First and foremost: this is a pilot program that currently only applies to the mercenaries for sale in Galadon. And again, only after NCR.

Going forward, certain mercenaries will count as as a "groupmate" for the purpose of calculating experience. This means that, for example, a group of 2 PCs and 1 NPC merc is equal to a group of three PCs. Likewise, 3 + 1 would equal four and thus be a bad thing.

You'll know if a merc counts as a "groupmate" if you see an asterisk when you check your group:

Umiron's group:
< NPC an arial mercenary *>                              100% hp 100% mana 100% mv      0 xp
<58 Con> Umiron                       100% hp 100% mana 100% mv   1800 xp

nt

Not sure if its a bug or what but if the mercenary gets the kill, then you are given much less experience

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Just curious if this new change will have any effect on the battle policy toward mercs.

The thought was always more about Rager pride. Self-sufficiency and such, as why do the greatest fighters in the land need hired help?

We haven't really discussed any changes, but I personally don't see why it would make a difference towards that. It's a roleplay policy with ragers, to which nothing has changed. The mercenary change is purely mechanical.

That if ragers have the head their powers are great for ranking.

Most other cabal powers are not. At least, not enough to help significantly with solo ranking.

Arguably elite blade powers too.

gr

Perma-protection vs. alignment isn't nothing. Though, obviously it's not resist and deathblow.

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Great stuff as always, you're a cool beans dungeon master.

Question is:

What about class based NPCs, could you look into at REMOVING the penalty of having them? Maybe not a bonus for those but at least not a penalty. This could include things like:

A necromancer's golem or zombie
Ranger bears or charmed pet
Ranger spirit guardian
Shaman demon (aren't they in group? haven't had one, not sure of mechanics)
Orc slave
Goblin mount
Druid treant or call of the wild


Thanks Umiron.

I'd rather not.

Some of these don't make a huge difference and some of them make mowing down mobs quite a bit easier. If we went down this route it probably wouldn't be a blanket rule but instead a "some do, don't don't" approach that would ultimately be confusing.

I wouldn't rule out the possibility forever, but for now I'd like to avoid this. Particularly since I just made a pretty sweeping change to grouping and leveling.

nt

I've made a few attempts at getting back in to CF and it's just so tough finding a role-approved groupmate on at similar times. I've had days where I just sit with the window open for half an hour waiting for someone to log in.

*begs*

Based on what you've written, I really don't believe that having your NPC groupmates count as "real" groupmates is going to be the thing that suddenly makes the game genuinely enjoyable for you if it isn't currently.

the game is very enjoyable. i love trying out new builds and different angles on new builds.

but there is a time wall to this. i cannot play at home and stick to 'expanded' lunch hours to be online. being able to cut 25% to 40% of the time it takes to try out an idea from levels 1-40 or even at hero would be pretty huge to me. being able to grab a rank or two a session when forced to do it solo? awesome. but doing half a rank a day is a lot less enticing.

i almost always miss out on the double exp because of hours and inability to do much on the weekend. even with double exp, that only goes so far solo.

**i say solo because that's just the way the cookie seems to crumble. i like to play against the grain which means there's generally no band-wagon to hop on board.

thus, npc groupmates as real groupmates really does make the game genuinely more enjoyable.

You like to play against the grain (fewer allies) and you like to start over a lot (try not builds), but you also have very limited time to play both in the specific times of day you can be play and for how long.

I'm not trying to tell you how you feel or assert what will be fun for you, but it sure does seem like you're sort of setting yourself up for disappointment and still maintain that having your fire elemental count as a groupmate while some mob beats your mage butt isn't the difference between the status quo and a CF that fulfills your expectations given the approach you've described.

As an side, bear in mind that the way it's coded now, you'd only ever get credit for one pseudo-groupmate. If we counted ALL NPCs, you'd get hosed the other way around because even with the XP bonus someone like a conjurer or necromancer would be splitting the it between too large of a group.

And FWIW, we've had two double XP bonuses in the past two months that spanned "lunch time" (CST). I have no idea what timezone you're in, but if it's not close to that then hopefully you've been hitting the late night / early AM bonuses I try to schedule from time to time as well.

yes, i like the under-the-radar, against-the-grain, short to medium lifespan characters.

yes, 1 mob as a bonus would be splendid. honestly, at this point, i'd even take 1 or 2 mobs giving no bonus but also not taking away EXP such as necro with a golem and zombie or orc with a frost giant mob. the boost would be icing on a cake i want to eat so badly

and yes, i think having too many mobs in your group should neuter the EXP.

and conjurer isn't impacted because servitors are outside the group...

p.s., no i have not been able to participate in any of the double exp bonuses. i usually try to check twitter to see if they're live but i don't think all of them get twitter notification. central timezone.

anyway, thanks for considering, hopefully you guys can noodle on it a bit.

>Shaman demon (aren't they in group? haven't had one, not sure
>of mechanics)

Demons brought forth via Demonic Summons are not part of a group.

This sounds like a really good idea. I'm interested to see how it plays out and if new higher level mercs are added and become more common. Great idea.

It's unlikely you'll see significant better mercenaries as a result of this change, with perhaps the exception of special mercs that refuse to fight against PCs. I could probably get behind that.

Sure, that'd be fine. I'm thinking more in the sense of a defensive shield using merc for an offensive shapeshifter, or dagger spec thief for a shield paladin etc.