Unable to recruit mercenary with diamonds at a certain level.

This may be intended, I'm not sure.
However I'm a little confused, as it doesn't appear to be consistent.

Level 10 Giant Spider - All fine.


Level 11 Giant Spider - Can't recruit (even though I have a level 11 unit in my army)


Level 14 Giant Spider - Requires a level 12 unit?


Same deal with the Ogre Skullplucker

Level 10 I can recruit with Diamonds.
Level 11 I can't. (Same as Level 11 Giant Spider)
Level 12, I require a level 12 unit. (As expected).


Is this as intended?
Can you confirm the rules for recruiting mercs? I assumed they would all be the same, but I'm guessing not?

XViper wrote:

This may be intended, I'm not sure.
However I'm a little confused, as it doesn't appear to be consistent.

...

Is this as intended?
Can you confirm the rules for recruiting mercs? I assumed they would all be the same, but I'm guessing not?

The rules for recruiting mercenaries are in the release notes for the patch on September 25th, 2013 (the Guild Layers 2 patch):

Guild Layers 2 Release Notes wrote:

Mercenaries can now be hired and brought into battle! The Army tab now includes a 'Recruit Powerful Mercenaries' button that will take you to the mercenary options.
- Mercenaries can be hired with gems up to level 10, or gold if the player's guild controls a region with the corresponding Regional Bonus.
- Mercenaries have contracts which binds them to fight for you for a set number of days. Each Mercenary can be fielded up to 20 times per day, a number which will automatically fully replenish every 24 hours from the time the cntract was signed.
- The player can renew an expired contract with a 25% discount in gems or gold (if the player's guild can support that mercenary). This option will be valid for 24 hours after the contract expiration, after which time the mercenary will forever abandon your army.

Mercenary common traits:
- No healing required.
- Do not gain Experience.
- Will not gather loot for you.
- Cannot equip gear or heroes.
- Do not benefit from your research bonuses.
- Only one Mercenary is allowed per 1000 Army Points.

Notes::

• I added the purple color (not in original release notes of course)
  
• The release notes of September 25, 2013 do not appear in News and announcements as far as I can tell; I believe the link posted above is to a accurate copy of the Guild Layers 2 Release notes,
  

Oh bugger. Sorry I missed that level 10 bit....

Thanks for pointing that out Joyce.

What about the differing unit level requirement in your army?

ie. Why does a level 14 Giant Spider require a level 12 unit in your army, where a level 12 Ogre Skullplucker requires a level 12 unit in your army?

I would expect it to be 12 needs 12 for both.

I hereby request that Mercenaries can be recruited with Gems up to the highest level unit in your army.

Being capped at 10 kinda sucks. Will get even worse as your army levels further and further away from level 10. Eventually Mercs simply won't have a place or purpose, and only those big guilds that have the hexes will be able to have Mercs of higher levels.

I don't really see the logic of restricting them for gem purchases?

XViper wrote:

I hereby request that Mercenaries can be recruited with Gems up to the highest level unit in your army.

Being capped at 10 kinda sucks. Will get even worse as your army levels further and further away from level 10. Eventually Mercs simply won't have a place or purpose, and only those big guilds that have the hexes will be able to have Mercs of higher levels.

I don't really see the logic of restricting them for gem purchases?

The purpose is that so only guilds which control the region can get the maximum potential out of the mercs.

XViper wrote:

Oh bugger. Sorry I missed that level 10 bit....

Xviper, I agree that this part that you posted is confusing (only relevant part of picture shown -- see Xviper's original post for full picture):



You will be unable to hire that spider even after you 'unlock' it.

You need two things to hire that spider at level 12:

• A level 12 unit of your own to 'unlock' it;
  
• To be in a guild that controls region #44 (the spiders) & has upgraded it sufficiently high
  

Thus as a bug report, I suggest improving the message to show both conditions.

---

Bobba wrote:

XViper wrote:

I hereby request that Mercenaries can be recruited with Gems up to the highest level unit in your army.

Being capped at 10 kinda sucks. Will get even worse as your army levels further and further away from level 10. Eventually Mercs simply won't have a place or purpose, and only those big guilds that have the hexes will be able to have Mercs of higher levels.

I don't really see the logic of restricting them for gem purchases?

The purpose is that so only guilds which control the region can get the maximum potential out of the mercs.

I agree with Bobba, the logic is explained on September 4th, 2013 comments on next update:

RuneSlayer wrote:

Mercenary units can be recruited by Guild members who own the relevant Regions with the Merc
Units indicated.

However, they will be able to be purchased via Gems as well, though the Guilds will have some extra advantages when they are recruiting them from their Regions.

Right now, I actually think:

• Gems have a slight advantage over guilds; as you can recruit level 10 mercenaries with gems -- and I don't believe any guild members can yet recruit level 10 mercenaries with gold (since the guilds have not upgraded the regions high enough);
  
• However, in the future ... once guilds upgrade enough ... the guild will probably have the advantage;
  
• Though of course, currently, guild members can recruit with gold instead of gems, which is already a very significant advantage
  

See also New Reward System - Economy - Gear - Battle Difficulty (Modes)

RuneSlayer wrote:

Important:

Recruited Mercenaries with no healing cost/time, guaranteed loot and significant "muscles" WILL give the upper hand to a General both tactically and loot wise.

Which, to me, indicates its deliberate that guild members of a guild with very high upgrades will have an advantage being able to recruit higher level mercenaries (eventually, when they upgrade the regions) over non guild members of that guild.

Can guilds that control the hex recruit Mercs with Gems past level 10?

I understand the whole concept about giving the guilds the advantage for recruiting mercs, but I think the fact they can recruit them with gold is good enough.

All this will do is encourage all the top tier players to all join the same guild so they can get better use out of the Mercs. (like that's not enough of a problem already!)

Those players not in the power guilds already HAVE to pay real money to get access to Mercs, and they will NEVER be able to have one above level 10. Mercs are an interesting change and add a flavourful dynamic, but they don't provide the kind of advantage that warrants such restriction. It's nothing like a 'pay to win' button, so why not allow Gem recruitment up to (or close to) the level of the units you have in your army, so at least it scales for the bigger players. (of which I'm not one yet, so this doesn't directly benefit me right now).