20 replies to this topic

[Grimm Hammer]

Hey everyone, Grimm here. I am excited as I have been playing 2 months now and love the game still. I have decided as well to purchase the IS Mauler pack as it looks to be a good deal on some really cool mechs. I also went over and took a look at the Clan mech packs and became extremely confused. They cost quite a bit more money but you do not receive anything more. The same amount of mechs in the IS pack versus the Clan packs, so why do they cost more REAL money? I understand the lore but there is a C Bill currency in check in game to account for this. So if PGI wanted to make them cost more per lore I would understand them costing more C Bills in game. But if you want to reach into my wallet and take my actual hard earned cash (that my wife didn't take lol) then I want a good value. I am probably just going to pass on the clan packs and grind the C Bills for them at a later date because I feel the value is low compared to the IS mech packs. And you could say "but the clan mechs are better and are capable of better defense and offense" Then I would say, "no way, because that would make this a Pay to Win game and PGI doesn't do that" I am fairly intelligent so if someone could enlighten me as to why all classes do not cost the same amount of real $ I would be thankful. Example: All heavy mechs were $15 all mediums were $10 etc... Please only leave positive comments as I am confused by the pricing and not looking for an Internet smack fest.

[o0Marduk0o]

CBill and MC prices are in line. Clan packages cost more because they use more expensive equipment, like always an XL engine. It can't be pay to win as you can buy them later with CBills.
When you look in the store, then you will see that the MC prices change the way CBill prices do, based on the build in equipment.
Package prices are the same for light or assault chassis, what has only one reason, to drive people to buy the bigger packages.

[Grimm Hammer]

I understand if CBill prices are higher as those are "fake" currencies. I do not understand how they reflect into real world money as to my dollar a heavy robot is just like another heavy robot.
Sorry as I am a market share major and this just doesn't ad up.

Edited by Grimm Hammer, 17 June 2015 - 01:12 AM.

[IraqiWalker]

Grimm Hammer, on 17 June 2015 - 01:11 AM, said:

I understand if CBill prices are higher as those are "fake" currencies. I do not understand how they reflect into real world money as to my dollar a heavy robot is just like another heavy robot.
Sorry as I am a market share major and this just doesn't ad up.

You're still getting that equipment right off the bat. You're getting DHS, XL engines ... etc. right off the bat. While 90% of al lIS mechs come without any of those.

There's a C-Bill to dollars exchange rate, and the pricing kinda fits (you're still getting almost double what you're paying for with a top tier package, before factoring in time saved)

[Grimm Hammer]

Ok I see what you guys are saying. My problem then lies within what PGI has made into a fake currency to real world dollar exchange rate. Based on that I will still wait and just grind C Bills for he clan mechs as basic economics dictate the better deal is in the IS packs for real world money spent.

Why doesn't PGI offer a premium subscription for like $15 a month like WoW. I could see it giving a 100% C Bill boost and 4 mechs a month of your choosing from each class or the like. I don't think the premium time they currently offer is a good deal unless you get it in a pack at a discount price. But I haven't played long enough and it seems this may be a "nickel and dime" micro trans game. Which is all fine and good if the game is fun to you and you deem it a good value. And for me right now I do. Forgive me for being so "picky" but my work schedule is nuts so I do not get to play as much as I would like so if I spend actual $ on an entertainment activity I want to get what I deem a "good deal" out of it.

Edited by Grimm Hammer, 17 June 2015 - 01:34 AM.

[IraqiWalker]

Grimm Hammer, on 17 June 2015 - 01:33 AM, said:

Ok I see what you guys are saying. My problem then lies within what PGI has made into a fake currency to real world dollar exchange rate. Based on that I will still wait and just grind C Bills for he clan mechs as basic economics dictate the better deal is in the IS packs for real world money spent.

Why doesn't PGI offer a premium subscription for like $15 a month like WoW. I could see it giving a 100% C Bill boost and 4 mechs a month of your choosing from each class or the like. I don't think the premium time they currently offer is a good deal unless you get it in a pack at a discount price. But I haven't played long enough and it seems this may be a "nickel and dime" micro trans game. Which is all fine and good if the game is fun to you and you deem it a good value. And for me right now I do. Forgive me for being so "picky" but my work schedule is nuts so I do not get to play as much as I would like so if I spend actual $ on an entertainment activity I want to get what I deem a "good deal" out of it.

Moving to a subscription model might cause more problems than it's worth. On the other hand, we have Premium time.

Another thing you're not factoring is the unique package variants that come with a 30% C-bill boost.

Edited by IraqiWalker, 17 June 2015 - 02:19 AM.

[XphR]

100% C-Bill boost and four mechs a month? They would quickly run out of mechs to give subscribers and then many subscribers would drop subscription after collecting and outfitting all of their mechs.

[CyclonerM]

Not a feature suggestion, moved to General Discussion. Keep going!

[Raggedyman]

Grimm Hammer, on 17 June 2015 - 12:35 AM, said:

I also went over and took a look at the Clan mech packs and became extremely confused. They cost quite a bit more money but you do not receive anything more. The same amount of mechs in the IS pack versus the Clan packs, so why do they cost more REAL money? I understand the lore but there is a C Bill currency in check in game to account for this. So if PGI wanted to make them cost more per lore I would understand them costing more C Bills in game. But if you want to reach into my wallet and take my actual hard earned cash (that my wife didn't take lol) then I want a good value. I am probably just going to pass on the clan packs and grind the C Bills for them at a later date because I feel the value is low compared to the IS mech packs. And you could say "but the clan mechs are better and are capable of better defense and offense" Then I would say, "no way, because that would make this a Pay to Win game and PGI doesn't do that" I am fairly intelligent so if someone could enlighten me as to why all classes do not cost the same amount of real $ I would be thankful. Example: All heavy mechs were $15 all mediums were $10 etc... Please only leave positive comments as I am confused by the pricing and not looking for an Internet smack fest.

The CBill to dollar cost is pretty established, check the link in my sig for the maths. The packs are hard to gauge though as they tend to have a lot of freebies included in them, especially before launch. A "price per chassis class" wouldn't work though, as you would need to do it by tonnes to make it semi-viable but even then different mechs have different kit so there would be 'bargins' galore and stuff that just wouldn't be touched if it was a single price.

As for "pay to win": yeah, the better stuff costs more in $$ and CBills. Long standing argument, it's mostly Pay-To-Win/Pay-To-Have-Advantage because the drops are based on weight rather than battle-value.

[IraqiWalker]

Raggedyman, on 17 June 2015 - 03:45 AM, said:

As for "pay to win": yeah, the better stuff costs more in $$ and CBills. Long standing argument, it's mostly Pay-To-Win/Pay-To-Have-Advantage because the drops are based on weight rather than battle-value.

Even then, I'd argue for "pay-to-have-early-access" rather than P2W, because no matter how good a mech is, I can still kill it in any other mech I have.

[Felbombling]

Grimm Hammer, on 17 June 2015 - 01:33 AM, said:

Forgive me for being so "picky" but my work schedule is nuts so I do not get to play as much as I would like so if I spend actual $ on an entertainment activity I want to get what I deem a "good deal" out of it.

This right here is where the wheels might come off for you.

[valrond]

Raggedyman, on 17 June 2015 - 03:45 AM, said:

The CBill to dollar cost is pretty established, check the link in my sig for the maths. The packs are hard to gauge though as they tend to have a lot of freebies included in them, especially before launch. A "price per chassis class" wouldn't work though, as you would need to do it by tonnes to make it semi-viable but even then different mechs have different kit so there would be 'bargins' galore and stuff that just wouldn't be touched if it was a single price.

As for "pay to win": yeah, the better stuff costs more in $$ and CBills. Long standing argument, it's mostly Pay-To-Win/Pay-To-Have-Advantage because the drops are based on weight rather than battle-value.

Well, this is both true and false. It is true for the C-Bills -> MC conversion, but Hero mechs cost 75 MC per ton of the mech, it doesn't matter the equipment it carries, be it an XL engine, DHS, Endosteel or expensive weapons, they cost only based on tonnage, not equipment. Right now, the 50% more than the clan mech packs cost is not justifiable. It maybe was when they first launched the clans, before all of the nerfs, when Clan mechs were better than IS mechs. Now they are not, they're just more expensive and, many of them are pretty much useless, that's why I passed on the wave 3 despite having bought every mech pack there is (i picked wave 2 because I wanted the Mad Dog and the Hellbringer and that's it)

[LordBraxton]

OP says 'I might be wrong, and this might be a nickel and dime type of game' Yeah it's more like $20s nd $50s here or there.

[Dracol]

valrond, on 17 June 2015 - 05:11 AM, said:

Right now, the 50% more than the clan mech packs cost is not justifiable. It maybe was when they first launched the clans, before all of the nerfs, when Clan mechs were better than IS mechs.

IS pre sale mech packs require either a person to have saved c-bills or equipment in their inventory when they are released in order to make them combat effective. Running into a pug match with Single Heat sinks on a newly released IS mech is pay to lose.

Now, if you took the money you saved by buying the IS pack instead of a clan pack, you could purchase the c-bill packages in order to mod the mechs to make em a decent play.

With clan packs, in theory, no c-bills are required to make em combat effective for the pug queue.

tl:dr: IS preorder packs are cheaper initially, but require additional in game resources (or cash to purchase cbills) to bring em to the effective level of Clan preorder mechs right out of the box.

[-Vompo-]

Some of us who don't really have time to grind and therefore have little c-bills are paying real money for the time we don't have to grind c-bills for the upgrades. I'm fine with that. I value my time and I hate grinding so paying a bit extra to eliminate some of the grind is fine.

[Water Bear]

I don't understand your confusion, exactly. Since you buy "fake" currency with real money at a fixed exchange rate, the fact that the clan mechs costs several times more "fake" currency explains why they cost several times more real money.

Whether or not you think they're worth the extra dough (I never have) is up to you.

[SpiralFace]

The big thing to keep in mind is that the EXE comes pre-upgraded with a TON of high value equipment in it (MASC alone is a fairly expensive piece of equipment.)

And the biggest thing that makes clans more valuable is the fact that you really don't need to invest nearly anything in fully kitting them out.

It took me less then 3 mil to outfit ALL 4 of the Executioners that I got. On IS designs, 3 mil gets me a Double heat sink and Endo steel upgrade for ONE mech. I can't even fully optimize a resistance mech off of that cost.

Sure it translates into more real world money, but to me, its worth it just to alleviate the grind that you are FORCED to put into IS designs in order to fully upgrade them.

I mean, I fully kitted out 4 Heavies and 4 Assault mechs for less then 7 Mil TOTAL.

7 Mil total would pretty much only be enough to fully upgrade ONE catapult mech.

So more real world cost for MUCH reduced grind cost in game. Seems like a fair trade to me.

[Ghogiel]

They just had an opportunity to up prices on packs and took it. They knew the player base would salivate over timberwolves. And clan prices stuck. Nothing to do with tech and **** lol.

Welcome to F2P

[Water Bear]

Ghogiel, on 17 June 2015 - 07:06 AM, said:

They just had an opportunity to up prices on packs and took it. They knew the player base would salivate over timberwolves. And clan prices stuck. Nothing to do with tech and **** lol.

Welcome to F2P

I wonder about these prices. I mean, $120? Really? If this were the good ol' days, $120 would buy me 2-3 copes of this game for my PC. I'm not going to pay that every 3 months. In fact, it's my goal to never pay anything more for this game, ever.

But back on topic...

[Raggedyman]

valrond, on 17 June 2015 - 05:11 AM, said:

but Hero mechs cost 75 MC per ton of the mech, it doesn't matter the equipment it carries, be it an XL engine, DHS, Endosteel or expensive weapons, they cost only based on tonnage, not equipment.

Hero mech's come at a premium due to their bonus CBIlls, so whilst they are all priced on weight brackets it's an 'overpricing' for the bonus rather than the kit, as they are all more expensive (sometimes considerably so) than of their regular/non-hero counterparts.

Basically they are a bad comparison due to their specialness/premium pricing, as they are not costed on their comparable CBill value.

valrond, on 17 June 2015 - 05:11 AM, said:

Right now, the 50% more than the clan mech packs cost is not justifiable. It maybe was when they first launched the clans, before all of the nerfs, when Clan mechs were better than IS mechs. Now they are not, they're just more expensive and, many of them are pretty much useless, that's why I passed on the wave 3 despite having bought every mech pack there is (i picked wave 2 because I wanted the Mad Dog and the Hellbringer and that's it)

When you say "justifiable" what do you mean? I'm not saying that they or they aren't, just that it's an incredibly vague term to us. For example you could mean "not worth the money because its not fun" or "cheaper to buy from the store" or "not an 'efficient cbill conversion rate" or something else entirely.

IraqiWalker, on 17 June 2015 - 04:29 AM, said:

Even then, I'd argue for "pay-to-have-early-access" rather than P2W, because no matter how good a mech is, I can still kill it in any other mech I have.

Pay-To-Access is certainly a large chunk of the launch packs, totally agreed with you on that. I would say there is certainly "pay-to-edge" though, as stronger mechs do cost more money. However I am 100% down with you that there is no "Pay-To-Insta-Win" golden gun out there, as I've seen trial mechs chew through 100ton Heros as the big spender forgot to learn how to pilot.