2003 replies to this topic

[Red Beard]

Halfinax, on 04 December 2011 - 06:58 AM, said:

Here's a video explaining what makes microtransactions and the F2P business model work: Please watch.

Thank you for the link, Halfinax. I found it very informative.

His opinion on not splitting maps was intriguing, but I still disagree with that portion of what he said. If the free players have a large enough "playground", so to speak, they will always have a large enough player base to keep busy. Admittedly, however, he seems to have a much better viewpoint. Time will tell.

[Major Crash]

Hope your right BF1. Everyone has such high hopes for the game, and the Devs appear to be true affectionados who have clearly stated that they are aware of most of these failings & are going to make an effort to address/balance.

Then again, so was Weiss. in the early days & we all know how that ended up at FASA. That was a little different since he just took the $ and ran, while PG is now walking down the path of making $ so as to stay open to man the project and still not succumb to the god awful models of current MMO where a few own the majority due to wallet size. Unless you started those games when released, there is no point in playing now. They lose a player & will never, ever get one stinking piece of copper from me. Just out of principle.

I assure you that when the fat cats saw my "20ea $3", they mentally already doubled, tripled or quadrupled my numbers w a mental laugh & snort. Should the company fold to the vacuum cleaner model currently existing out there for whatever reason, the community as a whole losses. Unfortunate reality is the company statistics don't even care about the group size they just eliminated from play, only the fat cats.
This should be a heavy burden for PG and does not reflect on anything they have done yet, being all good that I see, but they are walking down a path previous licence holders established which did not end well and did shaft many employees & players alike. The real economy eating itself only adds to these pressures.

Having said all this, seeing what PG has suffered through to date, what they are currently doing, they earned a shot at it. Aim well my friends.

This will always be one of the greatest things about the TT games, unless your rolling loaded dice, no amount of $ will help you.
OK, Wall-O-Text, Bye.

[Spiderwire]

Whatever C-bill system they will have in the game should have an exchange rate for real money. This idea will help attract the 25+ year-olds who fight with their wallets rather than the amount of time dedication. Helps retain customers, and spur on interest with new ones. Online games die a horrible death if there isn't a way to compensate playing an MMO with funds.

[benefedaykin]

I really hope that there are no items that can only be acquired through cash. It would ruin it for me.

That said, I would be happy to pay for more mech/weapon/equipment storage space. I'd also pay for certain mechs just so I don't have to play for hours and hours just to acquire my favorite mech in some random salvage event or whatever. This is true even if it costs $10-$15-$20.

I would also pay to be able to put my own pictures in my mech cockpit. I'd rather have my girl digitally taped in my cockpit than some hula dancer cluttering my view screen ;D

[Robert Knight]

I would like to see
custom paint
custom unit logo
mercenary bonding
mechs from outside your faction (IE a merc pilot who wants to drive a dragon)
Extra hanger space
Extra Armory space
Aerospace back up
drop ships
IA help
Single player/co-op operation packs
a box copy of the game
a micro server edition( I would pay 100-200 for a license to run my own non commercial server with a set max number of players. With all the micro transaction still ruining through the main store)
a single player university/academy mode
access to more support personnel (techs,scouts, ex)

[Reflexion]

Excellent post. Glad to see others are thinking like me.

While I might be hesitant to pay real money, I deffintely hope to see an online fictional bank account connected to my online Mecwarrior persona so I have a way to pay for all this ----.
But of course, paying real money would just speed things up a bit, but hopefully for things like repairs, upgrades, modifications, mech artwork... in game items... could...
No make that would/ should...
be paid for using game credits (whatever the going in-game currency is called), and certain amounts of credits could be purchased using real money.

For example- $1 U.S. dollar might equal 1,000 in-game Comm Star credits.

(the idea spawned as I was typing)

So,
To answer the post directly

I would be willing to pay for an proportional amount of in-game credits.

[Reflexion]

P.S. Ideas after further reading

No private maps. Bad idea. Splitting fan/ players will spoil the game.

Second-A rule suggestion.
No player should be allowed to inject more than a fixed amount monthly.
I dunno... $30-$50.

I'm just having the ideas. Hopefully someone logically and creatively actually implements and finds ways to enforce the ideas.

Someone or a small group of people could end up with full-time jobs running this online game....

I suppose some people already do.
I've probably been away from gaming too long.
LoL
Too fun.
Can hardly wait to see what this is going to be like.

[Blackfire1]

The reason I use a powered up hula girl as an example is depending on the person the hula will not make game changing effects. This depends on the scaling. Has very little effect outside of a less then 1% fixture. Think of them less as a end all be all item like most games take them and look at it like runes in LoL. In the big picture they don't do quat at lv 18 of a champion. But at lv 1-5 maybe slightly noticeable if it wasn't everyone at that level skill wise was bad. F2P models or not selling less then 1% items is really only a gimick to get munchkins to spend premium cash for the "ideal" of an advantage.

Once again I'll state selling variants of a mech. Different load outs of a mech you can get in game for cash is not selling power. If they follow cannon anyone can change the loud out of their mech if they hemorrhage metric tons of c-bills to customize the mech. Weapons are hard wired into them and very pricey to change. If I have 24,000,000 cbills and it'll cost me 12 million just to load out my orion with a different config or I could just buy a that configuration or similar I'd rather do that. Is it selling power? No. Not in the slightest. Because you can get then anyways through massive amounts of work. Does it make me better then anyone else if I buy it with cash? No, because of all the in game variables that have been hinted at (pilot skills, mech specs, player skill/tactics) the possibility of there being a single destroy everything mech gets smaller and smaller. Everything in Battletech has its own checks and balances. Selling a special version of something doesn't give them power. It gives them options.

[CaveMan]

Reflexion, on 04 December 2011 - 12:51 PM, said:

Second-A rule suggestion.
No player should be allowed to inject more than a fixed amount monthly.
I dunno...

I like the idea but it's not enforceable. People will just make multiple accounts each with its own paypal or whatever, and find a way to gift themselves things.

[Halfinax]

Blackfire1, on 04 December 2011 - 01:19 PM, said:

The reason I use a powered up hula girl as an example is depending on the person the hula will not make game changing effects. This depends on the scaling. Has very little effect outside of a less then 1% fixture. Think of them less as a end all be all item like most games take them and look at it like runes in LoL. In the big picture they don't do quat at lv 18 of a champion. But at lv 1-5 maybe slightly noticeable if it wasn't everyone at that level skill wise was bad. F2P models or not selling less then 1% items is really only a gimick to get munchkins to spend premium cash for the "ideal" of an advantage.

Once again I'll state selling variants of a mech. Different load outs of a mech you can get in game for cash is not selling power. If they follow cannon anyone can change the loud out of their mech if they hemorrhage metric tons of c-bills to customize the mech. Weapons are hard wired into them and very pricey to change. If I have 24,000,000 cbills and it'll cost me 12 million just to load out my orion with a different config or I could just buy a that configuration or similar I'd rather do that. Is it selling power? No. Not in the slightest. Because you can get then anyways through massive amounts of work. Does it make me better then anyone else if I buy it with cash? No, because of all the in game variables that have been hinted at (pilot skills, mech specs, player skill/tactics) the possibility of there being a single destroy everything mech gets smaller and smaller. Everything in Battletech has its own checks and balances. Selling a special version of something doesn't give them power. It gives them options.

Okay looks like I slightly misunderstood what you meant. I was reading your suggestions of what you can buy with real money as ONLY purchasable with real money. I have no problems with being able to use real currency to speed up acquisition of store items that's not really selling power it's selling convenience and is a core principal of F2P games.

[Blackfire1]

I generally type these replies up when its 3:00am and I'm exhausted. Mis communications will happen.

[Blackfire1]

I'll stop and read through this from end to end every once in awhile... And I can't help feeling I forgot something.
So I'll ask anyone else have an opinion on this?

[Ozric]

i would pay for,
iconic mech skins
special effects (weapon visuals, fireworks etc)
cockpit themes
mechbay themes (or dropship, what ever we live in while not shooting each other in the face)
mech slots (if we need them, i'll need more)

i would not be happy to pay for,
alternate mech conifgs
+1 mechs (stat bonus, unique ability etc)
c-bills

[Adrienne Vorton]

i just don´t want to be forced to buy stuff, just to be able to compete with others. i´m fine with xp/c-bills boosts, as long as they are cheap and maybe winable ingame also...no better equipment/ mechs/ ammotypes what ever. all that optical-tuning stuff is the best way imo, cause most ppl want to look cool while trashing other´s mech´s ^^ hm, idea...several radio-messages (taunting/ cheering etc.) you can throw at opponents could be added, and many of them sold in the cash-shop(both male and female voices necessary^^)

Edited by Adrienne Vorton, 10 December 2011 - 03:22 AM.

[Blackfire1]

I'm adding to my list.
General:
Loyalty abandonment doctrines: Gives the player an RPG/Mech Mission to change over to a different faction with the ability to bring over a set loyalty rank or set loyalty points into the new faction. Playing House Kurita till E5, defecting to FRR, and instead of starting new retain some "dignity" into the new faction. E3. Only usable one per faction. Reversing said results (going back to kurita from FRR) would follow normal game protocol and result in going back to Zero. If available at all. This is more a theory in progress.

Merc items:
- +% payment for merc cores for X duration. Similar to the +%credit and +%xp perks but for merc rewards.
- Special Merc dropship layouts.
- Special Base designs for mercs. (if there is ever clan/merc bases. Perhaps something special or 12 for those willing to look cool)
- Custom color palettes for said "merc bases".
- +3-5% chance of gaining an extra piece of salvage per mission/personal lost/enemy defeated with the chance this piece of salvage being undamaged. Follows +cp/xp time allowances.

[Rathverge]

The four requirements:

1. Fast track purchasable: XP boost, more xp, points, conversions.\, in game currency.
2. Consumable Edge: slightly better ammo, charges, heat sinks, whatever, as long as it isnt permanent.
3. Novelty or special vehicle purchase for RL currency.
4. Shiny things for shiny people: Skins, Camo's, cockpit cosmetics.


If thats all there Im happy and so is the game.

[Leonardo Monteiro]

Excellent and important discussion!

My humble 2cents:

As a player that will likely spend real cash, i do think that whatever you can buy with cash, you should be able to get with additional effort, for free - it will defeat the F2P essence if its not like this, and might drive away players that otherwise get a job in the meantime and start spending cash.

This said, "Pay to win" becomes sort of moot point, as me, playing an hour a day, but spending cash, might likely not have a bigger advantage than someone that plays 4 hours a day, in my opinion - sure, there will be the odd player that plays 10 hours a day AND spends money, but those should be rarer.
Essencially, real money should be a way of getting things faster.


I do exclude everything cosmetic related (paint jobs, hula girls for my cockpit, etc.) - those should be IRL cash only - they dont unbalance the game, no player that plays for free will necessarely be left underpowered, but these things will sort of create an aspirational desire to spend money: Someone might not be thinking of spending any money, but perhaps after i blow them away with my garish pink atlas, they will reconsider

[Rathverge]

Pay2win is a ill recognized term. You can have isolated items, mechs, ammo all that for sale with only real currency and not have the game "pay2win". The term should only really apply to when it gets out of control. When there are no counters to these tiems, OR there are no earned equivalents. Have "special" and isolated items usually mean more desire and more money for the company (GOOD!), its when these RL currency itens are supremely overpowered THEN it becomes Pay2win.

Edited by Rathverge, 06 January 2012 - 03:13 AM.

[Gattling Fenn]

I am strongly opposed to the notion of "buying power" through use of the store and abuse of ones wallet. I believe what should be payed for, are cosmetic purchases, paint jobs, patterns, insignia's, as they add to the immersion without detracting from the gameplay. XP and in game currency boosts are also acceptable, as they don't give anything that can't be attained for free without a bit more effort.

One other thing to bear in mind, it may be worth looking at League of Legends a little closer to see how a free to play system ought to be operated. Maybe releasing new patterns and paint schemes every month or so to keep things fresh?

[Black Sunder]

Honestly I'd rather just pay a subscription and be done with it.