The Bounty Hunter System is fun but flawed.

[Sally]

My main issue with bounty hunting? Red names camping with their guild mates.

How are two people meant to kill someone surrounded by their 20 boyfriends? Look, i get a lot of people like to hang around in guilds, but, this game is full of cowards. No offence intended, but there is no other way to say it. They hang around in groups because they know they can't handle things alone. It is the weak banding together to protect themselves from the strong. This needs to be factored in when designing your game.

EVERY bounty i've gone on? I was outnumbered. Even decided to team up with someone, STILL outnumbered.

So i thought about it.. If i'm always outnumbered, and i can't take the opponents on my own, how do i kill them?

Three options :

A) Recruit many people via various means so i have more numbers than them.

OR

B) Stake the opponent out until they are vulnerable.

OR

C) Convince them to duel you

The Problem?

The problem with A.. You can't make other people help you, and the bounty isn't worth spending gold on (the rewards are TERRIBLE, aside from the cape). So am i to pay these people? No. It isn't worth it. So i rule that out as a consistent viable option.

The problem with B)? If i'm waiting for the right opportunity, they could log out and they're more likely to hang around their guild mates ESPECIALLY when they're red name. So you're going to be waiting an unreasonable amount of time. Lastly, there are no guarantees this opportunity will arise. Again, i ask, do the rewards stack up to the effort needed? No. Not at all. I could make hundreds of gold in the time it takes to wait out one bounty. It just isn't logical to play it this way.

Lastly, and i honestly think this is the worst one.. Asking them to duel. I feel like this is antithetical to the whole idea of bounty hunting. We're supposed to be hunting.. It is okay every now and again, but this is literally the standard. Dueling. It is terrible and just isn't what a hunting experience should end up as.. If i wanted to duel, i'd stand in fab town square.

The Solution?..

If you're going to make me stake people out, then you have to make it more rewarding, but of course, you can't do that, because people will just exploit it for profit.

So how do you solve this issue? If the problem is numbers... Allow ways for multiple bounty hunters to band together for the same bounty. Maybe give people birds that communicate with other bounty hunters, or some sort of bounty hunter meetings spot. Some way of gathering bounty hunters together who could very well be all over the world. Because 100% of bounties i've hunted thus far, it has been a bunch of blue names protecting the red name. They'll block arrows and so on... They're all on discord, so it is like you're approaching a hivemind.. It just doesn't work well in practice.

You need a way for hunters to gather together in bigger numbers, that is the only real solution i can see.. As it is, the way the system works, i don't know who has the same bounty as me. And i would love to get others together to hunt people down who have the same bounty.

 

[Weis]

The bounty system kind of was nerfed and buffed with the latest patch. The buff was that you can bounty hunt someone in duo teams and the target is now WITHIN 5000km. Nice change, but with the new murderer system you actually have to goto player towns which are infested with the murderers guild members, often resulting in large fights you can hardly take on without a large group of your own. Not sure theres much of a fix for this sadly.

I will say however, that doing large guild bounty events is much more viable now since you dont have to go across the map anymore. I even rerolled my mage so I can run these events for my guild

 

[Jackdstripper]

Im sorry but what exactly are you expecting? That your chosen murderer would just be sitting by himself under a tree, waiting for you to show up so you can have a honourable and fair 1vs1, and then he can be executed and looted at your whim?

Bounty hunting is supposed to be hard. Its supposed to be a hunt. Its supposed to be you stalking him until you find the right time and place. Not just “here i am. Now i take your shit”. You are not guaranteed a kill simply because you picked up a bounty.

Red players get attacked all the time now by everyone. People will kill their horse and leave them walking simply because they can. People will attack them and then, if they get owned and die, will MC the red just because they can. You are besically a loot bag walking anywhere you go. Of course they will start looking for help from guild mates. Its almost impossible to play as a red without backup. Sorry if that makes your bounty hunting harder, but tough shit. Life got a whole lot harder for red players now. Get your own back up or go do something else.

 

[Sally]

Im sorry but what exactly are you expecting? That your chosen murderer would just be sitting by himself under a tree, waiting for you to show up so you can have a honourable and fair 1vs1, and then he can be executed and looted at your whim?

Bounty hunting is supposed to be hard. Its supposed to be a hunt. Its supposed to be you stalking him until you find the right time and place. Not just “here i am. Now i take your shit”. You are not guaranteed a kill simply because you picked up a bounty.

Red players get attacked all the time now by everyone. People will kill their horse and leave them walking simply because they can. People will attack them and then, if they get owned and die, will MC the red just because they can. You are besically a loot bag walking anywhere you go. Of course they will start looking for help from guild mates. Its almost impossible to play as a red without backup. Sorry if that makes your bounty hunting harder, but tough shit. Life got a whole lot harder for red players now. Get your own back up or go do something else.

I'm expecting more of a fair fight.

Wow, red life is so hard when you're sitting with 20 guild mates and people run in at you in twos at a time. Really tough, really fair.

Get real. You're the one who wants it easy. And i can tell you are annoyed by my "coward" line. I put it in there on purpose, because i know how you people think.

You want to think you're somehow better at the game because you have a red name, but it means nothing when you are surrounded by blues and play in a guild.

A red solo i can respect. A guilded red? No.

A guild is playing the game on the easiest difficulty. A significantly easier difficulty. Am i saying it is wrong? No. It just is what it is.

Did i ask for reds to be sitting under a tree solo? No. I asked for bounty hunters to have more options to organize. Why? Because there is no way to balance red players playing like cowards.

 

[Weis]

I asked for bounty hunters to have more options to organize.

Would be interesting if you can get a notification on the bounty when other bounty hunters pick up the contract. Could be an interesting way to get organized with other hunters. But there isnt really a way to message other bounties unless they add you as a friend.

 

[Jackdstripper]

You are wrong. What was annoying about your post is how you are crying for help making your experience as a bounty hunter easier, when the experience of your target just got a whole lot more difficult.

It goes hand in hand. Red players will be harder to come by and they will be a lot harder to reach, much more alert and ready for a fight than they used to be. Eventually most of them will be relegated to the lawless zones unless they have large guilds that can protect them.

Bounty hunting doesnt need to be easier for blues. They just need to learn how to be patient and pick their times more astutely. There is nothing stopping them from organizing or making large parties.

You say you want a more fair fight, but thats not what bounty hunting is about. If it was fair the target would get a notice that bounty hunters are about. They would see the BH a different color. They would be allowed to prepare and be ready for the “fair” fight. But its not. The BH gets to dictate when and how the fight happens, has the element of surprise and usually gets the first shot in. Nothing fair about it.

You dont want fair. You want easy. Thats what annoyed me.

 

[Sally]

You are wrong. What was annoying about your post is how you are crying for help making your experience as a bounty hunter easier, when the experience of your target just got a whole lot more difficult.

It goes hand in hand. Red players will be harder to come by and they will be a lot harder to reach, much more alert and ready for a fight than they used to be. Eventually most of them will be relegated to the lawless zones unless they have large guilds that can protect them.

Bounty hunting doesnt need to be easier for blues. They just need to learn how to be patient and pick their times more astutely. There is nothing stopping them from organizing or making large parties.

You say you want a more fair fight, but thats not what bounty hunting is about. If it was fair the target would get a notice that bounty hunters are about. They would be allowed to prepare and be ready for the “fair” fight. But its not. The BH gets to dictate when and how the fight happens and usually gets the first shot in. Nothing fair about it.

You dont want fair. You want easy. Thats what annoyed me.

See, what i'm asking for is the OPTION to organize. People can still go on a solo hunt if they want. They can wait six days for an opportunity to arise.

There is a huge hurdle stopping bounty hunters from organizing : You don't know who has the same bounty, and you have no way of communicating it to them outside of a local area. Second, maybe it isn't even possible for multiple bounty hunters to take the same contract, perhaps someone can confirm that for me.

Am i meant to pay people for a bounty that will only net me 4 gold as a reward? Or am i supposed to convince them verbally or otherwise? They have no reason to go on this bounty hunt, which will likely net them nothing and take hours unless you can give them one.

You say "pick their times". I already covered that argument. The "pick your time" approach may have you waiting forever, that time may never come up. Now, how do we weigh the value of the time spent waiting? By the reward. Is the reward worth waiting potentially hours, even days, for a moment that will not come? In that time, the gold you could make could be in the hundreds or even thousands. But we should wait instead? Where is the incentive?

No. You get hardly anything for these bounties. You get an experience, that is it. An unfair experience where you're supposed to strike at an opportune moment in a game with no stealth mechanics.