47 replies to this topic

[Zhanna Kerensky]

Aegis Kleais, on 27 May 2012 - 12:54 PM, said:

Interesting.

The promo states: "Exclusive custom 'Founder's BattleMech'" which makes it sound as if you're getting another Mech on top of the one they are giving all players.

I would be very interested in knowing if it's just a modification to the free Mech everyone gets, or if it is a unique Mech in and of itself.

This was my understanding, too, with the EFP the player who purchases it will obtain an extra mech that is equipped with a C-bill booster, and once the game is launched officially, anyone will be able to purchase any of the mechs that the developers introduced up to that point, so that the EFP users would be provided with the same choice of mech as everyone else but will in addition the would also possess the EFP mech (thus, I do not see any reason for complaints regarding the randomization approach as they will eventually get their favourite mech type anyway, just a little bit later at the official MWO start).

What is the point then for paying $60 for the EFP? Is it just for those who wish to start a bit earlier with playing MWO and get this C-bill booster on top of it, but being limited to only 4 mech types to choose from at the same time and not having the possibility to choose one of the mechs available at MWO lauch then (unless one is raking a lot of C-bills with the EFP mech until the offical MWO start or uses the additional 80$ for online items' purchases also included in the EFP). Such an option will most likely not appeal to me and offers relatively little advantage over the of Veteran Founder's Package (VFP) then, but after reading the description of 'Operation Inception' it is completely possible that the differences between EFP and VFP are just the C-bill booster, twice as much online purchase cash and one month more of premium account.

I am not certain that all the mechs announced by the developers so far will not be available at the offical MWO launch. At least the availability of all those advertised mech models is what I would expect (also providing the necessary diversity for the game start and not just 4 models, plus variants/modifcations, in total). If only one mech representative for each weight category will be available at the official MWO start, possibly, a lot of users here will be disappointed of the developers (from being wettened in their appetites with new mech models introduced every two to three weeks, but when it finally comes to delivery none of these would be made available at game start). As a consequence thereof, some may decide to wait and not participate until the game becomes more complex and diverse then (not really helping the development/popularity of MWO) or it may not be mid- to long-term motivating due to a lack of options (also depending on other factors, of course, such as maps/environments, game modes, etc.) and BattleTech/MechWarrior newcomers will not be awfully impressed by a selection of only 4 different mech types at game launch, even if it is F2P.

In my opinion/estimation the whole Founder's package business has not been figured out well by the developers to date, but it will surely be a good option for them to also collect more cash later on at the start of the Clan invasion (possibly, calling them 'Elite Trueborn Packages' or 'Elite Bloodname Packages' then).

[Dirk Le Daring]

@OP When I spend money I make the choice of what I am purchasing. As to the number of mechs being the same....That is up to the customer/consumer. I do not agree with your proposal.

(not angry, just saying)

[Rejarial Galatan]

Zhanna Kerensky, on 27 May 2012 - 08:33 AM, said:

Hi everyone,

I am a bit surprised about the developers' announcement indicating that only 4 particular mech models will be up for grabs regarding the Elite Founder's Package (EFP) and the latter seems to be something that will become very popular in the near future (according to new threads/polls that I have looked at, containing plenty of purchase statements already).

The effect would be that there will be lots of people running around in the same mech types. I wonder if this will be true to canon and, for instance, wonder if so many 100 ton Atlas mechs were actually existent at that time, so that it will not disproportionate the mech type equilibrium and reduce the diversity?

Wouldn't it be a good approach to randomize the 4 EFP mechs available instead? This would mean that a shuffling between mech types would take place so that everyone who opts for the EFP will be presented with 4 different kinds of in-game mechs from each weight class by the role of a dice (e.g. Raven, Cicada, Catapult, and Awesome) instead of sticking to the 4 particular mechs (Jenner, Hunchback, Catapult, and Atlas) as per developers' restrictions. However, the shuffling would occur after the EFP amount has been paid, so that the user cannot cancel the EFP purchase and hope for a new randomization of the 4 mechs. This would ensure that someone cannot repeat the EFP signup several times in order to get the one mech in a specific weight class that she/he likes the most (unless someone wants to pay for several EFP).

Will such an approach not benefit the gameplay by promoting a more balanced distribution of different mech types in MWO or will this be an irrelevant factor?

Naturally, I would also be curious to know what Piranha Games/IGP thinks about this ...

this is of course, assuming that the pictures are 100% proof of THOSE exact mechs being the founder mechs. i have said it numerous times, they are just pictures, until russ, bryan, paul or someone else from the DEV team state it in writing, we cant be sure of what mechs we will see in the EFP.

[Felicitatem Parco]

Those 4 pictures have the words "Operation Inception: Hunchback," "Operation Inception: Catapult," etc. on the bottom of each pic...

[Rejarial Galatan]

indicating nothing more than paint schemes, still not proof positive imho. i will reserve my choice until they say specifically or june 19 arrives, which ever happens first, till then, those pics are mere speculation, and concept art for the paint schemes.

[Quentin Yatoki]

Normally I would be against anything that even smacks of selling power or paying to win, however in this case, I believe that we should be able to choose any of the mechs they have at launch as our founder mech. Why you ask? Because I am shelling out $60 of my hard earned money for a game that won't have even have been released yet. I am taking a leap of faith with them that the game is going to be good and that I will enjoy the experience. Also, because that mech is going to have a C-bill booster, that mech will serve as my prime mech most likely. I want to have that mech be the one I want to use the most.

Edited by Quentin Yatoki, 27 May 2012 - 11:30 PM.

[Rejarial Galatan]

Quentin Yatoki, on 27 May 2012 - 11:30 PM, said:

Normally I would be against anything that even smacks of selling power or paying to win, however in this case, I believe that we should be able to choose any of the mechs they have at launch as our founder mech. Why you ask? Because I am shelling out $60 of my hard earned money for a game that won't have even have been released yet. I am taking a leap of faith with them that the game is going to be good and that I will enjoy the experience. Also, because that mech is going to have a C-bill booster, that mech will serve as my prime mech most likely. I want to have that mech be the one I want to use the most.

i agree, partly, i dont think the founder mechs will have any tactical advantage, unless paint schemes count, but, ya, this is one of those rare exceptions to the dont sell mechs at all for real cash thing.

where i disagree is the leap of faith, IMHO based on what ive read/seen, this game should stack up worthy of the leap in june

[Raeven]

Who says they should limit customers to one package a piece? Why not let the payer choose the 'Mech and choose to buy up to four packages to get one of each weight class chassis?

I'd consider it... Hell, I'd do it.

Edited by Raeven, 28 May 2012 - 12:08 AM.

[Quentin Yatoki]

Rejarial Galatan, on 27 May 2012 - 11:42 PM, said:

where i disagree is the leap of faith, IMHO based on what ive read/seen, this game should stack up worthy of the leap in june

Hey, I agree with you on this, however, until the game officially goes live we will have no idea what will actually happen. That's why it's called a leap of faith.

[Bullwerk]

I skimmed the thread after answering the Poll and did not see this brought up, I apologize in advance if I missed it somewhere.

According to the responses to the Twitter Q&A held with the devs several weeks ago players will be able to select ONE free mech to start with. This mech will come from a pool of FOUR possible mechs, ONE in each weight class (Light/Medium/Heavy/Assault).

I have copied the quote specifying as much from the forum topic dedicated to that Q&A below

"Players get 1 free Mech to start. They can choose from 4 (1 in each class) — Bryan"

It makes sense then that the four founders mechs will be from the same selection of 4 mechs available to everyone. The founders mechs may have slightly different load outs and color schemes but they will not effect the overall mech selection balance since they are the same chassis available to all. You will have thousands of Jenners, Hunchbacks, Catapults, and Atlases running around on launch day, some of them will be a different color.

In fact the only place the founders package could skew things is with the in game currency that will be available, purchasers may have enough money to field mechs not in the selection of four free mechs (founders or otherwise). But then again anyone that doesn't purchase the founders package will be able to buy other mechs with real currency as well. In the end I see this a big non-issue.

Edited by Bullwerk, 29 May 2012 - 11:40 AM.

[CeeKay Boques]

Not to min max it... Sarna style:

but

9,626,000 C-bills Atlas
3,198,375 C-bills Jenner


Regardless of tricks and extras, since its a "free" mech,, it would seem that If I got the Atlas, I would certainly be profiting, as opposed to getting the Jenner, and then having to find another 6.5 million ot purchase an Atlas later... Even though I would prefer to have a uniquish jenner.

[Zhanna Kerensky]

Bullwerk, on 29 May 2012 - 11:38 AM, said:

I skimmed the thread after answering the Poll and did not see this brought up, I apologize in advance if I missed it somewhere.

According to the responses to the Twitter Q&A held with the devs several weeks ago players will be able to select ONE free mech to start with. This mech will come from a pool of FOUR possible mechs, ONE in each weight class (Light/Medium/Heavy/Assault).

I have copied the quote specifying as much from the forum topic dedicated to that Q&A below

"Players get 1 free Mech to start. They can choose from 4 (1 in each class) — Bryan"

It makes sense then that the four founders mechs will be from the same selection of 4 mechs available to everyone. The founders mechs may have slightly different load outs and color schemes but they will not effect the overall mech selection balance since they are the same chassis available to all. You will have thousands of Jenners, Hunchbacks, Catapults, and Atlases running around on launch day, some of them will be a different color.

In fact the only place the founders package could skew things is with the in game currency that will be available, purchasers may have enough money to field mechs not in the selection of four free mechs (founders or otherwise). But then again anyone that doesn't purchase the founders package will be able to buy other mechs with real currency as well. In the end I see this a big non-issue.

Thank you for the update/clarification, for mech setup for pre-launch and launch is quite diasappointing news from my point of view, but "alea iacta est", I suppose. Basically, I would still feel like buying the pig in a poke and under these circumstances it will not be a Founders Package for me then (I would rather save the money for a potential Clanners package then), also in light of the fact that the developers have not clarified many details so far (unless one digs deeper), but maybe this will happen last minute.

Technoviking, on 29 May 2012 - 11:47 AM, said:

Not to min max it... Sarna style:

but

9,626,000 C-bills Atlas
3,198,375 C-bills Jenner


Regardless of tricks and extras, since its a "free" mech,, it would seem that If I got the Atlas, I would certainly be profiting, as opposed to getting the Jenner, and then having to find another 6.5 million ot purchase an Atlas later... Even though I would prefer to have a uniquish jenner.

I totally agree, there is a huge discrepancy regarding the value of the offered start-up mechs, the Jenner or Catapult could be interesting due to their (potential) speed and jump jets which the atlas as a pure weapon platform will not feature. For this reason the only mech I would definitely exclude from the four mechs in terms of value would be the Hunchback, but it is a question of priorities and style/type of intended gameplay, I guess.

[Rejarial Galatan]

Quentin Yatoki, on 29 May 2012 - 06:09 AM, said:

Hey, I agree with you on this, however, until the game officially goes live we will have no idea what will actually happen. That's why it's called a leap of faith.

except, if the packages are limited time only, as in, they vanish before it fully launches, you kinda gotta go all Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and step out into the open air and hope its gonna have that bridge to land on.

[John Clavell]

I've been discussing this with some corp mates. At first we thought maybe the variants would be lost-tech upgrade versions, such as the Atlas 'K' variant. But by the end of our conversations on this matter, we came to the conclusion these mechs are probably the base prime variants, which would, if you took away the C-Bill booster, and the visual uniqueness would be exactly the same as the standard versions.

One suggestion we discussed was maybe it would of been nice to see say one of the named variants such as the AS7-WGS which are in effect much like the 'Hero' mechs PGI has mentioned.

To conclude. If I am paying for something, I'd rather be able to pick what I want, over it being random. I wish the Founders Mechs were more visually different from the standard ones, over having 'other abilities' It would give me a real sense of pride to know I had a visual representation what stood out a mile away in game that I was here from day one so to speak.

[Quentin Yatoki]

Rejarial Galatan, on 30 May 2012 - 12:03 AM, said:

except, if the packages are limited time only, as in, they vanish before it fully launches, you kinda gotta go all Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and step out into the open air and hope its gonna have that bridge to land on.

I do hope you realize that you just proved my point, which was that I'll be buying a package for the game that hasn't been released yet and hoping that all ends well.

Technoviking, on 29 May 2012 - 11:47 AM, said:

Not to min max it... Sarna style:

but

9,626,000 C-bills Atlas
3,198,375 C-bills Jenner


Regardless of tricks and extras, since its a "free" mech,, it would seem that If I got the Atlas, I would certainly be profiting, as opposed to getting the Jenner, and then having to find another 6.5 million ot purchase an Atlas later... Even though I would prefer to have a uniquish jenner.

Yeah, this has been bothering me alot. I feel like we will be seeing too many Cats and Atlases at the start. And I say this as a potential Cat driver.

Edited by Quentin Yatoki, 30 May 2012 - 01:39 AM.

[Rejarial Galatan]

Quentin Yatoki, on 30 May 2012 - 01:37 AM, said:

I do hope you realize that you just proved my point, which was that I'll be buying a package for the game that hasn't been released yet and hoping that all ends well.



Yeah, this has been bothering me alot. I feel like we will be seeing too many Cats and Atlases at the start. And I say this as a potential Cat driver.

far as my financial record book is concerned, the moment i saw the package, i noted the expenditure and already accounted for it. I have absolute faith I will get my money worth. Hell, I made the leap on STO by dropping the cash for a life time sub before even open beta hit. I got my money worth outta that before it went F2P. Way I see it: drop 60 bucks, and have the game make it 4-5 months, paid for. 30 bucks? half that. safe bet imho.

[Gwenaelle Focht]

Technoviking, on 29 May 2012 - 11:47 AM, said:

Not to min max it... Sarna style:

but

9,626,000 C-bills Atlas
3,198,375 C-bills Jenner


Regardless of tricks and extras, since its a "free" mech,, it would seem that If I got the Atlas, I would certainly be profiting, as opposed to getting the Jenner, and then having to find another 6.5 million ot purchase an Atlas later... Even though I would prefer to have a uniquish jenner.

Still not sure, if I will purchase the package, but it will surely be an Atlas, no question about it. I am also worried that the game will become very one-dimensional and unbalanced with only the standard mech configurations available for those package mechs and mostly Atlas and Catapult mechs being chosen and this could render the game boring after a while (no matter how good the graphics and gameplay look in the videos).

Moreover, I wonder how great the struggle will be without paying 60$ for the package and having to play under less favourable conditions? At least it will be a true F2P approach then but at what price (will MWO be able to attract a wide audience and will people hold on to it longer than just a few weeks time as the competition is not sleeping either and the game may lose its appeal to some players, if it is not further developed at a fast pace)?

When can we expect to have the Centurion, Awesome, Dragon, Raven, Commando, Cicada, and Cataphract mechs implemented and available in MWO then (time from website announcement to actual availability in the game)? Lots of unanswered questions ...

Edited by Gwenaelle Focht, 31 May 2012 - 02:06 AM.

[Nik Van Rhijn]

I will probably go for the Hunchback as that is the mech I intend to pilot most of the time. The $80 woth of in game money and the XP/C-bil boost makes it worthwhile almost without the mech. If we get a "free" mech as well then thats gravy. I think it possible that we will have a limited number of mechs at the start of open Beta. Although I would hope for at least most of those featured so far I am not ecpecting it. To be honest as long as they fo;;ow fairly soon I can put up with just 4 mechs for the first week or two while the game beds in. It is a Beta after all and the fewer variables they have to control the better.

[Aethon]

Zhanna Kerensky, on 27 May 2012 - 09:31 AM, said:

Hm, why is that? It is sort of a 'Forrest Gump principle' as you may not know what you will get, but you would still get to choose one mech from either the light, medium, heavy, or assault category and it would be the same for everyone that purchases an EFP, not really unfair to anyone but a bit more of a gamble, that's true. However, where is the fun in all the predicatability?

This isn't Valentine's Day. I'm not buying chocolates. I'm buying C-bills and a battlemech of my choice, while supporting this game and its developers.

Also, I'm not throwing $60 at something uncertain. If I wanted to do that, I'd go back to Star Trek Online.

[PANZERBUNNY]

Rejarial Galatan, on 27 May 2012 - 11:24 PM, said:

indicating nothing more than paint schemes, still not proof positive imho. i will reserve my choice until they say specifically or june 19 arrives, which ever happens first, till then, those pics are mere speculation, and concept art for the paint schemes.

Are you for real?

Apart from already stated differences....the mechs look different. Your powers of deduction seem to be lacking.