1) How can a merchant be overseas trading and get the mercenaries if he can't trade while leading an army? Does he stop trade and all the trade income lost when I get them?
2) In KoH 1, mercenaries were on the map for any commander to hire given enough gold. Will this still be the case? If so, why have this be a random event for Merchants. Note I'm not opposed to other types of events, just questioning mercenaries specifically.
3) With respect to mercenaries, I see there is a % chance of success. This seems a bit odd, in most games mercenaries are available to the highest bidder, so, are we saying these are only available to this merchant, right then, and if you fail to recruit them or choose not to do so, do other players get access to this mercenary group?
4) If there is a % chance of success, do I lose the gold if the chance fails? If so, why would one reasonably want to try to recruit them unless it was an emergency situation?
5) When do these mercenary purchase opportunities arise for the merchants? It would seem to me that a new outbreak of war would be a great trigger time to offer mercenaries generally, but generally I would not want pop up messages to appear randomly for this unless I sought them out specifically. Normally, I don't want someone who's main focus is to earn me money to go spending it and leading an army.
"Do you like the concept of the random trade possibilities, or would you prefer to always have the full arsenal available and rely on chance as little as possible?"
Personally, I prefer more to have most options available, but some level of unique choices also adds some flavor and value to the game. So that multiplayer doesn't get too bogged down, I would suggest that these random occurrences don't occur too frequently, though or it will interrupt the flow of the game.
Hugely looking forward to this game, by the way, been watching progress silently for a long time, I'm playing CK3 right now just waiting for this to come out!!