Forums » Suggestions
NPC mercenaries for hire
I feel like this idea must have been suggested before now, but I didn't see it when reading through the stuff that's already come up:
Players should be able to hire NPC mercenaries, either in grey-space from Corvus or at any barracks-station. Rules could be:
1) The hired guns aren't guided missiles - they're strictly for defense and only fire on PC's or NPC's who've fired on the player who retained them.
2) They get paid an initial fee up-front, and then get paid on a continuing basis for as long as the player retains them. For example, the player would be charged a 30k credit fee (or whatever) every 5 minutes that the mercenaries are retained.
3) The fee paid by the player obviously depends on the NPC's skills (such as difference between basic ore bots and advanced assault bots)
4) The mercenaries would never travel more than 2k meters from the player who retained them.
5) The player gets charged for all ammo refill and ship repair incurred by the mercenaries.
6) Mercenaries hired from Serco-space might refuse to fly outside of Serco-space, and likewise with mercenaries hired from Itani-space not wanting to fly outside of Itani-space. UIT mercenaries would fly anywhere but not be as aggressive (or perhaps as heavily armed as Serco or Itani mercenaries.) Mercenaries hired from Corvus or other grey-space factions might have different rules entirely.
Player-retained NPC mercenaries have the potential to really upset the game dynamics (e.g., pirates hiring small armies of mercs and trashing their way through Serco / Itani / UIT space, etc.), but I think if there was a limit to the number of mercenaries a player could hire and both the inter- and intra-nation relations were properly coordinated it could add a really cool dimension to the game.
I think it might be cool, too, if players could hire different sorts of NPC's at different stations (merchant NPC's in 'moths to haul cargo; miner NPC's in 'taurs to mine ore; fighter NPC's in vultures, hornets, etc. to fight; and so on) but I don't know how they would be controlled or how they would be directed by the player to do what's asked.
Any thoughts?
Players should be able to hire NPC mercenaries, either in grey-space from Corvus or at any barracks-station. Rules could be:
1) The hired guns aren't guided missiles - they're strictly for defense and only fire on PC's or NPC's who've fired on the player who retained them.
2) They get paid an initial fee up-front, and then get paid on a continuing basis for as long as the player retains them. For example, the player would be charged a 30k credit fee (or whatever) every 5 minutes that the mercenaries are retained.
3) The fee paid by the player obviously depends on the NPC's skills (such as difference between basic ore bots and advanced assault bots)
4) The mercenaries would never travel more than 2k meters from the player who retained them.
5) The player gets charged for all ammo refill and ship repair incurred by the mercenaries.
6) Mercenaries hired from Serco-space might refuse to fly outside of Serco-space, and likewise with mercenaries hired from Itani-space not wanting to fly outside of Itani-space. UIT mercenaries would fly anywhere but not be as aggressive (or perhaps as heavily armed as Serco or Itani mercenaries.) Mercenaries hired from Corvus or other grey-space factions might have different rules entirely.
Player-retained NPC mercenaries have the potential to really upset the game dynamics (e.g., pirates hiring small armies of mercs and trashing their way through Serco / Itani / UIT space, etc.), but I think if there was a limit to the number of mercenaries a player could hire and both the inter- and intra-nation relations were properly coordinated it could add a really cool dimension to the game.
I think it might be cool, too, if players could hire different sorts of NPC's at different stations (merchant NPC's in 'moths to haul cargo; miner NPC's in 'taurs to mine ore; fighter NPC's in vultures, hornets, etc. to fight; and so on) but I don't know how they would be controlled or how they would be directed by the player to do what's asked.
Any thoughts?
All great ideas, aside from their being for defense only. But don't expect the Devs to implement any of this within 10 years.
I like it! Great ideas but as Lecter said, not exclusive to defense pets.
I really like the idea of mercenaries-for-hire, but every time I think about it I can't imagine how it wouldn't totally disrupt the game dynamics. Maybe the way to work around that would be to make it so that any crimes committed by the mercenaries (attacking players inside the NFZ, killing pilots in monitored space, etc.) reflected back on the pilot who hired them? Dunno...