EDIT: Reddit Discussion: https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/45mqi6/scale_player_bounties_based_on_threat_level/
Hello FD!
Although we've all been whining about the bounty system, I don't think we've come up with many usable systems yet. Here's just another proposition: base bounties on threat levels.
What does threat level mean? Threat level means how much of a threat you are to the group which places the bounty on you, in both how much hurt you can dish out, and how ruthless you can be. The combat rank, ship, outfitting of said ship, and allegiance of the target all play a role in determining your bounty, with combat rank and ship/outfitting being factored first, and allegiance last.
Combat Rank:
Elite rank is going to be very important in determining a bounty. If you kill an Elite, you had a good reason. For an Elite to die, is truly astonishing, and so whoever can kill one will be closely watched by all. In this case, bounty will be scaled by combat rank, with credit amounts about proportionate to the amount of effort it takes to attain each rank. This means that since the road from harmless to Deadly is only halfway of that to Elite, the bounty for killing an Elite will be double that of killing a Deadly.
Harmless - 2,000 Cr
Mostly Harmless- 2,500 Cr
Novice - 4,000 Cr
Competent - 16,000 Cr
Expert - 32,000 Cr
Master - 64,000 Cr
Dangerous - 128,000 Cr
Deadly - 256,000 Cr
Elite - 512,000 Cr
To clarify, it takes about this many kills to get each rank:
Harmless - 0 kills
Mostly Harmless - 15 kills
Novice - 75 kills
Competent - 250-300 kills
Expert - 550-600 kills
Master - 1100-1300 kills
Dangerous - 2000-2200 kills
Deadly - 4000 - 5000 kills
Elite - 8000-11000 kills
Note, these are all anecdotal - there is no official statement on this as far as I am aware.
The second part of combat rank is that of ruthlessness - obviously, someone with experience who murders a relatively new pilot should be hounded. Let's use an equation based on the current combat rank leveling system. If you're at any combat rank, killing someone 3+ ranks below you will not gain you anything towards your next combat rank, as that's just seal clubbing. In this new system, killing anyone 3+ combat ranks below you will multiply their bounty by the number of ranks they are below you, squared. So, if you're Elite and you kill a Harmless pilot, you're getting a 128,000 Cr bounty - 2,000 X 8^2. If you're an Expert and kill a Mostly Harmless pilot, you get a 22,500 Cr bounty - 2,500 x 3^2. Now, doing this will cause Elite killing Masters to be more punitive than Elites killing Harmless players, for example. However, I'm convinced that this system, with changing listed here and those suggested by Mr. Sammarco, will still prevent much of the newbie griefing while making murder for more experienced players serious.
Ship & Outfitting:
This area will be factored in after combat rank. This area will factor in similar factors to Elite Rank: disparity between parties involved, and power/cost of ship. If someone destroys a well-armed, well-armored Anaconda, the bounty should be huge. The cost of that ship and the threat posed by he who destroyed said ship constitute a huge bounty - we're talking hundreds of thousands here. likewise, if a Sidewinder is destroyed, the bounty should be minimal - perhaps less than a thousand credits.
The figure I have in my mind is 5% of the rebuy cost of the victim - so if I destroy an Anaconda worth 200,000,000 Credits, the bounty accrued from destroying the ship itself would be 500,000 credits - whereas a Sidewinder worth 32,000 Credits would gain you an 80 Cr bounty. This raises another question - how to prevent newbie killing?
I believe the above suggestion will cover this, but even then, another backup, disparity between parties. If an Anaconda destroys a Sidewinder, there should be major ramifications for that pilot. If - and I'm just throwing numbers out there - the target's vessel is worth less than 5% of your ship's vessel, your bounty could be divided by what percentage of 5% of your ships value the victim's vessel is.
To put that in human terms, take 5% of your ship's value, in this case a 200,000,000 Cr Anaconda - 10,000,000. Now take the victim's vessel, a Cobra valued at 5,000,000. 5,000,000 is only 50% of 10,000,000, or (10,000,000 x .50). If you divide the bounty would would normally get, 12,500, by .5, you get a 25,000 Cr bounty. If the Cobra was only worth 2,000,000, then your bounty would be 62,500 Cr. I hope you don't think this idea is , Frontier.
Allegiance:
Alright, this is the part where the bounty has a chance to be downscaled, and I think would be the most fun and deep in the decision-making process. Obviously a faction would care a huge amount if you shoot down one of their Deadly, Anaconda-class security ships, but would care little if their opposition was killed. First off, I think killing a police ship should automatically double the bounty placed on you, after the other factors have been factored. That is a HUGE offense, and although a suggestion for a separate thread, this should cause you to be hounded so horribly that entering even medium security systems with this offense on your record should be barely possible, only survivable by those with the best of the best ships, skills, etc.
Next, does a faction care about it's enemies? If we have a border system with, for instance, a federal controlling faction, with independent and Imperial minor factions, bounties should be different for everyone. Bounties placed by the controlling faction on offenders who've assaulted a fed should be unchanged, but bounties placed on those who assault the independents would be lowered slightly (up to 20%), and bounties placed on those who've assaulted Imperial ships can be reduced by as much as 60%. This can be further expanded upon by causing civil unrest the the disparity becomes too large, which might start a war.
Lastly, what the hell do the poorer, more lawless factions care about you? Sure, the superpowers don't care about you either, but they'll enact large bounties for crimes if necessary. In Co-operative and Feudal systems, bounties might be downscaled by extreme amounts (up to 80%) just to save the faction money. This is already in place in ED, but I'd like to not leave it out.
What do you all think, FD and forum-goers? Any gaping holes in my argument?
EDIT: SuicideWinder Argument!
When a player switches his ship, the bounty on his head is scaled down if the new ship is worth less. If the new ship is worth 50% that of the original, the bounty will be 50%. There, you have effectively destroyed the idea of suicidewinder for selling bounties.
Dormant bounties should be removed entirely. Your ship is tied to your name, and there isn't a reason for the authorities to remove their bounty because you might be dead.
EDIT 2: Massacre Missions!
Allow your employer to say something like "we've got you a 50% reduced bounty for kills on [target type] in [target system] for [mission duration]! Get going!"
From DocLooshKin:
Hello FD!
Although we've all been whining about the bounty system, I don't think we've come up with many usable systems yet. Here's just another proposition: base bounties on threat levels.
What does threat level mean? Threat level means how much of a threat you are to the group which places the bounty on you, in both how much hurt you can dish out, and how ruthless you can be. The combat rank, ship, outfitting of said ship, and allegiance of the target all play a role in determining your bounty, with combat rank and ship/outfitting being factored first, and allegiance last.
Combat Rank:
Elite rank is going to be very important in determining a bounty. If you kill an Elite, you had a good reason. For an Elite to die, is truly astonishing, and so whoever can kill one will be closely watched by all. In this case, bounty will be scaled by combat rank, with credit amounts about proportionate to the amount of effort it takes to attain each rank. This means that since the road from harmless to Deadly is only halfway of that to Elite, the bounty for killing an Elite will be double that of killing a Deadly.
Harmless - 2,000 Cr
Mostly Harmless- 2,500 Cr
Novice - 4,000 Cr
Competent - 16,000 Cr
Expert - 32,000 Cr
Master - 64,000 Cr
Dangerous - 128,000 Cr
Deadly - 256,000 Cr
Elite - 512,000 Cr
To clarify, it takes about this many kills to get each rank:
Harmless - 0 kills
Mostly Harmless - 15 kills
Novice - 75 kills
Competent - 250-300 kills
Expert - 550-600 kills
Master - 1100-1300 kills
Dangerous - 2000-2200 kills
Deadly - 4000 - 5000 kills
Elite - 8000-11000 kills
Note, these are all anecdotal - there is no official statement on this as far as I am aware.
The second part of combat rank is that of ruthlessness - obviously, someone with experience who murders a relatively new pilot should be hounded. Let's use an equation based on the current combat rank leveling system. If you're at any combat rank, killing someone 3+ ranks below you will not gain you anything towards your next combat rank, as that's just seal clubbing. In this new system, killing anyone 3+ combat ranks below you will multiply their bounty by the number of ranks they are below you, squared. So, if you're Elite and you kill a Harmless pilot, you're getting a 128,000 Cr bounty - 2,000 X 8^2. If you're an Expert and kill a Mostly Harmless pilot, you get a 22,500 Cr bounty - 2,500 x 3^2. Now, doing this will cause Elite killing Masters to be more punitive than Elites killing Harmless players, for example. However, I'm convinced that this system, with changing listed here and those suggested by Mr. Sammarco, will still prevent much of the newbie griefing while making murder for more experienced players serious.
Ship & Outfitting:
This area will be factored in after combat rank. This area will factor in similar factors to Elite Rank: disparity between parties involved, and power/cost of ship. If someone destroys a well-armed, well-armored Anaconda, the bounty should be huge. The cost of that ship and the threat posed by he who destroyed said ship constitute a huge bounty - we're talking hundreds of thousands here. likewise, if a Sidewinder is destroyed, the bounty should be minimal - perhaps less than a thousand credits.
The figure I have in my mind is 5% of the rebuy cost of the victim - so if I destroy an Anaconda worth 200,000,000 Credits, the bounty accrued from destroying the ship itself would be 500,000 credits - whereas a Sidewinder worth 32,000 Credits would gain you an 80 Cr bounty. This raises another question - how to prevent newbie killing?
I believe the above suggestion will cover this, but even then, another backup, disparity between parties. If an Anaconda destroys a Sidewinder, there should be major ramifications for that pilot. If - and I'm just throwing numbers out there - the target's vessel is worth less than 5% of your ship's vessel, your bounty could be divided by what percentage of 5% of your ships value the victim's vessel is.
To put that in human terms, take 5% of your ship's value, in this case a 200,000,000 Cr Anaconda - 10,000,000. Now take the victim's vessel, a Cobra valued at 5,000,000. 5,000,000 is only 50% of 10,000,000, or (10,000,000 x .50). If you divide the bounty would would normally get, 12,500, by .5, you get a 25,000 Cr bounty. If the Cobra was only worth 2,000,000, then your bounty would be 62,500 Cr. I hope you don't think this idea is , Frontier.
Allegiance:
Alright, this is the part where the bounty has a chance to be downscaled, and I think would be the most fun and deep in the decision-making process. Obviously a faction would care a huge amount if you shoot down one of their Deadly, Anaconda-class security ships, but would care little if their opposition was killed. First off, I think killing a police ship should automatically double the bounty placed on you, after the other factors have been factored. That is a HUGE offense, and although a suggestion for a separate thread, this should cause you to be hounded so horribly that entering even medium security systems with this offense on your record should be barely possible, only survivable by those with the best of the best ships, skills, etc.
Next, does a faction care about it's enemies? If we have a border system with, for instance, a federal controlling faction, with independent and Imperial minor factions, bounties should be different for everyone. Bounties placed by the controlling faction on offenders who've assaulted a fed should be unchanged, but bounties placed on those who assault the independents would be lowered slightly (up to 20%), and bounties placed on those who've assaulted Imperial ships can be reduced by as much as 60%. This can be further expanded upon by causing civil unrest the the disparity becomes too large, which might start a war.
Lastly, what the hell do the poorer, more lawless factions care about you? Sure, the superpowers don't care about you either, but they'll enact large bounties for crimes if necessary. In Co-operative and Feudal systems, bounties might be downscaled by extreme amounts (up to 80%) just to save the faction money. This is already in place in ED, but I'd like to not leave it out.
What do you all think, FD and forum-goers? Any gaping holes in my argument?
EDIT: SuicideWinder Argument!
When a player switches his ship, the bounty on his head is scaled down if the new ship is worth less. If the new ship is worth 50% that of the original, the bounty will be 50%. There, you have effectively destroyed the idea of suicidewinder for selling bounties.
Dormant bounties should be removed entirely. Your ship is tied to your name, and there isn't a reason for the authorities to remove their bounty because you might be dead.
EDIT 2: Massacre Missions!
Allow your employer to say something like "we've got you a 50% reduced bounty for kills on [target type] in [target system] for [mission duration]! Get going!"
From DocLooshKin:
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