Hello,
playing this (great!) mod for only a few days I have limited experience, but it feels like the merc component while being a great idea is actually mixing two concepts, and that if we would untangle them, it would feel much more realistic.
I. Two concepts: Where do the mercs come from?
Let us ask the question: "Where do those mercs I hire come from?". "Where do the ones I hire out go to?"
1) Mercs from within my own society
It is easy to imagine how some mercs come from within my own society. Especially in the early history the central government was often not controlling as many "soldiers" as for exmaple influental citicens who needed their property protected, or the feudal rulers within an empire etc etc.
If the merc component is simulating this concept, it should be made sure that
* I am not able to hire units for whom I do not have the technology to built them myself.
* The ammount of mercs available for hiring and the demand for mercs should depend on my own civilization. The simplest factor would be population size: Bigger population: higher supply of mercs, higher demand for mercs as well. Of course one could be more fancy: Gold and diamond mines on my territory increase the demand for mercs I can hire out within my civilization. Wouldn´t that be cool?
2) Mercs from other nations
Obviously I can hire mercs from and to other nations.
If the mercs component is simulating this concept it is completely logical that the mercs could be more advanced than my own units but
* I should not be possible to hire units from or to civilizations I do not have contact with at the moment the contract is signed, in fact I even believe open borders should be required.
Obviously it is possible to combine both concepts, but then the component should clearly show whether those mercs come from within my own country, or from other countries and behave accordingly.
II. No unrealisic disappearing of units
It would also feel a lot more realistic if the component would not make units disappear. In the case the merc is hired by people within your own nation this is easily done. It gets a move order to someplace (example: highest [size of city - mercs already there]) and stays there until the player calls it back.
For foreign nations it could be this way: Once you hire out a unit the AI player takes control of it where it stands. Once you hire a unit you take control of it where it stands. To make this work the AI would need to before hiring a merc run a check whether it can transport that to a battle front within reasonable time. That is possible to do. This way you could probably only sell mercs to another AI which you first moved someplace where they are helpful for it. Another game twist which could be fun I believe.
Not easy to program, I know, but if that is not done at least make the time it takes mercs to travel depend on the distance between the civs, and make it take a realistic time! Show the time before you hire the merc! (Didnt the programmer of the component already plan something like this?)
III. The merc screen as a "wall street"
The following I have not put as much thought into as I. + II. but here it is nevertheless:
Right now, especially for new players, the merc screens are confusing. I hire out a merc, it appears as hired out, disappears from my game. Still I do not generate revenue? Yes, because no one hired it for real! So my unit is disappeared and I may wait and just hope someone hires it? Not fun.
How should this work instead? When I call up the merc "hire out" screen it should show a list of my units the AI is interested in and what the AI would pay for them, and when I click on them the military-advisor minimap showing where the unit in question is.
When I call up the "hire " screen it should show a list of mercs I can hire like now.
The costs of mercs urgently need to be adjusted and made dependent on the production costs of the unit! In my current game I can try hiring out an archer for exactly the same costs as I can hire a mazeman.
IV. Conclusion
In my view, if something like the above is not implemented it might be better to turn off mercs altogether. If the above would be implemented though, we wouldnt see any scenarios where while we still havn´t contacted any other civilizations we can hire mercs (first time you think "huh?!") which then spawn somewhere in our territory (2nd "huh?!", I mean, how did they get there, "beam me up scotty"?).
Finally I would like to thank the programmers of the respective mods for the amazing ammount of programming time and skills already put into this. Oh, and please excuse my very rusty English.
playing this (great!) mod for only a few days I have limited experience, but it feels like the merc component while being a great idea is actually mixing two concepts, and that if we would untangle them, it would feel much more realistic.
I. Two concepts: Where do the mercs come from?
Let us ask the question: "Where do those mercs I hire come from?". "Where do the ones I hire out go to?"
1) Mercs from within my own society
It is easy to imagine how some mercs come from within my own society. Especially in the early history the central government was often not controlling as many "soldiers" as for exmaple influental citicens who needed their property protected, or the feudal rulers within an empire etc etc.
If the merc component is simulating this concept, it should be made sure that
* I am not able to hire units for whom I do not have the technology to built them myself.
* The ammount of mercs available for hiring and the demand for mercs should depend on my own civilization. The simplest factor would be population size: Bigger population: higher supply of mercs, higher demand for mercs as well. Of course one could be more fancy: Gold and diamond mines on my territory increase the demand for mercs I can hire out within my civilization. Wouldn´t that be cool?
2) Mercs from other nations
Obviously I can hire mercs from and to other nations.
If the mercs component is simulating this concept it is completely logical that the mercs could be more advanced than my own units but
* I should not be possible to hire units from or to civilizations I do not have contact with at the moment the contract is signed, in fact I even believe open borders should be required.
Obviously it is possible to combine both concepts, but then the component should clearly show whether those mercs come from within my own country, or from other countries and behave accordingly.
II. No unrealisic disappearing of units
It would also feel a lot more realistic if the component would not make units disappear. In the case the merc is hired by people within your own nation this is easily done. It gets a move order to someplace (example: highest [size of city - mercs already there]) and stays there until the player calls it back.
For foreign nations it could be this way: Once you hire out a unit the AI player takes control of it where it stands. Once you hire a unit you take control of it where it stands. To make this work the AI would need to before hiring a merc run a check whether it can transport that to a battle front within reasonable time. That is possible to do. This way you could probably only sell mercs to another AI which you first moved someplace where they are helpful for it. Another game twist which could be fun I believe.
Not easy to program, I know, but if that is not done at least make the time it takes mercs to travel depend on the distance between the civs, and make it take a realistic time! Show the time before you hire the merc! (Didnt the programmer of the component already plan something like this?)
III. The merc screen as a "wall street"
The following I have not put as much thought into as I. + II. but here it is nevertheless:
Right now, especially for new players, the merc screens are confusing. I hire out a merc, it appears as hired out, disappears from my game. Still I do not generate revenue? Yes, because no one hired it for real! So my unit is disappeared and I may wait and just hope someone hires it? Not fun.
How should this work instead? When I call up the merc "hire out" screen it should show a list of my units the AI is interested in and what the AI would pay for them, and when I click on them the military-advisor minimap showing where the unit in question is.
When I call up the "hire " screen it should show a list of mercs I can hire like now.
The costs of mercs urgently need to be adjusted and made dependent on the production costs of the unit! In my current game I can try hiring out an archer for exactly the same costs as I can hire a mazeman.
IV. Conclusion
In my view, if something like the above is not implemented it might be better to turn off mercs altogether. If the above would be implemented though, we wouldnt see any scenarios where while we still havn´t contacted any other civilizations we can hire mercs (first time you think "huh?!") which then spawn somewhere in our territory (2nd "huh?!", I mean, how did they get there, "beam me up scotty"?).
Finally I would like to thank the programmers of the respective mods for the amazing ammount of programming time and skills already put into this. Oh, and please excuse my very rusty English.
. Thanks again for considering to change it.
