14 replies to this topic

[The Toilet Bro]

Greetings,

My concern is the cost of modules for Mech slots and Weapon slots.

As a new(ish) player, I am working hard to raise the C-Bills to buy 3 variant chassis of the same Mech type. That is already alot of drops to do in order to earn that cash. I want to add Weapon Modules to a chassis that I've already brought past the Basic Tech Tree. Herein lies my dilemma. Hovering around 5Mil C-Bills, I must make the choice to blow my wad on a single Weapon Modules for my MDD-B that would increase clan ER Small Laser Range by a measly 4% at module level 2 or do I continue to slog it out in drops trying to reach the approx 11Mil C-Bills needed to purchase a second variant chassis of the MDD. Either way I am waiting through weeks of constant public drops to build the resources necessary to advance in this game.

I make it a point to see what I can get out of a Free to Play game without spending an RL Money on it.

I understand the incentive to spend. I get it. PGI has a business model to stick to. I do not have the expendable capital to invest in a game that feels like work just to get to an even playing field.

I would just like the concern addressed that it would take me almost a full year of public drops (at my dismal win/loss ratio) to bring a full Drop Deck of 4 mechs up to Elite status in the Skill Trees. This is my goal as it seems that the opponents and teammates who do the best in matches are the ones that have all the advanced goodies available to Elite and Master Mech Chassis. In order to compete I am busting my hump. This replaces the fun aspect of the game with slog work. It makes it a job. I do not need another Job. I desire a game that is fun to play and challenging to my skills without needing an investment of time that borders on levels that would make a labor lawyer sweat.

Please lower the cost of modules from 3Mil C-Bills to something more manageable for players who have been at this game for just under a month ( I am thinking of all of our Steam Newbies out there) and who may only have a few hours a week to drop in matches.

And perhaps, just perhaps, consider lowering the requirement of having 3 owned variants of a chassis in order to even open the Elite skill trees. Two would be more acceptable to a new player who is short on C-Bills and time to earn them.

Any constructive commentary is appreciated.

If you just want to flame on a clanner for crying about nerfed heatsinks, this is not the thread to do it in.

The Clan double heat sinks are nerfed way too hard. There I said it.



Have a great day

Edited by CaradocTravena, 16 December 2015 - 05:16 PM.

[Hotthedd]

A f2p game needs a grind. The grind can be shortened by paying real money. It is up to the player to decide if paying for the shortcut is worth it.

It also needs C-bill sinks. Believe it or not, you eventually get to a point where the in-game currency is no longer an issue.

Every player before you had to deal with the grind one way or the other. Making a game that allows new pilots to have every advantage as veteran pilots not only gets rid of the grind, but it gets rid of progression. It also leads to less player retention due to the lack of investment a player must put into the game to get end-game equipment.

Lastly, how would you make it fair to those who paid full price for their modules? Even a refund at this point would not address the opportunity cost those players paid while they were saving up for the same modules, etc.

In the BT universe, veteran pilots were the ones who had been around the longest. The system in place, though not perfect, simulates that.

[Russhuster]

As i stated in an similar thread iam the opinion that the Module prices are okay,..maybe PCI could give some welcome gift of one module to new and or steam players

But beieve it or not,.. if you dont give up and driving a clan mech says you do like the competiotion because clan is inferior to IS in many ways here,.. you will get more than enough c-bills
just this christmas event will spill with the gifts like mc cbills and premium time lots of in game currency to your Outreach or Galatea bank account *g*
when you play some year you will have enough modules

here some advice
Use the GXP you gain to unlock the module all its steps then you will get more than measy 4% out of that by same costs
when you unlock all 5 steps of that module it will grant 10% range buff and cost the same

when you get better you will earn 200-300K even in a simple pug game so there is really plenty of cbills and a useful way is imho spending it on modules



but first you should get 3 Chassis of the mech you like best and unlock all the skilltree options
that gives an healthy boost to your mechs abilitys without cbill costs of any sort
these skilltree you should unlock with the normal mech xp
DONT use GXP for that in the beginning
later on even that doesnt really matter anymore

enjoy the game and ... gute Jagd

Edited by Russhuster, 24 December 2015 - 05:37 AM.

[Jagg3d]

We have received many modual's from events and pre-orders from PGI. Play and you will get them as well.

[Bhodi Li773]

Remember the idea behind modules is a pilots "skill". This means the longer you play(more mech xpyou have) and you can "skill up" your pilot. This is a broken system as modules need to be swapped to another mech for the benefits they give but it is only system in place.

To make your life easier to grind c- bills here are some basic tips. :

1. Use UAV consumable module.Yes they cost 40k per use but they give you lots of xp that can be used to skill up with. Drop UAV beside or in middle of enemy group to get lots of c-bill bonus, mech xp and gxp. More than worth the 40 K investment. Also shooting down enemy UAV s get u cash and xp too.

2. Assist bonus is if u do ANY damage to an enemy mech that gets destroyed before you die.As long as you get 1 damage to it you get bonus.See a big group of enemies ,shoot and sweep your lasers across the whole group,retreat and play to stay alive.

3. Spotting/scouting bonus. By locking targets first® you get 3000 c bills per mech .You have seen this when someone hits R so they cycle through an enemy group fast and get the cash. Also gives team members heads up on enemy location.

When spotting try to lock onto big targets assaults ,heavies etc as they r easier to hit or target and hold lock.This gives your team more time to cause damage and gets you more c- bills. Lock targets that are in the open,slow and out of position.Any mech with LRMS loves to hear HARD lock on (J)uliet Dire Wolf.

4. Do not get greedy. Never run ahead of group for what u think is an easy kill. You will end up being shot in back as you block your own teams line of fire on target and usually die in process losing all those juicy c bills because you died unnecessarily before enemy assists bonus could kick in.

5. Do not start out playing heavy or assault mechs. They cost you way more in c-bills and if u chose poorly then your out of luck. They are also usually first mechs targeted so you will die fast if u are not a good pilot and use terrain to give yourself cover. Start out with Light mechs cheap on c-bills and easier to get bonuses with. They also give u speed,better to get out of bad situations. This also means you cover more ground and will get more familar with maps.

6. Of course the inevitable buying of premium time. MWO has events on a regular basis that give you mech bays, MC,C-bills and weapons as prizes PLUS premium time. EVENT premium time is started immediately as soon as redeemed so cash in grab bags from these events when you know you will be home to max out the benefits from them(weekends, days off etc).

You can also sell off these unwanted weapons from your inventory for some quick C- Bills. Hope this will make your C-Bill shortage a little less drastic and help you xp out those mechs faster. Remember ..... Play The Game ... Don t Let The Game Play You !. O7 Mechwarrior !

[Kanya Pryde]

Believe it or not, I played for my first year without buying modules.

Then I bought some, and had fun with that.

Then I acquired more mechs than what I can possibly ever hope to module out and now I'm back to playing without them most of the time.

Moral of the story: Modules are "fun" but you don't need them to be a good player.
If you have a mech that you love and want to maximize it's potential and plan to pilot that mech a whole lot, then buy modules for it. Otherwise continue to build your army of mechs until you find one that you love enough to keep piloting it over and over.

[Willard Phule]

I say go ahead and reduce the cost, but refund the difference to those of us that have bought a ton of them by grinding. It's ok to lower the curve for the newest wave of new players, but it's not OK to screw the rest of us that have stuck with the game since Beta.

[Perigard Z]

Is it a net positive to use a uav because of the cbill bonuses? Especially if you have premium time on?

[Hotthedd]

Perigard Z, on 24 January 2016 - 03:04 PM, said:

Is it a net positive to use a uav because of the cbill bonuses? Especially if you have premium time on?

It is a positive to use the UAV well because it can increase your communication and therefore your chances of winning.

Using it to make C-bills is not the best strategy, because even if used properly you are dependent on your team actually taking advantage of the information before it is destroyed.

[Willard Phule]

Perigard Z, on 24 January 2016 - 03:04 PM, said:

Is it a net positive to use a uav because of the cbill bonuses? Especially if you have premium time on?

You better believe it. There's FAR more cbills to be had if you know how to play the bonuses than there are in simply getting kills. Counter ECM, UAV locked damage...you name it.

[Jenovah]

Bhodi Li773, on 08 January 2016 - 12:17 PM, said:

Remember the idea behind modules is a pilots "skill". This means the longer you play(more mech xpyou have) and you can "skill up" your pilot. This is a broken system as modules need to be swapped to another mech for the benefits they give but it is only system in place.




To make your life easier to grind c- bills here are some basic tips. :




1. Use UAV consumable module.Yes they cost 40k per use but they give you lots of xp that can be used to skill up with. Drop UAV beside or in middle of enemy group to get lots of c-bill bonus, mech xp and gxp. More than worth the 40 K investment. Also shooting down enemy UAV s get u cash and xp too.

Uh, no- Unless done correctly you're wasting cbills, and even with well placed UAV's its still a cbill sink. If he's after Cbill's and not xp/gxp don't use consumables at all. Ask any Veteran player- hell, look at Kin3tix's guide and he even states the same thing. Get your mechs, then modules, then waste extra cbill on consumables if desired.

Bhodi Li773, on 08 January 2016 - 12:17 PM, said:

5. Do not start out playing heavy or assault mechs. They cost you way more in c-bills and if u chose poorly then your out of luck. They are also usually first mechs targeted so you will die fast if u are not a good pilot and use terrain to give yourself cover. Start out with Light mechs cheap on c-bills and easier to get bonuses with. They also give u speed,better to get out of bad situations. This also means you cover more ground and will get more familar with maps.

Rather than say this, my advice would be look (once again at Kin3tix's guide) to see what mechs are considered to be optimum (of course, for teamplay, but he has advice for that as well) and select mech's that work to your play style giving you a good time as well as solid gameplay. I used to be a hardcore light pilot, since they were cheap and easy, assaults were moderately expensive to set up for ready play. However, I find that mostly I spend time in med/heavy and have wasted cbills on many lights. Read Kin3tix's guide and make a choice based on what's fun for you so you want to play and enjoy the matches and will be willing to play more.

Bhodi Li773, on 08 January 2016 - 12:17 PM, said:

You can also sell off these unwanted weapons from your inventory for some quick C- Bills. Hope this will make your C-Bill shortage a little less drastic and help you xp out those mechs faster.

I would highly recommend never selling anything- mech's, weapons, engines (especially these, and even more so with XL's) as you get no where close to the investment you put into them- and quite possibly you will be needing them in the future. Only in certain circumstances will I ever get rid of engines- such as a STD engine that I have 3-5 of, probably comes with a stock build, with nothing to put them in. I say this because you will always be buying new mechs and may find you will need even something as small as extra MLas and the difference between immediately running that mech could be the cbill for weapons if your tight on funds. Granted, 1-2 matches will buy a couple of weapons, but still, you just dont make the cbill for selling vs what you invested to purchase them.

I do break this rule with LRM's. I don't use them, and only keep 2 of each LRM that just happened to get in my inventory after stripping a mech (because one day I just MIGHT use them XD)

**Edit- the best cbill rates I find is to 1) Run with a solid group. 2) Run premium. However, given you don't have the disposable income, find a solid group to drop with that will hopefully ensure a win through teamwork. I'm not talking about, "git gud join clan/unit," just running with solid friends at the least.

I run near solely CW, with no modules for my mechs other than an old zoom module (only one), and I can farm 8mil cbills a day nearly with premium time. I average around 8-900k per match + 300k for a win. Even a poor match nets me 300k + the 300k for a win, not to mention the faction rewards.

Edited by Jenovah, 02 February 2016 - 05:36 AM.

[Brandon Gail]

In short, be a team player- not necessarily the player with the most kills or damage, but the player who helps his team win. This will net you the most XP and c-bills.

[Strength Damage Cliff Racer]

Regarding UAV profits - there are none. Even with premium time and good placement in good map and good players in your team you'll be lucky to get the half back.
Net income bumps furiously though.
Hence the best tactics - get friends™ and switch on who's taking one for the team.

[Strength Damage Cliff Racer]

Also, UAV bumps profits for ENEMIES too. Because whenever they are blobbed together, all of them receive protection money whenever someone gets hit.
Hence ability to get a little bit more money with AMS - your AMS can't kill all the missiles, but it allows your teammates to take more blows.

[Appogee]

CaradocTravena, on 16 December 2015 - 05:14 PM, said:

I make it a point to see what I can get out of a Free to Play game without spending any RL Money on it.

I can't see why PGI should even try to accommodate the concerns of people who have the stated goal of not financially supporting the game.

Some will respond "without the free players there won't be enough of a player base". But meh, in my experience, the leechers generally move on pretty quickly to other things. And I'd rather drop with people who care about the game, so no great loss, either way.

CaradocTravena, on 16 December 2015 - 05:14 PM, said:

...it seems that the opponents and teammates who do the best in matches are the ones that have all the advanced goodies available to Elite and Master Mech Chassis.

And guess how the vast majority of us did that...? By playing the game, and earning CBills. Some of us bought Hero Mechs and Premium Time to accelerate our earnings.

But none of us were even able to spend money to Elite chassis, and very very very few people ever spent money on buying CBills to buy modules.

CaradocTravena, on 16 December 2015 - 05:14 PM, said:

I do not need another Job. I desire a game that is fun to play and challenging to my skills without needing an investment of time

And don't forget, you also want that without paying a cent.

So, goodbye and best wishes for your ongoing quest to get great games for free.

Or you can spend the price of two cups of coffee and buy a few CBill accelerators.

Edited by Appogee, 21 February 2016 - 03:58 AM.