Never played Battletech too much since back in the day I was more into tabletop rpg (specially our beloved CP) but this seems a good chance to even the odds and enjoy that landmark game.
I occasionally play MechWarrior Online.Also, at the same time, I have for a pretty long time been wishing for a new "MechCommander" game. The fact this one will be turnbased though, that has me all sorts of more exited for it. Have always been a heavy fan of turnbased combat in games after all.
It's pretty much your classic "pay to win" game, but you can eventually even the odds to an extent by playing enough (or you can spend a "few" $ and not have to grind-and-lose a LOT).
It's still fun to blow the hell outta stuff and while I'm totally hopeless as a sniper (don't begin to have the reaction speeds and precision necessary) it's fun to run circles around assault and heavy mechs with a Spider, or fire volley after volley of long range missiles over hills then have some light or medium charge me only to catch a face full of medium lasers and guided short range missiles from my Stalker.
Yeah, I lose 85% of the time because PUGs suck ... but it's still fun.
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I hate "pay to win" games. If you are not a subscriber, game takes every opportunity to remind you that you are a "free 2 play" member and you have no right to really have fun. That's one of the main reason I hate online games, you can pay all the money you want and in the end you don't really own anything. And I wont be paying for a game I will not own. Same thing goes for games with heavy drm as well. It usually makes you feel like you don't actually own anything, it is like they are saying "I am just allowing you to play, but don't get any ideas, I can pull the plug anytime I want and stop working anytime I wanted to! You are not welcome here! You stupid... you.." with those exact words.. Yeah.... Don't quote me on that.
You lost me at the word "sniper"... What were we talking about again?
Like I've said, I dislike mechs, but I may play it as long as it is an RPG with a good story (where you can interact with characters and make decisions and stuff like that) and there are lots of customizations.. I just can't see that happening, but the game can still surprise me..
MWO is not pay to win though... it's more of a "pay to not have to grind as much to get the mech you want" kind of a game, or "pay for early access" on some things. I do belive there are some mechs which are "real cash only mechs", but most of those are by no means "better" then any of the "free" mechs you can get your hands on, and actually... from what I have heard... there are no cash-mechs that are considered to be "the best mech in it's class", and that most (if not all) of the mechs which are considered to be "the best mechs" are all available for free-to-play players. Also, a perceived "better mech", does not really equal an automatic win for the person in said mech. The players skill playes a heavy role into it, where skill will close to always trump a "better mech". That is partly why something like a Light Mech, with limited amounts of weaponry and armor, can take on, and win, against heavier mechs. Another reason is the Light Mechs speed... but if you do not know how to utilize that speed, in the right way, if you do not have the skill for it... well then your screwed... since it might only take one single Alpha Strike from some of the more heavily armed mechs to take out a Light Mech. On top of that your build, what weapons and equipment you put on your mech makes a huge difference as well. But, out of all the things that can effect the outcome of a fight in MechWarrior games, being skilled in piloting ones Mech is the one that probably makes the biggest difference.
So I would say that MechWarrior Online is one of the few online games which does "pay money to get stuff" the right way. Basicly, you can not really "buy power" in MWO, as you can in several other free-to-play games. "Power" as in things that are clearly better then everything else that a free-to-play player would never be able to use because they do not spend real money on it. MWO's "Hero/Champion Mechs" are, as mentioned not neccesarily better then any of the "free" stuff in the game. In fact, those seemingly better mechs that you have to pay money to normally get, will sometimes turn out to be utter turds. XD Because there is more to mechs then what you see on paper. Someone might see and think "What the hell?! This mechs has X amounts of Y powerful weapons, with Z thing added to that?! That's to overpowered!"... but when you start to look closer at it, or when you finally get your hands on it, one would realize why ones initial perceived notion might be compleatly wrong. Like due to the Mech have X amount of Y powerful weapons, combined with that Z thing, your mech will always be running hot because firing that many of that kind of weapon will shoot the heat in your mech up quickly, which means that you can not shoot as often as other mechs might, or you run the risk of your mech temporarily shutting down due to over heating... and shutting down in the middle of a battle field, turning you into a stationary target, is a really bad thing. So yeah... MWO = not pay-to-win.
In other news... sniping.
In sci-fi, and "modern day" kinds of games, I have always tended to be a long ranged type of a guy, and Sniping in general is the kind of gameplay I tend to like (I am a melee kind of a guy in fantasy and historical/middle ages type of games)... and the same goes for MechWarrior games as well. Unfortunatly I have... tendencies... bad ones... in Mech Warrior games... I will start out at long range, snipe people as I go along, but if a confrontation goes on to long, befor it's time to break of, I have a natural tendency to keep closing in on my opponents. Which is not always the best thing to do, especially if your in a long ranged spec'ed mech. I think this comes from that the melee side of me from fantasy/medieval stuff bleeds over at times to the sci-fi/modern day stuff. XD My favorit Warhammer 40K army is the Blood Angels to... which might to some extent also show my inclinations at times. XD
So I would say that MechWarrior Online is one of the few online games which does "pay money to get stuff" the right way. Basicly, you can not really "buy power" in MWO, as you can in several other free-to-play games. "Power" as in things that are clearly better then everything else that a free-to-play player would never be able to use because they do not spend real money on it. MWO's "Hero/Champion Mechs" are, as mentioned not neccesarily better then any of the "free" stuff in the game. In fact, those seemingly better mechs that you have to pay money to normally get, will sometimes turn out to be utter turds. XD Because there is more to mechs then what you see on paper. Someone might see and think "What the hell?! This mechs has X amounts of Y powerful weapons, with Z thing added to that?! That's to overpowered!"... but when you start to look closer at it, or when you finally get your hands on it, one would realize why ones initial perceived notion might be compleatly wrong. Like due to the Mech have X amount of Y powerful weapons, combined with that Z thing, your mech will always be running hot because firing that many of that kind of weapon will shoot the heat in your mech up quickly, which means that you can not shoot as often as other mechs might, or you run the risk of your mech temporarily shutting down due to over heating... and shutting down in the middle of a battle field, turning you into a stationary target, is a really bad thing. So yeah... MWO = not pay-to-win.
In other news... sniping.
In sci-fi, and "modern day" kinds of games, I have always tended to be a long ranged type of a guy, and Sniping in general is the kind of gameplay I tend to like (I am a melee kind of a guy in fantasy and historical/middle ages type of games)... and the same goes for MechWarrior games as well. Unfortunatly I have... tendencies... bad ones... in Mech Warrior games... I will start out at long range, snipe people as I go along, but if a confrontation goes on to long, befor it's time to break of, I have a natural tendency to keep closing in on my opponents. Which is not always the best thing to do, especially if your in a long ranged spec'ed mech. I think this comes from that the melee side of me from fantasy/medieval stuff bleeds over at times to the sci-fi/modern day stuff. XD My favorit Warhammer 40K army is the Blood Angels to... which might to some extent also show my inclinations at times. XD
I'll have to disagree.
Clan mechs/weapons outperform Inner Sphere ones in every way and they're not available to "play for free" types.
The SDR-A variant of the Spider (which I play along with my SDR-5D a lot) is vastly superior to the free variants due to weapon loadout/placement.
No, it's not "I pay I win" type of game, but you get some serious advantages.
As I said you can grind and off-set some of this but you'll never access Clan or Hero mechs for free, and all other things being equal the person with either of those will win 90% of the time.
But as Calistarius said, player skill is far more important then the mech itself, which is one reason I hate snipers :crybaby: . I applaud their skill, but we hates em.
Clan mechs/weapons outperform Inner Sphere ones in every way and they're not available to "play for free" types.
The SDR-A variant of the Spider (which I play along with my SDR-5D a lot) is vastly superior to the free variants due to weapon loadout/placement.
No, it's not "I pay I win" type of game, but you get some serious advantages.
As I said you can grind and off-set some of this but you'll never access Clan or Hero mechs for free, and all other things being equal the person with either of those will win 90% of the time.
But as Calistarius said, player skill is far more important then the mech itself, which is one reason I hate snipers :crybaby: . I applaud their skill, but we hates em.
This is really strange... because from everything I know, and can see from googling around, reading forum posts, checking info, and even going to twitch just now and directly asking a person who was streaming MWO... with the exception of Hero Mechs (and possibly Champion mechs), you can buy every single mech, weapon, equipment, including all the Clan specific stuff, in the game, for C-Bills (the ingame currency for the people who do not know)... and you earn C-Bill by just playing the game.
Also, that twitchplayer, and the people watching him, did also say that most/all of the Champion mechs that cost real money are basicly just reskinned free-to-play mechs, and Hero mechs being the ones that can be a bit different from the free-to-play mechs... and again, also said that neither the Heroe mechs, and especially not the Champion mechs (since they are the same as the free-to-play mechs), are not necessarily better then the ones available to free-to-play players.
So, I have no idea why you think that you would have to pay real money to be able to get the "good" mechs, weapons, and equipment, to be able to compeat with others on a level playing field in the game.
This page below is good to check some stuff for MWO. You can see the cost in C-Bills for everything there, and the MC cost to for the ones who do not want to grind.
Smurfy's mwo reference.
Also, that twitchplayer, and the people watching him, did also say that most/all of the Champion mechs that cost real money are basicly just reskinned free-to-play mechs, and Hero mechs being the ones that can be a bit different from the free-to-play mechs... and again, also said that neither the Heroe mechs, and especially not the Champion mechs (since they are the same as the free-to-play mechs), are not necessarily better then the ones available to free-to-play players.
So, I have no idea why you think that you would have to pay real money to be able to get the "good" mechs, weapons, and equipment, to be able to compeat with others on a level playing field in the game.
This page below is good to check some stuff for MWO. You can see the cost in C-Bills for everything there, and the MC cost to for the ones who do not want to grind.
Smurfy's mwo reference.
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I do belive that the part about getting Clan mechs and items for MC was part of the initial launche of the Clan. A period of time where all the clan stuff was essentially in a kind of beta or something, and then at some point they started to roll them out for C-Bills as well.
But this was something I was unaware of, that during X amount of time you had to buy them for real money... mostly because I stopped spending time on the MWO forum befor the Clan was released, so I missed it. So as such I was technicly wrong as well, because at the start I totally based what I said on information I had from befor the Clan came out. XD
One thing I do know though, you can still only use Clan weapons and equipment on Clan mechs. When they will finally make those things available for the IS as well, I don't know. But it will probably not be befor the developers feel there as gone long enough time for the "ingame time" to reach long enough of a time for the IS to have started getting a hold of such things in the BattleTech lore. If they release the clan stuff for IS at all to begin with.