Why in the world do we need to pay to become bounty hunters, exp. why do we have to pay 50k. I've never had 50k in my playing career, and at this rate, I never will. I suggest that the rate be at least lowered to about 15k to 20k, so the combat pilots can have some fun.

Money is nothing in VO. Trade around for a bit. You can get 50k in one round-trip run.

WORD!

Based on the large rewards you can get by being a bounty hunter I think 50k is a good deal. If anything it should be increased, I think almost everyone interested in PvP is a bounty hunter already which shouldn't be the case.

Go do some mining or trading, you should be able to collect 50k in no time at all, even with inter-system trade runs.
Check the news tab and read what items are in demand, or the daily trade report.

-Cam-

Shadow you are correct, 50k to sign up to become a bounty hunter is bizarre, but not just for the reasons you stated (money is relative to different playing styles). I feel this is just a 'placeholder' method for obtaining this license, which will eventually be changed. Ideally there should be no, or only a small monetary fee, and instead a skill-based 'bounty hunter training mission' etc to both educate and challenge players wishing to become bounty hunters. I am also quite certain that the devs have been thinking about this too as it is the obvious progression from the current system.

The other thing that needs to be decided is, as Cam pointed out, how easy a license should be to obtain. Do we want the Bounty Hunter status to be a common achievement among players (as it seems to be now), or something rarer, and restricted to those players that have chosen to spend the time and effort to obtain it, and are therefore more committed to playing that role within the universe?

Thank you, Skillz.

I think that as a replacement for the 50k fee, there should be a certain amount of PvP kills required (sets me back, again, but not as much). I just really want to be a bounty hunter for the PvP, the money is nice, but more PvP is nicer.

"In order to become a bounty hunter you must pay a one time fee of 10,000 credits, and your levels must be at least 8/6/6/4/2." Then [more] people would actually level that high, IMHO.
-:sigma.SB

Infinite_Skillz, I love your idea of "a skill-based 'bounty hunter training mission' etc to both educate and challenge players wishing to become bounty hunters."

I could easily see a string of, say, five-to-ten missions which pit a player against increasingly difficult AI-based pirates/rogue pilots.

50k really is nothing... it's like paying for a hunting license in real life. Trade (*gasp*) for half an hour and if you don't have 50k you're doing something very wrong. Removing this fee would just further devalue the credit ;).

I also would be against upping the license levels needed to become a bounty hunter. 4/4/4 seems sufficient to me. Already there's too much level grinding going on in this game which I've heard the devs want to avoid.

As far as adding a PK requirement, that does seem like a good idea to me. After all, levels don't necessarily (and rarely do as a matter of fact) translate to PvP skills, which is what bounty hunting is all about. Before a government endorses you as a bounty hunter they'll want to know you can handle taking on another pilot. Perhaps a good prerequisite to becoming a bounty hunter would be that your character must have the 25 pk medal.

And missions are always a good thing, heaven knows Vendetta needs more missions. In a perfect world I could see a 5-10 mission string to become a bounty hunter on top of the other requirements, but from what I've seen I think that may be a long shot at this point.

as long as there is a XP decrease for the hunted, I will never buy a license.