On trello, it says that bounty hunting might become a profession, though it may not restrain bounty hunting to it, so I have an idea that mainly works with the alignement system.
Basically, the actual bounty hunting would stays as it is now for non-professional bounty hunters. However, professional ones would have a new option to help them. When they are hunting someone, professional bounty hunters now have a new option when talking with NPCs, asking about their target. If the hunter’s renown and/or alignement with the island of the NPC is high (no matter if it’s good or bad), the informations become more accurate.
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If the target is no longer on the island, the NPC would say the general direction (north, west, east, south) in which the player has gone to.
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If the target is no longer on the island, but it is on another island and if the hunter have enough renown, the NPC will say something like “Oh they’re not here anymore, but I saw them sailing towards this island”
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If the target is on the island but not at the same place (like in Ravenna where you could be at Rasna but your target is at Rubica), the NPC would orientate you towards this place.
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If you and your target are in the same town, the NPC would say they saw them at the north/east/west/south of the town. If you have an high renown/alignement the NPC would instead indicate a place of the town (the port, for example).
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If your target ventured in the Dark Sea, the NPC would say that he saw your target going to the Dark Sea, and that you shouldn’t try to chase it.
Depending on your alignement, the interaction would be different, either giving the information to reward/help you for what you’ve done or because they fear what you could do to them. To balance this, if your target have an higher alignement than you, most NPCs will instead try to protect your target. Also for each NPC that has given to you informations, you will get less galleons for your hunt.
This suggestion would allow more interactions with NPCs, while not adding dynamic NPCs. It also expend the “alignement” idea on the trello (which is planned for Nimbus Sea)
Feel free to ask questions