Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Hi everyone,

As everyone know current bounty system has its issues and it does not really work as well it could. There is an idea that could possibly add to the current bounty system enabling it to work better. This could even open real profession in EVE much like the freight companies we have in EVE now.

Bounty contracts
Contract made with existing contract system for ones head. Like every other contract, bounty contract would be assignable either individual pilot or corporation

What would this enable?

• Real bounty hunters
• Real bounty hunting corps
• Another form of scamming (if you would be careless on who assigning the contract to or the settings of the contract)
• Possible to assign more money on the kill that it would it would require to gank someone in high sec. So if someone pisses you enough and you have the money why not?

Bounty contract settings

• Type of kill (pod/ship/both)
• Destroyed value (ISK value)
• Section of space where the bounty is valid * (high, low, null, wh)
• Time this contract is valid. Also the bounty should be uncancelable until the time run out.

Optional ideas *

• Small investment of ISK or LP from Concord to contracts assigned to 0 and below security rating pilots. This should scale with minimum destroyed value and security rating. This value should not be more value in ISK than tax on the contract is to avoid loophole from killing yourself with your alt.

Person why would get bounty contract assigned should receive notification and possibility to find the existing contract from the contract database. Perhaps possibly to outbid the contract.

Please give comments and also figure out possible loop holes because I am sure there are some? Thank you.

* Added / modified to original post

Contracts can be assigned to individual or corp.

So if the person making the contract assigns it to real bounty hunter can you do that? No. Also destroyed value makes it sure that its destroyed not dropped.

Current system uses lost ship value for how the bounty is divided. Also it does not really reward those bounty hunting. In some rare cases it does but do those that get expensive bounties always fly carriers or other expensive ships? Bounties are usually distributed to characters that fly small inexpensive ships (gankers). Contract would pay out more and player would decide the required destructed items.

Also assigned contract would make it available only certain group / individual, making this group or individual justified for this bounty for that certain time. this would also enable it that you could be able to pay bounty for someone head that spends most of their time in high sec. Since now with existing bounty system Its difficult to actually make a bounty kill that also makes up your ship loss.

This would also cause it that bounty hunting would become more professional trade in EVE. I also believe that it could turn very profitable and also make it as big as the freight corps are now.

Daily bump

Please comment why you are either against or for this idea.

If you ever used freight corporation services you see how the system works. Its all based on contracts. So I believe that contracting bounties would in fact solve major part of the issue. However other case is if is people are willing to contract enough money for making the kill worth it.

The most sever problem that every bounty system has is how multiple contracts assigned to ones head are handled.

A) Do we hand out all bounties for 1 kill
* For very wanted person who is very difficult to kill this could be justified to make the kill really worth it
* This however is problematic with easier killed people like say gankers.
B) Do we hand out bounties in sequence one at the time
* This could easily lead to serious griefing One that could afford it could setup several bounties for one person queuing kill for lets say 20m a kill this could be already worth gank some frigs in high sec. So person that would get contracts would be in severe griefing.

I believe that the option A) is what one should aim for if this would be implemented.

I would have seriously preferred to have a bounty hunting available as a "license to kill" to anyone who has high CONCORD standings - with a way to make that impossible (or close to) repairable if you do anything too stupid - like pod innocents - that allows hunting of anyone in hi/low/null as long as CONCORD has them tagged for enough criminal acts.

After re-reading that, what I mean is that once you have committed enough criminal acts there should be NO grinding back to status that stops players legally killing you on site. No ratting, tag collecting etc, if you intended to sell that toon later. you burned that bridge ans made it a perma outlaw.

Permanent consequences for past actions.

I tried campaigning for exactly this about a year ago, before Retirbution was even announced. It was shot down by everyone, saying that kill-value linked payouts was the way to go. Well, that's worked out well hasn't it?

Current (post-Retri) system:
-Prevents abuse by collecting bounty with alts. This is the only upgrade over the old system.
-Has no mechanism to allow hunters to engage targets.
-Has no mechanism to allow control over who the bounty is paid out to.
-Is thus effectively meaningless. Payout is too low for to encourage ganking in highsec, and low/nullsec bounties will be collected through normal gameplay. Overall, there is no gameplay effect created by placing a bounty. It's just an expensive way to tell someone they annoyed you.

Bounty Contracts:
Mechanics:
-Issuer puts up a bounty contract.
-Issuer can choose type of bounty. Value destroyed, pod kill, etc.
-Hunter applies for right to fulfill the contract.
-Issuer accepts or denies the hunter(s) application(s). THIS IS VITAL. This is the sandbox element of the whole system.
-A hunter in possession of a legal contract will be able to engage the mark as though they had suspect status. There may be CONCORD fees, sec status requirements, or such.

What this system does:
-Creates an entire brand of gameplay, and makes a bounty-hunting profession viable.
-Puts the responsibility for preventing exploits onto the contract users, just like the market. This is pure EVE.
-Encourages social connections, maintaining reputations among hunters, allows filthy backstabbing, and generally creates a sandbox system. Every aspect is in the hands of the players. This is also pure EVE.

+1 to op for bringing it up again.

Thanks. It's an old peeve of mine, since there's so much gameplay potential in bounties that's never been realized. I was really surprised that the sandbox-style idea was shot down by other players in favor of NPC-like mechanics. Perhaps seeing how it failed will create some momentum to do it right.

A fair point. I suppose it would just leave the burden on the Issuer then to make sure the bounty is large enough to justify a suicide gank. Unless they had kill rights already, which they could then include in the contract.

I've always wanted to take on the role of being a bounty hunter/pirate killer type deal. Unfortunately I found out it's basically just playing the lottery while being a low sec pirate yourself under the current system, for the most part.

I like the idea of bounty contracts. If incorporated them alongside the current bounty system, we'd have some funny situations. As of right now, everyone's "reward" money for a bounty goes in to a big pool that is displayed on the character. Having the bounty being displayed on the character is good. But if we just swap it over to contracts, that goes away, right?

So what if we leave the current bounty system in the game, as is. Then follow it up with a Bounty Contract office, where an individual, corporation, or alliance, can offer bounties on other individuals, corporations, or alliances, that can be accepted by other individuals, corporations, or alliances? The issuer must approve the contract personally before the "hunter" gets the ability to perform the kill. Put in standard contract lengths for time allotted to snag the kill, and then offer the bounty reward from the contract ONLY to the hunter. Not the pool of bounties that anyone can/will have placed.

This lets people out in low sec continue on with the "Oh hey, I could get a bit of good money if I can find and kill that guy." form of "bounty hunting" but allows for a more professional focus to be taken as well.

I'm not sure if I'm conveying my idea here very well but, hopefully you understand.