Being a Bounty Hunter should involve an actual hunting process, not just hanging out in B8 and backstabbing anyone you see with a bounty after you hit "k" while targeting them. Hunters should only be able to get the active bounties of a Nation or Sub-Faction at the Capitol or Barracks stations of that Nation or Sub-Faction.

I won't go so far as to make people fly to the marshall for the active bounties list, but obviously the "last seen in" mechanism should remain limited to talking with a marshall.

yup

Heh. Then you better add to this suggestion that you can't get the bounty unless you knew prior that the guy you just killed had a bounty, otherwise it's back to "just hanging out in B8" and PvPing and you get lucky sometimes. I don't know many bounty hunters who actually check the Player Stats before engaging someone (though yes, I do know you're just trying to invalidate my earlier post). Moreover, I personally don't look for bounties before engaging, yet I have the most bounties collected thus far due to the fact that I regularly engage those who MIGHT have bounties. As such, the bounty system is borked, as I tend to get rewarded not for bounty hunting, but rather for doing my RP in-game job as a VPR <end of RP references on the suggestions forum>.

The Marshals aren't really a good way of doing things. Their names change so you can't statically ask them questions from across the verse, and they are damned far out of the way. If a nation really wanted to encourage people to hunt down enemies of the state, they'd make the information easy to retrieve. I'm not saying that the Player Stats page is the best place for it. What I'm saying is the Marshals should have fixed names, so you can ask them questions when you're out in grey.

If all the Marshals are giving you is a list of people, then they shouldn't require you to travel all the way to a capitol station (away from where the targets are) to get that list. Maybe if they also told you where those bounties came from (aka where the target likes to hunt)...

But yah, you get my point. Most bounties are claimed by accident anyways. If you want to make the bounty system more involved, propose a way to make it more involved, instead of just saying bounty hunters need to travel all over the goddamned place just to find out who they are hunting.

Edit: I agree that the bounty system needs some kind of overhaul. See this thread for ideas on how to actually fix the system, instead of just patching it.

Sure thing: bounties will become missions takable at the proposed stations. Marshalls will still be the point of contact for up to date location info; the whole fucking point of it has always been to require teamwork (i.e., post someone at the capitol, the others go hunt) if you want to track someone in real time. Missions may only be taken one at a time, and will indicate if other hunters are active on the same name.

If a nation really wanted to encourage people to hunt down enemies of the state, they'd make the information easy to retrieve.

Who gives a flying fuck what you think they'd do? This is a gameplay issue, you drooling moron.

Wrapping bounty hunting up in missions would be excellent. People claiming bounties in the course of consensual furballs and friendly dueling is lame.

bounties will become missions takable at the proposed stations

That's more work than the it's worth if you're only going after one name. Even if you could get all the names, I don't think bounty hunting should prevent multitasking. If you're escorting a convoy and see someone you know has a bounty, why should you not be rewarded for claiming the bounty?

Marshalls will still be the point of contact for up to date location info;

If only it worked that way.

whole fucking point of it has always been to require teamwork

I see absolutely no evidence of that given the current game mechanics.

Who gives a flying fuck what you think they'd do? This is a gameplay issue, you drooling moron.

Because what I think they'd do is directly applicable to in-game mechanics, and would make for gameplay. If you have an issue with the mechanic I was outlining, address it directly, instead of trying to score troll points.

I don't think bounty hunting should prevent multitasking. If you're escorting a convoy and see someone you know has a bounty, why should you not be rewarded for claiming the bounty?

Sorry, you can whine about this once every other mission in the game supports multi-tasking. Until then, pick your mission.

Lecter, no other mission in the game requires a specific person to be online. If these missions are exclusive (and I won't even address the possibility that you could only get them at specific stations, often far off the beaten track) then nobody will take bounties. Why bother? As soon as someone realizes a bounty hunter is after them, they'll log off, and possibly log onto an alt, laughing themselves silly. If you want to kill the bounty system, that's a fantastic way to do it.

It doesn't seem like much of a burden if you could take the missions at any station. The work required to hunt down and kill someone remains the same. Just unlike now you couldn't also claim bounties "accidentally." People can log off now if they like but they don't.

For a mission system to work (following up on diqrtvpe's post), you'd need log-off notifications, and the missions should only be active/posted if the person targeted is online. I'm sure that sounds much too APL-like for you guys to buy it.

People can log off now if they like but they don't.

It doesn't need to be a malicious act. Say I'm chasing a rat who feels like going onto his miner alt, but also feels like running quiet on it (or hell, say he feels like sleeping and logs completely). I've taken the mission, but the player just isn't around, and I have no way of knowing that (without /msg-ing him that is).

If we moved towards a two-way in-radar-range notification system (with incentives added for the targeted player to escape/win)... things would probably work themselves out nicely. But that's a topic for another thread.

+1 to OP.

Maybe you'd need something akin to the APL, Atice, but I wouldn't. Here's how I'd work it:

I'd put my ear down to the public chat channels, especially the one where VPR has trained the populous to report sightings of its enemies (who as it turns out often have bounties) and I'd start roaming around Grey hunting for someone with a worthy prize on their head. Once an acceptable target had surfaced, I'd dock and somehow take a mission that asks me to pick their name from a comprehensive list, then undock and using hints that the marshals would give me, my recollections of this persons habits, and live in-game information channels, track them down, fight them, and then profit. Sometimes the trail would go cold and I'd have to train my sights on someone else. Sometimes it wouldn't. Either way the hunt would be challenging and fun.

If anyone cared about denying bounties to people they'd just have a friend clear theirs but no one really cares.

A modified two-way notification system would be an almost necessary compliment to mission bounty hunting.

But this is different than the OP so I should probably start my own thread or something.

Hmmm, but if you are hunting someone with a bounty. How will you catch them? We all know chasing people down is near impossible... allthough I do like the idea of making bounties some sort of mission based thing.

For a mission system to work (following up on diqrtvpe's post), you'd need log-off notifications

Again, you seem to have no idea how the system used to work (and maybe still does, given your inability to figure out how to use a marshal). It used to indicate if someone had logged off, and, if so, when. Again, it forced teamwork in player hunting, by having someone stationed at the capitol to relay real-time stats to the hunters in the field.

The missions should be takeable regardless of whether someone is online-- check with the marshal to determine if you're wasting your time.

How will you catch them? We all know chasing people down is near impossible...

Fucking noobs, wanting everything to be simple :P Can I get Shape, Martin, and I think either Tram or Tumble to chime in about how they used to hunt me when my bounty went over 7M or so? Those were some good hunts, usually ending in a posi hog fight with Shape. You can run... but you can't hide :D

Just played with a marshall some more... seems they do give you some useful information. Last seen location and how long ago it was (and even whether or not the target is logged in). So the Marshals are useful; interesting.

"I can also tell you if a specific pilot has a bounty on them if you give me their name" really should read "I can give you specific information about a pilot if you give me his name" or some such. It's really not obvious that the marshal will give you more than list unless you know how the system is supposed to work.

If anyone cared about denying bounties to people ... but no one really cares.

Yah, but they should.

Just played with a marshall some more... seems they do give you some useful information. Last seen location and how long ago it was (and even whether or not the target is logged in). So the Marshals are useful; interesting.

Go on. You can say it.

i accidently bounty hunters all the time

If anyone cared about denying bounties to people ... but no one really cares.

I think that the recent behaviour of certain groups of people to other groups of people in-game, and vice versa, has made it amply clear that people do care. There will definitely be cases of people maliciously logging to deny a bounty, and that sort of thing.

To me, it would seem that a better option would be that a bounty hunter can only have one bounty active at a time, but it does not interfere with the taking of missions, etc. And, going off Maalik's suggestion, if you make it so you can change your bounty at any station, but only at a station, then people have the opportunity to see a likely prospect, dock to change their bounty, and get their hunt on. The bounty gets some warning (assuming they were paying attention, and the hunter wasn't using innocuous scouts), and the hunter gets to change targets without too much fuss.

good thoughts diqrtvpe. +1

OK. Missions are just a means to an end.

What recent behavior are you talking about? I'm curious. Everything has seemed quite mellow all the times I've been on.