Proposal: let's get a Private Bounties mechanic

[ohigetjokes]

I've discovered that piracy is a supported game mechanic. Now... whether you consider that a good thing or a bad thing, let's do the math on the interaction:

Miner's loss:

• All the time and effort taken to gather those resources
• The gathered resources themselves
• A rebuy
• The desire to go out and try to gather resources again
• The desire to play in Open at all or be a part of the community

Miner's gain:

• Role playing opportunity as a hapless victim

Pirate's loss:

• A fine
• Possibly some ammunition

Pirate's gain:

• Everything the miner was gathering for the last hour(s)
• The satisfaction of having made someone's day less pleasant

The math is a little lop-sided here, but more importantly this setup kind of makes both sides losers.

So how about this:

• If a player blows up another player, the victim gets a pop-up asking if they'd like to place a Small, Medium, or Large bounty on them.
• The size of the bounty determines how long the bounty will last, generally in number of weeks.
• Bounties are tied to both the pirate and the class of ship they were flying - This avoids ship-switching exploits.
• Additionally, anyone who's been on the pirate's friends list in the past week can't collect a bounty on them (again to avoid exploits).
• Bounties being tied to ships also means pirates could just take a break from pirating for a bit and fly another ship if something comes up. This offers a bit of balance, encourages more varied gameplay, and also accounts for unique one-off situations.
• When a player who has a bounty on them flies the ship they got the bounty under, however, they instantly become a target to anyone with "Bounty mode" on.
• "Bounty mode" is something you can toggle on the right-side panel, and automatically targets the closest bounty to your location as a standard mission marker.
• NPC forces do not engage in bounty hunting, except perhaps for the occasional mid-level spawned bounty hunter that come around about as often as NPC pirates do (maybe a bit less often). This gives pirates a few easy targets to fight off and keeps them on their toes in even remote systems.
• Pirates with bounties on them can't get more bounties by defending themselves (so people attacking them don't get the option to post a bigger bounty), but bounties can stack for each person they attacked first who didn't have their "Bounty mode" on.
• When a bounty is completed, the funds are shared among the bounty hunters who engaged in the fight and the original player who posted the bounty is notified.

Let's run the math again on the pirate vs miner situation:

Miner's loss:

• All the time and effort taken to gather those resources
• The gathered resources themselves
• A rebuy
• The cost of bounty

Miner's gain:

• A lore-friendly way to fight back
• Role playing opportunity as that NPC we've seen in every game we've ever played handing out bounties
• A more entrepreneurial approach to Cr
• Some reassurance that if they go out mining they can at least negotiate with pirates
• A sense of control - the small/med/large bounty dynamic is extra reassuring as they can address the emotional issues of being a victim more directly, and it encourages pirates to at least be polite
• A chance to switch ships and find the pirate that got them in the first place.

Pirate's loss:

• A fine (which should be reduced in this case!!!)
• Possibly some ammunition
• The ability to fly their current ship model peacefully and hassle-free for the next week(s)

Pirate's gain:

• Everything the miner was gathering for the last hour(s)
• The satisfaction of suddenly becoming the center of attention
• Cat-and-mouse play with other players
• Possibly even positive social interaction with the Miner themselves

PLUS... Bounty Hunting that doesn't involve lamely sitting around random planets, staring into the black, waiting for pirates to spawn.

What do you think?

Edit: formatting