Forums » Suggestions
"Giving Death Meaning" without crippling gameplay
Since I know a lot of people have said they wanted death to be more meaningful, and others do not want that... why not make it a choice?
Give players the option to choose "Expert Mode" when creating a new character. In Expert Mode, all mission and PVE XP is tripled, and PVP XP is 10x what it normally is. The downside, is that when you die, your're dead; your character is deleted and cannot be recovered.
You could even award special ribbons and achievements for how long someone survives, or how many kills they get.
Give players the option to choose "Expert Mode" when creating a new character. In Expert Mode, all mission and PVE XP is tripled, and PVP XP is 10x what it normally is. The downside, is that when you die, your're dead; your character is deleted and cannot be recovered.
You could even award special ribbons and achievements for how long someone survives, or how many kills they get.
Man, I would have gone through like 019739070291478ujr9589283098 characters by now. Plus, all the cool names would be used up, I'd be stuck with Waffles57D3.
i sorta like this idea but it would really piss me off if i lost a character due to a wing bug or something accidental
How about a slightly toned down version of this idea:
If you die, you move back 1 level in XP (on all fronts | on some fronts depending on mission type). That way, a player could get up to Combat 5 nice and quick, but to stay at Combat 10 would take - well it would take not dieing. And Dieing 5 times would drop them from Combat 10 to Combat 5.
(As a variation on this, if you get pwnd all the way to Combat zero, that character is Dead, RIP, game over, start a new one).
If you die, you move back 1 level in XP (on all fronts | on some fronts depending on mission type). That way, a player could get up to Combat 5 nice and quick, but to stay at Combat 10 would take - well it would take not dieing. And Dieing 5 times would drop them from Combat 10 to Combat 5.
(As a variation on this, if you get pwnd all the way to Combat zero, that character is Dead, RIP, game over, start a new one).
"Plus, all the cool names would be used up, I'd be stuck with Waffles57D3."
Well since your dead characters are deleted, you could always just re-create them and start over.
Spidey, you'll just have to learn to fly better, then :P
Well since your dead characters are deleted, you could always just re-create them and start over.
Spidey, you'll just have to learn to fly better, then :P
That would work (although I like Foo's idea for a slightly not-as-bad penalty), except most arguments against death being more meaningful boil down to "If people care about dying, many more will run which isn't fun." The solution of giving people the choice of whether or not they want death to matter more to themselves doesn't fix this at all...
Dying for a network disconnection and losing the work done on a character? No thanks. It would be an extremely unpopular option.
I think that this might need to be looked at from the other direction: Death does not need a stronger penalty associated with it, but survival and accomplishment of objectives (whether in a mission or otherwise) needs to be more important.
Border Skirmish has a very basic start to this kind of mechanic. Losing too many ships results in defeat (thus giving each death "meaning"), but mere survival does not help your side win either (thus running is discouraged). This can be expanded upon in a number of ways to encourage players to improve their skills, promote teamwork and to provide more interesting gameplay. Much of this hinges on improvements to mission structure, AI and other things that are known to be in the works.
For example:
In scenarios like Border Skirmish, players who routinely flee from battle, especially without scoring any kills against the opposition, will lose the "respect" of their AI pilots (bots). The bots will not perform as well in battle (poor morale), and be less willing to assist or listen to orders from the player. Players who fight to the bitter end, log multiple kills per sortie, and/or work closely with their bots would find the bots more helpful as the battle progresses.
The specifics depend on the types of missions that are undertaken (which would hopefully encompass more of the gameplay, allowing AI, factions and guilds to become much more closely integrated). But the result is the same: Survival alone is not enough to progress, running does not advance the cause of the battle, and teamwork (even with bots) becomes a necessity for victory.
Border Skirmish has a very basic start to this kind of mechanic. Losing too many ships results in defeat (thus giving each death "meaning"), but mere survival does not help your side win either (thus running is discouraged). This can be expanded upon in a number of ways to encourage players to improve their skills, promote teamwork and to provide more interesting gameplay. Much of this hinges on improvements to mission structure, AI and other things that are known to be in the works.
For example:
In scenarios like Border Skirmish, players who routinely flee from battle, especially without scoring any kills against the opposition, will lose the "respect" of their AI pilots (bots). The bots will not perform as well in battle (poor morale), and be less willing to assist or listen to orders from the player. Players who fight to the bitter end, log multiple kills per sortie, and/or work closely with their bots would find the bots more helpful as the battle progresses.
The specifics depend on the types of missions that are undertaken (which would hopefully encompass more of the gameplay, allowing AI, factions and guilds to become much more closely integrated). But the result is the same: Survival alone is not enough to progress, running does not advance the cause of the battle, and teamwork (even with bots) becomes a necessity for victory.
[DELETE CHARACTER] <====== Yours to preuse.
I forget who the player is, who had their own meaning for death. He would play as if death mattered. If he died he'd stop for the day.
"I forget who the player is, who had their own meaning for death. He would play as if death mattered. If he died he'd stop for the day."
I would do that occasionally, but I doubt it was me you're referring to.
I would do that occasionally, but I doubt it was me you're referring to.
I remember that there was someone like what csgno1 mentions, but I think if they died what they did was they actually went and recreated the character, rather than logging off for the day.
Personally, I wouldn't touch the mode if there were one. I tried playing EVN with strict mode on and... bleh. It isn't fun dying while carting Barry around, lemme tell you.
Personally, I wouldn't touch the mode if there were one. I tried playing EVN with strict mode on and... bleh. It isn't fun dying while carting Barry around, lemme tell you.
Hardcore is the only way to make EVN sufficiently immersive. And if you get raped while carting that old fool around, yer not being very careful.
/me wanders off to go play EVN from scratch... too bad VO isn't that interesting
/me wanders off to go play EVN from scratch... too bad VO isn't that interesting