Well, I�m a new player (20 hours in) and I�m very unhappy since the those 20 hours of my life was just wasted, since one week after i finaly maxed out and unlocked almost everything i wanted for the CR-T, everyone has a free Mech with more itens and internals than my CR-T has, and I had to pay for it.
The early HC points you get from achivements are the only real source of HC for someone who does not play a lot, if i knew this was comming i would never have unlocked the weapons and itens on the CR-T wasting all those precious HC.
A few points on why the idea was bad.
1- CR-T is better than the assault, thats why i had decided to not get a assault. Now that i do have it and played with it a few rounds, I definatly prefer the CR-T.
2- If i had a assault i�d never get the CR-T, unless as some people here sugested one of them had a grenade launcher as a secondary.
3- Playing the naked CR-T and knowing you are the underdog in matches, made all my early kills much more satisfing and made the early game much more fun.
3- As some here already said and I�m going to vouch for it. Make it possible to sell stuff in the game. Even if for 1/3 price tag, I just have to be able to get rid of something i bought and regreted so i don't have to stare at the item and remember my mistake at every login.
The veterans might not be as mad as i am with the free mech, but from what i read on this topic it is evident some action to repair this is needed.
I�m a developer myself so i know adding a sell feature to the hawken system would take time.
My sugestion to a short term solution, make another redeem code that removes the free assault from the account and converts its coresponding value to HC points.
That way, you can please everyone.
1- Who liked the new assault can keep it.
2- Whoever redeemed the assault and thinks it has no place in their accounts can have the HC points instead. (my case)
3- Who didn't redeem the assault, can still redeem it and after that, redeem the second code to remove it and get the HC points too.
What a struggle 4 nothing, dudes... A week playing 1 of the greatest games i've ever played is EVERYTHING but a waste of time, considering the fun u gain doing that. I truly believe this game's going 2 b a legend under the best mech-games. It's second 2 none, and nothing compares 2 it really. I play it now 4 about half a year, own all but the 2 G2 mechs, leveled the majority of them up 2 the max, equipped them up 2 about 95%, and paid EVERYTHING but the special skins with HCs only. Do you have at least a vague idea, how much work it was 2 come so far, and how your complains about "wasted times" sound 2 me??? Can u guess how they sound 2 the alpha veterans even, which played hundreds of hours 2 buy, equip, and tune up their mechs, just 2 find their troublesome uniquely grinded collection of internals totally zeroed and the stats all even after the STEAM launch? I'm not sure i can, but i guess it must have been a shock 2 many of them. Think of that b4 u complain about a free gift from the devs, friend, regardless if it's 2 ur advantage or not. However - i can't moan about the free Assault anyway, 'cause i'm 1 of the very luckers that had no Assault b4, (the CR-T is very similar, so i decided 2 buy the Assault as the last normal mech b4 i get the G2s), so i c the Assault as a gift from CpnJosh. Thx-a-lot CpnJosh. As we played 2gether, u told me u r trying the new beginners Assault loadout actually. Now i could try it myself thanks 2 u, and i had 2 confess, it feels good, it looks good, it's versatile and 4 sure the best mech 2 learn 4 every beginner, even better than the CR-T imho, because of the better armor. Definitely the right decision. Keep the good work up, Cpn. This is my 2 HCs about it.
Regards 2 all,
gArphEus