25 replies to this topic

[Ronin X]

So I purchased a Jenner as my first mech and have spent most of my C-Bills from cadet trials buying different loadouts for it. The problem now is that im barely making any C-Bills at all per match. Maybe 50K if we lose and 120K max if we win and i can get on a bunch of assists. Ill get a few kills here and there but not too many really. I do not have premium time and am trying to avoid spending RL money.

So is this normal to have to play 70-100 matches to afford a medium or larger mech plus the loadout?

Most of the trial mechs suck

[Qtvcfr]

The initial grind is very painful, but as you build up experience it gets easier. You'll probably want to at least basic or elite out the Jenner to get optimal performance so one cost saving I used early on was to only buy 1 engine for it and swap that engine between vairiants. This saves lots of money on getting your mech ready to play and you can sell off the stock engines to accelerate getting mechs outfitted and buying new ones. Also, loading a UAV is a great way to bump your xp and c-bills when leveling. I know it costs 40k a pop, but the rewards you get for highlighting the enemy team are signifigant.

Hope that helped a little.

[TercieI]

The only thing expensive about the Jenners is the XL300, but you can share that among all three.

But if you're not going to spend any RL money, expect a tough grind.

[Rogue Jedi]

I have been playing this game for a long time, but do not conciser myself a great player.
I usualy play ether lights or mediums, I earn on average roughly 110,000 cbills and 900 xp per match.

as your skills improve you will earn more per match, in my experiance:
combat seems to get the best cbill rewards e.g. damage, assists and kills.
scouting seems to get the best XP rewards, e.g. TAG, NARC, spotting asssists, UAV and countering ECM (with TAG, NARC, UAV, Begle Active Probe or an ECM set to counter).

also if you want to avoid spending much money on this game then watch out for the weekend events, recently those have frequently include a free Mech Bay (the only important thing which free players cannot buy) if you complete the challenge.

I do find it rather amusing that it is often less expensive to purchase and outfit an assault Mech than a Light or Medium

Edited by Rogue Jedi, 25 September 2014 - 01:30 PM.

[Redshift2k5]

120k is not bad, and if you're getting lots of assists per match you're on the right track. Keep at it!

[Maver0ick]

WRT Comstar bills, the game was designed to be a big grind if you play for free, less of a grind if you pay for heros and premium time and no grind if you just buy mechs with real money.

[Mothykins]

The grind is pretty much impossible at the moment, TBH. At 10 hours a week, it'll take you a little over two years to afford the clan wave 1 package, so about five years for all the current chassis? Pretty much my advice is to make sure that the chassis you choose are something you greatly enjoy, and to hope that Community Warfare relieves the grind. Even after playing for a long time, and owning two Hero 'Mechs, my average earnings are 85,858 Cbills a match.

The grind is rough, and it dosn't get much easier. Even WITH Pumping money into the game, unless you plan on treating it like a second job.

[UrsusMorologus]

Most games that bill themselves as free-to-play are really free-to-eval, and you still have to spend some $$ to buy in for long-term ride. If you dont want to spend any $$ at all then you will be grinding for everything. 100k avg means 10 matches per million. Dont quit when you die, or you lose the bonus rewards.

ps--you will still end up buying mechbays at the very least

Edited by UrsusMorologus, 25 September 2014 - 02:28 PM.

[Corduroy Rab]

I too just started with a couple of friends. Both of them ran into an issue where once they were done with their cadet bonuses they ended up buying a mech that seemed good at the time but they ended up hating....I think it was a treb or something. This left them with no c-bills and mech they didn't want to play.

What they both ended up doing is just creating new accounts to get the cadet bonus again and buying mechs they actually liked. I guess if you are really unhappy with the mech you got that might be an option.

Beyond that this type of game if you choose not to spend money is grindy, however, unlike games like world of tanks or war thunder you don't have to deal with repair costs so that definitely is nice.

Also like others have mentioned - and from my own experience - the engine is usually the big ticket item for any given mech so you can save money if you just trade it between variants.

[Spike Brave]

UrsusMorologus, on 25 September 2014 - 01:50 PM, said:

Dont quit when you die, or you lose the bonus rewards.

This is not correct, you receive all reward when the match ends. Here is the source http://mwomercs.com/...e-dc-crediting/

And here is the text from Nikko

[color=#00FFFF]Edit Clarification: Specifically in the case of being destroyed: You will still receive your match rewards assuming you disconnected after the death screen.. [/color]

There is also a post from someone(Russ or Bryan) saying to dc AFTER death to increase your earning potential, but I can't find it.

Edited by Spike Brave, 25 September 2014 - 03:12 PM.

[Redshift2k5]

It is set up, of course, so that you will want more than you have (even if you have everything, more stuff will be added every month) otherwise there would be little incentive for anyone to spend money on the game. PGI is a business, and teasing us with more mechs than we can easily grind for for free is their revenue,

It's great that you can play for free with no up front price, no monthly subscription fee, and no pay wall for access to content (except hero mechs, fancy paint, mostly cosmetic stuff). It certainly does offer a lot a lot of potential, but it's hard to make a dent in it without greasing the wheels a bit.

Having a hero mech in a chassis you like, or at least some premium time too boost your earnings until you get a broader selection of mechs, really does help a lot.

[Tim East]

The main thing is to find something that works for you and that you like. I was strictly free to play from the open release of this game until just a month ago, and grinding for different things can and will take forever. Especially modules. Took forever to afford both in GXP and C-bills the radar dep I wanted so badly.

The best way to discern what interests you is to hit up the test server whenever they have it up. I know that it won't count toward the grind on your main account, and I know that sometimes things in it aren't implemented on the main sever if/when they are at all, but they often give out free currency for the purposes of testing something specific that they plan to implement at some point in the future. This provides you a golden opportunity to not only see the future evolution of the game itself, but also potentially try a bunch of eccentric things you wouldn't even want to risk c-bills on normally and find out that you like them. The PTS is where I learned that I wanted a radar dep module, and where I learned that clan mechs are not to be feared the same way one would expect from their tabletop history and all the whining of people on the forums. Playing on it is like having an inside track on what to expect in the future, and a chance to see what you can really do with the hypothetical ultimate evolution of your playstyle combined with the best equipment obtainable.

Failing that, you can always take someone's word for what you'd enjoy, though that's a bit chancier. It worked rather nicely for me when I decided to migrate from Commandos to Locusts based on IraqiWalker's advice, but that was after I'd already discovered a taste for high-risk high-speed gameplay. So, you know, it wasn't like it was a stretch of the imagination or anything.

tl;dr You're totally right, there is a bit of a grind there, though it isn't as bad if you skip the need to have everything (you can't fit it in your bay for free anyway) and just find something that you enjoy driving enough that progression past it will be measured in achievements and gravy.

[Koniving]

What equipment are you using?
A Tag + Streaks or LRMs will get you quite a bit more money than just some medium lasers. 120 to 150 is usually pretty good. 50+ for losing is decent (25 is the minimum). Getting 170+ for a win without any premium earnings is quite impressive.

[andrewkhlim]

I find the heavier builds give more, but then I suppose if you're always spotting and narcing it should help.

[Dawnstealer]

It really depends on what's more valuable to you: your time or your money. For me, since I only play a few matches every day, it's worth it to get a Hero mech and bank the extra c-bills. But if you have a lot of time, 120k a match means you'll have a million in 8 matches or so. That's pretty good.

When I'm grinding, I'll usually set small goals for myself. Play enough to win 500k and then call it a night. Do that for a week and I'll have 5 mil. It can definitely get old, but if you don't want to spend money, it's the way it goes in a FTP game.

[Flak Kannon]

Never play without Premium time running.

I know its branded as free to play game, but if you like this game alot, as I do, I see the $15/month fo to be more than reasonable cost.

One Hero mech plus premium time means alot of Cbills, and quick.

[terrycloth]

Yeah, it takes a bunch of games to afford a new mech with c-bills. The grind seems better once you get more mechs because you have a variety of mechs to pick from without having to buy something new, so the slower pace isn't as annoying.

You might want to focus on getting a mech you can retool for a bunch of different purposes, like a shadowhawk. Changing from an LRM hawk to a meta-hawk (ACs and PPCs) to a brawler hawk (SRMs and LBX) is almost like having three mechs.

Premium time also helps, although I'd wait until you knew you really liked the game because it's extremely inefficient to buy in less than one-month increments.

[Elizander]

Making new accounts is one way to try things out. The cadet bonus will let you play around with most light or medium mechs until you find something you enjoy.

[WVAnonymous]

I have no useful advice except get addicted to the game. Play every day.

Get annoyed with your significant other if they keep you from playing every day. Then, the premium time makes a lot of sense because, hey, you're playing every day and what's a few bucks/week (not even Starbucks money) to make your fun more fun?

Then in two years you'll have a hundred mechs, more modules than you can keep track of, and lots of nifty gear (most of it free) for your cockpit!

GL HF HH DW.

[bar10jim]

A couple of things:

1) Yeah, it's a grind
2) Use http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/ to try load outs without spending any money.
3) Check http://www.mechspecs.com/forum/ to see what load outs other people are using and how they are using them.
4) Running Jenners? get an XL300. That is probably the singe most useful engine in the game. I've used it in: Centurions, Cataphracts, Highlanders, Jenners, Shadowhawks, Thunderbolts, and Trbuchets.
5) Be aware that some chassis only come into their own once they have the Elite level fully unlocked. Running my Trebs, it felt like someone flipped a switch when I got Elite finished.
6) Use the "first win double XP" to your advantage. If you can squeeze a few runs every day, that first win of the day can really add up.
7) Use the 'R' button. I can't stress this enough. You get targeting XP when any ally lands LRMs or SSRMs. You get missile support from your team (hopefully). More importantly, you get a paper doll image of the mech showing you where the armor isn't. Destroying components gets you XP. Torso with no armor? Destroying it will kill the (IS) mech running an XL engine. Leg with no armor? Sweep the leg Johnny! If it's a ballistic mech with ammo in the legs, even better. An ammo explosion may (something like 10% of the time) kill the mech. And if the armor pretty full, maybe that's not the mech you want to attack right now, depending on the situation.
8) For the future (and your friends starting over): when you have decided on a chassis, look at all the variants first. One of them may come with a larger engine (like the TBT-3C, GRF-3M, SHD-5M). Yes, it's more expensive, but you can use the engine in other builds. I only realized this AFTER I had bought 2 XL300 engines.
9) Don't sell weapons unless you have a large surplus. You're better off grinding a couple of extra matches than selling off that PPC you don't need right now.