Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Contrary to what people think, there is bounty hunting in Eve. I'm not talking about the system CCP implemented; that just doesn't work.

Right now, to be a bounty hunter, you need to talk to people. You check people's killboards, look for grudges, look for things you can kill, talk to people he's killed, find an employer, find a target, do the research on their fits, scout out their online timezones, see who they fly with, see how they fly their ships, THEN you go to kill them.

That's awfully close to real life in terms of work. Eve is hard, but the career path this is also supposed to be open to newer players as a potential thing to go get killed doing.

So here's my idea. I spent longer writing this than I did thinking it through.

You create a contract system like the market one. In the system, you have multiple fields you need to enter. Say I want to put on a contract on so and so, this is how it goes:

First of all, we need to know who we're putting a contract on. I type in the name, find the character, and verify that it's them and not that guy with a 1 instead of an I.

That was easy. Now the harder part, where the systems CCP has made so far stumbles: target worth. If I put a 25 million bounty on someone and they get poped in a 2 million Tristan, well **** me that wasn't worth it.

So we have specifications. I know the guy flies Assault Frigates a lot. So I check his killboard, see he likes Hawks but never flies Harpies. I check the "Hawk" box and enter 15 million as the payout. Now it also turns out he runs around in rocket Coraxes and Talwars. I don't want to pay 15 million for a Corax or Talwar, so I check them but only enter 4 million in. (as an option, I can enter a "minimum value payout" where, if the killmail generated doesn't hit that minimum, then the amount that gets paid out is less by a % or something to keep people from working over the system too easily. Let the bounty hunter decide if it's worth it.)

(Note, there would also be an option for a size of ships, such as Amarr industrials, along with specific ships.)

So, that's done then. But wait, there's a problem. All of a sudden I wake up tomorrow and there are 25 kills on him and holy **** I'm broke. So, we put in a limit to the number of times this contract can be fulfilled before a new contract needs to be written up.

Next, we decide where it's being posted and who can take it. Maybe you just want some guy out of your territory, and don't really. care if he goes and mounts an asteroid in Pure Blind as long as he's not doing it in Black Rise. So you click the region button and select "Black Rise". Hell, maybe you want to be more specific and you chose constellation or even system. Up to you. If the kill is made in that region/constellation/system, then the bounty gets paid out. If not, then not.

Next, we decide how many people can take it. Maybe the first 4 people to click "accept", maybe 70. Maybe a gang wants to take the contract like that one Eve trailer. Maybe a solo guy wants to. The client can chose here: it gets paid out to the highest damage, it gets paid out to the final shot, or it gets evenly distributed to everyone who has an active contract and is on the killmail; this is stipulated in the contract and one option has to be chosen before it's finished.

So, after all that, we decide where we post this bounty contract. Say, if we post it in one station, the taxes on it are low. If we post it to multiple stations in a system, the taxes go up. Multiple systems, then they're higher, and for an entire region the taxes are pretty high.

Finally, we get a little area where we can type in a description of whatever we want. If we want to yammer on about how this guy did nasty things to our Ibis and now we want his Mach dead, we can do that. If we want to provide intel, areas the guy flies in, what he flies, who he flies with, ect, we can do that too.

Now, I'm a lowsec player. I don't think about Concord. So I don't know how this should work in highsec; obviously it shouldn't be overpowered. I'd say just let it apply in lowsec, nullsec, WH space, and if the person is flashy red/flashy yellow in highsec. This would be a Concord approved system, so you wouldn't be able to do anything that would have Concord blow you up over. If someone wants to put a hit out on anyone in highsec, they can do it the old fashion way; tumblr.

Obviously there are lots of things I missed, like taking contracts on corporations and aliances, ect. I don't have the time nor the will to think about that stuff, if you guys like the idea you can take it and run.

So I get a bounty set on me for more than the price of whatever hull the bounty requires, and print myself some free money with an alt?

Thank you. I'd love more feedback on the idea.

Since CCP changed the bounty system to end killing yourself for profit im going to go out on a limb and say they will not be undoing that just because you dont care about exploitation.

This addition addresses the major concerns I had with the system.