User blog:ZeroTigress/Bounty Boards (iRO)

This is a guide to the iRO-exclusive Bounty Board system, which rewards EXP and money to players. The system is currently in the testing phase and it is unknown when the official launch will be.

Background
In February of 2014, I proposed the Bounty Board system to the iRO team in response to the outcry of players abusing iRO's Gramps turn-ins for fast leveling. Gramps TIs wouldn't be such a big deal if it wasn't for the fact that Gramps TIs are being done in map instances that are completely separated from the rest of the world, leaving much of the world maps void of players. Since the iRO team has no plans to remove Gramps TIs, I've been pushing for them to bring back the repeatable turn-in quests that once existed during pre-Renewal. The old repeatable quests were much better than Gramps TIs because it gave purpose to lesser-used maps. The iRO team made no sign to implement updated versions of the repeatable quests, which then prompted me to come up with the Bounty Boards system.

Inspired by the bounty hunting from the Ragnarok manhwa in which Chaos and Iris hunted Faceworms for money, I came up with an early draft of the Ragnarok Online version of manhwa bounty hunting in which players would get both EXP and money for their work. Money is hard to come by in RO so the Bounty Boards would also compensate for the lack of quests in the game that reward players money.

Of course, at the time of the proposal, I didn't go into details of the system yet as they didn't really respond in a way which made me feel they were going to implement it. So it was a big surprise to me when they began the beta testing of the system 3 months later.

Originally, I wanted each town to have 2 Bounty Boards: a Low Level board (1-60) and a High Level board (70-150). The 2-boards-per-town idea was made in order to not clutter the town with too many boards. (I didn't want to turn all the towns into clones of Eden Group where it's very crowded and hard to move around.)

Bounty Boards [Beta Test Feedback ]

However, after much testing and feedback from the community, I revamped the boards to be separated in tiers of 20ish levels (to fit with the 15-level restriction for EXP earnings).

After 5 years of testing and waiting, the Bounty Boards system was finally launched.

Bounty Boards Guide (iRO)

Story
Tool Dealers from Prontera, Geffen, and Alberta gathered in Prontera's tavern to lament their recent hardships.

"I've been running low on monster materials to offer locals since the adventurers haven't been selling much to me," cries the Prontera Tool Dealer.

"Yeah, and there's so many more monsters roaming about since Satan Morocc broke free," adds the Geffen Tool Dealer.

"Why don't you guys offer bounties for those monsters and loots?" wonders the Alberta Tool Dealer.

"Bounties?" repeats the Prontera Tool Dealer.

"Yeah, we've been doing it for years," continues the Alberta Tool Dealer. "Why, just the other day, we had a Rune Knight and Soul Linker come in with a massive Faceworm tooth. And they took care of the Faceworm Queen, too. Haven't had a problem traveling through Payon Forest since."

"That's ingenious," exclaims the Geffen Tool Dealer. "I'd love to be able to travel between here and Geffen with less monsters to deal with."

"I've got quite a few monsters in mind for my bounty ads," says the Prontera Tool Dealer thoughtfully.

The Alberta Tool Dealer helps the Prontera and Geffen Tool Dealers compile their bounty boards, selecting monsters that have been most problematic in each area and deciding on a Zeny rate to reward the adventurers. Once word got out about their project, other Tool Dealers in towns across Midgard hop onto the idea and open their own bounty boards. (Rumor has it that Lighthalzen's Tool Dealer may have some connection to a mysterious organization, hence their odd bounty requests.)

Bounty Boards
Bounty Boards will usually be found near a town's tool shop. However, there are some Tool Dealers that have decided to set up their boards elsewhere in their respective towns and cities. Consider the lore of a town to figure out where the Tool Dealer's Bounty Boards will be.

According to iRO CM Oda:

The formula should be 75% of the monster's exp x 150 for the reward Source: WarpPortal Forums

Multiply the EXP by 1.5 for VIP earnings.