This just popped into my head this morning during my morning toilet.
Why? Because currently “bounties” and “kill rights” are a poop mechanic.
However they can easy be fixed by reversing one and renaming it to the other. WTF am I talking about?
Actual bounties.
You see, kill rights make no sense. Why would I pay to kill someone? Usually kill rights are a scam anyway. And, if I have a kill right on someone, why does it need to be “activated”? Why can’t I just shoot them? This “activation” mechanic is cumbersome.
Bounties used to make no sense - just pod yourself with an alt and collect the full amount. Now, bounties are less exploitable, but also nobody cares about them. No one is going to go out of their way to shoot someone cuz they have a bounty, no matter how high. And it’s not like a bounty makes someone a legal target.
BUT, there is a way these two mechanics can be merged together.
Xuixien’s New and Improved Bounty System
Let’s say someone commits a crime against you (suicide gank in hisec, blow up your innocent pod in lowsec, etc). You now get a killright against them - a 15-30 day “limited engagement timer”. You make this killright available to others through the bounty system.
By placing a bounty, you make that killright/engagement timer available to whoever you want. Let’s say for the sake of example, you place a 100 million ISK “bounty” on them. You can set it to public, or private - the new and improved menu option allows you to list multiple pilots or organizations. These pilots/groups can now “accept” the bounty so that they also have a 15-30 day “limited engagement timer” with the pilot in question. And every time they kill that pilot, they get a percentage of the bounty. But an appreciable percentage of the bounty, not some silly nickel and dime formula - maybe something like 75% of the value of the ship and 50% of the value of the fitted modules (some math wizard needs to figure out the percentage for modules cuz it can’t be exploitable and modules have like a 50% chance to drop).
Once the bounty reaches zero, the kill right/bounty thing is resolved and goes away. All “limited engagement timers” resolve and go away.
This would make actual bounty hunting viable for hunters, but would make self-clearing a non-cost-effective endeavor. It would matter not-at-all for people below -5, but, for everyone else, it would create a lot of potential for content and add an interesting and meaningful layer of complex gameplay for the hunted and the hunters.
In summary:
- A personal kill right opens a one-way limited engagement timer from the victim to the aggressor that lasts for a period of 15-30 days. During this period the victim is free to start an engagement with the aggressor. CONTENT!
- The victim can also offer a bounty, which allows the recipient of the offer to “accept” the offer. Accepting the offer then opens a one-way (from the recipient to the aggressor) limited engagement timer.
- The bounty is paid out as a high, but not exploitable, percentage of the ship + modules fitted.
- Once the bounty reaches zero, the engagement timer for everyone resolves.
CCPLEASE.