Higher Bounty For Player Killing

[Korvinus]

I should start off by saying; I'm a pirate. But a pirate that does his best to pillage loot without killing, not if I have to.

The problem is, killing other players has a LAUGHABLE punishment. That 4k bounty vs the several million that poor trader lost (plus insurance cost) is just.. so much fail.

I want there to be REAL consequence for player murder. I would like to point out this thread I just read:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=97168
(The guy uses rail guns to camp stations because, you guessed it, pathetic punishment for doing so.)

I think a simple solution would be:

• Increase the bounties for PLAYER murder flat out by a fair amount, but not by ridiculous amounts
• Increase the bounty even more based on;
  • The worth of the destroyed player ship
  • The value of the cargo the player was carrying

More solutions from other players:

• "if you cause 5 crimes within a short time frame, unless it's an anarchy system, you should NOT be allowed to dock at any of the stations there for at least fifteen to thirty minutes of online time!" - Mohrgan

That's it, I look forward to hearing what my fellow Commanders think.

 

[Valo56]

I think there should be no distinction between players and NPC's in this regard. Piracy should quickly lead to a very high bounty, but this bounty should go down over time. Crossing the border while the heat dies down, for instance. Perhaps 10% every 24 hours. (So if you have a bounty of 1000, it goes down to 900 after a day, then 810 after a day, so on and so forth.)

 

[GerminVermin]

I think a simple solution would be:

• Increase the bounty even more based on;
• • The worth of the destroyed player ship
  • The value of the cargo the player was carrying

More solutions from other players:

• "if you cause 5 crimes within a short time frame, unless it's an anarchy system, you should NOT be allowed to dock at any of the stations there for at least fifteen to thirty minutes of online time!" - Mohrgan

I really like these two main points. Bounty based on ship/cargo value, and a docking denial for certain number of criminal acts committed within a period of time.

 

[Pheyes]

What I don't get is why a trader would choose death over dropping a few cargo, it dosent make sence to me? I interdict a type 6 and I ask him to drop 2 cargo and live, then he calls me a and boosts off, so I start shooting him drop his shields and take 50 percent of his hull and I stop shooting, he still drops nothing then he jumps out I jump and interdict him again and kill him, this happens all the time, all he had to do was drop 2 cargo and that's it.

 

[Roqxide]

What I don't get is why a trader would choose death over dropping a few cargo, it dosent make sence to me? I interdict a type 6 and I ask him to drop 2 cargo and live, then he calls me a and boosts off, so I start shooting him drop his shields and take 50 percent of his hull and I stop shooting, he still drops nothing then he jumps out I jump and interdict him again and kill him, this happens all the time, all he had to do was drop 2 cargo and that's it.

I think the problem is that Elite Dangerous isn't dangerous enough, right now. That is, people get used to doing easy milk runs that make a lot of credits. If the NPC pirates were more aggressive (and adept) themselves when people were chugging around with lots of valuable cargo in defenceless bath tubs, then hauliers might breath a sigh of relief when a nice player came along and only asked for a small share of the loot as protection money - "you giva me the money, I helpa you...".

 

[iain666]

What I don't get is why a trader would choose death over dropping a few cargo.

You can get away from NPC pirates you don't want to fight 100% of the time. Encountering other players is uncommon.

then he jumps out I jump and interdict him again and kill him

I'm pretty sure that NPCs never do that, so jumping out starts to feel like getting away.

Not being able to escape looks like an impossibility if you've only been interdicted by NPCs. Some CMDRs can be escaped from, for whatever reason. Death soon starts to seem unlikely in that scenario and you start to always run and never drop.

 

[Armchair]

What I don't get is why a trader would choose death over dropping a few cargo, it dosent make sence to me? I interdict a type 6 and I ask him to drop 2 cargo and live, then he calls me a and boosts off, so I start shooting him drop his shields and take 50 percent of his hull and I stop shooting, he still drops nothing then he jumps out I jump and interdict him again and kill him, this happens all the time, all he had to do was drop 2 cargo and that's it.

Believe it or not, it is because the majority of player pirates are just going to kill them. The most common scenarios are:

A: The "pirate" comes in guns blazing and tries to blow them up with little to no concern about the cargo. The fine is easily paid off.
B: They jettison cargo in accordance with the pirate's demands, then the pirate blows them up for kicks. The loot easily covers the fine (and the next 20 fines probably).
and way in the minority
C: They jettison cargo in accordance with the pirate's demands and the pirate lets them go.

When compliance gives them such poor odds of survival, ofcourse they're going to take their chances and try to run regardless of what the pirate says. You expect them to take the pirate's word based on the inherent trustworthiness of ne'er-do-wells?

Drastically increased fines based on the value of murdered vessels and stations refusing service to frequent killers like Korvinus suggested in the OP are one option for discouraging pirates to go on a murder rampage.


I personally want to see mechanics put in place that encourage pirates to practice catch-and-release. Traders are going to be much more likely to comply with a pirate's demands if they know that it is in the pirate's best interest to let them fly away alive.

One option that I think might help is a black market reputation system.

Flipping stolen goods on the black market and running missions for the local gangs would improve your black market reputation and improve your profit margins above the black market's default 50% rate.

However, murdering innocent traders and scaring away commerce is bad for business. Killing "clean" targets will have immediate and drastic effects on your black market profit margins. Word travels faster than light in humanity's sphere of influence and eventually not even the black markets will do business with your because they know you scare away profits wherever you go.


Until mechanics of some sort are put in place to make catch-and-release the norm instead of the exception, you are always going to have traders who ignore hails and do everything in their power to flee whenever a pirate raises the black flag.