programs-->MWO-->Uninstall

[IraqiWalker]

The U.I is very clear. You get a window saying which choice to make, or the "are you sure" box. Either way, it is our responsibility as players to pay attention to that. Not saying it doesn't suck. It does. I just activated 4 months of backed up premium time by accident, because I didn't pay attention to the box. I wanted to save that until June, but I'm gonna start my grind early I guess.

The game is fun. You lost a negligible amount in GXP (10,000 isn't really that much, especially if you spend 2 dollars on XP conversion), and you will recoup it quickly.

[TheCaptainJZ]

In the world of Support, tickets are closed not when the issue has been resolved, but when there is nothing more for Support to do with it. They won't refund the GXP (which, in the grand scheme of things, is not that huge of a deal honestly) so there is nothing else for them to do. Ticket closed. You can, if you want, respond back and explain what you did here about the bad design of the UI and how it hides choices that you can't have and also add that you didn't understand that you had both Mech XP and GXP. That would still lead to a closed ticket because they will take your feedback and log it wherever they log that kind of stuff. What happens to it next is up to the devs.

Oh, and /thread.

Edited by TheCaptainJZ, 29 May 2014 - 08:18 PM.

[Abivard]

I think it is more like:
'hah hah we caught another sucker with our deceptive marketing practices!'

[IraqiWalker]

Abivard, on 29 May 2014 - 10:43 PM, said:

I think it is more like:
'hah hah we caught another sucker with our deceptive marketing practices!'

There's no marketing. It's GXP.

[RavenGenesis]

Vodage, on 29 May 2014 - 04:14 PM, said:

Wow, thanks for the replies. Yeah-- I thought I'd check this game out, because I was getting frustrated with Mech2 crashing constantly, and I had upgraded my rig to run Path of Exile.

I had tried to stream Mech2 on Twitch, but game capture reduced the stability of Mech2.exe to a breaking point. I streamed a bit of MWO - can only use window capture though. No excuse there; this ain't a DOS game.

It's really cool that there's a current BT game, and in an almost-playable state.
I could probably make a couple of joke streams for my highlight reel, showing off some of the more ridiculous mechanics.
One thing I couldn't do is have my viewers watch me stop playing so I can type emails out to support.

By the look of it, I think the only thing I'll be doing "before I know it" is Start-->Control Panel-->Add/Remove Programs-->MWO-->Uninstall

so as a streamer, you made a newbie mistake due to poor interface, you'll do uninstall and not even bother trying to keep going to play this game...

i wonder how many "viewers" you get by constantly walking away from games because of not being able to resolve newbie mistake that's really solved by playing just a bit more..

though I do see it's better off for everyone if you've experienced such a poor start to just end it all... forcing yourself further is just going to make you feel even worse and could trend into toxic behaviors. heck when i first started i sold all my mechs and weapons to "build" my own only to find out it's so expensive in credit that I had to use the free ones on trial.. talk about a harsh start..

[Abivard]

IraqiWalker, on 29 May 2014 - 10:46 PM, said:

There's no marketing. It's GXP.

Oh wow, your so right, it is impossible to buy GXP silly me.

[IraqiWalker]

Abivard, on 29 May 2014 - 10:58 PM, said:

Oh wow, your so right, it is impossible to buy GXP silly me.

Oh wow, 2 dollars, I think I will go buy a hotel with ALL THAT MONEY!!!!


I stand corrected, 2 dollars isn't even enough to buy you monopoly money.

If you're going to try and criticize someone for a behavior you think is bad, at least have a good example of it.

Not something that costs either 2 dollars, or about 3 hours of free play.

Edit: the 2 dollars thing isn't an understatement. That's literally what it would cost to convert 10,000 XP to GXP (400 MC). Unless there's a sale, then it costs 1 dollar

Edited by IraqiWalker, 29 May 2014 - 11:15 PM.

[Alaskan Nobody]

RavenGenesis, on 29 May 2014 - 10:57 PM, said:

though I do see it's better off for everyone if you've experienced such a poor start to just end it all... forcing yourself further is just going to make you feel even worse and could trend into toxic behaviors. heck when i first started i sold all my mechs and weapons to "build" my own only to find out it's so expensive in credit that I had to use the free ones on trial.. talk about a harsh start..

Maybe it is because I came into this after a rash of RPGs - but one mindset I had was.

Don't sell anything until you know you will never use it again (and after watching WoW's cycle of buff/nerf - nothing is "never again")

Be VERY careful how you spend skill points (or XP in this sense)
- to many games where I screwed my save file over because I misspent skills (FO3.... SR:R.... D2......)