Bounties

[Capt. Hook]

Was thinking about the bounty system whilst chopping calamari earlier today (still have all 10 digits thanks ) and was puzzling over the following:

1. If I rack up vast amounts of bounties on my head what is to stop me getting a friend to kill me, claim the bounty and split it with me? This would be a quick way to build up credits fast in the core worlds as well as annoying lots of new players who would be targeted

2. would a self destruct clear a bounty on your head? I'm thinking no unless you died as a result...

 

[Aewarin Jameson]

1. If I rack up vast amounts of bounties on my head what is to stop me getting a friend to kill me, claim the bounty and split it with me? This would be a quick way to build up credits fast in the core worlds as well as annoying lots of new players who would be targeted

2. would a self destruct clear a bounty on your head? I'm thinking no unless you died as a result...

1. Nothing that I can think of ... However if your bounty is high enough perhaps the Navy will come looking for you rather than wait for you to arrive in a star system .. also expect a lot of space ports to deny you access meaning your friend will also have to risk dodgy space until you can meet up.

2. Probably not.

 

[Cmdr Sharky]

If I rack up vast amounts of bounties on my head what is to stop me getting a friend to kill me, claim the bounty and split it with me? This would be a quick way to build up credits fast in the core worlds as well as annoying lots of new players who would be targeted.

Maybe a players should have diminishing returns on the bounties on them. Only a small bounty for having shot a ship. More for destroying them. So you'd have to have a decent ship to get kills, which means insurance costs that would outweigh the bounties.

 

[Aewarin Jameson]

Only a small bounty for having shot a ship. More for destroying them.

Your Elite status is affected by the number of kills you make.

I would expect the bounty payment to be made the same way ... If you happen to enter a firefight with some friends and you make the kill, it's up to you whether you split the bounty or not. (Paraphrasing David from a Dev Diary video on roles) Easier to work out & less chance of exploiting.

 

[redborg]

i cant imagine it will be possible to split the bounty with the player killed.

 

[Aewarin Jameson]

i cant imagine it will be possible to split the bounty with the player killed.

You and I go after a pirate.

We kill him, but I get the final shot in - I get the bounty.

Up to me now whether I transfer credits to you or not

(If I do we hunt together again, if I dont .. hmm .. put a contract on my head and watch me run like a little girl LOL)

 

[Zplintz]

I think David said there would be a ship/repair cost penalty for the one who got shot - I guess enough to make it not worth getting a massive bounty and then getting a friend to collect on it for you and sharing the booty.

Also if you are entering into multi-player missions - the bounty of a pirate being one of those - if two people attack the same ship they should get either an equal share or share based on damage dealt. In quite a few games the group leader can choose the loot share options.

 

[Aewarin Jameson]

I think David said there would be a ship/repair cost penalty for the one who got shot - I guess enough to make it not worth getting a massive bounty and then getting a friend to collect on it for you and sharing the booty.

Not sure what you mean by this as in order to collect a bounty you have to kill the bad guy .. which means shooting them until they explode. Once you come back to life yes the said-dead person will need to go to a previous last-known-good save and pay a "fee" ... if that fee is less than the bounty you profit.

Unless you meant player A repeatedly kills player B until the bounty on player A's head is huge, then player B kills player A then yes - that method won't work as I (hope / expect) the "fee" / repair costs for player B will be way more than the bounty collected at the end.

Also if you are entering into multi-player missions - the bounty of a pirate being one of those - if two people attack the same ship they should get either an equal share or share based on damage dealt. In quite a few games the group leader can choose the loot share options.

I suspect that for a multiplayer mission that you all accept when completed you all get the reward ... each player will have it as a mission - i think the fact that you're grouped is incidental.

 

[The Land]

Basically the penalties for having your ship destroyed while there's a bounty on your head need to be bigger than the penalty for just having your ship destroyed.

One way of doing it would be for your bounty to be set as a fraction of your outstanding fine. Say the fine for a player destroying a new player's ship is CR100,000; if the bounty was 20% that would mean CR20,000.

The fine would, obviously, remain outstanding once the player re-started, so even if they split the bounty on themselves with a friend, they would still owe CR90,000 - and presumably they wouldn't be allowed to launch from the space station they respawned from without making arrangements to pay the fine (e.g. by selling off their expensive armament or downgrading their ship....)

 

[The Land]

Another thought - certainly for NPCs, and perhaps for players as well, bounties should relate to the size of the craft and the Elite rating of the pilot. Taking down an Imperial Courier with a full loadout of armaments and piloted by someone Dangerous is a different matter to a novice in a light fighter, and the bounties need to be set to match....

 

[Abysinth]

Another thought - certainly for NPCs, and perhaps for players as well, bounties should relate to the size of the craft and the Elite rating of the pilot. Taking down an Imperial Courier with a full loadout of armaments and piloted by someone Dangerous is a different matter to a novice in a light fighter, and the bounties need to be set to match....

I think DB said that they would be.