113 replies to this topic

[Shiney]

+1 for the original post, well thought out.

Not sure on auctioning and so on mechs and parts, I think we ought to be able to 'gift' them to another player though. Certainly help community and build networks, friends passing on mechs to friends they want to play, who bring their friends, who bring their friends. The same goes for parts.

I think the same could be said for 'features'. A pool of upcoming features could be listed and people could 'sponsor' that feature getting priority. Sure, there's features that are going to go in anyway, but the point I'm making is perhaps have a monthly sponsorship so if you want lobbies in, or new maps and so on, then the most supported gets the nod, all done with MC. If you don't include yourself, it costs you nothing, features come out anyway. It's merely a way for those 'spirited' players to have their say and get their feature sooner rather than later. The selection criteria of course would have to be made by PGI obviously but it's just another way to get some extra coin.

I'd like to see more 'optional' money sinks for MC/C-bills too, just a couple of examples
- Worn Paint jobs [skins] - you pay MC in the presumed usual way to get them. From there they have a maintance cost to keep them pristine. Sure, you can ignore the fixing the paint when you repair, it will have no effect on performance, but it will wear away if it's not maintained, which costs C-bills. Don't pay the retouching, fine, pay it anytime you like and get a perfect skin again.
- Expert Tuning/tweaking - Just changes engine note, nothing else.

[Binkus]

The auction house would work, if.. you could have some single player style grinding missions and occastionally you got some unique drops like a medium laser + 1 (+1 is bad example) but lets say it fires 5% faster etc the same old yellow, purple, green items these drops could be auctioned off

the MC advantage you would have would mean you had more cash (buy and sell a mech etc to bid for these items)

[Norris J Packard]

Shiney, on 12 October 2012 - 12:29 AM, said:

I'd like to see more 'optional' money sinks for MC/C-bills too, just a couple of examples
- Worn Paint jobs [skins] - you pay MC in the presumed usual way to get them. From there they have a maintance cost to keep them pristine. Sure, you can ignore the fixing the paint when you repair, it will have no effect on performance, but it will wear away if it's not maintained, which costs C-bills. Don't pay the retouching, fine, pay it anytime you like and get a perfect skin again.
- Expert Tuning/tweaking - Just changes engine note, nothing else.

Your idea on the Worn Paint is interesting, really, however I think that it would be better served as an actual skin. Instead of paying for an upkeep making your Mech look nice and shiny, "Battle Scar" skins could be implemented. Think of the Founders Skins, most of those Mechs are beat up, battle damaged and worn out. It'd be interesting to see a skin that made your Mech look like it had gone through more than a few drops. Still... they already do display progressive damage to a Mech's paint job; however it does not appear finished as it only appears now and then.

[Larec]

This is an interesting thread with good ideas so far.

So I'll add my 2 cents:

Automated MC-Tournaments

Imaginge automated tournaments everyone can take part in (for single players, premade groups or clans doesn't matter for the sake of this discussion).
Imagine the entry fee would be... 1000 MC (the fee could be adjusted, of course, but I'll stick with 1000 MC for the sake of discussion).
Next, imagine these tournaments would have 8 participating teams or players, with a simple knock-out mode.
Imagine the winner could earn 5000 MC.

That would mean:

• A player (or team) could earn 5000 MC and brag with their leet skills (maybe even with an achievement or badge) by investing only 1000 MC.
  
• PGI just "leeched" 3000 MC out of the system: 8000 MC entry fees from all participants - 5000 MC payout.

A Win-Win situation, if you ask me. Of course I have no idea if this touches any gambling related laws in reallife...

There could be a virtually unlimited amount of tournaments at any time per day, ensuring a steady MC-sink at all times...

Regards,
Drybone

Edited by Drybone, 12 October 2012 - 12:42 AM.

[Norris J Packard]

MC Tournaments would definitely be interesting. However I think most people would like to see a return on their investment at least equal to the risk or greater than it (think a tiered tournament with a larger pot). And you also raise a good point that this could be seen as a form of gambling, as opposed to gaming. I'm not up to speed on the gambling laws in Canada.

Edited by Norris J Packard, 12 October 2012 - 12:44 AM.

[Larec]

Yes, 8 participants was only an example, of course.

Imagine the numbers with bigger tournaments, like 16 or even 32 participants.

Anyhoo, seeing that there are already some great ideas in here (I also like the worn paint idea), maybe you'd like to gather them all in your OP for the devs convenience (hoping that they do, indeed read posts like this)?

[Norris J Packard]

Oh definitely, I am going to do that as soon as I feel I have enough ideas written and cited.

I am also going to ask a guy I know if he wouldn't mind trying to make a visual mockup of a few of these more important ideas. Particularly the Pre-Order one. I know, that one's mine, but it really stands to change the most about this game.

[Kazuar]

Norris J Packard, on 12 October 2012 - 01:00 AM, said:

Oh definitely, I am going to do that as soon as I feel I have enough ideas written and cited.

I am also going to ask a guy I know if he wouldn't mind trying to make a visual mockup of a few of these more important ideas. Particularly the Pre-Order one. I know, that one's mine, but it really stands to change the most about this game.

I honestly think it stands a better chance to provide a steady stream of income than the 'premium time' model. But thats my opinion

Edit: i.e. signed

Edited by Kazuar, 12 October 2012 - 04:24 AM.

[Bakra]

My hat is off to you Sir!

Hopefully this thread will generate enough steam to grab PGI attention. I agree maybe the game needs an Auction House or Salvage Yard, so we could sell our extra parts for more than 50%.

The one thing I would like to contribute is a limited time Special Mission pacts. These missions have a small time window to be purchased but a certain amount of time to complete them. When the players finish they could gain a special ’in-game’ item. The item being nothing more than “I was at the Battle of Pacifica” decal, special mech paint, something designed for the mech they used, etc…or perhaps completion of the mission gives the players an actual real world item. A one-time plastic miniature you could use in the tabletop game or the “I was there…” patch to sew into your jacket.

[Cappy]

BeakieHelmet, on 11 October 2012 - 07:41 AM, said:

Sometime in january or february, we're going to see user-made decals applied to mechs. These are going to need to be paid for with MC, both for the approval process and for buying them for application.

Bad idea. Why would you exclude free to play players from representing their faction? If you join a faction you should be able to apply their respective decals regardless of your status. i can get behind paying MC for the privilege of designing your own, or choosinge from a list of predetermined decals. Maybe even require clan leaders to have premium time to create a clan.

The largest portion of the fan base will (likely) be free players. Excluding free players from representing their clan/faction/whatever is justg a bad idea.

Edited by Cappy, 12 October 2012 - 01:22 PM.

[Norris J Packard]

Bakra, on 12 October 2012 - 12:33 PM, said:

My hat is off to you Sir!

Hopefully this thread will generate enough steam to grab PGI attention. I agree maybe the game needs an Auction House or Salvage Yard, so we could sell our extra parts for more than 50%.

The one thing I would like to contribute is a limited time Special Mission pacts. These missions have a small time window to be purchased but a certain amount of time to complete them. When the players finish they could gain a special ’in-game’ item. The item being nothing more than “I was at the Battle of Pacifica” decal, special mech paint, something designed for the mech they used, etc…or perhaps completion of the mission gives the players an actual real world item. A one-time plastic miniature you could use in the tabletop game or the “I was there…” patch to sew into your jacket.

I asked Garth to read my proposition yesterday in the Reddit thread, he said he loved it. Also your idea about time based missions is pretty neat, but I think it'd be better served as a general game mechanic that all players could take part in. Assuming they are actually around during the time it went on. Think of it as World Events in all current MMO's.

Cappy, on 12 October 2012 - 01:22 PM, said:

Bad idea. Why would you exclude free to play players from representing their faction? If you join a faction you should be able to apply their respective decals regardless of your status. i can get behind paying MC for the privilege of designing your own, or choosinge from a list of predetermined decals. Maybe even require clan leaders to have premium time to create a clan.

The largest portion of the fan base will (likely) be free players. Excluding free players from representing their clan/faction/whatever is justg a bad idea.

Those decals are free (in regards to the amount of time it will take to unlock them via LP ranking), what Beakie is said is correct. User made decals and non-Faction decals aren't going to be free.

Edited by Norris J Packard, 12 October 2012 - 02:31 PM.

[James The Fox Dixon]

Airwolf, on 11 October 2012 - 09:49 AM, said:

My own opinion...

Stimulation of the MC economy is important ... very important to the life of this game ... income generation for continued support and enhancement of the game. After they turn off the sales of Founders Packages, MC purchases appear to the the primary/only method of income generation.

I feel that there is another avenue that seems to have been overlooked/ignored and should be looked at that. An MWO store with hard, "hold-in-your hands" merchandise. Stuff that will get people to open up their wallets and melt their credit cards

Examples:

- Coffee mug (and I'm talking about a *REAL* mug ... 12-16 oz ... NOT an 6-8 oz cup) w/ the MWO logo and 1 mech on the front / back of the mug (so you can see it regardless of whether you're right or left handed). Just the base mech, not every variant cause, well ... that's going a bit overboard. A collectable item ... Collect the entire set!!! I guess you could also offer a 32oz Mega Atlas mug (I'll take two, please).
- T-shirts
- Baseball caps
- Mouse Pads
- Patches
- Polo Shirts
- Wind breakers
- Mech Tie tacks
- Bobblehead mechs (I'm not taking credit for this one, someone else mentioned it)
- Bumper stickers ... (My Jenner is smarter than your Atlas) (AS7-D Atlas -- when negotiations need a little 'help') (LRM boats -- Bring the Rain!) etc.
- I don't know *why* this *just* popped into my head but (and I'll apologize IN ADVANCE for it) ... A dancing Atlas in a hula skirt (yeah, I know, shoot me now).
- Plastic 12-16 oz.mech drinking cups
- Etched mech glassware
- Chess set where the pieces are represented by mechs

The list goes on and on ....

Obviously, I haven't done any research into what kind of startup costs there are associated with each item mentioned (I figure that some are relatively low while others are prohibitively high).

I figure that the following could be one way that things could be done ... and make sure that the community understands that it is a MAYBE, not a guarantee to be in the MWO store ...

[A] Take a poll to see if it's even worth investigating.
[B] If it's worth investigating, then get estimates as to how much it would take to actually produce said item. Using the coffee mug as an example, from what I've heard, all you basically need is a 'camera ready' picture file (e.g. photo mugs).
[C] Determine sale price of said item (for god's sake keep the price competitive). Offer it to the community as a pre-order item that will not be billed to the customer until it actually ships. Show the minimum number of units that need to be pre-ordered before an actual initial production run can be made as well as the current number of units that have been pre-ordered.
[D] If enough pre-orders are made, then do the initial production run and add it to the MWO store.
[E] For those items that are potentially collectable items, like the coffee mugs, maybe offer as a set of 'x' number of different mugs at some discount (5-10%?)

... rinse ... repeat ....

Those are wonderful ideas for generating a steady revenue stream. There are companies out there that will take a portion of your sales, but don't require any start up costs. They could go further by putting out model kits of the new style of mechs. There are a lot of possibilities that PGI could do. My personal favorite would be a machinima series using the game to film the episodes.

[Draco Argentum]

Norris J Packard, on 11 October 2012 - 11:54 PM, said:

I'm suffering from "Gold Syndrome"?

You explicitly asked for P2W elements to be put in the game. Thats the sort of thing I'd expect from someone who is fanboying pretty hard. Gold syndrome.

[Norris J Packard]

Draco Argentum, on 12 October 2012 - 06:34 PM, said:

You explicitly asked for P2W elements to be put in the game. Thats the sort of thing I'd expect from someone who is fanboying pretty hard. Gold syndrome.

Draco, you're being rather rude.

[Wolfclaw]

Draco Argentum, on 12 October 2012 - 06:34 PM, said:

You explicitly asked for P2W elements to be put in the game. Thats the sort of thing I'd expect from someone who is fanboying pretty hard. Gold syndrome.

Why attempt to de-rail this thread?

No where in his post do I see anything remotely close to P2W.

The only "p2w" in this game is more "pay to go fast". I'm sure the OP doesnt mean camo in the sense of actually being invisible but more along the lines of camo that you can design using MC that may be good for certain maps.

[Draco Argentum]

What if a hero mech unique skin on a hardpoint layout that you can already get (or was added to the cbills shop) and came with the 25% cbills boost like a founders mech I'm sure people would lap it right up. I'm sure that would be salable and its not p2w in any way at all. That 25% bonus is really nice on a mech that you use a lot.

[Norris J Packard]

Thread updated with visual representation of the Pre-Order system and posted ideas from other players.

Please continue contributing in any way you feel.

[Stubbs]

Assuming that newer mechs don't equal more powerful mechs, they could simply make new mechs available for MC one month ahead of CBills and rake in the cash. I'd be very likely to pick up a few upcoming mechs in this way.

[Momolicious]

A sharpened or finite point will usually not fit into a hole instead pierce it. A dull or simple point will either readily fit, or not. K.I.S.S.

Bah, posted to wrong thread originally.

The only reason you spend MC is to get more mech bays as CURRENTLY that is the only MC exclusive content. (plus it will forever be of use to the user).

Edited by Momolicious, 14 October 2012 - 11:09 AM.

[Kazuar]

Norris J Packard, on 14 October 2012 - 08:35 AM, said:

Thread updated with visual representation of the Pre-Order system and posted ideas from other players.

Please continue contributing in any way you feel.

Thank you for mentioning me in your OP.

However, I'd like to note that the point I tried to convey was having/creating/formulating incentives for customers to spend more than they initially planned

Buying bundled MechBays is great, but (using prices in my example) doesn't encourage to pick the 15$ instead of the 10$ option, it was more an example if MCs could be bought with 5$.
As it stands, it would be 'better' for PGI if I were to buy 4 MechBays individually, expending 1200 MC, than say, to buy a pack for 1000 MC. However, if the 'bundle' would be priced slightly above what i could get for 10$, say for example, 6 Bays for 1500 MC... I hope I made this understandable (yes, my english is a bit 'leaky', if thats a word^^)

Then again, there are simple 'convenience bundles', like a 'elite hunters "hunchPACK", with 3 bays and 3 HBK's of choice' (I'm bad at making slogans )


I'm sure there are other possibilities when it comes to make people pay money.

Another thing that has come to my mind, but that I'm not entirely happy with (yet), is increasing the 'value' of bought mechs/ premium time, by creating c-bill 'sinks', thereby increasing the subjective/relative value of MC versus C-Bills.
It's a difficult thing to balance (which is why I'm not convinced of it yet), but maybe a constructive discussion can hone this idea?

The challenge in balancing this would be how not to screw over the current c-bill economy with this. Maybe additional, 'one time' expenditures, like a technicians fee for mech customization, e.g. change 20% of tonnage, pay 10% of base price? (the exact ratio, of course, be subject to fine-tuning)

I think it might make premium time (i.e. more c-bills) more desirable, while leaving an option to provide mechs that are bought with MC with an unique feature (customization free/discounted).
Generally, imho, 'cash bought' mechs need something to sweeten the deal. Add 200 MC to all mechs prices, and throw in a 'free mechbay'? A unique 'house colors' skin? A decal? A life-time 5-10% bonus to earnings/xp?

What do you guys think?

(Edited for clarification)

Edited by Kazuar, 14 October 2012 - 12:27 PM.