Hello!

Happy Monday everyone. Here's our question of the week - I know we've talked a little bit about bounties here and there, but as the question still seems to come up with regularity, we thought we'd discuss it a bit more here.
 
Anytime a character dies in Earthrise by the hands of some dastardly player-killer, a special object is going to be generated in his possession, called Death Report. On this little piece of electronic paper are the last blurry images of his killer taken directly from his watcher chip. Using this evidence, a player could visit a bounty terminal and announce a bounty against a specific player. When a bounty is announced, it becomes immediately available to all bounty hunters in the game - players, who have registered through paying a hefty fee to be known as bounty hunters and bring order to even risky places where no guards dare to thread. Bounty hunters are players who use their perfected player killing skills not to cause turmoil but rather bring justice and vengeance where needed. The bounty could be just that - a reason for bounty hunters to hunt him down with minimal repercussions. Or the player could invest money to create a monetary award and an additional incentive for the bounty hunters to do their job. Either way, the bounty becomes available to all bounty hunters not just one of them, and one vengeance kill will remove the bounty. This may sound unfair to some bounty hunters who may not be lucky to claim a specific kill, but all bounty hunters have access to all bounty hunts anytime so finding someone to kill for a good reason will never be easier. In the same time, for the victim it's open season - a true challenge to strive to survive in a world where a hunter could be stalking you from any corner. There will, of course, be many exceptions and limitations to avoid exploiting the bounty system - for example, party and guild members will not be able to bounty hunt each other, and we are experimenting with other limitations that will make it harder for friends to just bounty hunt each other for some good reason.

Enjoy, and watch your backs!
~ m.

Awesome news on bounty cant wait to see it in game

THANK YOU SO SO SO MUCH!!!!!

ohh thats just really awsome and wonderful news! im just beside myself.

Yay for peaceful coexistence indeed, Ael. And yay for blocking guild members from bountyhunting each other, even though that might make matters way too safe for spy alts (unless they can quickly be expelled that is).

Some questions remain though.

What constitutes a "dastardly player-killer"? Will the watcher chip, as asked previously, make a death report on every PC, or just those who have been tagged "player killer" after a certain threshold of player kills?

What is the lore justification of this death report not being created when a human NPC offs you?

Do death reports accumulate? If you wake up on the fifth clone of your day, will you have four reports in your inventory that you can use at your leisure? Or will those extra reports be erased with each new death? Are they applicable only within a certain time frame before they become unuseable, or could I keep one Death Report for a year just in case I want to make somebody's life miserable later on? Are Death Reports insurable?

What are the systems in place that bounty hunters are indeed "bringing order to even risky places where no guards dare to thread"? How large is the Hefty Fee? How good will they have to be in which skills to be able to apply? What keeps griefers away from that position except Scout's Honor? Who bounty-hunts the bounty hunters?

And: will there be similar systems in place for other forms of player-against-player crime, especially on the battlegrounds of espionage, production, economics, and Leroyjenkinsism?

I would assume that being a bounty hunter would not make you immune to bounties. That wouldn't go too well, obviously. Hopefully though, bounty hunters won't be able to go after players inside high security areas. Guards are supposed to keep the peace, and bounty hunters chasing players around is obviously not peaceful. 

Some questions as well, but overall it sounds good.

Sounds like a good idea. Hopefully you can implement this without to many ppl finding a way to exploit it.

I don't see any minimum bounty reward...