"So what happens when my character dies?"

[Kellzz]

If avatars last only a month or 2, then people will become tired with the game as they may see that as not enough time to accomplish much.
If avatars last over 9 months, then die forever, players will become agitated at the fact they lost all that time they put into the avatar.


perhaps during one of the phases of testing, the devs could find a "benchmark" to determine when is an appropriate time for "permadeath" to occur.

For the sake of argument, lets say 6 months or 30 deaths, whichever comes first. Granted this number could be randomized to prevent players from shelving their avatar on the 29th death.

[Dead Eye]

What's wrong with shelving their avatar on the 29th death? They are still paying $(amount) of money per month. It's like not playing a game that I put my money on. If those shelver want to donate money I think they should be able to.

[darkgreen]

People keep talking about after X deaths you perma-die and start again with a bonus of some fraction of points.

Why not offer the option of paying XP for each clone, increasing as more deaths happen (each successive clone gets more expensive).

Those who are addicted to their persona can keep pouring their XP into the clone XP sink. Those who aren't can stop buying more clones when the XP cost gets too high, die a glorious death, and start over as the descendant of a famous hero.

It would be nice, though, if organizations could pay for those clones somehow too. Otherwise it's gonna be nigh impossible to get people out on the fleet lines since it costs them XP when they die. As a commander I'd like to be able to plonk down a bunch of money and say the corp has everybodies clone for this op.

[Hamilton]

That seems like a good option as it provides choices for players.
Indeed in trying to have epic battles, players are less likely to engage in such battles since the chances of death increase drastically (as well as getting killed quickly); and thus there will be less big battles occurring.

So by allowing some options to help compensate, but yet provide a sting for death, seems plausible.

[Paul Tucker II]

People keep talking about after X deaths you perma-die and start again with a bonus of some fraction of points.

Why not offer the option of paying XP for each clone, increasing as more deaths happen (each successive clone gets more expensive).

Those who are addicted to their persona can keep pouring their XP into the clone XP sink. Those who aren't can stop buying more clones when the XP cost gets too high, die a glorious death, and start over as the descendant of a famous hero.



It would be nice, though, if organizations could pay for those clones somehow too. Otherwise it's gonna be nigh impossible to get people out on the fleet lines since it costs them XP when they die. As a commander I'd like to be able to plonk down a bunch of money and say the corp has everybodies clone for this op.

man darkgreen. Wile reading this topic i started thinking of almost the same thing as your idea. Here is my twist on it. Since if I read right this was not a lvling game but a skill based game. When you clone. Your new clone will have skill points equal to there skill lvl when cloned - 1% x the number of times you have cloned. This is because cloning is not perfected and dna decay increases each time you clone a clone. With this the player will decide on when it is time to let there current character die and start from scratch, and i do mean from the beginning tho you will be able to get the money and items from the old character.
Also if there will be implants in the game. The implants are not transfered automatically to the new clone. You will need to go back to your old body and salvage them out of your old head.

[Hamilton]

Never thought about of having enhancements (non-genetic) being left back at the body; but it does make sense.  May allow that certain enhancements may be part of the new clone, for example, Senka would still provide bionic replacements/enhancements on the clone, rather than a new clone stripped of all bionics.

[Paul Tucker II]

I thought of it cause i am a sick person that thought it would be funny having to pick up your old head and start having to use a screwdriver on it. lol.

[Kellzz]

I think thats a fantastic idea.
When you die, you are given the option to go back to your body and see what you can salvage.

But what if you die in battle? Should the enemy have that same option to salvage your body?

[Paul Tucker II]

I would say yes. the spoils of war and all that. That would give a bigger incentive to go out and play.

Also will you be able to target different areas of the mech? I was wondering if you could force another player to eject with little damage to the rest of the mech you can salvage a hole mech. Also someone got out of ther mech in the field can you get in it and steal it?

[Hamilton]

Though I do like such a concept, there will need to be some artificial rules involved to prevent possible abuse.  For example, possible duplications of items or providing free-trade of vehicles or Mechs to another player.

Let's say one player has two accounts and has noticed that Implant X can sell for some big credits.  So the player has one character with this implant and then finds a place where he/she can get his/her two characters together.  They engage in combat, with the character having the implant getting killed every time (purposely).  The character without the implant loots the dead body and recovers it.  The dead character is cloned, and this particular implant is something that the faction considers part of the character's original body, so the clone has an implant as well.  Thus there are now two implants with the only costs being associated to cloning and perhaps travel.  The player can then keep doing this or even create a script/macro; after a certain amount of time has gone by, the player can cash in those implants.

Now, we then have to figure out a way to prevent that from happening, yet allow for non-abusive players (those who follow along with the spirit of the game rules) to be allowed to loot from other player characters.  The two ways I see it is either by game rules which would be somewhat artificial in nature (there is a % chance of recovering the implant, and if looted, that implant is not allowed for the new clone) or by security systems (checking for patterns of illegal activity by a player's actions).

[Paul Tucker II]

Well here is an idea. First there is nothing in the game that is no-drop, or non-traidable. That way thing that avliable from one faction can be traded from someone from that faction to anybody. Now the items that are avliable from that faction can only be bought using faction points gained by doing missions for that faction. Now there will be two types of missions for each faction. Member missions that you have to be a member of that faction to get and you get more faction points and money for that, but you can't do missions for any other faction. Then you have non-member missions. You get less faction points and items cost more faction points, but you can do missions for different factions.
Now when you join a faction the only thing they give free are the basic version of what ever that faction specialisms in. (example: a biomedical faction will give a free basic implant to new members. Then you can buy better ones later. or a weapon will give you a choice of gun or missile launcher. or a mobile weapon will give you a free light tank. ect......

Now when it comes to salvaging parts from a wreck or a body. First you need the  salvaging  skill. Then depending your skill lvl and the lvl of the items will decide the chance to salvage the item. Then you will need a salvage skill for that item you are salvaging (example a biomedical skill for implants, mechanical for engines ect....) This will determ what damage if any you do to the part wile removing it.   

[Kellzz]

I dont like the idea of an implant being considered part of a clone so that when a person emerges from the vat, they start with the implants instantly.
The way i see it, an implant is lost when the body its in is either destroyed or the implant is looted. If you die, thats it. You get to start over as far as implants are concerned.

[Mr_Red_X]

wait, knowing this senka corp, wouldn't they give you a new one? maybe not with all the mods or the specail model you had, but an implant none the less.

[Burninator]

I think having read most of the posts it's agreed that no type of perma-death is going to work. That much is obvious to anyone who has put any kind of serious time into an mmo. So the basic question is what should be the incentive to play smart and not get killed. Here are my suggestions. Loss of reputation which should be directly tied to the prices charged the player for N.P.C. generated goods and services, making it more expensive for the player to buy, repair, upgrade at N.P.C. run facilities. The player should also lose an amount of currency equal to the cost of their new clone which is also effected by reputation score. If a player can't afford the full cost of the new clone a clone of lesser quality will be created for what currency the player has on hand. By this I ofcourse mean XP loss to make up the difference. I think this is fair to everyone and offers enough incentive to players slightly on edge but not too scared to commit to combat.

[SS2Maximilian]

Permanent death does not have to be negative so much, according to some of the posts, it was said that the next generation of the dead character (Such as a son), will gain bonuses to some points and all that, so basically thats kind of a pretty plus.