40 replies to this topic

[Cyberiad]

I've seen a lot of free to play games have daily achievements that are easy to complete as long as they play the game. I think daily achievements would help MWO keep a healthy daily active user count.

A few examples of what daily achievements could look like:
-Play 10 matches, Reward: 10 MC
-Play 5 matches as a light Mech, Reward: 5 UAV consumables
-Play 5 matches as a Medium Mech, Reward: 500,000 cbills
-Complete all daily achievements, Reward: Mechbay

Some may argue that giving away stuff for free would decrease game revenue. However I think this is a major misconception with F2P games in general. A lot of very successful F2P games do exactly this and have enormous daily revenues such as Soccer Spirits and Puzzle & Dragons.

In the wake of the new matchmaker, a lot of people seem to be complaining that wait times for matches is too long. A lot of these players are the ones that regularly make in game purchases in MWO but may not feel inclined to due to current wait times. By increasing the playerbase to levels where wait times are not so tedious, this playerbase may just spend more money in MWO.

Also on the topic of F2P in-game purchases, the most successful F2P games do not have purchases that are necessary for progressing in the game. They instead have "fun" in game purchases that people generally buy simply because they enjoy buying whatever it is they buy in the F2P game. In MWO currently, with just 4 mechbays for a free player, as soon as that player has mastered the mechs and have all the modules and weapons they could want, they become unable to progress in the game without having to essentially erase past progression by selling their mechs. The only way to gain more progression on that account would be to purchase more mechbays with real money or through CW/events. For a new player though, CW is too dead and events are too spread out for them to reliably earn new mechbays.

I think what this game needs the most, and what would improve our matchmaker wait times the most is a larger player base. I think there are a lot of people who follow MWO and really like the game, however do not play the game on a regular basis due to the slow progression available in the game through c-bill earnings alone. One common feature across all F2P games is the feeling that you are progressing somehow and this is something that is generally needed in order to keep the game alive. Even non free-to-play games require this in order to keep an healthy online daily active user count.

Currently in MWO I've noticed very short wait times generally right after a patch. This might show that most MWO players have little motivation to play the game unless new content is being added. Having daily achievements would encourage players to play the game every day instead of only on patch days, which I think is kind of the way it is right now for a lot of the population.

Edited by Silicon Life, 01 September 2015 - 02:07 PM.

[TyphonCh]

For a F2P platform something like daily or weekly challenges should have been in game since the beggining. Even something as simple as a Daily Destruction: log in and play one game awards 50K C-bills

[StandingInFire]

While I agree we need daily rewards (other than just 2x xp on first win), and as someone who currently doesn't really play mwo much (cbill rewards are to low to get me to play unless there is a really good event going on), the ones you listed are far to generous.

Imo they just need to expand on the 2x XP reward to also include cbills, so first win of the day in each mech gives you decent rewards, it would encourage you to play many different mechs and reward people who invest in mwo and have lots of mechs as a result.

[Elizander]

Based on games that I play which implement this, the most effective that keeps me logging in are the 7 day, 15 day, and 30 day login promos that have some leeway (like you have 40 days to log in 30 days) and have really good prizes in the middle and end of it.

Right now the game I'm playing, Summoner's Legion (a web-based card game) usually rewards me with a good card after logging in for a set amount of time while giving out gold (paid currency) and silver (free currency) as well as some upgrade materials along the way.

The issue I see with MWO for this system is that the game doesn't have a lot to give away. Card games like the one I play require multiple copies of cards to upgrade so they can just give out the same stuff and it'll be useful. We don't have that here and while we have a lot of mechs, it's still a very limited variety. MC and C-bills, Mechbays, GXP and consumables are the bread and butter giveaways and they already do that with other events and CW.

They can also do something similar to Tera Online where logging in 3-7 consecutive days builds up a buff that benefits you (I disagree with their implementation because it buffs your HP and damage so if you haven't logged in in awhile you are gimped a bit) but a stacking c-bill or xp buff might work out.

Another thing they can give away are "Shards" or blueprints or salvage points for specific equipment or mechs. Instead of giving away say (just for example) a Sparky Hero Mech (or a custom mech for the event), they give out "Salvaged Sparky Components" and you'd need 3, 10, 50, 100 of these components before you are able to trade them in for a Sparky. This can also apply to weapons, modules, camos, colors etc. It's a way to give something out over a long period of time. It's like "Hey you get this shiny thing but you gotta log in 30 days before you get it. Not a bad deal, rite?"

Oh! One more thing, they can also give out loot boxes for log in rewards.

Edited by Elizander, 01 September 2015 - 02:23 PM.

[FupDup]

Heroes of the Storm has these.

"Play 3 games as a Warrior hero"
"Win 3 games"
"Play 2 games as a Starcraft hero"
"Play 8 games"

etc. etc...The reward level depends on the difficulty (winning gives more than just playing, more games means more end payout).

[FupDup]

Elizander, on 01 September 2015 - 02:15 PM, said:

...
The issue I see with MWO for this system is that the game doesn't have a lot to give away. Card games like the one I play require multiple copies of cards to upgrade so they can just give out the same stuff and it'll be useful. We don't have that here and while we have a lot of mechs, it's still a very limited variety. MC and C-bills, Mechbays, GXP and consumables are the bread and butter giveaways and they already do that with other events and CW.

You could also give away some equipment like guns or heatsinks?

[M4rtyr]

OP brings up a good point... one thing that might get me to play more is if there was a way to earn a mechbay reward. From a daily is too easy, maybe like some weekly reward or something.

But I always get turned off by the limited number of mechs I can get and don't want to spend money just to have more variety to pick from. If I could get more spaces I might spend money either on mechs or camos... if I also liked the balance of the game which I don't atm... But having to start by buying mechbays, yeah never getting any money from me.

[LordNothing]

first win of the day cbill bonuses would help a lot.

[Vlad Ward]

You can earn mech bays by playing CW.

[M4rtyr]

Vlad Ward, on 01 September 2015 - 02:26 PM, said:

You can earn mech bays by playing CW.

Heh, that info should be more evident... I've not read any info on CW because so many people say it's dead and other than selecting my faction and the map there's not much info about what you get for doing it and such from the interface.

[FupDup]

Vlad Ward, on 01 September 2015 - 02:26 PM, said:

You can earn mech bays by playing CW.

Ewwwww, CW...

[LordNothing]

thats probibly the main reason pugs bother with cw. its kind of true for me. been doing my rounds to win the first 2 mech bays for each fraction. currently have a large number of empty bays so im not playing as many games now. not far from winning my 50th bay.

was disapointed that the last event didnt cover cw games. im starting to think all events should otherwise you end up temporary diverting the few players that are still there.

Edited by LordNothing, 01 September 2015 - 02:33 PM.

[CDLord HHGD]

I like the idea though there should be no MC rewards for a daily mission. Certainly not a mechbay. XP/GXP/CB bonuses only and maybe a "veteran" award where if you complete ~100 daily mission sets, you then get MC/title/mechbay/cockpit item/mech/etc.

[Odium]

Every game like this needs "quests" or "missions". It is amazing how people get hooked on completing them.

I don't even play Hearthstone much anymore but I LOVE getting my quests done and make sure I do my best to complete them.

More headscratchers from this company. No suprise but Blizzard does it right.

[Belazaar]

Instead paying people to play the game, how about making a game that is fun to play.

There is a thought.

[Elizander]

FupDup, on 01 September 2015 - 02:19 PM, said:

You could also give away some equipment like guns or heatsinks?

Those will work for 'fillers'. My main concern are the big draws or major attractions for the login prizes, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow that will force people to log in every single day to get it.

To be honest, I think it will be difficult since PGI said they have no dedicated cockpit item artists (and I assume no dedicated 'cosmetic' artists that are assigned to create assets for giveaways. If they are running an efficient ship and a small team, anything they make should earn them revenue to justify the costs.

Edited by Elizander, 01 September 2015 - 02:53 PM.

[FupDup]

Elizander, on 01 September 2015 - 02:49 PM, said:

Those will work for 'fillers'. My main concern are the big draws or major attractions for the login prizes, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow that will force people to log in every single day to get it.

I guess it should depend on the level of challenge of the mission...for something small like score 300 damage in a game or whatever, then a small reward like some guns would be fitting. But winning several games in one day would probably warrant a modest C-Bills stimulus.

[M4rtyr]

Belazaar, on 01 September 2015 - 02:46 PM, said:

Instead paying people to play the game, how about making a game that is fun to play.

There is a thought.

lol, touche.

If this were the case I'd deffinately spend money.

[Triordinant]

Belazaar, on 01 September 2015 - 02:46 PM, said:

Instead paying people to play the game, how about making a game that is fun to play.

There is a thought.

This is the actual solution. Everything else is a band-aid.

[TyphonCh]

Belazaar, on 01 September 2015 - 02:46 PM, said:

Instead paying people to play the game, how about making a game that is fun to play.

There is a thought.

It is really fun though. That's why we're here. Mechwarrior is one of those games I keep coming back to, despite all the pissing and moaning we do