You are correct, I don't understand how the current system is a problem. It is straightforward and clear as compared to the old system where you had to have a flow chart to try and figure out how to clear bounties you picked up.
A - No, the punishment is not the same. If you 'bump' into someone in the slot it's a fine, not a bounty. Pay it right there and yer good. A bounty can only be paid at an IF (Low sec system or Anarchy controlled station).
B - Missions flat out tell you that the actions are likely illegal before you pick it up.
C - The intention, as I understand it, was to keep people from committing crimes in a massively expensive ship, hopping into a sidewinder and getting killed to clear the bounty, like happened all the time (when people bothered to try to clear bounties) in the old system. Now, you can only pay the bounty in the ship that committed the crime. While a kludge to avoid exploiting the system, it does make some sense.
I hated the old system, I find this one far easier to understand.
Your final statement makes me question whether on not you understand that there are actually two classes of crimes, those that garner fines, and those that garner bounties...
Yes, the old system wasn't great, and I'm glad they are working on it. But what is "straightforward and clear" about the new one? It's a much bigger mess, IMHO, and after a hundred hours of playing with it, I still don't get it completely. Without a forum like this, I'd be totally lost. I do see the good intentions, but I don't see how this makes sense at all. Even if it is a 1MCr bounty, how could it possibly make sense that I need to pay 22MCr to clear a fuel scoop? I thought I had read that this was a confirmed bug and had been fixed by now. But it's still there.
Edit to add: What's not clear about the current system? Got a fine? Land at a station with the faction that issued the fine, pay fine. Got a bounty? Land at a station with an IF (almost any station in a low sec system, any station controlled by an anarchy faction) and pay all your bounties. I personally don't see how this can be confusing.
I've at no point heard that you had to pay to clear the items was a bug. I do recall that initially the clearing cost was including the rebuy, or a fraction of it, in the cost to clear the module, which was pushing the cost to clean a module past the cost of simply buying a new one. That I believe was fixed.
Right, it is not the same. Still, why can I not pay for a crime where it is committed? Even nowadays I could pay almost anything from any location with my smartphone. And a thousand years from now I need to travel tens of lightyears to pay a bill?
You can pay a fine where you committed it. Bounties need to be paid at an IF. In the bubble where I operate, I've never had to go more than 20ly to get to an IF. I understand there are regions of space where IFs are more rare. This is a choice you make, and should be prepared to deal with if you operate there.
Usually it says something like "may be illegal in certain systems", not "this is illegal HERE and therefore impossible to complete unless you pay a bounty etc." This is making these missions unnecessarily complicated. (Whatever the exact wording)
The only time it locks you out of the station where you picked up the mission is if the target faction is also present in the same station where you picked up the mission. This information is not always clear, and is a point FDev could do better on. Personally, when taking missions of questionable legality I ALWAYS make sure I know where the nearest IF is and stop there on the way to turn in missions.
As I understand, the main purpose was to reduce griefing and ganking, but has it achieved that? I think not. Anyway, most griefers don't use one of the big ships. This system just means that for certain missions I'd perhaps need to switch from my Corvette to a cheaper ship, then do that illegal mission, then switch back. Nonsense. And when accidentally shooting a cop, why would that affect the bounty?
It was my understanding that only a portion (Noteriety) was intended to reduce ganking & griefing. The rest was a first step in fleshing out criminal gameplay. I will admit I could be wrong about that.
As for why accidently shooting a cop affects a bounty. One or two light shots gets a warning, slightly more damage gets a fine, still more gets a bounty. With some large, high damage weapons it's possible to skip straight to bounty. The price you pay for having high damage weapons I suppose...
Old system didn't work well, new one's a mess. I hope they find a way to fix it. If just the prices for cleaning modules were more reasonable, I'd mind much less.
My time of playing computer games is limited, and this is just forcing us to spend yet more time on stuff that is no fun and is not helping in making any progress. Flying around finding IFs to pay bounties is just more pain and drawing fun out of the game.
As you can probably tell, I don't think the new system is a mess. Probably because I plan ahead, I never have to fly around looking for an IF because I know where the one I'm going to use on the way back to the station is before I even launch. Leads to adding one stop on the way back to the station. Additional time, yes, but that is a choice I make when I accept missions of questionable legality.
