Landholds

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Re: Landholds

Postby DeputyDirector » Fri Jan 13, 2017 8:52 pm

All players, please review the below updated rules for Landholds within BTM.

Landhold Rules

1. Landholds can only be offered by a recognized Major House.

2. A Mercenary Unit must achieve 25 reputation with a particular Major House for a landhold to be offered.

3. The Mercenary Unit's Commanding Officer becomes a non-hereditary noble within the realm of the Major House and receives the title of "Baronet" or "Baronetess". Upon continued dedication of the unit to a single Major House, an appropriate title of nobility, based on the number of landholds held within that House, will be granted and can be passed down to a successor. The hereditary title of Baron is awarded for three landholds, Viscount for four landholds, Count at five landholds, and Duke at six landholds. These titles are based off English titles of nobility and would be used by the Federated Suns, but equivalent and appropriate titles would be awarded to other nations.

4. A Mercenary Unit can be granted another landhold for every 15 reputation points reached above 25 to a maximum of six landholds. The first landhold is granted at 25 reputation, the second at 40, third at 55, fourth at 70, fifth at 85, and sixth at 100 reputation points. Reputation above 100 points with a single Major House will allow a unit to receive perks from that House, including the assignment of military hardware.

5. Multiple landholds can be on the same planet or spread over separate planets nearby. (Chosen on the prerogative of the MRBC Staff and with negotiations between the MRBC Staff and the MUCO)

6. If the Mercenary Unit takes a contract against the interests of the Major House that the landholds are within, they forfeit at least one landhold within that House, lose their title of nobility, and lose at least 15 reputation points with that House. The forfeiture of additional landholds and loss of additional reputation points can occur depending on the severity, frequency, and duration of the action against that House.

7. A Landhold acts as a MHB Depot world for the Mercenary Unit and they are able to purchase MH there.

8. The Mercenary Unit must always assign and leave a Garrison force on each landhold (Minimum of a single Company sized mechanized force at each landhold; if there is more than one landhold on a single planet, each landhold on that planet must be garrisoned by a separate garrison). If the planet is taken by a rival faction, the Mercenary Unit will lose 10 reputation with that Major House and lose the landhold or landholds on the planet.

9. If a rival faction contests the planet, the Mercenary Unit will be forced into a Defensive Campaign, Siege Campaign or Guerrilla Warfare contract with no payment. (Chosen on the prerogative of the MRBC Staff)

10. The Mercenary Unit may be asked to form a Protectorate, garrisoning one or more nearby planets at the behest of the Major House. (Chosen on the prerogative of the MRBC Staff) The strength and composition of the garrisoning force should be communicated to the Staff on the annual anniversaries of the landhold payout.

11. Semantic details about law/order, policing, infrastructure responsibilities, corporate agreements, mining, health and other aspects of planetary governance are negotiated with the Major House before the title for the landhold is given.

12. Income for owning each landhold was held at a standard agreed by Star League treaty during the Second Star League. That treaty has been maintained by the MRBC and grants a Mercenary Unit an annual stipend of 60,000,000 C-Bills every (In Character) year after Major House taxes and levies are collected on the 1st of January. (The IC year cycles on the RT dates of; 4th of May and 4th of November).

13. After achieving six landholds within a single Major House, a Mercenary Unit can receive perks from the Major House they are sworn to as long as all six landholds are within that Major House. These perks can include assigned military equipment, the loan of additional funds, and more favorable contract terms. These perks can be negotiated with the MRBC Staff as to what is most appropriate and helpful to the Mercenary Unit and the Major House. Actions against the Major House will find these perks removed with use of the assigned military hardware revoked, the loans coming due immediately or the loss of favorable contract terms.

14. A Mercenary Unit Commanding Officer may negotiate the movement of a Landhold from one Major House to a different Major House, so long as they have the appropriate level of reputation with the second Major House to acquire a Landhold. By swapping a Landhold to a second Major House, the Mercenary Unit will lose all perks, reputation, and rights with the House with the title being recanted. The annual stipend awarded for the swapped landhold will not start until the next payment cycle (?). This exchange will be negotiated between the MUCO and MRBC Staff.

15. If appropriate levels of reputation are reached with factions that are not Major Houses (Corporations, Nobility, Clans, etc.) then it is possible for a Mercenary Unit to receive military hardware for their service to that faction. This is most likely to be major pieces of hardware (a JumpShip, for example), but could instead be a number of smaller items (a company of BattleMechs, for example) instead. Only three items can be received in this fashion and are awarded at reputation points of 25, 40, and 55 points. This award will be negotiated between the MUCO and MRBC Staff.

Please note the various changes to the rules as well as the addition of new rules. It is the hope of your MRBC Staff that these changes will be a benefit to all units in our community and help make the benefits of a Landhold more clear to all. Comments and questions are not only welcome, but are encouraged. Please feel free to do so by commenting in this thread or by contacting me by PM or at deputy@battletech-mercenaries.com.

Thank you for your time.
Raymond Freeman MacCreary
Deputy Director
Mercenary Review and Bonding Commission (MRBC)

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Re: Landholds

Postby Dulio12385 » Fri Jan 13, 2017 11:49 pm

I have to say DD these changes are awesome, especially the opening up of higher reputation grants and Landhold swaps. It encourages the building of long term relationships between contractor-employer.

That said may I make a suggestion for Rule 15 in particular I find that the the offered rewards are on opposite sides of a cash value scale. A Jumpship is worth at least 200 million while a company of mechs could be had for just as low as 12-20 million if the donor is thrifty, like most Corporations are, but the reputation requirement is still a flat 25 so there is no proportionality between reputation and reward. In the interest of fairness, standardization and ease of record keeping, especially since these grants can be revoked under Rule 6, would it not be more expedient to just extend the same benefit of 60 million per year but just pare down the obligations and other benefits given the nebulous quality of the faction.

The 60 million per year would represent retainers' fees and commercial interests in holdings of that faction (bonds, stocks, investments, profit-sharing agreements, etc) that were granted to the mercenary company however since these factions are non-territorial in nature it imposes its own unique set of freedoms and limitations. Rules 7, 8 and 9 for example would not be applicable; the mercenaries would not have the headache of having to defend a world but would also not benefit from a personal MHB depot. Rule 10 however becomes even more onerous as these factions are widely dispersed so mercenaries may find themselves forced to create Protectorates far off their favored areas of operation and Rule 6 would become a double edged sword as these mercenaries can work for or against most House factions but there is always the risk of running up against these non-territorial factions interests wherever they go in the Inner Sphere.

Just a thought.
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Re: Landholds

Postby director » Sat Jan 14, 2017 2:02 am

(disclaimer, the above rules are being posted for public review and consumption, what follows in this post is a little taste of some of what the staff have been pondering, its not the whole of it, and I share it only to project a bit of the imagination we hope it opens up for units. Note that for non Major House Factions (nobility/corporations, etc) that my comments are not specifically geared at that, but the idea of perks in General. These are my ideas, and not the Staffs, and the Deputy can correct me if I misstate anything in what I say that follows. With the staff reorganizing, a lot of the final decision making on rules like these are going through the Deputy's office. Remember that we want to refresh these rules not just to help existing units, but to attract new ones, and add longevity to the community.)


One thing not in those rules, which I just thought of. The Perks and Equipment we are thinking of as Perks are essentially long term loners, with title and deed owned by the faction. So they would in effect become force multipliers for a unit, perhaps helping a unit, move, or project additional force more than on their own. In theory they would follow the orders of the Mercenary unit, and in the case of them not having certain 'restrictions' on 'appropriate use' the unit might not be held liable if they lemming them away. The reason I say this, and why I think its good, is it can help a unit grow, a bit, which gets harder the larger you get, especially after you exhaust the number of MRBC/DMM edition space craft you can purchase. However, this also can have an unbalancing effect, if that equipment was immediately sold. Many in the community have long thought of the idea that little bit of the 'corporate store' as a reward from a Faction they are loyal to could add an interesting flavor to the unit.

In the field manuals of mercenaries (through multiple editions) there was the idea of employer covering support costs, transportation, dropships jumpships etc. These perks are intended to provide some of that, while giving each unit, and the Staff member assigned with arranging those perks sufficient flexibility to maximize enjoyment by the players in the unit, frankly. All of these deals would go through the Deputy or myself before being finalized to ensure they aren't too outlandish, but I'm thinking that some units may care about different things.

Also, the Staff has also thrown around the idea potentially of those perks being some kind of bonuses tied into the Contract. That could be for example, negotiated Adjustments allowed to payout per word, one time signing bonuses, or increases in salvage permitted to be kept. However, this later bit isn't formalized yet, and as we will be re-instituting the Active Storyline system, it might be obsoleted by the method in which those are negotiated.

In any event, I share these ideas, because I in good faith want to show some of the potential that exists to continue working for a faction. Being tied to one faction can cause some units to get bored, but added incentive could help that unit be a force in shaping the world of that faction. Just like the Restless Souls had their commander essentially recognized as the 'brevet' Field Marshall of the Periphery March when the previous leader had to step away. Care will be taken to balance what is negotiated, but honestly, I'm not afraid of a little haggling. I think sometimes the rules and prices result in units that may feel cookie cutter. These perks, in essence provide a possible way to break out of the mold, and forge something a little different.
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Re: Landholds

Postby DeputyDirector » Sat Jan 14, 2017 3:02 am

Major, the offered rewards in Rule 15 are examples of *possible* rewards. The last sentence in the rule is what will indeed create the reward that is actually offered: "This award will be negotiated between the MUCO and MRBC Staff." However, your idea of making said reward something like a flat 60M C-bills certainly has merits and will be considered along with any other suggestions brought up during this discussion.

Director, nothing you stated is out of balance at all with what the staff has discussed. The perks that would be offered by the Great Houses or any other factions are not limited to a set number of items or perks but are things that can be negotiated between the MUCOs and the Staff. The intention is to add flavor to the contracts, provided rewards to the units that they could not have achieved previously, and help improve our game as a whole.

Who else has suggestions or comments?
Raymond Freeman MacCreary
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Re: Landholds

Postby Dulio12385 » Sat Jan 14, 2017 3:21 pm

Here's parting thought conjured up by the director's idea since it reminded me quite a bit of Master of Olympus, which is a great game anyone with disposable time should play by the way.

What if the 60 million figure could be used benchmark? I mean while the 60 million retainers' fee is the most common reward/perk granted by factions, in the alternative the unit could instead derive a flexible support perk of that approximate value compounded by the number of years of service from their faction employer. The caveat is that these support packages belong to the employer and not the mercenary company, so they cannot be alienated, traded, measurably altered or casually sacrificed and for all intents would be operated and crewed by employer personnel. It would provide a solid metric as to what support or perk an MUCO could negotiate for, rather than both sides aiming for the moon and the floor and fumbling for the midpoint in between.

For example: Unit A with six landholds, an entitlement of 360 million per year, instead of opting to get a straight cash payment instead gets a Jump Ship to support them for Year 1. In Year 2 their entitlement rises to 720 million and they opt to add a Lung Wang Predator to their support package. By Year 4 their entitlements have exceeded one billion and they opt to relinquish the flotilla in favor of a light warship support asset. But by year 5 the unit runs into ill fortune and relinquishes its support packages in favor of cash, getting their full entitlement in a billion c-bills but zeroing their allocation of support from their employer. By Year 6 they'd be entitled to another 360 million in cash which they split, collecting half in cash and requesting half in support. But by Year 7 the unit broke ties with their employer and hence lose their landholds, perks and the 120 million committed to support packages.

I have a somewhat firm idea on how codify this but at this stage I'm just throwing the idea out there for discussion's sake since this topic is quite enjoyable to ponder.
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Re: Landholds

Postby DeputyDirector » Sat Jan 14, 2017 5:29 pm

See, that would be part of the "perks" rewards we are talking about after a unit gets their six Landholds in a single nation. The use of JumpShips or a larger DropShip, like an Overlord, or other hardware that is still owned by the House in question but made available for use by the mercenary unit. Having things like WarShip support for defense would be allowed the Landholds because they are a part of the realm in question... you know, as long as it's worth the House's time and efforts to commit a WarShip to that system.

Also, the stipend or "entitlement" does not raise every year. It's 60M per landhold, per year. If a unit ops out of getting monies one year for whatever reason, then it does not build-up somewhere for later payment; it would be gone.
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Re: Landholds

Postby Tatiana.Donatella » Sun Jan 15, 2017 2:42 am

I see this idea of 'Benchmark' Perks creating more record keeping on our already diminished staff . . .
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Re: Landholds

Postby Dulio12385 » Sun Jan 15, 2017 6:10 am

DeputyDirector wrote:See, that would be part of the "perks" rewards we are talking about after a unit gets their six Landholds in a single nation. The use of JumpShips or a larger DropShip, like an Overlord, or other hardware that is still owned by the House in question but made available for use by the mercenary unit. Having things like WarShip support for defense would be allowed the Landholds because they are a part of the realm in question... you know, as long as it's worth the House's time and efforts to commit a WarShip to that system.

Also, the stipend or "entitlement" does not raise every year. It's 60M per landhold, per year. If a unit ops out of getting monies one year for whatever reason, then it does not build-up somewhere for later payment; it would be gone.


In which case I would suggest that the base amount be subject to some form of multiplier as otherwise it would simply be more efficient to just take the money, save it and buy your own assets rather than burning it every year to lease something from your employer on a one for one basis and have to keep doing so just to use the same asset. I would think a multiplier of five or even ten is appropriate as it would compensate for the opportunity loss of not getting money for that cycle.

Of course this wouldn't apply to the director's suggestions of per-word count bonuses due to transportation, consumable and replacement subsidies.
Major Clint "Tex" Dyson
CO Alcyone Gunslingers
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Re: Landholds

Postby DeputyDirector » Sun Jan 15, 2017 4:55 pm

MAJGEN, I appreciate your thoughtfulness. :) Your hard working and diminished Staff are doing our best to keep the record keeping to a minimum. I am certain that there will be a smidge more of such with these perks, but we believe these to be helpful to both our story lines and the units so I have no issues with a little bit more data added to my beloved spreadsheets.

Major, I don't believe you are understanding the full idea of these perks entirely. A mercenary unit with six Landholds would have a reputation of 100 with one particular House so would be in great standing with that House to the point they are getting Christmas cards hand-signed by the Archon / First Prince / Coordinator / Celestial Wisdom / Captain General. They would also be getting 360MM C-bills as income from their Landholds. On top of that, they would be getting these perks of (for example) a JumpShip, a company of Mechs, more generous contract terms, or some more MM of C-bills. There is no loss of monies to the unit for these perks, its the House in question saying to the unit: "thanks for going off and taking care of things for us so well for so long... use this for a bit to help you out".

Or are you understanding that and I am missing the point of your suggestions? Always possible... its relatively early and I have only had one Monster so far.
Raymond Freeman MacCreary
Deputy Director
Mercenary Review and Bonding Commission (MRBC)

“We abjure labels. We fight for money and an indefinable pride. The politics, the ethics, the moralities, are irrelevant.”
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Re: Landholds

Postby director » Sun Jan 15, 2017 7:46 pm

The other fun thing, about this, is maybe you start off borrowing an Overlord... till you can buy your own. then you don't need it anymore, so the Employer takes it back, but maybe you need vehicular support. I mean Yes there will be some record keeping, and the negotiation would probably be limited to revisement a limited number of times a year. But it would be easy to track what's what with a post in the IC Forum of the unit in question.

As to how big these issues are, well part of this is already possible 'technically' in our system. Jumpship transport has always been available by IC story means. So the support in this case is a bit more. Instead of just temporary transit to and from systems, that Jumpship could be used to move equipment around between worlds, pick up special supplies .... I mean really where is imaginations limit here?
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