New Death Penalties
-
Folks, we'll be adjusting death penalties soon for a better game design experience.
Death on CoA should:
1). Be something that you want to avoid.
2). Be something that is a real risk, particularly after you hit the average level on the server.
3). Not be so awful it demotivates you entirely, a set back rather than a 'is it worth going on'' event.
4). Death penalties should help to channel players into an optimal level range, the average range the server is designed for, so while a death will be something to avoid--it means you can have more questing/adventuring opportunities open back up.Right now, our penalty for respawning is 1/3 of the total experience you have. 33% of the quests and DM exp rewards you've earned from play are now gone. That usually means losing two, sometimes even three levels for one death.
So we're going to adjust this.
1). Respawn penalties will now be 18%
That means, you won't lose more than 1 level for a respawn until you hit level 12.
2). Raise dead penalties will move to 10%
3). Resurrection penalties to 5%
4). True Resurrection penalties will remain 0%.
5). The costs of raises/resurrections will increase with level once you're past the soft cap on the server. This is currently level 10.These ideas are a proposal we'll likely go with in the very near future, the DM team approves the idea--but before I entirely set it up, I wanted to hear our player's feedback. Positive and constructive ideas are helpful folks.
-
Yes hello I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
-
Just another voice welcoming this change before it gets mired in 'too casual' commentary and I have no desire to post.
-
Thank the bloody gods of video games.
-
I'm not bothered enough to fight it, so count that as a vote in favour I suppose :)
-
This is literally the best thing I've seen in regards to this server since I've been here.
-
Approved
-
My only complaint is that this wasn't in yesterday. Total approval here!
-
I completely agree with this. Just want to note current xp loss isnt 33% but 40% :p
-
Sounds good from my end.
-
Sounds good.
Makes it so you want to avoid death but a death isn't crippling and liable to make you want to quit
-
I'm okay with lessening the xp penalties on deaths, but only if the risk of dying increase significantly once you approach/pass the desired server average level.
Right now death is the only way to lose xp, and losing xp is the only way to maintain a server level average (lowering xp gains only slows progress towards max level, it doesn't maintain average levels at all)
-
Note: It's also important to remember that increasing monster hp, or dps doesn't really get anyone killed, that just makes them drink more potions and grind more to restock. Creatures having more CC's and high burst damage at higher levels are the better ways to increase risks of dying.
-
That or players having smaller health pools and less easy access to CC immunity potions.
-
-
-
-
My main concern was the gap between a raise and a respawn.
18% might be too low of a penalty, but it's a benefit to the majority of players.
I'd prefer 25%-30%but with 33% of lost XP regained in set intervals over time.
-
@dagonlives said in New Death Penalties:
My main concern was the gap between a raise and a respawn.
18% might be too low of a penalty, but it's a benefit to the majority of players.
I'd prefer 25%-30%but with 33% of lost XP regained in set intervals over time.
An xp wage that sends helpful tips and messages to keep u from dying sounds good
-
18% respawn penalty should have happened -years- ago, and is likely one of the greatest mistakes the server made in not implamenting it. Death, and the xp loss has to be the biggest none rl related reason we have lost players over the years.
-
Personally I think that with no risk of making an impact on your PC when you die, there is no fear.
Your characters should be afraid to die when they face 10,000 Goblins. The only way to convey true fear in a PC is by instilling it in the player.I'd recommend that at lower levels you have a risk being crippled for a time(Penalty to Skill/Stat/Max HP pool).
That risk should be higher when you are higher level with higher chance it will happen, and the crippling becoming permanent. -
18% of xp is still more then enough that no one will want to die. Especially at higher levels. Harsh death penalties, short of potential for permadeath do not make questing scary. They just make death frustrating as hell ooc. It drives, and keeps players away.
CoA in my opinion really needs to become less punishing, less stressful, and more accomodating to a more casual audiance if it wants to make the most of the fresh air breathed into the game by nwn ee.
There is also the reality that the harsher the penalties for failure get, the more important powergaming, resource hoarding, playing it safe, and excluding "dead weight" becomes.
If the system in place makes me consider, if I can afford to take another person with me onto a quest because most scale poorly and alot of players in general are not very good at the game, or go exploring because i'll need the resources I spend there to avoid dying doing something harder later, or if now is a good time to invite someone new to try the server because I dont have the time to go over mechanical aspects, and craft a solid build for them so they dont quit the server in frustrating at the death penalty, then I think there is a very real problem.
Having played half a year on arelith before returning to coa I at no point felt my character or his accomplishments any less meaningful just because crippling consequences for failure were not held above his head. I also didnt have to ask myself any of the things I mentioned above. Was just grab people and go explore and rp and involve them in stuff.
Arabel is amazing, but death penalty being so crippling is among its biggest issues. That is why I think this change is among the best things in a long while for the server.
-
Yes pls. Lost a level today. It really sucks. thanks.
-
@savn said in New Death Penalties:
There is also the reality that the harsher the penalties for failure get, the more important powergaming, resource hoarding, playing it safe, and excluding "dead weight" becomes.
This is incredibly true, I can't stress enough. This is why I hoard and rarely quest with lowbies/new people. Its just too risky to lose so much xp on death because your undersupplied team mate can't hang.