I was surprised no one has discussed this before. Idea is to build a mercenary tab into the contract system.
The options could have things like number of ships destroyed or structures, or assets in ISK value destroyed for the contract to be paid out.
I think this would make the merc career path much more interesting and would bring down the costs of hiring mercs.
Should be a fairly easy thing to add in to game with huge impact on gameplay
So where in this is the option for betrayal & double crosses?
You can do all this by direct messages in game, the forums and using third party brokers for some security.
If you want to screw people then use dm and forums,
I was trying to make it easier for people who wish to hire mercs to do the job they are paid for and also for people wanting to actually have a viable career as a mercenary, currently itâs a cluster â â â â of scammers and big merc corps/alliance which are super expensive and not an option for average joe and his small mining Corp.
This would also be a good solo career,
You could put assets you own into a defence contract and stipulate a time frame it needs protection , if it blows up then contract fails.
I think you underestimate exactly how expensive hiring people is.
For example, lets just take highsec lvl 4âs for an example. I assume you want your mercenaries to be competent enough to manage lvl 4 missions right?
This means if you want 10 of them gate camping for an hour, they could have made 400 million isk during that time, at far less risk to themselves. Which means you also have to pay danger pay.
When you talk about better mercs, you are talking a lost income opportunity of larger than that.
Now yes they can potentially get more fun doing PvP, but that doesnât replace that opportunity cost, it at best offsets some of the danger pay.
I wouldnât expect decent pvpers to need 10 people and sit around gate camping, when you can do enough damage with two or three skilled people, furthermore I wouldnât want to hire mission runners.
Thats the problem at the moment itâs all about blobs and send the bill.
No incentive and skill required. Itâs a â â â â show and more importantly itâs not viable career because itâs not built in to the game mechanics itâs all wannabes and forum posts.
Have the option in contracts, it will drive prices down and create content for people who actually want to pvp and provide protection for those who donât. And get rid of the scammers and overpriced lazy bastards.
Iâm not really sure what your argument is against apart from it will be harder to scam and and back stab people.
Great argument
My point is that what you think will happen wonât actually happen.
The cost is high because of the opportunity cost you are expecting the mercenaries to undergo.
Itâs not going to provide any more content than the current method already does or protection for any groups.
As for âI donât want to hire mission runnersâ. LMAO. 99% of people do some form of PvE, it might be on that carrier ratting alt sitting in deep null, or a highsec incursion character or whatever, but all those PvPers arenât doing zero PvE. And I expect a lot of them do missions.
The cost is high because they charge what ever number comes to mind, if contracts were listed then market forces would prevail and if they donât want to take the contract then no one is forcing them.
it would open up smaller mercs/solo guys to be able to take on contracts. If they spend time npcing for ISK then it kinda makes my point that mercenary as a career isnât working right.
They might not get the big once every 2 month contact they are used to but they will be getting more regular income from contracts off the shelf.
Also it must be a pain in the Arse hole to advertise your services on the forum and hope someone reads it just as they need a merc. Most likely it will get shoved down to page 10 in a few days and never read by anyone. So much easier to right click accept as apposed to bumping a stupid advert on a forum and hope someone gives you a job
No, they charge what they feel their time is worth.
Their time is worth what they COULD be making, generally plus hazard pay. You want to hire 2-3 dudes to escort you, for example, for an hour, you need to be ready to pay for 2-3 player-hours worth of time, for that one hour youâre looking to pay them.
Otherwise, why would they bother when they could make more doing something else?
As for advertising⌠thereâs a whole sub-forum for that. The magic ball that got stabbed by a stick in the top right hand corner of the forums (looks like a magnifying glass, lol) will search for things based on what you type in. Such as âmercenaryâ.
Fine then whatâs the issue with putting it in game high price or not, farting about on the forums for jobs or advertising just seems old fashioned.
At the end of the day itâs a contract job as is hauling. If people want to use the current way the can still go down that route.
i can see why people using the current system might be opposed because if they donât do there job they still get paid.
Because itâs too broad a subject to accurately reflect. Yes, you can make a âprotect thisâ or âkill thatâ contract. But can you make a âcamp this systemâ, or âstir things up over there so that they mobilize in the wrong directionâ, or âcontrol this wormhole entranceâ? No.
So, honestly, why do something that doesnât qualify as even a half measure, when the forums already meet that need?
Because if you donât do your job, you donât get paid.
And if your doing your job then you would be doing your research and camping said wormhole or disrupting movements if your killing stuff.
Which is different from now, how? Think about it.
How would you make a contract to evict someone from a wormhole? How would you make a contract literally just to camp a system?
As I said, yes you could make contracts for killing or defending⌠thatâs easy, it has a binary outcome which can easily be within a start and end time.
Those are an incredibly small part of merc work (I say this as a merc). And as a merc I can tell you that name and reputation are everything. If someone takes a contract and bones you, word gets out quickly. If someone takes a contract and fails horribly, word gets out. Maybe they refund you, maybe that doesnât make it any better.
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