Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Reshy]

You know all those "Independant Mercenaries" that you see floating around, ever wonder how you could own a ship as badass as they do?  Don't have the money to buy a ship outright or don't have the time to pirate it from some sorry bloke's fleet?  Well now you can rent out the ship for a temporary amount of time to bolster your fleet and make it as impressive as those sweet mercenary fleets you see around the sector doing badass things.



How it works:

When you go to a station there's a tab that brings up a selection of mercenary ships, along with their crew loadout, weapon systems, hull mods, and special abilities (Read Character Level), in addition to their equally badass sounding name.  When you find a team that you really want to hire you're given a set of options that determine how long the contract will last between one month, three months, six months, and one year contracts.  As an added bonus longer contracts cost less overall than renewing the contract on a monthly basis. Allowing you to save money while still kicking ass.


Ships that you've hired out on contract have a few restrictions on what their captain will allow you to do with them however:

• You aren't allowed to modify the ship's loadout in any way, the crew have a specific load out and they take pride in their baby.  
  Spoiler

  You cannot modify OP and your 'fleet' wide character bonuses do not apply

  [close]
• You aren't allowed to use their ship as a lodging suite or storage container unless otherwise specified.  
  Spoiler

  (No increased crew capacity unless the ship is a transport or freighter)

  [close]
• You aren't allowed to order the ship's crew around while in the battle.  The captain has made a career out of being a soldier of fortune, he/she doesn't need every two bit trader with enough credits to hire them to steer them into danger.  
  Spoiler

  Ships are registered as 'Blue' and cannot be given orders or directed in any way, however they are controlled by a friendly admiral AI.

  [close]

However it ISN'T all bad news and red tape, there are several advantages of hiring out mercenaries:

• Mercenaries are well adept at handling their own logistics, so they don't cost FP to have in your fleet.  Furthermore when deploying in combat they don't cost and FP either to deploy!  
  Spoiler

  They instead use their own separate supply of FP.

  [close]
   As an added bonus they will pay for their own supplies and fuel at no additional cost!  Better yet they will never run out of CR!
• Mercenaries you hire will begin to respect you the longer they're employed by you, giving all kinds of interesting benefits such as reduced contract cost, extra contract time, and even being 'On Call' specifically for you from any station!  Fighting along size a mercenary you've known since they were mere greens might nab you a tremendous discount of their green cost applying to you instead of their Ace cost simply by knowing them for so long!
• Mercenaries can be given assignments on what they're expected to accomplish in your fleet.  Assignments they'll accept range from Seeker (Hunts down and attacks enemies before your fleet arrives), Convoy (Stays near and draws fire away from Freighter and Civilian ships), Booster (Seeks out and defends objectives for their bonuses), and a generalized 'Protector' order that has the mercenaries try to protect any ships in your fleet.

Now you might be thinking "Well I'm a wealthy trader and I can simply purchase my own ships, just what use are mercenaries to me?"  Well I'll answer that question by saying that there's more than meets the eye to mercenaries.  Mercenary ships have several bonuses that regular ships wouldn't get due to the team's specific modifications.  The upgrades that are regularly installed in a flagship are also installed in each mercenary ship, increasing with the crew's level!  Furthermore the mercenaries may have modified their ship so far that it's capable of equipping otherwise incompatible weapons onto it's chassis!



Mercenaries are ranked based on their crew's level:

Level 1-10:  GREEN

Level 11-20:  REGULAR

Level 21-30:  VETERAN

Level 31-40:  ELITE

Level 41+:  ACE


The higher the crew's level and the larger the ship is the larger the contract cost will be.  However your reputation with mercenaries in general as well as the team specifically greatly influences the overall cost of the contract!

HIRE TODAY!

[phyrex]

interesting concept.
dosent apply to me tho, i fully plan on being a full para-military organization when the game comes out (or whatever comes closer).
if anything, I'D be the mercenary

[Reshy]

Well then you could always sell your services to other factions for top dollar.

[phyrex]

Well then you could always sell your services to other factions for top dollar.

i'd be pretty happy if that was possible in the final game.
i remember alex saying somewhere that combat wouldnt be that profitable, which sadden me if its true because i'd totally play as a fleet of mercenary

[PCCL]

combat in it self wouldn't be that profitable, doesn't mean combat can't have profit

what he was saying, afaik, is that you won't be picking a fight with the SDC and expecting to make profit out of that.

if you're raiding a mostly civilian convoy, or hunting a bounty, or selling out your service I expect the situation to be quite different

[Gothars]

The fact that hired mercenaries are part of the missions (which are supposed to be a showcase for campaign battles) plus the fact they are also somewhat existent in the campaign plus the  following statement lead me to the conclusion that the option to hire and or become a mercenary is indeed planned.

I have a hard time seeing "mercenaries" as a monolithic faction.

I don't think it would be a good idea to give mercenaries their own FP (rather Deployment Points and LR), that would almost force you to hire them because you can't maximize your combat strength otherwise.

[Reshy]

The fact that hired mercenaries are part of the missions (which are supposed to be a showcase for campaign battles) plus the fact they are also somewhat existent in the campaign plus the  following statement lead me to the conclusion that the option to hire and or become a mercenary is indeed planned.

I have a hard time seeing "mercenaries" as a monolithic faction.

I don't think it would be a good idea to give mercenaries their own FP (rather Deployment Points and LR), that would almost force you to hire them because you can't maximize your combat strength otherwise.

The reason for their own FP is because they're intended for use by traders who don't necessarily invest heavily into FP and instead in industry.  If FP was required than what would be the use of mercenaries to traders if they still had to invest a bunch of points into fielding them.

[PCCL]

if anything, shouldn't the traders be the ones with logistic capability to spare?

anyway, I think mercs should have different contract terms in terms of logistics, maybe some will work for less but have you support their ship for the duration of the mission, others would require more money but take care of their own. Similarly you should be able to offer these terms to the AI as well.

I don't think it would be a good idea to give mercenaries their own FP (rather Deployment Points and LR), that would almost force you to hire them because you can't maximize your combat strength otherwise.

well... they're also expensive (more so than having your own warships if you're a combat heavy players)... In real battles armies use mercs to maximize their combat strength all the time. Think of it as a less cost-efficient way to win a battle you absolutely can't afford to lose.

and then maybe we add a possibility for them to defect... hmm..... (oh don't mind me, just thinking out loud)

[phyrex]

remember that in the next patch, FP are gone, replaced with deployment points. you can basicly have a huge trader fleet with some merc escort and still have place to send them into combat with your own DP

[Gothars]

remember that in the next patch, FP are gone, replaced with deployment points. you can basicly have a huge trader fleet with some merc escort and still have place to send them into combat with your own DP

Exactly. Mercenaries should be a useful instrument if you are not specialized in combat. But if you build your own big combat fleet you'd not want to be dependent on mercs, would you? Well, you'd be, because the best way to face a maximum sized battle fleet with your maximum sized battle fleet, would be to go beyond your size limit for a short time with mercs. That would turn a potential tense and exciting battle into a one sided slaughter.

Mh, one thing that I could imagine working is that while merc ships count towards the LR of the fleet, LR does not (or reduced) influence their CR. That way it would not make sense to bolster a pure combat fleet with mercs beyond your supply capabilities since the CR of your own ships would drop, but if you have a huge trader fleet you could push the limit since the CR of your own civilian ships doesn't matter as much.


One thing that was not mentioned in the OP is that, while the client's fleet bonuses should not apply, the skills of the mercenary captain should be in effect for his ships.

[Reshy]

remember that in the next patch, FP are gone, replaced with deployment points. you can basicly have a huge trader fleet with some merc escort and still have place to send them into combat with your own DP

Exactly. Mercenaries should be a useful instrument if you are not specialized in combat. But if you build your own big combat fleet you'd not want to be dependent on mercs, would you? Well, you'd be, because the best way to face a maximum sized battle fleet with your maximum sized battle fleet, would be to go beyond your size limit for a short time with mercs. That would turn a potential tense and exciting battle into a one sided slaughter.

Mh, one thing that I could imagine working is that while merc ships count towards the LR of the fleet, LR does not (or reduced) influence their CR. That way it would not make sense to bolster a pure combat fleet with mercs beyond your supply capabilities since the CR of your own ships would drop, but if you have a huge trader fleet you could push the limit since the CR of your own civilian ships doesn't matter as much.


One thing that was not mentioned in the OP is that, while the client's fleet bonuses should not apply, the skills of the mercenary captain should be in effect for his ships.

Thing is that real world armies already use mercenaries often to improve their chances of winning key battles, high-end mercenaries are intended to be very expensive.  Low-end mercenaries are intended to be a temporary power boost to your fleet to give it another ship without costing the full price.


Now you're max size fleet will likely not be as large as other fleets putting you at an inherent disadvantage, so you have two options.  Either risk extensive losses or hire mercenaries out to give a temporary but major power boost.  Look at it this way, say your outpost is under attack and your fleet is battered and many ships have been heavily damaged after an unfortunately difficult battle.  You have money but not time, so what do you do?  You'd instead hire mercenaries to bolster your fleet instantly to compensate for the lack of repairs on your main fleet as mercenaries are hired instantly whereas ships take along time to repair.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercenary#History
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_military_company

[Upgradecap]

Just wanted to chime in and say that this would be an excellent idea for trader fleets (Like many more have said before me ), but perhaps not so much for battlefleets, due to the very nature of mercenaries.


A feature i'd love to see. +1

[Gothars]

Thing is that real world armies already use mercenaries often to improve their chances of winning key battles, high-end mercenaries are intended to be very expensive.  Low-end mercenaries are intended to be a temporary power boost to your fleet to give it another ship without costing the full price.

I don't think real world references are of much value when discussing the finer points of a game mechanic. After all there is no superimposed hard limit on army size in the real world that you'd have to cheat with mercenaries.

(Although I have to say the Logistic Rating mechanic will be great at masking the artificial character of the limit. Logistical/financial considerations are indeed a major real world reason to limit military size... but only within a limit time frame, meaning the regular army could grow if there was enough time and will.)

Now your max size fleet will likely not be as large as other fleets putting you at an inherent disadvantage, so you have two options.  Either risk extensive losses or hire mercenaries out to give a temporary but major power boost. 

If you're thinking of the HDF, fleets of that size are only in for the provisional campaign and will be gone in the final game. Most likely AI fleets will have the same size restriction as yours.

Look at it this way, say your outpost is under attack and your fleet is battered and many ships have been heavily damaged after an unfortunately difficult battle.  You have money but not time, so what do you do?  You'd instead hire mercenaries to bolster your fleet instantly to compensate for the lack of repairs on your main fleet as mercenaries are hired instantly whereas ships take along time to repair.

When your fleet is severely diminished or damaged, you'd have all the LR and DP you want in your fleet to hire mercenaries. Worst case you'd have to mothball your most badly damaged ships.

[Sonlirain]

Why not make investing in "Industry" also increase your max Merc FP?
It would be both logical and balanced since traders are usually the ones who would use mercs AND "warrior" characters couldn't abuse them that much.

[kwekly]

The first two missions feature a player as a mercenary who end up contracting against his/her original employer. They've been in there since the earliest versions of starfarer.