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Placing a Bounty. - Printable Version

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Placing a Bounty. - looqas - 01-28-2009

Now I have more time to refine my thoughts, so here we go.

Personally I think LPI and BHG (along with BAF and BPA) blanket bounties are very good examples how to place a blanket bounty that has all the good elements of any bounty: ZOI, ship class, how much all heads are worth and who can collect them. And all those 4 items are in those said posts well within RP. They make common sense.

If the bountied party ventures to opposition's "home turf" then it should not be a walk in the park. And as such a bounty makes sense. But placing a bounty to some area that is not exactly your core operation just sounds wrong no matter how well meaning it is.

But placing a blanket bounty on the enemy territory is problematic to say the least. I think BHG's blanket in Gamma and Alpha is cool since it has strict rules of limiting ship to be used in collection. I don't have a Corsair char, so I don't really know how bad the collecting is right now. Still the regulations in this particular bounty leave a door opening for abuse (namely GB horde).

Also placing a blanket bounty seriously can hamper your own game time. You have to pay up, report it and what-not.

Of course the simplest way to not endorse a bounty that seems bit off is to ignore it. Not to go chasing it. All bounties that have not been responded within 2 months are erased, so...



All in all. I think we are heading in the right direction with the bounties in general. Things are still in the shaping phase. Personally I think the blanket bounties are a good thing and promote RP. It forces at least one of the participants to talk (the hunter).


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Personal puff to hope to see some change and make thing easier to all the pirates and hunters:

All I could hope for is for those who place the bounties would edit the subtitle to say something like CLOSED if the bounty have been fulfilled/closed. Also edit the first post to read CLOSED if it is indeed closed. And also edit the first post to have include the "Added bounties", so they don't drown in page 4 amidst the collection reports.


Placing a Bounty. - Baltar - 01-28-2009

' Wrote:I have heard so much whinging about how the BHG is supposed to be played, I could puke blood. A lot of what you guys are proposing is so absurdly limiting of how the id can be played that it beggars belief. Do any of you actually play hunters? If not, why not? Honestly, where have you guys been? Sigma 13? Omicron Gamma? The rest of Sirius is a lot better and a lot different to those places.

Well ... its refreshing to know that BHG are in the limelight on this now and not pirates. Pirates are usually on the receiving end of whiners. Don't have a hunter but I do have a merc that does take on bounties. But I refuse to take on generics. And yes ... I explore all of Sirius.

Players have been sanctioned for attacking without bounties and breaking the terms of bounties. And now, you're suggesting that the lawful forces have to provide a list of the names of criminals within their jurisdiction. So, just because someone hasn't named, for example, every single pilot in a Corsair lunchbox who wanders into Cambridge orbit and shoots the place up, they get to continue to play without consequences. Sounds like piracy would be super-boring and unimaginative.

That's the point behind having a bounty on you. If you don't have a specific bounty on YOUR name ... kinda makes the rule meaningless doesn't it? Think about it. If everyone posts generic bounties ... then the bounty hunters would have no need whatsoever to even glance at the forums to determine if a bounty exists. By default they can make an assumption ... "well, if this guy doesn't have a bounty on him by name ... at least I can kill him for the generic bounty."

How did these pirates acquire their repuations and IDs? Peeling potatoes in a chip shop on Cambridge?

Read the Pirate ID ... it says we can trade as well. My pirate actually moves water, food and medicine among various friendly and allied bases. Kinda goes along with what you said about "how the ID can be played."

If you think you've been mistreated in game by a hunter, report him. It's that simple. That includes if you were the target of these "very bad" blanket bounties. How are they bad? They permit hunters to intercept pirates in certain places while using certain ships? They mean that when a pirate crosses a frontier, he can't be chased?

If I report a bounty hunter for killing me without a bounty, will said bounty hunter be sanctioned? My guess is "no" since there are so many generic bounties out there he can lie and claim he was hunting for one of them. He'd get away with it too since nearly every lawful faction has posted a generic bounty to loophole the rule.

I'm pretty sure most pirates would much prefer if we hunted using piranhas and our powers of persuasion. It just seems some people will never be happy with the BHG. They complain about capships. They complain about gunships. They complain about jurisdictional and contractual limitations being put on hunters. They complain when they get chased by a guy in a sea serpent. This all sounds like poor sportsmanship and, frankly, a lot of whining. How much of this debate is generated because people lose combats? Probably wouldn't find many threads popping up if people were killing hunters at every turn....which they can do...and there is no rule saying you can't juts randomly kill every BHG ID ship if you are an unlawful.

Don't take the pendulum to the extreme. Nobody is asking for the complete opposite extreme. We're just tired of the capwhore BHG that we've been experiencing. It doesn't take much to kill a gunboat. But the BH BC cuts through a gunboat like hot knife through butter. Tell me ... do you go deer hunting with a bazooka? Won't get much meat from your kill. And with such firepower ... in role play you'd have no evidence to bring back in order to collect the bounty. And the complaints you are listing here are the exact same type complaints traders have been making about pirates. Sportsmanship means everyone has fun. There's no sportsmanship in over-classing your opponent to the point your opponent cannot compete. At least the trader has a fighting chance.

As for the /renameme command, you might have noticed how most factionised hunters objected to the /setbounty command being introduced on the grounds that it would destroy the forum RP behind bounties.

Never heard of the /setbounty command ... so not sure what your argument is here.


' Wrote:Dark Oddity answered the question you posed.

DarkOddity posted after me ... right?

It's the individual players responsibility to role play his ship correctly, based on what he's in and what he's supposed to be doing. If the PERSON is playing the BH correctly, then it's all good. If the PERSON is playing the pirate correctly, again, it's all good. (Just ask Kate.Donnely with the Molly's - as the CO of the S/D-Surma, I've had several fun encounters with her, some of which have ended in pew-pew and some which have not. We enjoy the RP and banter back and forth.)

True ... but apparently it doesn't matter what a pirate does ... he's always told he's OORP. Let me know what you think of your encounter with my Black.Pearl. Have you ever encountered me? If not ... then you really cannot compare me to any other pirate ... can you?

I've had many interesting RP encounters out in the Gamma, Delta, and Kappa with both my BH and non-BH characters. And with a corsair character, I've also been on the receiving end of a gank attack, albeit by Outcasts and not hunters. The ship is irrelevant (other than survivability against NPC attacks). The player makes the difference.

Congrats ... but 90% gank attack I've encountered have been by hunters. The other 10% have been in Liberty. Liberty has gotten much better in recent days. [LN] has done a pretty good job. Bounty Hunters are the only group where 90% of those I've encountered have been in battle cruisers or battleships. Sorry ... but I've only meet a few hunters that I've considered good role players (those that are actually looking for a "hunt"). You guys are supposed to be hunters ... a good hunter will stalk his prey ... a good hunter will not go after a doe or a faun when he's got a buck tag. Track the buck and take him down. The hunt is far more "sportsmanlike" than just shooting at whatever happens along your path.


Listen folks ... I'm all for a good hunt ... being hunted by hunters and me hunting traders. I just don't want it cheapened by generic bounties. I pick and choose my targets. I don't take on every freighter, transport or liner that crosses my path. You pick and choose the one that's worth the most ... and you make exceptions. A doe and a faun in my book would be Zoners, Junkers, GMG (Kishira because of their rep with GMG) and other friendlies. I go after the bucks ... house traders and such. House traders are supporting oppressors. Because of them I must move water, food, medicine and other such commodities between the oppressed throughout Sirius. Are you guys catching on to my role play here? What one man calls a criminal another calls a freedom fighter. Think Robin Hood folks. If you wanna hunt me ... then place a bounty on me for something I actually do. But don't cheapen fun because you're too lazy to check the forums and compile a list for your day's hunt. Prep your battle field by doing a bit of research and conduct some intell. Then grab your gun and go on the hunt. But don't shoot a duck with a machine gun ... no sport in that.

Moved to Bounty Discussion thread




Placing a Bounty. - Baltar - 01-28-2009

Here's something to consider as well:

- Bretonia and Kusari are on unfriendly terms (on and off conflict on their borders with each other).

- Pirates who conduct their piracy against Kusari and do not bother Bretonian traders would likely be recognized by Bretonia as tolerable. These pirates ... in role play ... would not be bountied by Bretonia. But they would be bountied by Kusari. And of course ... BHG could not collect a Kusari bounty due to reps.

- Same would go with GMG and Rheinland. GMG are not friends of Rheinland ... at best they are "pink" with one another. Piracy on Rheinland traders in the Sigmas would likely cause the GMG to turn their eyes from these pirate's activities. However GMG are friendly with Kusari so piracy of a Kusari trader might draw attention from GMG.

- Bounties should be placed on unlawfuls based on their reps with those being pirated (as illustrated above). Generic bounties do not take these situations into account. Perhaps a better way to post a bounty would be if the pirate is actively pirating within your house. But if he's pirating your enemy ... turn the other way as if you are unaware of his presence or activities.



Placing a Bounty. - Athenian - 01-28-2009

' Wrote:If I report a bounty hunter for killing me without a bounty, will said bounty hunter be sanctioned? My guess is "no" since there are so many generic bounties out there he can lie and claim he was hunting for one of them. He'd get away with it too since nearly every lawful faction has posted a generic bounty to loophole the rule.
People have been sanctioned for that in the past week.

As for the /setbounty and /renameme commands...

/renameme makes named bounties practically impossible to set, let alone collect on. The BPA set bounties on countless individuals who shot up New London, attacked police officers (most of whom RP with the intent of an arrest rather than a fight). We had cases where people renamed their characters changing a single letter to avoid the consequences.
When the /setbounty command was being proposed, many of us raised an objection on the grounds that it would encourage a rush to kill someone who logged on without any decent RP - in game or on the forum.

I know the bounties that are out there pretty well. And there are a lot of places and circumstances where anyone killing a pirate is beyond his jurisdiction. For example, the BPA does not license any attacks on Outcasts.

If you kill Corsair fighters in a Battlecruiser then, based on the current bounties, you are out of order. If someone does this, they are, in my opinion as a player, abusing the game.

Having said that, pirates sitting on trade lanes within 10k of a House planet deserve what they get. Pirates that sit in New London orbit ganking ships wthout so much as a by your leave deserve what they get.

What they should get is RP. An opportunity to surrender or defend themselves. And a bashing if they won't come quietly. In all my time asking people to give themselves up, only ONE player has surrendered - elgatodiablo. I caught him pirating a trader in Cambridge; he knew he was outgunned and his ship was boarded and his character put in restraints until the cops arrived. He was the subject of a blanket bounty. Compare this to my experience of hunting a named criminal and trapping him in Newark Station (he docked when he was informed that we were taking him into custody). We tried, in vain, to RP a sitaution that had him locked in a docking bay with a squad of hunters trying to force their way in. What we got in return was ooc waffle and a departing player message.

As Agmen said, it's the players that make this game what it is.


Moved to Bounty Discussion thread



Placing a Bounty. - Athenian - 01-28-2009

' Wrote:Here's something to consider as well:

- Bretonia and Kusari are on unfriendly terms (on and off conflict on their borders with each other).

- Pirates who conduct their piracy against Kusari and do not bother Bretonian traders would likely be recognized by Bretonia as tolerable. These pirates ... in role play ... would not be bountied by Bretonia. But they would be bountied by Kusari. And of course ... BHG could not collect a Kusari bounty due to reps.

- Same would go with GMG and Rheinland. GMG are not friends of Rheinland ... at best they are "pink" with one another. Piracy on Rheinland traders in the Sigmas would likely cause the GMG to turn their eyes from these pirate's activities. However GMG are friendly with Kusari so piracy of a Kusari trader might draw attention from GMG.

- Bounties should be placed on unlawfuls based on their reps with those being pirated (as illustrated above). Generic bounties do not take these situations into account. Perhaps a better way to post a bounty would be if the pirate is actively pirating within your house. But if he's pirating your enemy ... turn the other way as if you are unaware of his presence or activities.

It might be an idea to remove holders of independent pirate i.d.'s from certain bounties. That way, the authorities are targetting organised crime and members of known criminal gangs.


Placing a Bounty. - looqas - 01-28-2009

' Wrote:Listen folks ... I'm all for a good hunt ... being hunted by hunters and me hunting traders. I just don't want it cheapened by generic bounties. I pick and choose my targets. I don't take on every freighter, transport or liner that crosses my path. You pick and choose the one that's worth the most ... and you make exceptions. A doe and a faun in my book would be Zoners, Junkers, GMG (Kishira because of their rep with GMG) and other friendlies. I go after the bucks ... house traders and such. House traders are supporting oppressors. Because of them I must move water, food, medicine and other such commodities between the oppressed throughout Sirius. Are you guys catching on to my role play here? What one man calls a criminal another calls a freedom fighter. Think Robin Hood folks. If you wanna hunt me ... then place a bounty on me for something I actually do. But don't cheapen fun because you're too lazy to check the forums and compile a list for your day's hunt. Prep your battle field by doing a bit of research and conduct some intell. Then grab your gun and go on the hunt. But don't shoot a duck with a machine gun ... no sport in that.

Moved to Bounty Discussion thread

I kinda agree with you there on some points. This is discussion about the blanket bounties after all. The good and the bad sides.

But before going to discussion about the blanket bounties I'd like to comment about what you said.

Do you have any idea how much time I use to keep a list of applicable bounties up-to date? It's much more work than actually hopping on the server and going RP in my pirate and possibly reporting it in the dump. Browsing through the list to see if it fits it takes time. Or have you ever taken a look at the posts Athenian makes to bounty boards? The amount of time he uses just to compose one good bounty claim. And how much background work any of the S/D puts in there, doing intel and such?

The way I work and I see most of the S/D work too is that if they see specific bounty we go after him, but if there are no specifics around we patrol and see if we can catch any blanket bounties. So you could say you very, very rarely see S/D guys out of house space.

Certainly I've made mistakes in engaging when there is no bounty in place. But those have been honest mistakes.

How does a generic bounty cheapen the hunt? The RP has to be there too. Most likely you'll get same kind of RP whether you have a specific bounty on you or not. Sometimes it can be even worse. Almost all of the blanket bounties restrict the hunters to use small ships whereas many specific bounties is free of all ships. I'll rather have those hunters come at me in bomber and fighters than in BH BCs.

And I think it even help the pirates to have a blanket bounty on them. If a hunter comes at you and says there's a bounty on you and I lose, get pissed at the hunter then storm to forums to find out if he was telling me the truth. As a pirate you should also be aware of the bounties on you, so you spend time searching for the bounty too.


I've got both pirate chars and hunter chars. So I see both sides. I find that playing hunter actually demands more. More RP and more restrictions are placed on you. And there are bounties on hunters as well so you'll have to keep your eyes open to Mercs and Freelancers as well. They can fly next to you and announce that you are on the list and deliver that sucker punch. Nobody forces me to play the hunter, but I find it interesting. But what would be the fun if everybody played cops and robbers?

At least when I'm on my pirate I have a pretty clear and definite idea who my enemies are, whereas in hunter the solution is not just alt-tab and check the list. This ends me dead or quarry 15k away. So those REASONABLE blanket bounties help me catch the guy.

And I think we are slowly moving in the right direction with these blankets. True, blanket bounties are open to abuse but I started this thread to negate that and raise the profile and discussion of such abuse cases.



Quote:- Bounties should be placed on unlawfuls based on their reps with those being pirated (as illustrated above). Generic bounties do not take these situations into account. Perhaps a better way to post a bounty would be if the pirate is actively pirating within your house. But if he's pirating your enemy ... turn the other way as if you are unaware of his presence or activities.

Currently the blanket bounties (what I consider to be in RP and thus have included in my own list, not Sigma bounties) have very clear ZOIs and/or restrictions. I don't find the current blankets to be that problematic really if done correctly. It's totally up-to the ones who place the bounty how to restrict the terms. Mostly the blanket bounties consist of house spaces. Any criminal should be hunted when he crosses to house space. It's the risk that comes with the territory.


And I've learned a long time ago not to judge a faction based on the works of the individual(s). Be that pirate, trader, lawful or hunter. There are stereotypes and I make fun of them, but I can tell the difference in the server. The reputation of an individual or a player group is earned over time. The reputation can be either good or bad. Everyone in the server has that luxury and will eventually make a name for themselves (be that good or bad).


Placing a Bounty. - Zapp - 01-28-2009

If you see BH battleships and battlecruisers floating around claiming to cash in on generic bounties, know that almost every generic bounty sets ship-limits on what you can kill. The only reason I'm so lenient on BH caps in the Core bounty thread is because that's where the capitals are being told to go, and where they're supposed to be. The entire point was to entice them to Delta and the other deep Omicrons, where its 75% caps, 10% artifact smugglers, and 15% fighters.


Placing a Bounty. - Baltar - 01-29-2009

' Wrote:It might be an idea to remove holders of independent pirate i.d.'s from certain bounties. That way, the authorities are targetting organised crime and members of known criminal gangs.

Thank you, Athenian. That would alleviate a bulk of my problem with generic bounties. At least your point here meets me on some middle ground on this issue. Both bounty hunters and pirates need to be able to role play their characters. The primary reason Black.Pearl has been "inactive" in piracy for over 3 months is due to the BHG BC's that over-populated Sig 13 a while back. It got to the point that a pirates ability to role play a pirate was completely gone. I moved Black.Pearl to Sig 13 for the specific reason that Liberty was too difficult to pirate in because of we were always outgunned. Liberty was effective in running off most pirates. Rheinland is the same ... too difficult to hang around there. So I moved to somewhere I could operate and role play my character freely. Next came the BH caps ... they showed up in groups of 2 or 3 BC's and battleships ... some even hanging out less than 2k from Yanagi. It got so bad that I had to give up piracy completely and move back to Liberty. Black.Pearl has (for the last 3 months) been moving water, food and medicines between Junker, Hacker and Rogue bases. I can't role play a pirate in an environment where every bounty hunter shows up when I login.

We need some balance ... hunter need to be able to hunt ... and pirates need to be able to pirate.

' Wrote:Do you have any idea how much time I use to keep a list of applicable bounties up-to date? It's much more work than actually hopping on the server and going RP in my pirate and possibly reporting it in the dump. Browsing through the list to see if it fits it takes time. Or have you ever taken a look at the posts Athenian makes to bounty boards? The amount of time he uses just to compose one good bounty claim. And how much background work any of the S/D puts in there, doing intel and such?

Yes ... I understand it is cumbersome to keep a list of bounties. But you cannot use this as an excuse to put everyone under the gun. As I mentioned above ... we need some middle ground here. I want to be able to role play my pirate as a pirate and you wanna be able to role play your hunter as a hunter.

And I know full well there are absolutely no bounties with my name on them because I've been inactive for over 3 months. So unless someone has a grudge against me (personally or otherwise) you won't find one with Black.Pearl listed. But I'm gonna get ganked anyway because the generic bounties are gonna be used against me.

Middle ground please ... PLEASE.



Placing a Bounty. - Drake - 01-29-2009

Well, blanket bounties on all members of certain factions is canon, and they're the only way BHG characters can do much outside of the Omicrons. You could limit them to only faction pirates, not generic, but then you end up with generic pirates pirating and going untouched by hunters because the authorities haven't gotten around to putting a specific bounty on his head, probably because it's largely futile when they can just change their name with a couple mil and a console command.


Placing a Bounty. - Baltar - 01-29-2009

Drake,

How many "generic" Pirate ID'd pirates are out there these days? Since they are the minority they should be easier to post specific bounties on.

Believe me ... BELIEVE ME ... I'm not going untouched. I've been effectively put out of business (role play or otherwise) because of the over population of bounty hunters in Sigma 13. Did I mention I've been inactive for over 3 months?

And trust me ... Black.Pearl has NO intention of changing names. Any pirate that would utilize the /renameme command is not here for role play. Don't punish me because of a few bad apples. Otherwise ... don't get all upset if I lump your bounty hunter in with the OORP capwhoring hunters. Its not a fair analogy for either of us to be lumped in with these OORP idiots. So please don't go down this road.

Black.Pearl has been Black.Pearl for over a year ... I've worked freaking hard building up my role play for this pirate ... don't cheapen me because you met one or two out there that have placed no investment in their pirates.