3 replies to this topic

[Champion of Khorne Lord of Blood]

Alright so I was writing up a help post for my group for our new players and thought I'd share. Below is the unedited post.

Alright so I was looking at the starting bonuses you can get within 25 matches + training.

-Training gives 5 million cbills
-Your first 25 matches give a high boost to cbills equaling roughly 8 million
-25 matches will earn you anywhere between 1 million if you are losing every match to over 3 million if you are doing good in each match.
-When you first download if you go to the download page you can get a free day of premium time
-Premium time increases earnings by 50% and that stacks with the 25 match bonus but not the training.

Lets assume you do base line average and get 2 million for the 25 matches (a little under 100k a match) before bonuses, and that you do all 25 matches within the 24 hours of premium time you get (which you should try to do that if you want that money).

5 + (8*1.5) + (2*1.5) ---> 5+12+3 = 20 million cbills.
5 + (8) + (2*1.5) ---> 5+8+3 = 16 million cbills.


Yeah thats right, first 25 matches and you have 20 16 million cbills, thats enough to buy any mech in the game, if you wanted you could buy a bunch of lights, or a few mediums, or at least 3 inner sphere heavy or cheap assault mechs or two of the more expensive inner sphere assaults. Or you could go for the more expensive but more versatile clan mechs (you can swap out the hardpoints on those so they can basically be any variant or a mix of multiple), and get a few clan lights, up to two clan mediums, or a single clan heavy or assault with some millions left over for weapons testings.

Now with all those options you may be wondering what to buy to start out with and you really really don't want to waste 20 million cbills on a mech you really hate then have to really grind out 20 million at a low amount of money because you aren't doing good in the mech you bought.

Theres always the Innersphere with their king crabs or cheap mechs that you can get larger quantities of, but then theres the clan with its ability to specialize with a single chassis that can be used for whatever you want to run on it.

If you really hate running the same mech multiple times then you may want to go with the Inner Sphere, they do have some pretty decent mechs, buy 3 variants of a chassis and you can elite them for more bonuses even.

If you don't mind running the same mech a lot, but you want the ability to run any type of loadout you want then I'd suggest Clan. The high price means you'll probably only be able to afford one, I'd recommend a clan heavy mech, but you'll be able to do quite a bit with it and learn different weapon types along the way.

Out of all the clan heavies I'd suggest the Ebon Jaguar, Hellbringer, Timber Wolf, or Mad Dog. I haven't used the Timber Wolf or Summoner yet, but from what I've seen and from the builds I look at the Timber Wolf can run quite a variety of builds while the Summoner suffers from low weight to spend on weaponry.

Out of the 3 I've used the Ebon Jaguar was the most fun for me. It can carry very ballistic heavy builds or run energy only or even missile boat, really it has the ability to run a lot of whatever you want to put on it and do it pretty well and with good speed.

The Hellbringer comes with ECM to block you from enemy radar at longer ranges but comes with less firepower than the Ebon Jaguar and is a bit taller, still its a good mech and the ECM it brings can really support your team well and helps with being sneeky.

The Mad Dog can run dual heavy ballistic weaponry very well or a mix of lasers and ballistics, but its traditionally a missile boat. You can put up to 6 missile launcher on it for either massive short range power or a constant withering barrage of LRMS (I'd suggest 6 lrm5s, they have the least damage spread and are the lowest weight, one LRM5 kills about as fast as one LRM20 but with much less weight and much less wasted ammo.). With 6 lrm5s you still have a good amount of weight left over and can run either two laser arms for a maximum of 5 backup lasers or throw in some ballistic arms. Personally I run a medium laser, UAC5, and the 6 lrm5s, works pretty well.

Long post I know, but I hope it helped, with these mechs you can be earning some good Cbills even after your bonuses are over, and you can change up your playstyle for minimal cost via the omnipod system. With IS mechs you'd have to buy an entirely new chassis and upgrade it with Endo steel and DHS which can cost over 2 million dollars on anything 50 tons or heavier. Clan mechs come with upgrades already built in. If you are looking to find your playstyle then a clan mech can help you get that done without many regrets, once you figure it all out then you can start searching for some more specialized mechs to further your abilities.

EDIT:
Edited to reflect change in cadet bonus formula.

Edited by Dakota1000, 25 September 2015 - 03:51 AM.

[Rogue Jedi]

Dakota1000, on 24 September 2015 - 06:38 PM, said:

Alright so I was writing up a help post for my group for our new players and thought I'd share. Below is the unedited post.

Alright so I was looking at the starting bonuses you can get within 25 matches + training.

-Training gives 5 million cbills
-Your first 25 matches give a high boost to cbills equaling roughly 8 million
-25 matches will earn you anywhere between 1 million if you are losing every match to over 3 million if you are doing good in each match.
-When you first download if you go to the download page you can get a free day of premium time
-Premium time increases earnings by 50% and that stacks with the 25 match bonus but not the training.

Lets assume you do base line average and get 2 million for the 25 matches (a little under 100k a match) before bonuses, and that you do all 25 matches within the 24 hours of premium time you get (which you should try to do that if you want that money).

5 + (8*1.5) + (2*1.5) ---> 5+12+3 = 20 million cbills.

premium time does not stack with the cadet bonus, the cadet bonus is awarded through achievements, so your formula needs adjusting,

it should be 5 + 8 + (2 * 1.5 =3) =16

so if you do averagely in the first 25 matches, and play all 25 with premium time you may end up with enough for the a Timber Wolf or 2 Hunchbacks fully upgraded, possibly 3 Hunchbacks with 2 upgraded and a shared engine.

[Champion of Khorne Lord of Blood]

Really? When did they go and change that? I remember the cadet bonus always being added in as a boost to the cbill earnings in a match which could then be boosted further with both the premium and hero bonuses. At least that's how it was in 2013.

EDIT:
Just read about it, it was when they swapped it over to being an achievement. Oh well, at least with 16 million you'd still be able to buy any of the mechs I recommended and still have at least a million floating around.

Edited by Dakota1000, 25 September 2015 - 03:52 AM.

[SnagaDance]

It changed when it became a set of 25 Achievements. Achievements are never affected by any external factors: like Premium Time, Double XP Weekends, rewards from Challenges etc.