In 99% of all cases you won't get gold. After all you are joining a battle for fun and experience. The battle leader might decide to give people some gold, but he is of course not forced to do so.
This doesn't have to be removed or changed.
Well I think it is probably good the way it is. I mean it suck they didn't pay you but at the same time it does allow for a bit of realism I suppose. If someone backs out on your contracted rate, you let everyone know and other mercs/sellswords won't be willing to work for them. At the same time, the people who day pay you appropriately, you would work for again most likely.
I was just testing the system, which is more time than most people would invest trying to figure strat battles out.
I don't really agree with your assessment of the realism because currently the client can back out of the agreement before the fight by retracting the application. The merc can choose to reapply without pay if they really want to fight.
Currently, there is little incentive to follow through on the deal
You need to negotiate merc rates beforehand if you want to get paid. Some clans do need dedicated and exclusive mercs, and would be willing to work out a contract.
This system has been in place since Strategus 1, and I really don't see a problem with it. Most merc agreements are organized on a clan level, and only the best independent players would ever hope to make any money for a strat battle, and becoming enemies with good players by not paying them is never a good idea.
That being said, with this new banking system you might see people refuse to merc without at least some sort of payment, but it would take a lot of people since there are a lot of people willing to fight for free just for the experience.
But why can't that feature be built into the system?
You are saying I need to get in the hot tub with the leaders of the real shit, show them they need my help, and negotiate pay for every battle? That's a lot to ask. What about just submitting a contract request with a negotiable pay rate from cRPG website
So many changes have been made both to the UI and gameplay since Strategus 1, why can't the pay request feature be improved upon like the rest? I am sorry I am not making things clearer for you, but the system gives little incentive to join a fight as a free company
There is a whole forum dedicated to negotiating pay for individual battles: http://forum.meleegaming.com/mercenary-recruitment/ you can also send people private messages on the forum and the cRPG page itself if you just click on the guy commanding the battle. Sure you can just show up to a battle and say "give me money" but they probably won't pay, and trying to revamp the system wouldn't change anything, except bonus pay.
The biggest benefit this has over a fixed contract is performance based pay. If I say the players with the top 5 KDRs get 500, and everyone with a positive KDR gets 100, and everyone below 1:1: gets 50. Or if I wanted to pay everyone a base price of 100g and then multiply that by their KDR then dole out additional funds to people who guarded the spawn flags and maybe not get as many kills. I can do that without having people try and guess how well they are going to do.
The system gives great incentive to join the fight as a free company, experience points for your cRPG character. If you are good enough and request money you will probably get it.
Enforcing a contract would mean that some merc could show up for 1000 gold and then if he doesn't do anything or starts teamkilling and gets himself banned I would then have to pay him that 1,000.
This system has been in place since Strategus 1, and I really don't see a problem with it. Most merc agreements are organized on a clan level, and only the best independent players would ever hope to make any money for a strat battle, and becoming enemies with good players by not paying them is never a good idea.
That being said, with this new banking system you might see people refuse to merc without at least some sort of payment, but it would take a lot of people since there are a lot of people willing to fight for free just for the experience.
Plus, did you even bother to contact the FCC (or whoever it was you fought for) prior to the battle? Half of the people who put a number on the payment bar are joking anyways.
You only went 13:9, that's not a pay-worthy score imo.
If I recall I was 2nd place on the team only miggy had me beat. Though it's irrelevant. I'm more focused on the process of mercing being more integrated into the website
Wut? how do you KNOW his score. You only know his k/d. It should record your score at end of battle too. You can go 1:15 and have top of scoreboard or go 15:0 and only middle of pack.