425 replies to this topic

[Jonathan Paine]

As many posters have pointed out, the limitation of four free mechbays do not stop you from mastering every chassis in the game. Nor does it prevent you from have a variety of mechs at your disposal. At any time you could have a fully mastered light + medium + heavy + assault hanging out in your free mechbays.

Yes, it would be a lot of grinding to do that. If you like the game, and want less grind - pay up. Get a hero mech, get premium time get a few mech bays. Enjoy life with a lot less grinding.

Here is the nitty gritty. I paid real money to make sure this game is successful. Those MCs? Paying players paid for those. They are, in a sense, OUR MC. You CANNOT have my money - I already gave it to PGI. If you don't pay, MY GAME WILL FAIL.

[Khobai]

Quote

Mechbays are the number one thing that should NOT be free

And I never said they should be free. Just that you should be able to get upto 8 for free because 4 isnt enough.

Even WoT gives you 6 free garage bays, but WoT also doesnt require you to play 3 different variants to level up a tank. So I dont think 8 mech bays would be too much to ask for.

[Ngamok]

I wish everyone would work for free. This world would be so much better. No need for money to buy stuff. Play games for free because there is no money. Yea, those would be the days.

[Vapor Trail]

Ngamok, on 16 February 2013 - 10:39 AM, said:

I wish everyone would work for free. This world would be so much better. No need for money to buy stuff. Play games for free because there is no money. Yea, those would be the days.

There's a reason communism is both the most perfect and least possible forms of society.

Generally has to do with the people in it.

[Bagheera]

Warrax the Chaos Warrior, on 14 February 2013 - 01:06 PM, said:

I think players should be able to sell MC to each other for c-bills. PGI would completely control the market and the price to prevent any sort of exploits. Whales that spend lots of cash will still have a reason to buy more MC once they have all the things, and people who don't spend will keep playing to grind c-bills to get MC. PGI gets paid when the MC is bought regardless of who uses it, and nothing is "locked behind a pay-wall".

Please no. No Player to Player marketplace or trading of any kind, what-so-ever. This is not an MMO, we don't need this sort of "economy," and PGI doesn't have the resources to battle RMT farmers so it would basically ruin the game for everyone, kind of like "gold farming" always does. The only way to prevent RMT farming is to never implement player trading.

Edited by Bagheera, 16 February 2013 - 11:11 AM.

[Red Klown X]

M A L I C E, on 14 February 2013 - 01:01 PM, said:

F2P PLAYERS NEED A WAY TO ACQUIRE 'MECH BAYS WITHOUT BUYING MC.


No they don't.

No they dont , at least support the game you play and like, be honest with yourself !!!

Edited by klownnection, 16 February 2013 - 11:26 AM.

[Corpsecandle]

There are several impacts that those who seek a grindable mech bay are overlooking, but the most important one is that fact that it's VERY easy to reach 'endgame' here. Meaning that those who achieve their personal goals are just sitting around accruing resources gxp, C-bills, there's nothing taking those out of the game for the folks who've mastered their preferred chassis with their preferred modules. The only thing that the game still has going for many of these folks is experimentation; meaning buying new mechs or playing with their existing configs. Naturally these people don't want to drop their favorite mechs to play around with (or at the very least are unlikely to) so they'll buy additional mech bays so they can put a new chassis in there.

If you make mechbays grindable, the revenue generated from mechbay sales by these people stuck at their 'endgame' is effectively eliminated. They're already accumulating these resources anyway and therefore it costs them absolutely nothing to dump this stuff into a mechbay.

So back to the players are 'content' argument. How much content does the game lose by keeping the mech bay for fee? Well as others have stated odds are that most people who are doing the F2P thing long enough to grind up to 4 mechs aren't going to see an issue with dumping a couple of bucks into the game and will probably buy a few bays if they feel they've hit a wall. So only a few of strictly F2P people will bail once they've hit 'endgame' (and lets be honest, if they played enough to get that point, they'll probably be back). While these people are dedicated 'content', is their abandonment the game detrimental enough cause other players, who fund the game, also jump ship? I can't see how it is.

As for the 'purchasing empty space is demoralizing' argument that I've seen flying around here, that's pretty weak. A mech bay slot is arguably more flexible than any other purchase in the game. You keep seeing it as 1 slot = 1 mech, but that's only viewing things from a collectors mindset. New mechs are being added to the game all the time, it's unreasonable to assume that you're going to want to play that chassis for the life the game. Eventually they'll release something that you'd rather play, and either the mechs you have been playing sit there and gather dust, or you sell them. In short 1 mech bay gives you access to every mech in the game. (Also I've been wondering because of some of the arguments I've seen here, but you realize that you keep XP for a sold mech right? You don't have to own all versions of that mech at the same time in order to master it.)

[Joseph Mallan]

Corpsecandle,
You realize we haven't begun to play the game yet, right? This game is to be the reenactment/retelling of the Clan Invasion. As such we have to actually play the fights from When ever this starts, till the lopping off of ilKhan Osis's head.

Edited by Joseph Mallan, 16 February 2013 - 11:42 AM.

[ArmandTulsen]

M A L I C E, on 16 February 2013 - 01:12 AM, said:

You're still not getting it.

The game is Free to Play.

It's not Free to Operate.

Dude, be real here. The game's operation and upkeep is not the consumer's responsibility, even in P2P games.

[Joseph Mallan]

ArmandTulsen, on 16 February 2013 - 11:43 AM, said:

Dude, be real here. The game's operation and upkeep is not the consumer's responsibility, even in P2P games.

Really?
If you like a game you buy the game. If the sales were large enough there will probably be a sequel, DLC and the like. But if the game makes no money there will be nothing more. Ever. So if you want stuff, buy it. We don't buy the trinkets the company can't pay the people who make the game. we don't get to play the game anymore...
Yes we do pay for the upkeep.

[Ngamok]

ArmandTulsen, on 16 February 2013 - 11:43 AM, said:

Dude, be real here. The game's operation and upkeep is not the consumer's responsibility, even in P2P games.

Scratching my head here.

[Machinae Mortis]

As someone who has spent nearly half of my Founder's MC on mechbays I would be personally insulted if they were to now make them free. Hell, I'd probably even be upset if they made them 50% off considering how much money I've put into it. Since the MC is in a lot of peoples' eyes the bulk of what is left of Founder's rewards devaluing that would **** a lot of (paying) players off.

You would have a much easier time arguing the case for having more base slots - this would impact all players and not just the ones that want to avoid paying a dime for the game. Six to eight slots would allow for two mechs to be taken to master without selling any off. From a business standpoint I disagree with this stance because I feel it's better to have the cutoff at four to force someone to pay at least a small amount into the game for that convenience. I wouldn't be insulted by the move, though, and you would face a lot less opposition considering it would reward ALL players. Free, future paid, and existing premium.

In summation: Free slots? No. More base slots? I don't agree with it, but I wouldn't oppose it.

[Warrax the Chaos Warrior]

Bagheera, on 16 February 2013 - 11:10 AM, said:

Please no. No Player to Player marketplace or trading of any kind, what-so-ever. This is not an MMO, we don't need this sort of "economy," and PGI doesn't have the resources to battle RMT farmers so it would basically ruin the game for everyone, kind of like "gold farming" always does. The only way to prevent RMT farming is to never implement player trading.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I can't think of a way to exploit it as long as PGI sets the price and controls all the transactions. It wouldn't be player-to-player, it would be player-to-PGI-to-player; you wouldn't even know who you were getting it from.

I think they could sell more MC that way, and it would be possible for die-hard F2P'ers to get some premium stuff (like a mechbay or two) through grinding. The only game I've personally played that had this kind of system was ST:O, but they pulled it off successfully by having three different kinds of currency (one tradeable, one not tradeable, and the real money currency). I think it could work as long as c-bills are still untradeable through any other method.

[xRatas]

ArmandTulsen, on 16 February 2013 - 11:43 AM, said:

Dude, be real here. The game's operation and upkeep is not the consumer's responsibility, even in P2P games.

Not their responsibility, but if no-one pays, there won't be the game either. If current bay cost brings more money than it loses, it's fine.

[Ghogiel]

I remember when they set the prices for mech bays at, what was it?, 1000MC or something?

Good thing the beta testers were all like DAFUQ?!

[burns]

Nah, slots can stay MC only.
Not that i´d ever buy one, but here´s hoping for a WoT like "get 2 or 3 more slots during 1-2 years from promos or gift tanks" kind of way of things. Presents are always nice

Edited by burns, 16 February 2013 - 03:07 PM.

[Ghogiel]

burns, on 16 February 2013 - 03:06 PM, said:

Nah, slots can stay MC only.
Not that i´d ever buy one, but here´s hoping for a WoT like "get 2 or 3 more slots during 1-2 years from promos or gift tanks" kind of way of things. Presents are always nice

Yeah I'm sure you will be able to get another one or 2 from promos and achievements.

[Mystere]

Freaking 99%. Or is that the 47%.

Edited by Mystere, 16 February 2013 - 03:21 PM.

[Heketon]

Let me throw this out there for those of you still reading this thread.

I don't have the $7 for MC. I'm trying to scrape pennies as it is for groceries. Some of you may be asking why am I on the internet, then. Most, if not all job opportunities come in to me via email or by submitting them on websites. Why am I not taking up a minimum wage-burger flipping job? For some reason, I don't get called back. Even trying to get a favor from an old boss didn't work. Why am I playing this game when I could be yadda yadda yadda? Because it is the one thing that eliminates the misery and DSHS forms that have become my life.

Would I buy MC if I had a decent paying job? Yes. I've done it with D&D Online and OGame. Can I do it now? No. I've missed too many mortgage payments and I need every coin I find on the pavement.

Would I like an opportunity to get more mech bays or paint colors? Oh hell yes. I hated selling off my module-slotted Jenners to try running Hunchbacks. I wish I could buy them with C-Bills even if I have to grind for them. (It might take me months, though.)

tl;dr? I would love to buy MC for mech bays, but it isn't something I can do right now.

[ChrisOrange]

Most people in this thread who spent money don't want to feel like they made a dumb purchase...so they aren't really defending the mechbay business practice or PGI they are only trying to prove that they are not dumb. You can't view them as defending PGI or Mechwarrior when all they are actually doing is sticking up for themselves.

For that reason anyone who is looking at this thread in the future must throw out a LOT of the posts here and just decide for themselves.

Hopefully in the future mechbays are unlocked in a different way that doesn't require money and those who purchased them in the past will have their MC refunded to buy whatever cosmetic/convenience perk that they want. I've made my decision to just create new accounts. Sadly that means my friends will have to deal with me logging in and out when I want to switch mechs...but no big deal.