If you have read some of my previous posts, I would understand if you think I view pirates as the scum of Eve and they should all go die in that fire people talk about.  But this is not true!  I do want them dead, but by the hands of other players!  I have spent some time thinking about the mechanics of sec status and piracy, and I have a proposal. Tweak the boundaries of legal pvp in eve.  Here is a brief, chart based explanation:


<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 314px;"> <colgroup><col style="width: 65pt;" width="65"></col> <col style="mso-width-alt: 4992; mso-width-source: userset; width: 117pt;" width="117"></col> <col style="mso-width-alt: 5632; mso-width-source: userset; width: 132pt;" width="132"></col> </colgroup><tbody><tr height="15" style="height: 15.0pt;"> <td height="15" style="height: 15.0pt; width: 65pt;" width="65"></td> <td style="width: 117pt;" width="117">System Security Status</td> <td style="border-left: none; width: 132pt;" width="132">Legal Target Sec Status*</td> </tr><tr height="15" style="height: 15.0pt;"> <td height="90" rowspan="6" style="height: 90.0pt;">High Sec</td> <td style="border-left: none; border-top: none;">1</td> <td style="border-left: none; border-top: none;"><0.0</td> </tr><tr height="15" style="height: 15.0pt;"> <td height="15" style="border-left: none; border-top: none; height: 15.0pt;">0.9</td> <td style="border-left: none; border-top: none;">-0.5</td> </tr><tr height="15" style="height: 15.0pt;"> <td height="15" style="border-left: none; border-top: none; height: 15.0pt;">0.8</td> <td style="border-left: none; border-top: none;">-1.0</td> </tr><tr height="15" style="height: 15.0pt;"> <td height="15" style="border-left: none; border-top: none; height: 15.0pt;">0.7</td> <td style="border-left: none; border-top: none;">-2.0</td> </tr><tr height="15" style="height: 15.0pt;"> <td height="15" style="border-left: none; border-top: none; height: 15.0pt;">0.6</td> <td style="border-left: none; border-top: none;">-3.0</td> </tr><tr height="15" style="height: 15.0pt;"> <td height="15" style="border-left: none; border-top: none; height: 15.0pt;">0.5</td> <td style="border-left: none; border-top: none;">-4.0</td> </tr><tr height="15" style="height: 15.0pt;"> <td height="15" style="border-top: none; height: 15.0pt;">Low Sec</td> <td style="border-left: none; border-top: none;">0.4 to 0.1</td> <td style="border-left: none; border-top: none;">-5.0</td> </tr><tr height="15" style="height: 15.0pt;"> <td height="15" style="border-top: none; height: 15.0pt;">Null Sec</td> <td style="border-left: none; border-top: none;">Null/WH</td> <td style="border-left: none; border-top: none;">All</td> </tr></tbody></table>

Of course there are caveats.

<ul><li>Any pilot with a negative sec status is a legal target according to the chart above.</li><li>Only players who have participated in an illegal action can be given a bounty.</li><li>Legal actions are any hostilities under the auspice of a war dec, taken after another player initiated hostilities in sec of 0.1 or greater, or anything occurring in low sec.</li><li>Non-sanctioned bounties (i.e. pirate bounties ) can be placed as contracts in null sec.</li><li>If a player has a legal bounty, he is a legal target in all sec statuses until podded.  Once this occurs, his legal status reverts to the chart above.</li><li>Causing initial aggression (legally or illegally) invalidates insurance if a ship is lost during the ensuing aggression timer.</li><li>If a player has a bounty active, insurance does not pay out on losses.</li></ul><div>
</div><div>The whole point of this is to increase the motive for players to actively hunt pirates, and to help make the sec from 1.0 to 0.5 more of a slope.  Right now the incentive is mostly pride and possibly loot drops.  This system tries to change the rules of engagement a little, and provide more of a career for Bounty Hunters.  If you wanted to really push the system, you could add a map option that gave time delayed heat maps of systems with bounty targets.  I mean, the gates know who is going where, right?</div><div>
</div><div>Observers might also notice that this system does make it theoretically harder for Pirates to get to higher sec systems.  This would maybe require some tweaking of system sec status, belt deposits and agent distribution, I have no idea.  The point would be that along with risk/reward for carebears, pirates would also have a risk reward for coming after high sec targets.</div><div>
</div><div>There are definitely some holes in this, but I would love to see anti-piracy become a viable career in Eve.  If a valid implementation could be found for the bounty system, it could also lead to new stations, factions, ships and mechanics.  Most importantly it would incentivize some high-sec residents to both place bounties and hunt for them (possibly leaving high sec!), creating more player-driven content in Eve.</div>