49 replies to this topic

[ZackVictor0]

Do you have to buy stuff in order to be competitive in this game?

Just waiting 3 hours for the patch x.x and reading through the forums noticed you have to buy some mechs/

[Nemesis Duck]

No, you need to learn the weapons, mechs, piloting, gunnery and the maps to be competitive. Real money isn't nessecary to be good.

[DEMAX51]

There's very little in this game that you can't buy with in-game currency, and none of those cash-only items are pay-to-win. Free players can be just as competitive as those who spend a boatload. The only thing paying real money gets you, in general, is less of a grind.

Edited by DEMAX51, 06 November 2014 - 12:15 PM.

[ZackVictor0]

k, thanks

[Blalok]

DEMAX51, on 06 November 2014 - 12:15 PM, said:

... The only thing paying real money gets you, in general, is less of a grind.

And mechbays. You can never have too many. Just watch for sales and tournaments. Lately there have been a bunch of giveaways in the tournaments.

[Zack Esseth]

These guys pretty much nailed it. Most of the pay mechs like the Hero's are worse than at least one of their free counterparts. And with the new quirk pass we just had, its hard to say even the Ember is better than its fellow Firestarters. There are still a few clan mechs out there that are really good that are not available for cbills yet (Timber Wolf), but they will be available for free play purchase soon enough.
For the most part, using cash in this game is purely for convenience. Rarely does it give you an advantage over free players. So from someone who has been playing for a long time (since closed beta like many others), best things I can suggest spending money on are mechbays (and you get them often enough for free too with weekend challenges), 1 hero mech you really like to use as a money grinder, and premium time. Just be wary that once you start using premium time, its like getting addicted to meth. You wont want to play without it cause it makes a huge difference in how fast you make cash.

[Lord Letto]

Mechbays to have more Mechs, that's about it though (the $7 MC Pack can get you 4 Mechbays at regular price, double if on sale for 50% off, and you should have 50MC Leftover that you can't buy anything with besides converting XP into GXP or viceversa or however it works, I forget now), you start with 4 that's enough to master 1 chassis, 8 more would be needed to master 1 chassis from all 4 weight classes if you so choose (4+8=12/3 Mechs minimum to master a chassis=4 and there's 4 weight classes)

[Redshift2k5]

The only content that you can ONLY get with money is Hero Mechs, and you can be competitive just fine without buying a Hero mech (Hero mechs have different hardpoints and a c-bill bonus, but are generally not the best variant of their chassis type anyway)

Paying money to buy MC (or directly puchasing a preorder pack) is a good way to get more mechs quicker, or to buy premium time to let you earn C-bills and XP faster, but regular mech variants purchased with free-to-play c-bills will perform just fine on the battlefield, and many of the best mechs in the game are normal variants anyone can earn for free.

If you want to play for a long time, you may want to invest in MC to buy mechbays, (mech bays let you have more mechs at the same time) which cannot be purchased with c-bills, but you can also earn a free free ones during special events so you are not completely left out in the cold in regards to mechbays.

Edited by Redshift2k5, 06 November 2014 - 12:28 PM.

[Margulis Killfrenzy]

Far as I have seen and heard it takes a lot of playtime to be reasonably good (AKA get enough CXP to buy the right pilot skills so your not a glowing target to everyone)

[Voivode]

Yeah, people covered things well. There is no requirement to spend money in order to be competitive.

However, there are things that are worth spending real world money on.

Mechbays - Can't buy new mechs without them once you use up the 4(?) that you start with for free.

Premium Time - Sweet, sweet, grind reducing premium time.

Hero Mechs - If you find a chassis that you really, really like, then you will most likely enjoy the hero mech. Hero mechs come with a boost to CBill income and XP income. They do sales on hero mechs quite often, so keep your eyes open for a sale if you fancy one.

[Sadistic Savior]

ZackVictor0, on 06 November 2014 - 12:09 PM, said:

Do you have to buy stuff in order to be competitive in this game?

Noooo. Definitely not.

Money will get you vanity items, and save you grinding. It will not give you any weapon or ability you cannot get in-game the hard way if you want to.

There are some special mechs that can only be purchased through cash...but they are not necessarily more powerful, just different. They are not inherently more powerful, and none of them have special weapons.

I make plenty of money buy rarely buy stuff just out of principle. I did buy the Phoenix Package so I could play in a Battlemaster several months before their official release. I have spent money on camo packages and other vanity stuff before. None of it was a requirement to be competitive though.

Margulis Killfrenzy, on 06 November 2014 - 12:50 PM, said:

Far as I have seen and heard it takes a lot of playtime to be reasonably good (AKA get enough CXP to buy the right pilot skills so your not a glowing target to everyone)

I never found it necessary to do this. I can grind through all basic skills in a single day of play on a mech. I have mastered a Chasis in a week of casual play before.

The stuff that takes a long time is getting access to the special modules (Radar Deprivation is 15000 GXP and 6 million CBills). This is just specialty equipment though. It's not an I Win button. I played for years without it and did just fine.

Edited by Sadistic Savior, 06 November 2014 - 01:35 PM.

[UrsusMorologus]

Since you're asking about pay-to-win aspect... there are a few different kinds of "pay" mechs here but they are not all the same grade.

Early Access -- when mechs are first released, they are sold for $$ as special offers on the web site (not the in-game store). After a while they are released to the in-game store and can be purchased with in-game credits. So you pay for supporting the game here basically. You get a custom texture with it too.

Hero -- special varient of a chassis that is only available for MC (Mech Credits, which are bought with $$ on the web site). This is the closest you will get to pay-to-win mech chassis. Some of the Hero mechs are very good and that can sometimes feel like its pay-to-win, HOWEVER some of the Hero mechs are not very good relative to other varients of the chassis, and sometimes you are way better off ignoring the Hero varient, so from that POV its not really pay-to-win so much as pay for a layout that you find attractive, or pay to support the game. You also get a custom skin with Hero mechs.

Champion -- these are prebuild versions of regular mechs that have all the upgrades and bells-and-whistles, sold as a convenience for MC ($$). You can build the exact same mech and loadout from in-game store with in-game currency.

Mastery Bundles -- sets of three mechs that include the Hero, Champion, and one normal varient of a chassis, which is all you need to work your mech skill tree up to Master status. You can get to mastery status with any 3 varients so you dont need this either, but it is very heavily discounted and basically you get one of the mechs for free.

You do not need any of the pay mechs to play the game. Other than the Hero mechs, all of the other varients are (eventually) available in the mechbay for in-game credits (mechbay, not the store). The only thing you must buy with MC ($$) is more mechbays, and that is only if you fill up your starter slots. Everything else is optional. Nothing is really OP compared to other top-tier mechs, so dont worry about that part of it.

Edited by UrsusMorologus, 06 November 2014 - 03:02 PM.

[Lucky Noob]

But... but... with my new Shiny Cocpit Item i am sooo much better

Na joking i will never be good.

All is said above, no need to spend Cash, but its fun to have 1 or 2 sweet thingys in your Cocpit and always remember Red makes you 10 % faster, so buy Colors

[Flak Kannon]

No.

The more you play, the better you'll get. The perks that the really experienced players have on their mechs were predominately obtain through many, many hours of play.

Real life money is mostly used for Camo, and Paint.

There are Hero Mechs that you can only buy with money, but they are not so much better that it's game breaking.



Skill is the most important thing to have. You drop a great player in any of the Champion mechs that new players can also use, and they'll do really well because they know the game inside and out.

Time in cockpit is more important than real life money spent in this game...

Edited by Flak Kannon, 06 November 2014 - 05:44 PM.

[Strikeshadow]

Yes (despite all the posts to the contrary), unless you can handle a very very long grind. The advantages of good Xp bonuses are huge, a cooler, faster, more nimble, more accurate mech plus better zoom for long range shots. Once you reach master level with a mech, you're mech is at least 25% better than it began.

You are looking at about a 150 hour grind to become reasonably competitive with 1 mech chassis and about a 400 hour grind for subsequent mech chassis because you won't have the cadet bonus. The only way for a more reasonable grind is to pay for premium time.

Edited by Strikeshadow, 11 November 2014 - 07:23 AM.

[xengk]

Only thing I brought to be competitive in this game is 5 button gaming mouse to replace my old 2 button mouse.

[TripleEhBeef]

xengk, on 09 November 2014 - 08:18 AM, said:

Only thing I brought to be competitive in this game is 5 button gaming mouse to replace my old 2 button mouse.

Oh yeah, you definitely need one of these. Even a $20 multi button mouse is far better than your typical office mouse.

[Summon3r]

absolutely no you do not to spend a dime to be good, i dont own a single hero mech (not that im any good ) and been playing for over 2 years. mech bays are easy to win in tournaments usually though its nice to buy some. also premium time is definitely a good way to make XP and c-bills. none of that helps you pilot a mech though or prevents you from driving your mech straight infront of a direwolf

[MLM13]

This thread is exactly what im looking for, about the pay to win thing. For us who have jobs and cant grind that much, this business model is really good. I started playing yesterday in public matches and had tons of fun, (almost missed my real life work deadline) . Anyway, kudos to the makers - o7. definitely getting that resistance pack before end of this month.

[dragnier1]

Margulis Killfrenzy, on 06 November 2014 - 12:50 PM, said:

Far as I have seen and heard it takes a lot of playtime to be reasonably good (AKA get enough CXP to buy the right pilot skills so your not a glowing target to everyone)

I had some rather "strange" experiences where i did better with some mechs before i elited them. You don't need an elited/mastered mech to do good, you just need to play "well".