[DONE] Salary and maintenance for items

[BetaSpectre]

TBH I think what we should have are varied mercenaries that fill niche roles.
Heavy Tank - Minigun/Rocket Launcher
Sniper  - Snip Rifle
Assault - Shotgun/Rifle

No Mercenary group would issue only boom guns to the people they hire out, course the mercenaries the gals have access to won't be top tier for good reason.

Mercenary costs are rather high, but tbh it fits in the flavor of how over priced illegal goods are. While I'd like it if the merc were like the lightning banger who can pick up and drop items, but when you have a govt/team issued item you generally hold on to it. Maybe the merc is mentally incapable of picking up items due to training implants.

[Dioxine]

While I understand that there will always be stronger and weaker options, it is best that everything have a strong and clear niche, and the number of interesting choices maximized.

Agreed, but I feel mercs are good enough as they are. The bottom line is, expanding upon them requires effort better spent elsewhere, and simply allowing inventory access (and removing fist so they could use offhand) would make them too powerful IMO.

[Surrealistik]

Agreed, but I feel mercs are good enough as they are. The bottom line is, expanding upon them requires effort better spent elsewhere, and simply allowing inventory access (and removing fist so they could use offhand) would make them too powerful IMO.

They would probably need a cost increase with accessible inventory, but at the end of the day, a developed Gal is still better.

What Beta Spectre said is a decent compromise; if you could hire prefab specialists, or better yet, choose a custom loadout each mission, that would also be an improvement.

[Meridian]

A few small updates:
1. Base maintenance now shows only facilities maintenance again, same as vanilla
2. "Other employees & inventory" now shows both "item salaries" and "item maintenance" cost together... the quantity is divided into employees/other items, see screenshot (5 employees * 1000 salary + 8 items * 100 maintenance )
3. besides items in transfer and items in storage, also the following items count now:
a/ items in the craft
b/ vehicles in the craft
c/ armor worn by soldiers

[Meridian]

And now also:
d/ armor worn by soldiers in transfer