In conversation recently it was brought up that it would be interesting to be able to bribe a witness when you take a shot.

Whenever you take a shot, beneath the whisper there will be an option to 'bribe the witness' 

So when you take a shot, you fill out the bribe amount and the amount is taken from you - if the person chooses to accept the bribe then they take your money - if they choose to 'look at you' (decline the bribe and view the statement) you would get your money back.

Now from a witness's perspective, you get a witness statement and you get the option of taking the bribe or viewing the statement.

I think that the name of the death should be obscured (meaning the cannot view any part of the WS without declining the bribe.)

So you go to your personals and you can decline or accept a bribe - if you accept then you get the money and the WS is buried, forever. 

Pros:

Creates a large opportunity to combat stagnation 

More mystery added to game-play

Added realism

Cons:

Harder to ID shooters and rogues (could also be a pro?)

There has been a very similar suggestion in the means of selling witness statements on a market place.

I have posted this as an alternative, as I felt it would have been somewhat inappropriate to try to roll it into the other suggestion. There seemed to be some question as to whether the other one would be used, and this has a much higher potential for use in my opinion. 

This seems somewhat interesting if you're describing what I think you're describing... However, say you're a witness and you get paid off... IRL, can't you do a doublecross? :P

I was considering sponsoring this as it sounds like a nice addition but then I realised how it could be abused, someone who sells a lot of credits could easily go around killing people because they have enough cash they could just offer a bribe no one would turn down.

I feel like that's a really flawed view Flash-Fire. Using that logic really just brings everything in to question at that point. Honestly, I don't see that as even a possibility.

1. You still have to be able to hit your mark, thus the need to train a gun.

2. SOMETIMES, no amount of money is going to be accepted, as we have to accept the reality that judging by the time of the WS and a quick check of the obits makes it obvious who the person you just witnessed will be (thus if it's someone you care about, you'll turn the money down)

3. Good old fashioned detective work is NOT ruled out with this feature.

The fact that you can sell credits shouldn't negate the good factors of every suggestion that is purchasable with game money. Bodyguards can be purchased with money and therefore credits - do away with those? 

{quickly I want to raise a point about this difficulty with in game money: People don't want inflation therefore we cannot include more purchaseable features that bring in more cash over time. Then at the same time we cannot include more purchaseable features in game that can be used or abused by members to 'play the game' in whatever fashion that feature allows. So what does that give us? A place where the best way to gain money is through credits, and the only thing you can spend it on is bodyguards. If there were other ways of making money AND at the same time more places to spend said money - it creates so many more opportunities.}

With some tweaking I think this would be a great idea. Lets face it, Hitlisting someone is a waste of time. If I were to hitlist a Don who pissed me off for $1 million, who would take that shot? Unless you were sure you would never be caught its a complete waste of your character.

I think the way it should be is Basically you get an event: You witnessed a murder and have been offered $XXXXXXXX for your silence. Do you Accept (Yes/No) If you select yes, you get the cash offered, and never see any of the WS. If you select no, you get the WS as usual.

This would allow for hitters to do what they do, getting reward, and risking their lives as paid assassins. It still wouldn't be risk free of course. If my CL is dead, and I get that message, I'm hardly likely to accept the reward. It would also allow for people to offer rewards for WS again, something i haven't seen in years.

Another knock on is that it could allow people to invisibly train their gun, offering money for every kill they make. You would also have to look at how much you offer to silence witnesses. If 2 WS go out and I offer 700k for their silence, and get $1 Million for the kill, then I would be 400k out of pocket if both witnesses accepted. 1 might accept and 1 may not, meaning my ID is revealed anyway. It would also allow for teams of hitters to take out 1 target. The key shooter killing his target whilst 3 or 4 others shoot MIAs or RIAs and everyone offering the same reward for silence. So if I get an offer and turn it down, it may not even be for the main target.

I honestly believe this idea has a lot of merit for expanding the dimensions of the game exponentially.

This idea would also mean that most hitlistings would have to go up to offset the cost of the buying off the witnesses.

I really really like the idea.

I'm sure I did back when it was originally voiced and I'm positive I gave more response to it than the one line above :-/. Not sure if perhaps the PC discussed it more on another forum but I dont think we did.

Anyway, the idea itself is great. In fact i'd have it done pretty exactly like the way Raoul describes.

bump

I really like this idea. Definitely brings a new aspect to this game. I would like to hear some cons though. I assume there are some and that is why this feature hasn't been implemented.

Not sure I see any major cons, sure we may get more random hits, but this is the mafia, and the risk of death is ever present.

I assume it was never implemented because it never got enough support from the general masses.

I've always liked this idea. Still do.

I understand people feel there is an abuse aspect, but it's hardly something that hasn't been in practice between players anyway? Hiding witness statements isn't uncommon, this simply allows for all the users to be able to have that option and not just a clique. Sure, finding shooters might then become harder - but I view that as a good thing.

Far too many aspects of this thing of ours are made simple and remove any conflict, this is one of the key reasons that lives last so long and boredom so often sets in and causes people to give up. Conflict makes for more wars and creates a more lively game in my opinion.

I agree with you Mr Lannister, anything that adds to the dimensions of the game surely has to be a good thing.

I agree, it's too easy now to be noticed as a shooter. This will give more to this side of the game imo. +1