Topic: Gameplay... and Death

[contingencyplan]

I'm all for having bounty hunters, that's for sure.  Though they certainly could be working for either side of the law - they don't particularly care, just so long as they get paid, and paid well.

But government-funded bounties on murderers and other transgressors would definitely be a good idea.
~Brian

[Morgul]

Agreed. Consider this something that'll be in there

--Chris

[topher]

A harsh death penatly in an online game is a major turn off for a lot of people.  Why should i lose 60 hours of work because of a game glitch, lag, or  stupid wingmates/commanders/groupmates.

I've played pretty much every MMORPG out there since everquest so i've seen a lot of different systems.  In eve you can purchase insurance for your ship and a clone for your skill points.  This was you don't lose more then like 7% skillpoints and have some money to purchase a new ship and equipment.  In a pnp game like d&d a nasty death system is ok, the only thing to blame is the player or the dm.

[Morgul]

While true, something that's been suggest is worth a note here. What if, each player were given a 'Miraculous Salvation' button? Basically, they were allowed to ressurect thier character X number of times.... and the more they play, the more they *SLOWLY* earn up till say.... three or five. (And this is per PLAYER, not character. If they have ten characters, and all ten die at once, um... oops? Thier fault.

Also, unfair deaths, (like game glitches) will be undo-able by admins.


How does this 'limited use reset button' work for everyone? The other nice advantage is that when people are beta testing, we'll give them 999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 resets... so they can die as much as they want. (We'll encourage it!)

--Chris

[topher]

That makes sense...from an ingame perspective you have a clone of 100% quality.  Each time you return to the cloan bank it degrades it by x% until it is finally of no use to you.

[contingencyplan]

Something I was thinking was that members of one of the established organizations (Terrans or League) wouldn't have to be concerned about clones - the government automatically manages this for them.  They do this at a set rate of 75% efficiency - when you are respawned, you are at 75% of your prior stats.  Perhaps we could institute either a "death tax" - when you die, a percentage of your assets are taxed to pay for your rebirth.  The more times you die, the higher the tax; the longer you live in your current body, the lower the tax.  Perhaps if you go a long time without dying, and have thus advanced pretty far in the game, you might be able to avoid these penalties altogether (though that would then reset your counter to 0, so you'd have to go a long time before dying again).

However, mercenaries and freelancers have a different system altogether. Rather than having the body and everything taken care of automatically, you have to make arrangements yourself. You can go somewhere and make a copy of yourself to put on record (a la a save point). Then, when you die, your body is remade with that information. It costs a pretty high amount of money to make an initial copy and a smaller amount to update the copy with your current (newer) stats. It also costs a fairly high amount of money to reserve a body - if you didn't reserve a body, then the system will automatically buy one for you, but at a higher price.

The main diff between the two is that if you're in an organized group, you will have that all taken care of automatically after your death. If you're in a small group (or on your own - about the smallest group you can get), then you have to make arrangements prior to your death.

What do y'all think?
~Brian

[fehknt]

I like it.

Maybe we can explain the higher costs associated with higher "level" characters (yes, i know we are trying not to do "levels" as such, but for sake of argument) can be explained that the base cost is for the body, and the increasing part of the cost is in information storage space -- the more you know and the higher your skills, the more info needs to get programmed into your new brain, and the more info needs to get stored in the system, therefore higher cost.

or just not explain things, and have a set "death counter" or a set "death penalty", and say "it's a game."

I think either would work -- but not something in between.  I really dislike games that give glib, totally random-seeming explanitions of what happens when you die. <:o)

[Morgul]

I *still* don't know if I like the idea of cloning. I know that it's 'the wave of the future' and that 'the technical problems will get resolved' but... well.. I don't know. I also kinda like perma-death.

I would be willing to comprimise: Make it so that 'clones' aren't very popular (even if used to prevent death.) ...and if anyone finds out you're now a clone, well, your drinking buddies are going to find a new table. (might even be some mindless, radicals who commit hate-crimes against clones.)

Now, let's up the antie, and make cloning very difficult. *VERY* difficult, and not extremely accurate (in terms of what transfers over). The better the copy you want, the more you need to pay. Also, it'll be a limit of one per customer, and only have like 2 or three companies who do it. (It's so damned specialized, and profitable for those companies that they monopolize the market).

Part of the proceedure should also be outfitting your clone. You need to give him whatever you want to have when you die. Who knows if anyone's gunna bother to collect your stuff for you, and if they do, who says they'll give it back. So, unless you want a naked clone, you better give it some clothing, at the 'bare' minimum.

So, set up like this, there would be a limit to how many clones you could have. (Since they have your DNA on file you can't pretend to be someone else.) Also, if you *do* want to go over the normal limit, the price skyrockets.

This way, death means death... but if you really want a way to save your character, it's possible. It's also up to you to get enough money to afford the proceedure. (The military might give every soldier one single clone, of about 3/4ths your old levels.)

[fehknt]

yes, i like it.

Perma-death, but with some leeway in case of bad luck.