Ranger Archive

• Buyer can place contracts for max 5k stacksizes of bone/hide/meat


• Buyer can place contracts for max 25k stacksizes of all other resources


• Buyer can place a timelimit with a bounty on a contract, if the contract is not fullfilled within the time set by the buyer the contractee is placed with the bounty on the BH terminals. If the contract is fullfilled on time, the contractee earns the bounty as a bonus. Time will start with the acceptance of the contract


• Bounties will stack if contractee fails several contracts (at once or in a row)


• Maximum amount of contracts is linked to the current maximum of bazaar/offer to vendor (25 items total)


• Contracts can always be set to general resource (e.g. Metal or Talus Avian meat)


• Contracts for a specific resource require 1 unit of it in players inventory


• When contract is fullfilled, buyer gets an email informing him that it's done and by whom


• Buyer's credits are in escrow as long as the contract is unfullfilled (both bounty and the reward). If buyer needs the credits back and the contract has not been taken he can cancel it.

The contractee's side

• Contracts sorted as resources currently are on the bazaar


• A maximum of 2 contracts can be taken at the same time


• This doubles at Master Scout for bone/hide/meat


• Doubles again at Master Ranger


• Contracts do not count towards your mission count


• Upon acceptance contract is removed from terminal and placed in datapad like a mission


• Contracts with a bounty are clearly marked


• To take a contract with a bounty, you must pay bounty's amount (to prevent contract stealing with no intention to fullfill it, either to grief the player or for the thrill of being chased by a BH. This money is reimbursed upon fullfillment. If not fullfilled, the bounty is added with the buyer's bounty on the BH terminal.)


• When the required stack size is obtained, resources are delivered to the terminal in the city where the contract was taken


• Upon the delivery of the resources contractee is paid

The reasoning behind this system and it's caps

Crafters

High profile crafters with an unsatiable need for resources can not fill their demands with this system alone. They can use it as an extra pipeline but must still create personal contacts with Scouts and Rangers and people with lots and harvesters. This will keep their status and maintain their feeling of accomplishement. Crafters that only supply their friends/guild can usually gain their resources in a hunt/shared harvester use. They can use this system as a handy extra. The crafters that supply their own but also try to grow and make a name will have easier access to needed resources and will be able to supply their needs with this system.

Hunters

Bone/hide/meat hunters who for whatever reason only collect smaller stacksizes now have an easy way to get their resources to the person that needs them. People who currently have scout but do not harvest because they do not want the hassle of finding a buyer may now consider this a worthwhile extra income. I expect the supply of harvested resources to increase, releasing some of the pressure on this currently strained market. Big time hunters will still be able/forced to enjoy a personal relationship with 1 or more crafters.

Harvesters

Big harvest operations will not be able to dump all their harvested resources on this system. They could continue to keep their own vendors and are still in demand by the high profile crafters. Smaller 1-person/account sized operations can now generate a steady flow of income with this system. More people may pick this up, increasing supply of resources.

Bounty Hunters

Get more prey to hunt, with maybe some nice bounties this time. Maybe give them the ability to take these bounties at Investigation I or II to ease the trouble of leveling investigation.

Drawbacks

system

• Deliberately taking and failing contracts because player likes being chased by BH's (should be limited because the player will pay half of his bounty)

Gameplay

• Resource may shift out while you're working on a contract with a bounty. (solution: place your own contract for the missing amount with bounty 1 day short of your own timelimit and hope it'll be fullfilled/find a vendor or player who has the same resource and buy the missing amount from him/her/Bazaar/Give the contractgiver an option to accept the contract as fullfilled for the smaller amount)


• CPU might drop due to a greater supply while the money is spread out over more players. But if cpu drops final items should drop too due competition between crafters

Plusses

• Easier access for large group of crafters to resources


• Relaxation on the bone/hide/meat market due to a probable increase in harvesting


• Building supplier relationship via this terminal to grow together with crafter


• Easier drop off for players for their harvested resources


• Spreads the wealth across more players


• Scouts and Rangers get a bigger bang for their skillpoints

Professions affected

• All professions that need resources


• Scout/Ranger


• Combat professions are not directly affected. But players can take (Novice) Scout/Artisan or have someone survey for them and place their harvesters without even that or just dump harvesters at a spot and mine the highest resource there to fill the general contracts (they may even get lucky sometimes)


• Bounty Hunters get more human (thus more interesting) marks aside from jedi's. Assuming their bugs get fixed ofcourse.

Players affected

• Every player that wants to be

Reasons why the Devs might not like it

• The easier access to resources and the probable increase in total harvested resources may lead to rare items becoming common. To make these rare again schematics would have to be changed. (either in resources needed or adding a required loot component). Takes a lot of dev time


• The system allows less personal contact in the mid range section. But, any crafter currently unaware of the ability to put out contracts on the trade forum may use this system and build personal contacts with people that fullfilled his contracts

Gameplay Example

Lu'ke Bottomcrawler is an accomplished Armorsmith with a thriving business on Tatooine. He gets word from his Rangerette buddy Lei'a Metallic that a real good woolly hide shifted in on Endor. He asks her to bring him one unit so he can put it on the resource terminals. While waiting for her at the Bestine Starport he mails all his normal suppliers he'll be taking all they can deliver for 100cpu +200k for each 5k. As soon as she arrives she hands him the little bit of woolly she had. He tips her for her effort and travel cost. She tells him she got his e-mail and will work on it as long as it's in shift. Lu'ke then heads for the bank to put up 25 5k contracts with a 2 day time limit and a 200k bonus/bounty in an attempt to maximize the number of contracts he'll be able to place this week.

A few hours later Jan Multiplicity, who just made Master Ranger, is now looking on the terminals to see if they're are multiple contracts from 1 person he can take to show his harvesting skills and thrustworthines and develop that to a personal supplier status. He immidiately spots the 25 missions with a 200k bounty and decides to take a chance and take his allowed 8. He checks his credit status and sees that he has the 1.6million needed to secure the bounties. He accepts the contracts, gets his buffs and heads to Endor. He has a succesfull evening and manages to get 30k woolly (personal note: I never harvested woolly on endor, don't know how hard/easy this is). He's tired and decides to log off on endor and try to get the remaining 10k without buffs the next day before heading back to civilization. Unfortunately, real live events and computer problems prevent him from logging back on before the elaps of the agreed to time limit. When our fellow ranger finally logs back in he has an e-mail generated by the system that he is now placed on the BH terminals with a 3.2 million bounty. Knowing that every BH in the game will be after him doesn't really help improve his mood after the last couple of days but he decides to tough it out. The 30k woolly will at least still be wanted and he can still get some more. Probably plenty of contracts still on the terminal it can be used on.

Feel free to post improvements, feel free to say you like it, feel free to say you don't like it but if you don't like it, please explain why.

Washell Olivaw, Ranger/Rifleman, Eclipse

P.S. I wanted to say keep your comments constructive, but as this is the ranger forum, that won't be neccesary

P.P.S. Ok, ok, I'll get my lips of your butts.

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Eck3283 wrote:
...., but lets not get our hopes up

EasyE
Ranger 0-0-3-0
Creature Handler 2-2-1-1
Rifleman 1-1-1-1
Punk Jonny 3-4-3-1

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Au contraire,

First, this idea will take a lot of dev time, so this will need to be scheduled. So we won't be seeing this next month. From our (the customers) point of view the schedule is pretty much been planned full upto JTL and probably a bit beyond. But the design team can pick up this idea and have it ready for implementation by that time. A game like this has a development cycle, so while ideas may not seem to be picked up I believe a lot of what has been posted across the board will make it live in some way.

Second, suppose 100 ideas are posted by us every week and only 1 makes it to live, should we then just lay back and stop posting? No, we should start posting 200 ideas a week so that 2 can make it live. (anecdote: Ted Turner came to every meeting with 100 ideas, 99 were total c**p, the 1 good idea at every meeting made him billions).

Third, they didn't get this game finished on the (extended) deadline, time that was planned to take suggestions from the community therefore had to be commited to add in the missing elements (mounts/vehicles/player cities). Since the expansion was already planned roughly a year after release and being such an important part of Star Wars development time for newly thought improvements (either dev or player) has been very sparse. (I'm sure they have dev's working there that feel just as frustrated as some of us are.)

Fourth, some major elements of the game (Combat, GCW and player cities) along with smaller elements (professions) are not working out as they had envisioned and need changing. Eating in the already sparse dev time for improvements.

My conclusion: I'll expect that after the CB, the GCW/PC revamp and the release of JTL the devs will pick up their and our best ideas, reevaluate them and start implementing at a pace we won't believe. This is still quite a while away but I believe the foundation is here to make this one of the best mmorpg's out there. And if I can help by spending some time posting ideas which may be wholely or partially picked up and implemented (maybe they only pick up my idea of letting a player pay half of his own bounty for example) then I'm happy to do so. If 6 months after JTL a new expansion is announced and no improvement in implementation of ideas from players can be seen, then it's soon enough for me to look for another mmorpg. At the moment I can still find enough enjoyment in the game as it is. I get some extra enjoyment of seeing areas of improvement and thinking up an idea to improve them.

Washell Olivaw, Ranger/Rifleman, Eclipse

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PithrenDarkstar wrote:
Very nicely done. Only porblem I see is that there isn't really a whole lot of incentive to take a contract with a bounty, considering the risk involved, unless you don't mind dying.

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Well, take my gameplay example.

The hide is going for 100cpu, you can take 8 contracts without bounty at Master Ranger and clear out with 4 million, or you take the 8 contracts with 200k bounty and earn yourself 5.6 million.

I've done 70k of naboo avian in 5 days. If I could get 8 contracts (5k each, 40k total) with 200k bounty each and a time limit of 7 days I know I'll be able to do this, including frequent SOE problems and rare ISP/computer problems, so I'll take them, won't say no to a free 1.6 million . And yes, if I should for some reason wouldn't make it, I'll take my medicine and won't whine about it here.

The incentive is ofcourse purely personal. Some people will feel an extra 10k on each stack is enough incentive others wouldn't touch such a contract unless they already have the resources in their inventory.

Washell Olivaw, Ranger/Rifleman, Eclipse

I like the idea but I think it would also be nice to incorporate a Ranger/Scout being able to auction off items along with picking up contracts. Instead of going to the bazaar to let it get lost among the myriad things for sale you could place your resources and resources only on the terminal. I think if a Doctor/whoever needs it places an order and then that particular resource shifts that should nullify the contract. Thereby giving us a way to sell the 3k of avian meat we picked up instead of the 10k stack they wanted. Make it auction style instead of Buy it Now type so you would have players actively bidding on resources.

I think player bounties could be easily avoided by just looking at the contracts there and going out to hunt the stuff yourself. Comeback once you have the right amount and take the contract, fulfill it and move on.

I like this idea tho. Would love to see it implemented.

Message Edited by KaiRaene on 05-17-2004 08:17 PM

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KaiRaene wrote:

I like the idea but I think it would also be nice to incorporate a Ranger/Scout being able to auction off items along with picking up contracts. Instead of going to the bazaar to let it get lost among the myriad things for sale you could place your resources and resources only on the terminal.

Auctions of resources can be done on vendors. This idea is about new functionality not taking bits of artisan/merchant. I agree this is hardly used. The easiest fix would be to lose the 6k limit on the bazaar for auctions but keep it up for instant sales. Crafters/merchant will then still need their own vendors for 6k+ stuff while resources and the items currently being auctioned on the trade forum can stay in-game. If both ideas get implemented they can pretty much shut down the trade forum

I think if a Doctor/whoever needs it places an order and then that particular resource shifts that should nullify the contract.

Nullifying the contracts if the resource shifts out has several problems

• You can put down your harvesters on the resource then place a 25k stack with a 1 credit payment. You either get an e-mail or are able to check your contract at a place you frequently are.


• Out of shift stuff is still in demand, people may have harvested till end of shift before looking for buyers.


• People may have taken contracts, harvested enough but not had the time to deliver.

Thereby giving us a way to sell the 3k of avian meat we picked up instead of the 10k stack they wanted. Make it auction style instead of Buy it Now type so you would have players actively bidding on resources.

I've given a few ideas how to solve the problem if you haven't harvested enough in my first post. While not being an auction, players can see if a certain resource is in high demand, they can offer more cpu or higher reward/bounty to make sure their contract gets fullfilled.

I think player bounties could be easily avoided by just looking at the contracts there and going out to hunt the stuff yourself. Comeback once you have the right amount and take the contract, fulfill it and move on.

That's the idea, there is no forced PvP in this game and I would like to keep it that way. The way you describe to avoid the bounty has the risk that the contracts will be taken by someone else and you're left with a stack. It's not intended to put half the server on the BH terminal, only those that accept work and won't finish it.

I like this idea tho. Would love to see it implemented.

Thanks

Message Edited by KaiRaene on 05-17-2004 08:17 PM

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I really like this idea. It is very well thought out, and even clear and concise! I have a few comments...

Washell said:

The easier access to resources and the probable increase in total harvested resources may lead to rare items becoming common. To make these rare again schematics would have to be changed. (either in resources needed or adding a required loot component).

I am not so sure this would be a problem...people would still have to be able to afford the resources. As it stnads now, there is really only a limit on how much Organic resource is harvested (limited by Scout and Ranger desire to actually hunt the resource).

Other random thoughts:

I don't like letting the crafters decide what the resource costs are going to be, BUT it sounds like the ability to offer a resource to the Resource Market without needing a contract could cover this.

I really don't like the idea or player bounties tied to resource collection, BUT it seems to make sense in this case. I just don't want something to shift on me, and all of a sudden, I am tefed...

Is there a provision for multiple people to take the same contract or does it disappear when someone takes it? I see drawbacks to both sides. If a contract is only available to the person who accepts it, there could, theorhetically still be a few people dominating the market (i.e. they take thier contracts and get all fo their Scout firends to take the similar contracts and give them a bit of the profit). If multiple people can have a contract, someone will notbe able to fulfil the contract and not only lose money, but get a bounty...

I think this needs a little more work, and you need to take my comments with a grain of salt...I was just thinking out loud... Basically, make it so there isn't a "Drawbacks" section anymore .

Another thing on the BH bounties:I can imagine a grief system where a crafter puts out lots of 200k bounties. A Master Ranger teams up with his MBH friend(or alt)to get the bounty money with no work. The Ranger takes 8 missions and puts in his 1.6mil. He doesn't complete the contracts and the MBH friend takes the mission. The Ranger hides on the roof of his private house while his MBH friend comes along to deliver the db. The MBH tips the Master Ranger his 1.6 mil while the crafter gets nothing.

A potential solution: The Ranger pays the entire bounty. The crafter says they want 5k of a resource and are going to pay 1 million credits on delivery (200cpu). They set a bounty of 200k but are not required to pay the bounty themselves. In order to take the mission, the Ranger is required to pay the 200k bounty. If the mission is failed, the crafter keeps all of his money (minus a small listing fee, potentially) while the Ranger loses 200k and has a BH hunt him down (possibly for 150k to drain some money out of the system and to prevent afriend or an alt from removing any risk). If successful, the Ranger is refunded his 200k and receives the 1 million credits for his service.

In order to keep bounties from being placed on every order, there needs to be some form of limiting factor. Make it so that there is a minimum order amount before a bounty can be placed (maybe the order has to be for at least 100k). Also, limit the size of the bounty to 20% or so of the reward. So a 100k order would have a 20k bounty (of which 15k goes to the BH and 5k to the system). A 1mil order could have up to a 200k bounty. The smallest bounty should be enough to cover the BHs expenses and provide a decent amount of investigation xp (but not enough xp to encourage exploiting the system).

In order to keep griefing to a minimum, orders without a bounty will have an acceptance fee. This fee would be returned on successful completion but provides a penalty for failing the mission without requiring PvP. The acceptance fee should be higher than the maximum bounty fee, providing a larger monetary penalty but no risk.

Overall, I like the idea.

Lythender Nirou
Master Ranger/Master Squad Leader
Eclipse Server

Everyone...I would more like to see the option of putting a bounty on someone's head. If someone fails to fulfill an order..let the crafter decide if he wants to put a bounty out. Heck, even when I fill orders for friends, I don't always get as much as I am asked...they never get mad, they realize that hunting takes time, and say 'oh well' and move on.

Message Edited by Calculus_Entropy on 05-18-2004 10:33 AM