Player Bounties and the Dark Brotherhood in Cyrodiil

Imperator_Clydus

Greetings and Salutations members of the Elder Scrolls Online community,

I'm certain I am not the only player who is anticipating the inclusion of the Dark Brotherhood as well as the Thieves Guild and all the content that ensues. While details are rather limited at this point, we do know they will have brand new skill lines for us to take advantage of, and they will likely be PvE-oriented.

Now my biggest interest in ESO is largely the PvP side of things, which obviously includes Cyrodiil and AvA. One of the truly amazing aspects of the Dark Brotherhood in Oblivion and Skyrim was the ability to hunt and kill various targets to move up the ranks of the organization.

I would like to see this same approach included in ESO, except being incorporated into PvP. The best example I can give of a MMORPG that had an amazing player bounty system was Star Wars Galaxies. It's rather simple how it works and I'll explain below:

In order for one to have a bounty placed on their head, these particular players would have to either kill other players in PvP, prompting a bounty screen to place a certain amount on the player's head, or killing a certain amount of enemy faction NPCs. These bounties would dynamically raise based on how many more players the target kills, as well as NPCs, and how long the bounty would be on the board.

Bounty Hunters, in the case of ESO Dark Brotherhood members, would then go to a bounty terminal (bounty board) and see a selection of bounties ranging with different prices. The higher the price, the greater the danger. Bounty Hunters would then have to actually track their target down, with various systems in place to make this simple and intuitive, and they had the luxury of making the first hit on the enemy target. In Cyrodiil everybody is already red, so perhaps wearing a disguise of the alliance of the target would be a way of giving the element of surprise.

I believe a system like this for ESO not only makes sense but can easily be incorporated into the game. AvA already has an established leaderboard of the top players for each alliance. Guilds can also claim resources and keep, with the guild leaders and officers of those particular organization being potentially high value targets.

Now just to make this clear bounty hunting would only be possible in Cyrodiil for obvious reasons. The one aspect I did not like about SWG was even if a bounty hunter failed, they could just pick up the target's bounty again and keep trying over and over. One interesting way to counter this would be incorporating a system similar to what Skyrim hinted at.

If a target successfully kills a member of the Dark Brotherhood, they can then loot a letter giving specific details and instructions given to the DB member. This information would allow the player to be able to easily distinguish the DB member if they attempted another assassination and discourage future assassination attempts. A lockout of that bounty could also potentially work, but wouldn't be nearly as compelling.

What are the thoughts of the ESO community on this idea? I believe player bounties would only add another player-driven and dynamic fold to the amazing PvP system we already have. It would give players incentives for hunting specific targets while also providing emergent game play and keeping the game interesting at all times. It was a wonderful system in SWG, and I believe it would work just as well in ESO.

Feel free to post comments and critiques in the thread below.

All the best,

Imperator Clydus

aftershox

Like you I also played a Bounty hunter in SWG and I have high hopes such a bounty system could be added to the game. As a long time fan since Morrowind, performing the Black Sacrament ritual should be the PVP opt in part for taking out DB contracts and assassinations. It's lore friendly and makes sense from a gameplay perspective!

sevcik.miroslaveb17_ESO

I actually think this could work fine even outside pvp zone. If they gave players to disable possibility to become bounty. A lot of them would turn it off, but many wont... I am curious what will devs comeup with.

aftershox

My point was similar to the OP meant to be rather that players who are active in PVP or who want to put a bounty on an enemy faction player could do so in a lore friendly way in the open world and not just in Cyrodil. Achievements could be made available for each party. Contract killer, master assassin etc. I unlocked sorcerer killer - already in the game last weekend which was very satisfying indeed.

Imperator_Clydus

I wouldn't be opposed to DB bounty hunting working outside of Cyrodiil. I always personally appreciated the emergent game play that came with never being completely safe and always being at risk for attack anywhere in SWG.

With that said, it would be more difficult considering bounties would be limited to one's alliance (not necessarily good for faction camaraderie), and then of course there is the megaserver, instancing, and other potential barriers of this nature.

I'd be intrigued to see ZOS implement this feature in such a way that it would actually be a benefit rather than a hindrance outside of Cyrodiil. Certainly though, at least in concept, the idea of DB assassins being able to track targets anywhere, even outside of Cyrodiil, is incredibly appealing.

aftershox

Couldn't have put it better myself!

Rumpadump

I actually love the idea of bounties outside of Cyrodil.

Bounties in general actually sound awesome, as I like everyone else is like where on Earth is the Darkbrother Hood? As a Nightblade it would be cool to get paid for asssassinating someone or even getting a really nice XP bonus for a super high level bounty.

mstout7419b14_ESO

I would love to see an SWG style bh system in this game- or any game for that matter- but it would work great in this game

Imperator_Clydus

mstout7419b14_ESO wrote: »

I would love to see an SWG style bh system in this game- or any game for that matter- but it would work great in this game

Absolutely. The Elder Scrolls is one of the few IPs that a system such as this would fit perfectly with the experience. Assassinations and bounty collections are just part of the norm of Tamriel, and I would love to see that reflected in ESO.

Especially with the announcement of the Justice System, how one can either be fined or killed for being caught, and even become a guard yourself, this would also fit in perfectly with player bounties.

This system wouldn't have to just be limited to the Dark Brotherhood, but could be extended to player guards as well. One of the great feelings of The Elder Scrolls games is the sense of choice and consequence for that.

If I steal something or decide to kill a innocent civilian, there are consequences I have to deal with. This is one of those aspects that really sets TES apart from most games, and it needs to be adequately reflected in ESO.

Having player bounties would give that sense of choice and consequence entirely to the player, as they can be the criminal as well as the law enforcer. This would only further the goal of making a truly immersive experience having choices that actually have consequences in this persistent world of Tamriel.

RedTalon

You know for some reason see them doing a build up to the dark brotherhood line, by having assassins spawn and attack current and past emps.

Imperator_Clydus

RedTalon wrote: »

You know for some reason see them doing a build up to the dark brotherhood line, by having assassins spawn and attack current and past emps.

That would be interesting. I could see current and former emperors being high priority targets with larger bounties on their heads. There are a lot of things ZOS could do to bring variety into the system based on the target one is going for.