Suggestions for Merc Uses, changes, updates and Balance

[kawasaki]

why not make all soldiers untrainable or if you train soldiers the need to stay there for 3 weeks before the can be untrained agian

that way the "cheat" form to buy a huge merc army and after that untrain the normal soldiers agian to go attacking people

also make the durancy of armory higher , something like the size of the army the higher the deff/att is the higher the durancy is

[Zeratul]

that sort of limiting is highly impractical...

and the merc thing is actually also limited by desertion...

[Lord_Zeus]

A lifer option when you train somethign may do it... however I feel this is impractical and a little ridiculous.

Agreed Arashi the only ones the current merc system helps is the larger armies who can afford to hire lots and lots of mercs (also think theres something to do with more techs... not sure on that one) as well as those with high speed internet connections.

A fairer and better system could be introduced I'm sure.

[BL1P]

shouldn't mercs get paid every day they are with you and get a % of the spoils of war ?

so they get like a wage + a % of any naq they help take

would just seem more like mercs than robots that you buy once
if they are considered robots then the price would be alot more and there would be upgrades and more expensive robots.

basicly if ya buy them once they should cost half the price of suppers
if your employing them the price is ok but you should have too pay them every turn and they get a % of the spoils

[ARC_trooper]

i personally think that mercs can only be some % of your supers.
normal soldiers arent trustworthy to lead mercs, super soldiers cannot be sold and are always with you (except when killed/ascending)

i also like the idea that a part of the naq you win goes to the mercs, more mercs more % you lose.
Paying mercs every turn also seems logical, they are mercenaries, they need to get paid otherwise they will get a better 'master' to give them their naq.
right?

just a random thought, this can also be sort of a racial tech. like goa'ulds are the gods and dont need to pay their minions. (really, its just a random thought here, dunno if someone else said it already thou)

o yea, it would also be free for replicators

just my little opinion here.

[DUDEY]

I would be happy that mercs cost more
I dont know say twice as much :p

But this is the way the games has been for months
Why change it now people are able to buy more and make a profit?

(Against this idea because it leaves me in a sticky suitation, altho i know what i would do if a tax, or 1 - 3 ratio etc comes in.

[SG]

Ooo sneaky idea, spoils of war..

attacker wins, takes naq.

Person gets naq - [ naq *(attack mercs/total attackers)]

[ARC_trooper]

dont have to make them more expensive.

why not that you need supers for mercs, if you dont have supers the mercs can run off with the treasury. (because there are no supers to controll them)

something like a 15% chance the guys are running off if you dont have xxx% of supers in comparison to mercs. (1 mil mercs need 600k supers. example!

maybe they can take some normal soldiers with them who become mercs?

[Sleipnir]

I think the system is fine the way it is. Using mercs for your strike is just good business. Remember, because of the merc limits, people need normal soldiers in order to have mercs. If they're not on offense, that means they're on defense. So they can be massed. If you don't like the fact that someone is losing only mercs on your defense of supers, pay a visit to their defense.

If people were forced to use supers on offense, we'd soon hit the point again where attacking is not profitable. Attacks need to remain profitable to keep the game interesting.

[Aegidius]

The thing that bothers me about mercs is that attack mercs are gone in the exact moment they are produced at the begginig of the turn. Even more, several times in the day the number of mercs goes down to negative numbers due to the amount of ppl cclicking at the same time. I think you should be able to get only a 20% of the mercs available every time you click. Basically from the 500k mercs u can buy only 100k with 1 click. Then, from the 400k, the next click can buy 80k and so on.
With this it would take 10 clicks to get 95% of the 500k mercs allowing that more that 1 person get mercs in each turn.

[Dimebag Borgir]

uncertain on some ideas but this one is perfect.

I say 1 merc goes with 1 normal trained, and 3 goes with 1 super trained.

If you can have a massive number of attack mercs but only 20 supers then there is no point of the merc % restrictions at all (as the mercs are away during battle with very little control other than the 20 supers.

why not that you need supers for mercs, if you dont have supers the mercs can run off with the treasury. (because there are no supers to controll them)

something like a 15% chance the guys are running off if you dont have xxx% of supers in comparison to mercs. (1 mil mercs need 600k supers. example!

maybe they can take some normal soldiers with them who become mercs?

EXACTLY.
Maybe if Bazsy's suggestion isn't implemented and you are above the percentage, (if i'm reading the above quote correctly) the mercs should randomly join the army as defender mercs and leave the naq they were about to steal in the hands of the original owner.

[Thelen]

The cheapness of mercs is 99% of the reason why this game is going downhill. Lets list the effects of mercs:

1. attacking for not much naq is cheap (you know, 5 bil naq.. 100 bil def)
2. this means turns are being used up
3. this means the market price of turns goes up, cos everyone wants them, which is exactly whats happening.
4. this means there is a constant 'war' to get mercs, consquently every turn the mercs are gone before it says 29 minutes, and often there is -200k mercs, even more.

Basically, mercs have become the army for alot of people, instead of adding to it. I don't know whats been posted elsewhere, but Arashi has the right idea. Make the merc control tech more expensive, for a start, and then make the merc control be taken individually from attack and defence, instead of both together. this means you can't have 4 mil super defenders and 8 mil merc attackers (i've seen this, and its absurd).

This means people will have to have 1 mil supers for 2 mil mercs, and this will be good. no more attacking for 3-5 bil naq, causing the defender to loose at LEAST 5 bil worth of supers, while the attacker looses 50 mil worth of mercs.

However, in an attempt to not lock the smaller players out of getting them, the price will need to stay the same, but with a twist. Mercs cost percentage of naq income. Means those bigger players can'tjust buy up the mercs every turn, and have them sitting there, or attacking players for 3 bil naq profit, while they cause billions more damage to defence etc. And this will mean the smaller players can still afford them. Oh, and make merc amount either unlimited, or set a limit to the number of mercs you can buy a day. Maybe this can be another technology..

The net result of making mercs less effective, is both players are able to grow more, as they are not raped for 3 bil naq, and the price of turns will go down, because people won't attack so much, as well as they will run out of mercs.

EDIT:

I think the system is fine the way it is. Using mercs for your strike is just good business. Remember, because of the merc limits, people need normal soldiers in order to have mercs. If they're not on offense, that means they're on defense. So they can be massed. If you don't like the fact that someone is losing only mercs on your defense of supers, pay a visit to their defense.

If people were forced to use supers on offense, we'd soon hit the point again where attacking is not profitable. Attacks need to remain profitable to keep the game interesting.

Err, no. You can just train 1 mil defence basic units, buy mercs, and then untrain the defence units, and you have 30 minutes to attack before any of you mercs run away. Your idea might work if the game checks merc numbers every minute, but that will be a huge performance hit. Basically, im sorry, but you've got it a tad wrong >_<

[mj0]

i love mercs ...its so cool to abuse them

my suggestion would be to remove them ...they just kill of any ballance and they are no real use...supers work fine too

or make them killable ...that would be hell of fun

[Dagr]

Why were mercs ever added?

[Phoenix of Terra]

Mercs= cheap meat shields.

And that's all they'll ever be until something like this is updated. Anyone want to bring this up at an admin chat?