EVE General Discussion

This is possibly the most presumptuous thing I've read all decade

Cant work. There is no way of ascertaining if the bounty target was not killed by an alt/ally whilst in a cheap ship/pod, so as to earn the bounty for themselves.

Do you begin now to realize how complicated and difficult this issue is?

The complexity is a mind-boggling excursion onto the "Inception" movie.
Every time you think you have it fixed, you are faced with a deeper problem.
Ive spent many hours trying to solve it (usually while riding on a bus). but everytime when I think I've got it, I am defeated.
Nobody yet has gone deep enough down that hole and emerged with a workable solution.

Its a Holy Grail in EVE.
Whomever figures it out, shall rightfully be celebrated.

Nah, too little player interaction. More NPCs is not what we need. It would also be easy to counter: Hop in a T1 Frig/Noobship/Shuttle and sit in the bounty hunters space afk for the while, and once they shot you down, you are good to go for a week.


That's an interesting take, actually. Out of all players there are that have a bounty, a bounty contract agent would give you one, and only one. While this mission is active, the hunter would be allowed to freely engage the mark and vice versa. The hunter would not know who else might have a contract on this specific mark right now, the mark would not know who's hunting them at the moment until they meet. This would make it so that most of the time only one bounty hunter would encounter only one mark, providing some interesting gameplay both for the hunter and the mark. Of course, you could still f\\k with the odds by bringing neutral logistics or suicide gankers along, but the mark could do the same.

However, I can see problems there too: What if the mark is not currently active? Maybe they aren't playing at the moment, or they just log in every odd day to check mails and rearrange skills. Without the watch list, this would be very frustrating for the hunters.

Also there would still be the problem with placing low bounties on random targets just to make them die for s\\ts and giggles. I'd see a guy in a pimped out marauder running missions, and decide that he needs to lose that loot pinata of his. I place a bounty of 1M on his head, which would add him to the bounty lottery, and then I'd just wait and watch the killboards. The hunters would be all over that, even with a measly bounty, simply for the opportunity to add a shiny Marauder to their killboard. Too much trolling potential for my taste.

To avoid this, it would have to be done without the license to kill. But then - why would anyone want to be a bounty hunter, if the only somewhat realiable way to actually get to your target would be a suicide gank, which is very hard/next to impossible for properly fit combat ships?

Where is the scam? Just because someone has a price on their head doesn't mean that it's a free kill. Anyone in real life with a bounty will hide where authorities are more plentiful and criminal acts are more difficult. So I see no issue with this.

Where is the problem here? This doesn't break bounty hunting at all. You expect them to re-write a killboard and make up a fake kill?

That's not an issue. Communication is in-game and bounty hunters will need to learn to evolve to find work. Most real bounties are done via personal networking and are not broadcasted anyways. Again, this doesn't mean it's a broken system.

I feel like the concern is for people who want to be bounty hunters. Their job is to gain notoriety and network to give them the chance to be. The onus is on them, not CCP.

Agreed, I think I did misunderstand.

I don't know who or what Chribba is. My axiom is that the person putting out the hit holds on to their money until they are shown proof to pay up. I wouldn't be putting money up for anything until I've seen the results I've asked for. So to me, that part of the discussion is: *shrugs* doesn't impact me.

Bounty Hunting / Merc work I think is still an issue the players need to work out, not CCP.

Quoting a redit post:

That is the same problem people have to deal with in the real life. To me this is a complaint against failing to do investigation and networking. Not a valid complaint about a mechanic that needs fixing.

If Chribba is the only person who is trustworthy -- then I see a business opportunity here. I have no reason to steal ISK or go bad. I have no problem publishing my real identity, physical location, picture, name of my run away cat. Give me your money plus a small 10k convenience fee and i'll pay out to the person who fulfills your wishes. My wife would kill me if I did all that but it may be worth it..

Three letters, SWG. Make advanced wormhole probes to track the individuals location. If they happen to be in a keepstar, and the bounty is right, siege it!

Well, it's usually a good idea to have knowledge about a game to make any substantial statements about it. But maybe that's just me.

I'll play along. What's the point in bounty hunting, if you won't get paid? (and realistically, you won't get paid if there's no tangible reason to pay you, honor is merely a gooey substance that's typically stored in tanks in Eve)

Yes, in the real world, a bounty hunter may risk not getting paid, but in the real world, bounty hunters usually aren't bounty hunters for fun. Real world comparisons are always a bit odd when the topic is video games. In the end, it's still a game, and people do stuff because it's fun or because they win or because they get rewards for it.

Chasing a mark, not knowing if it's even online, and finding it docked 9 out of 10 times if it actually is online, then not getting paid in the rare case that you do manage to kill something and not being able to do anything about it does not actually sound like fun at all.

You can argue that people "should" be doing that however much you want, they still won't. I do agree that going the social route instead of the mechanical one is the only way to potentially make bounties work at all in Eve, however, there are good reasons why people aren't doing it that way already.

If a player was to act as an agent of sorts - taking bounty contracts, holding the actual bounty and paying it out if the contract gets fulfilled, that would be amazing. However, I don't know many players that are trusted enough to fill this role.

That onus is on the Merc's and BH's, not CCP, to deal with the payments. Don't take clients you don't trust. "Payback" clients who suck. You don't tailor to people's laziness and eagerness to do anything that is offered just so they can become a Merc or BH.

Then they should reconsider their occupation.

Just because they won't doesn't mean that anything should change or that they should be catered to. I imagine the "good reasons" are those previously listed difficulties and obstacles. That's the nature of the beast. Maybe Mercs/BHs should be charging more and expecting something up front. Risk and reward for everything and everyone. There should be no attempt to remove that. If Mercs/Bhs only accept clients who pay a neutral party, then so be it. That solve's their issues. That neutral party shouldn't be CCP. Keep player issues in the player's hands. I for one would never use a neutral party nor expect it.

Okay, and? Again, social issue. CCP should not be involved.

While I had a response to the rest, I think it's best to move on after I came up with the following. I still think it's in the players hands and the below may help balance each of our concerns.

Because I whole heartedly believe that a game mechanic should not be involved, in interest on trying to find something that works for both camps, I can support if something of a hacking skill was introduced which allowed tracking a persons docking and financial transactions. Omegas only, of course, heavy skill points required, and players gain something like the below:

(This only works if Eve Online even keeps such logs)

I: View information regarding last 5 docks at 12 hours previous to hacking attempt (or the closest information and timestamps but it must be older, not newer info). Only available for 10 Minutes
II: View Information regarding last 10 docks, 10 outgoing financials and 10 incoming financials (automatic or manual with a filter once displayed) at 12 hours previous to hacking attempt (or the closest information and timestamps but it must be older, not newer info). Only available for 15 minutes.
III: Improves on II by changing to be 6 hours previous to hacking attempt and 20 minute availability.
IV: Improves on III by using the closest information which can be newer information (priority being older if a "tie" exists) and allows 20 transactions, returning exactly 10 automatic and 10 manual transactions. 25 minute availability.
V: Improves on IV by changing to be 2 hours previous to hacking attempt and 30 minute availability and last 15 docks (I'm thinking maybe at lvl V or a second set of trainings to allow viewing last 3 jumps or something).

Requires some very expensive equipment made by blueprints and they have limited uses. Lore could be that the network which permeates new-eden allowing for clones is what this hacking technology uses but is regularly fried in the process. Access is done by tapping into the capsuleer themselves, which creates a drain on their own stamina making frequent hacking attempts detrimental to their performance and survivability--obviously the timer would have to be a game balance issue settled as we see the usage of it.

I don't think CCP should be involved in the ISK transactions at all in regards to Mercs/Bhs.