Wat if we remove vanishing from mercenaries

[godOfKings]

I m thinking, wat if instead of permanently deleting a mercenary unit, wat if we give other drawbacks like 0 movement and action or disabled mode which can b removed after paying money, so it wont b like 2 turns, 4 turns worth resources just directly die after accidentally forgetting to pay one of them, its not like a mercenary unit would forever stop taking a job just cause the master delayed payment for a while, instead it should b the mercenaries r waiting to get next down payment b4 taking a new job

[Badnorth]

That sounds great.

[Stratego (dev)]

disable is not good you can fill up TCs to use them as protection.
or, they simply become hostile and start attacking you?

[godOfKings]

Even if we fill tcs with them, if they cant atk they r just useless walls, its not like a 2 turn unit that cant atk can buy more time than a 2 turn unit that atk and kill opp atkin units, besides right now most mercenaries r practically only made while defending tcs as they r better than non mercenary counterparts, if they didnt directly die but simply stayed as disabled, we could later use them to atk enemy base as well after gathering enough money couriers

May b in the future we could also implement enemy money couriers paying disabled mercenaries to buy their loyalties and make them hostile towards me

[Endru1241]

I think it could work.
If we just changed vanishing effect, removing kill effect and adding related disabling effect with some long time, e.g. 40 turns.
The disabling effect could have -HPpercent -armors additionally to - action to decrease their usage as walls.

Each money unit could be given ability with SYSTEM_SPECIAL_EFFECT_LASTSTURN_MODIFIER , that removes 40 turns of disabling effect, so it could only target such mercs and applies new vanishing.

Conversion wouldn't be a problem, because after converting enemy has to pay anyway to enable them.

[Stratego (dev)]

i am against it: mercenaries i use practically never vanish, they die before vanish for good (i use that 2turn cost skirmisher, the 2 turn cost hammerman and ther is a long speared cavalry - i dont remember their names)
they already have too many turns (5-7) i would even reduce vanishing turns to have them die without paying sooner.

some of these mercenaries are so hard blockers that they must not be in a TC walling for "free" - also i would not make a complicated weakening beside disabling - seems complicated to players to understand, at least seems to me.

so i suggest no change here, moreover: i suggest some decreasing of their timeout as for a 2 turns unit it is too much having 5-7 turn vanishings.

[godOfKings]

Wat is wrong with keeping 2 turn units alive?
the only reason i win early games ez is i can keep my weak units alive while killing opp weak units so they can support my 4 turn knights later and it becomes a domino effect such that my opp cant stop me at all in the future, but if its a mercenary i dont even make them for long term attacking my opp cuz i know they will die b4 i can fully use them,

[Stratego (dev)]

they are already OP, they dont ment to replace all default units - but currently they much worthy to tarin than normal units for same cost (they are much MUCH better)

[L4cus]

disable is not good you can fill up TCs to use them as protection.
or, they simply become hostile and start attacking you?

i like and support this, mercenaries looted anyone cities when they get not payed...it was pretty common

[Harchie Hirondo]

Maybe they can become AI controlled instead?

[makazuwr32]

Regular ai controlled i think is still managable to control via waypoints.
I mean if unit still stays under your control.

[Stratego (dev)]

Regular ai controlled i think is still managable to control via waypoints.
I mean if unit still stays under your control.

yes, and also they must not remain in your posession even if it is AI controlled it is a strong unit.

[makazuwr32]

I do not interfere with balancing reasons in aos. For that we have Endru.
Only can help with my humble knowledge about technical moments.