[MUD-Dev] Character Restraint & Capture. (long)

[Jester]

Please excuse me Eric but I'll split my reply into two emails to
make for easy reading. J.

Eric Random wrote:

> Jester's Bounty Hunter system could be summed up as player-run law
> enforcement.

I see my system as rather an extension to a games existing law
enforcement such as city guards, guards have evolved to the point
where they are quite useful in a city but would be nearly useless
outside of it given the number of complex judgement calls required
to hunt down and capture a human PKer That's where the bounty hunter
comes in, as a representative of the 'Justice' system that can go
beyond the city boundaries.

> Restraint&Captivity could be better used as a feature in which
> players can participate in if they wish

Becoming a bounty hunter is entirely optional it will be a career
path the player chooses, the bounties are there as a financial
enticement to the profession. It will not be an easy or risk free
profession but with a variable bounty the free market will balance
the risk/reward.

> As Jester has already realized, the character could have other
> consequences (see Sullied Reputation update) instead of just
> captivity. This aspect, Reputation, instead of being an addendum,
> should be the main target of consequences!

I disagree the 'sullied reputation' helps the broader community but
does not compensate the individual victim (one of the reasons they
paid a bounty in the first place) I agree that other consequence
should have their place but the individual has to come first.

>  If a criminal is unable > to use a town bank, town spawning
>  point, town-guard protection, town > merchants, town trainers,
>  etc., and is KOS around town guards, he is > already experiencing
>  real consequences.

Very true but these consequences are not *seen* by their victims,
and as such the feeling of 'justice having been done' will be much
less than the capture, fining, and indentured servitude of the
offender.

> Captivity should provide the criminal with the opportunity to get
> those consequences removed, with minor adjustment to reputation
> and record. Positive adjustment in reputation should only be
> offered for explicit actions which provide a benefit to the town
> and it's lawful citizens (and should not be in the form of
> entertainment (like dueling), which is easily ignored). Dueling
> should be offered as entertainment mainly for the captive, whether
> a citizen watches or not.

Firstly the gladiatorial combat is intended as both entertainment
and punishment but the killer will always get paid (reducing his
debt) for his 'bouts' in the arena regardless of whether anyone is
watching.  Whether their reputation should be adjusted for this type
of activity, is really up to the system owners (easily tweakable) My
own view is that they should only avoid damage to their reputation
if:

  a) They turn themselves in.

  b) Pay the fine in its entirety

  c) Do any minimum 'arena' time.

> If a victim has to ante up a bounty sum upon bounty request, what
> if the offending character simply doesn't log in again for quite
> some time? Economic resources are being tied up in the meantime.

If the killer is not logging in because he has a huge bounty on him
then the system is at least working in one way, keeping a killer out
of circulation.

We could impose an optional time limit where the victim can say
withdraw their money after say 3 months realtime.

> If an offending character logs on for short periods of time (just
> enough time to offend someone else and log off) this will reduce
> his chances of being captured.  He just needs an alternate
> character to be eyes and ears to make sure that his mark is an
> easy kill, or perhaps even lure the mark to his login point.

The more he does this the more people will place bounties on him
until the collective bounty will be so large that everyone will be
keeping an eye out for him. His alts will become known and he would
be forced to keep deleting them and starting new ones. The net
effect is that he can only play one of his characters for very brief
times and not go anywhere near civilisation and one of his alts will
always remain at low levels, depending on the number of character
slots in the system this could cause quite a bit of inconvenience to
the PKer.

As for luring someone away with an alt, this will only happen so
many times before players get wise to it, also as bounty hunters can
look just like everyone else how does the killer pick his 'mark' ?
Also what's to stop a bounty hunter using a newbie alt to lure the
killer :) ?

> A hunter will need to know that his prey is logged on before he
> can begin the chase. What if a bounty hunter begins his chase,
> gets close, and the prey logs off?  What if a bounty hunter begins
> his chase, and his prey is already captured or killed? That could
> be a very frustrating waste of time for the bounty hunter. Does
> the bounty hunter get anything for his efforts?

Bounty hunters can pursue multiple bounties at once so if one logs
off he should always have a choice of prey. In addition the bounty
hunter now knows roughly where the PKer will log back into, and if
the killer has a sufficiently high bounty may be willing to camp
out, or partner up with others to rotate a watch.

Jester

I'll reply to the rest of your points soon, I'm V. busy ATM :)
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