I think a fair number of repliers are missing the most relevant points.
It isn't that the modules are OP, or impossible to afford, or that 10% makes a huge difference, or that the current system is fine if you only play 2-3 mechs etc.
MWO desperately needs
new players,
more players,
happier players, and most of all,
paying players.
The point is that the current Module system works
against these goals rather than towards them.
The current system is, frankly, outrageously expensive (single ability modules costing more than medium/heavy mechs). It is grindy. It is clunky and inconvenient. It pretty much forces you to spend weeks of profit for small gains if you want to CW or play more than 2-3 mechs regularly.
It also puts newer players at even more of a disadvantage against long-time players than they already are. A 10% cooldown module won't make a newbie into an ace, but when the newbie has no modules and the long-time player has several, the odds are seriously against him (and no, ELO and/or MM don't solve that problem, at least currently).
Easy modifications to the module system would make it remain a C-Bill sink/premium incentive, but make it more accessible to newer/casual players, and to the people who own and play lots of mechs, not just a handful. I believe those are the players MWO should be encouraging.
Edited by MadBadger, 02 February 2015 - 09:44 AM.