Merc is far too powerful when contacted to Cult/Unseen

Feedback/Suggestions
#1

Here recently, merc has been getting buff after buff to compensate for her inability to get a new contract. However, due to everything she has received, if she is contracted to a cult or unseen member, it heavily tips the balance into they favor, and not on a healthy way.

The main guard ability for merc has always been rough for investigators as there is no way around it. The bd buff is suppose to be that it prevents death and conversion. However the secondary ability is mostly scum positive as it kills off anyone visiting your target, which is still very likely to be bd.

The other new ability merc got is that he can auto pardon his contact. This completely nerfs bds main form of killing scum by removing the possibility. Add in if the merc claim isn’t know, it can seem like the king is saving them.

And probably the biggest problem is the merc is a +1 to unseen and cult, which lacks the ambiguity of evil/good king, and still forces bd to waste two days to kill them. Meanwhile whoever the merc was contacted to gets any extra night, which can mean a new conversion, more death, or both.

2 Likes
#2

This makes me think that perhaps we should promote the backstabbing Mercenary, as it was before the change.

Because as of right now, it’s not really neutral. It’s just any faction, similiar to King.

But I wholeheartedly agree that an extra Unseen/Cult, or even a NK, is too swingy to be left alone.

1 Like
#3

No devs. Making merc always contracted to BD doesn’t help.

1 Like
#4

I think old merc would be fine if we add in if you recontract you lose guard uses and/or you can’t recontract if there are 6 or less players.

#5

No backstabbing mercy

#6

Me don’t like dying :frowning:

#7

Actually, why was merc changed anyway? If backstabbing merc was game throwing, fine, but purposely killing your contract should fall under similar ruling as asking to be converted or to be killed.

#8

Because people were backstabbing even though it is against the rules, and people were constantly complaining that it was against the rules.

There isn’t really a good way to make it so people would prefer to protect their first target. Even if you removed their ability to guard their second target, people would still let their first target die so they can contract the Prince.

4 Likes
#9

Maybe give merc a new target selected at random?

#10

It will still have the problem of people not guarding their first target, so that they’ll still have all their guards for the second.

1 Like
#11

:octopus: maybe only give them one guard for second contract

1 Like
#12

I think the current formulation is the best solution I’ve seen. The overwhelming majority of available targets for a merc are BD, so more merc tends to be more beneficial to BD. If merc pardons his contract, you can just execute the merc and get the target some other way (order execution, cold steel, prince execute) or kill them the next day.

#13

How about removing mercenary then? It is a fun class to play as, but we already have a swingy class- king. Mercenary makes the game a lot, a LOT more difficult if they are against you, especially if the King is also against you.
It breaks the internal balance of setups.

External balance would be the balance of the game in total.
It is important.
Internal balance is the ability of a faction to win in a certain scenario.
If you look back and have to say: we played well, but the enemies were OP and had an unfair advantage then this is a problem even if the games even out.
4 neutrals with Reaper, Merc evil, 2 fools, Eking? How is BD supposed to win that?
On day 1 there are, out of 16 classes, SEVEN anti-BD

#14

Merc is fun

Go away you merc hater :slight_smile:

#15

I like playing as merc, but… I hate unbalanced games.

1 Like
#16

Well the odds of Merc being assigned to the Unseen/Cult is lower when there is an EK

5 Likes
#17

Mkay watching you

#18

Wait what?

#19

There are lot of things in the spawning system that tries to make games more balanced.

9 Likes
#20

Even with GK it is still 6 anti-bd. With one conversion and 2 bd kills you have 7 anti-BD and 7 BD, and that on Day 2. Add in the force-pardon and the merc guard…