Bounties on stealth kills

There was definitely a planned way to incap rather than kill.

If you use the overcharge on the power tool the npc will have a "stars" icon over their head. It wasn't implemented beyond that though.
 
This was my second on-foot assassination, so I'm pretty new to this.
I knew the mission was illegal, but I figured if I didn't get caught, I wouldn't have a problem.
Cloned an ID or two, stealth-killed the target with the over-charged power tool and eventually got scanned on the way out.
I ditched my stolen ID so it wasn't a problem - I was free to walk unimpeded to my ship and leave.
After engaging the FSD on my getaway, I went to check the mission details, and discovered that I had a 1,000CR bounty with the Empire. That was kinda annoying for a perfectly-executed stealth kill. Oh well, I'll just head to Interstellar Factors to pay it off. Happily, Interstellar Factors have a branch at the station where I got the mission.
It wasn't listed as a bounty I could pay on Interstellar Factors. That was annoying.
I exited to main menu then back in again - bounty still not listed in Interstellar Factors.
Exited to desktop then back in again - bounty STILL not listed in Interstellar Factors.
On a whim, I decided to exit to desktop and launch Horizons instead of Odyssey. Finally, bounty LISTED on Interstellar Factors.

I'd prefer not to clear a bounty with two "Exit-to-desktop"'s and "Reload-the-game"'s. In fact, I'd prefer not to have a bounty at all (unless caught - totally fine with that :))

So my two issues are:-
  • Shouldn't have had the bounty.
  • Shouldn't have to pay it off by relogging. Twice.

Am I going to put up with this? Of course I am! It's great game and I can work around the rough edges.
But I sometimes feel like I shouldn't have to be a qualified engineer in order to get the game to run as expected, but that's another thead ;)
 
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So is this a place where enhancement requests go to die?

Can we please deal with the immersion breaking bounty after a stealth kill that has no witnesses and the body not found?

If not, can we please have a non-lethal way of incapacitating NPCs that doesn't incur a bounty?

Well there's an argument here that life support for members of the station is monitored remotely, I mean given modern technology, which people keep bringing up to support other arguments about why we don't have binoculars and other "modern" equipment, would make sense. After all if someones suit malfunction and they need help you would know immediately, every person on a remote station is there for a reason or a job, you don't want them dying a few meters away from assistance because no-one was looking in their direction. The moment you kill someone the site knows, regardless of whether you were seen or hid the body, in fact they can probably walk straight to it given that the suit is no doubt still connected to central monitoring.

I don't expect there is actually anything like stealth kill in the situation we are looking at in outposts in hostile environments, the game does it for you to make it possible to complete missions, but really if someone dies no matter the cause the entire outpost should go on full alert.
 
... Unless the alarms have been taken offline!
I'm OK with being found out after a short time; it's the convoluted process to pay off the bounty that's frustrating me right now!

That's fair enough of course, systems taken offline would make a difference to response by station staff.
 
Yeah, if you want to go down the monitored route, that should only apply while the power is on, and as soon as there is a kill the alarms should go and guards sent to your location. But you still shouldn't get a bounty unless that kill is witnessed.

If we're saying like ships that there is a magic constant link that knows what's going on, then the alarms need to go off immediately - but that doesn't really change the underlying problem, we need a way of incapacitating in a stealth way, that isn't jarring to immersion (which let's face it, with ship lasers only tickling people, and personal rifles taking out ship shields, I think went out the window a long time ago).
 
Well there's an argument here that life support for members of the station is monitored remotely, I mean given modern technology, which people keep bringing up to support other arguments about why we don't have binoculars and other "modern" equipment, would make sense. After all if someones suit malfunction and they need help you would know immediately, every person on a remote station is there for a reason or a job, you don't want them dying a few meters away from assistance because no-one was looking in their direction. The moment you kill someone the site knows, regardless of whether you were seen or hid the body, in fact they can probably walk straight to it given that the suit is no doubt still connected to central monitoring.

I don't expect there is actually anything like stealth kill in the situation we are looking at in outposts in hostile environments, the game does it for you to make it possible to complete missions, but really if someone dies no matter the cause the entire outpost should go on full alert.
This is possible, we have the technology now, but it's not a given that it's done. Employers today don't require constant life monitoring. Employers might not do this for many reasons. And since other people aren't alerted if someone dies, it stands to reason they don't.

If it was simply monitoring employees, they would know they died, but not how. That wouldn't point to you. So you instantly getting a bounty wouldn't make sense. At most it'd mean you'd have to get away from the body fast.

And if they can insta-bounty, they should be able to tell all the guards that CMDR IMURDERU07 totally just killed Technician Charlie.

I've also heard it reasoned that if people start dying when a CMDR shows up, then it's obvious. But all a researcher on a settlement has to do is wait until a CMDR shows up, then she can finally murder that a-hole Charlie for always making horrible coffee.

What I don't like is this stupid middle ground of, "there's stealth but really there's not." Either you successfully completed a covert heist, or they knew all along cause they watch everything and everything is monitored.
 
Yeah I don't take illegal assasinations anymore.

And there is a current issue or perhaps it is how it is supposed to have been and Horizons is the one bugged, that you can't pay off a bounty at a station where the faction giving the bounty is located.
- Kind of makes sense, since the faction giving the bounty would prefer to have your head instead, although it makes me feels kind of cheap to be worth only 1000 credits.
 
This is possible, we have the technology now, but it's not a given that it's done. Employers today don't require constant life monitoring. Employers might not do this for many reasons. And since other people aren't alerted if someone dies, it stands to reason they don't.

If it was simply monitoring employees, they would know they died, but not how. That wouldn't point to you. So you instantly getting a bounty wouldn't make sense. At most it'd mean you'd have to get away from the body fast.

And if they can insta-bounty, they should be able to tell all the guards that CMDR IMURDERU07 totally just killed Technician Charlie.

I've also heard it reasoned that if people start dying when a CMDR shows up, then it's obvious. But all a researcher on a settlement has to do is wait until a CMDR shows up, then she can finally murder that a-hole Charlie for always making horrible coffee.

What I don't like is this stupid middle ground of, "there's stealth but really there's not." Either you successfully completed a covert heist, or they knew all along cause they watch everything and everything is monitored.
Basically I agree with everything in this post.

If the OMNISCIENT EYE OF THE LAW instantly reports your crimes to the UNIVERSAL GALACTIC DATABASE the moment you commit them, then it makes no sense whatsoever that the people in the next room aren't aware of it too.

And yes, people argue "but you're the only stranger on the base it's obvious that you did it", but courts don't work that way. Lynch mobs might, but that's not the same thing. When it comes to the law, just knowing isn't good enough - you have to prove it. And all it'd take is one little incident of one of these (armed!) settlement workers taking out a personal grudge and blaming it on the visitor for the entire "you were there so it must have been you" to fall on its face.
 
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