***EDIT*** Apparently, it is necessary to reiterate what constitutes a "new player" in the "new player help" forum. If you're good and you've played less than 80 drops, or have a sub-1 KDR and have played less than 100-120 drops, you're a new player. Read this.
UNLESS you're jumping right into Community Warfare. Then disregard.
If you're a "new player" then, and playing in the public queue, and looking to make the most of the C-Bill economy, then this might be of use to you.
***END EDIT***
It has come to my attention that there are now these "Mastery Packs" out there for MC. Further, many of us may have bought one or more of the big packages (Founders, Phoenix, Urbie, etc.). And I realized, that no one ever bothered to tell me about this certain something that I learned by doing, and it has made C-Bill purchases a lot easier for me.
Say you buy the Urbanmech package. That comes with THREE variants of the mech. Each variant has the same engine, and at least one small laser. Thing is, you won't need to have a valid configuration in all three simultaneously. You're driving around downtown River City in your shiny Urbie, one of three in the barn, and the engines and small lasers and heat sinks in the other two are just collecting dust. Unlike in the real world, you can just point-and-click your way through a cost-free engine swap any ol' time you feel like it (you don't even have to pay your techs, you whip cracking son of a ______)! So, why hold on to that gear?
Something I do, and it's something I recommend to you new folks as well: Whenever I put a mech away for the day, I strip all the modules and equipment and cockpit items.
At some point, you can go into your inventory from the home screen and see how many of what you own. Omnipods, engines, heat sinks, etc. It's all there. Say you have 14 IS AC/2s in your inventory. Are you EVER going to equip all 14 of them on a single mech? Even if you found one with 14 ballistic points on it (no such critter), that's 84 tons o' gun, never minding the structure weight and engine and gyro and cockpit. Look, the VERY MOST you'll ever equip on even a TROLLOLOLOL dakka mech is MAYBE six (a certain JM6 variant has 6 ballistic points, 3 to an arm, and this CAN be done as long as you don't care for things like ARMOR). So sell the other 8. You'll never use 'em anyhow.
Went and bought the whole selection of Locusts? GOOD ON YOU! I love those squishy little bugs, too. Thing is, now you'll have like a dozen machine guns and as many small lasers and some ridiculous number of medium lasers. Ask yourself, "Self, what's the MOST of any one thing I can or will ever install on ANY mech I own?" If you have more than what your self answers to that question, SELL THE DIFFERENCE! Have two STD 160 engines? You'll only ever use one at a time, so SELL THE OTHER for a few hundred thousand C-Bills. Have 40-something single heat sinks now? You simply will not ever install that many in a battlemech. Save 12, sell the rest.
Bought a HBK-4P? Knife fighter. Nice. HOT, but nice. Drink lots of water, and sell every medium laser you ever get again. That thing already hauls what, like EIGHT of 'em? That's a lot. The other twenty you have collecting dust in the back? Bye-bye!
PPCs? Look, unless you're planning to build a Death Star (7x ERPPC Battlemaster, WILL detonate after a single alpha), you'll probably never need more than, AT MOST, four of those things. While it may be entertaining to unload a shred-an-Atlas's-center-torso-in-one-shot battlemech, and deny his pals the payback kill by killing yourself with EPIC overheat, you're not going to use that as a match strategy. You could use the money, especially in TODAY'S MWO economy. Sell what you don't need.
Am I getting through to you? Is this in any way not clear?
I built almost 10,000,000 C-Bills Saturday, just selling stuff that I had in excess. Used the proceeds to help buy a couple new mechs. And how much do you wanna bet, that right away I had a couple excess pieces in my inventory? Yup. Made a little of that money back. ;-)
Spend smart, save smart, live longer, thank me later.
Edited by TheRAbbi, 05 August 2015 - 02:32 PM.