Leave PvP alone already. They screw it up every time they make a change.
I placed this first because it's what I most agree with.
The fact is, I don't see much of a real benefit in changing anything, precisely because of what Calista said.
However, I've believed ever since the beginning that the bounty system was completely illogical. A lot of classic players made up all these "rules" about bounties that, to a large extent, formed the concept in the FS World.
For me, the ideology was twisted because of a misunderstanding of how tactics were implemented by those "most" involved.
The foremost idea that I would deal with is the fact that being a "merc" is wrong.
To wit, a bounty hunter is hired to kill by a person that places the bounty. I fail to see how any "bounty hunter" could not be a merc.
Oh wait, the 10 to 100 stam option. Of course, even before that was present (I could be wrong here, but I think at the beginning, there was no such choice), many FS players farmed others to get them to post a high bounty and have their friends collect the prize.
Really, to tell you the truth, one of the things I wanted to do around 5 years ago was smack everyone one day with a random number between 10 and 100 and offer PvP targets and/or BB targets something if they guessed the correct number I had used, lol.
The paradox for me is that bounty hunters have zero need to be protected. They are hired for a job and, from other comments I see, there is no way to evaluate that job.
Now that may seem like a wimpy cop out, but I swear it's not. Because the paradox involved is the lack of evaluation means that I truly believe that bounty hunters in this game do not get paid to do their job.
If somebody spends 100 FSP on a bounty (and yeah, somebody told me they saw it yesterday), why wouldn't I just clear it with ten 10 stam hits?
I did not like Seasons (and yes I missed out because of vacation on most of it) particularly because bounty attacks were not able to be "counter-bountied". In that sense, I agree to a large degree with the "auto-punished" definition touted by some.
This is also key due to some Guilds' program of taking 5 on mercs or whomever. I think that policy fits well with what I consider to be a true understanding of what a "bounty hunter" should be. If you are a bounty hunter/merc and do your job by "killing" then the family is sure to come after you and whoever hired you.
FS "bounties" have evolved so far for so long that I, like Calista, find it hard to move back. Clears became, years ago, run of the mill. I don't see any logical solution to that, and I'd still argue for getting rid of the, in Hoof's words, unintended side-effect of Conserve saving XP.
My personal PvP experience is my own. It's a part of the game that I have always loved and will always fight for. It has taught me, personally, more about the game than any other game aspect and I will always defend it against those that are too lazy to organize their priorities.
Ok, maybe that "lazy" was over the top... I know some of my allies hate me for my opinion, but that's how I feel, lol.
The only thing I think is "relevant" for a possible change, that I'd hope both levelers and PvPers could agree on is a sliding-scale payment system.
Again, I've never had logistics worked out for that, because I never think it would happen via programming.
But I do think it would provide some possibility of aligning what a real world definition of bounty hunting is to the game.
After all, one pays more to kill someone, right? So, in my eye, I'd like to see payment system based on the damage that the person placing the damage is looking for.
Again, there's too many possibilities to really fathom it out, but in all of them, a bounty hunter could DEFINITELY be counter-bountied.
MY SUGGESTION IN ESSENCE:
Essentially, a player placing a bounty (and only her or him) would assign a minimum payment for the bounty clear and could optionally assign a payment for a "bonus" XP loss.
So perhaps the clear itself would, like now, get the minimum prize and no one has to pay more to place a bounty.
But a prize could also be assigned by the bounty placer for each 100 stam hit or for the random level loss or for a total XP loss.
Yeah, complicated, but you get the idea?
In essence, I would suggest that prizes be assigned via bounty tickets and that bounty tickets be reverse exchangeable for gold at the current 200k per.
The idea being that the person placing the tickets assign prizes in bounty tickets and that those complying with XP loss, level loss or number of successful hits or whatever, receive tickets as their payment which they could then exchange for gold.
I guess to keep things up to date, prizes could also be assigned in FSP.
Too complicated, maybe so. Would it work to increase BB activity? Maybe.
Will most dislike this idea, I figure.
But whether a leveler or PvPer you be, I'd hope a little ba-boom might get added to the BB.
Anyway, for any that bothered on both sides of the fence, or completely in another pasture like myself, I'd like some feedback, good or bad. Perhaps this really should have been placed in its own post, but hey, time time. Maybe "later", lmao.
). So I was thinking how these appreciative folks could get more bang for their buck thus resulting in more board activity. If someone already suggested this, I apologize and will credit you accordingly.
