MechWarrior Online: Are Hero Mechs Pay to Win?

As of March 19, 2014, I have bought five hero mechs (not including Founder and Phoenix mechs). I will speak about each one's strengths, weaknesses, and whether or not it is "Pay To Win". Keep in mind that as the mechs go up in weight, they cost more MC and that means they cost more real world money. For the record, I bought all of my Hero mechs on sale for 30% to 50% off their normal prices.

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Yen Lo Wang - Centurion - 50 ton medium - 3750 MC

 I have only had this mech for about a week and I am having OK success with it. Its biggest drawback is the primary weapon hard points, 2 ballistic, are in the right arm. Why is this a drawback? Because there is only 32 points of armor maximum for the arm and it gets blown off fairly quickly unless you are very good at protecting it.

Most people usually place an AC20 in the right arm because it gives the most bang for the buck while constantly torso twisting to protect the arm.. You can put two AC5 in the arm, but because you can lose the arm so easily, it is not really worth it due to the lost damage done due to the constant torso twisting.

The general consensus on the Yen Lo Wang is it is Not Pay to Win because of the limited weapon load out and general fragility of the Centurion chassis. I have been having fun with it though. An arm mounted AC20 is always fun.

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Firebrand - Jagermech - 65 ton heavy - 4875 MC

The Firebrand is one of my favorite mechs to play. Not because it is Pay to Win, but because basically build a mech that resembles in look and load out one of my favorite Unseen mechs, the Rifleman. I made a slight adjustment to the base weapon load out of the Rifleman and replaced the two Large Lasers with two ER Large Lasers due to the normally long range engagements found in MechWarrior Online.

As a result of the long range weapons on the build I use, I typically do very well and make a lot of money with the Firebrand. Some people will disagree, but I don't consider the Firebrand Pay to Win though because it is still a Jagermech and they are known for their light armor. As a result, the Firebrand is somewhat easy to kill with a few well placed shots to the side torsos (they typically run XL engines).

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Ilya Muromets - Cataphract - 70 ton heavy - 5250 MC

The Ilya Muromets is arguably the best Hero mech in MechWarrior Online due to its weapon hard points. Currently, it is one of a handful of mechs that can mount three Ultra AC5. It is the only one that can use them effectively due to its weight.

To be fair, using three Ultra AC5 basically requires the Ilya to use an XL engine (or it is way too slow) and thereby makes it somewhat fragile. However, it is still extremely deadly and the triple Ultra AC5 build has been given the nickname "Buzzsaw" within Death's Hand Brigade.

This mech could be considered Pay to Win when used by the right person.

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Dragon Slayer - Victor - 80 ton assault - 6000 MC

The Dragon Slayer is currently one of the better Hero mechs due to its weapon hard points and jump jets. It is one of my favorites to play because it is pretty mobile and has the potential to do a lot of damage. In fact, I scored my highest damage output of 1370 damage with 5 kills and 6 assists in this mech. You can watch the video here if you don't believe me. :)

The Dragon Slayer's biggest weakness is its ability, or lack thereof, to deal with light mechs up close. You are dependent on the arm mounted ballistics or energy weapons and light mechs can be very difficult to hit when they are in your face.

Now, you can call the Dragon Slayer Pay to Win, if you want, but keep in mind you still have to be a decent pilot and have decent aim to consistently get high damage and kills. And, the Dragon Slayer is not cheap due to it being 80 tons and you must pay 6000 MC to purchase if it is not on sale. That's roughly $25 USD.

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The Boar's Head - Atlas - 100 ton assault - 7500 MC

 The Boar's Head is a good money maker for me. The six energy hard points in the arms allow for a lot of different energy configurations. The stock build with a 400 XL engine is fun because you get to run around at 72 kph in an Atlas, but it also makes for an easy kill. My personal favorite is six Medium Lasers in the arms and an AC20 in the right torso with a 375 standard engine. It is quick (for an Atlas) and it is dangerous. 

The Boar's Head's main weakness is the typical Atlas weakness... Take out the right torso and it loses most of its weapons. Not too big of a deal if you are used to piloting an Atlas and know how to protect your side torso.

Is The Boar's Head Pay to Win? I honestly can't say. At 7500 MC or almost $40 USD, is that really "winning"? I just know I really enjoy using it.

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Don't want to buy any Hero mechs? Well, you can buy many other mechs with C-Bills you earn while playing the game that are much closer to being Pay to Win than these Hero mechs. :)

MechWarrior Online: Pay To Win and Premium Time

With the recent addition of 12 player versus 12 player matches (12v12) and the changes to the amount of C-bills you can earn in those matches, I wanted to make a follow-up to my previous post on "Is MechWarrior Online Pay To Win?" and the issue of earning C-bills with or without Premium Time.

The typical argument I have heard is you earn less now in 12v12 matches than you did in 8v8 matches. Of course, no one has actually backed up their position with any real data. So, this is how I have used Premium Time to affect my ability to earn C-bills...

I have been tracking my daily C-bill earning since MechWarrior Online entered Open Beta on December 4, 2012. On December 28, 2012 I activated my Founder's Premium Time and purchased 30 days of Premium Time three times.

In order to see how playing without Premium Time affected my ability to earn C-bills, I let my Premium Time run out on June 30, 2013. So, I had Premium Time for about 6 months and I have now been running without Premium Time for about two and half months.

The C-bill earnings changes introduced with 12v12 matches occurred on August 6, 2013. So, not a lot of data to work with since then, but it will have to do for now and I am continuing to gather data. Below is a link to a copy of the spreadsheet I have been using to track my earnings, significant events, and costs through March 7, 2016.

Gimpy's C-bill Earnings Spreadsheet

A few things to keep in mind are major purchases like mechs and engines affect my earnings on some days (i.e. huge C-bill losses) and I do use consumables like cool shots and UAVs from time to time (i.e. not huge costs, but costs none the less).

Also, before my Premium Time ran out, I played almost every day because I did not want the Time to be wasted. Since then, I do not feel I HAVE to play every day and don't play quite as much. I play as often as I do because I really enjoy playing the game.

Keep in mind, the data sample size for my Premium Time usage is at least three times as large as the non-Premium Time usage (6 months versus 2 months) and 12v12 matches have only been out for less than 60 days. So, the data is not conclusive, but I think is still useful.

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Note (November 18, 2013): 30 Days of Premium Time was available at 40% off the normal MC cost this weekend. I feel this is one of the best deals they offer and this is only the second time they have had this sale. So, I bought 60 days of Premium Time thinking to add to my current Premium Time in the bank (120 days). However, it activated immediately because it was purchased normally. The Premium Time I have in the bank is from purchasing the Phoenix Overlord package and has to be activated by pressing an "Activate" button in the MWO client. So, I added a new section to the Analysis section of my spreadsheet to account for the change in my ability to earn C-bills. I ran without Premium Time for 135 days.

 Note (April 30, 2014): I activated my bank of approximately 173 days of Premium Time so I could customize Private Matches as needed.

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If you do not want to dig through the numbers, here's the short version of my C-bills earnings (check out the spreadsheet link above for the most up-to-date numbers).

Since Open Beta Started on Dec. 4, 2012
Average per day played	708586
High	7,816,076
Low	-25,333,822
With Premium Time
Average per day played	869898
High	7,816,076
Low	-25,333,822
No Premium Time June 30, 2013 to Aug. 5, 2013
Average per day played	107,332
High	2,224,964
Low	-9,638,248
No Premium Time - 12v12 since Aug. 6, 2013
Average per day played	745,831
High	2,745,524
Low	-14,347,758

Conclusion in regards to MechWarrior Online being Pay To Win:
Premium Time definitely lets you earn more C-bills over time, but this is not Pay To Win. Premium Time allows you to earn C-bills faster to purchase the mechs and weapons you want. It does not allow you to purchase superior mechs and weapons because there are no such things in MechWarrior Online. Everyone has access to the same mechs and equipment. Only your personal experience and skill will make you a better pilot. And, those can not be bought with C-bills or real world money.

Conclusion in regards to earning less C-bills in 12v12 matches:
It's hard to say with only about 60 days worth of data (I have a couple of days between June 30 and Aug. 6 where I only played 2-3 games that are throwing things off), but the 12v12 earnings appear to be slightly superior even when compared to Premium Time. For instance, my average C-bills per day played for 12v12 would be 932,288 after the 25 percent Premium Time bonus. That's 62,390 more C-bills per day than what I earned with Premium Time running.

The reason for the increase is because with more mechs on the field, your chances to earn bonuses for destroying components, getting savior kills, spotting assists, kill assists, and kills are all increased. Yes, your chances of getting killed faster are also increased, but, with some practice, you will learn to avoid those situations. :D

Is MechWarrior Online Pay To Win?

First, so we're starting from the same point of reference, let's start with a definition of "pay to win" from Urban Dictionary: "Games that let you buy better gear or allow you to make better items then everyone else at a faster rate and then makes the game largely unbalanced even for people who have skill in the game without paying."

So, the short answer is, "No, MechWarrior Online is NOT pay to win."

However, the long answer is, while MechWarrior Online is a free to play game, it does have some things you can buy to improve your experience or speed up your progression.

These things include:

• Paint for your mechs (all mechs come painted in drab green)
• Camouflage patterns
• Cockpit items like mech statues, banners, air freshner, dice, and many more
• Premium Time - increases c-bills (in game money) and mech experience earned in matches by 50 percent each
• Champion Mechs - stock mechs with an experience bonus of 10 percent (stacks with Premium Time)
• Hero Mechs - mechs with unique weapon hard points, custom paint jobs, and a c-bill bonus of 30 percent (stacks with Premium Time)
• Additional Mech Bays - You need one bay for each mech you own. You start with four bays.

All of these things are purchased with Mech Credits (MC). Mech Credits cost real money and varies based on how much you buy at one time (the more you buy, the better the value).

Paint, camouflage, and cockpit items are cosmetic only. They don't effect game play in any way. No one can argue they make MechWarrior Online pay to win.

Premium time does not effect game play either. It only adds to the money and mech experience you earn in matches. It's not pay to win, but it could be called "pay to make progress go faster." Yes, you can get access to better equipment faster, but everyone has access to the same equipment and the prices aren't so high that it will take you much longer to buy something without having Premium Time. C-bills and mech experience alone will not make you kill your opponents easier or faster. Only your personal skill can do that.

Champion Mechs only have an earned mech experience bonus. The mechs are exactly the same as any other mech you buy with c-bills. Definitely not pay to win.

Although Hero Mechs are unique variants, they are not any better than other mechs. Some are good variants, others not so much, but none of them are even close to being overpowered. I don't own one yet because I don't think the c-bill bonus and uniqueness make them worth buying. There are lots of Hero Mechs running around though. Full disclosure: One of the reasons I joined the Founder's Program was to own four Founder's mechs (25 percent c-bill bonus and unique look. Not unique variants).

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Update (June 17, 2013): I purchased my first hero mech, Ilya Muromets (Cataphract chassis), on June 7. After using it quite a bit for the past 10 days, I must say it is a strong mech for its tonnage (70 tons) and weapon hard point locations (one ballistic in each arm and one ballistic in the right torso). The three Ultra Auto Cannon 5 (UAC 5) build is somewhat fragile though due to having to run an XL engine in order to have enough ammo for the UAC 5s to be effective in more than one fire fight.

When the Ilya first came out, it was the only mech that could mount three UAC 5s due to the hard point locations and this could be called "pay to win" because it was, and still is, a big time damage dealer. However, with the Jagermech that came out a few months ago, the Ilya is no longer the only mech capable of mounting three UAC5s. At five tons lighter, the Jagermech can't hold as much ammo as the Ilya, but it is still effective (I have a Jagermech with three UAC 5s) primarily due to the arms of the Jager being located higher up and you don't waste as much ammo shooting the ground like you do with the low slung guns on the Ilya (a disadvantage of the Cataphract chassis). 

Another downside of the Ilya is anyone who has been around a while knows the Ilya is dangerous and it's not long before you find yourself being shot at by multiple mechs. Even with two to three assault mechs standing in front of you. :D

Update (March 19, 2014):Be sure to check out my post on what I think about the Hero mechs I have bought.

MechWarrior Online: Are Hero Mechs Pay to Win?

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You start with four mech bays and if you want to have more than four mechs at one time, you will have to buy more mech bays at 300 MC each ($2-$3). You can not buy mech bays with c-bills. Technically not pay to win because you can't pilot more than one mech at a time in a match. You can have 50 mechs in your mech stable and it still wouldn't make you more likely to win.

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Update (May 7, 2015): Mech Bays can now be acquired through gaining Faction ranks in Community Warfare. Basically, you get one Mech Bay at ranks 2, 6, 10, 14, and 18. You can do this for each House/Clan and there are 10 Houses and Clans total. So, if you put in the time, you can acquire 50 Mech Bays without spending any real world money. You can find all of the Faction Rank Rewards here.

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Now, if you choose to not spend any real money on MechWarrior Online, you will probably progress at a slower pace if you stick primarily to playing the game by yourself. And by "progress", I mean buying mechs or equipment to make your bought mechs better. Unless you spend MC on buying a mech, you are stuck playing trial mechs until you earn enough c-bills to buy a mech of your own.

How long does it take to buy a mech with c-bills? Well, everyone gets a c-bill bonus in their first 25 matches and you will end up with somewhere between 8 and 10 million c-bills depending on how well you play. So, you typically earn enough c-bills to buy a few light mechs, a couple of medium mechs, or maybe even one heavy mech after the 25th match and have enough c-bills to do some customization. If you are playing with Premium Time during your first 25 matches, you make 50 percent more c-bills or 12-15 million c-bills total. This will give you enough c-bills to buy an assault mech and customize it with pretty much anything you want.

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Update (September 13, 2013): I added a new post with some details on my experience playing MWO with and without Premium Time as it relates to earning C-bills. Includes a spreadsheet with how many C-Bills I have earned per day played from December 4, 2012 to March 7, 2016.

MechWarrior Online: Pay To Win and Premium Time 

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CONSUMABLES

Apparently there is some misinformation being floated around that the best Consumables (one use items) can only be purchased with real world money. This is COMPLETELY FALSE.

Yes, consumables you purchase with MC (bought with real world money) are the best you can get. However, you can use GXP to permanently upgrade the consumables bought with C-Bills (in game money earned while playing) so that they are exactly the same as the MC versions.

For example, in the screenshot (click image for a bigger version), COOL SHOT 9 BY 9 is the GXP upgraded version of COOL SHOT 9 (not shown because that's the non-upgraded version) is available for 40,000 C-Bills and operates the same as the MC version, COOL SHOT 18. Both remove 18 heat points from your current heat level over the same period of time.

You can also see I have upgraded my ARTILLERY STRIKE and UAV with GXP (but not my AIR STRIKE). They perform exactly like their MC counterparts. I have never bought a consumable with MC because I have upgraded the C-Bill version consumables I use on a regular basis with GXP.


This has become a lot longer than I originally intended, so I'll stop here. But if you're still not convinced MechWarrior Online is not pay to win, give it a try for yourself. It really is free to download and play.