Player Bounty Idea

nursingninja · July 2018

I used to play Star Wars Galaxies. One of the nice features was a player bounty system. A bounty hunter could hunt down Jedi players while they didnt suspect it.

What if this game employed a similar mechanic? Heres an idea.

If you're racking up a lot of kills in PVP after a certain point your player starts to gain a bounty. It gets bad enough that opposing factions start performing the black sacrament to have the brotherhood hunt you down.

At that point, anyone who is high enough in the dark brotherhood could obtain your quest from a npc to hunt you down. And they could strike anywhere at anytime.

Thoughts?

Radinyn · July 2018

*performs black sacraments to make people hunt whole ZOS team*

themaddaedra · July 2018

Brilliantly outdated idea. It was voted no many times.

The_Protagonist · July 2018

Don't waste your time writing about it, it was proposed and dropped. Simply forget about it.

Elsonso · July 2018

nursingninja wrote: »

Heres an idea.

If you're racking up a lot of kills in PVP after a certain point your player starts to gain a bounty. It gets bad enough that opposing factions start performing the black sacrament to have the brotherhood hunt you down.

At that point, anyone who is high enough in the dark brotherhood could obtain your quest from a npc to hunt you down. And they could strike anywhere at anytime.

Thoughts?

As long as "anywhere at anytime" was always in Cyrodiil, that might be an interesting mechanic.

Taleof2Cities · July 2018

How would you actually find the player in Cyrodiil?

It’s a terribly large map.

The bountied player could be on the front lines ... or could be in some remote corner of the map to avoid collection of the bounty.

nursingninja · July 2018

Taleof2Cities wrote: »

How would you actually find the player in Cyrodiil?

It’s a terribly large map.

The bountied player could be on the front lines ... or could be in some remote corner of the map to avoid collection of the bounty.

I'm sure an in canon method could work. Obviously sending out probe droids isnt an option. But maybe a brotherhood network and a bit of magic could fill that gap and feed waypoints to the assassin. Perhaps these waypoints could be more frequent and more precise the closer their target is to a populated area.

Tyrobag · July 2018

How many times are we going to establish how terrible of an idea this is? Every time a topic about this comes up its overwhelmingly voted "No"

exeeter702 · July 2018

What would the bounty yeild? Gold? Commodities? Ap?

If its anything of value, the system will simply be gamed and sold. These ideas are always nice to think about but they never work successfully due the the very nature of online interaction and communication between players.

Sorry, but i know the thrill and fantasy of having a player bounty system is nice, but the reality is if the system produces gold or commodities from nothing, players will simply coordinate bounty status and farm it. If the rewards are not inticing enough, no one will even bother paying attention to it. And since there is no tangible fear of death in this game outside of IC, there is no benefit for the player to acrue the bounty and try to not get ganked. Its universally a naive desire to add bounty systems to mmos. They rarely if ever work.

Elsonso · July 2018

Taleof2Cities wrote: »

How would you actually find the player in Cyrodiil?

It’s a terribly large map.

The bountied player could be on the front lines ... or could be in some remote corner of the map to avoid collection of the bounty.

It would work best if the "Dark Brotherhood contracts" closely followed the leaderboard. Then a player that hid would fall off of the leaderboard.

exeeter702 wrote: »

Sorry, but i know the thrill and fantasy of having a player bounty system is nice, but the reality is if the system produces gold or commodities from nothing, players will simply coordinate bounty status and farm it. If the rewards are not inticing enough, no one will even bother paying attention to it. And since there is no tangible fear of death in this game outside of IC, there is no benefit for the player to acrue the bounty and try to not get ganked. Its universally a naive desire to add bounty systems to mmos. They rarely if ever work.

If the bounties were randomly assigned from the leaderboard, it would be hard to coordinate. The same collusion that goes into rising to the top of the leaderboard would apply here.

exeeter702 · July 2018

lordrichter wrote: »

Taleof2Cities wrote: »

How would you actually find the player in Cyrodiil?

It’s a terribly large map.

The bountied player could be on the front lines ... or could be in some remote corner of the map to avoid collection of the bounty.

It would work best if the "Dark Brotherhood contracts" closely followed the leaderboard. Then a player that hid would fall off of the leaderboard.

exeeter702 wrote: »

Sorry, but i know the thrill and fantasy of having a player bounty system is nice, but the reality is if the system produces gold or commodities from nothing, players will simply coordinate bounty status and farm it. If the rewards are not inticing enough, no one will even bother paying attention to it. And since there is no tangible fear of death in this game outside of IC, there is no benefit for the player to acrue the bounty and try to not get ganked. Its universally a naive desire to add bounty systems to mmos. They rarely if ever work.

If the bounties were randomly assigned from the leaderboard, it would be hard to coordinate. The same collusion that goes into rising to the top of the leaderboard would apply here.

True if they were random, but what purpose would that serve? You are opening a whole other can of worms here.

Ok lets break this down for a second.

Said player acrues a bounty for being at the top of a killing blow leader board of some kind. Said leader board has numerous players on it, say top 50. System randomly places bounty mark on 5 random players in said top 50 group. First, if you are not notified that you have an active bounty, you then become gankable in the overworld unbeknownst to you, all because you pvp often in cyrdoil. This is terrbile and has no trade off.

Bounty systems must operate on a risk vs reward scale. You are enabling a form of punishment for a refular pvp activity of which the marked player has no benefit for being marked. If you do give them some kind of incentive, then you MUST inform them that they have an active bounty, which at that point we go full circle, said player acknowledges bounty and sells it to the highest bidder since he gains nothing substantial for maintaining it (as it would have to be a minor bonus since said player was randomly selected and frankly it would be BS and unfair)

If said bounty system were to not promote overworld ganking and remain in cyrodil and IC, it changes little as you then become a walking lottery with no consequence or benefit.

TheShadowScout · July 2018

nursingninja wrote: »

Thoughts?

First, they had been considering a concept kinda like that for the second half of the justice system - gain a high enough criminal bounty, get "enforcer" players coming after you and not just the easily evadable justice guards...
...but then they made an decision to keep PvE and PvP apart, and that was that, the PvP portion of the justice system was dropped from their plans.

Thus... forget about "Anywhere at any time", they want their PvE and PvP seperate, so any PvP will only happen in PvP designated zones - cyrodil, Imperial City, battlegrounds and whatever PvP thing they might still release as DLC someday. And that cuts down the hunting grounds, a LOT.

Which brings us to the next issue... hutning targets. PC targets are iffy... imagine finally tracking down your intended mark... only to have them log off to go to dinner as you sneak up on them with your murderblade at the ready. All that tracking effort, hunting effort and sneaking effort, wasted. It would be frustrating, yes? Worse if the guy did not log for dunner, but to go on his vacation to the caribbean, while your little assassin character keeps waiting with an unfinished assassination cojntract... Well, the powers that be make no profit from systems that are this frustrating... so "direct contracts" are kinda out.

Here is an alternate idea:
Running bounty counter.

People who PvP a -lot- start amassing a new stat, "Infamity" or something for killing a lot of enemy players and achieveing a lot of objectives without dying (aka, you have to earn a lot of AP without dying yourself to even make the first point of infamity, those "rank and file" PvPlayers who suck at the PvPness like me won't prolly even get on the radar... but the mastergankers will rack them up and thus become valuable targets themselves...).

Those who so manage to kill them in PvP get a hefty chunk of bonus AP (and possibly more - shooting down a "Ace" might be worth extra AP, but to take down one of the "Ace of Aces" would for example be worth a special reward for the worthy all on its own...) depending on that "infamity", which then of course gets reduced for the death.

And characters that maxed the Dark Brotherhood skill line (or possibly a new skill line... "Bounty Hunters Guild" anyone?) get a special perk which displays the infamity of others in PvP zones as extra number above their heads, so they can go after the juicy ones... no tracking down of specific players needed, just prowl the edges of the action, and find a good mark to go after.

Of course, infamity is a fleeting thing, so it should go down in time - if for some time PvPing is done by one of those warriors of renown, they loose a bit of their infamity as they get forgotten and new heroes make a name for themselves on the battlefienlds... how much time might depend, no idea how quick the PvP turnover ought to be. (But it would be nice to say... "One PK a day keeps the infamity loss at bay"...

)

Elsonso · July 2018

exeeter702 wrote: »

lordrichter wrote: »

Taleof2Cities wrote: »

How would you actually find the player in Cyrodiil?

It’s a terribly large map.

The bountied player could be on the front lines ... or could be in some remote corner of the map to avoid collection of the bounty.

It would work best if the "Dark Brotherhood contracts" closely followed the leaderboard. Then a player that hid would fall off of the leaderboard.

exeeter702 wrote: »

Sorry, but i know the thrill and fantasy of having a player bounty system is nice, but the reality is if the system produces gold or commodities from nothing, players will simply coordinate bounty status and farm it. If the rewards are not inticing enough, no one will even bother paying attention to it. And since there is no tangible fear of death in this game outside of IC, there is no benefit for the player to acrue the bounty and try to not get ganked. Its universally a naive desire to add bounty systems to mmos. They rarely if ever work.

If the bounties were randomly assigned from the leaderboard, it would be hard to coordinate. The same collusion that goes into rising to the top of the leaderboard would apply here.

True if they were random, but what purpose would that serve? You are opening a whole other can of worms here.

Ok lets break this down for a second.

Said player acrues a bounty for being at the top of a killing blow leader board of some kind. Said leader board has numerous players on it, say top 50. System randomly places bounty mark on 5 random players in said top 50 group. First, if you are not notified that you have an active bounty, you then become gankable in the overworld unbeknownst to you, all because you pvp often in cyrdoil. This is terrbile and has no trade off.

Bounty systems must operate on a risk vs reward scale. You are enabling a form of punishment for a refular pvp activity of which the marked player has no benefit for being marked. If you do give them some kind of incentive, then you MUST inform them that they have an active bounty, which at that point we go full circle, said player acknowledges bounty and sells it to the highest bidder since he gains nothing substantial for maintaining it (as it would have to be a minor bonus since said player was randomly selected and frankly it would be BS and unfair)

If said bounty system were to not promote overworld ganking and remain in cyrodil and IC, it changes little as you then become a walking lottery with no consequence or benefit.

It pretty much already exists today in Cyrodiil. It would simply be for named players. These issues you raise are not that much of an issue and it would be easy to inform the target that they were on the list.

It is because this already exists in Cyrodiil, at a class level, that you won't see it.

exeeter702 · July 2018

lordrichter wrote: »

exeeter702 wrote: »

lordrichter wrote: »

Taleof2Cities wrote: »

How would you actually find the player in Cyrodiil?

It’s a terribly large map.

The bountied player could be on the front lines ... or could be in some remote corner of the map to avoid collection of the bounty.

It would work best if the "Dark Brotherhood contracts" closely followed the leaderboard. Then a player that hid would fall off of the leaderboard.

exeeter702 wrote: »

Sorry, but i know the thrill and fantasy of having a player bounty system is nice, but the reality is if the system produces gold or commodities from nothing, players will simply coordinate bounty status and farm it. If the rewards are not inticing enough, no one will even bother paying attention to it. And since there is no tangible fear of death in this game outside of IC, there is no benefit for the player to acrue the bounty and try to not get ganked. Its universally a naive desire to add bounty systems to mmos. They rarely if ever work.

If the bounties were randomly assigned from the leaderboard, it would be hard to coordinate. The same collusion that goes into rising to the top of the leaderboard would apply here.

True if they were random, but what purpose would that serve? You are opening a whole other can of worms here.

Ok lets break this down for a second.

Said player acrues a bounty for being at the top of a killing blow leader board of some kind. Said leader board has numerous players on it, say top 50. System randomly places bounty mark on 5 random players in said top 50 group. First, if you are not notified that you have an active bounty, you then become gankable in the overworld unbeknownst to you, all because you pvp often in cyrdoil. This is terrbile and has no trade off.

Bounty systems must operate on a risk vs reward scale. You are enabling a form of punishment for a refular pvp activity of which the marked player has no benefit for being marked. If you do give them some kind of incentive, then you MUST inform them that they have an active bounty, which at that point we go full circle, said player acknowledges bounty and sells it to the highest bidder since he gains nothing substantial for maintaining it (as it would have to be a minor bonus since said player was randomly selected and frankly it would be BS and unfair)

If said bounty system were to not promote overworld ganking and remain in cyrodil and IC, it changes little as you then become a walking lottery with no consequence or benefit.

It pretty much already exists today in Cyrodiil. It would simply be for named players. These issues you raise are not that much of an issue and it would be easy to inform the target that they were on the list.

It is because this already exists in Cyrodiil, at a class level, that you won't see it.

Ok so to refine down to its purest form, you want a system that grants an ap pinata on certain players that are randomly selected from a top kills leader board that only exists in cyrodil? Because that is a terribly lame prospect i would say.

MrGarlic · July 2018

I would just get my RL wife to kill me (in game) and split the bounty between us.

Elsonso · July 2018

exeeter702 wrote: »

lordrichter wrote: »

exeeter702 wrote: »

lordrichter wrote: »

Taleof2Cities wrote: »

How would you actually find the player in Cyrodiil?

It’s a terribly large map.

The bountied player could be on the front lines ... or could be in some remote corner of the map to avoid collection of the bounty.

It would work best if the "Dark Brotherhood contracts" closely followed the leaderboard. Then a player that hid would fall off of the leaderboard.

exeeter702 wrote: »

Sorry, but i know the thrill and fantasy of having a player bounty system is nice, but the reality is if the system produces gold or commodities from nothing, players will simply coordinate bounty status and farm it. If the rewards are not inticing enough, no one will even bother paying attention to it. And since there is no tangible fear of death in this game outside of IC, there is no benefit for the player to acrue the bounty and try to not get ganked. Its universally a naive desire to add bounty systems to mmos. They rarely if ever work.

If the bounties were randomly assigned from the leaderboard, it would be hard to coordinate. The same collusion that goes into rising to the top of the leaderboard would apply here.

True if they were random, but what purpose would that serve? You are opening a whole other can of worms here.

Ok lets break this down for a second.

Said player acrues a bounty for being at the top of a killing blow leader board of some kind. Said leader board has numerous players on it, say top 50. System randomly places bounty mark on 5 random players in said top 50 group. First, if you are not notified that you have an active bounty, you then become gankable in the overworld unbeknownst to you, all because you pvp often in cyrdoil. This is terrbile and has no trade off.

Bounty systems must operate on a risk vs reward scale. You are enabling a form of punishment for a refular pvp activity of which the marked player has no benefit for being marked. If you do give them some kind of incentive, then you MUST inform them that they have an active bounty, which at that point we go full circle, said player acknowledges bounty and sells it to the highest bidder since he gains nothing substantial for maintaining it (as it would have to be a minor bonus since said player was randomly selected and frankly it would be BS and unfair)

If said bounty system were to not promote overworld ganking and remain in cyrodil and IC, it changes little as you then become a walking lottery with no consequence or benefit.

It pretty much already exists today in Cyrodiil. It would simply be for named players. These issues you raise are not that much of an issue and it would be easy to inform the target that they were on the list.

It is because this already exists in Cyrodiil, at a class level, that you won't see it.

Ok so to refine down to its purest form, you want a system that grants an ap pinata on certain players that are randomly selected from a top kills leader board that only exists in cyrodil? Because that is a terribly lame prospect i would say.

Actually, I was saying that it was an interesting idea to have some sort of a Cyrodiil bounty system and brainstorming on that at your request. The rest is you, I guess.

Aesthier · July 2018

Better Bounty Idea:

Every person who "opts in" to the bounty hunt receives the name of one other person, who has also opted in, as their target. They have 24 hours to liquidate the target. When the player eliminates and loots their target they receive the name that target had been assigned. This round robin continues until the end of the 24 hour period upon which rewards are mailed out for the number of targets eliminated during the 24 hour period and a new 24 hour round is created. If a player who has opted in logs out then the target they had is given to the person that had them as a target. Any disconnecting player is removed from the 24-hour rotation and cannot reapply until that session is over. Stealth, Pickpocketing, Blade of Woe, and stealth detection work against targets during this hunt.

Nightfall12 · July 2018

BEST idea

anytime someone trolls a scroll they are flagged as faction-less and can be attacked by everyone, and they have are afflicted with endless sloads....worth triple ap and suddenly has their weapons turn into the broom that was in the crown store.

VaranisArano · July 2018

The problem with allowing any sort of tracking of the players with a bounty is that it becomes trivially easy to put a bounty on enemy raid leads, and thus track the movement of their raids.

For a game mode that's meant for large scale group play and the fog of war, tracking specific enemy players really messes with that.

Artim_X · July 2018

Maybe a player bounty system could make use of the in-game targeting (pressing tab/holding down the right stick when having a target in your crosshairs). The only way to know exactly which players have a bounty on them is by looking at one of the alliance boards or alternatively there might be a bounty leaderboard ranking wanted players, but you can also find out by using the in-game targeting system to see an indicator of a player's bounty. The targeting system could also be the only way to place a bounty. This would prevent someone from logging on and automatically placing a bounty on someone they don't like.

This might encourage players to use the very useful targeting system more often in PvP and even if you are not focused on collecting bounties it would be nice to make more gold randomly during a skirmish.

Players could be allowed to place bounties on any enemy player they come across in Cyrodiil or IC. Bounties could be cumulative in which a new bounty on the same player increases a previous bounty placed on that player. Alternatively a new higher bounty could replace the previously placed bounty and refund the gold to the player that placed the original bounty. Bounties should not be ap based even if it comes from the player placing the bounty, since this could be used to rank up other faction players in an unfair manner. Bounties might also have a time limit and once it expires (1 evaluation cycle perhaps) a player's gold is refunded. Participating in bounty hunting might only be possible in one's home campaign and one cannot collect bounties if one of their alts in another faction have also made that campaign their home.

The map should never show the exact location of a player that has a bounty placed on them. That would sour the experience of many players. If someone wants to go hunting to get bounty related rewards, titles, achievement furnishings, etc. they'll need to go out looking themselves or ask zone for the whereabouts of wanted players.

Honestly though due to the nature of Cyrodiil and IC a player bounty system done wrong in any way, shape, or form would ruin the fun of the alliance war and the fun of farming IC. Although I am hopeful, since I did get excited when I initially unlocked bounty hunter passive in the fighters guild skill line only to be disappointed by the realization that it is PvE quests in PvP land.