purpose:
giving the single factionless player a -for the individual- significant role to encourage participation in the strat world without having to play by the rules indoctrinated by big organized factions.
how does it work?
the factionless player decides to make his char "role: main, mercenary", and spawns on the map with low tier gear and amount x gold.
he checks the forums to see where big battles are about to take place, and travels their. he can participate in any battle in his perimeter, and does not use the forces gear that he chooses to fight for, but uses his own gear, which he alone can spawn with an amount "troops:players*0.5 times"
so in an army of 1000 troops with 50 signed up players, he can respawn 10 times. he is paid by the armies leader in strat gold that he can invest in repairing his gear and buying better gear from regular merchants like we find them today. his gear gets damaged according to his lives/deaths ratio, so dying 10 out of ten times would mean paying the complete price of his loadout to repair it. dying once would result in paying 10%.
he can flee the battle at any time to keep his losses manageable, ofc loosing reputation among his comander.
to upgrade his gear, he has to travel wherever a player/merchant/crafter is located.
he can not attack, nor be attacked by armies.
he has a travel speed bonus.
(maybe: he can attack and be attacked by parties of up to 10 people.)
so what would happen if implemented?
factionless players rushing across the map and satelliting big armies to offer their swords.
smaller clans/ factions with weak economy hiring well equipped mercenaries to help fend off attacking forces and in return giving them the loot or paying them later or whatever.
mercenaries crossing the maps seeking for the best smiths that can sell them the finest of gear.
maybe late in the game: mercenaries that came to wealth, buying a small village from some faction to start their own little kingdom.
