Well, playing as youthful and viable mercenaries is preferable, but if you'd like to create a start with folks too old to continue as sellswords, I created an Old Greenlander race.
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2327785950

Good idea in the past before I figured out how spawning works (thanks to you) i had it on random and once spawned in a small fishing village way way up north and was a pain to get back and since i had a Shek with me i had to try and move through Holy Nation territory only worked because I threw my Shek over my humans shoulders and told them i was taking him to rebirth on the way lucky for me never ran into them again before escaping into the hub region

I think The Crater was not an appropriate place to take my mercenary band while I was waiting for a couple recruits to sleep off their last battle...

You could create a couple starts that reflect the Mercenaries in the middle of a job, kinda like the Cannibal Hunters start

yeah I made them vets who could easily fight a squad of dust bandits and staving bandits without breaking a sweat its higher levelled groups in the 40+ and with like 12 or more while i have won battles at this size its rough with the starting people but if i have 2 + the starter 3 its a doable if not easy fight since the stronger ones focus on dealing damage while the weaker ones block ect

Well, I'd go with the United Cities found on the wiki
https://kenshi.fandom.com/wiki/United_Cities
of course, go with the actual cities, not the random locations they control. Spawning at Tengu's Vault isn't my idea of a "good or neutral start", nor are Free Settlement or Endin.

Whether or not the Southeastern cities are good is hard to say, although these mercs can probably fight or run from the bandits between those cities.

Awesome i have a look around what are some cities you think could be nice to add i want to try to do cities that are neutral to Mercs or bandits that won't attack on sight or factions that won't make a new start a pain for someone who would rather start in a okay spot then have it get better or worse

...and you'll also need the "inventory" option if you want those crossbows to have ammo, although I think they start loaded.

In the character menu, for the upper right selection, a few more interesting options are "crossbows", "backpack", "race" and "robot limbs", which are relatively self-explanatory.

Less obvious, and I should have mentioned it earlier, is the "inventory" option, as that is what you select to give your characters first aid kits, among other things. Seen quite a few of my custom starts die from their wounds because I forgot about that!

Also fun is "starting health", which lets you set the starting health of all body parts, with limbs set with starting health less than -100 being amputated.

Well, the gear should reflect their veteran status, whatever you think that might entail. Below the Quality box is a percent chance of it being upgraded.

Might add more spawn points and maybe downgrade gear or choose new gear since the stats are about 50 each unless people like the starting gear because the way I set it at the start was the people you start with were veteran Mercenaries and had time to get good gear and saved up some money from jobs but I will very likely add more spawn points

you were super helpful cut down maybe 4-6 hours of work with the instructions and I don't have issues with people posting stuff also I subbed as well more mods with mercenary gameplay is always fun and you get to choose what way your band goes could be more good or take on worse jobs like slavery or making and selling drugs but its a game that allows so much freedom

Glad I could help, although you give me too much credit, really.
I was inspired to create a mod where the player could actually use their mercenary band, hope you don't mind my posting it here:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2324475257