Vassago Rain, on 26 October 2014 - 06:17 AM, said:
Why do we need to farm to enjoy our casual robot shooter game, I wonder? Why can't new players just join in the fun aspect, rather than suffer the most miserable new player experience outside of old hawken?
I note that you also paid 240 dollars for your clan robots. Would you have spent the 70+ hours TIMES 3 to master and module your daishis otherwise?
We're all limited by our play times and while I have much less play time than a lot of players here due to work. If I didn't have cash I would have probably ended up playing the game in the manner that some free players do:
1) Have multiple accounts because Mechbays and Cadet (screw buy and sell)
2) Diss modules. Can't share them across multiple accounts.
3) Some mechs I'll just buy 1 of like a Direwolf and leave it at basic.
The grind is a grind but I'm fine with it if they make the lower end stuff more accessible such as Mediums and Lights.
My main issues with the NPE (which I know they will probably get to after CW) are:
1) UI - it's horrible and it gets worse once you own more mechs due to lack of sorting and the ability to track where is what.
2) Tutorials build into the game when the players need them.
3) Mechbays. 4 isn't enough to hook your players. They should let players earn them so they can get up to 12 total before being forced to pay.
4) Inexperienced players being thrown in with Laservomt Timbies, Metawhales and DualGauss-anything. I agree with what they said about making smaller games that consist only of new players. I will agree to letting vets in if the vet is prompted and warned that he or she will have to use a Trial Mech to participate in the match.
5) Achievements that are easily accessible to the player (with tutorials) that give items that help a new player out and that the achievements are catered to what a new player should do in order to get better.
I get it that the Direwolf and the Timberwolf are currently the best mechs in the game of their weight class and they cost a lot. This makes it an issue as opposed to say the Stalker or Awesome being the best Assault and those are cheap. Maybe the quirk pass will change things around or maybe it won't. If a Direwolf was just as good as an Awesome then it probably won't be as bad due to the Awesome being a cheaper alternative.
My philosophy with MMOs has always been "Fill up your servers first, make money later" so I'm inclined to lean towards giving more to F2P players, but there are business models that just get more whale money by tightening up the paywalls which is quite rampant in mobile games and F2P games (some more than others).
The other side of the coin is that PGI needs revenue so it's a gamble to lower the paywalls and risk the whales paying less while the F2P/minnows/dolphins aren't guaranteed to pay more. I have no doubt that MWO is a top heavy revenue model and those models usually have low player counts.
There are problems and they need to be fixed, but making Direwhales the standard basis for farming c-bills might not be the best solution since that will make it too easy to get everything else.
PS:
I'd probably make an achievement called "Salvaged Clanner" where you need to get like 10,000 "Most Damage" / "Killing Blows" on Clan Mechs and get a Direwhale free, but that's just me. 1,000 can give a clan light, 2500 can give a medium and 5000 can give a heavy. Free bays to go with them of course.
Edited by Elizander, 26 October 2014 - 06:42 AM.