It's clearly not a bug, but clearly is a design flaw.
What we really need is either an in-game, or an out-of-game tool where sightings of highly wanted players can be tracked.
Interdiction Dodgers
- Thread starter Snakebite
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What we really need is either an in-game, or an out-of-game tool where sightings of highly wanted players can be tracked.
I was interdicted by a human player for the first time today! I suppose this happened because I went into some populated system, instead of spending my time exploring the border regions of inhabited space, where I get interdicted only by the occasional NPC...
...anyway the poor wanted me to cut my engines, after a bit of fumbling with controls in panic I complied. Then he wanted some cargo from me. Unfortunately my cargo bay was empty, I would've been more than happy to get robbed in my first PvP interaction in the game after some 50 hours of gameplay! Luckily for me the guy decided my Adder was not worth his ammo or something, so he let me go alive in the end.
Not sure why I'm posting this, probably to show that there are happy victims as well, not only plug-pullers. And I completely agree with the sentiments in the thread about why bother playing OPEN if there's the option for SOLO to eliminate any/all PvP interaction. Seriously, kids, it doesn't make you one degree more or less elite whether you collect bazillion credits of wealth in OPEN or SOLO, but it probably makes some people sad if you ruin the supposed PvP interaction by pulling the plug. Now with that said though, I am *NOT* a big fan of all the raging psychopath killers either (read: gankers) that usually populate these online worlds; there clearly is a problem in design if such behavior becomes dominant. This is hopefully not the case in Elite yet, considering how fresh the game is?
(To clarify: From a roleplay perspective it's ok for a universe to have some of these totally mad trigger happy people "who just want to see the world burn", but they should be one in a million, not ninety percent of player base. This usually becomes the problem during the lifetime of a multiplayer game, as games inherently allow you to restart / make new character / reset bounty / circumvent badboy mechanics, so the people who are bent on death and destruction will continue to do so, while the decent folk go away disgusted: in the end there's only the gankers left, who pray on each other and whine how the game has gone bad from the good old days...)
Also, uh, sort of offtopic but anyone else have this problem with interdictions with (at least) NPCs sometimes that the interdiction lasts for 1-2 seconds maximum, with zero realistic chance of evasion whatsoever? Just a byproduct of random server lag, or maybe some other kind of bug? Definitely doesn't seem to be the intended behaviour in any case.
...anyway the poor wanted me to cut my engines, after a bit of fumbling with controls in panic I complied. Then he wanted some cargo from me. Unfortunately my cargo bay was empty, I would've been more than happy to get robbed in my first PvP interaction in the game after some 50 hours of gameplay! Luckily for me the guy decided my Adder was not worth his ammo or something, so he let me go alive in the end.
Not sure why I'm posting this, probably to show that there are happy victims as well, not only plug-pullers. And I completely agree with the sentiments in the thread about why bother playing OPEN if there's the option for SOLO to eliminate any/all PvP interaction. Seriously, kids, it doesn't make you one degree more or less elite whether you collect bazillion credits of wealth in OPEN or SOLO, but it probably makes some people sad if you ruin the supposed PvP interaction by pulling the plug. Now with that said though, I am *NOT* a big fan of all the raging psychopath killers either (read: gankers) that usually populate these online worlds; there clearly is a problem in design if such behavior becomes dominant. This is hopefully not the case in Elite yet, considering how fresh the game is?
(To clarify: From a roleplay perspective it's ok for a universe to have some of these totally mad trigger happy people "who just want to see the world burn", but they should be one in a million, not ninety percent of player base. This usually becomes the problem during the lifetime of a multiplayer game, as games inherently allow you to restart / make new character / reset bounty / circumvent badboy mechanics, so the people who are bent on death and destruction will continue to do so, while the decent folk go away disgusted: in the end there's only the gankers left, who pray on each other and whine how the game has gone bad from the good old days...)
Also, uh, sort of offtopic but anyone else have this problem with interdictions with (at least) NPCs sometimes that the interdiction lasts for 1-2 seconds maximum, with zero realistic chance of evasion whatsoever? Just a byproduct of random server lag, or maybe some other kind of bug? Definitely doesn't seem to be the intended behaviour in any case.
Hi Sandro,
Is the ability to pay off your bounty instantly being looked at?
At the moment its trivial to just go to the nearest station and pay it off, or jump to a different system and do so while not wanted.
24 hours until you can pay off a bounty might make a difference, or 24 hours for killing a ship at least, not for just shooting one.
this would be great, but then remove the police, those idiots just keep ramming players or try to kill themselves by purposedly catching your bullets with their teeth.....
i swear i'll endup murdering them all at this rate, they are so dumb and painfull getting in your way every single time....duh
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It was said somewhere that, in one of the upcoming patches, NPCs will be "taught" to neglect some small amount of friendly-fire.
IMO, the bounty pay-off really does need some overhauling - for example, a time restriction, like Fergal said, or, perhaps, a player shouldn't be able to pay his own bounty at all (after all, a fine is just a form of punishment, and a bounty is a price on one's head). I also think that, maybe, when a player with a bounty on his head gets killed, the total amount of the bounty should be reduced only partially (10%, for example). That way, a big-ass pirate's only option to become "clean" again would be to get killed several times, not just once.
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It's always struck me as odd, that a player can pay off his own Bounty. Fines, yes, but Bounties???
It makes Bounties pointless.
I jumped out of SC into a USS last night and immediately got fired upon by an NPC. I hadn't even finished scanning him with the KWS and he opened up on me.
So I shot back and killed him. I was then issued with a Bounty of 6,000C. Not sure why, when he fired first?
Anyhow, all I had to do was SC to the nearest Station and pay off the fine. Seems pretty pointless to me, having Bounties if I can pay it off like that and instantly become unwanted!
It makes Bounties pointless.
I jumped out of SC into a USS last night and immediately got fired upon by an NPC. I hadn't even finished scanning him with the KWS and he opened up on me.
So I shot back and killed him. I was then issued with a Bounty of 6,000C. Not sure why, when he fired first?
Anyhow, all I had to do was SC to the nearest Station and pay off the fine. Seems pretty pointless to me, having Bounties if I can pay it off like that and instantly become unwanted!
I think it makes sense to a point, ultimately I'd see it as taking advantage of corruption, but in the case of repeat or severe offenders I find it harder to believe people in authority would take the risk of being caught turning a blind eye. If the player is repeatedly engaging in acts of criminality then why shouldn't they find it harder to shake off the negative fallout? I can't see it being too hard to measure. Just having a tally of crimes in the space of say a month, and if the bounties hit a hidden threshold in that period increase the cost or even remove the facility to pay said bounties off until they get collected.
Make this threshold faction specific and you have a reasonably interesting system for making players known criminals.
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If our ability to pay off a Bounty, is simulating corruption, then there ought to be a roll-the-dice factor to the mechanic. I can't accept that every Station Official would be open to accepting your Bribe, or have the Authority to access Universal Crime Computers, to wipe your record for you.
Perhaps you could have a 40/60 chance of wiping the Bounty in the Local System, with just a 10% chance of wiping it Galaxy-Wide? Win or lose the roll, you lose the money anyway!?
Now if you could bribe a Security Vessel's Pilot when he scans you, your chances of a successful bribe could be higher, but still no better than 50/50.
I think that those mechanics would be too complicated to implement. A simpler way to limit a player's ability to clear his own bounty (and at the same time not remove it entirely) would be to make it possible only in some random stations (like you said - bribe the authorities), and, maybe, upping the price - for example, make it proportional to insurance cost or total assets. So, to clear a bounty of 6000 creds, a player with a gazillion creds in assets, should pay much more than 6000, etc.
You've never heard of weregeld?
If this system were radically changed, then missions would have to change too - there are a lot of missions to assassinate specific named targets, if taking that mission were effectively a death sentence for the player then it would be a huge disincentive to taking those missions. Maybe missions like that would come with an associated method to clear the bounty, like "when you return, we have arranged with the local security officer that you go to him and clear the bounty".
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On the pirates stations with anarchy status. Isn't it logical? With multiplicator equal to the fight stat of the pilot. For harmless it would be much cheaper than for the elite, due to his fame.
Maybe on pirate stations, maybe somewhere else. For example, if we make a historical analogy to privateers (like the well-known captain Francis Drake, who was a scumbag of a pirate, but "served the Crown" officially), you could, perhaps, pay your own bounty only in capital systems (Achenar/Sol/Alioth). Makes sense too - it's kinda logical that a small insignificant space station on the edge of space simply wouldn't have the necessary legal institutions to process cases like that, unlike capital systems. So, basically, be a scumbag first and then clear your name by "donating" a large amount of money to the state, like privateers basically did.
Also, I think that tying costs to combat rank is not a very good idea, because in a year or two of continuous playing some CMDRs will have billions of creds. If, say, a bounty clearance for an Elite is fixed at 10 million, that would still be a joke for those guys, but would be an insane cost for newer players at the same time. I think that the price should be calculated dynamically, based on the assets of the player in question.
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Privateers career were availiable only during the war. If we face in future the war between Empire and Federation privateeres would be logical. Otherwise they are pirates. What is more even privateer could not clear his background in Spain just visiting London =) He would be an ordinary cmdr only after the peace treaty.
As for the reach elite players in a year or so - cancel their insurance. As for me - it is the best way to deal with pirates. Billions would not be enough before you reach the station and you have to pay the full price for your ship. And the wanted status shouldn't be cleared in solo)
Means-tested fines are a good idea, although I predict much wailing and gnashing of teeth if someone has to pawn their precious anaconda as a result...
The higher you are, the harder you fall 
well this change would be very welcome, at the moment i specifiaclly choose a roaming ressource site close to a station / outpost just because of this crap behaviour....
and what about 2 different bounty system?
let me explain:
as of now, any agression grant the agressor a bounty, be it vs NPC or player, that said agresssor can then payoff.
this make snese since you WILL have bounty at some point, be it throught mission or dumb cops
let's change it:
ingame, nothing change, still only one "bounty account by player", but server side, there is 2 accounts by player
the first is the one we have now, for dealing with NPC gained bounty (mission / cops / npc agression) and works exactly as of now
the second however, is made to deal with agression vs other players, and cannot be payed off, or under very specific and difficult circumpstances (this point is off course up to discuss, chance based? only in some remote location with "buyable" officials etc....
from the game POV one only see the total balance of both accounts, meaning if you gained 2*300cr by shooting at police, plus 2300 because you shot another player, your bounty balance is 2900cr, and everyone sees it (like now)
if you go to station, you can only pay 600 out of it, unless you are under the circumpstances i mentionned before, then you can pay it all off.
if you get caught by another player and killed, same as now, he got 2900cr.
but to be fair, we also need to change one thing:
you can defend yourself when you have a bounty, if one is to attack you because of you holding a bounty, you can retaliate (you cannot however shoot first without gaining the corresponding bounty indeed)
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Originally Posted by Dr. Hans Reinhardt
It's always struck me as odd, that a player can pay off his own Bounty. Fines, yes, but Bounties???
It makes Bounties pointless.
I jumped out of SC into a USS last night and immediately got fired upon by an NPC. I hadn't even finished scanning him with the KWS and he opened up on me.
So I shot back and killed him. I was then issued with a Bounty of 6,000C. Not sure why, when he fired first?
Anyhow, all I had to do was SC to the nearest Station and pay off the fine. Seems pretty pointless to me, having Bounties if I can pay it off like that and instantly become unwanted!
I think it makes sense to a point, ultimately I'd see it as taking advantage of corruption, but in the case of repeat or severe offenders I find it harder to believe people in authority would take the risk of being caught turning a blind eye. If the player is repeatedly engaging in acts of criminality then why shouldn't they find it harder to shake off the negative fallout? I can't see it being too hard to measure. Just having a tally of crimes in the space of say a month, and if the bounties hit a hidden threshold in that period increase the cost or even remove the facility to pay said bounties off until they get collected.
Make this threshold faction specific and you have a reasonably interesting system for making players known criminals.
Then the answer is really simple. If a player wants to pay off his own bounty, make it 15% of his entire savings.
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