Forums » Suggestions

Pirate Ribbons

«123»
Apr 17, 2008 Shadoen link
aka, exploitable feature for monetary gain of both parties.
Apr 17, 2008 Lord~spidey link
lol

lets keep this on topic :)
Apr 17, 2008 Roda Slane link
No rewards or bounties are awarded.

Kill a player in Xang Xi space, and you get a badge "Wanted". The level of the badge is determined by how many factions have issued a warrant for you. Only the highest level badge shows the dreaded skull and cross bones, labeling you as an international outlaw. A faction will issue a warrant for every kill, and clicking on the badge will show the total number of warrants (and perhaps even a breakdown of warrants per faction).

Killing someone with a warrant, in the faction space that issued that warrant, would give you a "Defender" or "Guardian" badge.

There is no reward for having either of these badges. They are just badges. Only player kills count. NPC kills have no effect.
Apr 17, 2008 Lord~spidey link
/me likes
Apr 17, 2008 Roda Slane link
Modification A:

Increasing your faction standing to the point where you can dock with a faction will cause all warrants with that faction to become "Deferred" (still displayed, but with a notation), and your "Wanted" badge level reduced. Thus, technically making it possible to gain the level zero badge of "Reformed". Warrants are never erased or deleted, but simply suspended. All relevant warrants are reinstated should you again lose standing with that faction.
Apr 18, 2008 Pyroman_Ace link
Just my $.02

I like the pirate ribbons, but might make more sense once the whole "grey nation" comes online. Since upper case is right. Even pirates of old didn't ride around with the Jolly Roger flying when they could be seen by a superior navy. They flew national colors, and only ran up their black flags when engaging prey.
Once grey nation is created, might make more sense since the grey nation is namely composed of pirates, thief's, crooks, and generally "unsavory" characters, and since there's be more of a formal setting for the giving of these dubious awards.

I can't see Serco, Itani, or UIT militaries commissioning pirate ribbons for awards, but I can see Grey doing it.
Apr 18, 2008 Roda Slane link
What is one man's warning, is another man's award.

Pirates don't stand around saying "Look! I got the pirate of the year award!". Pirate's bragging rights are not based on popularity (even with other pirates), but by conquest. How many ships destroyed. How much loot captured. And to a large degree, how many people are gunning for him.

When you kill someone in grey, who is the pirate and who is the victim is subjective. The law of the gun prevails. I have the gun, I make the law. The victor writes the history, and if he wants to write himself in as the good guy, then so shall it be written.

But when you kill someone in a faction's space, that faction may desire to express their own opinion. And they may express that opinion with a strike force. They may also issue a warning to other factions and friendly pilots.

And thus: A faction warrant system can have a twofold purpose. On the one side, it is a warning. Pilot "Z" is wanted by Xang Xi for x number of violations, and Xang Xi has made this information public knowledge, for the sake of warning friendly pilots, and assisting would be protectors of peace as to where to direct their attention. When a pilot is traveling in UIT faction space, and crosses paths with pilot "Z", he can then check the publicly publish list of warrants, and see that pilot "Z" has a reputation for destroying ships in Xang Xi space, but no reports of destroying any ships in UIT space (yet). In this way, a pilot can cross referance a given pilot against published warrents, to help him determine the threat level. On the other side of the coin, the list of warrents is public information, and even pirates know who is wanted where. And when the new guy comes along bragging about all his great conquest and exploits in the farthest reaches of space, anyone can look him up on the list, and then say "I don't see any warrents out for you". But when you look someone up on the list, and it says 18 warrants in Xang Xi space, 14 in UIT, 21 in tani space, etc, then you might decide that you want to take him along on your next raid.
Apr 19, 2008 missioncreek2 link
Cool idea. I think killing moths should get you not only a ribbon, but combat, light and heavy XP. NPC moths should drop cargo useful for bulk proc missions in the same system.
Apr 19, 2008 Peter rabbit link
I think that there should be maybe more creative stuff than skull and crossbones. There were many, many, pirate flags, that is just the most famous one. Why not make ships able to fly flags?
Apr 20, 2008 Whytee link
And have names!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Aug 23, 2008 mil link
Random ideas:

Badges for killing players far above or below your combat level... ie "David" and "Goliath" badge.

"Fair fighter" badge for killing exact same ship setup as you're flying.

Badge/stat for number of unique players killed ie any single player only counts toward it once.

"Endurance" badge/stat for most unique pks in a row without dying.

"Untouchable" badge/stat for most unique pks in a row without being hit.

"Charmed" badge for pks while having less than 5% health.

"Brawler" badge for pk where all connecting shots were fired within 300m of target.

"Sniper" badge for pk where all connecting shots were fired at least 600m from the target.

"Bomber" badge for where all connecting shots were fired at least 1000m from the target.

"Insane" badge for pks with a weaponless ship (eg ramming).

"Assists" badge for when another player kills someone you've damaged.

"Hated" badge with some mechanism for your victims to record their hate for you, eg /hate "damn rat".

"Long arm" badge for pks while in a different sector, eg launch mines/swarms and warp out.

"Beyond the grave" badge for shots you fired before dying killing someone.

Maybe some of these could be made into competitions with bragging rights or prizes.
Mar 17, 2009 Dr. Lecter link
Bump. Only thing I would change is that the first three levels are simple black and white. As Roda mentioned above, abet in a different context, only the highest level should display the skull and bones (I also hate the horizontal stripe here).

So, lvl 1-3 should look like they do now, minus the Skull & Bones; lvl 4 should look like lvl 3 does now.

Making these only for PC moth kills is probably not viable. But at least for lvl 4, you should have to have 25 or so PC moth kills out of the 1000 moth kills total.
Mar 17, 2009 toshiro link
I see no point in these ribbons. If people look at character descriptions while jumping into a sector, clearly they should be doing other things.

And I do think only PC moth kills should count, but count centaurs, as well.
Mar 17, 2009 drazed link
Count centaurs? What? So I'm gonna get a pirate badge for fighting fair PvP with Ecka? SWEET!
Mar 17, 2009 toshiro link
Good point. I extrapolated from my own MO. Don't count centaurs then, but if you count NPC ships in addition to PC ships, the ribbon's value will be just as nonexistent.
Mar 17, 2009 Dr. Lecter link
I think Tosh has a point about the PC ships, though 1000 moths might be a bit much.

Tosh: by your logic, we should likewise remove all other stat medals/ribbons. But instead, GS has been implementing new ones.

Wonder why they've done that?

[edit]To help iron out some wrinkles: maybe count centaurs, but no kills (moth or taur) count towards the ribbons unless (i) you're KOS with at least 2 nations, and (ii) you have 900+ Corvus faction.[/edit]

[edit2]Actually, no centuars, just moths. PC moths. That's what pirates like best, and that's what will take the most skill as traders get more cautious and better escorted in the future.[/edit2]
Mar 17, 2009 toshiro link
Hmm, true. But there are ribbons that have 'more readily interpretable value' like the trader and Hive Hunter ribbons, while others are more difficult to interpret, like PK and Bus Hunter ribbons. Counting NPC ships towards a ribbon like the one you suggest would water its meaning down too much.

So anyway, your edit addendum makes a lot of sense.
Mar 17, 2009 Dr. Lecter link
PK, Bus Hunter, Mineral Type "X" Miner, Hive Hunter, Trader, and Pirate ribbons all have the same value--people work towards them as an accomplishment they get to display. Just like any other fake goal/reward in a game.

If the ribbon also unlocks something they find neat, so much the better. The Greyhound, for example, might require pirate ribbon level 3, while the new Corvus Mega Posi might require pirate ribbon level 2. Pirate ribbon level one might unlock nothing at all, or would maybe unlock lower prices on Corvus equipment--while raising one's purchase price for trade goods anywhere in the galaxy.

It should all push towards nation/role differentiation. Commit to Corvus, get benefits that facilitate piracy and arms smuggling--but that handicap trade profits.
Mar 18, 2009 PaKettle link
A strange idea from the wanted badges....

A bulliten board of wanted posters for the ten most wanted pirates in the game in the comm section of the hud.
Mar 18, 2009 Roda Slane link
When we talk about a "pirate" badge, we are talking about a badge that can be supported by game mechanics, and then we have to define "pirate" in those terms.

The game's political (and thus legal) context are dominated by factions, an thus, any definition of "pirate" should be in relation to factions.

To gain a "pirate" badge, you must violate some faction's law. This means killing faction protected players in faction space. With this definition, we can completely disregard ship type, and focus strictly on faction hit. If you did not take a faction hit, it should not contribute to a pirate badge. The contribution to a pirate badge should be directly proportionate to the amount of faction hit.

Killing players in unmonitored grey may make you a pirate in the eyes of other players, but it is subjective, and not all players will agree with who is the pirate. Just killing players in grey or in duels should not earn you a pirate badge.