Do bounties ever go away?

[ADotBurr]

SSIA

I was interdicted and attacked by an NPC, and after killing him I had a 10K bounty on me. Is there any way to travel safely in that system again? IE....remove bounty.

[Edelweiss ✿]

wait for the timer on it to end, then it goes dormant and may be paid off

[6000 Chipmunks]

You STILL have to wait for the time to expire...even WHEN it goes dormant. If you manage to dock at a port in that area without being scanned, you STILL cannot pay off that bounty until the timer has expired. IF at ANY time you are scanned in that area PRIOR to the timer going off, your time RE-starts AGAIN and the bounty will NOT become dormant unless they kill you...or think they have.

Proportedly, you can get the bounty to go away if you let them kill you..in THAT system...although I've never had that happen. My timer was just re-set, but my bounty did go "Dormant" (whatever good that does), and I still cannot go back there until the timer expires. :(

[Sapyx]

An active bounty turns into a "legacy fine" after a week, which you can then pay off.

If you get killed so that someone (either CMDR or NPC) "claims" your bounty, your bounty doesn't actually go away - it becomes "Dormant". You can't pay off a dormant bounty either, but bounty-hunters (either CMDRs or NPCs) can't see a dormant bounty.To make a dormant bounty go away, you have to wait the week for it to turn into a legacy fine. If you have a dormant bounty and the cops in the system where you gained the bounty scan you, the bounty re-actvates and the counter resets.

So by far the easiest way to "get rid of a bounty" is to go to a different region of space for a week. If you have a mission to complete in that system, you will have to decide whether finishing the mission is worth the hassle of dealing with the cops and bounty-hunters.

Paying off legacy fines is entirely voluntary - they aren't listed on your criminal record and no-one hunts you down for failing to pay it. Being scanned, or even committing fresh crimes in the system doesn't reactivate it once it becomes a legacy fine. But if you die in a system where you owe a legacy fine, they will automatically add the fine amount to your insurance rebuy.

If you're wondering why the crime and punishment system in this game is like this, it has largely evolved this way in order to avoid cheats and exploits which earlier players used to use. You used to be able to simply pay off bounties. Criminally inclined millionaires would go on a crime spree, the sail into the station, throw their money around and have an instant clean record again.

[Agony_Aunt]

Yeah, new system is far from ideal in my eyes, but old system was much worse.

To be honest, i'd prefer much more meaningful penalties and longer lasting consequences.

At least stop the old "jump into sidewinder, get killed, bounty removed" exploit. I'd tie the bounty to both CMDR and ship to start with. You jump to the sidewinder it clears the bounty on you, but the bounty remains on the ship, so no switching back to the ship and continuing like nothing has happened.

Now, if only they could do something with Prison systems.... like people would get transported to them, and they would be placed into a Sidewinder, and the only way out would be to run a gauntlet of enemy ships who will do their best to kill you. If you get killed, you go back to the start.

I'm evil....