Newcomer / Intro Bounty Hunting Players

Kalius · Apr 21, 2015

I've heard that there isn't really much of a living to be made by hunting players with bounties, as not many players tend to have very high bounties (if any). Is this true?

Is there any real incentive for players to break the law and obtain huge bounties? If not, will there ever really be any incentive for player vs player bounty hunting?

quickr · Apr 21, 2015

4M credits in 2 hours of BH in RES, you be the judge...

Edit; ow, you were saying BH PvP? You can allways check the top pirates list in space ports. there are some big bountys out there

Universal Evil · Apr 21, 2015

They only purpose/advantage I can think of reguarding a player "saving" up huge bounties on him/her self is to give another player easy/fast credits by letting him/her get killed by the one he/she wants to give credits... But I'm not sure if that's is leagal according to Fdev.... ?? IMO it shouldn't be aloud as I see it as a kind of cheeting....

Stahll Amatin · Apr 21, 2015

@OP PvP In E

is unpredictable. you could catch some scrubby girefer whose racked up a massive bounty, or you could catch some Super PvPer who wrecks you. you wont know untill you see how they fight and by then you may be in over your head if it's the later.

Universal Evil said:
They only purpose/advantage I can think of reguarding a player "saving" up huge bounties on him/her self is to give another player easy/fast credits by letting him/her get killed by the one he/she wants to give credits... But I'm not sure if that's is leagal according to Fdev.... ?? IMO it shouldn't be aloud as I see it as a kind of cheeting....

I agree, seems a lot like 'boosting' seen in other games

Kalius · Apr 21, 2015

Can't they just transfer credits to them? Or can you not do that in this game? To be honest, this game has done a very rare thing in that it was no skill points, and money isn't the be all and end all; I personally think pilot skills (which can't be transferred) is probably the biggest advantage. I suppose that's another discussion for another time.

What I'm talking about is a viable reason to break the law, leading to a viable profession of hunting players that break the law. This may already exist; I'm very new to the game.

For example: A rewarding crime in anarchy systems. Players who commit this crime in anarchy systems; could they get a bounty (a large one) that only players could see with a KWS? It wouldn't effect their rep for committing the crime, they would just risk the wrath of players. Does anything like this exist?

@OP PvP In E is unpredictable. you could catch some scrubby girefer whose racked up a massive bounty, or you could catch some Super PvPer who wrecks you. you wont know untill you see how they fight and by then you may be in over your head if it's the later.

Yeah but you take that risk whenever you PvP; bounty hunting would be no different.

cassog · Apr 21, 2015

quickr said:
4M credits in 2 hours of BH in RES, you be the judge...

Edit; ow, you were saying BH PvP? You can allways check the top pirates list in space ports. there are some big bountys out there

Has anyone ever taken one of these Top Wanteds down? If so, how hard are they to actually find? I have been trying my luck at the larger (150k +) bounties offered as missions, but these are proving to be a real pain.
Once you get an alternative offer / fork mission they become broken and cannot be completed! This is really frustrating - more so because it is a known problem (and has been for quite a while) and yet remains unfixed.
I don't see why the alternative missions just can't be scrapped altogether seeeing as they obviously don't work in the way they were intended.

Universal Evil · Apr 21, 2015

To cassog
I have taken two elite anaconda in those assasination missions but it was a long time ago before they got bugged again.... the largest bounty was 165K as I recall and the other was only 135K.... and imo they were a lot harder to kill than those other ones found in RES' or WZ's, but it could just be because I was only in a viper back then, The volture wasn't awaible in the game yet....

Reaver 2.0 · Apr 21, 2015

Kalius said:
Is there any real incentive for players to break the law and obtain huge bounties?

Not that I'm aware of. Most players tent to avoid becoming wanted as it makes moving around a huge hassle. I was like you when I started. I had dreams of making a name for myself as a PvP bounty hunter where my name would be whispered in hushed tones in the low places where criminals congregated LOL.

I truly hope there are some in-game mechanics that allow for some good PvP sport other than just territorial skirmishes.

cheekibreekisuka · Apr 22, 2015

no point, skill doesn't matter, gear doesn't matter, they will combatlog; and you will be left alone in the instance with your interdiction repair bills

I played as bounty hunter against players... and on 50 takes only managed to collect 3 bounties (3 honest players who faced the consequences, 2 failures as they were more skilled than me, and 45 combat logs)

Commander Jameso · Apr 22, 2015

There's little point in bounty hunting at all in open play, as far as I can see. I tried it at a RES I'm familiar with, lots of pythons, drop ships, etc but in open play after around 20 minutes there was very little to be had, and as soon as any kind of bounty appeared, all the players jumped on it and it appeared pot luck who got paid. Worse still, I fired a missile to finish a bounty off which it seems went awry, I had a small bounty put on me and the screen went red so I had to get the hell out of Dodge. I tried to slow down to let a player or two catch up with me so I could fight them without the feds, but it took too long and I gave up.

Good advice to check the boards at stations, but bounty hunting players is a pretty dull experience imo.

unite · Apr 22, 2015

Wouldn't it be nice if you could mass lock someones logging ability.

the100thmonkey · Apr 22, 2015

I think one of the many issues people have with this game is that they want it to be a sure PvP experience. It's not - it's primarily a PvE co-op game with the occasional PvP encounter.

Sure, it's changing slowly over time, but at the moment it's important to understand that fundamental design decisions make chasing players really really difficult. As well as that, the ability to pay off bounties easily means that it's effectively impossible to identify bad guys. I read one comment from a PvP bounty hunter who saw a CMDR several times in a system always clean. The moment he switched out from the combat ship to a traders, he was interdicted and pirates by that same ostensibly clean player.

I understand fixes to address these issues are in the development pipeline, but at the moment PvP is an ugly mess that's best left alone.

Stahll Amatin · Apr 22, 2015

cheekibreekisuka said:
no point, skill doesn't matter, gear doesn't matter, they will combatlog; and you will be left alone in the instance with your interdiction repair bills

I played as bounty hunter against players... and on 50 takes only managed to collect 3 bounties (3 honest players who faced the consequences, 2 failures as they were more skilled than me, and 45 combat logs)

They really should have an agression system like Eve Online has where your ship remains in-game for x Minutes after combat (shooting at or being shot by anything), and you cannot dock or jump gates for x minutes after agressing another player (weapons timer)

CMDR Derrida · Apr 22, 2015

I REALLY enjoy the assassination missions and they do earn you good money. Yesterday I did five of them and earned myself about two million credits. They vary greatly (anything from 20 minutes to an hour each) but they usually have an interesting narrative, which makes them more fun than some of the 'cash cow' bounty hunting found around mining installations, or the all out fighting, but smaller bounties, you get in warzones. Assassination missions characteristically offer a 150 thousand reward, but you also get the bounty for the target (usually a nasty anaconda) which ranges from 100 - 300 thousand in the missions I've taken (I've only taken about 15 so far). So for example, a successful mission yesterday was an elite npc anaconda I took down which got me 230 000 bounty and 170 000 reward from mission completion, plus all the lesser pirates you have to take out while you follow a trail of signal sources to find your target.

Having said this, I believe there are some bugs in the missions, which occasionally make them impossible to complete (see threads on missions) and this affects your reputation, which can leave you with no missions offered because you have unfairly failed the previous one. I have found this happens when I take on several missions at once, so my advice is to do them one at a time.

PS I'm using a vulture at the moment and although some people are good at kicking anaconda ass, be warned, these missions are no easy feat when you're starting out.

Commander Jameso · Apr 22, 2015

CMDR Derrida, sometimes I've found that on arriving at a system to hunt a pirate another ship 'updates' my mission, but if I try to follow the updated mission, returning to a system, for example, nothing happens. Have I missed something?

cassog · Apr 22, 2015

CMDR Derrida said:
I REALLY enjoy the assassination missions and they do earn you good money. Yesterday I did five of them and earned myself about two million credits. They vary greatly (anything from 20 minutes to an hour each) but they usually have an interesting narrative, which makes them more fun than some of the 'cash cow' bounty hunting found around mining installations, or the all out fighting, but smaller bounties, you get in warzones. Assassination missions characteristically offer a 150 thousand reward, but you also get the bounty for the target (usually a nasty anaconda) which ranges from 100 - 300 thousand in the missions I've taken (I've only taken about 15 so far). So for example, a successful mission yesterday was an elite npc anaconda I took down which got me 230 000 bounty and 170 000 reward from mission completion, plus all the lesser pirates you have to take out while you follow a trail of signal sources to find your target.

Having said this, I believe there are some bugs in the missions, which occasionally make them impossible to complete (see threads on missions) and this affects your reputation, which can leave you with no missions offered because you have unfairly failed the previous one. I have found this happens when I take on several missions at once, so my advice is to do them one at a time.

PS I'm using a vulture at the moment and although some people are good at kicking anaconda ass, be warned, these missions are no easy feat when you're starting out.

If you have managed to complete 15 of these you have been amazingly lucky. I find that for every one I am able to complete I will get at least one or two that become impossible to do because I have been offered alternative missions - once this happens you will never be able to locate your target. Have you never been offered one of these alternative missions or mission fork situations?

Reaver 2.0 · Apr 22, 2015

cassog said:
If you have managed to complete 15 of these you have been amazingly lucky. I find that for every one I am able to complete I will get at least one or two that become impossible to do because I have been offered alternative missions - once this happens you will never be able to locate your target. Have you never been offered one of these alternative missions or mission fork situations?

I could be wrong but I think there is still the possibility of carrying out the assassination. You simply keep checking USS's and sooner or later you'll meet the target. It may take a fair bit of patience though.

CMDR Derrida · Apr 22, 2015

Interesting that you (and others) have experienced this thing with 'counter' offer missions. I've completed about that many because I've been doing them on and off for a few weeks. The pattern I get is that yes, I get a few that run to plan and then a couple with these 'counter' mission updates. I used to think it was when I took on more than one that caused the bug, but yes, probably some bug in the counter missions...

On the one hand, yes, I did spend nearly two hours seeking my target last night to no avail and suspected a bug, but maybe as Reaver suggests, it is still possible! - today I got the counter offer (in a new mission) and just didn't look at it, and yes, I still found the conda, so maybe if you don't check the update in your left panel, this helps....hmmm

It is very annoying though, as if it is a bug, it is at the cost of your reputation with factions etc....oh well

Forlorn · Apr 23, 2015

Reaver 2.0 said:
I could be wrong but I think there is still the possibility of carrying out the assassination. You simply keep checking USS's and sooner or later you'll meet the target. It may take a fair bit of patience though.

You're not wrong. I took a break after getting a forked mission yesterday and jumped into a RES for a few hours, and first USS I checked this morning had my target.

CMDR Derrida · Apr 23, 2015

That's nice to know, thanks for posting!!!