Reply To: Death Toll

There are so many things you have to consider for this.

Where do you spawn after you die? Do you spawn at a random location, your initial spawn, or a set spawn point? With option number three, you have to worry about changing your spawn. Is it only at beacons, can you change it any time, or is there some item you use? I would like for there to be some item.. I would say a bed, but on a server you can’t control the day/night cycle for all the players with just your item. Maybe you can set your spawn anywhere but there’s a cool down. Again, so many, many things to consider.

I would want it so you can choose a spawn, but not just any spawn. You have a few options listed under “You have died.” Option 1: Spawn at a random location. This would be great if you spawned at a world you didn’t like. (There could be a problem with how random the location is, like should this option be able to spawn you on a world with other players, on an uninhabited world, or should it make an entirely new world for you to spawn on? I like option 1 with the added ability to make an entirely new world.) Option 2: Spawn at your current spawn point. This way if you had never set your spawn, but you liked the world you were on, you can spawn there again. You can also change your spawn point (somehow, I would want a place-able item for this. You would have to use resources to place the item, and it couldn’t be used in the heat of a battle. Even if you did use it in battle, your opponent could break the spawn item, resetting your spawn location to your original.). Say you found a nice new world and you made yourself a productive mine. You can set your spawn there so if you die, you wouldn’t have to travel however far you did to find it. Option 3: spawn at your/your clan beacon. If you have several beacons, you can choose from them. Beacons shouldn’t be cheap and should take time to erect. This is useful, but could be exploited if not balanced well. One would be if an opposing guild was attacking you at your beacon, and your whole clan continuously respawned there. Maybe there should be a cooldown. Would the cooldown be across spawning in any beacon, any beacon in that world, or all beacon spawn points? I like a cooldown for specific beacons, if beacons were costly enough to make. Also, people could travel across worlds between their beacons without the use of portals just by killing themselves. However, death could be costly and that is the point of this discussion.

Now when you die, you might take into consideration the circumstances of your death. Did you die from a fall, from a monster, or from a player? What about where you died, was it in your beacon, out in unclaimed territory, or in an enemy beacon? Would you lose nothing, some things, or everything? What does it mean to “lose” something, does it just fall out of your body, does it render a chest, or is it deleted from the game?

I think regardless of where or how you die, you should lose all of your items. I think they should just spill out on the floor like your guts, and stay there for 20-30 minutes before disappearing. This way if you fall a bit away from home, you can run there and still get your stuff. This also adds incentive for 1: not dying, and 2: making spawn points. If you kill someone, you can immediately loot their still warm lifeless body.

Now what about currency? Say there is a money that’s set aside from your items, what happens to it when you die? Here I just want to say that if there is a currency, it shouldn’t occupy your inventory. I think it should have absolutely no in-game use, and that the only thing you can do with it is trade it. Also, there should definitely not be any NPCs you can trade with, all trade should be purely player to player. I think when you die, none of your money should drop.

Hmm… Say we do drop all our items, is there any way to store it? Should there be storage items (like chests), private ownership, and expansions to inventory? If there are storage items and you can set ownership, can’t they then just be broken and looted that way? If they are invincible then you can end up with some ugly messes and annoyances. If you can expand your inventory, is it permanent, until death, or through a wearable item?

I say there should be storage items, with higher tiers having a larger inventory and the ability to set ownership. They should be breakable even without ownership, unless under the influence of a beacon. If a storage item is within a beacon it can only be destroyed by an owner of the storage item or the beacon owner. I think in addition to armor slots, there should be a backpack slot. Without any backpack equipped, you should still be able to carry a considerable amount. However, there are those who wish to be their own pack mule, and their cries should be answered. Backpacks should be craftable, or found, and with different tiers. There shouldn’t be a separate backpack inventory, just an expansion of the already existing one.

Too many things to consider… Like player skills. If there are player skills/leveling, on death this could result in two things. 1: If player skills are obtained by performing a specific action, no levels or experience should be lost. 2: If player skills are like attributes (such as strength and dexterity, where you simply gain experience towards one level then spend skill points on attributes), you should only lose experience towards the next level, you shouldn’t lose any spent/unspent skill points or levels.

Last thing that crosses my mind is permanent death. On death you would lose your money, items, spawn, and even your character. I think this game shouldn’t have perma death. Maybe you can delete your character if you’re a fan of this idea. If a character is deleted/banned, ownership of their beacons and storage items would either go to the first person they shared it with, or no one.

Well, now that we’ve mentioned perma death, I may as well go ahead and talk about having several characters. Can you have an unlimited amount, a set number, or one per account? I like having more than one character, but I wouldn’t want an infinite amount because then other people could exploit that. Maybe just 5 character slots. Whichever way, you should be able to delete your character(s). Nothing should be shared between characters, not money, items, ownership, or spawns. This would make it hard for people to exploit the ability to make several characters.

TL;DR: Yeah, this is a lot to read, sorry. These are all of the issues I could think of and my ideas on them. I hope that you’ll like my ideas, and even if you hate them all, I think that if you take the time to read this you will have a wider view of the subject. If you did read this, thank you, and please comment on any ideas you had 🙂