Cheapo bounties - well, you get what you paid for. Offer a measly 50k and either I won't be bothered to shoot you or I will probably shoot you in passing and not post the claim because uploading to photobucket is way less fun than seeking further pew-pew.
Blanket bounties are indeed so I can shoot without fear of getting rule-lawyered by the kind of imbecile who brags about his pirating ways and then gets all in your face and sanctiony because you found them and shot them and laughed at the end of their run of luck picking on traders, stealing their lunch money and giving them wedgies.
In an ideal world, the Houses would say "Yeah, hunt them" but that isn't always the way. In dealing with other players, players can let personal taste or even differences between personalities get in the way of role-play.
Example:
In game: rumours re hunters killing Blood Dragons in Shikoku.
Reality: Hunters are as welcome in Kusari as a bad dose of herpes.
Example:
In game: hunters shoot up anyone carrying contraband anywhere.
Reality: You get reminded you are not Sirius wide police and told to not be such a tard.
Example:
In game: hunters ambush you at jumpholes and attack you three to one
Reality: Many blanket bounties make a set of demands that mean you spend half your time alt-tabbing to make sure you have the right number of screenshots or that you kill them while flying an unarmoured heavy fighter against anything smaller than a bomber. Attack in three light fighters against two bombers and you are "ganking" someone.
People always try to find loopholes. One example I can think of is the guy who threatened to report me because his bountied ship was a different spelling from the one I shot. When I say spelling, I mean he had a full stop at the end of it. That's the level of silliness one can expect to encounter.
The rules have gotten awfully swollen about putting hunters in their boxes. We actually have to rely almost completely on other players to generate reasons for us to log on our ships. Thankfully people like Wolfspirit have shown the way with renewable contracts that set clear guidelines on what we do. But what do I do when Wolfspirit decides he's had it with Discovery/computers/playing Daumann? Well, simple. I want my PvP I go make a pirate and shoot everything that moves.
Nooblet's bounty doesn't really affect hunters, seeing as he targetted a heap of lawful factions in his quest to monopolise owenership of all the shiny rocks in half the galaxy. Is it stretching the bounds of credibility for a non-affiliated mining magnate to engage in a form of corporate war with all his competitors? Well, only as incredible as the idea that miners might, in the time-honoured phrase, "hire an escort". Enough F1's! Enough not paying taxes! Share the wealth, you cheapskates.
We have a broader system that favours pirate players by granting them freedom to maim, rob and kill with impunity. It's one of the reasons why we have so many ships of the unlawful kind than lawful kind on the server. Let them off, I say. More of them for a few dedicated people to organise and hunt.
I favour a system that allows one to generate as much cash in an hour hunting pirates as piracy or mining. If we set a minimum on bounties that will lead to one of two consequences:
a: bounties will pay more, be more rewarding and draw more attention and people will think carefully before making balnket bounties that are spurious or in danger of turning the server into a version of Counter-strike
b: there will be less bounties and IDs that have to rely on them (ie the casual BHG player like me) will find our beloved role-play and faction play dead in the water.
Here's my suggestion:
Make bounties where someone is targetting a specific group or individuals have a minimum of 5 million
Change the regular BHG ID to include the line "May hunt pirates across Sirius" and allow BHG players play the role they have chosen. We do it for everyone else, why not them. The days of the overpowered 4.84 gunship and cruisers in New York are gone. Restrict the regular BHG ID to gunship or smaller (not the Orca). The gunship is vulnerable enough to need support and encourage co-operative play.
But time enough to throw snide remark. (Acer model is it?) Reply in full or maybe not at all if all you're going to be like that.
The current silly bounty system and silly restrictions on a ID I like playing occasionally are a relic of sillier times.
Do you remember....?
The forum bounty thing was to stop mercenaries from promiscuous pewpew.
The BHG restrictions stem form a time when no one had the sense to remove the .84 gunship from general circulation (wheee...patriot hitbox, six turrets, could hold Cap 8, GB energy plant.... Sunday was hunt the lunchboxes day - they were so easy to solo!)
You (or rather some people) could happily fly BHG battlecruisers into NY and chase Xeno light fighters north of New York (It was depressing)
Vanilla ships + GB missile spam = happy hunting grounds, but unhappy Xenos in Eagles (A sad relic of Vanilla which the Manta suffered form as well; one nuke and it wnet boom)
Now, we have a new set of ID's and a new shipline. And unfortunately a new generation of players who have grown up in a completely skewed gaming environment where being an unlawful possesses significant advantages over playing a lawful. You know who they are.
And before you go all in my face about my motives - I play a Corsair. It's becoming one of the less well subscribed unlawfuls (Hessians are all the rage now). I can basically pew pew literally anything I see. I just demand cash. Generally people say no. Not only that but I can do it in any ship short of a cruiser.
That's in it's (at least) third version. Why? Because nobody ever pays attention to it. I don't think the bounty payments are -that- low. I think it's that it's too much of a hassle to remember any target names/when you can collect.
I've tried playing a merc, it's not fun. You practically need dual screens and a ream of paper to make sure x person is worth your time.
When I'm robbing people, and they go "i'm going to bounty you" I shrug and know that the bounty is going to fall off the main page in a day, and be removed at the end of the month.
Maybe a FLHook system that pays BHG IDs something like 1 million for every pirate ID'd player they kill, collectable 4 times within a 24 hour period, will help revive interest?
Blanket bounties aren't the problem, the problem is that hunters are almost paralyzed by the rules. Even if a good hunter like Athenian or Agmen slips up, pops a guy cause they think there's a bounty on him/blanket bounty covers him, and it doesn't, that's a sanction. Which, quite frankly is kinda bull. Now that the DW are gone, maybe we can restore Bounty Hunting to its former enjoyment.
I do agree the current system is broken. However, I really don't want to see a new system put in place until is has been on the discussion table for awhile. Replacing a broken system with one that was thought up rather quickly and not fully worked out will only cause headaches.
I have one merc and I don't play it because most of the bounties I would have a chance at aren't worth the time nor the effort. I'd like to see a minimum credit set for each bounty.
One problem I hope to be addressed is this:
Quote:Cheapo bounties - well, you get what you paid for. Offer a measly 50k and either I won't be bothered to shoot you or I will probably shoot you in passing and not post the claim because uploading to photobucket is way less fun than seeking further pew-pew.
InRP you wouldn't engage unless you plan to collect payment. Hunters don't work for free. They aren't the police. They don't care if a Xeno is pirating unless someone pays them to care.
Quote:Change the regular BHG ID to include the line "May hunt pirates across Sirius" and allow BHG players play the role they have chosen.
You are not roleplaying a hunter if you are doing it for free. That would be a Vigilante.
I will agree that placing a minimum credit on bounties would hurt the BHG. Your brothers over at the MM won't be affected though. They operate under contract, why can't the BHG operate in the same fashion?
' Wrote:Or...
Why don't we let Bounty Hunters hunt without bounties?
Simplify, simplify.
The unlawful to lawful ratio is quite tipped as it is, nothing to worry about.
Not sure, I think it has something to do with a Bounty Hunter, hunting people for the bounty on their head. Someone hunting an unlawful because they are unlawful and not for the bounty isn't a bounty hunter, they are a vigilante or the 5o.
Set minimums for bounties. Then the BHG can RP with the house governments for rights to police their systems at will under contract. This contract could state that the BHG assists the LPI in policing Liberty for a set period of time for XX mil credits. Liberty has a set number of kills they want per month/week/whatever. Hunters can still hunt on the cheap but the actual Bounty System has minimum sets.
This wouldn't prevent other groups that hunt for bounties (CoC, MM) to pursue similar contracts.
Athenian... Just for you I'll repeat my point about the BHG one more time.
I clearly stated that the ID should be changed. That the system of may and may not is weighted unfairly against them and in favor of the unlawfolols.
It is absurd that the BHG would get screamed at for pew pewing folks across Sirius when the pirate ID allows for the exact same thing and is used as such on the regular.
I also agree that the current system for gleaning contracts is insufficient. No one person has taken the time or energy to really upkeep the system. It would be a persistent ordeal and likely a thankless job.
I have a pair of ideas which may address these issues. I'll try to flesh them out today and see if they may be made into a practical model for data storage and recollection. In game concepts in my head rely on a notebook system or the ability to store common information. Such as, say, a mercenary network where you can recall a list of bountied names on the fly. /access Mandalorians 12345 *names are listed etc*
/access Xenos 12345 *instructions for the day are listed*
Basically a network which has an admin who can write the information and assign a password and code which allows common access.
Forum ideas are pretty labor intensive. I have one in the works right now that has been built on for a while now with another fellow.
That being said. To address the main issue.
-The BHG demands universal bounties to shoot people. This is not helping discovery. The bounty system needs to be changed. Ergo to survive the BHG ID will be remedied. Simple as that.
Thoughts.
' Wrote:Or...
Why don't we let Bounty Hunters hunt without bounties?
Simplify, simplify.
The unlawful to lawful ratio is quite tipped as it is, nothing to worry about.
Exactly. What I frekking said twice over ffs. Now three effing times. Gar.
Hunt without bounties. Houses allow/disallow targets based on the local flavor. The BHG is contracted by them so it stands to reason that said houses have the authority to dictate such things. I only say as places like Bretonia might not wish a BHG to hunt Outcasts in Leeds etc.
Of course that is complicating things by one step. Most of Disco can't handle one step of complication.
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