Byucknah
5 years ago
The Bounty System, Thoughts
So within one of the recent posts on Warmode we got some more information on Bounties and the value of them. Personally this is one of the systems I am most hyped for, I was always a big fan of bounties in games like GTAV and the idea sounds like a ton of fun.

I do personally have some opinions/concerns and ideas on the subject, and while I know that very few details have been discussed yet I kinda wanted to get my two cents on the matter out.

Please keep in mind this is just my personal opinion/feelings/feedback on what I would personally like to see and just my side of discussion :)

Duration/Removal
One of the things that we do not have official confirmation on yet is how long bounties last -or- if there is even a duration to them. Personally, I feel that bounties should last until killed or have a compounding duration that does not tick away while offline or in safe zones. If the former I feel it should be removed upon death and if the latter I feel each death should reduce the duration until drained away (The idea of building up and breaking down, garnering more infamy if you will)

Another thing I was thinking of was the idea of being able to spend gold to remove your bounty with an ever increasing price point akin to how old talent respecs worked. Starting out at something manageable like 200-500g but quickly building up with each reset with the price lowering back down over time so frequent use is discouraged while occasional use in a situation where you really need it gone you can get rid of it. The reason I even bring up the ability to remove bounty with gold is based on my following opinions on the system.

Warmode Toggling
I do not believe that while you have an active bounty that you should be allowed to toggle Warmode off! Until you lose your bounty you should be forced to stay in Warmode. Considering that getting a bounty placed upon you in the first place comes from killing enough players to trigger it, it would seem silly if when you got a bounty you could just go back to town and toggle Warmode off casually then return to your general open world shenanigans knowing that no one can claim your bounty. I think that until the bounty is claimed or cleared in some way, upon receiving a bounty you should be locked into Warmode.

Hearthing/Teleportation/Portals
One of the issues I see with the bounty system is a situation where a player gets a bounty then decides to retreat back to a safe zone immediately. If you are actively out and about killing other players to the point of getting a bounty you should be forced to commit. I believe that for as long as you have a bounty you should be unable to (or at least severely hindered such as massive cast/use times) hearth, use teleportation items that are not quest specific, take player portals, ect. In the event that you are, it should take a large amount of time, such as a hearth stone taking 2 minutes to cast thus making it a risky move.

I do however feel that Flight Points and other fast travel npcs should not be affected thus giving bounty targets a chance to make their way across the map to a Flight master or such and giving opportunity for pursuit.
Edited by Byucknah 05/11/2018 03:20 AM
Phalanx
Game Designer
5 years ago
The Bounty System, Thoughts
Good feedback.

We're going to make some changes so that the 'Assassin' and 'Bounty Hunted' retain as you go from zone to zone. Our concerns with retaining the buffs is that we can't guarantee players who pursue each other going from zone to zone stay within the same shard (though we're doing some work to try to make that happen). If you happen to leave the outdoor world (i.e. join a dungeon or raid), it will clear the buffs.

Our philosophy here is that you should want the Assassin and Bounty Hunted buffs on you. To remove them is to want to opt-out of the gameplay session, not to circumvent some sort of penalty.
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