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In the UIT vs. UIT thread, bounties were mentioned as a way to cut down on piracy.
Personally, I love the concept of bounties, but I don't know a way to implement it without it being abused.
The primary way of bounties being abused is the following reason that I posted in the other thread:
"Let's say, JoePirate decides to kill a bunch of merchants and gains himself a hefty bounty. What's to stop JoePirate from asking one of his pirate buddies to destroy him in order to collect the bounty?
They could split the money 50/50 and the bounty ends up making to pirates richer."
I seriously can't think of a single way to implement a bounty system without it being abused in some way. Every method that I can think of can be exploited in some way. Any ideas? I'm curious what the developers think about the subject.
Personally, I love the concept of bounties, but I don't know a way to implement it without it being abused.
The primary way of bounties being abused is the following reason that I posted in the other thread:
"Let's say, JoePirate decides to kill a bunch of merchants and gains himself a hefty bounty. What's to stop JoePirate from asking one of his pirate buddies to destroy him in order to collect the bounty?
They could split the money 50/50 and the bounty ends up making to pirates richer."
I seriously can't think of a single way to implement a bounty system without it being abused in some way. Every method that I can think of can be exploited in some way. Any ideas? I'm curious what the developers think about the subject.
well lets face it piracy is a part of the game. bounty's wont help much. just get ppl including the pirates richer. pirates are still gunna exsist and they will continue to do there duty to kill you and cash in your cargo
Viper2560 is right,
We had bounties before and the had the oposite effect as very high bounties were a badge of honor and a clear warning to other players that the person with a high bounty was very hard to kill " since no one was able take the bounty."
However if the bounties were sufficiently high enough, 500k+ it might just work...
My 2C's
>>mutorcs<<
We had bounties before and the had the oposite effect as very high bounties were a badge of honor and a clear warning to other players that the person with a high bounty was very hard to kill " since no one was able take the bounty."
However if the bounties were sufficiently high enough, 500k+ it might just work...
My 2C's
>>mutorcs<<
The early bounty system was systematically abused since it involved people killing off newbies since they botted a lot, and therefore had high bounties. Not good either. (the bounty decided how "hard" a bot was, and you got score based on how high bounties you killed)
Didn't work well.
then there was the player-set bounty system with BountyBot tracking. Where you personally fessed up a bounty on somone, and had somone else collect it. That worked, sort of.
Then again,I ran around ingame for two weeks + without anyone claiming the 999 999 bounty on my head.
After that there was a reset and the bounty was lost ;)
Overall, bounties are currently gone from the game, and I think thats a good thing.
Didn't work well.
then there was the player-set bounty system with BountyBot tracking. Where you personally fessed up a bounty on somone, and had somone else collect it. That worked, sort of.
Then again,I ran around ingame for two weeks + without anyone claiming the 999 999 bounty on my head.
After that there was a reset and the bounty was lost ;)
Overall, bounties are currently gone from the game, and I think thats a good thing.
Well, I think the goal for bounties isn't necessarily to cut down on piracy (contrary to what I wrote), but the goal of bounties would be to make it fun to hunt pirates.
Personally, I'm not a merchant and I like PvP combat. I love attacking enemy convoys and I love the thrill of battle. Yet, I would never attack a player cargo ship for money because they don't present a challenge and I tend to like being an honorable pilot.
I'm not saying that I disagree with piracy. I like the idea of pirates lurking around and making things dangerous (and fun). However, I would like a way to identify pirates and maybe make a little cash for killing them.
Even if there wasn't a bounty on pirates, I wouldn't mind killing them for increased fame on my nation or allied nation.
I'd have fun as a bounty hunter.
Personally, I'm not a merchant and I like PvP combat. I love attacking enemy convoys and I love the thrill of battle. Yet, I would never attack a player cargo ship for money because they don't present a challenge and I tend to like being an honorable pilot.
I'm not saying that I disagree with piracy. I like the idea of pirates lurking around and making things dangerous (and fun). However, I would like a way to identify pirates and maybe make a little cash for killing them.
Even if there wasn't a bounty on pirates, I wouldn't mind killing them for increased fame on my nation or allied nation.
I'd have fun as a bounty hunter.
I suggested reinstating a bounty system, although making it different from before to try to cut down abuse.
If a player gets hit by a pirate, he or she can set a bounty on that person for an amount of money, and if the bounty is claimed, then has to pay up that amount. This means that players won't place bounties on a whim because they have their own stake in placing a bounty.
Players that hit other players flying trader-type ships (Bus, Wraith, Atlas, Centaur, Marauder?) will get an automatic bounty placed on them by that trader's government, although it will be a low bounty (well, killing busses bring higher bounties). So even if traders don't place their own bounties on that player, he or she will still accumulate numerous bounties against them.
Players do NOT automatically accumulate bounties for killing fighter-type ships (Centurion, Vulture, Warthog, etc) because that probably means that there was a reason to be fighting (Serco v Itani invasion missions, killing pirates, etc). If a person was trading in a fighter, then that person could still place a bounty on his or her own.
Players do NOT automatically accumulate bounties for killing pirate bots because killing bots never hurt anyone. The only time a player gets a bounty automatically placed against them for killing a bot is for raiding a government cargo transport. You can't place bounties on bots, even though you wouldn't make anything out of killing a bot that you placed a bounty on. Likewise, bots cannot accumulate bounties for killing players.
All bounties placed on a player will be shown in the player information tab (you know, when you press "k" when targeting another player). Each bounty states by who the bounty was placed (which government, or which player - plus faction), how much the bounty is worth, and when the bounty was placed. The player information tab also tells the total number of bounties (collected and uncollected) placed on the player, and the last time a bounty was collected. If you see that a player has five bounties against him, a total of 50 bounties, and the last time a bounty was collected was the previous day, then that player's probably a pretty active pirate.
This probably won't do anything to cut down piracy - people who want to pirate other players will just see the bounties placed against them as badges of honor ("Hah! I've had 50 bounties against me at once!"), but it will give good warnings for traders of who can be trusted and who can't, and also gives incentives for other players to attack pirates. And if a pirate never manages to get killed and keeps accumulating bounty, then that's great for them. That means that they're someone who can truly be feared. Eventually this would force pirate hunters to band together to gang up on the pirate.
If a player gets hit by a pirate, he or she can set a bounty on that person for an amount of money, and if the bounty is claimed, then has to pay up that amount. This means that players won't place bounties on a whim because they have their own stake in placing a bounty.
Players that hit other players flying trader-type ships (Bus, Wraith, Atlas, Centaur, Marauder?) will get an automatic bounty placed on them by that trader's government, although it will be a low bounty (well, killing busses bring higher bounties). So even if traders don't place their own bounties on that player, he or she will still accumulate numerous bounties against them.
Players do NOT automatically accumulate bounties for killing fighter-type ships (Centurion, Vulture, Warthog, etc) because that probably means that there was a reason to be fighting (Serco v Itani invasion missions, killing pirates, etc). If a person was trading in a fighter, then that person could still place a bounty on his or her own.
Players do NOT automatically accumulate bounties for killing pirate bots because killing bots never hurt anyone. The only time a player gets a bounty automatically placed against them for killing a bot is for raiding a government cargo transport. You can't place bounties on bots, even though you wouldn't make anything out of killing a bot that you placed a bounty on. Likewise, bots cannot accumulate bounties for killing players.
All bounties placed on a player will be shown in the player information tab (you know, when you press "k" when targeting another player). Each bounty states by who the bounty was placed (which government, or which player - plus faction), how much the bounty is worth, and when the bounty was placed. The player information tab also tells the total number of bounties (collected and uncollected) placed on the player, and the last time a bounty was collected. If you see that a player has five bounties against him, a total of 50 bounties, and the last time a bounty was collected was the previous day, then that player's probably a pretty active pirate.
This probably won't do anything to cut down piracy - people who want to pirate other players will just see the bounties placed against them as badges of honor ("Hah! I've had 50 bounties against me at once!"), but it will give good warnings for traders of who can be trusted and who can't, and also gives incentives for other players to attack pirates. And if a pirate never manages to get killed and keeps accumulating bounty, then that's great for them. That means that they're someone who can truly be feared. Eventually this would force pirate hunters to band together to gang up on the pirate.
CrippledPidgeon,
That sounds nice in theory. But what's to stop a pirate with a high bounty to ask for one of his pirate buddies to kill him and split the bounty 50/50?
Maybe any system put in place will be exploitable to a certain extent. I guess maybe exploitation is a necessary evil.
That sounds nice in theory. But what's to stop a pirate with a high bounty to ask for one of his pirate buddies to kill him and split the bounty 50/50?
Maybe any system put in place will be exploitable to a certain extent. I guess maybe exploitation is a necessary evil.
Remember what happened the last time bounties were implemented?
Last time bounties were implemented, people got bounties for attacking bots.
That's just asking for trouble.....
That's just asking for trouble.....
Bountys are horrid things.. ARRRRR...lol people went round killing to raise bounty ;o( people killing people with *lesser bounty* should be punished, i hope this makes sense, as its friday night where i am, and i have had a hard week, will be in tommorows,....
AlienB: Kinda, but it's been a while.
goatwarrior: There's nothing to stop a pirate from getting a buddy to kill him, but that's the unfortunate consequence of a universe where a person killed really doesn't stay dead. But hopefully someone else will come by before that point, decide that they want the reward first, and go whack the heck out of the pirate.
goatwarrior: There's nothing to stop a pirate from getting a buddy to kill him, but that's the unfortunate consequence of a universe where a person killed really doesn't stay dead. But hopefully someone else will come by before that point, decide that they want the reward first, and go whack the heck out of the pirate.
what is to guarentee that the pirate "friend" will stick to his word and split the bounty? :D
maybe if you have a bounty, then you can't pick up a bounty...then the "pirate friend" won't be able to pick up a bounty to split 50/50...in theory.....it might work
Bounties were only a problem with the introduction of the leveling system mid year. Players were botting like crazy to level up, and getting massive bounties (bots gave bounties) and getting hunted by other so-inclined players, such as myself ;) This was mainly because collecting bounties was directly linked to your score, so the more bounties you collected, the higher your score. The higher your score, the higher your ranking with your nation, and the higher on the player list...
BountyBot was awesome when we had 18 sectors, but next to useless now.
Personally, I love the idea of a bounty system, but one which is a little more integrated into the game. If bounties can be posted from any station, then collected only after returning to a specific (possible the posting) station upon killing the mark, I think we would have another cool little element added to the game. A page on the web-site could track the bounties placed on players, who placed the bounties, and who collected the bounties.
ie: A trader gets waxed by a nasty pirate in unaligned space, so places a 250k bounty on the head of the pirate. The pirate has already had numerous bounites places on his/her head, so this bring the bounty on his/her head to well over 5 mil. A bounty hunter logs on and checks the bountyboard in a station and sees the pirate would make an excellent mark, so sets about laying a cunning trap for the pirate... etc
Or if the bounties are linked to missions, the bounty hunter could recieve a mission (maybe from the station or some kind of story line string) to kill the pirate. The mission computer would give updates every so often on the suspected location of the pirate.
The reward for collecting bounties would obviously be collecting the credits, but also adding to a 'bounties collected' number attached to the players charinfo.
BountyBot was awesome when we had 18 sectors, but next to useless now.
Personally, I love the idea of a bounty system, but one which is a little more integrated into the game. If bounties can be posted from any station, then collected only after returning to a specific (possible the posting) station upon killing the mark, I think we would have another cool little element added to the game. A page on the web-site could track the bounties placed on players, who placed the bounties, and who collected the bounties.
ie: A trader gets waxed by a nasty pirate in unaligned space, so places a 250k bounty on the head of the pirate. The pirate has already had numerous bounites places on his/her head, so this bring the bounty on his/her head to well over 5 mil. A bounty hunter logs on and checks the bountyboard in a station and sees the pirate would make an excellent mark, so sets about laying a cunning trap for the pirate... etc
Or if the bounties are linked to missions, the bounty hunter could recieve a mission (maybe from the station or some kind of story line string) to kill the pirate. The mission computer would give updates every so often on the suspected location of the pirate.
The reward for collecting bounties would obviously be collecting the credits, but also adding to a 'bounties collected' number attached to the players charinfo.
FYI guys, I recently specified a new in-game News system, with one of the listed applications being a daily "top 10 bounties" post. The bounties would be issued by a given Nation for enemies of that particular nation (for the Itani, it might be Serco who have been particularly successful in the cargo conflict or border patrol wars. Or perhaps just an avid pirate, etc). These are automatically placed bounties.. but there's room for privately placed ones as well (a-la BountyBot). We'll see. Regardless, it will have more "universe" impact and interaction.. you'll need to go talk to a particular NPC, or some such, to get your reward, etc. It won't be the sort of strange deathmatch-remenant bounty system we had in place previously.
It all requires some.. further design and implementation time. But FYI that that is in the works.
It all requires some.. further design and implementation time. But FYI that that is in the works.
Instead of a monitary reward for a bounty, how about a faction increase from the entities that placed the bounty and a combat/weapon level points reward?
i think that we need to make the fact being killed more painfull.
It is not much only to loose the ship!
What about loosing skillpoints or so?
It is not much only to loose the ship!
What about loosing skillpoints or so?
I rather like the current ways. you loose a ship, and a HECK of a lot of traveltime (around 10 Minutes or so) when you engage in PvP across the universe.
Higher level players tend to be homed in their nations homesectors, usually around their capitols, because thats where nation special ships are avaiable. To make it even more painful to die would simply discourage that sort of combat activity.
And while on a mission, you get +1 bot for each death, and this increase stays with you for the whole time of the mission, and the step from 8 bots to 14 because you've been dying a few times is rather big, and makes it infinitely slower.
So really, making it even harder isn't something I'd want to see, cheap deaths encourage learning and daring player-interaction.
Higher level players tend to be homed in their nations homesectors, usually around their capitols, because thats where nation special ships are avaiable. To make it even more painful to die would simply discourage that sort of combat activity.
And while on a mission, you get +1 bot for each death, and this increase stays with you for the whole time of the mission, and the step from 8 bots to 14 because you've been dying a few times is rather big, and makes it infinitely slower.
So really, making it even harder isn't something I'd want to see, cheap deaths encourage learning and daring player-interaction.
The info below should answer all your questions:
Players labelled as "Pirate" can not collect bounties.
Pirate v Cargo ship - automatic bounty added by Nation/Governt.
Pirate v Fighter ship - Victim has the option to post a bounty and Nation/Governt. adds a centain% to it.***
Pirate v Pirate - No bounty. (Can only loot cargo.)
Pirate/Player v Bot - No bounty. (Can only loot cargo.)
Pirate v NPC - I shall leave that up to you folks....
Bounty rewards can be either; (Money) or (Faction Increase from the Nation/Governt. that posted the bounty). Type of rewards are random unless the victim was in a Fighter ship and he/she has the option when placing the bounty.
Bounty/reward value is determinded upon skill level of victim e.g.(0/0/0/0) For every skill point there is an increase in value.
*** The % is determinded by the skill level of the victim (as stated above)
If you have any other issues/queries that you require advice with, then please email me and I'll be happy to help.
Llegolas :D
Players labelled as "Pirate" can not collect bounties.
Pirate v Cargo ship - automatic bounty added by Nation/Governt.
Pirate v Fighter ship - Victim has the option to post a bounty and Nation/Governt. adds a centain% to it.***
Pirate v Pirate - No bounty. (Can only loot cargo.)
Pirate/Player v Bot - No bounty. (Can only loot cargo.)
Pirate v NPC - I shall leave that up to you folks....
Bounty rewards can be either; (Money) or (Faction Increase from the Nation/Governt. that posted the bounty). Type of rewards are random unless the victim was in a Fighter ship and he/she has the option when placing the bounty.
Bounty/reward value is determinded upon skill level of victim e.g.(0/0/0/0) For every skill point there is an increase in value.
*** The % is determinded by the skill level of the victim (as stated above)
If you have any other issues/queries that you require advice with, then please email me and I'll be happy to help.
Llegolas :D
Well the thing is as far as I can see pirates are going to be around pretty much for the entirety of this game.(plz forgive my spelling.) Most of the pirates around used to be bounty hunters when BountyBot was around. I know I was. Bounty hunters just got left behind when BountyBot was takin out so they started to hunt other things...AKA traders. Sure pirates were around when BountyBot was around but they werent as ummmm...plentiful. Bounties my lower the pirate lvl but its going to raise the bounty hunters back from the dead thus bringing more PvP combat. Pirates just hunt for the fun of killing traders (plus a little cash on the side). So bring back bounties...theres gunna be alot of PvP of all levels. Dont bring it back...and theres still gunna be pirates. either way there's a downset so let the ppl decide