20 replies to this topic

[AkoolPopTart]

I recently started getting back into Mechwarrior and have been thinking about downloading MWO. I'm aware of the MASSIVE learning curve and the tense player atmosphere (Armored core V isn't a walk in the ******* park either and, let me tell you, I've got stories that will make your heads spin), and I am not at all surprised considering how niche the game is.

In any case, my main concern is Mech/Part Acquisition and Ownership

From what I can tell it seems pretty straight forward: Buy hanger space. Buy mech. Boom. Done. Game over. Go shoot something. Die. Go back in with the "I will win this time, Senpai!" mindset. Shoot more things. Die by face punching Atlas.



But then I dug a little further and found this thing on the Clan page about a "90 day Premium Time" and that's whats holding me back. If I buy a $20 Timber Wolf, I better ******* be able to keep said Timber Wolf forever, or until the sun explodes. I'm giving my money to a company for a mech that I've been piloting since I was 9 years old. I don't want to be shelling out my hard earned cash for something that I'm going to own for 2 months and then kiss it good-bye.

So to get straight to the point: Is there a system in place that allows you to unlock mechs/parts as you level up? If so, what is the general cash flow per match, win or loss, assuming cash is like EXP?

Also, who charges $500 for a ******* Timber Wolf skin! On top of that, $55 for a Timber Wolf! $55! Come on man, if your asking me to pay that kind of money, I want a physical model version sent to my door too!

[Phobic Wraith]

Well, first - anything you buy, you keep. bar none. Premium time is simply for an added c-bill bonus when you play. There are no rental mechs except for the trial chassis and those get rotated fairly often.

As for clan packs, some aren't available anymore. paying real money is always an option, but the package deals are limited time only. All mechs are available for c-bills (in game currency) or will be at a later date.

And money? after your new player bonus for 25 matches, you should be earning between 100,000 and maybe 200,000 c-bills. Your average Timberwolf costs ~15 million and you'll need 3 to unlock all the mastery levels. Each game averages 7 minutes. I'll let you do the math.

[Hospy]

You don't have to pay any real money to play this game, but spending money cuts back on how painful it is.

You can purchase a Timber Wolf without having to pay money and you'll have it forever (or until the game dies)

There are basically two paths of progressions: c-bills (money) and EXP. C-bills lets you buy stuff (there's nothing locked progression wise, you can buy whatever you want if you have the dough). EXP lets you increase you 'mech skills (better heat management, speed, etc). GXP is related to exp and is the thing that lets you unlock upgrades but for a beginner you don't need to worry about this because you won't have any for a long time.

The best advice I can give to anyone considering this game is that the beginning is going to suck. The game does not pull punches holding you by the hand. You're thrown into the pool with everyone else at the very beginning, there's no beginners queue or matchmaking.

You'll be at a disadvantage in three ways:
1) You don't know what you're doing.
2) You'll be in trial mechs (which by and large are pretty bad though they used to be worse)
3) You don't have any EXP in any of the mechs

You'll basically be getting kicked in the nuts repeatedly while you figure out how things work.

[990Dreams]

Phobic Wraith, on 25 February 2015 - 05:18 PM, said:

Well, first - anything you buy, you keep. bar none.

Unless you sell it, which I did with some of my founders MC...

[Koniving]

Those are from the pre-order pages (and it kinda bothers me that the Clan Wave 1 is still available to buy like that; it's time is long past), in order to have the mechs before they release for (paid for currency) and (earned currency).

A Timber Wolf Prime stock is 15,178,647 .

May as well get 'em for free, right? Going for a TBR via the A La Carte option just nets you 3 Timber Wolves with 3 mechbays and one of them gets a permanent 30% cbill earnings bonus whenever you use it.

And yes. Anyone who paid 500 dollars for a skin is pretty foolish; though that actually includes all the Wave 1 packs + that mech with the skin... So that's 25 mechs. Still not worth it as the Wave I pack in total is 240.

Just net 'em for cbills. All it means is in some cases, waiting a bit longer for them to come out.

[AkoolPopTart]

Hospy, on 25 February 2015 - 05:32 PM, said:

Sniped

The Mad Cat was just an example. While I do love the thing to pieces, I'd rather lose an arm then shell out $55 for it. But bro, have you played ACVD? It SUCKS! The mechanics, the parts, the part defenses! Don't even get me started on the actual pvp gameplay. My nuts are heavily armored, so I'm prepared for the worst.

[Macksheen]

Yeah, short version.

You earn c-bills in-game (CB). You can buy Mechwarrior Credits (MC).

Having Premium Time running boosts your CB earnings. Playing in a "hero" mech also gives you a boost to c-bill earnings; hero mechs are available only for MC, either one at a time or as part of a pack.

You can buy non-hero mechs with either CB or MC; generally they are available for MC first.

When you buy a "pack" you're getting several mechs, usually earlier than they are available for MC and often a "hero" type.

Once you have the mech, you have the mech.

In general, you'll probably want to spend a little cash. You can get buy completely free to play, but spending a little cash helps - you can get some mech bays, maybe you buy some mechs to get a jump on your earnings or a solid "hero". Lots of the bundles (Invasion Wave X, Resistance or chassis Mastery bundles in the store) also come with premium time, etc. but it isn't like you need to spend a lot.

The big question is how pokemon will you be with wanting to drive all the mechs? That will take time to buy, afford, etc. If you only bought mechbays with real cash it would take considerable playing time to get enough CBills to buy all the mechs.

Budgeting is weird in that there isn't a sub - so just have a healthy idea of your spend targets.

[Koniving]

AkoolPopTart, on 25 February 2015 - 05:42 PM, said:

My nuts are heavily armored, so I'm prepared for the worst.

If I ever make a signature out of someone's quote, I think this is gonna be it.
Brass.

[Hospy]

AkoolPopTart, on 25 February 2015 - 05:42 PM, said:

The Mad Cat was just an example. While I do love the thing to pieces, I'd rather lose an arm then shell out $55 for it. But bro, have you played ACVD? It SUCKS! The mechanics, the parts, the part defenses! Don't even get me started on the actual pvp gameplay. My nuts are heavily armored, so I'm prepared for the worst.

Then you might find yourself a new home here. Best of luck buddy, and hope to see you as you emerge from underhive with a fully skilled mech, balls intact.

[TheCaptainJZ]

First, it's $55 for 3 Timberwolves, one of which comes with a 30% cbill bonus every time you play it. Still expensive in my book though.
There really was an outrage over the $500 gold skins. It was actually the publisher's idea (IGP) and PGI, the developer, has since shed them and are doing this all on their own. I think IGP went under actually? Yeah, anyone who pays that much is crazy in my book too.
Personally? I only spend a little money here and there on this game. Like, $30 at a time normally and use that for several months.
Premium time is something you can buy or which is included in packs which gives you 50% bonus to earned cbills and exp.
All mechs you purchase with cbills or MC are permanently yours for as long as this game is running. Nearly everything is actually (only exception is the camo patterns if you use the one-shot option and then want to pick a new pattern and consumables are consumed upon use if you pay for them with cbills or MC (I'd never buy them for MC))

[PirLanTota]

Also, MC is a great way for the casual players to get to experience the expensive Mechs. I usually only have a few hours a week I can play, so if there is really a Mech I want, I got the option to spend real money to get it or spend several weeks grinding the thing for C-Bills.

Remember, MC = Real Money = Only source of income for PGI. Their servers and developers unfortunately run on Pizza, Beer and Electricity that all needs paying for. So buying some MC is never wasted, it keeps the game alive. You just need to decide if that Mech you want is worth the money they are asking for it.

[Rogue Jedi]

the only thing from the OP which I cannot see an in indeapth answer to is about an unlock system

there is a system to unlock Modules, the modules are late game content and each gives you a slight advantage, however certain combinations can be quite powerful especialy in conjunction with other equipment or Mech quirks.

To unlock a module you spend GXP which is slowly accumilated every match, I think at a rate of about 5% of Mech XP ^{(you can convert Mech XP to GXP at a cost of 1 MC for 25 XP, 50 when on sale which happens about every 3 months, I do this because my facorate Mechs are mastered and have earned in some cases hundreds of thousands of XP)}
there are 3 basic types of module;

Weapon,
Range Modules and Cooldown Modules (rate of fire increase) are available for most weapons, there are multiple tiers for each module, you unlock the module with GXP (500 tor level 1 up to 900 for level 5), then purchase the Module, 2 million cbillls each, if you purchase a low level module it levels up as you unlock the higher levels2.
There are seperate modules for Clan and IS weapons, and the module only applies to the exact named weapon, so if you unlock ER Large Laser Range it only applies to the IS ER Large Laser, not the Large Laser, Large Pulse Laser or any of the Clan Lasers, and if you unlock the CL ERS Laser range it only applies to the Clan ER Small Laser not the IS small laser or the IS or Clan Small Pulse Laser.

Mech
these modules are not related to a specific weapon, they offer a specific perk to a Mech, things ranging from Advanced Zoom (a large zoom box which you can activate) to sensor improvements and stealth among others, these ones are rather expensive, usualy costing 12,000 GXP and upto 6 million Cbills (more than the cost of some Mechs)

Consumable
cover things like coolent, air and artillary strikes, UAVs (which reveal every enemy Mech within about 200m to your entyre team), all are unlocked already but you can upgrade them with GXP, the upgraded versions are functionaly identical to MC versions. Unlike the other module types, consumables are consumed on use so need purchasing each match

due to the fact that outfitting Mechs with a complete set of modules will usualy cost several times the total cost of that Mech people will oftern swap modules between Mechs, I rename my Mechs with the modules equiped to them to help me find them. for a long time Advanced Zoom (relitavely cheep at 2,000,000 cbills) was the only module I had multiples of.

each Mech has a number of module slots, oftern 2 consumable, 2 weapon and 1 Mech but hthis varies for each Mech varient, with "better" Mechs oftern getting less slots and "worse" Mechs usualy getting more. the final skill to Master a Mech gives an extra Module slot which can mount ether a Mech or weapon Module.

Edited by Rogue Jedi, 26 February 2015 - 01:41 AM.

[o0Marduk0o]

Koniving, on 25 February 2015 - 05:37 PM, said:

Those are from the pre-order pages (and it kinda bothers me that the Clan Wave 1 is still available to buy like that; it's time is long past), in order to have the mechs before they release for (paid for currency) and (earned currency).

A Timber Wolf Prime stock is 15,178,647 .

May as well get 'em for free, right? Going for a TBR via the A La Carte option just nets you 3 Timber Wolves with 3 mechbays and one of them gets a permanent 30% cbill earnings bonus whenever you use it.

And yes. Anyone who paid 500 dollars for a skin is pretty foolish; though that actually includes all the Wave 1 packs + that mech with the skin... So that's 25 mechs. Still not worth it as the Wave I pack in total is 240.

The WaveX packages are cheaper than buying mechs with MC one by one, this is the reason they are still purchasable. You still miss the bonus content, like extra premium time, camo and stuff. The pre-order was only about the bonus content. There is no reason to remove the package at all.

Even "a la carte" for a single mech is cheaper than buying all 3 variants one by one with MC.
The general mech MC pricing is too high imho but this would be a different topic.

You don't pay 500$ for the gold skin. There is no link between package content and price tag. Guess why 500$ was the price for ONE mech at beginning. You don't purchase one mech for 500$, you donate 500$ and get a unique colored mech as "thank you". The only regular purchase options are those mech packs with 30$/chassis.
When they added the 240$ package, they basically reduced the donation value by 240$.
Paying 500$ for the skin is indeed foolish, they would have missed the whole point of that deal.

[Lily from animove]

AkoolPopTart, on 25 February 2015 - 05:06 PM, said:

I recently started getting back into Mechwarrior and have been thinking about downloading MWO. I'm aware of the MASSIVE learning curve and the tense player atmosphere (Armored core V isn't a walk in the ******* park either and, let me tell you, I've got stories that will make your heads spin), and I am not at all surprised considering how niche the game is.

In any case, my main concern is Mech/Part Acquisition and Ownership

From what I can tell it seems pretty straight forward: Buy hanger space. Buy mech. Boom. Done. Game over. Go shoot something. Die. Go back in with the "I will win this time, Senpai!" mindset. Shoot more things. Die by face punching Atlas.



But then I dug a little further and found this thing on the Clan page about a "90 day Premium Time" and that's whats holding me back. If I buy a $20 Timber Wolf, I better ******* be able to keep said Timber Wolf forever, or until the sun explodes. I'm giving my money to a company for a mech that I've been piloting since I was 9 years old. I don't want to be shelling out my hard earned cash for something that I'm going to own for 2 months and then kiss it good-bye.

So to get straight to the point: Is there a system in place that allows you to unlock mechs/parts as you level up? If so, what is the general cash flow per match, win or loss, assuming cash is like EXP?

Also, who charges $500 for a ******* Timber Wolf skin! On top of that, $55 for a Timber Wolf! $55! Come on man, if your asking me to pay that kind of money, I want a physical model version sent to my door too!

How many other "f2p" games have you played? you get not even a wet hug for 50$ there.
And ye sif you spend rela money for a mech, you better keep it, you should anways lern the game first before putting money in, because only then you know what is worth the money and what not (but a TBR is definately and very likely never going to be a bad mech)
And those 55$ is not a single TBR its 3 TBRS's

people buy the gold mechs, because they want to, and the value of money is subjective, and reltaes very much to how mich you earn in RL. you cna farm c-bills and buy all mechs ingame as well, it just takes the money gathering time, mechbays are by prize quite cheap.

[dragnier1]

*edited to fit my thoughts

AkoolPopTart, on 25 February 2015 - 05:06 PM, said:

Also, who charges $500 for a "gold mech"! Come on man, if your asking me to pay that kind of money, I want a physical model version sent to my door too!

If you are really keen on purchasing a pack/package, i would suggest the wave 3 pack (not the a la carte version) as it has its best value up till 28 Feb. From then on the value will continue decreasing until they become "pointless to purchase" when the mechs are released to the public (mc or cbill purchase).

Af of now until the 28th purchasing the $30 pack gets you 1 extra mech + mechbay, $60 2 extra mechs + 2 mechbays, $90 3 extra mechs + 3 mechbays, $120 4 extra mechs + mechbays and; 3 additional mechs with mechbays included (the Centurion AH, Atlas S and King Crab L)

If any of these are too costly for you, i suggest going for the USD15 mc package. You get 1 free mechbay and 1 cup. The mc should be enough for 7-8 mechbays before discounts. After discounts you might be able to squeeze 1-2 more mechbays with that amount.

There are also ways to earn mechbays, mc and mechs through community warfare and events that PGI organizes. Those do not require cash to be paid upfront.

Edited by dragnier1, 26 February 2015 - 04:07 AM.

[AkoolPopTart]

NEW QUESTION!

OH! Yeah, My other question was about armor. Is armor relatively "uniform" correct, like you can't tack on random plate of "armor" and suddenly gain a resistance to some sort of ammo type? In Armored Core Verdict Day, there was a system in place that would boost a mechs resistance to a certain ammo type and broke the game completely. Armor with Kinetic defense could block bullets. Chemical Defense blocked chemical damage. And Thermal Defense blocked energy damage. It was an easily abused system and by the end of the game, everyone ran a heavy biped with some OP weapon slapped on.

That **** sucked! And I will never forget how terrible it was!

Edited by AkoolPopTart, 27 February 2015 - 02:54 PM.

[Alaskan Nobody]

Armor is armor

Ferro Fibrus is lighter (allowing you to mount a bit more)- but no tougher per point

Standard is heavier - but does not cost the 14 critical spaces that FF does.

Latter on in the TT timeline they added Reactive and Reflective, but we do not have those.

[Tim East]

Shar Wolf, on 27 February 2015 - 02:50 PM, said:

Armor is armor

Ferro Fibrus is lighter (allowing you to mount a bit more)- but no tougher per point

Standard is heavier - but does not cost the 14 critical spaces that FF does.

Latter on in the TT timeline they added Reactive and Reflective, but we do not have those.

I somehow feel like realistic reflective armor for use against lasers would be superbly un-stealthy.

[TheCaptainJZ]

Also Mechs are limited by a max armor points allowed not max tons of armor allowed (I think Mechwarrior 3 was the opposite? So you could mount more tons and therefore points of armor if you went with FF?)

[HlynkaCG]

TheCaptainJZ, on 28 February 2015 - 02:14 AM, said:

Also Mechs are limited by a max armor points allowed not max tons of armor allowed (I think Mechwarrior 3 was the opposite? So you could mount more tons and therefore points of armor if you went with FF?)

That way in earlier MW (1, 2 & 3) games because that's how it was in 1st Ed. Battletech.

Then FASA replaced the extra points with an anti-crit bonus which screws us over because critical hits aren't modeled in MWO the way they are in Battletech.