Dev Blog: CONCORD and the Dynamic Bounty Syste

Dynamic Capsuleers,

CONCORD is adopting a new Dynamic Bounty System (DBS) for bounty payouts across Nullsec space. This will reward those daring enough to hunt pirates in more dangerous space where their stronger presence is a greater threat to Capsuleer safety. Solar systems where pirate activity is under firm control by Capsuleers will see payments lowered. DBS is now live on the Singularity test server and will be live on Tranquility in November!

The universe will become both reactive to – and self-correcting from – Capsuleer behavior. These changes will not take the form of wild swings but will move slowly over the course of days to weeks in response to changes in activity.

This will see income generation more evenly spread across New Eden with large corporations needing to utilize more of their space over time if they want to keep their current levels of income. In addition, DBS will bring benefits to ongoing anti-botting efforts by making it easier to highlight suspicious activities and take appropriate actions.

How does it work?

Every solar system will now have an ever-changing bounty multiplier that is applied to any bounty payout earned in the system. As an example, if the solar system multiplier is at 110% and you kill a pirate that has 100,000 ISK bounty, the payout will now be 110,000 ISK. However, some of that will be captured by the revamped Encounter Surveillance System (ESS), which you will hear more about next week.

This multiplier will always be visible via the starmap so that you can locate high-value solar systems in which to hunt pirates.

This multiplier will get adjusted constantly based on what’s happening in the solar system:

• Excessive ratting? Multiplier goes down
• High level of player combat and death? Multiplier goes up
• Empty system? Multiplier stabilizes at an equilibrium value.

Of course there’s a lot going on behind the scenes to set the rate of change, but the three points above are all you need to effectively plan your bounty hunting activities.

The benefits of DBS

There are two main benefits that come from shifting to a more dynamic system:

1. Dynamic systems and a constantly shifting ecosystem provide opportunities for dedicated Capsuleers to separate themselves from others. Learning to predict future high-pay areas, hunting in current low-pay areas (where you know there’s excessively safe ratting happening), and choosing your daily ratting grounds based on a new set of factors every day will make every part of Nullsec life more interesting.
2. Spreading income generation across New Eden and moving away from massive ratting hubs supported by very concentrated infrastructure will create movement and more conflict. Empires will be stretched thinner and guaranteed protection will come at a more tangible cost.

This will ultimately determine how much space is necessary to support income generation based on individual player organization sizes and requirements.

Conclusion

Abundance breeds complacency and scarcity breeds war.

Predictable inputs lead to stagnant outputs.

Autarky is Anathema to Free Trade.

The DBS will begin impacting the playing field between small entities and large entities when it comes to the efficiency with which they can exploit their territory. This is a step to innovate and improve EVE Online for its third decade by introducing more dynamic systems that respond to player actions. The results will be unpredictable and truly rest in the hands of the capsuleers.

Next Up

Rumor has it that CONCORD is nowhere near finished with its updates to bounty payouts in Nullsec space and is targeting the Encounter Surveillance System (ESS) next, so stay tuned for more on that next week!

Fly safe.