What if we could we could reward players for being notorious murderhobos?
I'm sure plenty of you have already started going for the close tab button on your browser after reading that introduction, but hold on and hear me out.
So what exactly am I on about?
Much like how in powerplay you can see if someone is hostile to your power you could see if someone is potentially hostile or not to you through their Threat Level, to explain that first I need to explain Fame and Notoriety.
Introducing Fame.
When you turn in legal bounties you will gain Fame. Fame is attached to your ship. When you commit crimes in that ship you will loose fame, and if you commit crimes of murder you will loose a lot of fame. If don't do any bounty hunting or pvp bounty hunting for a period of time your fame will decay although at a much slower rate than Notoriety will decay over time.
You will gain a little fame for killing NPCs with a Bounty & Notoriety
You will gain a lot of fame for killing players with a bounty & notoriety
When you kill a ship illegally outside of an anarchy system you will gain Notoriety, Just like with fame if you kill an NPC illegally you will gain less notoriety than if you kill a player illegally.
Now with fame out of the way let me introduce the idea of:
Threat Level.
When you scan another ship regardless of their wanted status there will be a message the reads "Threat Level: #" and this threat level is as follows.
If you are in a ship with fame attached to it, you will see players with a high notoriety as having a Threat Level related to their notoriety, other famous ships will show up as "Threat Level: White", meaning this player also has fame and is a potential ally.
If you are a character with a high notoriety attached to you then you will see ships with high fame attached to them posing a threat level related to the amount of fame their ship has accumulated, and other players with a high notoriety attached to them will show up as "Threat Level: Red", letting you know who the other scoundrels are.
Ships/CMDRs who have no fame or notoriety attached to their ship/cmdr will show up as Threat Level: 0 to players with Fame/Notoriety attached to their ship/cmdr.
Ships/CMDRs who have no fame or notoriety attached to their ship/cmdr will see other players as Threat Level: Unknown, Threat Level: White, or Threat Level: Red when they scan them. Threat Level: Unknown means another ship/cmdr with no fame or notoriety meaning they are an unknown variable. White means this ship has fame and likely isn't a threat, and Red means this person likely is a threat.
To a ship with Fame spotting a player with a high threat level does not mean you get a reward for killing them, you only get a reward if they have a bounty, but you also won't loose fame or gain notoriety for killing them illegally, although killing them illegally will still net you a bounty on your head.
To a player with notoriety attached to their CMDR they will get a Dark Bounty Voucher when they kill a ship with fame. The higher that Ship's fame and the higher the value of that ship the more the dark bounty voucher is worth.
So killing a Federal Corvette with moderate Fame is worth way more credits than killing a Sidewinder with high fame.
However killing a ship that is Threat Level: 0 will earn you nothing but a higher notoriety score and a bigger bounty on your head.
and to round it all off a Player who has Fame attached to their ship can not gain Notoriety until they have lost all the fame attached to their ship. If they gain Notoriety while in a ship that has no fame attached, then any ships in storage with fame attached loose their fame rating.
Likewise if a player has notoriety attached to their CMDR they must let their notoriety decay naturally over time before they can begin acclimating fame on their ships.
NPCs will also show a threat level and have Fame or Notoriety scores
And finally you can not gain fame or notoriety for your actions in an anarchy system.
Why I like this idea:
I feel that by offering a reward for being a murderhobo when you kill a High Value Ship with Fame we can shift the focus of ganking away from nooblets and traders who are defenseless and towards ships that are better equipped to handle it.
By making ship value matter more than fame rating for the Dark Bounty Vouchers trade in value it will make it not worth a players time to run to noob systems and start murdering sidewinders and eagles with fame when they won't net them much cash at all vs taking out system authority vessels and players in high value ships even if those high value ships have less fame.
By showing Threat Levels to everyone differently depending upon if they have Fame on their ship, Notoriety on their CMDR, or are neutral this will act as a very basic IFF (Identify Friend Foe) System for player interactions.
By only attaching Fame to a ship instead of a CMDR it allows players who enjoy various activities like bounty hunting and trading to freely switch back and forth between them without becoming a target to notorious players when they are in a ship that isn't equipped to handle a fight.
By keeping notoriety attached to a CMDR and not allowing CMDRs with notoriety to gain fame until their notoriety decays it prevents players from gaming the system to say buy a new ship, engineer it to the max, gain a ton of fame, then go ganking surprising people with the classic HAHA I WAS A BAD GUY ALL ALONG trope and encourages Roleplay for CMDRs who want to quit being evil and change their ways by having them have to go through a period where they are held back by their notoriety until it fully decays.
AND of course by giving this same treatment to NPCs it will allow for solo players who want to be evil to also enjoy this system, and as well as give open/private group players alternative money making targets when there aren't any Goody-Two-Shoes CMDRs around to fight.
I'm sure plenty of you have already started going for the close tab button on your browser after reading that introduction, but hold on and hear me out.
So what exactly am I on about?
Much like how in powerplay you can see if someone is hostile to your power you could see if someone is potentially hostile or not to you through their Threat Level, to explain that first I need to explain Fame and Notoriety.
Introducing Fame.
When you turn in legal bounties you will gain Fame. Fame is attached to your ship. When you commit crimes in that ship you will loose fame, and if you commit crimes of murder you will loose a lot of fame. If don't do any bounty hunting or pvp bounty hunting for a period of time your fame will decay although at a much slower rate than Notoriety will decay over time.
You will gain a little fame for killing NPCs with a Bounty & Notoriety
You will gain a lot of fame for killing players with a bounty & notoriety
When you kill a ship illegally outside of an anarchy system you will gain Notoriety, Just like with fame if you kill an NPC illegally you will gain less notoriety than if you kill a player illegally.
Now with fame out of the way let me introduce the idea of:
Threat Level.
When you scan another ship regardless of their wanted status there will be a message the reads "Threat Level: #" and this threat level is as follows.
If you are in a ship with fame attached to it, you will see players with a high notoriety as having a Threat Level related to their notoriety, other famous ships will show up as "Threat Level: White", meaning this player also has fame and is a potential ally.
If you are a character with a high notoriety attached to you then you will see ships with high fame attached to them posing a threat level related to the amount of fame their ship has accumulated, and other players with a high notoriety attached to them will show up as "Threat Level: Red", letting you know who the other scoundrels are.
Ships/CMDRs who have no fame or notoriety attached to their ship/cmdr will show up as Threat Level: 0 to players with Fame/Notoriety attached to their ship/cmdr.
Ships/CMDRs who have no fame or notoriety attached to their ship/cmdr will see other players as Threat Level: Unknown, Threat Level: White, or Threat Level: Red when they scan them. Threat Level: Unknown means another ship/cmdr with no fame or notoriety meaning they are an unknown variable. White means this ship has fame and likely isn't a threat, and Red means this person likely is a threat.
To a ship with Fame spotting a player with a high threat level does not mean you get a reward for killing them, you only get a reward if they have a bounty, but you also won't loose fame or gain notoriety for killing them illegally, although killing them illegally will still net you a bounty on your head.
To a player with notoriety attached to their CMDR they will get a Dark Bounty Voucher when they kill a ship with fame. The higher that Ship's fame and the higher the value of that ship the more the dark bounty voucher is worth.
So killing a Federal Corvette with moderate Fame is worth way more credits than killing a Sidewinder with high fame.
However killing a ship that is Threat Level: 0 will earn you nothing but a higher notoriety score and a bigger bounty on your head.
and to round it all off a Player who has Fame attached to their ship can not gain Notoriety until they have lost all the fame attached to their ship. If they gain Notoriety while in a ship that has no fame attached, then any ships in storage with fame attached loose their fame rating.
Likewise if a player has notoriety attached to their CMDR they must let their notoriety decay naturally over time before they can begin acclimating fame on their ships.
NPCs will also show a threat level and have Fame or Notoriety scores
And finally you can not gain fame or notoriety for your actions in an anarchy system.
Why I like this idea:
I feel that by offering a reward for being a murderhobo when you kill a High Value Ship with Fame we can shift the focus of ganking away from nooblets and traders who are defenseless and towards ships that are better equipped to handle it.
By making ship value matter more than fame rating for the Dark Bounty Vouchers trade in value it will make it not worth a players time to run to noob systems and start murdering sidewinders and eagles with fame when they won't net them much cash at all vs taking out system authority vessels and players in high value ships even if those high value ships have less fame.
By showing Threat Levels to everyone differently depending upon if they have Fame on their ship, Notoriety on their CMDR, or are neutral this will act as a very basic IFF (Identify Friend Foe) System for player interactions.
By only attaching Fame to a ship instead of a CMDR it allows players who enjoy various activities like bounty hunting and trading to freely switch back and forth between them without becoming a target to notorious players when they are in a ship that isn't equipped to handle a fight.
By keeping notoriety attached to a CMDR and not allowing CMDRs with notoriety to gain fame until their notoriety decays it prevents players from gaming the system to say buy a new ship, engineer it to the max, gain a ton of fame, then go ganking surprising people with the classic HAHA I WAS A BAD GUY ALL ALONG trope and encourages Roleplay for CMDRs who want to quit being evil and change their ways by having them have to go through a period where they are held back by their notoriety until it fully decays.
AND of course by giving this same treatment to NPCs it will allow for solo players who want to be evil to also enjoy this system, and as well as give open/private group players alternative money making targets when there aren't any Goody-Two-Shoes CMDRs around to fight.