Bounty Hunter System -- (Dev) Replied

The random target to bounty hunt should solve players from collecting their own bounty.
Sounds great.

I'm sure there will be a few victims out there since there is a nice group that wants old UO style of play. (if that style of play is available)

Besides that LB wants to encourage players to go PVP.
Maybe make some quests that would get players to be open for attack.
Not sure if this means slide to PVP mode or enter dangerous land.
1. Move a herd of animals across the land.
2. Mine some ore.
3. Get a certain kind of wood.
4. Kill a certain creature for its hide
5. Help a NPC with their crops
6. Help a NPC with taking care of their barn animals
etc

So maybe someone stole animals/crops during your watch or just killed you and took what they wanted.

Plus add in the NPC quests and maybe there is room for a bounty hunter system.

 

@GvP : You could have a NPC bounty, but its not gonna be nearly as much fun as tracking down a "real" player. The High Seas bounties in UO were boring. I did one and just lost interest. Granted, it was cool to seek out your target, but after the chase, it was just you vs a NPC. All it added was more time to find your target.

The excitement, to me, is tracking YOU down in a zone and watching you run for fear of Gunga Din slaying you Plus, you get that extra thrill of not knowing if and when someone will arrive after picking up your bounty quest.

 

Just my two cents-

PK gets reported for murder, this adds to his "infamy" score- the more reports, the higher the score.

Killing a PK when you have no "infamy" earns you "reknown", the more infamy the PK has the more reknown you earn for killing them.

When a PK is killed by a player with no infamy, the PK loses infamy- and vice versa.

Reknown/Infamy points will grant titles, access to special guilds and special gear that will identify the player as having high reknown/infamy.

I like the idea of taking heads, or at least some kind of trophy, from pvp kills. Players can at that point then create their own bounty system offering gold or whatever as payment for delivery of the trophy, and the reknown/infamy system keeps exploitation in check.

If you have to bring the trophy to the player, instead of a bounty "board", a physical trade takes place. Sure the player can pay out to anyone, but most would only trust reputable bounty guilds such as @owan's KGB. Then they can feel confident they weren't scammed.

EDIT: I forgot to mention- the game internally tracks who started combat so you only have the option to report a player for murder if they initiated combat and successfully killed you- players with infamy do not get prompted to report anyone for murder.