Penalty for death

[unwoundpath]

I've read how that when you die, you don't. Mainly because that is the only way you are special in this game (Which I love.). But I can't seem to think of this having a good consequence other than you get set back to a town or whatever. The best consequence I could foresee this having is that you may loose some items, but that's more annoying and rage-inducing (If you lost a awesome one of a kind item) than anything else.

 

[Fresh]

I think it's good if I lose items upon death. Makes it harder and more interesting in my opinion. Don't know how they plan to do this, but different difficulty levels is a option.

 

[Venom]

There's always that possibility of perma-death mode like in Diablo III. No one really knows what the devs have in store for us when it comes to penalties.

 

[Stephen]

There's always that possibility of perma-death mode like in Diablo III. No one really knows what the devs have in store for us when it comes to penalties.

Hardcore mode I would love to see this introduced, would make the diehard RPG fans and the ones looking for real challenge very happy.

 

[Psychomorph]

I thought about the death and the resurrection and came to the conclusion that it would be really intense if it was like that:

It's day. You happen to be unlucky and slain. The view goes black and short after a text appears like "few days later...". Black screen fades into in-game view and you see, say, a coffin and suddenly your character inhales intensely and comes to life. He stands up totally devastated realizing it's night, in an unknown location at some graveyard, few days later. His belongings gone.
So you basically resurrect in a graveyard, or a place where magical things happen and dead things become alive and ghosts walk the earth, which is near the area you died. You must go to the place where you died and see that your body unexplainably decayed and are mere bones (no identity anymore), so it's not you any longer. You take the clothes and your stuff (if it's still there) and move along.

This would be basically penalty for death, you have to look for your precious stuff and eventually fight to get it back. Dying too often would make the resurrection process longer (more days) with the chance to lose your stuff being much higher. So don't die!

 

[Achilles]

Having a perma death mode doesnt hurt, Im too much of a sissy too choose it though. I think that a loss of some money, durability of your weapons and armour or some experience points would be ok.

 

[Kale]

^Indeed.

I think one way to make it something you don't want to fall into would be a cut in stats, like you're weaker until you get to your body. And on top of that monsters that surround your body uses your items if it's better to kick your ass if you come to get it.

 

[Kaizer0002]

In Planescape Torment, the fact you could not die was intrinsically tied to your character. You'd wake up on a slab in the mortuary with the scars of your last death. I imagine just waking up where you died might be interesting, or somewhere nearby based on where an enemy brings you. They might rob you while you're dead if they are that sort.

The Secret World also did a good job of incorporating the respawn mechanic into the lore in a frightening sense. Essentially the bees of gaia reside in you and reconstitute your body when you die, along with granting inhuman regeneration and people react to the fact you're a mute, immortal supersoldier who can teleport on a whim. When you do a spirit run, you're actually in a realm of spirits with ghosts and such present. Some quests require you to die to find clues there.

 

[Achilles]

Yeah, if there is a respawning mechanic it should be explained how and why is it possible, because in diablo II for example, you die, and its like you are clonned and resurrected in the nearest town, and you have to reach the dead body of your dead clone to get your gear and money, but how that is possible is never expained!!

 

[TheScythian]

The penalty for death could just be the loss of time between death and resurrection. If world events will progress regardless of your actions then the threat of losing 'control' for a few days would be enough...particularly later on in the game when events may be snowballing and the stakes are higher. Imagine waking up days after your death in the house of a friend (they know of your ability to resurrect and so save your body from being buried/eaten) to find a 28 days later scenario...the marketplace in ruins, villagers dead, creatures roaming the streets. That would be enough incentive to stay alive I think. Plus it spares the frustration of a minecraft style run back to the place you died to gather your things.

 

[fluffydino2000]

The way I see this game dealing with death is, when you die, your body is left for a few days. Then you wake up, however, the game would rapidly simulate what would happen in the game, up to the point where you could have been taken to a cave by a necromancer or robbed of your belongings and thrown into a river. Basically, unless you die with a friend and they protect you, an opportunist will take advantage.

 

[TheScythian]

The way I see this game dealing with death is, when you die, your body is left for a few days. Then you wake up, however, the game would rapidly simulate what would happen in the game, up to the point where you could have been taken to a cave by a necromancer or robbed of your belongings and thrown into a river. Basically, unless you die with a friend and they protect you, an opportunist will take advantage.

That would be very cool, I hope the system can be that complex.

 

[the0thMonkey]

I get the feeling that BME already has a good idea about how they want death to be implemented.

I'm not sure if this works with what they had in mind, but I think it would be cool if when you die your possessions do not remain exactly where you died but instead get scattered across the land. So, into other explorer's inventories and people trunks/chests.

Starting a completely new character seems a little harsh so maybe just a depletion of skills or something.

 

[TheScythian]

Yeah I'm sure they know exactly how they're going to handle death as it seems pretty central to the story. That's a good idea about the possessions being scattered, but it could become too much of a time drain if everytime you die you have to spend half an hour or more just finding everything you already had...unless you just don't bother trying to get it back.

 

[the0thMonkey]

Yeah I'm sure they know exactly how they're going to handle death as it seems pretty central to the story. That's a good idea about the possessions being scattered, but it could become too much of a time drain if everytime you die you have to spend half an hour or more just finding everything you already had...unless you just don't bother trying to get it back.

I think it would make sense to not try and find all the stuff you lost (depending on the size of the world, I guess). I think the scattering would provide the assurance that all your stuff still does exist so you could find it if you really wanted to (for valuable items), while maintaining a degree of realism and balanced gameplay.

 

[SergeDavid]

So here is how I picture it will work. You are a bold adventurer who ventures the land with your trusty Sheep. You go in and out of towns with no real impact on them as you live for the adventure and don't care about settling down. However you do decide to stash a decent amount of gold coins in a bank along with a few trinkets like a nice sword. Upon one of your adventures you meet up with three nasty trolls and after an intense battle they pen you to the ground and start discussing how to cook you, eventually settling on human chilli and mutton.

A sad death screen appears and then you get to go to a character creation screen or continue. You choose to go with the likeness of your recently spicy predecessor. You've just arrived at a village where a nice merchant lent you a ride on his cart in exchange of tails of your youth. As a bold new adventurer fresh from his homelands these parts are strange yet familiar to you. Your twin brother wrote you tales of his adventures and has summons you to join him yet no new needs has arrived since you've arrived. You access the gold that he set aside for you at the bank and equip a nice sword that was there and start out on your journey to find your wayward twin. You visit a site where a mighty battle happened several days ago and some bones remain but there is nothing left (They moved camp and you don't know where too), dejected by the lack of news of your brother you start out working on business and start a roaring trade in Thneeds where you've used the renewable resources of a certain kind of tree (and don't chop em down) makes you rich and you die a happy old man who married a wonderful wife and had several sons who started up the Thneed guild.

Character selection screen arises and you decide to play as a spunky teenage wood elf with daddy issues. Through your new adventures you run across a midget and being the jerk that wood elves are you kill him and steal his weird shirt hat thing. Sadly a near by sheep saw you do it and it ran away before you could make it dinner. Several nights later you are assaulted by a group of bandits who after killing and looting their corpses you discover they where hired by the Thneed Guild. Because you're such a jerk you go on a systematic rampage because your daddy never loved you (He actually did, but you're crazy and think love = material things and he never bought you the newest clothing from Moonswell Pass). Eventually you've managed to break apart the guild and forced the remaining members into hiding while not being caught so law enforcement hasn't caught on (you killed the innocent witnesses you evil monster). Being bored of this play through you decide to see if you can kill the king so you calmly walk into the capital and then single handily raid the castle slaying guards left and right until you finally make it to the thrown room only to find the king was actually visiting a noble and is not here. You get killed by a guard.

As you start your next play through a rebellion has started with word that the castle was assaulted and the whole region is at war. You decide to join alliances with the first faction that you meet (the kings) and fight along their side doing small quests here and there (You just kill some rebels that are attacking the peasants). Eventually the rebellion succeeds (because you didn't try hard enough!) (actually you don't matter, they would have won anyway because you couldn't kill enough to stop them anyway) so you lay low for a bit, cut ties, and go about adventuring and people forget what side you where on in the war and everything goes back to normal. Sadly you're normal sized and can't ride a sheep but the next time you die...

 

[Tom]

My two cents: perma death wouldn't work with this game. We're talking a massive sandbox experience, with a skill-based combat and tough encounters. Put all of that together and, well, perma death just isn't the ideal path. I wouldn't oppose to perma death being an option, obviously, just as long as it's considered a challenge, rather than the normal playthrough.

That said, I'm all for some harsh punishment for death. Since I've played Dark Souls, I'm already used to one such system, and I can vouch for it, assuming that death comes at the player's fault, and not some cheap mechanic/monster/whatever. Potentially losing your currency/experience is a good threat to hang over the player's head.

Just to be clear, I'm not saying the Souls's death consequences are ideal for Sui Generis, since we don't fully understand how the game will work yet, I'm just using an example.