Hello together,
The bounty hunter npc's ingame act like a house police in every system they are in. They scan for contraband and demand it if found. They also help out police, if they get into trouble (since they are aligned).
Our real police players actually place fines and collect them, and only kill some troublesome folk.
I suggest that this should be possible for BHs too. Bounty hunters should be able to report violations and such forth with proof (screenshot) in an appropriate thread in the forum of the house police. Fines then will be released and upon retrieval of them they get shared among the BH that reported the violation.
Bounty Hunters should too be able to handle smugglers, if they try to flee.. shoot them. If they don't cooperate shoot them.
I always though of bounty hunters as a freelance police which is allowed in several systems, having the same rights as police regarding unlawful actions of others. But bounty hunters do all their stuff usually for money, so to act like police they need a share of the fines they place.
Bounty Hunters.. < read that 'till you get its meaning. 'Kay darling?
Do Bounty Hunters scan for contraband or just for Pirate/Rouge/terrorist and other Bounty Hunters in your hold?
I would think that while working within the boundaries of law Bounty Hunters do not have the right to enforce laws, only to bring in or execute contracts on those wanted by official law enforcement.
bounty hunter
noun
1. a person who hunts outlaws or wild animals for the bounty offered
for capturing or killing them.
2. a person who seeks a reward for recovering valuable property.
3. Slang. a salesman or agent who works for a fee or commission.
The BH NPCs are not looking fopr contraband they are looking for things that will make them boutny money, i.e you're ill gotten pilots. They couldn't give a rat's ass for the law. They just want to claim the bounties you've collected.THe player BHs should be much the same, we stay within the law because it's easier to operate that way, at the heart of it we're mercenary buggers in it for the cash and nothing more. We're are not sirius wide police and there are way too many bounty hunters trying that approach that are giving the long established BH players a hard time ( I am neither established nor trying to police everyone). It is not in our remit to scan for contraband or to arrest smugglers, should we be asked to assist our first response should alwys be to ask for payment details. We hunt bounties, on the spot ones will do just as well as posted ones, so long as the negotiations are conducted first.
there are two variations of how you can think of a BHG.
- they only work when a player has offered a bounty. lately, that hasn t happened too often, and BHGs would be broke very soon if they relied on playerbounties.
- they kos pirates, cause the pilot that drops can be considered a bounty payed at a police station of battleship. since players are basicly = NPCs... a BHG could, with that interpretation kos any player pirate, too ( like pirates tend to kos BHGs )
BHGs working for bounties only works only if lawfuls regularly have bounties up. a BHG cannot survive if he is only doing playerbounty tasks but is attacked-on-sight by any pirate, since it appears to be considered "bad roleplay" when a BHG attacks a pirate on sight.
in the end, its up to what one wants. if a BHG finances himself completely by bounties, he ll be bankrupt soon. its a bit like pirates who try to survive from serious pirating only.
Bounty Hunters are NOT police.....
Ok then, most of you say Bounty Hunters only hunt people/npcs for the bounty on their heads. Why not extend it to cargo? Police sure would place bounty on contraband cargo, giving a reason for bounty hunters to do some scanning. If no police is around, why can't bh take over?
That would also make sense in the BH lore, as BH have bases in lawful space and do represent a force and helps secure space, expecially in border areas (Manchester, Shikuku, Texas), where police is backed up by bh.
Another issue which comes to my mind are mercs. There must be something that differentiates Bounty Hunters from mercs in a distinct way. Some mercs can say they will play lawful and voila are Bounty Hunters with just a bit more weapon and ship variety. Giving the Bounty Hunters more playground by extending what a collectible bounty is would make it more distinct from mercs.
mercenaries are soldiers for hire, bounty hunters are professional headhunters. - so, ... mercs are more the military type that you hire to reinforce your side in a battle, bounty hunters are more the civilian / policing type. - you don t hire BHGs to fight your war.
in order to RP a BHG properly, it requires an enviroment to RP it. when all houses start politics to ban BHGs or to not pay anything anymore, there will be no more BHG anymore. in terms of usefulness.
the NPCs rely on the BHG, aswell as they dislike them. the playerfactions dislike BHGs for the most part. - hard to integrate them into discovery properly. - we got too many factions that claim to act autonomous and without the need of any help. - thats when you get the BHGs acting like police / shooting pirates without bounty, cause they have nothing to do... no bounties, no bounty hunters. end of the faction.
superfly,why not extend it for cargo?because then you ahve from BH universal sirius police. and bounty has nothing with cargo.when you will scan cargo, buy house police id or military id.