Bounty Hunting Improvements

[Christooo]

From someone who loves bounty hunting and Elite Dangerous in general, a few suggestions to improve bounty hunting that may not be hard for devs to program:

1. Allow bounty hunters to take missions to hunt PVP pirates. Of course, those pirates aren't in game 24 hours/day, so there would need to be some notification when they are on-line. Maybe this is hard due to instances, but still, would add another level of difficulty and realism to BH gameplay.

2. Give pirates a home base. Right now, they just fly around a given system. What if they had a base in an asteroid belt, the rings of a gas giant, on a small moon, or on a megaship? The base would, of course, not be marked on any map. But you could try to hunt them to their base using scanners, tracking them, firing a tracking probe on their hull, etc. Of course, you would want to wing up to go to their base, given that there may be many pirates there!

3. Similar to #2, allow more locations for pirate fights. Deep space is fine, but it would be so much more fun to chase them (or be chased!) through asteroid fields or rings, or chase them through steep canyons on a planet/moon, worried that around the next bend you would get ambushed by his friends.

4. Make hunting pirates more like hunting. The devs have already introduced this in a procedural way for some missions, but they could bolster it in a few ways. Perhaps you could leave a tracker at beacons in various system that alert you when pirates enter the system. Perhaps, if the devs roll out space legs in 2020, they could allow you to go to a space bar and get intel on where pirates might be. Perhaps you could seriously wound a pirate and he could plead for his life and give you the location of the lead pirate in his gang. This could all be done procedurally, but with enough variation, it would give a lot more texture to the BH profession.

 

[Mersozz]

From someone who loves bounty hunting and Elite Dangerous in general, a few suggestions to improve bounty hunting that may not be hard for devs to program:

1. Allow bounty hunters to take missions to hunt PVP pirates. Of course, those pirates aren't in game 24 hours/day, so there would need to be some notification when they are on-line. Maybe this is hard due to instances, but still, would add another level of difficulty and realism to BH gameplay.

2. Give pirates a home base. Right now, they just fly around a given system. What if they had a base in an asteroid belt, the rings of a gas giant, on a small moon, or on a megaship? The base would, of course, not be marked on any map. But you could try to hunt them to their base using scanners, tracking them, firing a tracking probe on their hull, etc. Of course, you would want to wing up to go to their base, given that there may be many pirates there!

3. Similar to #2, allow more locations for pirate fights. Deep space is fine, but it would be so much more fun to chase them (or be chased!) through asteroid fields or rings, or chase them through steep canyons on a planet/moon, worried that around the next bend you would get ambushed by his friends.

4. Make hunting pirates more like hunting. The devs have already introduced this in a procedural way for some missions, but they could bolster it in a few ways. Perhaps you could leave a tracker at beacons in various system that alert you when pirates enter the system. Perhaps, if the devs roll out space legs in 2020, they could allow you to go to a space bar and get intel on where pirates might be. Perhaps you could seriously wound a pirate and he could plead for his life and give you the location of the lead pirate in his gang. This could all be done procedurally, but with enough variation, it would give a lot more texture to the BH profession.

You bring up some interesting ideas.

I'm not sure how the mechanics would work regarding item #1, but I think it could be interesting for both bounty hunters and pirates. I think the reverse might also be entertaining; namely, have bounty hunters gain notoriety with the outlaws. Just as there is a black market for stolen items, perhaps a black market for assassination contracts on accomplished bounty hunters.

With respect to 2, 3, and 4, it would make exploration more interesting if NPC pirate hives were scattered throughout the galaxy....along with more deep space outposts for repair/refuel/etc.

To add to your commentary, it could be interesting if Interstellar Factors provided a payout for information on pirate lairs (similar to how Universal Cartographics pays out explorers). It would incentivize exploration, and give bounty hunters additional goals. It could lead to some interesting player ship builds as well (long range hunters, for example).

Deep space bounty hunting would up the ante. Planning would be needed to seek out and eliminate a pirate den, especially if the trip required multiple jumps from any repairing outpost.

In short, anything that provides additional content outside the bubble would be welcome in my opinion.

 

[Julio Montega]

From someone who loves bounty hunting and Elite Dangerous in general, a few suggestions to improve bounty hunting that may not be hard for devs to program:

1. Allow bounty hunters to take missions to hunt PVP pirates. Of course, those pirates aren't in game 24 hours/day, so there would need to be some notification when they are on-line. Maybe this is hard due to instances, but still, would add another level of difficulty and realism to BH gameplay.

Problem: Fitting meta. A hunter these days is just a regular combat fit ship, that sacrifices a utility slot for a scanner. With the power creep introduced by engineers,
PvP is uninteresting (to me), as still the gap between a pirate ship (which sacrifices slots for cargo and limpets) and the hunter is big.
The next issue is the way how Elite handles PvP, disengaging is especially a problem for lone hunters. So unless the hunted really is out for the experience to fight without running, it is unlikely you ever get paid for your work.

2. Give pirates a home base. Right now, they just fly around a given system. What if they had a base in an asteroid belt, the rings of a gas giant, on a small moon, or on a megaship? The base would, of course, not be marked on any map. But you could try to hunt them to their base using scanners, tracking them, firing a tracking probe on their hull, etc. Of course, you would want to wing up to go to their base, given that there may be many pirates there!

That basically asks for a hybrid combat explorer, which i would have appreciated 2 years ago, and what works on criminals must work on lawfuls aswell. Let us attack stations and cap ships properly and snatch them from their owners.
Hopefully fleet carriers could add to NPCs aswell, creating the mobile bases you ask for.
Sadly the game is not built with much persistence in mind. NPCs just populate areas, for this to work, which i'd like, the game would require persistence everywhere.

3. Similar to #2, allow more locations for pirate fights. Deep space is fine, but it would be so much more fun to chase them (or be chased!) through asteroid fields or rings, or chase them through steep canyons on a planet/moon, worried that around the next bend you would get ambushed by his friends.

So you basically just ask for level design stuff?
The other side looks this:
Pirates hunt in empty space, as that is what trade routes are, asteroid belts have mining hotspots, so there you meet 'em too.
There is nothing worthwhile to raid planetside, so apart from "flavor" NPCs, nothing there.

4. Make hunting pirates more like hunting. The devs have already introduced this in a procedural way for some missions, but they could bolster it in a few ways. Perhaps you could leave a tracker at beacons in various system that alert you when pirates enter the system. Perhaps, if the devs roll out space legs in 2020, they could allow you to go to a space bar and get intel on where pirates might be. Perhaps you could seriously wound a pirate and he could plead for his life and give you the location of the lead pirate in his gang. This could all be done procedurally, but with enough variation, it would give a lot more texture to the BH profession.

Applies to being a criminal too to stalk convoys.
My gut feeling and experience tell me, that all you get is USSes and scenarios to fulfill this desire.

 

[Christooo]

Thanks for your responses, guys!

I think the reverse might also be entertaining; namely, have bounty hunters gain notoriety with the outlaws. Just as there is a black market for stolen items, perhaps a black market for assassination contracts on accomplished bounty hunters.

I agree with this. Both directions are fair game.

PvP is uninteresting (to me), as still the gap between a pirate ship (which sacrifices slots for cargo and limpets) and the hunter is big.
The next issue is the way how Elite handles PvP, disengaging is especially a problem for lone hunters. So unless the hunted really is out for the experience to fight without running, it is unlikely you ever get paid for your work.

This is also a fair point. As a bounty hunter, I actually don't have a full combat build (I often carry a little cargo and an SRV or something), and I'm not optimized for PVP combat, so I run from PVP elite pirates who are combat focused (rather than being focused on "liberating" cargo). But it is not a fair world, and there is strength in numbers...

To add to your commentary, it could be interesting if Interstellar Factors provided a payout for information on pirate lairs (similar to how Universal Cartographics pays out explorers). It would incentivize exploration, and give bounty hunters additional goals. It could lead to some interesting player ship builds as well (long range hunters, for example).

This would be very cool, and would add a dimension to BH gameplay. Probably not super hard to program, either.

Pirates hunt in empty space, as that is what trade routes are, asteroid belts have mining hotspots, so there you meet 'em too.
There is nothing worthwhile to raid planetside, so apart from "flavor" NPCs, nothing there.

True. Two responses. First, Even pirates need to sleep somewhere. And if I were a pirate, I would want the coolest, secretest base ever. Why not on a planet with deep valleys? Second, fighting is more exciting when it is done in asteroids and valleys as opposed to jousting and looping in open space. So why not bring the fight to where it would be more thrilling? When I fight in a res site against a superior opponent, you better bet I go boosting through asteroid fields and try to use my superior maneuverability as an advantage!

 

[Mersozz]

Applies to being a criminal too to stalk convoys.
My gut feeling and experience tell me, that all you get is USSes and scenarios to fulfill this desire.

A mission to stalk long range convoys could introduce an entertaining element. Kind of like submarine warfare in WWII.

 

[Chaparral]

I would be happy if within the contacts tab for Authority that we could be offered pirate assassination missions 100% of the time irrespective of system state. I wouldn't give a hoot if they did not affect the BGS, but I would like them to be continuously available...

 

[GeoJase]

I think its fair to say that most mission types could do with a bit more depth, content and variety.