While I believe there needs to be a consequential death penalty, the new addition of gear damage upon return has me frustrated. The reason is because of the simple fact that the more crafting jobs a person has leveled, the less of an impact the new death penalty is to them. People who don't enjoy crafting are penalized more by death than those who do.

Personally I find crafting to be incredibly boring. This leaves me with the option of paying six or seven times the cost of the dark matter at the repair NPC for a 70% fix, or waiting often for hours in town hoping someone else will do it. A high level crafter, on the other hand, can 100% fix up all their stuff in a few minutes and be ready to play again. Even when offering the appropriate dark matter or a gil reward higher than the vendor price of it, my average time to get a set of gear repaired is still 4-8 hours.

The penalty should be equal for all players, no matter what their play time is or what classes they play. SP loss is one way to equalize things, and I'd actually prefer that to what we have now. Before you flame me, consider these two things: One, earning back SP is significantly more fun than waiting for hours in town for repairs. Two, everyone would have an equal ability to recover from a death on their own without the help from a specific class or paying significantly more gil than others. I know crafters are going to dump all over this idea, but really that just reinforces my point. Those who are at an advantage rarely want to lose it.

Controversial I know, so please try to be civil and constructive if you disagree.