It works, I lost mining 15 one time because my bounty was claimed. I think it takes away not 1% of your progress, but 1% of the amount needed for the next license.

There would have to be a system in place where a person could not both have a bounty on their head AND be a bounty hunter at the same time.

This should be created whatever happens. Pirates being bounty hunters is a bit ridiculous.

That would only be possible if we had a 4th nation, so we could have Itani//Serco and UIT//Pirates mutually exclusive, and published rules for bounty system. Like, a Serco and an Itani players can both be hunter for their nations, and wanted from opposing nation. If they meet in Deneb, does bounty apply? Why?

Second scenario, Serco is native KoS, Itani is PoS. Will Serco Dominion pay the Itani pilot for killing a Serco?

Going OT - stop reading if that offends you:

First direct solution so bounties make sense would be the request for a specific hail to be sent before any kill to make bounty valid. Something as "Police, Stop or I shoot" or "Here comes Vendetta from %nation% for your crimes.", or, with an optional taunt message, generically:
/bounty target %target% [%message%]

Then, and only after that hail, the bounty bonus/punishment, would apply. Pay for kill, take for fail.
It can be binded to a specific key.

Another solution would be that Convoys and Guards could sent location reports and help requests in a exclusive hunter channel, similar to /11, but system-wide or nation-wide. Double bonus if hunter is being escort for voys, without "same sector" limit for rewards. This would be a priviledged "duel".

Also, the bounty system should consider ressurection/respawn, and state that in mission texts, with bounties being valid for long term, with one smaller reward for each kill and another larger one for who achieves more kills during bounty duration.

Finally, and more important, the bounty system should have more clear rules, and publish an online database of hunted ones with respective offenses, and system should send a note for each victim when bounty is placed of collected.

>--->> Back to topic below. >>------->
Back to OP, my +1 for fail price is tied to making bounty duels no longer a random occurence, as outlined above.

No, you wouldn't need a fourth affiliation. Just have it automatically "fire" you from bounty hunter duty if you have a bounty placed on your own head by the nation that you hunt for, in addition to how it already fires you for losing your standing with the nation. And of course, if you try to interact with the marshal while you have a bounty on your head with his nation, he should attempt to apprehend you himself, or at least reject your application as he does to people with low standing.

It works, I lost mining 15 one time because my bounty was claimed. I think it takes away not 1% of your progress, but 1% of the amount needed for the next license.

True, I remember that accident. And when you claimed bounty on me after that, I lost combat license down to 14. BUT, that was LAST time I saw license drop.

E.g. Yesterday bounty on me was claimed by Maxx Metal and I didn't receive any penalties.

@Pizza: Isn't that already that way?

Or, can someonce become Bounty Hunter with one nation, and then have a bounty on his head placed by same nation, and remain bounty hunter for same nation? If so, then suicide should be rewarded!

That makes no sense, I can accept that someone with "dislike" status to hunt for faction F1, even if a bounty is placed on his head by Faction F2. But once a bounty is placed by nation F1, or his status drops to hated or below, then he must lose the status of hunter. Why pay your enemy for anything but his suicide?

How is it now? Someone who is native KoS can get rewards from home nation? As a UIT pilot who is UIT KoS can receive bounties from UIT? Can someone confirm that?

I don't know whether or not it currently allows bounty hunters to have bounties on their heads.

It does already fire you if your standing decreases - I used to be a UIT bounty hunter before I went native KOS. I don't know where the cutoff is though. At least, that's what I've been assuming got me fired... I suppose it's possible that I was fired for having a bounty placed on my head though. But what I do know is that the marshal refused to allow me to become a bounty hunter again while I had low standing, so that's why I've assumed it was the standing that got me fired.

Vendetta 1.8.156
*Bounty Hunter license for a given faction is lost if the faction standing for that faction drops to Hate or lower.

Having a bounty placed on your head shouldn't prevent you from being a bounty hunter so long as the bounty is from a different nation than the one(s) you are a bounty hunter for (e.g. an Itani character should be able to collect bounties placed on Serco players by the Itani nation while at the same time having a bounty from the Serco nation placed on their head).

It would help if it were more obvious which nation(s) a bounty hunter can collect bounties from. Right now I think you apply once and are active for all 3 nations. I'm not sure whether you lose bounty hunter status for all nations or just one when your standing drops.

Instead of removing something already gained by a player (hunter/hunted) how about affixing a temporary percentage reduction (tax) on the next claimed bounty with a max reduction ceiling of something reasonable, if there are repeated failures to claim bounties then revoke bounty hunter license after [insert arbitrary number] times.

As for the hunted failing to evade having their bounty claimed... isn't that enough punishment on top of being hunted/ganked/chased?

if there are repeated failures to claim bounties then revoke bounty hunter license after [insert arbitrary number] times.

+1, and raise fee for becoming bounty hunter again. (e.g. 500k after 10 fails)

Yeah I don't know if twice the XP loss is necessary. But definitely +1 to adding some risk to being a bounty hunter.

"if there are repeated failures to claim bounties then revoke bounty hunter license after [insert arbitrary number] times."

And +3 to that too. If you're not good at something, they should remove your license.

(A post was deleted due to profanity directed at another user)

My post didn't have any profanity, but lector on the previous page called someone a "fucking moron", which is still there, and drazed called lecter an "asshat"...

GREAT moderation as always whistler!

Ok, back in topic, re-reading all this, the most important FIXES on bounties that must be implemented before penalties for hunters are:

1. CLEAR RULES. GS should publish a clear text somewhere, then we copy it in vo-wiki, with valid rules to become hunter, hunted, penalties, etc. So far we, pĺayers, have probed out rules from its consequences...

2. FACTION-TIED bounty system. All times, from Marshall response to hail, to headlines and news published, the offended faction should be displayed clearly, highlighted. So it will make sense that I am a Serco hunter but hunted by Itani. Something as
"$PlayerX claims the $FACTION bounty over $playerY" or "$FACTION: $PlayerY fails to escape from $PlayerX" ($=variable).
(It already exists, but almost secret!)

3. EARLY WARNING: A specific hail must be issued before the kill for it be paid as a bounty. No more a random combat rewarding a bounty on unaware player. Also, the "onboard computer" should warn the player when hunted player(s) are present in sector, as a HUD message. Make "H" default key for bounty hail, what includes faction!

4. FAIL PENALTY: If hunter gets killed during a hunt, after the specific hail (3), he loses his hunter license (badge). He will have to return to nearest capital and request another badge. While the hunted one should get a longer "freeze" time when he cannot respawn, like 5 or 10min., instead of XP drop. (If no hail is issued, no penalties nor reward).
4.a. Hunter loses badge
4.b. Hunted gets frozen

I think this is the most fair and logical penalty for the loser. XP drop makes no sense for me, neither credits fine. But losing the license gives an indirect fine (must pay for new request), an incovenient (request again from marshall) and more important, filter out those not suited as hunters...

5. PACK NEWS PER NATION: Just like trade news headline, each nation gets one and only one entry in Newspost, and inside this there are the badges issued and lost as the bounties placed and claimed.

I think losing the license after 1 failed attempt might be a bit drastic. Maybe 3 consecutive failed attempts.

+1 to slightly increased respawn time if killed with a bounty on your head.

Humm - a long respawn time if killed on either side might be an interesting punishment for both sides.

If I wanted someone's head and placed a bounty on it, I wouldn't really care how many times someone failed to capture it (except perhaps insofar as this might compel a higher bounty). As long as it was brought to me eventually, I'd be satisfied. Bounties imply a high rate of failure.

Maalik has a point... but my idea was that you lose your physical badge, so you have to respawn back in capital, or fly there, and get another badge. More a incovenience or delay than really a punishment. And a sort of "freeze" like the one proposed to hunted one.

So, you wanna hunt and died in last hunt? You need another badge, since that baddie took away yours previous one as a trophy... and if hunter is homed in capital, quite fast in the way out. While for bad guys, instead of XP drop, a longer "freeze time penalty" each time a bounty is collected on his head... So it gives a reason for nations to pay for killing someone who will ressurect...

But, no one else dislike the random aspect of most bounties? What about the requirement for specific hail, like a cop must read your rights before a capture? Without that the arrestment is invalid, as the bounty hunt becomes a normal duel/combat...

And about adding more bounty news with fails? Better than packing them per faction, or date?

I don't see any point to the bounty hunter sending a designated hail prior to collecting a bounty. The hail could be sent right before the bounty hunter makes the kill, and if the bounty hunter is losing the battle then they would just not send the hail. Maybe if the individual with the bounty had their armor restored when sent the hail it could work, but that doesn't make RP sense and could be horribly exploited: -1

-1 for listing failed bounty attempts separately in the news, as it already is very cluttered. Perhaps appending the total failed attempts in the news entry instead, like: "Bob claims 200,000 Itani bounty on Yarg. 2 failed bounty attempts have been made on Yarg by other bounty hunters."

+1 Maalik

Maalik, -1. You shoulda enter the game more often to make any decisions.

A penalty for the failed bounty claim is probably a pretty good idea. I think the easiest to implement, and probably the most logical, is the loss of the bounty hunter status, which would have to be re-commissioned from the marshal for another fee. This sounds reasonable, particularly given the potential rewards for some bounties.

But I think there truly needs to be some immunity from faction loss if a bounty is claimed in the nation space that set the bounty. Currently, if a bounty hunter kills a player with a bounty that is also POS, he'll lose his status. It doesn't make sense for a nation, say Itan, to place a million credit bounty on Vskye, but then still consider him POS. At least not for a licensed bounty-hunter who is also POS for Itan. Perhaps if the Bounty Hunter has standing that is as high or higher than the hunted, there should be no loss of faction.

+1 for restricting those with bounties from being bounty hunters.

Instead of faction loss, maybe a .10 loss of the player's bank would be more in order. Someone with a 20 million bank would lose 200,000 credits. That's about comparable to what the pirates charge. Let them keep their faction and xp. Likewise, raise the fee for the bounty hunter license for renewals after loss.

I also like the idea of a hail before claiming (or trying to claim) a bounty. But this could just be a peer-enforced norm much the way swarms are taboo in PVP. More ways for bounties to be assigned to naughty players would be nice too. The number of players on at a given moment with a bounty is often zero (Vskye is on for about an hour, just long enough to dangle his 2 mil head then disappears like a whisp of air). Most of the bounties seem to be claimed during nation war or normal PvP in B8, though I could be wrong.

Finally, what bout putting a statute of limitations on bounties? At least for the purposes of the Marshal's list. Most of the players with bounties haven't been seen in months. If a player is offline more than one month, retire the listing until he/she returns (or starts using that alt again).

I've wondered also about a player vote system for bounties similar to voting to mute. Sometimes I think this would be an efficient way to manage griefers and trolls. Put their behavior on peer-review... increase the bounty with the number of votes.

/vote bounty [username]

After 20 votes a small bounty; 30 votes a larger one...

Meh.. probably wouldn't work and would get abused by the various guilds.