Bounty Hunt (Proposed New Event Type)
Bylo Band
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New from Bylo Band Studios, the same people (well, person) who brought you The Replicator Thread, The BIG One, MaSSTerpiece Theater (OK, that one was kind of DOA), and the Honor Piñata comes a new proposal for a brand new event type, the Bounty Hunt!
But first, a thank you to my partners in crime (all pun intended, keep reading) @Banjo1012 and @Prime Lorca of Izar for being a sounding board for this and helping me stear it in a more viable direction.
So people have been starved for a new event type for quite a while now, but also people have been looking for more things to do with their ships, and some people have even asked for an event built around The Gauntlet, and if you are any of these people I have great news for you, because the Bounty Hunt does ALL of those things!
The flavor of a Bounty Hunt event is that various nefarious extra legal types (aka criminals, aka the earlier pun!) are either on the loose, escaped from prison, planning a big crime, etc and it is up to us to capture them. Each Bounty Hunt will take place within a select chapter on the galaxy map (for example chapter 1, which takes place between the Klingon Empire and the Augments), with the general understanding that the extra legals we are needing to capture are rumored to be hiding out in that system.
Here then is how a Bounty Hunt will work.
Part 1: Looking For Leads
In part one of a Bounty Hunt event, captains will be asked to run away missions in the featured chapter to acquire “Leads”. Think of it this way, your crew are literally "boots on the ground", going door to door as it were, looking for clues and talking to people trying to get an idea where the fugitives may be hiding. (If it helps, think of Leads like Intel, only for away missions)
Part 2: The Hunt
In part two, captains will travel to the various galaxy map locations in the featured chapter and perform Bioscans to hunt for the fugitive(s). Bioscans will function identically to the regular Scans captains are used to, but rather than be restricted to once every 3 hours will be fueled by the accumulated Leads, and can be run repeatedly as long as the captain has enough Leads to fuel another attempt.
Each Bounty Hunt event will have a featured ship, and captains using the featured ship for the event will receive a ship bonus to all Bioscans. Additionally, captains will receive bonuses to their Bioscans for every event crew they have assigned to a bridge position, lesser bonuses for variants of the event crew assigned to bridge positions, and a low bonus for every crew assigned to a bridge position with the “Investigator” trait, “Hunter” trait, or any other relevant traits for the specific event.
Unsuccessful Bioscan attempts can award players lesser rewards such as credits, Honor, victory points, etc. Successful Bioscans will lead directly to Part 3.
Part 3: Attempt the Arrest
Upon a successful Bioscan captains will immediately enter a new interface where they will be presented with a sequence of NPC crew, their skill pairings, and be asked to select a team to battle the NPC crew. This will function like a Gauntlet with one exception, captains will know the skill pairings in advance.
Event crew will receive a minor boost to proficiency scores in Part 3, variants of event crew will receive a smaller boost, and crew with relevant event traits will receive a smaller boost than variants. After each successful battle captains will receive victory points with appropriately modified bonus victory points based on the crew they used. The final round will be the actual arrest attempt with successful arrests awarding a large amount of victory points, unsuccessful attempts awarding a small amount of victory points.
After Part 3 is concluded, captains will be able to return to Part 2 if they have enough Leads to perform more Bioscans, or they may return to Part 1 to accumulate more Leads.
So, that is the basic idea, we would be traveling to a specific part of the galaxy map, running lots of away missions looking for Leads as to the whereabouts of the extra legal individuals we are hunting for, then travel around the system with our ships performing Bioscans looking for their lifesigns, and then once we find their location, sending our away team of bounty hunters down to the surface to try and capture them!
Having it broken up into three distinct parts will hopefully break up any monotony associated with event repetition, and it will hopefully be a fun experience for players as it utilizes the ships in a fun new way, encourages players to explore the galaxy map, and will let people have more fun with the Gauntlet than normal as theoretically players will go into them with an advantage.
Anyhoo, this is the basic idea, I hope you like it
But first, a thank you to my partners in crime (all pun intended, keep reading) @Banjo1012 and @Prime Lorca of Izar for being a sounding board for this and helping me stear it in a more viable direction.
So people have been starved for a new event type for quite a while now, but also people have been looking for more things to do with their ships, and some people have even asked for an event built around The Gauntlet, and if you are any of these people I have great news for you, because the Bounty Hunt does ALL of those things!
The flavor of a Bounty Hunt event is that various nefarious extra legal types (aka criminals, aka the earlier pun!) are either on the loose, escaped from prison, planning a big crime, etc and it is up to us to capture them. Each Bounty Hunt will take place within a select chapter on the galaxy map (for example chapter 1, which takes place between the Klingon Empire and the Augments), with the general understanding that the extra legals we are needing to capture are rumored to be hiding out in that system.
Here then is how a Bounty Hunt will work.
Part 1: Looking For Leads
In part one of a Bounty Hunt event, captains will be asked to run away missions in the featured chapter to acquire “Leads”. Think of it this way, your crew are literally "boots on the ground", going door to door as it were, looking for clues and talking to people trying to get an idea where the fugitives may be hiding. (If it helps, think of Leads like Intel, only for away missions)
Part 2: The Hunt
In part two, captains will travel to the various galaxy map locations in the featured chapter and perform Bioscans to hunt for the fugitive(s). Bioscans will function identically to the regular Scans captains are used to, but rather than be restricted to once every 3 hours will be fueled by the accumulated Leads, and can be run repeatedly as long as the captain has enough Leads to fuel another attempt.
Each Bounty Hunt event will have a featured ship, and captains using the featured ship for the event will receive a ship bonus to all Bioscans. Additionally, captains will receive bonuses to their Bioscans for every event crew they have assigned to a bridge position, lesser bonuses for variants of the event crew assigned to bridge positions, and a low bonus for every crew assigned to a bridge position with the “Investigator” trait, “Hunter” trait, or any other relevant traits for the specific event.
Unsuccessful Bioscan attempts can award players lesser rewards such as credits, Honor, victory points, etc. Successful Bioscans will lead directly to Part 3.
Part 3: Attempt the Arrest
Upon a successful Bioscan captains will immediately enter a new interface where they will be presented with a sequence of NPC crew, their skill pairings, and be asked to select a team to battle the NPC crew. This will function like a Gauntlet with one exception, captains will know the skill pairings in advance.
Event crew will receive a minor boost to proficiency scores in Part 3, variants of event crew will receive a smaller boost, and crew with relevant event traits will receive a smaller boost than variants. After each successful battle captains will receive victory points with appropriately modified bonus victory points based on the crew they used. The final round will be the actual arrest attempt with successful arrests awarding a large amount of victory points, unsuccessful attempts awarding a small amount of victory points.
After Part 3 is concluded, captains will be able to return to Part 2 if they have enough Leads to perform more Bioscans, or they may return to Part 1 to accumulate more Leads.
So, that is the basic idea, we would be traveling to a specific part of the galaxy map, running lots of away missions looking for Leads as to the whereabouts of the extra legal individuals we are hunting for, then travel around the system with our ships performing Bioscans looking for their lifesigns, and then once we find their location, sending our away team of bounty hunters down to the surface to try and capture them!
Having it broken up into three distinct parts will hopefully break up any monotony associated with event repetition, and it will hopefully be a fun experience for players as it utilizes the ships in a fun new way, encourages players to explore the galaxy map, and will let people have more fun with the Gauntlet than normal as theoretically players will go into them with an advantage.
Anyhoo, this is the basic idea, I hope you like it
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Comments
And I thought of a couple possible twists to put on it:
Maybe in part 1, having an Investigator on the bridge would help gather Leads more efficiently.
And then in part 2, having a Hunter would help use the Leads more efficiently.
Finally in part 3, event crew would get 65% crit bonus and max VP, variants would get 45% crit bonus and a medium VP boost, and crew with the bonus event trait would get 25% crit and a small VP boost.
Yes, the investigator and hunter can give a bonus for their traits. Plus this would be a good chance to introduce Bounty Hunter T’Pol
PM for details.
So long and thanks for all the fish.
Can I suggest a simplification?
You ran away missions for leads.
You use leads to enter a gauntlet like type 3.
That's it. No need to run around the map. No need to add in scans and a random component. RNG in your gauntlet is enough.
I would imagine the only real flying around would be from the place you gather leads to the place you want to scan. If I'm interpreting Bylo's intention. Maybe you could even scan the place you're farming? Even less flying around? As far as the RNG part of the scans, I would use either a modified Basic pull loot table or a modified skirmish reward table for "failed" Bioscans. RNG would be a factor, but failing would be less frustrating than when you don't get a SR item from a galaxy build.
Skirmishes leave your bridge crew in place. As long as the part 3 (Attempt Arrest) feature worked the same way, I think it would work about like you say.
- Players in Part 2 will be free to travel as much or as little as they want. I agree that forcing players into a scavenger hunt would be a huge mistake, so if people want to just park over one planet the entire time, that is fine, but if people want to do a bit of exploring to make it feel more like a real manhunt, that is there for them too.
- I think removing Part 2 would be a mistake, as I intend the Bioscanning to be the break between Lead farming and the grinding associated with Apprehension attempts. If it turned out to not be fun after trials I would be open to changes, but I intend the Bioscan RNG to be as close to enjoyable as RNG can be, like opening a pack of baseball cards. Plus, players could discover other items on fails like perhaps schematics for the event ship, chronitons, etc.
- Part 3 in my vision is more about the experience than anything, so yes, after a player sets their manhunt team the first time they will not be required to change it, however the option will be available.
You took the words right out of my thumbs. Parts 1 and 3 sound like a lot of fun, Part 2 sounds like playing a slot machine - tap one button over and over until something happens. I’ve never lasted more than five minutes on a real life slot machine before becoming interminably bored, and can’t imagine bothering with Part 3 if I have to grind through Part 2.
First, thank you very much for the hearty endorsement of Parts 1 and 3, I appreciate it
As for Part 2, like I said in the previous comment, my intention is for it to actually be fun and provide an opportunity for players to win some extras, as in there are no bad outcomes; you either win some cool stuff, or you get to play the Apprehension phase.
That's one of the things players like most about skirmish - the extra stuff you can get.
@Dirk Gunderson or @AviTrek , is there anything that Bylo could put in the loot table to **tsk tsk** you in?
No. I hate skirmish events because they are the grindy-est of grinds. They are so grindy because players love all the free stuff and the chron drops turn the events into nearly perpetual chroniton machines. Part 2 both feels like a disruption from the event and forcing in all the random free drops from skirmish events. The more you add there, the more of a grind you end up making the event.
And it's literally nothing more than a slot machine on top of it. At least a skirmish pretends like there is a skill component in how you run your battles. Part 2 is literally push a button and get free stuff or part 3.
And if you're racing to compete for rank in the last 5 minutes of an event, can you imagine hitting scan and keep getting drops and never part 3? Remember when DScottHewitt ran out of time at the end of an event because of an issue on his PC? Now imagine running out of time because RNG decided to not give you a part 3?
I hate to be contrary, but are you describing Bylo's event or a galaxy? Cuz it sounds like you just want another galaxy event, minus the SR items. I'm not opposed to that. The last minute turn-in thing is a bit annoying.
In all events there is a rush at the end. After I've turned in SR in a Galaxy I may have to rush the final 5 minutes to squeeze an extra rank positions.
In a skirmish event you absolutely see people rushing at the end to try and gain/hold rank.
Even in a faction event people may use 5* boosts or Dil speedups at the end for that final rank push.
Now imagine being in a skirmish event and rushing for your final round or two. But instead of playing your round, you have to do a scan first and hope to get lucky. If not you keep hitting scan, scan, scan just so you can enter part 3 and have a chance to earn VP. Then imagine you don't get lucky and you end the event at rank 1501. You didn't lose because your part 3 failed. You lost because RNG presents you from even getting to part 3.
I hear what you are saying, but I don't see the problem. The rules will be the same for everybody for 4 days, and the same people you are rushing against will be subject to the exact same RNG, it is just as likely to work in your favor as it is to work against you.
On one hand, I get it. That would be super frustrating. On the other hand, Bylo has a point about the rules being the same for everyone. And on the third hand... Why reward last minute procrastination? I think of it more as mitigating that last minute sniping.
I'm not saying it's unfair. It's fair and affecting everyone. I'm just thinking that it will be incredibly frustrating if it affects you. Why create a mechanism that will obviously cause frustration for players with so little benefit?
I don't remember how long you've both been playing, but the initial expedition events required a RNG after scoring a high enough roll to secure the * and crit the node. People hated expedition events because they had to keep replaying the same mission and tire out their crew until RNG cooperated. DB continued to evolve expedition events to remove more and more of the RNG to avoid that frustration. A lot of the expedition hate dates from that period when RNG was a factor. It seems like the scan is just a recipe for more RNG and frustration.
I do love Skirmishes because you get something more than just VP through the endless tapping. The usual dreck that drops from regular scans wouldn’t be worth it, but mirroring the bonus rewards from Skirmish events for the Bioscans could help. Still, it feels shoehorned into the middle of a perfect blend of Skirmish and Gauntlet mechanics that could give us a solid additional event type that is so sorely needed.
Removing the RNG for the rare VP rewards (and rare rewards from regular missions) was a huge step in the right direction for Expedition events, absolutely. That being said, I distinctly recall being excited prior to the last Expedition and then, about five minutes after the start of the event, remembering that non-guaranteed VP wasn’t the only issue I and many others had with Expeditions.
The strategy portion for choosing which crew to use and when is fun...only for however long it takes to figure that out. After that, it’s a grind to make sure you use the right crew on the right nodes and hope you don’t fat-finger something or have a moment of inattentiveness due to distractions or fatigue. While you aren’t forced to grind bad away team missions for recipe components like in Galaxy events, there is no reward beyond VP (like there is in Faction and Skirmish events) and the cost of a mistake can be quite high...and if you run out of tickets, then you’re forced to spend dil to continue competing. Clearing the top 1500 doesn’t truly require any dil expenditure in any other event type but is a near-necessity for Expeditions unless you enjoy grinding for standard VP rewards for three hours a day with no further benefits.
I love the idea of getting extra stuff like in skirmishes - that is the best part of them. But why not add the random goodies to the VP after the gauntlet part like in a skirmish and skip part 2 like suggested by others?
Apart from that I like the idea of a gauntlet-based event type.
That is why I added in the ships, the Bioscans, and the galaxy map portion, I envisioned as something people would enjoy doing not just because it allowed them to get victory points, but because it was just fun - sure, the people pressing for rank won't care about such things, but the average person just trying to spend some resources and do fairly well, I thought about them and enhancing their experience.
That is why each Bounty Hunt is proposed to take part in a specific section of the galaxy, because for flavor reason it adds an element of excitement as it allows for storytelling; it also allows for those factions to get involved and possibly receive a bonus.
RNG is what it is, with so many people asking for a Gauntlet-themed event for so long, there is no escaping the clutches of RNG, so I tried to weave in a bit of flair to make the RNG aspect of this event more interesting, that is really all I can say to defend the decisions that were made in preparing this information for this thread.
And then let's say that if it's too frustrating, we cut it out altogether after the first or second trial.
2. It definitely makes sense to have the % chance increase as fails occur, because each Bioscan represents an attempt to locate the fugitive on the planet, and as scans occur sections of the planet are eliminated, making each additional Bioscan more likely to yield positive results.
This is an excellent observation, thank you mentioning it
If it helps you, the travelling portion is not strictly required, apart from the first one. You could park at one planet and run the entire event if you want, the flying around from place-to-place was just something that people could do to add a bit of spice.
I like it – keep working that big brain of your @ByloBand!
Faction shuttles would be the obvious fix for this – have a list of locations available to "collect clues", etc. & send the shuttles to the various locations instead of having to travel with your ship.
This is one example, and I would like to see it or something similar implemented in the near future, I think it would enhance the game tremendously. Previously I designed a Siege event around the same ideas of variety and fun, worked with @Prime Lorca of Izar to design an event type around voyages, and worked with @Banjo1012 to come up with a fleet-central starbase defense event structure.
This is the fourth new event I've either designed myself or had a hand in creating, and I will keep my thinking cap on to come up with more as inspiration strikes, because I want to help improve the game.
I am certainly one who would like something new in the rotation. I do wonder if maybe the Siege idea would do well to have its own thread. Being the OCD type that I am, it wouldn't hurt my feelings to see a thread for each of the ideas from THE BIG ONE.