The Mercenary Problem

Hi, I am an aspiring Game Designer and this is my read on the Mercenary problem, I won't use chatgpt so you must read my poor english:

Mercs were fun and would be a great addition for the game for many players but it shouldn't be the default choice for all builds to be the most powerful, it shouldn't be mandatory to have a merc but they need to be strong enough to be viable to build around and reminiscent of how they were in the league.

So they are tricky to be added in the game without impacting PoE players that like the game how it is and hated micromanaging them.

The feeling about mercs could be descontructed as:

"

"All Arpgs needs mercs, you can't be an arpg and not have mercs. Diablo 2 had mercs!"
"I love mercs, I can't play the game again without them."
"I love mercs, definetly having them is a +, wouldn't mind if all builds required them."
"I like mercs, but wouldn't like if all builds required them."
"I'm neutral, having or not mercs doesn't make a difference to my enjoyment of the game."
"I didn't mind mercs as a league, but they shouldn't be added in the game."
"I disliked micromanaging mercs, I don't like having a guy following me around, I don't like minions."
"I hate mercs and wouldn't play the game if they were mandatory."

I didn't actually see all of these comments, only some, neither did I research to see how much of the community agree with what in this, I just think that these are the possible ways people feel about them.

I came up with some ideas of how mercs could be added into the game, but that would most likely not fit the above criteria of impacting those who are not that into or absolutetly hate them:

Item Based:

Jewels. Unique Jewels that give you a specific stat allowing you to hire mercs of that given house that the stat gives e.g. "# Honour for the House Keita". (This could also be a Non-Jewel new item that is socketed in Jewel sockets for better fantasy flavour, like a contract for example).
Thoughts: But, It isn't the same feeling as it was in the league. Feels weird to hunt for a unique jewel and after for a merc. Doesn't make sense in lore that much.

Unique Jewellery. X House of Trarthus is related to a given unique, each house has a different unique that gives the ability to recruit them and show you are worth it. e.g.
Belt for Keita, Rings for Cyaxan and Azadin and a Amulet for Bardiya. The flavour is better delivered IMO, specially depending on the way you grind these uniques.
Thoughts: Not ideal feeling of farming and interacting with it. Jewellery slots are competitive but would still not be enough to overshadow the power level of mercs depending on balance. Just like above, feels scuffed.


Rare Item Implict, Affix or Enchantment. Like the two ideas from above, Imagine you have a stat named Honour or Regard e.g. "30 Regards/Honours From The House of Keita" that can be dropped, crafted, improved by defeating mercs, which shows how much respect from that house you have gathered, therefore, hiring better mercs of that respective house require you to have gear with that stat on it, rewarding the player for engaging with the mechanic and limiting mods on your gear. So that, having a merc isn't free, requires effort to get one, but you can start with a weaker one from the moment you engage the mechanic (if you require none of that stat for weaker ones). This stat could also be Base-specific, creating new trarthus items bases.
Thoughts: Requires double the farming of the league verison because you have 2 vectors of scaling. The merc (and farming its gear) and your own gear, making the player halt progression of his merc in search for better gear, risking not being able to get the merc that you want when you find them if you don't have the proper amount of "honour", giving a bad feeling when RNG is wasted and you will have to grind to encounter that perfect merc again.

Gear Socket Item. After defeating the merc that you want, you gain a Gem of a color related to their house, which you can socket in your gear to be able to use them, they can be hired but won't follow you into a map if you don't have the socketed gem
Thoughts: This one in my opinion is not worst solution.

Final thoughts on Item Based mercs:
All the Item Based mercs solution suffer from the same problems, they don't feel the same as what it was in the league, they try to be competitive with other items of the slots but a merc will always be stronger. What would even happen inside a map if you brick your gear that is required to have the merc hired? will they disappear and reappear? Will they go alway? Would it brick your instance? It doesn't feel right for another human in Wraeclast that is paid to be at your side to just vanish because you took off your boots.

Ascendancy Based:
Where you get your ability to hire mercs from an ascendancy.

Global Mercenary Ascendancy / Scion Ascendancy . All classes (or Scion) gain the ability to ascend into the Mercenary ascendancy. The player selects 1 of 4 houses and gain the ability to hire mercs, making them spawn in every instance for the rest of campaign.
Thoughts: It would be weird thematiaclly for these mercs only appear after you specifically ascend, even more for other players being kept from seeing a content just because they didn't ascend to hire mercenaries if that was the way implemented, so you would have to spawn mercs very often just as you spawn strongboxes or essences, making it a common content for everyone, which wouldn't be the best option as it is an intrusive mechanic. An ascendancy dependant on random content that may or may not spawn sounds unique but scuffed. Alternatively, at points that GGG chose of the campaign, in specific areas, the merc could be scripted to always appear there, so it streamlines the experience of where the merc is and when is your next merc upgrade.

Bloodline Ascendancy. As the name suggests, only after reaching maps and doing the content which rewards you the bloodline you would be able to hire them, costing you 2 ascendancy points. GGG could make new content where this bloodline is given or give it right away once you defeat a merc.
Thoughts: It would be the easiest way to implement at the moment.

Final Thoughts: Ascendancy based mercs would be very different, it would be the only content that a part of it is only relevant to those who chose a specific ascedancy which has never been done before, it doesn't feel right but I wouldn't say it is the ugliest way of implementing it. But comparing it to how it was on the league it definetly limits the player more removing ascendancy possibilities and still has that feeling of "Why I need an ascendancy to hire a guy with my gold?".


Just like I said in the start, all the suggestions above are not the best ones and would never be the best ones because it suffers from the "It needs to be strong enough to be viable but not so strong every build must use it". Item Based mercs add no real choice to make, if they are strong for your build (which most likely they will be) you are happily changing 1 suffix, one unique, for that merc. Ascendancy based mercs have a choice but can't be implemented in a way that feels POE, that isn't scuffed. And most of all, they are just an inconvenience to the players that don't want nothing to do with mercs.

Therefore, the only real solution to mercs is:
Players that want to play merc, play merc.
Players that don't want to play merc, don't play merc.
You must turn mercs for the non-merc players into a net positive in a way that doesn't require them to have the guy following them around, making them waste time on gearing, and grinding for mercs.
The choice of having a merc following you around must come from the merc player. Not the contrary (the choice of not having).

If it is a net positive for the game, and it is worth it, it just can't be sloppy. You have to go all in.

I don't know the situation of how the leagues work and the coding behind and how hard would be to implement but, the only way I see it working as a net positive for everyone is:

> Add mercs as a league on the atlas tree and everything, make them just like they were on Mercenaries league, but, add them to Kingsmarch.
> They basically become mappers of content that you yourself don't want to do.
> Only one merc can be working at the time either for you or in a mechanic you choose.
> You can make them map with mappers and target a specific content (if possible mechanically, imagine you could check a box in your own atlas tree that makes your merc use that atlas tree while mapping with your runners).
> While they map with your mappers, they have less chance of dying and being taken hostage.
> While they travel with one of your shipments, they have less risk and chance of being attacked by the pirate boss guy.
> They can Delve for you (While you have the sulphite.)
> You can give Heists and they heist for you (Provided you have enough markers.)
> But they can't leave the mechanic until completed, locking them into their job, the longer you leave them in a content the better they become at it rewarding you for not removing and putting them back.

So there is a choice to be made faster content you are running and the game fantasy of having that merc with you and managing their loot and building around them OR 25% extra loot from a content you choose, less risk for your mappers, less risk for your ships. You could even nerf the risk of non merc map runs so that if you are not leaving your merc there there is a chance of failing. Or even exclusive content that requires a merc to be present.

Anyway, I think that is it. I'm still learning PoE day by day and hopefully one day I can work at GGG. I don't think this solution has no flaws, so thats the main reason I'm posting here, for GGG and for you the community to give me opinions on what is wrong with my reasoning and to also help GGG in finding a solution that is a net positive for everyone :) I really like mercs and if you think you have a better way than those above for GGG to add them please let them know!

Buff Chain Hook GGG!