So, i just got my ass handed to me in drachs…so instead of trying to level, i'm going to think of random semi–gun-related skills that would be most awesome to have for merc.

Rapid Fire- Gives a speed bonus while wielding a gun or guns. NOthing major, just a little bit. like double or tripple attack.

The Whole 9- Lets you completely unload a gun in 1 round. a less corny name would be nice but it'd still be cool. I guess it wouldn't work with energy weapons since they aren't really "loaded" per se.

Power Blast- More or less an energy version of "the whole 9" use up the battery, to devastate an enemy.

Leg shot- Gives a lag time for movement, and increses the move points needed to actually move, maybe random falling too?

Arm Shot - Aim gun at arm, pull trigger. possibly slow the attack speed SLIGHTLY or everytime they attack they take some minor damage.

Auto Load- when a gun is getting low on ammunition, you automatically reaload it. Granted you can set triggers to do this, but not everyone can use triggers, and it'd be really nice.

Some of these would make nice remort skills, like the whole 9 and power blast.

OH!! and if anyone has any inkling to the whereabouts of the merc remort trainer, i would love ot know.

The merc remort trainer is cunningly disguised as the mortal merc trainer I think ya might find…

I tried that, he won't teach me snipe.

Thanks to the always Uber-cool Wish, the merc remort trainer si back in action. According to a recent news report, he might be found by looking in a hole-in-the-wall…whatever that means. Thanks much Wish !!!

-Skellington

those skills sound awesome. Should they be implemented it would be nice to see better guns available in order to present a viable alternative to swords and the like

yeah. For those of you who read my other post on bayonets, i hope you liked it. For those who dont - hears the idea: With a 2 handed gun (photon rifle, for example) you could equip a weapon ¹⁄₂ the weight of the weapon, as if duel wielding, as a bayonette. This would allow for lighter weapons, such as Reese's Pieces, to be put to use as a weapon even if you have a gun. Just an idea.

A mercenary can already dual wield, and borgs have cogenic neural bridging, what's the point of having a bayonet thing if all classes that can shoot have dual wield?

At this point, while i love the mercenary class, it's kinda frusterating seeing all the already really good classes getting better +them eq, and more skills/spells and merc just sitting there with wrench…playing merc i would absolutely love to merc get SOME thing new. Granted i'm aware that the imms are busy with other more important things. But some time in the near future it'd be really cool to see some more +merc eq or some new merc skills added or somethin. BTW thanks for the swank sniping rifle, and the remort trainer.

Jakezor, your missin the point entirely. The point is, most Merc 1 handed guns suck, whereas most emrc 2 handed weapons are decent. If a player can have a 2handed gun with a good weapon attached, they get the bonus of being able to use skills like snipe and like (insert weapon based skill here [ie impale]).

If you dont understand this time i'll try more clearly.

It's already been established that there is not a wide enough variety of guns in order to provide mercenaries with a viable alternative to sword weapons. Your solution would require some extra snippets of code to be added whereas it would only require builders to add better guns to the game.

By the way, i'm pretty sure the Remington Streetsweeper is the best gun in the game, and it's one-handed i believe.

pretty good point. I thought it was 2, though. If not, anyway, thats a pretty hard to come by gun.

Nah you can dual wield streetsweepers, the only problem with that is the whole thing about they hold 3 shells and more shells aren't exactly a dime a dozen, but a weapon that standing anihillates should be easy to come by.

erm….. "a weapon that standing anihalites should be easy to come by". Please translate into my language of choice, aka English?

im thinkin he meant shouldnt

Craedric that was kind of rude don't ya think? it's not that hard to understand.

The streetsweeper anihillates mobs while they are standing, so it should'nt be a piece of cake to get ahold of and maintain.

How was that rude, may i ask? I honestly didnt understand what i was saying. My lord… I'm such a terrible person.

That was being rude. : P

Not to mention, you want to extend the advantage of wielding two weapons to 2_handed weapons. Don't you think that's a little unbalancing?

cant think of what to say. No, i dont think it would be unbalancing, it would just need to be done right. The problem with most guns is that after you fire them, you dont wanna have to type shoot X target again, and since pistol whip does not add too great an amount of damage, hammering your enemy to death is not very appealing. I'm saying that you cna no longer use the weapon as a melee weapon if you atach a bayonette, the bayonette would become the new melee weapon, its just you'd still be able to use the gun for shooting.

Cuz I'm bored at work:

Bug: Remort skill - allows the player to create an object, like a microphone, allowing the Mercenary to snoop tells,says,clansays, groupsays, and any other form of communication the target can hear, as well as anything they say over the channel. Duration of the bug would be dependant on gen/level. The target would also have a chance of seeing the bug being planted - similar to the thieves plant skill.

Previously mentioned was something about Rapid Fire - alternate idea: Have this be a gen 5 or 6 skill offering a similar bonus as implant weaponry, or advance implant weaponry. Need to be wielding a weapon of type gun for this to work, and to NOT work cumulatively with the more firearms you hold (ie dual wielding firearms will NOT give you 7 attacks).

Demolitions skill of some sort : given a schematic from some zone in the mud, you collect the items, and forge an explosive device. Assign the players ID number to the device so that only that player can use it (prevents players from manufacturing them and just doling them out to everyone who wants them, making the merc a utility char) This would be similar to the mob from Dracharnos (tinkerer) that when you put things into one bag, comes back with the finished product. Similar concept for this. Different types of bomb designs may have different effects, like thors lightning bolt + EC transporter + a battery = explosive that does lightning type damage to everything in the room. Temporal leggings + transporter + battery + quicksilver ring = something that tries to cast slow on everything in the room. The level of the spell casted would be dependant on the creator's gen/level - and this gen/level would also affect what types of explosives they can/cant make - ie the more gens you get, the more diversified your kablooie list becomes.

Just a few ideas to kick Merc back to the forefront for some kinda nifty remort skills.

Ooooo bug is an awesome idea! I really like it. Maybe there could also be a tracking bug skill that lets the merc see the location of his/her victim.

That's a good idea - I think it would be physically possible to determine signal strength and direction of the device, isntead of exact location. So if I were bugged by someone, and in the monestary - and you (the person who bugged me) was in holy square - it would tell you that I'm about 20 rooms north, but if you went like 10 rooms north, it would tell you that im about 10 rooms east.

I do think that the exact room name might be a bit much. Although - maybe at higher gens, the person who planted the bug can remotely activate a camera on the bug - which destroys the bug (uses up the power supply) - but does what you said - gives a picture of the room.

Merc already has Elude - which is pretty spiffy for tracking. Maybe a skill called 'Counter Surveillance' for remorts offering a chance at seeing who is trying to clair or psilocate them - similar to a detect scrying spell.

Just another random thought while waiting for an abnoxiously large query to finish.

Alternative for Counter-Surveillance :

Tripwire Bug : Skill that places a bug at the point where the Mercenary places it - when another player enters the room the bug was placed in, the player trips the bug, sending a message to the merc: XXXX has tripped your wire! - send in some alternate color to make it stick out. Useful for avoiding PK - but merc can only have one of these, so they need to be dropped at choke points that others would need to walk through. Also useful for setting, knowing that player XXX is always leaving HS, heading west - perhaps placing one at the west gate, and if that one isnt tripped, set it at the south gate, used to determine patterns for other players remotely, or help prevent pks when used effectively. Not much different from spamming who zone, but a less attention requiring method (when used appropriately).

tripwire sounds alot like the bard skill alarm or whatever it is

ay, rhythm of alarm, only bards can have more then 1. the idea he is proposing i think you can only have one?

Yeah - proposing just 1. If more were wanted, maybe have it gen/level based.

Maybe have it not set off if the person is flying. Possibly have an alternative tripwire - motion sensor (the names already taken, but it illustrates the point) , for higher levels that works on flying targets.

I think one, used correctly, is all someone really needs. There aren't too many zones where you really need to use more than one.

Maybe true seeing would allow a chance for a mage or cleric to know when they tripped one of these. That or possibly detect scrying - even though its not really magic that the devices work off of.

I have heard it said somewhere, either officially or not, that mercenaries are the current coder focus for revampage. Look out!

Merriam

Here we go with my ideas on merc skills and such based on literally every thread i've read in here which denoted mercenaries in thread topic.

I highly agree with mercenaries being able to make bombs themselves based upon discovering schematics throughout various areas on the mud which teach then to put certain things together certain ways to get certain affects. In addition the merc can just throw a buncha random stuff together and come up with their own special concoctions as well.

Hammy.. not quite what makes merc merc imo. It seems to be all about the guns. Guns is, for the most part, I think a large part of mercs uniqueness as a class on the whole. Hopefully when fully revamped, mercs will totally own crap with guns rather than swords, clubs, axes, daggers, etc.

I also like the ideas of ballistics, and advanced ballistics. More or less these would be like how advanced implant weaponry is to cyborgs and implanted weapons, as ballistics and advanced ballistics would be to mercenaries and guns.

Now if mercs are considered a strong figher class, I think they would over time learn certain physical characteristics in battles and be able to DODGE and/or PARRY attacks. Perhaps mercs can benefit a bit from this as it may be in their nature as brute fighter types.

Tripwire/bugs: I love these ideas! Great ideas! :)

Ok so on with my own ideas, hopefully original and very much in mercenary context based on tempus' style mercenary (which in my mind, I tend to envision tempus' mercenaries akin to Deadpool of X-Men fame).

Ballistics/Advanced Ballistics: To mercs and guns, this would be like cyborg implant weaponry and advance implant weaponry is to implanted weaps. It would allow you to shoot more/faster (of course not too much.. can't go and unbalance things).

Assassinate (or Execute): Sneak up behind someone and fire a gun shot into the head! Chance of stun or death if not high damage done.

Lock Blast: Allows a mercenary increased proficiency to successfully shoot out a lock on something. (mercenary version of pick lock)

Stick: Stick a bomb to a door/gate/grate/chest/etc to be blown apart. Might have to ATTACH an ADHESIVE to the bomb if the bomb itself does not have adhesive properties like some kinda plastique would.

Hostage: This could work similar to charm in the sense that you take a hostage or few and use them as your shields. By default they would DEFEND you (at which you could specify to them they defend someone else). Some can be forced to gain you access to areas where you normally have to go find keys. Me personally… i'd love to have some hostages to force to do stuff.. they could be like a mix of unholy stalker and audience members. They're more or less charmed to the merc, but also able to be ordered to go somewhere to accomplish a set task. However the farther away they get the higher the chance of them no longer being a hostage.

SharpShooting: You become more accurate and proficient in shoot skill.. so you do more damage and/or mabey shoot faster. (whether manually firing gun, or automatically firing gun). Combined with Advanced ballistics this could add a total of mabey 10% more combative efficiency with guns.

So.. the above can be normal implemented skils, although i'd assume they'd be much more suitable as remort skills. Especially assassinate/execute.. that'd be a g'damn fun skill to have. :)

The way I figure it, if mercs are the main, or only gun-toting type class available, may as well emphasize on it. Not to the point where it's unbalanced, but indeed makes merc just as worthwile to use as prime class for gun skills as ranger is for stone/thorn skin. :) To be noted here now that I see it, ballistics/advanced ballistics and sharpshooting all more or less focus on the same thing. Mabey not all of these are necessary, but 1 or two of them for us mercs to be able to get bonuses to using guns (like cyborgs get to using implanted weaps with implant/advanced implant weaponry) would be pretty damned nifty.

Anyhow.. i'm out for now.. other ideas have been in and out of my head but when they stick around, i'll be back to post em here. I dearly would LOVE to see mercs get through the revamp.. I think they could easilly become my total fav class.. which right now is for me a toss between monk and merc.

Rage on..

WAR

I posted this in another merc thread that ended up tanking, but I think it's pretty suitable for this one aswell..

I would also like to say it seems some people here don't have alot of experience with Mercenarys and therefore don't understand where alot of these ideas are coming from. Please, those who havn't, make a primary merc, level them up with guns aswell as traditional weapons, both energy and projectile. It will really make this topic more clear to everybody who's involved.

I really do think Mercs are in pretty good position now with their skills short of two areas, which have been mentioned here. Guns and remort skills.

Specifically about guns, I'm particularly disappointed with projectile weapons. To be specific, I made a primary Merc with whom I intended to use projectile pistols despide the fact that they are a hassle with the constant reloading. To my dismay I discovered that they do not function in the same manner as energy weapons. My mercenary, equipped with a pair of fully loaded pistols, will proceed to relentlessly bludgeon his opponents with said fully loaded pistols rather than shoot them. I don't know if this is intentional, an unfortunate "how it has to be", or whatever the reason might be. All I do know, is that as a player who doesn't intimately know Tempus code, this just doesn't make any sense to me. I would like to see projectile weapons function in the same manner as energy weapons, in that they fire automatically when loaded, as energy weapons fire automatically when charged/loaded with a charged cell. —I think an alternative to this idea is the bayonette idea mentioned above. Since Mercs are currently forced to melee with loaded projectile weapons, he suggested then being able to attatch a decent melee weapon to the gun so your melee is as if you were wielding the "bayonette". I got the impression some people didn't understand where he was coming from with this.

About remort skills, I don't have too many "new" ideas, as Mercenary is a tricky class to come up with something fitting. But I think alot of their marginally useful current skills have plenty of very useful remort skill potential with a little bit of tweaking.

Infiltrate is currently simply sneaking. My understanding of the word is rather to sneak beyond somesort of obstacle. My idea is to change infiltrate from mort to gen 1, and instead of simply granting stealth, to also allow it to grant an opportunity to sneak past guards. Such as the guards to the guilds, or Ip and Smeel in Drachs. To fail would have even those guards who normally do not block aggressivly, to become aggressive.

Manhunting, a later gen (3..4..5) remort skill, could be as tracking used to be. HUNT Merriam. You sense a trail to the east…

Garotte is a really cool skill. I think the idea is brilliant, and it is unfortunate that as is, it's not very usefull. Currently it is a single strike attack that does damage. My proposed change would have it be a drawn-out, or lengthier skill. Example; My merc sneaks up upon his victim, and garotte's him. The victim takes damage, and tries to break free, but is unable. My garrotte continues as long as I am intent upon garotting my victim. (Meaning, as hide and elude work, the garrotte continues aslong as I don't enter additional commands, the "distraction" would allow the victim to break free) Every round or so, the victim takes additional damage, and struggles to break free. If they manage to break free, the garrotte ends. Aslong as the victim is unable to break free, he is also unable to harm me. And this continues untill either the victim breaks out, or dies quietly. The struggle would be the Mercenary using their skill at garotting, with their strength and dexterity, versus the victim's strength and dexterity. Also, perhaps, other mobs would not jump into assistance during the attack, as this is intended to be a quiet, stealthy kill, as to not draw the attention of others. Being quiet about your garotte is also something perhaps that could be a succeed/fail situation, of whether or not the Mercenary can bring the victim down in a quiet struggle as planned, or instead fail and the noisy struggling victim alerts the mobs in the room to the fight. Keep in mind, failing to be quiet doesn't necessarily mean that you fail to be deadly. However, should there be others present that would care to assist, not being quiet could be detrimental to being lethal, as an assisting mob would hit you, and cause you to fail. Naturally if the Merc gets hit it would prevent him from continuing the garotte. I daresay even being attacked and missed would be enough.

Take off your top.

You know the rules, money first.

Yea, mercenary is a awesome class. The ideas are great. I agree with making infiltrate a gen 1 skill and allowing the merc to roll a die to see if they can sneak past guards. Maybe it should be a thief remort skill too :) Most of all though the bayonette idea comes to my mind. I am not sure how this would be coded or if its possible but it could work in this type of fassion.

Step One: Practice attach bayonette

Help: attach bayonette

Attach a throwable weapon to your gun so you may thrust it into your target.

Usage: attach blade rifle

Step Two: Practice bayonette

Help bayonette

After attaching a throwable weapon onto a type of gun you attempt to thrust through your victim through. Sometimes the attachment will break off into a part of your victims body causing the target some type of handicap. This can also cripple your target.

It would work like this:

After attaching a blade to your gun you can then thrust that blade into your target. Sometimes the blade would break into their body or neck, or any postion of the body. This would make the wound bleed and damage the victim over time. Other negative effects could be an addition to the damage delt.

Imaple could also work this way. The weapon you used to impale sticks into the victim doing damage with each of there movement.

Had to add more…

I agree with almost everything posted about merc.

ballistics could be a mort high level skill since merc gets nothing after 39.

advanced ballistics could be a mid gen skill which would be much like the cyborgs advanced weaponary except giving bonus to wielding guns.

tripwire sounds fun, awesome, and did I say very mercenary like…

hostage sounds very cool, however I do not think it should work the same as charm. Hostages are in no way in total control and would resist often. This is why I think it should be more of a parry type of skill for the merc. You pick a mob which would be str based on the roll. You grab them and block attacks with their body. This could be performed on players and mobs in the same room as you.

assassinate sounds wicked as hell…I'm all for it even if it means Wargod can kill immortals. j/k honestly though this is something to be considered. Much like a thiefs backstab but a merc is using a gun to sneak up and kill a target. Sounds like a mercenary to me.

That assassinate idea still geeks me out after all these years. I think that being a gen 7 or 9 remort skill for merc would be badass. :) Hopefully Azi could have fun with this if he were to implement it. :D