Bounty hunting/faction help please

[CMDR Sickie]

So I've moved over to Empire space and traded up to a Cobra, got friendly with the locals through a bit of trading and missions, and have scraped enough cash together to buy a Viper as a second ship to be able to do a little bounty hunting on the side.

Not wanting to upset my new found friends, I decided to jump out of my system to the independent one next door.

However, after handing in my claimed bounties in the independent system I find my rep with the Empire has took a hit.

Can anybody help where I'm going wrong here, it must be possible to do a bit of bounty hunting without burning your bridges to the faction your trying to get allied to.

Sorry if the answer is obvious, but I haven't bothered with combat since pb2

 

[krysohmyz]

Short answer is don't hunt in independent system.
The people you killed were wanted in independent systems but might have been allied with the Empire.

Hunt in Empire space. There is a good chance that wanted people there will be hostile to them, therefore worth positive rep.

 

[Saint Jabberwocky]

I can only say that I have been bounty hunting since launch inside of mostly Fed space and I am friendly with their faction. Both the Federation itself and the local groups in systems. After I kill the bounty I can see the gain in my faction window as the blue arrow right away. I have been watching and have not noticed any hits to my rep from hunting yet. They seem to like it when I clear away their wanted ships locally even if the wanted man is allied with the feds. Perhaps gaining rep with some factions es off the Empire. I am up over 150 bounties collected and have yet to see a loss though I don't check after every kill so I could of missed some but it has been net positive for me so far.

 

[Altissimus]

So if you bounty hunt indiscriminately, killing the criminal scum of all three factions, and do it for long enough, you can get to the point where they all hate you?

Working as intended I take it?

 

[Jackboot]

So if you bounty hunt indiscriminately, killing the criminal scum of all three factions, and do it for long enough, you can get to the point where they all hate you?

Working as intended I take it?

Yes, exactly as intended. Before you even shoot, much less destroy anyone, you should check and make sure they are not part of a faction you want to keep or raise your rep with. Even if they are wanted, if you attack members of a faction, that faction will resent you for it.

 

[Altissimus]

Yes, exactly as intended. Before you even shoot, much less destroy anyone, you should check and make sure they are not part of a faction you want to keep or raise your rep with. Even if they are wanted, if you attack members of a faction, that faction will resent you for it.

I appreciate that's HOW it works, but how do you know it's working as intended?

To me, it seems obtuse that if you kill a faction's pirates, psychopaths and mass murderers, then they hate you for it.

 

[CMDR Sickie]

So I would have been better off staying in my home system. Got it.

Thanks for the help

 

[Saint Jabberwocky]

Yes, exactly as intended. Before you even shoot, much less destroy anyone, you should check and make sure they are not part of a faction you want to keep or raise your rep with. Even if they are wanted, if you attack members of a faction, that faction will resent you for it.

It has occurred to me that it might not be that clean cut in one way. I think it works like this. If for example I kill a wanted NPC with a Fed faction tag and they are wanted in Fed space I don't think I lose any rep but if you kill a Fed who has no bounty from the Federal faction you lose rep. So killing Empire faction that only have a bounty from a Independent faction will lose rep with the Empire like the OP but if they have a bounty from the Empire you don't lose any rep since the Empire wants them dead. I could be wrong as I have not given it a formal test but this would make more sense.