11 replies to this topic

[Kex]

Let's have a first look on the economy and the F2P model of MWO.
Here is what you get for your bucks if you decide to support the game financially:
(For starters let's forget about the 5 cent and calculate with round numbers)

7$ --> 1,250MC --> 179MC/$
15$ --> 3,000MC --> 200MC/$
30$ --> 6,500MC --> 217MC/$
50$ --> 12,000MC --> 240MC/$
100$ --> 25,000MC --> 250MC/$

For the following we will consider the 15$, 200MC/$ value as baseline for conversions because of the resulting nice round numbers.
Spending 30$ will get you a 8% rebate, 50$ is 20% and 100$ a 25% discount respectively. Spending only 7$ a pop will net you a premium of -11%.

On a sidenote the the upper two founders packages included a 80$ value of MC which in game equate to 20,000MC. Aparently at the full 25% discount. Thanks PGI/IGP.

Now with this baseline conversion rate we can assign a real money value to each currently availably Mech:



Having more fun with numbers we can now divide the CBill value of each Mech by its MC value. Surprisingly over all Mechs the result is now a very constant 2.500 with some rounding precision. So PGI seems to considers each MC to be worth 2.500 CBills. With our former baseline value of 200MC/$ we come to a value 500.000 CBills per USD.
(Note: this was true before the path on 29th Oct. With this patch the MC prices for Mechs were lowered slightly across the board so the CBill/MC values are more spread out now around a medium of about 2.550 now. But none the less the 2.500 look like the originally intended value to me.)
'Re-engineering' the Yen-Lo-Wang would end up at a virtual 9.375.000 CBills.

So the MWO conversion rates are as follows:
1$ = 200MC = 500.000CB
0.005$ = 1MC = 2.500CB
0.02$ = 4MC = 10.000CB

Now with those numbers you can tag every ingame item with a real life value.
For instance the XL320 engine of the AWS-9M alone is worth about 10.45$ of its 23.40$ total. Or LRM20 launchers are 1$ each.

Even repair costs or income per match can be translated into real money if you want to get a feeling for what you just achieved in addition to the fun you had.


Updates:
12-11-11: added CN9-D

Edited by Kex, 11 November 2012 - 05:00 AM.

[Vechs]

So my Zombie Wang makes me about 50 cents a match.

Sweet.

Braaaaiiiiinsssss!!!

[SmithMPBT]

These mech prices are cheap compared to tank prices in World of Tanks. My Lowe was $54 if I remember right. Well worth the fun though.

[EtherDragon]

Yep, sounds correct.

Right out of the gate the devs "normalized" the C-Bill to MC ratio at 2500 to 1. The variance you see is due to rounding to the nearest MC.

Also, each Mech was normalized to be the sum of it's parts, rather that just some "pie in the sky" book value. So, there is a direct conversion from cash to equipment. This leaves the door open for converting MC directly to C-Bills; which the devs had said they might support in-game.

[Silvertree]

I'm just starting out... reading the above, the YLW seems very expensive compared to the other light/medium mechs... essentially I guess you're paying for the 30% CBill boost. So my question is... is that 30% boost worth the extra money for a Wang? Will I make up in C-Bills the extra that I spend in MC?

Or am I reading it wrong... do the much lower costs for most mechs reflect that they don't come with weapons, etc. that are included with a Wang? (For instance, the Wang comes with AC/20, 2 ML, etc... do the costs for lower-cost mechs not include these types of items, and does the cost of them bring a similar mech up closer to the Wang's cost?)

[ZodiacX]

It's because of a couple things, the primary being that the YLW is a "Premium" mech. Currently the only mech that can only be bought with MC. The reason that it is still not classified as pay-to-win is because there is no power advantage.

Also, the YLW is a hero mech from the BattleTech canon. From the standpoint of a someone new to BT, this doesn't matter. So what you are paying for are the 30% C-Bill boost and custom skin.

[Silvertree]

So... is the 30% C-bill bonus worth the 2325 MC premium (over a CN9-AL) paid for the YLW? I'm new enough that I don't have a good grasp of the game's economy yet to know just how valuable that 30% boost is...

[UnKle UK]

Silvertree, on 03 November 2012 - 10:56 PM, said:

So... is the 30% C-bill bonus worth the 2325 MC premium (over a CN9-AL) paid for the YLW? I'm new enough that I don't have a good grasp of the game's economy yet to know just how valuable that 30% boost is...

Well a simple example would be a Win is usually 200,000 CBills for me in other Mechs but in the YLW it is generally 300,000 for a win.

So around 100,000 Extra CBills per won match in the YLW. Lost matches also higher making them around 200,000 CBills.

So personally I think it's worth it, you can always use the YLW to save CBills for the other 2 Centurions avaialble pretty quickly. Plus you can't acquire the YLW any other way (than spending MC) so it's one of the few times I would part with MC for a mech anyway.

[Silvertree]

Thanks. I bought the YLW. I figure over the long run it'll earn it's way, particularly since it's my first mech and will see a lot of use. Having played with it all night and played with equipping it various ways, I'd have to say it's probably priced about 1000 MC too high for what you get. Particularly as a newbie, I'm feeling the lack of LRM... I've recently swapped out the AC/20 for 2 AC/2 to give me a longer range option ('cause I get killed quick at close range; biggest problem with that setup is that even on 3x zoom, it's still hard to hit things from a distance). Anyway, I'm getting better, and making 30% more on my typically short matches is probably adding up. The Founder's config Jenner looks like a likely candidate for my next mech... 4L, missiles, jump jets...

[Adrienne Vorton]

Quote

Well a simple example would be a Win is usually 200,000 CBills for me in other Mechs but in the YLW it is generally 300,000 for a win.
So around 100,000 Extra CBills per won match in the YLW. Lost matches also higher making them around 200,000 CBills.

So the MWO conversion rates are as follows:
1$ = 200MC = 500.000CB
0.005$ = 1MC = 2.500CB
0.02$ = 4MC = 10.000CB

CN9-A --> 7.40$
Yen-Lo-Wang --> 18.75$

so the cbill boost in that example is about 20 cents...
so to make up for the more costs compared to the CN9-A (currenttly the most expensive non-premium Centurion)

it´s about 55 WON matches, and you are clean^^
(55X 20 cents = 11$)

not sure if this info is of any value, but it sounds pretty

Edited by Adrienne Vorton, 04 November 2012 - 12:08 PM.

[Kex]

Updated first post with CN9-D and mech price list is PNG instead of text now.

[Elizander]

Silvertree, on 04 November 2012 - 09:27 AM, said:

Thanks. I bought the YLW. I figure over the long run it'll earn it's way, particularly since it's my first mech and will see a lot of use. Having played with it all night and played with equipping it various ways, I'd have to say it's probably priced about 1000 MC too high for what you get. Particularly as a newbie, I'm feeling the lack of LRM... I've recently swapped out the AC/20 for 2 AC/2 to give me a longer range option ('cause I get killed quick at close range; biggest problem with that setup is that even on 3x zoom, it's still hard to hit things from a distance). Anyway, I'm getting better, and making 30% more on my typically short matches is probably adding up. The Founder's config Jenner looks like a likely candidate for my next mech... 4L, missiles, jump jets...

It's annoying that the Wang doesn't have at least one missile slot. It's so normal that people find it hard to call it a P2W mech. Once you get used to torso twisting to use your dummy left arm you can do pretty well with it. There is also a zombie wang cash making guide in the mech guide forums that you might want to check out.