Goblin Squad Member
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Hello,
I wanted to know if there are any mechanics planned for the handling of corpses. I am sorry if this has been previously discussed in another topic, but the closest I could find was this thread on selling body parts http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2q05s?Looting-pc-bodyparts#32
I will elaborate on some ideas Corpse Mechanics might include:
- Selling corpses might come in demand from necromancers (or their corresponding body parts as was suggested).
- Could they be used as intimidation or distraction? (impaling, etc.)
- Will corpses disappear after a certain time or will they decompose gradually?
- Could the accumulation of corpses bring forth plague? (Imagine for example dumping hundreds of corpses on the river that feeds several plantations)
- Can we use corpses to catapult them into enemy settlements? Does this have any mechanical advantages?
If you can point me in the direction of other threads where this has been discussed, it would be marvelous. However, if this has not been discussed I'd like to hear your opinion on this subject.
Cheers!
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Goblin Squad Member
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/concur: This is an original topic to the best of my knowledge. Kudos to Dorgan Berkham.
My assumption is that Player Character corpses persist for some time, anyway, unless they become 'tombstones' or equivalent. My guess this is so is from the partial loot-ability characteristic of the corpse by the victor, or full(?) loot-ability characteristic for the character who lost the battle, assuming there is anything left to grab.
The consequent questions I can think of, then are:
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Goblin Squad Member
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Sorry, I ninja deleted...I think Being was concurring to a post I made then deleted because it did not really add substance, only kudos on offering a new topic.
I will offer more adfter I have thought about it for awhile.
Question for the OP though. Were you referring to PC corpses, NPC corpses, and/or environmental effect corpses? My immediate concern is that if corpses have value, especially PC corpses, people will just farm an alt...repeatedly.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I had not thought of your question KitNyx to be honest. I was thinking of all corpses to tell you the truth. However, your point is an interesting one and should imply that perhaps only NPC corpses should be subject to this. I'll have to think about it, as I have to lunch right now. Thanks for the responses.
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I had not thought of your question KitNyx to be honest. I was thinking of all corpses to tell you the truth. However, your point is an interesting one and should imply that perhaps only NPC corpses should be subject to this. I'll have to think about it, as I have to lunch right now. Thanks for the responses.
All this corpse discussion worked up an appetite?
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Goblin Squad Member
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All this corpse discussion worked up an appetite?
Ha ha, yes, nothing quite like the carcass of a dead bovine slowly grilled.
Back to the topic at hand, I see a few ways to include PCs corpses into the mix while mitigating the aforementioned strategy of killing an alt over and over.
There will be one assumption made: I do not know lorewise when we are revived at a soulbinding point whether a new body is constructed for us, or if our original body is mended. I will assume the second option.
Having said that, I see two problems with Corpse Rules (CRs from now on):
1. People mass killing alts for parts
2. People mass killing alts for damage/contamination/plague
I believe the first problem has two possible solutions:
- Economics: if everyone is killing alts for parts, there will come a certain point when the opportunity cost of the time spent "harvesting" these parts will be greater than the expected profit from these practices and it will reach a certain equilibrium.
- If your body is mended when you are revived, any parts taken from it should be unavailable for sale. As it is the same body, so they would disappear on revival.
Regarding the second problem I think my former assumption implies that only one body for a character may be available at any time, therefore severely curbing the chances for exploits. Particularly large guilds might be able to circumvent this but it would seem troublesome to me, at least.
On a separate note: Do you think NPCs may be revived? This got me thinking whether NPCs may level up and if it may be worthwhile to actually think of reviving them if they ever were to be killed.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I think the notion of corpses, particularly for necromantic uses, would best be served through a system similar to the gathering node system. Such that a given hex has a resource pool of bodies and parts to be harvested. The corpse pool would be slightly different in refreshing the amount to be found. Instead of a static replenishment rate, we could do a number of things to determine how many bodies can be harvested...
1) Speed of resource replenishment dependent upon size and distance of nearest settlement. Having a large settlement nearby will lead to plenty of corpses from the population expiring of normal causes, though you are also at higher risk of being discovered performing your tagged-heinous deeds!
2) Each death in a hex might add a fraction of a corpse. Not all dead bodies are suitable for use, after all. And having to kill your alt 10 times in the deep woods to get a single body is going to be very time consuming. Especially if you have to get the count up and then open a harvesting operation.
Another fun aspect could be that hexes with high corpse resource pools could become a risk for an Undeath Escalation! Having a nearby settlement should help mitigate the risk, but a wilderness or monster hex that sees repeated death and little corpse harvesting becomes ripe for an NPC necromancer to move in and set up shop.
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Goblin Squad Member
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The GW-folk occasionally remind us that some ideas won't happen due to legal restrictions in one country or another. Does anyone know of laws regarding desecration of corpses in games, or whether existing real-life desecration laws could be applied to games?
I would imagine that could be subject to how graphic the acts are. Some places folks can get around excessive gore laws by making blood green. I would say if the graphical representation of corpses is very minimal, maybe a skull icon in inventory, then it should be relatively okay.
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Goblin Squad Member
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The GW-folk occasionally remind us that some ideas won't happen due to legal restrictions in one country or another. Does anyone know of laws regarding desecration of corpses in games, or whether existing real-life desecration laws could be applied to games?
China has extremely strict laws on what can and cannot be shown in regards to corpses. Nothing skeletal. Nothing that could be consider desecration. Extremely minimal gore. I could see Goblinworks having trouble with Chinese officials if they include things like zombies. At the very least they would need to issue alternate models.
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Goblin Squad Member
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There have been a few posts discussing the harvesting of player body parts for necromancy and alchemical potions....(didn't search for it just now, but remember the macabre discussion).
Some games do allow harvesting of humanoids, but not many. There may well be a need for it depending on the skills put in game, but the "rating" of PFO will remain PG13, so if it is determined gutting your enemy and carrying off his entrails in a sack is R rated, you won't see it.
Lots of discussion about death, resurrection, corpse recovery, death /res timers....I'll see if I can find the links.
Here is a link about recovering body parts for alchemy and research, as well as ransom (Yummy!) LINK
Death Mechanics are discussed in this thread LINK
And the Goblinworks blog "To Live and Die in the River Kingdoms" is discussed HERE
It should be noted that in Eve you can certainly scoop up the frozen corpse of those you have podded and even sell them. Some players even collect them.
This at least implies as Eve has got away with it for 10+ years that there is no significant difficulty in the corpse itself outside China
Dismembering for parts may be another matter though
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Goblin Squad Member
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There have been a few posts discussing the harvesting of player body parts for necromancy and alchemical potions....(didn't search for it just now, but remember the macabre discussion).
Some games do allow harvesting of humanoids, but not many. There may well be a need for it depending on the skills put in game, but the "rating" of PFO will remain PG13, so if it is determined gutting your enemy and carrying off his entrails in a sack is R rated, you won't see it.
Lots of discussion about death, resurrection, corpse recovery, death /res timers....I'll see if I can find the links.
Here is a link about recovering body parts for alchemy and research, as well as ransom (Yummy!) LINK
Death Mechanics are discussed in this thread LINK
And the Goblinworks blog "To Live and Die in the River Kingdoms" is discussed HERE
Thank you very much for posting those links, Hardin.