Forums » Suggestions

penalty for bounty hunting failure

«123
Jun 05, 2011 Impavid link
+1 to that stupid idea. Free money for everyone.
Jun 06, 2011 Pizzasgood link
Voting for bounties is stupid. Just let us pay the marshal to assign an official bounty, as I'm sure has been suggested many many times. That way the money isn't magic.

-1 to losing a percentage of money.
Jun 06, 2011 pirren link
Maybe let's allow players to set bounties at Marshall? (min 350k)

For example /msg Marshall set bounty "Ecka Estenk" 500000
Jun 06, 2011 SkinWalker link
You guys are right... setting at the marshal makes a lot more sense than voting.

But as far as penalties go for the person with the bounty, wouldn't you rather give up a few 100k than a percentage of xp? I've never had a bounty on me, so I don't know how it feels from the hunted side. But after a license reaches 10, is there any real penalty if the player loses 1% of the 75,000 xp built up for the next level? Better to tax a portion of their bank which could be used to fund other bounties.
Jun 06, 2011 PaKettle link
And if the player does not have the credits?

Prepaid player posted bounties with a 10 percent surcharge sounds like it would be good but multiple bounties should not be satisfied with a single kill.
Jun 06, 2011 abortretryfail link
I don't think the marshals for the 3 big nations should be taking bounties from whatever rich character shows up to have somebody killed.

Perhaps this is a job for a new NPC at the Corvus station in Odia M-14?
Jun 07, 2011 pirren link
Nice suggestion abortretryfail, +1
Jun 07, 2011 tarenty link
+1 to be able to set bounties, if you pay for the bounty. Let the nations set bounties at player bequest as long as the person you're setting a bounty on is Hate with that nation. All of this ONLY if you can set a bounty on yourself at Corvus (without being allowed to claim it yourself). :D
Jun 08, 2011 Alloh link
I really like that... but RP-wise, should be in opposite way... more like hiring a Merc... a counter-bounty.

The more players make bids on someone's head, the more valuable that person becomes. Corvus does not pay for killing anyone, but will receive your money and give it to whoever kill your foe. Despite not being called a bounty, the same rules should apply...

Corvus' player-hired Bounties really deserves another own topic...

--

Back to OP, seems most do not like the XP penalty (lose combat XP doing combat?) and prefer a "Freeze" time, delaying respawn, as a more proper penalty for hunted pilot? And for hunter, keep the lost badge for fails?

Back on required specific hail, it could be like a specific channel, where you report to the Marshal and to hunted one the "duel" about to happen, or happening. If reported after the kill or not reported, pay only 25% reward . One can alias/bind (/bounty hunt %target%) or a new key could be used, like F2.
RP-wise: You must announce to your target that this Vendetta, er, mean Bounty, was imposed bu $FACTION. Aim him and press key $KEY to send this automated recording. Make sure he knows it before he dies, or it only worths half of credits.
If sent, make the name of the victims scroll across the hunted one while frozen.

For contracting nation, really doesn't matter if said message was said before first shot or just before the killshot... But again, the engine should warn you when you meet/aim someone with a bounty that you can collect.

Like, when you AIM/select a hunted player for 1st time, it appears a HUD message WANTED. Press F2 to announce bounty. Non-disruptive, and automatically send a default (or custom) message to hunted player and Marshall.

--

For hunters, losing bdge, if they are homed in capital, is just a very small delay if they are homed in capital. This increase immersion, raising cost of death for hunters... And for hunted one, gives an extra relief to kill a hunter. Increase value of bet, or duel.

--

New idea, and for me makes a lot of sense to pay for achieve it: "Bounty Duel", that announced one, imposes another penalty as RE-HOMING in capital, more far away as possible from offended nation.
I.e., someone was hunted on a bounty where hunter hailed properly. After imposed freeze time, he will respawn back in his capital, if he is (native>=Dislike), or in Corvus capital if he is (native<Dislike).

I see this as balanced, and justifies the cash spent by factions in killing someone that they know that will ressurect/respawn. Buys a relief for more time than a simple kill by a turret.
Jun 08, 2011 Pizzasgood link
"Back to OP, seems most do not like the XP penalty (lose combat XP doing combat?) and prefer a "Freeze" time, delaying respawn, as a more proper penalty for hunted pilot? And for hunter, keep the lost badge for fails?"

-1. XP is fine IMO. A one-shot freeze time is a joke - oh no, I died and have to wait 30 seconds longer now, but then I'm normal until the next time I get a bounty and then die, woopty-do. It would need to be a freeze time enforced over multiple deaths to actually be a penalty, but that would just be annoying. I don't have a problem with a penalty in general, but penalties along the lines of "you can't play the game for X amount of time" are BAD.

"Like, when you AIM/select a hunted player for 1st time, it appears a HUD message WANTED. Press F2 to announce bounty. Non-disruptive, and automatically send a default (or custom) message to hunted player and Marshall."

-1. That is disruptive - makes me take my hand off my n52 to try to locate and press the F2 key in the dark, or else requires me to waste a key that could actually do something useful with this retarded function. What would wind up happening is I'd make a plugin to automatically send this hail crap when I engage somebody who has a bounty and then I'd happily forget that the hail requirement even exists. And I'd distribute that plugin to anybody else who wanted it, rendering the hail requirement pointless. Besides which, there is no reason a person should have to alert the person he's killing that he's killing him for a bounty. As for the marshal, he doesn't care that you are trying to kill the guy, he only cares whether you do kill him.

"For hunters, losing bdge"

-1. It makes no sense that failing to obtain a bounty would cause the loss of your badge. A bounty is not a job. It isn't like the nation is assigning the bounty hunter to hunt down and eliminate the player and the bounty hunter failed that job. The bounty hunter doesn't have to commit to bringing in the bounty first. This suggestion would only make sense if the bounty hunter were being employed as a merc to specifically assassinate somebody, but that is not bounty hunting, that is hired assassination. But more important than the not making sense, it wouldn't be fun.

We don't need big significant penalties for bounty hunting. Small simple ones that don't get in the way are all we need, just to add a little bit of motivation to succeed. All this elaborate crap you are proposing is just a waste of time that takes a fun thing and turns it into work.
Jun 08, 2011 PaKettle link
its not a penalty for not getting the bounty - its a penalty for getting killed by the bounty which would be embarrassing for the nation.
Jun 09, 2011 Pizzasgood link
Not really. Why do I have a bounty in the first place? Because I am a very dangerous mass murderer. I have killed more than 2700 player ships. So of course I will kill a few of the bounty hunters that try to bring me to justice.

Also, you are still confusing the issue. If the nation hired Random Joe to assassinate me and he failed, that would be something they could (but shouldn't) feel embarrassed about, especially if they paid him some money in advance. That is not how a bounty works. With a bounty, they staple a wanted poster up on the telephone poles in a bunch of cities, and a bunch of random hunters try to kill me. Many will die, one will win. The one who finally manages it brings in my head and trades it for the prize. They don't know or care about all the ones who failed. They weren't a member of the police force, they were a bunch of independent vigilantes who got in over their heads or just had bad luck. They do not at all represent the nation that issued the bounty.

Let me state that again: bounty hunters do not represent the nation issuing the bounty. They are independent vigilantes. If the nation should be embarrassed about anything, it should be embarrassed about needing to post a bounty in the first place rather than dealing with the problem themselves. But only the Serco would feel that way. The UIT certainly wouldn't be embarrassed, and I don't think the Itani would either.
Jun 09, 2011 Alloh link
I agree with Pizza, but also consider that becoming a bounty hunter have no cons. Everybody should become bounty hunter now, since you can get a nice unexpected reward out of nowhere, in a random duel/combat.

That is why I proposed that if you die while hunting, you lose the "badge", Cheap and quick penalty if you are homed in any capital, but would "clear out" the accidental hunters while keeping the real, dedicated hunters, hunting... he just have to request another badge at his every death. More a delay than a penalty...

Or else remove entirely the concept of "hunter". Anyone who kills the enemy of state can claim the bounty in exchange of his head.
Jun 09, 2011 Pizzasgood link
Yes, a con is needed so that there is a reason to not be a hunter. And that is what this thread proposed in the OP. A simple and balanced penalty, which is the same penalty that is already applied to the outlaws killed by the hunters.

What I am opposed to is all this excessive complexity that would make hunting less fun (though it could make being a pirate more fun I suppose).