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[nehebkau]

Ya, i know this *should* be posted somewhere else but I tend to have a more thoughtful discourse in these sub-forums.


So,
I was sitting on my arse, drinking a rather fine cup of El Injerto coffee, and i had a thought about merc corps in MWO. I think we can agree that having them shift around attacking planets in one faction then switching to that faction and taking them back is a real drag on the game. So I was thinking, perhaps merc corps can only initiate an attack if they are somehow sponsored by a loyalist unit of that faction. Merc corps would be allowed to defend whomever they wish but if they want to participate on a planetary attack then a loyalist unit must sponsor (authorize) them.

Just to ensure that the mechanic is not abused, the sponsor should have to pay money from its coffers directly related to the size of the merc corps and that duration that they are sponsored. You can think of that payment as "funding" the rewards that would be paid out to the merc units at the end of matches. Something along the lines of 1,000,000 cbills x Number of weeks x Number of members in the merc unit.

Why? well, right now merc units aren't merc uints at all. A mercenary is a contractor that gets hired (sponsored) and then is authorized to fight on behalf of the person paying the bills. In MWO, the payment comes from the rewards associated with fighting in a match but there is no real hiring mechanic built into the game. Having a merc unit going to a faction and asking them to cough up money for them to come fight for you (like they do now) is akin to double dipping -- they get paid at the end of matches and blackmail money out of the faction at the start.

I mean, really, if a mercenary unit were to have "casually" dropped in the middle of a war they would have eventually found themselves being fired upon by both sides -- which is what merc units are doing now. A merc life is a hard life where you are on a constant search for a paycheck -- and the game needs to build that aspect into it.