Jita Park Speakers Corner

The thing is the bounty hunty system is bound to be abused of, how many times don't u see an alt in a noobship reclaiming your bounty?

The bounty system should be tied to ship-losses, and the hullprice substracted from the bounty to pay whoever killed the outlaw.

Many guys ask their corp mate to put a price on their head to gain some street creed. This is a perfect example on how flawed the concept of bounty hunting is right now.

Unless there is a skill-point loss once podded, there is no real treat on getting a bounty on you.That would be a step forward into turning bounty hunting into a decent career.

Courthouse is right in many ways regarding the rework needed to locate and provide "content" to bounty hunters, also how do you claim a bouty when while on the run the outlaw will simply log or disappear into null-sec/w-sec?

R

My presence in the thread has led to a question from a single-issue alt (troll person?) who wants to know where candidates stand on bounty hunting. While Grumpy Owly may have sent his original questions to a very bewildered Alexyayef Card, I figured he's probably not the only person with bounty hunting in his mind so i tackled the issue:


I can't ignore you if you never sent me a question let alone a reminder ;p But I'll answer Grumpy anyway cause I'm just SO NICE OF A PERSON and I'll even make it a blog post, since it's on Kelduum's thread (sorry bro).

The current bounty system is one of the biggest jokes in the lowsec PVP community. Large sums of ISK on a pirate's head usually just wind up making their way to that pirate's alt with the exception of those that try to build up a bounty as a badge of honor. Even so, large sums of ISK on a pilot''s pod have not seemed to do enough get players to go out of their way and really hunt the target (not to mention the actually difficulty of finding him logged in, undocked, not with friends around, not in a WH or so far deep into 0.0 he's effectively untouchable, the task of actually killing him, and probably trying to nab his pod without a warp bubble).

However I can say first hand that assassination contract requests (where mercs are hired to kill/pod one particular pilot) are one of the most frequently requested contract types in the entire mercenary industry. They are also the most frequently declined, because of the sec status loss and/or the above difficulty making mercs not want the job entirely or the fee demanded exceeds the pilots willingness to pay.

This tells me three things:

1. The current mechanics and incentives are broke
2. There is great demand from the EVE player base for this functionality to be supported
3. Mechanics and incentives the replace the current ones will need to be sufficiently annoying to exploit, enticing to players, and address the current difficulties which make bounty hunting so unappealing to those who would otherwise be doing it.

I am doubtful The Mitanni/CCP will see this as a 2012 development priority (unless the war dec changes are including mercs and we can sneak in some added functionality there but I doubt that would be substantial enough to address all of the above issues). Hopefully I could lay some groundwork for the idea if/when, lowsec gets looked at beyond Faction Warfare (2013? Soon tm?).

The ideas that Malcanis has posted are very similar to what myself and a few corp mates had come up with. I was very sad reading this because I really thought we had come up with an amazing idea, but it seems someone beat us there. Most of the big points where the same. A contract that would transfer "kill rights" to the person accepted the contract. A transfer of "kill rights" can only be accepted by one person. You can put up a contract on anyone, but all rules apply. Gate guns, system security level, and all other low sec/high sec rules. Yes, that means no ganking freighters in high sec under this mechanic. If they person is -5 sec status then low sec rules apply again. Corp/alliance can accept contracts but not for a transfer of "kill rights" that can only go to one player. Now, and alliance/alliance can accept that contract but has to pick one person to receive the "kill rights."

Now, where my idea is different was the pay out. We thought keep it simple. The contract can up to pay different values depending on the ship that died. For Example. I am going to put a contract up for player X. For killing player X you will always get 50 million, but if you kill him in a T2 Cruiser the hunter will get an extra 50 million, If you kill him in a Battleship the hunter will get 75 million. Then if the hunter gets the pod kill he will get 50 million. So if the hunter kills player X in a t2 cruiser but missed the pod he will get 100 million. If it is accepted at the corp/alliance level then the isk goes to the corp/alliance. This would allow for the player placing the contract more options. While may make the hunter wait for the target to bring a bigger ship out. Now you would have to set so that there are only a few different categories to place prices on. I'm thinking about 4 to 5 categories, should be more than enough. This would give more options but without having to set prices for all ship classes.

Malcanis's post... https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=344786#post344786
Really the ideas are very similar with a few differences. But the big point is still the same. Bounty hunting needs a fix and bad.

I'm enjoying this post. I'd like to add my 10 cents to the mix of changes that could be implemented.

EVE Bounty system...

We all know that the current system is broken and offers nothing to the attacker or person with the target on their head. I would love to see a revamped bounty system where enterprising people or corporations could become known for their skills or kill efficiency. People will seek out these skilled killers and pay them for their work. Reputations would be built.

Having a contract out on you and a price for your ship/corpse/whatever, should be taken seriously. It means that you did something really rotten and people want to take revenge. You need to travel lightly and maintain awareness of your surroundings. This is how the system should make you feel.

As with any new design in Eve, careful consideration will need to be taken to make sure to close exploits. Any structure put into place will be picked apart by players looking for ways to beat the system in ways never intended.

No Boba Fett outfit?

Seriously though, it's really important that we finally get a working bounty system into hi-sec. The absence of a viable player-driven "revenge" mechanism is a large part of what's driving the continual pressure to buff CONCORD, nerf pirates etc etc. So many of the things that are broken in hi-sec are broken at least partly because we don't have a bounty system.

"It's going to be awesome."

"It's absolutley on the list of things to do."

"We have a spaceships game, but you can't be han solo or boba fett, that's not clever."