@miserenz said in Bounty System – Let the Ferryman Judge the Damned:
There are several main problems/complaints:
- Not opting in
- Exploits used to transfer money between accounts
- Toxic behavior
- How the logistics would work. Players leaving servers etc.
Not opting in: This is a silly one. If you are playing in high seas you are opting in for PVP but let’s not scare the new players straight away.
A simple fix is to make bounties part of the captain ship system. The bounties are on the ship, not individual pirates. Bounties can only be hunted if you are on a captained ship. If you don’t want to be part of the bounty system don’t sail a captained ship. Other thresholds/triggers could be added for example you would have place a bounty just once to opt in for that season or do the voyage itself. Either way you are now in the system. Each season have accommodations for Placing, cashing and having a bounty you placed collected like the reapers chests/COF to encourage buy ins and engagement. Bounties placed on players not opting in still go through, just do not become active.
Putting aside the part where playing High Seas does not mean you want to fight others and cannot be compared to someone being able to dive to your location and track you down solely because you defeated an attacker. You are now adding punishments for sailing a captained ship which benefits from the use of sovereigns and on top of that, even in high seas, you aren't opted into being a target for HG players, you have to vote for HG to be dived to by them. Nor can Reapers just instantly know you are around, you need an emmisary flag and they need Grade 5, there is a reason there is a PvP flag, why reapers are visible to all and why HG even exists, it's to create Opt in to finding PvP since it is perfectly fine to run away in High Seas rather than fight every ship that approaches you or is on the horizon.
This does not solve the Opt In issue, this is solely viewed from a PvP enjoyer's perspective and not the perspective of people who want nothing to do with the bounty system. It's also unclear if just placing a bounty or hunting a bounty is how you get into being eligible to be hunted, how anyone starts eligible in the system of bounties.
Exploit to transfer money and/or toxic revenge: fair enough.
Didn't see where the money side of this was mentioned in the thread but you can just make it a set amount that is earned similar to how in HG sinking a champion or a normal ship is still worth the same amount for your hourglass value. Making it harder to use for toxic revenge would just require a higher threshold of criteria to be met to place a bounty than simply being sunk. Example, they had to shoot you first, or a nemesis system where you was sunk by them multiple times in one session in which case you can bounty though it's far simpler to scuttle to a new sea.
A simple fix: Excluding HG, when you get sunk you can put a bounty on the captain ship that sunk you AND it costs you money and doubloons. BUT the bounty is not automatically active. It takes several different crews paying the bounty on the same ship before one is issued, with a threshold of say five different crews before it becomes active. A ships bounty count goes down once every few weeks naturally or when collected by another player. Now it is unlikely you are a floating around getting attacked, defending yourself and getting revenge bounties by other players. Given that Rare is now allowing players to keep track of how many times they are being reported and reports expire, they certainly have this capability. So, if I have sunk 10 ships one night, I could have a bounty as high as 10, once it hits four I am no longer on the menu. If I am a chill player not fighting a lot am I going to be sinking that many ships and if I have to place a bounty to opt in I am safe anyway unless I choose not to.
Again, confusing how anyone starts out eligible as opted in but at least this makes it harder to be bountied by someone salty they lost when you defended yourself.
How to accept/track bounties: This would become a level 5 reaper voyage for captain ships only. Other groups need not apply. A red note appears on the mast indicating that the voyage is available, there is someone on your server or region. Only players in HG are immune from having active bounties collected. Vote down to the reaper voyages & dive to the server that they are on. When you do the red note disappears. While the target ship can also dive at any time, their dive will always put them on a server with a couple of extra open spots. You get a notification that the target has dived, maybe the compass spins like crazy or the red not reappears. Run down stairs and vote to dive again, you dive right after them.
If they can just dive right after the bounty target, what is the point of allowing a dive at all? Not to mention why make it only Reapers can do the hunting? Why not make the voyage giver be a bounty board on the island similar to how there is a board for buried treasures or from Captain Capsize of Capsize Charters...seems like it would be there type of business. Other than the Tall Tales next to them. Not to mention if they can keep diving to you, if they are a bigger ship it seems unfair to be chased endlessly by a ship you don't have a fair chance at fending off that you can't even outrun as it can just follow you to the ends of the earth and back.
Collecting/canceling bounties: You sink a player who had a bounty on them. Hand in their captains’ log book to reapers for a big reward. If you hand in the log book, I also see no reason why the sunk ship could not place a bounty on your head. This game play loop would be a good thing not a bad thing. You can also cancel bounties on yourself via sinking the hunting player and selling their log book to reapers. This reduces your bounty count by two. So, it is possible to break out of the loop if you want to.
Doesn't really make sense how fighting off hunters would lower your bounty, not gonna argue the point of who would the Captain's Logbook be sold to, whoever gives the task would naturally be who takes it.
You yourself acknowledged, this idea only looks good on paper but is rejected repeatedly, why push so hard to try make it work when it seems like there is just as many if not more people who dislike the idea than those who want it and all that it offers is generally already available in much simpler ways. You want people to come after you? Plenty ways to make your ship visible. Want to hunt others? Reapers Grade 5/Hourglass.
It's more of a question of what does this even offer that we don't already have in simpler, better ways?
