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Bodyguard/assassination contracts
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General Guardian
Perkone
Caldari State
#1 - 2015-09-28 09:47:57 UTC  |  Edited by: General Guardian
New mission type that contracts a player to protect a VIP (npc) from station to station across several systems in high sec. The catch is another player is contracted to assassinate this npc. Obviously to keep the lore people happy it would have to be a faction vs faction type deal.

It goes something like this:

One player signs up with a Caldari Agent for a bodyguard or assassination contract specific to the ship size they are in. They then go on to a waiting list with a limit of 10 or 15 minutes (or maybe a selectable time) for a contract to be assigned. Undocking or changing ship removes them from the waiting list.

Another player in a nearby area signs up with a Gallente agent for a contract with similar limitations and time restrictions.

Once 2 players with the same hull size are matched both players receive their contract assignment. Player A is given a location to escort the vip to and a short amount of time (maybe 30 seconds) to prepare. Player B is given the route and name of the VIP.

The mission starts. The VIP begins moving and Player B begins hunting. The NPC will only be legally attacked by player B and no other player. Player A can only legally attack Player B once the VIP has been attacked. (Player A won't know who the Assassin is until they attack anyway)

NPC hp and warp/align speeds for each ship category will be balanced so neither player has an unfair advantage and Player A has adequate time to kill player B before the VIP is dead given the ship fits aren't horrible. Any assistance for either player is considered a criminal action.

If player B is killed, Player A gets paid (more for bigger ships categories) and a player kill bonus is applied.
Player B gets paid if the VIP is killed. A bonus applied if Player A is killed.
Player A just gets a standard reward if the VIP reaches a destination with no Interruptions.

Reshipping voids your side of the contract.

Can't remember what other limitations I had thought of, but that's the general idea so far

Edit: Joining or being part of a fleet will void the contract for that player. Cancels out boosts or warp ins for suicide gankers
Daichi Yamato
Jabbersnarks and Wonderglass
#2 - 2015-09-28 10:58:56 UTC
So what stops player b getting buddies and suicide ganking the target?

If that voids the mission, what stops third parties suicide ganking the target to mess with both player a and b?

Couldn't you escort haulers through gank systems and get the same thing?

EVE FAQ "7.2 CAN I AVOID PVP COMPLETELY? No; there are no systems or locations in New Eden where PvP may be completely avoided"

Daichi Yamato's version of structure based decs
General Guardian
Perkone
Caldari State
#3 - 2015-09-28 11:14:48 UTC
If people want to suicide gank without rewards just to mess with someone what's the difference between that and suicide ganking miners?

Maybe the npc is given a name and ship type so they're not recognizable to other players.

Maybe make the npc only lockable by player B. But suicide ganking is really part of the game.

Good question though
Celthric Kanerian
Viziam
Amarr Empire
#4 - 2015-09-28 11:26:25 UTC
But what if player A accepts the mission but there aren't any player B's available? Will Player A then be free to grind that npc all night long without intervention? Then there is no risk whatsoever, just a unending isk flow.
General Guardian
Perkone
Caldari State
#5 - 2015-09-28 11:46:03 UTC  |  Edited by: General Guardian
Celthric Kanerian wrote:
But what if player A accepts the mission but there aren't any player B's available? Will Player A then be free to grind that npc all night long without intervention? Then there is no risk whatsoever, just a unending isk flow.


No. Without a player B the mission won't start.

That's the reason for the waiting period.
Kenrailae
Scrapyard Artificer's
Just Lizard
#6 - 2015-09-28 11:51:31 UTC
So then you get into all the arguments of 'My punisher had no chance against his faction dram with off grid links, CCP Nerf/fix! A faction/T2 Frigate shouldn't be in the same class as a frigate!'


And do players A and B then have Kill rights or engagement timers on each other after the NPC dies/is delivered?



Thoughts?








The Law is a point of View

The NPE IS a big deal
General Guardian
Perkone
Caldari State
#7 - 2015-09-28 12:09:34 UTC
Following yourself around with links would be time consuming in this scenario but I guess that's no different to any other fight in the game. Either player can bring links if they are that desparate.

No kill rights but maybe a short limited engagement timer which ends once a player has exploded
General Guardian
Perkone
Caldari State
#8 - 2015-09-28 12:17:43 UTC
Additional thought, to avoid some disadvantages I think joining a fleet should void the contract for either player.

I will add to OP
Ludy Oswald
Deep Exploration Projects and Programs
#9 - 2015-09-28 13:05:18 UTC
Easy money for my alt and me.
General Guardian
Perkone
Caldari State
#10 - 2015-09-28 13:33:43 UTC  |  Edited by: General Guardian
The "matchmaking" process would hopefully not assign the same players against each other often.

Or to prevent this maybe a restriction could be applied to not allow the same players to be contracted against each other in a certain time frame. Say 24 hours
Donnachadh
United Allegiance of Undesirables
#11 - 2015-09-28 13:44:39 UTC
Not seeing how you have accounted for high sec aggression mechanics in this.

Setting aside the dueling mechanic for now since it would not apply here.

If player A shoots player B for attacking this target" then player A gets the visit from Concord since you cannot attack anyone that has not attacked you.

If you suspend Concord protections for those involved what prevents player B from simply attacking player A directly?

Fill this idea out a little more, provide us with some insight as to how you would propose to handle these and we may have something we can work from, other wise this idea is DOA.
Kenrailae
Scrapyard Artificer's
Just Lizard
#12 - 2015-09-28 13:46:47 UTC
As with all things Eve though, someone will min/max it. They'll find the ship class(es) that have the fewest people involved and the time of day they are most sparse and then farm it, unless a hard upper limit on how many times a day you can see the same person is applied, or something.

I'm also interested on whether you'd put faction frigates, T2 frigates, and T1 frigates in the same class or if you'd break it down and how far?

The Law is a point of View

The NPE IS a big deal
General Guardian
Perkone
Caldari State
#13 - 2015-09-28 15:20:24 UTC
Donnachadh wrote:
Not seeing how you have accounted for high sec aggression mechanics in this.

Setting aside the dueling mechanic for now since it would not apply here.

If player A shoots player B for attacking this target" then player A gets the visit from Concord since you cannot attack anyone that has not attacked you.

If you suspend Concord protections for those involved what prevents player B from simply attacking player A directly?

Fill this idea out a little more, provide us with some insight as to how you would propose to handle these and we may have something we can work from, other wise this idea is DOA.


Player B may attack player A if he wishes and if he can guess who player A is. Player B won't know who the bodyguard is until the bodyguard responds to the attack on the VIP.

Kenrailae I adjusted the idea to a 24 hour limit between players. Or 12/36 hours.
Faction frigates, T2 vs T1 etc I don't know. I guess that's up for discussion.

I think t1 and faction in the same category and t2 separate. How does that sound?
Kenrailae
Scrapyard Artificer's
Just Lizard
#14 - 2015-09-28 15:44:37 UTC
I'd almost put Faction with T2, for the following reasons:



Dramiel
Astero

The Law is a point of View

The NPE IS a big deal
General Guardian
Perkone
Caldari State
#15 - 2015-09-28 15:55:31 UTC
That sounds fair to me. I'm only worried about enough people in each ship category signing up within the same 10 or 15 minutes
Saisin
Chao3's Rogue Operatives Corp
#16 - 2015-09-28 18:13:16 UTC  |  Edited by: Saisin
I like the concept of expanding contracts to expand non-scammable interactions between players. the courrier contract is widely used and provides the foundation of a good profession in-game.
I am surprised that CCP has not expanded those already, to tell the truth.

This said, I believe a contract should only involve players. What you describe seems to me like a mission, PVE style, with some risk of FW faction interactions.

You have a bunch of good ideas in your post about the fundamental steps of a VIP protection contract though, so here are my thought.

- A player (the VIP) needs to go from A to B anywhere. He creates a contract requesting bodyguards, and put in escrow a sum of money he is ready to commit to pay for successful completion of the contract, plus a non refundable non trivial contract fee. He indicates the sum he has put in escrow that he will split between the pilots that take his contract if he docks in B successfully, and the maximum number of players he will accept as bodyguards.

- He then has 15mn to undock from A, and once undocked 15mn to jump through the next gate, repeated after each gate until he reaches destination, with a visible timer counter before the next jump he must take.

- He undocks from A, starts his travel, and the game automatically puts him in a new fleet.

- The bodyguard contract becomes visible to all players as soon as he undocks from A. Other players looking for this type of job receive a notification about the existence of such contract in the same region if they have set their settings to see those. Such contract will display only the name of the starting location, the number of jumps to reach destination, the total payout that will be split on reaching destination, the time elapsed since the VIP left station A, and the current and max number of bodyguards.

- if the VIP does not jump within the allocated time to next destination, or leaves fleet, or if he changes/leaves ship or jump through a bridge or cyno, his contract is cancelled immediately and he loses the non refundable portion, plus 1/x of the escrow money he has committed split between all the current bodyguards per jump already done between A and B (X being the distance between A and B).

- Another player can only accept the contract if he is not in a fleet already, and not in a pod,a nd not already in another bodyguard or assassin's contract. When a player accepts the bodyguard contract, he has to pay a non trivial contract fee that will only be reimbursed if the VIP reaches destination. He then gets the current location of the VIP, and is entered in a bodyguard fleet with the VIP. The VIP can see in fleet who becomes bodyguard and communicate with them directly.

- The VIP receives an email with the current fit of the bodyguard that just joined fleet. As fleet boss, the VIP can can kick the bodyguard from the fleet within the next two minutes, effectively cancelling his contract with that player (his contract fee will be refunded in that case). That player can't see any bodyguard or assassins contract again for the next hour, to prevent players from trying to troll the VIP with joking fits.

- If a bodyguard leaves fleet, or changes ship, his contract is cancelled. Once he is on grid with the VIP, he becomes eligible for the payout and starts sharing the same timer as the VIP to jump to the next destination or his contract is revoked.

- 3 minutes after a player takes the bodyguard contract, the game puts up an assassination contract provided the bodyguard is still in fleet with the VIP. This contract indicates the ship type currently flown by the VIP, name of the starting location, the number of jumps to reach destination, the time elapsed since the VIP left station A, the payout (10% of the total value of the VIP's ship and cargo), and the ship type (frig. destro, cruiser,...) currently flown by the bodyguard that generated this contract. Players can request to receive assassination contract notifications in the same region.

- An Assassin can accept the contract, provided he is not the VIP and does not already have a bodyguard or an assassin contract underway, he is not in a fleet, and currently is in a ship type that matches the ship type flown by the bodyguard that spawned this contrat. This check is done at the time of acceptation. He has to pay a non refundable non trivial fee if all checks are valid. This fee will be reimbursed if he is on the killmail of the VIP's ship.

- Once accepted. the assassin gets the current location of the VIP, and is added to a fleet regrouping all players that have taken an assassination contract on the current VIP. This fleet's members will receive a delayed notfification (1 minute) every time the VIP jumps in a new system.

- Each assasin receives a limited engagement only against the bodyguard that generated the assassination contract, and each bodyguard receives a limited engagement against all pilots in the assassins' fleet.

- Each assassin only receives a limited engagement against all members of the VIP fleet (including the VIP himself) once they have killed the ship of the bodyguard they have the initial limited engagement with.

- The assassins split their payout if the VIP ship is destroyed before reaching B.

- The eligible bodyguards split the payout in escrow if VIP reaches B.

Notes:
- The assassins do start with some bad odds, as they do not know how the VIP's ship can participate to the fight, but their payout can be significant as it is 10% of the ship and cargo value, plus loot.
- neutral third parties brought in for remote rep are not taken in account for either group, and are simply following the current rules of the space they fly in.

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General Guardian
Perkone
Caldari State
#17 - 2015-09-28 18:31:11 UTC
I think that may make it slightly too complicated when it comes to newer players trying to participate. Also the work CCP would have to put in would be greatly increased compared to the original idea.

A problem I can see is the VIP player could fly a rook or falcon, or fit a ship with istabs/nano/warp speed mods and wouldn't be able to be stopped regardless of having bodyguards. That was the original reason for the VIP being a balanced NPC. So it won't try to cheat the system lol.

Some good thoughts though, and will wait to see what other players thing of the idea thus far.
Paranoid Loyd
#18 - 2015-09-28 19:42:56 UTC
If I
Should stay
I would only be in your way
So I'll go
But I know
I'll think of you every step of
the way

And I...
Will always
Love you, oohh
Will always
Love you
You
My darling you
Mmm-mm

Bittersweet
Memories
That is all I'm taking with me
So good-bye
Please don't cry
We both know I'm not what you
You need

And I...
Will always love you
I...
Will always love you
You, ooh

[Instrumental/Sax solo]

I hope
life treats you kind
And I hope
you have all you've dreamed of
And I wish you joy
and happiness
But above all this
I wish you love

And I...
Will always love you
I...
Will always love you
[Repeat]

I, I will always love
You....
You
Darling I love you
I'll always
I'll always
Love
You..
Oooh
Ooohhh

"There is only one authority in this game, and that my friend is violence. The supreme authority upon which all other authority is derived." ISD Max Trix

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