Sorry but the finances are just wrong...

[Eisenbär]

Is there a reason, why mercs are paid double, b/c you have to pay them upfront AND they reduce your daily income with the same rate?

Here is an example...had 40k, income per day 1.2k. Hired Thor for 14 days, which is roughly 14k...which you pay right away, so this left me with just 26k and in addition, my daily income now decreases to just 200. I mean...wtf? 😄 So in essence, I paid Thor double...(or any other merc in my team).

Can someone confirm or explain to me what I am maybe missing? Many Thx.

[Jaywalker]

Clearly, you do not understand how projected income looks.

The game estimates how much you're making effectively with everyone that's on the pay roll, not what the raw income is.

[GODSPEED]

35 minutes ago, Eisenbär said:

Is there a reason, why mercs are paid double, b/c you have to pay them upfront AND they reduce your daily income with the same rate?

Here is an example...had 40k, income per day 1.2k. Hired Thor for 14 days, which is roughly 14k...which you pay right away, so this left me with just 26k and in addition, my daily income now decreases to just 200. I mean...wtf? 😄 So in essence, I paid Thor double...(or any other merc in my team).

Can someone confirm or explain to me what I am maybe missing? Many Thx.

Doing the "math" is probably better left in the hands of someone who would work in the field of projections, than me. 🤣

I simply look at how much money is coming in and how much my 14D estimate will be. That way, I get an idea how much I will have by the time I re-sign contracts.



Don't worry too much about the "Burn rate". I had many times where the Burn Rate was higher than my income, especially early on.. and I've never even had to be careful in signing contracts. 2 full squads, never even came close to lack of money. Actually, don't even know what to do with it.

 

[Beak]

Why don’t mercs get more expensive as they level up? I’ve had Barry since day and I’m pretty sure he still costs the same, despite being level 5 now.

[GODSPEED]

14 minutes ago, Beak said:

Why don’t mercs get more expensive as they level up? I’ve had Barry since day and I’m pretty sure he still costs the same, despite being level 5 now.

Yep.

So far, the mercs that have been with me since day 1; I think only one or two requested a bigger amount.

When on the page below, when I clicked confirm, they would refuse and "ask" for a different amount. By clicking Offer a second time, you "re-negotiate" with their asking fees.



Honestly, I was expecting a little more financial burden from mercs.

 

[Skaldy]

21 minutes ago, Beak said:

Why don’t mercs get more expensive as they level up? I’ve had Barry since day and I’m pretty sure he still costs the same, despite being level 5 now.

Because devs didnt implement any kind of economy or balance to this game.

[Eisenbär]

lol...ok...i really thought thats the actual cashflow and not a projection...thx for the clarification 😄

[Divine Moleman]

all I can say is do not worry about that stuff, because if you just make sure to not waste too much time in the beginning and get a mine you will have tons of money very quickly.

I would like to see some rebalancing and mods that affect that aspect actually.  In JA2 i was constantly on edge, feeling like I had 5 different important things to do, and only enough time and workforce to do one of them.  In this game I can relax and explore. This is not really a bad thing (I don't automatically assume more difficult = better) but it's been tough to adapt as a JA2 vet.

[Raeven]

Just now, Divine Moleman said:

In this game I can relax and explore. This is not really a bad thing (I don't automatically assume more difficult = better) but it's been tough to adapt as a JA2 vet.

Interesting. I have had the opposite experience. I recently played JA2 and felt like the strategic layer was easy and no pressure, whereas JA3 has kept me on my toes. That is also related to my playstyle though which is fairly slow.

[Elder III]

1 hour ago, Beak said:

Why don’t mercs get more expensive as they level up? I’ve had Barry since day and I’m pretty sure he still costs the same, despite being level 5 now.

They do sometimes ask for a raise. I don't think I have a single member of of my initial squad that has not asked for at least 1 raise (after 65 hours in the playthrough). Depending on the merc they might want a raise for a variety of factors (ranking up, being idle too much, not fighting/killing enough, or because they dislike another merc on your team).

 

*I should add that I have also had mercs ask for a raise when they have not leveled up, and are happy in general.

Edited July 28, 2023 by Elder III

[Skaldy]

Grizzly can ask for a raise randomly if you have more foreign mercs than Americans

3 minutes ago, Elder III said:

They do sometimes ask for a raise. I don't think I have a single member of of my initial squad that has not asked for at least 1 raise (after 65 hours in the playthrough). Depending on the merc they might want a raise for a variety of factors (ranking up, being idle too much, not fighting/killing enough, or because they dislike another merc on your team).

 

*I should add that I have also had mercs ask for a raise when they have not leveled up, and are happy in general.

 

[moqueur]

Mercs do become more expensive as they level up and become better overall — seems gaining lots of attribute points also counts. But unlike in JA2 here they do it in silence. By the end of my first run Raven was priced almost $5k a day despite the fact she didn't ask for a single raise in half a year. On my solo run Blood moved from under $1k a day to almost $4k a day at level 10 while asking for a raise only twice because of being bored with his chores.

Actually merc asking for a raise is usually a one-time thing — next time they will accept their usual salary (the only exception is Scully — his kids always need something). Triggers may differ. Mercs may be dissatisfied with something (Blood bored with chores, Grizzly not liking too many foreigners on the team) or they may ask for a random raise based on RNG (I believe Raider can ask for a raise for no apparent reason with like 10% probability).

[Uncle Nick]

Barry is just like your typical older worker, always polite, don't ask for much, they just want to do their time, finish off their career, no need to rock the boat when so close to retirement time. Don't change anything about Barry, leave him alone, let him finish up his long time career. Maybe, just tone down a tad bit on his religious spiels. Other than that, he is perfiect. 

[shadoww]

8 hours ago, Uncle Nick said:

Barry is just like your typical older worker, always polite, don't ask for much, they just want to do their time, finish off their career, no need to rock the boat when so close to retirement time. Don't change anything about Barry, leave him alone, let him finish up his long time career. Maybe, just tone down a tad bit on his religious spiels. Other than that, he is perfiect. 

yeah when you move front of brothel he babbles about house of sin but he never says such a thing when we move front of governmental buildings which are full of unjust guys, liars, thieves, murderers, swindlers etc.

religious types only consider an action as a sin if it is related to the women's crotch.

Edited July 29, 2023 by shadoww

[GODSPEED]

19 hours ago, Raeven said:

Interesting. I have had the opposite experience. I recently played JA2 and felt like the strategic layer was easy and no pressure, whereas JA3 has kept me on my toes. That is also related to my playstyle though which is fairly slow.

In JA2, you have many ways to waste money!

Want to kit out your squad with fresh new weapons, buy loads of ammo and pay extravagant shipping fees? Sure, go ahead! So easy to sink $10k in one order.

Oh.. and mercs are expensive in JA2 in comparison. Every single time a merc levels up in JA2, when you sign a new contract, he asks for more. Each merc will request more or less different wage upgrades. Dr. Q starts off fairly cheap, but ramps up to be a very expensive merc very quickly!

I don't remember, but I also believe militia in JA2 (base, not 1.13) to be a daily upkeep. In JA3, a simple one time fee it seems.


In JA3, I just signed contracts for 2 full squads. 14-days. After all those expenses, sitting on $250,000. 14D expected income nearly $500,000.

I also buy every single item from every single vendor I come across. Just because I have too much money and nothing to do with it.

Quite different from ANY experience I've ever had in JA2, where I've often looking at money, because I need to judge whether I can afford my next high-wage merc on a steady basis.

[Jaywalker]

17 hours ago, GODSPEED said:

Want to kit out your squad with fresh new weapons, buy loads of ammo and pay extravagant shipping fees? Sure, go ahead! So easy to sink $10k in one order.

Oh.. and mercs are expensive in JA2 in comparison. Every single time a merc levels up in JA2, when you sign a new contract, he asks for more. Each merc will request more or less different wage upgrades. Dr. Q starts off fairly cheap, but ramps up to be a very expensive merc very quickly!

There absolutely are ways to spend money outside of mercs, most of them also happen to be in the exact areas you visit when you have least of it and aren't yet swimming in guns looted from enemies or quests, making it an actually meaningful decision to do so.

Mercs also do go up in price with skill, they just don't do it in "steps", but rather gradually and quietly via a constant reevaluation.
They will also routinely ask for a one-time bonus either as a random event or as a bribe to stay on the team when something or someone they don't like happens.

The finances are tuned around presenting you with a challenge at the stage of the game where money being tight is a major plot point (your operation is funded by diamond miners who want their mines back), and much like in JA2 you hit a point where that concern evaporates and you are left with literal millions of dollars and not even the full catalog of Bobby Ray's is going to make a dent in that amount.

Edited July 30, 2023 by Jaywalker

[Remi1987]

On 7/28/2023 at 2:58 PM, Beak said:

Why don’t mercs get more expensive as they level up? I’ve had Barry since day and I’m pretty sure he still costs the same, despite being level 5 now.

Barry is criminally underpriced, gents must be stupid to not hire him.

Edited August 2, 2023 by Remi1987

[marcinl0]

JA3 forces you to recruit only the cheapest basic mercenaries at start.

Even Wolf - liked by Fox - can already be too expensive to maintain.

 

Of course, you can use the Custom Settings mod, and set - for example - 100 000. bucks at start - not the standard 40 000.