Goblin Squad Member
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There are two MMO's I am holding out my heart for at the moment. Pathfinder and world of darkness. Both are promising similar things and only time will tell which one will be better.
However it was while I browsed for World of darkness news, when I heard about the blood hunt. Where the prince of a city can mark one individual for permanent death.
This really excited me! I always found permanent deaths to be overly harsh. But making it a event rather than a regular thing adds a lot of spice to it. It got me thinking.
What if your at war with a kingdom and your forces are evenly matched. But there is one thing which could turn the tides. Making a pact with a great power, you mark one individuals soul to damnation, making it impossible to revive him if he would fall in battle.
Perhaps the King of the enemy would be a worthy target? Or perhaps better yet, his greatest champion.
Suddenly the enemy is forced to take different stradegies. Perhaps the champion will focus on training his men in the safety of his keep. Maybe the king will double his efforts to rule his kingdom behind the front lines. Or maybe they get desperate enough to initiate a plan which will either save their kingdom or forever doom it.
Now personally I'd want this to be a great event and not some thing to be done on a whim. I know the fans of world of darkness talked about using it to get rid of trolls and gold farmers. Which while tempting, seems to cheapen it a bit. I'd really want it to come at a high price and maybe it could only be done once a month or even year to really make you think twice about calling forth this power.
I don't know if this is something Goblinworks have talked about before. But if not, I thought I'd throw my suggestion in there!
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Goblin Squad Member
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A last resort perhaps? Maybe instead of being evenly matched, you are getting butchered. Piece by piece all your work is getting torn away. You may not be able to fight off this great enemy, but maybe by putting a knife to this throat, he is willing to let you go.
I see this a lot in current MMO's. Where people in power, no matter how large or small will be diffecult to the bitter end, because they know they got nothing to lose. What if he dosen't have a keep to tear down and his equipment is all bound to his character? He is free to talk slag and intterupt you whenever it pleases him. Sure maybe in pathfinder you can kill him but he'll be back, because for some insane reason, he gets off on bugging you.
I think however by just implying you'd perma kill him he'd walk away. As I said I'd want this to come at a great price. Not something to be done lightly, but the sheer threat alone could make people think twice about their next move.
As for the target? Well I have been the target of such things before. And god.... I have never had such a rush in MMO's sense. It forced me to be brutal, resorceful and to hide away where I'd likely not be found.
Finally I gatered up enough of my mates and people I payed off and I went on the offencive. Killing my hunters until they called it all off.
For the full story!
I was playing Tibia, I was a lv 50 sorc, wandering the wilds. When I came upon a lv 100+ sorc farming mobs! Now he must have gotten a bit over his head or maybe he simply ran out of supplies, but his HP was VERY LOW! So of course, I couldn't resist. I killed him and took his gear... This enraged him something fierce. He whispered me that he and his entire clan would hunt me down and kill me until I was back at lv 1 (you lost levels for each death). Knowing I was out matched I of course ran for the hills. However I was not content with just logging off in fear... I still did! But I wasn't content. So I talked to my friends and to my brother, who in turn talked to his friends. Soon enough we have a group large enough to put up a fight. So we set up a trap. I let the lv 100 and his friends track me down and when they showed up, we jumped them hard. Still not content and now in possession of their gear, we pressed on and hunted them!
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Goblin Squad Member
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Well I don't have any Pathfinder books. But in the DnD books, if someone is marked or promised to a god they could not be resurected. In one of the drizzst books, one such individual is shortly brought back to life, before she is forcibly pulled back into the abyss. I also remember something similar in the Dragon lance setting.
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Goblin Squad Member
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What does the player initiating this have to sacrifice other than a cooldown?
If any kind of permanent death system was made, I prefer it to be cursing yourself with the ability to die in exchange for great power. Or at least something where you are vulnerable to permanent death until one of you dies.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Mind you I'm not pushing this idea but if you were to do it, you would want a timer before the target actually becomes vulnerable.
Two other issues that would have to be solved is:
-What if one character stops logging in?
-How do you make sure people don't just do this with throw away alts?
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Goblin Squad Member
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Price I am not sure. They have not said what price a bloodhunt in world of darkness would be. I would imagine a ungodly amount of gold or a stat reduction. Perhaps whatever your highest stat is is cut by half? It leaves you weakened, sure. But a far greater rival has been permanently removed from the field. And I think leaving both parties open for Perma death is an idea. It does however mean that the superior party would forever hold the advantage.
Take the knife point situation again. Your outnumbered and out matched. So you hold a knife to the enemies throat. Except this leaves a knife open to your throat and your surrounded by his mates.
As for if the target stops logging in? Mission acomplished! I suggested ways for him to try to be more efficent out of combat. But if he is to scared to even log on, then he has already been put out of the game in terms of the war.
Not sure I understand what you mean with "How do you make sure people don't just do this with throw away alts?" though.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Interesting idea but there would have to be balance and compensation. If the issuer of the blood hunt was also sacrificing himself, then maybe. If GW passed on all of your accumulated PAID training time, then more likely. If the issuer were of greater time invested then the target, then possibly. If it could only happen once per account and against an account only once, I'd say yes.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Not sure I understand what you mean with "How do you make sure people don't just do this with throw away alts?" though
I think he means the issuer using a throwaway alt against a prominent target.
So lets see how far we have diluted your idea in desire for balance:
1. The curse must include possible perma death for issuer and target
2. There must be a count down timer to warn target
3. Issuer must be of equal or more exp level as target
4. Only useable once per account and once against an account.
5. I would add: it must be a mano y mano thing. They are only vulnerable against each other.
Now look at all of the programming proposed for a situational, likely very rarely used mechanic.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Not sure I understand what you mean with "How do you make sure people don't just do this with throw away alts?" thoughI think he means the issuer using a throwaway alt against a prominent target.
So lets see how far we have diluted your idea in desire for balance:
1. The curse must include possible perma death for issuer and target
2. There must be a count down timer to warn target
3. Issuer must be of equal or more exp level as target
4. Only useable once per account and once against an account.
5. I would add: it must be a mano y mano thing. They are only vulnerable against each other.
Now look at all of the programming proposed for a situational, likely very rarely used mechanic.
I would add to this list: All of your paid for time is transferred to a new character.
I don't mind losing a character permanently for RP purposes, but I would not lose potentially several years' worth of subscription costs.
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Goblin Squad Member
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All of your paid for time is transferred to a new character.
This is the first thing I've seen here that, to me, approaches an incentive for this mechanic. It definitely feels like one of those things that'd be so seldom used, though, that GW may not find a spot on the implementation calendar.
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Goblin Squad Member
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All of your paid for time is transferred to a new character.This is the first thing I've seen here that, to me, approaches an incentive for this mechanic. It definitely feels like one of those things that'd be so seldom used, though, that GW may not find a spot on the implementation calendar.
I seriously doubt Ryan would ever allow you to transfer even unspent XP to another character, much less the XP you've already spent.
In fact, I doubt it so much I'm willing to go on the record with a formal prediction: Ain't ever gonna happen.
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Goblin Squad Member
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@Bluddwolf
This is why I have reservations against the idea. It is too punishing in a "paid exp time" system. Recovery takes too long.
Credit for exp earned is another naughty. On the one hand, if you get our exp back, you need to re earn your "merits". On the other, if you do get your exp back it is like an abuse able system for re skilling a character.
All of the consequences and balances are too complicated and involved. Making it rarely used and so a waste of a finite resource.
Finite programming resources. Something players/fans of a developing game rarely have to be concerned with but here we are doing it...
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Goblin Squad Member
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I seriously doubt Ryan would ever allow you to transfer even unspent XP to another character, much less the XP you've already spent.
In fact, I doubt it so much I'm willing to go on the record with a formal prediction: Ain't ever gonna happen.
Then this idea is dead in the water. No one would ever agree to through real world money down the drain, perhaps thousands of dollars for the sake of role playing. Not to mention the hundreds of potential dollars you may have spent on per character add-ons, that will also be lost.
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Goblin Squad Member
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What happened once on my Age of Conan server was that the heads of two big RP guilds made a deal, I don't know the exact details and either they went to war or they had a duel. Anyway, they agreed that the losing character would "die".
They played this out and the losing character did "die", by means of paying for a name change, throwing all the character RP story he had created over more than a year in the trashcan and starting over his RP career, while keeping his character development.
Guess you can do this in PFO aswell, as long as name change is allowed through the cash shop. Loser changes name and leaves whatever position they had in their settlement. Possibly relocates to another part of the world.
Point is, you can consensually have "player death" through a gentlepersons' agreement without throwing away all of your paid for, hard earned progression.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Regarding the concept of a blood hunt: in A Tale in the Desert, there was a periodic vote to give one player the power to ban characters; effectively an election of a sheriff. There was some limit - either 1 or 7 or 10 characters could be banned. But if used, a character would be banned for that telling (ATITD resets every couple years) and the developer basically said he'd allow bans for good or bad purposes.
ATITD is a social conflict game, so it worked fine there; people running for election would basically have to vow to never use the power, but there was lots of negotiating and deal making behind the scenes I'm sure.
In the 4-5 years before I played and the time I played, only one (1) character had been banned. He apparently earned it. Maybe having the threat of permadeath encouraged some behaviours, or maybe the social conflict with no combat makes players self-select that type of game.
Either way, 1 use of a power in ~6 years might fall into the category of "so seldom used as to not be worth development time."
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Goblin Squad Member
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@Wurner
Now that would be a great RP experience and all possible within the players' province.
I'm thinking that since a single racial change is going to be allowed when new races are released, they have to provide an interface that allows you to change race, name and appearance to players. Why not allow (limited) use of that through the cash shop?
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Goblin Squad Member
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I'm thinking that since a single racial change is going to be allowed when new races are released, they have to provide an interface that allows you to change... name...
I really don't think they'll allow name changes. I mean, I could see them potentially doing it on a case-by-case basis if an individual were being repeatedly targeted by someone who consistently just made a new free account from a different IP address and Goblinworks had no other way to protect that individual from continuing harassment. However, I seriously doubt they'd ever allow casual use of such a tool.
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Goblin Squad Member
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@JazzIvraz & Nihimon
I see where you're coming from. I agree that name changes can be problematic, that's why I wrote "(limited)" in my post.
I can think of many, in my view legitimate, reasons why a player would want to rename their character. I think that if they can allow it for the right amount of money under the right circumstances it could be good.
That's all I have to say on the topic, if they decide not to provide name changes then that's fine. Since the debate has apparently already been had I won't try to spark a new one.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Ok then Jazzy, I will put forth my case.
Off the top of my head:
- If you, after one or more years of playing, feel like you've painted your character into a corner where you don't want to be. Not everyone will be able to go through the whole process of building another character from scratch. One of the big points of unlimited horizontal character progression is that you won't ever need to create alts unless you want to. Going with that line of thought, it makes sense to allow a character a new identity through customization of name and appearance.
- If you have become very well known for one type of gameplay and you want to leave all that behind you and focus on something else. Let's say someone becomes known as a necromancer doing heinous acts but then this player wants to become a paladin and no one takes him/her seriously. Of course, redeeming yourself in the eyes of the community can be an interesting and rewarding journey but some may want more of a clean break. It can be argued that a name change would let people off the hook too easy but I think that if you have spent years of time and subscription money to get your character to where it is, running into what seems like a 'dead end' because of previous game activities is a bit harsh.
- The rep and trust that goes with a name of a well-played, famous character will be worth a lot and people with something to lose won't change their name to right and left. The name is like your product brand, very important for relations and how other people view you. Losing your name can mean losing your privileged place in the community.
I think that, generally, the name will be much less important for the scum of the world than for the successful and prosperous. If a "bad" player gets a name change (for real money) and then continues playing like an a*****e, the new name will quickly be just as ill-reputed and shunned as the old one. From this, the ones with the most to gain are those who find themselves with a bad reputation within the community but have a wish to better themselves and leave their past behind. - Is it not reasonable that a character in the world could wish to take on a new life and a new identity? Should this not be possible in the kind of world that PFO is trying to create?
- Goblinworks could make money this way. A name change could be much more pricey than, say, a consumable item.
- Finally (for now), it allows a character to 'die' in an RP way, providing a meaningful human interaction in the form of final defeat within an RP setting but without setting the stakes too high for the players behind the characters.
So these are what I consider pros of allowing name changes. I can think of cons as well but for now I stand firmly on the pro side.
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Goblin Squad Member
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For permadeath. There has to be balance.
For example lets say the issuer also can get perma deathed, Well the easy work around is that the king creates a brand new character, give that thing permadeath. Then it doesnt matter.
If you require someone to be at least as skilled as the target same thing, you do it then log off. now you dont have to worry about permadeath.
I would propose another system.
1) The target will lose all items when killed, including threaded items. The people killing the target will not have to do the normal random loot, they get everything, period.
2) The person issuing also has the above.
3) the person issuing must be in game.
4) The person issuing must be of equal rank (so to do this to a King of a kingdom the issuer must be the king of a kingdom)
5) if either the issuer or target is killed their rank is locked out for x period of time, say a couple of days. So If you kill the issuer and he happens to be a king, the issuers king cannot do any of the king stuff nor can a new king be put up to cover until the original can take back over.
6) The target gets a warning when the order is issued, They also see who issued the order, and he has 10 minutes (or so) until it activates.
That would be useful if you kill the king, lock him out of being able to make changes, then start sabatoging the kingdom, you could gain a good advantage in a war by doing this.
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Goblin Squad Member
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WoD is easily going to be the be biggest direct competition for PFO. WoD is the one promising to give Roleplayers absolutely everything they have ever wanted. It's either going to blow everything else out of the water or its going to implode so badly it will create an internet black hole.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I think that, generally, the name will be much less important for the scum of the world than for the successful and prosperous. If a "bad" player gets a name change (for real money) and then continues playing like an a*****e, the new name will quickly be just as ill-reputed and shunned as the old one. From this, the ones with the most to gain are those who find themselves with a bad reputation within the community but have a wish to better themselves and leave their past behind.
First, let me echo Jazzlvraz and encourage you to continue expressing your own opinions, regardless of what others say - I know I do :)
However, I think you're being overly optimistic in the case above. Specifically, any mechanic which allows a character to wipe their slate clean with respect to Reputation will be mercilessly abused by those who have the ability and the inclination to run scams. Keep in mind that our assessment of other players will be based on their Reputation and our assessment of how much training their character has, which we will reasonably use as a proxy for determining how much they've played. If we see a "new" character with a neutral reputation, it's easy to ignore them and avoid getting scammed by them. However, we'll probably be more likely to trust an "old" character with a neutral reputation. If someone can repeatedly - and quickly - reset their characters to be "old" and "neutral", then they will be able to repeatedly and quickly scam other players. I imagine there are a few players who post on these boards who could figure out a way to "gain" from such a system.
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Goblin Squad Member
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@Wurner, one other thing I wanted to say is that I very much agree with the vast majority of your "pros". I think that you are genuinely empathizing with the various situations that an honorable player would be in, and wanting to provide them the tools they need to accomplish their honorable goals.
The only reason I come down on the "con" side is that I see how much damage such a system could cause when it gets ruthlessly gamed by dishonorable players.
Keep in mind that Reputation is a major aspect of PFO, and is the backbone of the entire system designed to minimize griefing.
Ok then Jazzy, I will put forth my case.
Off the top of my head:...
- If you, after one or more years of playing, feel like you've painted your character into a corner where you don't want to be. Not everyone will be able to go through the whole process of building another character from scratch. One of the big points of unlimited horizontal character progression is that you won't ever need to create alts unless you want to. Going with that line of thought, it makes sense to allow a character a new identity through customization of name and appearance.
- If you have become very well known for one type of gameplay and you want to leave all that behind you and focus on something else. Let's say someone becomes known as a necromancer doing heinous acts but then this player wants to become a paladin and no one takes him/her seriously. Of course, redeeming yourself in the eyes of the community can be an interesting and rewarding journey but some may want more of a clean break. It can be argued that a name change would let people off the hook too easy but I think that if you have spent years of time and subscription money to get your character to where it is, running into what seems like a 'dead end' because of previous game activities is a bit harsh.
- The rep and trust that goes with a name of a well-played, famous character will be worth a lot and people with something to lose won't change their name to right and left. The name is like your product brand, very important for relations and how other people view you. Losing your name can mean losing your privileged place in the community.
I think that, generally, the name will be much less important for the scum of the world than for the successful and prosperous. If a "bad" player gets a name change (for real money) and then continues playing like an a*****e, the new name will quickly be just as ill-reputed and shunned as the old one. From this, the ones with the most to gain are those who find themselves with a bad reputation
While all of these seem reasonable unfortunately to my mind one simple con outweighs them all.
Allowing name changes gives people the opportunity for people to be a complete and utter jerk until they reach a point where the community won't put up with them anymore then leave it all behind.
Personally I suspect there will be more people wishing to change name for that reason than any of the ones you list. For this reason alone I vote no.
In addition the whole point of a sandbox is everything a character does has an effect and has a consequence. A name change flies completely in the face of that so for the second reason alone I also vote no.
Thirdly it makes infiltration much much easier when mr SuperCad who works for the kingdom of scoundrels can just change his name to Mr NiceGuy and wipe his past history clean. For this third reason alone I also vote no.
Goblinworks Executive Founder
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I think that, generally, the name will be much less important for the scum of the world than for the successful and prosperous. If a "bad" player gets a name change (for real money) and then continues playing like an a*****e, the new name will quickly be just as ill-reputed and shunned as the old one. From this, the ones with the most to gain are those who find themselves with a bad reputation within the community but have a wish to better themselves and leave their past behind.First, let me echo Jazzlvraz and encourage you to continue expressing your own opinions, regardless of what others say - I know I do :)
However, I think you're being overly optimistic in the case above. Specifically, any mechanic which allows a character to wipe their slate clean with respect to Reputation will be mercilessly abused by those who have the ability and the inclination to run scams. Keep in mind that our assessment of other players will be based on their Reputation and our assessment of how much training their character has, which we will reasonably use as a proxy for determining how much they've played. If we see a "new" character with a neutral reputation, it's easy to ignore them and avoid getting scammed by them. However, we'll probably be more likely to trust an "old" character with a neutral reputation. If someone can repeatedly - and quickly - reset their characters to be "old" and "neutral", then they will be able to repeatedly and quickly scam other players. I imagine there are a few players who post on these boards who could figure out a way to "gain" from such a system.
I imagine that the first investment bank/Ponzi scheme will be set up by a first-month EE character with great reputation who is known for making a lot of money as a merchant and has the volume to plausibly produce the kind of returns he is offering. A good scam is hard to tell from a good deal, and it would be a shame if there was a metagame element either preventing investment banking or providing a guaranteed accurate assessment of the risks of such investment.
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Goblin Squad Member
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@Nihimon,
I should perhaps be clearer on stating when I mean 'mechanical reputation' and 'reputation within the community'. The former should never ever be resettable through the cash shop.
@Nihimon & ZenPagan,
Exploitation of name changes in a system where a lot hangs on establishing relationships with players is definitely a concern. I am not as worried as you but I get you. No way of knowing for sure from our positions as forum warriors for our causes though.
If you feel you need to protect your settlement or kingdom from 'Trojan horse' players, I would think that a high level player whom you have never heard of might raise some warning flags and warrant some research into that persons history, asking for references for example (like in a real job application).
I am not discarding your opinions. For me the scales just balance out in the other direction.
(by the way, just realized that this is not at all what this thread was about. Sorry for serious derailment)
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Goblinworks Executive Founder
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Regarding the concept of a blood hunt: in A Tale in the Desert, there was a periodic vote to give one player the power to ban characters; effectively an election of a sheriff. There was some limit - either 1 or 7 or 10 characters could be banned. But if used, a character would be banned for that telling (ATITD resets every couple years) and the developer basically said he'd allow bans for good or bad purposes.
ATITD is a social conflict game, so it worked fine there; people running for election would basically have to vow to never use the power, but there was lots of negotiating and deal making behind the scenes I'm sure.
In the 4-5 years before I played and the time I played, only one (1) character had been banned. He apparently earned it. Maybe having the threat of permadeath encouraged some behaviours, or maybe the social conflict with no combat makes players self-select that type of game.
Either way, 1 use of a power in ~6 years might fall into the category of "so seldom used as to not be worth development time."
If there was a lot of discussion about it and it created interesting interaction, including threats of use, it was used all the time, even if the power was never exercised. Judges rarely have to find someone in contempt of court to use that power...
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Goblin Squad Member
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Yeah. Interesting idea for great story fodder. Just too nasty in results.
And yet there is also much to gain. Outside of the sheer rush of knowing you can just die in this game permanently. It also helps the community. Tibia had the best runed community I have ever seen in a game. Why? Because they knew actions had consequences. If you were being a duche, people could just kill you on principle.
There were penalties for murder, but as I said the sheer threat of being killed or hunted was often enough to keep people friendly. It is the only game where I have been allowed to claim a area for my own farming. Why? Because I claimed it to help me level faster and if people didn't respect that I was there first, or tried to steal my kills, I might kill them! So often they'd ask politely how long I'd be down there. Like wise I was NEVER slagged of in general chat, which is something only Tibia can claim.... I am not saying it was always mature, but I was never insulted or called a noob for asking questions.
Sure there were a few bad eggs, there always are, but they rarely made it beyond the lower levels.
It also incuraged people to be diplomatic, ic and ooc. Even if you hated someones gutts. You rarely wanted to call him out on it to loudly, in fear that one day you may find yourself alone in a alley with him.
Fact of the matter is that without fear of punishment people will act like duchebags. Now maybe this will be handled by goblinworks, but its still worth noting that Tibia had a self sustaining punishment system, by putting the power in the hands of the player.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Many of us had this permadeath discussion a while ago in the nearly endless pvp threads. There just aren't enough people who think the idea is fun to be represented by an actual game mechanic. Period. The best solution is for people to roleplay it and then keep their word; that way there is no system to exploit that the rest of us would be forced to deal with.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I imagine that the blood hunt/permadeath will only work if X character is killed within the city the blood hunt has been called.
WoD sounds very interesting. It could be to RP'ing what PFO should be to crafting/resource management. Ryan Dancey should know, why doesn't he tell us which game will be better and why?
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Goblin Squad Member
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This whole "loss of invested time" concept that's been thrown around...
Paid time or not (it'll be free to play at some point after all), in an apples to apples comparison, what quantifiable advantage or power does a character that's been training for a year have over a fresh level 1?
Assuming same player skill level, etc, for those that are combat oriented (those not likely won't find any of this appealing) what kind of delta exists that we can say the 1yo character is worth x amount more than the newb.
Since we're not supposed to see a situation where a 1yo character can easily best an infinite number of new characters, or 20 characters half his level, etc.. The gap seems to me like it would be much less "valuable" in the sense of what you'd be giving up by agreeing to a fight to the death style duel.
I don't feel that this should be taken lightly, or to imply that a character should easily be thrown away because they can just make another that's "almost as good" in short time... but perhaps there's hope for a system that relies on the loss of a character if the person knows that they can still contribute meaningfully with a new character compared to a veteran.
On another note, MajorMUD used a simple reroll mechanic that yielded a mere 10% of gained experience to be allocated to the new character. It was enough to get you started without completely having to restart. It was not chosen lightly, but it was an effective salve to those in way of finding themselves starting over. It would be worth considering and could easily find a place among all of the power that the gods wield over life and death.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Then this idea is dead in the water. No one would ever agree to through real world money down the drain, perhaps thousands of dollars for the sake of role playing. Not to mention the hundreds of potential dollars you may have spent on per character add-ons, that will also be lost.I seriously doubt Ryan would ever allow you to transfer even unspent XP to another character, much less the XP you've already spent.
In fact, I doubt it so much I'm willing to go on the record with a formal prediction: Ain't ever gonna happen.
I think both assessments are correct.
1. That will never happen. That's called a character respec and it's actually a beneficial effect.
2. This idea is dead in the water.
The closest thing to this idea that could really get off the ground is a duel to the death that requires mutual consent, or perma-death in exchange for power like a pre-NGE SWG Jedi.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Mmmm.... now that's a tasty thought. Some kind of dark pact that grants you a portion of the power from all of your lifetimes during just this one. That would actually make for a decent integration of hardcore characters into the general population. I likes.
Edit: Just want to point out that this would really be an amazing opportunity to test out the viability of permadeath in an MMO without forcing it down people's throats, and it really fits in with the evolution of a settlement as well.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I have a very strong feeling that any option along the lines of gaining significant power but being subject to permadeath will result in situations where customers demand that their character have this restriction removed at some point, once they've used the power to gain skills and abilities, and they no longer want to be subject to the penalty.
I think the near-certainty that a large number of players who chose that option would regret it and demand to be "fixed" is a very compelling reason to never offer the option in the first place.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I have a very strong feeling that any option along the lines of gaining significant power but being subject to permadeath will result in situations where customers demand that their character have this restriction removed at some point, once they've used the power to gain skills and abilities, and they no longer want to be subject to the penalty.
I think the near-certainty that a large number of players who chose that option would regret it and demand to be "fixed" is a very compelling reason to never offer the option in the first place.
It is sooo hard to go back once you have input time and effort into glitzy, limited use mechanics. ;)
Thanks for the powers. Now we want raise dead and resurrection...
This gives mean idea for a permanent death system for the entire game, a character that chooses this and dies, will allow the player to make a new character at theexact same level with equal XP and equal value of gear. Paid for items from a cash shop would either be transferred to the new character, to another character or replaced with an equal value item that is more suited to the new character.
It would basically be like death in the Pen&Paper game.
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Goblin Squad Member
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This gives mean idea for a permanent death system for the entire game, a character that chooses this and dies, will allow the player to make a new character at theexact same level with equal XP and equal value of gear. Paid for items from a cash shop would either be transferred to the new character, to another character or replaced with an equal value item that is more suited to the new character.
It would basically be like death in the Pen&Paper game.
Don't you lose a level when you die in the tabletop version? This idea would basically be handing people free respecs with each death unless a considerable amount of XP was lost.
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Goblin Squad Member
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This gives mean idea for a permanent death system for the entire game, a character that chooses this and dies, will allow the player to make a new character at theexact same level with equal XP and equal value of gear. Paid for items from a cash shop would either be transferred to the new character, to another character or replaced with an equal value item that is more suited to the new character.
It would basically be like death in the Pen&Paper game.
Could be a nice way of introducing the more exotic races. I talked about transforming your character at some point in the game in another thread. It is something I see in nearly every game as it reaches the higher levels. My friends became a lich and wore his skin as a robe and a demon, I became a werewolf cleric of Lamashtu!
In that thread I mentioned I wanted some kind of penelty or cost to make people hesitant from going down those route just for the lols. Perhaps killing off your character to obtain a higher power would be an idea!