How upgraded are your mechs? Because I am finding that density of 4 star weapons and other lostech does more for me than pure tonnage. I have a Victor with an LB 10-X and it can core mechs a lot faster than my mechs with regular autocannons. Also upgrades. And most stock designs are pretty shit. I think it's usually worth it to strip out some uneeded Small Lasers, Jump Jets, or other crap to add a couple tons more armor.
But I also got to a Rep 11+ area with 300+ drop tonnages and turned around because 315 is the most I can do right now.
While racing light mechs, your Urbanmech comes in second place, but only because it ran out of ammo.
You didn’t mention it, but are you swapping up on pilots at the same time? Once you’re running those level of missions your main crew should all be in the mid/high 50s at least.
Going slightly under tonnage isn’t a bad thing, in my unmodded play through I’d routinely run 400 tonnage Beachheads with 4x Battlemasters (340) because the speed was so good for avoiding artillery and getting to radar dishes.
I’ve also been somewhat unimpressed with the melee weapons on assaults, you have to eat a lot of shit before you can swing once with a really heavy weapon.
Salvage shares are based on what’s left of the mech, so headshotting is great for getting a mech off the field, but sucks if you want to take it home
Stop the Launch
Four missions, with mission four being:
Mission 4: 400 Tonnage Limit, Difficulty 90 Warzone-like Mission on Summer, joining the Fifth Lyran Guards to capture the warhead and kill Lionel Stanz and his supporters.
That's the one! I'll have to try your strategy. I've seen similar strats when I searched for tips for this missions. I tend to favor heat-managed firepower over mobility (and jump jets*), so I need to get out of my comfort zones.
* First thing I do with any mech I'll be piloting with any regularity is rip out the jump jets and add heat sinks and armor.
How upgraded are your mechs? Because I am finding that density of 4 star weapons and other lostech does more for me than pure tonnage. I have a Victor with an LB 10-X and it can core mechs a lot faster than my mechs with regular autocannons. Also upgrades. And most stock designs are pretty shit. I think it's usually worth it to strip out some uneeded Small Lasers, Jump Jets, or other crap to add a couple tons more armor.
I definitely drop in 4 star and 5 star (orange bar?) weapons into torso mounts. I tend to stick to 2 and 3 star weapons for arm mounts to keep replacement costs down since arms get blown off more often. I do need to work on mounting more LB ACs, but taking into consideration arm mount vulnerability has mostly kept me from doing so. I'd love to mount some UAC-10s and 20s, but haven't found any yet. Or LB-20Xs for that matter. The Highlander I mentioned has a Artemis SRM and LRMs mounted (I think I downgraded the LRM20 to an LRM15 because That was the best LRM I had available) and that LRM does a lot of heavy lifting for me. As far as capital U Upgrades, I have been installing the sensor range, sensor lock on, and torso twist speed upgrades as time and money permits. Most of the other upgrades either don't seem to be effective enough for the cost or are far too expensive to consider. I probably need to re-evaluate my opinions on those for assaults.
I do need to rip out more small laser than I have been.
You didn’t mention it, but are you swapping up on pilots at the same time? Once you’re running those level of missions your main crew should all be in the mid/high 50s at least.
Going slightly under tonnage isn’t a bad thing, in my unmodded play through I’d routinely run 400 tonnage Beachheads with 4x Battlemasters (340) because the speed was so good for avoiding artillery and getting to radar dishes.
I’ve also been somewhat unimpressed with the melee weapons on assaults, you have to eat a lot of shit before you can swing once with a really heavy weapon.
Salvage shares are based on what’s left of the mech, so headshotting is great for getting a mech off the field, but sucks if you want to take it home
I have been hiring better pilots - current ones are mid 50s and keeping an eye out for better ones. 100% agree that Battlemasters are beasts when kitted out to handle heat a little better. Sakes alive do I hate beachhead missions because of the arty. I had a high-value mission recently where there was artillery in the middle of the map and active from the start and then an entire second wave of arty activated after destroying 3/4 of the satellites. "We missed some artillery in our intel, Commander!" YA THINK!?
I reached the exact same conclusion regarding melee on assaults. I plan on selling the melee Highlander as soon as I can find a regular model for sale/salvage!
Also agree on the salvage and headshots. IME though, if I haven't headshot an assault to kill it, it hasn't shown up in salvage. Not sure why - propbably too much damage or RNJesus hates me or something. I've racked up a lot of Atlas kills and not a one of them showed up in the salvage list that I recall. But as I mentioned, I'm old and my memory is a sieve.
Christ, every time I even consider dropping money on something in MWO I look at the real cash cost of anything and nope out hard.
MWO's prices aren't great, no, but $20 for four mechs is a good starter price for someone who played for ten hours or so and just wants a smattering of mechs to start tinkering with.
There is often a pretty big cliff when you hit 400 tonne missions. You might try looking for slightly lower difficulty. (Which is rated 1-100 and the big spike happens at like 85-90)
But the biggest thing is going to be equipment quality
It works out to around $5 for a mech that has a cbill bonus and an unlocked skin for all variants on that chassis
+1
Options
Ninja Snarl PMy helmet is my burden.Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered Userregular
FYI, there's a game on Steam called Phantom Brigade that I've been waiting for for a long time and it's got a demo out now. It plays like Frozen Synapse in that you plan five seconds of actions while seeing what the enemy will do for five seconds, then execute the "turn" and see how it plays out. It can get complicated in a hurry and it's awesome when you pull off a slick coordinated turn or shield-bash through an enemy about to rip up one of your mechs, but also embarrassing when you put an ally squarely in the firing line of sustained beam fire for multiple seconds because you forgot about the timing. Buildings are all destructible, mechs can get knocked down based on size and attack type, there's a variety of weaponry, and even salvage and heat mechanics. Not to mention building your custom team out of the parts and weapons you find and salvage along the way.
Anyway, it's looks like it has a hefty campaign mode with strategic options, the tactical mode is awesome, it comes out this month, and it even has an excellent demo mode. I strongly suggest trying it out, I honestly wished Battletech played out with these same combat mechanics because it would be way cooler and it plays a lot smoother.
There is often a pretty big cliff when you hit 400 tonne missions. You might try looking for slightly lower difficulty. (Which is rated 1-100 and the big spike happens at like 85-90)
But the biggest thing is going to be equipment quality
Well…kind of. The biggest thing is going to be getting human pilots in at least one other of those mechs fighting beside you.
| Origin/R*SC: Ein7919 | Battle.net: Erlkonig#1448 | XBL: Lexicanum | Steam: Der Erlkönig (the umlaut is important) |
There is often a pretty big cliff when you hit 400 tonne missions. You might try looking for slightly lower difficulty. (Which is rated 1-100 and the big spike happens at like 85-90)
But the biggest thing is going to be equipment quality
Well…kind of. The biggest thing is going to be getting human pilots in at least one other of those mechs fighting beside you.
Well, aren't we all just equipment in the Battlemechs?
There is often a pretty big cliff when you hit 400 tonne missions. You might try looking for slightly lower difficulty. (Which is rated 1-100 and the big spike happens at like 85-90)
But the biggest thing is going to be equipment quality
Well…kind of. The biggest thing is going to be getting human pilots in at least one other of those mechs fighting beside you.
Well, aren't we all just equipment in the Battlemechs?
Life is cheap. BattleMechs aren't.
Twitch | Blizzard: Ianator#1479 | 3DS: Ianator - 1779 2336 5317 | FFXIV: Iana Ateliere (NA Sarg) Backlog Challenge List
There is often a pretty big cliff when you hit 400 tonne missions. You might try looking for slightly lower difficulty. (Which is rated 1-100 and the big spike happens at like 85-90)
But the biggest thing is going to be equipment quality
Well…kind of. The biggest thing is going to be getting human pilots in at least one other of those mechs fighting beside you.
Well, aren't we all just equipment in the Battlemechs?
Life is cheap. BattleMechs aren't.
That actually kind of depends. Mechwarrior losses were probably as great if not greater an issue for the Clans as material losses. Can't really ramp up production very quickly when you are looking at a two decade lead time to train them from birth.
While racing light mechs, your Urbanmech comes in second place, but only because it ran out of ammo.
There is often a pretty big cliff when you hit 400 tonne missions. You might try looking for slightly lower difficulty. (Which is rated 1-100 and the big spike happens at like 85-90)
But the biggest thing is going to be equipment quality
Well…kind of. The biggest thing is going to be getting human pilots in at least one other of those mechs fighting beside you.
Also upgrading your pilots is a thing. And you may have forgotten. Skills are a huge deal
It works out to around $5 for a mech that has a cbill bonus and an unlocked skin for all variants on that chassis
Yeah, and my reaction to that is "yo PGI, there are like hundreds of mech chassis variants in the game, you're asking for the cost of an indie game (or deep sale big game) to buy a pay-to-win version of a small handful with one skin?".
People put different value on what they'll spend and this isn't meant to be judgemental, but me, personally? Any microtransaction beyond $1 is the point where it goes past an impulse purchase and gets me weighing how much I'm actually getting for my money. And 5-10$ for what amounts to a percentage point of all the chassis in the game and a single skin falls very short indeed.
For a new player, between the game now having fairly competitive trial mechs and cadet bonuses, spending money before you even know how the game plays or what you enjoy feels like bad advice.
Yeah that’s why I said like, after ten hours it’s a good buy. I think it’s really reasonable to pay $20 to get you a few mechs once you’ve played long enough to determine you like it. You’ll have the tutorial cash infusion, the cash from playing, and maybe even some more from events at that point. Buying a plat pack and having that kind of cbill wallet to play with means you can set up a great small stable with enough variety to fuel many hours more of play.
Nothing is priced great in the F2P realm but that’s what the Internet gets for freaking the fuck out over map packs fifteen years ago.
Realistically most people I see buying the mechs are doing it for the skins, so they can sport it on their favorite mech.
For example, I know a guy who hadn’t spent a single dime on the game up until the point he could get a platinum Annihilator skin.
I’ll admit I’m not a huge fan of their pricing on a lot of stuff, but it keeps their lights on. Personally none of the platinum skins have enticed me at all.
It works out to around $5 for a mech that has a cbill bonus and an unlocked skin for all variants on that chassis
Yeah, and my reaction to that is "yo PGI, there are like hundreds of mech chassis variants in the game, you're asking for the cost of an indie game (or deep sale big game) to buy a pay-to-win version of a small handful with one skin?".
People put different value on what they'll spend and this isn't meant to be judgemental, but me, personally? Any microtransaction beyond $1 is the point where it goes past an impulse purchase and gets me weighing how much I'm actually getting for my money. And 5-10$ for what amounts to a percentage point of all the chassis in the game and a single skin falls very short indeed.
For a new player, between the game now having fairly competitive trial mechs and cadet bonuses, spending money before you even know how the game plays or what you enjoy feels like bad advice.
Yeah but your buy in to the game is $0. So think of buying a $20 mech pack as your game purchase.
I've got to say the news feed is a small thing but adds so much. It was cool enough when it was stuff I recognize but was "before my time" as it were, like Mallory's World and Gray Death Legion stuff, but now that it's hit books I have actually read it's even better. Reading the article about Justin Allard getting exiled almost makes me want to go dig out my copies of the Warrior trilogy again.
HamHamJ on
While racing light mechs, your Urbanmech comes in second place, but only because it ran out of ammo.
Also, cosmetic with out of match bonuses like cbills are absolutely not pay to win
The CBill bonus is either an advantage, in which case it's paying real money for said advantage, or it's not, in which case it's not contributing to the value of the package. Either one is a bad in my book.
The cbill bonus is a minor advantage towards the player economy, but it’s not p2w (unless your win condition is to play pokemech and catch them all).
There is an argument that it helps you skill up mechs faster (if CBills are the bottleneck), but (for example) a CPLT-K2(P) is doing and taking the same damage in game as a normal CPLT-K2.
Also, cosmetic with out of match bonuses like cbills are absolutely not pay to win
The CBill bonus is either an advantage, in which case it's paying real money for said advantage, or it's not, in which case it's not contributing to the value of the package. Either one is a bad in my book.
Well, since the game isnt frame rate capped at something like 30 FPS and a resolution of 640x480, I think we will just have to agree to disagree that some advantages are not worth calling "Pay to Win".
It's.... kinda pay to win. Sorta. A new player needs a pretty big bank account, not for collecting Mechs, but for customization. If you want DHS, ES, and FF, pay up. If you need a Light or an XL engine, pay the fuck up. Acquiring c-bills faster means less time spent in stock machines which are shite most of the time (some Clan stock variants are actually fine-ish to fine).
But those upgrades alone won't be enough. A good enough shot, and player, with a stock K2, to borrow the example, is gonna be a much bigger contributor than the tricked out BAS-whatever with 120 LRMs, at least, in the games I was seeing. You will never be in a situation when you should not consider the twin PPC K2 on the field.
Huh, I was not expecting Melissa and Hanse to get actual voice acting and a whole cutscene and everything. Disappointed that we didn't get to see the dinner plates though.
While racing light mechs, your Urbanmech comes in second place, but only because it ran out of ammo.
It's.... kinda pay to win. Sorta. A new player needs a pretty big bank account, not for collecting Mechs, but for customization. If you want DHS, ES, and FF, pay up. If you need a Light or an XL engine, pay the fuck up. Acquiring c-bills faster means less time spent in stock machines which are shite most of the time (some Clan stock variants are actually fine-ish to fine).
But those upgrades alone won't be enough. A good enough shot, and player, with a stock K2, to borrow the example, is gonna be a much bigger contributor than the tricked out BAS-whatever with 120 LRMs, at least, in the games I was seeing. You will never be in a situation when you should not consider the twin PPC K2 on the field.
Realistically a new player is starting with enough CBills that if they wait to catch a sale (or have a compatible "mech of the month" ) they should have enough to customize it to a good build after they get out of their first 25 cadet matches.
Unfortunately, many new players fall into the trap of "I know what I want to run" rather than just copy/pasting a build from say, Grimmechs, and just endlessly tinker with builds.
Also, cosmetic with out of match bonuses like cbills are absolutely not pay to win
The CBill bonus is either an advantage, in which case it's paying real money for said advantage, or it's not, in which case it's not contributing to the value of the package. Either one is a bad in my book.
Well, since the game isnt frame rate capped at something like 30 FPS and a resolution of 640x480, I think we will just have to agree to disagree that some advantages are not worth calling "Pay to Win".
I was clarifying what I meant with that line, rather than re-litigate the "pay to win hasn't been literal for a decade now" point that I have no interest in, because it's been done to death.
In the context of 12v12, the firepower difference between an XL and Standard engine though is hardly noticeable? It's more pay to fun. I'll also reiterate that if they charged less I'd pay them more total money.
If I remember right, when MWO was first launched and IGP was their publishing partner, they were chasing that World of Warships/World of Tanks crowd and they were planning on aping their pricing model. In a way, we should be kinda thankful that they split ways fairly quickly, otherwise we might be looking at legit pay-to-win premium mechs (costing upwards of $78USD) loaded with premium ammo (that costs $2 for every gauss/AC20 shot).
And, if we're going to look back on what we've spent in MWO...
Initial buy-in with the Jenner pack (to get access to the beta)
Sarah's Jenner
Clan Masakari pack
Clan Wave 2 Man-O-War pack
Clan Wave 3 Cauldron-Born pack
Marauder Collector + Hero pack
Kodiak + Hero pack
Marauder IIC + Hero + Reinforcement pack
Blood Asp Collector pack
Hellfire Collector pack
Incubus Collector pack
Vapor Eagle Collector + Hero + Reinforcement pack
Marauder II Collector pack
All told, I've probably spent close to $750-$1000 on this totally free to play game. I'm reminded of the League of Legends comic from way back in the day...
| Origin/R*SC: Ein7919 | Battle.net: Erlkonig#1448 | XBL: Lexicanum | Steam: Der Erlkönig (the umlaut is important) |
I blank out after buying the Urbanmech basic pack since I kept on justifying the cost in my head as, "I've spent ### hours playing this game, ok, I can toss them $20-$40 for a month or two for that time." Then graduated to, "oh, that Kodiak pack is a pretty good value for the 100 tonners". Finally graduating to losing my mind and buying the "Harmony Gold" packs to support their fight against HG to allow Battletech/Mechwarrior to have the Unseen legally back into the game.
I then blank out after that and figure I just supported them for continuing to keep the lights on while I played the game I enjoyed and compared it to paying Blizzard to play WoW and Hearthstone.
I blank out after buying the Urbanmech basic pack since I kept on justifying the cost in my head as, "I've spent ### hours playing this game, ok, I can toss them $20-$40 for a month or two for that time." Then graduated to, "oh, that Kodiak pack is a pretty good value for the 100 tonners". Finally graduating to losing my mind and buying the "Harmony Gold" packs to support their fight against HG to allow Battletech/Mechwarrior to have the Unseen legally back into the game.
I then blank out after that and figure I just supported them for continuing to keep the lights on while I played the game I enjoyed and compared it to paying Blizzard to play WoW and Hearthstone.
So what you're saying is that your retirement is MWO mechs?
I blank out after buying the Urbanmech basic pack since I kept on justifying the cost in my head as, "I've spent ### hours playing this game, ok, I can toss them $20-$40 for a month or two for that time." Then graduated to, "oh, that Kodiak pack is a pretty good value for the 100 tonners". Finally graduating to losing my mind and buying the "Harmony Gold" packs to support their fight against HG to allow Battletech/Mechwarrior to have the Unseen legally back into the game.
I then blank out after that and figure I just supported them for continuing to keep the lights on while I played the game I enjoyed and compared it to paying Blizzard to play WoW and Hearthstone.
So what you're saying is that your retirement is MWO mechs?
More like I don't want to go through my "orders" list to see how much I've thrown PGI's way. Same as I don't look how long I payed Blizzard to play WoW or Hearthstone.
Edit: *Looks at the grey unpainted BT miniatures.* Shhhh, don't remind me.
I blank out after buying the Urbanmech basic pack since I kept on justifying the cost in my head as, "I've spent ### hours playing this game, ok, I can toss them $20-$40 for a month or two for that time." Then graduated to, "oh, that Kodiak pack is a pretty good value for the 100 tonners". Finally graduating to losing my mind and buying the "Harmony Gold" packs to support their fight against HG to allow Battletech/Mechwarrior to have the Unseen legally back into the game.
I then blank out after that and figure I just supported them for continuing to keep the lights on while I played the game I enjoyed and compared it to paying Blizzard to play WoW and Hearthstone.
So what you're saying is that your retirement is MWO mechs?
More like I don't want to go through my "orders" list to see how much I've thrown PGI's way. Same as I don't look how long I payed Blizzard to play WoW or Hearthstone.
Edit: *Looks at the grey unpainted BT miniatures.* Shhhh, don't remind me.
Ohh, your retirement is miniatures, got it!
(My retirement is cameras and lenses. adult hobbies are expensive!)
I blank out after buying the Urbanmech basic pack since I kept on justifying the cost in my head as, "I've spent ### hours playing this game, ok, I can toss them $20-$40 for a month or two for that time." Then graduated to, "oh, that Kodiak pack is a pretty good value for the 100 tonners". Finally graduating to losing my mind and buying the "Harmony Gold" packs to support their fight against HG to allow Battletech/Mechwarrior to have the Unseen legally back into the game.
I then blank out after that and figure I just supported them for continuing to keep the lights on while I played the game I enjoyed and compared it to paying Blizzard to play WoW and Hearthstone.
So what you're saying is that your retirement is MWO mechs?
More like I don't want to go through my "orders" list to see how much I've thrown PGI's way. Same as I don't look how long I payed Blizzard to play WoW or Hearthstone.
Edit: *Looks at the grey unpainted BT miniatures.* Shhhh, don't remind me.
Ohh, your retirement is miniatures, got it!
(My retirement is cameras and lenses. adult hobbies are expensive!)
lol, I have way too many "retirement" stuff to count. Cameras and lenses makes more sense than Transformers, Star Wars stuff, Japanese robots, Battletech, Lego, etc.
I blank out after buying the Urbanmech basic pack since I kept on justifying the cost in my head as, "I've spent ### hours playing this game, ok, I can toss them $20-$40 for a month or two for that time." Then graduated to, "oh, that Kodiak pack is a pretty good value for the 100 tonners". Finally graduating to losing my mind and buying the "Harmony Gold" packs to support their fight against HG to allow Battletech/Mechwarrior to have the Unseen legally back into the game.
I then blank out after that and figure I just supported them for continuing to keep the lights on while I played the game I enjoyed and compared it to paying Blizzard to play WoW and Hearthstone.
So what you're saying is that your retirement is MWO mechs?
More like I don't want to go through my "orders" list to see how much I've thrown PGI's way. Same as I don't look how long I payed Blizzard to play WoW or Hearthstone.
Edit: *Looks at the grey unpainted BT miniatures.* Shhhh, don't remind me.
Ohh, your retirement is miniatures, got it!
(My retirement is cameras and lenses. adult hobbies are expensive!)
lol, I have way too many "retirement" stuff to count. Cameras and lenses makes more sense than Transformers, Star Wars stuff, Japanese robots, Battletech, Lego, etc.
Posts
But I also got to a Rep 11+ area with 300+ drop tonnages and turned around because 315 is the most I can do right now.
You didn’t mention it, but are you swapping up on pilots at the same time? Once you’re running those level of missions your main crew should all be in the mid/high 50s at least.
Going slightly under tonnage isn’t a bad thing, in my unmodded play through I’d routinely run 400 tonnage Beachheads with 4x Battlemasters (340) because the speed was so good for avoiding artillery and getting to radar dishes.
I’ve also been somewhat unimpressed with the melee weapons on assaults, you have to eat a lot of shit before you can swing once with a really heavy weapon.
Salvage shares are based on what’s left of the mech, so headshotting is great for getting a mech off the field, but sucks if you want to take it home
That's the one! I'll have to try your strategy. I've seen similar strats when I searched for tips for this missions. I tend to favor heat-managed firepower over mobility (and jump jets*), so I need to get out of my comfort zones.
* First thing I do with any mech I'll be piloting with any regularity is rip out the jump jets and add heat sinks and armor.
Oo\ Ironsizide
I definitely drop in 4 star and 5 star (orange bar?) weapons into torso mounts. I tend to stick to 2 and 3 star weapons for arm mounts to keep replacement costs down since arms get blown off more often. I do need to work on mounting more LB ACs, but taking into consideration arm mount vulnerability has mostly kept me from doing so. I'd love to mount some UAC-10s and 20s, but haven't found any yet. Or LB-20Xs for that matter. The Highlander I mentioned has a Artemis SRM and LRMs mounted (I think I downgraded the LRM20 to an LRM15 because That was the best LRM I had available) and that LRM does a lot of heavy lifting for me. As far as capital U Upgrades, I have been installing the sensor range, sensor lock on, and torso twist speed upgrades as time and money permits. Most of the other upgrades either don't seem to be effective enough for the cost or are far too expensive to consider. I probably need to re-evaluate my opinions on those for assaults.
I do need to rip out more small laser than I have been.
I have been hiring better pilots - current ones are mid 50s and keeping an eye out for better ones. 100% agree that Battlemasters are beasts when kitted out to handle heat a little better. Sakes alive do I hate beachhead missions because of the arty. I had a high-value mission recently where there was artillery in the middle of the map and active from the start and then an entire second wave of arty activated after destroying 3/4 of the satellites. "We missed some artillery in our intel, Commander!" YA THINK!?
I reached the exact same conclusion regarding melee on assaults. I plan on selling the melee Highlander as soon as I can find a regular model for sale/salvage!
Also agree on the salvage and headshots. IME though, if I haven't headshot an assault to kill it, it hasn't shown up in salvage. Not sure why - propbably too much damage or RNJesus hates me or something. I've racked up a lot of Atlas kills and not a one of them showed up in the salvage list that I recall. But as I mentioned, I'm old and my memory is a sieve.
Oo\ Ironsizide
MWO's prices aren't great, no, but $20 for four mechs is a good starter price for someone who played for ten hours or so and just wants a smattering of mechs to start tinkering with.
But the biggest thing is going to be equipment quality
It works out to around $5 for a mech that has a cbill bonus and an unlocked skin for all variants on that chassis
Anyway, it's looks like it has a hefty campaign mode with strategic options, the tactical mode is awesome, it comes out this month, and it even has an excellent demo mode. I strongly suggest trying it out, I honestly wished Battletech played out with these same combat mechanics because it would be way cooler and it plays a lot smoother.
Well…kind of. The biggest thing is going to be getting human pilots in at least one other of those mechs fighting beside you.
Well, aren't we all just equipment in the Battlemechs?
Steam: betsuni7
Life is cheap. BattleMechs aren't.
Twitch | Blizzard: Ianator#1479 | 3DS: Ianator - 1779 2336 5317 | FFXIV: Iana Ateliere (NA Sarg)
Backlog Challenge List
That actually kind of depends. Mechwarrior losses were probably as great if not greater an issue for the Clans as material losses. Can't really ramp up production very quickly when you are looking at a two decade lead time to train them from birth.
Also upgrading your pilots is a thing. And you may have forgotten. Skills are a huge deal
People put different value on what they'll spend and this isn't meant to be judgemental, but me, personally? Any microtransaction beyond $1 is the point where it goes past an impulse purchase and gets me weighing how much I'm actually getting for my money. And 5-10$ for what amounts to a percentage point of all the chassis in the game and a single skin falls very short indeed.
For a new player, between the game now having fairly competitive trial mechs and cadet bonuses, spending money before you even know how the game plays or what you enjoy feels like bad advice.
Nothing is priced great in the F2P realm but that’s what the Internet gets for freaking the fuck out over map packs fifteen years ago.
For example, I know a guy who hadn’t spent a single dime on the game up until the point he could get a platinum Annihilator skin.
I’ll admit I’m not a huge fan of their pricing on a lot of stuff, but it keeps their lights on. Personally none of the platinum skins have enticed me at all.
MWO: Adamski
Steam: betsuni7
Yeah but your buy in to the game is $0. So think of buying a $20 mech pack as your game purchase.
There is an argument that it helps you skill up mechs faster (if CBills are the bottleneck), but (for example) a CPLT-K2(P) is doing and taking the same damage in game as a normal CPLT-K2.
Well, since the game isnt frame rate capped at something like 30 FPS and a resolution of 640x480, I think we will just have to agree to disagree that some advantages are not worth calling "Pay to Win".
MWO: Adamski
But those upgrades alone won't be enough. A good enough shot, and player, with a stock K2, to borrow the example, is gonna be a much bigger contributor than the tricked out BAS-whatever with 120 LRMs, at least, in the games I was seeing. You will never be in a situation when you should not consider the twin PPC K2 on the field.
Realistically a new player is starting with enough CBills that if they wait to catch a sale (or have a compatible "mech of the month" ) they should have enough to customize it to a good build after they get out of their first 25 cadet matches.
Unfortunately, many new players fall into the trap of "I know what I want to run" rather than just copy/pasting a build from say, Grimmechs, and just endlessly tinker with builds.
And, if we're going to look back on what we've spent in MWO...
Initial buy-in with the Jenner pack (to get access to the beta)
Sarah's Jenner
Clan Masakari pack
Clan Wave 2 Man-O-War pack
Clan Wave 3 Cauldron-Born pack
Marauder Collector + Hero pack
Kodiak + Hero pack
Marauder IIC + Hero + Reinforcement pack
Blood Asp Collector pack
Hellfire Collector pack
Incubus Collector pack
Vapor Eagle Collector + Hero + Reinforcement pack
Marauder II Collector pack
All told, I've probably spent close to $750-$1000 on this totally free to play game. I'm reminded of the League of Legends comic from way back in the day...
I then blank out after that and figure I just supported them for continuing to keep the lights on while I played the game I enjoyed and compared it to paying Blizzard to play WoW and Hearthstone.
Steam: betsuni7
So what you're saying is that your retirement is MWO mechs?
More like I don't want to go through my "orders" list to see how much I've thrown PGI's way.
Edit: *Looks at the grey unpainted BT miniatures.* Shhhh, don't remind me.
Steam: betsuni7
Ohh, your retirement is miniatures, got it!
(My retirement is cameras and lenses. adult hobbies are expensive!)
lol, I have way too many "retirement" stuff to count. Cameras and lenses makes more sense than Transformers, Star Wars stuff, Japanese robots, Battletech, Lego, etc.
Steam: betsuni7
Shenanigans and poppycock, I say!
*stares in four-digit miniatures backlog*