Headhunter

This page explores the headhunter playstyle — an empire oriented around performing contracted services for other players, monetising capability rather than owning territory or running trade routes.

It does not describe final game behavior. It captures the current direction and unresolved design choices.

Orientation

A headhunter does not build an empire in the traditional sense. They build a reputation. Their value comes from being reliably capable of doing things other players need done but cannot or do not want to do themselves.

They take contracts. They fulfill them. They get paid. They take the next contract.

The headhunter's success depends on two things: the skill to execute a wide variety of tasks, and the reputation that brings contracts to them rather than to a rival. A headhunter known for reliability and discretion commands higher fees and more interesting work.

What a Headhunter Does

Contracts available through the trading board or direct negotiation might include:

Escort — protect a trader's fleet on a specific route leg
Raid — attack a specific holding to extract resources or cause damage
Intercept — locate and engage a specific enemy fleet
Scout — probe a system or region and report back what is there
Blockade — hold a gateway system closed for a defined period
Harvest — collect a debris field before a rival reaches it
Covert pressure — attack a specific player's infrastructure without being traceable to the contractor

The headhunter is the archetype that makes the contract economy work. Without capable, reliable contractors, contract posting is mostly wishful thinking.

Primary Mechanics

Contract board — the formal game system where players post and accept contracts. This is not yet designed. Whether contracts have binding enforcement, reputation stakes, and dispute resolution determines how formal the headhunter role becomes.

Reputation — a headhunter who fulfills contracts reliably builds a track record. A headhunter who defaults on contracts, fails repeatedly, or betrays contractors loses standing. Reputation is the headhunter's primary business asset.

Fulfillment verification — contracts must have some way of confirming they were completed. "Raid holding X" requires proof that the raid happened. If fulfillment is purely honor-system, the contract structure is fragile. A formal mechanic — a completion event the game records — makes it robust.

Fleet versatility — unlike military players who optimise for a specific kind of engagement, headhunters need a range of fleet types. Escort requires defensive capability. Raiding requires offensive capability. Scouting requires fast, light probes. This makes fleet composition management a distinct skill for this archetype.

Reputation in Detail

Reputation is what makes the headhunter a distinct and sustainable role rather than just a military player who occasionally takes side jobs.

One direction: reputation is a visible score or tier that other players can see before posting a contract. A contractor with a long fulfillment history commands confidence. A new or unreliable contractor must accept lower-value jobs until they build a track record.

Reputation could be split by contract type — a headhunter might have high escort reputation and low covert raid reputation, signaling specialisation. This also creates a natural progression: start with simple, low-risk contract types and build toward complex, high-value ones.

Trust mechanics could add depth: - A contractor who defaults on a contract loses reputation and may owe compensation - A contractor who completes a difficult contract under adverse conditions gains a disproportionate reputation bonus - A contractor who betrays a client (fulfills the contract but reports to the client's enemy) gains a separate, darker reputation track

Natural Tensions

A headhunter is loyal to the contract, not to the contractor. This creates moral ambiguity: the same headhunter might escort a trader's fleet one week and raid a different trader's holding the next.

Other players may distrust a headhunter who is visibly working for many different factions. A military empire may refuse to share intelligence with a headhunter they suspect is also taking contracts from their rivals.

A headhunter who becomes too powerful or too well-known may become a target — rivals who want to eliminate a competitor's reliable contractor, or enemies who want to prevent a specific job from being completed.

Interaction With Other Playstyles

Traders are primary contract posters — escort, route scouting, competitive disruption of rivals.
Military / Conqueror players may post raiding or intelligence contracts to extend their reach without personally managing every operation.
Diplomats use headhunters for covert pressure — actions they need taken but do not want attributed to them.
Explorers and headhunters have natural overlap in the scouting market. An explorer who has already invested in probe fleets can take scouting contracts efficiently.
Pirates may both compete with and hire headhunters — compete for raiding contracts, hire for intelligence on lucrative targets.
Industrialists may post contracts for debris harvesting or defense of key holdings.

Current State

The headhunter archetype requires two foundational systems that do not yet exist:

Contract board — formal posting, acceptance, verification, and payment of contracts
Reputation system — tracking fulfillment history and making it visible to potential contractors

Without these, the headhunter can operate as a social construct — players make arrangements through direct communication — but the role lacks game-enforced identity.

See Design Gaps.

Open Questions

Should contract fulfillment be verified automatically by the game (e.g. the game records that holding X was raided on date Y by fleet Z) or manually confirmed?
What happens when a contractor defaults — is there a game mechanic for compensation, or only reputation damage?
Can a contract be contested — the contractor claims fulfillment, the poster disputes it?
Should there be contract escrow — resources deposited at contract posting that are released on verified fulfillment?
Is betrayal (working for one party while secretly serving their enemy) a supported mechanic, or is it prevented by the contract system?
Should anonymous contracts be possible — where the poster's identity is hidden from the contractor and other players?