An idea to make Roamers matter in WvW: Bounty system

Hi everyone,

For a long time now, I have been thinking about stuff that could make WvW more fun for everyone. The following is just an idea, discussion is always nice, but try to be civil.

There is still a lot of players in WvW, that are roamers. People who are not interested in running with huge groups, but instead prefer small scale battles, wether it is group roaming or solo roaming. Those people don't really have a particular purpose in WvW, yes they can cap camps and sentries, but that's about it. I was thinking on how they could add something to WvW that is incredibly fun and would actually give these roamers a purpose in the RvR battle.The idea is to add bounties in WvW. Not PvE bounties, but PvP bounties. They could add in the option in the WvW interface to sign up on the bounty system. Once signed up, you would get a name and a general place on the map as to where to find this person (there's a few issues with this adressed below). The goal? To take the other person down first, in return you could get a reward and more importantly, WvW score for your realm. This way, people who like to just go around and fight players would actually be able to contribute to their server in a very fun manner.

There's a few things to this that need to be mentioned if something like this would ever get added.

1) Sign up would be mandatory. They could make it so that you just get a name from any player in the map. But this could result in zergs being revealed, players tagged that are AFK, etc.If you sign up, you get into a pool with other people that signed up and thus you and your enemy are both interested in this.

2) The revealing where your enemy is could be problematic for zergs. Spies could wrongfully use this to show where the enemy zerg is, people could troll and sign up for bounty while running with a zerg etc. etc. To be honest, if people wanna cheat, or troll, or spy, they will always find a way to do this. Spies have always been a thing (although rare) and will continue to be so.However, there is a lot of ways you could have this bounty system and work around this problem.You could make it so that you and your bounty enemy have to go a certain place on the map, for example, when you sign up for your bounty, you get a name and a treasure chest appears somewhere on the map. To capture this treasure chest, you have to go there and channel cast on it (has to be a really long long cast, for when your enemy is further away than you). You then win your bounty and whatever is in the chest, if you a) kill your bounty target or b) manage to finish the long cast on the place of the chest.
This way, bounty participants will run to these locations and find their targets and you don't have to reveal the location of the person and the possible zerg on the map, you work around it.

3) "But balance is so bad in WvW weh weh weh".Balance will always be an issue, wether it's in PvP, PvE or WvW, there will always be classes stronger than others. This obviously should be fixed when there are issues, but using this as an excuse to not implement new content and new additions to a game mode is a silly excuse. That's like saying you shouldn't add new raids, because some classes do far more dps than others.

I think that describes my idea as best as possible. What do you think about this? Would you like it/hate it?

Awesome idea! I'd love something new like this to spice up the game. :D

It is a nice idea but as a solo/group roamer, i worry the enemy brings more people to the fight and i wont be able to contest it.Also if implemented, i rather it not tell me anything about my target. maybe just a red dot on the map to reveal his location and my location. The idea of random impromptu encounters are important to me as a roamer so a sense of mystery is still preferred and the bounty would act just as a means to locate opponents easier and something more to fight for.

Seems like a really interesting idea! RS had something similar - Bounty Hunter.

didnt read all but what if i sign up and stick with zerg.the chance my blob will encounter the assigned guy to kill is far more likely then some solo guy on the map.

so wouldnt this just be good thing for blobbing again?and yes im sorry i didnt read full thing as im bit in hurry, so forgive me if u did take the above into account.

@reddie.5861 said:didnt read all but what if i sign up and stick with zerg.the chance my blob will encounter the assigned guy to kill is far more likely then some solo guy on the map.

so wouldnt this just be good thing for blobbing again?and yes im sorry i didnt read full thing as im bit in hurry, so forgive me if u did take the above into account.

I did actually mention it and gave a possible fix for it :)

Even with the treasure chest system, what if someone signs up and has guild members follow him? Solo players won't have a chance.

WvW has always been about unfair numerical advantages, if you keep trying to various carrots and restrictions to recreate PvP, eventually you'll just end up with PvP, which already exists.

@Sol Solus.3167 said:Even with the treasure chest system, what if someone signs up and has guild members follow him? Solo players won't have a chance.

WvW has always been about unfair numerical advantages, if you keep trying to various carrots and restrictions to recreate PvP, eventually you'll just end up with PvP, which already exists.

I agree, this will always be an issue, but that also goes for any camp, any ruins, basically anything you add. People gank right now, yet others still play solo. No one stops the other side from grouping up.

@Sol Solus.3167 said:Even with the treasure chest system, what if someone signs up and has guild members follow him? Solo players won't have a chance.

WvW has always been about unfair numerical advantages, if you keep trying to various carrots and restrictions to recreate PvP, eventually you'll just end up with PvP, which already exists.

Maybe that would still be fine. Its not PvP custom arena, so if you want the risk/reward of a bounty system then those cards will be on the table.

Sorry but this idea is not even close to being viable. Firstly I'm pretty sure not everyone would want to be hunted, in fact I would go so far as to say some people would stop coming to WvW if they were to be hunted in this manner. Next, the hunted player could just change maps or log off, and as for revealing their location, this is not PVE, a real bounty hunt would involve finding your target manually, in other words, systematically searching the map, posting players at different locations, using map chat word of mouth scouting, till you find them or not. I'm not saying a bounty hunting system can not work in WvW, but your version of it will never work.

I'd really welcome any system that promotes small scale roaming. Flawed or not, something is better than nothing

@Vavume.8065 said:Sorry but this idea is not even close to being viable. Firstly I'm pretty sure not everyone would want to be hunted, in fact I would go so far as to say some people would stop coming to WvW if they were to be hunted in this manner. Next, the hunted player could just change maps or log off, and as for revealing their location, this is not PVE, a real bounty hunt would involve finding your target manually, in other words, systematically searching the map, posting players at different locations, using map chat word of mouth scouting, till you find them or not. I'm not saying a bounty hunting system can not work in WvW, but your version of it will never work.

You people need to read. Properly read the things people write, don't just give your uninformed opinion after reading the first paragraph.Read:

If you sign up, you get into a pool with other people that signed up and thus you and your enemy are both interested in this.

@Vavume.8065 but what if to be labeled a 'bounty' you need to be on a list of people that are willing to be hunted? Make it voluntary. In order to be a hunter, you need to be willing to be hunted etc. so, it becomes a more voluntary system. With bragging rights of course.

Oh cmon, what the hell, why does this saves multiple posts do i just suck at foruing.

a wvw tournament would make roamers importantcamp control , defend, small groups attacking objectives.

Made a mistake, can't delete this reply...oh well

@Shizlam.4310 said:You people need to read. Properly read the things people write, don't just give your uninformed opinion after reading the first paragraph.Read:

If you sign up, you get into a pool with other people that signed up and thus you and your enemy are both interested in this.

The OP stated sign up was mandatory... I assume you understand what that means...

@Malferian.7205 said:1) Sign up would be mandatory.

@Vavume.8065 said:

@Shizlam.4310 said:You people need to read. Properly read the things people write, don't just give your uninformed opinion after reading the first paragraph.Read:

If you sign up, you get into a pool with other people that signed up and thus you and your enemy are both interested in this.

@"Malferian.7205" said:1) Sign up would be mandatory.

I think OP just worded it bad by mistake. I think he means "a sign up system would be mandatory". As in, it would need to be opt-in.

I would love it too. Roaming is nice, however a bounty (whatever the form) could definitely spice things up... Especially if the target hides within a zerg . Also, rewards, either in cash and/or in recognition! Cheers.

@Vavume.8065 said:

@Shizlam.4310 said:You people need to read. Properly read the things people write, don't just give your uninformed opinion after reading the first paragraph.Read:

If you sign up, you get into a pool with other people that signed up and thus you and your enemy are both interested in this.

@"Malferian.7205" said:1) Sign up would be mandatory.

im pretty sure OP meant that you only can be a bounty if you signed up previouslyLike :"Sign up would be mandatory to be in the pool of possible bounties"

Or else signing up wouldnt be necessary at all if everyone can be a bounty automatically...

@Malferian.7205 said:

@Sol Solus.3167 said:Even with the treasure chest system, what if someone signs up and has guild members follow him? Solo players won't have a chance.

WvW has always been about unfair numerical advantages, if you keep trying to various carrots and restrictions to recreate PvP, eventually you'll just end up with PvP, which already exists.

Except it won't be just an occasional problem. Players will abuse the hell out of it, to the point where it would be dumb for a solo roamer to sign up. Might as well go back to flipping camps, picking off stragglers, and looking for 1v1s.

It also seems vulnerable to something like win trading.

I like the idea of giving roamers more to do, but this is too easy to manipulate.

I really like this idea.

to fix the problem with people going into a zerg, hiding in a keep, logging off etc a bounty could have a time limit and when you are near a lot of other players you get a movement speed debuff.

I'm always for more content, and its not a bad proposal as long as the targets don't sit behind walls for hours on end. On the same note roamers can be pretty awesome. Myself and many others have taken towers by themselves and 2-3 men have taken the big keeps as well. :) viva la roamers :D

This doesn't have to be that complicated. Just add a bounty board in the main towns or keeps. If a solo player gets camps, realm score or map objectives in a play session then he appears in the board. Only 5 can appear at a time in the board, the credit is lost upon joining a squad or party, the people that kill him get increased rewards and the roamer also gets increased rewards as he continues to stay on the board wrecking havoc.

As for the location hint, you could highlight in the map the zones where you are prone to find him (based on the last 15 minutes of gameplay) as opposed to their predicted current location.

@Malferian.7205 said:Those people don't really have a particular purpose in WvW, yes they can cap camps and sentries, but that's about it.

• Scout enemy blobs
• Refresh siege
• Escort dolyaks
• Kill stragglers going back to reinforce the enemy blob
• Flip camps
• Kill sentries that alert to incoming blob of own team
• Door knock to test response rate.
• Door knock to yank enemy to one side of the map when your team is on the other side
• Refresh siege
• Build siege
• Refresh siege
• Eliminate enemy taking centre islands for bloodlust
• Follow enemy blob and report movements
• For the first three years of WvW, do this all without any reward.

Yeah, that's not a lot. Shameless roamers, not contributing at all.