The bounty board returns to Ultima Online.
A real system of risk, infamy and consequence for murderers.
- Victims of murderers may wager bounties upon their killers heads. Increasing bounties of gold renders increased penalties the murderer shall face for the day their severed head is captured and turned into bounty hunters.
- Players are able to register themselves with bounty hunters at bounty hunter NPCs. Bounty hunter players are able to enforce temporary penalties upon murderers and garner rewards for cashing in their heads. By becoming a bounty hunter they will flag as enemies to all murderers. Their names will hue a bright white to all murderers, indicating their status as a bounty hunter.
- When a bounty hunter slays a murderer a “severed head” will appear in their bag. This item is not blessed and can be traded, stolen or looted. Turning in this head will enforce the atonement penalty upon the murderer; if it is a bounty hunter that turns the head in, they receive a portion of the killer’s bounty.
- Murderers may strive for notoriety and rank upon the bounty board with increasing consequences. The larger the sum garnered upon their heads will yield longer periods of atonement, increased cost of bribery to guards or a combination of the two.
- Murderers may enter almost all of the towns in the world aside from Galven. The Island of Scelus and its township of Roache additionally will be a safe haven for murderers; their heads will be unable to be collected in this area as well as a couple of other notable locations. Towns where ministers have employed the Disciplined Guards bonus will also prevent them from entering.
- Murderers, and all other types of criminals, may also be healed or have other beneficial acts performed on them by anyone within town; this will only flag the individuals performing the beneficial acts on criminals also flagged as criminals. It will not enable guards to instantly kill them.
Murderers and Bounty System:
Murderer Levels:
Murderers, Atonement and Outcasts
Sanctum’s new murder system has had the majority of its functionality implemented with this patch. There are three types of murderers now; the regular murderer we all are familiar with, the shamed murderer in atonement and the outcasted murderer.
– Regular Murderer: Name hues red, no title. This player may attack innocent players; if killed by a bounty hunter and their head turned in they will face atonement.
– Atonement Murderer: Name hues pink, has the title “the Shamed”. This player may not initiate combat against innocent (blue notoriety) players.
– Outcasted Murderer: Name hues dark red, has the title, “the Outcast”. This player may attack innocent players; if killed by a bounty hunter and their head turned in they will face a permanent loss to 50% of their skills and return back to normal murderer status. There is no way to revoke the outcast status once a murderer chooses to enter into it. A murderer in atonement may choose to enter this status by speaking the words “I wish to continue killing“.
– Bounty Hunters: Names will now hue white to all murderers, indicating their status as a bounty hunter.
– For any player killed 250 gold is generated upon the murderers head; a player may add additional bounty to lengthen the duration of their future atonement.
– For every 250 gold upon a murderers head, they will suffer 1 hour of atonement if their head should be turned in by a bounty hunter.
– A murderer enters a period of atonement and is shamed if their head is turned in by a bounty hunter.
– A player may bribe away their period of atonement by giving gold to a bounty hunter at a rate of 500 gold per hour of removal.
– A player may forsake their status as being shamed and return to killing players by stating the words, “I wish to continue killing”.
– A player will remain an outcast until they are killed by a bounty hunter and have their head turned in.
Determining Atonement Duration:
- For every 250 gold pieces a murderer has upon his head he will face 1 hour of temporary atonement penalty. This penalty will only go away with time spent in game or by bribing bounty hunters.
- A player, when killed, automatically adds 500 gold to the bounty of each player he reports as a murderer.
- This equates to a minimum penalty of 2 hours per innocent kill.
- The victim is also able to place an additional bounty on his killer(s).
- A player may not place more than 1,000 gold on his killer(s) bounty at a given time.
- This equates to a maximum penalty of 6 hours per innocent kill, when combined with the automatic bounty.
- Atonement duration occurs the moment the murderer’s severed head is turned in by any player. The player must wait out the atonement period or bribe away the bounty.
- A shamed murderer, aside from waiting out the atonement, may bribe a bounty hunter at rate of 500 gold per 1 hour of atonement time.
- Any murderer, including shamed and atoning murderers, may at any time say, “I wish to continue killing” to render themselves an outcasted murderer. These players may continue killing innocent players but if they were to die to a bounty hunter would suffer permanent skill loss and be returned to “regular” murderer status.
The Severed Head:
- A “severed head” of the murderer will appear in the pack of the bounty hunter that deals the killing blow. Only bounty hunters will obtain severed heads upon killing a murderer.
- It is not blessed; it can be traded, stolen or destroyed by cutting it with a bladed item.
- It is different from the head that can be cut and obtained from a player’s corpse.
- Any player may turn in the “severed head” of a murderer to a bounty hunter.
- A “severed head” of the murderer will appear in the pack of the bounty hunter that deals the killing blow. Only bounty hunters will obtain severed heads upon killing a murderer.
- Only bounty hunters receive a portion of the bounty reward.
- Bounty hunters will receive 50% of the bounty placed by victims and 0% of the automatically generated bounty.
- Turning in the severed head will initiate the murderers penalties immediately.
- The killer’s total bounty is reset to 0 gold upon having their head turned in.
- Turning in a severed head will render all other severed heads that exist in the world at the time for that murderer into a rotting severed head which will no longer reward any bounty or apply any penalties.
Bribes and Consequences:
- Player killers are able to bribe NPC bounty hunters into removing their temporary atonement at a cost of 500 gold bribe per 250 gold bounty, essentially 500 gold per hour.
- Players may choose to use any combination of waiting our their temporary atonement or bribing of guards to alleviate their period of shame facing atonement.
- Long term counts exist and accrue after every reported murder for non-atonement purposes for maintaining red status to those players that are murderers.
- These will be at accrued at 40 hours per murder.
- There is no other way to alleviate long term counts other than time.
- If no additional bounty is accrued by a murderer in the span of two weeks his name will fall off the bounty board until he gains additional bounty upon his head.
- A player may not bribe away or wait out the outcast status if they choose to become an Outcast; it only goes away upon having their head captured and turned in by a bounty hunter and subsequent permanent statloss.
Miscellanous:
- Bounty hunters shall flag as enemies to murderers.
- A 10 minute temporary statloss penalty will automatically apply to any murderer that dies to a bounty hunter. This is independent of their bounty-based statloss penalty.
- A 10 minutes temporary statloss penalty will automatically apply to any bounty hunter that dies to a murderer.
- A player that carries a bounty (eg. a player under 5 long term murder counts) will not be able to be placed in statloss; they will not yield severed heads to bounty hunters. “You ain’t red, ain’t no head.”
Other notes to point out:
- Exploitable loop holes have been covered with this system. The one that appears to be unavoidable is the fact that some players will create PKs, kill themselves for counts and artificially put gold on their own heads for nothing other than the notoriety on the board without actively playing these characters. This serves no purpose other than having that spot and siphons gold from the shard.
- A killer turning in his own head (via utilizing an alternate-character bounty hunter) does not receive significant reward (and, if no bounties were actively applied to the murderer by players, there is no reward); the reward is far less than the cost to remove the atonement. The rate of gaining gold in all methods is significantly superior to that of turning in your own head.
Murderers and bounty hunters are not restricted from participating in town militia warfare.
We want to enable players to have different avenues of finding combat, not splitting them into different groups and splintering the community.
Murderer Pros:
– Get to be murderers.
– Gain infamy and rank on bounty boards.
– Able to put bounty hunters into temporary 10 minute statloss every time they kill one.
Murderer Cons:
– Can be excluded from entering towns with Disciplined Guards bonus.
– May not enter neutral cities.
– May be attacked by any player, at any time.
– If carrying an active bounty of greater than 500 gold, will be facing either temporary statloss or must bribe guards.
– Will be placed in 10 minute temporary statloss if killed by a bounty hunter, in addition to possible penalties due to bounty.
Bounty Hunter Pros:
– Able to receive gold rewards when killing murderers if they carry a bounty by turning in their severed heads.
– Able to put murderers into statloss if they carry a bounty by turning in their severed heads.
– Able to fight in any town.
– Able to place murderers into temporary 10 minute statloss every time they kill one.
Bounty Hunter Cons:
– Will face 10 minutes of statloss if killed by a murderer.
– May be freely attacked by murderers anywhere as bounty hunters flag as enemies to murderers.
Murderer Region Interactions:
Murderers may enter any of the five warring towns unless their ministers implement the Disciplined Guards bonus.
The guards of all but one neutral city, the city of Roache, will also not permit murderers to enter.
They will only be attacked by guards if they perform criminal acts upon innocent players as any other player would.
A few regions exist in the world in which murderers will not yield severed heads to bounty hunters when killed and therefor can not be put into atonement while fighting in these regions. Murderers will also not accrue bounties within these regions.
