59 replies to this topic

[Night crawler]

Just watched some guys review of the game and he appears to be saying that the game is somewhat crippled in the free to play aspect. I got the impression that it's not worth playing in this model from what he said, and was wondering if I should go with guild wars 2 or wait for this. I was a big fan of the old days back on MS game zone and thought this would be a great title.

I don't mind buying a game but that's as far as I'm willing to go. I'm not looking for a subscription based game or a game where I'm constantly buying stuff. I just want to buy the game and play.

Is there anything in this game for players like me or do I end up with no mechs, no XP and so on?

[RedHairDave]

you want a single player vs AI? is that what your mean? that may happen some day, but not now. it is going to be mostly pvp.

if you mean is it impossible to make money? no, not at all, i have dozens of mechs and unlimited money. its only been a short time since wipe. so its not hard to get money,

you should join a group. anyone will do, i suggest you find one that suits your personality. if your with a group its a whole different game and much more fun, you dont need to make any promises, there are no commitments, if you only have time for one game, no one will care. there is no excuse to not join a group. its very quick and easy

Edited by RedHairDave, 06 October 2012 - 06:54 PM.

[Ragor]

If you do not pay anything then you simply start with no mechs. And then you have to grind 30-50 matches with the preset trial mechs. But once you grinded enough money and bought your firsrt 'own' mech which you can customize then there is no difference at all. I for myself played trial mechs only after the last reset and had 2 centurions, a raven, a catapult earned and bought and fully customized within one week with ~3-4h gaming/grinding each day.

[tyrone dunkirk]

You can't just 'watch some guy's ' review and not take it with a grain of salt.
Without fully implemented enconomy and matchmaking features, you can't really review the F2P-ishness of a product. At this point he's just reviewing this patch-stage of the beta, and it's most basic monetary inclusions. The game is hella fun for everyone looking to go into it with a postive attitude and have some good ol' mech-ey fun, but it's not finished yet. You've got to remember the implementations in the works, before you rage quit and sling mud around the forums about it.

[Night crawler]

Im not after playing against AI. I want it like the old days if possible, where I just buy the game and play online. Back then it was MGZ. Yea, it was a single player game back then but everyone was always online fighting. I want that aspect back.

Thanks for the quick responses too guys, it's appreciated. I don't mind doing some grinding (played WoW, enough said) as long as i can realistically get the items I want.

So as long as I can just shell out for the game (once) I'm happy. I was thinking about this, Star wars online (which is F2P soon) and guild wars 2.

[Event Horizon IX]

It is good you came to these boards for additional input, I have seen some "reviews" (not sure how you review something that isn't finished, it's like reviewing a movie while it's still being shot) Though the game has it's quirks, it has been an incredibly enjoyable experience, especially for those of us like myself who played Battletech on hexagonal maps back in the 90's.

This game requires no subscription to do well financially. That said, if you do subscribe you gain money a bit faster (25% or so). As for having to buy things all the time, definitely not the case. All paying cash money does is allow you to acquire things faster. Nothing you can't get by blowing people up. Despite the ******* and the moaning I have read, earning C-Bills isn't nearly as hard as some make it out to be. While it certainly takes "work", if playing a game can be called so, it isn't drudgery nor impossible.

One thing I will say is finding a merc company or friends to play with will make this game much funner and you will earn C-bills faster as well.

Also, if you'd like to jump right into owning your own mech, drop $10 bucks and buy one or two. You'll have to skip on a combo meal or two but it's worth it. Despite the games flaws, I don't regret my founder purchase one bit.

[Night crawler]

tyrone dunkirk, on 06 October 2012 - 06:53 PM, said:

You've got to remember the implementations in the works, before you rage quit and sling mud around the forums about it.

You seem a little upset. perhaps another thread would be better for you.

[Dead Tom Kerensky]

I just started in the beta this week. When you first start you are limited to a choice of 4 trial mechs. They have the same equipment as someone who had purchased them would. They are not customizable and the communitie's belief is that they are adequate but not the ideal loadouts for the chassis. For a new player using them will be fine a new pilot wouldn't really do any better in a fully kitted out mech because there are certain basics of teamwork and how the game plays that no amount of equipment will teach just seat time.

The trial mechs earn a bit less per match but they don't have any repair or rearm costs for the most part they make about as much per match as anything else on average. Once you buy your own mech using money earned with the trial mechs you will have to pay to rearm and repair the purchased mechs out of your earnings. In a good match you will earn more than the trial mechs will. In a bad match you will earn less, some teamates have even reported losing money in a particularly bad match if they are using a very expensive mech and do poorly. If for some reason you go broke you can always use the trial mechs to earn more c-bills I don't forsee this happening often.

In 2 nights I had saved up about 4.4 mil playing 2-3 hours each night. I could use that to buy pretty much any commando, raven, jenner, hunchback, or centurian I wanted. I would have needed a bit more to customize some to my liking. I decided to purchase a Commando for 1.8mil and bought everything I wanted for it. 3 SSRMs, case, ams, armor, heatsinks and a tag system. I played that mech on my third night and brought myself back up to 4mil from the 2mil I had left over after buying the commando. I then decided I liked how the commando played and purchased a very expensive XL engine for it. The engine gave me a significant speed boost but is vulnerable to body shots and I had to cut out my case and AMS system to fit the weight. I'm now sitting at about 900k credits in a mech I love that performs its role as well as I could wish for after 3 nights of playing.

The moral of the story is the grind is pretty reasonable it did not take me long to outfit a mech that I enjoy using and even if they had handed me that mech on day one there's no way I would have been able to pilot it properly. I'm going to be saving for a medium or maybe a heavy mech next. I expect in about 3-4 days time I will have it easily purchased and kitted out the way I want.

Edited by Mute Lunatic, 06 October 2012 - 07:06 PM.

[jennertalls]

Definitely not P2W. After a week or so I got my hunchback and customised it. Now I'm in the same league as any founders and the playing field is level.

No gold ammo, go gold items, nothing extra that the other guy paid to make him better than me. Not P2W when I didn't have to pay a cent.

It's rough for newbies at the start but that's the case in anything in life. The FNG will always be the fodder until he gets some experience under him.

Playing aginst a group or with friends is a different issue and one that has nothing to do with paying money to play the game.

[RumRunner151]

Mute Lunatic, on 06 October 2012 - 07:04 PM, said:

I just started in the beta this week. When you first start you are limited to a choice of 4 trial mechs. They have the same equipment as someone who had purchased them would. They are not customizable and the communitie's belief is that they are adequate but not the ideal loadouts for the chassis. For a new player using them will be fine a new pilot wouldn't really do any better in a fully kitted out mech because there are certain basics of teamwork and how the game plays that no amount of equipment will teach just seat time.

The trial mechs earn a bit less per match but they don't have any repair or rearm costs for the most part they make about as much per match as anything else on average. Once you buy your own mech using money earned with the trial mechs you will have to pay to rearm and repair the purchased mechs out of your earnings. In a good match you will earn more than the trial mechs will. In a bad match you will earn less, some teamates have even reported losing money in a particularly bad match if they are using a very expensive mech and do poorly. If for some reason you go broke you can always use the trial mechs to earn more c-bills I don't forsee this happening often.

In 2 nights I had saved up about 4.4 mil playing 2-3 hours each night. I could use that to buy pretty much any commando, raven, jenner, hunchback, or centurian I wanted. I would have needed a bit more to customize some to my liking. I decided to purchase a Commando for 1.8mil and bought everything I wanted for it. 3 SSRMs, case, ams, armor, heatsinks and a tag system. I played that mech on my third night and brought myself back up to 4mil from the 2mil I had left over after buying the commando. I then decided I liked how the commando played and purchased a very expensive XL engine for it. The engine gave me a significant speed boost but is vulnerable to body shots and I had to cut out my case and AMS system to fit the weight. I'm now sitting at about 900k credits in a mech I love that performs its role as well as I could wish for after 3 nights of playing.

The moral of the story is the grind is pretty reasonable it did not take me long to outfit a mech that I enjoy using and even if they had handed me that mech on day one there's no way I would have been able to pilot it properly. I'm going to be saving for a medium or maybe a heavy mech next. I expect in about 3-4 days time I will have it easily purchased and kitted out the way I want.

Nicely done.

[Night crawler]

It all sounds great and from reading this, the playing field is pretty level after a week of grinding. I'll probably go for the elite package and see if I can find my old team mates from back in the day. I'm not looking for the free to play option as I said before and I know the game isn't finished. it's just that F2P sets off alarm bells when it comes to content.

Just wanted to make sure that my £40 actually bought me a game.

[Nauht]

Don't pay for anything then. You'll get exactly the same content as founders. The only difference is that founders get it quicker.

That being said though that the founders program is probably until the game is released. Nevertheless you can buy MC and just get what you want quicker anyway.

[Belial]

Night crawler, on 06 October 2012 - 07:19 PM, said:

F2P sets off alarm bells when it comes to content.

As it should, mainly thanks to the rocky start and bad reputation of F2P games at their inception, mainly because they were P2W in a not-so-clever disguise. Thankfully, League of Legends and MechWarrior Online are showing proper, viable examples (I'm sure there are others but I can't comment since I'm unfamiliar).

[Event Horizon IX]

I will say that at the moment, the price of MC (in dollars) is a tad bit high, buying a founders package is a great deal

[Kyone Akashi]

Event Horizon IX, on 06 October 2012 - 07:39 PM, said:

I will say that at the moment, the price of MC (in dollars) is a tad bit high, buying a founders package is a great deal

Indeed - you get more MC than if you'd just convert your cash directly, and if you enjoy the game (which I think you will), then it stands to reason that (a) you gonna want to support it and (b ) use some of those MC to buy a cool paintjob or a hula girl figure to further customize your ride with. Two birds with one stone! Or is that two Ravens with one Gauss ...

Speaking of hula girls, a devpost has "cockpit items" listed as coming soon!

Edited by Kyone Akashi, 06 October 2012 - 07:56 PM.

[WTChance]

As is obvious, I got a founders and the ability to start with the founders mechs helped a lot. Earning that is, as has been previously stated, time in the seat and reading the "READ ME" section of the beta forums helps a lot.

My wife, on the other hand got a beta key. She plays an hour or so a day...4 or 5 matches and in 4 days bought her first Commando. Now she knows what she's doing and enjoys it. She is saving for a Jenner though as she misses her jump jets.

Short version... you never have to spend a single real world amount and can still get everything you want at this point.


Oh yeah...go Space Vikings.

Edited by WTChance, 06 October 2012 - 08:21 PM.

[Bansheedragon75]

tyrone dunkirk, on 06 October 2012 - 06:53 PM, said:

You can't just 'watch some guy's ' review and not take it with a grain of salt.
Without fully implemented enconomy and matchmaking features, you can't really review the F2P-ishness of a product. At this point he's just reviewing this patch-stage of the beta, and it's most basic monetary inclusions. The game is hella fun for everyone looking to go into it with a postive attitude and have some good ol' mech-ey fun, but it's not finished yet. You've got to remember the implementations in the works, before you rage quit and sling mud around the forums about it.

This is exactly why I feel it was a mistake of PGI to lift the NDA at this point.
I'm sure you seen plenty of beta rage posts about how the game is broken and will fail from players who bought into beta and did not understand that the game was not done.
This is why I think the lifting of the NDA was a mistake.

We have had players in the beta who either dont like how the game is and say its bad because its not what they want it to be.
Or we have players who dont understand that its still a work in progress, and think that what they see is what they get.
And there are of course the players who wants everything handed to them on a silver platter from the start.

Night crawler, on 06 October 2012 - 06:23 PM, said:

Just watched some guys review of the game and he appears to be saying that the game is somewhat crippled in the free to play aspect. I got the impression that it's not worth playing in this model from what he said, and was wondering if I should go with guild wars 2 or wait for this. I was a big fan of the old days back on MS game zone and thought this would be a great title.

I don't mind buying a game but that's as far as I'm willing to go. I'm not looking for a subscription based game or a game where I'm constantly buying stuff. I just want to buy the game and play.

Is there anything in this game for players like me or do I end up with no mechs, no XP and so on?

You did the right thing coming here and asking for more information.
The game is completely F2P, you can download the game and play for free, no purchase is ever required.
Unlike games like GW2, you dont need to buy the game to play it, its free.
And there are no subscription required either.
And most important, there are no items ingame that you can buy with MC that are better than what you can buy with C-bills.
You can use MC to shorten the grid, but not buy a tactical advantage.

As others have said, any review, be it by players of professionals should always be taken with a grain of salt.
That dont mean the reviews are bad or wrong in any way, only that they sometimes have a tendency to be biased in some way, especially if they are just made by some random player.

Personally I think the game is good and it has great potential.
Since its still a work in progress I am reserving judgment on the game, because I know things will change, and it would only be foolish to judge the game on its unfinished state.
Sometimes changes will be for the worse, but most of the time they are for the better and the game has undergone remarkable changes and improvements since I joined the beta in late July.

The devs here are also good at listening to the community and many changes to the game has been done as a direct result of the feedback from the community.

My suggestion is that you dont judge the game on reviews on its currently unfinished state, but instead try it for yourself and make your own opinion on it.

[employee24601]

Dragonlord, on 06 October 2012 - 08:38 PM, said:

My suggestion is that you dont judge the game on reviews on its currently unfinished state, but instead try it for yourself and make your own opinion on it.

This.

I wouldn't put much stock in a 'review' of a game that's still in beta. And being F2P you will of course be able to make up your mind soon enough, for free.

People really need to learn the meaning of the word beta in the software context.

Edited by employee24601, 06 October 2012 - 11:29 PM.

[Belorion]

Night crawler, on 06 October 2012 - 06:23 PM, said:

Just watched some guys review of the game and he appears to be saying that the game is somewhat crippled in the free to play aspect. I got the impression that it's not worth playing in this model from what he said, and was wondering if I should go with guild wars 2 or wait for this. I was a big fan of the old days back on MS game zone and thought this would be a great title.

I don't mind buying a game but that's as far as I'm willing to go. I'm not looking for a subscription based game or a game where I'm constantly buying stuff. I just want to buy the game and play.

Is there anything in this game for players like me or do I end up with no mechs, no XP and so on?

For the price of guildwars, you can get the premium account for a while. Problems solved. Next.

[Night crawler]

I think i should mention, for the sake of clarity that i didn't take this guys word for everything.

First up, even when the game is released, it will get patched periodically, changing some content in the process. In Beta, it should be more or less done, with some bugs and feedback changing other aspects of the game. An actual review by anyone of a Beta is pretty pointless but I did look into player criticism about any disadvantages from the packages, like someone mentioned Pay to win earlier. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't going to be a pay to win game, which is why I came here for the info from you guys playing it.

Ok, it might be a bit broke in some areas right now, but like I said, it will be a completely game 2 months after release. I wasn't looking for how good the game is, just how much of a disadvantage there was between package I wanted and people buying in game items.