Totenxcx, on 15 August 2014 - 12:34 AM, said:
I started playing the game recently and found it enjoyable enough to justify spending money on it. At first I was really keen on buying a timber/dire wolf a la carte. But now after waiting for my hype to pass and looking at other options I wonder if it's better if I got 12k mc for the similar price and buy hero mechs, hangar bays and paints when they're on sale. What do you think?
Waiting for sales is generally smart.
That said, it's unclear whether you're looking to spend ~50-ish or ~100-ish.
1. A single Clan 'Mech is a risk: if you buy Madcat, for example, and discover that you aren't enjoying it, you're out $55. Now, if you're looking at *both,* you might consider the Daishi Collection (Kit Fox, Nova, Summoner, Dire Wolf; 60 days premium time) for $120 instead of spending $110 on the two 'Mechs.
And if you're looking at participating in Community Warfare as Inner Sphere, don't even bother with the Clan 'Mechs. (On the other hand, if you're planning on joining the Clans, then consider your options!)
Getting past that, 12000 MC can stretch pretty far, especially if you look for sales.
2. The things you can buy with MC, and their relative value.
-Mech Bays: The more 'Mechs you can hold, the more variety (and fun) you can have - and the more First Victories you can pick up to speed up your GXP gains for module unlocks. Almost always good, as long as you only have a few empty bays at any time.
-GXP conversion: Once you've mastered (extra module) a chassis, if you keep playing it, that 'Mech XP isn't exactly useful right now; conversion lets you move it into your GXP pool, 1:1, for 1 MC per 25 XP (or 1k MC per 25k XP.) Usually pretty good.
-Paint and schemes: If you're in a unit that has a particular scheme, they might want you to show unit pride by buying that scheme. Otherwise, it's fun. The try-before-you-buy is especially handy. The only fault is that sales aren't indicated. You'd have to know (for example, the tealish "cyan" Sininen right now) that a particular colour is on sale. Cosmetic.
-Cockpit swag: As long as you're careful with hanging items (which can disrupt your vision in first-person view,) these are just fun things that are sadly underused, because each instance of an item can only be mounted in one 'Mech at a time and it's a pain to find and shuffle them. Cosmetic.
-Hero 'Mechs: It's strongly suggested that you try the standard variants first, and
carefully consider whether the Hero is a good fit for you.
---If you hate Stalkers, no amount of "get Misery, it's awesome" will ever be useful advice.
---If you like Jenners, but aren't totally comfortable with pure missile usage, Oxide will do you no favours.
---If you're a fan of Aleksandr Kerensky or Theodore Kurita, you might consider Protector as it's the same 'Mech both used; but if (like me) it turns out that you fail at Orion, Protector won't be such a good fit after all.
But if you find one and decide it's for you after all, run with it.
-Champion 'Mechs: They're just tweaked standard variants with an experience bonus. You can do better with the MC.
-Standard (c-bill 'Mechs): One caveat that you have to be VERY careful about is that the purchasing system will detect whether you have enough MC to buy one of these 'Mechs - and then open an options window that defaults to you spending the MC.
-C-bills: You aren't that desperate.
-Mastery Packs: With the same caveat as the hero (make sure the chassis is right for you before running it,) these are a surprisingly good deal. There are currently four: Firestarter, Centurion, Cataphract, and Stalker.
Each contains one standard, one champion, one hero, and 30 days premium time; this is certainly cheaper than getting the hero, champion and time (and for the Firestarter and Stalker, cheaper than getting the hero and time.
-Starter Packs: Not quite as good: you only get a champion and 30 days, plus a few items of cockpit swag; available in Jenner, Firestarter, Catapult, and Atlas (that is, the first four 'Mechs put into the game.) It's cheaper than buying all of these things line-item, but yeah.
Hope this rundown helps a bit.
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