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[robepriority]

I think something that's implied whenever someone brings up the issue of endgame being too difficult is that the player can't access mercenary officers as effectively as the AI can. I think that stems from the fact that you have to barhop a lot to find mercenary officers, and to field them in a high count, you actually eat into the contract time for your older mercenaries - therefore, people tend to save them for hullmods and other SP uses.

I've seen this idea pop-up somewhere, and I've been repeating it a few times, but I think being able to recruit a group of mercenary officers all at once should be an option. This can be balanced out with a shorter contract, like 6 months, or even 1 month.

This should focus mercenary officers into a role of "consumable", a temporary boost in power to get past set-piece battles.

[TaLaR]

Almost every single top tier bounty has 15+ officers and 10+ capitals, and some people posted screenshots of even scarier fleets. Having mercs just once in a blue moon is not enough - you need them every single time, unless you abuse player piloted phase ships or Derelict Contingent.

[Chaos Blade]

Rather than recruiting Merc officers, I think a more interesting option would be Merc Commands, small formations of ships under a few officers that, when deployed in battle, function like allies.
REworking cost and time and what not and it could be an interesting option.
limit how many commands you can hire at the same time and for how long, but it would make more sense than the current set up

That said the issue is less hiring officers and more that the current AI fleets have way too many officers and, I hope, that should be fixed soonish

[intrinsic_parity]

You don't need tons of merc officers to win. I don't even have either of the L4 skills. I take mercs when I like the skills/aggression level, but pass on most of them. I still kill all the high end faction bounties easily, for example:

My fleet:

Spoiler

[close]

Enemy fleet:

Spoiler

[close]

5 capitals, 2 dooms, 2 auroras, a bunch of other assorted ships. Every single ship officered. I didn't deploy two of my officers, so I won with 7 officers. The dooms were the scariest part of that fleet, and they were the reason I didn't deploy my tempests. The bounties with a bunch of conquests or legion/onslaughts are substantially easier than these high tech ones IMO, at least for my fleet. The hardest fights are crazy remnant bounties where all he ships have alpha cores. Those are a struggle, and I think more mercs could help there, but I've still managed to beat them with this general fleet (some minor differences since the last time I fought one). Regular red system fleets are manageable one at a time for this fleet. 

[Rauschkind]

the only point you make is that doom is broken.

[Alex]

I've seen this idea pop-up somewhere, and I've been repeating it a few times, but I think being able to recruit a group of mercenary officers all at once should be an option. This can be balanced out with a shorter contract, like 6 months, or even 1 month.

This should focus mercenary officers into a role of "consumable", a temporary boost in power to get past set-piece battles.

(I've got a TODO to look at this, yeah. I think getting 2-4 of them in one go would make them fit into what they're intended to be much better.)

[intrinsic_parity]

the only point you make is that doom is broken.

How do you reach that conclusion? I fought against a late game bounty fleet with 20+ officers, and multiple capitals, and killed them using only 7 officers, while piloting an aurora? My point was that you don't need to spam merc officers to win late game fights, as demonstrated by me winning a late game fight without spamming mercs...

[SCC]

I tried getting some mercs. I typically had only one or two, which is sustainable, as searching for any more took too long to be worth missing out the previous mercs' time. I wonder if I can take them hostage by docking only to abandoned stations.

[TaLaR]

I wonder if I can take them hostage by docking only to abandoned stations.

Stockpile fuel and supplies for years there, then never dock any populated stations. Sounds like a plan!:)