Hirelings

A hireling is a fighter, a mage or a bard that works for whoever pays its day. It follows its employer and fights for it as a pet does, until the gold is spent. There are ten kinds, as ModernUO’s, and they stand in Jhelom.

Where they are

Up to ten of them stand in Jhelom, on Trammel and on Felucca, near 1399,3743: the fighter, the paladin, the ranger, the ranger archer, the mage, the bard, the bard archer, the thief, the sailor and the beggar. One that was hired is replaced by another within 5 to 10 minutes.

How to hire one

1. Say hire, servant or a greeting within 6 tiles of it, or pick Hire in its context menu. It says its pay for a period: “I am available for hire for 12 gold coins a day.”
2. Drop that much gold, or more, on it from 2 tiles away. It says for how many days it will work for you (“I thank thee for paying me. I will work for thee for 3 days.”).

Less gold than its pay is given back and it says the pay again. A hireling that has been hired by another says so, and one that asks for gold says it (“Tis crass of me, but I want gold”) when you drop something else on it. If you have no room for two more followers it says “I see you already have an escort” and gives the gold back.

What it costs

The pay for a period is the sum of ten of its skills (Anatomy, Tactics, Mace Fighting, Swordsmanship, Fencing, Archery, Resisting Spells, Healing, Magery and Parrying), divided by 35 and added 1. A day is [ultima.pets] hire_pay_minutes, 30 minutes of real time by default (server configuration).

The gold you drop is held by the hireling and pays one period at the end of each, by the clock of the world: a hireling that was far from every player pays all the periods that went by when somebody comes near it again. The days it says are what its gold covers. More gold dropped on it by its owner lengthens the contract. When what it holds does not cover another period it says “I regret nothing!” and leaves, with what it carried.

What it does

A hired creature counts for two followers of its owner ([ultima.pets] max_followers). It obeys the words of its owner as a pet does (come, follow, stay, stop, guard, kill, attack, release, alone or with all, see What you can tell it), and always obeys: it has no loyalty and takes no food, so it is not drained as a pet is. The archers shoot, the mage casts at what its owner sets it against as the creatures that cast do (a tamed creature never casts), the others fight with what they wear. When many hirelings stand together and a player says hire, only one of them answers.

release ends the contract at once: the hireling is free again and can be hired by anybody, and the gold it held is gone. If it is killed, its corpse holds nothing: what it wore and the gold it held are gone with it, as ModernUO’s hirelings keep their items, so that killing a hired creature for its plate pays nothing back. Its owner has one follower less in both cases.

For scripts

The script is scripts/mobiles/hireling.lua (script_id = "hireling"), on common/creature.lua; the templates are in templates/mobiles/hirelings.toml and the spawns in templates/spawns/<facet>/hirelings.toml. The contract lives in the props of the creature: hire.gold (what it holds), hire.next_pay (when the next period ends, as world.now()) and pet.hired. pet.hire(player, creature) hires a free creature without the taming rules, and pet.hire_period() gives the seconds of a period. A hire raises on_tame and the pet_tamed event, as a taming does.

Not built yet

The texts of the later clients for a hireling that changes hands (cliloc 2375 to 2378 and 2401) and extra gold kept for the next contract (2338): ModernUO has neither. Hirelings in other towns, and a pack and a loot for a hireling (ModernUO’s carry 25 to 100 gold in theirs). A fighter and a paladin always wear a helm: ModernUO leaves one in five bareheaded.