Goblin Squad Member
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Has there ever been a game with a bounty system that worked? This seems like wasted development time. If you can somehow manage to make the system work so that player X, who killed player Y, can't have his buddy Z come and kill him to collect player Y's bounty, there is still the issue that as MMO's progress in age, money becomes less and less valuable, meaning less incentive for older players who have all the money they need to spend time tracking down players.
I will admit I haven't read all the PVP related threads on this board. I'm not sure what's been said where, so maybe this idea has already been floated around somewhere. To me, this is the way open PVP needs to be handled, to have its own checks and balances.
So lets take a look at what I call the Justice system.
- Justice is blind - The premise here is that beyond open warfare, there is no excuse for murder. If you see player X, kill player Y (who is not in your party), and you exact vengeance on player X, you are just as guilty as player X. You both are murderers, and will have to deal with the consequences as they come.
- Bookkeeping - If you attack a player who dies, you earn a murder count. These will accumulate over time. Accidents happen, one murder count will be removed from a player every 30 days. Murder count is capped at 365.
- It was Justified - It's okay to defend yourself. Party A, initiates an attack on Party B. Party A will be subject to a murder count. Party B will not.
- The Law - Committing murder should be an act that requires consideration and thought. You should weigh the options before doing so. Any player who is "caught" and has murder counts will be "jailed". A jailed character is inaccessible for (murder counts X 24) hours. That character is in jail and can't be played. They will be released after those hours and all murder counts removed.
- I Surrender - Players may surrender themselves at settlements if they have over 10 murder counts. The character will be jailed and will be released as normal when all murder counts have been burned. Player who surrender themselves are jailed for (murder counts X 12) hours.
- The Enforcers - The enforcers will be other players. To become an enforcer, a player can visit the local constable and elect to become an enforcer for a period of 12 hours. To become an enforcer you must have 0 murder counts. This player can now "capture" players with murder counts.
- The Capture - To capture any player with murder counts, an enforcer must reduce the player to 0 hitpoints. Any enforcer who has done damage to the player and/or is a party to, is said to have captured that player. Any enforcer then may return to a settlement to turn the captured player over and jail time begins. If an enforcer is killed before returning to a settlement, their captured list is reset. So lets say their are 3 enforcers going after 1 murderer. They manage to take him down and all 3 are now flagged as having captured him. Two get killed working their way back to a settlement, but one makes it through and is allowed to imprison the character. If they had all been killed then they would have to find and capture the player again to have a chance at imprisoning him.
So there you have it. That's the basic implementation of an open pvp system that should balance itself out. Those highway robbers, assassins, and general evil dudes who are cautious and careful about their work will have an opportunity to thrive. Those who are just thoughtless greifers out to ruin someones day will quickly be ruined.
If you spend a year building up your highway man, during which you commit around 100 murders, you will literally be a man on the run. AS IT SHOULD BE! You would not want to get caught and would operate your highway man in an appropriate manner.
As a "good guy", you can operate under the guarantee that once you capture a character, he'll be out of commission for awhile. It would truly be possible to establish a lawful realm.
Obviously you can jiggle the numbers to make it as harsh or lenient as you want. Discuss.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Very bad system. Removing a persons ability to play the game is a terrible idea. Simply providing viable alternatives to killing someone should be more than enough to discourage murder.
Edit: Well I have been involved in a few discussions of MMO jail systems that might be viable. Basically, you give them a physical jail that they are stuck in. Allow them to work off their sentence and even give them the chance to escape from jail, though escape should be very hard and just make them a fugitive. It in theory creates an environment where some interesting role play can happen too. The problem is that the players that would respond well to such a system are also not really the people that would need to be jailed.
