24 replies to this topic

[Hotthedd]

Fireeagle, on 08 June 2015 - 11:08 AM, said:

Thats why you make it a starterpackage so at least the game gets interestin for casual Gamers too!

Bringing in casual players is a worthy goal.

Angering a large percentage of your current player base by making them feel ripped off in order to go after casual players who may or may not stay is a mistake that I doubt PGI wants to repeat.

[FluffehBunneh]

I honestly wouldn't mind about a low price "noob pack", the more the merrier really.

I wouldn't feel cheated for having paid full price before if it manages to bring in lots of new players, and especially not if I could buy that pack myself if I wanted to.

It's also worth mentioning that unlike us, new players never had the c-bills and xp rewards we used to have. These have been nerfed so heavily over and over again that a noob would be lucky to have an average of 70k c-bills per game now.


What I'm less supportive of is offering a pack based around the only game mode that doesn't have a matchmaker.

As much as I hate it for a dozen different reasons, I have to admit the matchmaker still manages, most of the time, to do its job properly in the regular queue.

Tossing brand new players into a CW slaughter-fest against 12 veterans with meta-mechs stuffed with 20 million spacebucks worth of modules each can't possibly be a good idea.



I would much rather see a limited one purchase only starter pack that offers the following :

- 9 Mech bays
- 90 Days of Premium
- 1 Champion Hunchback 4P
- 1 Regular Stormcrow Prime
- Whatever else PGI might feel like adding


The champion hunchy and regular stormcrow "make up" for the events the new players might have missed before and immediately give them a good IS and Clan medium to toy around.

The 90 days of premium should make the grind to fill up a couple of their bays less painful and will help XP up their first mechs. It also baits the player into not wasting his 90 days of premium and play MWO a bit more than he would have without it...


During a -50% sale, 9 mech bays would cost 1350 MC and 90 days of premium would be between 3375 to 3750 MC depending on the premium pack (30 days = 1250 MC, 180 days = 6750 MC).

That's about 5,000 MC worth of Bays and Premium during a -50% sale or about 10,000 MC at full price.

At normal price (not counting the extra MC sale), 15 dollars would buy 3000 MC and 30 dollars 6500 MC.

I can see this pack fitting in nicely at 20 dollars considering it is mostly made of premium time anyway.


It is also pretty much on par with buying a bottom tier IS pack including all of the pre-order bonuses.

The Resistance Panther pack cost 20 bucks and offered 1 Hero mech + 2 regular variants, 3 mech bays and an extra empty one, 54 days of premium, Radar Derp, Seismic Wallhax and TIG modules and a couple of cockpit items.

The main difference is that this "starter pack" would be available ALL the time and delivered immediately.

[Jabilo]

I think if PGI get the idea that all a Steam release needs is a good starter pack we are already lost.

We need a series of really good interactive turorials / missions with voice acting introducing all key concepts over a number of episodes. Completing each of these should give an achivement with some juicy rewards - such as mechs. This should give you a mech in each weight class.

Then you get to join the public queue (not CW) and earn your cadet bonus.

Then (after a set number of drops / wins) you get to partake in a series of CW themed turorials / training missions with rewards that round out your drop deck.

Then you unlock CW.

All the time this is happening you should receive carefully timed e-mails helping you with subjects such as using the forums and finding a unit.

They might want to also update the website so it shows the actual mechs, maps and game modes available and actually release a manual or guide that people can read off line.

Or how about updating the mech lab so it actually accurately shows what all items do? For example, the only way to know the sensor range module also allows you to detect ecm mechs at certain ranges is to have been a die hard forum / patch note reader since the beginning of time.

Once they have done all this then they can start planning their starter pack.

How about a mentoring system where players can join a few matches with an old hand or friend without being dropped into a high elo group game (as now)?

The above should be available for free for every new starter. If you want to spend some real money on a juicy starter pack then you will receive this in additon.

Get people playing, get people having fun and help people to know what the f*ck is going in less than 50 painful first drops and you will have sucess.

Edited by Jabilo, 22 June 2015 - 01:46 PM.

[Greyhart]

As a relatively new player I think a starter pack is exactly what the game needs (as well as other things, PvE, tutorial, redesigned skill trees).

I would suggest that one be focused on the PUG queue say 1 of each weight class

Then one focused on CW one for IS and one for Clan.

To stop the whining about cheap mechs and I had to pay full price. I would suggest they be new variants of existing Mechs and that they also be available for c-bills (this would be a cheap means of introducing them and people not complaining that they paid more). Also this would mean that the IS could have double heat sinks etc.

Once you've got people used to the idea of paying for things they will have an easier time paying for mastery packs.

You could limit to one purchase per account.

[Exilyth]

This is a good idea which would nicely complement improved tutorials, although the price and content are debatable.

Starter pack should be cheap and show you what the game has to offer, so one mech w/mechbay and either C-Bills or XP bonus (10-15% or something), one custom pattern, three colors unlocked, one decal, one warhorn, a bit of premium time to boost your start, limited to one purchase/player (unless gifted to another player, so units could kickstart their new members if they wanted). One pack each of each weight class (make sure the assault is not a 100t) and tech base (is, clam).

Make it one of the chassis most used in FW and even many intermediate players and some 'pros' would get one.

Not sure about the price point, but it should be the sweet spot that's feeling like good value, low enough that you can justify spending "just this little bit of pocket money" to try and see where it takes you. Definately at least 'a bit' lower than current packs.


Cost for PGI:
~1 hour scouring forums and telemetry data for most used FW chassis.
~2-3 hour session discussing what goes into each pack.
Dunno how long remixing existing content into new packages takes, let's just say another 2 hours.
Deploying with the next patch on the live server: negligible.
So, about 6 hours of work for getting a higher influx of money and ensuring the games longevity.
Pretty cheap if you ask me.

Edited by Exilyth, 05 September 2017 - 11:13 AM.