Bounty System... Just An Idea [Edited]

[Dicimiie]

Edited to included ideas throughout the thread.

Was thinking about this while sitting here at work, and thought I'd throw it out here.

Since item insurance is most likely here to stay, why not use it to bring the bounty system back. This is what I mean:

You are a blue and you're out doing your own thing when a red initiates combat by attacking you, and you eventually die. A gump appears asking if you like to add a murder count, and you click 'Yes.' Now, a bounty has automatically been set forth. The red doesn't immediately get your insurance money. In fact, it's being held for one hour. There is a bounty board in Trinsic that is accessed only by anyone that has 80 forensic eval and above. These are deemed bounty hunters. If your bounty is not accepted within an hour, the red gets his usual cut of your insurance. If, however, the bounty has been accepted, the timer is reset for one hour after the acceptance. The vvictim's body becomes a gravestone for fifteen minutes, giving the bounty hunter time to go and do his forensic work, and hhe red is notified that a bounty has been placed on his head. The chase is on.

The message board gives the coordinates of where your body lies, so the bounty hunter can go and do his forensic eval on the victim's new gravestone, letting him know who killed you. He then uses tracking on the gravestone to get the direction the red is currently. The bounty hunter searches, and if he finds and kills the red within the hour, he gets the insurance money normally given to the red. If after the hour is up, the red has not been caught and killed by the bounty hunter, the red gets the insurance money. If the bounty hunter catches up to the red, but the red kills the bounty hunter, the red gets the first victim's insurance money and the bounty hunter's insurance money immediately.

Once the bounty hunter accepts the bounty, the one hour timer begins. This one hour timer could either be one hour of the red being in-game, or one hour of the red AND bounty hunter both being in game. This would help alleviate the red making his kill, having a bounty placed on him and logging out, leaving his actions with no recourse.

The same thing can actually be done if a red is killed by a blue initially. Only instead of a 'bounty,' it is considered a 'hit,' which any red with forensic eval can claim. The 'hit' board would have to be some place easily accessible to a red... Buc's Den comes to mind.

Please discuss. I'd be interested to see what problems crop up and what solution could be created to remedy teh problem. I always thought the bounty system was a cool aspect of the game, and I was a little sad that it got abused and removed.

 

[TheScoundrelRico]

I like the idea. Too bad it couldn't be used on Siege (the whole insurance thing)...la

 

[Dicimiie]

I like the idea. Too bad it couldn't be used on Siege (the whole insurance thing)...la

Hmmm... I apologize that I hadn't thought about Siege on this one. I might have to come up with an alternate idea strictly for Siege.

 

[Uvtha]

Well the problem is, like the old bounty system, a red could just have a friend or an alt kill them, and collect the gold themselves.

The only way a bounty system would work fairly would be to have all bounties go into a pot, and then a winner, or winners were drawn once a week or something.

 

[Kratos Aurion]

I like it. Going to have to find away to get around chars that log out before the hour is up.

And another thing. How do you work around a body thats already decayed for 15-20mins?

 

[Dicimiie]

Well the problem is, like the old bounty system, a red could just have a friend or an alt kill them, and collect the gold themselves.

The only way a bounty system would work fairly would be to have all bounties go into a pot, and then a winner, or winners were drawn once a week or something.

Having a blue friend kill them would only get them their money a little bit faster, making it like it is now I suppose. Don't see much of a benefit to it. This system wouldn't introduce new money into the game. It would just redistribute the insurance money collected from the victim.

 

[Dicimiie]

I like it. Going to have to find away to get around chars that log out before the hour is up.

And another thing. How do you work around a body thats already decayed for 15-20mins?

First off, if the red is that afraid of the bounty (showing the true red from the coward), their punishment for killing the blue becomes an amount of time they cannot play that character. So there becomes a negative to playing a red.

And I suppose as far as the decay timer, if the player gives a count, perhaps they could increase the decay timer to an hour. Don't know how the system currently is, and I don't know hard that would be to code, but I'd imagine it's possible.

 

[love2winalot]

Hail: The only way a bounty system can work, without being exploited like the old one was, is,

1. Take something away from the Red when he is killed, and
2. Give that something to the person that killed him.

In this manner, it does not benifit the Red to have a friend kill him, or to kill him self. The proabelm lies is, What to take away from the Red for getting killed, that is worth the effort of the Blue trying to kill him?.....and.....How to stop the Red from hiding whatever he may lose, on other charaters?

Maybe, have a npc that sells bounty tickets, "To those with the skills required" to be bounty hunters. The Ticket will, "Uninsure" any 1 item on a corps., or, unbond any 1 pet.........hehehe

 

[Lyconis]

I love the idea! (have always loved the bounty system)
It sounds like everyones beef is about the getting around the "blue buddy bit". This has a simple solution where the red gets the money after x amount of time if no bounty is collected, that's great. I wonder if the mentality of killing other players for money might be settled by something like this. Its not fool proof but a great start. Great use for forensics too I might add. Perhaps kick the time up on tracking so you can actually find the player if they went to the other side of the world.

It also seems you could make the player that was "murdered" authorize a player to receive a "token" or "id" that would allow said player(s) to get the bounty. It seems like part of this logic would have been built into the system when Kingdom Reborn linked users to ID numbers.

I have NOT given a murder count to any player in years (post stat loss). Seemed like there was more of a benefit to being red with the champion spawn "magic fields". I would give a count if this type of system was implemented.

 

[GarthGrey]

The only bad thing is, the red has to (1) kill someone, and then (2) evade death a second time. Does he/she get double the insurance if he/she also kills the detective? I didn't read the entire thread if this has been said already.

 

[Bomb Bloke]

Too much effort for a measely 3k. How do you even know your target is still online? How are you supposed to kill them if you have to dedicate skill points to non-combat type skills?

I liked the old system where you could butcher the bodies myself. Not because you could turn them in, but because a wall of named heads was just a cool concept.

What's this about "magic fields"?

 

[Dicimiie]

The only bad thing is, the red has to (1) kill someone, and then (2) evade death a second time. Does he/she get double the insurance if he/she also kills the detective? I didn't read the entire thread if this has been said already.

Well... here's the thing. A lot of people talk about the fact that there is no real punishment for being red. This would be the punishment. Killing someone for the sake of killing them should have consequences. This system would give it consequences without gimping your character too bad (stat loss comes to mind). This system would also make you think twice about going after that miner you saw that was completely defenseless. Sure they are defenseless now, but one click of the button, and you're on the run.

As far as double insurance for killing the bounty hunter, I don't see why not. Perhaps make it where the bounty hunter cannot give a count if they are on the hunt. And if the bounty hunter dies at the hands of the red (not red's friends or some random monster), the bounty is over, and the red gets the insurance from the original kill and also the insurance from the bounty hunter kill. Again, this would also work the other way. I don't think this idea punishes the red, since the same system (the hit contract system) goes the other way.

I don't know if a blue gets a red's insurance normally if they kill the red. But if it's not that way now, perhaps it should be, at least with the bounty system I wrote above.

 

[Dicimiie]

Too much effort for a measely 3k. How do you even know your target is still online? How are you supposed to kill them if you have to dedicate skill points to non-combat type skills?

I liked the old system where you could butcher the bodies myself. Not because you could turn them in, but because a wall of named heads was just a cool concept.

What's this about "magic fields"?

To be honest, I look at this not so much for the gold, but more for the thrill of the hunt. As far as the skills go, for me it doesn't matter. It just adds another element to Fel, which according to a lot of people on this board, seems to be needing something. I liked the old style of the bounty system as well, but it was too easy to manipulate. This system would be harder to exploit, since as I said, it doesn't introduce any new gold to the game... just redistributes the insurance money.

I'm thinking this could also add more fun if you, as a bounty hunter or contract killer, grabbed some friends and went hunting as a group, while the opposition grabbed their friends as protection. It could lend itself for a good PvP fest.

On the topic of if/when a given person logs out or not... who would actually go and kill, only to have to log out for an hour waiting for the timer to end? Seems to me this system would separate the "men from the boys" as they say.

 

[Bomb Bloke]

Actually, if you sit down and kill yourself, you'll lose 3k for dieing in PvP, and gain 3k for killing someone in PvP. Blue or otherwise.

Yes, it's unlikely you'll see people logging off to evade the timer. But people do have to log off eventually.

 

[Sheridan]

It's a good idea in theory, but the current game mechanics would practically render the execution impossible. Crossing server lines removes trackability, corpses decay far too quickly for bounty hunters to find it, etc. Perhaps a temporary, albeit longer-lasting gravestone could sprout up where a blue was killed by a red that could instead be the target of the bounty hunters' forensics? Again, there's a lot of mechanics that would have to come of this and a lot of trouble to go through for a mere 3-6k in insurance. Not to mention the fact that this is assuming anyone would want to play a bounty hunter who could still be viable in PvP with a template that's got both tracking and forensic eval on it, rendering them potentially less capable of dealing with a murderer.

 

[Dicimiie]

Actually, if you sit down and kill yourself, you'll lose 3k for dieing in PvP, and gain 3k for killing someone in PvP. Blue or otherwise.

Yes, it's unlikely you'll see people logging off to evade the timer. But people do have to log off eventually.

Lose 3k and gain 3k, for a net gain of zero. I don't see where you're going with this.

As far as people logging out goes, I understand people do have to log out. Perhaps instead of making it a straight hour, make it an hour of in-game time. This would make it a bit less advantageous to just logout, since the timer continues when you log back in. Of course, if you logout and log in later, there is the chance that the person hunting you won't be on, but then again they might. You could also make it an hour of both the hunter and hunted being on at the same time if need be.

As I said, it's just something to add to Fel. A little extra something. Some added excitement, with the possibility of adding a bit of roleplaying for those that enjoy it. Nothing more, really.

 

[Dicimiie]

It's a good idea in theory, but the current game mechanics would practically render the execution impossible. Crossing server lines removes trackability, corpses decay far too quickly for bounty hunters to find it, etc. Perhaps a temporary, albeit longer-lasting gravestone could sprout up where a blue was killed by a red that could instead be the target of the bounty hunters' forensics? Again, there's a lot of mechanics that would have to come of this and a lot of trouble to go through for a mere 3-6k in insurance. Not to mention the fact that this is assuming anyone would want to play a bounty hunter who could still be viable in PvP with a template that's got both tracking and forensic eval on it, rendering them potentially less capable of dealing with a murderer.

It seems I'll be doing quite a bit of typing on this issue. Hehe

The gravestone is a good idea, since bodies do decay quickly. It's a very good idea actually.

As I said in another post, it's not so much about the gold as it is about the hunt.

As far as skills go, 80 forensics and zero tracking (add 30 for jack of all trades or some jewelry that gives you tracking skill) and a template isn't so out of reach that is viable.

I would actually try my hands at being a bounty hunter if a system like this were put in place, simply for fun of it.

 

[Bomb Bloke]

Lose 3k and gain 3k, for a net gain of zero. I don't see where you're going with this.

Nowhere. I was gonna tell you blues get insurance money for killing reds, but I let myself get sidetracked.

 

[Dicimiie]

Nowhere. I was gonna tell you blues get insurance money for killing reds, but I let myself get sidetracked.

Hehe... cool. Thanks for that.

 

[Balian of Asgard]

My main char is a perma red, but if this bounty system came into play, I would rather build up a blue to hunt down the reds.

I think the decapitated head would be wicked. It would be a loss of pride to see 20 or so of your heads piled up on someones doorstep in yew lol.

I hope it would bring more trammies into fel, but I fear the reward would not be enticing enough, unless there was some kind of decapitated body parts collection system that gave the player a unique reward or title?

because i think it would for sure bring more blues into fel, but I think most of those blues would be from ppl like me who like to play a red but would switch to a blue because it would be fun as S#it to chop off some red heads WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Crow]

I love it...if it were possible to make happen I'm totally for it.

One way around the skill thing maybe could be a quest that is either expensive or difficult. Or maybe a skill boosting item that requires either a quest or a certain ammount of uses...

I dunno...just snap your fingers and make it work, lol...

 

[Harlequin]

Actually, this idea could work.

If someone claimed the bounty, victims would receive half of it.

To solve prevent murderers attempting to lose their tracks by crossing server lines, there are a couple of solutions -

1) If murderer crosses server lines/gate/recalls/logsout, he/she forfeits the chance of getting the insurance money. Victim gets it back and bounty hunter is informed

2) You can recall off the corpse/gravestone to go to where the murderer is (the murderer could set up an ambush)

3) Prevent the murderer from crossing server lines "thoust cannot flee in the midst of combat" (but an hour is too long in this case)

 

[drinkbeerallday]

wow this is a great idea. very balanced. good arguments on both sides means you are getting very close to a real design.

i really like the forensic eval aspect. that is very UO.

 

[Crystal Canyon]

wow this is a great idea. very balanced. good arguments on both sides means you are getting very close to a real design.

i really like the forensic eval aspect. that is very UO.

Holy Monkey! I agree...this sounds like great fun!

Please keep the idea up and going in hopes that the Devs get wind of this post and check it out.

 

[Dicimiie]

Thank you all for the feedback. It's much appreciated. Like I said, it was an idea I had while I was at work, and I thought it was relatively sound and fun.

Keep thinking on this please, and post any comments or issues that could arise from this. Tomorrow I'll try and edit my original post with additional info that has been brought up so far.

 

[GarthGrey]

It's a good idea in theory, but the current game mechanics would practically render the execution impossible. Crossing server lines removes trackability, corpses decay far too quickly for bounty hunters to find it, etc. Perhaps a temporary, albeit longer-lasting gravestone could sprout up where a blue was killed by a red that could instead be the target of the bounty hunters' forensics? Again, there's a lot of mechanics that would have to come of this and a lot of trouble to go through for a mere 3-6k in insurance. Not to mention the fact that this is assuming anyone would want to play a bounty hunter who could still be viable in PvP with a template that's got both tracking and forensic eval on it, rendering them potentially less capable of dealing with a murderer.

Ooohhhh, nice thought with the gravestone !!! Since the Detective gives up 200 pts for his/her "hunting" skill, maybe some kind of special attack move to level the playing field ? Would this be too far fetched? The Detective, with GM Tracking/Forensics/Detect Hidden (yeah 3 skills, but wait), once he/she has not only found the gravestone, and has located the Murderer, would be able to "Call guards" even if outside a guard zone. The guards, instead of whacking the Red, would simply cart him/her off to jail for say, 5 in game minutes? The Detective gets his reward, the guilty are brought to Justice, the victim avenged ? A good Red would simply smite most Detectives, it's the enhanced Gaming experience that makes it worthwhile.

 

[Balian of Asgard]

Ooohhhh, nice thought with the gravestone !!! Since the Detective gives up 200 pts for his/her "hunting" skill, maybe some kind of special attack move to level the playing field ? A good Red would simply smite most Detectives, it's the enhanced Gaming experience that makes it worthwhile.

Its the premeditated murdering that i find appealing

 

[Dicimiie]

Just thought of an idea to alleviate the skill issue brought up. Perhaps when you do a successful forensic eval on the gravestone, a dog appears (labelled blood hound), giving you an auto track for that one person.

 

[Balian of Asgard]

Just thought of an idea to alleviate the skill issue brought up. Perhaps when you do a successful forensic eval on the gravestone, a dog appears (labelled blood hound), giving you an auto track for that one person.

oooooooo

that sounds cool

 

[Corrupted Goblin]

I do not like the timer restriction. How about if your red you only recieve half of the insurance value that you would normally recieve and the other half is just set as a bounty and can be compounded.

 

[Endrik]

How about a simpler layout. If you are the one credited for killing someone, you can use a bladed weapon on the corpse, and a named head will pop into your pack.. "Head of Endrik (PAS)". To make this more appealing, lets say there are 2 names attached to the head... "Head of Endrik (PAS)" in bright yellow item tag, then underneath in white "Harvested by Bob". This way, when you kill someone, you can show off proof. A kind of Trophy.

We can add all kinds if fun little tweeks, like if the killer was red or crim and the victim was blue, the head could say "Murdered by Bob". If both parties were crim or red, the head could say "Killed by Bob", and if the victim was red and the killer was blue, the head could say "Justice Served by Bob" or something along those lines.

For those of you who want numbers and stats, lets say we add something like this... Every time I kill someone, the amount of insurance I collect is reflected in a point value tied to my char. So I kill someone who pays 5k in insurence, then i now have 5k points. I kill 10 people that each give 5k, i now have 50k points. Well this builds and builds until I am killed by another player. The head they take from my body now reads..."Head of Endrik" - "Justice Served by Bob" - "$50,000 Bounty"

We could then make an option where you could sell this head to a player by double clicking on it, then targeting the player to sell it to. Gold payed does not have to be related to amount of bounty reflected on the head. You could even go so far as to name the traded head "Head of Endrik" - "Justice Served by Bob" - "$50,000 Bounty Collected from Sue"

Sure this may not be a huge money making profession, but we have enough of those in game. This would be AWESOME as far as rollplaying, craptalking, avenging, whatever... There would be no skill requirements to tie up your template, no timers other then body decay, no program hassles with server lines or anything like that. Players that want to brag that they killed someone could do so. Players that want to "avenge" a friends murder could do so. Roll players would have a ball. And even the Reds could have a blast trying to make sure that any of their heads on the market have at least a 200k value, kind of a status symbol... "you wount find my head for less then 200k" Everybody Wins, programming should be easy enough, and if you say you can only dehaed bodies from chars older then 1 month, or 3 months or whatever, then you wont usually even have anybody making chars to impersonate kills, especially if guild tags are listed on the head. So reds get to brag at the value of their heads, blues get to brag about who the killed and show proof, victims can be avenged and get proof, and you can choose who you want to pay a bounty to, you dont buy a head from someone uless you trust that they actually avenged you and didnt just have a buddy kill em.

What do you all think?

 

[Corrupted Goblin]

Ill take named heads on my doorstep!

 

[Dicimiie]

How about a simpler layout. If you are the one credited for killing someone, you can use a bladed weapon on the corpse, and a named head will pop into your pack.. "Head of Endrik (PAS)". To make this more appealing, lets say there are 2 names attached to the head... "Head of Endrik (PAS)" in bright yellow item tag, then underneath in white "Harvested by Bob". This way, when you kill someone, you can show off proof. A kind of Trophy.

We can add all kinds if fun little tweeks, like if the killer was red or crim and the victim was blue, the head could say "Murdered by Bob". If both parties were crim or red, the head could say "Killed by Bob", and if the victim was red and the killer was blue, the head could say "Justice Served by Bob" or something along those lines.

For those of you who want numbers and stats, lets say we add something like this... Every time I kill someone, the amount of insurance I collect is reflected in a point value tied to my char. So I kill someone who pays 5k in insurence, then i now have 5k points. I kill 10 people that each give 5k, i now have 50k points. Well this builds and builds until I am killed by another player. The head they take from my body now reads..."Head of Endrik" - "Justice Served by Bob" - "$50,000 Bounty"

We could then make an option where you could sell this head to a player by double clicking on it, then targeting the player to sell it to. Gold payed does not have to be related to amount of bounty reflected on the head. You could even go so far as to name the traded head "Head of Endrik" - "Justice Served by Bob" - "$50,000 Bounty Collected from Sue"

Sure this may not be a huge money making profession, but we have enough of those in game. This would be AWESOME as far as rollplaying, craptalking, avenging, whatever... There would be no skill requirements to tie up your template, no timers other then body decay, no program hassles with server lines or anything like that. Players that want to brag that they killed someone could do so. Players that want to "avenge" a friends murder could do so. Roll players would have a ball. And even the Reds could have a blast trying to make sure that any of their heads on the market have at least a 200k value, kind of a status symbol... "you wount find my head for less then 200k" Everybody Wins, programming should be easy enough, and if you say you can only dehaed bodies from chars older then 1 month, or 3 months or whatever, then you wont usually even have anybody making chars to impersonate kills, especially if guild tags are listed on the head. So reds get to brag at the value of their heads, blues get to brag about who the killed and show proof, victims can be avenged and get proof, and you can choose who you want to pay a bounty to, you dont buy a head from someone uless you trust that they actually avenged you and didnt just have a buddy kill em.

What do you all think?

The reason I presented the system the way I did was twofold. First, I wanted to bring bounty hunting back from death. The second is I wanted to attempt to bring at least one skill back to the living; in this case, forensic evaluation, with the possibility of adding tracking as more viable than it is currently.

If it's a title you're looking for, I thought about adding the following:

If you are a red and you have evaded five bounties more than you have been captured, you gain the title of Murderer. If you are a blue and have eluded being captured by the contract killers five times more than you have been caught, you gain the title of Vigilante. For the bounty hunters, if you have succeeding in capturing a red five more times than you have failed, you get the title Bounty Hunter. If you are a contract killer and you have killed five of your contracts more than have gotten away, you gain the title of Contract Killer.
You can even add GrandMaster for ten more, Elder for 15 more and Legendary for twenty more if you'd like. Personally, I think titles would be cool.

It's possible to add heads to the game easy enough if that is what people want. Personally, I'm neutral on the matter, but I know some people like badges or tropheys, so heads could be a viable reward.

 

[Turdnugget]

How bout this...not much risk to the red as it stands right now, he dies and loses insurance money, has to find a friend to heal or a red healer. Having to dedictate X amount of points to Forensic Eval.... not gonna find many 'bounty' hunters. This is what I propose...

Fred is a red. Bill is a blue. Bill is wandering about Felucca when all the sudden Fred pops out and kills him. Fred gets his insurance money from Bill. Bill can then go and 'hire' a bounty hunter. He enters into a contract of agreement with said bounty hunter. Bill offers say....15k for the death of Fred. Bounty hunter has 1 hour to find that red, kill him and then he recieves his 15k check from Bill. Upon death, the red needs some kind of 'punishment' or risk...so when he dies, he goes into stat loss for X amount of time. Just like in factions. Therefore adding some kind of 'risk' to being a PK. Loses insurance + stat loss for whatever the time may be. 5-10 mins. I think that could also help with the fast re-raids on spawns.

So, a blue dies, loses insurance. Hires a bounty hunter, offers him 1k-1million or whatever to kill said PKer. Bill gets a chance at revenge. Bounty hunter has a risk of losing his own insurance, but the plus of getting said check from the victim + the insurance money from the dead PKer. PKer, should they die, lose insurance money + stat loss for X amount of time.

I don't agree with 'un-insuring' one item so it's on the corpse. What if the red is looted by someone who was just standing around waiting? The bounty hunter wouldnt get their 'reward'.

I did like to cut up and collect heads as well. They should bring that back. Also, say another + for the PKer so they don't feel left out entirely...say when a red kills a blue X amount of gold is set on that PKers head and you can see a list of 'Hot Bounties' at a bulletin board. But the PK will only have gold thrown into the 'Hot Bounty' on their head only if the person they kill has 600+ skill points. To keep from reds rez killing a newbie blue. And that money comes from the game itself. Kinda like when you gate an NPC you get X amount of gold, or for turning in a reward. Same kinda idea.

And to keep from somebody stealing the PK's head to turn in for their reward, only the person w/the bounty can cut the body and the head goes into their pack, like a champ skull or arty.

I think a bounty system could be fun.

 

[Corrupted Goblin]

no time restricitons

 

[Dicimiie]

How bout this...not much risk to the red as it stands right now, he dies and loses insurance money, has to find a friend to heal or a red healer. Having to dedictate X amount of points to Forensic Eval.... not gonna find many 'bounty' hunters. This is what I propose...

Fred is a red. Bill is a blue. Bill is wandering about Felucca when all the sudden Fred pops out and kills him. Fred gets his insurance money from Bill. Bill can then go and 'hire' a bounty hunter. He enters into a contract of agreement with said bounty hunter. Bill offers say....15k for the death of Fred. Bounty hunter has 1 hour to find that red, kill him and then he recieves his 15k check from Bill. Upon death, the red needs some kind of 'punishment' or risk...so when he dies, he goes into stat loss for X amount of time. Just like in factions. Therefore adding some kind of 'risk' to being a PK. Loses insurance + stat loss for whatever the time may be. 5-10 mins. I think that could also help with the fast re-raids on spawns.

So, a blue dies, loses insurance. Hires a bounty hunter, offers him 1k-1million or whatever to kill said PKer. Bill gets a chance at revenge. Bounty hunter has a risk of losing his own insurance, but the plus of getting said check from the victim + the insurance money from the dead PKer. PKer, should they die, lose insurance money + stat loss for X amount of time.

I don't agree with 'un-insuring' one item so it's on the corpse. What if the red is looted by someone who was just standing around waiting? The bounty hunter wouldnt get their 'reward'.

I did like to cut up and collect heads as well. They should bring that back. Also, say another + for the PKer so they don't feel left out entirely...say when a red kills a blue X amount of gold is set on that PKers head and you can see a list of 'Hot Bounties' at a bulletin board. But the PK will only have gold thrown into the 'Hot Bounty' on their head only if the person they kill has 600+ skill points. To keep from reds rez killing a newbie blue. And that money comes from the game itself. Kinda like when you gate an NPC you get X amount of gold, or for turning in a reward. Same kinda idea.

And to keep from somebody stealing the PK's head to turn in for their reward, only the person w/the bounty can cut the body and the head goes into their pack, like a champ skull or arty.

I think a bounty system could be fun.

This system leads to the same problem the original bounty system lead to. What would keep the red from making a deal with the bounty hunter to allow him to kill the red and split the bounty?

Also, how many people would bother placing a bounty after they had already lost money due to insurance? I know I wouldn't bother.

 

[Dicimiie]

no time restricitons

I think the time restriction has to be there. Otherwise, the red never gets the insurance money. While the insurance money isn't really much of an issue, it would still be unfair to hold the insurance money indefinitely from the red simply by accepting a bounty that may never be sought or collected upon. I suppose the time could be changed to two, three, or even twenty four hours. But I think there really needs to be some time restriction.

 

[Turdnugget]

You wanted suggestions =) The victim might want to place a bounty due to wanting revenge? Wanting their killers head...

The whole splitting of the loot would be a hard one...Perhaps for every 'bounty' the hunter completed, he/she would recieve X amount of 'bounty points', like in factions for each kill. And once they had X amount of points they could turn those in for gold, items etc? That way they couldn't turn around right away and split the booty with the red they just killed?

For however many bounties the PK has on their head, the hunter recieves more points?

 

[Corrupted Goblin]

I think the time restriction has to be there. Otherwise, the red never gets the insurance money. While the insurance money isn't really much of an issue, it would still be unfair to hold the insurance money indefinitely from the red simply by accepting a bounty that may never be sought or collected upon. I suppose the time could be changed to two, three, or even twenty four hours. But I think there really needs to be some time restriction.

thats why i say reds only get half of the insurance money. its not held indefinately they just only get half or even only take away 25% of it to put towards a bounty.

 

[Dicimiie]

You wanted suggestions =) The victim might want to place a bounty due to wanting revenge? Wanting their killers head...

The whole splitting of the loot would be a hard one...Perhaps for every 'bounty' the hunter completed, he/she would recieve X amount of 'bounty points', like in factions for each kill. And once they had X amount of points they could turn those in for gold, items etc? That way they couldn't turn around right away and split the booty with the red they just killed?

For however many bounties the PK has on their head, the hunter recieves more points?

First, I wasn't attacking your idea. Was just counterpointing. Hehe

Second, I'm trying to stay away from having gold entering the system anymore than it already does. By turning in points for gold or items, there is an influx of gold/items that UO doesn't need anymore than it already has. That's where the insurance monies come in.

I understand it's not a perfect system. And I understand that adding a skill to already tight templates isn't easy. But the bounty system wasn't meant to be a real moneymaking system anyway. It was simply meant to be for the thrill of the hunt. Something fun to do. I think the system could work pretty well.

I do have a question though. Is there any jewelry out there that adds to the forensic eval or tracking skill? Honestly, I don't remember seeing any. If jewelry could be used, or perhaps soulstones, then the template isn't such a big concern, since you could add forensics to your character, head to the corpse/gravestone, eval it, remove forensic eval, add X skill, and head off.

 

[Turdnugget]

I know you weren't attacking it. Just playin with ya. And no there are no jewels for those skills...And stoning skills off and on would suck if you didn't have a plethera of fragments or full stones.

And ya, the idea of a bounty system would be fun. Just depends how they could implement things.

 

[Dicimiie]

I know you weren't attacking it. Just playin with ya. And no there are no jewels for those skills...And stoning skills off and on would suck if you didn't have a plethera of fragments or full stones.

And ya, the idea of a bounty system would be fun. Just depends how they could implement things.

Perhaps they could add jewelry into the game with Forensic Eval on them then. Would help with the skill problem some at any rate.

 

[Turdnugget]

Or perhaps a quest you do in order to become a Bounty Hunter. And the reward is a robe or something with a special insignia...And you have to have it equipped and that acts as your Forensic Eval and you have to keep it on during the hunt or something...??

 

[GarthGrey]

Nothing like thinking you've offered up a good idea, only to be outdone by Turdnugget, (spell check is highlighting that word for some reason)....excuse me while I go hang myself.

 

[Sarphus]

Didn't read the whole thread...

What happens if the red runs in a private house?

What happens if the red logs out? Chances are good it will take longer to find the red than it does for them to time out.

What happens if the red recalls?

What happens if the red kills someone else and a seperate bounty hunter gets him before the first hunter finds him? Does bounter hunter #1 get to res kill for his bounty?

Does a bounty hunt have to be a 1v1 kill? If not, what if the bounty hunter doesn't get the kill?

How does a bounty hunter stay competitive in pvp when he has to have investigation skills?

What happens if the bounty hunter's target dies to a monster?

After we get past all these questions we have to answer the big one. Is 2 kills worth of insurance money really worth all the effort tracking down a red?



I know it's really unfortunate, but I'm not convinced that it's possible to create a bounty hunting system that isn't highly exploitable for UO. Part of the problem is that small amounts of gold are irrelevant and larger rewards would cause reds to just kill themself with another char of theirs to collect the larger reward.

Well I guess you could make it so if a bounty hunter actually kills his red that he gets a larger than normal sum from the red's bank box. Then you solve the big question of how you make it worthwhile to hunt bounties, but you probably create a bunch of other issues.

 

[Balian of Asgard]

Didn't read the whole thread...

What happens if the red runs in a private house?

What happens if the red logs out? Chances are good it will take longer to find the red than it does for them to time out.

What happens if the red recalls?

What happens if the red kills someone else and a seperate bounty hunter gets him before the first hunter finds him? Does bounter hunter #1 get to res kill for his bounty?

Does a bounty hunt have to be a 1v1 kill? If not, what if the bounty hunter doesn't get the kill?

How does a bounty hunter stay competitive in pvp when he has to have investigation skills?

What happens if the bounty hunter's target dies to a monster?

After we get past all these questions we have to answer the big one. Is 2 kills worth of insurance money really worth all the effort tracking down a red?



I know it's really unfortunate, but I'm not convinced that it's possible to create a bounty hunting system that isn't highly exploitable for UO. Part of the problem is that small amounts of gold are irrelevant and larger rewards would cause reds to just kill themself with another char of theirs to collect the larger reward.

Well I guess you could make it so if a bounty hunter actually kills his red that he gets a larger than normal sum from the red's bank box. Then you solve the big question of how you make it worthwhile to hunt bounties, but you probably create a bunch of other issues.

If the red house hides, he is a turd, but what else is new in UO, blues GZ sit all day and fools just sit outside of the GZ and wait, no big diff lol

I dont think the actual amount of the gold reward is paramount.
At least to me, it is insignificant.
The title, the thrill, the killing for a cause, thats the reward in it for me.
Anything else like a point system etc.. is all GRAVVVVVY

 

[feath]

I love the idea of the bounty system coming back, but I'm in the 'collect the heads' group.
I'd rather see no money involved, as mentioned before, that system was exploited too much.
continue with the current system, but add;

when a red kills someone, he has a murder count added to that characters 'reputation'. When anyone views the 'wanted posters' at any city jail, the murders are listed (drop down box, sort by name, reputation, whatever).

they can then be hunted specifically. I say this, cause some people would want to hunt the guy who's killed 260 people....or 1000, or whatever. following me so far?

then, return the ability to chop off heads. (perhaps give the ability to add it to a plaque, like bears and orcs) The tag would read the char's name and reputation... "The head of Moe, murderer of 87"

At the time of death, Moe's reputation goes back to zero. The bounty hunter has the ability to lock down the head(s) for bragging rights.

To balance it out a bit, if the red kills the bounty hunter, he can chop the head for display as well. "The head of Jack, failed bounty hunter"

 

[Littleblue]

Yay for a new bounty system!

I always liked the old system, especially the chopping of heads!

 

[hawkeye_pike]

I like the idea of bounty hunting. The only disadvantage is, that it would be limited to Felucca, while most people are in Trammel. The whole separation of Trammel and Felucca messes with many ideas, unfortunately.

Using detective skills and play a bounty hunter would be a very interesting and challenging option for the game.

 

[Fizzleton]

you have to offer a complete different reward than merely gold coins.

say 3600 gold - go and slay any mob in uo, you will end up making 100k+ gold per hour - compared to some insurance coins. There has to be much more appealing like that, to make peeps join the hunt.

First - make a difference between "normal reds" and "bounty-reds". Bounty-Reds are murderers who aggree to join the bounty-hunt. This hunt gives a red something for NOT being killed - e.g. a certain kind of fame. (Being offline/hidden/at home/online on unusual times etc. doesn't count). There is a nice reward associated with high fame - the names of the reds with most fame will spread over the shards (eg "wanted posters" of them on all banks); and there will be more rewards, e.g. more and /or better scrolls at champ spawns (further ideas welcome). the reward grows the longer the red remains undefeated = the higher his/her fame is. If the red is defeated, half of his/her fame is gone. to make it easier to locate a bounty-red, there will be a message when he/she is logged in - and an information where to look for. Therefore, the hunt will/can begin immediately they are online.

Any blue is given a reward for killing a bounty-red - fame (of a certain kind). there is a reward associated with high fame resulting of the kills of bounty-reds (char-wise; e.g. a boost in ssi, or resists, ...). Fame grows the higher the fame of the killed red is. Fame vanishes with time.

If you balance the system like that, the red has much to loose upon defeat, so there will be none to agree in being killed.

Another idea would be to introduce a handicap-like system: There are templates defined that represent 100% fighting capability, consisting of a) stats b) skills c) equipment. A bounty-red with god-like stats/skills/equip (getting eg a 200% rating) will much slower gain fame compared to one who takes a handicap - eg a mage fighting with fc/fcr 1/3 instead of 2/6. The higher the handicap a bounty-red takes, the faster his fame will grow. Furthermore, the highest ranks of fame will only be reachable with severe handicaps, eg mages fighting with true regs instead of 100% lrc-armor. This idea can also be mirrored to blues.