Player Features and Ideas Discussion

The answer is that you wouldn't in that situation.

It is very difficult to ransom ships with guns because normally those guns can cause harm to the ransomer -- so most pirates will simply destroy the ship (unless it's a mining vessel) and ransom the pod. The capsuleer may contain high-end implants which will be destroyed when the pod (and therefore body) are destroyed -- some pilots prefer to keep them and will pay for that privilege. Often a pilot will have at least learning implants. If you have two +4 learning implants, that's 40 million isk to lose. Many would be willing to pay 20 million isk to keep those.


Then stop calling those pilots pirates. I am a pirate; I make isk by being a pirate. When I can't ransom (because of trust issues or whatever reason) I can't make isk. The problem with any mechanic I can come up with is that it will either be too restrictive and unwieldy or there will be a dozen ways around it. When a pirate is alone in a ship with one capsule who is warp disrupted and there is nobody else on grid then it seems like a clear cut situation; but that's not the most common scenario (though it's most commonly how I have successful ransoms).

Rather than introducing artificial timers, complex (read, "game-able" mechanics), etc., consider adding a new contract type (as a form of escrow). Pilot agrees to pay pirate if [insert condition] (ex., pilot reaches a station alive, vs. being killed). Only if the condition of the contract is met would the pirate receive the ransom (contract payout).

Defining the appropriate condition(s) would seem to be the only real challenge. The server knows if a clone is killed. The server knows when a clone docks. Putting those together in a way which ensures that the intent of the contract is fulfilled wouldn't seem too difficult.

This might even encourage more complex game interactions (like pirates escorting pilots to a nearby station to ensure that they get paid without the pilot getting popped by someone else, or "articles of safe passage" in pirate controlled areas).

Nooooo... Don't remove prisoners dillema.
I want to get to chose if I blow people up after they pay instead of having to let them go.

Sounds cool in general.

Just needs to have more details as well as counters that it won't be abused.
It was probably already mentioned - but I suppose this should only work if;

The pirate truly has the appropiate sec stat (-10, duh)
The target to ransom is in a pod

As a ruleset for starters.
If the Pod pays the ransom to live on, it could or would get temporary buffs, like,

- Invulnerabilty for the mentioned 60secs (or whatever is appropiate)
- T3 style bubble nullifier, so it can warp out - and perhaps have this "buff" a bit longer, so it cannot be ransom'ed again for the next minutes.

But yes, there has to be more to ensure it won't be abused, but I think the idea itself could be implemented as it is. CCP and the community in this case could easily figure the flaws and fix them as time passes.


I agree too that the "Being a Pirate" gameplay needs to be improved and expanded. I actually had an idea to support the that life outside of empire space. I will repost it some time around with improvements. Maybe you'll like it too - or not.


edit:
Regarding ransoming.
I think there needs to be some sort of "Pirate captain" flagging in some way, so that nobody else in the fleet doesn't try ransoming beforehand. In a way, anybody on in the Pirate team could hit the ransom button/right click menu option , but the pirate captain does the "talking" while others see what is happening.

The terrible thread title probably ensures this will be ignored, but an official ransom system sounds good. It's not too important if it's gameable (that may even add some spice) as long as it's not so gameable that it's worthless. On that basis, here's my idea for how it could work, keeping things simple:

If a random demand is accepted, the full amount goes into escrow. Two timers start (represented as one timer with an additional mark). One minute after the ransom is accepted, the target must be intact and free from all forms of warp disruption (including bubbles) or the ransom fails. For the rest of the timer, a further two minutes, if the target is warp disrupted or destroyed the ransom immediately fails.

If the full three minutes expires with the target intact and not warp disrupted for the last two minutes, the ransom succeeds and is paid to the pirate (or divided among his fleet directly, a checkbox for that when asking for ransom would simplify things). If any of the failure conditions are met the full amount is returned to the victim immediately. The ransom also succeeds immediately if at any time during the timer, the victim docks or leaves his current ship. It does not matter who warp disrupts or destroys the target.

The main ways to game this that I can think of favour the victim. A friend (or a warp disruption field made for this purpose) can warp disrupt him if they can meet inside the three minute timer to make the ransom fail. Cheap hulls with expensive cargo can deposit their cargo somewhere other than a station then suicide to a POS to incur only 30% of hull and all fittings damage. The latter is perhaps a bit too much, but an additional restriction on inventory management during the ransom timer would cover it.

Oh right, the pirates can game it by bumping. Still sounds good to me (sounds a bit better actually).