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Fixing the bounty system
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Julius Foederatus
Federal Navy Academy
Gallente Federation
#1 - 2012-07-18 16:52:15 UTC  |  Edited by: Julius Foederatus
Apologies if this has been drug up already, I don't read these forums very often, but I'm bored trying to close this plex and I need something to do for a few minutes.

The bounty system sucks. No one actually uses it the way it was intended, because unless you keep the amount small enough that no one can be bothered, a player can simply jump to a no implant clone, and pod himself with an alt to get a bounty of any meaningful size. Obviously this is not the way the devs or any sane person intended for the system to work.

So I propose a simple solution. Why not make the bounty system much more like the FW payout system for kills? Every time you kill a ship piloted by a person with a bounty, you receive a payment for some part of the value of the ship plus the mods (minus any benefit they would receive from insurance), subtracted from the total amount of the bounty. Pod kills would work the same way, paying out a certain percentage of the value of the implants. It doesn't have to be 100% or any precise number, just something that prevents it from being exploited. But unless I'm missing something, this would encourage players to actually go after people with bounties now, especially if they're flying something shiney.

Thoughts?
Julius Foederatus
Federal Navy Academy
Gallente Federation
#2 - 2012-07-19 22:15:12 UTC
bumpz0r
Hiyora Akachi
Blood Alcohol Content
T O P S H E L F
#3 - 2012-07-19 22:20:10 UTC  |  Edited by: Hiyora Akachi
Might work, but still may end up being abusable.

How would the value of each ship be determined? Not familiar with the FW system.
Julius Foederatus
Federal Navy Academy
Gallente Federation
#4 - 2012-07-19 22:29:09 UTC
Well, this is the lay man's understanding, but basically they have a formula that averages prices for items across EVE, though I don't know the details. When your ship is killed, they calculate the value of all the items destroyed that were fitted on the ship and in the cargohold, subtract the max insurance payout, and then for LP, they divide that all by 10k, and that's how much LP you get.

Basically, I'm proposing to use this same formula, although not dividing by 10k but by something much more reasonable, and instead you get isk that's transferred directly from the isk put up for the bounty to the person who killed the wanted target. Supposedly, CCP has tightened up the formula after the whole revelation about goonsploit, but in any case you can't really create isk out of thin air because the isk has to come from someone putting it up for the bounty in the first place. I might be wrong about all that but I think it would be better than a system that basically isn't used right now.
tristice
Northern Flemish Bastards Inc
#5 - 2012-08-01 05:26:25 UTC
The Largest problem with the bounty system is Not in the "mis-use", but in the actual Feasability of its purpose. I go to amarr, find a guy with 10m bounty floating in his pod. i pop him with my thrasher. I get concorded, and go from 5.0 to -.02 sec. now i dont care about the situation on how it happend to Me, bc i went terrorist/pirate, BUT thats ******** to have a bounty system and simply have stipulations on how you may Obtain that bounty. now in order to get a bounty from someone in HS you must be agressed by him or that person must be outlaw status. ok... there's a bounty on his head and in order to get that bounty that person Must be bellow +sec status in order to receive it. Therefore in Concord's eyes he was "a bad guy/wrong do'er". but the best part is anyone trying to be a bounty hunter is moreless screwed bc unless they agress you, he is flagged criminal, or you are in nul, his bounty remains his to keep or .... to put in his wallet.

if you could pop these people with bounties on there head w/o concord getting pissy, the world of eve would be a little more dynamic in realism.

the bounty system is flawed. until its fixed im suiciding them for pure fun. at least the thrasher gank-geared is cheaper than most bounties, so not all is lost, but my god its fun popping them when they think they are "Safe" lol.
Sigras
Conglomo
#6 - 2012-08-01 09:11:44 UTC
What I really think would be cool is what they talked about in the alliance tournament. I came up with an idea like this a while ago IIRC

I think a revamp of the bounty system would be a measurable increase to the universe of Eve, and I envision it this way.

You register as a bounty hunter with concord for 20 million isk every 30 days. This gives you access to a private mailing list by which people can employ your services, and the "bounty hunter network" where you can pay (Bribe) people to find your marks, kind of like an advanced locator service. You can also set up a sort of profile, saying I only work in this area, or setting a minimum-maximum isk value you'll work for.

When someone wants to put a bounty on someone else's head, they go to the bounty office and are given a list of the top bounty hunters in their region, or they can choose the top bounty hunters from all regions and find one who they think will get the job done. You would be given metrics like total isk value destroyed, success to failure ratio, and last 10 ships destroyed for bounty (battleclinic could also be used for this but not everyone knows about that or posts on battleclinic).

You would also be able to let the system randomly choose a bounty hunter in the price range you set. The system would choose a hunter and send them a bounty contract, but if they dont respond in a certain amount of time, it moves to another hunter.

When you choose a bounty hunter, youre given a list of choices to make:
Length of contract
Price of the contract
Remain Anonymous (you would appear as client X to the hunter so he couldnt give you up)
Terms of the contract
You can demand their pod

You can set a certain amount of isk destroyed based on base value

you could also attach kill rights if you had it available. (You lose them and the person who accepts the contract gains them)

I was also thinking that you could register as a bounty hunting corporation or alliance, able to take bounties on other corporations or alliances. This would make hiring mercenaries more organized, and would add an interesting angle to politics being able to stay anonymous and thus "neutral" but still support one side by hiring mercenaries.
Vol Arm'OOO
Central Co-Prosperity Union
#7 - 2012-08-23 17:51:05 UTC
CCP simply needs to rethink the point of bounties - In my view, a bounty should be a form of aggro acquisition. In other words, it should work kinda like a personal war dec. You post a certain amount of isk which allows people who accept the bounty mission to have aggro for a specific period of time against the target. Of course in low/null this would be kinda pointless as you can always shoot someone there anyways - but in empire it would add a whole new dimension to pvp. I recognize that this sort of thing would have potential for grief play - but ccp could limit the impact by controlling the number of people who could accept the bounty and the length of time it is in effect, etc. . .

I don't play, I just fourm warrior.