Death Penalty

[geniusprime]

I understand where your coming from. However, the penalties does not give a sense of danger it only makes you dread the hassle. The majority of death penalties are hassles and most dread the hassle.

Now picture this. The only direct death penalty is reverting to the last crystal. However, for the folks that actively stay alive are rewarded with boons/bonuses. I used actively in the sense that the gamer must be engaging and surviving battles over a specified time. These bonuses are also time based so in order to maintain it you must actively stay alive (actively engage in battle and survive). Now that the gamer who is actively staying alive has something that is precious (the boons/bonuses) and he or she would try their best to maintain these benefits by staying alive. If you die, you lose your bonus and you will have to rebuild the requirements to gain the boons lost.

That too me is a better solution than the current methods of death penalty.

"If you see a Rank 99 Goblin Headman, you can rush headlong into battle and if you get killed? It doesn't matter. You just "Return" and are slightly Weakened for 3 minutes. See a Rank 79 Inferno Drake (that looks quite dangerous)? You can just rush right up to it, try to kill it, or laugh as you get destroyed by its Weaponskill in 1 hit. The only penalty is a Weakened State for 3 minutes."

With regards to this, the penalty is death. If a gamer wants to engage an enemy that is obviously stronger he or she should without worrying about additional penalties beyond death. It also encourages the gamer to take risk and the consequences would be death. In this game it could be more than just three minutes even if the weakness was removed because there are many locations that are more than a three minute run. I don't know about you but I do not fancy exploring the far extents of the map to die and be sent all the way back to where I started. That is not trivial to me but rather significant.

[Punxsutawney]

This game has no penalty for death, geniusprime. 3 minute weakness and a miniscule damage to gear...LOL. Hey guess what? Getting hit by a mob or attacking a mob also can damage gear, so basically dying in this game is the same as living... To call this games death penalty steep, I almost shed a tear of befuddlement. Honest question, Is this thread for real?

[Lyndis]

I have a friend who starts freaking out whenever his game is being broken into in demon's souls. You should see how happy he is when he comes out victorious. Even if this happens ten times in a row.

I know Demon's souls has an incredibly tough death penalty. But I'm sure a game like FFXIV could find a balance that could appeal to people both afraid of a death penalty and those who want it.

[Chezen]

I know Demon's souls has an incredibly tough death penalty. But I'm sure a game like FFXIV could find a balance that could appeal to people both afraid of a death penalty and those who want it.

That would be nice. I think that downleveling like FFXI is too harsh a penelty, but the current one gives more of a feeling of annoyance than danger. The "reward" ideas are interesting, but I'd have to actually see them in action.

The losing minutes idea is a good one too. It might not work for grinding, but it would work for leves and dungeons.

Edit: Just wanted to put this thought out there. As annoying as xp penelties might be to some, it does help keep people from getting through to level cap too fast.

[Verecund]

The current death penalty is fine. It keeps people from potentially "graveyard zerging" content.

[Kailok]

Just giving my two cents: Death Penalties SHOULD be a part of this game. Regardless of what you say, subconsciously in your head you will think "Crap, if I die, I'll lose this, and some of that" (depending on the game's penalty upon death). In FFXI, you didn't want to die because you'd lose 10-15% of your TNL (don't remember which exactly, think it was 10%). As much of a pain that was, I liked it because it gave me incentive not to die on TOP of wanting to accomplish my mission.

[Sav]

Ummm, the OP refers to death being a penalty in and of itself...but how is that the case when you can respawn? At most, the death itself is a minor inconvenience. In my opinion, there must be penalties involved, otherwise strategy goes out the window.

[Kailok]

Ummm, the OP refers to death being a penalty in and of itself...but how is that the case when you can respawn? At most, the death itself is a minor inconvenience. In my opinion, there must be penalties involved, otherwise strategy goes out the window.

Exactly. /10char

[geniusprime]

Ummm, the OP refers to death being a penalty in and of itself...but how is that the case when you can respawn? At most, the death itself is a minor inconvenience. In my opinion, there must be penalties involved, otherwise strategy goes out the window.

Because when you die you respawn at the last location. That is not a reward but a penalty because of dying. Strategy does not exist because of death penalty. By the logic you are using there is no strategy in RTS, which obviously wouldn't make sense. There are many games in which the sensation of danger and the need for strategy is very effective and none of these games have such a concept as death penalty. Why is it that the concept must exist in games like these to achieve the same results? There are alternative ways of achieving the desired results without using the current archaic methods.

[VeranRamaden]

Death penalty is a good thing. Harsh death penalties? no, that's just cruel.
Something along the lines of a small exp loss. Even a small loss would be enough for people to plan out
before they blindly attack. But, for there to be a plan the new battle system has to be very fine tuned.