I remember in pre-development of Star Wars Galaxies spending my time wondering what the Bounty Hunter play-style was going to be like. Knowing the immense popularity of a Star Wars icon like Boba Fett and the fact that a major number of the player base would want to be a Bounty Hunter, I figured Sony and LucasArts would buff and polish this class until you could see your armored reflection in it. Unfortunately, when the game came out - this class was among my many disappointments with the title. It had the concept of hunting down bounties thrown in at least, but thrown is probably the operative word as it looks like they hastily pieced the class together.
Most of your bounties were quest style missions where you had to hunt down an NPC. Basically you sent out droids to find your target and follow him - sending you updates of his coordinates to help you track down the foe. Then you just mount up or jump on a shuttle and close the gap. Not really much of a challenge as you would expect from being a Bounty Hunter. You’d really expect to have more tools at your disposale than just a droid and a gun. In my vision of Star Wars Galaxies as I beleive it should have been, a dreamed up project called Star Wars Galaxies 2, this is how I see the Bounty Hunter:
The Detective
A Bounty Hunter first and foremost has to be cunning and resourceful to find his prey. Droids to track down your target may come into play, but they won’t be doing your job for you. Instead they would be sent out to scout small areas you define, places where you may have gotten a tip your prey may be. Thus allowing the bounty hunter to search more than one area at a time - if they find your target and they are stealthy enough they could keep tabs on him until you arrive. Otherwise your target will probably blow it away and flee knowing you are on to him.
The Bounty Hunter would have to rely heavily on other means of tracking down his prey. Tips of habits or expected locations from the player or NPC who hires the hunter. Hacking into the Holonet to track communications from the prey to pinpoint his location or learn his travel patterns. Hacking into the Auction House to check locations where the player may have made recent purchases, you know - detective style play.
The Warrior
Of course, finding your target is only half of the job. The Bounty Hunter needs to be both patient and ruthless in terminating the bounty to collect his pay. In my system, the Bounty Hunter only gets one shot at the target - that is, if the hunter fails to survive the encounter the bounty goes to another hunter to pickup and start over. If the target gets away by some chance, the original hunter will of course be able to continue or pursue the target until one of them is dust.
To ensure that all his work tracking down the prey has not been in vein, the hunter will have to be cautious when picking the time and place for the final showdown. Going after a bounty, who also happens to have a group of allies around him, is probably not wise. Anyone in the bounties faction and/or party will be able to assist him in combat against the hunter - so the hunter will have to watch until the time is right to strike.
Ideally, the hunter will have not clued in the prey that he is after him. Of course the target will know there is a bounty on his head but he won’t know who is coming to collect. The hunter will remain neutral and hopefully unnoticed until it he decides to make his move. This will give the hunter the element of surpise when going after his prey - hey, the bounty can enlist the help of friends to protect him, the hunter should have an advantage of his own as well.
Getting Paid
Most NPC bounties in the game will be of little monetary value to a Bounty Hunter as they will be used primarily for leveling and reputation points. Oh yes, I didn’t mention reputation points yet did I? Well stick around and find out what I’m talking about. The big dollar and big reputation bounties in the game will be handed out by players to hunt down players. There will be strict rules on who can taken out a bounty on who but this will be the backbone of the Bounty Hunter class play-style.
Most bounties will be allowed to be taken out when one player wrongs another in some fashion or other. For example, a low level - low pay bounty would be allowed for instances like kill stealing a mob. Higher pay bounties would go out for smugglers failing to deliver, thieves stealing cargo, players assaulting non-faction aligned players in contested areas - things like that (more to come on those in smuggler and other class posts later). And of course, the creme de la crime: high profile political or factional assassin missions.
Reputation points are what will determine what jobs a hunter can accept. The higher a hunters reputation, the higher profile and higher paying jobs he’ll be able to take. Pretty simple and straight forward to understand. You gain reputation by successfully locating and defeating your bounties while you lose reputation for failing missions - and risk a bounty getting put on your own head. Bounty Hunters will not be the only class to rely on reputation for getting work in this title.
So What Does the Target Stand to Lose?
Glad you asked! It’s going to be more than a shot to the ego. Players who have successfully been hunted and defeated will face penalties. Monetary, experience, faction points and the like. It won’t be totally crippling but it will be enough to set a player back enough to where he doesn’t want to be found. For example, smugglers and pirates who are successfully hunted will lose reputation points in their chosen fields - lessening their chances of landing higher paying jobs or moving up in their respective careers.
If a player is able to defeat a bounty hunter, it won’t be the end of his troubles. More bounty hunters are bound to accept the job and finish what the others could not. The players can choose to either keep avoiding the hunters until the job expires or find out who put the bounty on their head and pay them off to have it removed.
Other Posts That May Interest You
Stumble it! 
Leave a Comment