Currently, NPC bounty hunting is a rather dry aspect of the game. As it is currently, it only offers a small amount of galleons, some cosmetic numbers and, in the case of rivals and strong enemies, a rare+ treasure chart. This suggestion will include a list of different features that I believe may tie into the game very well and greatly improve NPC bounty hunting, though likely at an update PAST the full release.
New mechanics
This is a list of new mechanics that may be added in order to allow for the system to function.
Reputation
Reputation would be a new value that is added to character info menu and would serve as a secondary renown of sorts. It would affect the reactions of NPCs, and could be changed by the way you treat NPCs you defeat.
(EnemyLevel is a value determined by dividing defeated enemy’s level by 10, rounded down)
- Sparing an enemy will increase your reputation by 50*EnemyLevel.
- Knocking an enemy out will decrease your reputation by 50*EnemyLevel.
- Letting an enemy flee will increase your reputation by 100*EnemyLevel.
- Killing an enemy will decrease your reputation by 100*EnemyLevel.
By having a negative reputation, enemies will be less inclined to fight you, and by having a positive one, they will be more inclined to fight you. The enemies’ reactions are determined via a formula: Reaction=Reputation/EnemyLevel.
- If Reaction value is bigger than -400, the enemy will not attack unless you attack first
- If Reaction value is bigger than -1000, the enemy will refuse to attack and choose to flee instead, which does not count as the Fleeing mechanic
These reactions may be subject to change
Sparing
Sparing would be a new action that the player could do. By default, the player can’t spare an enemy. This can only be achieved if two requirements are met:
- Enemy’s health is equal or lesser than 15%
- Your own health is above 40%
If both of these requirements are met, a.k.a. you’re “winning” the fight, you can get the option to spare the enemy via the reputation menu. Sparing an enemy will ensure you leave an impact on them and change their opinion of you.
- If the NPC is Merciful, sparing them will make their opinion of you more positive, improving your odds of having them as a follower.
- If the NPC is Ruthless, sparing them will make their opinion of you more negative, improving your odds of having them as a rival.
Knockout
Knockout would be a new action that the player could do. Like with sparing, the player can’t knock out an enemy by default. This can only be achieved if two requirements are met:
- Enemy’s health is equal or lesser than 15%
- Your own health is above 40%
If both of these requirements are met, a.k.a. you’re “winning” the fight, you can get the option to knock out the enemy via the reputation menu. Like sparing, Knocking out an enemy will ensure you leave an impact on them and change their opinion of you.
- If the NPC is Ruthless, knocking them out will make their opinion of you more positive, improving your odds of having them as a follower.
- If the NPC is Merciful, knocking them out will make their opinion of you more negative, improving your odds of having them as a rival.
Fleeing
Fleeing would be an action that would happen outside of player’s control. If the player chooses not to knock out or spare the enemy, they will attempt to flee. While fleeing, the enemy will not attempt to attack, save for movement abilities. If they succesfully flee, the player will receive a reward nontheless, and the NPC will be able to spawn as usual.
When the enemy chooses to flee, the player will receive a notification that they chose to do so. After that, a countdown will appear as well as a small area. If the player wishes to let the NPC escape, they can simply stand in one spot until the countdown is up, after which, the NPC will despawn.
Killing
Killing would be an action connected to fleeing. When the enemy chooses to flee, the player will receive a notification that they chose to do so. After that, a countdown will appear as well as a small area, similar to those that appear in side quests that involve looking for an item. The time will go down only while the player is outside of said area, not while the player is inside of it.
If the player manages to succesfully bring down an enemy’s health to zero without the time running out, then the NPC will die, and they won’t respawn any longer.
Nemesis menu
Nemesis menu would be an addition to character menu. It would feature all your rivals, followers, neutrals and strangers, their mindsets and the latter two also showing their opinions of you.
- Strangers would be all the NPCs you hunted in a single server. They would not save unless you defeated them at least three times. Their opinion does not change.
- Neutrals would be those NPCs you hunted three times, but who do not yet have a opinion of you. They would save between servers and have a chance to spawn at huntable NPC spawns, allowing you to hunt them more. After raising or lowering their opinion enough, they will become either your follower or your rival.
Mindsets would show which actions will improve an NPC’s opinion of you and which ones would decrease it. NPCs can be either merciful or ruthless:
- You can improve the opinion of Merciful NPCs by sparing them, or reduce it by knocking them out.
- You can improve the opinion of Ruthless NPCs by knocking them out, or reduce it by sparing them.
Mindset would also affect the spirit energy color of enemies with vitality builds, meaning Ruthless knights and juggernauts get a purple spirit color, Merciful knights and juggernauts get a light blue one, Ruthless paladins get a red spirit color and Merciful ones a golden one.
Opinion
After sparing or knocking out an enemy that has the neutral rank, depending on their mindset, their opinion of you will change for better or worse. They will remain a neutral until their opinion reaches either +10 or -10.
- Sparing Merciful NPCs will add +1 to their opinion, and so will knocking out Ruthless NPCs
- Knocking out Merciful NPCs will add -1 to their opinion, and so will sparing Ruthless NPCs
When the NPC’s opinion reaches +10 or -10, they will become your follower or rival respectively. If you do not achieve +10 or -10 opinion in 10 fights, then your actions against them from the three fights when they were strangers will be added as well. If the final result is positive, they will become a follower, if it’s negative, they will become a rival.
Following
After reaching +10 opinion with a neutral or if the outcome of their opinion after 10 fights is positive, they will become your follower. The amount of followers you can have is equal to your level-50, divided by 5, rounded down.
From then on, you can summon followers to help you in fights. You can set them in an attack mode, a guarding mode or a scouting mode, or order them to retreat.
- In attack mode, they will attack all NPCs that can aggro to you.
- In guarding mode, they will keep close to you and only attack NPCs that attack you.
- In scouting mode, they will move in a large area around you and fight NPCs that can aggro on you alone.
- By ordering them to retreat, they will leave you and despawn.
If the NPC’s health drops below 15%, they will ask to retreat. If you approve this, they will retreat as usual. Otherwise, they will stay to fight until you order them to retreat or until they die.
NPCs cannot heal while summoned, but when you order them to retreat, they will slowly heal 1% of their max health each minute. If an NPC is killed, they will be removed from your following.
You can level up your followers, with their maximum level being the maximum level of NPCs in the strongest sea. They will progress like all huntable NPCs do in terms of abilities and awakenings, but will level up similarly to players. The formula for the amount of progress they get is EnemyLevel/FollowerLevel.
- For example, if a level 150 follower defeats a level 100 enemy, their xp will increase by 67% of the xp bar.
Followers cannot damage players, meaning they are useless in PvP
Rivals
After reaching -10 opinion with a neutral or if the outcome of their opinion after 10 fights is negative, they will become your rival. The amount of rivals you can have is equal to your level-50, divided by 2.5, rounded up.
From then on, they may spawn in certain situations and attempt to defeat you.
- A rival may spawn randomly in place of huntable NPCs, like they do now. Upon defeating them, they will get a cooldown before they can respawn.
- A group of 3-7 of your rivals may spawn while you’re fighting a huntable NPC. If they do, you’ll have to defeat them or flee. However, each rival you defeat has a 1/2 chance to drop a chart, and defeating all of them will give the total amount of renown that would be awarded if you hunted each one, as well as a large galleon reward and a chance to get a legendary chart, exotic gems and enchantments. All defeated rivals will go on cooldown before they can spawn.
This only applies if their average level is equal or higher than your own - For every 3 minutes spent in a town, there is a 33% chance that a rival will spawn once you leave the town, with there being a 100% chance another one spawns every 12 minutes you spend in the town. The rivals will spawn once you leave the town area. Defeating them will award the same loot as ambushes (upper event). All defeated rivals will go on cooldown before they can spawn.
- If you summon at least half of your followers, every 3 minutes that they are left spawned, there is a 20% chance that all of your rivals spawn and attack at once, which is guaranteed to happen after 20 minutes that your followers are spawned. Succesfully defeating your rivals will lead to huge rewards in the form of exotic scrolls, exotic gems, rare and lost spells, techniques and skills, possibly special rare weapons, armor, ship parts etc. alongside giant amounts of galleons. All defeated rivals will go on cooldown before they can spawn.
Yeah I gotta end this now because I’m mentally exhausted.
