Bounty Hunters and Governments

Omightis

My idea today revolves around "bounty hunters and governments" how can a specific play style affect how the world sees you and how you see the world, now bear with me AoC might already have an idea regarding this, but hear me out.

Lets talk about "the cream of the crop", best of the best when it comes to bounty hunters, I'm talking 85% success rate in their bounty hunts, perhaps the top 10 bounty hunters in every server, when you have such success as a bounty hunter that means your a very skilled pvper, which will not be easily attainable.

How should something like that be rewarded? just a random name drop on a list that organizes bounty hunters...nah, not good enough. Lets say those top 10 bounty hunters have their citizenship to their respective military nodes, I think the residing government (mayor,etc) should be able to give some kind of discount or reward to these bounty hunters, think about it, why not? all they do is clear that zone of injustice and bring law and order to light by removing corruption off the feasible streets of their city, wouldn't a mayor want to reward that and support it so in return perhaps in the next voting period they might get re-elected? dance of politics I say, which could add content to the game.

However that's not what is important here, what is important are those bounty hunters, they need a reward from their respective nodes government like a cape or crown that will distinguish them among the populace so people know that just isn't a bounty hunter, that is one of the top bounty hunters in the server, maybe a discount to player housing in their respective nodes as well? 2 things will cross the mind of the average player when they see said cape or crown
1. I don't want to cross pass with that guy in a pvp fight
2. I don't want any corruption

Now in return to such rewards placed upon those bounty hunters, whenever the node that is affiliated with said bounty hunter is in a siege or war, those bounty hunters have to stop whatever they are doing even if it is bounty hunting, and they have to answer the call to defend their "government" and their Node in battle. If I was a mayor I would want the bounty hunters affiliated with me on my side in a PVP fight and if I was the bounty hunter I would want to defend my Government (Node/City) to gain popularity, Honor and Merit. I think this could create content in the game, it could add politics, dance of dragons as they say.

The only con to this I see is if the the top 10 bounty hunters have their citizenship to maybe 2 or 3 nodes, so the other military nodes cant have em because they don't have their citizenship there so they are not affiliated with them but that to me is like anything else in life, you can't have everything.

Thoughts please guys this could be added to the game and it can be a Fortuitous mechanic if done correct that can add Dance of politics, it can add another whole meaning of wanting to be a bounty hunter and it is very do able since we are only talking top 10 bounty hunters or even less.
Thank you, Omightis

Wandering Mist

Thread moved from Community Creations to General Discussion.

Nagash

Just give them gold

maouw

I think this is something that shouldn't be systematized.
If you rule a node, you should be allowed to set the rules for your favourite people and the plebs.
If you're a bad ruler, you can spend all the tax on parties w/ da boiz and the plebs will try to revolt in the next election tournament.
Or you can be a smart ruler and provide incentives for the most capable people to hang around your node.

Titles will help to make the distinction between good bounty hunters and average ones, from there I think it's best to leave it in the hands of whoever is in power to reward/punish as he/she sees fit.

perseus01

Omightis wrote: »

However that's not what is important here, what is important are those bounty hunters, they need a reward from their respective nodes government like a cape or crown that will distinguish them among the populace so people know that just isn't a bounty hunter, that is one of the top bounty hunters in the server, maybe a discount to player housing in their respective nodes as well? 2 things will cross the mind of the average player when they see said cape or crown
1. I don't want to cross pass with that guy in a pvp fight
2. I don't want any corruption

Are you suggesting the top 10 Bounty Hunters don't get any Corruption?
Are you suggesting these people be feared for this reason alone?

1. This may be detrimental for the people under these Bounty Hunters for they may likely do whatever pleases them and not have consequences, for who will merit an accusation of such regard besides the GM himself.
2. I wouldn't want that kind of soluble reputation.

perseus01

I am appeased by an idea like this, although.

Perhaps these Bounty Hunters would present a role among the classes of rule. They could have certain privileges others don't. What these privileges may be, I'm not sure of, but core privileges like no corruption is obsessed.

*Yo, forgive my double post, although. K *

Mamut

I can imagine the situation where people would convince their guild members/friends to become highly corrupted just so they could farm them as bounties and get cool and rare items associated with being one of the best bounty hunters. If there has to be any sort of incentive for becoming one of the top bounty hunters it shouldn't be given by mayors or other players since that leaves a lot of space for preferential treatments and personal biases. Leave it to the automated system even if that means people will convince others to get corrupt on purpose to farm this. I would rather have this than mayors elevating their friends and putting bounties on people they don't like

Damokles

neuroguy

Let me summarize: bounty hunters? You mean whoop whoop that's the sound of the police.

Haha, I also like the idea of politics in the game but in practice it requires some level of engagement/investment from the general player-base which is hard to achieve. Most players will only have a few hours to burn on the game a day (and that's over estimating), you can't reasonably ask them to engage with the politics of it heavily.

The idea itself seems too much for me. My understanding of the bounty hunter system is that it is a way for PvP loving players to essentially opt in to finding open world PvP as they go. Being a bounty hunter is more of a play style option than a career path, or at least that's how I understand it. I say this because it does not hold the risks of corruption but still acts like a compass to world PvP with decent risk/reward. You don't get the benefits of fighting against corruption handicaps because you are ~always a consensual PvPer, but you do get the bonus of the possible rewards for finding and killing corrupted players. It feels like it is the game's not-so-subtle way of encouraging open world PvP.

LieutenantToast

Hiya! We've talked a bit before on some of our previous live streams and the like about how organizations within a node (such as the bounty hunter system) will have a progression path that you can take to both increase your abilities and potentially unlock some additional in-node benefits: https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Bounty_hunters

While those benefits could serve a practical purpose, there's always something to be said for the ability to "show off" your achievements as well in a physical sense - so I like reading more when folks share ideas for what that might look like in the context of certain systems!