Bounties are always a tricky subject in this game. How do we make it work and do it correctly so it is not abused for quick money? Well, we need a few core mechanics that we should look at. Is it easy to implement? Does it create dynamic gameplay over harmful? Does it limit abuse?
What do I mean easy to implement. If systems are in-game to utilize, then you want to use those instead of creating a new system. Aka Notoriety is in the game already and tracked. So you would want to use that as part of the system you are building. We also have a Ranking system for combat. Which does take time to get to so it helps remove some abuse from new account spam.
What do I mean by dynamic vs harmful? It needs to promote players who what to fight players. And not promote ganking/pirating more. And also make it so the law does not become the ganker/pirate aka repeatedly bashing a single player to drain the bounty of them over and over.
Limit abuse. You do not want this as a way to reward negative gameplay. Because they can farm there own bounties or as a way to promote Real-life money trading. And other forums of unexpected abuse.
To my Idea
Player Paid Bounty+NPC paid (That is already in the game). The NPC part will stay because not every player is worried about putting cash in the pot to have a ganker/pirate hunted. The bounty will stack from both what the NPC puts into the pot and what the player puts in. Up to a max bounty. This number should be adjusted according to the profits the average player is making. You should be able to make 50 to 100m an hour if you are decent at hunting bounties. I will use a max of 50m as my example.
With that being said We do not want players creating new accounts and using them as bounty farms. So you use both Combat Rank(harmless to elite) and Notoriety to calculate a max bounty a player can have. So a player that is harmless and notoriety of 1 maybe only can get a max of 20k put on them. Vs a player that is Elite and Notoriety of 10 can have a max of 50m. Once it hits 50m no additional bounty can be put on the player until the current one has been claimed.
For the Bounty Hunter/s. It is pretty easy you blow them up you get the bounty. The solo player gets the full bounty. Squad hunter/s will split the bounty. Once you have killed a player for the next week from the first kill you get diminishing returns. This will help prevent friends from killing friends for money.
For the Wanted Player. Running around with a 50m bounty shows how nasty you are. But you are not promoted to keep ganking to get a bounty worth billions upon billions. The ship accrues the bounty. Your notoriety can not drop until the bounty has been collected or paid off at a pirate faction port. Also, the bounty should effect the Rebuy. You want to go acquire a big bounty in a cheap ship. It still going to cost you. Limits ganking in cheap ships. So wanted players rebuy will be ship rebuy plus bounty price.
How do we apply the bounty? First off you need to be killed. Second, it would need to be an action that warrants a bounty offense(aka unlawful actions). So bounty hunters could not jump a pirate and lose then make this bounty bigger. But if they baited the pirate into an unlawful action against them first then they would be able to add to the bounty if they died from them. This will have a slider appear just under your rebuy cost. You will only be able to apply the max bounty equal to your rebuy. This does 2 things. A keeps new players from burning cash on bounties. And keeps rich players from dropping the whole 50m and making it easy for Gankers and Pirates to collect bounties. Also If a pirate or ganker wants to collect a bounty they will need to go after more expensive ships. Aka Most likely a more experienced player.
To me, this would create a core bounty system using many of the aspects in-game. While limiting the abuse. Also it would be a system that could be expanded.
The following could be additional content not part of bounty system I am talking about earlier.
An example would be something for the pirates to fight back with. Implement a system that makes bounty hunter's ship worth points. Every Million in bounties they collect in a ship they get a tally on it. Aaka you collect 100m you get 100 tallies. Or it could be every 10m.
What this would mean for the bounty hunter. Two things. Elite Dangerous could make a board posting rankings of bounty hunters with total bounties they have collected. They could rest this monthly. And top 3 get Arx rewards. The tally would stay on the ship until destroyed. So if you feel like you have the meanest and toughest bounty ship out there. As long as it keeps going you get to keep showing off your bragging rights. This is a ship only so it would not follow the player into different ships
The Pirates/Gankers would want to collect these tallies and turn them in. They would be able to scan ships and see if they have any tallies. If they kill they would get this data saved to the ship they are in. And then have to deliver this to a pirate faction base. Once turned in it would register them to a board that tracked Bounty Hunter Tallies collected. And again top 3 get ARX.
This would hopefully promote bounty hunters and Pirates/gankers to fight each other pulling fighting away from PVE oriented players
What do I mean easy to implement. If systems are in-game to utilize, then you want to use those instead of creating a new system. Aka Notoriety is in the game already and tracked. So you would want to use that as part of the system you are building. We also have a Ranking system for combat. Which does take time to get to so it helps remove some abuse from new account spam.
What do I mean by dynamic vs harmful? It needs to promote players who what to fight players. And not promote ganking/pirating more. And also make it so the law does not become the ganker/pirate aka repeatedly bashing a single player to drain the bounty of them over and over.
Limit abuse. You do not want this as a way to reward negative gameplay. Because they can farm there own bounties or as a way to promote Real-life money trading. And other forums of unexpected abuse.
To my Idea
Player Paid Bounty+NPC paid (That is already in the game). The NPC part will stay because not every player is worried about putting cash in the pot to have a ganker/pirate hunted. The bounty will stack from both what the NPC puts into the pot and what the player puts in. Up to a max bounty. This number should be adjusted according to the profits the average player is making. You should be able to make 50 to 100m an hour if you are decent at hunting bounties. I will use a max of 50m as my example.
With that being said We do not want players creating new accounts and using them as bounty farms. So you use both Combat Rank(harmless to elite) and Notoriety to calculate a max bounty a player can have. So a player that is harmless and notoriety of 1 maybe only can get a max of 20k put on them. Vs a player that is Elite and Notoriety of 10 can have a max of 50m. Once it hits 50m no additional bounty can be put on the player until the current one has been claimed.
For the Bounty Hunter/s. It is pretty easy you blow them up you get the bounty. The solo player gets the full bounty. Squad hunter/s will split the bounty. Once you have killed a player for the next week from the first kill you get diminishing returns. This will help prevent friends from killing friends for money.
For the Wanted Player. Running around with a 50m bounty shows how nasty you are. But you are not promoted to keep ganking to get a bounty worth billions upon billions. The ship accrues the bounty. Your notoriety can not drop until the bounty has been collected or paid off at a pirate faction port. Also, the bounty should effect the Rebuy. You want to go acquire a big bounty in a cheap ship. It still going to cost you. Limits ganking in cheap ships. So wanted players rebuy will be ship rebuy plus bounty price.
How do we apply the bounty? First off you need to be killed. Second, it would need to be an action that warrants a bounty offense(aka unlawful actions). So bounty hunters could not jump a pirate and lose then make this bounty bigger. But if they baited the pirate into an unlawful action against them first then they would be able to add to the bounty if they died from them. This will have a slider appear just under your rebuy cost. You will only be able to apply the max bounty equal to your rebuy. This does 2 things. A keeps new players from burning cash on bounties. And keeps rich players from dropping the whole 50m and making it easy for Gankers and Pirates to collect bounties. Also If a pirate or ganker wants to collect a bounty they will need to go after more expensive ships. Aka Most likely a more experienced player.
To me, this would create a core bounty system using many of the aspects in-game. While limiting the abuse. Also it would be a system that could be expanded.
The following could be additional content not part of bounty system I am talking about earlier.
An example would be something for the pirates to fight back with. Implement a system that makes bounty hunter's ship worth points. Every Million in bounties they collect in a ship they get a tally on it. Aaka you collect 100m you get 100 tallies. Or it could be every 10m.
What this would mean for the bounty hunter. Two things. Elite Dangerous could make a board posting rankings of bounty hunters with total bounties they have collected. They could rest this monthly. And top 3 get Arx rewards. The tally would stay on the ship until destroyed. So if you feel like you have the meanest and toughest bounty ship out there. As long as it keeps going you get to keep showing off your bragging rights. This is a ship only so it would not follow the player into different ships
The Pirates/Gankers would want to collect these tallies and turn them in. They would be able to scan ships and see if they have any tallies. If they kill they would get this data saved to the ship they are in. And then have to deliver this to a pirate faction base. Once turned in it would register them to a board that tracked Bounty Hunter Tallies collected. And again top 3 get ARX.
This would hopefully promote bounty hunters and Pirates/gankers to fight each other pulling fighting away from PVE oriented players