Got robbed when I stopped being a mercenary!?

[Okendale]

As I left Sturgia, I held my head high, for I had fought as honorably as a sellsword could and had made many friends amongst those grim lords of the north. But HARK! I soon found myself unable to pay my soldiers! I looked and beheld that my precious brewery's had been vanished into thin air! The work of the Devil perhaps!

Alright, so I owned 2 businesses in Vlandia (Ocs Hall, and Pravend) when I decided to join the Sturgian kingdom as a merc. After some time fighting for them, I decided to head for greener pastures, and so I bid my new friend Raganvad farewell as honorably as I could. BUT apparently I forfeited both of the businesses in a separate kingdom that I had owned before becoming a mercenary!

I am not happy about this to say the least. Can we expect a fix in an eventual patch that prevents this?

 

[CzeReptile]

Well, yes and no. Workshops are safe money and with a fix its would become income that you cannot lose, which is in definition bad. Probably in war enemy would seize your assets in their own cities, so.
Also RPing as merc is a no-go, no way to support anything bigger than few men, sadly.

 

[KingEroc1st]

when you join a kingdom that's already at war with another, your shops in the second kingdom towns are ok. but if you join a kingdom THEN they declear war on someone, your shops in the second factions towns are lost. what you can do is sell them before the war happens assuming ur kingdom is voting for that, if you get decleared upon then ur out of luck

 

[hruza]

Also RPing as merc is a no-go, no way to support anything bigger than few men, sadly.

Supporting 140+ men and even having profit no problem.

 

[KingEroc1st]

as a Merc I make money when fighting and lose money when I'm not winning battles and gaining lots of influence per day. also depends on your Liege. if they are generous they'll pay more per influence point converted. I was getting 220 from both Caladog and Garios but only 150 from Derthert, I'd assume even less from Ragavand since he's close fisted.

 

[hruza]

as a Merc I make money when fighting and lose money when I'm not winning battles and gaining lots of influence per day. also depends on your Liege. if they are generous they'll pay more per influence point converted. I was getting 220 from both Caladog and Garios but only 150 from Derthert, I'd assume even less from Ragavand since he's close fisted.

I wasn't testing it, but I believe that after influence per captive donated was nerfed, it's more profitable to sell captives rather then donating them. Moreover donating captive lords doesn't seem to give any influence.

 

[KingEroc1st]

I wasn't testing it, but I believe that after influence per captive donated was nerfed, it's more profitable to sell captives rather then donating them. Moreover donating captive lords doesn't seem to give any influence.

yeah, always ransom prisoners if you want the cash, influence won't fully convert all to cash unless you stay with the same kingdom for a long time. personally I become a Merc so I can switch sides easily and fight where the war is. that way I'm always making money from big influence conversions. I'd go through cycles of fighting, then recuite/trade for a few days while the money rolls in, then go make another contract to fight for someone else.

also tested this the other day. each tier 1 recruit troop donated to an allied garrison gives 0.22 influence. which is roughly 100 denars for 1 influence. which is worth it numbers wise to always hire and then donate recruits every time you go to an allied town. assuming ur getting a decent exchange rate of at least 120.

 

[hruza]

also tested this the other day. each tier 1 recruit troop donated to an allied garrison gives 0.22 influence. which is roughly 100 denars for 1 influence. which is worth it numbers wise to always hire and then donate recruits every time you go to an allied town. assuming ur getting a decent exchange rate of at least 120.

I think it's more complicated because each time you get payed, you loose 10% of your influence (if I remember right), meaning that higher your influence, more influence you loose. Therefore coin to influence ratio is better when your influence is low. More influence you have, less efficient exchange becomes. Therefore hiring and donating recruits might be profitable on some levels of influence but not on others.

 

[KingEroc1st]

I think it's more complicated because each time you get payed, you loose 10% of your influence (if I remember right), meaning that higher your influence, more influence you loose. Therefore coin to influence ratio is better when your influence is low. More influence you have, less efficient exchange becomes. Therefore hiring and donating recruits might be profitable on some levels of influence but not on others.

every day 20% of current influence is converted to cash. this method means that you'll never get all the influence turned to cash since after a while u would be converting 0.1 per day or less. even still if you stay for at least a week you'll get the majority of the influence turned to cash. if you have a contract of more than 120/influence you can profit from turning in recruits. I had 220 at times which net me almost 100 return on investment for donating to garrison

 

[Apocal]

Also RPing as merc is a no-go, no way to support anything bigger than few men, sadly.

I could support a party of 90-120 from nothing but merc payments on a 120 denar contract. That's without selling loot or ransoming prisoners. With loot and ransoms, I still made a slight profit on a 50 denar contract (Dethert is a cheapskate).

 

[hruza]

I could support a party of 90-120 from nothing but merc payments on a 120 denar contract. That's without selling loot or ransoming prisoners. With loot and ransoms, I still made a slight profit on a 50 denar contract.

I found out that supporting larger mercenary company is actually easier then the small one. Because with small company you can't take many fights. You can follow friendly AI parties and participate in their battles or try to hunt depleted enemy parties. But you have to avoid lot of fights because average enemy party will have 80-120 soldiers.

With larger party you can take on most enemy lords 1:1, which means that you are winning more and larger battles and thus gaining more influence. And also selling more loot and prisoners.

 

[CzeReptile]

I could support a party of 90-120 from nothing but merc payments on a 120 denar contract. That's without selling loot or ransoming prisoners. With loot and ransoms, I still made a slight profit on a 50 denar contract (Dethert is a cheapskate).

Then you had good playthrough. In mine there was peace for so long (1.4.1!!!) that it bled my coffer dry rather quick. Also I mostly play Sturgia as merc bcs obviously viking wannabees, but facing Khuzait is not really the way to go )

 

[TheShermanator]

As I left Sturgia, I held my head high, for I had fought as honorably as a sellsword could and had made many friends amongst those grim lords of the north. But HARK! I soon found myself unable to pay my soldiers! I looked and beheld that my precious brewery's had been vanished into thin air! The work of the Devil perhaps!

Alright, so I owned 2 businesses in Vlandia (Ocs Hall, and Pravend) when I decided to join the Sturgian kingdom as a merc. After some time fighting for them, I decided to head for greener pastures, and so I bid my new friend Raganvad farewell as honorably as I could. BUT apparently I forfeited both of the businesses in a separate kingdom that I had owned before becoming a mercenary!

I am not happy about this to say the least. Can we expect a fix in an eventual patch that prevents this?

To sum up feedback: Not a bug, but a feature, basically. And that distinction between bug vs. feature pulls us into the perennial discussion of income balance writ large: It is too easy, or too hard, to earn money? Should you be able to set up highly lucrative sources of passive income, or should most of your income come from active sources (looting and selling) anyway? etc.

I think, regardless of one's opinion on passive income, loot is way too profitable. As @hruza has outlined it, once you get big enough that you can take on most lord parties (separate from an army), you can earn a LOT of $ just from loot. Carry capacity starts to become the limiting factor - makes you really respect those mules.

 

[mfuegemann]

And even the carry capacity is not always limiting. I got always enough horses with the loot to carry the extra weight, so far.
For me the first time I was selling bigger loot, it was astonishing that the towns had that much cash.
That was different in Warband.

 

[Apocal]

To sum up feedback: Not a bug, but a feature, basically. And that distinction between bug vs. feature pulls us into the perennial discussion of income balance writ large: It is too easy, or too hard, to earn money? Should you be able to set up highly lucrative sources of passive income, or should most of your income come from active sources (looting and selling) anyway? etc.

I think, regardless of one's opinion on passive income, loot is way too profitable. As @hruza has outlined it, once you get big enough that you can take on most lord parties (separate from an army), you can earn a LOT of $ just from loot. Carry capacity starts to become the limiting factor - makes you really respect those mules.

Most loot is light. What really weighs things down are trade goods and food. Some are worth carrying (silver ore, jewelry, furs) but a lot of the stuff you get is terrible value for its weight (clay, flax, wool).

Mules are great in any case though.

 

[stringman7113]

I wasn't testing it, but I believe that after influence per captive donated was nerfed, it's more profitable to sell captives rather then donating them. Moreover donating captive lords doesn't seem to give any influence.

I've never gotten influence for donating captive lords and I've played since the game came out. Similarly, no interaction happens when you defeat an enemy lord with lord prisoners. It's like nothing happened. Hopefully this gets changed.