Permanent Character Death
- Thread starter SquirrelPants
- Start date
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I just thought up a really good way to implement semi-permanent character death, and were I the game creator, make obscene piles of money.
Any character can die, but resurrection can occur if you pay actual money.
"No, really, your character's not dead! But due to server overhead and account reestablishment costs, there is a per-death fee of $3.99 to restore your character to full HP. Until then this character will have to remain inactive though you can of course start with a new character if you choose."
People who waste characters early on with bad builds just keep remaking their characters. Those with a level 120 Deathbringer might think four bucks is dirt cheap to keep that character going. All depends on how much your effort is worth.
Any character can die, but resurrection can occur if you pay actual money.
"No, really, your character's not dead! But due to server overhead and account reestablishment costs, there is a per-death fee of $3.99 to restore your character to full HP. Until then this character will have to remain inactive though you can of course start with a new character if you choose."
People who waste characters early on with bad builds just keep remaking their characters. Those with a level 120 Deathbringer might think four bucks is dirt cheap to keep that character going. All depends on how much your effort is worth.
the antithesis said:
haha. seriously. in something like resident evil games, you watch the giant zombie boss EAT YOUR FACE. and then THEN it says YYYYYOOOOOOOUUUUUUU AAAAAARRRRRRRREEEEEEE DDDDEEEEAAADDD!!!!!! in big blood stained letters. i cant stand that.
Super Metroid had saves of course, but I remember sitting outside Ridley's door for ten minutes while I steeled up the courage to go in. This was because the Space Pirate hall prior to Ridley was a death chamber for me back then and I was terrified I'd have to run that gauntlet again if I bit it at Ridley.Nutcase said:
Luckily for me, I schooled that overgrown gecko with extreme prejudice.
No More Heroes has the blood pouring out of Travis' mouth, and the dischordant brrrr sound from the 8-bit audio, then static. Drove me up the wall every time.grimsprice said:
And let's not forget poor Samus screaming her last every time you hose it, with her suit blowing off in Super, and her visor going staticky and shutting off in Prime. I couldn't play again for a week after that.
How the hell would that be any fun at all? When I play games I like having fun, not getting pissed at a set of completely retarded rules.
i like the idea as long as im going to play tactically and plan out how im going to go about things, but otherwise it would piss me off more than anything in the world.
if your going to put that mechanic in a game make sure it fits.
for example lets say you are playing a game where your getting briefed on a mission where you have to kill hundreds of people/monsters/flowers/neighbors/or in-laws etc..., and you only get one life. im talking about the reflex games (run n gun games) like halo, grand theft auto, and gears of war where you die alot (if you play on the highest difficulty). starting over from the beginning and going through the game to where you die then back to the beginning again would only make the game intolerable. it would frustrate me and make me want to destroy the game by throwing it in a wood chipper. then record the sound of the game being shredded and set it as my new ringtone.
if your going to put that mechanic in a game make sure it fits.
for example lets say you are playing a game where your getting briefed on a mission where you have to kill hundreds of people/monsters/flowers/neighbors/or in-laws etc..., and you only get one life. im talking about the reflex games (run n gun games) like halo, grand theft auto, and gears of war where you die alot (if you play on the highest difficulty). starting over from the beginning and going through the game to where you die then back to the beginning again would only make the game intolerable. it would frustrate me and make me want to destroy the game by throwing it in a wood chipper. then record the sound of the game being shredded and set it as my new ringtone.
There should always be 2 kinds of "death" one is where your character has the shit knocked out of them but is able to get up and walk away after some time.
The permanent kind of death is rather obvious, you are dead.
The question then becomes how can this be weaved into a game well any game can have "playing possum" where most instances the AI disregards you if you are still enough then from there either friendly AI being able to teleport yourself out or setting up a event where a day passes and most things ignore you you could have rats annoy you now and then or even have thieves come upon you then depending on how you are healed up from it and the encounter there after drag yourself back to town badly hurt this could also be implemented by not spawning many if any "opposition" on your journey to sanctuary.
This could be simplified into something that would not be to annoying to causal players then up it to where you are basically crippled from a bad fight and you must rest and you must take a few game weeks to recover you having money will make the process faster but if you have none you can relie upon charitable organizations and the groups you have allied with to heal up, this of course is a RPG/living world type of deal that requires auto save to be used before a encounter starts up.
In a less RPG driven game just being still for a few minutes so you can pop up and hide could work but I think it disrupts modern design themes so much no one would bother with it.
Now lets get back to the meat of the OP as for making a game with permanent death it truly has to be an option, then you have death where you die that character is gone done over if you wish it to be so.
Then you have the next character able to get a hand full of items(1-5) and a portion of combined wealth to the next character, you receive it from family,ect but indirectly to the bloodline/story of the old character, plus you can visit where you died and find all the items within the region(at stores or in pack rat animal/monster locations )or on the body itself.
Combat would have to be tweaked so you have half or less damage to your locations,ect where enemies are rather easy to kill or at the least easier to kill than you, also a need different kind of health system needs to be used perhaps have a heath meter and a "threat needle" that jumps all over the place when damage is calculated, most damage cools off quickly and dose not harm you to the point it lowers your health if this kind of damage continues then it drains you, this means most damage that is accumulated is a warning that your health is at risk rather than a direct assault upon it.
If tuned and polished it could be used without making enemies too weak .... now that I think this is akin to a regeneration system think halo ONE (when you think halo think 1, 2 and 3 suck >>) with a larger shield, the shield is your sense of pain and of lite wounds that can be ignored. If you use items that are meant to distract when you get low on health you can bolt from a fight.
You health is everything if its low you need to find cover or die.
The permanent kind of death is rather obvious, you are dead.
The question then becomes how can this be weaved into a game well any game can have "playing possum" where most instances the AI disregards you if you are still enough then from there either friendly AI being able to teleport yourself out or setting up a event where a day passes and most things ignore you you could have rats annoy you now and then or even have thieves come upon you then depending on how you are healed up from it and the encounter there after drag yourself back to town badly hurt this could also be implemented by not spawning many if any "opposition" on your journey to sanctuary.
This could be simplified into something that would not be to annoying to causal players then up it to where you are basically crippled from a bad fight and you must rest and you must take a few game weeks to recover you having money will make the process faster but if you have none you can relie upon charitable organizations and the groups you have allied with to heal up, this of course is a RPG/living world type of deal that requires auto save to be used before a encounter starts up.
In a less RPG driven game just being still for a few minutes so you can pop up and hide could work but I think it disrupts modern design themes so much no one would bother with it.
Now lets get back to the meat of the OP as for making a game with permanent death it truly has to be an option, then you have death where you die that character is gone done over if you wish it to be so.
Then you have the next character able to get a hand full of items(1-5) and a portion of combined wealth to the next character, you receive it from family,ect but indirectly to the bloodline/story of the old character, plus you can visit where you died and find all the items within the region(at stores or in pack rat animal/monster locations )or on the body itself.
Combat would have to be tweaked so you have half or less damage to your locations,ect where enemies are rather easy to kill or at the least easier to kill than you, also a need different kind of health system needs to be used perhaps have a heath meter and a "threat needle" that jumps all over the place when damage is calculated, most damage cools off quickly and dose not harm you to the point it lowers your health if this kind of damage continues then it drains you, this means most damage that is accumulated is a warning that your health is at risk rather than a direct assault upon it.
If tuned and polished it could be used without making enemies too weak .... now that I think this is akin to a regeneration system think halo ONE (when you think halo think 1, 2 and 3 suck >>) with a larger shield, the shield is your sense of pain and of lite wounds that can be ignored. If you use items that are meant to distract when you get low on health you can bolt from a fight.
You health is everything if its low you need to find cover or die.
