This was based upon an older post I made, but wanted to get my thoughts down in a more clean and concise manner for feedback.
I have split this up into:
UI changes.
I have included 3 main clauses below that cover most of the (existing) game interactions:
Contractual terms and conditions of warfare
Additional thoughts
---
The nobles requirements would be a good way to actually make me want to stop-off at castles to drop off noble prisoners.
Any opinions on all of this?
Edits:
I have split this up into:
- UI changes (that are not strictly tied to mercenary gameplay, but would be very helpful for it) and
- Mercenary contract changes.
- How the AI would assign contract clauses
UI changes.
- A mercenary statistics tab in the clan screen [visible when a mercenary contract is active] to show me my stats on my current contract, stuff like:
- Employed for N days
- Gold accrued from contract
- Gold spent buying replacement units during this contract
- Friendly units lost / friendly parties lost (i.e. run by companions or spouse)
- Hostile units / parties destroyed
- Nobles captured / freed / killed (see below)
- A world information tab in the clan screen
- Let us see how many men each empire has, and who is at war with whom.
- (you cannot currently see this without joining a kingdom)
- This is important now as mercenary contract payouts are now linked to the relative power of empires in wars.
- Let us see how many men each empire has, and who is at war with whom.
- Contract length & termination.
- Make contracts last for a year (84 days)
- You can then extend a contract with the same terms when it matures - provided your employer is still in a war with someone.
- Or end it / not extend it with no rep-hit with your employer.
- Reputation hit from ending contracts prematurely.
- If an empire is at peace, you should be able to end a contract by speaking to the lord and take no reputation hit.
- If an empire is at war and you end a contract prematurely, you should still get a reputation hit.
- (which is how it works currently - but maybe reduce it a little as it's -20 same as leaving as a vassal).
- Make contracts last for a year (84 days)
I have included 3 main clauses below that cover most of the (existing) game interactions:
Contractual terms and conditions of warfare
- Nobles clause
- [No Nobles clause] - You may do whatever you want to nobles after a battle (i.e. how things are by default)
- [Executing Nobles Prohibited] - You may not execute any nobles that you capture from any empires we are at war with.
- A bonus cash sum is paid to the mercenary captain for each Noble prisoner delivered to an allied castle / dungeon.
- Your contract gets voided & you get a BIG reputation hit with your employer if you execute a noble
- (A warning should pop up and remind players that executing someone would violate their terms and conditions).
- Your contract gets voided & you get a BIG reputation hit with your employer if you execute a noble
- A bonus cash sum is paid to the mercenary captain for each Noble prisoner delivered to an allied castle / dungeon.
- [Mandatory executions] - You must execute any nobles that you capture from any empires we are at war with.
- A large bonus cash-sum is paid to the mercenary captain for each severed noble head delivered.
- If you let an enemy noble go free you receive a small, but repeatable, reputation hit with your employer.
- Do it too many times and they may void your contract.
- A large bonus cash-sum is paid to the mercenary captain for each severed noble head delivered.
- Pillage clause
- [No Raiding clause] - You may do whatever you want to villages & roaming villager parties. (i.e. how things are by default)
- [Raiding villages Prohibited] - You may not raid enemy villages & roaming villager parties.
- Raided villages are out of comission for a while and harm the local economy, a shrewd king knows that tyranny begets a prosperous rule. Your employer might not want their mercenary companies ravaging their new lands and it's people.
- Caravan clause
- [No Caravan clause] - You may raid enemy caravans if you like (i.e. how things are by default)
- [Attacking Caravans Prohibited] - You may not raid enemy caravans.
- Caravans operate across war-fronts, servicing multiple cities, destroying caravans could hurt your employer's own economy / city prosperity.
- So it may not be in your employers best interests to have you wiping out every enemy caravan you see.
- The contract lasts for 1 full year (i.e. current date to next year, current date) with the option to roll-over if they are still at war with someone.
- And that they expect a full year of service from you unless they are at peace (to remind the player there is a reputation hit if you leave your employer, whilst they are at war and counting on you).
- The amount you can expect to be paid
- The terms and conditions (if any) as they apply to
- Nobles.
- If there is a noble clause active they would also state
- the bonus cash amount (e.g. 1000 gold) for each noble prisoner brought to a dungeon,
- or each noble executed (e.g. 5000 gold)
- If there is a noble clause active they would also state
- Pillaging Villages & attacking villagers.
- Caravans.
- Nobles.
- And the consequences of breaking any contractual clause (e.g. -10 reputation for first time, contract is voided if you do it again)
- e.g. cruel lords might be happy to let you raid villages,
- Merciful or virtuous lords with other "good" traits might demand that executing nobles is a prohibited action whilst you work for them.
- To make sure mandatory-execution clause contracts are rarer, they should only be offered by lords with deceitful or other "evil" character traits.
Additional thoughts
---
The nobles requirements would be a good way to actually make me want to stop-off at castles to drop off noble prisoners.
- My rationale is nobles still stick to their own kind/class, they'd probably want to avoid hiring/financing a bloodthirsty noble-killing mercenary - as they know it could be their own neck on the chopping block one day - mercenaries are only loyal to gold.
- Mostly this was done for religious reasons in Europe, that one should be decent to their fellow man,
- Or it was implicit within the "feudal contract" between noble and commoner. Nobility were meant to look out for their charges (whether they always did or not, is another matter).
- Or shrewd kings / lords who knew that ruling over a rubble pile was worthless to them etc
Any opinions on all of this?
Edits:
- Clarified that execution clauses should only be offered by "non-virtuous lords" - like deceitful (or cruel?) lords, to make sure they're rarer
- There are always going to be a few "evil" or mentally twisted lords in each generation, but most nobles probably don't want to set a precedent of cutting each other's heads off.
- Someone on reddit also suggested that players should be able to set the terms of contracts they can offer [I havent personally tried recruiting mercenaries as a lord so IDK how this would play out] but IMO player traits should be considered, too, I.e. only deceitful/ or "evil" trait players could force AI mercenary companies to execute kill enemy lords, at a higher price, for example.
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