Mercenaries *MUST* be free and available at start of game

[SIlverblade-T-E]

I do NOT want ot play with most of the characters, sorry devs but that's one place you messed up, most of the companions SUCK, they are NOT fun to be in a party with :(

Linzi and couple of others are fine, rest are just overblown, boring etc.

I want to play with MY party, not yours.
Sigh

[snoreboy01]

No, they shouldn't be. Those are the charactes you have to play with, want your own.. pay.
In RL if you wnated to hire Mercs, you would ave to pay, why not in an RPG....

I don't like osme, I don't take them... once I have enough gold, I will buy some Mercs... part of the fun and RPG.

[Privateer]

Stop crying. Play 20 minutes and you will have enough gold for mercenaries

[The Worthless Gamer]

Mercenaries start with 20 point buy instead of 25 that's something they should fix too :P

[starkmaddness]

Originally posted by Privateer:

Stop crying. Play 20 minutes and you will have enough gold for mercenaries

No you won't. It costs 10k for 5. You do not get 10k in 20 minutes. You don't get that in 2 hours.

This is a party based RPG, building a custom party is a pretty common feature. One that should not be heavily penalized. It is not a balance issue. It is an ego issue. It is just the devs punishing you for not using their characters. That is just sad,

[ruppe27]

I like the characters especially the dwarf and hafling but their stats are terrible.
Valerie is a walking trope that's been done to death but the rest are okay so far.

Originally posted by the worthless teammate:

Mercenaries start with 20 point buy instead of 25 that's something they should fix too :P

I think that's because the player character is supposed to be the strongest hero.

[StevenXu]

For me, it’s ok to pay for mercenaries, it’s ok they have only 20 points for abilities. But totally disabled since last patch? Really?

I don’t think it’s a bug, it’s developer’s setup. They want or force players play their pre made companions, so they can get feedback on how to adjust them.

Damn we are all testers here!

[Ank]

Not working. you cant buy new pplz now =((((

[Nanny]

Mercenaries from Eight-Eyes are almost exclusively for replacing dead companions only. Not only that, you basically get a full party once you reach and are half-way finished with the Old Sycamore dungeon which happens about 30% of the way through Act 1 so there's no real need to get new companions which will end up just wasting money and space.

Everything up until then should be pretty easy to beat using just 4 companions.

[Entreri]

Originally posted by Nanny:

Mercenaries from Eight-Eyes are almost exclusively for replacing dead companions only. Not only that, you basically get a full party once you reach and are half-way finished with the Old Sycamore dungeon which happens about 30% of the way through Act 1 so there's no real need to get new companions which will end up just wasting money and space.

Everything up until then should be pretty easy to beat using just 4 companions.

Where are you getting the "dead companion replacement" idea from?

[SIlverblade-T-E]

Originally posted by starkmaddness:

Originally posted by Privateer:

Stop crying. Play 20 minutes and you will have enough gold for mercenaries

No you won't. It costs 10k for 5. You do not get 10k in 20 minutes. You don't get that in 2 hours.

This is a party based RPG, building a custom party is a pretty common feature. One that should not be heavily penalized. It is not a balance issue. It is an ego issue. It is just the devs punishing you for not using their characters. That is just sad,

Exactly!
I want to play a party I like, the way I like.
Folk who dishagree...eve played Tewmple of Elemental Evil?
or hell, ever actually played a Pen & Paper RPG?

note I'm a VERY old school DM.

and as said the companions moslty SUCK
it was damn fun to play with Minsc & Boo, and other companions in toher games, these ones, bar Linzi, are BORING AS HELL! :(
and that is unforvgivable.
companions should put a smile on your face, or other interesting things to care about them.

[JoeVonFo]

To be honest, my biggest issue is that they start with less XP..
I don't care if it would COST me xp, on top of the current price, to buy a mercenary..

I just don't want my party to level up at different times.. It's really annoying to me :D

[Damedius]

I would be fine with the costs as long as you can always hire level 1 characters for 500g.

They do need to patch this ASAP. I refuse to play until they do

[Graygan]

The calculation of the cost of mercenaries is very simple...

Main Character level squared * 500 = cost of mercenaries....

So... best time to buy mercs is at level 1. Just don't level up when you fight the bandits. Level the other party members so they fight better, but not the main character.

Then you should be able to afford 1-3 mercs depending on how much you carried away with you from the prologue.

But now? Now we have to wait for the merc hiring system to be fixed. So no more of this game for me until it's fixed.

[matthew]

Originally posted by Nanny:

Mercenaries from Eight-Eyes are almost exclusively for replacing dead companions only. Not only that, you basically get a full party once you reach and are half-way finished with the Old Sycamore dungeon which happens about 30% of the way through Act 1 so there's no real need to get new companions which will end up just wasting money and space.

Everything up until then should be pretty easy to beat using just 4 companions.

But you need a healer, and you only get one if you go the evil route, otherwise, its annyoing to heal.

the game is focused around 6 party members, we should be able to have 6 party members close to the start. besides, from what I heard, beta testers told the devs this during the beta, about the bad NPCs, and yet the devs did nothing. if this not able to hire new NPCs is a feature opof the devs, then its in poor taste. they should not force you to use badly done NPCs at all/

I really think a healer would have been a good choice for both parties, good and evil, and not force good party players to be punished for been good.

[JoeVonFo]

Originally posted by matthew:

Originally posted by Nanny:

Mercenaries from Eight-Eyes are almost exclusively for replacing dead companions only. Not only that, you basically get a full party once you reach and are half-way finished with the Old Sycamore dungeon which happens about 30% of the way through Act 1 so there's no real need to get new companions which will end up just wasting money and space.

Everything up until then should be pretty easy to beat using just 4 companions.

But you need a healer, and you only get one if you go the evil route, otherwise, its annyoing to heal.

tghe game is focused around 6 party members, we should be able to have 6 party members close to the start. besides, from what I heard, beta testers told the devs this during the beta, about the bad NPCs, and yet the devs did nothing. if this not able to hire new NPCs is a feature opof the devs, then its in poor taste. they should not force you to use badly done NPCs at all/

I really think a healer would have been a good choice for both parties, good and evil, and not force good party players to be punished for been good.

What healers are you referring to?
The very first healer you meet is a neutral dwarf, so he can roll with both sides