At one of gaming moment, had an idea, why we have Mercenary as an NPC, but not as in-game opportunity? A few spare days of making text and here it is (Im Ru, so sorry for some mistakes):
--------------ATTENTION-------MANY TEXT-------BEFORE QUESTIONS READ ALL… Please--------------
Firstly, for who is this? I think for wide community- helping or defending on 4&5 missions, anomalies&signatures in low and null, logistics, escorting, ganking(yes yes) ,scrambling, jamming and etc. Mostly for solo-players and for them who cant get help(or dont want) from their corp.
------------------------------------------------INTERFACE------------------------------------------
The main interface is a little like in courier contracts :
----it can be as advert (have a timer) from Employer ( must be ONLINE ) which contain:
- Hiring purpose, standardized: escort PvP, escort PvE, logistics, jamming ( such flags used by Mercenary too), /special other/
1.1) SS for work, High/Low/Null, can be few ( if Employer goes to other SS system, that havent been flaged in request, this automatically ENDS the contract as DONE by Mercenary with full payment of hour)
*If the action is in a high-sec, in which the Mercenary can be reached only through low-sec, this is automatically considered as a low-sec. Same for low and null. - Ship class / specific ship(can be few, use flags)
- Main characteristics: DPS (from X to Y) / required type of jamming modules + drain and neutralizers / hp recovery armor and shield (drones and modules, from X to Y), EHP of ship and resists ( from X to Y) , covert modules(YES/NO)
- System of meeting
- Free field for tips
- Cost for hour (from X to Y)
- Guaranty from Mercenary if getting killed in PvP or in PvE with player damage ( mainly, against bad Mercenary that want to gank his Employer, also against passive Mercenary that should guard in site/gate/etc…), from 50 to 75% of Employer’s fit market price.(YES/NO)
- Guaranty from Mercenary if getting killed in PvE (against passive Mercenary,that should help in PvE) , from 30% to 50% of Employer’s fit market price.(YES/NO)
) MAX contract distance ( can be used if 7 and 8 are NO) - in KM(from 50) or all system, or number of jumps. This means that Mercenary CAN BE away from Employer no further than in X km or up to 3 jumps. If Mercenary goes over distance more than on Y minutes ( timer from 3 to 5 minutes) -contract can be TERMINATED(if less then 30 min) or DONE (more then 30 min) without any penalty to sides( Mercenary gets X = pay for hour *( time of contract / 60)). This made against passive Mercenary. - Hours of contract- 1 or 2
*If Mercenary want to work with this request, he sending his response ( of reserved ship) which contains fit and his cost for hour(and quantity of ships,if have), Employer must accept or reject within 15 minutes. System of meeting cant be changed.
-----or as vacantion ( have a timer ) from Mercenary ( must be ONLINE ), ships reserves and blocks:
- Hiring purpose, standardized: escort PvP, escort PvE, logistics, jamming , /special other/
- SS for work
- Ship and his fit with all actual characteristics.
- Quantity of ships ( all must be 100% same )
- Free field for tips
- Cost for hour ( X )
- Possible Guaranty (up to X)
- hours of possible contract (1 or 2)
*If Employer want to work with this request, he sending his response which contains : system of meeting, hours of contract and(or not) Guaranty/MAX contract distance. Mercenary must accept or reject within 15 minutes.
-------For fleets:
A mercenary can be hired to protect the fleet (only by the head of the fleet), while the price increases proportionally to the number of pilots in the fleet (excluding other mercenaries) and works individually for all pilots in fleet(means if Mercenary loosing, but the fleet must be created before hiring, otherwise the protection does not apply to new members of the fleet.
P.S:thinking about that Mercenary should have rating of TERMINATED and DONE contracts to total. So that why I use these termins.
------------------------------------------------HOW IT WORKS---------------------------------
Contract can be made only for 1-2 hours ( I think there are plenty of situations why making it more on hour is a bad idea - it’s hard to guarantee firstly , then not many people can play without delay 3 and more hours and need to add more penalty for leaving that makes long contracts not interesting(at same price) , but if CCP wants, can change this point )
*After 45 min both sides get notification if they want to continue , if YES, contract continues, Employer must have ISK in cash.
If Mercenary and Employer have accepted their request- fleet makes automatically and Mercenary have 30 mins to get in meeting system (or he will have penalty of 25% to Employer of ISK per hour).
At the beginning of each new hour, the ISK amount is reserved from the account of the Employer and at the end of the hour it is transferred to the Mercenary.
The Mercenary fit is blocked for the ship (ships, if a backup is fully repeating fit and reserved in request), it cannot be changed during the contract (or the contact TERMINATES in favor of the Employer when changing the fit, no reward to Mercenary)
Mercenaries see Employers with a special mini-icon of a shield, and Employers see Mercenaries with mini-icon of a sword.
-----------------------------------------------DEATH RULES(IF *** DIED FIRST)-------------------------------------------
The death of the Employer (from another player) - a refund to the Employer for the current hour, as well as 7 Guaranty. The contract is TERMINATED.
The death of the Employer from the NPC - refund of half the funds for the current hour as well as 8 Guaranty. The contract is automatically DONE.
The death of a Mercenary (from another player) - The mercenary receives the full amount for the current hour of the contract, no matter in what period the destruction occurred. In this case, the contract is either considered DONE or continues (if the Mercenary indicated that he has a a similar ship reserved) and is given an 30 min to arrive at the Employer’s system. If Employer will die in arriving time there wont be any penalty. At the same time, the Employer can leave the game, the contract will still be valid at that moment, but will be DONE with penalty of 25% of ISK per hour if Employer havent logged in)
The death of a mercenary from an NPC - only half the amount for the current hour, the rest is the same.
----------Relations between the parties:
All loot belong to the Employer (the Mercenary cannot loot all the time), but he can refuse them.
The Employer and the Mercenary cannot enter into aggressive relations between each other during the contract, as well as within half an hour after its end.
-----------Relations with CONCORD, police:
The death of the Employer from law enforcement completes the contract in favor of the Mercenary (full payment).
The death of the Mercenary from the forces of law and order completes the contract in favor of the Employer (full refund).
-----------TIPS:
1)Mercenary ships automatically reserves and blocks when he register ship in CMC , he cant change fit, but he can change ship if have no active contract.
2)Connection lost: 5 min per hour gives to both sides, autofleet makes, if NO, Mercenary receives full amount of hour / Employer refunds full amount of hour.
3)W-space and the abyss - The Commission for the execution of contracts cant track events in an unknown space, in the event of the death of any of the parties to them, the contract is considered canceled without compensation. However, when leaving the abyss, as well as wormholes in the same system, the contract continues taking into account the time spent in this space.
P.S: CCP, if you liked, I have an interesting idea , much bigger this in game changes.