Bounty Suggestions

from Sins Forums
I was curious to see if the bounty on my empire reduced when I colonized the last planet of the empire I believe put the most bounty on my empire. It did not appear to do so.

This I thought might be a good addition to the bounty system. Right now bounties are entertaining, but you really only have one option. If you want to reduce the incentive other groups have in attacking you your only choice is to increase the bounty on another empire. This provides the player with only one option for this system that is heavily ingrained in the game.

Why not consider adding three other options.

Option 1: The bounty on your empire declines by the uncollected balance created by another empire when they have no worlds left. The rationale is there is no one remaining to "write the check" This would give the player the option of attacking the player he guesses has put the most bounty on him. Ofcourse if he guesses wrong, he may have just wiped out a potential allie and the dangerous empire is still out there.

Option 2. Give the player the option of instead of collecting bounty, to use the bounty he/she collects to pay-off some of the bounty on his empire. This would give the player an advantage to collecting bounty since he usually has all the credits he needs anyway. This may provide the player with a similar motivation to go out and collect bounty just like the pirates or ai empires have.

Option 3. Collect bounty on pirates you destroy. Pirates have a lot of enemies including other empires, affluent people, and other pirates. They also may not be the trusting sort and may carry their treasures (collected bounty) with them. When their ships are destroyed you retrieve this bounty from their ship's black box. The larger the pirate fleet the more bounty you collect from their enemies and through confiscation.



3,375 views 10 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
There are existing threads on this topic, but the gist of the developer response was "we're aware of the bounty spam, and are working on it. Please be patient."

Edit:

Also, the reason you can't reduce bounty by killing an enemy empire (or reduce bounty you've spent) was pretty much agreed to be that you "pay" a middleman, who then hands out the bounty. You aren't writing the check anymore after you post it.
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
Just as a side-note, though, it's worth pointing out that if the person who posted the bounty is dead, there's absoloutely no reason the escrow agent won't just pocket the money himself, thus reducing the bounty on everyone that person put bounty on by as much as that person paid out.
Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
absoloutely no reason the escrow agent won't just pocket the money himself,


Honesty?

The fact that other "groups" who put money through him might come after him?
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
The middleman, lets call him a swiss banker, is holding the funds and agrees to disburse the funds based on the set schedule. It would be pefectly reasonable imo that the contract would contain a clause that states the contract is null and void if there is no represenatives of the grantor remaining. The swiss banker keeps the credits. Without any representative of the deceased empire, there would be no one to challenge the swiss banker if there was a disagreement as to how funds were disbursed.

Even the marriage contract has a "until death do we part" clause. I do not think a bounty agreement would be any more sacrosanct.

This contract clause would prevent the swiss banker from ending up being the only one encouraging attacks on the galaxy's super power, which would not be good for his business, or his health. It would be much more likely for an annoyed super power to take steps to eliminate the swiss banker, since the swiss banker was carrying out the deceased empire's terrorism. By continuing like this the swiss banker is migrating from businessman to a terrorist himself.

RL, the other "groups" could not come after the swiss banker as they have to conduct business in secrecy. That would be like a "John" suing a "Pimp". Just not going to happen. That and the fact that they would have no incentive what so ever to enforce the contract of their deceased peer who was their enemy anyway and they are happy he is gone.

Bascially, what we are doing is starting at the result, and working backwards to an explanation. Just because the bounty system works this way now, if it can be changed by the game developers and the change is an improvement to the game, the rationale behind the new system can easily be changed to justify the result.
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

This contract clause would prevent the swiss banker from ending up being the only one encouraging attacks on the galaxy's super power, which would not be good for his business, or his health. It would be much more likely for an annoyed super power to take steps to eliminate the swiss banker, since the swiss banker was carrying out the deceased empire's terrorism. By continuing like this the swiss banker is migrating from businessman to a terrorist himself.


seconded.
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
That and the fact that they would have no incentive what so ever to enforce the contract of their deceased peer who was their enemy anyway and they are happy he is gone.


Except if he breaks faith with someone else, he might break faith with them.

RL, the other "groups" could not come after the swiss banker as they have to conduct business in secrecy.


OK, I'll just hire an assassin

Just leave the bounty as it is.
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top

This contract clause would prevent the swiss banker from ending up being the only one encouraging attacks on the galaxy's super power, which would not be good for his business, or his health. It would be much more likely for an annoyed super power to take steps to eliminate the swiss banker, since the swiss banker was carrying out the deceased empire's terrorism. By continuing like this the swiss banker is migrating from businessman to a terrorist himself.


seconded.

I Third this idea.
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
OK with all this talk about the middle man, why not just find where he lives and eliminate the middle man. then you pocket the creds the dead empire had and you gain the bounty against you. This would be easier if the middle man were living on one of your planets and harder if he was on a different on. This goes back to the incorporation of spies.   a much needed element of game play!
Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top
Again, go with a "Pirate Hub" sort of dealie. A very well-protected pirate system. You invade and conquer that, and you can claim ALL the bounty laid in ALL the galaxy!
Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top
[quote
Except if he breaks faith with someone else, he might break faith with them.

IMHO I think if someone breaks faith with me only after I'm dead I'll be okay with that, especially if it's in the contract I sign and its logical.

RL, the other "groups" could not come after the swiss banker as they have to conduct business in secrecy.


OK, I'll just hire an assassin

I think middleman and Swiss banker is just for illustrative purposes, it would really be an entire organization.

Just leave the bounty as it is. [/quote]

Sorry RL I have to respectfully disagree. Since implementing these additions to bounty would only provide options to the player if he chose to utilize them and for those who did not care to use them bounty would remain as is, I see no reason not to consider making them available if possible and desirable.

OK with all this talk about the middle man, why not just find where he lives and eliminate the middle man. then you pocket the creds the dead empire had and you gain the bounty against you. This would be easier if the middle man were living on one of your planets and harder if he was on a different on.


Um, maybe. Just because you kill the banker doesn't mean you get all the money the bank has. A real bank doesn't have any significiant money on hand either, its all electronic. What you could do is track down members of the orgnaization,freeze their assets, support a competitor, basically make life miserable for the bounty orgnaization. If the organization was "retired" by the superpower, it would not really have any recourse. I do think you are correct thought that given the vast amount of wealth they are being entrusted with, they would have to be a substantial entity and not anything that was too shady and could just disappear with all the bounty themselves.