What if WE were the police in ED?

I like where the Crime & Punishment system is heading.. but.. what if being a Bounty Hunter in this game wasn't just PvE? What if you could "subscribe" to bounty notifications and get them on your message display "CMDR X just committed Y crime in Z system"? All the mechanics are in game to collect the bounties already, simply notifying us players of crimes committed would help in a huge way IMHO. I know you can currently see "Top 5 bounties" on the Mission Board, but I've tried using that to track down wanted players and my guess is the info is either too stale, or they're in Solo/Private.

What do you guys think? Who'd want to RP a Bounty Hunter, bringing justice to real players instead of NPC pirates??

I don't like PvP at all myself, so I have no stake in this, but I think your proposal is exactly where FDev needs to go with PvP bounty hunting.
 
I like it, but then gotta raise the cap on bounties up form 1 million. I get the exploit potential, but that's less of an issue in the new system and you could still raise it without allowing for mass exploit.

At the mo 1 mill for hunting players who are good enough to amass player related bounties of much more, just isn't remotely profitable, beyond fun of rp.
 
How about just having distress calls show up on the scanner if you're in range? Being able to lend a hand when someone gets interdicted would help clean up some of the "low hanging fruit ". Making it an option based on your local reputation would keep it from bothering players that don't want to deal with it, and the anonymity of a distress call would eliminate most of the potential for exploitation.
Just my thoughts.
 
._.

The pirate/"griefer" will just combat log on you and FD will do nothing about it and there's nothing you can do about it other than to track down their IP and find where they live physically and give them a piece of your mind.

So if that's what you mean by bounty hunting, go for it.

*Chuckles in the background*
 
I don't like PvP at all myself, so I have no stake in this, but I think your proposal is exactly where FDev needs to go with PvP bounty hunting.

Same, and I think I would play a lot more in open if this was a thing. A sistem to track down most wanted criminals would be awesome (last seen on X system), like we have for pve pirate hunting. All the mechanics appear to be there and this could be possible with the C&P changes. Pirates vs LEOs should be on the next patch lol.
 
Yeah, cool idea. Even cooler would be if for the duration of one's enlistment in the police forces one would get access to a, say, specific FSD inhibitor that would slow down the charge of high-wakes. And any sort of infractions when it comes to killing ships that don't have a bounty on their head, or a certain number of fines would get you kicked out of the "force" with a probation period of weeks if not months as to avoid people that abuse their police status. Also, naturally, such a position would have to come with blue/red "sirens" attachment for ships, available for the duration of the assignment - that would be REALLY cool :D

Oh, and it would be interesting to have, say, an additional information display that would zero-in on the most wanted criminals the longer they remain online - starting with a general region and slowly narrowing down to their exact coordinates.
 
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The idea is interesting but ultimately unworkable; this would be plain and simple vigilantism as it's so open to abuse. How would you police the police? However, it would be a good catalyst for forum salt generation.
 
The idea is interesting but ultimately unworkable; this would be plain and simple vigilantism as it's so open to abuse. How would you police the police? However, it would be a good catalyst for forum salt generation.

The new C&P system would police the police, right? If you ever attacked someone who didn't have a bounty, you'd get one yourself and then the "good cops" could hunt you down. Everything else is in place already with NPC police. They scan, you have a bounty? OPEN FIRE! Same exact cycle of events. How could someone abuse this?
 
As long as it is restricted to the local system and you would have to respond to any pilot under attack even NPCs. You would not know if you are responding to a player being attacked by NPCs or a player attacking NPCs or a player attacking a player. Otherwise it become a means for witch-hunting.

I would like to see a method of tracking bounties across multiple systems but not a way of instantly finding someone one the other side of the bubble. I'd prefer some kind of bounty board, last reporting in system x on date y that gets updated by player sightings and the ability to tag bounties you are interested in
 
The new C&P system would police the police, right? If you ever attacked someone who didn't have a bounty, you'd get one yourself and then the "good cops" could hunt you down. Everything else is in place already with NPC police. They scan, you have a bounty? OPEN FIRE! Same exact cycle of events. How could someone abuse this?

Yes and no. I agree from the point of view of the new C&P to a point - (if it does indeed work). However, I still think this is idea is open to abuse; ganking for example. What stops someone for using this as a cover to gank people. I doubt the C&P system will "act" fast enough to prevent this. What recourse do I have? How will I know if the perpetrators were punished in kind? I may of course be totally misunderstanding all of this but it's just stuff that comes to mind as some people will always abuse a system whichever way they can. /cynical hat off.
 
To the people who think this could be abused, please see my edit on the OP :) I never intended the idea to allow people to "appear as cops" to other players :p lol
 
Maybe use the new C&P notoriety system, coupled with huge interstellar fines to post such people as 'available for termination' contracts in stations? Take the mission, you have say 7 days to make the kill.

Unfortunately.. that idea falls down dead once real names are involved because the forums would be alive with the sound of thread locks....
 

Rafe Zetter

Banned
No. A vigilante acts out of a perceived notion of 'common betterment of the community', 'fighting evil' and such. A bounty hunter wants money. For himself. I dont care *why* someone has a bounty, whether it was justified or not or how serious it was: you pay me to kill him, I kill him. A bounty hunter is closer to an assassin, acting against the law if needed.

BH'ers are bungholes. Vigilantes are wannabe-heroes.

Hmm - clearly your view of the world is not particularly wide.

There are plenty of real life bounty hunters that do it because the police cannot be everywhere all the time. Some are retired police, or those that cannot join the force for whatever reason, but have the skills to be a bounty hunter.

In America where bounty hunting is a recognised profession a great deal of them deal with criminals who have skipped bail, or are wanted for other reasons, but not so serious that a dedicated police task force is warrented.

Here is where the bounty hunter shines - he (with or without a team) can track and hunt down the individual either to point of arrest (they have limited powers, given to them by courts) or to the point whereby the police can then take over.

They can cover huge areas for much less manpower and cost.

If you honestly think they do it "just for the money" with no "common betterment of the community" in mind - you should follow some of the american TV shows about it - it's a crapload of work and hassle for not a lot of money, and there's always the risk of actual RL death when chasing a bounty with access to firepower and not much reason to come peacefully.

I dont care *why* someone has a bounty, whether it was justified or not or how serious it was: you pay me to kill him, I kill him. A bounty hunter is closer to an assassin, acting against the law if needed.

You've been watching too many fims mate - this is so far from reality it's laughable - BH's in RL have no "licence to kill", not even under extreme circumstances - they have to abide by the same laws as normal citizens, if there is a homicide they WILL be taken to court and put on trial, just like everyone else and they will have to prove beyond any doubt it was justifiable, or go to jail, just like everyone else.

The fact that the Bounty mechanic in ED gives you a bounty for the tiniest thing is an issue with implementation of that mechanic, NOT how a BH player reacts to it.

In ED this should be the mechanic that re-vitalises the "bounty hunter" profession - actually making it a profession, rather than something a player just does as part of a mission "for the money".

You say BH's are in it "just for the money" - you're right in ED that's all it is, because there's no other mechanic to make it a PROFESSION - BH in ED right now is just another "fetch" mission.

As for the Vigilante's being "wannabe hero's" - these only happen because there's no police around when it matters - which nowadays is most of the time.
 
I believe that we already have articles on Galnet that posts commanders with large bounties and the systems they were last seen at. So I believe you can already do your policing.
Missions to bounty hunt commanders is a bit much.
This is an interesting Open only thought experiment (why am I not surprised.) And there in lies it’s major flaw.
 
Sounds like great fun. I love PVP bounty hunting. Both the criminals and the cops would have lots of fun doing it (and I tend to alternate between these)
 
Sounds like great fun. I love PVP bounty hunting. Both the criminals and the cops would have lots of fun doing it (and I tend to alternate between these)

Likewise, some days I wake up and wanna pirate some folks, others I feel like protecting some starter areas :p
 
You say BH's are in it "just for the money" - you're right in ED that's all it is, because there's no other mechanic to make it a PROFESSION - BH in ED right now is just another "fetch" mission.

Which, IMO is the crux of a lot of the issues why some find it difficult to really "engage" with the game. Actual professions instead of just "activities" would go a long way in creating "buy in", when people can actually invest in something meaningful to them.

In that regard, ED is almost like working for a day labor company- you just show up ready to work and they give you a list of what's available, and you either decide to work, or don't.

Most people come to realize that everyone's gotta do something to pay bills and survive, so they choose things that they enjoy doing more, something they can really "grow" with- which creates a profession instead.

Personally, I think FD introducing and really developing professions would be a great boon to this game... a framework that could be chosen "optionally" (similar to opting into PowerPlay) so that people who want more meaning and depth have it, and those who want to freelance also have the ability to do so as well.
 
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