Well yeah, I do have an idea.
I’m writing this from a perspective of someone who cares about the money, because most people simply do that. They don’t want to kill for sports, which is perfectly fine, though things of course shouldn’t work in a way that it feeds greed. Greed is bad. Ask Hilmar. : - )
There needs to be more people with higher bounty and the payout mechanic needs to be changed. The 20% payout might prevent people from cashing it themselves via alts/friends, but it also makes it meaningless. The full payout might make people cash it in themselves, but in return does it make everyone who doesn’t do such a thing an actually interesting target. There are people who truly appreciate this. That’s some serious spice added to the game for both the hunted and the hunter.
Let me tell you the short story of how I had a billion ISK bounty on my head, before these changes. Good old Solstice Project sat in Dodixie trying to talk money out of some honourable drunk person. Let’s say I was really good at that. At first I didn’t know I’ve succeeded, but when I came back from work four hours later I’ve seen he indeed sent me money … in form of bounty … one billion ISK. That was a lot back then.
And I was sitting in Dodixie. As -7. Ha! Panic!
Back then Dodixie was really active. A lot of people at the undock. Back then I also wasn’t yet skilled enough to figure out how to get the ■■■■ out of there and it was a thrilling 15minutes I’ve used to try to escape until Alex [forgotthefullname] managed to get the final blow. Sadly I had no instaundock bookmark back then and using the pod wasn’t an option, because it had to do a full turn around. My mind was too occupied to come up with something sensible. lol
When the whole bounty is being paid out, then there is actual meaning because people will come after you for it. When you know only 20% of the bounty will be paid, then you know very well that most people will not give a ■■■■, because the vast majority of people will simply not come to check if you have a ship/fitting that makes an attack worthwhile.
I believe bounty should be paid out in full up until a hard limit calculated in relation to the cost of the ship used to gank the target … plus profit. When I invest 100 million ISK to gank someone who has a billion ISK bounty, then I should be compensated that money PLUS making profit.
Now some losers people will scream THAT’LL INCREASE SUICIDE GANKING and I will say YES THAT’S WHAT IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE DOING BOUNTY HUNTING IS PERFECT FOR GANKERS AND THE GAME WOULD BENEFIT FROM MORE, you sissies. Bounty Hunters aren’t honourable people. They’re killers. ASSASSINS. Your skewed, overly romantic idea of what bounty hunters are is from TV. You’re basically Disney Princes and those guys don’t actually stand a ■■■■■■■ chance in a competitive environment.
Uuuuhhh … I digress.
… otoh when I invest a double-volley thrasher for less than two million ISK, the payout should be 2 million ISK plus a bit. If the amount of bounty on someone’s head doesn’t cover the cost, well, then the full bounty should be paid out.
This way abuse is being prevented, because anyone who wants to cash in on his bounty will not gain a lot when he uses a cheap ship and is still being forced to pay a lot if he wants to remove a high amount of bounty.
Now please … fill the loopholes, so I can rethink this first part.