Make Bounties Subject to In-Game hours, not RL hours

The idea is simple, rather than bounties expiring based on out-of-game (RL) hours, make them based on the amount of in-game hours that character plays.  I know this has been a paramount philosophy of game mechanics, but it's also a paramount detriment.  How?  It makes people either not login, log off, and/or role multiple other characters.  Part of this is the Syndi skillset itself but part of it is knowing "I've put in my hours for the month, if I don't login for the next two weeks, I'm fine and will have no bounty."  Of course nothing prevents it from being placed again but wouldn't it be better if the world was far more enriched by the characters that inhabit it by being forced to "play out" your bounty time?  Wanna roll a new char?  Go ahead, you're still subject to regular In-game bounty hours.  Wanna be a bad-ass and keep playing?  Your bounty expires faster.  I guarantee this will solve a chunk of the rare circulation problem.  People either won't log in at all and be purged or they will and learn how to PK.  No more of this skirting the system by knowing the OOC limitations of bounty hours.  I admit, potentially the Syndi skillset would need  to be revised if this change comes to fruition.

As to the reason why? Too f'ing many chars played by people.  There's no reason why certain rares shouldn't be in with a playerbase of what? 10-15 people?  The only logical explanation is people are playing too many characters.  @Tantangel recently complained about rare counts, though also admitted he frequently rolls new chars "to come up with new RP blah blah".  I'm sorry to pick on you but I hightly doubt this.  More than likely, you roll new chars because your main got a bounty and you're afraid to lose a few rares.  Sorry if that sounds like a flame, but even if the Syndi aspect isn't true, rolling more chars is part of the problem, not the solution.

I can't say this would solve the problem entirely, but perhaps a system like this in addition to a slight increase in the amount of IG hours required to keep rares is due.  Would love to hear feedback.

It takes nothing to bounty anyone though. The gold cp amount is laughable. Syndicate kill is auto 6 items lost. 

I'm for it but with the caveats of change. Revise the skills raise amounts needed to bounty

Completely remove the bounty bag given to the person who bounties the mark. You're paying for someone's death, not their things < otherwise pay off a thief ;] >

Actually that's a good idea to be honest. I roll alts for the RP, sometimes stemmed from being bored, sometimes better RP, sometimes because I thought I had a good grasp on a class, but turns out I was just retarded and was wrong so I go back to my main and play. The difference is I usually delete the alts though because I don't hit 50 on them which puts the rares right back as far as I know. I have even logged on a few 50's to drop and sacrifice armors so they could go back as well. Getting bountied is a par of life though and I usually play through it in most cases. With the amount of Merchants we have though, it's pretty easy to get armor from them, or at least fund a way for them to keep an eye out for it. Syndicate is meant to be strong in my opinion though so they can overcome people at the peak of their game. If I'm not doing multiple things at once when there's not much to do IG, I'm literally watching Netflix, minor cleaning, writing, and depending on the day laundry as well. I've deleted 3 characters in the last week or so who had rares. My alts are usually limited to 2 at max though and I try not to do any others unless I'm going to delete one. I've challenged one a few months ago because I knew I was at a severe disadvantage going into it, and despite the fact that they seemed at slight awe of it, it was a learning experience for me more so than running. Whether you believe me or not is your own choice, but the answer stated before holds very true. The idea behind this though is pretty solid and a timer could be made that could persist through death even.

I'm pretty sure I've suggested this in the past. 

Some people are very afraid of being collected, not just for the loss of eq but the satisfaction.  I've had those who hated it so much they would flee at low hp into agro mobs and take a death just so I didn't collect them. (I'll never forget you) those who log off you can't really blame, there are times I don't feel like the heart pumping, action packed thrills of pk situations and I just want to RP or explore.  

I actually like this idea and I would even say it warrants lowering the AMT of time bountied, even have it decrease exponentially for multiple hours logged.  Maybe even decrease your time for collecting bounties when syndicates aren't online.

Your best equipment is too precious to lose. Why would someone risk playing while some of the best players are given tracking skills to find you anywhere, then you are forced to fight a losing battle that gets your best equipment sent off to a guy who was probably your equal OR log out. ;) 

In my opinion a bug in the rare/unique code is double slot items like rings, neckwear and bracelets because people double up on these items. 2 unique helms will be on 2 players BUT 2 unique rings can get stuck on 1 player, then your problem is if this is a good player nobody else will every touch those items. Players also tend to dress their alternate chars the same, so if X player has a warrior and a zerker and a thief they are probably all wearing the same equipment sets. This isn't a knock against good players since rare/unique equipment is first come first serve, it's just that once they get it not only were they unkillable beforehand but they super unkillable afterwards, lol.

If you take the bounty bag out of the equation I'm sure there would be a lot less bounties placed, we all know the main reason to bounty someone is to have a better player kill someone for you so cute oh can get that persons best equipment. Remove the bounty bag and people might stop logging out and actually fight, losing a life is easier to recover from than losing your 3 best pieces of eq :) 

UC

as far as I know rare count is determined by total characters. I dont know how the formula works exactly but I dont think someone having multiple decked chars actually takes away rares from others exactly, but maybe they could horde uniques. I guess if you want more rares to be out there roll a bunch of characters, get them to 50, but dont deck them in any rares, then maybe your main will find what they are looking for.

I personally wouldnt do this, its probably not even kosher, but its a thought.

Rare count is determined by set. If it was determined by player number you'd see a lot less rares out there than now.

The bounty system is garbage IMO. Characters are OFTEN bountied for no reason at all other than they are lvl 50, why is this? For alliances. Nexus used to and still does bounty people just so the Syndicate have people to hunt. There is no reason behind it other than that. And it is quite dumb. The pricing system is far too low. Come on now, 50k? 100k? 200k? Thats all chump change. The person placing the bounty should receive absolutely nothing other than a indication that it was accepted, perhaps they should receive the head instead of the collector. I thought a long time ago that it should require a posted reason as to why the bounty is even being placed.

My personal opinion;

I don't think Syndicate should be allowed to have cabal allies. The system was put into place to help move around rares and shift the power by bountying someone you can't kill. Syndicate has been allied with Nexus for the majority of their existence. There have been a FEW times where it fell off, but for most of it, Syndicate and Nexus have been butt-buddies. You want to be the ultimate badass that lives to collect the heads of the toughest SOBs in the game? Then you shouldn't have allies.

Merchant is a different story. Merchant should have their own political system in place and in no way connected to Syndicate's.

+100

I have managed to get syndi allied with savant a few times but the moment i changed characters it reverted back.

Merchant and Syndicate go a little deeper than it appears on the surface.  

I agree with the fact bounties have been cheap, but to me it was the cp bounties.

Why not just give everyone the option of buying out their own bounty? If syndicate wants money this would be 100% in their favor, then they go chasing down people who refuse to buy their out. I'm sure you would see a lot less log offs and higher profit margin, think about it, people won't place low 50k bounties anymore because anyone can come up with 75k to buy it out. Then when you see a million gold bounty you know someone really wants that guy dead ;)

I was told I had friends once. Cheap friends, who obviously didn't care for me much. I actually laughed at it though.

What's funny is that a syndicate gets nothing when someone buys out his bounty.

Considering if you pay the Syndicate directly, even if it's 50k to match it, that means they don't have to go through the problem of wasting consumables and at E and L, they could deny the bounty altogether. If the Syndicate wishes to try to extort more out of the character is up to them. It's kind of a win win depending on how you look at it.

13 minutes ago, Tantangel said:

Considering if you pay the Syndicate directly, even if it's 50k to match it, that means they don't have to go through the problem of wasting consumables and at E and L, they could deny the bounty altogether. If the Syndicate wishes to try to extort more out of the character is up to them. It's kind of a win win depending on how you look at it.

How is it a win-win if a character buys out his bounty because of certain syndicate, yet the syndicate gains nothing from it?

The fact that you don't have to waste consumables is not a win, it's just... nothing.

Back when I played Nashmurlan, Nexuses would very rarely bother to buy out their bounties, so I started killing them. Thulgan was a bit annoyed that I wasn't asking them to buy out, but why should I? It was more profitable for me to kill them. I was actually annoyed when they did start to buy out, because I get nothing from it, yet I am the single reason they buy out at first place.

It is a win win because they do buy 'buying it out'. As in not the actual command, but "deposit X gold Syndicate".  They get the gold, they don't exert themselves, and not using consumables to kill someone is a good thing because they could be better used for people like Donovan. The reason why it's good for not using consumables is essentially a way you can go longer without gathering them for a while.

Maybe make it so that a Syndicate has to accept the buyout, rather than something people can just do.  Give the Syndi choice in the matter - if they prefer to honor a contract, or just want a chance for eq from the target, they can still go for the kill, but if the person's not worth killing the Syndi can accept the buyout and let them go.

38 minutes ago, Tantangel said:

It is a win win because they do buy 'buying it out'. As in not the actual command, but "deposit X gold Syndicate".  They get the gold, they don't exert themselves....

I got no idea what you are talking about, but that's not how bounty buyout works.

Maybe make it so that a Syndicate has to accept the buyout, rather than something people can just do.

That changes nothing, the syndicate still gets nothing from the buyout, and if you are not going to accept the buyout of your allies, then what's the point of being their ally?