In response to the criticism of the pricing (and positioning) of some of the Clan ‘Mechs in the recently announced Clan packs, PGI has introduced a new package option. Â This new A la Carte packaging allows you to select a “Prime” chassis of your choice. Â Included in the package are the Prime variant (which gets you the 30% C-Bill bonus), and two variants (which allows you to ‘rank up’ that chassis and get it up to elite). Â The price for the ‘Mech of your choice? Â $55.00.
It’s not a bad price, it keeps the packages as a better deal (except for the BlackHawk, and Uller packages, but those chassis aren’t available a la carte), but allows you to grab just the ‘Mech you want, instead of having to get a full package. Â It’s a lot of additional flexibility, and I think it’s a good move by PGI.
Additionally, if you purchase (or, have purchased) one of the Golden ‘Mechs for $500.. PGI is now throwing in one of the Masakari packages (the high end, has all the chassis in it pack). Â While still to pricey for my blood.. that does make a $500 package a bit better of a value.
It’s good to see PGI listening to the criticism about the packages, and doing something to make individual ‘Mechs easier to obtain (for folks that only want an individual chassis). Â They’ve also made a command chair post attempting to outline how they’re hoping to implement clan tech. Â Here’s an example of how they’re approaching it:
Clan Tech – Design Approach
Clan Technology in the BT universe has always been an over-powered set of weapons and BattleMech builds. This encourages an arms race to get to Clan Tech equipment and makes Inner Sphere Tech rather obsolete. This is something we do not want to see in MechWarrior Online and we have decided to take some heavy hitting steps to make sure that this arms race does not come to fruition.Balancing – Raw Numbers
The key elements that make Clan Tech overpowered include size reductions, tonnage reductions, range increases and damage increases over similar Inner Sphere weapons. The best way to discuss this is to look at some examples.e.g. 1 – ER Large Laser
Inner Sphere Tech:
Heat: 12
Damage: 8
Range: 570m
Tons: 5
Crit(Slots): 2Clan Tech:
Heat: 12
Damage: 10
Range: 750m
Tons: 4
Crit(Slots): 1It is very easy to see how the Clan version of the ER Large Laser is significantly more advantageous than the Inner Sphere equivalent. The Clan ER Large Laser does 2 more damage, has 180m more range, weighs 1 ton less and takes up half the amount of space while maintaining the same amount of heat generation.
I’m not sure it’s going to work as well as they think it will (can we say “ghost heat”?), but, it does seem to be a good idea on paper, so I’m willing to wait and see how it pans out. Â
Overall, the new packages, and the increased communication from PGI over the last week or so, is good. Â Definitely a step in the right direction, it’s just a shame it takes a forum explosion to get PGI to communicate, and layout their plans.