One Medic Army, on 31 December 2014 - 11:13 AM, said:
Check my posts. All I said is that the grind with premium is still a grind. You're saying everything's fine and that's supposed to be how F2P works.
No. I agree that c-bill payouts should be higher. I'm not saying everything is fine, never even alluded to that. But it is how F2P works. There's a grind, and there's usually a way to short-cut or skip the grind and MWO provides that.
Its up to the individual player (customer) to decide if the grind-time has value. Like I said, I grinded TP for 2 months at 1-2 hours a day just to unlock one module in DDO. And I had to have accounts on 4 different servers to do it. I replayed all the lowbie missions 20-30 times each just to get enough Favor to get TP. After that, MWO's grind is nothing to me.
Granted, I could have just plunked down $20 and bought the module I wanted and saved myself 2 months of gameplay. But, as I said, I can do that here. I can plop down money and get the exact mech(s) I want and then grind, for a little bit, for c-bills to get the obvious upgrades (DHS, Endo etc). In a 2 hour window, with a hero mech and "speed dropping" (not farming, but playing each game but quitting when I die) I can earn 2 mil c-bills. Easily enough for DHS and ES on any mech @ 1.7 million c-bills. And I'm an average player, I'm thrilled if I do 500 or more damage. I shout on Enjin when I get 700 or more. So better players can expect faster returns in MWO. Grinding is also about skill, that sucks, but its what PGI gave us.
I think PGI would make a lot more money if they upped the c-bill rewards a bit, and dropped the MC prices on the mechs a bit. Or dropped the value of the mechs both in c-bills and MC say by 15%
The game is expensive where its at right now, lowering the price would encourage more players to pony up. Its hard to ask someone to pay $20 for a Protector, that thing only has a few good builds, and still the free Orions all can do what it does but better.
Grinding is a matter of perspective that F2P games ask all players to consider. How much of the player's time is worth their money? You and I will have different answers to that question.
But what I am saying is I don't think the MWO grind is punishing, it is pretty tough if all you have is a free mech. And I do argue that's an impediment for newbies. But its not punishing.
So really we agree.