CBills

Comstar Bills, or C-Bills, are the currency used to purchase assets, ammunition, weapons and repairs. C-Bills are earned by scoring points. The player's current funds are displayed on the middle of the right side of the screen. (This display will turn red while under the effects of an EMP, which can be caused by a reactor detonation or PPC impact, and which will disable Night Vision for its duration.)

Ingame Indicator of C-Bill amount. A second tally above your balance will indicate C-Bills earned while dealing damage or earning points.

Obtaining C-Bills

Team Solaris Arena and Terrain Control

In the Team Solaris Arena and Terrain Control game modes, C-Bills can be obtained in six ways:

1. Upon spawning, players are given a number of C-Bills according to their rank.
2. Damaging or destroying enemy assets such as Mechs, Tanks, VTOLs, Aerospace, Battle Armor, or turrets increases C-Bills (and progress towards the next rank).
3. Assisting teammates by using a TAG Laser or NARC Beacon. The player will receive a share of the C-Bills for any damage dealt (this does not reduce the C-Bills that other players are getting).
4. Sharing radar information while in Active Radar Mode in an asset equipped with C3. Players will receive the largest C-Bill bonuses when enemies within the shared radar are damaged by teammates.
5. When another player spawns in an APC owned by another player. The player that built the APC is rewarded with 5000 C-Bills.
6. Players can receive C-Bills gifted to them by fellow members of their team.

Damaging friendly assets, Battle Armor, and turrets will result in the loss of C-Bills.

When a player dies, if he or she had more C-Bills than his or her rank would normally give him or her, he or she will spawn in with the amount he or she had when he or she died.

Example: A P2/MSG ranked player purchases a Puma Prime for 64,500 C-Bills. He is left with 1500 C-Bills. If he goes out and earns more than 66,000 C-Bills (say: 66,001), he will spawn with the new total (in this case: 66,001).
If he does not earn more than 66,000 C-Bills, he will respawn with exactly 66,000 C-Bills as his rank dictates, even if he earned 0 C-Bills.

If a player's asset has lost too many irreplaceable weapons to be effective (like weapons on mech arms or externals or on the wings of aerospace) then the player may find it necessary to eject, sell their asset, or suicide. Selling an asset or pressing the suicide button on the map menu using the [m] key can give the player access to more C-Bills. To avoid losing tickets, players are advised to only press the suicide button while still in their asset and should ensure that it is at a complete stop and powered down in a safe location. Beware, if the player's asset is on, pressing the suicide button will cause weapon group 1 to fire if is assigned to left click.

Note: Pressing the suicide button to respawn with C-Bills based on your rank, then getting back into and selling the asset you were just in, to give you even more C-Bills, is considered an exploit and is banned on some servers.

Test of Strength

In the Test of Strength game mode, a fixed amount of C-Bills is given to every player at the start of the round, (or whenever they initially connect, if the round has already begun). No further C-Bills can be earned or awarded, so those initial C-Bills must last the player through the entire match.

However, a player can still choose to transfer their C-Bills to a teammate.

Spending C-Bills

C-Bills can be used to purchase vehicles, equipment, ammunition and repairs.

In a Mech Hangar, Aerospace Hanger, or Aerospace Control Tower, pressing the Comma key [,] will display a menu showing (in separate tabs) ammunition for the current vehicle, BA equipment, and those vehicles which can be produced at the current location. Items costing less than the player's current C-Bill total will be highlighted, and items too expensive to be purchased are dimmed. Clicking on a highlighted item will immediately purchase the item. Construction of vehicles commences immediately after purchase - they will appear about 10 seconds later at the Bay, Hanger, or VTOL Pad announced over the base intercom.

Ammunition and BA equipment can also be purchased at a team's APC.

Repairs to a vehicle can be initiated by powering down ([P] key) the vehicle at the appropriate Mech Bay, Aerospace Hanger, or VTOL Pad. When the C-Bills stop decrementing, the vehicle is repaired, and can be powered up again using the ([P] key).

Transferring C-Bills

Players can transfer their spare C-Bills to a teammate, enabling them to field more expensive equipment, or repair/re-arm/re-equip if they have insufficient C-Bills of their own.

To transfer C-Bills to a teammate, press the [Right Shift] key. This displays a list of potential C-Bill transfer amounts, and a list of teammates. Navigate the two lists using the Arrow Keys until the desired amount and teammate are highlighted. Then press [Enter] to conduct the transaction. (Pressing [Right Shift] will cancel any incomplete transaction.)

Note: C-Bill transfer is disabled during the first 10 minutes of most games, during combat, and for two minutes after suicides and server reconnections.

Trivia

• According to the 3062 Technical Readout, 1 C-Bill ('ComStar bill') was equal to $3.88USD at the time of its publication or approximately $6.59 by todays standards adjusted for inflation.

• During the Star League era (2571-2785), the Star League Dollar (SL$) was used as a common currency throughout the Inner Sphere, standardized on the amount of germanium in Fort Knox on Terra, the vital component in Kearny-Fuchida Drives. Once the Succession Wars broke out, each of the five Great House leaders began issuing currency bearing their own likeness. These currencies would later become known as House Bills (or H-Bills), the value of which was based on the house's economic fortunes. The Star League scrip was eventually discontinued.

• The C-Bill originated from early ComStar's Letter of Credit, which detailed the value of ComStar's communication services to the Great Houses and the public. Approved in 2835 the C-Bill was intended as a method of payment for those services, its value based on a fixed amount of ComStar service, transmission time, or delivery distance. Because of the uncertainty of the exchange rates for H-Bills, many mercenary units would request payments for their contracts be in C-Bills to ensure a consistent payment basis. As a result of this and interstellar trade in general, the C-Bill became a common secondary currency throughout the Inner Sphere and the Periphery, in many places replacing the local H-Bills.

• Note that MWLL does not follow BattleTech canon with regard to C-Bills. (A light Mech would cost millions of C-Bills according to canon).

See Also

• Points
• Rank