[BRAINSTORM] A Proper Bounty Hunting System

I have always wanted to have a proper Bounty Hunting System. So I have tried to think of a way that would not be exploitable but would be far more effective then the one we “have” today. For that reason I want to open a Brainstorm thread to discuss a possible system / revamp that would work. Being a Brainstorm, I am looking for suggestions to make such a system possible, so if you feel that my idea is not balanced, or just crap, feel free to suggest a possible system that would work.

I’ll start with the idea I was thinking of:

In Short: New Bounty Hunter System that works around a new “Warrant Flag”

  • Warrant Flag allows limited engagement to and from Bounty Hunters ??in addition to voiding any insurance payout if destroyed during??.
  • Adds a New Prestige/Notoriety System in the Bounty Office
  • Adds a New LP Store for Bounty Hunter rewards.

Essentially it would be Bounty Hunters vs Outlaws

Bounty Hunters would need to enroll / be certified in/by a New Concord Bounty Hunter Program

  • Can only be done by players, corps and alliances will NOT be able to enlist
  • Reason is to keep requirements, and to allow for revokation for bad behavior
  • Corps and Alliances are free to require certification/enlistment though

Three Types of Warrants Suspect, Criminal and WANTED:

Suspect:

  • A Warrant can be placed on anyone that has made a suspect level offense on someone.
  • Can Only be placed if was the offended in last 30 days

Criminal:

  • A Warrant can be placed on anyone that has made a criminal level offense on someone.
  • Can only be placed if was the offended in last 30 days
  • Note: The Current Killright can be used by anyone, The Warrant Flag would be issued if activated by a Bounty Hunter.

WANTED:

  • A warrant that is generated by Concord based on FAILED attempts / Notoriety

Suspect Warrants will allow Bounty Hunters to activate a Warrant Flag by simply activating the “kill right”

  • Suspect Warrants expire in 15 Days if not used
  • Suspect Warrants will activate a 15 Minute Warrant Timer that will refresh if Aggression Made
  • Expiration does NOT add Notoriety
  • Destruction of Bounty Hunters increases Notoriety

Criminal Warrants will allow Bounty Hunters to activate a Warrant Flag and engage suspects by simply activating the “killright”

  • Criminal Warrants Expires in 30 Days if not used
  • Criminal Warrants will activate a 30 Minute Warrant Timer that will refresh if Aggression Made
  • Once used, Warrant Expiration is refreshed if unsuccessful in destroying suspect/criminal
  • Expiration does NOT add Notoriety
  • Destruction of Bounty Hunters Increases Notoriety

Wanted Warrants will allow Bounty Hunters to engage without activation of any killright. It also means that suspects can engage Bounty Hunters without provocation

  • Permanent Warrant Flag
  • Flag will last as long as Suspect/Criminal has sufficient Notoriety
  • Destruction of Bounty Hunters increases Notoriety

Killrights would be changed so that ONLY Bounty Hunters can engage them

  • Would instead of creating a suspect flag, would now activate a new warrant flag
  • Warrant Flag will allow engagement from all Bounty Hunters
  • Warrant Flag will allow engagement to all Bounty Hunters (by the suspect/criminal)
  • Yes, this means aggresion will no longer be required for suspects to engage
  • Suspect / Criminal destruction will have an LP payout for all Bounty Hunters Taking Part
  • Suspect / Criminal destruction will build Prestige For Bounty Hunters Taking Part
  • Bounty Hunter destruction will build Notoriety for the Suspect / Criminal
  • LP payout will be based on ship size / value as well as well as a bonus for Notoriety of Suspect / Criminal

Prestige and Notoriety would be viewable in the Bounty Office allowing bounty hunters to run locates on “prized targets” and/or for “Bragging Rights”

LP Rewards:

  • New LP Store for Bounty Hunters (NPC Corp: “Concord Bounty Hunter Commission”)
  • LP Rewards would include things such as new Concord Sub-capital Modules
  • I strongly believe that the LP payout NEEDS to be such that it is worth less than Cost of Ship Loss + Insurance Payout - Insurance Cost. That being said, I believe that the Notoriety system for bonuses will need to scale so that it does not pass this threshold. Alternatively, Insurance could be “voided” if was lost during a Warrant Flag.

Note(s):

  • The current Bounty System would not be removed. They would just be renamed Private Bounties
  • This new system would have a fixed price for activating the Warrant Flag. This can have a modifier based on ship size if needed.
  • This system also makes kill rights useful regardless of target’s security status.

Other Options Suggested:

Lugh Crow-Slave - Bounty Contracts that have a more robust customization and would be accessible through either Contracts or the Bounty Board/Office.

1 Like

You realise that this just allows for farming of your own alts.
Like all the ‘fix the bounty hunting system’ suggestions do.

Or it gets no larger payout than you already get. Because that’s where the current payout is set to is to just below break even for killing your own alt.

Isnt it actually something like 20% of the destroyed value? Makes it impossible to do anything other than lose isk farming an alt.

Velator meet laser.

Yes, but then there is insurance and loot drops. So it’s very close to break even even at 20% of destroyed value.

I agree, There are a couple of ways to resolve this:

One way is to disable insurance payouts if you have the Warrant Flag when destroyed. This gives us the ability to increase the rewards slightly

I am also looking for the mechanics and lore of the mechanics as I believe they could be quite fun. In addition to giving more PVP opportunities to “good” and “bad” guys. So if the mechanics were made and the LP rewards were low, personally, I would still participate.

We already do this for criminal acts, so this should be doable

The thing is killrights already exist, so you can already do this.
Your idea literally only takes away from the game.

I understand that killrights already exist, in fact I am changing the flag that is created. What I am proposing is more of a mechanic that better utilizes them. Currently I don’t feel they work as well as they could, and using them for this would IMO only benefit the game. I would also support keeping them and just adding a new warrant system on top of it, but I believe that could get too confusing of what you are activating.

maybe I am missing something, how do you feel this is taking from the game?

Enough said about how it takes from the game without adding.

OK, fair point and this is why we discuss things (hence the Brainstorm tag).

So let us see how we can accommodate that thought. What if the killrights created a Warrant Flag ON TOP of the current Suspect Flag if activated by a Bounty Hunter? I feel I/we could modify the idea to accommodate this.

We could change it so that Bounty Hunters are the ones that can activate Suspect Warrants and Engage in WANTED Warrants, but allow Criminal Warrants to be activated by anyone. If a Criminal Warrant is activated by Bounty Hunter, then a Warrant Flag would be issued on top of the suspect flag.

You could make it so if the one who kills you is in your contacts or you have sent ISK to or traded items/ships with or had multiple conversations with in the same chat channel they can not get a pay out?

Maybe a combination of these?

Just a conceptual base line.

Why?
We’ve established that this doesn’t actually fix anything.
Why bother at all?

What does it actually create that killrights anyone can activate and the current bounties don’t add.

just make it a contract

you can set who can accept (private, corp, alliance ,public)

total bounty

minimum kill for payout

%of kill value per payout

max single payout

and congrats you now have bounties that actually work

No, we changed 1 part so that it wouldn’t take away from current gameplay. (my proposal has 3 types).

It adds a few things actually:

  • it expands the current kill right system to more targets
  • It allows preemptive attacking by suspects/criminals without Concord’s direct intervention
  • it makes killrights worthwhile regardless of the sec status of the suspect/criminal
  • it gives a unique reward to bounty hunters
  • it strengthens a game play mechanic to a level where people can interact on two sides of directly

IMO, that could fix the system

interesting proposal. So instead of the current system, killrights would be contracts (im assuming available through the bounty office) that can be picked up, or just directly made to specific players / entities with restrictions on what must be killed (for example must be a t2 cruiser) or something)?

no… get out of HS that was for bounties not KR they are as fine as they are going to be. if you want to improve those make them linked to access lists rather than just corp, alliance, public

those are options as well.

So you would essentially have an access list (similar to the one for structures), that could work as a bounty board? I’m just trying to picture it is all.

That way, only certain people that the “creator of said bounty” states could collect, and would be restricted to certain ship destructions.

make up your mind are we talking about bounties or kill rights? they are not the same thing nor are they in any way tied together.

bounties go with my contract idea

KR tie to an access list so they work identical to how they do now the only difference is the level of control over who has access to them

I am talking about making an updated Bounty Hunting System. I am intrigued by your contract idea, and am trying to picture how it would work.

As for killrights, I understand they are separate, but could be a good control method to the bounty system. If your idea is separate that is fine, I am just trying to picture how it works.

My assumption is that the bounty contracts would be available through the Bounty Board and would have the details. The details of them would be visible to those that were selected.