Hey I have an idea for the bounty system and wanna get some feedback on it. So I've heard alot of people talking about the bounty system and my thoughts on it and how it would work with the less amount of cheesing is making its reputation based. As in if someone loses a certain amount of reputation in a town say like 5 in a short amount of time a bounty can be placed on them and once you have that bounty on your head your fair game in that factions towns. So if you have a bounty from a tindremic city people can kill you in tindremic towns with no consequences and turn your head in for a reward. Then it resets and that person can't have a bounty on them until they have that massive rep loss in the short time again.
Bounty System
- Thread starter When4everfails
- Start date
The reason why bounty hunter systems never work out is because everyone wants to be a bounty hunter but none wants to actually pay someone a bunch of gold for a meaningless kill
A meaningful kill would have some tactical value, meaning (most likely) letting the future killer take his time getting into the target's guild, and his confidence, and his proximity at a time when the assassination would make a difference to some course of events. That's a lot of time and effort and ifs and ands. Those perfect circumstances would probably never arise, and if they did the killing would be only a small part of a larger plan.
To sum it up: You're right. Who'd want the job that entailed all that? Not your average would-be bounty-hunter, and who'd want to pay what such an effort should be worth in cash? No-one. It'd have to be done for love or revenge.
The problem with any kind of hardwired bounty system mechanic is that invariably it will be exploited and abused to its fullest extent and defeat the entire purpose of the system in the first place.
As an example, a player loses enough standing in the Tindremic Provinces to make him a free-for-all target in Tindremic towns. He calls his friends who have positive standing in Tindremic Provinces to kill him over and over outside of town until he is no longer free-for-all. The player then splits the rewards with his friends and he is free to kill or steal again.
A more tried and proven method is to wait until the criminal player has upset enough people that they will form a task force to search for him and make him pay for his crimes. The people who exact vengeance upon the player will be those have actually been wronged, instead of the job being outsourced to a non-person game mechanic that can't distinguish between who is doing the bounty hunting and blindly dishing out the rewards.
As a side effect of this method, it will to a greater or lesser extent discourage rampant criminal behaviour to all but the most persistent and hardened players whose sole purpose is to play that role.
As an example, a player loses enough standing in the Tindremic Provinces to make him a free-for-all target in Tindremic towns. He calls his friends who have positive standing in Tindremic Provinces to kill him over and over outside of town until he is no longer free-for-all. The player then splits the rewards with his friends and he is free to kill or steal again.
A more tried and proven method is to wait until the criminal player has upset enough people that they will form a task force to search for him and make him pay for his crimes. The people who exact vengeance upon the player will be those have actually been wronged, instead of the job being outsourced to a non-person game mechanic that can't distinguish between who is doing the bounty hunting and blindly dishing out the rewards.
As a side effect of this method, it will to a greater or lesser extent discourage rampant criminal behaviour to all but the most persistent and hardened players whose sole purpose is to play that role.
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For any automated bounty system to work the money cant be generated out of nowhere or it will just be exploited.
If the money comes from people putting up the bounty, then it'll be cashed in by the bounty or the bounty's friend.
If the money comes from the bounty however, then the only reason you'd want a friend to kill you is to get the bounty away. Add % of that money that was taken from you disappear as a sort of tax and it'll get very disincentivizing to do it very fast.
But typically i'd say a automated system would be pretty garbage. Doing it directly with the people that want the person killed and them having standards for proof (video, pictures w/e) is good enough. Don't need a in-game system for it.
If the money comes from people putting up the bounty, then it'll be cashed in by the bounty or the bounty's friend.
If the money comes from the bounty however, then the only reason you'd want a friend to kill you is to get the bounty away. Add % of that money that was taken from you disappear as a sort of tax and it'll get very disincentivizing to do it very fast.
But typically i'd say a automated system would be pretty garbage. Doing it directly with the people that want the person killed and them having standards for proof (video, pictures w/e) is good enough. Don't need a in-game system for it.
As has been pointed out already, bounty systems are extremely exploitable. However, there are ways to implement a kind of bounty system that is not exploitable, with one such system having been mentioned by Henrik already.
The idea is to be able to talk to a town magistrate and accept a bounty on one of the local murderers, which then gives you a ticket that allows you to kill this person uninhibited. The reward you get for this is any loot the person may have when you kill them.
I like this idea, but I'm sure given enough thought there are many others that would also be suitable.
The idea is to be able to talk to a town magistrate and accept a bounty on one of the local murderers, which then gives you a ticket that allows you to kill this person uninhibited. The reward you get for this is any loot the person may have when you kill them.
I like this idea, but I'm sure given enough thought there are many others that would also be suitable.
Having a bounty system shouldn't try to discourage criminal behavior but instead add a consequence to it. I like the idea of a few delinquents coming into town causing trouble for the players and you run to tell the town magistrate and they give you permission to deal with them while they're in town.
The delinquents could enjoy their gameplay of murdering or stealing while in town and look for a fight in the process.
The bounty hunter can walk around looking to clean the streets up of filth and take whatever they had giving them another option of trying to return the goods.
The delinquents could enjoy their gameplay of murdering or stealing while in town and look for a fight in the process.
The bounty hunter can walk around looking to clean the streets up of filth and take whatever they had giving them another option of trying to return the goods.
Well its subjective who is filth. Lots of pretty shitty people get targeted by some griefers. And a system like what you want will just be a tool for the people you dont like to be used against people of that town. Almost everyone is a murder so I dont see it that hard for a griefer to abuse.
You can make your own bounty system, the only reason to add systems to game is to just make it more convent like the mail or broker systems.
PvPers dont worry or care about a bounty system to get PvP. Its mainly PvErs who want it for some retribution and ego. If you make a PvP content focused system that almost no PvPers are asking for how much will it be used.
Everyone being "murderers" is a separate issue to any potential bounty system. If everyone is murderers then everyone is a potential target for a bounty.
Stating that only PvE players would care about a system specifically designed to add another avenue for obtaining PvP is a bit strange.