Bounty Hunting....

[An Ning]

So I got to the part of the game where they start giving you bounty hunting quests.

Problem is... the guys I'm hunting never show up.

Here's how it has been for the last 2 hours for me (I have 2 bounty quests in 1 system. One for a single ship. One for a pirate fleet):

1)
a-Go to system named in quest description (which is also the system where I got it, for both cases).
b- Wait 20 minutes. Nothing happens.
c- Lose 20,000 credits for the day's fees.

2)
a-Go to neighboring system for 20 minutes.
b- Fight endless waves of pirates none of whom are the quest pirates.
c- Do not board or capture any disabled behicles because a bunch of jacktroll RNS guys will warp in AFTER the fight and blo up anything pirate -even if it's disabled and you are about to board.
d- Lose 20,000 credits for the day's fees

3)
a-Go to first system
b- repeat step 1

4)
a- Go to another neighboring system
b- repeat step 2

5)
a- Bypass first system and go to third neighboring system
b- repeat step 2 -but lose 40,000 instead of 20,000

6)
a- Get ticked off at the RNS jacktrolls keeping you from making any money by boarding or capturing pirates and start shooting them
b- Get in an endless fight with RNS

[Amazinite]

description "A pirate vessel named <npc> has been attacking merchants near the <system> system. Destroy it and return to <planet> for payment (<payment>)."

Key word near. Bounty ships will remain in a single system located 1 to 2 jumps away from where the job was accepted.

[An Ning]

I believe I stated in the above that I am visiting the neighboring systems as well -it's in steps 2, 4, and 5 above, but I'll put it here, too: I stay in the neighboring systems as well for up to 20 minutes and fight pirates, but it's never the quest pirate

[Amazinite]

Originally posted by An Ning:

I believe I stated in the above that I am visiting the neighboring systems as well -it's in steps 2, 4, and 5 above, but I'll put it here, too: I stay in the neighboring systems as well for up to 20 minutes and fight pirates, but it's never the quest pirate

Key words 1 or 2. It could also be located in the neighboring systems of the neighboring systems. And they don't leave the system they spawn in, so they should be easy to find. Just take a quick glance at your mini map and if there's no orange/red, then move on to the next system.

[An Ning]

So I could spend 200k just trying to FIND them!? (2 out 1 way: 40k, 2 back 80, 20 out another way: 120, 2 back, 160, 2 out the third way: 200k)

....not worth it.

[Amazinite]

That's a big fleet.
The money really comes from actually capturing the ship. Bounty ships won't be attacked by any other government, so it makes it far easier to capture them. And if the description said "A Marauder vessel" then it could be up to 3 jumps from the origin system.

[An Ning]

it's 2 "city ships" (forget the names) -one of which has a boarding crew of an additional 20-,4 Mules, 3 fighters in one of the city ships, and some captured interceptors and other craft.

...but yeah, I'll stick to Strike Breakers, Colonists and Rush bulk deliveries compared to these missions if I have to hunt around 2-3 systems in every direction

[Amazinite]

If you capture the bounty ships then you can get anywhere from 4 to 17 million credits depending on the ship, but you do you. o3o

[An Ning]

I find big stuff not to be worth capturing.
4 to 17 million for capture. 1.5 million in fees per crew death... despite them having rifles and grenades (thankfully I don't get charged for pilots lost when fighters blow up).
Small stuff I'll capture, but anything with a crew of more than 6 is too costly.

[MessyMix]

Originally posted by An Ning:

I find big stuff not to be worth capturing.
4 to 17 million for capture. 1.5 million in fees per crew death... despite them having rifles and grenades (thankfully I don't get charged for pilots lost when fighters blow up).
Small stuff I'll capture, but anything with a crew of more than 6 is too costly.

Lol why?

17 million - 2 million = 15 million profit

lol

[76561198199541327]

You don't really need to "actively hunt" them. Just take any bounty hunting mission and play the game as usual. The only thing you have to worry about when taking these missions is not to take too many so that your fleet can't handle them in case they end up spawning on the same system.

And they don't really disappear from the system when they are disabled unlike disabled pirates so you can just return later to capture them in case you can't do it right away.

[Sinsling]

Originally posted by An Ning:

I find big stuff not to be worth capturing.
4 to 17 million for capture. 1.5 million in fees per crew death... despite them having rifles and grenades (thankfully I don't get charged for pilots lost when fighters blow up).
Small stuff I'll capture, but anything with a crew of more than 6 is too costly.

Pro tip: outfit your main bactrian to have 250-300 bunks, fill up your bunks with extra crew, buy frag grenades equal to your crew. Laugh as you board everything ezpz.

[An Ning]

Originally posted by MessyMix:

17 million - 2 million = 15 million profit
lol

17 million -(2millionx7) = 3 million IF it survives the waves of pirates on the way to a shipyard to be sold (oh, and subtract the money needed to find it and get to a shipyard. that drops it to 2.5 million)

Compared to doing -in the same 10 days of hunting- 5 planetary drops at an average of 600k (jobs I take are between 500k and 1.1 million, in general), I actually make more this way -especially factoring in little fighters I capture without that pesky RNS hovering around.

Originally posted by ulan14344:

You don't really need to "actively hunt" them. Just take any bounty hunting mission and play the game as usual. The only thing you have to worry about when taking these missions is not to take too many so that your fleet can't handle them in case they end up spawning on the same system.

And they don't really disappear from the system when they are disabled unlike disabled pirates so you can just return later to capture them in case you can't do it right away.

I might try that.
I just thought bounty hunting would be more fun. You know... go to a place, visit the spaceport for news on where the bounty was or planned to hit. Not this... swing aorund blindly in the dark thing.

[76561198199541327]

I'm not so sure but I think that the bounty system in ES is patterned after EV:N.

There is another EV inspired game called Naev which handles bounty missions differently. I think something almost similar to Kestrel test mission can be modified so that it is bounty mission with varying requirements like destroy only(dead), capture only(alive), or dead or alive, or bounty with deadlines, or there will be some other government which will also challenge for the bounty and you won't get the bounty if they are the one to destroy the target, or a fleet war bounty where you fight an army of ships(more than 3 ships of the marauders bounty, quite like the first FW bounty). Just throwing in some ideas for modders out there.