45 replies to this topic

[ANOM O MECH]

Asym, on 03 December 2017 - 07:54 AM, said:

I am mastering the last of the three mechs PGI gave me for buying into MWO in February of 2017 and on the last event. Oh, good Holy Supreme being, help this poor soul through this process....

Bottom Line Up Front: Mastering a new mech sucks. It is not a grind; it's a misery of the n^th degree.

I am amazed that PGI hasn't capitlaized on this (since they created it) and have a MC or large c-bill method to avoid it? 91 skill points for "x" MC or a lot of c-bills....

A "Mastering Kit" you can purchase seperately..... Or an event award.

Oh please, we've a few days left in the 12 days of advent or whatever your cultures call these 12 days:

"on the 12th day of Christmas, PGI gave to me, a brand new mastering kit...."

Thoughts?

As a whale that could be harpooned from space I would like to rub it in that all of the crying and fussing over the skill tree, means I will never have to go through grinding on my main account or driving an unmastered mech again.

EVER.

Why such an bleepidy bleep statement? PGI really seems removed from NPE and while I am grateful on one hand, it certainly feels like a pretty distinct advantage between haves and have nots...

[CFC Conky]

Asym, on 03 December 2017 - 07:54 AM, said:

I am mastering the last of the three mechs PGI gave me for buying into MWO in February of 2017 and on the last event. Oh, good Holy Supreme being, help this poor soul through this process....

Bottom Line Up Front: Mastering a new mech sucks. It is not a grind; it's a misery of the n^th degree.

I am amazed that PGI hasn't capitlaized on this (since they created it) and have a MC or large c-bill method to avoid it? 91 skill points for "x" MC or a lot of c-bills....

A "Mastering Kit" you can purchase seperately..... Or an event award.

Oh please, we've a few days left in the 12 days of advent or whatever your cultures call these 12 days:

"on the 12th day of Christmas, PGI gave to me, a brand new mastering kit...."

Thoughts?

Hi Asym,

Are you using Premium Time? I know, I know, PT invalidates the whole f2p premise, but for less than the price of a AAA title game you can get six months of PT, even more when there is a sale. That should get most players over the hump and by the end of it be good enough to earn a decent amount of cb and xp every match and have some mastered mechs to boot.

What the devs could do is award gxp and/or pt more often in events and supply caches.

Good hunting,
CFC Conky

[Spheroid]

@CFC: He shouldn't even need to pay, they are giving out 50MC for days on end.

[Nameless King]

kuma8877, on 03 December 2017 - 09:39 AM, said:

Can't you essentially do this already (as a veteran player) transfer XP to GXP via MC and purchase C-bills via MC? Expensive but possible.

Dont even need to do that thanks to SP, I still have 68k left, I never have to lvl a MECH ever unless I want to.

[Asym]

CFC Conky, on 03 December 2017 - 12:09 PM, said:

Hi Asym,

Are you using Premium Time? I know, I know, PT invalidates the whole f2p premise, but for less than the price of a AAA title game you can get six months of PT, even more when there is a sale. That should get most players over the hump and by the end of it be good enough to earn a decent amount of cb and xp every match and have some mastered mechs to boot.

What the devs could do is award gxp and/or pt more often in events and supply caches.

Good hunting,
CFC Conky

No, I don't use PT unless it is from loot boxes that I had free keys for or from events.
I don't gamble at all and loot boxes, as we've seen recently in gaming news, is very close to gambling; so, a free key to free "stuff" isn't at all gambling.

F2P needs to be F2P; and. the "nice stuff" is even nicer when you can win it as in event rewards....

You are 100% right: I could spend X to get a faster Y.... The long and painful grind is exactly why MWO drives off new players....there is no point to it.

So a compromise: if you have MC and are willing to spend it on Skill Nodes - cool beans. If players only want the F2P experience, C-Bills for the same thing at an equitable exchange rate (costs the same)... This harms no one: other than the players who use noobs as farming fodder and count of the fodder....

Yes please, award GXP or complete skill node mastering packages as upper level rewards. Anything after mastering is as we currently use.... Mastering packs would be a once and done expenditure. Use then Lose.

[Khobai]

Quote

I Wonder Why Pgi Hasn't Created A Purchasable "mastering" Kit?

because that would be too straightforward...

PGI would rather make you spend MC to convert XP to GXP and farm cbills then convert it all to SP

why have just two currencies when you can have like eight (cbills, MC, XP, GXP, HXP, SP, GSP, and HSP)?

the smart thing to do wouldve been to just let people buy skill nodes directly with cbills or MC and get rid of the whole concept of XP/SP, and then just award more cbills instead of XP. Thus avoiding all of the bloat and confusion of having 8 different currencies in the game.

but PGI...

Edited by Khobai, 03 December 2017 - 01:32 PM.

[Bogus]

PGI is trying to do the right thing and avoid going full-****** pay2win. Buying nodes would most certainly qualify as that.

[kuma8877]

King Alen, on 03 December 2017 - 12:52 PM, said:

Dont even need to do that thanks to SP, I still have 68k left, I never have to lvl a MECH ever unless I want to.

For sure, as a veteran player. I brought it up more to point out the monetized path to the current equivalent of the suggested Mastery Point Pack already exists once you have at least 1 mastered mech (hopefully that you enjoy playing) to farm xp from rather than grinding with a fresh starter. It's something a newer player could take advantage of if they are willing to spend some moola to avoid playing a new mech in a substandard state.

Personally, I'd be ok with 91 points as a pre-order bonus so you could either master one variant or get a head start on several you like within a pack that you purchase.

[Khobai]

Quote

PGI is trying to do the right thing and avoid going full-****** pay2win. Buying nodes would most certainly qualify as that.

its not full pay2win if you can acquire them without paying

hero mechs are full pay to win for example

being able to unlock skillnodes with MC as opposed to XP/cbills would not be full pay to win

Edited by Khobai, 03 December 2017 - 01:47 PM.

[CFC Conky]

Asym, on 03 December 2017 - 12:53 PM, said:

...

F2P needs to be F2P; and. the "nice stuff" is even nicer when you can win it as in event rewards....

....

Hi Asym,

Fair enough. I don't look at f2p games as actually free to play. The content you have access to when you first start is basically a...demo, of the full game, a technology demonstrator if you will. The difference is that the demo puts you in the same environment as high-level players, which makes for a rather brutal new player experience.

I agree with you that new players are lost due to the steep learning curve of this game.

Perhaps the trial mechs could be made more combat-effective, or players should be able to modify their loadouts using earned c-bills. Earned xp could be used to skill them up but once spent, those xp are gone. Purchased weapons, engines and equipment would be yours to keep. Finally, have access to the trial mechs time-limited; days, months, playable hours, whatever. The idea is to give a new player a chance to survive long enough in matches to learn about the game and if they decide to stay with MWO, they have to eventually move on to their own mechs.

Good hunting,
CFC Conky

Edited by CFC Conky, 03 December 2017 - 01:51 PM.

[Troa Barton]

Because it's in bad form, If mastering a mech didn't take as long as it does now I wouldn't have a problem with this idea. With as long as it takes however it can be seen as them artificially slowing progress to incentivize people to pay to progress.
That is a fine line to ride.

[Nameless King]

kuma8877, on 03 December 2017 - 01:36 PM, said:

For sure, as a veteran player. I brought it up more to point out the monetized path to the current equivalent of the suggested Mastery Point Pack already exists once you have at least 1 mastered mech (hopefully that you enjoy playing) to farm xp from rather than grinding with a fresh starter. It's something a newer player could take advantage of if they are willing to spend some moola to avoid playing a new mech in a substandard state.

Personally, I'd be ok with 91 points as a pre-order bonus so you could either master one variant or get a head start on several you like within a pack that you purchase.

While I dont have to lvl mechs normally, I almost always play with new mechs un-noded so I can learn the mech properly.
I play the game because I enjoy it and no one should be able to buy nodes with real money.

There is no grind, play the mechs and learn to play them otherwise what is the point? If you node a mech before you play it you may not know what it needs most. I would also say play many diff builds and see what works and what does not.

[Leif Heggland]

Since I very rarely play a mech after it is mastered that is not something I would like to see. I is the fact that the mech needs XP that gives me a reason to select it. Generally I play each of my unmastered mech until I get a QP victory everyday that I play the game.

[Y E O N N E]

Leif Heggland, on 03 December 2017 - 02:55 PM, said:

Since I very rarely play a mech after it is mastered that is not something I would like to see. I is the fact that the mech needs XP that gives me a reason to select it. Generally I play each of my unmastered mech until I get a QP victory everyday that I play the game.

Nothing compels you to purchase a shortcut package if you are already fine with getting rekt by upgraded 'Mechs.

[Bogus]

Khobai, on 03 December 2017 - 01:45 PM, said:

its not full pay2win if you can acquire them without paying

hero mechs are full pay to win for example

being able to unlock skillnodes with MC as opposed to XP/cbills would not be full pay to win

Eh, maybe, but it's still a bad idea as EA's most recent shenanigans demonstrate. Ultimately I'd rather that, if PGI does anything with regards to the skill tree, the effort be focused on making that fell beast less egregious rather than adding ways to short-circuit it for cash money.

[kuma8877]

King Alen, on 03 December 2017 - 02:46 PM, said:

While I dont have to lvl mechs normally, I almost always play with new mechs un-noded so I can learn the mech properly.
I play the game because I enjoy it and no one should be able to buy nodes with real money.

There is no grind, play the mechs and learn to play them otherwise what is the point? If you node a mech before you play it you may not know what it needs most. I would also say play many diff builds and see what works and what does not.

Totally agree with you from a personal stand point. Even if PGI would consider doing something like a pre-order bonus of 91 I would still play mine several times "green" before utilizing any points and would probably spread my points out between the variants to cover the basics (raderp/ecm, consumables, etc.) and learn/grind the rest. I didn't have a ton of mastered mechs in my stable before the skilltree drop so I re-skilled my favorites and continue on my selective grind of bots that favor my playstyle.

Again, I was mostly pointing out that a monetized path exists to speed up progression while still requiring the player to play the game to make full use of that speed up.

[Wolfways]

Leif Heggland, on 03 December 2017 - 02:55 PM, said:

Generally I play each of my unmastered mech until I get a QP victory everyday that I play the game.

I used to do that with even my mastered mechs, but lately I just can't be bothered and just play a mech I feel like playing at the time, or make a weird drop deck and drop in FW.
Hmm, maybe I should make a dropdeck of four new mechs and work up their xp in FW...

[Humpday]

Yeonne Greene, on 03 December 2017 - 10:47 AM, said:

Whether or not it is Pay 2 Win is superfluous. The game throws new 'Mechs into an ecosystem where they are fodder for 'Mechs that have upgrades...upgrades that add capability at no cost other than the opportunity cost of alternative capabilities. AKA, they are straight upgrades. A vanilla 'Mech has no chance, skill being equal.

Adding the option to purchase your upgrades, at this point, merely allows for one way to even the playing field other than grinding, perhaps frustratingly, through matches with poormechs.

Oh I agree I was commenting on what the masses would cry about as perception will drive this sort of thing. I dump money into he game regardless, so doesn't bother me any. Hell if I could by SP to spec a mech I would.

[Lukoi Banacek]

Spheroid, on 03 December 2017 - 11:05 AM, said:

Leveling IS THE GAME,

It is not even remotely the game. People play it because on some level they enjoy it. Now, some might enjoy leveling mechs, but many do not and certainly don't log on just to do so. That's a frankly, silly thing to lead off with.

I've not bothered to level a mech in forever (I've done the post ST grind, don't find it to be this impossible task as some say around here, but I'm also a veteran enough player to know where I want to allocate points without dickering around etc, and I haven't bothered to do grinding since the inception for the most part). I've got too many GSP to waste time grinding when I can get it mastered at the outset and just play to have fun.

[Khobai]

the only reason leveling exists is so some people pay money to level quicker

which is why I dont get why we cant just buy skill nodes directly with MC

why obfuscate the real reason leveling exists? there is no benefit to doing that.