38 replies to this topic

[Ovion]

I'm amazed at how many people still don't know how Camo / Colours work.

So here's my handy dandy guide:

Ovion, on 27 September 2014 - 04:54 AM, said:

So this is how Camo and Colours work:

Camo Patterns comes in 2 flavours - Unlock and One-Shot.
Unlocks are a permament unlock for that Chasis. You can change the pattern as often as you like on that mech frame.
They are pricey though, running you either 750 MC for a 'standard' pattern and 1250 MC for a 'premium' pattern.
One-Shot camos are one-use patterns. You can change the Colours as often as you like, but if you change the pattern, you lose the One-Shot.
They're great if you don't intend to change the pattern around.
The bonus of this is they cost 1/10th that of an Unlock, at 75MC a 'standard' pattern and 125MC a 'premium' pattern.

So if you only want to do 3 mechs, and leave them at that single pattern forever, then One-Shots are the way to go for you!
You can even have 3 different patterns if you want.

There have been Camo sales in the past (normally 50% off), so you could always wait for one of those, but I generally recommend one-shots.
If it's on sale and there's 2 Camo's you'll regularly want on one chasis (or 5+ of the same mech you want it on), then go unlock.
<sub>Example -
I have bought One-Shot Camo Specs for each of my 3 Spiders, 3 Catapults, and one Cicada (Phranken), 1 for my 4th (Urbie)Spider (Sherman), and 1 for my Dire Wolf B (Snowfall).
That's 9 mechs with Camo, for less than the cost of 1 unlock.
I'm considering buying one-shots for a couple more of my mechs, like my Jaegers, new Cicada and Ravens.
I don't really want to change any of these, mostly because the others are sort of pants on those mechs (in my opinion) so it works out MASSIVELY cheaper.

I've also bought the Phranken Unlock for my locusts when it was on sale, as I have 5 of them and at that point it cost the same as getting the One-Shots.
I also want Hotrod and standard on my locusts at a whim, so this works out better.
I'm just waiting for Hotrod to be on sale on Locusts, then I'll buy the unlock.</sub>

Colours come in 3 flavours - Basic, Standard and Premium.
All colours are a universale unlock - purchase once, and that colour is permamantly available for all your mechs.
Basic Colours are the 5 free colours in the game.
You get Basic Green by default, and the remaining 4 are available for 1.25million C-Bills each.
They're actually not bad, I think the Red is nicer than most of the Premium Reds too.
Especially good as a Block colour, or highlight.
As modeled by the lovely Locust below:

Spoiler

Standard Colours are generally, just a straight shade really.
These cost 500MC and come in a wide range.

Premimum Colours are either more desirable (i.e. - pure black and white), or specifically linked to particular Premium Camos (i.e. - the colours that are 'meant' to go with the scheme).
These cost 1000MC and come in a wide range of slightly nicer shades.

Ultimately, I recommend never buying any colours apart from Basic, unless it's 50% off.
_{Additionally, Camo shades are a fantastic range of matte Standard colours, so 250MC on sale.
I've got 1/3 to half of the Camo colours and tend to buy more each time they go on sale.}

As for you specifically:

Bill Lumbar, on 17 October 2014 - 06:35 PM, said:

I just bought two camo patterns, the shark one and flame...... spent 1250 MC to unlock them, that was before seeing your post, and sure enough I tried to go to my next mech and apply the pattern on it....NO DICE....WTF PGI....seriously???? NOT happy at all about this! I wouldn't of bought it if I would of known it was just a one mech unlock. I didn't even put it on the right mechs because I never would of thought 1250 mc only gets you one unlock :-(

Even on sale, and as expensive as these patterns are, they should unlock for ALL mechs in your bays. Wow, just WOW!

Contact support and explain that you didn't know, and it was on the wrong chasis.

They will likely refund your MC (removing the camo). You tend to get one 'free' screw up where they'll refund a mistake.

You can then either buy unlocks for the frame(s) you wanted, or One-Shots.

And while I agree they're expensive, I understand why it's per-chasis, not a universal unlock.
Each Camo Spec has been customised for each frame.
I think around half-price 'standard' per unlock per frame would be better.
That or charge arond 7,500-12,500MC (10x current individual unlock) to unlock it for EVERY mech.
I think One-Shots are, fairly reasonable price wise though.

Edited by Ovion, 18 October 2014 - 02:47 AM.

[Bill Lumbar]

Ovion, on 18 October 2014 - 02:41 AM, said:

I'm amazed at how many people still don't know how Camo / Colours work.

So here's my handy dandy guide:


As for you specifically:Contact support and explain that you didn't know, and it was on the wrong chasis.

They will likely refund your MC (removing the camo). You tend to get one 'free' screw up where they'll refund a mistake.

You can then either buy unlocks for the frame(s) you wanted, or One-Shots.

And while I agree they're expensive, I understand why it's per-chasis, not a universal unlock.
Each Camo Spec has been customised for each frame.
I think around half-price 'standard' per unlock per frame would be better.
That or charge arond 7,500-12,500MC (10x current individual unlock) to unlock it for EVERY mech.
I think One-Shots are, fairly reasonable price wise though.

Thanks for your response and the info. This wouldn't be the first time I have messed up and bought the wrong thing or two of a module by mistake. The help team has always been great at fixing a screw up so far, even if it was my own. That's not really the issue for me.

While I respect your opinion on what you think is fair pricing and how they only unlock on three mechs that you purchase on a given chassis, I simply do not think its even close to being fair or reasonable. At the current offering for patterns, I would go as far to say charge 80% less for a one shot unlock. Full unlocks for all mechs when you buy a pattern at the current prices( even with 50% sale) simply is a more reasonable pay scale. When one starts to look a the coming CW, and what it means, how many mechs you really need to be involved in it.... the fact that modules don't unlock for all your mechs once purchased, (the extremely high price for the modules)..... the list just keeps going on and on. Prices on mechs are bad enough also, 50% off sales makes it better, clan packs are crazy prices IMO, but if that is what they need to charge to stay a float, so be it.

But to charge $6.95 real cash just to unlock one pattern, for only one chassis, come on....seriously??? Either drop current prices by 80% for one time unlocks, keep the pay scale they have, or change it to make a purchase at the current price's a unlock for all mechs in your bays. They do this, and more people will be buying the patterns, sure they might only make the same, maybe more, maybe a little less, its hard to say with out knowing the real sales numbers.... but this would make their player base WANT to buy MC, want to by patterns, and create good will and just a really good feeling in the player base. I could even understand them handling the patterns in the way they handle cockpit items, only one mech at a time can have it equipped if they want to be stingy about it, i guess. But the current way it is set up, IMO is just so money hungry, and doesn't make players feel good about the patterns they just spent $6.95 each to buy. It leaves a dirty feeling, at least for me it does, making me not purchase things that I would of opened my wallet to buy.

Just a thought, maybe I am way off base here and my take on it is out of touch with the rest of the player base.

Edited by Bill Lumbar, 18 October 2014 - 08:37 AM.

[Phaeric Cyrh]

Just a question..

How much are these camo patterns normally? Maybe I am wrong here, but it seems to me they aren't 50% off. I currently show them listed at 650mc (for my raven), that would mean all these patterns on sale would be 1300mc normally. The most expensive pattern I can find is only 1250.

Since I haven't memorized the cost of these patterns I'm not sure what they are originally, but by far most of them are only 750 to begin with. Did PGI just select the most expensive patterns to put on sale? What gives?

Edited by Phaeric Cyrh, 18 October 2014 - 10:03 AM.

[Bill Lumbar]

Phaeric Cyrh, on 18 October 2014 - 10:02 AM, said:

Just a question..

How much are these camo patterns normally? Maybe I am wrong here, but it seems to me they aren't 50% off. I currently show them listed at 650mc (for my raven), that would mean all these patterns on sale would be 1300mc normally. The most expensive pattern I can find is only 1250.

Since I haven't memorized the cost of these patterns I'm not sure what they are originally, but by far most of them are only 750 to begin with. Did PGI just select the most expensive patterns to put on sale? What gives?

Yes, they only put on the ones that are listed this time around, last time I believe it was camo patterns tiger strip, camo and a few others. Yes the high priced ones are 1250 when not on sale. Even though I believe that that price is extremely high, it was what it is and I just waited till they were on sale 50% and thinking they unlocked for ALL your mechs except for hero mechs, if you bought it. I am just in awww of the lack of any value in buying the patterns. :-( Please PGI, Russ, re-think this, is it really worth it?

[Phaeric Cyrh]

Bill Lumbar, on 18 October 2014 - 10:14 AM, said:

Yes, they only put on the ones that are listed this time around, last time I believe it was camo patterns tiger strip, camo and a few others. Yes the high priced ones are 1250 when not on sale. Even though I believe that that price is extremely high, it was what it is and I just waited till they were on sale 50% and thinking they unlocked for ALL your mechs except for hero mechs, if you bought it. I am just in awww of the lack of any value in buying the patterns. :-( Please PGI, Russ, re-think this, is it really worth it?

Ok, well 650 is not half of 1250... Also ALL the patterns on sale are normally 1250? That seems odd when most are 750.

I'm not trying to discuss the value of the patterns, simply whether or not the sale price is correct.

[Bill Lumbar]

Phaeric Cyrh, on 18 October 2014 - 10:21 AM, said:

Ok, well 650 is not half of 1250... Also ALL the patterns on sale are normally 1250? That seems odd when most are 750.

I'm not trying to discuss the value of the patterns, simply whether or not the sale price is correct.

Well, I guess if the ones listed in the sale are not 50% off as stated, it is not the correct sale price.

[Phaeric Cyrh]

Bill Lumbar, on 18 October 2014 - 10:32 AM, said:

Well, I guess if the ones listed in the sale are not 50% off as stated, it is not the correct sale price.

Well, yeah, that seems a given.

Do you know the original price of these patterns?

[Bill Lumbar]

Phaeric Cyrh, on 18 October 2014 - 10:34 AM, said:

Well, yeah, that seems a given.

Do you know the original price of these patterns?

I believe the most expensive ones are regular priced at 1250 mc, the others are 750 mc normal price. I could be wrong though

Edited by Bill Lumbar, 18 October 2014 - 10:37 AM.

[Phaeric Cyrh]

Bill Lumbar, on 18 October 2014 - 10:36 AM, said:

I believe the most expensive ones are regular priced at 1250 mc, the others are 750 mc normal price. I could be wrong though

Ok, then they need to adjust the prices so that they are actually 50% off. that extra 25MC determines whether I can afford the paint+camo I want. Well, technically I can afford it, but I have a budget for the game that I will not exceed in a given time frame.

[Bill Lumbar]

Phaeric Cyrh, on 18 October 2014 - 10:39 AM, said:

Ok, then they need to adjust the prices so that they are actually 50% off. that extra 25MC determines whether I can afford the paint+camo I want. Well, technically I can afford it, but I have a budget for the game that I will not exceed in a given time frame.

I would suggest you submit a support ticket for the price....but chances are you will not get a response back this weekend on it or before the sale ends. You will have to buy it, than submit a ticket if the prices are off to ensure you will get what you want and they should refund any amount that was spent and not the right price.

[Phaeric Cyrh]

Bill Lumbar, on 18 October 2014 - 10:42 AM, said:

I would suggest you submit a support ticket for the price....but chances are you will not get a response back this weekend on it or before the sale ends. You will have to buy it, than submit a ticket if the prices are off to ensure you will get what you want and they should refund any amount that was spent and not the right price.

Or, just not buy something on the hopes that I will get any kind of refund.. Seriously, they need to make this right, it's not up to me to make a decision on good faith.. That is not how this is supposed to work.

I have heard stories of people waiting weeks to simply get a response on a ticket due to the current back log.

Edited by Phaeric Cyrh, 18 October 2014 - 10:59 AM.

[Bill Lumbar]

I hear you.....and I understand your line of thought. All I can say is I have never had a issue with support taking longer than 4 days to credit or resolve any issue I have had. So either buy and submit a ticket or submit the ticket, wait it out and see. They might let you get the sale price if it takes longer than 4 days to get a reply. Good luck

[Phaeric Cyrh]

Thanks for your advice Bill. I will consider it.

[Bill Lumbar]

Phaeric Cyrh, on 18 October 2014 - 11:12 AM, said:

Thanks for your advice Bill. I will consider it.

No problem.

[Triban]

Give me double GXP conversion again and TAKE MY MONEY!

[Hades Trooper]

Not being able to put a camo scheme on my invasion variants annoys the hell out of me.

Not even being able to put polygon pattern on them that we got for buying early is a pain.

I'd like to think those of us who can't or don't give a damn about this unique geomentry should be able to have regular prime variants with the 30% c-bills bonus so we can put camo on them

[Goose]

Are the camos really on sale for the rest of the month?

[Stoneblade]

Just the ones listed.

Goose, on 20 October 2014 - 06:53 AM, said:

Are the camos really on sale for the rest of the month?

[Navid A1]

The lack of camo patterns on prime invasion variants of clan Wave I seems logical given how rushed out of the door it was back then. (even pieces of equipment like clan TC was more like a last minute idea).

But please PGI... now that you have full control... please consider creating the required camo textures for clan invasion variants too... everyone can extract and see the textures in the game files... the difference is minimal (between standard and invasion) and creating one for the (I) variants needs less effort and resources.

Also, Please consider giving the faction specific camos of wave II to the wave I mechs too (specially on the package exclusive invasion variants).