LE "Of Bounties, Headhunters and Fledglings" - A bounty Overhaul

[draconisking]

Of Bounties, Headhunters and Fledglings

A Bounty Overhaul

Has it ever bothered anyone that when someone sees you stealing anything all the guards in the whole hold know it directly? Or that you have to bribe a guard to make everyone forget your Bounty?

Well I certainly did. So I would want to make a request of a crime and Bounty overhaul. Here are some of my ideas.

 

The crime report range

I would try to minimalize it, but while also trying to put in place a semi-immersive system to make the range expand. For example when commiting a crime Inside, if you kill the whitnesses before they leave the space, your crime won't be reported. Of course this feature won't work Inside guard barracks and Jarl palaces (who are filled with guards so your whitness just has to scream "Murder" and everyone will know you did it). If your crime is reported you will end up in a register that can be found in the local prison which I will discuss later on.

If your crime is reported you will be directly known by the town or city guards of the city/town you're in. If it is the hold capital, it will take up to two days before your crime will be known in the other settlements. And up to five days until your crime is known by the smaller settlements of that hold.

 

So for example, if your crime is reported in Riften:

You'll b k nown by all the local Riften Guards directly.

After a couple of days the guards in Ivarstead and Shor's stone will know of it too.

And after another few days even the guards around the farms (such as sarethi farm) and the heartwood mill.

 

If your crime is reported in a non capital settlement it will take a few extra days before the guards in the hold capital will know about it. And only then the rest of the process will be started.

 

Removing your Bounty

When doing quests for the thieves guild you'll be enabled to bribe guards to remove the Bounty that is on your head. Why would you have to ask them? I think it would be nice if you could falsify the Bounty register I mentionned before. It will be located in the guard barracks so you'll have to sneak in. Once it is done your Bounty will be kind of forgotten. However guards and Bounty hunters will still recognize you. Why is that? well there are still Bounty posters through out the hold. So you'll have to remove them from the Bounty boards (that will have to be added), from every bigger settlement. Then, hide in the wilds for another few days so everyone will forget about you. Don't think you can remove the posters before falsifying the records, well you can but they will be replaced after a couple of days so you'll have to be quick.

 

If I take the same example as before:

When you will be fully known through out the hold posters will appear in Riften, Ivarstead and Shor's stone.

If you change the register it will disable the renewing of the posters, so now you have to take them of the walls/boards/etc.

Once you remove the three Bounty posters a countdown will start. This countdown could depend on your Bounty (the higher the longer).

Now you'll be free to walk the cities again without having to skulk around.

 

Don't get any new Bounty because it will be added to the Bounty you had before changing the register and you'll have to start again.

I think such a system won't make the thieves guild system useless because it is a long and most annoying process while bribing a guard only takes a few minutes, so it will still be profitable.

 

Misc changes

• Make Bounty hunters only appear after you are completely known through out the hold.
• Add Bounty hunters to nearby holds a week after you are completely known (the guard's reach ends at the hold border, Bounty hunters can cross it).
• Make your Bounty grow when in another hold, this should be very slow however.
• If a villager sees you you have small chance he'll run towards the nearest guard, if he recognizes you (you will need to be known in the settlement you are in).
• After the civil war, if your Bounty is high enough, the legion or the stormcloaks will also start to hunt you.

Final Word

I would be most delighted if a modder finds the time to work on this or if someone could tell me about a mod that does the same (never found one myself). Also any suggestions would be nice too, I'm sure there are a lot of nice ideas around. Anyways have a nice time in Skyrim!

Edited March 15, 2014 by draconisking

[reyzark]

it should improve you as headhunter and bounty collector aswell, like in the escaped prisoner job of the companions but only better, merged with the wanted posters mentioned above. some feature whould be nice like bring the head of the criminal back to claim your reward, and if youre criminal you could atract bandit followers and form your own gang.

Edited March 5, 2014 by reyzark

[draconisking]

Well I didn't include that because there already is a mod for that. It's a WIP however and has been halted for some time now.

So yeah, why not?

[draconisking]

Being a Bounty Hunter

First of all, the bounties you recieve when killing a bandit leader should be a bit higher: why? Well let's say he has probably killed, or ordered the death of at least ten people. His Bounty is of about a 100 gold. Yours, after killing just one person, is of a nice amount of 1000 gold. This is not very logical.

On the other side the bandit leaders should be a lot stronger. Perhaps have some special abilities, some better AI and some other minor tweaks like naming all these new boss npc's. You will also have to bring some evidence back to the jarl. A head, a finger, or maybe a pelt or some leather (for beast race bandits).

Bounty notes will now also appear on the new Bounty boards that can be found in the larger settlements. It would also be nice to have several available.

 

Maybe you could have a choice of keeping the bandit alive, by yielding when he does so you can take him back to town. so he'll rot in prison.

 

Well that's about it, have a nice time.

Edited March 15, 2014 by draconisking