One of the most commonly suggested new companies or quest types is a system whereby bounties may be posted on players, encouraging other players to go hunt them. It's a solid idea, but I've had a few thoughts that expand on it.
- Ships, not crew - Being able to post bounties on individuals has a few problems. It could lead to targeted griefing, it can be avoided without much loss by logging off until your crew goes to sell, etc. So bounties are placed on ships, not on their crew. Ideally, this would go hand-in-hand with some way to name ships, whether that's just a random name, a mad-libs style phrase selector, or a fully customizable name, but it would be so satisfying to put the bounty on the crew of the Salty Kraken, rather than just, "that a*****e sloop." You'd have to bring back some proof of sinking the ship, like the nameplate, the flag, or the wheel. Whatever it is would drop in the water when the ship despawns, so you'd have to stick around during the sinking too. This also can help with targeted ships logging off. If the ship logs off, they still drop their token, so the quest can be completed.
- Only ships that sank you - This is kind of equivalent to Dark Souls' indictment system. You can only post bounties on ships that sank you. Why? Well, this ensures that ships are up for PvP, so solo sloops that aren't looking for a fight don't get unfairly targeted, and the sinking requirement means the crew is at least semi-competent. The overall company would probably be flavored as some sort of policing agency, so they're the ones putting up the bounties, and you're just reporting the crime. This also means that ships that are targeted are more likely to have treasure aboard. To be clear, anyone can take these bounties, but they can only be posted by someone who lost their ship to another crew.
- No maps - this is my favorite part. The world is pretty big for the number of ships we have in it, so hunting ships might get kind of troublesome, but maps that lead you right to them might be kind of troublesome. So how do you track them? The bartenders. The bartenders have an option to ask who's been through the outpost recently. So make that option let you know if the crew you're hunting has been through. This encourages a few things I really like. It encourages hunted crews not to linger at civilized outposts, just like notorious pirates. This will encourage them even more to have treasure on board, making the reward for these quests very good. But this also might lead to the hunted crew using a deserted island as a hideaway, just like notorious pirates or even stashing their treasure to come back for later just like notorious pirates. A bunch of thematic stuff here. Perhaps the initial bounty will give their last known location no matter where you are in the world.
So anyway, those are my thoughts. Mostly I really like the idea of the bartenders telling you if the hunted ship has been seen in the area. It seems like a cool mechanic and a cool use for a mostly useless NPC.
