Thread: Bounty Hunts!

I've been trying to think up some PvMP events for Imladris here...and so far, the only types of events I can think of are Bounty Hunts and any form of round robin tournament type deals on Candy Mountain (1v1s, 2v2s, 3v3s). I had also been thinking of raid vs raid type events but something like those tournaments and RvRs would need more input from the rest of the Imladris PvMP community.

So, I've been toying around with the idea of Bounty Hunts (and almost put out a bounty on someone a while back, but never did haha!)

Here's the idea: Every day, both freep and creep side will declare a bounty target: the target must be rank 6(this is flexible and rank 4 may be considered to be the new minimum) or above.
Then, the two groups will run around the map, engaging each other when and where they see fit, flipping any of the outposts, the lumber camp, and/or the Mines. The bounty will only be rewarded when the specified target perishes within the initially flipped location.

1. Absolutely NO rank 0 freeps/creeps may be allowed to be targets. Minimum target rank will be either between 4-6, and may also be up to the discretion of the Host, Officials, and the target.
2. Both sides must allow a "judge"("Officials") into their fellowship/group, and the group must not contain more than 6 people in it. So, no raids. This means maximum group size will be 5 + 1 official. Officials may determine for themselves if they will fight. Optimum conditions for judge participation is that the judges will fight one another, still within LOS of the main group but out of AOE/heal ranges. If Judges can rez, they're not allowed to rez any member of their group during the official battle. Rezzes may be given AFTER the fight is declared.
3. Judges freepside must be level 75 and cannot be a bounty target. Creepside judges cannot be a bounty target. Judges on both sides must not be in the same kin/tribe as the designated target. This also means judges cannot have an opposing character in the target's kin/tribe.
4. Each group must declare themselves on the map by way of capturing an outpost, Lumber Camp or the Mines. All other keeps are invalid for the hunts. In the event the map is entirely blue or red, creeps must flip something, or freeps must flip something, so long as the location flipped is an outpost, the lumber camp or the mines.
5. Each group may engage the other group as many times as they want throughout the entire day, however, both groups MUST battle one another at the initially flipped location (OP, Mines or LC) AND the target must perish for the bounty to count.
   Should the groups of the bounty targets be lopsided, a "judge" isn't available, or the target doesn't perish within the flipped location, the bounty will be null for that fight. New targets may be declared for the existing daily bounty to be claimed.
6. Engagements on Candy Mountain will not qualify for the bounty, but special incentives determined at the discretion of the host may be rewarded should the target also fall at CM AFTER the bounty has been completed.
7. All targets must be willing participants, and keep a saved file of their combat log.
8. All classes are eligible to be bounty targets. Today's targetted class/character may NOT be tomorrow's targetted class/character.
9. All bounty targets must be declared on the forums - a seperate thread will be started for such purposes.
10. Judges may volunteer or be assigned; if assigned, they must be willing to participate. Both sides will need to approve of the judges. Only one judge per group, per day. Today's judges are NOT allowed to judge tomorrow.
11. The bounty target may not be the sole focus of the opposing group. Every member of the target's group must take at least three-quarters damage (3/4 dmg) in order to drop the target. Heals will not change this rule - if any group member is healed above this maximum damage taken limit, the bounty target may still be killed off.
12. Alternate characters: People that play multiple characters on both freepside and creepside - the only way to verify a person is playing on an alt is through voice either in-game or vent/teamspeak. Even this sort of verification depending on a person's technical expertise, can be wishy-washy at best. So, same rules as above apply - if you have a creep in tribe x, the judge for the day you're targetted may not also be from tribe x. Same applies to your freep character.
13. Neither side will be allowed to use LOTRO store-bought pots/foods nor DP perks during the official bounty fight at the initially flipped map location (declaration of location of targetted groups.) Judges must be able to recognize the DP perk buffs being applied to all group members. If these buffs are applied prior to login/official fight at initial flipped locale, they must either be allowed to expire before engagement, or the daily bounty will be forfeit to both groups, new targets may then be assigned and the existing daily bounty will be up for grabs once again.
14. Bounty Hunting Officiating Group will consist of Two(2) Hosts- Bondsman(freep)/Overseer(creep), Two(2) Officials (1 freep and 1 creep.) The Hosts will determine the bounty payment of the day for the demise of the designated target. Should the Host not pay up, they forfeit future status as Host and will automatically become the designated bounty target of the day they don't pay. A new bounty reward for the forfeited Host will either be determined before target declaration or upon said character's forfeiture of their status. If the Host doesn't agree to this, they may not be designated as a Host.
15. First bounty target to die at the official battle location is the loser.
16. The Officials have the final say on the outcome of the official battle. Any group that may have any grievances will be given 24 hours to plead their case, and must have evidence of combat logs AND screenshots. The 3 officials of the questioned match plus 2 neutral, non-alt players will preside over such precendings.
17. Both officials must keep screenshots of the outcome of the official battle, and the winning group must also present a screenshot. The losing group is encouraged to keep a screenshot, but doesn't have to.
18. A bounty target may allow any ranked player in their group with the exception of the highest ranked character may only be ONE(1) rank higher than the target. NO EXCEPTIONS.
19. Any player may declare a bounty target, for any reason. A reason for such a bounty MUST accompany the target declaration post.
20. Winning conditions: Winning group will a) not use store bought pots/foods nor DP perks. b) damage all members of the target's group down to 1/4 morale within the confines of the initially flipped location c) defeat the targetted member within the confines of the initially flipped location.
21. Bounty targets that die outside of the confines of the official battle locations due to DOTs, bleeds, or just pure bad luck of not being a burg/warg may still lose the bounty contest. The judges must determine this.
22. Outside interference: This is by no means a perfect system and thus subject to outside interference. To prevent such mishaps, I may consider opening up a bounty hunting guild site for interested parties to declare targets on. Even then, outside interference may still occur. Screenshot and combat log files may be presented as evidence of outside interference up to 24 hours after the contest.
23. Any bounties will be paid out when it's determined all conditions were met and no outside interference occured. This means 24hours after the contest.
24. Players are advised not to declare any of their own characters as targets - doing so constitutes agreement of being said target and will be determined to be a legitmate bounty target. If you decide to nominate yourself as a bounty target, you must still put a reason.
25. Bounty prizes can vary depending on several factors, will be up to the discretion of the host, and can range anywhere from a minimum of 5G, quest items, lootboxes and sturdy steel keys. If quest items are offered as the bounty, please make them in a stack that can complete an ettenmoors quest (1 CG/FM mark, 5LT marks, 10 SGT patches, 20footmen badges, etc.)
26. Hosts may volunteer for up to a week at a time, and only the Host may designate a new Host should the player decide not to complete his/her volunteer service. In the event a Host doesn't show up during such time, I (Hekhound) will either take over as Overseer creepside or assign/ask someone else. Should I have to take over as Host on creepside, the bounty may drop from a steel key down to quest items. For freepside, this is totally up to volunteers, since I can't enter the moors freepside.

These are pretty straightforward rules. About the only rule I can think of that can be flexible is the minimum rank to be declared as a target, in order to allow ALL players to participate. At first I was thinking of making the minimum rank 4, which is honestly fairly easy to obtain. Absolutely NO rank 0 freeps/creeps may be allowed to be targets, no matter the player's account status of vip/premium/f2p. I will offer an example in the following post.

Example of a Legitimate Bounty Hunt:

Creepside player Hekhound declares freep player X (rank6) as a bounty target. Reason: That freep tastes good!
Freepside player Talizar declares creep player Y (rank 8) as a bounty target. Reason: The Enemy must be stopped at ALL cost!

Creep Grashnahl volunteers to be Overseer.
Freep Rallying volunteers to be Bondsman.

Officials: Orgraz for creeps / Pentar for freeps. (yeah right, but just using his name as an example haha!)

Hekhound logs in to a blue map. Hekhound, being rank 8, recruits 4 other members, with one rank 9 member. Orgraz joins Hekhound's group. Hekhound also recruits the creep bounty target.
Talizar recruits 4 other members, with one member being one rank above his. Pentar joins Talizar's group. Talizar also recruits the freep bounty target.

Hekhound's group captures AE outpost, then moves around the map. We decide to capture the mines since we're up here, too. We don't bother walking to the mines, though.
Talizar's group notices we just capped the AE outpost, and moves. They don't find us at the OP, so they keep moving around, trying to find us. Talizar's group notices the Mines captured event message, and our two groups engage between the trolls and drakes just outside the south entrance of the Mines.
Hekhound's group retreats to the AE outpost (or wipes, releasing back to Grams.) Hekhound's group runs into the AE outpost either way.
Talizar's group finds our group in the AE outpost, and we slug it out on the first level of the OP (JUST below the tyrant.)
Hekhound's group does 3/4 damage to all members of Talizar's group, then kills the bounty target. Screenshots are taken. Hekhound /roar -howls-.

One day later, all victory conditions are determined to be met. The member of Hekhound's group that delivered the Killing Blow to the bounty target wins the bounty prize! Creeps go on to flip the map back, Talizar and Hekhound agree to bring their groups to Candy Mountain for some 1v1s, creep bounty target loses. Freep player that scores the killing blow on the creep bounty target is awarded an incentive award from Rallying, if he so chose to offer one.

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The above example is JUST an example. Hekhound DOES NOT HAVE to invite the creep bounty target into his group, nor be invited into the bounty target's group. Vice-versa for freeps. So long as the bounty targets have groups that meet the sole condition of having members that are lesser, equal to or ONE rank higher than the bounty target. I have no clue what rank Talizar is, so for this example will say Talizar is rank 6. Had either Hekhound recruited Symphony (r10 Spider) or Talizar recruited Apache (r11 minstel), the above contests would have been void. The judges, however, may have been r15 (neither listed official in the above example is r15, though haha!) and still have been in group.

Overseer? Awesome. BOW BEFORE ME, MORTALS!

This seems interesting, but soo many rules to remember.. In my opinion, it will better be a PvMP roleplaying event.

This is certainly an interesting idea, Hek! Admittedly, I've put bounties on many freeps when I want revenge. I might re-install LoTRO just to try. :P

Have any groups successfully tried a Bounty Hunt yet? I imagine learning all those rules would be the only deterrent. That, or the freaver that insists on interfering... =)

This seems like it could be a ton of fun. I would love to participate if someone gets it going.

There's several problems with running something like this, and I will list them all:

1. Rewards. There's no official LOTRO in-game bounty system, so rewards will have to be paid out by generous players.
2. Interference. Hence why I suggested forming up a "Bounty Hunt" guild website, so anyone interested could sign up there using their freep/creep name. Only those regeristered with their alts listed would be able to participate. Officials and Hosts would also have to register on the guildsite.
3. Running off said interference. Consideration will have to be given to allow a group of both freeps and creeps to run off interference. Maximum size for interference control groups will be limited to six members.
4. The devolution of said bounty hunts into all out free-for-alls. This will most definitely happen, especially if greenies & lowbies interfere, or just plain ol' restlessness/boredom occurs.
5. One side overpowering the other. To limit this, mainly because I solely play creepside on Imladris, certain freep classes might have to be restricted in number in a bounty group, or not even allowed. Creeps may want to carefully consider selecting the freep bounty target of the day.
6. The amount of rules for this event. It's because there's no in-game bounty system, that such an event as this has to be policed by us the players. I used to play City of Heroes/Villains, and they had a bounty system in one of their PvP zones. It worked on the number of missions (quests) a player completed in that zone, and the player became a bounty target through the game mechanics, so that villains could hunt down that hero and vice-versa. Selection of bounty targets by we the players could be done through the leaderboards, or just randomly, but this game doesn't have any quest givers that put bounties on questing players heads.
7. "Cheating"/Breaking event rules. We'll probably have freeps that'll stun-turn, freeps/creeps use store-bought foods/pots/buffs, loads of interference. Who knows what all anyone will do to cheat. So, enforcing these rules is down to the Officials, and if they're satisified with the outcome, the Hosts will be satisified, especially if no complaints are lodged within 24 hours after the event.
8. Additional disclaimers: Choose bounty targets wisely. Selecting a warg/burg as a bounty target and failing to kill them at any of the initially flipped locations due to them disappearing/running away is a legitimate survival tactic for these classes. If, however, they die due to dots (damage over time), pure bad luck, or for something that occured while engaged in battle at one of the flipped locations, the event is won by whoever delivered the killing blow. Choosing a shield-traited warden can be tricky as well, since they can go on and on for quite a while with tons of creeps on them. Well-played and geared minis can be a PITA as all us creeps know too well. I'm not taking away from the creep classes, either...high ranking defilers and warleaders can hold their own too, so target selection for the day can be crucial. Also, I may amend the event rules, to prevent burg/warg target groups from completely retreating - or to allow their groups to regroup and push again. Another idea I've been rolling around in my head has been to add another condition of victory: once the bounty target is defeated, the winning group will flip the OP/LC/Mines back. If the winning group already controls the place, or the map is under the control of their side, only 2 things to show they've won comes to mind: A) flip the nearest neutral or enemy-controlled OP or B) run into the one shotters of GV or Grams.
9. Anything else? Can target groups ever be more than 6 players? NO. Can target groups be less than 6 players? Yes...it could even be 1v1, so long as there's an Official grouped with the target players. This will also allow them to easier flip an OP at the very least (don't think 2 creeps will have a shot of flipping LC/Mines, not quickly anyway!) If you want a strict 1v1, take it to Candy Mountain, if a Host agrees to pay out bounties at CM, that's their option. What about pots/foods/items acquired with commendations? All except for brands. Officials will have to keep their eyes peeled for the brand buff on the bounty target. I'm also considering making use of the brand illegal for anyone grouped with the bounty target.

OK - so when will these bounty hunts begin? Whenever anyone wants to place a bounty on an opposing player's head, go right ahead. You don't even have to follow these rules to do so. These rules can be used for a daily or weekly bounty hunting event, and again, for such an event, rewards to be paid out will come from a generous player's own inventory bags or even wallet (at the very least 5G.) Otherwise, if you want a freep or creep dead, you'll be the one paying for it.