Some more on bounty hunter
Posted: Tue May 12, 2015 5:18 pm
The system, the shop and the items appear to be ready (apart from one item that will be added later - the rune pouch). However, there's one issue that needs addressing still:
abuse.
For those who don't know, bounty hunter works like this:
When you get a target and you kill it, you get an emblem. You can choose between trading this emblem at the BH shopkeeper for 500 BH points, or you can risk the emblem and try to kill another player. If you die, the emblem is automatically lost, but if you win, the emblem is upgraded by one level.
Each time it's upgraded, you can make the same choice (trade in or risk for a higher level). If you manage to win each time and get all the way to a level 10 emblem, you can trade it in for 50K points (which is almost enough to buy a chaotic weapon).
Needless to say, getting 10 kills in a row is really hard, but if you can work together with a group of friends and have the wilderness (almost) all for yourself, it's pretty easy to abuse.
We already have checks in place to make sure you can only get the same target twice if you've killed at least two other players in between, but that may not be enough.
I'm considering to add a limitation where you cannot get the same target (or someone with the same IP as the target) assigned within 6 hours.
On top of that, I'd like to stop people from avoiding targets they don't want to kill. We already have penalties where you cannot get a new target assigned for a few minutes if you leave the wilderness, but for people with a bit of patience, this isn't really a problem (and can result in huge rewards. I want to add something that really dissuades people from wilfully avoiding targets, for example bigger time penalties each time you do it (until you kill a target or die by one) or if you avoid a target, you need to kill 2 targets before your emblem will upgrade further.
Lastly, considering the difference between a level 1 and a level 10 emblem is huge (500 vs 50K points), I think it might be worthwhile to lower the amount of points you get from higher tier emblems, while at the same time lowering the prices of BH shop items that have a high price.
Just a few ideas, please let me know what you think and whether there are other things we can do to prevent abuse while making the minigame as enjoyable as possible.
abuse.
For those who don't know, bounty hunter works like this:
When you get a target and you kill it, you get an emblem. You can choose between trading this emblem at the BH shopkeeper for 500 BH points, or you can risk the emblem and try to kill another player. If you die, the emblem is automatically lost, but if you win, the emblem is upgraded by one level.
Each time it's upgraded, you can make the same choice (trade in or risk for a higher level). If you manage to win each time and get all the way to a level 10 emblem, you can trade it in for 50K points (which is almost enough to buy a chaotic weapon).
Needless to say, getting 10 kills in a row is really hard, but if you can work together with a group of friends and have the wilderness (almost) all for yourself, it's pretty easy to abuse.
We already have checks in place to make sure you can only get the same target twice if you've killed at least two other players in between, but that may not be enough.
I'm considering to add a limitation where you cannot get the same target (or someone with the same IP as the target) assigned within 6 hours.
On top of that, I'd like to stop people from avoiding targets they don't want to kill. We already have penalties where you cannot get a new target assigned for a few minutes if you leave the wilderness, but for people with a bit of patience, this isn't really a problem (and can result in huge rewards. I want to add something that really dissuades people from wilfully avoiding targets, for example bigger time penalties each time you do it (until you kill a target or die by one) or if you avoid a target, you need to kill 2 targets before your emblem will upgrade further.
Lastly, considering the difference between a level 1 and a level 10 emblem is huge (500 vs 50K points), I think it might be worthwhile to lower the amount of points you get from higher tier emblems, while at the same time lowering the prices of BH shop items that have a high price.
Just a few ideas, please let me know what you think and whether there are other things we can do to prevent abuse while making the minigame as enjoyable as possible.