bounty-hunting
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Atmospheric bounty hunter White Space explained in dev diary
Curve Studios Design Director Jonathan Biddle discussed the alpha version of his latest game White Space in a new developer diary video. In it, bounty-hunting players fly from one pretty, polygonal, procedurally-generated planet to the next to take down their targets.
The Art of Wushu: Finishing the job
Last episode, we talked about getting a bounty and the mindset of a career criminal. Unfortunately, this is the last Art of Wushu, but that doesn't mean we can't finish what we started. And that means talking about the art of killing good guys. Having a bounty means living on the edge. A lot of the time we take for granted the fact that we can walk around in Chengdu without too much fear. This is not true if you have a bounty. Every moment you spent logged in is spent on edge because a constable could jump you at any moment. You are constantly doing 360 degree camera spins looking around for trouble. You position yourself where you can easily run away, and you have escape plans in your head if things go bad. You worked really hard for your bounty, and you don't want to lose it because you lost focus for a moment. This kind of thrill is the most satisfying thing for me about Age of Wushu. When I get to log in, have that bright red star swirling around me and know that I need to be on the move immediately is the best feeling in the world for me.
Star Wars: The Old Republic outlines the Bounty Contract Week
Bounty hunting is a thing in Star Wars: The Old Republic, to the point that there's an entire class focused around bounties and the hunting thereof. But even if you're usually a meditative Jedi, you can still pick up a few extra credits in the upcoming Bounty Contract Week coming to the game in August. A new development blog details what players can expect from this event, offering players of nearly all levels a chance to earn reputation for taking down violent criminals. Each day, players can select a single contract to hunt, with the Bounty Brokers Association providing a selection of different planets with available contracts. Veteran hunters can also hunt for a single Kingpin target, a high-threat individual who requires more accomplished hunters. Success means credits and reputation with the BBA. Players from level 15 and up can take part in these missions, which scale to the level of the participant, ensuring that anyone who wants to get in on the hunt can start taking down criminals for credits.
EVE Evolved: Ten years of EVE Online
Tomorrow marks a huge milestone in MMO history as sci-fi sandbox EVE Online officially turns ten years old. Released by a tiny icelandic development studio whose only previous release was a board game featuring Reykjavik's favourite cross-dressing mayor, EVE has slowly grown over the past decade to become one of the industry's biggest and most stable subscription titles. Following 2011's monoclegate scandal that led to around 8% of players quitting and CCP Games shedding 20% of its employees, this year saw EVE Online climb to new heights as it regained the playerbase's confidence and smashed the 500,000 subscriber barrier. As a special side-note, the EVE Evolved column also turned five years old last week; it has now officially been running for over half of EVE's lifetime. The past year has been remarkably successful for CCP, with both of the year's EVE expansions being extremely well received and console MMOFPS DUST 514 finally starting to take shape. The Inferno and Retribution expansions fixed a staggering number of small issues that were broken in the game while also making big changes to bounty-hunting, piracy, and PvP across the board. We also saw huge emergent events like the Battle of Asakai, a $6,000 ship kill, and the five trillion ISK faction warfare exploit this year. With DUST 514 officially launching in just over a week on May 14th and players fired up about the upcoming Odyssey expansion, the future's looking bright for EVE Online as it heads into its second decade. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look back at some of year's top EVE stories, stories that touched real life, and what the future holds for EVE's second decade.
EVE Evolved: Five years of EVE Evolved
About five years ago, on April 27th, 2008, I joined the Massively team and wrote the very first issue of the EVE Evolved column. Five years later, the column is still going strong and delivering its weekly dose of EVE Online to thousands of readers. I used to worry about running out of ideas to write about, but regular game updates and hilarious player shenanigans mean there's always something interesting going on in New Eden. When EVE hits its 10th anniversary in May, this column will have been running for just over half of the game's lifetime. In that time, I've written over 250 in-depth articles, guides, in-game stories and opinion pieces on EVE Online and a few on DUST 514. As usual, I'll be celebrating this anniversary by rounding up this year's column highlights and giving away two 30-day Pilot's License Extensions to two lucky readers. To enter the competition, write a comment explaining which EVE Evolved articles from this year you liked best and what topics you'd like to see covered in the coming year. You will need an active EVE account to claim the prize, so be sure to include your character name in your comment if you want to be in with a chance. If you'd rather not give out your character name or don't have an EVE account but would like to give the game a go, you can sign up a new trial account and use the name of your new character. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look back at the highlights from the column's fifth year!
EVE Evolved: Retribution is freaking awesome!
Shortly after the Retribution expansion's deployment, a thread popped up on the EVE Online forums that proved to me that the expansion had been a massive success. In the thread titled So that's what victory in this game feels like, miner Tiberius StarGazer explained that he has always felt like he had no way to get back at people who wronged him. After losing millions of ISK in ships to pirate attacks, he was almost ready to give up on EVE. But when Retribution landed, he was able to sell his kill rights to the public so that every player vigilante who crossed his attacker's path could try to take him down without warning. After just a few hours, Tiberius got a notification that put a smile on his face: He had his first taste of revenge. He'd dealt more damage back to his attacker by clicking a button than had ever been done to him, and the attacker wasn't happy about it. He threatened to find Tiberius and kill him again, and that simple miner's reply said all I needed to know about how successful Retribution has been: "I have deep pockets. Every kill you make on me, I will add as a bounty on your corp; every kill right, I will sell. I can't fight you but others can and you will have to lose five times my loss for wronging me." Retribution has finally given industrialists a reliable way to get revenge and use their wealth as a weapon! In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at the PvP that's springing up in empire space, how the new flagging mechanics affect baiting, and what the ship revamp means for new players.
Everything there is to know about EVE Online's Retribution expansion
EVE Online's PvP-focused Retribution expansion went live today, adding new features and balance changes players have been anticipating for years. Retribution is EVE's 18th free expansion, and introduces some very interesting new bounty hunting and criminal justice systems. Players can now place bounties on any pilot or organisation, which are paid out in chunks to anyone who deals significant financial damage to them. If that isn't enough revenge for you, players will even be able to hunt down criminals with open kill rights on them and exact mob justice. The expansion also brings overhauls to countless EVE ships as part of an ongoing effort to remove ship tiers and give every ship its own role in fleet combat. A new destroyer-class ship for each races gives new players more combat options, and the ORE mining frigate lowers the barrier to entry for miners. PvE-focused players have a new salvage drone toy to play with and advanced NPC AI to counter, while PvP is set to be shaken up with ship rebalances and a new micro-jumpdrive module. Read on for a full roundup of everything there is to know about EVE Online's Retribution expansion.
EVE Evolved: Retribution expansion highlights
EVE Online's PvP-focused Retribution expansion goes live in just a few days on December 4th, bringing with it a whole series of balance changes, UI updates, and new features. In addition to a whole new bounty hunting mechanic, we can look forward to a new combat UI, some serious ship rebalancing, and a new crimewatch system that puts players in the driving seat of antipiracy. Faction warfare is also due for a bit of a revamp, and a new safety system will help newer players stay within the bounds of the law. CCP has been releasing torrents of information on the expansion this month in the run-up to release, covering everything from the new UI updates and ship balancing to kill rights and corp hangars. There are some interesting changes on the way that might affect your everyday life in EVE. If you haul ships and items around EVE inside an Orca's ship and corp hangars, be aware that the hangars will no longer be immune to cargo scans and their contents will now drop as loot when you're destroyed. Expect suicide attacks on Orcas to spike immediately following the expansion's release, and keep your expensive toy out of harm's way. In this week's EVE Evolved, we'll dig into this week's Retribution expansion and look at a few of the highlights in depth.
EVE Evolved: Three ways to break Retribution
EVE Online's upcoming Retribution expansion is set to revolutionise PvP with its brand-new criminal and bounty hunting systems. Players will be able to hunt down criminals who show their faces in highsec, and bounty hunters will track not just individuals but also entire corporations and alliances. If past expansions are any indication, however, the first thing players invariably do with any new feature is to try to break it. Some people will undoubtedly find ways to bend the new gameplay into scams, others will trick players into getting themselves killed for a few laughs, and a few will hunt for borderline exploits. We now know enough about Retribution's new features to figure out some of the ways they can be potentially abused. The ability to sell kill rights opens up a whole new scam based on tempting players with a juicy target and then pulling the rug out from under their feet. The new Suspect flag that lets players dispense justice to criminals can also be used to bait innocent players into getting themselves killed. There may even be a way to get rid of bounties for free, undermining one of the expansion's core mechanics. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at three potential pitfalls in the upcoming Retribution expansion, how they might work when the expansion goes live, and how to protect yourself from falling victim to them.
EVE Evolved: Bounty hunting and revenge
Last week I looked into the major PvP changes coming in EVE Online's upcoming Retribution expansion, from the piracy revamp to a new global flagging system that puts players in the driving seat of justice. This week CCP Games revealed full details of the upcoming bounty hunting system revamp, and I have to say I'm really excited. The new bounty system not only makes bounty hunting a viable profession again but also gives players a way to deal significant financial damage to their enemies without getting their hands dirty. As if that weren't enough, players will even be able to enforce the law on their own terms, trawling high-security space for criminals and lighting them up for everyone to kill. Corporate- and alliance-level bounties will push grudges to new levels, enabling a new type of passive financial warfare. The new bounty system can also be used as a tool to motivate troops into battle, a way to incentivise boring but necessary starbase warfare, and even a method for running tournaments. In this week's EVE Evolved, I get ridiculously excited about EVE's upcoming bounty hunting revamp and explain why it makes the Retribution expansion a complete game-changer.
EVE Evolved: Player justice in Retribution
This week CCP released a new devblog on upcoming piracy and PvP changes heading to EVE Online with this winter's Retribution expansion. In addition to new ships and an as-yet unrevealed bounty hunter revamp, Retribution completely redesigns the Crimewatch system that decides whom you can legally shoot and stops players from docking or jumping out of the system in the middle of combat. EVE's aggression mechanics are notoriously complicated and buggy, but Retribution aims to simplify the system and put players in the driving seat of criminal justice. The new Crimewatch system not only gets rid of old, undocumented code that was written when dinosaurs roamed the earth but also has far-reaching consequences for pirates, people engaging in PvE and the upcoming bounty hunting revamp. Pirates will now be able to escape into high-security space without police intervention, loot thieves will be subjected to mob justice, nullsec ratters won't be as safe as they think, and neutral remote repairing will be a thing of the past. In this week's EVE Evolved, I delve into Crimewatch 2.0 and how the Retribution expansion will change the game for pirates, ratters, and people engaging in PvP across New Eden.
EVE Evolved: Setting the universe on fire
This week CCP Games announced the name and focus of EVE Online's upcoming summer expansion. The Inferno expansion aims to re-invigorate PvP with some long overdue gameplay changes. CONCORD-sanctioned wars will be iterated on for the first time in half a decade, and faction warfare will hopefully be getting the updates it should have received in 2008. Following on from the success of the Crucible expansion with its hundreds of small features and gameplay changes, Inferno will also contain dozens of small gameplay changes, usability fixes, and minor improvements. We'll hear more about DUST 514 in the coming months as CCP reveals more concrete details of the game's link to EVE Online and the motivations behind planet-bound wars. Incarna fans will apparently also see some movement, with Team Avatar focusing on avatar-based updates for this release. While Inferno is a rather uninspired name and coincidentally would make three of the last four expansions start with the word "in," the expansion's content is genuinely exciting. Fundamental changes are coming to EVE's PvP mechanics for the first time in several years. CCP hasn't revealed the exact changes, but that hasn't stopped players from speculating on what might be heading their way. In this week's EVE Evolved, I speculate on the changes coming in the upcoming Inferno expansion and what changes I think might be coming to EVE's PvP.
Dominus reveals its bounty hunting mechanics
We're not sure what it is about bounty hunters that makes them cooler than cool, but there's no denying the appeal of a profession that characters like Boba Fett, John Marston, and Rick Deckard call their own. Dominus is hoping to capture some of that badassery in a bottle via its bounty hunting system, and a new update on the game's official website has all the details. In a nutshell, players are able to place bounties on four of their enemies at a time, and the only other consideration is the amount of money you're willing to put toward your revenge. Hunting a bounty involves accepting a contract via an NPC, and you'll be alerted as to your target's zone location if he's online. After you make the kill, you'll be paid on the spot, and any other players who accepted the same bounty contract will find it removed from their mission log. There's more, but you'll need to head to the Dominus website to read it.
15 Minutes of Fame: Air Superiority Squadron's Tenj takes ganking to the skies
From Hollywood celebrities to the guy next door, millions of people have made World of Warcraft a part of their lives. How do you play WoW? We're giving each approach its own 15 Minutes of Fame. Brace yourselves for nerdrage in the comments today -- for as they say, "PvP happens." Today, 15 Minutes of Fame covers (gasp!) actual world PvP on a PvP realm. Meet Tenj, master of the skies, leader of the Air Superiority Squadron on Twisting Nether (US-A), and renowned Azerothian aerial combat specialist. Tenj and his group of aerial assassins are in the business of bounties, plucking Horde players right out of the skies in fulfillment of their mercenary assignments. Tenj, an intrepid night elf boomkin, is known not only for his aerial antics but for rustling up world PvP in general -- and for responding to it all, enthusiastic cheering and nerdraging ranting alike, with a "Meep, meep!" more reminiscent of the hapless Roadrunner than a bounty-hunting boomkin. If you thought dozens of flight-form druids flapping down to silently surround ground-bound newbies was creepy, after reading about Tenj and his crew, you'll definitely never feel safe around druids again.
EVE's Council of Stellar Management chairman interviewed
One of the things that sets EVE Online apart from most other MMOs running is its Council of Stellar Management (CSM) -- player-elected representatives who work with developer CCP to improve the game. Garret Fuller at MMORPG.com recently sat down for an interview with CSM Chairman Dierdra Vaal (coincidentally a man with fine taste in ships) to discuss player input on EVE Online and how the CSM helps to make this happen. Although his comments do not confirm what's on the way in future EVE Online expansions, Vaal also discusses an interesting expansion concept CCP Games is knocking around. Vaal tells MMORPG.com: "It's basically a big expansion idea focusing on low sec and gameplay on the wrong side of the law. I feel this could tie in quite well with my proposal for a new bounty hunter system. Overall, low sec may be the most neglected part of the game [...] and I think it would be great if it got the attention and bits of unique gameplay it deserves." Beyond this idea of better supporting underworld gameplay in the future, Vaal explains how EVE Online is evolving into a more complex environment, namely through avatar interaction in Incarna, and social networking in New Eden (formerly "COSMOS"). Have a look at the MMORPG.com interview with Dierdra Vaal for more on how the CSM functions and what the council does for EVE Online's playerbase.
Empyrean Age details revealed in EVE developer chat
MMORPG.com invited a few of the EVE Online staff from CCP Games to participate in a live developer chat this past Sunday. MMORPG.com was kind enough to provide a complete log of the chat, which was hosted by their own Community Manager, Laura 'Taera' Genender. Among the EVE Online devs present were CCP Greyscale (game designer/factional warfare), CCP Ginger (ISD manager/storyline), t0nyG (lead writer), and CCP Wrangler (community manager). The developer chat was primarily focused on the changes that The Empyrean Age and its factional warfare will bring, but the CCP staff addressed a number of other issues and concerns as well:
Wanted: Dead or Alive
Haven't you ever just hated someone so much in WOW you wanted to kill them over and over, even though you couldn't? Maybe it's the 70 who ganked you for hours when you're only 34. Maybe it's the guild leader you found out was modifying DKP to suit him and his friends. Maybe it's the guy spewing racial insults in Org general chat. Well, Gamemaniak on the EU realms has a proposal for you. See, on his server, there's a guild that offers bounties on the heads of other players. Provide a screenshot of your kill of that player, and you collect gold from the guild. So, he wondered, why not implement this into the game? Set up a "WANTED" board in the major cities, so players could put bounties on other players of their own or the opposite faction. It would cost a nominal amount of money to put up a bounty, and you could offer whatever you wanted as the reward (of course, it would be automatically deducted from your inventory if someone with the bounty quest killed your mark.) Heck, you could even have the game send a letter to the mark informing them that they're being hunted. Normally, I'm not a big fan of things that would increase gankings, but I sort of like this idea. It would add a refreshing new dimension to world PVP and help the WoW community become more self-policing on annoying behaviors like stealing mats, begging for gold, or generally being a jerk. What do you think of this idea? If there was a bounty hunting system in the game, would you use it, or do you prefer to settle your scores the old-fashioned way?
