it is true that the guild is rather a loose collection of hunters that do their own living, leave the core. - however, the primary function of the guild is what can hardly be RPed. - that is the employment office and the forum boards as such.
or put it that way - a normal independent mercenary will do "on the spot" business. he ll travel around sirius guided by news ( thats what they re for ) and rumors.
a bounty hunter will be MUCH more efficient, cause he has access to a complex network of informations and a centralized contract office. - so the guild is not much more than a huge bureaucracy aparatus that allows the members to easily access informations ... and as a result make their life easier in terms of getting a contract.
furthermore, the BHG provides the members with a reputation of a trustworthyness and reliablity of standards that a normal merc cannot do.
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now the problem is that we cannot RP such a function, cause the board does it all for everyone, even freelancers and independent mercenaries. - the only factions that should have such a good organization about information and contracting should be the hackers ( no, i don t see them as gods that can do everything, but rather as "above average" when its about getting informations, but nothing like they re able to get impossible codes for restricted gates or such ), the junkers ( they are supposed to be extremely well connected, but lack the organization, which makes them inefficient - but if you dig hard enough, you get what you want ), the LSF ( microscpicly detailed knowledge about liberty .... and prolly microscopic knowledge when its not liberty ).
what the official faction "could" offer is something that everyone allready has. - thats a sad thing and makes the whole BHG leadership rather useless.
another thing that an official faction can do is to forge contracts with houses to ensure the guild such contracts that the BHG NPCs have - that is.... substitute police and rather free roam on a lawful basis. - but that will never happen cause players are players there and not roleplayers. - so faction players rather die than offer long term contracts to the guild.
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to be more concrete about that faction:
its very solid and tries to copy the aspects of the NPCs much. i don t like the universal bounty on pirate factions by default. - but it would be good if it was a real RP agreement with other factions. in the end, its not the guild that pays the BHG, but its the employee that pays them - while the guild takes a share for its services.
so all the guild really pays is probably repairs and ship replacements. and they offer up contracts for the members while at the same time taking the members cash.
so a way i see it - and its the only really RP way - ..... the BHG faction would do a long term standard contract. ( like rheinland wants all hessians killed and pays 500k for each kill ) - now the BHG faction offers that contract to all BHGs. the BHGs go out for the kill and the guild TAKES 200k from each member that was rewarded with a bounty. - thats how it should be. in return, the guild pays for the repairs of the ship.
about the warships. - one must decide if one wants to RP as hunters or as soldiers. when the faction is the hunters, they should not fly capital ships at all. not even the manta.... . the best ship available to a hunter is the hammerhead / maybe the bomber.
only the soldiers of the BHG that do NOT do contracts fly the very heavy fighters and warships and are restricted to a small ZoI ( minor, delta, alaska ... with raid ZoI : o-100, iota and other wild or nomad systems )
the capital ships of the BHG are not collecting bounties - period. - of course only as long as the pirates RP properly, too and won t ambush the house space in warships themselves. as long as pirates roam in house space with large ships - the guild might do the same. - but thats not a subject of a faction creation.
so, those are just the thoughts i have about the BHG.
Skoorb: I think you misunderstood a point about my bounty board, but it wasn't clearly stated by me...
"-Only Bounty Hunter tagged and ID'd ships can claim bounties"
This means that Bounty Hunters would not have to be excluded by this idea, but mercenaries would get the shove. That's understandable, considering the Syndicate are dealing with the Guild only.
There is a problem with "BH-" only players getting these bounties. It means that it completely excludes any other Bounty Hunter player without that tag. While this does prevent everyone going after these bounties... This does exclude everyone who properly roleplays a member of the Hunter part of the Guild, myself included.
The roleplay of the Trade Syndicate is to offer the Bounty Hunters Guild a contract to kill certain pirates right? If only the "BH-" may take these bounties, it can be derived that other players aren't actually bounty hunters. This does exclude people, not only from the bounties, but from the Guild itself.
If the bounties aren't too profitable, then you don't need these exclusive "BH-" players to have 100% of control over them. By making them based off the pirate's in-game behaviour, instead of just a simple "Kill members of X, Y, Z factions for credits", they won't attract many pvp-whores. In its current state, "BH-" members can kill any member of the aforementioned factions, with little or no roleplay, with little regard for the opposing players.
One idea I had about my participation, would be to have Bounty Hunter Guild Registered players only (IE, the ones on my Registration Database). This means anyone who wants to claim these bounties would have to be registered to the forums. In my opinion, forum participation would improve said players' roleplay and in-game behaviour.
Quote:The main idea behind the BH - tag was to let the pirates know that here comes a bountyhunter to try to take you out. If you find that someone is abusing this or you do not like the way they go about the hunt, their license can always be revoked.
Pirates could read the database and find out any members of the Guild Database (this can be roleplayed as well). When we get enough members, I am going to make a council of sorts. Council members will be able to revoke membership. Subsequently any abusers would not be able to hunt your Trade Syndicate's bounties.
So what effect is this going to have on Bounty Hunters that already have capital ships, if any? I am one of many that have the Battle Cruiser but I'm concerned that a formal faction will stipulate only members can pilot such a vessel. Don't get me wrong, I'd be quite happy to join up, but one problem I have is that I'm not willing to fly around with a NCC for two months, probably replacing it many, many times. In fact, I'm not even going to consider a name change simply because I don't believe it'll ever get done.
I like the idea though, it would make sense to have central, organised list of bounties rather than factions posting their own separate contracts.
Forgive me if I did not see it, what what will your ZOI be? I think people would frown upon you and your faction mates if you just ran all over Sirius killing all these factions when they logged on. You really need a ZOI and if those factions happen to cross through it, then you can hunt them. However, I think hunting them when they log on and crossing 4+ systems just to kill them would be a little extreme.
Other than that, it's kind of short, but that can be changed in time. Add a more detailed Affiliations section to show your attitude towards other factions, that way people know how to approach you if you stumble on to them.
I'm jumping here but i colud have done that in BHL proposal too.
Two very important points were made by Jinx and R. Fitzgerald :
Quote:A bounty hunter will be MUCH more efficient, cause he has access to a complex network of informations and a centralized contract office. - so the guild is not much more than a huge bureaucracy aparatus that allows the members to easily access informations ... and as a result make their life easier in terms of getting a contract.
furthermore, the BHG provides the members with a reputation of a trustworthyness and reliablity of standards that a normal merc cannot do.
Quote:One idea I had about my participation, would be to have Bounty Hunter Guild Registered players only (IE, the ones on my Registration Database). This means anyone who wants to claim these bounties would
have to be registered to the forums. In my opinion, forum participation would improve said players' roleplay and in-game behaviour.
So the last step to build the BH GUILD as an organization. I'm not talking about the Guild Core of course which the purpose is different.
What if some players dedicated to the BHG, shared a single FL account and forum account ?
The purpose is really simple : they are the "council" of the BHG. They will receive contracts (secretly or not) and publish them on Job Board (forum)
A job board is not only on forum IT MUST BE IN GAME. Here comes the shared FL account. Create a BHG|Job board (one or more) connect regulary the job board. Players characters can contact them and be informed of the current bounties. All registered characters (forum list) with a bounty Hunter IFFTag and ID are able to fullfill the contracts (clan tag or not it doesn't matter)
The BHG|job board announces the bounty, take 10% of the bounty for administrative work, and gives the ship class target . A bounty cannot be collected by a ship of a class size greater than the target. i.e. a BC cannot collect a fighter bounty. But two bomber can collect a cruiser bounty.
RPing a "Job Board" can be very simple : consider the ship like a communication relay i.e. a data bank with an IA that can talk. Thus any players behind can RP a job board with "neutrality".
For the contrats : 3 kinds
* Hunt : one kill, the employer send half the money to an BHG|Job board. The BHG job board scan system, contact the nearest BH and assign. That can be done directly In Game
* Nightmare : repetitive kills, the employer send the money for the first shot in advance, that can be done also In Game.
* Firesupport : assistance, contract between the Guild and a house
All contracts can remains secret (PM on the shared forum account or In game with a BHG|Job board).
What is this idea ? Nothing more than what should be an faction : organization open to all "independants". This is not a player clan, it is a support for all the BH characters. But it requires dedicated players. The "council" can be 5 players who are ready to fullfil the job i.e. regular login into Job board characters. The "balance credits" will be updated on the forum to stay clean and clear. The BHG|Job boards pay the bounties and will be in charge to retrieve the money from the client. If a client doesn't pay, you can imagine the consequence of course...
This idea is nothing more than a administrative job, it is the reason why, SHARING is the most important value. Share the work load, share our RP passion for bounty hunter, share our informations. RolePlay all together as a real Guild not a bunch of "red target" for the whole unlawfuls.
I agree with you Family Lance, the Bounty Hunters Guild should be an open organisation, not just a clan.
My idea for the council was to have representatives for the different areas of sirius, who then bring matters related to the Guild to vote. Registered bounty hunters then vote on the issues and decisions are made.
Instead of one "Bounty Hunter Guild" poster, I was thinking to have the different representatives post the new bounties, depending on the contract. If the bounty occurs in Liberty, the Liberty Representative would post it. In the Taus, the Border World representative will post it.
Good idea though. I will probably try and incorporate it when the council gets going...
We will not technically be a clan as of now, a bounty hunter clan doesn't make much sense to me, just a group of licensed Bounty Hunters finding work with traders. There is already a Bounty Office to dispense payments and take contracts. We will be registerring with you Robert soon. Hopefully we can participate in the councel as well.
If we are unable to collect or carry out the execution of the pirates the bounties will be placed and become open to the public after a certain amount of time. There will be a post i will update in the employment thread shortly. If you want to participate by all means contact me or any other BH- in game. This should be fun for all bounty hunters.
I think we all want the same thing, this is just my idea on how to bring to Sirius.
Our ZOI is not realy relevant since we do not protect any given space. We go where the bad guys go to investigate piracy and fulfill contracts. We will RP it of course and try to maintain good relations with all legal factions and respect their wishes. Most of our hunts so far have been in the borderworlds, as they should.
I am thinking of taking the BCers and Cruisers off the list. That is until we start running into a large number of enemy cap ships. No licensed players have on yet, except the BH-Bounty_Office which is a BS that will not be participating in the hunts.
About the capital ships, I would suggest removing them entirely and making Gunships/orcas your maximum level craft. So you'll fly sea serpents, Hammer heads, mantas, BH Bombers and the two gunboats.
Why? Well, you don't need battlecruisers to take on other capitals, bombers can do it as well, plus are in-character. The capitals are for the Core, and the Core don't take bounties.