Yarr... Lost a lvl 4 hero that I was cultivating by constantly sending them and only them on dungeon dives for lootz and they went down to lvl 15 of a dungeon, got badly wounded by some trolls, and then went further down to lvl 19 of this dungeon before being all "screw this I'm leaving" then got ganked on the way back up -____- that ticked me off since I had paid out 200 to the hero before they would accept the mission.
Is the only option to pay the hero before the mission? Or does a post-mission payout option come about if you get to a high enough level?
This isn't implemented yet, unfortunately. The starter position was to try and have a certain element of risk in offering contracts in the first place, and I have only really balanced it on level 1 dungeons and level 1 heroes (lots of starting and restarting - not so much extended playing). I don't think I've seen a level 4 hero in the more recent iterations of this game ...
A post mission payout option sounds reasonable, though, especially when you have worked a lot on your relationship with that particular hero.
Just as a thought, would you prefer to see this tied in to your own level, have it as an option for everyone, or perhaps even tied in to your relationship with the Hero? It certainly seems likely that if you have already engaged the same hero in a number of contracts, they would be far more willing to take you on your word.
At present although you can't really see it, you are building a relationship with all the heroes with certain actions. I just need to work on how that gets implemented.
I could see post-payment being more expensive (perhaps the same level as now? - Are you finding you are sufficiently rewarded with the item haul in general, or do you often feel short-changed?)
It probably needs more nuanced mechanics, and a more transparent 'negotiation' method to boot (how does the player know, for instance, what a reasonable cost for a contract is - especially for sending people to higher level dungeons/monsters?)
Thanks for the feedback - I'll give it some thought ... there is certainly a lot I can afford to do with the contracts to make them more fun.
And I snagged the 'Hero_Sale' bug - One in four times (hence the random nature of it) it was trying to write a random note in the hero journal (a little comment on the purchase e.g. 'My daughter has always wanted one of those.') but referencing the wrong thing to write it to ...
Heros sure have no self-preservation sense.
I think I'll tweak the logic for the heroes a little to make them exit the dungeon quicker, also probably make them descend slower. It's just a probability tweak for now, but it will suffice until I do a more extensive rewrite of the dungeon-hero interaction code. Just noticed a 'bruised' hero has a 25% chance to 'descend' ... this probably explains why they are going so deep when they probably shouldn't ...
I'm looking forward to tackling this rewrite, as it opens up all the hero perks and quirks and I also want to use this chance to get the heroes to start using their scrolls and stuff, and more hero-hero interaction. I don't think I have the design quite ready in my head yet, though.