It's been discussed on several occasions in mostly a "player A posts a bounty on player B and player C hits them to collect bounty" but I think this system would be alot more indepth and fun for all players.
First off, the system would include a new Career called, what else, Bounty Hunter. Levelling the career would be roughly twice as expensive in CP than other careers, would offer no ability to spend career points on stats and offer only 1 ability. You would gain the ability "Apprehend" at level 3 of this career. Apprehend would cost significantly more CP to use than other career abilities and would continue to become more expensive as you continue to level this career.
Next, there would be a new page called the Bounty Board (or some such) where players who are currently wanted by ALPD are listed with a wanted and danger level (Most Wanted, Armed and Dangerous) or (Wanted, Approach with Caution) for examples. The current bounty being paid will not be listed, instead players will have only their Wanted level to gauge approximate bounty payments. Danger level will only tell you the approximate difficulty level of apprehending said offender. The higher end payouts would only be roughly equal to some high end crimes.
Now, the way players gain wanted level is by getting out of jail by means of a new system (Pay Fine) which would be significantly cheaper than bail, cheap enough that player would actually consider it a viable option. Also, when failing crimes or attempting to bust players from jail or being caught in combat, a new failure type may occur which shows as something like "You were identified, but you got away."
Next, players currently using the Bounty Hunter career will have a new option in the Bounty's player profile called "Apprehend". This is action would be based off the Bounty's Power Rating and the Bounty Hunter's career level. In this way, all players have the option of collecting bounties on any other player if they want to put the time into levelling the Bounty Hunter career. When apprehended, the Bounty will be put in jail for the amount of time he has accrued toward his wanted level. He can still be busted out or pay bail just as before but cannot Pay Fine to get out cheaply, but anyone getting caught attempting to bust them can accrue time for themselves toward a bounty as well.
Finally, failures for bounty hunters can have a range of effects. First, you may have a "successful" failure where you get away free, however your bounty will have an event listing you as attempting to apprehend him. The bounty hunter may also be hospitalized by his bounty, (due to the fact that the bounty may use deadly force and the bounty hunter cannot, as his bounty needs to be alive). The bounty hunter may even be jailed for a failure due to "use of excessive force".
Note: For the economists who are wondering where all this money for bounties is going to come from, it should be a percentage of the "Pay Fine" cash, not all. In this fashion, no "new" money is being created.
That's all for now, what do you all think? |
Thats actually what I had in mind originally, but since the skills weren't in I defaulted to career. ^_^