Bounty Hunter Archive

I support elimintating the xp loss for Jedi.

Yes, I am a Jedi, but hear me out for a moment. I have only ever lost about 140k xp (one loss to a BH), so its not as if I am overly worried about my own personal safety. I can deal with it. XP loss does NOT limit the number of Jedi. For most Jedi, I dare say it doesn't even slow down their progression much for it to be a worthwhile penalty. For the rest, the penalty is probably too harsh, bordering on grief (even if it is not intentional).

The paradox of the xp loss system is that it punishes the newbs too harshly, and means little or nothing to the completed templates. It really should be reversed, if anything. XP loss accomplishes NOTHING positive. Not one thing. Unless of course you believe that giving a new Padawan a major setbeck asa positive thing andcausing xp loss gives you the jollies, in which case you need to take a longhard look at yourself...that is a disgusting attitude, and regardless of whatever else I say, 90% of the people here would agree with me on that.

On the contrary, I believe thatxp lossis the single largest cause of tension between the BH and Jedi communities. Regardless of your motivations as a BH (whether it be the thrill of the hunt, the payout, or the griefing that drives you), the Jedi on the other side is going to attribute this setback directly to you. Personally. Simple cause and effect. You kill him, he loses xp as a result, simple cause and effect. Most of them probably know you are just "doing your job", but that does not change the psychological effect that comes from getting sent to the cloner and losing a few hundred thousand xp. At best, the Jedi will be ambivalent. At worst, he will be mad as heck. It does not mean that you deserve to be the object of hate, but it is a fairly natural human response. Sure, we can argue that the person should not have gotten on the terms, and so forth, but those concepts become a bit abstract and intangiblewhen a BH is standing there pounding on you...being on the terms opens you to the hunt, but the DBfrom the BH is the cause of the loss. I am fully aware that this is not a logical viewpoint, and I see the flaws in my arguments - but the root of the problem is, in my opinion,an emotional one, not a logical one.

There are better ways to implement a risk system without generating the hate between thetwo professions. The key is to remove the link that says a death by Bounty Hunter X = Loss of Y. Don't make me get mad at the guy that just sent me to the cloner. Make me get mad at myself, or get mad at a system that randomly sets my punishment. Not that I suggest that any of these are workable in the current system, but a few ideas to give you a general idea:

- Upon death from a BH, destroy one random lightsaber component in my inventory (a crystal, a pearl,a hilt). It would hurt plenty for this to happen. It is deliciously scalable too, as it would likely punish the finished temps harder than the new Paddies. There is a random mechanism involved that a) leaves open the possibility that only a crappy item will be destroyed, and b) directs some of my anger at the random system rather than the BH. Pearl and Crystal drops would have to be fixed before they could dream of doing something like this.

- Do not punish Jedi too hard for a single death, only for cumulative deaths in a set period of time. Two possible ways of implementing this, for sake of argument lets say that the timeframe is14 days: First, you could give no loss for any deaths until (for example) the 5th death over that time frame. When that last death occurs within the set time, the xp loss is severe. Or second, you could simply start with a small loss on the first death with incremental increases with each successive death. This changes the dynamic a bit, because it makes ME feel more responsible for my losses, and gives me a way to reducepenalties by either being more careful, or logging off for a few days to reset the penalties. Careless people would get punished more severely.

-Temporary skillloss. For a day, or a week, or whatever - we will just use 1 day as an example. If I get killed, I will temporarily lose the benefits of a random top level box in my template (even a master box). The skills will automatically return after 24 hours, without having to regrind. While the box is disabled, I cannot train anything higher in the same tree. Successive deaths result in additional boxes being disabled, but skills will only return at a rate of one box per 24 hours. Nicely scalable punishment - an annoying inconvenience to the new Paddy, and a big pain in the butt for the uber Theed PvP Jedi who lose their MLS box for a day. Continues to punish the careless, but gives the rest more control and responsibility over the loss incurred. Less hate for the BH that sent you tothe cloner.

Anyway, that is just a few ideas of how I think the punishment system could be improved. The focus should be in removing the immediate tension between the Jedi and the BH that is trying to kill him. The xp loss system as it works now has no positive value, but there are definitely negative side effects.