7.18 Mercenaries
Need a helping hand?
The MERCENARY system allows orgs or individuals to hire other players for various services, often but not necessarily combat-related. When hired by a faction, Mercenaries claim Cosmpiercer control points on behalf of the hiring faction.
Hiring mercenaries
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To browse mercenaries for hire, use MERCENARY BOARDS. To inspect a posting, use MERCENARY SHOW <who>.
To hire a mercenary, the syntax is MERCENARY HIRE <who> <hours> <terms>. The mercenary you wish to hire must be online and MERCENARY ACCEPT to the duration and terms. The hourly timeframe is in RL hours, and funds will be transferred upon acceptance to the mercenary, based on their hourly rate. Specify the Terms under which you are hiring the mercenary, and note that the Terms of the contract will be visible to the public should you later post a review of the mercenary.
To hire a mercenary on behalf of your organization, you must have the 'mercenaries' power. The syntax to hire in this way is <FACTION|DYNASTY|CLAN> MERCENARY HIRE ...
Once a mercenary has accepted a contract, neither party can back out of it. The duration of the contract must lapse.
Once a contract is concluded, the contractor may post a review within 24 hours of the contract's finish, using MERCENARY REVIEW <who> <1-5> <text>. A rating of '1' indicates that you were very dissatisfied with the mercenary, whereas a rating of '5' indicates that you were very satisfied. Mercenaries gain and lose Reputation on the basis of these reviews.
Any active mercenary contracts are visible at all times via MERCENARY BOARDS.
Becoming a mercenary
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To start your mercenary life, use MERCENARY POST CREATE. Set your hourly fee with MERCENARY POST FEE <marks>. Specify the minimum number of hours you will work with MERCENARY POST MINHOURS <1-3> and the maximum with MERCENARY POST MAXHOURS <4-24>. Enter the editor to describe your services in as much detail as you wish with MERCENARY POST DESCRIBE.
Once your posting is how you like it, MERCENARY POST PUBLISH. You can MERCENARY POST UNPUBLISH to remove yourself, so long as you do not have an active contract.
When someone posts a review of your services, you may reply to it once using MERCENARY REPLY <review_id#> <reply>. The reply is permanent and cannot be modified.
Reputation will drift slightly every RL month towards neutral.
FAQ
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Q: What happens if I end up fighting my own faction as a mercenary?
A: That is entirely up to your faction. Discuss it with your leaders in advance if you wish to avoid repercussions.
Q: For individuals hiring mercenaries as contract killers, who assumes responsibility for having valid RP grounds for PK, as per HELP PK.
A: As with bounties, the mercenary is considered a tool of the hirer. It is the hirer's responsibility to ensure that they do, in fact, have a valid reason to attack the target. Note that this stipulation mainly applies for any OOC ISSUEs which may come up in response to invalid cause for PK. The mercenary is not protected from any IC repercussions of their actions. Not all characters need agree IC with the assessment that mercenaries are 'tools'.
Q: Someone posted a bad review of me but it's total slander!
A: Note that the terms of the contract are included in a Review. Ensure that contracts you accept have well-written Terms, so that later readers can assess for themselves whether the reviewer is off base. You may also use REPLY to have your say. In the end, a single bad review has very little effect on your overall Reputation, so keep at it and you may wish to avoid that contractor in the future.
Q: Can someone force me into a contract if I post myself, even when I don't want to, say, represent a different faction at a particular time?
A: No, all contracts require you to MERCENARY ACCEPT first.
Q: Can I post myself as a mercenary but not for combat-related things?
A: Yes! While the system was designed with combat in mind initially, players are welcome to use this system to facilitate their own free-form job postings.
