Preventing Instant Bounty Payoffs at Space Stations

[SleepySid]

I've been reading a lot of threads about player kills and the lack of punishment for player killers as they can dock at the nearest space station and pay off the bounty instantly therefore cleansing their record without any real consequences.

I think your wanted bounty should only be allowed to be paid off over time to reflect the seriousness of the deed, for instance you're only allowed to pay off 1000cr of your wanted bounty every hour.

This way someone who accidentally shoots a police ship can pay their bounty off instantly, but some of the harder criminals that choose the life of crime and accure the bigger bounties will have to live with the consequences.

I think this would add a richness to the game and make people think twice before pulling the trigger, it would also make Bounty Hunting Player Pirates much more fun (and profitable).

 

[Bambi]

If you're accruing massive bounties it's not cost effective to pay them off.

 

[SleepySid]

Maybe, but if someone has got millions in the bank then the option is still there to clear their name... this way they can't instantly clean the slate so to speak. (Especially if they know they have a skilled bounty hunter on their tail)
In the real world most of the time you can't pay a fine for murdering someone. You do the crime you serve your time, over time if you live long enough you can ammend your wicked ways if you so choose. Since there are no courts in the game, justice should be death dealt by either the Police or Bounty Hunters.

 

[Marco 68]

So I can go shoot down anyone, and then pay off my Bounty at the next dock? Thats a fantastic grief button, can't wait until I have millions.
This does not make any sense, I don't know how the Bounty system works, but if a single payment (to Bounty hunter or Station) clears the Wanted status, then seems pointless having a Wanted status.
Limiting payments at stations per hour will make no difference when multiple PC's are available.
There needs to be some kind of "work" to clear a Bounty, that "work" should not protect the said Bounty.
My pennies Worth

 

[Seboss]

The game should be able to recognize different kind of bounties. A bounty for murder should not be simply paid off at a station, but maybe only after destruction. A bounty accrued for unpaid fines or non-lethal aggressions should still be paid as normal.

By the way, there's another elephant in the room regarding the bounty system, that is murder by colliding. As of today, there is still absolutely no legal consequence to murdering a ship by ramming it, and some of the less bright members of the community flying Pythons or other bigger ships are already abusing this to cause grief.

 

[Hethwill_Khan]

So I can go shoot down anyone, and then pay off my Bounty at the next dock? Thats a fantastic grief button, can't wait until I have millions.
This does not make any sense, I don't know how the Bounty system works, but if a single payment (to Bounty hunter or Station) clears the Wanted status, then seems pointless having a Wanted status.

Exactly how it work at the moment.

Therefore a slight change in mechanics might be needed.

As with every other player activity in the game where we have trade offs, this simple "murder" activity should have a trade off and I am sure most of us combat oriented have no problem with it whatever it may be.

For one I would enjoy the Security to jump faster into a combat instance, as it is they take well over 3 mins to show up if you are Neutral, a bit faster if you are Friendly.

 

[bitstorm]

Aye the bounty system is a bit broken.

It makes no sense that someone can avoid the law completely by paying money fine if done "behind the scenes" via a bribes system but lawfully paying security forces to let you off.

20000 credits for murder is a lot to some but absolutely nothing to others, it creates an unbalanced system where there is no real repercussion for any of your actions.

Needs checks and balances, an accumulating bounty that cannot be paid off by the criminal would go some way to helping.

 

[Kren]

They should just make it so a bounty for a kill is equal or greater than the cost of the ship+mods you blew up.

 

[Hethwill_Khan]

They should just make it so a bounty for a kill is equal or greater than the cost of the ship+mods you blew up.

Too harsh IMO and destroy completely any point in player interaction piracy unless the victim cooperates, which very very rarely happens.

note: cooperates = gives like 10 - 20 tons of the gold/platinum/slaves they usually carry, the good stuff.

Should equal the insurance of the victim ship without bail out payoption for a time.

 

[Kren]

Actually I don't think the price would be harsh, but it would be hard to balance giving that much on payouts for bounties. Maybe they could make it so you don't pay off the bounty, you pay the insurance companies the full price of the ship to remove your bounty Then players would keep bounties on their heads longer, and would only PVP in rival faction areas which I think is the point of bounties. Then you'd have a 30k bounty on your head but you'd have to drop 300k to remove it or you just go die. They could also make it so that when killed your bounty payout goes down based on the price of the ship you lost

 

[NatoNine]

Maybe when a fine is paid for a crime against a player the cash is put towards reparations to the victim. This would mean that the cost to the criminal should match or even exceed the cost to the victim. A bounty would just be about revenge, although maybe there could also be a type of "captured alive" bounty where the possessions of the criminal are sold off to cover the costs of their crime.

 

[Kren]

Maybe when a fine is paid for a crime against a player the cash is put towards reparations to the victim. This would mean that the cost to the criminal should match or even exceed the cost to the victim. A bounty would just be about revenge, although maybe there could also be a type of "captured alive" bounty where the possessions of the criminal are sold off to cover the costs of their crime.

Interesting line of thought.. they could maybe even do something like make it so insurance won't pay out if you die with a bounty on your head. Then they wouldn't have to change the bounty dynamic at all.. and would make PVP a lot more risky and make bounty hunting feel a lot more satisfying

 

[Hethwill_Khan]

Personally I am against any pay to the victim. It should be a simple mechanic, as fair as possible towards the system, same treatment as NPCs. They carry their bounties on their backs, so should we. Victims are just that. The trade off of a permanent bounty should be enough.

 

[Robert Maynard]

If you're accruing massive bounties it's not cost effective to pay them off.

.... in which case you're setting yourself up for bankruptcy when someone eventually cashes in your bounty....

 

[Kren]

Yeah, if anything it would be insurance based.. Insurance should cover most of the damage caused by PVP, the attacker if anything should be paying the insurance company So in game.. some guy is running around blowing up ships illegally, and insurance is paying out for all those destroyed ships.. then he gets blown up for the bounty and insurance pays for his ship too? that company is getting screwed! I think it makes sense for bounty kills to not get insurance coverages.

 

[Hethwill_Khan]

Yeah, if anything it would be insurance based.. Insurance should cover most of the damage caused by PVP, the attacker if anything should be paying the insurance company So in game.. some guy is running around blowing up ships illegally, and insurance is paying out for all those destroyed ships.. then he gets blown up for the bounty and insurance pays for his ship too? that company is getting screwed! I think it makes sense for bounty kills to not get insurance coverages.

Now that's a refreshing approach. Insurance pays up to a bounty limit ( keep bounty permanent ). After that limit the Insurance company ( Pilot Federation ) cannot promise anything...

200k is a fair limit, given it is the same as the loan given by the P.F.

 

[NatoNine]

Criminal history should be something that your average player can buy their way out of for a high price, but if they leave it then they end up all the way in with no cost effective way of buying out so they just need to go deeper and deeper into crime with the hope that by the time the law does catch up they have a ill-gotten nest egg large enough that crime does pay. I don't want part time criminals, I want real pros so they are actually frightening.

The way I see it if a crime is committed:

. The criminal could pay before the offense matures into a bounty (high cost equal to cost of crime paid to the victim as reparations)

. The criminal could legally be attacked and killed before the bounty is issued (most likely by the victim or their friend) , but they have the option of keeping their insurance and paying the fine if they can afford it including with a loan (higher cost as the criminal needs to also pay 10% the value of their ship if they want to replace it)

. If the criminal doesn't voluntarily pay the fine and are not killed before the bounty it can be assumed that they will eventually be killed, when that happens all bounties are satisfied (even if not collected) but the insurance isn't paid (the criminal needs to pay the full cost of ship replacement but they don't need to pay any fines, so if they made enough criminal gains crime will pay)

 

[Kren]

Now that's a refreshing approach. Insurance pays up to a bounty limit ( keep bounty permanent ). After that limit the Insurance company ( Pilot Federation ) cannot promise anything...

200k is a fair limit, given it is the same as the loan given by the P.F.

Permanent bounty would put too many credits into the market. They would need to rebalance the economy or inflation would happen.

I think that having no insurance between the time you gank someone and the time you get to a station to pay off the bounty would make piracy seem "risky" as it should be. The only downside to this would be the casual gamers might not want to pirate for fear of losing their ship, though they could still hunt bounties. Ship loss in "that other space game" cost a lot of money and people just got used to it. Pirates would have to follow the mantra of "don't fly anything you can't easily replace."

 

[Marco 68]

Crime should be related to reputation of faction space.
Faction should issue bounty on the head of the criminal not more than the losses of the "clean" pilot killed.
Bounties should not generate free credits and should thus be paid from the wanted pilot's account.
Criminal ship destruction in wanted space = no insurance.
Ship destruction in anarchy if wanted in all factions = no insurance.
Ship destruction in anarchy (everyone) = less insurance cover, e.g. 80% (higher risk area).
Working reputation for the faction where wanted should slowly clear wanted status.
Being killed with bounty should slowly clear wanted status.
Killing a wanted pilot in any space redeems the bounty of the wanted status.
Killing a federation wanted pilot in empire space where said pilot is not wanted, will make you wanted in empire space, vice versa
.
Just some logical ideas following on from the "work" suggestion I made, I think many may already be the case, if so, shouldn't be hard to implement.

 

[Hethwill_Khan]

Bounties should not generate free credits and should thus be paid from the wanted pilot's account.


And what if I don't have a dime upon my demise ? How will the bounty be paid then ?

A system concerning humans cannot be different from the basic rules around. We can hunt NPCs because they "cannot" pay their bounties, therefore that would be the basic for humans as well - AFTER they fix the Wanted status after mistake shots on clean ships during a chase.