Does anyone know what is the most efficient 'Mech to buy and then sell to convert MC into C-Bills? I know that data is technically available by digging through the 'Mech specs, but I cannot find a good list anywhere of what the total parts value (resale value) of all of the 'Mechs are. I did manually look through each of the Jenners, and found the JR7-F(C) is about twice as efficient as the others, primarily because of the very high-value engine (though still costing a similar amount of MC), and I'm wondering if there are any other 'Mechs with similarly unbalanced resale values.
I'm not sure I understand - since you can buy any Mech for MC, what would be the point in spending MC to get CB ... in order to buy another Mech ?
So, you're looking for the most efficient way to spend real-world money to get C-Bills? I see the idea if you need expensive upgrades (DHS/Artemis) or engines for mechs you already own. However, the sell price of a mech is something like 25%, I believe. VERY poor in-game credit resale on anything you'll be paying USD for. I would really just suggest buying a hero mech (Firebrand/Ilya is on sale right now for a few more minutes) that gives you a 30% C-Bill boost each match and grinding for a few hours to build up your in-game bank. End-game, the Hero chassis will earn you more C-Bills every time you drop and they have some great builds. Heavy Metal and Firebrand are both phenomenal mechs... We'll see about the Ilya after this Autocannon nerf later today.
I should have started this question with "ignoring whether or not you think this is a good idea"... I'm not necessarily ever going to do such a thing myself, but I am still curious to know which 'Mech purchases get you more valuable equipment for less C-Bills, and there are a number of threads on the main forums about this, with no clear answer, and it seemed that with the raw mech data a clear answer could be found. The sell-back is 50% on 'Mech parts, so not as bad as 25%, but still feels painful. As for why someone would do this, the response that said to just get money by "grinding for a few hours", makes it pretty clear - I'm here to play the game and have fun, not grind! Specifically I'm currently looking at wanting to buy a couple modules, each of which run like 6 million C-Bills, which is more than a few hours play time. I was very excited to have unlocked my first couple modules with GXP, and then was very sad to see my empty bank account and how much it would cost to equip them on just one of my 'Mechs, which started me thinking about this. The other big expenditure is things like engines, though with some engines (the XL300), the cheapest way to get those with MC is buy a chasis with the exact engine you want, yank out the engine and any other parts you want to keep, and sell the rest back (though the engine is more than half of the value of a Jenner JR7-F(C) so you won't get much for the rest of the parts).
Premium 'mechs (Hero and Champion variants) are sold with a markup, and are therefore not good candidates. Back in Closed Beta, I used to buy the Atlas K with the (then free) MC, use the XL engine and sell the 'mech itself for cbills. Now a days, the best way to turn MC into CBills is to buy something that you'll be awesome at piloting.
Cherrypicking with MC to save or even earn CB? It's not a good idea now, no. Doing as Arch suggested, buying a mech chassi you want to also get a good engine is still ok. But doing it to earn CB? Nope.
If you are short on time, I can see the appeal, I've thought about it a few times for the few hours a week I can squeeze in to MWO in between work and grad school. They make it painful for a reason though. You won't get a good return off of it, guaranteed. So from a strictly financial vs. time sense, it is not a good idea. If your time becomes strained however, it may become worth it. I guess you would have to look into any mechs that have XL engines, they have a nice sell value. But I know they have inflated MC prices too. I think the OP is looking for a total value of mech + components to breakdown a CB per MC guide for each Mech. That way, IF someone decided to go this route, they can pick the most efficient way of doing it.
Actually, with the Jenner line at least, the JR7-F(C) (which I think is a Champion?) is by far the best candidate, getting you 1846 C-Bills/MC, compared to less than 1000 C-Bills/MC for the other varieties. The JR7-F(C) does cost more MC than the rest, but its components are valued at a little over twice the others. I'd rather this thread not just be about whether or not to do such a thing, and would just like to know if anyone has a good source for the data on the component value of all of the 'Mechs... but since people are flat-out saying turning MC into C-Bills is not a good idea, let's do some math! Let's say Joe needs 12M C-Bills to buy a couple modules for my favorite 'Mechs. Buying and selling JR7-F(C)s that would cost 6500 MC, roughly $26. Grinding for C-Bills, let's say Joe gets 150K per match, at about 8 minutes per match, that's a little over 10 hours. Clearly paying $26 to save 10 hours is a good deal for Joe! But, obviously, we hope Joe is having fun playing MWO during that time, otherwise he's probably not going to be having fun with just a couple modules added in, so it depends on how much more fun is to be had with the extra modules. Let's say Joe is the kind of player who really likes tweaking his 'Mechs, trying different load-outs. If he's just saving C-Bills for those 10 hours, he's not having as much fun, because he can't spend C-Bills to try different 'Mech builds. So, now ignoring the difficulties in measuring "fun", let's just say Joe would be having about 20% more fun if he could just spend cash to buy those things instead of saving up, so that's, roughly, saving 2 hours of Joe's time (for the same amount of fun) for $26. I'm not sure about Joe, but I certainly value my time at more than $13/hr! I still probably won't end up doing this myself, but it definitely seems like a good idea for some people, depending on how much free time they have, how much disposable income they have, and how much they like the various aspects of MWO. So, back to the original topic, I'd love to see a breakdown of total value per 'Mech. If no one has one, maybe I'll try to scrape some data tonight. (Which, in my mind, will be a couple hours of "playing" MWO, in which I accumulate 0 C-Bills. "If playing a game doesn't involve a spreadsheet, you're doing it wrong!" that's what I always say...)
It would be interesting data from a purely thought-provoking exercise. Of course, I sit here dreaming about being in the position to be able to spend/throw away money to buy C-Bills on a whim.
My bad, I hadn't noticed that Champion Jenner's markup was proportional to the enhanced equipment. I wonder if that's the same for all champions.
I would say buy premium time, and alternate grind with two hero mechs. I used to do it with Ilya and a DK in PUGs for cbills. I play the Ilya seriously, then if I die I would exit match and switch to the DK, rush in to do as much damage as I can before I go kaboom. By that Time my Ilya match should be over, so I can play with her again. I use DK that way cause it is a hero, and the low health means he die quite fast, while giving you the cbill bonus. If you have 2 good solid heros though, you can just play them instead, more fun and more effective. Stacking hero and premium gives you reasonable cbills. You should be able to get 1.5mil in around 2 hours (for the DHS that you must have).
Buying a mech with MC to sell for Cbills is literally the dumbest fucking thing you can do in this game. I defy any of you to come up with something dumber. *maybe* selling all of your engine collection? Selling hero mechs? Fuck. Just, no Jim. No. If anything at ALL, get premium time OR a hero mech. BTW mc cost of mechs is related to tonnage, right? thought it was a formula, i heard it once before; maybe it was just for hero mechs tho
Si. Do that. I realize your point is to seek out a formula for which MC mechs will sell for the most C-Bills, however, it is an extremely ineffective short term solution. You can spend the same Real-World cash to buy a mech that has a C-Bill bonus and great configuration. I do wish you could either A) Buy any upgrade with MC or B) Buy C-Bills with MC. However, buying a mech and selling it is a very expensive and inefficient way to go. But, you've said multiple times that's what you're looking for, so, you are correct, the Champion Jenner would be the most efficient way to gain C-Bills from selling a mech. The only ones that may come close would be a JM6-S or a BJ-1DC. You would need to find a mech with no upgrades (DHS, Endo, FF) as those will inflate the MC cost, the most expensive weapon to MC cost ratio and a decent sized engine. I am not willing to buy them to know the exact sell price and do not know exactly what their calculations are for engine, mech and weapon re-buy pricing, but, I would say it's safe to venture, based on the actual cost of individual components of the mech, the JM6-S and JR7-F(C) are the two lowest MC to highest C-Bill. The Jenner still being a good deal more CB for it's XL300. Still don't think it's a good idea, but, I'm a penny pincher.
I DO UNDERSRAND that getting money for modules are hard. So if you would really really need to buy cbills with MC for that you might want to try getting those mechs with XL engine when they are on sale. That way at least you have the option to get less cbills and keep the XL. Oh don't sell the weapons and equipments, they are not worth the sale, keep them for your own use.
Well, you do get 50% back on cost of weapons and engines. Not sure on mech price itself. SO, I would still say JR7-F over JM6-S. If you have plenty of that weapon, sell away. In fact, I go through my "Garage" about once a month to sell off any additional weapons/engines I have that I do not need or do not use. If you have 3x XL300 engines, take the C-Bills, If you have 25x MLas, selllllllll... I would rather have the C-Bill and take an extra 30 seconds to swap engines from one mech to another if I want to run a different mech than sit on four of the same engine. I only kept 2x XL300s, 2x STD 280s, 2x XL295 and only have one of the other engines I use. Then again, I only have 17 Mech Bays. I understand some people have 30, 40, even 70+ (I'm looking at you, Vergere) But, if you're like me and only own 15 or so mechs, there isn't a problem finding the mech that has the engine you want and swapping it quickly between matches.
I have only 4-5 equipped mechs... the rest of them are all without engines! Oh, keep at least 2 of each engine. That way you can jump into another match instantly even if your current mech/engine is tied up in a match. Yes, I am talking about those XL300, amongst other things. STD engines does not sell too well though, but you will have lots.
