Would you mind if bounty hunting involved more than farming NPCs at a RES?

I am not going to play jedi tricks on your mind, so to be honest from the start: Yes, this is another honk thread in disguise. But it's also about the general design and future of the game.

When the game was released almost 4 years ago it was clear to everyone that it consists of many placeholders and lots of mechanics have been (and continue to be) very shallow. 'A mile wide and an inch deep' gets thrown around a lot and it almost perfectly describes the current exploration gameplay. But over the years it seems like some people accepted these shallow mechanics and found ways to get the most enjoyment out of it. One could say that people are having fun with something that shouldn't have existed to begin with.

So with the current discussion about the instant system map reveal I wonder which other areas of the game can't be improved without ing off a certain part of the player base that already accepted the repetitive and uninspired parts of the game.

When looking at bounty hunting in RES I just want it gone. That's not bounty hunting but simply waiting for NPC spawns and farming. Apart from the combat itself, I almost feel reminded of some dull hack & slay. I'd like to see some real bounty hunting mechanics instead, like following wakes, getting tip offs from NPCs, interrogating their complices, etc. I hope you get the idea. And I don't just want this stuff for bounty hunting, I want that level of involvement for all areas of the game.

But with the recent discussions about exploration I feel like the community isn't interested in that type of gameplay and that it's me who has been playing the wrong game all along.
 
if bounty hunting would involve special NPC with a HUGE bounty (because its all a matter of payout/time) then it might be interetsign following traces after having scanned specific things etc. going to a planet and whatever.

I remember the first mission when there was one of those signals, on a planet, or what those strange missions were. Then you had to go to these coordinates and such. felt interesting, but the payout was so worse I never did anyother again.

So the rare things that seem to not be shallow should have meaning, but mostly they are horribly underpaid and so not worth doing them more than once for the experience of having done it.

Bounty hunting could be such a deep mechanic, by either a mission being giveen to you, or kinda self initiated.

You find a distress signal and you scan the wreck for hints. You then follow some traces of the ship that shot it down. This could, and should vary, sometimes you need to contact system authority, or bribe a contact, or fly around and interdict and question an NPC about that target. Then you trace it down in space, or a site on a planet. Maybe you will find that bounty just in action of raiding another ship. and then int he end, all that needs to be done properly is the payout/time.
Sometimes bounty hunting might even be easier and youc an directly follow a jump signature if the site of the distress signal is still "hot". That gives the wake scanner also some more reason.

There could be so damn much to it, so much depth. But all we have is, shoot people with the red Label wanted. done. Maybe scan them for a bit more moniez. GG WP.
 
Why do you have to earn loads of money?

If you are already set up then maybe you just need to cover expenses (fuel, ammo etc)

Think more of being a shoestring type detective chasing someones cheating partner.
 
Good question but I don't know if we (the Community) has the answer.

At present the whole concept is weak, you see low, med and high value wanted NPCs flying around with the Authority ships until it seems it is there turn to be shot by Authority ships - it just doesn't make sense. It is like the wanted ships drop into the RES and take a number, paitently waiting in turn to be attacked.

I can't work out a better way in my mind, I just know that there has to be a better way than mindless NPC farming. Maybe pop up messages advising that a high value target in near you or at a certain RES, or a new USS (since they will be easier to find under the new system).

Sorry I couldn't give you a better answer but this one is difficult to pin down, but like you I agree than there has to be a better mechanism in regard to bounty hunting.
 
Good question but I don't know if we (the Community) has the answer.

At present the whole concept is weak, you see low, med and high value wanted NPCs flying around with the Authority ships until it seems it is there turn to be shot by Authority ships - it just doesn't make sense. It is like the wanted ships drop into the RES and take a number, paitently waiting in turn to be attacked.

I can't work out a better way in my mind, I just know that there has to be a better way than mindless NPC farming. Maybe pop up messages advising that a high value target in near you or at a certain RES, or a new USS (since they will be easier to find under the new system).

Sorry I couldn't give you a better answer but this one is difficult to pin down, but like you I agree than there has to be a better mechanism in regard to bounty hunting.

I'd like to see some bounty boards at stations with 10-20 individual NPCs. Taking a 'wanted poster' would spawn a series of procedurally generated events that eventually lead to the target.
 
Why do you have to earn loads of money?

If you are already set up then maybe you just need to cover expenses (fuel, ammo etc)

Think more of being a shoestring type detective chasing someones cheating partner.

to make it a worthy activity, otherwise people don't do it. Unfortunately the only measurement of things in ED is simply exactly that as reward (and standing at a faction)

could would be in angame Live ticker, that sends some local news if someone completed such a missions as well as other more important missions. But we don't have these fancy things.
 
I'd like to see some bounty boards at stations with 10-20 individual NPCs. Taking a 'wanted poster' would spawn a series of procedurally generated events that eventually lead to the target.

I was going to suggest that but we have those now except you never see those damn NPCs. If they made these wanted boards live and persistent, with accurate last sightings within one or two jumps then yes it would work. The wanted boards could list the NPC, his ranking, his last sighting (in the High Res located at planet xxx etc), then yes it would work. But will FD go to this depth is a whole other question!
 
I would welcome it.

I suspect however, that the world would run out of WAHmbulances if Frontier did this.

People complain about "The grind" but if you take it away, they explode.
 
I am not going to play jedi tricks on your mind, so to be honest from the start: Yes, this is another honk thread in disguise. But it's also about the general design and future of the game.

When the game was released almost 4 years ago it was clear to everyone that it consists of many placeholders and lots of mechanics have been (and continue to be) very shallow. 'A mile wide and an inch deep' gets thrown around a lot and it almost perfectly describes the current exploration gameplay. But over the years it seems like some people accepted these shallow mechanics and found ways to get the most enjoyment out of it. One could say that people are having fun with something that shouldn't have existed to begin with.

So with the current discussion about the instant system map reveal I wonder which other areas of the game can't be improved without ing off a certain part of the player base that already accepted the repetitive and uninspired parts of the game.

When looking at bounty hunting in RES I just want it gone. That's not bounty hunting but simply waiting for NPC spawns and farming. Apart from the combat itself, I almost feel reminded of some dull hack & slay. I'd like to see some real bounty hunting mechanics instead, like following wakes, getting tip offs from NPCs, interrogating their complices, etc. I hope you get the idea. And I don't just want this stuff for bounty hunting, I want that level of involvement for all areas of the game.

But with the recent discussions about exploration I feel like the community isn't interested in that type of gameplay and that it's me who has been playing the wrong game all along.

Bounty hunting in RES does not have to be removed to add the gameplay you describe.

I would love to have to follow ships to other systems, observe them, interrogate accomplices and perhaps assassinate them.
That would be great gameplay for sure. Perhaps we might even attach a tracking device to their ship.

This would surely add depth to the experience.
 
Well bablefish, there should also be high paying bounties who get broadcasted. And maybe even direct contact to pilots with a higher combat rank. Simply because those highly wanted NPC's would be high on the priority list and a faction would basically make sure everyone knows about them. Basically like when they aks today in TV have you seen ...
 
I was going to suggest that but we have those now except you never see those damn NPCs. If they made these wanted boards live and persistent, with accurate last sightings within one or two jumps then yes it would work. The wanted boards could list the NPC, his ranking, his last sighting (in the High Res located at planet xxx etc), then yes it would work. But will FD go to this depth is a whole other question!

I always thought the boards only list players.
 
Bounty hunting in RES does not have to be removed to add the gameplay you describe.

I would love to have to follow ships to other systems, observe them, interrogate accomplices and perhaps assassinate them.
That would be great gameplay for sure. Perhaps we might even attach a tracking device to their ship.

This would surely add depth to the experience.

They have to be removed because they are silly, unrealistic and because they stand for everything I don't like in this game. I understand that this is purely subjective though.
 
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I always thought the boards only list players.

I always assumed it was a mixture of both NPCs and Commanders, but as I have been told lately, apparently I know nothing lol

All I do know is that I have never found one person on those lists which after a few attempts, stopped me even looking at them.

Again, FD had something that could have been good gameplay but didn't use it to it's full advantage.
 
When new, I was kinda surprised that 'Bounty Hunting' turned out to be simple, static REZ farming. Guess I expected somewhat more like an actual... hunt. Instead, the REZ are just a honeypot where you swat 'pirates' like flies.

So yes, I would very much like the bounty hunting aspect expanded and improved upon.
 
Good post, repped.

First of all, if going number of posts I will say reception is positive. Yes, people are worried they won't find game fun after some fundamental changes, but such worry is always there. I think lot of complains are just worries, nothing serious because we frankly just don't know yet how it will shake out.

Now, idea on itself - spot on. And not only that. I want RES not being specific points, or rather, having such 'clamping places' not specially distinguished, but something that there's trail of crumbles that leads to it. Such scenarios should be dynamic. Also yes to to actual hunt element of bounty hunting.

As for people hoarding money and mats and what not...some of them will gladly give it all away if they can engage in more in-depth gameplay. Some of them will never be satisfied so whatever.
 
Basically, yes.

I'd love more involved bounty hunting, that actually felt like hunting, not farming.

However, to make it work to its full potential, we also need NPC communications, so we can follow up on rumors and whatnot.

And the payouts need to be worth it. I'm not going to spend an hour or so hunting down an NPC for 50k cr, when I can lay waste to entire armies for 100x the pay. Lol

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead
 
I'd rather bounty hunting involve hunting a single foe with a large payout based on their reputation. That's much better than going to a place where an infinite number of wanted ships show up for the sole purpose of you killing them. There's no hunting in bounty hunting.

I'm not even saying the RES's should go away. I'd just like actual bounty hunting added.
 
Not only would I not mind, but I would be very appreciative.

Many complain about perceived grind, but there is far more gameplay in the processes for collecting mats for engineering than there is in the from-launch-to-now implementation of CZ and RES.

Players complain about lack of content, but are happy to sit in an instance where NPCs spawn infinitely and set themselves up like ducks to be shot.
Anything other than progression served on a plate is deemed to be time gating or disrespect of players lol.
 
In my view most bounty hunting should be contract/mission based. You should get these missions from the Security contact from station services.
There should be 10-20 available at any one time. You should only be able to take a maximum of 5 missions at a time (to stop mission spamming) from each jusisdiction.

There should be better mechanics with these, some will be follow the bread crumbs, some will be other scenarios.

Res sites should completely change. There should be a reason why there is a res site there instead of some random place and there should be a reason why there are pirates there too.

What I would do is have large landable mining platforms in the actual rings. Here you can sell your mined commodities. There should be at random times the odd pirate attack on these mining platforms (have players pirates use the mega-ship/installation mechanics on them to get nice loot), there could be pirate missions from the nearest pirate faction.

There should be a systems wide comms to all commanders in the vacinity that there is a pirate attack (have the res site marked as compromised to differenctiate it) and they need help. Anyone jumping in to the res site will get a mission invite to kill as many pirates as possible, you get a certain amount per kill, then you can dock at the mining platform to hand in bounties and mission. But these attacks should be rare.
 
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