I would like to suggest a complete overhaul of the bounty system.
A new bounty system should have 3 things…
- Uncheatable by those the bounty is put on.
- Be a point of pain for those with a bounty on them.
- Be a real reward for bounty hunters.
Why will this benefit Low Sec? Because if it creates a real profession out of bounty hunting, then more people will take part in it and will go to Low Sec since this is where the Pirates are. This will encourage more people to be in Low Sec, which will be better for everyone living there, both bears and pirates.
I know I did not specifically mention ways to overhaul the bounty system, but that’s because there are a few ways to do it… and I wanted this to just be a first step to acknowledge that this system needed fixed.
Comments (6)
I agree and have been thinking about this myself.
Currently a pilot can go -1.9, obtain a bounty then rat his sec up gradually while flying through high sec.
I believe a bounty on a pilot should not restrict his travel but enable him to be agressed in high sec (obiously he can return fire) and podded for the bounty.
This would see the bountied pilot genuinly suffering the consequences of his actions.
Bounties should only be able to be applied by pilot who have lost a ship to the pirate and the pirate should be able to see how has added to his bounty. The bounty system should make the payments open to avoid pilots or their alts placing bounties on themselves for whatever reason they do it atm.
I'd like to see a more effective licencing system with benefits and restrictions, including a Bounty Hunter licence.
I've made a few suggestions for and overhaul of the bounty system.
One of these was a restriction of who can collect the bounties.
To collect a bounty you must be AT WAR with the target, either through your Militia, or Corporation. This encourages bounty hunters to join the factional Militia, and/or form bounty hunting corporations. It makes it a LOT harder to cheat and collect your own bounty.
There are disadvantages in that you won't get paid a bounty for killing targets of opportunity. You would have to plan which bounty target you wanted ahead of time. This is a bit more like real life.
However, it's also a lot harder for the outlaws to cheat now. An outlaw would be less inclined to put a neutral alt in the enemy militia or an enemy 'dummy' corp and declare corp war just to collect the bounty on themselves. If they do, that alt is no longer neutral.
If they get a friend to shoot them, that friend has to pay the war dec cost and then those two corps are at war for a week. Hardly convenient.
I also suggested a Bounty Hunting License.
I'm not sure how this would work, except that you would have to have high standings with either Concord or the Empire you are part of in order to get one.
Perhaps even having the license only available through a Concord NPC agent after completing a bounty hunting mission on an NPC rat. After that, you would have to go through an agent to be able to select a player bounty from the list available at every station. There would be no time limit. To collect on the bounty you would have to show up at the agent's office as well.
Paying a certain amount of money for the bounty hunting license might work as well, since it would be a deterrent for some people.
What Community member said makes sense as well. There should be NO COST to declare corporate war on a Pirate or his/ her corp. Also, there should be NO PENALTY for aggressing and podding someone with a bounty in high sec.
Disadvantages: Well as someone pointed out anyone can put a bounty on anyone. If I really didn't like someone just because they were an awesome pilot in the enemy militia, I could just slap a bounty on them to make their lives a little more difficult.
This is another reason why I think outlaw status should be restricted to each empire. An outlaw in Amarr space might be a hero in Minmatar space, and vice versa.
Also, it should be a lot harder for outlaws to dock in high-sec. Why should stations allow an outlaw with a bounty to dock in one of their stations? why would they allow the outlaw to buy a new ship and rearm themselves? This makes no sense, and should be discontinued. After all, the outlaws still have low-sec.
There will still be a few players that would have outlaw status in all Empires. Some players deliberately choose a life of Piracy. Unfortunately, the game makes it too easy to become an outlaw by accident.
I think this is a huge idea, long overdue, and that it would have one of the greatest effects on the dynamic of how low sec operates, not to mention significant positive consequences throughout the game. Among a host of other positive dynamics, pirates would have to become a lot more choosy about their prey, as a matter of cost/benefit analysis, or a willingness to face an escalating danger in reprisal. More nonpirates would be motivated to engage in PVP and, in effect, become a policing force. There is a natural balance inherent in these themes, the romantic pull of flashy piracy and cheap pvp jollies versus culling the overabundance of piracy through a functional bounty system. Everybody wins.
An addition to my earlier comment about NO PENALTY for podding someone with a bounty.
I think this should only apply to red pirates with a bounty. Why should CONCORD care if you go around podding pirates with a low sec rating?
On the other hand, it's easy enough to put a bounty on someone. I could put a bounty on someone just because I don't like them and want someone to pod them, or be able to pod them myself.
Just change the bounty to be tied to hull costs. Its not that hard.
Also, could people please stop writing these massive posts about how to fix the bounty system and having them include "still tied to pod death"? Any bounty system tied to podding will fail, as you have not negated exploitation.
The only way to negate exploitation is to reduce the bounty payout to be less than the real damage done, and with podding there is almost no real damage done.