Would the Etherials allow this though? Not that it would pose any threat to them in the sense, but maintaining a standing army outside the mercs which as far as I understand is an empirial instituition, would give the factions some measure of power to disrupt the power of the goverments.
Plus there is already a high chace that you wont meet/capture them all in the time frame of your play as is, due to their seer numbers (I finished the game without ever having several of them) and adding more factions would clutter the game a bit.
1. Yeah that's a caveat, even if this force would be technically subservient to the Solar Governor. Otoh it means that the power is divided between 4, not 3 major factions, so all the better as longs as they don't unite (looks like the Guard would need special arrangements with the Governor to keep the others jealous...)
2. That's not a problem, you're not required to meet everyone during a single playthrough.
On the other topic, I'm personally leaning towards the same choices as Meridian, except the last three guys aren't exclusive - the guy #2 was supposed to be some sort of special forces. I'm not yet done with designing (stealing & remaking
) the high-level spartan specialists.
Aside from Rifleman, Scout, Heavy and Officer, there will be a Commando (not sure if armored, but with high stats and night vision), General (power-armored) and 2 as of yet undetermined units.