3 replies to this topic

[JackOfDiamonds]

Full props to the guys who run stock mech Monday. It is a great idea that addresses a lot of the concerns presented by the wider community.

Problem is, Stock Mode as a game setting would negate the grind, and by extension, the money making potential of the Fremium model PGI uses to support MWO. Stock Mode means no hero mechs, and for the short term, no clans.

PGI is a business, and provides a service from which they need to make some money in order to keep providing it. So to keep an element of 'grind' in stock mode, I suggest re-implementing Repair and Re-Arm to that specific game mode.

The repair and re-arm mechanic mechanism makes every game less profitable. Ideally, even unprofitable. Indeed, this should be the design, as it will encourage players to either port premium time in Stock Mode, or return to the open queue in order to grind C-Bills.

According to the game stats, I average about 100k cbills per match (98,303.89).
Eventually I would lose all my accumulated C-Bills if I had to buy ammo, repair armour, and replace weapon systems while playing Stock Mode.

Then I'd have to return to the main game, using hero mechs etc to get enough C-Bills to go back to the Stock Mode, or buy C-Bills, or carry premium time more often. Then, more money for PGI so they can keep running and improving this game.

We'd also get a long awaited feature that pre-empts the ongoing FLD meta game, encourages role warfare, and makes a lot of mechs fun to play again.



Thoughts?

[TexAce]

I would participate!

But before this can be done we need much more players so we can make a Stock TRO 3025 queue and a TRO 3050 queue and so on...otherwise we don't have enough players for that

Edited by TexAss, 28 June 2014 - 04:52 AM.

[DYSEQTA]

I like any idea that promotes playing this game as the IP intended rather than a generic FPS with big stompy robots.

[TLBFestus]

I'm, for one, very interested in a Stock Mode only option like they are doing on Mondays.

The only drawback for me is the insane amount of effort/time it requires to covert my mechs back to stock. There is no simple way that I'm aware of to do this, not to mention having to recustomize my rides AFTER I'm done to play in regular matches again for the rest of the week.

So, just how can this be streamlined for players and make it worth PGI's time to accommodate this ( cus we know that if they can't monetize this it isn't gonna be done)? If someone has any good ideas how to accomplish this feel free to chip in. Until then here are a few ideas of my own that aren't likely to be as good as others;

- include a "Stock Configuration" toggle in the mech lab that temporarily gives you access to the stock model for a drop.

- sell "Stock Only" mech bays that automatically provide you with the stock variant of the mech you assign to that bay. You still keep your original customized variant in its existing mech bay, and the "Stock Only" bay gets locked into the chassis you choose. That way players would need to buy a new mech bay for each stock model they want.

- once you have mastered 3 variants of a chassis you automatically get the stock variant (non-customizable) and a special mech bay that can only be used for the stock variant. This encourages the whole (atrocious) model they use now, and spending.

- have a special "Stock Model Only" sale, we all know how much they like sales, and sell the non-customizable chassis as packs or ala carte. As before the bays would be locked and unusable for anything but stock variants and I would HOPE they sell these cheaply to boost sales and because they are fixed load outs.

- With any of the above suggestions they could make it a premium time only perk further encouraging premium time subs.

- in some way charge a small MC or larger C-Bill charge to quickly drop in a stock variant ( if you don't already have one). I'm suggesting this simply for the convenience factor, saving players time in changing load outs.

Since I'm finger pecking this on an iPad, I'm about at my limit and will leave any further suggestions to people with better insight than I.