contract payment

[beachhead1985]

I'll put these here, even though I am using the rules from the recent Merc handbooks, because it feels like roleplaying to work through the merc unit creation and contract negotiation.

So here's my question; doesn't payment FM Mercs: Revised, seem incredibly low? I mean after transport and overhead and stuff, it's just the salaries of the members of the unit, which is't very much.

[guardiandashi]

I'll put these here, even though I am using the rules from the recent Merc handbooks, because it feels like roleplaying to work through the merc unit creation and contract negotiation.

So here's my question; doesn't payment FM Mercs: Revised, seem incredibly low? I mean after transport and overhead and stuff, it's just the salaries of the members of the unit, which is't very much.

true that's why at least in the older books and such, people tried to get high on things like:
salvage %, all reasonable ammo expenses, as high of a battle loss and battle damage compensation etc. as possible.

now all reasonable ammo expenses, that gets into a semi sticky argument IE what constitutes "reasonable ammo expenditures?"

if I am running a merc whose ammo is limited to ac5's and machine guns, their ammo expenses aren't going to be that bad...

on the other hand if you are running a company of archers their ammo expenses in comparison are going to be insane. 

[Pyro]

In the field manuals series (are there newer handbooks now), it was always an issue of salaries times a multiplier.  Think of how employment agencies work, and realize that most of them would love to get 5 times what the labor they supply gets paid.  The difference is all of the expensive hardware that can be lost (or won) depending on how well you do in a contract.  Battle loss compensation and salvage are the difference between success and failure for most units.  Salvage is how you take advantage of victory, and battle loss compensation is how you weather defeat.

[Armitage72]

The Open Beta unit creation rules that will eventually be in Interstellar Operations specifically increased contract payment because it was almost impossible for a unit to turn a profit under the old rules if they suffered any significant damage.
http://bg.battletech.com/?page_id=27

The base payment for a contract, before multipliers for employer, mission, unit reputation, etc. is 75% of the force's peacetime operating cost plus 5% of the total cost of the combat units in the force.
Peacetime operating costs include salaries, ammunition expenditure for training, routine fuel consumption, and spare parts.

e.g., the sample unit in the rules consisted of 4 `Mechs, 4 tanks, an infantry platoon, 4 scout vehicles, 2 fighters, 1 Dropship, 1 Jumpship, 14 Techs, 84 Astechs, and 10 Administrators.
Salary: 102,160 C-Bills
Ammunition: 211,120 C-Bills
Spare Parts: 335,560 C-Bills
Fuel: 1,910,110 C-Bills

Peacetime Expenses: 2,558,950 C-Bills (656,200 C-Bills with access to a body of water and available fusion reactors to produce hydrogen fuel)
Combat Unit Cost: 34,814,506 C-Bills

If this force (with Reputation 4) were hired by a Major Power for a 3 month objective raid, the base pay would be 3,659,937 C-Bills x 3 x 1.6 x 1.2 x 1.6.
33,729,980 C-Bills, plus Support and Transport payments.

EDIT: I just searched the thread for the open beta test and combat units includes everything except Jumpships, Techs, and Administrators.  That means that with the unit's Seeker, the Combat Unit Cost becomes 260,559,948 C-Bills, the Base Payment becomes 14,947,210 C-Bills, and the final contract payment would be 137,753,487 C-Bills.

[beachhead1985]

In the field manuals series (are there newer handbooks now), it was always an issue of salaries times a multiplier.  Think of how employment agencies work, and realize that most of them would love to get 5 times what the labor they supply gets paid.  The difference is all of the expensive hardware that can be lost (or won) depending on how well you do in a contract.  Battle loss compensation and salvage are the difference between success and failure for most units.  Salvage is how you take advantage of victory, and battle loss compensation is how you weather defeat.

totally, but those guys aren't bringing their own forklift to work

[Sir Chaos]

totally, but those guys aren't bringing their own forklift to work

And they don´t risk it being shot out from under them, and then having to replace it.

[beachhead1985]

And they don´t risk it being shot out from under them, and then having to replace it.

Totally where i'm coming from.

I mean, under those rules, I totally get how most merc units fail, but I have no idea how ANY of them could succeed under the most recent FM Mercs payment rules.

Geeze, anyone else ready for IO, yet?

[soshi]

they succeeded in FM:merc revised books by trying to pull threw till they got enough credit to have a large amount of points to buy up the  base pay, salvage, ect...  a cheat for that just recruiting a large infantry and support staff (tecks)

3055 vrs mostly a pre-chaos campaign based system mostly the GM allowed or not allow merc unit to do well.

But biggest factor in any of those is the GM.  If he is going to push low end contracts to fight massed hordes(multy regiments of   fresh units every time your starting merc company (sized))  force takes a contract then yes your merc unit will fail or have hard times.  Also if the GM is going heavily over charge replacement arms and legs and weapons  and just make them nearly impossible to replace then yes the unit is going to fail.