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Sigil

Captain
11 Badges
Feb 28, 2018
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  • Stellaris
  • BATTLETECH
  • Age of Wonders III
  • BATTLETECH - Beta Backer
  • BATTLETECH - Backer
  • Shadowrun Returns
  • Shadowrun: Dragonfall
  • Shadowrun: Hong Kong
  • BATTLETECH: Flashpoint
  • BATTLETECH: Season pass
  • BATTLETECH: Heavy Metal
BattleTech has long had "Command Rights" as one of the main pillars of mercenary contract negotiations. Generally speaking, there are four types of Command Rights:
  1. Integrated - Effectively becomes part of the Employer's forces
  2. House Command - Under the direct command of employer's designated Commander
  3. Liaison - Employer's designated Liaison observes and monitors all Commander's decisions and represents the Employer's best interests
  4. Independent - Operates free of all interference from the Employer
Currently, the contract negotiation system features sliders to prioritize Payment, Salvage and Reputation. If one aspect is prioritized, the others are decreased. Mission, Length and Transport are all non-negotiable parts of contracts.

Command Rights could be included as part of the contract negotiation and represented by a fourth slider. As the game is currently, v1.04, the player essentially has Independent Command Rights on all non-Priority missions. On Priority Missions, Lord Alexander functions basically as a Liaison to the Employer. House Command rights could be simulated by having the 4th lance slot occupied by the Employer's Commander. All such missions would include the standard "Commander must survive until the end of the mission" objective. Getting your Employer's commander killed qualifies as a Mission Failed, although it may qualify as a "Good Faith" withdraw. Integrated command rights would effectively place the Employer's Commander in the fourth lance slot under the control of the AI and, as with House Command, the Employer's Commander must survive until the end of the mission.

A deeper implementation of this could be extended into multi-mission contracts. For example, when accepting a 3-month Garrison contract, a unit with Independent Command Rights may "pick" each of the missions from a within a short list, the same would be true with Liaison rights although the list to pick from could be shorter to represent the Liaison's influence. Under House or Integrated Command, each Mission for the given duration is simply assigned to the unit by the AI.
 
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