124 replies to this topic

[Imagine Dragons]

Whats the point of camo as a tactical choice in this game? Its not going to have any benefit other than at extreme range (which even that is nullified by thermal)

Its paint, not camo.

[Mathmatics]

I have a related topic here. More my wish for all of us to not have ot buy pre made skins but to be able to buy jars of paint to do with what we chose. http://mwomercs.com/...-paint-with-mc/

[Billygoat]

The planned pricing scheme and pay-per-use model means, like others in this thread, I'll be sticking with free colours only.

If each colour and pattern was a one-time purchase that I could use as often as I want, I would probably spend big and "collect them all". Even if each unlock only applied to specific chassis (NOT variant), I would probably be tempted to unlock everything for my preferred chassis and a few here and there for others I use often.

The planned scheme = no deal for me. Which means there's still little-to-nothing for me to spend my founders MC on and thus no reason to buy more. Sad.

[skullman86]

A good middleground IMO would have been to use a system similar to TF2. Treat themes/patterns like "hats" and make them permanent buys (could probably increase the MC cost a bit if this were the case), but charge for the paint.

By doing that, players still have to pay every time they change a color, but they can swap out patterns for c-bills once they've been purchased with MC. This means players can collect stuff, feel better about their purchases, and as a result spend more money on the game (most likely in smaller quantities at a higher frequency).

Edited by skullman86, 24 November 2012 - 06:13 PM.

[Viper69]

Cleverbird, on 24 November 2012 - 01:06 PM, said:

I don't get it why I would even want to buy camo in the first place... I'm inside the cockpit, its not like I get to enjoy it
I'm sure as hell not going to pay to let others enjoy my shiny mech.

But I will admit that this system seems like a pretty big scam just to make people pay more.

Its the same reason people paint their cars. They cant see them going down the road but you can in your garage in the same way you can in your mech bay.

[Mr T]

XenomorphZZ, on 24 November 2012 - 05:29 PM, said:

First off, do you care what color your car is painted? I mean its not like you can admire your car's paint job when you're driving it, right?

What is the point in painting a vehicle that you will spend most of your time unable to see the paint? Its because its a statement to other players, not just you.

Sheesh, the perceptional dissonace here is amazing (<--- I have idea what I said there)

It's just something fun. Granted it's not game breaking without these flair items, but at the same time, it would be both beneficial to PGI's wallet as shown by the chart and the player's enjoyment. Win win.

Besides, the more people with camos and paint jobs, the more vibrant, unique and entertaining a game it is for everyone.

XenomorphZZ, on 24 November 2012 - 05:29 PM, said:

Secondly, this just happens... to be another feature from WoT, same idea, permament camo's cost hard currency and stuff you bought is lost if you decide to repaint the tank.

It wasn't very popular at first in WoT, nobody wanted to spend money on paint, just to have to buy it again, for every tank none-the-less, and you were not allowed to have multiple tanks unlike here in MWO...

Except, WoT then added gameplay improvements if you painted your tank, a small reduction in your tank's visibilty rating. Now almost every tank you see is painted.

I wonder what might happen in MWO...

The more I hear PGI copying things done in WOT, the more I am disappointed as that game seems to just ooze sleaze. In fact, for a while I was under the impression it was a Zynga game. I really wish they would take more cues from Tribes Ascend, where I feel they've really kept to being decent when it comes to progression without pay, while still offering useful, affordable and worthy items for purchase. I've mentioned it this before, but considering that game's well-known, even meme status, I think it leads a good example. I also wouldn't put too much faith in Xfire numbers considering how few people really use that program overall.

[Apoc1138]

I'll play with cbill colours but I'm not paying money for something that I lose entirely if I choose something different

if it was an unlock and then cbills to change between them I would be fine with that

I might eventually buy 1 pattern for 1 mech, my main one, but beyond that. no

I don't understand the thinking that thought it would be a good idea to keep charging real money to swap about colour schemes, they would get far more money from me (and it would appear other people) if they charged real money for unlocks instead

[Xervitus]

I can tell you this, if I could have only kept one WoW companion (vanity pet) at a time I would never have invested MANY hours and $$ on them.

People like to collect, not rent.

[sokitumi]

1) Having a full re-texturing equate to promised paintlab = amateur
2) recharging mc for a retexture (and cbills for upgrades while we're at it) = obvious capitol sink1

PGI just keeps making supreme decisions. Way to go potato's.

[xxx WreckinBallRaj xxx]

Again they are going against a logical formula of what people expect. They should just let us buy a skin once per variant and it be permanently owned with the ability to turn it on and off as you see fit. Naturally, this is how League of Legends does it, but is another thing Piranha refuses to mirror for success. They are already ripping you off for MC and now plan to do it with skins as well since you won't permanently own an toggleable unlock with them. You don't have to gouge your players. Just copy League of Legends and people will drown you in cash. That game has much more reasonable RP prices and a 1 time fee per permanent ownership for skins.

Edited by Bluten, 24 November 2012 - 08:46 PM.

[Valore]

Pay MC to unlock colour scheme, pay Cbills to respray a mech. Anything else does seem a bit of a cheesy money grab.

[Harmatia]

If that's the way it will work... nope!

[Gristle]

Mr T, on 24 November 2012 - 01:55 PM, said:

Ugh, rentals in games are horrible. I stopped playing Blacklight Retribution after a couple matches after I saw how much of that game was just rental only stuff.

I agree - makes me think about how much stuff actually costs every time I have to spend for the rental. A F2P game developer doesn't want you to do this and try to make the math difficult to do in your head, but seem to forget these games are played on the most powerful calculators ever made.

Edited by Gristle, 24 November 2012 - 09:07 PM.

[BigJim]

Viper69, on 24 November 2012 - 06:16 PM, said:

Its the same reason people paint their cars. They cant see them going down the road but you can in your garage in the same way you can in your mech bay.

It really isn't though imo.

If everyone else but you in the world were blind, you wouldn't brush your hair in the morning.

If nobody else could see your car, you wouldn't bother to clean it.

Looking good is a statement to everybody else in the world - No matter how many people say "I like to look good just for myself", what they really mean is; "I know I look good to everybody else, and that makes me feel more confident".

It's not a bad thing per-se, it's just basic human nature.

Edited by BigJim, 24 November 2012 - 09:10 PM.

[Dagrum Darkforge]

I was going to spend money on mc to collect camo when i thought it was going to work like the pc gamer skin get the skin and can use it on any mechs that can use it take it off and not lose it but this way i dont think ill be buying camos but the cockpit items i will most likely spend on cause i can keep them and trade them out like i want to bad was realy wanting to make my phract look cool like my hunchie with its pc gamer skin so they are in the long run boneing them selfs out of cash i have a slim ammount of cash i can spend on useless crap and somthing that can only be used in one game is truely useless crap but if i have to spend on it every time i want to take it off or change it a little why buy it only reason i painted my truck was so it would not rust and that is somthing i use daily in real life like how it looks but much rather spend money to keep it running than make it look cool a Cbill charge to change the colors or skin after MC purchase i would be fine with but MC every time i want to mess with it then nope not gonna be doing any skins now if you could do a true custom skin that only you would have then then ppl would pay out the *** for it but this system is going to loss customers like me who see a game as a game not their life and are not willing to spend that much for a fictional item that you have to put more money in to every time you want to tweak it

I love this game wanted to spend some money to keep it going but im realy freaking poor yes i can pay for internet but why do you think i play f2p i need internet for business and can also use it for fun dont mean i can throw cash down the ****** on any thing that looks shiney i can squeeze out a few bucks ever now and again for useless fun but im not gonna do it for something i can not keep and do with as i please

so in other words cockpit items cool paint job stuff is pure C.R.A.P

you dont think they are testing responce to this just to see how it would go over do ya?

[Hexenhammer]

MC paint rental?

Edited by Hexenhammer, 24 November 2012 - 10:50 PM.

[Thirdrail]

Just sell me colours, and let me use them from that point forward, as if I was buying a bottomless bottle of paint for my Battletech models. If I buy a skin, give me the skin, just like the pc gamer skin, and let me choose what to do with it. You can basically create an endless amount of these things, and people will feel a desperate need to collect them all. (Look at the overwhelming popularity of dyes in Guild Wars 2. No one NEEDS 35 shades of fuchsia for their necromancer, but announce a 36th version and half the server drops everything they're doing and can't get it fast enough.)

This thing where you pay every time you're repainting seems incredibly sharky to me. Especially considering how much we all put up with from MWO. I mean, ok, many of us, perhaps not all, but many, are out here on a daily basis being friendly and supportive (with time, money, and forum participation) because we like Piranha, and we're trying to help create a positive community and a fun game.

Meanwhile, the game crashes constantly. Every time I buy a new mech: crash. Every time I change a loadout and dare to tweak armour at the same time: crash. I enter matches and get the yellow screen of blindness. I enter matches and get the black screen of death. I enter matches and my map doesn't work. I enter matches and my HUD is just missing. I enter matches that are immediately unbalanced by suicide farmers. And it's cool. I remain cool. I don't rage against the machine, even though the bugs are actually becoming more prevalent, not less. I think I speak for many when I say these things.

And Piranha's response is to install a system that charges us every time we want to swap a colour? That's just not a decent thing to do. They ask us to exist in a permanent state of giving them the benefit of the doubt on so many things, and, for the most part, we do give them the benefit of that doubt. I know I do.

But, then, when it's time to finally implement a feature many of us are waiting for, and let us paint a mech, they immediately choose the road most shark-like. (Or, perhaps, most piranha-like would be a more accurate expression.) There's a distinct lack of give and take occurring in this dynamic. This is more like take and take.

It's not a very nice way to treat people, and I'm disappointed in Piranha for defaulting to such an inherently unkind mechanic.

Edited by Thirdrail, 24 November 2012 - 11:27 PM.

[Tarman]

This is a pretty weaksauce model to push paint on us. Planetside 2 does buys and rentals for their schemes so you can run how you like; invest more in a permanent set you really like, or rent cheap and use the entire range, or both. Collectibles sell, even digitally. Can't figure out how they don't see this. Let me buy as many schemes as I want or rent a look if I just want to use it for a one-off event, and you can even charge C-bills for resprays inside my personal permanent collection of schemes. Per-variant (not per individual mech) would be the best way imo. Then if you're not loaded with mechbays having cool paint is still easily obtainable for your favourite ride whenever it's in the bay, instead of having your paint be an overhead expense or just waiting forever for it, when you're changing out mechs for pilot training, which is also per-variant so there's precedent. They can release special skins like the PC Gamer version, that could apply across a range of mechs. So many ways they could market this that would encourage spending.

Their model will encourage people to spend way less on paintjobs because people will be more likely to l think I AM WASTING MY MONEY ON PURPOSE instead of COOL THIS SKIN LOOKS LIKE A GIANT MONKEY. You know you'd buy a skin that made a mech look like a giant monkey or a dinosaur or put one of those sharkmouth decals on the head, let alone any crazy colours or classic flames (personally I would get an Atlas skin that made the head look like a flaming jack o'lantern). But, if you want another camo even for a single match your giant monkey is going under the paintgun forever. It's like intentionally watching yourself throw money away instead of using the money for your own enjoyment. "Big tourney tomorrow, get your team colours on! Oh wait, it costs real money for the "uniforms" and to change back into our regular look every time we do this, nvm." Sell somebody a team look they have access to when they need it, and they will add it to their giant monkey and their flames and their 6 palette sets.

Nobody cares about spending money on stupid crap, money is for spending; but if you don't even get to KEEP the stupid crap, then even a dipstick will save his dollars for something better. PGI, we want to give you money, really. Plenty of players would buy all the camos there were if you could keep them. If you give us cool things we will give you money, but you keep asking for it in all the wrong ways.

[Squigles]

The way they should do it, is to charge you MC to create a pattern and paint scheme, this is a one time fee and unlocks that specific pattern with specific paint scheme for that specific mech. After that, if they wanted to involve a sink in the process, they could charge you C-Bills to apply that or any other paint job, but you'd never lose the design.

Think of it as paying MC for the designer to create the scheme, but C-bills for the actual paint job.

It's about the best middle of the road approach they can take without effectively ******* away your real life money investment any time you want to change from red to blue.

Edited by Squigles, 25 November 2012 - 12:24 AM.

[Ricama]

I'm hoping the devs have the necessary sanity to only make temp patterns cost c-bills. I'd spend c-bills on something temporary, mc on something permanent if I can make it close enough to what I want it.