55 replies to this topic

[BruteLeo]

nice graph keep up the good work

[TheStrider]

I posted something like this a while back.

https://www.dropbox....z/MC%20Cost.xls

Only thing I've done different was the MC to the $ rating. Don't know if that's of use to you but...

[KitK]

Cool! Thanks TheStrider.

I have a 3rd worksheet (really the first worksheet) in my workbook that looks very, very similar to yours, which has the MC to $ and $ to MC rates. I use those to calculate the whole list. But I didn't/don't post the info, though I suppose I could leave it in the download.

I should find a good way to present that data though, because one gets quite a bit more MC per $ for getting the $14.95 instead of the $6.95 or the $49.95 instead of the $29.95. But jumping from $49.95 to $99.95 isn't as big of a jump in value. And that is kind of nice to know when buying the MC packages themselves.

Edit: I guess if you look at % increace the MC increments are more even. Thus, the need for a good way to present the data.

Edited by KitK, 25 January 2013 - 09:27 AM.

[Atayu]

I know people want more for less but common. the 20 dollars for a high end mech is not to much. Let me put it this way to get a mech I can spend 10 hours grinding the c'bills in game or I can spend half hour pay to get the same item and play what i want then. I have bought a few mechs with MC, the mortus, and flame. I also have the founders mechs. Now i agree on the bash items I think the should be around 1 dollar in cost not 4. I also think paint colors we buy should be perminatly avalable to us not by each time you apply. Even more so with the bug running around removing peoples paint jobs. I know this is just a opinion like most the post here, I just wanted to give my 2cents.

Edited by Atayu, 25 January 2013 - 09:19 AM.

[McOrion]

To buy a digital mech for 10, 20 or 30$? Yes if you wish to support game but no if you wish to think to real life. 30$, 60$, these are prices for full complete and tested games, not just a little package of bit.

I spent money one month of Premium. Stop. That's fair enough if you consider I have to pay them to play but they should pay me for beta testing. Am I only one realistic?

I will pay more when I will see real advances in game. 12 maps and 12 mechs in next 12 months is not enough for me so I hope they have some big surprise before April/May.

McOrion

[QContinuum]

You just have to ask yourself would you rather be spending the 15$ a month and just have everything? I think the way they have it is a decent way to do things. You just have to ask yourself once you have that mech how many hours do you think you will be using it at no additional cost. I think the prices are a bit steep but i know if they had a 50% off MC sale i would buy some today for future use. I just have the orignal founders 20,000 and still have 6000 left. I bought a few chasses and some mech bays but that's it. I have 14 mechs and hours of pay. For a value so far been good. I could spend 20 bucks at a movie for 3 hours of good entertainment of buy one mech and play for months on end.

Now i agree with the whole paint. I think it should be once you unlock a color it's yours. That fluff for your visual entertainment is always way to expensive. NO WAY i would pay that much to have something in my cockpit. Since it's Beta i'm just playing the wait and see.

my 2 cents.

[PhDGreg]

Nice work I recently whipped up a site to calculate this sort of thing live - http://mwomercs.com/...ost-calculator/ - but it's good to have a spreadsheet based one for number crunching

[KitK]

It looks like your site lost its database as there is nothing to select. I'll check back later. Using the smallest MC package cost is going to distort prices upward. So, it would be cool if you could incorporate MC package as an option too.

[PhDGreg]

KitK, on 06 February 2013 - 05:46 AM, said:

It looks like your site lost its database as there is nothing to select. I'll check back later. Using the smallest MC package cost is going to distort prices upward. So, it would be cool if you could incorporate MC package as an option too.

It's working fine, although earlier versions of IE have issues reading XML so maybe try a good browser if that's the case.

I'm tempted to add an option to change the MC package, but the idea of it distorting prices is not that simple - spending $99.95 to make your Pretty Baby cost $23.99 rather than spending $29.95 and having it cost $27.65 doesn't exactly save you money
(it's also not hard to add a few items to bump up the minimum pack if you want to check prices relative to a higher pack - as I did to get the values above).

I might add it regardless if I get a chance, though.

[KitK]

PhDGreg, on 06 February 2013 - 08:09 AM, said:

It's working fine, although earlier versions of IE have issues reading XML so maybe try a good browser if that's the case.

spending $99.95 to make your Pretty Baby cost $23.99 rather than spending $29.95 and having it cost $27.65 doesn't exactly save you money

Hmm.. my browser should be fine, I wonder what I missed.

As to the 100vs30, well yeah, but...
The truth is that they've done a good job of abstracting MC costs so that one's perspective is a huge component. The $100 does save money IF you have a use of the extra MC and are willing to part with that much coin. IF not you have to swallow hard and pay more for the item but smile because you are $70 richer in real life. Or if I'm trying to talk myself into buying P.Baby I'll look at the $30 package, if I'm trying to talk myself out of it than I'll look at the $7 package. Nothing costs X; it's all X +/- some non-tagible factor.

It's a wierd dance between actual item cost and package cost. I have my founders cache, so actual item cost, relative to my input, is most important to me. But if I had to buy the MC now to get an item today I am sure my perspective would be different.

[PhDGreg]

KitK, on 06 February 2013 - 08:49 AM, said:

It's a wierd dance between actual item cost and package cost. I have my founders cache, so actual item cost, relative to my input, is most important to me. But if I had to buy the MC now to get an item today I am sure my perspective would be different.

And here we come to the entire point of game currency models - to abstract the real monetary cost of your purchases. Psychology is a ***** - people become more willing to pony up cash when you abstract it into MC/gold/ISK/lindendollars/MS points...

[KitK]

PhDGreg, on 07 February 2013 - 06:56 PM, said:

And here we come to the entire point of game currency models - to abstract the real monetary cost of your purchases. Psychology is a ***** - people become more willing to pony up cash when you abstract it into MC/gold/ISK/lindendollars/MS points...

100% with you there! They've done a great job of it too. I don't know how many times I've read something to the effect that once you've bought MC they've already got your real money so you might as well spend your MC (generally followed by QQ about MC costs and high item costs). But USD to MC is no different than USD to Pesos or Yen (except you can't change it back) or exchanging for chips at a casino. And $1USD = 179 to 250 MC is a good exchange rate right? I'll bet that people who are cautious with their money in real-life are careful with their MC too. And people who are less cautions with their money in real-life are less careful with their MC too. And that the later are likewise probably more impacted by the psychology of game currency. If they could find a way to make MC seem infinate instead of so finite they would really have us.

All of that said though, the present economic conditions make a lot of people conscientious and wanting to know the "real" cost, even if just out of curiosity. The result is a lot of people saying MWO is expensive compared to other similar games. But there are dissenting views and "apples to oranges" arguments, so I don't know. This is the first game I've "bought" that didn't come with a physical disk. I know I've fully committed $60 USD but only allocated $2.93 at my exchange rate. I guess I better go buy some paint to help the economy . That 200 degree twist radius and 400XL max engine on Pretty Baby is pretty tempting too.

[Ilxuss]

Well, that was interesting to see. Good work there!

[Ace Selin]

Considering that my other current MMO (EVE online) costs real money every month to play, im happy to pay for an enhanced mech bay and for 2-3 mechs with real cash to play MWO, a game which im sure will give me many months, if not years of enjoyment. I think thats a great deal!

[Memowolf]

This is mostly personal issue. While I do pay for the premium time, I have not bought a mech for real $$. For me, an important part of the game is earning the money to buy bigger and better mechs and equipment. But it can suit everyone´s taste:
If you do not want to pay money you can just play and save credits to buy any regular mech. If you want to spend some money on bonuses or nice shiny items you can do so and it does not affect gameplay but just the visuals in your screen. Finally, if you don´t want to play for several hours/days to buy a mech you can immediately use $$ to buy the mech you want.

I come from Pay 10 USD a month to play MMO games so I really thought hard about it and decided to have Premium time. I get to play a game I like, pay the same $10 I would for another MMO and support the developers to improve the game I like and play. I have bought a few color and cockpits items when on sale fully on the same principle, nobody is forcing me to do it but I see it rather as a support the DEVs feature. I agree that $120 a year might be steep for a game but if I look at it by $ per hours MWO is costing me much less than $50 cents per hour if I buy 1 month premium time so it is very affordable all things considered.

[KitK]

Updated August 2, 2013.

I was figuring out how much XP and subsequent time I would be looking at to level Overlord package, project Phoenix mechs come October. It is substantial. So I've added a special line just for that into the price list, since I know a lot of players have hundreds of thousands of extra XP sitting on their favorite mechs.

Just to grind basic for all 12 mechs is 171,000 XP.

For elite status on all 12 add 258,000 (that's 102,000 just for speed tweak).

To get those master modules it's another 258,000.

If you average 400XP per match Basic will take 428 matches. Use premium and that drops to 285.
If you average 5 matches per day that's 69 days/46 days - just for basic.

If XP to GXP conversion is suddenly looking like a good option take a look at the Price List in the original post, and remember they usually have a 50% XP conversion sale once a month.

[BlacKcuD]

Nice list. Free bump for nice info.

[KitK]

Thanks for the bump back in August, BlacKuD.
___

Now on to the day's business.

First of all, Happy Launch Day to everyone and Congratulations to PGI and IGP for reaching this milestone in their ongoing develpoment cycle.

Now on the the price list. I skipped updating for a month so there is a lot of new info in the chart. I've added the Kintaro and Orion plus place holders for all of the Project Phoenix an Saber Reinforcement mechs. The list of Mechs is getting very long; there are now 116 known variants in the list.

Edited by KitK, 17 September 2013 - 12:49 PM.

[Nick Makiaveli]

Slightly off-topic questions, mechs bought with MC don't come with a mechbay right? Do champion/hero mechs? Curious since the only cash I've spent so far is on Sarah's mech (figured it was for a good cause regardless of MWO's future) which did so just trying to plot future expansions.

[KitK]

Nick Makiaveli, on 17 September 2013 - 03:52 PM, said:

Slightly off-topic questions, mechs bought with MC don't come with a mechbay right? Do champion/hero mechs? Curious since the only cash I've spent so far is on Sarah's mech (figured it was for a good cause regardless of MWO's future) which did so just trying to plot future expansions.

Anytime you buy a mech through the client's store you have to already own an empty mech bay, even for hero mechs. There is some sort of technical issue that prevents the two from being bundled together at the point of sale.

Sarah's mech, Founder mechs, and the Phoenix mechs, which are not purchased throught the client, do come with a mech bay. Their delivery system for these is different in that they will come with a general content patch (every other Tuesday).

User Interface 2.0 might have the ability to deliver a mech with a bay from the client store. But I don't know the status of that delivery feature or if they will even do it. Even if they do start bundling a bay with a mech don't expect to see it for C-Bill purchassed mechs.