12 replies to this topic

[Prussian Havoc]

[Edit: enjoying this game so much, I stood up an distinct Inner Sphere account. Having already invested in "Prussian Havoc" money sufficient purchase both Clan Packs, it was decidedly cheaper to buy some MC and the Resistance pack for my new account. This Thread and my thoughts here hold true despite my Icon change.]

Kingmakers?

Power brokers?

The Hands of Fate?


These are the roles Mercenaries should choose for themselves!


Mercenaries and whether we look to contract as a Block of Combat Power (with numbers large enough to swing momentum in the Inner Sphere toward one House or another) really is a Question many House and Clan gamers have on their minds.

PGI remains steadfast in its ascertain that at least for the first contract under Community Warfare (16DEC) all Factions will offer the exact same terms. There will be no "contract" differentiation between any House of the Inner Sphere. Thus the only significant House contract variables will be the likely number and quality of House Troops and just how likely a House will be able to build and sustain House combat momentum.

As Mercenaries, we are in a position to add a decisive variable IF enough of us get together and move as a significantly large BLOCK of combat power.

Don't underestimate the value of our aggregate contracts.

Given the strong showing of all Inner Sphere Houses [less than 5% difference (138,635 verses 132,282) in Score from the first to the last House] the single biggest variable in breaking the current near-parity between the Houses will be which House will gain a decisively greater number of Mercenaries.

Left to Market Dynamics, it is most likely that a disparate, disjointed and individualistic Unit approach to contracts will spread wide the resources of both our Faction and the Lone Wolf Faction. However, if a Council of Unit Commanders/Lone Wolves were called (just as the Houses are in the process of doing on TeamSpeak) it is possible we can generate a groundswell of Mercenary movement toward one House.

Just think of it!

For the first week (PGI released yesterday that contracts will now be for 7-days, 14-days, 28-days, and permanent) of Community Warfare (remember no faction is going to be able to offer any differentiation in contract terms) we ALL push to Join a single Faction.

We won't get 100% focused participation...

We may not even get 50% participation but if we can get 30 to 35% of us to swing toward one house or another, given House near-parity, that should be sufficient for that House to overwhelm its rivals.


After the first week, PGI will look to balance out this overmatch by providing the rivals of our chosen House, contract benefits and bonuses sufficient to entice us away from our initial employer.

The greater our aggregate Mercenary support toward an initial House Victor, the greater the likely bonuses for us to move to its Rivals after that first week of CW.


In this way we would have paved our way to notably more lucrative contracts within a matter of 8-days (24DEC) from the start (16DEC) of CW.


What an incredible Christmas present to our fellow Mercenaries!

Your thoughts?

[Edit: enjoying this game so much, I stood up an distinct Inner Sphere account. Having already invested in "Prussian Havoc" money sufficient purchase both Clan Packs, it was decidedly cheaper to buy some MC and the Resistance pack for my new account. This Thread and my thoughts here hold true despite my Icon change.]

Edited by Prussian Havoc, 09 December 2014 - 10:49 AM.

[Tank]

So you wish to form some sort of hired SLDF replica that is made of mercenaries?

As you have mentioned, most mercenary units are individualistic entities and that applies that they fight war not for benefit of war effort, nor some house or salvation of Inner Sphere, but simply for their own coffers. That nullifies need of combined effort from mercenary side. I doubt that many will do this kind of extra job.

My thoughts - Great days are ahead of us to earn stacks of C-Bills. But I hope Inner Sphere will not sink in it's own schemes and backstabbing thanks to us mercenaries in middle of a war with Clans. I will not fight another succession war to please some feudal lords.

[Prussian Havoc]

Tank, on 21 November 2014 - 09:54 AM, said:

So you wish to form some sort of hired SLDF replica that is made of mercenaries?...

...I will not fight another succession war to please some feudal lords.

Please allow me to clarify...

We can "tilt" contracting in our favor if right out of the gates on 16DEC, we overload one House and drive its domination of CW for that first 7-day long contract.

PGI will then pump up the contract bonuses for the rivals of the House we pushed to a Week One Victory.

The greater the domination, the greater the eventual contract bonuses to pull Mercs away from the predominate House.

We would have engineered for ourselves some very outstanding 2nd week contracts.

If left to our own individual devices, it is very likely that Mercenaries (Unit and Lone Wolf alike) will spread ourselves near equally among all Inner Sphere Houses and thus not be a decisive factor in any House's eventual dominance.



Just different ways of looking at the opportunity before us. Most Mercs will not be interested in joining together to be the driving force behind a single House's Victory, even if it is likely to drive 2nd week Contract Bonuses through the roof.

But all who truly want to bank some ducats, might just think about this and other ways we can influence CW contracting to our benefit.


Anyone have any other ideas on how to influence CW for the benefit of Mercenary Contracting?

Edited by Prussian Havoc, 21 November 2014 - 11:36 AM.

[Karpundir]

It is possible that there will only be a finite number of contracts available to merc corps in order to prevent this very thing from happening. As we have seen, PGI is changing details with every announcement and I am sure that the brief contract period will enable them to implement changes quickly to the contract process.

[Prussian Havoc]

Karpundir, on 22 November 2014 - 10:09 AM, said:

It is possible that there will only be a finite number of contracts available to merc corps in order to prevent this very thing from happening. As we have seen, PGI is changing details with every announcement and I am sure that the brief contract period will enable them to implement changes quickly to the contract process.

A finite number of contracts per House and on a "First Come, First Serve basis" is one way to go, but I would very, very much rather PGI use incentives and even penalties (maybe higher Drop Costs are way down in the fine print under C-bills) in order to breath life and vitality into a genuine Contract "Marketplace" complete with resulting market dynamic.

Of course Houses should look to best position themselves within this Market, just as the Mercenaries should look to the fine print on a contract!

And I completely agree with you, shorter contracts allow PGI to course correct to a degree all within one week's time - a true win/win for all involved!

Edited by Prussian Havoc, 22 November 2014 - 03:24 PM.

[Prussian Havoc]

While we will only have 4 possible contracts - 7-days, 14-days, 28-days and permanent (PGI has already said that all House Contracts will be identical with the only variable being the durations listed) this is only for the Week One kick off of Community Warfare.

Soon all manner of contract bonus clauses, stipulations, penalty clauses and terms will enter the game. PGI is about to embark on an incredible chapter in MWO development.

Here's to hoping they get it more near right than wrong!

[X3N2R10N]

Quick someone form the "Mercenary Review and Bonding Commission (MRBC) "

[Prussian Havoc]

Who knows what form Mercenary Corps aggregate effort might take!

While we might initially have to fritter away our identity initially, given time there might be Mercenary-specific Loyalty Awards...

...since it was announced there will be 20 levels of Loyalty, maybe a Mercenary who achieves 10+ levels in two or more Factions, achieves Mercenary-specific rewards in addition to their other Faction rewards.

We are at the beginning of this all, there are many ways PGI can take this!

[Prussian Havoc]

So now we hear from PGI that the length of contracts on 16DEC will be 7-days, 14-days and 28-days (with permanent affiliation available for House Loyalists!) associated with each contract term-of-service will be 0%, 15%, and 30% loyalty bonus' (with 50% reserved for House Loyalists and their permanent affiliations.)

Premium time furnishes another 10% loyalty bonus with Phoenix Program Medallions likely to contribute another 5% toward stackable loyalty bonuses. Thus it is possible to earn upwards of 65% bonuses for Inner Sphere CW and 60% for Clan CW.



And these contract durations and loyalty point bonuses are only the initial numbers. PGI has already said that contract terms will be the variables they adjust in order to maintain a semblance of gamer balance between the factions. If one faction looks to be decidedly underpopulated, length of contracts available, C-bill incentives, loyalty point bonuses, and perhaps eventually discounted MWO Store purchases of House-specific Mechs, or during Community Warfare Phase Three we might gain discounted CW-drop cost [yes, eventually each of us will need to have his transportation (Jumpship/Dropship) paid for] etc - will all become adjustable so as to attract gamer population away from Factions that have achieved numeric superiority and toward Factions whose initial gamer totals were too low to compete effectively.

And like any marketplace, this process is vulnerable to be tilted to the benefit of one party or another.




Will Mercenaries look to aggregate their efforts to more quickly shape the marketplace to their advantage?

Will we seek to gain advantage for our selves by artificially pumping up the initial 7-day Contract success of one House to such a large degree that it forces PGI's hand and they implement substantially more lucrative contract terms during the second week of CW.

There is an opportunity here... whether Mercenaries can come together in solitary long enough to pursue it, is in doubt.

Edited by Prussian Havoc, 07 December 2014 - 08:12 AM.

[SuomiWarder]

The biggest affect on the CW system a combined merc effort might have regards Clan v Is matches. But we will have to wait to see effectiveness first.

If Merc units do well against Clans and Houses do poorly, contracts for anti-Clan might be offered to keep the Clans from sweeping the IS.

If merc units start reusing to drop against Clan units because we keep losing, PGI is going to have a problem - especially if the Houses can not hold their own.

[Prussian Havoc]

SuomiWarder, on 07 December 2014 - 04:39 PM, said:

The biggest affect on the CW system a combined merc effort might have regards Clan v Is matches. But we will have to wait to see effectiveness first.

If Merc units do well against Clans and Houses do poorly, contracts for anti-Clan might be offered to keep the Clans from sweeping the IS.

If merc units start reusing to drop against Clan units because we keep losing, PGI is going to have a problem - especially if the Houses can not hold their own.

Excellent point - what if the greater portion of Mercenary Corps Units and Lon Wolves do not offer battle to the Clans or look to augment House defense of Clan contested worlds?

Mercenary focus on IS on IS combat would heat up all rivalries between the Houses regardless of House Unit Commander agreements to dissuade attacks from among their membership against one another. Any semblance of Inner Sphere solidarity against the Clans would vanish into chaos...


...well, more chaos than we are already in store for post-16DEC!

[Prussian Havoc]

Edit to the original post: enjoying this game so much, I stood up an distinct Inner Sphere account. Having already invested in "Prussian Havoc" money sufficient purchase both Clan Packs, it was decidedly cheaper to buy some MC and the Resistance pack for my new account. This Thread and my thoughts here hold true despite my Icon change.

[Prussian Havoc]

[smurfy]http://mwo.smurfy-ne...7aece9149532efa[/smurfy]