I get very little gaming in these days as is apparent that I haven't played with any SimHQ guys in MWO since closed Beta, but I respect your guys opinions. I'm a founder and I'm ambivalent about throwing any money more at PGI until we see something with more depth than an arena shooter with a handful of maps. But I see a lot of you clan'ing it up and wonder if getting a package deal is worth it. If opinions are in that direction which clans offer the best bang for the buck? If you don't feel it's worth it now for someone with limited time to play say that too. It's probably obvious by now that I'm looking for some justification to buy these damn things against my gut feeling that it's more PGI snake oil.

We do have more than a handful of maps now, with only one we groan about when it comes up. Gameplay has changed a lot as far as builds used, they have added a skirmish mode, which is straight up last team standing. They have greatly improved assault to give the bases significant defenses, eliminating the light mech cap rush, except as a dedicated effort. There is no shortage of mechs to play around with, even before the clans dropped.
The game itself is still your usual round-based conflict, with no greater meaning other than accumulating money, XP, building your fleet of mechs...and sharpening your skills. The difficulty level has risen significantly from the beta days, since with the current set up, everyone is just constantly sharpening their skills without having to think about a grander scale war.
All of that said, it's still a lot of fun.

I wouldn't buy a package, especially since now you can play with the builds on smurfy: http://mwo.smurfy-net.de
You can still buy individual mechs a la carte, which gives you 3 variants for leveling up.
http://mwomercs.com/clans
The Thor collection might be a good deal though, and cheaper than buying 2 a la carte--if you like lighter mechs. Also has 30 days of premium time to get you going on your funds again and getting XP for these new mechs.

They aren't snake oil, and this is a better release than the phoenix mechs. They did an excellent job balancing with the IS mechs with the built-in tradeoffs, but there is a definite difference to be seen.
IMO, get the Timberwolf and a Stalker Misery. Best mechs in the game IMO.

Thanks Raw, Timberwolf was in my eye. if you bought two what would they be? I'm leaning Dire, WarH, or the Storm. Good to here the balance is better. Sounds like pop tarting may lessen as well. I think it over get some of your guys opinions and start kicking Mech tires.

I also bought the Dire Wolf. As appealing as it is with the firepower and very customizable for about any kind of armament you want, it's just too slow. It's no brawler by any means. Best used at a good distance (IMO). It's huge, and locked at a slow speed since you can't swap engines in clan mechs (that's where the balance really comes in). 48/53(speed tweak)KPH...hard to start, hard to stop, super slow to turn. An easy target. It's the Yamato: big and scary with all the guns, but a huge lumbering target.

I like the Nova (12 mediums), but heat is an issue. After playing with it on smurfy, I don't think I could run it well. The Stormcrow, to me, looks like a small Timberwolf, but only 7 KPH faster. The TW goes about 90 with speed tweak. I don't think that's enough to justify it over the TW.

The Warhawk might be a good one, I wish I'd gotten that instead of the Dire Wolf. Played with some builds earlier and came up with just about the same build I like on my Dire, but much faster at 71 w/speed tweak---faster than a Stalker with the max 310 engine:
WHK-PRIME
That's just one MPL short of what I like on my DW, but adds an LRM10.

I may end up with a WH yet, since it and the TW are released last for cbills.
In fact, I can just about build my Misery with a WH. Hmmm....

RawK covered it quite well. PGI has made some spectacular blunders, but progress has been made along the way. They seem to be learning that pissing off their entire audience is a bad plan.

My two biggest wishes would be 1) more maps and 2) they need to finish UI 2.0 as it's currently incomplete.

Thankfully smurphys site resolves the biggest issue, which is that there is no way to view the specs of a mech you with to buy from in the game.

As for the clan mechs, the Timberwolf is the clear favorite, but I'm leaning Shadowhawk personally. A Timberwolf may be almost as fast, but it's also a significantly larger target.

I was so close to buying that warhawk. LOL Only some shiny objects on the steam sale kept me from it.
I did send an email to see if they could swap my DW for a WH, but I seriously doubt that will happen. Probably afraid of opening a can of worms, or might just be too much trouble.
Plus, my video capture drive finally crapped out on me. It was a junker I'd replaced from other duties to begin with, but I've gotten used to having it. Lost some good MWO rounds, but I'm sure there will be more.
BTW, WD Black 1TB $77 on amazon.