Mercs

[AceJoker]

At the time of attacking someone, a Merc must be hostile to the NPCs. If I am around the Battleship Essex, attacking a BAF, the Essex must shoot at me. That's just how it goes rules-wise.

Honestly, though, if the BAF were to suddenly offer a contract on the Corsairs in conjunction with the Mollys that paid more than the bounty on the BAF and Mollys for the Corsairs, then we might suddenly start hunting Corsairs after they've given us guns. What's profitable, you know. But this also depends on the contractors. I've shot up a couple of Junkers, but if the Junkers were to offer a bounty on Xenos, you'd better believe I'd want to cash in in conjunction with the LN Bounty. It doesn't matter if I have already been paid to kill Junkers, if the Junkers want something dead which will grant me more money, then I will go after that thing for the Junkers if they'll pay me. A lot of people don't think like this when they are going to get attacked, though. Easiest way to get out of getting attacked by a Mercenary: "Hey, how much are you getting paid? I can top it."

But you know, everything really depends on the faction paying out. If the Junkers decide that they won't pay me for killing Xenos, then I won't kill Xenos, I'll kill Junkers. I have no shame as a Mercenary; I kill what needs to get killed. But if the Junkers have too much pride to pay me, then that is their decision. I am playing my role, others can play theirs in response. If there are consequences, it is up to the factions we fight to impose them. I can't put any consequences on myself because I can't impose those consequences on myself.

This.

And another thing. A merc is not only good for blowing someone or something up. Everything that promises
a positive credflow to me is interesting. My mainchar Hangman is a thoroughbred merc and aside from the
fact that i rarely respond to bounty contracts i've done jobs for almost everyone, except the invite-only
factions and whole Gallia. I've done escorts, search-n-retrieve and yeah search-n-destroy jobs.

If someone decides to RP a merc, he should be aware of the fact that your loyalty goes only as far as your
next payment or if you play a real greedy one, sell yourself always and anytime to the higher bidder.
This makes many enemies and thatswhy i came up with a white snow pic for my chars face on forum coms.

RPing a merc makes everyone around you getting nervous. When they see merc ID, you can get
easily get away of a fight. "You're a merc!" "Yeah. So what?" "What do you want here?!" "Just searchin for
business... why do you ask? Are you interested to hire me?" "No, go somewhere else!" This works even with pirates.

There are plenty of RP opportunities for a merc. As my infocard says (if someone reads them anyway), my
merc has some sort of morale, cuz i don't like stereotypes. If someone asks me for example to blow
up transport X, with a 5K cargo of refugees, i'll refuse (usually).

2 last things:
First: A merc is not dumb. He knows his skills and his limits. If someone asks you to blow up a battleship all
by yourself, then you can ask in return what he had smoked.
Second: A merc is not a puppet. He's used to get insulted but he's a sensible human being. Even if you
made an escort deal with him, it's not good to insult him during the escort. He might get angry and could do
mean things to you.:cool:

There is of course a lot more i could tell, but i'll end this here, cuz i don't like wall texts. And i'm sorry for
this one.

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