Bounty Hunter Archive
Thread: My vision of the Bounty Hunter (enhanced content and PVP options)
Message Edited by Aglardae on 08-25-2005 08:31 AM
I'm not saying slicing wouldn't be something to get you noticed, but if you want to have smuggler BH missions, it makes sense to do it in a way that smugglers will support. Smugglers really don't like the whole slicing thing to be the core of our profession, we are smugglers and we would prefer any BH missions to be generated as a result of smuggling missions. Not only is it more appropriate, it is more fun to get a price on your head for smuggling something than sitting in my house slicing armor. Getting visibility for slicing is pretty lame (unless, of course, you also include people caught with sliced goods by scans into the scheme, which is to say if you have sliced goods and are scanned and caught, you get visibility...for if a smuggler gets visibility for slicing a weapon, the person buying that weapon should be equally at risk.) and will only let the devs once more avoid giving us smuggler missions. I think BH's and Smuggler can be closely allied on this issue, since a great number of us want missions with our name, especially if it is part of smuggler content. To tell you the truth, if a system is generated where we get BH missions for slicing, I will simply stop slicing just out of principal. Nothing against BH's, but I wouldn't want to give the Devs the satisfaction of playing that game.
Message Edited by Aglardae on 08-26-2005 03:00 AM
Aglardae wrote:
>> I fail to see why an NCO in the military cannot go out and remove threats to his organization, in-party or not.NCO = Noncommissioned officer = a subordinate officer (as a sergeant) in the army, air force, or marine corps appointed from among enlisted personnelWell I'm afraid you are out of line here. A NCO is military subordinate officer and not a Bounty Hunter. A bounty hunter is not part of any army.If only this aspect of what I proposed here is of any interest to you I am really disppointed. I took some time to think about all this and to write the post. I'd like more comments if possible and not an endless thread about the GCW which is not the main topic of my post here.AglardaeMessage Edited by Aglardae on 08-26-2005 03:00 AM
You are arguing with false misnomers. A bounty hunter is someone, by definition who hunts a criminal or fugitive for a reward. Political and/or military organization has absolutely no effect on this definition. An Imperial Officer excepting payment for going beyond the call of duty and killing a threat to the Empire outside of his squad and engagement of rebels is not out of line. There is absolutely no problem with having an established rank in the Empire and doing other jobs while you are on leave from your typical combatant duties against established enemies. Bounty Hunting does not need to be an "under the table" class, as it is a perfectly legal institution under the Empire as long as it serves the Empire. There is absolutely nothing prohibiting the Empire from hiring "mercenaries" to go out and do whatever is necessary.
I do not support your idea's of Bounty Hunters being a rogue class. It fails to apply the proper definition as to what makes a Bounty Hunter.
Message Edited by WiseBobo on 08-26-2005 03:17 AM
Well I can see where your going with this idea but it is full of flaws. I dont mean to flame, but it looks like an idea conceived by a Padi that has just lost xp and is looking for a way to get some revenge on BHs.
"I know, I'll make my alt a factioned BH then hunt all the *&#?%*^%, griefing Jedi killing Bounty Hunters but they wont be able to hunt me haha because Im protected by my faction"
Sorry, but it just wont float in it's present form. Keep working on it though because there are one or two good ideas in there.
Honestly not a flame, just trying out some constructive critisism.
Aglardae wrote:
>> What about the old Master Bounty Hunters like myself who want to remain within the GCW?
Hi StaeRypher. To be able to answer to this I must ask you these questions:
1- What is a Bounty Hunter for you ?
2- What do you do in GCW as a player with your BH ?
Aglardae
personally, I can't speak for the guy who asked this question first, but I'd like to take this opportunity to point out why I enjoy being an Imperial and a bounty hunter:
1. Roleplay. My toon is a zabrak. While there are people who believe that the Empire tolerates us, we still get the "alien" penalty when it comes to faction perks, so I'm sticking with the idea that Palpatine still doesn't like me all that much. My toon, however, believes very firmly in the principals of the Empire and strives to do all he can to help to bring order to it's citizens. He worked very hard as a stormtrooper and received all the proper promotions and accolades, but when it was time for him to take command of a Star Destroyer, and his commanding officer realized that they'd have a captain running around with tatoos on his face and horns on his head, he had to draw the line. He instead gave Rheso an option that very few enlistees ever receive: The option to enjoy a bit more freedom as a reserve soldier. He maintains his rank as colonel, and still has access to equipment, information, etc. and is called upon to serve actively on an "as-needed" basis. During the time in between campaigns, Rheso utilizes his skill on the battlefield and the resources available to him to enhance his quality of life through bounty hunting.
2. Gameplay. I never give up a mission. Once I have a jedi's mission, the only way it's going to come off of my datapad is if one of us dies or the mission times out and is removed on it's own. I've never been one to drop a mission just because my mark is on Kashyyk or offline, or because I've deemed him/her to be too difficult a challenge. I also don't like to run headfirst into a battle ill-prepared. I like to take my time to try to figure out what my mark is doing so I can deduce where he/she will be going next and arrange to introduce myself there. Sometimes I guess wrong. Sometimes they just sit in their house for a couple of hours before they are disconnected or log out on their own. This means that sometimes find myself in a situation where I'm waiting for my mark to log back in. During this time, as you know, I can't simply take another mission. We're only allowed one BH mission in our datapad at a time. Missions from terminals, on the other hand, are a different story. I can take Imperial missions and run up my FP, XP, and even a few credits while waiting for my mark to log back in or to come out of his/her house. Aside of that, I can also PVP if there is an opportunity to do so while waiting for a mark. PVP keeps you sharp. As a bounty hunter who makes his living on hunting jedi, it pays to stay sharp. With all the jedi in the GCW now, I like the feeling that I have a special role to play when it's time to blow a base up. While the jedi are hacking away at each other upstairs, I'm quietly scanning frequency codes, looking for the correct one to jam so that the BE and smuggler can do their jobs and we can all leave feeling god about blowing that base up.
3. Principal. I'm sorry. I'm one of those that feels adamantly about the idea that jedi really have no place in this game. I agree that Jediand the Force played principal roles in the movies, but I don't feel that it played a part in the every day life of all the citizens of the universe (who we are supposed to be playing as)--especially during this timeline. They certainly shouldn't be prominant in the GCW, and it's ridiculous to see that they pretty-much are the GCW now. When I started playing this game, I wanted to be a BH because I wanted people to know that I had to be a pretty mean mofo...after all--I make my living by hunting, fighting and killing JEDI! Then I learned that BH's are supposed to be the "organic population control" of the jedi in this game. We were supposed to be the reason that jedi were rare, as they should be. I liked that idea. I have always been a little worried that this game would be overrun by lightsabers and lose the "Star Wars" feeling. I worked HARD to make sure that that didn't happen. I really, really love this game. I love the idea of what this game could be even more.
I don't believe that the alpha-class of "jedi" belongs in the game as a profession available to players. It would be great if there were a way to limit the number of Force-sensitive toons on each server to a reasonable amount without other players being upset that their characters weren't given the option. Since there really is no way for SOE to tell you that your money is not as good as my money so you don't get to be a jedi while I can, the only fair thing to do is to make it so that nobody can be a jedi. Of course, they could go the other direction, as well;let everyone be jedi, which they did. Then they transferred the responsibility of keeping jedi rare onto other players in the form of the BH profession. Basically, the devs said "If you don't want there to be 1,000+ jedi on your server, become a bounty hunter and get to work!" So I did. I've spent the last year as a bounty hunter so I can enjoy being a stormtrooper. You can't take that away from me by nudging me out of the GCW.
Ryle80 wrote:
Heh, well a factional bh could be awarded faction or factional perks rather than soley credits.
That would be hot! Personally, I'd love it if we saw more "bounty officers" like the one in Kachirho. The idea has been brought up before, and personally I'm still dreaming of it--factional bounties placed on players who have too much negative faction points and/or their PVP rating goes higher than a specific point. Faction points or other types of recognition would be awesome and give us a more solid place in the GCW.
Wow, you guys are giving me a hard time. So many different topics at once. I'd like to answer to everyone.
Luranta
I was not familiar with these smuggler threads ( I can't read all the forums everydays, I like to play the game too hehe), but I really like these ideas of smuggling missions and I hope something like this will be implemented in the game at some point (let's hope more sooner than later).
Wisebobo
The problem here is that our society's definition of a bounty hunter can't apply to Star Wars, because it is a far more different universe than ours.
In our society, by definition, a bounty hunter, is "one that tracks down and captures outlaws for whom a reward is offered". The important word to notice in this definition is Outlaw. An outlaw is by definition someone who is out of the law. This is a matter of law. I can't agree with you when you say "Political ... organization has absolutely no effect on this definition". If bounty hunters are permitted in the United States, that's because the laws allow it. The laws are voted by the Congress, a POLITICAL body, and these laws are implemented by the United States Supreme Court.
Bounty hunting is something very hard to define in the United States because the rules vary from one state to the other. It is even banned in some states. The following article will show you how complex it is. http://www.americanbailcoalition.com/new_html/compendium.htm
Now let's have a look at Star Wars universe and its structure. According to LucasFilms official materials (Star Wars Imperial Sourcebook), "the Galactic Empire is ruled by a powerful tool of the New Order called COMPNOR (The Commission for the Preservation of the New Order). The ruling body of COMPNOR is the Select Committee that contains several thousands of members. This committee, of course, is under the direct supervision of Emperor Palpatine and his advisors. From this Select Committee 5 large branches with specific tasks exist: SAGroup, The Coalition for Progress, the Coalition for Improvements, CompForce and the Imperial Security Bureau (or ISB)". I will pass the detail here...
Here is what the Army looks like under the New Order (CompForces are far more worse than the regular Army):
"With the New Order, the Army was completely overhauled."...."The army kept its ranks the same, but increased the number of subordinate officers for each rank above. This decreased the ratio of officers to troops and gave the Imperial Army a very lean fighting force.
The establishment of the New Order gave the Army the opportunity to clear out its deadwood as well as to remove those officers who might be ideologically opposed to the new regime. Over three quarters of the Army's officers were weeded out during the first days of the New Order"
What does that mean. The Army is highly monitored on every level and dedicated to the Empire.
>> "There is absolutely no problem with having an established rank in the Empire and doing other jobs while you are on leave from your typical combatant duties against established enemies."
Trust COMPNOR to watch your every steps when you are on leave. As others jobs regarding bounty hunting this is for the Imperial Security Bureau to decide about this and not your on leave officer (unless he wants to go fast in gas mine or worse). To be part of such activities you have to be an active member of a specific branch of COMPNOR in the ISB. How do you think the Empire can successfully manage thousands and thousands of worlds ?
>> do not support your idea's of Bounty Hunters being a rogue class.
Rogue BHs do appear on SWG BH terminals as marks. That's where I had this idea. Being Freelance in the BH world, in SW universe, is very dangerous, because of the powerfull BH organizations (Jabba, ...) controlling this kind of activities. That's why I designed the reputation factor and all the risks involved with it. But in every online games you have to make compromises. A lot of players won't allow a game to dictate their every moves and they like to play with a good amount of Freedom. In SW universe most BH probably belong to powerfull organizations. And the ISB, via its Enforcement subdepartment, "is the only division within all of COMPNOR which hires beings who are not COMPNOR members". Thats why I thought of the rogue BH being possible and able to do Imperial missions (I included rebel missions too for balance). Note as well that, SWG BH is more like an assassin as all proposed missions involve the death of a mark, and not the capture.
As you may already know SWG online game is not very sound as far as what the real SW universe is. But this is an online game, and people have to enjoy playing it. So you make compromises. And that's perhaps one of the most difficult aspects in the design of a MMORPG.
Camelz:
The only right thing you got about me is that I am a 'Padi'. But I am a Bounty Hunter as well. As a Padawan, I was never hunted by a Bounty Hunter and never lost XPs to one. So this post is not about revenge or anything like this, but about adding fun and content to the game. As a BH I never hunted a Jedi player for two reasons:
1- A hunt without a risk is absolutely not challenging to me and I am not interested in it. BHs can hunt Jedi as they see fit and won't lose anything if they are defeated. Besides they come with far more superior gear than the regularpost CU padawan. And many of them won't even lose their gear as their main armor parts or weapons are ADKed (for the hardcore jedi hunters that is).
2- Jedi do drop no loot. As a BH I make more money selling the drops I claim from the boss marks than what Jedi hunting would bring me (considering I win every engagment against them and that is far from reality. Some hide, and some can defeat me) during the same amount of time.
So, like many here, you suppose things without knowing who you are dealing with.
>> "I know, I'll make my alt a factioned BH then hunt all the *&#?%*^%, griefing Jedi killing Bounty Hunters but they wont be able to hunt me haha because Im protected by my faction"
Can you be clear, I don't understand this.
>>Honestly not a flame, just trying out some constructive critisism.
Well try harder because "...there are one or two good ideas in there." is not what I would call a constructive criticism.
Rheso:
1- Your background is a nice one but a very peculiar one, like most of us like to design one, most of the time. You are a man of exception, like all players having aliens high ranked officers in the game, as the Empire will VERY rarely put aliens in their key military chains of command. This is one thing the game did not enforce and with reason. Having racism or xenophoby clearlyappear in a teen-rated game would not be permitted by Lucas Arts (the negative modifier to acquire imperial perks by aliens is the only attempt by the devs to reflect that xenophobic treat. But I think, I did not verify, that all imperial military NPC personels are human in the game, just like in episodes 4 5 6). Note that, imperial patrols and personnel are always humans. And if the Empire only offered human to the player in the game, I guess there would be like 90% rebels and 10% imperials on every server as most of players fancy alien races. The background you chose for your zabrak is almost impossible in the SW universe at the timeline we are playing in.
2. I don't agree with "PVP keeps you sharp" on the BH side. The only one having to be sharp is the Jedi, constantly watching his radar for a blue dot to come after him. As a BH you have all the time in the world to plan your attack, you can jump at the Jedi whenever you like, you have the surprise advantage. Your health/action/mind are at maximum, your buffs are fresh, your food is ready. A jedi might have a good part of his Force depleted because he was fighting. His health can be low. Yes some BH snipe a Jedi while he is spinning a lair with low life or even already incap (I can't blame them for this, these are the rules, this is a hunt and not a social gathering). You gear is very efficient, Jedi sabers are a joke (I speak post CU as that's the only thing I know about jedis, being a post CU padawan myself). Most Jedi power are not sound, like choke being mitigated by armor. BH hunt Jedi at no risk and Jedi have everything to lose (trust me grinding back what is lost is not very enjoyable to the Jedi).
3. I do agree with you 100% here.
4. >>I don't believe that the alpha-class of "jedi" belongs in the game as a profession available to players
I can't agree with you. Jedi do appear in every episodes of the two trilogies (even if most of those we see are exceptional ones). This is something any player is expecting. This a a SW trademark. SW without jedi is not Star Wars. Do not forget that the Rebels, as a motto, always speak of the Force with the classic "may the Foce be with you" quote.
I think the jedi population is not the problem here but their visibility is. If the devs had the guts to enforce death squads spawns killing on the spot any jedi manifesting powers in a public area (and why not have Vader spawn himself) with tremendous death penalties, you would not see anymore of them duelling at starports or showing their precious (in theory hehe) lightsaber with them. Where did this anti-jedi feeling came from? Visibility. People are fed up seing them doing stupid things everywhere. Some are jealous of them too, we can't deny this.
BH is far from being an alpha class as he is being nerfed and balanced towards the BH publishes after publishes.
Ryle80:
I don't think you read my post carefully (what a pity, I took great care writting it).
I quote myself (wow I'm famous now !!! I'm being quoted !!!)
"As your rank increases, you get more interesting missions (boss NPC marks, player targets) and more rewards (credits and large selection of factional items (armors, weapons, schematics, special spices,..), specific to each factions). You purchase them just like rebels and imperials do. The choice of marks will not depend on grinding anymore but on your success at doing missions, in one word at doing your job."
Well that was tough. I won't do this everydays. Maybe I should keep my ideas to myself. It brings too much work.
Aglardae
Message Edited by Aglardae on 08-26-2005 10:06 AM