55 replies to this topic

[Decoy3]

Don't new players still get 24 hours of free premium time?

If so, find a day where you can play 25 matches in a row and get that sweet, sweet 50% increase to your cadet bonus.

[Tesunie]

Decoy3, on 02 December 2014 - 11:40 AM, said:

Don't new players still get 24 hours of free premium time?

If so, find a day where you can play 25 matches in a row and get that sweet, sweet 50% increase to your cadet bonus.

I believe that offer is still around (somewhere), however your Cadet bonus is not effected anymore. It is now a reward with set amounts from the new reward system, instead of being an in match reward increase.

[ManOpeace]

To avoid much of the grind, and to avoid paying for mechbays, simply make multipul accounts. Have an account for each class of mechs and you won't have to worry about mech bays till you want to master a 3rd mech in that class. (thats a crapton of playing FYI)

The 8 million is enough to buy even an assault class mech (recommend stalkers for the money!)

The only disadvantage doing it this way is that you cannot share weapon systems/equipment/engines because obviously they are separate on each account.


That said, I only have one account because I unwisely decided to master the Dire Wolf because it came up for Cbills right after I finished mastering the Jagermech. 17 million per mech... sheesh. Big mistake. I've been grinding for a while.

You can WIN FREE mechbays during some events, like the halloween event and the thanksgiving one. just be sure you have the whole weekend to earn it. All you need really is one mechbay per mech you want to master if you do not fill the 3 slots you use to master your mechs with.

[STEF_]

John Wargrave, on 02 December 2014 - 08:57 AM, said:

So I will admit I am a bit of a cheapskate. Money is tight and I am looking to play a game I can enjoy with investing very little, if any, real world cash into.

Before I commit to MWO, I am curious if anyone would mind explaining the business model here, and perhaps any traps I might fall into with this sort of mindset.

I am not saying I will never spend a dime on the game, I just really want to play for quite a while before I decide to make any investment.

Can I have fun as a cheapskate?

I played completely for free for about 1,5 years, untill wave 1 out.
It's not that difficult but unconfortable.
I chose an account for every mech I wanted to master... and for each of them you can have 4 mechbays and million of c-bills for free!
After receiving those, grind grind grind.

Still remember my first: Hunchback.
But now I would recommend a SHD; a great starter imo.

[Tolkien]

John Wargrave, on 02 December 2014 - 08:57 AM, said:

So I will admit I am a bit of a cheapskate. Money is tight and I am looking to play a game I can enjoy with investing very little, if any, real world cash into.

Before I commit to MWO, I am curious if anyone would mind explaining the business model here, and perhaps any traps I might fall into with this sort of mindset.

I am not saying I will never spend a dime on the game, I just really want to play for quite a while before I decide to make any investment.

Can I have fun as a cheapskate?

After the cadet bonus is over this game has a harsh economy. To level the skills for a mech you need to have 3 variants of the same chassis, e.g. if you go for jagermechs you need to get let's say the Jagermech DD, the jagermech S, and the jagermech A in order to unlock the elite skills. With each inner sphere mech you buy, you should also plan for an extra 2.5 ish million cbills to unlock two critical upgrades:

1) Double heatsinks
2) Endo steel internal structure.

Some mechs will also need Ferro-Fibrous armour - typically only lights or mediums though.

From there, to get them up to optimum efficiency you will also want to unlock 3-5 modules. These take a lot of grind to get the GXP (general XP) up to unlock them. Then also a lot of Cbills (up to 6 million per module for mech modules, and another 3 million per module for weapon modules) or roughly 21 million. You can move these around between mechs though, so that's not too bad.

Once you have your mechs fully unlocked and fully leveled, you will probably want to get another chassis - the problem here is that you start with 4 mech bays and the only ways to get these are to spend money (via MC) or to win them in challenges. I think we have had a mech bay as a prize in each of the last 2 months, so you can get mech bays that way just at a slow rate.

The drawback of selling your old mechs is that now that they've introduced quirks you probably want to hang on to even 'bad' variants as they may buff them back to being good again in the future, AND you only get 50% of your cbills back when you sell something. If you ever do sell a mech, strip it first to make sure you don't accidentally sell modules.

*AVOID* consumables while you are trying to save up for mechs etc. as they eat way too much of your income stream and you will burn out unless you are running premium time and a hero mech.

It's a hell of a grind, but follow these guidelines and you will avoid making any expensive mistakes.

[Nightmare1]

John Wargrave, on 02 December 2014 - 08:57 AM, said:

So I will admit I am a bit of a cheapskate. Money is tight and I am looking to play a game I can enjoy with investing very little, if any, real world cash into.

Before I commit to MWO, I am curious if anyone would mind explaining the business model here, and perhaps any traps I might fall into with this sort of mindset.

I am not saying I will never spend a dime on the game, I just really want to play for quite a while before I decide to make any investment.

Can I have fun as a cheapskate?

You certainly can have fun as a cheapskate! I did for about a year before dropping a dime on this game.

MWO's business model is built around the idea that the game itself is free to play and acts as the main draw. They make money every time you purchase special content such as Hero or Champion Mechs, Premium time, Mechbays, and vanity items. None of these give you competitive advantages in the game in the manner as other Free-to-Play games do. In short, you can play for free and be on the same footing as me (someone who has become spendy with this game), if you are willing to put in a bit of extra effort and longer grinds.

The Hero and Champion Mechs are expensive, so if you decide to buy one at a later time, choose carefully. They give special modifiers to how much you earn per match to help you speed up your grind. The Premium Time acts the same way. Mechbays allow you to store additional Mechs. Vanity items, like paints, camos, and cockpit items, are simply decorations and stylistic flair.

MWO also puts out packages periodically. The two most recent are the Clan Wave II and IS Resistance Forces packages. These packages normally come in incremental tiers with varying prices and contain Mechs, Mechbays, Premium Time, vanity items, etc. The amounts of each vary depending on the tier and if (and how soon) you pre-ordered the pack. The packs do not contain any unique gameplay advantages. Purchasing them really just gives you early access to the Mechs; all Mechs in all packages become available for standard purchase some time after the buying period for the packages expires.

Finally, there are miscellaneous things you can spend money on such as the Mastery Packs, which are similar to the special, pre-orderable packs like the ones I just mentioned. The biggest difference with the Master Packs though, is that they are for specific Mechs, are typically a bit cheaper, and don't have as many goodies in them.

The examples I gave do not cover everything that PGI can earn money from, but I think you get the picture. In short, PGI's business model is to get you hooked with a fun game, and then get you to spend money on the game so that you can have nicer things or faster grinds. The best part about their model though, is that it does not affect the gameplay. When I was active in Star Trek Online and Star Wars: The Old Republic, I had the exact opposite experience; those games are so geared towards Pay-to-Play/Win that a Free-to-Play gamer couldn't really cut it. Fortunately, PGI has done an excellent job steering away from those models and has created a game that is quite friendly to the Free-to-Play gamer.

I think that's mostly it. You can play without committing any money to the game, although you may eventually wish to spend ten or fifteen dollars on some MC (special currency) so that you can purchase additional Mechbays. You are initially limited to four, which means that you will have to buy and sell a lot if you wish to experience many Mechs.

Tolkien, on 02 December 2014 - 12:31 PM, said:

After the cadet bonus is over this game has a harsh economy. To level the skills for a mech you need to have 3 variants of the same chassis, e.g. if you go for jagermechs you need to get let's say the Jagermech DD, the jagermech S, and the jagermech A in order to unlock the elite skills. With each inner sphere mech you buy, you should also plan for an extra 2.5 ish million cbills to unlock two critical upgrades:

1) Double heatsinks
2) Endo steel internal structure.

Some mechs will also need Ferro-Fibrous armour - typically only lights or mediums though.

From there, to get them up to optimum efficiency you will also want to unlock 3-5 modules. These take a lot of grind to get the GXP (general XP) up to unlock them. Then also a lot of Cbills (up to 6 million per module for mech modules, and another 3 million per module for weapon modules) or roughly 21 million. You can move these around between mechs though, so that's not too bad.

Once you have your mechs fully unlocked and fully leveled, you will probably want to get another chassis - the problem here is that you start with 4 mech bays and the only ways to get these are to spend money (via MC) or to win them in challenges. I think we have had a mech bay as a prize in each of the last 2 months, so you can get mech bays that way just at a slow rate.

The drawback of selling your old mechs is that now that they've introduced quirks you probably want to hang on to even 'bad' variants as they may buff them back to being good again in the future, AND you only get 50% of your cbills back when you sell something. If you ever do sell a mech, strip it first to make sure you don't accidentally sell modules.

*AVOID* consumables while you are trying to save up for mechs etc. as they eat way too much of your income stream and you will burn out unless you are running premium time and a hero mech.

It's a hell of a grind, but follow these guidelines and you will avoid making any expensive mistakes.

This game, in a nutshell, but with a substantial grind for the free currencies:

Once you get some, it just kinda snowballs!

[Muriel Steiner]

It's possible to play for free, but "fun".. well.. the best thing I can say about that is it's in the eye of the beholder. I don't think the old players really understand how difficult it is getting a start now. As many have said, After the first 25 matches, you should have about 8 million c-bills. This is really a pathetically small amount. an Adder or Kit Fox will cost about 6 million c-bills. Inner-Sphere lights cost less on the face of it, but they require costly upgrades. Ultimately, you can't get enough c-bills to master even one mech before the painful grinding begins. If you're going "free to play", don't plan on being able to switch between mechs. In theory, you have tons of free trial 'mechs, but in practice, since you can't unlock skills on trial 'mechs and you can't modify them, you will be a burden to your team.

Many people tell me that they play this game so they can design and test mechs.. if that's your idea of fun, you might as well hang up the "free to play" now. Selling items back to pay for new items is really just a giant cbill-sink. You also won't be able to get a new paint scheme without using real world money, and many colors aren't available for free either. Even if you DO pay real money for a new pattern, it's only available on one type of mech. So basically, customization is a huge part of this game, but it's not much "fun" if you're f2p.

It strikes me that this post may come off as being very negative. Obviously I still play the game, so there must be some enjoyable things. To be honest though, the sales model for this game has shifted a few times, and in my opinion it's worse now than it has been at any point before. The weekend challenges are great for those of us who have good handle on the game, but I can't imagine new players had a good time getting (for example:) 20 separate games where they had a kill, an assist, didn't die, and won the battle. The current business model seems like a huge entry barrier. Once you can get a chassis that you enjoy and get it's elite tier unlocked, the game can be a lot of fun, then the only question is "how long can you stand to play the same mech?".

While I'm on the subject, I should point out another problem with the current business model. If you're one of those people who is lucky enough to be able to enjoy playing the same mech for thousands of matches, another problem arises. Unless you're spending c-bills on upgrading mechs, there's really nothing to do with them. In my opinion, Upgrading mechs needs to be much easier, since the fun of the game relies so heavily on that aspect, but there should be another c-bill sink. Usually I recommend doing a World of Tanks style camo system, where people could spend MC to get camo patterns and colors permanently, or C-bills to get them temporarily. I'm sure other people have some good ideas too.

[Redshift2k5]

The two main stumbling blocks to playing for free are customization and mechbays.

The free colours are pretty drab and very limited.

Mechbays are the main item you need MC for, but even mechbays are occasionally handed out for free. I think we got 4 free mechbays from weekly events over the past year (two of which came with a free mech already in that mechbay) so you CAN get more bay space as a free player if you pay attention to the weekly events!

Also, you are allowed to own more than one account, so you cold also just keep multiple accounts for multiple mechs/weight classes/etc but this is quite inconvenient.

[Void Angel]

John Wargrave, on 02 December 2014 - 08:57 AM, said:

So I will admit I am a bit of a cheapskate. Money is tight and I am looking to play a game I can enjoy with investing very little, if any, real world cash into.

Before I commit to MWO, I am curious if anyone would mind explaining the business model here, and perhaps any traps I might fall into with this sort of mindset.

I am not saying I will never spend a dime on the game, I just really want to play for quite a while before I decide to make any investment.

Can I have fun as a cheapskate?

In a word? Yes. I do; while I have spent money for the top-level Phoenix Project package (and not regretted a penny of it,) I played for quite a while without spending any large amount of real money.

The only thing you will really need to spend MC on is 'Mech bays. Hero 'mechs are fun, but not so much better than normal 'Mechs that the game becomes "pay to win." In fact, many Hero 'mechs aren't even the accepted best variant. Don't get me wrong; Hero 'mechs, premium time, and all of that are helpful in getting you c-bills, which reduces the amount of playing you have to do before getting new toys - but it's not required, and as Darwin's Dog pointed out on the first page, PGI has been giving away a slow trickle of free bays.

Edited by Void Angel, 02 December 2014 - 02:00 PM.

[terrycloth]

When I was new, I bought some MC and used it to buy a champion mech on sale. That was a mistake.

I spent all my cadet c-bills trying to pimp out a locust. Also a mistake.

After that I bought only one of each chassis and didn't worry about getting elite skills. That... was probably not a mistake. You'll want to elite them eventually but I think it's probably more fun to have several different mechs to play with first. Particularly mechs that can be built up in several ways, using the same mech.

Like a Shadowhawk, or a (shudder) orion (don't get an orion) or maybe an Atlas. Or any clan mech! Stormcrows are completely awesome. I've heard Timberwolves are better. You'll have to save up for them, and they're expensive to reconfigure, but you can do *so many* different builds with just one mech that it makes up for it.

I think the most important thing is, though, don't grind for cash. It makes the bad games too frustrating. Set other goals, like doing at least 100 damage per match or getting 5 assists or surviving to the end. The money will come in behind your back, and it's a lot more satisfying.

[Koniving]

John Wargrave, on 02 December 2014 - 08:57 AM, said:

So I will admit I am a bit of a cheapskate. Money is tight and I am looking to play a game I can enjoy with investing very little, if any, real world cash into.

Before I commit to MWO, I am curious if anyone would mind explaining the business model here, and perhaps any traps I might fall into with this sort of mindset.

I am not saying I will never spend a dime on the game, I just really want to play for quite a while before I decide to make any investment.

Can I have fun as a cheapskate?

I'd say yes. Starting out, avoid group play (too many try-hards) and try to get the hang of the game. Do be certain to come here for advice on a mech after your cadet bonus is up; that first choice can make or break you. (The reason I say come back for advice is because your developing play style will heavily influence what works best with you).

The biggest issue you'll find, a trap so to speak, is that with how many mechs there are... 4 mechbays just aren't enough in the long run. It'll hold you through your first 2 or 3 mechs in getting them to elite (optimal) skills, but after that you'll find yourself either having to sell what you have or snagging a number of mechbays for a few bucks.

None of the weapons are 'bought'. Certain kinds of consumables can be but the free ones can do the same thing with a few unlocks.

The 'champion' mechs are just regular mechs that are pre-upgraded and kitted out with an experience bonus. The hero mechs are basically a combination of already existing variants in one package with a cbill bonus. The 'pre-order' mechs are just regular mechs that aren't released yet, with a slightly unique appearance but otherwise identical to what is coming out for free (cbills) sometime down the line.

Some vids, just because.
Trial Cicada.
Trial Dragon.

And this is my most recent one, featuring Clan Omnimechs (as opposed to Inner Sphere Battlemechs) in a private match with a camera man.

Also welcome to MWO.

[White Bear 84]

Molossian Dog, on 02 December 2014 - 09:31 AM, said:

EDIT: Typed too slow. Ninja´ed two times. I must meditate on this.

So much win in this thread I like it.

On the comment above that many players have made - you can keep your eyes open for weekend challenges where you might have the chance to win a mechbay! They crop up from time to time.. ..if you want to wait for a while before dropping cash this is another option..

Edit: I should join the MWO marketing team, win a mechbay, sign up now! Roll up! Roll up!

Edited by White Bear 84, 02 December 2014 - 02:36 PM.

[luxebo]

Decoy3, on 02 December 2014 - 11:40 AM, said:

Don't new players still get 24 hours of free premium time?

ONLY 2 Hours. OP if you had already found it, good, but if not go click download again, cancel download, and it's in the offers area down below. It's still worth.

Also: trial mech guide so hopefully you have some ideas on what to make sooner or later as a central mech. Later on you might get some free stuff and also get some cheaper ish mech bays/heroes. I personally haven't gotten a mech pack quite yet (will look into one that I'm interested in, though atm the two out there aren't very interesting except Hellbringer and Zues.)

http://mwomercs.com/...play-with-them/ (Trial mech guide). Good luck out there OP! And finish up Cadet so you can post unlimitedly!

[TheCaptainJZ]

A good time to pay into this game at all could be after you've filled all your mech bays. Depending on how much time you have to play, this could take months, so no rush. You'll have enough cbills after your first 25 matches to buy a medium or heavy and make at least some modifications to it. The most common recommendation these days is Shadowhawks. When you get to the point where you are ready to buy your first mech, please post on these forums and tell us how you like playing. What role you enjoy. What weapons you like. Then we can make suggestions about chassis you should consider buying. http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/mechlab is an invaluable resource not only for building mechs which you can link to here, but also for all kinds of stats.

[Satan n stuff]

HlynkaCG, on 02 December 2014 - 09:33 AM, said:

The buisiness model is to charge real money for aesthetic items and convenience "skip the grind". Most game items can be purchased using Cbills and XP that you earn in game through playing.

The only item that you really "need" that can't be bought through in game currency are vehicle slots "mech-bays" but those are quite reasonably priced. A F2P player gets 4 bays for free starting out and that's a bit tight if you're going to play this game with any degree of seriousness.

They do give out mechbays occasionally for challenge events. By my count they've given out 8 of these so far, starting at February 25th this year, 3 of which came with a free mech.

[Tarogato]

Let me just provide a testament...

I've been playing for a year and I have 12 total mechbays, 7 chassis Mastered, engines for all of them, and multiple completed module sets. I haven't spent a penny on this game yet. And I'm fairly competent by now, especially for a free player - I've joined a competitive unit and even placed on a couple leaderboard tournaments.

---

My advice is:
- wait a long time before you buy your first mech... play a LOT of matches in trials to get a feel for what you want. Figure out what weapons you like, what speed you like, etc, get a taste of everything in the game that you can before you buy your first mech.
- buy 3 variants of the mech you like, and get them Elited via the Skill Tree. Decide on one you like, Master it on the Skill Tree, and sell the other two for now. Make sure you're REALLY sure about which one you want to Master and keep.
- now you have three mechbays, so pick another mech and now you can by three variants of that and Elite it as well.
- with two mechbays left, you can either fill them with two different mechs, or hope for a Win a Mechbay event so you can have three and Elite your third chassis.

---

Light mechs aren't cheap - you'll spend 6 to 8 million C-Bills just to buy the right engine, get double heatsinks, and get the other upgrades, plus the weapons you need. So expect your first light mech to cost over 10,000,000 C-Bills. When you get your second variant, you can usually use the same engine, so just swap it out of the old one and use it in the new one. (same goes for Modules later on, but don't worry about that until you feel like it's something you should worry about - it'll take a while)

All other innersphere mechs will cost an additional 2,500,000 C-Bills or more to upgrade the heatsinks (mandatory) and anything else like engines and other upgrades.

Clan mechs have a bigger price tag, but they don't have any of these hidden costs to them, however you can't save C-Bills by swapping the engines in them, their engines are permanent.

Edited by Tarogato, 03 December 2014 - 04:51 AM.

[SnagaDance]

Muriel Steiner, on 02 December 2014 - 01:18 PM, said:

It's possible to play for free, but "fun".. well.. the best thing I can say about that is it's in the eye of the beholder. I don't think the old players really understand how difficult it is getting a start now.

Say wut? You mean to say it was easier before? When was this? When trial mechs were stock? When there were Champion trial mechs but you only had 1 of each weight class available? When there was no actual Cadet bonus that guaranteed a minimal income for your first mech and you could easily end up with far less C-bills? (I know I did, could barely afford the 6,7m for that Awesome 8T, note to OP: don't take an assault as a first mech unless they really really go well with you as trials)

I'd say the start for a new player has never been better (yes, yes, I'd like some comprehensive PvE training scenarios as well). It's still challenging, it's not an easy game at all, bt it's IMO easier to start now than in 'ye golden olde times'.

[John Wargrave]

I admit I was also worried that any groups of players I might want to join might require financial expenditure to join in the fun as well.

I have played many F2P games in the past where the community looks down on players who are not willing to spend as much money as them.

[HlynkaCG]

John Wargrave, on 03 December 2014 - 07:46 AM, said:

I admit I was also worried that any groups of players I might want to join might require financial expenditure to join in the fun as well.

I have played many F2P games in the past where the community looks down on players who are not willing to spend as much money as them.

The Mech you bring to the field is more important than money spent and to hell with anyone who tries to tell you otherwise. Obviously spending real money will give you access to more mechs faster bur being a F2P player doesn't preclude you from wrecking face.

PS: if you have team-speakinstalled and are looking for some friendly games/general advice click the banner in my sig. Even of you don't sign on with us, we're always happy to help new players and expand community.

[Virgil Greyson]

HlynkaCG, on 03 December 2014 - 10:12 AM, said:

[/size]

The Mech you bring to the field is more important than money spent and to hell with anyone who tries to tell you otherwise. Obviously spending real money will give you access to more mechs faster bur being a F2P player doesn't preclude you from wrecking face.

PS: if you have team-speakinstalled and are looking for some friendly games/general advice click the banner in my sig. Even of you don't sign on with us, we're always happy to help new players and expand community.

I assume this offer is open to anyone?