ALD powerplay player -- Why don't Bounty Hunting Missions reward merits?

[Angus McSix]

Hello FDev.

Please explain, why is it that, for an ALD powerplay player, where Bounty Hunting is one of our strongest merit earners, Bounty Hunting missions do not reward merits?

And do not say that you can't code merit rewards into missions. I've just done a trio of Restore/Reboot Settlement missions, which yielded a surprising 1800 merits each. So you absolutely can tie merits to missions, both space and on-foot. So why haven't you done it?

Also, it's been three weeks; when are you reinstating escape pods as a merit reward again?

 

[forbiddenlake]

You get extra merits from scanning and BHing compared to other powers, and you get a bounty voucher bonus when redeeming. Are you sure you need more?

 

[Ian Doncaster]

I'm guessing that it's mostly thematic to start with:
- Support missions show the generosity of your Power towards the system
- most other missions encourage rivalry between the factions in the system and would be more appropriate as Undermining-only actions if at all
- maybe this also ties in to an attempt to separate Power actions from BGS ones, not that this has been either successful or arguably desirable

But there's also a "get paid twice" element here specifically with the Pirate Massacre type:
- you already get merits for shooting the ships down when bounty hunting
- giving you a second (third, fourth, fifth, because these missions are being stacked, right?) set of merits would just make bounty hunting tough to balance with respect to the rest of the activities (do you want the baseline bounty merits reduced on the assumption that someone will have also taken a stack of missions, because I certainly don't!)
- you still get the credit/material/reputation rewards for the missions if you take them anyway so maybe they don't need to pay merits as well?

Also, it's been three weeks; when are you reinstating escape pods as a merit reward again?

It seems obvious by now that whatever exploit they're concerned about there needs a client patch, so maybe this Thursday if we're lucky.

 

[Kira Goto]

so maybe this Thursday if we're lucky.

Or Tuesday? With the Cobra V on December 10 and whatnot.

 

[MottiKhan]

You get extra merits from scanning and BHing compared to other powers, and you get a bounty voucher bonus when redeeming. Are you sure you need more?

Yes, it's quite lucrative. I saved some bounties for a couple of weeks and went to a stronghold to turn them in. Almost 1.4 billion credits. I think it was an extra 40% on top of the normal bonus.

 

[Angus McSix]

You get extra merits from scanning and BHing compared to other powers, and you get a bounty voucher bonus when redeeming. Are you sure you need more?

You're joking right? Please tell me you're joking.

Scanning ships is a paltry 20 merits/5 control points each.
I have 4 billion credits; I don't need a bounty voucher bonus. I would gladly turn that bounty voucher bonus into additional merits/control points if I could.

My point is that Bounty Hunting missions, from the mission board, should yield merits. For all powers, not just the Emperor.

I'm guessing that it's mostly thematic to start with:
- Support missions show the generosity of your Power towards the system
- most other missions encourage rivalry between the factions in the system and would be more appropriate as Undermining-only actions if at all
- maybe this also ties in to an attempt to separate Power actions from BGS ones, not that this has been either successful or arguably desirable

But there's also a "get paid twice" element here specifically with the Pirate Massacre type:
- you already get merits for shooting the ships down when bounty hunting
- giving you a second (third, fourth, fifth, because these missions are being stacked, right?) set of merits would just make bounty hunting tough to balance with respect to the rest of the activities (do you want the baseline bounty merits reduced on the assumption that someone will have also taken a stack of missions, because I certainly don't!)
- you still get the credit/material/reputation rewards for the missions if you take them anyway so maybe they don't need to pay merits as well?


It seems obvious by now that whatever exploit they're concerned about there needs a client patch, so maybe this Thursday if we're lucky.

Massacre missions have not stacked for a long, long time. If you take 4 massacre missions at, say, 12, 16, 24, 10, and 20, you have to kill 82 pirates to complete all the missions, not just 20.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Massacre missions have not stacked for a long, long time. If you take 4 massacre missions at, say, 12, 16, 24, 10, and 20, you have to kill 82 pirates to complete all the missions, not just 20.

If you take them all from the same faction, yes.
If you take them from different factions, though? I understood that still worked, since Intra is still being maintained.

Regardless, even if you take them from only one faction in circumstances where they can't stack, the only consequence of adding missions would be that the merits from normal bounty hunting would need to be reduced on the assumption that you'd also taken a mission along with it. So you don't end up any further ahead, and it just gets more tedious to stay where you were.

Massacre missions also are almost? always "kill in another system" ones, so it'd be at least a bit fiddly where the bounty merits were appearing in one system, but the mission merits in another. I expect questions of "what system do the merits apply to?" is one of the reasons most mission types don't give merits directly.

 

[Rebel Yell]

Massacre missions have not stacked for a long, long time. If you take 4 massacre missions at, say, 12, 16, 24, 10, and 20, you have to kill 82 pirates to complete all the missions, not just 20.

You can stack between different mission givers... same mission giver doesn't stack.

 

[Angus McSix]

Massacre missions also are almost? always "kill in another system" ones, so it'd be at least a bit fiddly where the bounty merits were appearing in one system, but the mission merits in another. I expect questions of "what system do the merits apply to?" is one of the reasons most mission types don't give merits directly.

This is also true of Bounty Hunting missions. They are always conducted in a different system from where they were picked up. My desire is to do bounty hunting missions and earn merits when I turn them in, merits that convert into control points for that system. Because right now, if I pick up a bounty hunting mission in system A, I am forced to travel to system B. When I kill the target in system B, it is system B that earns the control points from the kill, not system A. And when I return to system A to complete the contract, no control points are awarded to the system because I didn't get any merits.

That is absurd, and if anyone disagrees, I cannot fathom a rational explanation why.

 

[Jmanis]

If you take them all from the same faction, yes.
If you take them from different factions, though? I understood that still worked, since Intra is still being maintained.

Yep, cross faction stacking has always worked and still does.

And you can still craft how you stack over a course of minutes to ensure all your targets are paper- thin threat 3 ones which die in seconds to sustained fire.

Regardless, even if you take them from only one faction in circumstances where they can't stack, the only consequence of adding missions would be that the merits from normal bounty hunting would need to be reduced on the assumption that you'd also taken a mission along with it. So you don't end up any further ahead, and it just gets more tedious to stay where you were.

Almost sounds like the economy needed to be balanced before PP2 was launched

Massacre missions also are almost? always "kill in another system" ones, so it'd be at least a bit fiddly where the bounty merits were appearing in one system, but the mission merits in another.

i don't think it's possible to get a domestic massacre that isn't a cz one these days... maybe a domestic assassination here and there but they're very rare.