Mercenary Idea

[Jack Simth]

Originally posted by Chazar:
I'm not sure if payment has to be made as much complicated as described below, though, but paying upkeep for your troops while they are away is certainly a necessity...

The problem with the only expense being upkeep, or some multiple of upkeep, is that Ashen Empire or Soul Gate Eremor(sp?) (not sure if pangea's Carrion Woods gets free commanders) gets free 0-upkeep units and commanders - it wouldn't be a gamble for them; it would be pure revenue to a nation that is designed around not having much revenue available at all (due to pop-killing dominion). Other expenses are necessary to keep the change from forcing SG and AE Eremor from needing rebalancing.

As for boobytrapped brigades, the fix would be to flag what nation the mercs are from - that way, you could only do so *once* (perhaps per player and/or per game, but still, a sharply limited number of times) after which the other players would simply refuse to hire your mercs (would you shop again at a store that deliberately sold you flawed merchandise?). Added to additional expenses for hiring out troops, it makes boobytrapped brigades a bad idea most of the time - they cost you money in the long run (can't hire them out more than a couple times, and you don't necessarilly find out about not being able to hire them out anymore until after you have gone to the expense of trying a few times).

[PvK]

If we accept the suggestion that the AI won't ever hire other nations' mercenaries, it seems like this would just give Ermor something else to trade other humans for gold, besides gems, items, info, and diplomatic deals. If the other players don't want to buy Ermorian mercenaries, they wouldn't have to. Meanwhile, they would offer unique value to other players (e.g. Nergash can currently sweep indie aquatics if given water-breathing).

Some additional fee probably does make sense though.

So far I don't see any real or new problems with Boobytrap Brigades.

How about the "free teleportation" issue? It would allow an alliance to rapidly deploy forces faster than they otherwise could, because of the usual need to march to a location. Cost to the provider could be based on distance travelled... or there could be a delay for them actually arrive based on the actual travel time it would have required, during which maintenance is still paid. Hmm.

PvK

[Jack Simth]

It's not free teleportation - it's fee teleportation (or at least, it is with my suggestion). Some fee per unit (counting the commander as a unit) - perhaps 1/2 gold per size per unit - would deal with it - that brigade of 50 machaka spiders, led by a spider (size 6, weren't they?) is going to cost (51 * 6 * 1/2) = 153 gold (plus other expenses - the announcement fee and maintenence times some factor) - if you assume there is some amount of a magic economy hiding in the game (somebody is training those mages most nations hire, after all), it isn't unreasonable to assume that there is a teleportation section of the mercenaries' guild that is willing to teleport your units around for a fee when you hire them out as mercs - it would explain the default merc's ability to do so, and be somewhat thematic.

For living nations, a movement fee of 1/2 per size (similar to supply) is likely to be negligable compared to the maintenence over the designated time frame - 50 cost-10 archers cost 50 gold to move, but (10 * 1/15 * 7 * 50) = 233.33333333333 gold to maintain for 7 turns (and 500 to replace). For SG or AE Ermor, with no maintenence costs but little in the way of revenue, that same 50 gold transportation is expensive, even without the maintenence - and is moving nothing but cheap cannon fodder. Yeah, it could make alliances much stronger - but it isn't free teleportation - just gem free teleportation.

[Norfleet]

The more amusing thing with booby-trapped brigades is doing it in REVERSE:

Instead of trying to get your booby-trapped brigade hired, hire somebody else's....and then let it take home a booby-trapped bonus prize.

[PvK]

Nice.

[UberPenguin]

Heh, perhaps it would be smart to disable the mercenarie's ability to gain items etc while hes working. That would solve alot of the booby problems, though I would love to use them before they get patched over. Were it to actually be impletemented.

[Jack Simth]

Good point, but rather than disabling mercs aquiring items, just tell the player renting them out who rented them - it could go something like:

Turn X: you (Pangea) set commander Jimbob's orders to "Turn Merc", don't accept from Ermor or Machaka (at war with them); for an immediate cost of 300 gold.

Turn X+1:you get a message: "Jimbob has contacted the mercenaries guild, and his availablility has been posted."

Turn X+2: you get a message: "Jimbob was hired by Abyssa for 450 gold" at which point you get the money (for a 150 net profit, so far - combat losses not yet tallied).

Turn X+6: Jimbob returns and you get a message "Jimbob has returned to the capitol after fighting for Abyssa"
You check Jimbob - he now has a bane venom charm, and is consequently diseased (and diseasing your capital!) (you maybe got a virulent disease message too).
Turn X+7: Everbody (except Abyssa (did the trapping), Machaka, Ermor (at war with them - let them find out about Abyssa's betrayl the hard way), and Pangea(you)) gets a message from you: "Abyssa just stuck my merc Jimbob with a bane venom charm while he was renting him!"
Turn X+12: Abyssa realizes that nobody except Machaka and Ermor has been offering him mercs for the past several turns....

Of course - heaven forbid - if this kind of thing happened reasonably often, someone might lie to gain advantage over another player who didn't do any such thing.

Likewise, only commanders from living nations can be so boobytrapped.

With such a measure, it would be a trick you could get away with a few times before nobody would offer you mercs anymore. After which you would be at a disadvantage if ever you need a bunch of troops fast, as you can't hire player-mercs. A little display of who is involved to the involved parties (quite reasonable, no?), and you get a "prisoner's dilemma" situation that renders trapping mercs a strategy that isn't long-term beneficial.