Forums » Suggestions

Vendetta PVP reward system.

Oct 19, 2008 Roda Slane link
I have formulated the following criteria for developing a pvp based bounty system.

First, that any reward gained, should be less than a loss suffered. That is, two or more players in cooperation can never use the system against each other for a net gain, because the reward is less than the cost of the ships lost.
Second, killing players is not that hard, if you pick easy targets. So killing players at random should not reward the killer.
Third, killing players, that kill other players, is at least a reasonable check that you are not just killing some misc newb.

With these precepts in mind, I suggest the following system, which I will refer to simply as "vendetta".

The system
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Killing a player assigns a point value to the killer equal to 1/4 the base value of the ship destroyed, not including equipment or cargo. This is the vendetta bounty value, which I will refer to simply as "vendetta". This value is cumulative, being added to any previously existing value.
In addition, if the player killed had an existing vendetta, the killer would receive that bounty (in the form of credits), to a maximum amount of 1/4 of the value of the ship destroyed. That amount would then be subtracted from the killed's vendetta, having been "resolved".
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While this description pretty much encapsulates the system as a whole, the ramifications are perhaps more sinister...

The system leads to some interesting situations. The primary is, that in killing someone, you might receive a reward, but you always receive a vendetta. Vendetta never goes away, it just changes hands. As more ships are lost in pvp, the total vendetta of the galaxy tends to increase.
Examples: Pirate X has been killing traders, and has accumulated 50k of vendetta, and Mr. Hero destroys pirate X's 60,000 credit valk. Mr. Hero has earned himself both 15k in vendetta on his head, and 15k reward, for killing pirate X, who had a price on his head. Pirate X has his vendetta reduced by the 15k. Thus, in earning the reward, Mr. Hero generated as much vendetta as he resolved. Break even is the best that can be hoped for.
Meanwhile... Pirate Y is small time, and has only generated 5k of vendetta, and when Mr. Hero destroys his 160k moth xc, Mr. Hero only collected 5k reward, but earned himself 40k of vendetta.
Pirate Z is constantly killing high profile targets, earning tons of vendetta, but he never keeps it long, dieing at the hands of every other Mr. Hero he encounters. Kill him if you like, but don't expect a reward.

Destroy player ships of value and you might get a reward, but you will certainly earn a vendetta. Expect to be hunted.

Note: Any system that affects ship pricing (border skirmish) should be accounted for, and adjust/negate vendetta accordingly. Optionally, duels could be excluded.

Edit: The current vendetta of a player should be displayed on their character stats, for all to see. A ranking page on the website, with running totals etc, similar to duel rankings would also be nice.
Oct 19, 2008 genka link
I really like this idea!
Oct 19, 2008 Ghost link
Sounds interesting. I think it could work.
Oct 20, 2008 Pointsman link
I like this immensely.
Oct 20, 2008 jackscream link
[STAMP OF APPROVAL]

One question, apart from bragging rights and leader board position, what other benefits do foresee for vendetta ranking?

Badges? Ship/weapon/equiptment availability? Monetary benefits?
Oct 20, 2008 Roda Slane link
jackscream:

I had not intended for their to be a benefit for having vendetta ranking. In fact, quite the contrary, having vendetta makes you a target for those seeking to collect the reward for "resolving" that vendetta. Not to say I am not open to ideas, but I was intentionally designing a system that did not reward newb killing, but rather, rewarded killing newb killers. In this light, having vendetta ranking is not a positive, but rather, it can be viewed as a negative. On the other side of the coin, sometimes having a very negative reputation can be seen as a positive in certain circles, and if you can invent some creative rp to take advantage of this, i would love to hear it.
Oct 20, 2008 IRS link
I do like this idea. That said, I think a good addition would be a multiplier to the final reward value based upon the relation your faction and the target's faction have, after the revised faction system is in place. Neutral stance is a multiplier of 1 (no change), and everything proceeds exactly as has already been stated. As the faction relations degrade, the multiplier increases, possibly reaching up to 3 for an all-out KoS relation, resulting in 75% of the target's value being paid out if they possess a sufficient quantity of "vendetta". The reverse is true for positive relations, with the payout reduced by a similar factor when you kill someone you should be friends with.

The goal here is to encourage players to hang together with their faction and their faction's friends, and blast players of enemy factions. It is important to note that this is only done to the payment, and not to the "vendetta". Shooty McBackstab is going to wind up having to scrounge for funds, Mr. Yutyut Marine is going to get nicely subsidized, and both are going to have a big pile of "vendetta" due to the trails of destruction behind them. Traders will rarely, if ever, have a worthwhile quantity of "vendetta", but that should be made up due to them being Traders, and thus having those holds full of goods.

And as a compensation to those who can't practice cost-effectively against members of their nation, all "vendetta" changes are halted if a duel was in effect between the shooter and shootee, and the 3x multiplier comes into effect regardless. Heck, it might even be worthwhile to have a similar "free replacement" given to those that die during duels as to those that die during Border Skirmish, so for that 100% consensual PvP there is no loss aside from the cost of opportunity.
Oct 20, 2008 Rejected link
i agree that duels shouldnt generate vendetta nor provide rewards

in fact, with pricing increases and whatnot duels should be fights till the almost death, thus players dueling in b8 can bring whatever ship they want, but pay increased repair costs for non local ships

thats a whole nother thread tho
Oct 21, 2008 Roda Slane link
IRS: I welcome suggestions on enhancements, however, I would request that you keep "vendetta" at less that the cost of the ship, and total rewards at less than %50 of the cost of the ship, to reduce efforts to defeat the system. I originally had them synchronized, so that by the time a pk'r had lost all his vendetta, he had suffered as heavy a loss as he had extracted on others.

Rejected: status of duels is highly debatable, and i could swing either way. i do feel strongly that duel related pricing is almost certainly another thread...