Bounties with Inactive Pirates? (Bug?)

from Stardock Forums

   I am playing a game on a small map, against Hard Ai, unlocked teams and Pirates inactive.  The Ai keeps posting a higher and higher bounty on me, even though the Pirates are inactive.  The Pirates have a base on the map, but they dont move from it.  I have also wiped out their fleet (their window appears shattered in the Undergroung/Pirates screen). So basically the Ai is wasting its resources on bounty, which will not be acted on. It seems to me like the Undeground/Pirates screen should be greyed out or something, since the Pirates will not attack other worlds. Something for the developers to look at. 
21,594 views 10 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
You can put bounties on other players regardless of whether the pirates are alive or not. It's a way of giving incentive to attack another player.

Not a bug, just part of the gameplay.
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
I should have said this was a single player game with just me and one Hard Ai.
Fences - Organize your desktop icons today!
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
Are you playing vs Advent? They have a research that adds bounty automatically, if you destroy their trade ships.
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
Bounty not only makes pirates go after you but also gives an incentive to other players to attack you, as they can collect the bounty when they destroy your ships, structures, and planets. It is for this reason that placing bounty when there are no pirates is still allowed. Now, as for the one on one (there is no one else to collect the bounty), it's probably a bug. Unless, of course, ToJKa is right about them being Advent.
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
Yes it is Advent. But that wastes his credits on a huge scale over the course of a game. The bounty was up to over 13000 credits late in the game. Kind of odd that the research uselessly pays out a bounty.
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
I wouldn't call it a bug so much as a bit of omitted logic.

I'd guess it's because Sins' bounty model wasn't really designed to handle a 1v1 situation very well, particularly in a no-pirate map. The bounty system really shines when you're up against a combination of pirates and a number of players, but I agree it could use some adjustments when there's just one enemy.

FYI you also see this problem in a 1v1 map if you stomp the pirate base before killing the enemy.

-- Retro

Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
Yeah, I'm with Retroboy on this one. It's not a bug to be able to place a bounty without pirates, since it has the other use already described in this thread. That the AI places bounty in 1v1 with defeated/inactive pirates is wasting money, but not a bug.

It is also true that the AIs are inherently designed to take advantage of the bounty system, diplomacy, and the black market - which is why AIs in a 1v1 tend to under-perform, since most of those options are either severely limited or pretty much non-existent.
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
If I remember the "karmic retribution" research correctly, it adds bounty, but doesn't take it out your funds.

Also, another way to use bounty in 1v1 is playing as Vasari, and researching the "expert bounty hunting". You'll get bigger reward than the bounty you put on the enemy.
Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top
I'm pretty sure you can no longer collect bounty you yourself put for the very reason that you can exploit the techs to get extra credits out of it.
Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top
That's correct. An easy way to prove this is to start up a 1v1 no pirates map, put down 250 bounty, and then mouseover the first enemy scout that you encounter. It won't display a bounty value in the infopanel.

-- Retro