48 replies to this topic

[Rawnblaed]

I am a longtime fan of the Mechwarrior franchise and was excited to hear that it was coming online as an MMO. I recently got a computer capable of handling the game at above reccomended specs and just downloaded the client. I have only played a few free-to-play games but have found most of them to be pay-to-win; you need to spend money to get the goods that allow you to have your share of success at the game and therefore (for us competitive types) a reasonable amount of fun. Nobody lilkes butt roast every day even if you have to eat it sometimes. So as a new player to MWO who has a limited gaming budget and less gaming time than I would like, my question is where does this game fall on the free-to-play spectrum? I am sure there are ppl out there who have played more FTP games than me and have played this game for a decent amount of time who can give me a good idea of how much i really need to spend compared to others they have played.

[Blackfire1]

Not P2W at all. The cash mechs aren't much better then their normal versions. They just have a different weapon config or a mech based on lore.

There are enough Mc event and such also to be able to get one or two cash mechs for free.

[ZenFool]

In fact, most MC(cash) mechs are worse than their free counterparts. Your biggest issue will be mechbays. You start with four, which is not viable. Now there are a few ways to earn free mechbays, but it requires participation in CW, which is lethal for a brand new recruit. The only other way to earn mechbays is through the occasional event or with cash.

[LongJohnSilver]

Yeah in my opinion MWO is one of the best free to play games out there. They have plenty of events on each month that allow you to get things that you would normally have to pay money for, for example champion 'mechs or 'mech bays, these would normally cost MC (MechWarrior credits) which as you may know cost real money. The only other free to play game that I play actively is LoL which i feel is more pay to win than MWO. In my time playing this game (which i think is almost two years now) I have earned a decent amount of free stuff which if I added it all up would cost around $50-$100. Which is quite a decent amount of money. You don't really get an edge if you pay for any 'mechs you just get them sooner than you would if you grinded for them, and the hero 'mechs the majority of the time aren't as good as their free counter parts.

[Modo44]

MWO is not pay to win ever since the publisher went away (there was a bad period last year). You can unlock a stable of fully competitive mechs 100% free. You can get some customization options and mechbays via gameplay (from faction loyalty rewards and regular events hosted by PGI). You can not buy overpowered mechs for real money ever since hero mechs got trumped by various free variants, and Clan mechs became available for in-game currency. There is no pay to play mechanic like War Thunder's repair&rearm system. (War Thunder effectively locks top tier vehicles away from free players.) You can buy early access to mechs (mech packs -- main business model at this point), various grind reduction options, and various cosmetic items.

Edited by Modo44, 05 April 2015 - 08:25 PM.

[Sandersson Jankins]

It isn't pay to win.

However, they are able to charge high prices on virtual content because of the older, and thusly more financially stable crowd.

I have trouble explaining this to people. They see the prices, and they're like DAMN THATS SOME PAY2WIN SHITE MAN

But just because some of the packages are abhorrently expensive to one on a budget, doesn't make it pay2win. And I like that, good on PGI. The folks with the dosh can support the game while I throw a bit here and there on my wage-slave/student budget.

[InspectorG]

Not really P2W.

More like, Pay to get stuff earlier.

[Davers]

Additional mechbays are about $1.25 each (or so) and are really the only thing MWO has that everyone 'needs'.

But with all the mechs they give away, and the abundance of easy to get free mechbays in CW and various contests, one doesn't even have to buy them.

[Koniving]

Quite surprisingly, it is as low as it can possibly be.

The closest you can possibly get to 'pay to win' is the Pirate's Bane, an ECM hero Locust. This is only because of the state that ECM is in, which puts the value of this equipment, which in Battletech was relatively low, as being ridiculously high. And lets be honest, most mechs can one-shot-kill a Locust.

[RazorbeastFXK3]

Yeah, this game is definitely not a "Pay To Win" type of game. There are events that grant a chance to access rewards that you would otherwise have to pay for to get your hands on but ultimately there are ways to get around that. Latest news I heard is if you join a faction and earn enough loyalty points, you are awarded with mechbays but I haven't gotten myself into that yet.

As someone else mentioned, the packages mwomercs offers only gives players earlier access to the new toys but eventually they will become available to earn through paying with c-bills. (From the random events I've participated in I've earned almost x16 mechbays and I've earned free MC which allowed me to buy a few different colors for my 'mechs which I think is pretty cool.)

But in the end, it all comes down to skill, how well you handle your configs in the field and decent communication with your team which will net you a great experience while playing this game and not the amount of money you put towards what the game has to offer. As for me, I'm a freeloader so I haven't planned on putting money into this game but if I wanted to, this would be the game I'd do so 'cause I believe it's an awesome game with a great community and excellent moderators.

[B L O O D W I T C H]

InspectorG, on 05 April 2015 - 08:32 PM, said:

Not really P2W.

More like, Pay to get stuff earlier.

Uhm, more like, pay to be alpha tester.
payed 55 bucks for the hellbringer (which was one big center torso upon release). nevertheless, played yet again to alphatest masc.

I fully support and endorse mwo.

PGI is dishing out MC, mechbays and even champions on a regular basis (almost every week).

Hero-'mechs can be really good, but the current strongest (meta) mechs and builds are avalable for ingame currency.
If you truely want to play f2p only be prepared for a grind, tho.

Single biggest issue for new players are the (rather bad) trail-'mechs and the 4 starting mechbays. There are recommendations for starer decks for CW (a pretty hard gamemode if you're a new player with limited access to mechs and equipment) to farm free mechbays, you might want to look into that.

Edited by LOADED, 05 April 2015 - 10:02 PM.

[Ace Selin]

Buy some MC for mechbays as that is most required to have fun.

[Modo44]

Ace Selin, on 05 April 2015 - 09:02 PM, said:

Buy some MC for mechbays as that is most required to have fun.

There is no need for that anymore. You get mechbays very early for faction loyalty (level 2, I think), so a week in each faction with some CW matches gets you over 10 mechbays. You can also get more every other weekend when PGI hosts events. This will be more than you can fill unless you really play a lot.

[Tarogato]

14 months later and I still haven't spent a single penny on this game. Of course, I've had plenty of time to grind out the weekend events so I could get free mechbays and MC, but hey, it's possible.

If you have a "limited" budget rather than "no" budget, you'll be fine. Pick up some mechbays and/or get one of the Mastery Bundles (but not before you research the mechs a lot!)

Edited by Tarogato, 05 April 2015 - 09:10 PM.

[Peter2k]

Tarogato, on 05 April 2015 - 09:09 PM, said:

14 months later and I still haven't spent a single penny on this game. Of course, I've had plenty of time to grind out the weekend events so I could get free mechbays and MC, but hey, it's possible.

If you have a "limited" budget rather than "no" budget, you'll be fine. Pick up some mechbays and/or get one of the Mastery Bundles (but not before you research the mechs a lot!)

also look out for some of the tourneys, since PGI and IGP are not related any more they give away more stuff for free
I spent money because I like this game (well Mechwarrior in general)
and a little convenience

converted 150k mech xp to gxp this weekend, made it easier for me to try out a few new builds on my grasshopper in CW, didn't have to level those things up really
but my time is kinda precious



on pay to win

Heros are money makers (though only measly 30%, pfft, could be a 100%, its not like you play in the same mech for a 1000 matches)
but hardpoint wise are either the same quality as the free versions, or are just worse

and generally speaking its all about getting stuff a little earlier, or having more convenience
and there are really great chassis for free out already, though they might be quite expensive in C-Bills
mastery bundles are great values
though only if you already know what weight class you would like to pilot

[Romeo Deluxe]

If you like the game, make a Hero or Champion Mech your present to yourself. Once a year, save that lunch milk money.

Skip camouflage, a bit of a let down. It only unlocks for that mech.

[Anjian]

I regard these packages more not pay to win but sucker you into fund raising. There is absolutely no reason why should be paying $55 to $120 for any package in any game unless the development company is raising funds. So all these packages I see on MWO, they are similar to the packages I see with LoL, Star Citizen and Heavy Gear Assault ---- fund raisers.

But you know if you can afford it, why not? I would rather give monies to the companies making these rather than EA and other similar corporate monsters.

As for War Thunder, which has an ecosystem similar to World of Tanks, the primary cash flow comes from buying premium time and premium vehicles to speed up the grind towards higher tier, or buying into higher tier directly. However, higher tier does no necessarily mean winning, since all it does is match you with higher tier competition. You can find plenty of win just playing on the lower tiers where with the right plane or tank, which can be acquired cheaply, you can go club other people. Thus their F2P is a bit more different than those with a lot of packages; both games actually have a fairly low number of packages, and the price is scaled to tier (cheap on the lower tier, going up to around $50 at the highest tier).

In Asian F2P, like in games such as Age of Wushu, you see another form of F2P, which is rentals. Rent a ride for 30 days, a decal for a week, and stuff like that.

[aniviron]

I'm sorry, but everyone here who has stated that MWO is free of P2W, but Russ disagrees with you. He actually said that yes, MWO was pay to win completely during the wave 1 clan pack era, and that it edges around that now because there are mechs that can only be purchased with cash. He even used the term "Pay to win," this is not paraphrasing.

Is it bad right now? No, there are tons of games worse about it than MWO. That's mostly due to circumstance right now- all the cash-only mechs that you can get at this moment are underwhelming. MWO is teetering on the edge of being P2W pretty much constantly though- once the Arctic Cheetah comes out, it's going to be six more months where people with cash will have a clear cut advantage over those who do not. That's the definition of pay to win. Sorry guys, but that's how it is. The jury is still out on the Shadow Cat, Ebon Jaguar, and Executioner, but soon enough, the era of P2W will be back.

[Romeo Deluxe]

aniviron, on 06 April 2015 - 12:32 AM, said:

I'm sorry, but everyone here who has stated that MWO is free of P2W, but Russ disagrees with you. He actually said that yes, MWO was pay to win ..

Link?

Edited by Romeo Deluxe, 06 April 2015 - 12:45 AM.

[Ursh]

It's not P2W, it's pay to get out of newbie hell of trying to grind out your first few mechs so you can field something decent.

If you look at some of the ala carte packages, one of the mechs gives a 30% cbill bonus, so if you like the game, maybe buy one of the ala carte mechs from a package, because it will come with 3 variants.

It's the equivalent to a AAA title, and I've gotten way more hours out of MWO than I have any other game in the past 2+ years.