Yeah, IMHO I think the query used to get the merc stats should be changed to get the last level merc available. So if a server op only wants new mercs every 10 levels (I know not live like) they wouldn't have to fill the merc_stats table with a bunch of jazz.
The query would be like
Code:
Select * from merc_stats where clientlevel <= getlevel() limit 1
Of course that won't work, but you get the idea. It would select the highest level available to the player and only return 1 result. I can't imagine that putting too much extra load time on mercs.
I'll take a look at the code and see if I can implement this myself.