I've brought up the idea of a merc cabal before on Dio's but never here I think. Anyways as one who has some experience trying to do the merc thing in-game the main problems have always been the fact most players will just kill for themselves and the limited rangge most people have to work with plus an overall lack of incentive as gold doesn't really do much for you unless you are addicted to bought potions and such or playing an Imperial.

At any rate I figured out why not make the powers of a merc cabal address the inherent problems, so here are my ideas for the powers I believe would help make a merc cabal more successful and hopefully they aren't deemed as OP.

1. Mercenary Range

Gained at level 25 - Extends the PK-range of a Mercenary on either side by 5 ranks. This I believe will provide an incentive for folks who enjoy PK to want to become mercs by giving them more targets. I'm unsure if this is codeable but the general idea is that your normal PK range is increased so you can go after more people.

2. Mercenary Shop

Instead of specific 'powers' for the most part the idea is mercenaries of the cabal have exclusive access to items that they can buy (rot/death) through their shops which would be located all over Thera in different spots. Thus taking their cabal item wouldn't strip them of ALL of their abilites. A few examples:

A: Cloak of Invisibility - Wearing cloak grants the spell of 'improved invisibility' like Invokers. 100 gold

B: Mercenaries Deathmask - Wearing deathmask grants infravision, detect invisible, Occassionaly casts 'soul drain' on whoever user is fighting. 75 gold.

I'm sure you get the idea. Various wearable items, potions, pets, etc. only they can use but they all cost lots of gold thus providing an incentive to go get gold.

EDITED TO ADD: Perhaps limit the # of merc items you can be wearing at any given time to 3 - lots of items but limiting # worn provides more opportunites to custumize.

3. Hire (level 40)

This power allows a mercenary to 'hire' a fellow mercenary (mob) through one of the merc shops. These would be hi-level pets only they could use with various abilities and perhaps an expanded 'order' menu allowing them to be used more strategically.

For example:

Bob the Merc uses hire to get a level 40 thief mob.

Bob types in 'menu' and sees this:

Thief Mob has the following commands:

Circle - Sets thief mob to circle if not taking blows.

Trip/Cheapshot - Sets thief to trip/cheapshot.

(Cannot use both settings at once - you set how you want mob to act in a fight and it does THAT and nothing else until reset)

Blackguard *Target* - Thief mob will attempt to blackjack set target if they enter the same room as the thief mob, once set to 'blackguard' thief mob will not follow you but will guard that room.


And thats about it. A bunch of cool stuff that all costs lots of gold only available to members of the merc cabal which provides incentive to complete CONTRACTS:

Contract:

Instead of bounties those interested in the services of a professional mercenary of this cabal would have the option at a bounty office to set a specific contract on another player or even an entire cabal. The contract allows the player to specify specific terms and the cost of the contract is based on type and number of terms set. Also unlike bounties, there is no general knowledge of who set a contract or that a contract has even been set. All transactions would be confidential so that the person who sets a bounty pays upfront and remains anonymous to the members of the merc cabal and vice versa.

A merc would just login, type 'contracts' and get a list of avilable contracts their terms and payouts, not who set them.

This is how I think it would work:

Pete the Pissed-Off, Loser of all his Shinies walks into a bounty office to set a contract.

Command: Contract 'Target' 'Term1' 'Term2'

Terms can be length contract has before expiration (so if the contract isnt completed in a certain time limit Pete can go to that bounty office and get a refund) or the term can be number of times you want that person to be slain by a mercenary (each time you add to this number increases the amount but 'slightly' cheaper than doing a new contract each time.

As mentioned a contract can be taken out against a cabal, but after some thought I figure the best way you do this isn't by having the mercs go after the cabal item but by having them go after the members of a cabal.

Thus 'Contract Fortress' would set a contract whereas a cabal mercenary would get a payout everytime they kill a fortmember until all the gold for that contract is used up. Like with indivdual contracts the person who sets it up can add terms that modify the length of the contract, etc. I'm thinking also that only one cabal contract could be allowed at a time and if one is up and you go to set one up at a bounty office you get a message like 'We cannot set up a cabal contract at this time, please try again another time'.


Summary:

With all the above you get anonymity on both sides of the deal, a system that allows for mercs to go after cabals without 'going after' cabals, plenty of targets for the mercs by extending their reach and if you think something is OPed you can just stop selling it.

Just a thought.

Anyways, I'm crazy, we all know this.

You can have more than one, not in the same cabal. The trolls regarding my question on orcs having more than one do not bother me. Go ahead. Im fair game. But when you think you have a shot for leader. Not in the case with this past characters of mine. But Ive had cases where I just get ####ty ganked/multied bad -cons...when someone is coompeting with me for a leader spot. Yea, behind the scenes. It cant be alts.

Helltrip/imm ooc group
Wandlist/extensive,I dont have one written down nor seen one, but have been offered.

It will just be a cabal where people log in, to play a mutli-char position on who has the spot for the skills, the role for the edges, the rp for the mechanics.

Give us some roleplay, is where I am going with this. Lets do a story. Cf was my favorite book at one point in time. mechanics boo.

Perhaps this is how Nexuns may end up being? A sword for hire for those whom may need it, contracts, offers for the weaker ones and whatnot.. Without the sometimes skewed "balance" scale that is often limiting. Then perhaps this will leave room for a "Pure Magic" cabal too, which would be more in line with the Rager vs Magic aspect?

Does the game really need a fourth evil csbal?

I don't see why this idea is specific to evils honestly. Admittedly at first it does seem it would only fit neutral/evil until you take into account the whole 'anonyminity' angle.

What this provides is for contracts to be on anyone...even other mercenaries. The concept isn't of a bunch of comrade-in-arms but of a cabal system that allows mercs and clients to operate without actually ever meeting each other. This also means that members of the cabal don't necessarily have to know each other either outside of obvious tip-offs like someone else buying merc only gear and pets. You could do the 'newbie channel' thing and have CB talk show up as 'a helpful merc' instead of the actual players name.

Also to add something here - to limit the OPness of the pets per the previous post perhaps have the pets only use some of their skills against targets that have a contract on them i.e. the blackguard thing would only work on targets that have a contract on them.

The 'anonymous hired killer' angle detracts too much from the
established mythology and would lead to a more sterile game.

I think we need more cabal consolidation, and would go as far
as to say that Scion needs to go, and probably nexus too.

The Scion-cabal-rp angle has been played to death, the awesome scion
roleplayers have stopped playing the game and it's just a
magnet for powergamers these days. How many air/off
scion shifters make you say enough is enough?
Nerf the powers or take it out is what I say.

On the other hand, Scarab coming back is nice to see and
hopefully will lead to even better things in the future.

I'm not sure how hired killers doesn't fit into a game called carrion fields...whose opening image is that of a skull. If anything a mercenary cabal is long overdue as evidenced by the attempts to create a thriving bounty system. I happen to agree some cabals could be consolidated but that still wouldn't take away from the idea of a mercenary cabal. It could in fact add to it by giving those cabals players a place to go.

And as mentioned, the anonymous nature of the cabal plus extending its pk range means you wouldn't need alot of people to make the cabal work. Probably a restricted cabal size on par with scions.


The rest didnt really address my post so I'll leave that be.

You should know that once upon a time CF had an anonymous cabal, and it didn't work out as very anonymous. In the end the cabal died, and I'm pretty sure some of Scarabaeus' dreams died with it.

The anonyminity doesnt mean the members are secretive about who they are (unless they want to remain secret) it means transactions are anonymous. With a system like this the clients are anonymous to the cabal and the person who carried out a specific contract is anonymous to the client.

I'm sure there could be a way to set up some kind of alert so the client knows when a job has been completed successfully by a member of the cabal.

As for the rest, because shadow didnt work that means you don't try anything similar ever again after what....a decade? If memory serves the last 'new' cabal was empire and they have been around for a long time....isnt it about time to try something new ?

Lokrin the assassin. Had lots of rp with people in connection with the mercenary guild that I ran. It was only rp, but lots of people got involved, and we got a few jobs. I enjoyed that character a lot.

The Rock is coming out with a Hercules movie where hercules is a mercenary. From what I've read it is an example of the disillusioned but stilll fundamentally good-aligned character who likely would only accept jobs that fit their sense of justice.

You could also have something along the lines of all those stories where a village hires a powerful warrior to protect them from an evil gang i.e. a lone fortie hiring the cabal to protect him orthem from evil empire.


I'm sure there are plenty of examples of good-aligned mercenaries.

In all seriousness. It would give me a creative relief and something to do.

You can send me a PM here or something similar. I don't give out my email except for sending in a PBF request or similar where its required.

Hello perma lag to everyone.

I don't think there needs to be any sort of merc cabal. If you want PK action, be evil, and PK whoever you want for the most part. People don't utilize the bounty system very much, I don't see that cabal being any different, except for people who want to extend their pk ranges and be murder alls (and in no way should you ever be able to extend your range to include lower levels). Or have access to what would be the greatest merc ever if your thief merc existed, except possibly the enslaved ostagleith giant, that bashing, legsweeping, chopping, cutoffing bastard.

Thing is most people that play want a little PK action for themselves, not to give it someone else. And the people who really don't want it tend to go herald. Now you have a bunch of mercs with no contracts, so what do they do then? Escort missions?

God no.

Not escort missions.

You brought up exactly why you should be able to get that thief merc, orcs alreaddy get a mob that is arguably better if less strategic than what I proposed.

As for the extemnded reach - your answer about why would people hire a merc is precisely why you need that extended reach. The exteneded reach allows a smaller number of players to maximize the reach of who they can kill for you that you 'cannot' reach. The ####-talking lowbie who just looted you for example when you fell. I also believe there is always a list of people on the bounty system its just that the bounty system allows people to see who set the bounty and you have to remeber to skin or something to collect your reward. This proposal eliminates that by making payouts automatic to the merc cabal player who gets that last hit. You can add a 'payout' command if necessary that would give you whatever gold you are owed (like a specialized bank account you carry with you)

And the fact you can hire them to go after a specific cabals members is why some people would hire them. If you are that lone Imperial against the entire fort gang, you may decide to invest some gold into placing a contract on the entire Fort so that there are a few more folks around likely to be gunning for your enemies.

nt

Lets say you dont combine cabals or anything and just add this one...

Ideally this cabal could be a 'swing' cabal that can end up pushing things towards OR away from balance. After all the scenraio I presented isn't the only one. You could have a cabal that is already in power seeking to carefully eliminate threats to its power by offloading to a group that can do so without direct impacts to the main organization while also making sure that a contract isn't set against their members by buying up the available 'cabal contract'

This even opens opportunities for 'good-aligned' RP that is right on the threshold of grey. You could have a fortie who uses the merc cabal to do things they themselves cannot do directly (for the sake of the greater good) - opening up a line of RP unavailable right now with so many eyes watching.

The institution of a cabal like this would also de facto make gold much more important in-game than it is now because it would have a direct influence on cabal wars through mercs.

Even if your character could care less about using mercs yourself, you may want to deny another cabal from using them against you by keeping that contract payment up to date.

Another point is that NON-caballed characters with enough gold could now influence cabal wars. Imagine a character with lots of gold like a certain thief herald and what they could do with a cabal like this at their beck and call.

It would pretty much give some 'punch' to the whole RP angle of being the guildmaster of one of the thief guilds which is what they could really use (beyond blackball).

I can think of several scenarios that having a real merc cabal could fundamentally enliven things in more ways than doing what Nexus does in ways that can support or disrupt balance.

EDITED TO ADD:

I just realize what I wrote and herald is a cabal but im sure ye know what I meant