11 replies to this topic

[Bud Crue]

TLDR: Based on what we know of the new tree and related mechanisms I expect the variety of mechs being purchased and played to plummet and most of my mechs to essentially cease to exist as I won't bother playing/leveling them as group queue restricts what I play. Thoughts?
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It occurred to me that since the group queue tonnage changes came down, I have only played an assault mech once. The only reason I played that mech, was because it was a rare evening when only a couple of other people were on line at that moment when I logged in. Normally I have been playing weights of between 60 and 35 tons.

This got me to thinking if when the new skill tree drops, and if they do increase the XP costs of leveling the mechs significantly, will I even bother leveling most (any) of my Assault mechs or most of my lights?

This then got me to thinking, that out of 149 mastered mechs I only am regularly playing maybe 25 of em, so if the leveling cost really is high then I don't think I will bother with the grind again and just use my refunded XP on those I like and moth ball the rest.

I suspect that there are others in the same situation/frame of mind, and I can't help but wonder further that if others do what I suspect that I will be doing (see above) how that will limit/stifle the variety of mechs we see in game; especially in modes where tonnage restrictions already limit what is viable.

Finally then, I started thinking about how new players might approach this, especially absent the "need for three" model. It seems to me that the ancillary tendency to pokemech is going to be seriously curtailed in a model where you only need one mech to master it, where XP cost to master is presumably higher (more grindy), and where most modes of this game have fairly stringent tonnage restrictions.

Anyway, interested to read how other people expect this to play out.

Edited by Bud Crue, 02 February 2017 - 02:42 PM.

[Snazzy Dragon]

I simply won't be buying any new mechs unless they offer unique configurations (I.E quad AC/10 on an IS assault isn't possible for now) and many of the mechs I own will sit untouched unless skill tree is much more helpful to IS chassis than it is to clan chassis if/when skill tree hits because I really don't want to grind out skill trees for 84 mechs even with the refunds

[Nik Reaper]

To put it bluntly , skill tree and quirks are really easy for PGI to change even post release, meaning that superquirks returning by combining innate mech quirks and the skill tree is a possibility, another thing to keep in mind is that when that patch hits quirks and skill bonuses will be in as state of flux for several months.

All this leads me to plan to only level the mechs I will use under the new system and keep the majority of XP for the possibilities that will probly come some time after.

As for diversity , we will probly still have it , as most people even now know what the good mechs are , ones that can win the most, and yet choose to not use them, I know I will be leveling my urby in any eventuality.

Edited by Nik Reaper, 02 February 2017 - 02:55 PM.

[WolvesX]

Nik Reaper, on 02 February 2017 - 02:53 PM, said:

....as most people even now know what the good mechs are , ones that can win the most,...

What are the good mechs?

[Bud Crue]

Nik Reaper, on 02 February 2017 - 02:53 PM, said:

To put it bluntly , skill tree and quirks are really easy for PGI to change even post release, meaning that superquirks returning by combining innate mech quirks and the skill tree is a possibility, another thing to keep in mind is that when that patch hits quirks and skill bonuses will be in as state of flux for several months.

Yeah but if they change quirks under the new system like they do now, you will need to spend MC to requirk (without loss) every time. To my way of thinking that is an even great brake in mech diversity as I will spend XP on mechs that don't rely on lots of quirks.

Nik Reaper, on 02 February 2017 - 02:53 PM, said:

All this leads me to plan to only level the mechs I will use under the new system and keep the majority of XP for the possibilities that will probly come some time after.

I thought of that too...I expect that PGI puts a time limit on how long we have to spend our bulk refunded XP, or some similar motivator so that we can't just hold on to it indefinitely.

Nik Reaper, on 02 February 2017 - 02:53 PM, said:

As for diversity , we will probly still have it , as most people even now know what the good mechs are , ones that can win the most, and yet choose to not use them, I know I will be leveling my urby in any eventuality.

Perhaps. But if I have a limited amount of XP to blow and I have all the IS 70 tonners, I am not going to waste it on Cataphracts if I have Warhammers. Or if I have all the Grasshoppers, who is going to spend their XP on the J of they have the 5P? I expect lots of folks are going to be making similar decisions, which is going to lead to a preponderance, if not an exclusivity, of tier 1 metamechs running around...at least in the short run.

[Bud Crue]

WolvesX, on 02 February 2017 - 03:03 PM, said:

What are the good mechs?

Those having good hit boxes, high hard points and/or lots of em of the same type.
Mechs that don't NEED quirks to be competitive. If they need quirks now, they will need help under the new system.

Under the current system you had to at least go through the motions of leveling 2 other Kodiaks to master the 3. Under the new system I expect you will never see anything other than the SB and the 3...perhaps ever. That limits variety and perhaps sales. I fear this will occur across all chassis and all weight classes. Consider the quirk dependent mechs...do you trust PGI not to keep messing with them? That fear will be enough to make some folks avoid them...that is an awful lot of mechs to avoid. That too is going to translate to reduced variety and sales.

[SuomiWarder]

In the single match games I don't think we will see the number of heavies or assaults go down any time soon. More bang for the buck, score is mainly based in points of damage.

Will people buy only one when they used to buy three? Maybe. But I assume the hope is that people that wouldn't buy because they didn't want 3 of the same mech will pony up now and then to buy 1 of this and 1 of that.

[Ted Wayz]

Bud Crue, on 02 February 2017 - 03:12 PM, said:

Those having good hit boxes, high hard points and/or lots of em of the same type.
Mechs that don't NEED quirks to be competitive. If they need quirks now, they will need help under the new system.

Under the current system you had to at least go through the motions of leveling 2 other Kodiaks to master the 3. Under the new system I expect you will never see anything other than the SB and the 3...perhaps ever. That limits variety and perhaps sales. I fear this will occur across all chassis and all weight classes. Consider the quirk dependent mechs...do you trust PGI not to keep messing with them? That fear will be enough to make some folks avoid them...that is an awful lot of mechs to avoid. That too is going to translate to reduced variety and sales.

Made this point the second skill trees were announced and the general response was people did not see this having an effect on sales. Based on some of the posts here either people were biased by who posted or maybe it is starting to sink in.

The second question I posed is, will this influence the way PGI sells mechs? Based on the Javelin my guess is yes.

[Bud Crue]

Ted Wayz, on 02 February 2017 - 04:49 PM, said:

Made this point the second skill trees were announced and the general response was people did not see this having an effect on sales. Based on some of the posts here either people were biased by who posted or maybe it is starting to sink in.

The second question I posed is, will this influence the way PGI sells mechs? Based on the Javelin my guess is yes.

Actually, judging from the posts, or lack thereof, I'd say most folks still seem to think it is not an issue. Meh. I posted as a discussion point to kill time on a late night/long day at the office. I hope I (and apparently you too) are wrong on this, and that PGI has all this thought thru and squared away.

[Evil Goof]

My major concerns are it killing variants, being painful if you make a mistake configuring or if meta changes, and especially that single mech pricing will go along with this new model which will most certainly be a decrease in value overall.

To expand a touch;

Variants- Just buy the best one, no real reason to get the others.

Mistakes- Why should I have to pay money or time to switch a Raven 3L from a sniper to a narcer? What if I miss something or am new about what my sniper needs and I pick the wrong thing? Again this mistake will cost me money or time.

Pricing- A la carte is always more expensive and no way PGI in part isn't thinking about that as a potential for revenue growth. I would be able to accept this if this new system added value for me, but I am totally unconvinced that it will which will make me angry if it is just a mindless cash grab.

[Maugged]

Evil Goof, on 02 February 2017 - 06:51 PM, said:

My major concerns are it killing variants, being painful if you make a mistake configuring or if meta changes, and especially that single mech pricing will go along with this new model which will most certainly be a decrease in value overall.

To expand a touch;

Variants- Just buy the best one, no real reason to get the others.

Mistakes- Why should I have to pay money or time to switch a Raven 3L from a sniper to a narcer? What if I miss something or am new about what my sniper needs and I pick the wrong thing? Again this mistake will cost me money or time.

Pricing- A la carte is always more expensive and no way PGI in part isn't thinking about that as a potential for revenue growth. I would be able to accept this if this new system added value for me, but I am totally unconvinced that it will which will make me angry if it is just a mindless cash grab.

I'm glad to read i'm not the only one seeing it from this point of view. Everytime something is implemented the only logical reasons i can come up with is "how to milk our product to the max while pretending we're trying hard".

[Felicitatem Parco]

I do not see how Faction Play tonnage restrictions do anything to reduce sales, nor do I see how the skill tree will reduce sales.

The Group Queue is how you train for Faction Play. So you can't train for your All-Assault first wave... What does that have to do with sales?