The improvements made to C&P for 3.0 definitely mark a fantastic first step, but I hope the Devs aren't planning to leave it there. With that in mind, I would like to suggest the following improvements for any Phase 2 of C&P "overhauls".
Bounties
1. Increase the base Bounty for each crime. My feeling is that an increase of 2x-4x current bounty sizes is entirely appropriate, given how much cash Commanders usually have.
2. Have a multiplier for System Security levels. To help further distinguish between systems of different security levels, the base bounty handed out for criminal acts should be multiplied accordingly. Anarchy would obviously be 0, Low-security might be 0.5x, Medium Security would be 1x & High Security might be 1.5x or even 2x. This would make Commanders think twice before committing crimes in High-Security systems, whilst making Low-Security systems almost as dangerous as Anarchies.
3. Repeat Offences. I can understand that a Commander might get upset about copping a ludicrously large bounty for a 1-off crime, so maybe have repeat offences accrue larger bounties, much faster, than 1-off criminal acts. So whilst a Commander might cop a 1000 Credit Bounty for a single Assault, if they then go on to commit a 2nd assault-in the same ship-then the next bounty might be 1500 Credits (for a total of 2500). A 3rd offence might cost 2250 (total 4750).....& so on & so forth. This will allow bounties to be easily paid off by those who accidentally break the law, whilst making life increasingly difficult for career criminals
.
4. Smuggling. Call me a masochist, but I feel it is now time to make Smuggling a crime worthy of a Bounty. After all, a good Smuggler tries to avoid detection, so the risk of gaining a bounty would increase the incentive for smugglers to use various methods to avoid detection. Likewise, the *risk* of detection really needs a substantial buff as well.....especially in higher security systems.
5. Interstellar Factors. This is kind of my biggest bugbear when it comes to Bounties & even Fines. I really liked having the 25% mark-up for using Interstellar Factors. After all, these guys are borderline criminal, so should be more than willing to gouge desperate commanders looking to clean their slates. Likewise, I feel that Interstellar Bounties should be too hot for Interstellar Factors to clean from your ship. Only being "Brought to Book" should be able to clean these bounties. As a possible consideration for a later Patch or Update, perhaps consider making it that Commanders need to be Cordial or higher-with any local Anarchy Factions-in order to use the Bounty cleaning facility of IF.
Notoriety
Implementing a Notoriety system, even in a limited way, was borderline *genius*, but I do hope it will get expanded upon in later updates. These are the changes I'd most like to see.
1. Have Separate Notoriety for Alliance, Federation, Empire & Independent.
2. Make Notoriety a number from 0 to 100.....in a similar fashion to Reputation, & give each 20 points a particular Name (like Petty Crim, Fugitive etc)
3. Have *all* criminal activities contribute points towards Notoriety, but with Murder always contributing the most number of points.
4. Your Notoriety would still impact whether or not you could clean ships via Interstellar Factors, but you would no longer need to get down to zero. Instead you'd have a cut-off, below which you could clean your ship.....at an inflated cost.
5. The decay rate of your notoriety would depend on how high your current notoriety is. Below 20 would decay at 1 point per hour, but 81-100 would maybe take 1 point per 5 hours.
6. Notoriety would impact the way NPC's treat you in space (security would be more likely to harass you, pirates would be more likely to give you a wide berth) as well as at Stations. It would act as a negative modifier to your reputation with lawful Factions aligned to the Super-Power in question, but would act as a positive modifier towards any Anarchy Factions.
7. Notoriety would improve the prices you get via the Black Market, & could also be a means of gaining access to an entirely new level of Black Market.
Anyway, I feel that the changes I've listed above.....or something along those lines.....would help to make C&P in Elite: Dangerous the very best it can be!
Bounties
1. Increase the base Bounty for each crime. My feeling is that an increase of 2x-4x current bounty sizes is entirely appropriate, given how much cash Commanders usually have.
2. Have a multiplier for System Security levels. To help further distinguish between systems of different security levels, the base bounty handed out for criminal acts should be multiplied accordingly. Anarchy would obviously be 0, Low-security might be 0.5x, Medium Security would be 1x & High Security might be 1.5x or even 2x. This would make Commanders think twice before committing crimes in High-Security systems, whilst making Low-Security systems almost as dangerous as Anarchies.
3. Repeat Offences. I can understand that a Commander might get upset about copping a ludicrously large bounty for a 1-off crime, so maybe have repeat offences accrue larger bounties, much faster, than 1-off criminal acts. So whilst a Commander might cop a 1000 Credit Bounty for a single Assault, if they then go on to commit a 2nd assault-in the same ship-then the next bounty might be 1500 Credits (for a total of 2500). A 3rd offence might cost 2250 (total 4750).....& so on & so forth. This will allow bounties to be easily paid off by those who accidentally break the law, whilst making life increasingly difficult for career criminals
.4. Smuggling. Call me a masochist, but I feel it is now time to make Smuggling a crime worthy of a Bounty. After all, a good Smuggler tries to avoid detection, so the risk of gaining a bounty would increase the incentive for smugglers to use various methods to avoid detection. Likewise, the *risk* of detection really needs a substantial buff as well.....especially in higher security systems.
5. Interstellar Factors. This is kind of my biggest bugbear when it comes to Bounties & even Fines. I really liked having the 25% mark-up for using Interstellar Factors. After all, these guys are borderline criminal, so should be more than willing to gouge desperate commanders looking to clean their slates. Likewise, I feel that Interstellar Bounties should be too hot for Interstellar Factors to clean from your ship. Only being "Brought to Book" should be able to clean these bounties. As a possible consideration for a later Patch or Update, perhaps consider making it that Commanders need to be Cordial or higher-with any local Anarchy Factions-in order to use the Bounty cleaning facility of IF.
Notoriety
Implementing a Notoriety system, even in a limited way, was borderline *genius*, but I do hope it will get expanded upon in later updates. These are the changes I'd most like to see.
1. Have Separate Notoriety for Alliance, Federation, Empire & Independent.
2. Make Notoriety a number from 0 to 100.....in a similar fashion to Reputation, & give each 20 points a particular Name (like Petty Crim, Fugitive etc)
3. Have *all* criminal activities contribute points towards Notoriety, but with Murder always contributing the most number of points.
4. Your Notoriety would still impact whether or not you could clean ships via Interstellar Factors, but you would no longer need to get down to zero. Instead you'd have a cut-off, below which you could clean your ship.....at an inflated cost.
5. The decay rate of your notoriety would depend on how high your current notoriety is. Below 20 would decay at 1 point per hour, but 81-100 would maybe take 1 point per 5 hours.
6. Notoriety would impact the way NPC's treat you in space (security would be more likely to harass you, pirates would be more likely to give you a wide berth) as well as at Stations. It would act as a negative modifier to your reputation with lawful Factions aligned to the Super-Power in question, but would act as a positive modifier towards any Anarchy Factions.
7. Notoriety would improve the prices you get via the Black Market, & could also be a means of gaining access to an entirely new level of Black Market.
Anyway, I feel that the changes I've listed above.....or something along those lines.....would help to make C&P in Elite: Dangerous the very best it can be!
