CUEmu - Thread Posts

Burning_Tyger

Thu Jan 29, 2004 10:28 pm

This was originally posted on the Bounty Hunter server, but I am posting it here because I beleive the idea would have important effects on the politician profession, and I am interested in seeing what politicians think of the idea.

Two friends of mine and I (Sasori, O'laf, and Tygo on Eclipse) were trying to think of ways to improve the game, but we really wanted to put an emphasis on keeping the game balanced. We came up with what we think is a really good idea that would enrich multiple professions, while at the same time keep balance in mind. The idea involves player bounties but would affect other professions other than bounty hunter, and we tried to come up with a rational way they could be worked into the game. This is what we came up with, and we would be really interested in what everyone thinks about it, especially what the official correspondents of the affected professions think.

First of all, the main reason we feel bounties are needed is because as it stands now, the game lacks real negative consequences to action. Right now, if you are killed, you respawn, good as new as long as you have insured your items. There is the 1% degradation of items, but that hardly amounts to much concern, and even that will be removed from PvP soon. Having to insure again does act as a monetary penalty, but the vast majority of people have enough money that they can insure without concern for their financial welfare. If there were real dire consequences to ones actions, it would allow for true roleplaying for those who wish to do so. A player would not lightly anger a large PA or go openly bad-mouthing the opposing faction in their own city, for the potential consequences could be dire. I want to emphasize, without real negative consequences, there can be no real bravery or heroism. How brave is it now if a covert rebel marches into the middle of Bestine and starts talking smack to all of the Imperials. The simple answer is, it's not. Even if they were somehow attacked and killed, they would simply respawn and everything would be fine, no harm done. So from a purely enjoyment point of view, I think it would be difficult to argue that player's being able to place bounties on other players is a bad idea. It would add a whole new type of play into the game, enriching multiple professions, and would add an element of accountability to the game that just isn't there right now. Where I think the arguments will come from is in the potential abuse of bounties, and that is something we really tried to take into account when coming up with this idea. So here it is:

We think bounties should be able to be placed by players, on players. That being said, we don't think you should be able to place a bounty on someone's head at your whim, just because someone thought that your hair choice was bad. Everyone has made someone in the game angry at one point or another, either by accident or intentionally, and it would be really absurd if everyone had multiple bounties on their head. So how do you make it available to players, but also limit it to within reason. Well we came up with several ways, but the primary limit would be cost. It should be VERY expensive to place a bounty on someone. We are thinking at least 150-200K just to list it as a mission, and that is not including the actual reward, which would be paid up-front by the person placing the bounty. Also, not only would you be required to pay the listing fee and the reward up front, but you could also pay more to have more BH's be able to accept it as a mission. So when you list a mission, you would decide how many BH's at a time you want hunting this person. In other words, how many BH's could take the mission before it disappears from the terminal and cannot be accepted as a mission anymore. The higher the number of BH's that can accept the mission, the higher the additional cost in listing the mission.

And not just anyone would be able to list a mission. We propose that the only people allowed to place player bounties are MASTER POLITICIANS. If you think about it, it makes sense. Politicians are pretty useless right now unless you want to start a player city or win the election of an existing one, and most the servers already have all the player cities possible. This gives new usefulness and enjoyability to the politician profession. So if someone has really done something where you want to see them suffer, you better find a Master Politician who will listen to your argument. Most major guilds would seek a master politician to join their guild just for this purpose. And politicians may charge a fee in order to list your mission for you, thus providing new income opportunities for them. It fits in well with the Star Wars theme, if you can envision corrupt officials taking money under the table to press a third party's agenda. It would give politicians new weight and respect. Don't anger a master politician, just as you wouldn't want a powerful politician angry with you in real life.

Here is how we propose that the mechanics would work. BH's would accept player bounty missions from new NPC mission givers called "liaisons"or something of that nature. These liaisons would act as terminals. They would only be able to be placed in cities and in guild halls, by the mayor or the guild master respectively. Then any master politician would be able to place new missions in the terminal provided they pay the appropriate fees. The mission would appear and could be accepted by BH's at any liaison terminal within that city or within the guildhall. The guild or the city would get a percentage of the listing fee, and the rest would be removed from the economy. This is a good thing because I think that money is pouring into the economy through missions and rewards faster than it is being removed through object degradation. Anyone who has taken an economics class will tell you that this is bad news, as inflation will become rampant and prices will skyrocket, which we are already seeing on some of the servers. The old BH mission terminals would still exist, but they would only be used like they are now, to hunt NPC marks.

When a bounty hunter views the various missions at a liaison, he or she will be able to see who they would be hunting, their professions, whether they are overt or not, the reward upon completion, and how many other BH's can accept the mission. All missions will have a time limit, after which the bounty will expire. This will give the person being hunted hope of escape. The time limit will only count down when the person being hunted is online, thus preventing people from logging out until the bounty expires. If the mission has not been completed by the time the bounty expires, the master politician that placed the bounty would be able to recover the reward from the liaison, but the listing fees would be non-refundable. Then of course they would be able to return the unclaimed reward money to whoever gave it to them (or not....be sure you trust your politician, they can be sneaky). This time limit would be listed with the rest of the information about the mission on the mission terminal. This limit could be standardized, or maybe it could be increased by paying more money. Like the rest of this, it is a debatable issue.

When a BH accepts a mission, an email will be sent to the BH and the hunted. A system message will appear on the hunted's screen when a bounty has been placed on their head, as well as each and every time it has been accepted by a BH. After accepting a mission, both the BH and the hunted would be able to attack each other. If the hunted dies while the bounty is in effect, any BH who has accepted the mission will be able to perform a special kind of "loot" on the body that would provide a "proof of death" (Lock of hair, DNA sample, their head, etc.) that they would then take back to the liaison from which the mission was accepted in order to receive their reward. This proof of death will not depend on who actually killed the person. No matter how he or she died, any BH who has accepted a mission to hunt that character would be able to loot for the proof of death. However, only one BH can loot the proof of death, so only one can collect the reward. If the hunted dies, his or her body will have a time limit placed on it allowing the "proof of death" to be looted by the BHs. If no BH can get to the body in time (ex: the mark is killed by Tuskens out in the middle of nowhere), then he will respawn at his last cloning location as normal and the bounty time countdown will continue as normal. This will prevent BH's from reaping the reward from a random death unrelated to him hunting the person. And if the mark is accidentally killed by a Rancor and the BH happens to be close at hand, oh well. At least the BH had done the work needed to get close to his or her prey. That's how it would be in real life too.

So why should a group of people pool all that money to place a bounty on someone's head if the worst that is going to happen is that the person will be killed? After all, they would just respawn and there would be no real consequences. For that reason we propose some kind of substantial, unavoidable consequences to being killed by a BH who has accepted the mission to hunt you as a mark. I suggest either 25-50% degradation on all owned items (not just the items in their possession, harvesters, houses, anything stored in a house, and the like), or a substantial skill penalty. The hunted would lose a random top level skill or two (or three, or four). Yes, this gives bounties some real teeth, but that is the point. Before someone claims that this would be unfair, let me remind you that these bounties would be very expensive to place, so the hunted would have had to do something to genuinely anger a powerful person or a large group of people. So in a way, they would be reaping what they sow. After all, the people who would be coming up with the large sums of money necessary for the bounty would get nothing in return other than justice/revenge. There needs to be a way for players to seriously threaten the well being of one another's characters. This would result in more accountability in the game for one's own actions. Also, think how much more respect someone would earn if they openly oppose a large, powerful opposition, despite the potential consequences of a bounty. Role-playing would be that much more "real" and enjoyable.

This change could have far reaching positive effects for the other professions too. Droid Engineer would benefit indirectly as probe and seeker droids would have greatly increased demand. Also, what if Tailors and Architects could make products that would help those that were "on the lamb" avoid bounty hunters and their probes. We thought of possibly some kind of "disguise" that tailors could make, or a "hideout tent" that architects could make. These items would maybe provide negative modifiers to probe droids attempts at finding them while the items are in use. Or what if Bio-Engineers could make "dummy clones". They would be very expensive, and a person could only use one at a time. The mark could set up a dummy clone in a city or building, and then when the BH's sent out their probes, they would get two locations. Then they would be forced to make an educated guess as to which one was real and which was the decoy. This would make it interesting as bounty hunters could get imaginative in trying to get their mark reveal his or her true location. They could not /tell them, because the hunted would know the name of all the BH's hunting them thanks to the emails. So BH's would have to find "set-up" people to help them, maybe getting someone to pretend they are interested in buying something from the hunted and asking to meet with them. If you have a bounty on your head, you would have to be very careful, and would be paranoid. But that is exactly how it would be in reality too, which is perfect.

Lastly, we also thought that instead of just openly banning people from the game for cheating, why not use the game mechanics of bounties to do the punishing. If you are caught cheating, the devs could have the option of placing a special bounty on the offender that would appear in every liaison terminal in that galaxy. Not only would that person be hunted, but the reward money would come directly from his or her own personal money supply. If he or she doesn't have enough money to make the bounty substantial enough, then the devs would take what the character does have and supplement it. This gives offenders a chance to atone for their transgressions. If they cease their cheating, and can escape their pursuers, then they may continue to play. Of course if they cheat again, maybe a higher bounty is placed on them. Maybe if the cheater is killed by the BH, a more devastating punishment is applied than the standard bounty-kill results. Of course the devs would reserve the right to totally ban someone based on the offense, but this would allow punishment to be dealt, while at the same time providing game play enjoyment to other honest players. I think it would be really fun to know that you are hunting down a cheater.

So those are the ideas that we have come up with. Like I said earlier, we tried to keep balance in mind, and the various aspects of this idea could of course be tweaked. Maybe the listing prices should be even higher. That is why we wanted to post these ideas on the forums. Obviously development time would be an issue, but it could probably be developed and published in stages. We hope that everyone will read them and at least consider them. We would absolutely love it if these ideas somehow made it to the devs for consideration. Comments would be appreciated by anybody, and especially the correspondents the affected professions.

Thanks,
Tygo Noscixximi
Sasori Febu
O'laf Rimi
Eclipse Server.

2nd Lt. Tygo Noscixximi
Master Artisan
Master Merchant
Master Droid Engineer
Eclipse Server

"It matters not...he is still your Emperor."

FlyingHippo

Thu Jan 29, 2004 10:52 pm

#2

Player bounties sounds great BUT it's wrong to force players into combat should they choose not to. Mearly haveing a high price isn't good enough, considering people shell out millions of credits just to buy single items.... credits aren't hard to obtain.

Player bounties, like mentioned in the past, should be automaticly placed on a player and NOT by players,if that player fails to complete a mission for someone like Jabba.

If theywere able to be placed by players, reguardless of profession, whats to stop a bounty from being put on a Master Entertainer with no fighting skills who did nothing wrong. There needs to be a reason a bounty is placed and that task is too important for individual players to handel, that's why we have AI so there's no bias.

Burning_Tyger

Fri Jan 30, 2004 2:04 am

#3

I understand and agree with the platform from which you make your case. Trust me, I am not one of these people that think there should be PvP all the time. I play an aristsan and can't fight my way out of a brown paper bag!I want to avoid random bounties too.

But the way the mechanic would be designed would be such that it would be so expensive that someone would not want to waste that much money just to be a jerk. After all, they would be getting NOTHING in return. Sure people will spend millions of dollars on a single item, but they are actually getting something in return, like a holocron, or armor, etc. But a person would get nothing from wasting half a million or more placing a bounty on the random entertainer in the cantina. And for the few people that do put random bounties on peoples head, it would be expensive enough that they would not be able to do it very often. Like I said the actual price of listing the bounty is debatable and can be tweaked.

Another huge limit on random bounties would be the biggest reason I think we need PvP bounties in the first place. Accountability. There should be some form of possible retribution for people that abuse other people, or whodo not use goodjudgement. If someone has too much money, and has the audacity to throw it awayby placing bounties on random people, then soon there will be enough people this person has really cheesed off that he will soon be runningfrom a flock of BH's. It's actually very simple and uses the same laws of action and consequence that we deal with every day in reality.

Sure there will still be instances where a bounty is unfair. But you can be killed by Bocatts randomly appearing while your checking a harvester too. That will just as easily force you into combat. That's just part of the game. ThereIS danger. I would not want that danger taken away.That is one of the things makes the game compelling and worth playing. Let's not make the game sterilized and toddler-safe.If enacted, people would have to be careful what they do and who they upset, as you do everyday in real life, and I think if properly tweaked, abuse would be kept to a minimum,

2nd Lt. Tygo Noscixximi
Master Artisan
Master Merchant
Master Droid Engineer
Eclipse Server

"It matters not...he is still your Emperor."

Chibi-Bar

Fri Jan 30, 2004 10:15 am

#4

Its a cash sink... which SOE likes

a single bounty 250k until collected (not including reward) so... If a person wants to be an "a-hole" toss a bounty on a person just cause.. well... that person just toss in 250k +reward.. if the reward is too small.. no one will take it...

You don't get that money back.. you can't "cancel" bounty... once place.. that is it...

Thus it is a "check and balance" after all... I mean... to put bounty on 4 people.. that is 1 million base not including reward...

Sasheria Windsong

Master Artisian and Master Architect
Drop off Vendor Cynthia: -4752 -4341
Architect Shop Vendor Sasha:-4756 -4341
Citizen of Blood Gulch, Dantooine

Thornstar2

Fri Jan 30, 2004 12:58 pm

#5

Im sorry but any sort of player choosing bounty is wrong.

for example. I have a competitor that I want to force out of architecture, I email him and say "if you dont quit being an arhitect I will issue player bounties on you untill you do" then I can just force him out as he will get fed up of dieing while he is trying to get to his harvesters or make important items. even if its 250k, that would be no problem. IM a politician and a serious crafter with only basic pistol skils to fight off any aggro creatures near my harvesters. I DO NOT wish to take a direct part in PvP, this game isnt just about fighting, its about professions in the star wars universe.

A much better system will be the automated ones for failed quests as suggested by many people for the last 2 or 3 months. "Jabba needs you to take out some problem tuskans who are too close to the palace, dont fail jabba or he will put a price on your head" If you fail you either pay the price of the bounty(raises with the difficulty of the mission and the reward you get for the mission) or you take your chances and live with a bounty on your head for a set period of time. If you kill your bounty then jabba will respect your skills and give you another chance. if you dont kill him then you loose lots of faction points and have to get them back in order to attempt the mission again.

reminded me to delete my old sig from my other forum account

progman63

Fri Jan 30, 2004 2:35 pm

#6

I like this idea for player bounties more than any of the others I've heard.

You guys have actually put a lot more work into figuring all angles to make this proposal than any of the other ideas put forth, and I think it's doable with some tweaking.

I still have reservations about the penalty for the hunted, and the ability for anyone to place a bounty.

While I agree that there needs to be some 'bite' to make any player bounty system useful except for strictly RP purposes, except that I feel this would be justification enough for putting such a system into the game.

A 25% degradation all ALL owned items seems extremely high, and still open for rampant abuse.

I don't know how many times, as a crafter, that I've heard of some stupid punk getting pissed off because someone (a crafter) didn't want to deal with them because they were just plain obnoxious and a jerk to everyone.

Denial of service is a crafter/merchant's right. There should not be possible negative consequences just for practicing business in a fair or contientious manner.

And, as you've pointed out, money is no object for many people, so PLACING a bounty would be trivial for many players, whether they were morally upright or morally bankrupt, RP or not.

But the consequences could be devastating if allowed to be abused. At 25% degredation, 4 'hits' and all your worldly posessions are gone.

I can also see a new form of industrial terrorism. By taking out multiple or consecutive hits on a rival business person, someone could effectively run them out of business. And keep them out of business.

The fact of the matter is that any player bounty system that is introduced to the game for any reason other than strictly RP can be abused. There is no way to prevent someone from continuously 'griefing' you simply because they don't like you.

And any system that act as a money sink would unfairly favor the big guy or group that have plenty of money, and penalize the small guy who has little money (especially after being hit a few times) and so have no recourse for being the victim of such vengence.

It is highly possible that a player bounty system could actually benefit the underdogs in the game. But the existing disparities in the economy - the 'haves' vs the 'have nots' - would more than likely favor the 'haves' over the 'have nots'.

I agree wholeheartedly that such a system would do much to add more atmosphere and excitement to the game. I would LOVE to see some sort of player bounty system implemented in the game.

But since there is really no way to control who or why a bounty is placed - morality cannot be quantified and so cannot be programmed -it will ultimately be unbalancing to the game unless implemented purely for RP.

However, to try to further balance this proposal so that there might be a posibility of getting it into the game, I would suggest a few changes.

1) Lower the penalties

While I agree that there needs to be some bite, too much bite will only alienate targeted victims to the entire game.

I feel that25% - 50% degredation on all owned items is completely unacceptableand will never be condoned by the devs. It would be way too easy to grief players and knock them completely out of the game.

And as a crafter, losing skills would effectively shut my whole operation down. And there is no such thing as a 'random' skill. All lower skills are prerequisited for higher skills, so taking out any lower skill effectively means taking out all skills above them. Besides the fact that I'm not any sort of powergamer and gaining these skills has been a long and laborious endeavor.

Please realize that due to the wide range of play styles available in any well developed online game, most penalties can be inconsequental to the 'powerful' players with piles of money, yet devastating to the 'weak' players with not much to their name.

2) Only one bounty can be placed on any player.

(Sorry, can't remember if you already stated this.)

This would prevent griefing by allowing someone to place multiple bounties on the same player, or each member of a large group placing a bounty on the same person.

3) Only one bounty can be placed on any player over a set time period.

Perhaps only one bounty per month or some other period of time that were long enough to permit 'weak' players to recover from whatever penalties were instituted.

I love the idea of player bounties, but there is a very high probability that any such system would be used to grief players for anyreason, no matter how samll or rediculous.

"When Sony and Lucas set out, we said, How can we do this and not make another EQ? We didn't want it to be all about Luke, or combat, or lock our players into a class. So we created a system that would allow players to switch professions during the game, and there would be a lot of gameplay around making that change. If you want to go from architect to scout we've created a system to make that happen."
Julio Torres

Dralar

Fri Jan 30, 2004 2:38 pm

#7

Tough call. I like the idea to a point, but I believe there would be too much temptation for griefers. A really good craftsperson, a resource hound or a pro hunter can make huge amounts of credits every day. Given this it would be no problem for them to grief whomever they choose, for whatever reason.

A case in point:

If this was implemented and I didn't like the way you ran your city imagine how annoyed you would be if every single day you logged in you found that I had placed a bounty on your head. Sure you could return the favor, but there needs to be something from stopping me from doing this continually. Possibly make it so that the more often you call on your contacts to place a bounty the more expensive it becomes for you. 250k the first time, then 400k then, 650k then 1M.... Obviously this is a greater obstacle to overcome. This penalty would of course normalize over time.

The other point is dragging non-combatants into a deadly situation. Yes, some of them deserve it I'll not argue with you there. I have enough rifle skill to defend myself against the local fauna, err better make that flora, and have no plans to improve upon that. Worst I've done so far is make some people ill with some poorly experimented cooking.

Sorry guys.

Simple answer:

There is none.

Along these lines though I would very much like to see anyone be able to create destroy missions to get rid of that pesky lair beside their {insert building/harvie type here}. True you would have to offer a good amount of credits for that kind of attention, but at least there would then be an option.

Eri'Ad She-Akt
Mayor of Talath, Rori, 3684, 3427 (Tempest)
Master Artisan (vendor: Rori, 3672, 3698)
Master Chef (vendor: Rori, 3669, 3517)
Master Architect (former), Master Merchant (former)

Dralar

Fri Jan 30, 2004 2:45 pm

#8

Dagnabbit we need an edit feature...

I forgot to mention that I do REALLY like the idea of failed missions (important ones) could result in a bounty on your head. Nothing motivates like fear.

Eri'Ad She-Akt
Mayor of Talath, Rori, 3684, 3427 (Tempest)
Master Artisan (vendor: Rori, 3672, 3698)
Master Chef (vendor: Rori, 3669, 3517)
Master Architect (former), Master Merchant (former)

Burning_Tyger

Fri Jan 30, 2004 3:01 pm

#9

Thank you Thornstar2 for your response. I hadn't actually thought of a scenario like that and it is definately worth concern. I realize that this game is not just for fighting. Like I said in my previous post, I am not a PvP guy, or even a fighting guy for that matter. I run a harvester and resource shop just north of Bestine on Eclipse, and am working on becoming a master DE. I will have to think about your scenario and what could maybe be done. Off the top of my head, if 250K is too little. Make it higher. Like I said this is debatable.

As far as PvP bounties themselves being morally wrong, I must disagree. I think the bounties would not be wrong by their nature. I think they would make the game a lot more intersting and would force interaction between players, as well as adding a bunch of positive benefits to different professions. I think that ABUSE OF BOUNTIES is wrong. That is why we put this up on the forums, so that we can discuss different scenarios and possible good and bad points.

I understand the possible abuses, but this is what I'm thinking. Let's just pretend your down-on-his-luck architect is named Jimmy, and his shop is called "Jimmy's". And let's say there is a powerful, rich master Architecht named Donkey. (Why?...maybe because he's another word for donkey :smileywink. Okay, first of all, if Jimmy is a new architect, I would not see Donkey spending the money to place a bounty on his head. Why? Because there are a bunch of other small architects in the area and Donkey would have to spend the money to place bounties on each and every one of those people. I don't care how rich you are, that would begin to hurt your wallet, especially if the price of listing a bounty is tweaked to the right level of expensiveness. Not to mention he would be making alot of enemies.

What I CAN see happening is if Jimmy is a pretty well off architecht himself, and "Jimmy's" is starting to steal some of Donkey's loyal customers. This would make Jimmy stand out and would earn a special amount of ire from Donkey. But see, even this scenario would be balanced, for if Jimmy is well off, he could place a bounty on Donkey just the same. Then it would be a war which would benefit neither of the participants. And when there is no benefit to action, no reward, only hardships, people will tend to stop doing the unbeneficial action.

It all boils back down to my argument that there needs to be consequence to action. I don't like my job. So why don't I quit? I need the money. There is a guy in my group of friends that I really cannot stand! So why don't I drive my Dodge truck through his living room?? Because I would go to jail for a long time (and really I am not like that =).

If you are trying to make the game such that nothing happens to anybody without their consent. First of all, I think most people would agree that's boring. Secondly, your already too late. The game is already like that. Think about the previous scenario where Donkey has enough money to push people around. Well as the game rules stand now, for the same amount of money as one of my proposed bountys, Donkey could buy a tent or small house and set it right next to "Jimmy's". ThenDonkey could make the sign read "Jimmy's charges twice as much as I do. Come inside and see for yourself," (I have actually seen this tactic =). Then Donkey could proceed to undercut Jimmy to drive him out of business. Did Jimmy ask to be picked on? No! He's just tryng to make an honest living. Yet it could happen just the same. So maybe Jimmy has to go make some good freinds or join a merchant or crafter guild. Maybe he doesn't want to have to go to that trouble, but that is the lot that fate has dealt him. It would force new game play and GREAT ROLEPLAYING OPPORTUNITIES.

I totally understand that no matter what limits we place on bounties, THERE WILL BE ABUSES. There would be no avoiding it. But I think if we tweak the mechanics of how it works, the abuses would be kept to a minimum. I think the benefits of PvP bounties, the overall enjoyment of the game, and the new types of gameplay and interaction would GREATLY outnumber the possible negatives from abuse. And I think subscriptions to the game would increase because of it.

2nd Lt. Tygo Noscixximi
Master Artisan
Master Merchant
Master Droid Engineer
Eclipse Server

"It matters not...he is still your Emperor."

Burning_Tyger

Fri Jan 30, 2004 4:01 pm

#10

Thanks Progman63 for your response and your insight.

Maybe the kill-penalties should be taken down, but maybe not. I think in order for PvP bounties to work, they need to have "teeth", lest as you stated, they be relegate to having no real use except for roleplaying. Otherwise, getting a bounty placed on your head would not be "intimidating", shich I feel it should be. I also don't think people would spend the large amounts of money we would be talking about unless the bounty had serious ramifications for the hunted.

I think something in the intial post was poorly worded and I apologise. When I said a random "top-level skill" could be discarded, I was not meaning a random skill. What I was trying to imply is that the system would look at all of your skills at the top of each tree, and would randomly remove one of those. It would not remove a skill if there was a prerequisite for a skill above it that you already have.

Again, these penalties, as with the rest of this are highly debatable. I would be interested if anyone had any other ideas as to possible punishment for being bounty-killed. Keep in mind, I think it would need to be something that had no loop-holes, like giving all of your stuff to a freind until your bounty expires. We thought about making them loose all Data on their Datapad (not waypoints), but a friend of mine pointed out that they would just give all their data to a freind until the bounty expired. So we threw that out.

Anyway thanks for reading this thread and we appreciate the feedback.

2nd Lt. Tygo Noscixximi
Master Artisan
Master Merchant
Master Droid Engineer
Eclipse Server

"It matters not...he is still your Emperor."

Burning_Tyger

Fri Jan 30, 2004 4:44 pm

#11

Dralar wrote:

If this was implemented and I didn't like the way you ran your city imagine how annoyed you would be if every single day you logged in you found that I had placed a bounty on your head. Sure you could return the favor, but there needs to be something from stopping me from doing this continually. Possibly make it so that the more often you call on your contacts to place a bounty the more expensive it becomes for you. 250k the first time, then 400k then, 650k then 1M.... Obviously this is a greater obstacle to overcome. This penalty would of course normalize over time.

I like this idea. I think it would help to curb the Cold-Wars that would result from two powerful people placing bounties on each other. It would eventually become so expensive in terms of money and bounty-kill penalties that they would be forced to resolve their differences in a different manner.

THIS IS A REALLY GOOD IDEA! Thanks for the help Dralar.

2nd Lt. Tygo Noscixximi
Master Artisan
Master Merchant
Master Droid Engineer
Eclipse Server

"It matters not...he is still your Emperor."

OptAEON

Sat Jan 31, 2004 5:30 am

#12

I don't think it will work out tho, credits is easy to get, even off like Ebay, and the fact there are some players who have amassed large amounts of credits, that 250K bounty is chump change, and can easly be used as griefing towards another player, especially if its under control from another player.

Also, as it stands right now, a Mayor as a Master Politician, is still a Mayor, and not like other professions like being an Ambasodor to a country, or faction, etc.

Politician profession is too limited to be really fun to play as it stands right now. I think there are possibilities that can expand it, to make it more interesting in the SWG universe.

Opt

Burning_Tyger

Sat Jan 31, 2004 10:36 am

#13

This was originally posted on the thread I posted on the Bounty Hunter forum. I am copying it here for discussions sake.

DarthDrool wrote:

This has to be the best, well thought out post that I've read on the subject of player bounties! One problem you will have though is the harsh penelties imposed on the terminated mark. All the other professions will be whining that BH's should also lose all their stuff or the Inv tree if we are killed by the mark. And believe me, if thay all whine, we will get nerfed. I think the idea is awesome though! I hope the devs listen!

BH's would actually just be a cog in the machine. They would just be the enforcers of someone else's will. I don't propose that the mark's get anything for killing their pursuer. They get to live and no be penalized. If anything, maybe it knocks some time off of the bounty countdown time limit. That seems reasonable to me.

See I think too many people may be reading this thread and envisioning mobs of ruthless BH's hunting down hordes if innocent, helpless artisans and entertainers. But what we are trying to do is make the game mechanic work in such a way that the vast majority of people who would be running from the law would be doing so because they earned it. Maybe they thought they would smart off to Big Bad Commando guild. Stupid move. Maybe they thought they would dis the Rebel alliance in the middle of Anchorhead. Another stupid move.

I know I sound like a broken record, but it's all about : Action and Consequence

I think that is what this game really needs. If we can make PvP bounties in such a way that we really limit the trivial bounties, then it will be a good thing. And I happen to think you limit it through natural laws of give and take, supply and demand, ACTION AND CONSEQUENCE.

I mean the devs could have put limits on what people could charge for differnet items, but instead they chose the much more natural and elegant laws of free enterprise to determine the going price of Jawa Juice. People were charging way to much for resources on our server, so I and a few other merchants got the brilliant idea of charging less. We did the calculations and found we could still make a killer profit. Now what has happened? Those other people charging 5 and 6 CPU have been forced to lower their price to more reasonable amounts in order to get customers.

See how simple and natural that works. The same simple, natural laws could govern player bounties too, if things are tweaked properly. I'm convinced of it.

Thanks for all of the responses and feedback.

2nd Lt. Tygo Noscixximi
Master Artisan
Master Merchant
Master Droid Engineer
Eclipse Server

"It matters not...he is still your Emperor."

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Thread: Player Bounties A new role for politicians