Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Your bounty system will not work. If you actually hunted for bounty, then you well know why. The all-important nexus so integral to the RL profession, but lacking entirely here is sovereign legal authority - failure to show up for a court date. (Although the US military has placed bounties on so-called terrorists, they could only do so in a country with no legal structure in place, but for their own martial law. As soon as a legal court system was in place in these countries this practice ended.)

This ties into the rampant criminal behavior so-called sovereign powers (Amarr, Minmatar, Caldari and Gallente) do not respond to, even though its existence negatively impacts the security and structural integrity of these sovereignties. The state issues bounties. If any private citizen issues a bounty, it is assumed this is done without due process,
therefore it's illegal.

If you let the concept of one player putting a real-life like bounty on another player, nothing in the world you can do with game mechanics will prevent people from abusing this system. If you want a list of how such a system would be abused, just put one in place and stand back amazed at the versatility of the human imagination - while you draw up your list.

You'd be so busy plugging loopholes, you'd never have the time or manpower to deal with the rest of the game.

What prevents me from cashing in the bounty with an alt who is in this bounty hunter corp?

If you let the concept of one player putting a real-life like bounty on another player, nothing in the world you can do with game mechanics will prevent people from abusing this system.

That's a good question, I've given it some thought and the only thing that comes to mind, if this was to be a serious concern from CCP, the ability to choose your bounty would have to be removed. Much like missions, bounties would be random, and perhaps add a week long timer before you can accept another bounty if you choose to decline or abandon it.

What prevents me from cashing in the bounty with an alt who is in this bounty hunter corp?

being banned from high sec markets

being podded back to newbie skills

always being attacked by concord

knowing other players will get a proportion of your total assets if they collect the bounty

which of these would encourage your alt to pop you?

Why should I place a bounty on my head? I talk about a bounty someone else placed.

no your not

and that is why bounty hunter has never worked - and has long since been dropped by CCP as a possible profession within the game

I used to be a bounty hunter irl, and this was one of the career paths that truly excited me when I heard that Eve Online had a bounty system. However once I learned how the system actually worked, well... needless to say I was extremely disappointed. It is a broken and outdated system, it offers absolutely nothing.
With a few tweaks we can turn bounties into something meaningful within Eve, we can give players a new faction, a new career to pursue, and an exciting one it is, for there is no more dangerous a quarry than another human being.
A bounty on your head is something that should be feared! I’ve been on the other side of this, and trust me; it’s no fun being wanted.

The first thing we need to do is turn it into a career choice;

I would recommend that CCP creates a new Eve Sanctioned faction specifically for Bounty Hunters, model it after FW.
-While under the auspices of the Bounty Hunter faction you may not belong to any other corp, FW or otherwise. It is its own entity and you are employed under its umbrella. This will create meaningful decision within the game world, is this career path I want to take?

-You must be registered and under the auspices of the Bounty Hunter faction in order to execute bounties, otherwise CONCORD will engage you. The faction charges a 5% tax on all bounties you execute.

-Offer PvE within it; mining, distribution, etc. and offer LP rewards to be spent on the Hunter class of ships, specific modules, etc., that fit the theme. Unfortunately I do not recommend that any LP or rep be given for bounty executions because this would be abused.

-In order to place a bounty you must dock at the respective station and place the bounty directly with the agent. No rep is required, and the agent will charge 5% of the bounty to place it. Once you place a bounty the ISK is taken from your wallet and placed into escrow to be paid out in full to whoever executes the bounty.

-A player can only place a bounty on a current and active personal kill rights target. This will prevent people from placing a bounty on a random person just to grief. The bounty will last indefinitely, until executed.

-A Hunter may not engage any bounty at will; he or she must visit the agent and accept a bounty via a list of active bounties. Once you accept the bounty the agent will provide the last known ISK or LP transactions, etc., along with the location of those transactions. Only one bounty may be accepted at a time. This will make it feel like you're truly hunting your own special quarry. You are the Hunter.

-A bounty can be executed anywhere in high sec without any repercussions from Concord, station gates, etc. because you are under the auspices of the Bounty Hunter Corp.

We can add a new class of ship specifically for hunting, engaging and executing bounties; available through the new faction via LP.
When I think back on my own experience on hunting people, there are a few things that really stand out, First and foremost; THE CHASE, and doing so with stealth and guile.
This class of ship should have a role bonus to speed, web and scram, perhaps 5 or 10% effectiveness against criminals.
–It would also reduce pod targeting time by 500%(only active against Bounty targets)
Then of course a hunter is going to specialize in some type of offensive skill. For me it was 45 ACP, for Eve we know what it should be; a ship that emphasizes catching a target, closing in and taking, so we want close range weapons; blasters, autocannons and pulse lasers.
Not allowing missiles, rails, etc. might allow some outplay potential from the criminal. It should be able to fit a Covert Ops cloaking unit. Only the foolish Bounty Hunter announces himself, and I do not believe a bounty hunter would fly a ship without it.

We can add a skill, - Hunter: Increases your damage by 1% per skill level against a bounty target, for a maximum of 5%.
This is done to straight up give the Hunter a small advantage, as I said; a bounty on your head should be feared.

I would love to hear any ideas on possible criminal skills to help thwart a Hunter! Maybe an ECM bonus that only applies to Hunters hulls? However if this did come to pass I would like to throw in a negative to the skill, because that’s just how the world works…when you’re a criminal things are stacked against you. Perhaps have a pirate faction teach the skill directly (no sending the skill from an alt), make the faction agent DEEP and I mean DEEP in nullsec, through massive phenomena that prevents cloak and warping. Think of the Enterprise moving through a 1AU nebula that is messing with instruments, navigation, etc. In other words, make it extremely easy to be ganked and difficult to reach.


Final Thoughts: It’s not about ship value or ISK amount; it’s about adding incentive for justice to be meted out, for those who lack the ability to do it themselves. It's about adding a rewarding and meaningful career choice. I never understood why the current bounty system is the way it is, why a bounty amount is hindered based on ship value, etc. The offended party placed that bounty in good faith to be paid upon the contracts execution, hull value should have nothing to do with it as ISK is not being created, but simply changing hands. It’s clear the current system doesn’t work, and hopefully this proposal will be taken into consideration, and implemented.