Player Features and Ideas Discussion

How about updating piracy?

I was -10 trying out solo piracy for a year, the odds were really against me but I like a challenge.

One thing that really bothered me were ransoms, I often caught peoples pods and would try ransoming them.
Out of at least 100 pods I caught, only 2 guys payed me, one for 100m the other for 200m and I let both of them go.

The VAST VAST majority of people wont pay you because it's a trust game that other selfish people have ruined for the rest of us by killing them anyways.

I had an idea where a player (could be any player or only those with -5 and lower security status) could right click the character they're attack and select "Ransom" or something of that nature.
The initiating player could then write an amount of isk in the small box and hit accept. If the player on the receiving end of the ransom clicked accept on the box that came up, they would pay the pirate the agreed amount of isk and combat would be instantly stopped for 60 (or XX time) seconds and both locks would be broken for the duration allowing the victim to warp off safely
It's a raw idea that i'm sure could be refined but that's the basic idea.

Sorry; felt it best to snip a portion of your post to allow this idea to be discussed without trolling or derailment - ISD Suvetar

I would like to hear more on your ransom idea. if we kick that about some it may turn into something nice

Not a Dev, just a forum moderator - but thank you very much all the same

Edit:

I'm sorry but to keep this thread on-topic in here, I've removed the controversial parts of this thread so we can stick on topic.

Thanks for your time.

Allowing people to lie and cheat and play dirty if they wish is a big part of what makes Eve what it is. So no thanks to magical enforcement buttons preventing people from breaking their word.

There are, or at least were, pirate groups who were known to honour ransoms and gained a reputation as "trustworthy" because of it, if you join or form such an organisation then you might find your efforts more successful.

I like the idea of ransoming becoming more of a feature, because I haven't heard much about piracy being an actual profession at this point, most people who roam low-sec space (including myself) generally just do it for the good fights. However I'm not entirely sure it should function like a contract, I mean, I could. I'd say to have it added to the contracts tab as a method of "selling" immunity to targeting of the ransoming fleet for a period of time, but I think there is potential for abuse in fleet warfare (awoxing is one thing, using a spy to make a fleet of rokhs or maels or w/e unable to target certain ships in null-sec sov war is another).

So let's change direction. I've noticed on these forums before that people have been making suggestions about better ways to interact with NPC pirate factions, such as the Angel Cartel. How about we introduce low and npc-null sec space areas for these NPC pirate organizations to run out of, and then implement ransoming as a game mechanic similar to mission running? No time limit (or a long one, say, 2 weeks), but when you accept a "mission" for the AC or whoever, you gain a mechanic allowing for the issuing of ransom contracts during the time it's accepted. Every ransom (minimum amount of say, 10m) takes 50% of the ISK earned from the ransom and counts it towards a mission goal (arbitrary number, 30M Isk for example). Upon completion of the "mission" you gain LP's and standing with the pirate faction. However, it should be a bit more dangerous. While the "mission" is in progress you would be flagged, similar to a suspect flag, perhaps even preventing you from docking at non-pirate faction NPC stations (instead of the blanket of all stations that suspect status currently gives). And it doesn't just have to be missions for ransoming either. There could also be missions to destroy a certain Isk-value (EvE already acquires that information for kill-mails, I don't think it's unreasonable for that information to be used elsewhere). It could even extended further and be used as a basis for NPC's handing out bounty missions to do a certain amount of Isk-damage to players who are flagged with the "pirate faction suspect" flag described above. It really opens a whole world of possibilities, gets more players fighting (which is a driving force behind player interaction) and really solidifies both "piracy" and "bounty hunting" as the professions people seem to want without removing the PvP aspect.

Also, as for the issue of targeting invulnerability and warp bubbles, 60s should hopefully be long enough to get out of a bubble in a pod. And if it's not, either the time can be increased, or if the bubble is being moved, I imagine the player would take that as a hint to just suicide their pod.

I apologize if it seemed off-topic. The OP was talking about mechanics relating the the facilitation of piracy, and after outlining possible exploitation with such a mechanic, I suggested something in a similar vein the FW, a piracy system that, while run of of NPC stations would be entirely based around PvP and associated mechanics; so I thought this thread would be as good a place as any.

Regarding enforced trust consider this. Pirates are not beholden to use any "ransom mechanic" implemented. They can choose to do so as they wish or they can tell the person whose pod they have locked down, "Send money, no bulls***, or else." The only thing some sort of built in ransom mechanic would do is give the person who's in a pod the guarantee that they'll have a window, however small it might be, to escape from their current situation

It does not prevent them from getting trapped by someone else at their destination station/PoS/whatever, on the other side of the gate, or at the destination gate in the next system. It also does not guarantee that other members of the ransomer's corporation/alliance(/fleet who aren't in that system?) won't be able to track down, lock up, and pod that person in a few minutes.

As long as it removes no existent gameplay I don't see that there's anything wrong with at least talking about such a mechanic being implemented. Even if the safety net it provides only appears half the time and is relatively illusory at that it will still induce some people into PvP whom might otherwise pass it over.

Above all just remember one basic thing. If it's done right no pirate should ever be forced to use a ransom mechanic. It would be solely up to their discretion to do so.

What stops a third party from keeping a lock on the pod? What stops the pirate from smartbombing and killing the pod anyways?

Ransoming and piracy is player driven content.....

you don't need a ccp pop up box to facilitate it.... The dueling mechanism was called for.... because you couldnt legal dog fight a friend in high sec)

But i think thats really as far as it should go when creating or ending limited engagements. If you want to ransom someone you still can.

I've been caught twice in lowsec and been offered ransoms, once because I was d-scanning with the wrong overview (noticed i was on the wrong one when my shield warning went off) and the other cause I managed to align alone the invisible exterior of an asteroid's sphere (at least they were curtious and blew my proc up with a vindicator... Was tanking the frigates fine till then)

I'd say the only rules needed is that the ransom is payed when a player docks to stop their buddies from shooting you. Rules could be placed on top of this to avoid exploiting it like "ransom is payed when u jump out of a dockable system" or "it is only payed when they reach highsec" making the pirates have to escort you out to receive their booty.

Could also be a way of bribing boarder guards :D or enforcing border crossing fees for major sovereign holders...