I guess now this post actually belongs here, sorry to keep reposting but its seems every hour there is a new "official feedback" thread opened and since PGI seems to feel there is only a "10-15%" change in earnings on averages I think they should really be aware that for many the % change is much greater. I've heard many say stats don't lie, but another interesting stat that should be tracked as well is how many people are actually playing the game today vs last Wednesday. Anyhow, here is my summary of my rewards 2.0 experience so far:
Posted Today, 12:59 AM
Alright, I'm a relatively new to MWO player, I own all of 2 mechs (a SH 5m that I just finished mastery on and the Centurion I just got for purchasing MC over the weekend) and I am not a great player (yet) or even a good player...maybe even below average for the 300ish matches I have played (just wanted to get that out there before people start replying with "get better" comments...only way to get better is to play and people only play when they have fun and feel a sense of accomplishment/progression). I know my stats are subpar but they are what they are. Prior to today I was averaging 679 exps per match along with about 76000 cbills per match without any bonuses from premium time or heroes/champions. After being shocked earlier at the severe reduction in exps and cbills from the new rewards system I decided to track 10 games in the new centurion (not stock, I made a few mods) to see just how much the difference is. Most matches weren't great, but I had at least a couple of spots, 1-6 assists and 100+ damage In all games but one (the first win of the day where I had 3 spots, 1 kill, 5 assists but only 40 damage). Here are the results:
game 1: loss 103 exps 26000ish cbills
game 2: loss 114 exps 32000ish cbills
game 3: loss 155 exps 29000ish cbills
game 4: win 746 exps 70000ish cbills (1st win of the day, exps were double)
game 5: win 293 exps 63000ish cbills
game 6: win 251 exps 58000ish cbills
game 7: loss 200 exps 64000ish cbills
game 8: loss 42exps 19000ish cbills
game 9: loss 66exps 23000ish cbills
game 10: win 281exps 49000ish bills
Now I know these games weren't stellar but I was trying as much as I would on any given night. I was slightly hampered by using a new mech that has no skills (but this is pretty much what a brand new player who just completed the 25 cadet matches and just bought their first mech would experience...and yeah again I realize many many new players could do much better than me). Also after the first 2 games I stopped loading coolshots and artillary strikes because I noticed I would loose money if I had to replenish them. Prior to today in 10 games (just over an hour of play by the way) I was averaging 6800 exps and 760,000 cbills. with the "new improved" rewards system I averaged 2250 exps and 430,000 cbills with a 30% boost (around 303,000 if I had a standard mech). I know there are many of you out there who are a lot better players than I am and due to your skill (and perhaps also the skill of your teammates, specially if you drop in large groups, I dont have that luxury, I have 2 friends who play this game and were are rarely on at the same time and since there is no in-game social system I mostly play solo) are able to effectively capitalize on the "new improved" rewards system and are most likely earning more experience and cbills with this system...but the point is newer players like me aren't...and more importantly this is NOT a slight difference in rewards/earning. For newer players like me its more than a 50% reduction in cbills per hour and more than a 60% reduction in exps per hour. The grind to earn enough cbills to buy a new mech was already pretty severe but now mastery of a chassis seems almost unattainable. Frustration will drive newer players from the game, it won't encourage them to open their wallets (right now I pretty much regret having bought MC and have completely changed my mind about getting any level of the resistance pack I was so excited about yesterday). Why is it that whenever "improvements" are launched PGI takes 3 steps backwards to take one step forward?
Take for example the JJ "improvements" to clan mechs that also launched with this patch. I have listened to my friends gripe about this and read enough posts today about it. The issue seemed to be that the stock clan mechs with JJ had fixed allocations for the JJ but if you swapped the omni pods around you could put the JJ where you wanted (at least that is how it was explained to me). So to correct the issue now all JJ are locked no matter what omnipod configurations used in clan mechs which has made many loadouts that were possible yesterday invalid today. Wouldn't it have made more sense (and made more people happy instead of angry) to go the other way, allow all variants with JJ to put the JJ where ever people wanted to (take a step forward) instead of taking away peoples choice (a step backwards)???
It was the same thing a few weeks ago with the improved ELO matchmaking (a great step forward) but we could only get it if we agreed to random game modes and loose our ability to choose not to play a game mode (or modes) we don't enjoy (for the record I play all 3 but its nice to be able to choose, specially after 5 conquests in a row)(loss of choice, a huge step backwards).
Rewards 2.0 is a step in the right direction,,,if it ADDED to the previous system and rewarded team play WITHOUT a reduction in cbills and exp (also worth mentioning the new scout rewards for lights kind of clash with the lance formation/team play rewards).
Edited by A sebaceous cyst, 22 October 2014 - 02:26 PM.