I play World of Tanks and since they're copying a few things from there I'll chip in.
Nothing in any game ever has made me more furious than when World of Tanks changed my 'permanent' camo in an update. I paid real money for a particular scheme and then they changed the pattern and colours.
Now in WoT you have to buy THREE camos for the different map types and like in MWO you have to overwrite what you've already paid for and throw away your money if you want a change.
MwO needs to make either colours or patterns reusable on purchase. My suggestion would be to not make it account unlocked, but make it mech unlocked.
Ie. You buy yellow and red for your MadCat. You then decide to change the scheme to Blue and Orange. You have the option to now use yellow, red, blue or orange for your MadCat but if you wanted to paint your Atlas Blue, you'd need to buy the paint again.
That way, yes you still need to pay to unlock items but you don't lose anything you've already bought. I think it's the best compromise.
Either that or make patterns account unlocks and pay for each colour. (or vice versa).
If MWO did the option of you don't lose what you unlock, I'd paint every one of my mechs (and pay). As it is, I've got a few painted, regretted spending money and given the rest the PCGamer paintscheme.
RG Notch, on 08 January 2013 - 08:06 AM, said:
Maybe they are so stubborn about this is because despite the bitching on the forums they are making good money selling paint? Don't you think if it was as one sided as these polls are they would do something? You can see it in this thread, people own up to buying or being ready to break down and buy. I think they'd be better off with permanent unlocks, but I think a lot of people talk about not spending a dime yet some one is spending or PGI would do something. No one is going to stick to a decision if it's really costing them money. Have they even said a single thing about the camo costs?
Point is though, a happy customer is a spending customer. They could be making MORE money if people felt like it was better value.