Recognition Points

[hadesfire]

I haven't seen anywhere to trade in rec points for mercs so I thought it would make sense for them to get something like:

-weapons (higher qualities and different materials)
-armor
-shields
-contracts (I thought traders could apply a contract and mercs who have enough rec points
could apply for one)

that's all I have so far.

[Makkah]

How about Mercenary recognition points used for a private room in the barracks of the Western Coalition. Could be something generic, or if deemed appropriate, we could customize it. With a house in Shadgard, it would be extremely beneficial to have a place hang my hat in the Coalition itself.

[Methiur]

Aye, I've seen lockers come up quite a few times and someplace safe to hang up a suit of armor and a few weapons would be great.

[Rithiel]

Um.... perhaps you should explore Haiban more?

[Kiyaani]

She means for the lockers, not the point usage.

It would still be cool if the guild had some use for points, but that could be said for most guilds. Maybe as you gain recognition you can earn more things for your private area such as an armor rack or a weapon locker like Makkah requested in the other thread. The footlocker provided is nice, but doesn't hold much.

[Rias]

What about some kind of physical displays of your proven awesome? Kind of like badges, medals, or stripes, or something like that. If you've gotten a bunch of recognition as a Coalition Mercenary, convert that into something you can wear to proudly display your awesome for all to see.

Usual disclaimers: Not all guilds will find recognition points terribly useful/useful at all, I am not the Mercenary guild guru so this is just my personal opinion and not indicative of some action being taken along the lines of my suggestion, etc. etc.

P.S. Makkah suggested something similar to this a while back, and I did say I thought it seemed too "official military", so note that while I said "like" stripes and such, I don't think they should specifically be stripes.

[Makkah]

It would still be cool if the guild had some use for points, but that could be said for most guilds. Maybe as you gain recognition you can earn more things for your private area such as an armor rack or a weapon locker like Makkah requested in the other thread. The footlocker provided is nice, but doesn't hold much.

The idea of sprucing up our barracks-instances using rec points is suhweeeet.

[Kunren]

What about some kind of physical displays of your proven awesome? Kind of like badges, medals, or stripes, or something like that. If you've gotten a bunch of recognition as a Coalition Mercenary, convert that into something you can wear to proudly display your awesome for all to see.

Usual disclaimers: Not all guilds will find recognition points terribly useful/useful at all, I am not the Mercenary guild guru so this is just my personal opinion and not indicative of some action being taken along the lines of my suggestion, etc. etc.

P.S. Makkah suggested something similar to this a while back, and I did say I thought it seemed too "official military", so note that while I said "like" stripes and such, I don't think they should specifically be stripes.

Ohh I have something of an Idea. What about a "star" system? Ie no star mercs are just starting out, 3 star mercs are starting to get up in the world, and 5 star mercs are the best of the best. Could have a small license to stamp stars on as you buy each star with vastly increasing recognition point cost. Not very military, but professional and a good judge of a mercenaries standard. The license would have name, and number of stars. Other things too maybe? Dunno.

[Jirato]

Mercenaries do not have recognition points.

I'd like to avoid adding anything that indicates military structure, so I'd have to be careful about rankings.

Once ability generalization hits, the Mercenaries will mostly only be there for the roleplay. Right now pretty much all of their abilities are being generalized or replaced with new generalized abilities. They won't really have anything unique to them, mechanically.

It's a concern and I've got a few plans in the works, I'm always looking for further feedback and suggestions though, so keep them coming.

[Kunren]

Mercenaries do not have recognition points.

I'd like to avoid adding anything that indicates military structure, so I'd have to be careful about rankings.

One ability generalization hits, the Mercenaries will mostly only be there for the roleplay. Right now pretty much all of their abilities are being generalized or replaced with new generalized abilities. They won't really have anything unique to them, mechanically.

It's a concern and I've got a few plans in the works, I'm always looking for further feedback and suggestions though, so keep them coming.

Mm, rather than military, I was thinking more along the lines of resteraunt ratings, or what's occasionally used for adventurers guilds in RPG settings to determine, based on jobs you did previously, the difficulty of jobs you can accept now. Somtimes broken up into a letter system(ie ranging from C class to A class to S class to SSS class.)

Whereas in the military rankings determine chain of command, rankings in this sense would only be a way to easily gauge the quality of the product you are paying for.

Also, yay! Super excited for new merc stuff, I knew it would be mostly RP once generalization hits but I wasn't expecting new stuff to make up for it! :D

[jilliana]

I think the first step in adding some RP to this guild is to support the means for mercenary PCs to be hired by another PC for a job.

Mercenaries are payed to fight in another country, but that sort of doesn't fit with the theme of CLOK due to the quarantine. It doesn't mean that they can't be hired by someone to take care of a matter from the other side of the wall for whatever reason.
They could join up with the Outriders or Wyrvardn for a particularly difficult job, but the priority would be to go to a fellow mercenary.

[Jirato]

I think the first step in adding some RP to this guild is to support the means for mercenary PCs to be hired by another PC for a job

Do you have a crystal pendant? Have you visited a town that has a board that you can POST to?

Guess what, you have means to hire a mercenary PC for a job, and if you are a mercenary, you have the means to advertise your availability for a job.

[jilliana]

...Ok Jirato...apologies for my lack of clarification...

I was meaning something along the lines of a registry. There are people who probably want to be more discreet than a pendent and a board. The idea would be for me to go to said registry and look for someone who would meet my needs.

Example as follows:
Jane Hire is looking for a mercenary to take care of a matter She is someone who would fall under a certain price range and who is skilled at say, firearms. She would go to this registry and see that Joe Mercenary is a pro with a gun and can be hired for 2000 riln.

It keeps her from having to look all over the place for Joe Mercenary. She can send him a letter with her offer. He can then accept or reject this offer.

The benefit to this registry would be to add some discression and keep everyone on the network from going crazy or ridiculous because they suspect a certain someone is hiring a mercenary.

[Kunren]

...Ok Jirato...apologies for my lack of clarification...

I was meaning something along the lines of a registry. There are people who probably want to be more discreet than a pendent and a board. The idea would be for me to go to said registry and look for someone who would meet my needs.

Example as follows:
Jane Hire is looking for a mercenary to take care of a matter She is someone who would fall under a certain price range and who is skilled at say, firearms. She would go to this registry and see that Joe Mercenary is a pro with a gun and can be hired for 2000 riln.

It keeps her from having to look all over the place for Joe Mercenary. She can send him a letter with her offer. He can then accept or reject this offer.

The benefit to this registry would be to add some discression and keep everyone on the network from going crazy or ridiculous because they suspect a certain someone is hiring a mercenary.

This could indeed be helpful, but remember if you ever want discression, turning your esp color gray or to a different color is a quick way to go about it. Then just say "I've got a job for a merc. Discression wanted." Most mercs would happily offer their name and advise you send a letter with the details. Then you just switch back to your normal color.

[Jaster]

I see what you mean, Jill. And I like the idea! A registry sure beats the time and effort it takes to go around posting on town boards just to say, "Hi, I'm for hire."

Maybe I'm lazy. :)

What you suggest would really help facilitate some mercenary-e-ness-ness. Nah mean?

[Jirato]

Good idea. I've already talked about adding an Artisan registry to make looking for artisans to work on specific projects easier, this should probably extend to mercenaries as well.

It will happen. Might be awhile though, lots of code work involved and right now I'm fiddling around with the mercenary job board that's been on my to-do list for the past half year.

[Jirato]

Here's a trello link for the Mercenary Registry request: https://trello.com/c/1hznNQaV

Like I said, it's going to happen. Can't promise it'll be soon though. Might get a flash of inspiration and work on it quickly, might be several months.

I'd really like to finish the job board first, and also want to make a proper Coalition headquarters rather than a plain old warehouse.

[Jirato]

Oh, and sorry for the post spam here, but there is one more concern about the registry... the whole "discreet" jobs thing...

Mercenaries are not assassins, so I'm kinda worried about people trying to be all hush hush about hiring mercenaries, and then finding out later that they're trying to put a hit out on another character or someting. That kinda stuff is likely to get you banned from Haiban. They've got a really rough past with known assassin groups after a certain incident.

Though a feel a bit hypocritcal saying that but "Well, hiring a mercenary to kill a bunch of bandits is OK!" though...

I don't know, just mixed feelings about the whole "discreet jobs" thing.

[Kunren]

Oh, and sorry for the post spam here, but there is one more concern about the registry... the whole "discreet" jobs thing...

Mercenaries are not assassins, so I'm kinda worried about people trying to be all hush hush about hiring mercenaries, and then finding out later that they're trying to put a hit out on another character or someting. That kinda stuff is likely to get you banned from Haiban. They've got a really rough past with known assassin groups after a certain incident.

Though a feel a bit hypocritcal saying that but "Well, hiring a mercenary to kill a bunch of bandits is OK!" though...

I don't know, just mixed feelings about the whole "discreet jobs" thing.

I really kinda dislike this a bit big J. The way I've built up my merc, he's gonna do whatever he is hired to do, and if the client wants discression they will get it(for the right price). It feels really weird to me to somehow limit discrete killing, just because it's hush hush.

[jilliana]

I can understand the negative connotations, because there is indeed that "what is the difference between a merc and an assassin?" thing going.

My main reason for discression would be so that not everyone and their mother hears on the pendent that you need something done. If someone asks to meet someone else on the pendent, everyone decides they want to go too. Right now there is simply not enough privacy to conduct a meeting with someone you don't know.

The registry can show if a merc is willing to fell trees and move your furniture, for instance. It may have nothing to do with killing at all.

[Kunren]

I can understand the negative connotations, because there is indeed that "what is the difference between a merc and an assassin?" thing going.

My main reason for discression would be so that not everyone and their mother hears on the pendent that you need something done. If someone asks to meet someone else on the pendent, everyone decides they want to go too. Right now there is simply not enough privacy to conduct a meeting with someone you don't know.

The registry can show if a merc is willing to fell trees and move your furniture, for instance. It may have nothing to do with killing at all.

Really the only thing that sets apart a mercenary and an assassin are skillsets(assassins usually have a stealth implication along with skill with poison) and range of business(assassins only assassinate, you can hire a mercenary for so much more)

[Jirato]

That's why I say I have mixed feelings about it.

If someone wants to approach you about it and you do it entirely outside the confines of the Western Coalition, then I don't really see any major issue withit. I just don't want the Western Coalition/Haiban to be seen as a facilitator for it.

There was a recent incident where someone approached Irwin directly, in his office, and asked him to have someone killed. That's just bad for business and Irwin acted accordingly.

If someone wants to approach your merc character unofficially and request that kinda stuff, that's great. But if he gets a public reputation as an assassin from within the Mercenary Guild, then Irwin would probably be more than a little upset about it.

[sona]

I struggle to see the problems with it. While I don't care for PC PVP/assassination-y stuff, I don't feel like mercenaries would necessarily say 'no' to a 'hit'. They might ask for a bit more riln if they think it's more dangerous, or if they need to bring a pal for backup. But mercenaries don't need to act alone, and they don't have to have morality upheld similar to what is expected of a templar. Unless cities start banding together and saying, "murder is not an acceptable outcome. We are a civilized people." But when we start playing that dialogue, mercenaries have less of a place in more civilized society than the outriders of shadgard IMO.

[Barius]

Sounds like mercenaries are just bodyguards, eh?

[Vaylon]

I would be interested in discussing the moral difference between a mercenary and an assassin, but I think that topic could use its own thread and an extra dose of reminding people to be civil in the process of discussing it.