Mercenaries

[bad_captain]

Great work, Secrets!

I took a few days off, but planned on getting back to it. I was planning on working on the database side, for getting the basic stats per level, class, proficiency, etc., naming rules, and anything else that's still needed.

A decision that still needs to be made is whether mercs use equipment (and weapons) or max & min hit values. The benefit of using weapons would seem to be less balancing that would need to be done in the database, since there wouldn't be records that would need to be updated per level, class, proficiency, and tier. That's quite a few records to have to change if melee attacks are under or over powered. On the other hand, if weapons are used, it could require more data elements that need to be edited to change the resulting damage.

As you said, much of the AI can be copied from bots and edited where needed. I'm sure the stance code for bots can be improved, but that could provide a start. I'm still working to get all spells used, and I know they differ based on the selected stance, so that data still needs to be captured completely. I think I can currently come up with basic spell sets for all of them, but more data is needed, especially for higher levels.

[Secrets]

Fairly certain on live mercs do not use weaponry, and instead have min/max values based on level. According to a few posts on ZAM, proficiency determines how many NPCs a merc can take on at once before feeling 'overwhelmed', an overwhelmed merc will fight but with a debuff. Not sure where the debuff is from or if it's a spell or anything. Tier determines the quality (dps output) of the mercenary.

Also, from limited testing on live, mercs seem to follow NPC stat rules more than PC stat rules. With the exception of HP, their damage seems more like that of an equal level NPC. For example, a level 50 mercenary deals around 151 points of damage and quad-attacks. This is close to being on par with a Plane of Justice sentinel, but with extra quad attacks. As for HP their HP is more so that of a player. They do not follow AA rules as far as I can tell, however, they have considerably more AC than a player would at that level. They seemed easily damaged by spell casters, so I assume they have very little resists.

I think the best way to do it would be min/max anyways; weapons do not make sense as mercenaries on live do not store items.

That only covers tank mercs, caster mercs are another animal entirely but from my testing they follow PC spell rules in general but only basic functionality; ie, heals, hots, very minor buffs (no resist buffs. hp/ac only), and cures. I didn't play live when caster (ranged dps) mercs were implemented so I cannot comment on them.

Due to the 'era' of what PEQ is in, If they were added on PEQ they would severely imbalance gameplay unless tweaked. The level 68 mercenaries were doing 768 damage quad (!) and that's a bit absurd for PEQ's DPS output at the moment.

Perhaps PEQ can increase the quality of mercenaries per expansion. They should always match the quality of NPC that is in the next expansion, for general rule of thumb. This is why SOE does level cap increases with most expansions; so they can balance out mercenaries and do a gear reset.