Tuskers Announcing Third Party Ransom Service

[Jaxley]

Hi Failheap,

the lack of air-tight and secure ransoming mechanics prompted us to think of a way that allows customers to pay pirates without fear of losing their ship or pod along with their ISK.

For this purpose, the Tuskers are offering a Third Party Ransom Service as of today in the ingame channel 'RANSOM SERVICE'.

Short version: we hold on to the ransom payment until the customer is safe; then we forward the money to the pirates.



For detailed information, please have a look at this thread on our forums.

An excerpt from the thread's FAQ:

Q: Why can I trust Tuskers with this service?
A: Our code does not allow any Tusker to break his word. Doing so warrants public ejection, unless he does everything in his might to set things right to the full satisfaction of all damaged parties.
Feel free to ask neutral parties to vouch for us, who know how we've been operating for the past 4 years (for example in "The Tuskers Public Channel" in-game).

Further questions are appreciated.

Regards,
Jaxley

[Nicho Void]

This is a good post.

[Daneel Trevize]

Honest ransoming in w-space was such a fun dynamic. Especially when you already got e.g. 1 of each kind of T3 on the killboard that week and the poor sod in low armour can't believe wtf's going on and they he might get to keep his multi-bil fit for a fraction of the value.
Should have brough ship scanners along more than like once ever

[RoemySchneider]

seems legit

[Ohh_No]

Wish I would have thought of this first.

[EntroX]

tuskers are cool

[Smuggo]

I'm usually somewhat impatient when it comes to ransoms. How quick are you aiming to respond to requests? Will it be 24/7 (or as near as possible)?

[Duckslayer]

5% fee for this service seems reasonable

[Sponk]

Tbh there should be a single character to transfer isk to, with a public wallet journal api key so the first party can see whether isk got transferred. Then they can let their victim go quickly, before mates arrive.

Blah blah tapatalk

[RoemySchneider]

Tbh there should be a single character to transfer isk to, with a public wallet journal api key so the first party can see whether isk got transferred. Then they can let their victim go quickly, before mates arrive.

Blah blah tapatalk

alas, even though that api cache is 'short' (even m-short iirc), the next update can be up to 15 min away -.-

[Marlona Sky]

Every time I have heard about someone ransoming someone else the ransom always seems to be the cost of the ship and modules. So the victim always just gives them the finger cause he will lose the same amount either way.

I do miss the days when ransoms were honored. Back when pirates were real.

[AmaNutin]

This is cool.

[Derpy Torrin]

Tbh there should be a single character to transfer isk to, with a public wallet journal api key so the first party can see whether isk got transferred. Then they can let their victim go quickly, before mates arrive.

Blah blah tapatalk

alas, even though that api cache is 'short' (even m-short iirc), the next update can be up to 15 min away -.-

I never had any issue for holding a pod for 15, 20, 30, until they logged off.. mins..

[pr0lurker]

Solo ransoming back in the Revelation days was great fun, half the time you didn't know if you were going to get jumped or not - which was part of the crack buzz (long gone is that buzz :sadface: )... makes me miss some of my fellow pirates from back then, some of them were really balls to the wall bloodthirsty motherfuckers

Anyway as to the Tuskers "service", I think it just adds a layer of complexity to an already stressful situation and I don't think it is really needed

[Suleiman Shouaa]

This is a good post.

Agreed!

Honest ransoming in w-space was such a fun dynamic. Especially when you already got e.g. 1 of each kind of T3 on the killboard that week and the poor sod in low armour can't believe wtf's going on and they he might get to keep his multi-bil fit for a fraction of the value.
Should have brough ship scanners along more than like once ever

Ship scanners are indeed awesome, although not being able to scan and find out what implants someone has (which are typically expensive in a wormhole) sucks.

seems legit

It is indeed legit.

Wish I would have thought of this first.

We totally copied off you and will pay you the appropriate royalty fees.

tuskers are cool

Glad to hear so!

I'm usually somewhat impatient when it comes to ransoms. How quick are you aiming to respond to requests? Will it be 24/7 (or as near as possible)?

We normally have a Director online for most of the day, although there could be some downtime etc. Regular Tuskers also offer this service, so there should be someone on at least who can handle your request.

5% fee for this service seems reasonable

Yeah we think so too. We're not in it for the ISK alone, we think that new pirates are confronted with enough issues already and this should help them out.

Tbh there should be a single character to transfer isk to, with a public wallet journal api key so the first party can see whether isk got transferred. Then they can let their victim go quickly, before mates arrive.

Blah blah tapatalk

Like Roemy said (can't believe I'm agreeing), public APIs refresh every set interval, so you could have to wait ~15 minutes, which is a lifetime in a tense situation. If CCP allowed us to tweak it to refresh every minute or so, this would be ideal.

Every time I have heard about someone ransoming someone else the ransom always seems to be the cost of the ship and modules. So the victim always just gives them the finger cause he will lose the same amount either way.

I do miss the days when ransoms were honored. Back when pirates were real.

We do actually ransom "cost effectively" - Orcas for 400-500M etc. And ransoms are actually still honoured nowadays, it's just that most people don't bother to offer them.

This is cool.

True.

Solo ransoming back in the Revelation days was great fun, half the time you didn't know if you were going to get jumped or not - which was part of the crack buzz (long gone is that buzz :sadface: )... makes me miss some of my fellow pirates from back then, some of them were really balls to the wall bloodthirsty motherfuckers

Anyway as to the Tuskers "service", I think it just adds a layer of complexity to an already stressful situation and I don't think it is really needed

You should try roaming with us a few times . Gate fires midway through a fight - "wonder what's coming?". If you need to convince the person you're ransoming that you indeed honour ransoms, this service is for you. If he trusts you anyway, then there is very little point in this service, agreed.

[ry ry]

Hopefully this works out for you, but in all honesty i think it's going to wind up being a pain in the arse and involve regular Judge Judy style convos as you try to mediate between pirate and prey after it goes tits up.

have a bump and an endorsement for your entrepreneurial spirit!

[The Crushah]

I think this will be useful for pricey ransoms where you pinched a freighter or something pimp. If im ransoming some scrub for 15M for their BC though its probably not worth it.

[Jaxley]

Hopefully this works out for you, but in all honesty i think it's going to wind up being a pain in the arse and involve regular Judge Judy style convos as you try to mediate between pirate and prey after it goes tits up.

/o\

Yeah, we're taking kind of a plunge here, but so far feedback has been very positive (with few lulz inducing exceptions).

I assume how it's gonna catch on is largely gonna depend on how the words spreads into highsec, as in people getting caught suggesting to make the exchange through us; we'd appreciate any help spreading the word.

[bundus]

How do you confirm the deposit?

[cillisia]

surely this could be done through a web client somehow, api data could perhaps be used in someway from the pirate, obviously it wouldn't work if you needed to get the ransomed party to sign up to something