157 replies to this topic

[Quxudica]

headclot, on 08 September 2014 - 09:43 PM, said:

100% this

Hard to say it any better really. Micro-transactions are not Micro anymore when you are charging half or more what an entire AAA game costs. For the price of a single Hero Mech I could buy multiple games with hours upon hours worth of content that provides varied experiences. Hell I can buy complete, quality indie games for the price of a Camo pattern, that's just messed up pricing and if I'm choosing between a couple colors for my mech or buying Faster Than Light, well FTL is right there on my desktop and the only colors I have are the CBIll ones (which, funnily enough, are also much more expensive than they should be. I can buy a light mech for only a little more than it costs to paint that same mech a basic color? I know it's a perm unlock, but it's still silly).

I've played since early closed beta, in all of that time I've bought enough MC to get two sets of mech bays. about 15 bucks I think it adds up to. That's 15 bucks in something like two years. In that time there's plenty of things I've looked at buying, and while I'm not rich by any means I do have a reasonable budget for entertainment I could spend in places like MWO, but even when I see a potential purchase here I just can't justify the cost to myself when I can get so much better value elsewhere.

personally, I *might* buy a mech (of any weight, they should all be the exact same price) for 10 bucks if It really really stood out to me in design and paint job. I'd be very likely to buy the same mech at 5 bucks. I'd buy colors if they came in bundles for no more than 2 bucks and camo patterns for similar. Anything over $10 (usd) is not a micro-transaction to me anymore (yes I am somewhat frugal) and as such is beyond the realm of impulse purchase.

I should also mention that I really dislike the entire concept of Hero mechs as they are currently implemented. While you can't directly argue that it's a P2W option since the relative power of a hardpoint set is hard to determine, I've always felt that anything that can affect gameplay needs to be attainable for free. I don't mind if it's a bit of a slog (a bit, grind gating something to much is no better than paywalling it), but it should be possible to attain. To me, Hero Mechs should be renamed to "Heroic Edition" with all the bonuses and the fancy paint job, but each Hero mech should have a "Standard Edition" with the same hard points and quirks added for CBills.

As a side note, consumables should be removed entirely from the game as they currently exist. Incorporate their functions into pieces of equipment we need to install on the mech, equipment that can be destroyed.

Arty/Air Strikes should be two different types of flare launcher (with different colored smoke identifying air or arty), the launcher uses weight/hardpoint space and can store a single flare (an ammo type) inside it the way engines store heat sinks. If you want both you need to free up two slots and a couple tons for them.

Coolant shot should be actual coolant tanks, the bigger variants weighing more and taking more slots. These should have a chance to explode if crit while full with the bigger versions doing serious damage to the section they are stored in. These should refill automatically between fights, no need to pay cbills, since now they consume slots, weight and have a downside.

UAV's should require a launcher like the flares, possibly only be mountable in the torso and should require ammo (ammo in this case being the UAV itself).

These things should be equipment we actually have to plan into our builds, not magically pull out of our ass and definitely not something we should be able to buy better versions of for cash (yes you can upgrade the CB versions, but that doesn't justify the system being as it).


Finally, somewhat unrelated to the business model. Please get more maps out, and more importantly design better objectives. The whole "stand in this arbitrary square for a minute" thing was fine as a place holder back in Closed Beta, passable as a place holder back in Open Beta, but awful and lazy for a release game. It's nice that you tried to justify these things by placing random doodads in them, and the turrets for assault bases was much needed, but it still feels completely arbitrary.

SOCOM: US Navy Seals was a game for the PS2 that had a more complex assault objective mode over a decade ago, on bloody console. (one side defends, one side attacks with the objective to plant a bomb to destroy a target. bomb can be defused. I think most FPS fans will recognize this set up). And that is just sad. Of course it also had integrated voice chat and dedicated servers with a server browser.. so really if you put aside the network issues of back then it had an entirely better online setup than mwo does..

Edited by Quxudica, 09 September 2014 - 01:23 AM.

[Torgun]

Belorion, on 08 September 2014 - 07:39 PM, said:

How does that hurt the f2p players?

While I'm not really a F2P player, it kinda hurts my belly when I laugh whenever I see one of those $500 bullet-magnets.

[Lily from animove]

No 1: gifting
gifting pls, I would like to gift some people a mech or maybe a cockpit item, or mechbays.
Or gifting one shot coupons for letting them color a mech.
and form your point of view, it hardly cares If I spend MC for a mechbay, or my friend. Except form the fact that he may not be willing to spend MC or can not spend any MC. Also we could make some streams and give out mechbays and other gifts. Good way for people to advertise their streams and increase the advertising for MWO.

No 2: style over p2w

Prosperity Park, on 08 September 2014 - 07:48 PM, said:

$500 Gold Mechs that don't grant you any kind of powers are *perfectly in line* with a F2P model because it gives certain players a chance to get all opulent an' **** all up in dis b*tch.

Seriously, though, it would only be a problem if those Gold Mechs were more powerful than default Mechs. The fact that they aren't means that PGI already has more credibility than you give credit for. If they were making a P2W game, instead of a F2P game, then the Gold Mechs would be better than normal Mechs.

This, Add wanted styles for people but keep it not p2w. I like my gold Nova a lot, and I would kinda feel bad if it had some special advantages.

What about adding glow colors for camo? The Hellsingers glow looks totally awesome. It would be epic to have some of these colors being able to be added to other camo styles and the mechs I like. I want a bright glowing yellow.

Also, make all mechs colorable. Why should any heromechs not be able to be repainted? people either buy them for their style, which then is fine. Or their Hardpoints, which means they would like to add a different camo.

Also, unbundle the gold mechs form the clan maserati pack. Sell the remaining gold mechs for like 150$. I would consider buying a gold adder because I like its appearance. But I do not have any need for a second maserati package.

No 3: leasing mechs for MC's
And something more complex a free customisable "lease mech". Nothing may be more frustrating than buying a mech and figuring out its crap, Either because it does not fit the players playstyle or the mech itself is not as they expected. Now with quite some punchy mech prizes this may be an issue. But I am ok with the pricing of mechs, they are buy to get early, and this is fine.

The idea: make mechs leasable for MC for around 5$. This mech then has a leasetime of 7 days or maybe 10days. The mech has further a special "free equipment", so customizing this mech in the mechlab makes you not buy any components. But also not to pay for components. This way people can lease the mech, try any build they want and figure out if they like it or not. Then they either safe the Cbills, or buy them with real MC's.
connected to that, if someone leases a specific mech, offer him a 10% discount on the leased mech if he buys it within 3 days after lease time.
This is also a way to add some kind of micro transactions instead of big payments.

extention possibility no 2:
lease the same mech 10x and get it for free. For those not able to pay a lot money at once a possibility to buy them over time. Of course at all this is more expenisve then directly buying the mech, but hire purchase works in reallife, so why not in MWO?

Leasable platin mechs.
Shiny like the gold mechs, but platin, only available for lease. For people who don't have the big money but want to brag a bit here and there form time to time. Or just want to have something shiny as well.

A bit more crazy?
Make leasable "event mechs" like a Santa atlas with a big bag and a santa hat at christmas. If they are lease only and for limited events, I think that may be an "ok feature". Or bunny ear mechs at easter. But never release such a freaking thing permanently, they should be very event bound leases that disappear shortly after the events. Good for some holiday fun. But not ruining the whole MWO style.

No 4: premium alternates

star commanders premium
a 50% cheaper premium allowing you to open private matches, but without the Cbills and XP rewards of regular premium.

Mechwarrior academy premium
a 50% cheaper premium, only for cbills and XP bonus, but not private match ability.

people don't like paying money fo features they don't use. And currently old vets may not like the price of premium only for seting up private matches.
And newbs may not wanna buy a expensive premium just for the XP/CBILL boni.


No 6 microtransactions
I know we can buy C-blls for MC's, but thats kinda "expensive" becaue poeple have to byu the Cbills in big chunks.
But imagine every weapon would have also MC price? buying a Clan medium laser (160k cbills) for some MC?, Such a thing would be another step of microtransactions. People do spend small amounts of money more easily than big amounts. So chopping down the the MC-->Cbills rate by allowing to byu equipment directly for MC's would be a nice feature. And a sneaky way to empty wallets xD


No 7: smaller MC bundles.
there should be a buy option to only buy a package of 500MC

So that were just my first thoughts. Hope you like some of them.

Edited by Lily from animove, 09 September 2014 - 02:20 AM.

[jaxjace]

Ive been saying this since the beginning MWO is 5 times more expensive than most F2P games, I know so. Im coming up on over half a grand spent on this *****

[Jetfire]

I posted this waaaay back in closed beta that the pricing model was not going to work long term.

The mechbay, premium time, mech and CB challenges are an excellent start but the next step is a big adjustment to the MC to $$ ratio. You can only make prohibitively expensive prices for cosmetic items which are very special. If the raw gameplay and customization options are expensive then it isn't going to attract impulse buys.

If they can indeed get their mech body customization working as a system, that is the place to charge $10 for a custom geometry. Some kinds of paint could get high prices, but currently most of the premium ones are really just colors which don't look like complete butt. How about charging more for things like a candy finish or metal flake.

Patterns is about all they have right at the moment and the general model of purchase per chassis and per color for unlocks.

Also Decals... where did they go?

More packages for new players which are high value. We should have starter packs which allow a selection of 3 mechs of a single chassis from each weight class including heros and champs with 6 months premium and a half dozen colors and cammos for $60. Purchasable once per account.

[Lily from animove]

jaxjace, on 09 September 2014 - 02:24 AM, said:

Ive been saying this since the beginning MWO is 5 times more expensive than most F2P games, I know so. Im coming up on over half a grand spent on this *****

what other f2p games do you even know? I went through like 30+ of them, and I can tell you most are p2w and a load more expensive.

Edited by Lily from animove, 09 September 2014 - 02:49 AM.

[Pjwned]

Even though I have a number of grievances, the 3 major problems I have with the game (that persist in making me not want to play very much still) are the mech tree and the way mech bays are handled, as well as the high prices/low earnings of in-game currency (being a problem in itself) making the mech tree even worse.

-The mech tree is horrible to deal with because it forces me to spend time playing bad mechs that I don't want to play just so I can play optimally with a mech I do like, it's NOT fun or worthwhile. As mentioned this is made worse by limited mech storage and high prices for stuff with in-game currency.

-As it is now, you start with very low mech storage capacity and the only way to increase it is to either pay real money or happen to play the game during an event and win 1. As I've said before, I have and do give credit to PGI for making events to hand out mech bays (and even free mechs to go with them too) but unfortunately due to the nature of the mech tree it's particularly annoying if you want to unlock elite mech tree skills but don't have enough mech storage space due to the need to grind unwanted variant mechs; being forced to pay real money outside of an event is just lame and makes me want to spend less money, even if the mech bays aren't very expensive. Some sort of option would be great even if it wasn't especially economical, there should be a choice to increase mech storage space with in-game currency or to pay real money and save some hassle.

-The high prices of almost everything worthwhile for c-bills (e.g XL engines, most modules, heavy/assault mechs, the DHS tax on nearly every mech, etc.) makes it discouraging to sink a bunch of money into a mech when the earnings are not very high, especially if you end up not liking the mech for some reason. The extremely low earnings of GXP and very high GXP cost to unlock modules is also not helpful, and this isn't even going much into how MXP is frequently wasted unless you pay with MC to convert it into GXP, for which there should be a non-MC alternative as well.

The basic solutions to these problems (respectively) is to overhaul/remove the mech tree, offer at least 1 alternative for increased mech storage that doesn't involve needing to pay real money, and lower the price of everything (including MXP/GXP costs) by about half and/or increase in-game currency earnings.

NOTE: If you have a response to my post that has to do with me being entitled or some slippery slope argument about wanting everything free or some other crap then I almost certainly don't want your opinion. I feel the need to make this statement in advance because I've seen multiple idiots try to dismiss arguments before due to somebody not spending a ton of money on the game, so if you feel the need to respond in such a manner then you might want to save your breath.

Edited by Pjwned, 09 September 2014 - 02:50 AM.

[Lomak]

Let Paul nerf the prices...

[Lily from animove]

Pjwned, on 09 September 2014 - 02:49 AM, said:

Even though I have a number of grievances, the 3 major problems I have with the game (that persist in making me not want to play very much still) are the mech tree and the way mech bays are handled, as well as the high prices/low earnings of in-game currency (being a problem in itself) making the mech tree even worse.

-The mech tree is horrible to deal with because it forces me to spend time playing bad mechs that I don't want to play just so I can play optimally with a mech I do like, it's NOT fun or worthwhile. As mentioned this is made worse by limited mech storage and high prices for stuff with in-game currency.

-As it is now, you start with very low mech storage capacity and the only way to increase it is to either pay real money or happen to play the game during an event and win 1. As I've said before, I have and do give credit to PGI for making events to hand out mech bays (and even free mechs to go with them too) but unfortunately due to the nature of the mech tree it's particularly annoying if you want to unlock elite mech tree skills but don't have enough mech storage space due to the need to grind unwanted variant mechs; being forced to pay real money outside of an event is just lame and makes me want to spend less money, even if the mech bays aren't very expensive. Some sort of option would be great even if it wasn't especially economical, there should be a choice to increase mech storage space with in-game currency or to pay real money and save some hassle.

-The high prices of almost everything worthwhile for c-bills (e.g XL engines, most modules, heavy/assault mechs, the DHS tax on nearly every mech, etc.) makes it discouraging to sink a bunch of money into a mech when the earnings are not very high, especially if you end up not liking the mech for some reason. The extremely low earnings of GXP and very high GXP cost to unlock modules is also not helpful, and this isn't even going much into how MXP is frequently wasted unless you pay with MC to convert it into GXP, for which there should be a non-MC alternative as well.

The basic solutions to these problems (respectively) is to overhaul/remove the mech tree, offer at least 1 alternative for increased mech storage that doesn't involve needing to pay real money, and lower the price of everything (including MXP/GXP costs) by about half and/or increase in-game currency earnings.

NOTE: If you have a response to my post that has to do with me being entitled or some slippery slope argument about wanting everything free or some other crap then I almost certainly don't want your opinion. I feel the need to make this statement in advance because I've seen multiple idiots try to dismiss arguments before due to somebody not spending a ton of money on the game, so if you feel the need to respond in such a manner then you might want to save your breath.

Solution for this would be "empty variant chassis"
Engines are an issue, because on IS emchs you buy a variant and its expensive engine that you gonna remove and rebuy another one for a load of money.

and yes the level 3 to maximise one mech is really annoying. they should better have a option to unlock higher tiers on a single chassis. But I guess the 3 variants to level is made to keep people playing the game and possibly spending MC on different Variants.

[Jonny Taco]

I'd very much like to see a subscription to a "premium +" feature. Could be something along the lines of 9.99/m and would give premium benefits (+10%) as well as allow for the limited acquisition of MC. The MC gained from this sub would be limited to daily caps, meaning that if you wanted to get the maximum MC possible per sub period you're going to need to play every day. The overall monthly cap could be around 1500-2000, meaning a daily cap of 50-66. Each win could be worth 10 mc, each loss like 3.

P.S. Prices across the board need to be dropped. Several of my real life friends who started with mw2 and mw3 have avoided this game like the pluage due to the extreme costs. As many have said before, you can spend thousands on this game and still not even get remotely close to the available content in most AAA 60$ console/pc games. The current price point makes people feel like pgi is greedy before they even install the game... This is not the right foot to get off on with future/potential customers...

As many have pointed out, lowering the price point most likely will drastically increase overall revenue as well as public opinion about the game/company...

Edited by lartfor, 09 September 2014 - 03:23 AM.

[Kjudoon]

headclot, on 08 September 2014 - 06:58 PM, said:

Hey MWO community -

Russ Bullock mentioned in the Town hall Meeting that he and his team would need input for improving the Free 2 Play Model.

What can they do to improve the Free 2 Play model of MWO?

What should be done?

Personally - I think that 500 dollar gold Mechs should be done away with and never looked at again.

I need better reasons to do micro transactions. Things of small value that are worth the money I put into it. Single colors are not something I find enough value in to spend on. Paying 5 bucks for ALL the colors, I'd be game for. Same goes for buying camo patterns for ALL my mechs for 5-10 dollars. That is more my speed. I buy what I think is worth while

Hero mechs for 30-50 bucks... no thanks. Knock them down to the similar 10 dollar range, and I may change my tune.

I like what DCUO does for their download content. I won't pay subscriptions preferring piecemeal 'one and done' transactions for extra content. That is something that is critically missing from the MWO experience right now.

Now one thing I do like is that I see the current state of play being morphed into a "Solaris" style of arena play. Let's be honest, all these maps are just small arenas anyway (yes, even Alpine.) It will be similar in play to the War Thunder "Arcade" mode where any plane or tank can be with any other regardless of side or alliance. This is awesome. Friends can practice, grind or just blow off steam here. When CW kicks off and it all functions around Factions and serious 'role play' and this is another area I want to see some micro transactions pay content. Since they are considering PvE directions, making storylines and campaigns is highly highly HIGHLY recommended.

Vanity is good if it's not stingy. Impatience is for the 'whales' and I do not pay for things to have now. As it stands now, once I am satisfied with what CW is going to be, Mechbays is the only area I see worthwhile to spend money. I would love better value for colors. (25 cents to a dollar per color, or 5 dollar 'pallets' of 25 colors would be reasonable) Camo patterns used across all mechs for 2-5 dollars is another reasonable transaction. I would spend for that. I'd even consider spending 15-20 bucks for ALL camo and colors, particularly once you allow custom personal decals to be imported.

Again.

Make me want to part with small amounts of money, or slightly larger amounts of money in packages under 15 dollars.

[Herr Vorragend]

How about kind of a unit-bundle that includes:

TS3 Server
Premium-Time (for running private matches)
3 chooseable unit-colors

Edited by Herr Vorragend, 09 September 2014 - 03:21 AM.

[Savage Wolf]

Garandos, on 08 September 2014 - 09:33 PM, said:

When I saw the thread title this also exactly what I was thinking of.

The bundles like Clan bundle, Project Phoenix and especially the gold mechs and so on are for the whales and that is all good. Mostly. Having early access is a fine thing to charge whales for, but not too early access. The fact that the Timber Wolf still isn't available for casual spenders at least is a stretch. It looks bad. A 1 month early access is fine.

And there is not enough for the casual spender to use money on. Consider them as only having 10$ to spend at all on MWO ever. Right now they are holding on to those 10$ because they can probably only get one mech for that. That's too little when you need 3 mechs to be able to unlock masteries. 10$ should allow you to be able to have 3 variants of one mech.
This does not mean that the whales don't buy mechs, they will simply buy ALL the mechs, especially if put in a good package.

Camo and colours should be very cheap so that too is an option for 10$. It should give a good amount of camos and some colors. And then they will want to stay because now their mech is unique.

Hero mechs should also be available for casual spenders. Of course they cost more than regular mechs, but still they should not feel exclusive because they are not. And casual spenders should also have access to them with their limited budget. Founders mechs, Phoenix mechs and gold mechs are the exclusive mechs.

And really as long as an Atlas costs more than a Hunchback, it needs to be better. As long as an Atlas is better than a Hunchback there will be no role warfare. Or at least then the only role warfare that matters is different roles among assault mechs. And role warfare could really make 3x4 much more appealing.

So always consider that there are casual spenders and there are whales. And you want both. Whales might give a lot of money, but they are only there as long as there are lots of players and most players are casual. And casual players stay longer if they invest a little money, but feel they got a good deal.

[TKSax]

I think lower the MC prices for everything, is good I also think the should get lower over time, kinda funny that a hunchback still cost the same amount of MC as it did when it first came out.

[Dracol]

Mech prices are in line with the competition and are fine IMHO.

What would really be nice are small items for a change. I seem to always have 200 mc just hanging around after I re-up my premium time. Would be nice to have something of a variety to use it on.

Give me 4 decals I can paint onto mechs for 200 mc and I'd be happy.

Edited by Dracol, 09 September 2014 - 05:32 AM.

[RockmachinE]

I agree.

LOWER THE PRICES!

Take it directly from a player that hasn't paid a cent for the game and is proud of it. I don't talk for others, but I'm sure there are many that share this sentiment. I'd feel stupid paying 100s of dollars on a few meshes and textures, partly because I know how much work it takes and partly because I'm a responsible, albeit pretty broke, adult. That's my main reason for not paying for this game.

Here's just some of the various things I could do instead of buying a couple of mechs, just to illustrate my point (lets assume a ~200$ mech pack):

• I could pay rent for a month.
  
• sustain myself with food for 2 months
  
• take a vacation to Greece/Malta/UK etc. for about 3-4 days via Ryanair (I live in Europe)
  
• buy tech, like a phone, mp3 player or similar
  
• buy a decent amount of clothes, probably 2-3 whole outfits, if I was thrifty more
  
• upgrade my graphics card or ram or CPU
  
• get unlimited gym membership for 4 months
  
• get a really nice bicycle
  
• buy 50 grams of weed, which would take me about 1.5 months to smoke IF I smoked everyday all day
  
• get 4 hookers, probably 6 if I disregarded the quality
  
• make a huge party, invite all my friends and pay for the place, the booze and the food

OR

• get 4-5 mechs in a game that appears to be permanently stuck in the beta stage

Do you see my point now? I WISH I made 5k+ € a month so that I can casually throw out 500€ on some random game unfortunately I don't. I live in a place where the average wage is about 700-800€/month, the economy is in the ******* and it's actually going downhill with zero signs of it ever picking up.

Mechs should cost 5-10€ TOPS. THEN I'll start spending money on this game and instead of going out and getting wasted I'll reconsider and buy a couple of mechs.

THROW YOUR CURRENT PRICING PARADIGM OUT AND START ANEW, DON't BE SHY ABOUT IT, MAKE US WANT TO BUY YOUR STUFF AND SUPPORT YOU!!!

Edited by Louis Brofist, 09 September 2014 - 06:06 AM.

[shintakie]

El Bandito, on 08 September 2014 - 07:37 PM, said:

LOWER. THE. PRICES.

This. Absolutely positively this.

And fix your damn camo systems. Why on earth does buying a camo only buy it for that chassis? That makes no sense other than making it look like a cynical cash grab.

The only money I've spent on MWO was my 60 dollars for my elite founders pack and haven't even spent all my MC from that because of how absolutely ridiculous the prices were. The only things I've bought with MC were my X-5 (since medium and light mechs are the only mechs that don't induce sticker shock), some premium colors that were 50% off (which still seemed like more than it should be, but not egregiously so like they were at full price), a unlocked camo pattern (because I was stupid and thought unlocking a camo pattern unlocked the friggin camo pattern for everything, not just 1 chassis), and mech bays.

Everything is so horribly overpriced that isn't a mechbay that it dissuades people from buying stuff in game. This is coming from a person that buys Collector Editions of games going into the $120 dollar range. This is coming from a person who has bought, on more than one occasion, pets from Blizzards store for WoW.

MWO is too expensive to get into. There aren't any microtransactions around for people to dip their feet into before taking a plunge. If people come in and see they can spend 5 bucks and get themselves a full set of Commandos, they'll be more likely to spend the extra 5 bucks to paint and put camo on them. Then they'll be willing to spend 5 bucks for a set of mechbays. It'll snowball (in a good way for PGI) from there.

How it is right now, people come in and see that they have to spend 5 bucks for a single Commando. They'll have to spend 5 more bucks for a single non muddied color. Then they'll spend another 5 bucks to unlock a pattern for just their commandos. Then they happen to look at that fancy Atlas or Timberwolf and realize they'd need to spend 40 dollars (or more!) for a single chassis. They then try to grind it out like normal and after the cadet bonus is finished, realize just how grindy it'll be to get that fancy Atlas or Timberwolf and give up and move on.

Anyway, yeah. Lower prices all around. Fix camos. Oh and for the love of all that is holy put in a cbill price for mechbays. Yes I know its the only thing that is correctly priced at the moment, but as someone who played SWTOR as a F2P player I can't tell you how aggravating it is to have essential parts of the game locked off behind a paywall. Make it something ridiculous like 3 million cbills, but at least have the option to buy it without spending cash so it seems less skeevy.

[RockmachinE]

Quote

Make it something ridiculous like 3 million cbills

That doesn't seem much. Go with 10 for all I care, but make it cbill.

[Mechteric]

- All camo patterns and cockpit items should be global once purchased (just like camo colors)
- Current mech MC prices would make sense only if you got at least 3 mechs for the same $.
- Add a subscription option where you get not only premium time, but also a monthly stipend of something like 1000 or 1500MC (like Planetside 2) at a discount the longer you pay for the subscription.
- Offer hourly premium time options
- Offer ability to choose when to start premium time purchases (no need for pausing since I understand that won't fly). Planetside 2 also has this ability to choose when to start.

[Killstorm999999]

I'm not sure my ideas and desires mesh too well with the F2P model.

The thing is, I don't want to buy mechs or equipment with real world money. I want to earn them by actually playing the game. I want to earn c-bills and salvage items. I want to look at what I have managed to salvage, and see if I can make a worthwhile build out of it, and if I cant, maybe there is just a few pieces of equipment I need to buy.

I am fine with other things costing real world money, such premium time and other boosts like people mentioned.

With the game as is, earning c-bills is so much of a grind its really not possible for a casual to earn enough c-bills to purchase mechs and items. And there is no salvage game (just the small c-bill boost for winning)