What is your plan to deal with afk mechers and simple macro programmed bots? I've just come off a 5+ year stretch of reporting bots or bot like behavior in competitive arenas in Guild Wars. What in game options will players have when they pick up a random lone wolf or house player to discover that they are worse than noobs (i.e. scripted macro bots)? Mercenaries will not have this problem, since they can filter their ranks as needed.
Since mercenaries will have the most control over their ranks and be the most selective, a good mercenary unit will inevitably be the end goal of every decent pilot who has no house loyalty. How can you regulate that natural slide without causing pain somewhere in the equation? How will houses upsell themselves to their own players or deal with internal strife in ANY way shape or form as far as players go? What is gonna keep a house player in a house if he randomly selected it? Whatever the solution, I propose NOT limiting mercenary unit size, ever. If you do, Merc units will just reform into companies that fit the restrictions and could lead to a situation where victories are merely traded, not won. Besides, mercs been asking this unanswered question for ages. No one wants a repeat of the canon names debacle.
Lastly, the spammer problem. They are the natural precursors of bots. They are the tool of the gold seller or 3rd party leveler. They at best do what you ask them while only stealing minor amounts and reselling your credit card to someone in China. At worse... the scope of this post cannot cover it in sufficient detail. Kill them all! Also, will players have ability to report this in game as well? Do you plan on having server mods on 24/7? Or some kind of vote/kick/ban procedure?
Happy TL;DR random posting based solely on the title.
Edited by Insidious Johnson, 22 June 2012 - 08:55 PM.