13 replies to this topic

[FriedIV]

I really do not mean to sound ungrateful, I have played MW for roughly 20 years and I more or less approve of the performance of MWO. But I have to say that your pricing for new mechs is very rich. For four mechs and only 60 days of premium time we are expected to pony up a hefty $120.00. All of the old msft MW games combined could have been purchased for about that. Not to mention all of the free work Mektek did to expand and maintain the game after msft dropped it. This project started out as an extension of Mektek, I thought. and to top it off the production of maps is really slow. I own 55 mechs and I would like to own more. But your price point is a big sticking point with me. Maybe it is with others as well. Consider Economics 101, there is an optimal price for a product where you will make the optimal profit. Too high of a price and less sales will occur. Too low of a price and you could loose money. Some ones salary is not justified by the content you guys are producing. The price is too high.

[AngryEggRoll]

16 mechs actually

[The Great Unwashed]

Some people are willing to pay to get mechs a bit earlier, so that other people can get them for free a bit later. Pay-to-win is slightly present, but modestly enough that it doesn't skew the balance much.

(By which I do not mean to say the price is not too high for Wave III compared the IS mechs).

Edited by The Great Unwashed, 09 March 2015 - 07:29 AM.

[TercieI]

It's a niche game, supported by a relatively limited number of fairly zealous players. The prices reflect that reality, IMO.

$/hour of entertainment, I still find it relatively cheap, even vs. some video games (but I play a lot). Everybody has to decide for themself. Value is subjective.

[p4r4g0n]

I had to think twice about responding but since you posted it in New Player Help and may give new players the wrong idea ....

First off, let's just ignore your comparison with prices of BT / MW products of the past unless you think the cost of producing games is somehow disconnected with the rising prices of everything else in the world.

Secondly, you DO NOT have to buy the mechs or even pay anything to play MWO unlike the examples you trotted out.

[Wildstreak]

16 Mechs if bought by March 17th, 12 after.
Each comes with MechBay.
60 days Premium Time.
4 Faction Content selections. Minimum you pick the same one 4 times, get 3 camo colors, 1 pattern, 12 Cockpit items
If bought before end of this month, get 3 more cockpit items.

[p4r4g0n]

Wildstreak, on 09 March 2015 - 07:37 AM, said:

-snip-
If bought before end of this month, get 3 more cockpit items.

and an additional 51 days of Premium Time

[Rogue Jedi]

the $120 will get you 4 varients each of 4 chassis (if you miss the March 17th cutoff date it is 3 each of 4 chassis), about 3 months before they can be purchased for cbills ingame, as others have said you will eventuraly be able to get those Mech for free later. order early and you can get about 7 weeks of premium time, 4 Mechs and a bunch of extras for about $30.

the packs are pay for early access and comveniance, the wave 3 Mechs will not be ingame until mid June/July depending on the Mech

^{since Mechbays were made available as a reward for Comunity Warfare only conveniance/time saving (Hero Mechs with a bonus cbill income unique cammo and diferant hardpoints but not sputerior to non heroes, Champion Mechs regular varients preupgraded with an XP boost, premium time which increases earnings by 50%)} and cosmetic items ^{(most paints, cammo styles and cockpit items)} cannot be obtained without spending real money, if you pay you can get Mechs quicker, or chose adierent patterns/paints, that is it.

[Lily from animove]

20 yeras ago,
the hour salary was lower.
graphic resolutions were lower (so making graphics went quicker)
there were no company paid online servers.

The world changed a lot

[The Great Unwashed]

No patches... *shudder*

[Fobhopper]

FriedIV, on 09 March 2015 - 07:12 AM, said:

I really do not mean to sound ungrateful, I have played MW for roughly 20 years and I more or less approve of the performance of MWO. But I have to say that your pricing for new mechs is very rich. For four mechs and only 60 days of premium time we are expected to pony up a hefty $120.00. All of the old msft MW games combined could have been purchased for about that. Not to mention all of the free work Mektek did to expand and maintain the game after msft dropped it. This project started out as an extension of Mektek, I thought. and to top it off the production of maps is really slow. I own 55 mechs and I would like to own more. But your price point is a big sticking point with me. Maybe it is with others as well. Consider Economics 101, there is an optimal price for a product where you will make the optimal profit. Too high of a price and less sales will occur. Too low of a price and you could loose money. Some ones salary is not justified by the content you guys are producing. The price is too high.

The pricing for mech collections is a bit pricey (I was a gold level founder, and have bought all 3 clan waves, and the resistance collection). But it supports a game I really enjoy playing, and everyone else gets access to the same mechs, just a little later down the road. MWO has to make money somehow, and they arent going to do it by MC.
You also have to consider other aspects of Economics, this is a very niche market, with discerning clientele. Its not like you have millions of players who can subsidize the game for everyone else. PGI has servers, game devs, admins, etc that they have to pay for as well. The game is free to play, but its not P2W. Everyone gets access to the same content eventually, just those willing to fork out money get access to it sooner, and its something I dont agonize over. Maybe when when MWO hits steam and there is a massive influx of both players and money, things could change, But this is a niche game. Just take a look as Star Trek Online, the pricing for some of their ship packs would choke on your own tongue (seriously, as someone who has played the game for years, and have a couple expensive ships of my own, that game can be expensive as hell for a F2P) it is also a niche game, and pricing reflects that.

[Koniving]

The long and short of it is that Clan mechs are overpriced a bit. Inner Sphere mechs on the other hand are nicely priced and easily manageable. The price bar of the packages was set a little high early on by the former publisher in anticipation of Clans not being balance-able without resorting to lore-friendly things such as 10 versus 12.

Since Clan technology is roughly equal to inferior to IS tech at this point the price ranges should be identical for pre-orders.

(Roughly equal to inferior with some elements having exchanges, for example Clan lasers generally have longer range with more damage and extra heat, but in turn their beam times are longer and the overall firing rate cuts them down so that in a 20 second time slice, most Clan lasers will actually do inferior damage to un-quirked IS ones; and then various IS mechs have quirks that will increase this inferiority gap against the Clans.)

Sadly to fix/change this now would upset those who have paid these prices.

On the other hand, per 30 dollars you get 3 (to 4) mechs + mechbays + other goodies, and more of them for getting them earlier.
In most free to play games, and citing a Tom Clancy F2P, Combat Arms from Nexon, Battlefield free to play, and a few other shooters... you can typically get 1 shotgun for 20 dollars, an assault rifle for 25, a sniper rifle for 30, and a heavy MG with a cone of fire and long reload for 20 dollars (assuming permanent unlocks; you can get them cheaper if you're willing to rent them).

So a gun that is usually pay to win... or 3 mechs + places to store them + other knickknacks?

It's unfortunate to say, but the prices are about in the correct spot in relation to most shooters for the MC prices. The difference here is that the pre-orders are priced much cheaper than the typical free to play model's goodies. Of course it's commonly only anticipated that the average "free to play" player might make 2 to 3 purchases in the entire playtime that they spend here, with "Whales" probably spending the money needed to keep the game going.

[Tim East]

I really wish they would bring the clan packages down a bit. I sprung for Resistance in lieu of Wave 2 simply because of the price difference, despite identifying as a clan player.

Also, I feel that aside from SRMs/SSRMs, clan tech is pretty gimpalicious. The lasers burn far too long, even pulse ones, the ACs/UACs spread damage like lasers that have projectile flight time of all things, LRMs shoot out in a stream that really only exists to make the other team waste AMS ammo, and almost everything seems to run hotter. Also, fixed slots EVERYWHERE.

On the upside, we do get more and better SSRMs, our SRMs are comparable to IS ones in most ways, and we get a full suite of LBX ACs, which I find all kinds of hilarious despite their lack of well, usefulness. Oh, and our gauss rifles are lighter and smaller than the IS ones without, for once, giving some horrible trade that makes them worse like almost every other weapon system. Although, given the limitations of slots due to all the fixed equipment, smaller weapons are almost mandatory just to fit ballistics onto the blasted things.

I'm really looking forward to the hypothetical day where factions are limited to the mechs they could feasibly have, because the clans actually have access to a slew of IS mechs because of how old they are. They're just second-line junk mechs that only freeborn warriors like myself or solahma suicide troops get stuck using. Hellllooooo, Locust!

For that matter, I'd really like to see some of the faster clan lights. You know, Fire Moth, Locust IIC, stuff like that. I did so love my accidentally self-destructing Fire Moth in MW2...

[Koniving]

Tim East, on 10 March 2015 - 07:58 AM, said:

I really wish they would bring the clan packages down a bit. I sprung for Resistance in lieu of Wave 2 simply because of the price difference, despite identifying as a clan player.p

Same.

Quote

Also, I feel that aside from SRMs/SSRMs, clan tech is pretty gimpalicious.

On the before/after field of things using SRM-only, Streak-only, and mixed Stormcrows...

Before quirks and before damage increases to IS SRMs, Clans were better due to speed of the 55 ton Stormcrow and number of missile hardpoints in SRMs, now Clan streaks versus IS SRMs if you could stay beyond the IS range you were good, if you got too close it was a bit of a draw in favor of the superior IS firing rate up close or the superior Streak range of Clans at a distance.

After damage increase to IS SRMs, I abandoned SRM builds altogether for the Clans, and went with the notion that I had to cowardly keep my distance with streaks only and harass IS SRM boats because otherwise I'd get freaking slaughtered! My Stormcrow became a SunChicken. Even then I usually got slaughtered as at the time, a Stormcrow with 5 missile slots would need more than 8 seconds to reload each launcher.

After quirks... I now only sport 2 SRM-6s, 2 Streak 6s, and an LRM launcher because I'm too terrified to get near an IS mech sporting SRMs as its only weapon.

Now IS mechs sporting SRMs + AC/20 I'll happily approach because they'll overheat easily (and are typically assaults so slower than dirt), but pure SRM boats?

Spoiler

Long story short... Clan missiles versus IS missiles with quirks and additional IS SRM damage? Only thing that Clans really have that they can compete with are Streaks and running like a chicken. (Now versus other mechs, sure Clan SRMs/Streaks will mess your day up. But compared to the pinpoint damage the IS has going, all I can say is shoot it). At least in my opinion being on both sides of it.